A Night to Remember

by Jennifer Taylor

  She pushed him away and stepped back. ‘I have to get back to my patient,’ she said in a voice that sounded as brittle as glass. Maybe Seb truly believed that he was doing the honourable thing but she refused to compromise. Either he loved her or he didn’t—the choice was simple.

  ‘Libby, wait!’ He caught hold of her hand and held it fast when she tried to pull away. ‘I’m sorry if you’re upset because I kissed you, but I’m not sorry about why I did it.’

  ‘And why did you do it?’ she challenged, swinging round to face him.

  ‘You know why,’ he said softly, his eyes holding hers. ‘I did it because I care about you.’

  ‘I see.’ Maybe if he’d declared that he loved her with his whole heart, it might have worked. However, instead of a declaration of love, he’d come out with a milk-and-water statement to the effect that he cared about her! Anger rose inside her and she glared at him. ‘I’d respect you more if you told me the truth.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘That you’ve been having an affair and that kiss was your way of…easing your conscience!’

  An affair?’

  ‘Yes!’

  She wrenched her hand away. She didn’t want to hear anything else, certainly didn’t want to hear any details. If there was some woman waiting in the wings, then she didn’t want to know anything about her!

  Seb didn’t try to stop her as she hurried out of the cubicle and it just seemed to prove that she was right. If he wasn’t having an affair, he would have made sure she knew that for a fact!

  Tears spilled from her eyes but she brushed them away. She refused to make a spectacle of herself in front of the people Seb worked with—it would embarrass them and upset her even more. She would try to remain calm while she was here and especially when she and Seb sat down and discussed the terms of their divorce. The last thing she wanted was him feeling sorry for her. He’d tried to make amends once already and she didn’t want him to try again so there’d be no tears, no kisses, no more physical contact at all. This really and truly was the end of their marriage.

  Libby believed that he’d been having an affair?

  Seb could feel his insides churning as he made his way to the front entrance. He couldn’t seem to get his head round the idea that she thought he’d been seeing another woman. Didn’t she know that she was the only woman he’d ever loved? Apparently not, if she’d come out with a ridiculous accusation like that!

  He swore softly as he made his way outside. There were a couple of ambulances parked under the canopy, but he didn’t go over to see if there was anything he could do to help. He needed some time to himself without having to worry about other people. So maybe he wasn’t ill or injured but he was hurting all right. Libby thought that he could just switch his feelings on and off at will, did she? She believed that he could love her one minute and someone else the next? If that was the case then she couldn’t have any idea what real love was all about, and that thought was the worst one of all. Had Libby ever truly loved him the way he loved her?

  His throat tightened in agony and he had to force down the cry of anguish that ripped through him. Turning, he stared across the rain-soaked forecourt, looking for any sign of the missing man. Under normal circumstances, there would have been people about, even at this hour of the morning. However, with all casualties apart from those from the tanker and the rig being ferried elsewhere, the place was deserted. If the missing seaman was out there then he must be hiding, and the thought did little to soothe Seb’s overwrought nerves. The last thing he needed was all the hullabaloo of a full-scale search!

  He went back inside and tersely informed the policeman that he’d been unable to locate the missing seaman. The announcement resulted in a lot of anxious questions but he didn’t have the time or the patience to answer them. He curtly suggested that the officer should contact the hospital’s security staff and left him to get on with it. He was just passing the cubicles when Gary waylaid him.

  ‘Have you got a minute?’

  ‘Sure.’ Seb stepped into the cubicle and ground to a halt when he discovered that Libby was also in there. ‘What’s this, then? Are you having a party in here?’

  She flushed when she heard the sarcasm in his voice, although she didn’t say anything. Seb sighed under his breath because there’d been no reason to speak to her like that. It was just the shock of discovering that she thought he’d been having an affair that was making him behave that way.

  ‘I enlisted Libby’s help in case she had any good ideas about what this could be,’ Gary explained cheerfully, oblivious to any undercurrents. ‘We’re none the wiser, though, so see what you think it is. I assumed it was the result of a burn, but David tells me that he’s had it for a couple of days now. It’s got me well and truly foxed, I have to admit.’

  Seb frowned as the registrar moved aside so he could see the huge blister on the patient’s left foot. ‘You haven’t been in contact with any chemicals, have you?’ he asked, mentally crossing his fingers. If any of the containers onboard the tanker had started to leak, the coastguard would need to be informed. Anyone coming into contact with the chemicals would be at risk so all the search and rescue teams would have to be warned the danger.

  ‘No. I work on the rig and I was nowhere near the tanker when it hit us,’ the patient assured him. ‘And as the doc just said, I’ve had this for a few days now.’

  ‘Have you had any other symptoms?’ Seb asked, moving to the bed so he could examine the blister. It was several inches wide—covering almost the full width of the foot, in fact—and extremely deep. The skin surrounding it was heavily inflamed, too. He frowned as he tried to work out what might have caused it.

  ‘I’ve not felt too good for almost a week now, to be honest. I’ve been vomiting and felt really nauseous the rest of the time, too. I also had a touch of the runs, which was why I asked to go on sick leave this morning.’ The younger man sighed. ‘I was waiting to be picked up when we were told about the tanker heading towards us. Another ten minutes and I’d have left.’

  ‘Tough luck,’ Seb observed sympathetically, wondering if it could be a friction blister.

  ‘I thought it might have been caused by David’s footwear,’ Libby put in quietly. She shrugged when Seb glanced up. ‘It’s similar to the type of injury you get when you wear new shoes, although this blister is much bigger than any blister I’ve seen formed that way.’

  ‘I was wondering that myself,’ Seb admitted, trying not to make too much out of the fact that they were thinking along the same lines. She was an experienced doctor and it was only natural that she should reach the same conclusions as he had. There was no reason to think that it proved how in tune they still were.

  He cleared his throat. ‘It’s sited in an unusual place, though. Most friction blisters caused by badly fitting footwear appear on the heels or the toes rather than on top of the foot, don’t they?’

  ‘Yes. But if it was a new boot, for instance, and laced very tightly, it could create pressure in that area,’ she suggested.

  ‘Hmm, that’s true.’ He glanced at the patient. ‘Are we on the right track, do you think?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ the patient said slowly. He shook his head. ‘OK, I was issued with a new pair of work boots a couple of weeks ago, but they didn’t give me any trouble from the first day I got them. They only started to rub after the blister began to form, not before.’

  ‘So we can rule out your footwear, from the sound of it,’ Seb said, gently probing the blister with his gloved fingers. It was filled with fluid and looked ready to burst at any moment.

  ‘Ouch!’ David winced. ‘I can’t believe this has happened. It’s just typical of my luck. The day I was due to go off on leave last year, one of the helicopters suffered engine problems so the whole fleet was grounded. It played havoc with my plans, I can tell you.’

  ‘Were you still able to take your holiday?’ Seb asked.

  ‘Yes, although by the time I�
��d re-booked the flight, I’d lost a couple of days. I was going to India, too, so it was a real drag.’

  ‘Which part of India did you visit?’ Seb asked sharply, glancing up.

  ‘We were travelling around but we covered most of the west coast.’

  ‘I see. That just might explain it.’ He turned to Gary. ‘Fetch me a bowl of cold water, will you?’

  While Gary was sorting out the water, he picked up a wad of paper towels.

  ‘What do you think it is?’ Libby asked curiously as she helped him arrange the paper towels in a thick wad under the patient’s foot.

  ‘A Guinea worm.’ Seb smiled when he saw the surprise on her face.

  ‘Really? I would never have thought of that.’

  ‘Neither would I if David hadn’t told us about his holiday.’ He turned to the younger man. ‘India is one of the places where the infection is rife. You probably acquired it while you were there last year.’

  ‘And it’s taken all this time to show up?’ David exclaimed in shock.

  ‘Yes. You catch Guinea worm disease from drinking water that contains water-fleas, which carry the larvae,’ he explained. ‘The larvae pass through the wall of your intestine and mature in your body tissue. After about a year or so, the female worm—which is pregnant—approaches the surface of the skin and creates a blister.’

  ‘You’re saying there’s a worm in there?’ David demanded, looking sick.

  ‘There’s a simple way to find out.’

  Seb took the basin of water off Gary and slowly poured it over the blister. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds then suddenly the blister broke, releasing a gush milky fluid, and the head of the worm appeared. Taking a pencil out of his pocket, he wound the worm around it.

  ‘Just how long is that thing?’ David asked shakily.

  ‘About a metre, possibly a bit more.’ He turned to Gary who was looking just as repulsed as the patient was. ‘He’ll need a course of thiabendazole to reduce the inflammation and make it easier to extract the worm.’

  ‘How do we get it out?’ Gary asked, recovering his composure.

  ‘The time-honoured method is to wind the worm around a stick and ease it out a bit at a time.’ He smiled when David grimaced. ‘I know it sounds gross but it’s the best way. Once it’s out, we’ll give you a tetanus booster and put you on antibiotics.’

  ‘And that will be it? There won’t be any more of the little suckers in there, will there?’ David demanded. ‘I don’t want to wake up one morning and find there’s another one!’

  ‘Hopefully, this should be it, but I’ll check with the tropical diseases centre in Liverpool to make sure. Our main aim now is to prevent any secondary infection of the worm track. Cellulitis—inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue—is fairly common in cases like this, plus it can also cause synovitis, which is inflammation in the membranes lining the joints. There is also a risk of epididymo-orchitis.’

  ‘And what’s that when it’s at home?’ David asked faintly.

  ‘Inflammation of the testes,’ Gary explained helpfully, and David gulped.

  ‘That’s all I need!’

  Seb laughed. ‘Don’t worry too much on that score. We aim to stop any infection before it starts. The antibiotics should do the trick but make sure you take them regularly and finish the full course, won’t you?’

  ‘Too right I will.’ David shuddered. ‘So how long is it going to take before that thing is out?’

  ‘That I can’t tell you. I’ll know more after I’ve spoken to the people at the tropical diseases unit, but I might not be able to get hold of them until later today.’

  Seb nodded to Gary, indicating that he wanted a word with him outside. Libby stayed behind and he could hear her talking to the patient as they left the cubicle. She was obviously reassuring him than everything would be fine, and he sighed because it was typical of her to do that. She had such a tender heart and the thought made him feel worse than ever when he realised how hurt she must have been in the past year. Was it any wonder that she’d given up on him?

  ‘We’ll need someone to keep an eye on him,’ he said briskly, trying not to dwell on that thought. ‘I’m no expert, but from what I can remember, the worm can sometimes retreat into the body—and we don’t want that to happen.’

  ‘We certainly don’t,’ Gary agreed. ‘Leave it with me, Seb—I’ll sort it out. I’m just glad that you came up with the correct diagnosis because I would never have guessed what it was in a million years.’

  ‘More luck than judgement,’ Seb said lightly.

  ‘Oh, I don’t think so. Do you, Libby? Wouldn’t you agree that it was a prime example of good diagnosis?’

  ‘Yes. But Seb has always been brilliant at diagnosing a problem,’ she said quietly as she came to join them. ‘That’s why he is so good at his job.’

  Seb didn’t know what to say. That she could be so generous as to praise him after what had happened was almost too much. ‘Thanks, but it was no big deal.’ He drummed up a laugh. ‘And the next time you see a blister like that, you’ll know what to expect.’

  ‘Too right I will,’ Gary said with a shudder. ‘I won’t forget this in a hurry.’

  ‘That’s the main thing.’

  Seb moved away but his heart was heavy as he made his way to the office. Libby’s generosity had simply highlighted how much they had changed in the last few years. In the past they had relished each other’s successes, no matter how minor they’d been. They had been a team, both in and out of work. He realised all of a sudden how much he had missed working with her since she’d gone into general practice. He’d missed being able to talk over a problem with her, or even just share the everyday ups and downs that came with his job.

  Was that when they had started to drift apart?

  They’d no longer had the bond of work to unite them and they’d made the mistake of not replacing it with something else. As their working lives had diverged, so too had their relationship. He’d focussed so much energy on his career that he’d had little left to spare for her. How many times had she tried to tell him about her day, for instance, and he’d only half listened, too caught up in his own affairs to realise the harm he had been doing?

  No wonder she no longer wanted him as her husband. He wasn’t worthy of her love, and it was the bitterest thought of all to know that he had brought this on himself. If she gave him a second chance, he wouldn’t make that mistake again. He would be there for her and cherish their life together. Maybe there was little hope of winning her back but he wouldn’t give up until he had explored every avenue.

  There had to be a way to persuade her to stay with him. All he had to do was find it before she left here. In his heart, he knew that there would never be another opportunity and the thought filled him with terror. It was now or never.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Saturday: 4 a.m.

  ‘YOU should have seen it. It was absolutely gross!’

  Everyone laughed as Gary finished telling them in glorious detail about the Guinea worm. They were in the rest room, taking advantage of the fact that there’d been a lull in the proceedings. Apart from a couple of patients who were waiting to move onto the wards, the department was empty. Libby hadn’t been able to come up with an excuse when Gary had invited her to join them for a cup of coffee. Anyway, it had helped to pass the time, which was what she wanted more than anything. The sooner this night was over, the better.

  She glanced across at Seb and felt her heart contract when the reality of the situation struck her all over again. He didn’t love her any more because he’d found someone to replace her. The thought was simply more than she could bear and she stood up abruptly, knowing that she had to leave the room before she made a fool of herself.

  ‘You’re not running out on us, are you, Libby?’ Gary demanded when she went to the door.

  ‘I just need a breath of fresh air,’ she replied, dredging up a smile. Maybe it shouldn’t have mattered what Seb did when they were
about to get divorced, but she couldn’t help how she felt. The thought of some other woman replacing her in his affections was just too painful.

  ‘I wouldn’t blame you if you were making a bid for freedom. You drove all the way up here expecting to spend some quality time with Seb, and what happens? You end up working!’ Gary rolled his eyes. ‘The truly amazing thing is that not once have you complained. My fiancée would have my guts for garters if I dared to suggest that she should help out. Obviously I’m doing something wrong. I think I’d better ask Seb for a few tips on how to promote marital harmony before I risk walking up the aisle!’

  The comment elicited a lot of ribald comments but Libby couldn’t even pretend to find it amusing. She quickly excused herself and made her way to the main entrance, wishing that she could get into her car and drive away. However, she knew that she and Seb needed to finalise the arrangements for their divorce and that putting off the moment would only make the situation more stressful.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  She glanced round when she realised that Seb must have followed her outside. ‘Fine. I just wanted a few minutes on my own,’ she replied pointedly.

  ‘In other words, you want me to get lost?’ He laughed when she didn’t deny it. ‘I understand, Libby, but you were the one who drove all the way up here to see me, don’t forget.’

  ‘I haven’t forgotten. However, what I want to say to you needs to be said in private.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ He shot back his cuff and checked his watch. ‘It’s just gone four so I’m hoping that things will start to wind down now. There’s a debriefing session at six for the senior management team but I should be able to get away straight after that. Let’s leave it until then, shall we? We can go back to my house and talk there.’

  He sounded so calm, so reasonable, that a shiver ran through her. How could he behave this way when they were on the brink of such a momentous decision? Did he no longer care what happened any more?