Instantly, Lucas frowned. ‘Elle, can you hold his head again? I don’t want him to shake it if he begins to come round.’
Cautiously, Elle crouched down at the crown of Charlie’s head and placed her palms gently over the sides of his face. His skin felt colder to the touch in the air than it had in the water. Quashing her own feelings, she gave Lucas what she hoped was a reassuring smile. ‘Got him.’
Lucas held her gaze for a moment, as if drawing strength. But then his focus flipped back to his brother as a siren began to wail somewhere over the ridge between them and Msida. ‘We’re going to get you to hospital, Charlie. The ambulance should be here in a minute.
‘Great job everyone.’ Lucas sounded just as if he were on a training course, reassuring his subject in case he could hear and then communicating with his team. He stooped to press his ear against his brother’s chest. ‘Heartbeat’s faint but OK. I want to keep him warm so he doesn’t go into shock. O2 would be great but we don’t carry it on the boat.’
His gaze travelled methodically along his brother’s arms, shoulders and abdomen. When he moved down to Charlie’s right leg, he stopped. ‘Broken, I think.’ Careful not to cause unnecessary pain, he touched the foot. ‘But he’s got a foot pulse so the blood’s getting round.’
‘What about the recovery position?’ someone called out.
Lucas shook his head. ‘I don’t want to take any chances with a broken leg and I don’t know about his spine. He’s breathing so I’m going to leave him on his back, but I could do with something to put under his good leg to raise it.’ One of the fenders that had been wedged between Fallen Star and the quay appeared magically next to Lucas; he propped up Charlie’s undamaged leg and covered him with the sheets Elle had fetched.
Then the ambulance was nosing its way onto the quay. Soon, green-clad paramedics were kneeling beside Charlie, speaking reassuringly, listening as Lucas gave them a situation report, nodding that they understood.
Elle made way for the professionals and edged back out of the circle of guardian angels around Charlie.
Only once the handover was complete did Lucas allow himself to sit back on his heels. The hand he passed over his face began to shake as he reverted from rescuer to brother and exhaustion etched itself on his face. Kayleigh tottered up to crouch beside him; Lucas slid a comforting arm around her and she sobbed softly into his shoulder.
As the paramedics applied a neck brace and prepared to transfer him to a backboard, Charlie began to move his hands weakly. Immediately, Lucas leaned over and spoke to him and Charlie was quiet again.
Most of the crowd was silent, now, standing back, giving the medics room to work. Elle hovered. It was hard to yearn to be of use but know that keeping out of the way was the most helpful thing she could do. She ached to go to Lucas but, as was only right, his attention was all on Charlie.
When, a few minutes later, the paramedics packed up their gear with practised economy of movement and prepared to transfer their patient to the ambulance, Lucas heaved himself to his feet and helped Kayleigh to hers. Elle realised that they intended to go in the ambulance with Charlie. It made sense, as neither of them had a car on the island.
Seeing something useful she could accomplish, she dashed back into the boat, through the saloon and into the cabin, gathering up dry clothes for Lucas and stuffing them in a bag with a towel so that once he got to the hospital he wouldn’t be stuck in wet things. She snatched up his wallet from the bedside and crammed that in, too.
She arrived back on the shore on legs that were beginning to feel as if they belonged to someone else, just as Charlie was slipped smoothly into the ambulance like a precious parcel onto a shelf. Kayleigh hovered anxiously and Lucas was looking around, frowning. His expression relaxed as he saw Elle return.
She shoved the bag at him. ‘Dry clothes and your wallet.’
‘Fantastic.’ He gathered her up against him in a hard hug, heedless of the wet, cold clothes that pressed between them. ‘Thanks.’ There was a break in his voice.
‘You were amazing. You saved his life.’ Elle wanted to ask if he thought Charlie would be all right but Lucas looked gaunt and dazed. There was no point asking him questions to which he was no doubt terrified of the answers. She wanted to stay with him and cuddle close, reassure him, reassure herself that he was safe. But there was barely room in the emergency vehicle for Lucas and Kayleigh, so she just pressed a kiss to his mouth and released him. He almost staggered as he climbed into the ambulance. But he made it to a pull-down seat, the doors were shut and the vehicle eased away.
In the hush that followed, Elle found she was shaking. Subdued activity resumed around her. Fenders and the sunbed were retrieved by the helpful boat owners, and the lovely Maltese lady placed Elle’s phone back into her hand.
‘Thank you, th-thank you everybody who helped,’ Elle managed, voice shaking, but her thanks were waved away as men in wet clothes prepared to move off.
‘Will you be all right?’ another woman asked. She seemed to be with the man with the sunbed.
‘I’m fine.’ She couldn’t think about herself right now. All she could think about was Charlie’s pallor and the apprehension in Lucas’s face.
But, wow. Lucas had turned into a hero right before her eyes. Staying calm. Doing what had to be done. Knowing what had to be done. Keeping control of the situation. Not letting his feelings intrude until he was sure someone competent was there to take over. She was so proud of him she could burst.
Then Loz and Davie came half-running up the quay. Loz’s eyes were huge. ‘Elle? We came home and saw an ambulance leaving. What’s happened?’
That’s when Elle felt her face begin to crumple.
Loz instantly dragged her into a cushiony, comforting embrace. ‘Come on, sweetie. Let’s get a cup of tea or something.’
Elle didn’t think she’d ever been so glad of a hug. She let herself be guided across the gangplank and into the saloon, barely conscious of the dampness of her clothes where they’d been pressed against Lucas. Gulping back tears, she poured out the story of how Charlie had taken on gravity and lost.
Davie made tea while Loz patted Elle’s arm, exclaiming and clucking.
Davie had just brought the hot drinks up into the saloon when a phone began to ring.
Elle looked around. ‘That’s Lucas’s ringtone.’ She saw the handset beside a window, screen alight, and went to pick it up. Then she halted.
The name of the caller, flashing on Lucas’s phone in white, portentous letters, was Mum.
Fiona.
Heart plummeting, Elle let the phone ring twice more. Fiona couldn’t know what had happened. She was probably just calling to chat.
Elle didn’t have to answer. Lucas would ring with news of Charlie as soon as he was able. Elle could text Kayleigh, who probably had her phone in her bag, and Lucas could use Kayleigh’s phone to ring home.
But what if that were to take Lucas away from Charlie? Suppose that was the moment that Lucas should be signing a consent form or listening to important information?
The phone rang again.
Fiona had the right to know what had happened. Elle forced her own feelings aside and steeled herself to pick up. ‘Hello,’ she said, nervously. ‘This is Lucas’s phone. He’s not here. Is that—’ She swallowed. ‘Is that M-Mrs Rose?’
Fiona’s self-confident voice hadn’t changed at all. ‘Yes, hello. Will Lucas be long?’ And then, curiously. ‘I’m sorry, you are—?’
‘Elle,’ said Elle, apprehensively.
Silence.
‘Mrs Rose, I only answered Lucas’s phone because I have to tell you—’
‘Elle Jamieson?’ Fiona’s voice had acquired several degrees of frost. Her lawyer’s voice, Elle used to call it.
‘Yes.’ Elle closed her eyes at the revulsion in the voice of t
he woman who once could have been her mother-in-law. Obviously, neither Simon, Lucas nor Charlie had told Fiona that Elle was on the boat. She heard Geoffrey’s raised voice in the background asking a question that sounded like: ‘What about Elle Jamieson?’
Elle rushed on. ‘I’m living in Malta for the summer. Look, M-Mrs Rose, I’m afraid there’s been an accident.’
Fiona snapped to attention. ‘Lucas?’
‘No, it’s Charlie. He fell off the top of the boat and into the sea. Lucas got him straight to the surface but he’d hit his head on the boat moored alongside. The Fallen Star,’ she added, inconsequentially. With pauses for Fiona to relay information to Geoffrey, Elle recounted the facts, conscious of Loz and Davie exchanging uneasy glances as if not sure whether to stay. ‘I really hope he’s not too badly hurt,’ Elle ended, miserably, as if the whole situation were her fault. ‘I don’t have more information. The ambulance only left about fifteen minutes ago.’
‘What’s the name of the hospital?’ Fiona’s voice shook slightly.
‘Um, I’ll try and find out.’ Elle turned questioningly to Loz and Davie. ‘Do you know which hospital it’ll be?’
‘Mater Dei, in Msida,’ said Loz. ‘That’s where A & E is. Would you like me to give the details?’
‘Please – it’s Lucas’s mother. Fiona Rose.’ Glad to get rid of the damned phone, and Fiona, Elle sank down onto the seat, sitting on her hands to stop them shaking, not sure whether she was shivering in reaction to Charlie’s accident or the slight dampness in her clothes. Or to the dislike in Fiona’s voice.
Loz talked for a couple of minutes, reassuring Fiona that Mater Dei was a nice up-to-date facility and that Charlie would be well looked after. Elle had just calmed her breathing when Loz held the phone back out to her. ‘Mrs Rose wants to talk to you again.’
Elle wanted to shriek, ‘No!’ But, with a deep breath, she took the handset and said, ‘This is Elle.’
Fiona had rediscovered her lawyer’s voice, icy and authoritative. ‘Would you mind enlightening me as to how you came to be on Simon’s boat this evening?’
Elle’s breathing picked up again. She could say, ‘Yes, I do mind, actually,’ and end the call. Or end the call without saying a thing. There was no law that held her answerable to Mrs Fiona Rose.
But then she thought that if by any chance, by any miracle, there was a prospect of Elle and Lucas having some kind of future together, rubbing Fiona up the wrong way was probably not politic. Lucas came with family attached.
She might as well own up to the awful crime of coming back into Lucas’s orbit. She moistened her lips. ‘I’m working and volunteering in Malta for the summer. Simon and I have remained friends and he said I could live on the Shady Lady.’
‘But Simon said that Lucas could live on the Shady Lady.’
‘Yes,’ Elle acknowledged. ‘I didn’t know Lucas would be here when I arrived. And he didn’t know I would be coming.’
Fiona drew in an audible breath. ‘Bloody Simon! And you stayed? Even though— Even after everything that happened?’
Elle felt like a defendant having her past record divulged in court. ‘Yes. I couldn’t do much else, financially.’
‘I see.’ Fiona’s voice was stiff with disapproval. ‘Right. Well, I need hardly tell you that Geoffrey and I will be travelling to Malta as soon as it can be arranged.’
‘Right,’ said Elle, numbly, fighting down the urge to exclaim, ‘Oh shit!’ But of course Fiona and Geoffrey would rush out to the island to be with Charlie. They were loving parents. Their sons meant everything to them. Lucky sons.
She returned her focus to the moment. ‘Kayleigh’s with Lucas at the hospital. I’ll text her to tell him about this call. Or do you want Kayleigh’s number so that you can text her yourself?’
‘I have Kayleigh’s number.’
‘Of course.’ Because Kayleigh was Charlie’s girlfriend. Dur. Kayleigh had never discussed Charlie and Lucas’s parents with Elle. Maybe Kayleigh had been briefed that relations between Elle and the senior Roses had not been cordial. ‘I-I’ll leave you to make your arrangements, then.’ She hesitated. With anyone else, Elle would have extended a friendly helping hand, so she really ought to do the same for Fiona. ‘Would you like my number in case I can do anything?’ she began. ‘I might be able to—’
‘I’m sure we’ll manage.’
The old anger fired suddenly in Elle’s breast. ‘Goodnight, then.’ She ended the call without giving Fiona any further opportunity for verbal icicles. For several long seconds she stared at the phone, half-scared Fiona might ring back to get the last word.
Instead, up on the flybridge, a new ring tone began to shrill into the night air. Elle looked up and winced. ‘That’s Kayleigh’s phone. She must have left it up on the flybridge. I’d better—’
Davie jumped up. ‘I’ll get it.’ In a minute he returned and Elle was able to read 1 missed call Fiona on it.
She groaned. ‘Great. I assumed Kayleigh’s phone would be in her bag. Now I’ve fed Lucas’s mother duff information, too.’
Loz cleared her throat. ‘Not best friends with Lucas’s folks?’
Elle tried to laugh but it stuck in her throat. ‘No.’ She dropped her chin on her hand. ‘You know you said I could stay on Seadancer if I needed to? I think I probably need to.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
After seeing Kayleigh back to her hotel in Qawra and paying a pretty hefty taxi fare, Lucas arrived at the Shady Lady in the morning at roughly the time he should have been leaving for Dive Meddi. He would have to ring Vern, soon.
He felt as if he’d run a marathon. His legs, his everything, ached. His head buzzed with the spaced-out gritty-eyed feeling that came from lack of sleep. His hair was thick and tangled with dried salt water and his scalp itched under the morning sun.
His heart lifted to see that the Shady Lady’s aft door stood open, meaning Elle hadn’t left to go up to the centre. He thought she’d said yesterday that this morning she was due to run some kind of workshop for the younger kids, but time seemed to have looped a bit in his memory in the stress of Charlie’s accident. Was it only last night? It felt like a week ago.
Yet the memory of fishing Charlie up to the surface and towing him between boats that shifted like enormous spooked horses was fresh enough to make him feel queasy.
In a haze of fatigue, he trudged over the gangplank and into the saloon. He paused by the helmsman’s chair, put down his bag of last night’s wet clothes, listened, and caught the sound of a door closing. Heart lifting, he followed the sound, treading softly down the steps, past the galley, all spick and span. He paused.
Inside the cabin, Elle had a suitcase open on the bed and was folding into it her clothes, which had only recently taken up residence in the stowage areas of his cabin.
‘What the fuck?’ He could hear raw disbelief in his voice.
Elle swung around, dropped the dress she’d been holding and flew across the room to throw her arms around him. She smelled of shower gel and freshly washed hair. ‘Are you all right? How’s Charlie?’
‘He got away with severe concussion and a broken leg. They’re keeping him in. What’s with the suitcase?’ He didn’t lift his arms to hug her back. Just stared at the scene over her shoulder. He’d surprised Elle packing. Again.
‘No spine damage? Fantastic!’ She heaved a huge, theatrical sigh of relief. ‘Come and sit down.’ She tried to take his hand to usher him along. ‘Shall I get you coffee or something? Have you eaten? Or do you want to sleep first?’
He made himself immovable. ‘First,’ he returned, implacably. ‘I want to know why you’re packing.’
She took a deep breath and pushed back her hair. Shadows darkened the skin beneath her eyes but she smiled. ‘Your parents are coming out to Malta. Loz says I can move onto Seadancer; then they won
’t have the nightmare of trying to find a hotel room in high season on top of worrying about Charlie, will they? They’ll want to stay here, anyway. It’s your dad’s brother’s boat.’ She wasn’t looking at him properly. He felt as if she were looking at the space between his eyes instead of into them.
He put up both his hands. ‘Whoa. My parents are coming out here? How do you know?’
‘Didn’t they ring the hospital last night?’
He forced his muzzy brain to focus. ‘Why would they? Did you phone them or something?’
Dismay fleeted across her face. ‘Your mum called your phone and I thought I’d better answer. I told her about Charlie because— because it would have been odd not to, wouldn’t it? I think they tried to ring Kayleigh afterwards but she’d left her phone on the flybridge.’ Her pale brows were still drawn down. ‘Have I done the wrong thing? Isn’t Charlie going to be all right? Do you need to prepare them for bad news?’
Relief began to trickle through him, relaxing his limbs, which, he suddenly realised, had tensed almost painfully when he’d seen that suitcase. He reached and pulled her against him, hoping he didn’t smell too much of hospitals. ‘Sorry. I haven’t slept. My brain’s not functioning. I came in here and saw you packing—’ He stroked the silken fall of her hair.
She pulled back to look into his face, properly this time, comprehension in her eyes. ‘Oh. Weird stuff from the past?’
He laughed. ‘Sorry. Yes. How about we start this conversation again? Charlie is going to be OK. He has deep concussion and a broken leg but apart from throwing up and sleeping a lot, he’s returning to his old self. I don’t want to eat, I can’t sleep until I’ve done some things, but coffee would be fantastic. Your turn.’
Her body shifted slightly as she relaxed against him, turning her head so that her cheek fitted comfortably against his collarbone. ‘Your mum rang your phone. I told them what had happened; Loz and Davie had turned up just as the ambulance left and Loz gave your mum the information about the hospital. Your parents are coming straight over so I’m vacating to give them room.’
The Wedding Proposal Page 23
