The Doctors’ Baby Bond

by Abigail Gordon

  She wished she knew what was in his mind. He’d been so frank and open when they’d first met, but now he was like a closed book. The same didn’t apply to her though. There was nothing that Drew didn’t know about her.

  He knew what she liked to eat, drink, what perfume she wore, what clothes she liked, what kind of underwear she wore if he’d ever scanned the washing line as that was the nearest he’d ever got.

  He’d seen her first thing in the morning in her nightgown, without make-up, hair tousled from sleep. Seen her last thing at night, tired from the day’s duties, with seduction the last thing on her mind. There was nothing mysterious or elusive for him to discover about her.

  Although there was one thing he didn’t know about her, and in the present climate wasn’t likely to. She loved him, and always would.

  ‘At four and a half months Jonathan is a bit young for toys,’ Drew was saying, unaware of the direction that her thoughts were taking. ‘What do you suggest?’

  ‘Something that is visual and makes a noise,’ she replied. ‘A musical box, or baby books that play a tune, and some nice new clothes. Next year will be the one when we can go to town on toys.’

  He glanced at her sharply, and she wondered if he was thinking that next year things might be very different. That one of them might have someone else to go Christmas shopping with. She wasn’t to know that Drew’s thoughts were going back to what he’d seen through the kitchen window on the night his hopes and plans had gone down the drain.

  At that moment there was a squeal of brakes, followed by shouts of alarm, and as they swung round they saw a van careering onto the pavement behind them, scattering passers-by and coming to rest halfway through a shop window.

  As shards of glass fell around them there were screams of pain and fright, and Drew turned the pram around quickly to protect Jonathan from the flying debris.

  ‘The driver’s trapped,’ Andrina gasped, as they began to grasp what had happened, ‘and someone inside the shop has been hurt.’ But Drew didn’t need telling.

  He was already there beside the crashed vehicle, wrenching the door open and bending over the injured man.

  The manageress of the shop had rushed onto the pavement white-faced and trembling, while inside her staff were flocking around what looked like an elderly man lying on the floor.

  ‘Phone the emergency services,’ Andrina told the dazed woman as people suffering from cuts to their faces and legs staggered around. ‘Tell them we’ve two serious casualties and several minor ones.’

  The people who’d been hurt needed all the help they could get, she thought desperately, but she couldn’t leave Jonathan. As she scanned the faces of those around her, there was one that she recognised. Iris Bovey, the elderly wife of the village grocer, was standing nearby, looking dazed and bewildered but seemingly unhurt.

  Andrina hurried across to her and said, ‘Mrs Bovey, are you all right?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It’s good to see you here, though.’

  ‘Can I ask you to mind the baby while I go to help the injured?’ She pointed to where Drew had squeezed himself into the damaged passenger seat of the van and was trying to free the driver. ‘Dr Curtis is doing what he can but he needs my help.’

  Which isn’t going to be much, she thought, as they had no equipment with them. But there was no time to ponder that. There was the man inside the shop who appeared to have been struck by the front of the van as it had slammed through the big plate-glass window. He was still on the floor.

  Still bewildered by the scale of the accident, the grocer’s wife said, ‘Yes. Leave the kiddie with me. I’ll look after him.’

  With a grateful smile Andrina watched her take hold of the handle of Jonathan’s pram then she dashed into the shop.

  ‘I’m a doctor,’ she said, pushing past the shop assistants who were gathered round the man on the floor.

  ‘We think he’s dead,’ one of them said as Andrina knelt beside the still form of the elderly victim. ‘We didn’t know what to do.’

  ‘How long since he stopped breathing?’

  ‘Only just.’

  Even as the question was being answered she was making sure the man’s tongue wasn’t blocking his airway. Then she started applying cardiac compressions to the man’s chest, while telling them to urge the emergency services to hurry. There was blood coming from his nose and ears, but any other injuries he might have sustained were concealed by the heavy winter overcoat he was wearing.

  As she worked on him she could still hear the chaos outside and wondered how Drew was faring with the driver of the van. When she heard the wail of the ambulance sirens it was the most welcome sound she’d ever heard. It would have been difficult enough for Drew and herself to help anyone in such circumstances if they’d had their cases with them, but they’d been like the rest of the folk out there—Christmas shoppers.

  As paramedics came spilling into the shop she stepped back to let them take over so that she could attend to some of the other injured. They were the ones who had the equipment to resuscitate the man, if it was possible.

  As she looked around her Andrina could see Drew easing himself out of the driver’s cab while the emergency services took over there as well. She breathed a sigh of relief. Some shopping trip it had turned out to be!

  He was bloodstained and tight-lipped when she reached his side.

  ‘I couldn’t do as much as I would have liked,’ he said. ‘The poor guy is trapped. The fire services are on their way. They’ll have to cut him free before he can be treated. But at least the paramedics can give him some pain relief. I hadn’t even got the equipment to do that.’

  He was glancing around him. ‘Where’s Jonathan?’

  ‘I left him with Mrs Bovey. She was standing nearby and I asked her to look after him while I went to see what I could do,’ she told him, as it registered that the woman and child were not where she’d left them.

  ‘And where are they now?’ he questioned.

  She swallowed hard.

  ‘I don’t know. They were there…just there.’

  Unease was tugging at her. She’d left their precious child with a woman she knew but only just. The Boveys were, however, Drew’s patients. He’d probably known them all his life. Surely he wouldn’t see anything wrong in that. Yet he wasn’t exactly exuding approval.

  ‘What was she wearing?’ he asked unsmilingly.

  ‘A beige jacket and trousers. Surely they can’t be far away.’

  ‘Iris Bovey isn’t very stable these days,’ he said, as his glance raked the area around them. ‘She’s very unpredictable and Jonathan is small and defenceless. I know that you wanted to help but he could be at risk.’

  Andrina felt as if a cold hand was gripping her heart.

  ‘How was I to know?’ she cried. ‘I did what seemed best.’

  ‘Yes, I know that,’ he said, ‘but we’re wasting time.’

  Knowing that he was right, she didn’t reply, just kept on scanning the busy pavements for any signs of Iris and Jonathan. When she turned to Drew he wasn’t there. He’d gone across to a policeman guarding the crash scene to ask if he’d seen a woman in a beige jacket, pushing a pram.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘THERE’S a lot of those sorts of jackets about,’ the officer said. ‘Must be in fashion. The wife has one, but her pram-pushing days are over…I hope. What’s the problem?’

  ‘My partner and I were the first two doctors on the scene,’ Drew told him urgently, ‘and we’ve been helping the injured. Andrina asked someone from the village where we live to mind our child while we were occupied, and now the woman is nowhere to be seen. She’s a patient of mine and hasn’t been well lately so I’m concerned about the baby’s safety.’

  The policeman was serious now. ‘Are you sure they’re not around? Have you looked in the shops? She might have gone inside somewhere to get out of the cold.’

  ‘I’ve checked them all,’ Andrina gasped breathlessly as she joined them,
‘and she isn’t there.’

  A sergeant was organising a diversion of traffic from the accident scene and the policeman called, ‘Have you got a minute, Sarge?’

  When he came over he said to Andrina, ‘You’re the doctor who was working on the injured guy in the shop, aren’t you? You’ll be pleased to know that they managed to resuscitate him.’

  ‘I am pleased to know that,’ she said worriedly, ‘but I’m very concerned to find that the person I left our baby with while I was treating the man has disappeared and taken him with her.’

  She felt as if there was a tight band across her chest, squeezing the life out of her. Just how confused was Iris Bovey?

  ‘How long ago was this?’ the officer asked.

  ‘A quarter of an hour, twenty minutes.’

  ‘I’ll get a squad car to drive you around the area,’ he said. ‘One of you go with it and the other stay here in case the lady shows up.’

  ‘Yes,’ Drew said immediately, ready for action. ‘I’ll go. You stay here, Andrina.’

  She nodded, bereft of words as she watched him hurry away with the police sergeant. Please, let Mrs Bovey bring Jonathan back safely, she begged silently of the unreliable fates.

  She wouldn’t have left him with just anybody. When she’d seen the grocer’s wife standing nearby it had seemed the obvious thing to do if she was to help the injured, and now Drew was telling her that Iris Bovey wasn’t well. Though he hadn’t gone into details, she could tell that he wasn’t happy about her having been left in charge of Jonathan.

  * * *

  As Drew sat tautly in the front seat of the squad car that had been allocated for the search, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack as his glance raked over the crowds on the pavements and down the side streets.

  The woman and child could be anywhere, he thought anxiously, now that Iris had taken it into her head to leave the scene of the crash. He’d had no choice but to pass his concerns on to Andrina and he was remembering the look on her face when he’d left her there among the debris from the accident and the walking wounded who were waiting for transport to Accident and Emergency.

  He knew that she loved Jonathan more than life itself. If she had been the unwitting means of bringing harm to him, their future, already uncertain, just wouldn’t exist any more.

  She’d done what any doctor would have done in such a situation, gone to help the injured, believing that she’d done the right thing in asking someone she knew to take care of him. It was just unfortunate that it had been a woman who’d been having some problems of her own recently.

  He could cope with most things but this had him by the throat. That the person who’d always been there for Jonathan should be the means of putting him at risk didn’t bear thinking about.

  The police in the squad car were using the loudspeaker system in the vehicle as they drove along, giving a brief description of the woman, the baby and the pram, asking if anyone had seen them. But so far there had been no response and he wondered just how far the grocer’s wife could have gone in the time.

  As Andrina waited in the cold she was stopping passers-by, asking them frantically if they’d seen the woman in charge of the missing child, gasping out a description, but again there was no joy to be had.

  The policeman they’d spoken to originally had left his duties at the crash scene a couple of times to see if there was any news, and she’d shaken her head tearfully.

  Eventually a teenage girl stopped and said casually, ‘There’s a woman in the park just down the road who’s dressed like that. She’s got a baby in a pram with her.’

  ‘Which way?’ Andrina cried, and the girl pointed in the opposite direction to that the squad car had taken.

  It was enough. Gathering up her long winter coat so that she didn’t trip over it in her haste, Andrina was off, hope lending wings to her feet.

  But as she stopped beside wrought-iron railings she saw that the small park was deserted. The dead leaves of autumn lay damp and mulchy on the paths and the bare branches of the trees stood out starkly against a sky that would soon be darkening into a winter’s evening.

  If it had been Iris Bovey, she’d gone, she thought achingly. She was too late. Whoever she was, she obviously hadn’t lingered as it wasn’t the weather for sitting in the park.

  As she turned away, choking back tears, a voice spoke from behind and she swung round quickly.

  ‘So there you are,’ the grocer’s wife said. ‘You’ve been wondering where we were, I suppose. Your little one was frightened by all the screaming and shouting that was going on up there in the street so I brought him down here. But it was too cold to sit for long. We were just on our way back. Lucky we saw you.’

  Andrina was only half listening. She was bending over the pram, eyes riveted on its occupant, and as if on cue Jonathan smiled his little smile and life began again.

  She bent over and picked him up, cradling him to her tenderly. Observing her doubtfully, Iris said, ‘I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any upset. You didn’t think I’d run off with him, did you?’

  Still speechless with relief, Andrina shook her head. She couldn’t upset this elderly woman who had unwittingly caused such a panic.

  Iris said, ‘It was nice having him to myself for a little while. It’s a long time since I pushed a pram. My husband thinks I can’t do anything right these days, but I can, can’t I?’

  ‘Yes, of course you can,’ Andrina told her, having found her voice. ‘You’ve been a great help and I shall tell him so when I see him. And now shall we go and find Dr Curtis? I’m sure he’s wondering where we’ve got to.’

  * * *

  It had been a fruitless search. The squad car had almost finished its circling of the surrounding area and was about to return to where it had started from when Drew saw the two women beside the park railings.

  ‘She’s found him!’ he cried. ‘Andrina has found Jonathan! Stop the car.’

  As it came to a halt beside them, Iris backed away nervously and one of the policemen got out and went towards her. But as far as Drew was concerned, she could have flown off on a broomstick. All that concerned him was that Andrina was holding Jonathan close and he could tell from her expression that all was well.

  His eyes were tender as he took them both into his arms.

  ‘I was dreading going back there and having to tell you we hadn’t found him,’ he breathed, ‘but wonderful woman that you are, you had it sorted. How you knew where to look I don’t know, but I might have guessed that you would.’

  ‘Mrs Bovey brought him down here because he was frightened by all the noise after the accident,’ she said shakily, ‘and was on her way back when she found me. A passer-by told me she’d seen someone answering her description in the park here. But when I got here the place was deserted and I was trying to cope with that when she appeared.’

  ‘So I misjudged poor Iris,’ Drew said softly. ‘It’s clear that she isn’t as confused as I might have thought she was. Old Bovey is a bit of a tartar and maybe he makes her lose confidence in herself sometimes. Anyway, the main thing is that they’re both safe and sound. We can take Jonathan home and drop Iris off at the same time.’

  One of the policemen was approaching and he said, ‘Are you going to press charges? The woman is adamant that she meant no harm, but the baby was missing for quite some time.’

  Drew shook his head. ‘No. It was a misunderstanding, that’s all. Thanks for your help, Officer. Now that we’ve got our child back safely, that is all that matters. The lady is a neighbour of ours and came down here from the best of motives. We can’t cause grief for someone who was doing us a favour.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ the officer agreed, and as the squad car drove off into the gathering dusk Drew said to Iris, ‘We’ll take you home, Mrs Bovey, and thanks for taking care of Jonathan.’

  As they drove away they were all silent. After those euphoric moments when he’d found them beside the park Drew had said little and now, with darkness
upon them and all thoughts of Christmas shopping forgotten, they were both anxious to get home to some welcoming warmth.

  Their elderly passenger had nodded off as soon as the car had left the town centre and was now snoring gently.

  Every time Drew looked at Jonathan, safe in his baby seat in the back of the car, he smiled, but the smiles were all directed at the child, she noticed, and thought that now he had calmed down he was still remembering how she’d left the baby with a woman that she hardly knew. It was something that she wasn’t going to forget either, but what should she have done? Given Iris a medical examination before she’d passed Jonathan over to her?

  No. But maybe she should have given the situation more thought before dashing off. Yet she wouldn’t have been able to start CPR on the injured man if she’d been any longer in getting to his side, and by the time the paramedics had come, it would have been too late.

  Closing her eyes, she leaned back in the car seat. Nothing was going right between Drew and herself at the moment, she thought wearily. It was as if those blissful first weeks with him at the farm had never happened.

  Tania’s demands had been irksome enough then, but in recent weeks he’d had all the Brewsters on his mind and she’d been lagging far behind on his list of priorities. But today she’d thought that they were getting closer again and then Jonathan had disappeared.

  There would have been none of this uncertainty if she’d fallen in love with Eamon, she thought wryly. He would be there if she lifted a finger, but she didn’t want Drew’s friend. She wanted the man himself.

  Casting a quick glance in her direction, Drew was aware of her pallor and exhaustion. He wanted to stop the car, take her into his arms and cuddle and kiss the spirit back into her. But their relationship was changing all the time and there was nothing a woman liked less than to be in the arms of one man when she wanted to be in those of another.

  He knew that he should be bringing up the matter of Eamon and what he’d seen through the kitchen window, but once it was out in the open it might propel Andrina into making a decision sooner than she would have done, and every moment they were together at the farm was too precious to squander.