Posh Doc, Society Wedding (3 page)

She imagined him padding barefoot over the floor, but her mind skittered away from delving any further into what he might be wearing—or not wearing, as the case may be. ‘You should try living in my cottage,’ she said, her tone dry. ‘We don’t have the luxury of central heating at the moment, since your estate manager hasn’t attended to our requests for repairs, whereas you at least have the comfort of a range cooker in your kitchen, if I remember correctly.’ She had ventured up to the castle in search of her errant cousin one day years ago, and the memory had stayed with her ever since.

‘You’re welcome to come and share it with me any time, Izzy. I think I told you that once before, but you were reluctant to take me up on the offer, as I recall. I guess you were worried about what your father might think if he found you there.’ She heard a door hinge creak. ‘Nope, they’re not in here.’

‘I expect you’ll find a note on the table,’ she murmured.

He was silent for a moment, taking that in, before he said on a disbelieving note, ‘Are you telling me you
know
where they are?’

‘That’s about the size of it. Molly wanted to keep you
informed.’ There was a rustling of paper from the other end of the line. ‘Have you found it? What does it say?’

He laughed throatily. ‘Well, you’re perfectly right—there are some weird hieroglyphics scrawled on a scrap of paper, if that counts. I’ll see if I can decipher it.’ There was a pause, and she could imagine his frown. ‘Here we go, it says, “U wudnt wayk up, so we is gon down the ill to get sum fink to eet. Luv, Molly nd Camron.” Brilliant.’ There was a smile in his voice. ‘I suppose that’s not bad for a five-year-old.’

‘There you are, you see. What could be clearer? The children were starving, and you were off in the land of nod, so they had to fend for themselves. Fortunately for them we were able to give them breakfast and make sure that they’re warm and looked after, but I daren’t think what might have happened if we hadn’t been here.’ She used a stern tone, but Ross was still chuckling over the note, and that served to make her crosser than ever.

‘I know what you’re saying,’ he said, amusement threading his voice, ‘and you’re right, it’s definitely not a good state of affairs…But you have to give them full marks for initiative, don’t you? I’ll come over and fetch them.’

‘That would be a very good idea,’ she said on a pithy note. ‘Lorna and I have to be at work in around half an hour, so if you’re not here in the next few minutes we’ll come and find
you
.’

She cut the call and went back to the kitchen, satisfied that at least now he would have to scoot around and get dressed, and begin to take on his responsibilities. What was he thinking of, lying in bed while the children were wandering about?

Molly and Cameron had finished eating by now, and were busy drawing pictures while Lorna collected up the breakfast dishes.

‘I’ll take over here if you want to go and get ready for work,’ Izzy told her. ‘Ross should be along to pick up the children in a few minutes.’

‘He’s going to take us to see Mummy today,’ Molly said brightly. ‘He promised.’

‘And he said we’d buy some flowers for her from the shop,’ Cameron added. ‘He said we could choose the best flowers in the shop when we get to Inverness. She likes roses, so that’s what I’m going to look for.’

‘I’m sure she’ll love them,’ Izzy said, ‘whatever you decide to buy. I’m going to see her myself tomorrow, all being well.’

She washed the breakfast dishes, leaving them to drain on the wire rack. Then she rubbed cream into her hands and checked her long hair in the mirror, clipping the chestnut waves back from her face.

Ross turned up at the house much sooner than she had expected, looking immaculate in dark chinos and a crisp shirt, and oozing vibrant energy—as though he was ready to grasp the day with both hands.

She fixed him with a smoky grey gaze. How could he possibly look like that when he’d been dead to the world not half an hour earlier? It simply wasn’t fair.

‘They’ve been waiting for you,’ she said, waving him into the hallway. ‘But I have to say I think you should find a way of barring the doors, so they can’t simply wander off as they please. There’s no knowing what they could have been up to while you were out for the count.’

He sent her an oblique glance. ‘You’re not going to
let this go, are you? Would it help if I said the door was locked and bolted? I think Cameron climbed on a chair to retrieve the keys and unlatch the bolt.’

‘Then maybe you should keep the keys closer to hand,’ she said calmly. ‘You should count yourself lucky that no major road passes by here.’

‘I’m duly chastened,’ he said, making an effort to turn down his mouth but not looking a jot sincere.

She led him into the kitchen, where the children glanced up from their drawing to acknowledge him with bright smiles.

‘I’ve done a picture of Mummy,’ Molly told him, waving her paper in the air. ‘She has beautiful long hair and a pretty dress. See?’

‘That’s…spectacular,’ he murmured, gazing down at the potato-shaped squiggle, daubed generously with a splash of bright pink crayon. ‘I see you’ve drawn her lovely fingers, too.’

It was the right thing to say. Molly beamed with pride at her creation. The hands formed a great part of the drawing, with sausage fingers on either side, and they were her latest achievement.

Cameron, on the other hand, was tired of sitting and wanted adventure. ‘When are we going to Inverness? Can we go now?’

‘Soon,’ Ross told him. ‘I have to put a few things in a holdall first of all. We’re going to meet up with your Aunt Jess at the hospital. She’s come up especially from the Lake District to stay in Inverness for the next day or two, and she says she’ll take you shopping as soon as you’ve been to see your mother. We can’t have you going around looking like scruffs any longer, can we?’

Cameron shrugged, obviously not much bothered either way, while Molly looked thoughtful. Izzy guessed she was already thinking about what she would like to buy.

‘Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?’ Lorna asked.

Ross shook his head. ‘Thanks, but I have to get a move on. Things are not going quite the way I planned this morning.’ He glanced around the kitchen. ‘You’re having trouble with the central heating, I gather? I’ll make arrangements for someone to come and deal with it.’

‘That would be good,’ Lorna told him. ‘It’s freezing in here in the mornings. And as to taking a tepid shower—I really can’t recommend it.’

‘No, I can imagine.’ He ran his gaze over Izzy, taking in the snug fit of her jeans and the stretch material of her jersey wrap top that clung where it touched.

She had no idea what he was thinking, but Izzy’s glance was frosty. ‘That’s not all that’s wrong,’ she said. ‘There are roof tiles that have been missing since the high winds two or three weeks back…and part of the fence has blown down.’

He frowned. ‘I didn’t notice that when I drove here. Whereabouts?’

‘At the side of the house.’ Izzy’s mouth made a crooked shape. ‘I tried to fix it temporarily, with nails and a few battens, but I doubt it will hold for very long. Carpentry’s not one of my skills, I’m afraid.’

Ross’s gaze was thoughtful. ‘I’m sure you’re a woman of many talents, but obviously you shouldn’t have been put in that situation. I can only say that Jake has had a lot to contend with of late, with various things happening in his family—illness and so on—or he would have seen to it.’

‘I didn’t realise that.’ Izzy was immediately concerned. ‘He didn’t say.’

‘No, he wouldn’t. Jake’s a proud man. He’s probably borne the brunt of the villagers’ animosity over the last few years.’ He straightened, becoming brisk in his manner. ‘Anyway, thanks for taking care of Molly and Cameron for me. You, too, Lorna.’ His brief smile encompassed both of them. ‘I’m sorry you’ve been troubled.’

‘They’ve been good as gold,’ Lorna told him. ‘They’re welcome to come and visit any time…preferably with your knowledge, of course.’

He nodded. ‘I’m sure they’ll want to come back fairly soon, but next time I’ll make certain they call you first.’

After that Ross didn’t hang around to make conversation, and Izzy wasn’t sure quite how she felt about that. It wasn’t really surprising that he would leave quickly. After all, she hadn’t been exactly welcoming in her manner. But perhaps he also recognised that she and Lorna had to go off to work.

Anyway, after she had given each of the children a hug, he led them away and settled them in his car. He drove away without looking back.

Izzy was filled with a strange sense of unease once he had gone. She felt somehow let down, with a hollow feeling inside despite the meal, and yet, in truth, how could she have expected anything more? As things stood, she was going against the grain by even associating with him.

If her father discovered that Ross had come visiting, he’d be have been agitated in the extreme, no matter that she was perfectly entitled to run her own life the way
she saw fit. That ideology hadn’t stood Alice in any good stead, had it? She had been cut off from her family for several years, and was only back now because she needed specialist care and attention.

It grieved Izzy that her cousin should suffer this way. The Buchanans had a lot to answer for.

‘A
CCORDING
to his wife, the man was doing a spot of sightseeing close by the falls when he slipped and fell. Luckily for him some hill walkers saw what happened and helped bring him to safety.’ Greg’s voice reached Izzy over the car phone. ‘As far as we know he has a broken ankle and damage to his shoulder, but he’s also complaining of shortness of breath. An ambulance is being sent out, but there are traffic jams on the main road causing delays, and since the tracking system shows you’re nearby, with the fast response car, you may be able to reach him first.’

‘Thanks, Greg.’ Greg was the consultant in charge of the A&E unit where she worked, and her patient would most likely be taken into his care, unless the situation was worse than it first appeared, in which case he might have to be transferred to Inverness. ‘You’re right. I’m about a mile away from the gorge. I’ll head straight over there.’

Izzy drove as fast as she dared, barely able to take in the wonderful scenery in this part of the Highlands. She had left Lorna back in the A&E unit. It suited Izzy to work
this way—spending some of the week in the hospital setting, and the rest out and about as a first responder.

This whole area was one of outstanding natural beauty, with hills and mountains all around, thickly wooded with natural species of rowan, alder, hazel and birch. To her left, she caught glimpses of the river as it flowed downhill, disappearing every now and then as woodland obscured the view.

Before too long she came across the road junction where she had to turn off towards the falls—a place of wonder for everyone who came to visit the area. There was a narrow road leading to a car park, and from there she hoped she would be able to find the injured man without too much difficulty.

She parked the car as close as she could to the bridge, a viewpoint where people could stand and marvel at the chasm that had been carved out by glacial melt-water aeons before, and where a majestic waterfall surged downwards to the valley below. From there the water cascaded over boulders and tumbled on its course towards the sea.

The man had been carried to a small viewing platform, Izzy discovered, and as she approached she could see straight away that he was in a lot of pain and discomfort.

‘Hello, Jim…and Frances,’ she said, introducing herself to the patient and his wife. ‘I’m Dr McKinnon.’ She knelt down beside the man, who was sitting propped up against the metal guard-rail. ‘The ambulance is on its way, but I’ll take a look at you and see what I can do to make you more comfortable in the meantime, if I may?’

Jim nodded. He tried to speak, but he was struggling
to get his breath, and Izzy could see that there was a film of sweat on his brow. He looked anxious, his features strained and desperate, as was the case with many seriously ill people that Izzy had come across.

‘I can see that your ankle is swollen and your shoulder appears to be dislocated,’ she said. ‘Do you have pain anywhere else?’

Jim used his good arm to slope a finger towards his chest. ‘Hurts to…breathe,’ he said.

‘The pain came on before he fell,’ his wife put in. ‘He started to cough, and then it seemed as though he was going to pass out. Is it his heart, do you think?’

‘I’ll listen to his chest and see if I can find out what’s going on,’ Izzy said. ‘Have you had any heart problems before this, Jim?’

He shook his head and she gave her patient a reassuring smile. ‘Try not to worry,’ she said. ‘We’ll sort it all out. For now, I’m going to give you oxygen to help you to breathe, and I’ll give you an injection to ease the pain.’

Izzy placed the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose and checked that the flow of oxygen was adequate. Then she listened carefully to his chest.

‘Did you have any other symptoms before the chest pain?’ she asked. ‘Even up to a day or so before?’

Jim frowned, trying to think about that, but his pain was obviously getting the better of him, and as he started to shake his head once more his wife put in, ‘He said his leg was sore. Apart from that he was fine. We’ve just come back from a trip to New Zealand. This was a final weekend break before we go back home and start getting ready for Christmas.’

‘Hmm.’ Izzy was thoughtful. ‘We need to do tests to be certain what’s causing your problems, Jim, but it could be that a blood clot is blocking the circulation to your lungs. I’m going to give you medication to stop any clots forming and ease the blood flow, and then we’ll concentrate on getting you to hospital as soon as possible.’

Izzy set up an intravenous line so that she could give him anticoagulant and painkilling medication as necessary. Then she moved away from the couple momentarily, to use her mobile phone and call the ambulance services.

‘How long is the ambulance likely to be?’ she asked. ‘I need to have this patient transported urgently to hospital. I think he may be suffering from a pulmonary embolism, and I don’t believe we have any time to lose.’

‘Okay. Leave it with us,’ the controller said. ‘There’s a problem with the ambulance, but we’ll get someone to you as soon as possible.’

Izzy turned back to her patient and contemplated his other injuries. ‘I’m pretty sure your ankle is broken,’ she told him, ‘so I’ll immobilise that in a splint. As to the shoulder, the same thing applies. I’ll secure it for you in the most comfortable position, and then the hospital team will put it back in place for you while you’re under anaesthetic.’

She worked quickly to do that, all the while looking out for the ambulance. Her patient was most likely suffering from a blood clot that had passed from his leg to his lung, and she was conscious that if it was not treated quickly his life could be at risk.

‘How are you feeling now?’ she asked him.

‘It’s better now that the pain has gone,’ he said, but she could see that he was still struggling to breathe. She
glanced around, but there was still no sign of the ambulance. Her gaze rested momentarily on the majestic scenery of the gorge. Trees and ferns sprang from clefts and fissures in the rock, and above everything was the gentle sound of rushing water. It was such a glorious, peaceful scene that it seemed incongruous that she was here trying to save someone’s life.

Then came a humming sound from overhead, like the drone of insects coming ever closer, until at last the noise was all around and an air ambulance helicopter hovered, preparing to land, its rotors spinning, fanning the air like giant flapping wings.

‘Is that for us?’ Frances asked, and Izzy nodded. ‘It looks that way.’ She glanced at Jim. ‘They’ll take you to Inverness,’ she told him. ‘At least with the helicopter you should be there within minutes.’

The helicopter came to rest some distance away, on a flat stretch of ground near to the car park, and a medic jumped down, followed by a paramedic. Between them they wheeled a trolley towards Izzy and her patient, and as she watched them draw near she made a sudden, swift intake of breath.

Surely that was Ross in the medic’s uniform? What was
he
doing here? Of course she knew that he had trained as a doctor, but his work had always been in the Lake District. This had to be new, this job working with the air ambulance.

As he approached she did her best to get over the shock and try to recover her professionalism. Her patient must come first. Any questions she might want to fire at him could surely be answered later?

‘Hello, how are you doing?’ Ross said, coming over
to the group assembled on the viewing platform and checking on the patient. He glanced at Izzy. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Ambulance control told me you were the doctor on call.’ Then he concentrated his attention on the patient once more. ‘You collapsed, I understand, and injured yourself?’

Jim nodded, unable to speak just then, and Izzy began to explain the situation. ‘He has severe chest pain and difficulty breathing, as well as a broken ankle and dislocated shoulder.’ She went on to outline her diagnosis and explain what medication she had given him. ‘He’ll need to go for an urgent angiography, and I suspect he’ll require thrombolytic therapy in order to break down any clot that’s formed.’

He nodded. ‘I’ll alert Radiology back at Inverness. They have all the facilities there. And I’ll notify the cardiovascular surgeon to be on hand to perform the surgery if necessary.’

All the time they were talking, they were breaking off to reassure Jim that everything was being done that should be done, and preparing him for transfer to the trolley. ‘We’ll have you secure in no time,’ Ross told him. ‘I can see Dr McKinnon has been taking good care of you. No worries. You’re in good hands.’

They worked quickly to strap their patient safely in place, covering him with a blanket to keep him warm and prevent shock. Ross glanced at Frances. ‘Will you be coming along with us? We can find room for you in the ’copter if you like.’

‘Thank you. I’d like that. I want to stay with him.’

‘Good.’ Ross and the paramedic started to walk with the trolley towards the waiting helicopter. Izzy accompanied them, keeping a check on her patient’s vital signs.

She glanced towards Ross. ‘I had no idea you had taken a job with the air ambulance,’ she said in a low voice.

‘The opportunity came up, and it seemed too good a chance to miss,’ he answered. ‘They needed someone to fill in for one of the doctors who was away for a couple of months, and with Alice likely to be in the hospital for the next few weeks it looked as though the job was tailor-made for me.’

‘What happened to your work in the Lake District?’

‘My contract came to an end. They’ll hold it open for me in case I decide to go back next year on a permanent basis, but I thought with Jake leaving it was time for me to come and take up the reins of the estate for a while.’

She studied him as they lifted the trolley bed on to the aircraft. So there was still the possibility that he wasn’t going to be staying around. Why didn’t that come as any real surprise to her?

‘I’m even more startled to see you here today, right now,’ she murmured, going into the medical bay of the helicopter. ‘It was only this morning that you and the children were heading off to Inverness. What happened to your plans to go and see Alice?’

He gave a brief smile. ‘Oh, we did all that. Afterwards I left them with their aunt Jess, so that I could come in to work. She’s going to keep them with her in Inverness for a couple of days. At the moment things are a little tricky for me because of the shift system I’m working, but I dare say it will all work out in the end.’

The paramedic made sure that the trolley bed was locked in place and that Frances was happily settled close by her husband’s side. Then he came over to Izzy and Ross. He must have heard what they were saying
because he commented, ‘In fact, Ross and I had a difficult stint last night. We didn’t get finished until after midnight. There was a boy injured and lost on the hills, and being pitch-black out there it took us a while to find him. He was okay, as it turned out—just a little shaken up and suffering from exposure and a pulled ligament in his knee.’

‘Oh, I see.’ That explained why Molly had found it difficult to wake Ross this morning. Izzy felt a wave of guilt wash over her. Had she been too quick to pass judgement on him?

She checked the intravenous line and made sure that Jim was comfortable. He was struggling to take in oxygen through the breathing mask, and she settled it more comfortably over his face. ‘You’ll be in hospital in no time at all,’ she told him. ‘The doctors will do a scan to see if there’s a clot on your lung. If they find one, they could decide to go on treating you with medication, or they may want to remove it using a thin catheter threaded through the blood vessel. Either way, you will be well looked after.’

She said goodbye to Jim and his wife and went to the open door of the helicopter. Ross went with her, jumping down to the ground and reaching up to help her descend. His hands went around her waist, his palms lying flat on her ribcage as he lifted her down with ease, as though she was as light as a feather.

When her feet touched the ground his hands stayed on her, as though he would steady her, and she realised with a slight sense of shock that her own fingers still lay on his shoulders. Her whole body responded as though he had triggered an electric current.

Coming to her senses, she drew back her fingers, her mind skittering with uncertainty.

‘So that’s why you were lying in bed this morning,’ she murmured. ‘I have to take back all the bad things I was thinking.’ She frowned. ‘Only, who was watching over the children last night if you were out working?’

‘You were thinking bad things?’ His mouth made a flattened shape. ‘I thought as much.’ He straightened, letting his hands fall away from her. ‘You don’t trust me at all, do you?’

‘Put it down to the fall out from times gone by,’ she murmured.

He gave a faint smile. ‘As always. Actually, I did have things all in hand. I arranged for Maggie to stay and watch over them until I returned home. She was pleased enough to do it. Of course I’ll have to organise things a little better if I’m to stay for a while. Molly and Cameron need some kind of stability, and getting them enrolled in school is going to be one of the first things I must do.’

‘Yes, that’s probably best.’ Izzy stepped away from the vehicle. ‘I should let you go,’ she said softly. This was neither the time nor the place to be holding a conversation about his future plans, much as her curiosity was pricked. Wind from the helicopter’s rotors tousled her hair, and she lifted a hand to hold the strands away from her face. ‘If you get the chance, let me know how our patient progresses, will you?’

He nodded. ‘I will. You can count on it.’

She moved away, and he slid the door of the helicopter shut. Within moments the aircraft rose skywards and zoomed away.

Watching the helicopter move out of sight, Izzy was assailed by a strange notion of unfinished business. Seeing Ross at work had given her a tremendous jolt, and along with it had come the realisation that their paths might cross much more often than she had ever expected.

Today had not been a good start. Why hadn’t she guarded her tongue instead of alerting him to all her doubts and criticisms? He was simply doing a job, making the best of things just as she was, and it was wrong of her to find fault with everything he did. It was in his favour that he was taking care of the children at all. Perhaps she should leave it to her father to cast aspersions on his motives.