Brackenbeck

by Margaret Dickinson

‘What?’ His question was a whisper, full of fear.

  ‘I can’t feel my legs and I can’t sit up.’

  ‘My God,’ his voice was hoarse.

  Immediately, Katharine realised his anguish, which, for some reason she could not now understand, far exceeded her own.

  ‘It’ll be all right, it’s just – temporary, I should think,’ she added, willing it to be so.

  Jim did not answer, but in the dim light she could read the disbelief on his face.

  He feared the worst, she could see, and blamed himself.

  ‘Listen,’ Katharine said suddenly.

  Distantly, they heard the tap-tap sound of the rescuers.

  ‘They must be getting very near now,’ she said. ‘How long is it, how long was I asleep?’

  ‘About twelve hours.’

  ‘Twelve hours! I slept all that time? How’s Tom? You should have woken me.’

  She twisted her head trying to see Tom.

  ‘Lie still. Tom’s all right. He roused round once, said he felt a lot better and dropped off again.’

  ‘You should have woken me,’ she repeated.

  ‘You needed the rest.’

  Now she saw for the first time the dark shadows beneath his eyes. This was a terrible ordeal for Jim Kendrick. It was his quarry. His own brother-in-law was badly hurt and now he had her injury on his conscience as well.

  ‘Jim,’ she said hesitantly. ‘Jim, I want you to know that what has happened is in no way your fault. You’re not to blame yourself. I came of my own free will to attend an injured man. What has happened to me I brought about myself.’

  ‘Luke should have stopped you.’

  ‘He couldn’t – apart from forcibly holding me. And you couldn’t expect him to do that.’

  ‘You would not have come if I had been up there.’

  Even through the pain, Katharine could smile.

  ‘The conceit of the man! You’d have, had a fine fight on your hands, I can tell you, Jim Kendrick.’

  The sounds of their rescuers grew louder. Soon they heard Luke shouting.

  ‘Jim, you there Jim?’

  ‘Ay, Luke. You’re not so far off now, lad, but go easy or you’ll have the lot down on top of us.’

  ‘We’ll mind it.’

  There was silence in the cave as they listened to the sounds of the workmen. The chipping of the rock followed by the scraping of shovels as they carefully cleared away each portion. What an endless task it was for them, Katharine thought. How tired they all must be. Now that help was near, she forgot some of her pain in listening to the progress they made. A light shone into the cave from the rescuers’ lamps.

  ‘What are they doing, Jim? How have they reached us?’

  ‘I imagine they’ve had to dig it all away up as far as that big stone, then perhaps they’ve just made this last piece of tunnel larger, probably shoring it up as they go along.’

  Pieces of rock began to fall into the cave and Jim leant over Katharine protectively.

  At that moment Luke crawled through the narrow hole and stood up in the cave. He looked around and took in the situation at a glance, Katharine knew. She also guessed what was in Jim’s mind. So forestalling him she said,

  ‘Please take Tom out first. He needs medical attention urgently.’

  ‘No, Katharine …’

  ‘Please do as I ask?’ she said firmly.

  She heard Jim sigh.

  ‘Katharine, you will be taken out first, whether you like it or not.’

  There was no more she could do. Jim’s word was law and whilst she was helpless she had to obey him. Gently Jim picked her up in his arms. Luke scratched his head thoughtfully.

  ‘I don’t quite know how we’re to get her out, master Jim. We’ve only made a narrow tunnel this end. Didn’t like to waste no more time making it larger, besides the risk o’ further falls.’

  ‘Have you any blankets?’ Jim asked.

  ‘Yes the women have brought dozens up.’

  ‘Good, get about three, we’ll make a sort of sling.’

  Luke turned back into the tunnel. In the few moments he was gone, Jim made no move to put Katharine down again. He stood there with her in his arms, looking down at her.

  ‘You’re as light as a feather, lass.’

  Katharine noticed his lapse into the Yorkshire dialect – unusual in Jim. She brushed a wisp of hair from her eyes.

  ‘I must look ghastly,’ she said knowing she looked white and drawn after all the pain, which even now stabbed constantly in her spine.

  ‘Tha’s–’ he paused the compliment coming awkwardly, ‘beautiful.’

  The word was a whisper so that she hardly heard it and later was to wonder if she ever had.

  Jim and Luke wrapped her in the blankets using the third as a hammock-type of stretcher. Carefully they entered the tunnel, now considerably shorter than when Katharine had crawled through it on her own. Luke took one end of the blanket and Jim the other. The tunnel was much larger now, but even so, it meant that the two men, especially Jim with his giant proportions, had to crawl on their hands and knees and in some places, where they had been unable to enlarge it much, Luke was forced to wriggle out backwards and Jim forwards, both on their stomachs. Katharine, although wrapped in the blankets, was bumped and bruised however carefully the two men tried to move her. It was an impossible task to do otherwise.

  As they emerged the villagers clustered round, their chatter in a lighter, happier tone now that they knew their men would soon be safe.

  Anthony was to the forefront, and was soon stooping over Katharine.

  ‘My dear Kate, what have they done to you?’ His voice was hoarse with emotion and Katharine felt the surprise of the villagers as their chatter died away, their eyes directed towards the two doctors and also Jim who knelt on the other side of Katharine.

  ‘The tunnel fell on her just as she got back to us …’

  Anthony’s face reddened.

  ‘And could you do nothing?’ he said between his teeth, his blue eyes, usually so jovial, flashing in anger.

  ‘Jim did everything possible, more, if truth be known, than could be expected,’ Katharine said weakly.

  ‘I’m sorry, Kate,’ said Anthony swiftly, ‘arguing here when we should be getting you home – but,’ he turned back to Jim. ‘I’m not through with this yet.’

  Jim turned away, but not before Katharine had seen the hurt in his eyes. After all, he looked upon Anthony as his closest friend. Jim Kendrick already blamed himself, not only for the hurt suffered by Tom, but also for Katharine’s injury.

  Jim and Luke disappeared down the tunnel again, and Anthony gave orders for Katharine to be carried to his house. He must wait for Tom to be brought out, he explained to her, but he would return home as quickly as possible. Anthony had already arranged, it seemed, for Tom to be taken to the cottage hospital in the town some ten miles over the moors. It would be a painful journey and a cold one for it was now early morning.

  As the village menfolk carried her up the steep ladders of the quarry and down the track towards the village, Katharine could not help but admire their devotion and single-mindedness for their small community. All the men, she was sure, and a good many of the women-folk as could be spared away from young children, had spent the night either in the quarry itself or making frequent trips between the village and the quarry carrying blankets and warm drinks to the workers and watchers.

  Soon she was back at the house and laid carefully on the bed. With great difficulty and no little pain, she undressed and rolled beneath the covers. Mrs. Rigby, unbending from her aloof manner, helped her.

  ‘’Ave they got Tom out, then?’ she asked.

  Katharine nodded.

  ‘Yes, but his leg’s badly injured.’

  ‘Will ’ee lose it?’

  Katharine marvelled that in her impatience for news of Tom Gifford, Mrs. Rigby forgot herself sufficiently to ask Katharine’s opinion.

  ‘I hope not,’ she answered sober
ly. ‘But the delay in proper attention will not have helped, I fear.’

  Mrs. Rigby sniffed.

  ‘I s’pect there wasn’t much you could do when you got down there, miss.’

  ‘I did my best,’ replied Katharine, and closed her eyes. She was too exhausted to be angry or hurt.

  Mrs. Rigby left the room and Katharine fell into a restless sleep disturbed by racking pain and fear that the injury to her back might be exceedingly serious. Before, she had not had time to dwell on the fact. Her attention had been on Tom, her patient. But now, with Tom safely in other hands, the possible magnitude of her own injury began to assert itself. As she drifted again towards sleep, her last thoughts were of Jim. The strong, masterful Mr. Kendrick, but for whom she would most likely still be pinned down beneath that awful rock. She smiled in spite of the pain as she thought of his last command, when he had overruled her and brought her out first. Master of all he surveyed, undoubtedly …

  When Katharine awoke, the sun was high in the sky. As consciousness returned, so did the pain. Anthony rose awkwardly from a chair near the window and hopped towards the bed.

  ‘Now, Kate old girl, we’d better have a look at that back. Do you want Mrs. Rigby in whilst I examine you?’

  ‘Of course not, Anthony.’

  After a thorough examination, Anthony said:

  ‘There doesn’t seem to be any serious damage done, no broken bones. The pain you’re getting is probably bad bruising and temporary muscle dislocation.’

  Katharine sighed with relief.

  ‘The pain feels better already now you’ve told me that.’

  ‘You’ll have to rest for a few days …’

  ‘What about Tom?’ Katharine interrupted.

  ‘Everything’s fine there. He’ll be laid up a long, long time, but with a bit of luck, he won’t lose his leg. Thanks to you, I might add.’

  She smiled sheepishly.

  ‘It’s no more than anyone would have done.’

  ‘It’s a great deal more than a lot of folk would have done, Kate

  my dear, and now, believe it or not, the villagers realise it too.’

  ‘They do?’ Katharine could not keep the surprise from her voice.

  ‘They want you to stay, Kate,’ Anthony said softly.

  Katharine twisted her head away and frowned.

  ‘Anthony, please, you know I have vowed to dedicate my life to medicine.’

  She heard him sigh but he did not speak and it was not until she heard the door close softly that she realised he had left the room, had given up the fight and was letting her have her way.

  Dear Anthony, she thought, he was a good friend and she was fond of him as such, but she could never love him with the passion she anticipated one should feel for a man with whom one wanted to spend life. The man she would give her heart to, she mused, would be of a much stronger, sterner character than Anthony. A giant of a man, who would quell even her rebellious spirit.

  And unbidden, the face of Jim Kendrick flashed into her mind.

  Katharine slept.

  After three days in bed, Katharine was anxious to be up and moving about.

  ‘Please let me get up, Anthony?’

  ‘I think you should stay where you are another day or so, Kate.’

  ‘The pain’s much easier, really. I feel the exercise would be the best thing now.’

  Anthony grinned.

  ‘All right, Dr. Harvey. Have your own stubborn way.’

  But he succeeded in extracting a promise from her that the drawing-room chaise-longue was to be the extent of her travels and there she would remain until returning to bed.

  ‘We look a pretty pair of physicians, I must say,’ Katharine remarked as she settled herself comfortably on the sofa and looked across at Anthony now sprawled again in his leather armchair, his injured ankle resting on a footstool. He was dressed, as ever, in comfortable country clothes. His blue eyes twinkled back at her merrily through the curling blue pipe smoke. He certainly did not appear to be suffering the pangs of unrequited love on account of her refusal to marry him.

  ‘Much faith we shall inspire in our patients, eh?’

  At that moment Mrs. Rigby entered.

  ‘Mr. Kendrick is here, sir.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Anthony with expression. Katharine noticed immediately that his face lost some of its expression of jollity and solemnity shadowed his eyes.

  For a moment she could not understand, but then with sudden clarity, she knew.

  Anthony and Jim had presumably not met again since their encounter in the quarry and Anthony still held Jim responsible for the accident involving Katharine.

  ‘Anthony …’ she began, but at that moment Jim came into the room and further conversation between herself and Anthony was impossible. Instead Katharine smiled brightly at Jim, whose eyes had immediately sought her on entry. Katharine prayed silently that Anthony would follow her lead, but it was not to be, for before Jim or Katharine could speak, Anthony said,

  ‘Ah, Jim. Come to see the damage you’ve caused …’

  ‘Anthony,’ cried Katharine, ‘ that’s unjust and you know it.’

  ‘Let Jim defend himself. He’s never needed to shelter behind a woman’s skirts and not likely to start now. Well, Jim?’

  The two men faced each other angrily.

  Then suddenly the anger died on Jim’s face, his shoulders slumped and he sat down heavily on a nearby chair.

  ‘You’re right, of course, I must take full responsibility.’

  Katharine could almost have laughed, if the moment had not been so serious, at the incredulity on Anthony’s face.

  ‘You do? Well – er – I’m glad to hear it. What do you propose to do about it?’

  Jim spread his hands helplessly.

  ‘What can I do? You tell me and I’ll do it.’

  ‘Er – well – um,’ Anthony rubbed his chin. Then Katharine allowed herself to laugh, relieving much of the tension.

  ‘Come on, you two. Acting like a pair of schoolboys. There’s nothing to be done.’

  But the worried frown on Jim’s face would not be laughed away.

  ‘You must have the best medical attention, of course, and anything I can do to compensate …’

  ‘Say no more about it, I shall be as fit as ever in a day or so,’ she replied, with far more conviction than she felt.

  Anthony sighed and then grinned sheepishly.

  ‘Well, I suppose if Kate is prepared to acquit you of all blame, I must do the same.’

  ‘I shall never forgive myself, though,’ Jim said softly, his sober eyes on Katharine’s face. Katharine laughed, though not unkindly.

  ‘Nonsense, in a few months when I’m back in London, you will have forgotten all about me.’

  A startled look crossed Jim’s face and he looked first from Katharine to Anthony and then back to her face.

  ‘You’re leaving? But I thought – the villagers thought …’

  ‘Thought what?’ Katharine asked.

  Jim shook his head.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. I thought you’d be staying. Now, especially.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Jim repeated, so Katharine changed the subject.

  The three of them talked for some time about the village life, about the country’s situation in general and the increasing popularity of the motor car.

  ‘I think I shall have one eventually, perhaps when they’ve improved upon the design a little,’ Jim said.

  ‘It would be a remarkably useful object for a doctor,’ mused Anthony. ‘But I’m sure the price in my case would be prohibitive.’

  ‘I see you agree with progress then, Jim – mechanically, that is,’ Katharine added with meaning.

  He had the grace to laugh.

  ‘You insinuate that there are matters in which I do not like progression?’

  ‘Women doctors, for example,’ she said mischievously.

  ‘I’m rapidly ch
anging my mind on that point,’ he said quietly, his eyes smiling in a way she had not seen before on the usually solemn face of Jim Kendrick.

  ‘Jim was the first in the district to install the steam crane at the quarry, Kate.’ Anthony said.

  ‘But didn’t the villagers object? I always thought that the country folk hated change of any sort and mistrusted these new inventions.’

  ‘They do – to a certain extent. But I was lucky in first having established a good relationship with my men, and discussing it fully with them beforehand. They felt that they had been consulted, you see, that their opinion mattered.’

  ‘Come off it, Jim, they eat out of your hand. If you told them they could fly like birds if they jumped off the top of the quarry, they’d do it,’ Anthony laughed.

  Jim laughed too.

  ‘Not quite as bad as that, I hope. I’ve no desire to become a dictator.’

  Jim called several times during the course of the next few weeks and an easy relationship developed between Katharine and Jim. Anthony, Katharine thought, looked upon their friendship with growing concern. Whilst he did not entertain the idea of Katharine involving herself with Jim, he obviously felt that Jim was rapidly becoming fonder of Katharine than was wise.

  ‘Don’t string him along, Kate.’

  ‘Anthony, really! You make me sound a regular Jezebel.’

  He smiled wryly.

  ‘You underestimate your own feminine powers, my dear, so intent are you in competing in a man’s world.’

  She was silent for she could think of no retort.

  It seemed the whole village were following Jim’s lead, and were trying to make amends for their previous behaviour. Mary visited her carrying a huge bouquet of flowers from the villagers. Katharine was undoubtedly their heroine now.

  ‘We’ll never forget what tha’s done for us,’ Mary said shyly.

  ‘Oh Mary, it was no more than anyone would have done had they been able.’

  ‘We think it is, doctor.’ Mary’s soft voice, so gentle and shy, held a note of firmness. But Katharine wished that it had not taken a tragedy to win over the people of Brackenbeck. She had far rather they accepted her for her own self and not just because she had shown bravery. However, she was thankful that their opinion of her had changed, whatever the instrument of change had been.