The Woman He's Been Waiting For

by Jennifer Taylor

  ‘Of course. I’ll pass on your message to him.’

  Grace saw them out, sending up a silent prayer that the treatment would be a success. She saw the rest of her patients then cleared up in readiness for the afternoon. There was a mother and baby clinic that day so she would be kept busy, but she loved her job and couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.

  She frowned because Harry was just as passionate about his job. She couldn’t imagine him wanting to leave London, especially now that he was involved with this new health service advisory committee. It made her see how difficult it would be to maintain a relationship with him once he returned to the South. Maybe she’d been right to refuse his invitation tonight. When Harry went home, she didn’t want to be left behind nursing a broken heart.

  Harry phoned Penny and made arrangements for them to go out for dinner. He was in two minds whether he wanted to bother after Grace had turned him down but in the end he couldn’t bear the thought of sitting on his own in the hotel. It was his turn to do the home visits that afternoon so once he had collected his list from Janet, he set off.

  The snow had cleared now and the countryside looked green and fresh as he drove along the winding lanes. He had forgotten how beautiful it could be after living in the city for so long. How would he feel about working here on a permanent basis? he wondered as he stopped outside his first call. Once upon a time, the thought of leaving the city would have filled him with dread, but the more he thought about it, the more appealing it became. No crazy traffic, no fumes, no dirt, none of the hustle and bustle that marked his day. He could move here and set down roots, play a part in the local community, become a person instead of just another statistic. He would also be closer to Grace.

  He sighed as he got out of the car because who was he kidding? It wasn’t the thought of a beautiful environment, or any of the other benefits that were behind this sudden desire to relocate: it was Grace. He didn’t want to leave her here and go back to London. He couldn’t bear the thought of them living hundreds of miles apart. He wanted to see her every day, not just when it was convenient to fit a visit into their schedules.

  It would mean a massive change for him but he was willing to make it if it meant they could be together. But was it what Grace wanted? She’d given no indication that she was interested in him in any way other than as a friend, and the thought added to his feelings of hopelessness. He couldn’t go making plans for the future until he knew how she felt about him.

  There were over a dozen mums booked into the clinic so Grace had her work cut out for her. Normally their practice nurse would have helped her, but Alison’s ankle hadn’t healed well enough yet for her to return to work so Grace was on her own. It was after four when she finished and evening surgery should have started.

  ‘Here’s your list.’ Janet looked harassed as she handed her a list of patients. ‘There’s a couple of extras on there, I’m afraid, because Harry isn’t back yet.’

  ‘He’s late.’ Grace checked her watch. ‘Has there been a problem at one of his calls?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. He hasn’t phoned in.’ Janet grabbed the phone when it started ringing again. ‘Ferndale Surgery. Janet speaking.’

  Grace went back to her office and picked up the phone. Harry was meticulous about time-keeping and she couldn’t help wondering what had happened to him. She dialled his mobile number but there was no reply. She left a message, asking him to get in touch with the surgery, and hung up. He might have been delayed by traffic, of course. The roads around the village were extremely busy at this time of the day with all the traffic from the local schools. He was probably sitting in a traffic jam at this very moment, in fact.

  She buzzed Janet and asked her to let her know as soon as Harry arrived then called in her first patient. One appointment rapidly followed another but Janet didn’t phone to tell her that he was back. By the time her last patient left, Grace was really starting to worry.

  She hurried through to Reception. ‘Still no news from Harry?’

  ‘Not a peep.’ Janet sounded concerned, too. ‘It’s not like him. If he’s ever delayed, he makes a point of ringing in to let me know where he is.’

  ‘Have you got a list of the calls he was supposed to do?’ Grace asked. ‘Maybe we can backtrack and find out where he’s got to. For all we know, his car might have broken down and he’s stuck in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone signal.’

  ‘Of course. Why didn’t I think of that.’ Janet hunted through the papers on her desk and pulled out a list of the day’s house calls.

  Grace took it from her and ripped it in two. ‘We’ll share it between us. That way we can contact everyone faster.’

  She gave Janet one half of the list then took the other half to her room and began calling each of the numbers in turn. As soon as she was sure that Harry had been there, she ticked the address off the list. She worked her way down to the very last call of the day, a visit to Parson’s Farm, and dialled the number, but the phone line was dead.

  She went back to Reception. Janet had just finished calling the last number on her half of the list. She looked up when Grace appeared.

  ‘Have you found him?’

  ‘No. He turned up at every one of the calls I checked. How about you?’

  ‘Same here. Do you think we should contact the police?’

  Grace’s heart sank, although she knew they would have to do so if he didn’t turn up soon. ‘Maybe we should wait another half-hour in case he’s broken down.’ She put her section of the list on the desk and pointed to the last call. ‘I couldn’t get through when I tried phoning this number. The line was dead.’

  ‘Sorry, I should have mentioned that,’ Janet apologised. ‘The call didn’t actually come from the farm. Apparently, they’ve got problems with their phone line and the message was passed on by someone else.’

  ‘I see.’ Grace went to the map pinned on the wall behind the desk. Parson’s Farm was on the eastern boundary of their catchment area and she knew from experience that there was no mobile phone signal there.

  ‘Did the caller give any details?’ she asked, glancing at Janet. ‘They’re new tenants on that farm and I don’t really know them. I’ve only seen them once when they came in to register.’

  ‘The caller just said to tell the doctor that Mrs Norris was poorly and could the doctor come out to see her.’ Janet looked guilty. ‘It was really busy so I didn’t get any more information out of him, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Never mind.’ Grace bit back a sigh. There was no point blaming Janet. ‘Can you get Mrs Norris’s file for me? I’ll see if there’s anything in it that might give me a clue.’

  Janet found the file for her but there was very little information in it. Lucy Norris didn’t appear to visit the doctor very often so there was no indication of why she would have requested a home visit. Grace came to a swift decision.

  ‘I’m going to drive over there and see what’s happened.’

  ‘But Harry might not be there,’ Janet protested.

  ‘No, but I can’t just sit here and wait for him to turn up. If he gets in contact in the meantime, call me, will you?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Janet looked troubled as Grace went to fetch her coat but there was nothing else she could think of that might help to solve the mystery of Harry’s disappearance. She got into her car and her hands were trembling as she started the engine. She didn’t think she could bear it if anything had happened to him. Harry meant the whole world to her and when she found him, she would tell him that and to hell with the consequences. She would rather take the risk of having her heart broken than live with the thought that she’d lost him because she’d been too scared to tell him how she felt.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  HARRY was already running late by the time he arrived at Parson’s Farm. Several of the calls he’d done that afternoon had taken longer than he’d expected. It was almost four o’clock by the time he drew up in front of the farmhouse so th
ere was no hope of him getting back in time for evening surgery.

  He took his mobile phone out of his pocket so he could ring Janet and groaned when he found that there was no signal up here. There were blank spots throughout this part of Cumbria and it was just his luck that he was in one now when he needed to make a call. He got out of the car and lifted his case out of the back then knocked on the farmhouse door. There was no reply so he knocked again and thought he heard someone shout this time. He tried the door and discovered it was open so he let himself in.

  ‘Hello—it’s Dr Shaw from Ferndale Surgery. Is anyone home?’

  ‘I’m in here, Doctor,’ a voice replied.

  Harry followed the sound and found himself in the sitting room. There was a young woman lying on the settee and it was obvious that she was in a great deal of pain. He hurried across the room and crouched down beside her.

  ‘Can you tell me what’s happened?’

  ‘It’s the baby. I think it must be coming,’ she whispered, pushing back the hand-knitted blanket that was covering her.

  Harry’s heart sank when he saw her distended abdomen. It was a long time since he’d delivered a baby and on that occasion it had been in the safety of a top London teaching hospital. It would be a vastly different experience, bringing a child into the world in this farmhouse.

  ‘When did you go into labour?’

  ‘I had backache all last night and again this morning. I was shifting some bales of hay around the barn yesterday so I thought I’d pulled a muscle. I wasn’t going to bother you but the feed rep called this morning and he insisted on phoning the surgery. Our phone’s not working…some sort of problem with the line, apparently.’

  ‘He was right to call,’ Harry agreed, his hands moving gently over her swollen belly. ‘How many weeks pregnant are you?’

  ‘About thirty-five, or -six, I think.’

  ‘You think?’ His brows rose. ‘Didn’t the hospital give you an exact date when you went for your last check-up?’

  ‘I haven’t been to the hospital,’ she admitted, then groaned as another contraction began.

  Harry waited until it had passed before he questioned her further.

  ‘Have you had any medical care at all? There was nothing in your file so it doesn’t appear that you’ve been visiting the surgery for check-ups either.’

  ‘There was no need. I mean, having a baby is a completely natural thing to do. Jed and I decided when we found out that I was pregnant that we were going to have this child with as little medical intervention as possible.’

  ‘I see.’ Harry was hard pressed to disguise his dismay but it wouldn’t achieve anything to tell her what he thought about such a crazy idea. ‘I take it that Jed is your husband. Where is he now?’

  ‘He had to go to Harrogate to visit his mother. She hasn’t been well recently, you see. He won’t be back until tomorrow night.’

  She stopped as another contraction began. Harry waited until it had passed then checked to see if there was any sign of the baby’s head crowning, not that he thought there would be. If he wasn’t mistaken, the child was lying in the breech position, which meant that its bottom would be delivered first rather than its head. It was a situation that potentially could cause a lot of complications for both mother and child.

  ‘Lucy, I think your baby might be lying the wrong way round,’ he explained gently. ‘From what I can tell, it’s going to be a breech delivery.’

  ‘Is that why it’s so hard to push it out?’ Lucy asked, her eyes glazing with pain.

  Harry nodded. ‘Yes. In a normal delivery, the birth canal stretches as the baby’s head passes through it. That makes it easier for the rest of its body to follow. In your case, though, the baby’s head will be delivered last and we need to make sure that he doesn’t get stuck.’

  Tears welled to the young woman’s eyes. ‘Would they have known my baby was breech if I’d gone to the hospital?’

  ‘Yes, they would. They might have been able to turn it round, too, although some babies can turn themselves back again.’ He patted her hand. ‘The thing is, you didn’t go to the hospital so we just have to do the best we can now.’

  He stood up, wondering where the best place would be to deliver the baby. It struck him all of a sudden how cold it was in the room. There’d obviously been a fire in the grate but it had gone out, so his first task had to be to get it going again.

  ‘I’ll get the fire started again. We need to keep you warm and we’ll definitely need to make sure your baby is warm when he or she arrives.’

  ‘There’s some logs outside the back door,’ Lucy told him. ‘There’s also a basket of kindling there.’

  ‘Right.’

  Harry fetched the wood and set to work. Once he was sure the fire had caught, he put the guard around it then checked how Lucy was progressing. It was difficult to see what was happening, with her lying on the sofa, so he decided to make up a bed for her on the floor.

  ‘I’m going to find some sheets and blankets,’ he explained. ‘It’s a bit cramped on that sofa so I’m going to make you comfortable on the floor.’

  ‘Do you think the baby will be all right?’ she asked miserably.

  ‘I don’t see why not,’ he said, trying to appear as upbeat as possible. There was no point adding to her distress by letting her see how worried he really was. So many things could go wrong during a breech presentation. If the baby’s head was large, or the mother’s pelvic girdle was unusually small, the child could get stuck. If Lucy had been seen at a hospital those points would have been taken into account and a Caesarean section arranged if it was deemed necessary. However, he didn’t have that option so he would have to do the best he could.

  He left her in the sitting room and ran upstairs to find some bedding, stripping the sheets and blankets off the bed in the main bedroom. Lucy was groaning when he went back to the sitting room—she was obviously in a great deal of pain. Harry dropped the bedding onto a chair and knelt beside her.

  ‘I know it hurts, Lucy, but I can’t give you any pain relief right now. It could affect your baby and that’s the last thing we want.’

  ‘I understand. I don’t want to do anything that might harm it.’ She bit her lip as another contraction began. ‘It really does hurt.’

  Harry held her hand until the pain had passed. He got up and quickly made up a bed for her on the floor in front of the fire.

  ‘Here. Let me help you.’ He put his arm around her and helped her to sit up. They had to wait while another contraction ran its course and he frowned as he realised that her contractions were coming really close together now. There wasn’t even time for him to drive to an area where he could get phone reception because he didn’t dare leave her.

  He made her comfortable on the floor then checked the baby’s position again. There was still no sign of it being born and he realised that he was going to have to do something to help it.

  ‘I’m going to have to perform an episiotomy. Do you know what that is, Lucy?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she mumbled, her voice dulled with exhaustion.

  ‘It’s a small incision in the perineum—the tissue between the vagina and the anus. The perineal tissue hasn’t stretched properly because your baby is coming bottom first. This will make it easier for him to be born.’

  ‘I don’t care what you do so long as he’s all right,’ she said weakly.

  ‘Good girl.’

  Harry stood up and hurried into the kitchen to wash his hands. He couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t becoming increasingly worried. Lucy was exhausted and had very little reserves of strength left to deliver her child. The sooner he got the baby out, the better.

  He went back to the sitting room and put on some gloves then cleaned the area where he intended to make the incision. There was no time to worry about anaesthetic so he just did what had to be done. Lucy didn’t seem aware of what was happening because she was in so much pain, but the procedure did seem to help. After a moment or tw
o he could see the baby’s buttocks descending.

  ‘He’s on his way. I’m going to try and help him along by pressing on the top of your uterus. It might be a bit uncomfortable but it’s essential we get him out of there soon.’

  He put one hand under the baby’s bottom and applied gentle pressure to the top of the uterus and, inch by inch, the baby’s body emerged. It was a little boy, although Harry barely had time to register the fact. They weren’t over the worst yet because if the child’s head got stuck in the pelvic girdle, he would be in real trouble. What he needed was another pair of hands to help him.

  The thought had just crossed his mind when he heard a car draw up outside. There was a knock on the front door but there was no way that he could get up to answer it. ‘Come in,’ he shouted, praying that the caller would hear him.

  They must have done because a moment later he heard footsteps in the hall and then the door opened and Grace appeared. Harry looked up at her and grinned.

  ‘You have no idea how glad I am to see you!’

  ‘You’re doing great, Lucy. Now, when the next contraction starts I don’t want you to push.’ Grace squeezed the young woman’s hand. ‘We need to get his head out and we don’t want to hurt him so we’ll take things nice and slowly. It might help if you tried panting if the pain gets too bad.’

  She looked up, feeling her heart jerk when she saw Harry was watching her. There was an expression on his face that made her feel all warm inside, but this wasn’t the time to think about it. She nodded when she felt Lucy’s hand grip hers as another contraction began. ‘Here we go.’

  Harry took firm hold of the tiny body, supporting it with his forearm as the baby’s shoulders slid out. There was just the head now and that took a little longer. Grace was starting to wonder if it would ever happen when all of a sudden his chin emerged then the tip of an ear, followed by the rest of his head.