by Joanna Neil
‘I’ll never get used to it.’ His voice was sharp. ‘I don’t see why he had to bring the children here at all. They could have stayed with Alice’s sister.’ He sent her a peevish glance. ‘What does he know about bringing up youngsters, anyway?’
‘Not very much, probably, which is why Alice is troubled.’ She studied him. ‘Look, I don’t want to argue with you. I know how you feel. But I promised Alice I would look out for the children, and I aim to keep my promise—even if it means that I might rub shoulders with Ross from time to time. I don’t see that it can do any harm, and he might not be as bad as you think.’
His eyes narrowed on her. ‘I can see he’s been working on you already. You’d do well to remember that the Buchanans never do anything by chance. There’s always an ulterior motive lurking somewhere in the background. Like this business of the log cabin and the lodges he’s building. It was all supposed to have been laid out crisp and clear, what he was doing and how far the building would extend, but now he’s changing the format. I drove along the coastal road, where one of the lodges is under construction. It seemed to me that the building was wider than shown in the original drawings.’
‘Will that matter?’
‘Not necessarily, in itself, but what else might he decide to change? I don’t trust him. Next thing he’ll be adding garage blocks and new access roads, bringing more traffic along our way.’
‘I’m sorry you feel like that about it.’ Izzy’s gaze was troubled. ‘I hate to see you angry and upset. I understand how you feel, but surely you’re reading too much into it. Perhaps we should all try to move on and put the past behind us?’
‘You wouldn’t feel that way if your livelihood depended on the goodwill of your neighbours. I had trouble with the old Laird, his father, and his constant attempts to stake a claim on my land with his tree planting and his new stone walls. Every now and again he would set up dams on the river to ruin the salmon fishing. He said it wasn’t deliberate, but I never believed him.’
He scowled. ‘His son hasn’t done anything to remedy the problems along the course of the river in so much as they affect my being able to scratch a living, and now he’s hatching a scheme to plant woodland that will block access to my cabins. We’ve always had a right of way to the old mill race, and now he thinks he can abandon it because he wants to set up a timber business. Without that footpath people will have to go the long way round to get to the holiday homes. He has a lot to answer for.’ He glowered at her. ‘It grieves me that my own daughter’s getting involved with him.’
Izzy’s mother arrived back from the shop in time to witness the tension between father and daughter. ‘I knew it,’ she said. ‘As soon as I saw Ross’s car heading up the hill away from here I knew I shouldn’t have left you two together, even for five minutes.’
She gave Izzy a hug. ‘Lorna put my hotpot in the fridge. Make sure you heat it through thoroughly…and I bought you a jar of coffee from Mary’s shop. I noticed you were running short.’
‘Thanks, Mum, you’re an angel.’
‘We’d best be going,’ her father said, his tone abrupt. ‘Your gran will be expecting us.’
Her mother went to the door. ‘Perhaps we’ll see you at the Christmas lights ceremony tomorrow evening?’ she said. ‘I’m running one of the stalls at a community centre…homemade crafts and pots of jam.’
Izzy embraced her parents and watched them drive away. It was upsetting to argue with her father. Would he ever come to see Ross Buchanan simply as a neighbour? Somehow she doubted it.
She tried not to think about the troublesome situation, and instead spent time getting on with various chores. Putting away freshly ironed laundry helped to lighten her mood.
The next day in the afternoon she was clearing away brambles from the garden when the phone rang. She hurried to answer it.
‘The Mountain Rescue team has been called out.’ Finn, a man in his late thirties who worked six days a week as the village postman, was also a member of the Mountain Rescue group, and now he said, ‘We’ve had reports of a woman who has been injured on a crag by Beinn Dearg. Her companion used her mobile phone to call for help. She said she fell, and can’t move without a lot of pain, so we have to get to her as soon as possible. I’ve already checked, and there’s no way we’ll be able to get a helicopter out to her, so it means we’re in for a bit of a climb.’
‘I’ll get ready,’ Izzy said.
‘Good. I’ll come and pick you up in five minutes.’
Finn was as good as his word, and within a very short time the whole team had assembled. ‘We’ll drive as close as we can to the hills before we need to start the climb,’ Finn told them.
They started their trek from a forested area, heading for higher ground, keeping a tumbling stream to the left and below them. Izzy was startled to see that Ross had joined them somewhere along the route. ‘You decided to give it a try, then?’ she said.
‘I did. I wanted to come out and see if it was something I’d like to do on a regular basis.’ He looked out over the distant mountains. ‘It’s been quite a while since I did any climbing or hill walking. It’s good to be able to help people, of course, and then there’s always the aspect of keeping fit and enjoying the mountain trek.’
‘What have you done with Molly and Cameron?’
‘I left them with the local GP. They made friends with his children last week when I went over there to discuss a patient with him. In fact, he’s going to be taking over the aftercare of the man who was injured by the waterfall.’
He walked beside her, and soon she was struggling to keep up with his long, rangy stride. Izzy studied him. ‘You mean, the man with the pulmonary embolism? You know how he’s doing, then?’
Ross nodded. ‘His shoulder’s still a bit sore, but they fixed the dislocation at the hospital and his ankle’s in plaster. His breathing is much better, and he seems to be making a reasonably good recovery from his surgery, but of course his GP will have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t suffer any more blood clots.’
‘Yes, he will, but I’m glad that he’s doing well over all.’
At one point they had to cross a stream, using flat rocks as stepping-stones, and Izzy hesitated for a moment, attempting to keep her balance. As she wavered, Ross placed a hand under her arm to steady her.
‘Thanks,’ she said, glancing up at him, her mouth making a rueful shape. ‘I was just taking my time, that’s all. The last thing I want is to spend the next few hours soaked to the skin.’ She didn’t want to notice his strength, or how capable he was, and how sure of foot he appeared to be, but it was true all the same. And as the heat from his hand at her elbow penetrated through the material of her jacket, it was more than enough to warm her through and through.
His eyes crinkled with amusement. ‘No wine to blur your senses today,’ he said. ‘That’s a shame. I quite liked it when you were soft and dreamy and wrapped up in my arms.’
They reached the other side of the stream and she threw him a quick glance. ‘You were out of line yesterday,’ she told him. He still was, if he thought he could sweet-talk her into getting close to him. She was more than wary on that score. ‘You didn’t tell me that your home brew packed such a punch. I thought—Fruit wine, lovely, no worries. If you do get a licence to sell your produce, at least you’ll have to state the alcoholic content and people will know exactly what they’re in for.’
He grinned. ‘To be fair, I didn’t realise it would hit you quite so hard. You probably hadn’t eaten enough to soak it up.’
‘Yes, well, I won’t make that mistake again in a hurry.’
‘That’s a shame,’ he said, affecting a downturned mouth. ‘I couldn’t help thinking how great it was to see you looking so relaxed, and you were definitely happy to snuggle up and keep warm.’
She shot him a warning glance, and he laughed.
It took more than an hour of climbing over boulder slopes before they reached the point where the woman, who looke
d to be in her forties, was lying injured. She was resting on a narrow plateau at the foot of a ridge, and was in a bad way.
‘Thank heaven you’re here.’ The woman’s companion looked wretched. ‘Sarah fell onto her side and hit the rock. I’ve been trying to keep her warm, but she’s in an awful lot of pain.’ She frowned. ‘She’s very shaky, and she seems to be not quite with me some of the time.’
‘We’ll take care of her,’ Finn said. ‘Come over and sit with the rest of our team and we’ll give you a hot drink. You look as though you’ve had a pretty bad experience yourself. The doctors will look after your friend.’
Izzy knelt down beside the woman. ‘Hello, there. Sarah, is it?’
Sarah struggled to focus, but then she slowly, almost imperceptibly nodded.
Izzy said quietly, ‘I’m Dr McKinnon, and here with me is Dr Buchanan. We’ll have a look at you and try to make you more comfortable, and then the Mountain Rescue team will take you back down the slopes and on to hospital as quickly as possible. Can you tell me whereabouts you’re hurting?’
Sarah vaguely indicated the region of her hip. Her face was pale, and etched with pain, and when Izzy carefully examined her she could see that on her injured side the leg was shorter than the other one, with the toes pointing out.
She glanced at Ross. ‘I think she has a pelvic fracture,’ she said softly.
He nodded. ‘I agree with you.’ He checked the woman’s pulse and respiration as Izzy began to open up her medical bag. ‘Her heart-rate is very fast, and so is her breathing,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I suspect she’s going into shock because of internal bleeding.’
That was bad news. Untreated shock meant that the patient’s condition could deteriorate very rapidly. ‘Okay. We’ll give her oxygen and put in an intravenous line so that we can give her fluids to replace the blood loss.’ She spoke gently to her patient. ‘Sarah, I believe you have a broken bone in your pelvis. I’m going to give you an injection for the pain. It should make you feel much more comfortable.’
As soon as they had completed those procedures, and Sarah’s pain had retreated, Izzy worked with Ross to immobilise the injury by means of a splint. He was calm and efficient, capable in everything he did, and above all he was caring and considerate towards the woman.
Izzy turned to the other members of the rescue team. ‘We need to lift her onto the stretcher,’ she said, ‘keeping her as still as possible.’
‘No problem,’ Finn said. ‘Between us we can do that.’
They all worked together to transfer Sarah to the stretcher, covering her with a blanket and fastening the straps securely to prevent her from slipping and coming to any more harm. After that it was a question of carrying her back down the slope.
‘I’ve called the emergency services and asked them to have an ambulance waiting for us,’ Izzy said.
Two members of the team came forward to take hold of the stretcher, while Finn stayed with the woman’s friend, keeping her company as they started back down the slope. Izzy took a moment to gaze around, looking down across the valley to the distant loch. Mist was rolling in over the mountains and the smooth silver surface of the water, signifying the close of the afternoon and a cooling temperature.
‘I was really glad of your help back there,’ she told Ross. ‘It meant that we could treat her much more quickly and get her on her way. Time is the enemy here, isn’t it?’
‘It is when it’s a bad injury like that one. The sooner we get her to hospital the better.’
They moved as swiftly as possible, all of them anxious to reach safe ground before nightfall. Other members of the team took over the stretcher-bearing, to give the first two a rest. Eventually they reached the forest once more, and Izzy paused to check on the status of her patient. ‘It’s all right, we can keep moving,’ she told the rest of the team. ‘She seems to be holding up well enough.’
When they finally reached the place where they had parked the rescue team’s van, Izzy watched over the transfer of her patient to the ambulance and helped Sarah’s friend to settle in beside her while Ross went to speak to the paramedics.
Satisfied that Sarah was comfortable, Izzy climbed down from the vehicle. Finn came to meet her. ‘A job well done, I think. We’ve a good group of people here, and with you and Ross on call the people around here can rest easy.’
‘Do you think he’ll decide to join the Mountain Rescue team?’ she asked. ‘I gather this was something of a trial run for him.’
‘I hope he will. I remember some years ago he used to do all sorts of outdoor activities—hill-walking, climbing, abseiling, to name just a few. Of course then he went off to do his medical training, and there was all that business with Alice.’ Finn spoke in a low voice. ‘It was a bad time all round when his brother stole her away from him. There was a breakdown of trust, if you like…not that they had ever been one hundred percent on brotherly love. Robert loved the estate, but Ross was the elder brother, and Robert tended to brood. I imagine that’s why he left in the end. Though it was a bad day when he took Alice with him.’
Izzy mulled that over. How must Ross have felt when his brother betrayed his trust? Things had always been difficult between them, but that must have hurt badly. Had they still been arguing years later, as her mother had said, when the accident happened? And did that mean that Ross would now be wondering if he might get another chance with Alice? Was that the true reason he had come home? Did he want to be close to Alice?
A bleak wave of despondency washed over her—a feeling she couldn’t explain, even to herself. She loved Alice as a sister, but her feelings for Ross went far deeper than that and were more complex, fraught with problems and complications.
She pushed those thoughts aside as Ross came to join them after he’d finished speaking with the paramedics. Within moments the ambulance had set off on its journey to Inverness.
‘I hope she’ll be all right,’ Izzy said. ‘We moved as quickly as we could, but these situations are difficult. The outcome isn’t always what you would hope for.’
‘Her age might work in her favour,’ Ross said. ‘She was fit and healthy before this, so we just have to keep our fingers crossed that all will go well for her. At least they’re on alert at the hospital.’
Finn nodded. ‘We can be on our way home now, anyway. Shall I be taking you back with me, Izzy?’
‘It’s out of your way, isn’t it, Finn?’ Ross said. ‘I can take Izzy home.’ He shot her a quick look. ‘If that’s all right with you? I have to pick up the children from Tom Slater’s house on the way.’
‘That’s fine.’ They started to walk towards the cars. ‘I imagine we’ll all be meeting up at the Christmas lights ceremony fairly soon, anyway. Although my offer still stands…I can take the children with me, if you would sooner opt out?’
Ross shook his head. ‘I don’t think that’s an option—even though a majority of the villagers might prefer it if I stay away.’
Finn acknowledged that with a rueful smile. ‘I’ll see you both later,’ he said. ‘Thanks for your help today.’
Izzy was still thinking about Ross’s comment. It was sad that people couldn’t see beyond ancient feuds. She said goodbye to Finn and the other members of the group, and then went to stand by Ross’s car.
‘I don’t imagine for one minute that Molly and Cameron will hear of me staying at home,’ Ross said as he started the engine. ‘They’re hoping that I’ll buy all sorts of things…Christmas decorations, for a start. Apparently those I dragged down from the attic are way too ordinary, and something far more spectacular is called for—or at least that’s what they told Alice this morning.’
‘Of course—you went to see her, didn’t you? How is she?’ Oddly, Izzy felt warmth seep all around her as she settled more comfortably in her seat. A puzzled look came over her face, and she caught Ross’s quick glance.
His mouth curved. ‘The seats are heated,’ he said. ‘It was cold up there on Beinn Dearg, so I thought you might app
reciate the warmth.’
She nodded. ‘Oh, I do. Just as I appreciated the hot coffee that Finn offered me. They’re very well prepared for these trips, aren’t they?’
‘True.’ He concentrated on the road as he came to a junction, and then he said lightly, ‘I thought Alice was looking a little better today. It always cheers her up to see the children, and they seem to encourage her to keep on with the physiotherapy. She’s beginning to walk around with help from the physios, and that’s a good sign.’
‘Yes, it is.’ Izzy was thoughtful for a while after that. It wasn’t lost on her that Alice’s cheeks always burned a little brighter whenever Ross was around. He had helped her through so much these last few months, and now he was taking care of her children. That was bound to make her appreciative of him.
Ross dropped her off at the cottage a short time later, after the children had bombarded her with talk of their exploits at the GP’s house. They were now very friendly with the doctor’s children, it seemed, and they were looking forward to meeting up with them later on at the lights ceremony.
Izzy hurried to get ready for the evening ahead. ‘I’m off now,’ Lorna told her. ‘But I’ll see you later in the community hall.’
Izzy grabbed a bite to eat, and then went to change into a clean pair of jeans and a warm top. She ran a brush through her long hair, and added a touch of lipstick to her mouth.
A knock at the door startled her, but then she heard childish voices, and when she went to find out who was there she saw Ross with Molly and Cameron.
‘We came to give you a lift,’ he said. ‘I wondered if you might need a bit of cosseting after today’s efforts.’
‘What a wonderful thought…though you worked just as hard as I did. That was some trek, there and back, wasn’t it?’ She smiled at the gathering on her doorstep, noting how Molly and Cameron were turning towards the car. ‘I can see you’re all eager to be off, so I’ll fetch my bag and we’re all set.’
