His Very Special Bride

by Joanna Neil

  ‘I don’t think I would be in any hurry to sign up on his list,’ she said on a husky note. She could well imagine that her blood pressure would soar sky high just as soon as she stepped into any surgery run by him. ‘I’d much rather settle for a more genial, fatherly type.’ She frowned. ‘Anyway, he was at home in the middle of a weekday afternoon, so I doubt he’s in general practice. Maybe he works shifts at the local hospital.’

  That would make living near to him easier to handle, from her point of view. After all, it meant that he would probably be working some weekends, and that would narrow down the risk of her running into him, wouldn’t it?

  A short time later, after she had dropped Emily off at nursery school, Sarah drove into the local town. Parking her car, she walked across the cobbled square, and headed for the estate agent’s office.

  ‘I’m so sorry about the trouble you had,’ the young man said, getting up from behind his desk and coming towards her. ‘I must have put the wrong label on the key. It was lucky for you that the neighbour happened to be around yesterday when you visited the property.’

  Sarah stared at him. ‘I remember ringing you to tell you about the mix-up,’ she said, ‘but how did you know about the neighbour? I don’t recall telling you about him.’

  ‘No…no, he rang me.’ His expression was something between apologetic and awkward. ‘I think he wanted to check that you were who you said you were. The property wasn’t meant to have been put on the market for another day or so and he wasn’t expecting anybody to be viewing it.’

  Sarah winced. Dr Brinkley was certainly thorough in his way of getting to the bottom of things. He’d obviously had doubts about her version of events and somehow that didn’t seem to bode well for their forthcoming relationship as neighbours.

  ‘But the cottage is still up for rent, isn’t it?’

  ‘Oh, yes, it is.’ His face brightened. ‘Are you interested in taking up the tenancy, then?’

  ‘I am. Do you have some papers for me to sign?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, yes…I’ll sort them out right away.’ Clearly, he was eager to finalise things before she had the opportunity to change her mind, and just a few minutes later Sarah left the office. In her bag, she had the correct set of keys, and all the necessary documentation for her new tenancy.

  Was this the beginning of a new life? The thought was a little daunting, but at least she had made a start. Straightening her shoulders, she began to walk along the street, heading in the direction of the offices of the local newspaper.

  ‘Oh, no… Stop…stop… Slow down…’ A woman’s voice rang out, shrill with desperation, and she put up a hand as though to indicate that someone should stop. The woman was walking towards her, looking beyond Sarah to a point behind her. Sarah’s purposeful stride slowed to a halt and she glanced behind her to see what was happening.

  A motorcyclist was slowing down, indicating that he wanted to turn right at a junction, and he had positioned himself in the centre of the road. All appeared to be well, except that in the background there was the aggressive, speeding drone of an oncoming car.

  Sarah turned round fully to take a better look. On the brow of the hill, she saw that a driver of a black saloon was overtaking on a bend in the road, and he was heading straight for the motorcyclist. The woman who had been shouting was gesticulating now, miming a frantic warning, but Sarah was very much afraid that it had come too late.

  At the last moment the man behind the wheel of the car seemed to realise what was about to happen. He wrenched the steering-wheel, swerving to the left as he tried to avoid the motorbike, but he was going too fast and it was clear to Sarah that his actions were too late.

  She watched in horror as he hit the bike with the front wing of his car and then smashed into another driver who was innocently heading straight on in the left-hand lane of the road. The front of the black saloon crumpled like a concertina and the car that had been hit swung round violently.

  Sarah ran towards the mangled cars and the bike, anxious to do what she could to help.

  To her dismay, she saw that the motorcyclist was lying on his side, his leg trapped beneath the bulk of his motorcycle. He appeared to be unconscious, but after a swift check she discovered that his airway was clear and he was still breathing, albeit faintly.

  Instinctively, she reached for her phone. ‘Emergency services—I need an ambulance,’ she said, her breath coming in short gasps as she realised the enormity of the situation.

  ‘Will you help me to lift the bike off him?’ Sarah flung the question at a man who had come to stare at the devastation all around.

  ‘Of course.’ Together they freed the young man from the weight of the vehicle that was trapping him, and Sarah knelt down to check him over more thoroughly.

  The woman who had been shouting earlier appeared to be in a panic, flapping her arms wildly and running about as though she was unsure what to do next.

  ‘Do you think you could try to stop the oncoming traffic?’ Sarah suggested briefly. She could see that the biker had a thigh wound, with blood seeping through his jeans, and now she laid the heel of her hand on to his thigh and applied pressure. ‘Perhaps you could position yourself over the brow of the hill to stop anyone from coming any closer,’ she told the woman, ‘but make sure that you stay on the pavement.’

  The woman nodded, and Sarah guessed she was glad to be able to do something useful. The man who had assisted her must have decided that was the best option, too, because he went with the woman, saying, ‘You take the near side to the brow of the hill, and I’ll go further along, to slow them down.’

  Another man was already heading across the far side of the road to halt the traffic there.

  Sarah took off her light cotton jacket and folded it up, making it into a tight wad. Then she whipped the leather belt from the waistband of her jeans and used it to strap the wad in place over the man’s thigh, close to the source of bleeding.

  After that, she hurried over to the other two vehicles and she quickly checked the condition of the drivers. The man who had caused the accident was still sitting upright in the driver’s seat, looking dazed, and when she spoke to him he said in a thready voice, ‘What have I done? I didn’t realise…’

  ‘Don’t worry about that for the moment,’ Sarah said. It seemed that his air bag had failed to deploy fully, and his leg was trapped by crumpled metal. ‘Are you hurt? I’ve called for an ambulance. Is there anywhere in particular that’s causing you pain?’

  ‘My leg,’ he said, and then added in a shaky tone, ‘I’ll be all right. Will you go and see to the others?’

  Sarah nodded. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t try to move.’

  The driver of the other car was clutching his chest and his breathing was rapid and gasping. He was complaining of back pain, but his whole body was trembling, and Sarah guessed that he had gone into a state of shock. She stayed with him for a moment or two, trying to calm him and reassure him that he would receive medical attention soon.

  It worried her that she had to leave the drivers, but her main concern had to be the young man who was lying in the road. He had been bleeding profusely from his leg wound, and she didn’t know whether her attempt to stem the flow would be sufficient. She went back to him and saw that the pressure pad she had put in place was soaked with blood. The only comfort she could take was that at least he was still breathing.

  It was a relief, some time later, to hear the sound of the ambulance siren in the distance, and to know that help was on its way at last. She felt out of her depth, but she knew that these people needed to be taken to hospital at the earliest opportunity. She got to her feet.

  The woman who had been stopping the traffic came to stand beside her. ‘The police have arrived,’ she said. ‘They’re setting up cones to keep the area clear.’

  ‘That’s good.’ The woman was much calmer now, and Sarah guessed that she would be able to give a good account to the police of what had happened.

 
; She waited beside the motorcyclist as a paramedic walked towards him and knelt down. He tried to talk to him, but there was no response, and so he looked up at Sarah. ‘Do you know if he has been unconscious the whole time?’

  ‘Yes, he has.’ She hesitated, then added, ‘The two drivers were both conscious when I went to look at them. One seems to have a chest injury and is struggling to breathe, and the other is complaining of leg pain.’

  ‘Thanks. Perhaps you’d like to show my colleague the one with the chest pain.’ He nodded towards a second paramedic who was emerging from the ambulance.

  Sarah did as he’d asked, and when she was satisfied that both drivers had been assessed and the man with chest pain was being attended to she went back to the driver who had caused the pile-up and tried to reassure him that help was on the way.

  By this time a second ambulance had arrived, along with a fast-response car, and more emergency practitioners began to come forward.

  Feeling a trifle redundant by now, Sarah went to see how the motorcyclist was doing. The paramedic she had spoken to earlier was working side by side with someone else now, a dark-haired man who was wearing the outfit of an emergency doctor.

  Sarah looked him over. Something about this man caught her attention, but she couldn’t quite make up her mind what it was that was bothering her. He was kneeling down, but his demeanour was striking in that every move he made was decisive and self-assured. There was no hesitation, no doubting what needed to be done.

  ‘As soon as I’ve finished intubating him, we’ll splint that fractured limb,’ he said. ‘Once that’s done we can safely transfer him to the spinal board.’

  Sarah felt the hairs prickle along the back of her neck. That voice was all too familiar, and she must have inadvertently let out a breathy sigh of recognition because the man shifted his head a fraction to look up at her. He frowned.

  Sarah blinked. What was Ben doing here? Was this his job, working for the emergency services? Or was he based at the local hospital? The questions were on the tip of her tongue, but she stayed silent, because right now she didn’t want to distract him or in any way impede the work he was doing.

  For a few seconds he held her gaze and the atmosphere seemed to be filled with tension.

  ‘It must be something in the air,’ he murmured. ‘We seem fated to meet under unusual circumstances.’ Then, almost as though that strange collision of minds had never happened, he simply turned away and continued attending to his patient.

  It was only when the intubation was completed and the man was receiving life-giving oxygen that Ben looked at her once more and said briskly, ‘If you want to do something to help, you could squeeze this oxygen bag. Keep up the momentum, and make sure you keep to a regular rhythm.’

  Sarah nodded to show that she understood, and crouched down beside the young biker. ‘He’s still unconscious. Does he have any other injuries, apart from the leg?’

  ‘I imagine he has a head injury, and there may be internal injuries, but we won’t know until we’ve done scans at the hospital. Either way, it looks as though he has a broken thighbone, and he’ll most likely need to have surgery to pin it in place. He’s lost a lot of blood, but I might be able to make up for that by putting a line in and giving him fluids.’ He fixed her with his dark gaze. ‘What you need to do is to keep pumping the oxygen.’

  Sarah did as she was told, and kept quiet so as not to distract him. The paramedic worked with him to splint the leg, and then between them they lifted him onto the protective board.

  Ben stood up. ‘OK, you can hand over to the paramedic now,’ he told Sarah. ‘I’m going to take a look at the other patients.’

  ‘OK.’ She relinquished her hold on the oxygen bag and watched Ben cautiously as he moved away, not quite understanding his abrupt manner. Perhaps he thought it strange that she had a knack of turning up in odd situations, but that was his problem, not hers.

  Paramedics were getting ready to move the man who had been clutching his chest. As to the driver of the black saloon, he had been released from the driving seat and removed to a place of safety. It appeared that he was suffering from pain and swelling around his knee. To Sarah’s untutored eye, it looked as though the knee had shifted in relation to his leg.

  Perhaps she had said as much, because Ben glanced at her as she approached and said lightly, ‘Yes, it certainly looks that way.’ His mouth gave a faint twist. ‘I’m surprised to find that you’re still here. You’re not at all squeamish, then?’

  Sarah lifted her shoulders in a noncommittal shrug. She had no idea whether she was or not. As far as she was aware, this was the first time that she had come across a situation like this. ‘So, what’s wrong with his leg? Do you know?’ she asked. ‘Is there a fracture?’

  ‘I can’t be sure whether there’s any fracture, but I expect the force of the smash has caused him to hit the dashboard with his leg and consequently the knee was dislocated. From the looks of the swelling and discoloration, it’s quite nasty.’

  He turned his attention to the patient. ‘I’m afraid that your circulation is not as it should be in that limb, Colin, so I think that I should try to get the knee back in position without delay. I don’t believe we can wait until we get you to the hospital.’

  Colin mumbled a response, and Ben obviously took that as agreement, because he said, ‘I’m going to give you something to take away the pain while I do that.’ He looked directly at the man. ‘As the paramedics are dealing with other patients, I’m going to ask this young woman if she will lend a hand with the procedure. Are you OK with that?’

  The driver nodded, and Sarah guessed that he was in too much pain and discomfort to care one way or the other. She gave Ben a wide-eyed look.

  ‘I’ve never done anything like this before,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Are you sure that you want me to help?’

  ‘Quite sure.’ He was already drawing up a syringe of what Sarah imagined was painkilling medication. ‘All you have to do is position yourself at his head and thread your arms underneath his armpits. Clasp your hands together over his chest and keep up a counter-pressure when I pull on his leg.’ He started to give the injection, glancing from time to time at his patient.

  ‘How does that feel? Is it any easier?’

  ‘That’s better,’ the man said after a while. ‘The pain is going.’ He gave a slow sigh, and Sarah guessed that he was feeling a surge of relief.

  Ben glanced at Sarah. ‘Do you think you’ll be able to help me out?’

  ‘Yes. I can do that.’

  ‘Good. Let’s get on with it, then, shall we?’

  Sarah followed his instructions, kneeling down at the man’s head and placing her arms around his upper torso.

  Ben, in the meantime, positioned himself to grasp the man’s leg in a way that would allow him to straighten it. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked, glancing at Sarah. ‘It’s really important that you counter my pulling on the limb.’

  ‘I’m ready.’

  It was all over in a matter of seconds, and as soon as Colin’s leg had been straightened out, Ben started to check the circulation around the joint. ‘That’s improving already,’ he told Colin. ‘I’m going to splint it for you now, and then we’ll get you into the ambulance and off to hospital.’

  Sarah watched Ben as he worked. He had a sure touch, and she could see that anyone who came into his care would be well looked after. There was no hesitation, no debating what to do, and each procedure followed on from the one before like the turning of a well-oiled engine.

  ‘Is this what you do every day?’ she asked softly, as he beckoned to the paramedics who were coming from one of the ambulances.

  ‘Emergency work, you mean?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes. I was wondering if you worked with the ambulance service or whether you’re based at the local hospital.’

  ‘It’s a bit of both, actually.’ He worked with the paramedics to lift the patient onto a stretcher, and made sure that he was strapped securely i
n place. ‘I’m based in the A and E department at Woodvale Hospital, but I’m often called out with the ambulance service if there’s a multiple accident.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’

  He studied her for a brief moment. ‘What about you? Are you not at work today?’

  ‘I was on my way to work when this happened.’

  He nodded, and then directed the paramedics to transport the patient to the ambulance. ‘I expect you’ll be delayed for a while longer. The police will want to hear your account of what happened.’

  ‘Yes, I imagine they will.’

  He was already turning away to go with his patient, and Sarah remained where she was. Ben inclined his head briefly towards her, and then it was as though he had dismissed her from his thoughts. His attention was solely on the injured people.

  That was how it should be, of course. He had been focused on his work the whole time, and finding that Sarah was already here had been just a momentary distraction, one that had actually worked to his advantage when he had enlisted her help. She doubted that he would even give her a second thought after this.

  A small qualm of unease ran through her. Why did it bother her that he might so easily dismiss her from his mind? She frowned. Perhaps it was all part and parcel of her mindset since the trauma that had happened to her.

  She had lost her memory and therefore she was by association unmemorable—wasn’t that the case? After all, no one had come looking for her to tell her that she belonged within his or her family unit, had they? It was one more thing that made her doubt herself and wonder where she belonged.

  She braced her shoulders. She had to put all that behind her. She had her child, her work and the chance of a new beginning, and wasn’t it a fact that she could turn some of this to her advantage? Everything that had occurred this morning would make for an excellent news item for the local paper, wouldn’t it?

  It wouldn’t take her long to write her exclusive account of what had gone on, and as she had her camera with her in her bag, this was an ideal opportunity for her to take some photos of the wrecked vehicles.