by Joanna Neil
‘What a great adviser you are,’ he said, his tone lightly mocking. ‘Perhaps I should persuade you to come and be my personal assistant—to guide me through the shark-infested waters.’
She lifted her brows. ‘Is that another action plan—to market the castle as having a loch where sea monsters lurk?’
He made a soft chuckle. ‘I can see you’re a force to be reckoned with, Izzy. You don’t deal in romantic fantasy, do you? Everything is cut and dried, and you can see it all so very clearly. There are no blurred lines, no greying of images or taking the option of letting things ride to see how they work out. You’re certainly your father’s daughter, aren’t you? You see everything with a clinical eye.’
He moved in closer to her. ‘Perhaps I should work on that and try to win you round to my point of view. I could show you how to be more laid-back, more lackadaisical about what people think. Perhaps I could persuade you to think of me more fondly.’
The trouble was he could probably do it, too. She was already thinking of him far more than was good for her. She eased herself away from the car, away from his circle of power. ‘I must go,’ she said. ‘You’ll do as you please—as always. I’m just sorry that you might be wasting a golden opportunity to turn this community around.’
His mouth curved in amusement. ‘It isn’t this community that I’m concerned about,’ he murmured. ‘I’m much more interested in a sweet-natured girl with chestnut coloured hair and a figure straight out of paradise. I’ve always wanted you, Izzy. You’ve always been the girl for me.’
‘No—don’t say that. I don’t believe it. Not for a minute. Alice was the one you wanted, the one you flirted with and kept close by. It was always Alice.’ How could he even say otherwise? His words stung her far more deeply than she might have expected. Was he playing with her? Teasing her? It had always been Alice that he loved. Everyone knew that.
He shook his head. ‘You’re wrong, Izzy. It wasn’t like that.’
‘I can’t talk to you,’ she said, pulling open the door of her car and sliding into the driver’s seat. He was treating her as a would-be conquest—someone to be won over to his side. ‘You’re impossible.’
She started up the engine and backed out of her parking slot. Her exit was more a desperate escape than a strategically planned retreat. The last she saw of him, he was standing by the fence, watching her drive away, and she felt a sudden qualm of loss, her emotions pricking her, chiding her for not ignoring her inner warning system and staying a while longer.
Perhaps it was fortunate that her work kept her from dwelling too closely on thoughts of Ross and how he made her feel.
The next day, as she was progressing from one call-out to the next, it began to snow. It started with a light dusting of flakes at around lunchtime, and by the middle of the afternoon it was coming down like a thick curtain, settling on the fields and the hedgerows, coating everything with a layer of frosty peaks.
At any other time it would have been a wondrous sight. Looking out over the snow-capped mountains and gazing in wonder at the white-spangled branches of the pine trees would have been a vision to melt the stoniest heart. Now, though, as Izzy drove along a country lane to her next call, it only made her conscious of how difficult it was going to be to return home along these icy, snow-clogged roads.
She reached her destination—an isolated farmhouse, set back among trees and bordered by a huddle of barns and outbuildings.
A harassed-looking man, with hair that appeared as though he had been raking his hands through it for the last hour or so, greeted her at the door of the house.
‘Are you the doctor? I was so afraid you wouldn’t get here,’ he said. ‘The midwife is stuck in snow, and they say the ambulance will be some half an hour or more yet. My wife, Jenny, is having the baby. It’s not due for another week, but she’s definitely in labour. I don’t know what to do.’
‘Perhaps you should take me to her,’ Izzy murmured, ‘and I’ll see how far she is along.’
‘I will—of course. Here, let me take one of your bags.’
‘Thanks.’ She handed him the one with the oxygen equipment, and he weighed it in his hand briefly.
‘It feels as though you must have everything you need in here,’ he said. ‘It’s pretty heavy.’
‘I have most of the things I might need in the car,’ she told him. ‘We come supplied for emergencies.’
He led the way up the stairs to the main bedroom, where his wife, a woman of around thirty years old, was lying on the bed, pale-faced and covered in beads of sweat.
A look of relief came into her eyes as Izzy walked into the room.
‘Hello, Jenny,’ Izzy said, going over to greet her and check her condition. ‘Let’s see if we can make you more comfortable, shall we? How often are the contractions coming?’
‘Every…couple…of minutes,’ Jenny answered, pain contorting her features. She looked as though she was about to pass out.
Izzy checked her blood pressure and listened to her heart. Then she checked the foetus’s heartbeat, listening carefully for any sign that it might be in distress.
‘Your blood pressure is very low, Jenny,’ she said. ‘I’m going to turn you over on to your left side. That should help to relieve the pressure and make you feel a little better.’
Turning to Jenny’s husband, Izzy said, ‘We’re going to need to clean towels and a crib for the baby. Do you have one? Otherwise, something like a laundry basket will do.’
‘I…um…yes. I can see to that.’ He looked as though he was glad to be given something practical to do.
In the meantime, it was clear to Izzy that the baby’s arrival was imminent. She gave Jenny pain relief through a mask held over her nose and mouth. As another contraction started, Izzy examined Jenny once more.
‘I can see the baby’s head,’ she said. ‘Try to push with each contraction. That’s it.’
The contraction faded, and Jenny sank back against her pillows.
The woman’s husband came back into the room. ‘I didn’t know how many towels you might need,’ he said, ‘so I brought them all.’ He laid them down on the end of the bed and then swivelled around, looking bemused, as though he wasn’t sure what to do next.
Izzy looked at him. ‘The crib?’ she said.
‘Oh, yes. I’ll go and get it.’ He hesitated, his expression blank, and then stared at his wife as though she might provide the answer.
Jenny had other things on her mind. Another contraction overwhelmed her, and she concentrated on pushing as hard as she could.
‘It’s coming,’ Izzy said. ‘You’re doing really well.’
As the head appeared, Izzy worked quickly to clear secretions from the baby’s nose and mouth. ‘That’s great, Jenny. Rest now. Wait for the next contraction.’
Her husband stood at the side of the bed, overwhelmed and uncertain.
‘James, weren’t you going to look for something?’ Jenny reminded him wearily.
‘Was I?’
‘The crib?’ she suggested.
‘Oh, yes.’ He looked confused.
‘Try the baby’s room,’ Jenny murmured in a resigned tone.
‘Of course.’ He gave a sigh of relief. ‘Yes, of course—that’s where it is.’
Izzy began to smile, but Jenny merely looked exasperated and lay back, worn out by her exertions. ‘Men,’ she muttered.
More contractions followed, and within minutes the baby was born. Izzy said softly, ‘It’s a little boy. You have a beautiful boy, Jenny.’ She wrapped the infant in a clean towel, drying it as quickly as she could. Then she gently rubbed the baby’s back until he gave a soft cry.
Izzy clamped the umbilical cord in two places, and then cut between the clamps. As soon as she had checked that all was well, she wrapped the baby snugly once more and handed him to his mother.
It was a joyous, wonderful moment for the parents, but it was equally exhilarating for Izzy. To be privileged enough to help a baby into the world was a
lways a breathtaking experience, one that she cherished.
Would she one day have a child of her own? It was something she almost dared not think about—because she had a strong feeling that the one man she would even remotely consider for its father was perhaps the one man she could not have.
A few minutes later the afterbirth was delivered, and Izzy checked that the mother was comfortable and that her blood pressure and respiration were normal.
‘What’s the betting that the midwife and the ambulance will both arrive now that my baby is safely here?’ Jenny said. She stroked her baby’s cheek and nestled against James, who had come to sit beside her.
Sure enough the doorbell rang a few minutes later, and Izzy glanced out of the window to see who was there. ‘It looks as though your midwife has arrived,’ Izzy said. ‘I’ll go and let her in. I expect she’ll want to stay with you for a while, to make sure that all is well.’
Izzy handed her patient over to the midwife, and then tidied up all her equipment and said goodbye.
James went with her to the door. ‘I’ll put your bags in the car for you,’ he said. ‘I can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done. I’ve no idea how I would have coped if you hadn’t turned up.’
‘I’m sure you would have managed somehow,’ Izzy said.
She started back along the road, heading for home. Her stint on call had finished now, and she was looking forward to getting back to the cottage and home comforts.
The road, though, was treacherous. She drove carefully, taking her time, and after twenty minutes or so of travelling she began to wonder when the snowplough would reach this area. There was ice everywhere and now darkness was falling, bringing an eerie quality to the surrounding area.
She was still some half an hour away from home, and there were no other cars on this stretch of country road. As she negotiated a bend, her car skidded, not responding to her attempts to straighten up, and she went headlong into a snowdrift. The engine stalled and spluttered, and then there was silence.
Izzy waited for a moment or two and then tried to start the engine once again. Nothing happened.
She sat for some time, wondering what she ought to do next, and after a while took a torch out of the glove compartment and climbed out of the car to see what the problem might be.
The car had come to rest at an angle, on the verge by an ancient tree, and just a few inches away the ground sloped towards a ditch. Judging by the angle of the car, and the way it was embedded deep in snow, she doubted she would be able to push it free. Even so, she gave it a go.
Nothing doing. She sat back in the car and tried the radio. It cut out after a few seconds. After a few more attempts she gave up trying, and used her phone to call the garage.
After that, she settled down to wait. The garage was some half an hour distant from here, and they were busy with an unprecedented amount of calls. She had no idea how long it would be before she was rescued.
She was shivering a little, and her teeth had begun to chatter, when she eventually heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. Surely this must be the garage rescue service? Would the driver see her in the darkness? Quickly, she flashed the car lights to draw the driver’s attention.
It wasn’t the rescue service that had come to her aid, though. It was Ross.
‘Good grief, Izzy…of all the times to choose to go and drive yourself into a ditch.’ He pulled open her car door and reached for her, pulling her into his arms. ‘You’re freezing,’ he said. ‘Come on into my car and let’s get you warmed up.’ He looked at her. ‘I know you like the heated seats, but you didn’t have to go this far to get yourself a ride.’
She bunched her cold fingers into a fist and feebly thumped him on the arm. ‘I’m really not in the mood for jokes,’ she said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE interior of Ross’s car was comfortingly warm and inviting. Izzy huddled in the passenger seat while Ross enveloped her in a blanket and supplied her with hot coffee from a vacuum flask. She wrapped her fingers around the cup and revelled in the heat it provided.
‘Is that better?’ he asked, coming to sit beside her.
‘Much better,’ she said. ‘I’m beginning to feel a little more human now. I’m sorry if I snapped at you.’
‘Snapping is allowed when you’re suffering from near hypothermia,’ he murmured.
She made a rueful smile. ‘It seemed like an eternity, sitting in that freezing car, waiting. I’d no idea how long it was going to be before anyone turned up. The garage boss told me they were overrun with callouts. It seems a lot of people have broken down or got stuck in the snow.’ She frowned. ‘How is it that you’re here, anyway? I was expecting a mechanic to come along and sort out my problem eventually. I was hoping that maybe he would be able to get me back on the road.’
He nodded. ‘That will still happen. They’re going to send out a rescue vehicle. As it happens, I was at the garage when your call came through…my car was in for a service and I’d just arrived to pick it up. As you say, they were inundated with calls, and worried that they might not be able to get out to you anytime soon, so I offered to come and find you.’
‘Oh, I see.’ She sent him a grateful glance. ‘Well, thank you for that.’ She sipped her hot coffee, more to steady her nerves than anything else. ‘It was a bit of a shock, going off the road that way, and then with it being dark and isolated it was all a bit creepy. I didn’t realise trees and branches could make such malevolent shapes against the skyline. I guess my imagination was working overtime. I was really relieved when you came along.’
‘I can imagine it must have been a scary experience for you,’ Ross acknowledged. ‘Everything looks grimmer in the dark, doesn’t it?’ He frowned. ‘Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s anything we can do to get you back on the road this evening, though. I’ve had a look around, and there seems to be some oil spillage on the ground, so something has probably been damaged underneath the car. I’ve transferred most of your equipment to this vehicle, so there shouldn’t be any worries on that score.’
‘I suppose not. And at least I’ll be able to use my own car to go into work tomorrow. I’m actually only on duty for the morning. At least I’m not meant to be out on call, and hopefully whatever’s wrong with the fast response vehicle can be repaired in a fairly short time.’ She fell silent, finishing off her hot drink, and then returned the cup to him. Oddly, her hand was shaking, and as she turned to face him she became aware of a dull pain in her shoulder, causing her to wince.
Perhaps she was more traumatised by her ordeal than she had realised. It was one thing to be cold and cut off from civilisation, but it was quite another to have narrowly missed being catapulted into a ditch.
He wrapped his arms around her. ‘It’s all right, you’re safe now.’ He looked at her, his expression concerned. ‘Are you hurt in any way? Maybe I should take a look at you?’
‘No, I’m okay,’ she said hurriedly. There was no way she wanted him examining her. ‘I think the seat belt must have bruised me a little because I shot forward with some force. I’m sure there’s nothing broken or damaged too much—it’s just a bit of muscular pain.’
‘Poor you.’ He didn’t push the issue, but instead soothingly stroked her cheek and gently held her, coaxing her to lean into the hollow of his shoulder, cradling her head against him with his hand.
That tenderness was her undoing. She snuggled against him, loving the strength and warmth of his long body, mesmerised by the way he was lightly caressing her as though she was the most precious thing in the world to him. It made her feel safe and secure. As if everything was going to be fine now that he was here.
‘Are you feeling a little warmer now?’
She nodded. ‘I am—thank you. It was thoughtful of you to bring along a hot drink. You must have guessed I would need it.’
‘I believe in being prepared.’ He studied her features in the car’s interior light. ‘There’s a little more colour in your cheeks now, at
any rate.’
She lifted her face to him. ‘I didn’t expect to feel this way. I always thought I would cope fairly well in a crisis…I didn’t imagine that I would crumble at the first post.’
He smiled into her eyes. ‘I don’t see too much crumbling—just a young woman recovering from a frightening experience. Thank heaven for mobile phones.’
She laughed, her mouth softening as she drank in his smoky grey-blue gaze. ‘Thank heaven you happened to be in the right place at the right time.’
‘I’d come to fetch you any time if I thought you were in trouble.’ He spoke softly, the words muffled against her cheek as he bent his head towards her. ‘You know I would do anything for you, don’t you? You only have to call and I’ll be there.’
In her heart, she knew that was true. Why else was he here now? It made her feel warm all over to know that she could rely on him, and when he leaned towards her, as though he was about to kiss her, she wanted it more than anything.
His mouth brushed hers before settling gently on her lips, testing their softness, exploring the sweet fullness with tender, exhilarating thoroughness. Her lips parted, faintly trembling, clinging to his, wanting more.
‘Mmm…sugar and spice and creamy coffee,’ he murmured huskily. ‘You taste delicious. You make me greedy for more…and more…and more.’
He deepened the kiss, drawing her into his arms so that her body meshed with his and she could feel the steady thud of his heartbeat against her own.
Kissing him was like drinking deeply of intoxicating wine. It went to her head and made her lose all sense of time and place, made her feel as though all that mattered was being here with him at this moment.
Then his hands moved over her, thrilling her with heated sensation, and all the while his fingers trailed and teased she was aware only of a fiery need to draw ever closer to him. Her breasts were softly crushed against his chest, her fingers tangled with the hair at the nape of his neck, and her lips were under siege, tingling with the sheer ecstasy of his passionate embrace.
