Sins of Sarah (43 page)

'We'll take turns,' Lenny offered. 'Until the nurse or a doctor can get up here - though I doubt that will be before morning; it's raining again.'

'I hope it will be.' Madeleine shuddered. 'He s ill, Lenny, far worse than any of the others were. They just had stomach bugs. This is far more than that. I can't get any sense out of him at all, and it happened so quickly.'

Lenny pushed his glasses to the top of his head. Fevers come and go quickly in these parts,' he tried to reassure her. 'He'll probably be fine in the morning. He's a tough bugger!'

'Not with this kind of thing,' Madeleine said, worried. 'He hasn't been well for weeks, Lenny.' 'Pining for that smashing bird of his, I wouldn't mind betting,' Lenny said sagely, and Madeleine stared at him.

'How did you know that?' she asked. 'No one is supposed to know.' 'It's common knowledge among the lads; he's only had eyes for her since the day they met!' Lenny grinned. 'You can't keep much from my boys! Stands to reason he's occupied, or he'd have had you in the sack pretty quick!'

'It takes two, Lenny.'

'Sure! But that's never been a problem for the boss!' Lenny settled into a chair. 'I'll take a quick kip, then it's your turn, miss. We don't want you sick as well, do we?' Madeleine tossed him a blanket and then settled herself beside Nick, constantly sponging his heated body in a vain effort to make him more comfortable.

In the dark, quiet hours that followed the heat finally began to dissipate, but he then began to shiver violently.

She tucked an extra blanket over him and then several of her jackets to keep him warm, but still long shudders racked him. Finally she. lay down beside him, wrapping her own body around him to try and give him the warmth he needed. Surprisingly it seemed to calm him, though she knew from touching him that he was barely conscious, but he settled into a slightly calmer sleep in her arms.

She woke up with a start, finding Nick's arm heavy and hot across her waist and Lenny grinning down at her.

'Time I took over,' he said. 'He's hot as hell again. See if you can find some clean sheets. He'll be more comfortable if we can change these, they're soaked.' As Madeleine herself was too from the heat of Nick's body, and she slid off the bed to do as he suggested.

Between them they changed the bed and rolled Nick back into it. He had hardly stirred as they manoeuvred his limp body around, his only word was 'Sarah' as Madeleine leant over him.

'Time enough for that later,' Lenny told him, as cheerfully as he could manage, and settled down to sponging him as Madeleine had been doing, and trying unsuccessfully to get some liquid into his mouth. 'Tell you what, Maddy, Have you thought what the lads are going to do if the boss is out of action?'

'Carry on, of course!' Madeleine had no doubts on that score. 'Bud is a director in his own right - he's already done some second unit stuff - he'll have to take over. We can't afford to lose any time at all. You can use Nick's notes and guide him along, I'm going back to Coari with Nick. I'm not letting Erica take over, he loathes her.' Despite Lenny's reassuring presence she couldn't sleep, and they finally both stayed awake, coping as best they could when Nick began to throw up even the water Lenny had tried to give him, until Bud appeared at five o'clock ushering in the nurse and a local doctor she had rounded up. By that time Madeleine was frantic, and she then had a stand-up row with Erica when Erica informed her she would not be needed in Coari.

'Where Nick goes, I go!' she announced firmly. 'I'll pack a bag for him and come with you!' Erica recognized a formidable opponent and gave in. Madeleine packed a bag for both herself and Nick, gave Bud and Lenny the work list for the day and followed Erica and the doctor. The crew members they hustled out of bed managed to carry Nick to the waiting motor boat, and they finally started on the long trip down the river to Coari. Anxiously, Madeleine questioned the doctor at length during the journey, but to her fury he was totally non-committal. She had no faith in him whatsoever by the time they reached the little town and transported their patient to the tiny clinic the doctor managed.

'I'll give them forty-eight hours,' she threatened, after an infuriating wait with no results.

Nick was plainly deteriorating, his breathing laboured and difficult as his body alternated between high fever and hideously racking shivering fits. A saline drip kept him from dehydrating but still he kept vomiting, and she was beginning to really panic, isolated as she was, miles away from the rest of the crew. Finally she could stand it no longer. In desperation, she found a telephone and man-aged to get a call through to Los Angeles and Seth Waterston.

'I've got to have the jet come for us!' she demanded of a startled Seth. 'Nick has to be in an American hospital! I'm afraid, Seth. He's going to die if we don't get him out of here; it isn't even clean!'

'Why the hell did you wait all this time?' Seth demanded furiously. 'We'll be with you in a matter of hours, I promise.'

'I thought he'd come round quite quickly,' Madeleine confessed. 'The others did.'

'He's obviously not suffering the same problems the other guys did,' Seth said. 'Hang on in there, Maddy, we're on our way.' Rather like the cavalry, Madeleine thought with almost a smile as she hung up. And it felt a bit like that when eight hours later a solid and very comforting Seth arrived in his jet with a couple of reassuringly American doctors in tow and efficient, crisp-looking nurses to take over. Immediately hooking him up to drips and terrifying-looking bottles, they wasted no time in whisking Nick away to the plane, heading for the sanctuary of their Los Angeles hospital.

Tired out of her mind, and relieved at last of the responsibility, Madeleine fell into her seat on the plane and burst into tears of relief. She hadn't slept for three days and she was totally exhausted. 'Just let go and sleep,' one of the nurses told her gently. 'You've done everything you could, it's our turn now. He'll be fine.' She was given a sleeping pill to help her rest, and though she protested that it was hardly necessary she took it and quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, only waking as they taxied into their parking place at LAX.

'Nick?' was her first question on waking, and she was immediately reassured by the friendly nurse.

'He's stable,' she said quickly. 'Don't worry, I've seen worse.'

'But do the doctors know what it is?' Madeleine demanded.

'Some kind of virus, they think. His arm is crudely stitched, but not showing any sign of infection. They don't think the two are related, as the doctor in Coari thought.'

'He was an idiot!' Madeleine spat furiously. 'He would have let him die before he would admit he didn't know what to do.'

'Well, we are not going to let him die,' the nurse said. 'You can be sure of that.' Miriam met them at the airport and stood no argument from Madeleine. She swept her off to the Waterston house with her as Seth took charge of all the arrangements.

'You can go see Nick later,' Miriam said in reply to her protests. 'First we must make sure his family know what's happening, and you need to help me with that. I don't seem to have a number for Sarah Campbell, and she should be told.'

'I don't think Nick has heard from her for weeks, Madeleine admitted. 'He was getting quite anxious that something was wrong, but of course it was impossible to phone from the location.' In vain they tried to phone Sarah's flat, and constantly got the number unobtainable tone. Finally Madeleine phoned Jane, and found that even Jane had no idea where Sarah was. She was quite au fait with the situation regarding Diana, and told Miriam in no uncertain terms that ringing her was out of the question. Perplexed, they tried Charles Hastings, at Jane's suggestion, but even Charles seemed to have no idea where Sarah was.

'Went on holiday, I think,' he said vaguely, when Madeleine finally got hold of him. 'I'll ring his mother for you, though, Madeleine. She ought to know he's ill at least.'

'Thank you, Charles.' Madeleine sighed with relief. 'And you will let us know the moment you can locate Sarah, won't you? He really is terribly ill. She should be here.'

'Of course I will,' Charles said. 'Don't worry, Madeleine.'

CHAPTER 24

Charles put the phone down and gave a sigh of pleasure. With any luck, he thought viciously. Nick would die.

What wonderful things unknown viruses were! Then he paused. How long would it be before they all realized Sarah was living at Hastings Court? Sooner or later someone in London would catch on. Oscar or George might let the cat out of the bag, though with the excuse of not letting the Press find out they had been sworn to secrecy. It was time to act, and act quickly.

It was quite casually that evening that he suggested to Sarah that they take a week or two for a holiday. 'Rupert has a villa in Provence,' he said as they lingered over dinner. 'Why don't we go there? It's lovely this time of year, just before the season really gets started.'

'It's hardly wise, Charles.' Sarah was doubtful. 'I'm over seven months pregnant. I could have problems, and then what would we do?'

'There are doctors in France - very good ones - and we'd only be a few hours' flying time from London if we needed to come back. I do own an airline, darling, remember?'

'Well, in that case . . .' She gave in. It was easier than arguing, and it wasn't as if she had anything better to do.

France would be quite a treat, and warm too.

'We'll go tomorrow,' Charles decided. 'I'll make sure everything is tidy here and we'll leave about midday. It'll be just what you need. We can even stop off in Paris for a few days. You can do some shopping.'

'Hardly!' Sarah laughed. 'I'm beginning to feel like a beached whale! I don't think it would be much fun!'

'You look absolutely wonderful!' Charles leant over and dropped a kiss on her forehead. 'All you need is a tan.'

* * *

For days Nick was deeply unconscious as the doctors performed test after test to try and determine which virus had attacked his visibly weakening body, trying several different antibiotics in the effort to find the right one.

Madeleine had never been a religious person, but now she prayed desperately hard as she and Miriam sat together hour after hour watching the machines keep him alive in the Intensive Care unit. A deep bond began to form between the two women, who had been almost strangers until they had been thrown together in their joint worry over Nick.

Seth was mystified over not being able to contact Sarah, having badgered Jane constantly for news. That even Seth Waterston couldn't find her made Madeleine very suspicious that all was not well. 'It's as if she doesn't want to be found,' she said to Miriam as they took a short break and walked the short distance to a nearby diner.

'It doesn't seem possible anything could be wrong with those two, they're so much in love with each other,' Miriam puzzled. 'Nick would never have gone ahead with buying Joe's place if they were splitting - it's hardly a cheap bachelor's pad, after all!'

'I agree it doesn't make sense. All Nick talked about was Sarah coming out to LA the minute he got back.' Five minutes later Seth joined them, a small padded envelope in his hand.

'This just came in from Brazil,' he told them. 'It was sent out to Nick on the last mail-run and has obviously been returned as he's here. If I'm not mistaken, it's from Sarah.' Both women stared at the package. Neither of them wanted to open it and intrude on Nick's private affairs.

'We'll hang on,' Miriam decided at last.

'Well, keep it with you, hon,' Seth told her. 'I have to get back. I just didn't want to trust it to a messenger.' Madeleine stared at it for long minutes after Seth had gone.

'Maybe we should open it,' she said at last. 'It really is all we have to go on.' They hated doing it, but both were acutely aware that Nick might never know what they were doing. However, once it was opened, they both wished they hadn't done it.

'We can't tell him!' Madeleine moaned, turning the beautiful ring over in her fingers. 'If the virus doesn't kill him, this will!'

'Wait and see what happens,' Miriam advised. 'I'm certain Seth will find her fairly soon. She loves him. I'm sure it must be a misunderstanding. There's no other woman in Nick's life - that I know. I wonder what photograph she's referring to?'

'I can't imagine either.' Madeleine was puzzled. 'I've worked with Nick almost constantly since Sarah went back to England - there's been no one.'

'Maybe it's you she's referring to?' Miriam wondered.

'Me? Don't be silly, Miriam!' Madeleine was horrified. 'How could she think that? I work for him. Yes, I adore him - most women do - but that's a one-woman guy if ever there was one. I'd be on a hiding to nothing trying for him! Now Mark Winford, that's another story!' She had met the singing star the previous evening at the Waterstons, when Seth had insisted he take her back for a break.

'Well, honey, Mark certainly noticed you, so there's nothing wrong with you,' Miriam comforted her.

'Well, that I will certainly bear in mind! But I can't think of anything but Nick at the moment. Oh, Miriam, he is going to get better, isn't he?'

'If there's a God, honey - yes! We can only hope that right now He's looking out for him!'

* * *