The Elusive Doctor Page 14

‘Oh, yes, I am! Remember, I’ve been running the antenatal clinic in Bettine’s absence, and what I don’t know about the problems of pregnancy isn’t worth knowing,’ she said jokingly. ‘So let’s be off. The weather is too severe to waste time arguing.’

  ‘The severity of the weather is why I don’t want you with me.’

  She was already thrusting herself into the passenger seat of his car, and as she eyed him defiantly through the falling snow he gave in.

  ‘All right, but the first sign of any danger and you’re turning back. Agreed?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The gritter had already been out in the main street of the village and on the road that led to the hills. For the first couple of miles the car made reasonable progress, but the bleak north wind that had sprung up was blowing the snow into drifts and they both knew it was only a matter of time before they were forced to stop.

  If Bettine had been at the hall there would have been no problem. It was on the edge of the village, but the Blackmore farm was on a remote hillside and one of the homesteads that were always first to be cut off in bad weather.

  Visibility was worsening by the minute, and as they turned a bend in the road the car ran into a drift.

  ‘Damn!’ Rob exclaimed as the wheels spun round ineffectually. ‘We’re only a mile away and this has to happen! There’s a spade in the boot. I’ll see if I can dig us out.’

  As he opened the car door his face was as bleak as the weather. ‘We’ve got to get to Bettine, Nina. There are all the signs of something very serious and she’s up there with four useless men.’

  ‘Where’s her mother-in-law?’

  ‘Gone visiting relatives,’ he called over his shoulder as he fought his way round to the boot.

  It was no use. As fast as he dug out the snow from around the car wheels it was as bad again. After ten minutes’ fruitless effort he got back in the car.

  ‘We’re going to have to walk the rest of the way,’ he said edgily, and with his voice rising he went on, ‘Why I was stupid enough to let you come with me I’ll never know. The situation we’re in at the moment is that two of us are risking our lives, rather than just one. If anything happens to you it will be my fault.’

  ‘It won’t,’ Nina said calmly. ‘In case you haven’t noticed—or aren’t prepared to admit it—we’re a team.’

  ‘Is that so?’ he commented grimly. ‘Have you never heard the saying that he travels fastest who travels alone?’

  ‘Does that refer to your private life…or the present moment?’ she asked as she prepared to step out into the blizzard.

  From where she was sitting it looked as if the only person he was bothered about was Bettine. As for herself, she had the impression that she was baggage he could have done without. Maybe Gavin had been right. Perhaps there was still some feeling there for his ex-fiancée.

  Ignoring the comment, Rob was switching off the car engine and checking that all the windows were secure. Once it was done he said tightly, ‘It’s time we got moving or we’re going to freeze to death. Out you go.’

  As they stood beside the car Rob took her arm in a grip that would have had her yelping in less dire circumstances. Above the howling of the wind he cried, ‘Hang onto me, Nina. We’ve a hard walk ahead of us.’

  Every step was an effort, every breath torn from them as the wind cut like a knife. Nina’s spirits had never been lower as they fought their way towards the farm.

  She’d ventured into this dreadful weather on impulse to support Rob and had ended up putting him more at risk.

  Added to that, she was miserable because Rob’s concern over Bettine seemed to outweigh the normal GP’s involvement with a patient. But Bettine wasn’t just any patient, was she? He’d been engaged to the woman, for heaven’s sake…and she was one of the partners at the practice.

  His arm was around Nina’s shoulders as they floundered in the snow, with the icy wind lashing at them. Under other circumstances she would have shrugged it off in her annoyance, but she had no option but to huddle against him as her legs in the soaking silk trousers got colder and colder.

  With their heads bent against the wind she couldn’t see his expression. If she had been able to Nina would have seen grim consternation in it.

  He’d put her at risk by allowing her to come with him, Rob was thinking desperately. If either of them got out of this alive they would be lucky. The snow was drifting higher than ever at the sides of the road. Soon it would be impassable.

  A dark shape loomed up in front of them suddenly and then there were others. The Blackmore brothers had come in search of them. Thank God! They must be nearly there.

  Rob went straight to Bettine’s room the moment he arrived, stripping off his wet outdoor clothes as he went. For Nina there were curt instructions to get into a hot bath and find herself something dry to wear, so it seemed that her presence wasn’t required.

  The youngest of the brothers sheepishly offered her a dressing-gown of his mother’s and a pair of slippers that were three sizes too big. When she surfaced after the briefest of soaks, she found Rob trying to get through to the ambulance unit.

  ‘There’s no reply,’ he said briefly. ‘I hope that the wires aren’t down.’

  ‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘What’s wrong with Bettine?’

  His face was grey in the light of the candles that the farmers had resorted to when the weather conditions had affected the generator. For Rob to look like that he must still care for Bettine, she thought forlornly.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ he said tersely in answer to her question. ‘We need to get her to hospital urgently. She needs a scan to pinpoint the problem. If I were asked to make a guess I’d say that the placenta has become detached.’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Nina breathed.

  ‘Oh, yes, I’m afraid. Bettine is of the same opinion, although it isn’t easy to make an unprejudiced diagnosis when you’re the patient.’

  ‘So what are the symptoms?’

  He was still trying to get through on the phone and his reply was abrupt, his manner towards her still chilly.

  ‘There’s blood loss and the uterus is rigid and painful, which I think is due to pressure building up from bleeding behind the placenta. In normal weather she would be in hospital by now, but we’ve seen for ourselves how deep the snow is.

  ‘Nothing is going to get through on the roads for the next few hours, or even days maybe. There’s only one means of transport that will get her out of here, and if I can’t get through to the ambulance station to request that they authorise it even that will be out of the question.’

  ‘Helicopter?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, by helicopter. The wind has dropped and the clouds are clearing. So it can get here, thank God.’

  At that moment his face lightened and he called across, ‘I’m through!’ As he waited to be connected he said, ‘Will you go to her? Tell her that I’m sorting something out.’

  ‘Where’s Bettine’s husband?’ Nina asked from the doorway.

  ‘With her, of course!’ he snapped.

  Keith wasn’t with his wife. She was alone when Nina went into the bedroom, and her first fretful words were, ‘Where’s Rob? I want him with me..’

  ‘He’s arranging for a helicopter to pick you up,’ Nina told her.

  Her smile was reassuring, but it hid a longing to tell Bettine that Rob didn’t belong to her any more, that she’d put his life at risk by asking him to come out to this remote farm in horrendous weather.

  The woman might be in a serious condition but she didn’t own Robert Carslake, far from it. She’d forfeited all right to lay claim to him when she’d been unfaithful. If she’d been crying out for Rob all the time in her husband’s presence, it was no wonder that he was absent.

  As if reading her thoughts, Bettine said, ‘If you’re wondering where Keith is, he’s bringing in the animals. Some of them are out on the hillside.’

  Her eyes went to the window-ledge where the snow was piled high. ‘When they
give birth it’s usually a simple thing. He can’t understand why I’m not proving to be the same.’

  Then he’s not very supportive, Nina thought. No wonder Bettine is desperate to have Rob by her side. If ever she’d felt surplus to requirements it was now. He’d made it clear that he wished she’d stayed at home, and the woman in the bed wanted only him beside her. So what was she doing here?

  And as if that feeling wasn’t bad enough, there was panic inside her because she hadn’t stayed where she had been needed. Would anyone have told her dad and Eloise where she was?

  The moment the phone was free she must ring them to reassure the woman who was the exact opposite to this one. Eloise had grace and dignity and a great depth of kindness, while Bettine…

  Rob was in the doorway with some of the tension wiped from his face. ‘It’s organised, Bettine,’ he said. ‘A helicopter with paramedics on board will be setting off in the next few minutes. I’m going to ask the Blackmore men if they’ll try to clear a landing patch for it.’

  ‘No! Don’t leave me,’ Bettine pleaded. ‘Let her ask them.’

  ‘Would you, please, Nina?’ he asked. ‘Explain what’s required and tell them it needs doing without delay.’

  She nodded woodenly. ‘Her’ was being sent on the errands. She didn’t mind that in such an emergency, but did Bettine have to be so rude and demanding?

  As Bettine was carried into the helicopter, with her husband now beside her, Rob and Nina stood to one side.

  He’d impressed on the paramedics to watch for signs of shock due to blood loss and they’d taken careful note. It had been known to happen in such cases and was very serious if not treated.

  With the pregnant woman’s problems receiving attention, it was time for Nina to think about her own. She’d managed to get through to her father and felt weak with relief to hear that Eloise was all right, apart from being anxious about their safety.

  And now, in a borrowed dressing-gown and slippers that were like canal boats on her feet, she was desperate to get back home.

  As if Rob was tuned in to her anxiety he said, ‘I’ve asked the helicopter crew to come back for us, otherwise we could be stuck here for days.’

  ‘Good,’ she said flatly, with sudden treacherous tears threatening.

  He saw her expression and asked quickly, ‘What is it, Nina?’

  ‘I feel as if I’ve lost my way,’ she sobbed.

  Rob stared at her in consternation but made no move to touch her. ‘I’m not sure if I get your meaning, but if you’re referring to us being stuck out here, I’ve just said that I’ve asked them to come back for us.’

  ‘That’s not what I mean,’ she choked. ‘I’m talking about my life. I had it all planned. Once I’d got my degree I was going to work abroad as a free spirit. But I was sidetracked into Stepping Dearsley and now I don’t know what I want.’

  As Rob took a step towards her she waved him away and went on, ‘Eloise thought my stay in the village could become a “significant pause” because I’d met you. That it would stand out as a special time that would change my life. Then again, she said that it might just be a blip that I would soon recover from and forget in no time.’

  Rob’s face seemed set in stone ‘You say you’ve been sidetracked into coming here! I must be mistaken, then. I thought it was because you loved Eloise and wanted to be with her. Are you saying that you begrudge the time you’re giving her?’

  ‘No! Of course I don’t. She means everything to me. What I’m trying to say is that you have me totally confused. I thought that you were attracted to me as much as I was to you. I was ready to respect your wish to have some breathing space after your engagement to Bettine. But you’ve kept me dangling long enough and today, after watching you drooling over her, I know why.’

  ‘You’re saying that you think I still care for her?’

  ‘Right in one!’

  ‘I’m a doctor, for heaven’s sake. I would show concern over any patient as ill as she is. Jealousy is an unattractive emotion. You should try to curb it.’

  There was a chill inside the farmhouse as well as outside, she thought miserably. She must have been insane to ever think anything would come of their relationship.

  What had happened to the pleasant evening they’d been sharing together? And the night when they’d slept in each other’s arms? It seemed like a lifetime since she’d thought they’d been in tune and the song a love song.

  Tonight she was seeing another side of him. Bettine had beckoned and Rob had come running, taking no heed of anything except that she needed him.

  Was she being unreasonable? She would have done the same if someone had sent for her in such circumstances, but in her case it wouldn’t have been an ex-fiancée.

  Nina brushed away the tears with the back of her hand and Rob’s face softened, but she wasn’t having any of it.

  ‘I’m not jealous and I do appreciate how sick Bettine is, but it doesn’t alter the fact that she still means something to you…and I don’t!’ she flared.

  The kitchen door opened at that moment and what Rob would have said in reply was lost as the two younger Blackmores appeared with frost on their beards and snow on their boots.

  ‘It’s back,’ one of them said. ‘The helicopter’s back.’

  ‘Do you want to come with us?’ Rob suggested.

  ‘Naw,’ he replied. ‘Somebody has to see to the animals. We’ll be all right. We’ve lived through worse weather than this.’

  ‘I’m going to change back into my own clothes before I go home,’ Nina told them. ‘That is, if they’re dry.’

  They were. Feeling more like herself in the creased trouser suit, she flicked a comb through her hair and they were ready to go.

  ‘I’ll keep in touch with the hospital,’ Rob told the two men, ‘and maybe when your brother gets back he’ll give me a ring.’

  ‘That was just to let you see that Bettine’s husband doesn’t harbour the same sort of dark thoughts as you,’ he said as they went outside into the cold night. ‘He understands that she was only desperate to have me with her because I’m a doctor.’

  ‘He isn’t…wasn’t…in love with you,’ she shrieked.

  ‘So it’s in the past now, is it? That makes me think there couldn’t have been much depth to your feelings.’

  ‘You can think what you like. I don’t care if I never see you again!’

  ‘Thank God you’re both safe!’ Eloise breathed as Nina arrived home in time for Sunday breakfast. ‘Where’s Rob?’

  ‘Gone home,’ Nina informed her briefly.

  ‘Should have brought him here,’ her father said with his usual sparseness of speech. ‘Enough ham and eggs to feed a regiment.’

  ‘He can cook his own.’

  ‘Oh! Do I detect a note of disharmony?’ Eloise asked. ‘And before you answer that question, how is Bettine Blackmore?’

  ‘Not very well at all. Rob thinks that the placenta has come away.’

  ‘And what do you think…Dr Lombard?’ she asked gently.

  ‘I didn’t get a look in. She only wanted Rob.’

  ‘And you weren’t happy about that? She was pretty close to him, you know.’

  ‘Yes, but it’s in the past. You think I’m being unreasonable, don’t you?’

  ‘Just a bit, darling, but let’s forget about that for the moment. I’m sure you must be longing to get out of those crumpled clothes. Do you want to change first or eat?’

  ‘Eat, I think. The smell of the food is too tempting. No one can cook breakfast like Dad.’

  Nina had been observing Eloise ever since she’d got back, watching for signs that she’d been overdoing it, but at that moment she seemed well enough.

  She felt as if she’d been away for an eternity, but it was only just over twelve hours since she and Rob had left the party, long enough, though, for her to have finally seen sense. Once Christmas was over Rob Carslake wouldn’t see her heels for dust.

  She could go with an easy mind
now. Her father and Eloise would cope now that Eloise had been given the all-clear, and maybe in time she would forget what had been such a significant pause in her life.

  Rather than changing after she’d eaten, Nina went to bed, feeling weary in mind and body. She’d told Rob she had no interest in seeing him again, but she really didn’t have a choice. Monday morning would arrive all too soon. The duties of the village practice would throw them together whether she liked it or not, and at that moment it was a depressing thought.

  The bedside phone rang as she was drifting into sleep, and when she answered it Rob’s voice came over the line. The helicopter had dropped them off on the village green and before he’d been able to say anything she had departed, a bedraggled figure in her dried-out clothes.

  He was butting into her life again. What did he want this time?

  ‘Nina?’ he said.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Just checking to make sure you’re not suffering any ill effects from the cold.’

  ‘It all depends which cold you’re referring to,’ she said, her voice slurred with sleep. ‘The chill that you were giving off, or the weather?’

  ‘So you’re still travelling that road? Punishing me for doing my job.’

  ‘I’m the one who’s being punished,’ she retorted, ‘but I was too dim to see it until today.’

  ‘I’m not going to argue with you, Nina,’ he said levelly. ‘You’re half-asleep for one thing. But before I ring off, do you want to hear the latest about Bettine…or not?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ she said indignantly. ‘I might have been the bystander out there at the farm, and be suffering from what you describe as jealousy, but I was just as concerned as you about her condition.’

  ‘All right, you’ve convinced me. As for the rest of it, you might be in a more reasonable frame of mind when you’ve had some sleep.’

  ‘Don’t bank on it!’

  He ignored her sarcasm and said in a milder tone, ‘They’ve done a Caesarean section to relieve the bleeding and to prevent the detachment of the placenta getting any worse. She went into shock while they were transporting her and it was panic stations for a while.’

  ‘And the baby?’ she breathed.