Rachel Lindsay - Heart of a Rose

by Rachel Lindsay

  "You'll have to wait until this evening, I'm afraid. She isn't allowed any visitors."

  The blood drained from Lance's face. "What have you done to her?"

  "I operated on your wife at seven o'clock this morning, Mr. Hammond."

  In silence Lance groped for a chair and sat down, and the Professor placed a hand on his shoulder.

  "I am sorry it has happened this way. I talked very seriously to your wife about having the operation without letting you know, but she was adamant."

  "Why did you do it then ?" Lance lifted a face that was ravaged with fear. "Why did you do it? Couldn't you have tried to get in touch with me?"

  "I didn't know your name," the Professor said gently as if he were talking to a child.

  "Then you shouldn't have done the operation at all! Supposing she'd died under the anaesthetic? How could you have got in touch with her family?"

  "Your wife left a sealed envelope for us to open should she not recover. But you must remember one thing, Mr. Hammond. When she came to see me yesterday she was a woman who had made up her mind what she wanted to do. She is not a child and in the long run, whether you would agree to it or not, the final decision rested with her."

  Lance nodded. "I'm sorry. I'd no right to be annoyed with you."

  "I understand how you feel. In England a surgeon would not operate without the consent of the family, but I've always made my own rules." He shrugged. "Had I not done so there are many operations I would not have performed. Even now many of my colleagues do not agree with me."

  The Professor's words only served to increase the despair that Lance already felt and hardly daring to utter the words, he said: "When will you know the result of the operation?"

  "Not until Mrs. Hammond recovers consciousness. You see, it is such a delicate one to perform that the line between success and failure is too fine even for me to judge. As far as I can tell it was a success, but not until consciousness returns will we know for certain that Mrs. Hammond can move."

  "But she's come through the operation all right?"

  "Oh, perfectly, and that is one hurdle overcome. Now if you'll take my advice you'll go back to your hotel and rest. Your wife won't be properly awake until this evening, but by the time you return we should know whether or not she is paralyzed."

  "Paralyzed!" How matter-of-factly the man uttered the word and yet what horror it held. Like a man in a dream Lance returned to the hotel and put through a call to the villa to let Alan and Susan know what had happened. Then he telephoned Rose's father, making a supreme effort not to break down.

  "I don't think there's any point in you flying out here. As soon as I've any news I'll let you know."

  "I think I'll fly out anyway," Desmond said at once. "But I'll put your mother on to you."

  Lance spoke to his mother, too distraught to wonder at her being with Rose's father, and only after he had been talking to her for a couple of moments did he think to question her.

  "We're going to get married," she said, her voice as young and girlish as he had always remembered it. "We weren't going to tell you until you and Rose came home, but in the circumstances…"

  "I couldn't be more delighted," Lance said and as he put down the telephone he wished he could have heard the news under happier circumstances.

  Slowly the hours dragged by, each one seeming longer than the last, until finally he heard a church clock in the distance chime seven. The day was over; soon he would hear the worst — or the best news in his life.

  Lance had never considered himself a nervous man but as he entered the clinic he was so full of fear he could hardly walk. The receptionist's face gave nothing away and he followed the stiff back down to the waiting room, where he paced the floor, anxiously wondering what had happened to the Professor. Only five minutes passed but it seemed like an eternity before the door opened and the man stood there, his face wreathed in smiles.

  "Good news, Mr. Hammond. The operation has been a success! It will now be a matter of time and exercises, but in a month she should be able to walk completely free of pain and without any limp whatever."

  Lance was too overcome with joy to speak and the Professor walked over to the window and stared at the view, giving him a chance to compose himself.

  "I wonder if I could see her now?" he said at last.

  "She's still tired from the anaesthetic, but I don't see why not."

  He led the way along the corridor and up in a lift to the third floor. A nurse was coming out of a room at the far end and it was to this one that the Professor made his way. He paused with his hand on the door. "Don't excite her," he cautioned and then stepped back.

  Lance crossed the threshold and looked at the figure on the bed. Rose lay still and pale under the coverlet, a nurse beside her.

  "Only a couple of minutes," she said softly and stepped out of the room.

  Lance tiptoeing over the floor bent to kiss Rose's brow.

  She opened her eyes and stared at him wonderingly. "Lance! What are you doing here?"

  "I came to find you," he said huskily, "as I'll always come to find you, my darling, wherever you are."

  "I don't understand."

  "There are so many things you don't understand, and I haven't time to explain now. All I want you to know is that I don't love Susan and I don't love any woman other than you."

  Tears filled her eyes and with an exclamation he put his lips to them, tasting the salt. "Don't cry, Rose. I don't want you ever to cry again."

  "They're tears of joy," she whispered. "I — I had the operation."

  "I know, and it's been a wonderful success. Now go to sleep, my darling, and remember I'll be by your side always."

  "By my side always." Rose repeated the words and with a contented sigh closed her eyes.

  Lance remained by the bedside, not leaving it even when the nurse returned. Looking at the sleeping form of his wife he vowed that no matter what happened in the future he would do his best never to cause her a moment's pain or doubt. From now on they would face life together, strong in their love; happy in the knowledge that the future was theirs.

  THE END