Paramedic Partners Page 17

  The other man was in policeman’s uniform and as she watched he was swept downriver just as she had been.

  ‘Keep talking to her!’ Kane bellowed as he came up beside them. ‘The poor little lass is hardly with us any more. I’m going to see if I can release her foot.’

  It must have been only seconds but it seemed like a lifetime before he said, ‘She’s free, Selina. Strike out for the bank. I’ll support her on the other side.’

  At that moment they were rejoined by the policeman, who’d done the same as she had and swum back, and a burly fireman who’d jumped in to join them. Suddenly what had seemed like an impossible task became easy as four strong swimmers brought the girl to safety.

  When they were on dry land once more Selina dragged herself onto the grass and lay there, gasping, while Kane began to resuscitate the limp figure of the girl.

  At last she began to retch and water spurted from her mouth, raising a cheer from the anxious watchers. Her ankle was cut and badly bruised where it had been caught, but there didn’t appear to be any fracture. She lay there, pale and puffy-faced and shivering uncontrollably. Kane said to his trainee and an anxious Elton, ‘Get this young lady on board my ambulance fast. Strip her wet clothes off and wrap her in a blanket. While you’re doing that I want a quick word with Selina.’

  She was sitting up now. Wet, bedraggled and blue with cold. Her hands were bleeding from the stones and branches that she’d been thrown up against, and Kane wanted to hold her close and never let her go. But it wasn’t the moment to be pandering to his own needs.

  The girl had to be his priority, but he couldn’t have left the scene without making sure that Selina was all right. She’d risked her life for Lucy and would have given no thought to her own danger. But what would he and Josh have done without her?

  ‘How’s Lucy?’ she croaked.

  ‘Coming round…thank goodness. But, like you, she’s very cold and her temperature isn’t reassuring. We’re taking you both to A and E to be treated for hypothermia and whatever other injuries you might have. And, Selina, my dearest love,’ he went on, his voice roughening, ‘don’t ever frighten me like that again.’

  ‘I didn’t do it on purpose,’ she whispered through chattering teeth.

  He touched her wet cheek gently and a smile tugged at his mouth.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. It’s surprising what some women will do to get my attention.’

  ‘I don’t understand how you came to be here,’ she said weakly.

  ‘That explanation can come later. I’ve got to get little Lucy to Casualty. Elton will take you, and as soon as you’re in the ambulance get your wet clothes off and wrap yourself in a blanket.’

  ‘What about your wet things?’

  He shrugged. ‘As soon as I’ve got Lucy sorted. I wasn’t in the water as long as you.’

  He squeezed her hand gently and ran back to where his ambulance was waiting.

  * * *

  The fact that she was an adult and her extreme exertions had kept her blood flowing with some degree of warmth while in the swollen river had saved Selina from any extensive hypothermia, but the doctor on duty in A and E had insisted that she stay in hospital overnight.

  Lucy was a different matter. The long immersion in the water with such restricted movement had left her in a dangerous condition and she’d been taken to Intensive Care where her body warmth was being raised slowly and carefully to avoid shock.

  When Selina had arrived, with Elton hovering over her protectively, Kane had been in with the trauma team who’d been waiting for Lucy, giving his report of temperature readings and details of how long she’d been in the water and how long it had taken her to respond to resuscitation.

  But once that had been done he’d gone to find Selina, and as he’d drawn back the curtains of the cubicle where she’d been placed until a bed became free, all the things that had been bugging him for so long had settled into place.

  He’d got his priorities right at last. Taken the blinkers off. He’d realised now that it didn’t matter a damn what others thought of him. That had been his stupid pride blocking his vision. It was what Selina thought about him that mattered, and right from the start she’d believed in him.

  It had taken the thought of losing her for ever to make him see sense, yet after the way he’d behaved he didn’t deserve her. Would she give him another chance? he’d wondered as he’d monitored Lucy on the way to hospital.

  And now here she was, with her brightness dimmed, mud in her hair, her face pale, and as always, when he appeared, with questions in her eyes.

  But today he had some answers. He hoped they would be the ones she wanted to hear.

  ‘How are you?’ he asked as he took her hand and perched on the side of the bed.

  ‘All right, I suppose,’ she said quietly. ‘But now I’ve had time to think I’m overcome with horror at the thought that I could have left Josh without mother or father. Yet I had to do it, Kane.’

  ‘Of course you did, Selina. That’s what our job is all about. And regarding Josh, if the unthinkable had happened, I would have taken care of him.’

  ‘How could you have done that when you’re going away?’ she asked tearfully.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he said gently. ‘It took the thought of losing you to make me see sense. When the message came through from young Elton that you were in trouble, we were only a couple of miles away and I couldn’t get to you quickly enough.

  ‘However, it was long enough for me to take a good look at myself, and I wasn’t happy with what I saw. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own reservations that I couldn’t see straight. But I can now.’

  He lifted a strand of her matted hair and let it slide slowly through his fingers.

  ‘Will you marry me, Selina?’

  ‘Oh, yes!’ she said fervently. ‘I thought you’d never ask. I was going to give you some straight talking the moment I got the chance. I just couldn’t let you leave without putting up a fight. But that awful episode down by the river seems to have done it for me.’

  She was smiling now. Selina at her most radiant.

  ‘Philip Bassett came to see me last night,’ she told him, ‘and he feels very guilty about his behaviour when you had that awful experience at the other place. He certainly won’t be saying anything derogatory about you to anyone.’

  He smiled back.

  ‘I don’t care if he does. The only people who matter are you and Josh, and what do you think he’ll have to say when he hears our news?’

  ‘Cool!’ she told him laughingly. ‘And you can’t get higher approval than that. He will know then that you do love us and that you do want to be his new dad.’

  ‘I can’t think of anything I want more,’ he said tenderly, ‘and I have to say that, given the choice, I would have preferred my future wife not to be blanket-wrapped when I kissed her. But we’ll make up for that another time, won’t we, Selina?’

  ‘We will indeed,’ she breathed, and as he took her in his arms the day that had started with doubts and uncertainty became safe and secure, and she knew that was how it would always be with Kane by her side.

  ‘I’m going to have to go,’ he said at last. ‘Elton and the other lad will have explained what happened to the station officer, but with you in here and myself absent they’ll be two vehicles short. And I have to go and cancel my notice if they’ll let me. It shouldn’t be a problem as I’ve been asked to change my mind a few times.

  ‘I’ll get back as soon as I can and in the meantime I’ll let Jill know what’s happened so she can bring Josh to see you.’

  She nodded.

  ‘Yes, and maybe by then I’ll have had a bath, washed my hair and been provided with something to wear. Hopefully not a flannelette nightdress.’

  * * *

  When Josh appeared, holding tightly to Jill’s hand, Selina held out her arms and he rushed into them. Her eyes met her sister-in-law’s above his blond head and Jill said quietly, ‘He thought he w
as going to lose you, too.’

  Selina nodded and held him even closer.

  ‘I’m all right, sweetheart,’ she told him. ‘The doctor is only keeping me in for a while because I got very cold in the water. You’ll be all right staying with Aunty Jill and Uncle Gavin for the night, won’t you?’

  He nodded, still without speaking, and Jill said gently, ‘I’ll leave you two on your own and come back later.’

  ‘I’ve got something to ask you, Josh,’ Selina said when she’d gone.

  ‘What?’ he asked in a muffled voice with his face still pressed up against her.

  ‘Supposing a fairy came and said she would grant you one wish. What would you ask for?’

  ‘That I could take a packed lunch instead of having school dinners.’

  She smiled.

  ‘You can think of something more exciting than that, surely. Something that you want most in all the world.’

  He lifted his head slowly.

  ‘You mean like Kane coming to live with us and being my dad?’

  ‘Yes. That’s what I mean,’ she said softly.

  ‘And is he?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kane said from the doorway of the ward. ‘He is.’

  ‘Cool!’ Josh cried, and wondered why they were laughing.

  * * *

  Selina was home, none the worse for her ordeal. To the relief of everyone concerned, Lucy was progressing satisfactorily and would soon be back with her family.

  Her parents had been to see Selina before she’d been discharged from the hospital to express their grateful thanks and she’d known just how she would have felt in their place.

  To lose a partner was awful, but there was nothing to equal the agony of losing a child.

  And now, on a crisp Saturday morning, Kane was insisting that the three of them go for a stroll along the canal bank.

  The wedding preparations were under way and as it was in just a fortnight’s time Selina had protested mildly that she had shopping to do. But such was her joy in knowing that he loved her that she would have jumped into the same canal if he’d asked her to. Though it wasn’t likely as she’d only just got over a previous wetting.

  As they drew near Lock-Keeper’s Cottage she said in surprise, ‘Look, Josh! Our favourite house has been sold. What a shame. I always dreamt of living there.’

  ‘Me, too,’ Kane said casually. Taking her hand in his, he put a key on her outstretched palm.

  ‘What’s that for?’ she asked curiously.

  ‘It’s to open the door of what is going to be our house…if you want it. I’ve made an offer, but I’m only prepared to go ahead if it’s what you want.’

  ‘What I want!’ she breathed. ‘Of course it’s what I want. But can we afford it?’

  ‘Yes, if I sell the boat.’

  Josh was looking down at the ground and so far he hadn’t said anything, but they both knew what he was thinking. The boat had his name on it. It was his favourite place.

  ‘Aren’t we forgetting something?’ she said. ‘I have a house to sell.’

  Kane shook his head.

  ‘I want to be responsible for providing my new family with a home. I don’t want it to rely on the sale of your house.’

  ‘There’s that pride of yours again,’ she said tenderly. ‘We’re going to be partners, Kane. Equal partners. Sharing and caring. I know how much you both love the boat. Let it be my gift to you.’

  Josh was looking at them with hopeful eyes and Kane smiled.

  ‘All right, partner, if that’s what you want.’ He drew her into his arms. ‘It becomes a magical word when you say it.’

  ‘What does?’

  ‘Partners.’

  ISBN-13: 9781460376348

  PARAMEDIC PARTNERS

  Copyright © 2015 Abigail Gordon

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