Caroline Anderson, Sara Morgan, Josie Metcalfe, Jennifer Taylor

by Brides of Penhally Bay Vol. 01 (lit)

  Alison nodded. ‘I agree. I know that everyone thinks it must be great to be really, really rich, but it must be a huge liability at times.’

  ‘I’m sure it is. Don’t get me wrong—money is important and I’m not decrying the fact. You need enough to live comfortably, but after that…’ He shrugged. ‘It can cause an awful lot of problems, from what I’ve seen. That’s why I don’t intend to touch any of Freddie’s money. I earn enough to keep us and that’s it.’

  Alison admired the stance he’d taken and said so. ‘Not many people would feel that way, Jack.’

  ‘Maybe not, but it’s how I feel. My only concession is this cottage. We needed a place to live, so I decided to rent it with a view to buying it in the future if it proves suitable for our needs.’

  ‘Which is why you don’t mind refurbishing the place?’ she suggested, and he grinned at her.

  ‘Got it one! So, come along, let’s hear your ideas for turning this place into a proper home.’

  The next hour flew past as Alison did exactly that. It was only when Sam came to find her because he was thirsty that she realised how late it was. She jumped to her feet, groaning as she glanced at her watch.

  ‘I got so carried away that I didn’t realise the time. You should have stopped me.’

  ‘No way. I need someone to set me on the right track.’ Jack stood up and smiled at her, a lazy, boyish smile that made her bones melt. ‘I’m not really strong on the homemaking scene, and it’s good to be able to crib your ideas.’

  Alison chuckled as she took Sam into the sitting room and put on his coat. ‘I’m no expert when it comes to interior design, so don’t go by me. I’m sure you can find someone better qualified to advise you.’

  ‘You mean a real interior designer?’ Jack said, making imaginary speech marks with his fingers. He shuddered. ‘No, thanks. I don’t want the place looking like something out of a trendy magazine. I want it to be proper home, a place where Freddie can play and not have to worry about making a mess.’

  ‘Well, you should get that all right. There’s a lot of mess when you have a three-year-old,’ she said, looking pointedly at the sitting-room floor, which was littered with toys.

  Jack laughed. ‘I don’t care so long as he’s happy.’ He looked at his son and an expression of sadness crossed his face. ‘That’s all I want for him—to be happy.’

  ‘And he will be, Jack,’ Alison said quietly, moved by the sadness in his voice.

  ‘Let’s hope so.’

  He didn’t say anything else as he showed them out, but Alison knew that he was wondering if he would ever fulfil his wish to make his son’s life better. She wished she could help him but there was very little she could do.

  It would have been different if she and Jack had been seeing each other, she thought as she and Sam walked home, then inwardly recoiled. She could never get romantically involved with Jack. Apart from the fact that he wouldn’t be interested in someone like her, she wouldn’t risk her heart being broken a second time. She and Sam were better off on their own. And as for Jack—well, he would manage perfectly well without her help.

  CHAPTER SIX

  JACK had just dropped off to sleep when he heard the phone ringing. Rolling over, he grabbed hold of the receiver before the noise woke Freddie. ‘Jack Tremayne.’

  ‘Jack, it’s Alex Ross. I’m sorry to wake you but we have a full-scale alert on so we’re having to call in every available member of staff.’

  ‘What’s happened?’ Jack demanded, dragging himself out from under the duvet.

  ‘A light plane has crashed on Bodmin moor. The pilot declared an emergency and Air Traffic Control advised him to set down on the A30. Apparently the police were trying to clear the road when it happened.’

  Jack’s heart sank. ‘Do I take it the plane hit a car?’

  ‘A minibus bringing a group of sixth-formers back from a geography field trip.’ Alex said. ‘It was absolute carnage, from what I can gather. Incident Control has asked us to take the burns cases, which is why I need you in here, pronto.’

  ‘I’ll be there just as soon as I can.’

  Jack hung up and leapt out of bed, wondering what he was going to do about Freddie. He could take him with him, but then what? He couldn’t just dump the child in the hospital and go merrily about his business.

  He dragged on a shirt and a sweater, finger-combed his hair, and headed for the stairs, still mulling over his options. He could phone Lucy and ask her to have Freddie, but it was gone midnight and he hated to wake her up when she had the baby to look after. Alison was another possibility, but he was even warier about taking that option after what had happened that evening.

  His brain made a lightning-fast detour to that moment when he had watched Alison drinking her coffee and he sucked in his breath. This is neither the time nor the place for that, Jack, my lad, he told himself sternly.

  He reached the bottom of the stairs and paused as he stared at the phone sitting on the table beside the front door. If he wasn’t prepared to ask either Lucy or Alison for help, then who could he phone?

  He groaned softly. There was really only one other option—one he wouldn’t have considered if he hadn’t been desperate. Picking up the receiver, Jack punched in the number, steeling himself when he heard the person on the other end pick up.

  ‘Dad, it’s me—Jack. Look, I’m sorry to bother you at this time of the night but I need a favour.’

  ‘Jack, good to see you.’

  Jack grinned at his brother-in-law, Ben Carter. ‘So you got roped in as well?’

  ‘I was already here when it all kicked off so I stayed on to help.’ Ben grimaced. ‘It’s a bad one. There’s a lot of kids injured, as well as the people on the plane.’

  ‘I thought we were only getting the burns injuries?’ Jack said quietly, following Ben to the resuscitation room, where the very worst cases were being treated.

  ‘So did I. However, it appears there was another major accident tonight outside Launceston, involving a coach and a lorry. Every A and E unit for miles around is chock-a-block. Incident Control decided that we would take the most seriously injured from the plane crash and the rest would be ferried round to anywhere that has room for them.’

  ‘What a mess!’ Jack exclaimed.

  He followed Ben into Resus, feeling the adrenaline start pumping around his body at the scene that greeted him. Every available bed was being used and the place was buzzing. He swung round when he heard the high-pitched whine of a monitor going off.

  ‘He’s arrested,’ somebody shouted, and Ben groaned.

  ‘That’s the pilot. It doesn’t look good, I’m afraid.’ He pointed over to where screens had been placed around one of the beds. ‘Alex is over there. OK?’

  ‘Fine.’

  Jack made his way across the room and slipped behind the screens, smiling when Alex looked up. ‘Looks like a fun time is being had by all.’

  ‘You could say that,’ she agreed dryly.

  Jack’s expression sobered as he looked down at the teenage boy who was lying on the bed. The left side of his face had been burned, although it was difficult to tell how badly damaged the skin was without a closer examination. However, it was obvious that there was severe burning to his upper left arm, and Jack knew without having to check that it would need a lot of work to sort it out. He glanced at Alex and raised his brows.

  ‘Ryan Lovelace, aged eighteen, a passenger in the minibus,’ she explained crisply, leaning over to adjust the drip attached to Ryan’s uninjured arm. One of the major factors in burns cases was shock caused by the rapid loss of large quantities of fluid from the affected areas, so Jack appreciated why Alex was so keen to ensure that the boy’s fluid levels were restored as quickly as possible.

  ‘Apparently he got out of the minibus, but he went back to help some of the others, and that’s how he got burned.’

  ‘I see.’ Jack smiled at the boy. ‘That was a brave thing to do, Ryan.’

  ‘Naw, anyon
e would have done the same,’ Ryan said dismissively.

  Jack doubted it, but he didn’t argue with him—he was more concerned about the severity of his injuries. Bending down, he examined Ryan’s face first. There was some blistering, but most of the dermis—the deeper layer of the skin—appeared to be unscathed. That was good news because it meant there should be less scarring once the area healed.

  It was very different with the boy’s upper arm, however. The burns to this area were third-degree burns. The full thickness of the skin had been destroyed and there was a section of muscle exposed. Although the worst damage was confined to a relatively small area, that didn’t mean it wasn’t a significant injury. Skin acted as a barrier to prevent airborne infection getting into the body, and once it was breached bacteria could rapidly infiltrate the tissues.

  ‘I take it he’s on broad-spec antibiotics?’ he said, glancing at Alex.

  ‘Yes. I got him started on them immediately.’

  ‘Good.’ Jack frowned. ‘I’d like to get him to Theatre as soon as possible. What’s the schedule like?’

  ‘Chaotic,’ Alex said. ‘I’m waiting for a slot for one of the passengers in the plane—he’s got third-degree burns to both hands. Ben has a girl who needs her leg amputated—she’s being prepped at the moment, and he’ll be going back to her as soon as he’s finished with the pilot. Then there’s another three who need glass removed from their faces. I’m not sure if they need theatre time as I haven’t had a chance to assess them yet.’

  ‘That’s quite a queue, even without them,’ Jack said wryly. He arched a brow. ‘What do you suggest we do—toss a coin to see who gets theatre space?’

  ‘It might come to that,’ Alex warned him, smiling. ‘We’re still waiting for another couple of casualties to arrive, too. The helicopter is bringing them in, and we won’t really know what we’re dealing with until it gets here.’

  Jack shook his head. ‘I thought it was bad in London, but it’s no better here.’

  ‘No. Sadly enough, accidents happen in even the quietest places—’

  Alex broke off when one of the nurses came over to her. She turned to Jack. ‘Theatre two is free, so that’s me sorted. Are you happy to deal with this case on your own?’

  ‘Yes, so long as you’re happy to leave it to me,’ Jack confirmed.

  ‘Oh, I have no worries on that score. Right, I’ll see you later. You know where I am if you need me.’

  Jack returned his attention to his patient once Alex left. Pulling on some gloves, he carefully examined the boy’s face. He liked to have an overall picture of the problems before he actually did anything. He checked Ryan’s arm as well, and knew that his initial assessment had been correct: it would need reconstructive work to ensure the muscle wasn’t adversely affected, and skin grafts to help it heal.

  There was still no sign of a slot in Theatre becoming vacant after he had finished assessing Ryan’s injuries so, rather than waste time, he took one of the teenagers who’d got glass in his face into the treatment room and sorted him out in there.

  Using a high-powered magnifying glass, and working under local anaesthetic, he was able to remove the slivers of glass. A couple of tiny sutures, a light dressing and the boy was free to leave. Jack took him through to the waiting room and had a word with his parents, explaining that the stitches could be removed at their GP’s surgery rather than at the hospital. He hadn’t realised until the parents told him they were patients of his father that some of the school kids came from Penhally Bay. The accident would have a big impact on the town.

  It was his turn for Theatre then, so Jack didn’t have time to dwell on it. However, as he made his way to the changing room, he couldn’t help wondering what Nick would think of his work when he saw the youngster.

  He sighed. Alex was confident enough about his abilities to leave him to get on with the job, so his father’s opinion shouldn’t matter, but it would be good to have his approval for once. Still, at least Nick had agreed to look after Freddie for him, and that had to be a step in the right direction.

  Maybe it was the fact that he was a father himself now, but Jack suddenly found himself hoping that he and Nick would be able to resolve their differences in time. All it needed was for Nick to meet him halfway and they could start being a proper family again—Dad, Lucy, Ben, Annabel, Ed, Freddie and him.

  Just for a moment another name flashed into his head, but he blanked it out. Alison wasn’t part of this equation and there was no point hoping that she ever would be.

  Alison heard about the accident when she took Sam into nursery the following morning. Several of the mums were talking about it as it appeared there’d been a number of children from Penhally Bay involved.

  By the time she arrived at the surgery, she knew that at least three of the injured teenagers were patients there. Sue, the receptionist, greeted her with a sigh when she walked in.

  ‘I suppose you’ve heard the news?’

  ‘About the crash? Yes, I have. From what I can gather, several of the kids are from here, too.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Sue reeled off their names. ‘Ryan Lovelace is the most badly injured. I met Mandy Lovelace on my way here—she’s Ryan’s aunt, you know—and she told me that he’s got burns on his face and his arm. Apparently he got them dragging some of the other kids out of the bus.’

  ‘Really? That was very brave of him!’ Alison exclaimed.

  ‘Wasn’t it? It just goes to show there must be good in some branches of that family after all.’

  Alison didn’t say anything. Some members of the Lovelace family were patients at the surgery. Although it was widely known that they had their problems, she didn’t feel happy about discussing them and diplomatically changed the subject. ‘Are the children being treated at St Piran’s?’

  ‘Oh, yes. They took all the casualties there, so it must have been bedlam. Mandy told me that Jack operated on Ryan so he must have been called in.’ Sue reached for the phone when it began to ring. ‘I wonder what he did about his little boy?’

  ‘I’ve no idea.’

  Alison left Sue to deal with the call. Picking up the stack of notes that had been left in her tray, she made her way to the nurse’s room, thinking about what Sue had told her. Had Jack asked Lucy to look after Freddie for him? She could only assume he must have done.

  That was one of the drawbacks of him working at the hospital, of course. He would be on call any time the situation warranted it. It must make it very difficult for him to organise child care. Just for a moment she wondered if she should tell him that he could call on her if he was stuck, before she thought better of it. While she would be happy to help, she wouldn’t want Jack to think there was an ulterior motive to her offer. He was so handsome and so charismatic that a lot of women must have pursued him over the years, and she would hate it if he thought that was what she was doing.

  She frowned because that wasn’t the only reason, of course. Normally she would have dismissed her qualms and made the offer anyway. However, she was too aware of the dangers of getting involved with him. She knew it would take very little for her to fall for Jack, and fall hard, too. And that was a risk she wasn’t prepared to take.

  It was lunchtime before Jack left the hospital. He had spent most of his time in Theatre, first of all sorting out Ryan’s problems as much as he could, and then assisting Alex. Two of the passengers as well as the pilot from the plane had died, but the third man had survived. His hands had been badly burned, though, and Jack knew that, despite everything he and Alex had achieved, it was only the tip of a very big iceberg. It would need a lot more work to restore full use of the man’s hands.

  The injured teenagers had fared rather better. All except two had been discharged. Ryan would need skin grafts once Jack had a better idea what was going on in the underlying tissue, while Ben’s patient—the girl who’d needed an amputation—would be kept in the orthopaedic ward. It could have been much worse, he decided as he got into his car to drive
back to Penhally Bay, but it would also have been much better if the crash had never happened.

  He drove home and took a shower, then headed to the nursery to check on Freddie. His father had left a message with the theatre staff to say that he was taking Freddie to nursery as usual that day, but Jack wanted to make sure his son was all right. He parked across the road and got out of the car, stepping back as a motorcycle whizzed past with its horn blaring. It was his fault for not looking what he was doing and it gave him a shock. He was just catching his breath when Alison hurried over to him.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Just.’ Jack grimaced. ‘I’m a bit spaced out after pulling an all-nighter, but that’s no excuse. It was a stupid thing to do.’

  ‘You should be more careful,’ she admonished, and he grinned.

  ‘Yes, miss.’

  Alison chuckled. ‘Sorry. I seem to have my bossy hat on today.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. I could do with someone bossing me around at the moment. I’m completely pooped.’

  He unlocked the gate and held it open for her to precede him, feeling his muscles clench when she brushed against him as she passed through the narrow opening. Maybe he was tired, he thought ruefully, but certain bits of him were in fine fettle.

  ‘Did Lucy have Freddie for you last night?’

  Thankfully, Alison seemed oblivious to his response, so Jack pulled himself together. ‘No. I didn’t like to phone her, seeing as it was so late. I asked my dad if he’d babysit for me. He came over to mine and stayed the night, then brought Freddie into nursery this morning.’

  ‘Oh, that was kind of him. Mind you, he probably enjoyed it. It gave him a chance to spend some time with his grandson.’

  ‘I imagine so,’ Jack said, feeling guilty about the fact that he hadn’t made any effort to invite Nick round before. OK, so his father had met Freddie at the surgery, but that hadn’t been a social call. Apart from that, his son had had no contact with his grandfather until last night, and it really wasn’t good enough.