Posh Doc, Society Wedding

by Joanna Neil

‘I’m wondering if you might have damaged something when you fell against the balustrade,’ Ross murmured. ‘Would you let me have a look at you? Izzy’s a doctor, too, so maybe she could offer a second opinion if we need one?’

  Murray nodded, sitting down. ‘It’s a sharp pain,’ he said. ‘I’m thinking I might have broken a rib or two.’

  ‘I’ll get my medical bag,’ Ross said.

  Izzy went to stand beside Murray and took his pulse. He was looking increasingly ill as the minutes went by, and his breathing was becoming rapid.

  ‘His pulse is rapid, but weak,’ she told Ross when he came back with his medical bag. ‘And the veins in his neck are beginning to swell.’ That wasn’t a good sign. It meant that pressure was building up inside the chest cavity.

  By now Murray was showing signs of anxiety and distress, and she set about soothing him while Ross took a blood pressure reading.

  ‘Blood pressure’s falling,’ Ross said, ‘and there are decreased breath sounds in the lung.’ He started to remove equipment from his medical case while Izzy explained to Murray what was happening.

  ‘It looks as though you’re right about the broken ribs,’ she told him. ‘Normally you would just be given painkilling medication to help you through that, but because of your other symptoms it seems that one of the ribs has punctured the lung. That means that air has gone into your chest cavity and can’t escape, so it’s pressing on the lung, causing it to collapse and making you breathless.’

  This was a medical emergency. Murray looked near to collapse, and if they didn’t remove the trapped air and restore function to his lung he could soon start to suffer heart failure and go into cardiac arrest.

  ‘I’m going to put a tube into your chest to remove the trapped air,’ Ross said. ‘As soon as that’s done you should start to feel more comfortable.’

  ‘Do you want me to anaesthetise the area while you prepare?’ Izzy asked.

  Ross nodded. ‘Thanks. I’ll set up a bottle with fluid to act as a valve to prevent the air returning.’ He glanced at Murray. ‘We’ll put one end of the tube in your chest, and the other end in the fluid in the bottle.’

  Izzy carefully infiltrated a local anaesthetic into the area, checking all the time that Murray was coping with the procedure.

  ‘I’m doing okay,’ he managed.

  ‘Good,’ Izzy said, giving him a reassuring smile.

  Ross made an incision in Murray’s chest and carefully inserted the tube. There was a satisfying hiss of escaping air, and he sealed the end of the tube in the bottle valve. Murray’s breathing began to improve almost immediately, and Izzy gave a soft sigh of relief.

  ‘You’re out of the woods,’ she said, laying a hand lightly on his shoulder.

  Murray’s tense expression slowly evaporated as he became more comfortable. ‘That feels so much better,’ he said. ‘Thanks, Ross—and you, too, Izzy.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘You have the hands of an angel and a beautiful soothing voice. You can come and take care of me any time you like.’

  Ross gave him a mock-stern look. ‘Don’t you be getting any ideas on that score,’ he said, feigning antagonism. ‘You actors have something of a reputation where women are concerned, don’t you? But I’m telling you, Izzy’s out of bounds.’

  Murray sent him a rueful smile. ‘Possessive, are you? Staking a claim? Now, there’s a thing. Seems to me she’s a woman worth fighting for. I’m inclined not to give up so easily—warning or no.’

  ‘You can both stop dreaming right now and come back down to earth,’ Izzy said in a blunt tone. ‘This is no time to be fooling around. We have to get you to hospital, Murray, to be X-rayed and monitored. And on another point, for your information, neither of you is on my list of eligible bachelors.’

  And it was just as well to remind herself of that. Because she was getting way too fond of Ross—and it wouldn’t do, would it, given all the upheaval it would cause in her family?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘I WOULDN’T be at all surprised if we had more snowfall some time today. The wind’s getting up, too.’ Lorna was frowning as she looked out of the window of the cottage. ‘It doesn’t make for a promising outlook for your journey to Inverness, does it?’

  ‘I suppose not. But Alice is so thrilled at the prospect of coming home at last. I wouldn’t dream of disappointing her—or the children.’ Izzy drew out a batch of mince pies from the oven and a satisfying aroma of spices filled the kitchen. ‘Ross said we would go over to the hospital and fetch her this morning, and with any luck we’ll be back before things get too bad. I just hope everyone who has to travel home for Christmas gets there safely. This is not a good time of year for things to go wrong, is it?’

  ‘No, it isn’t.’ Lorna turned away from the window. ‘I was planning on going over to my parents’ house to spend Christmas Day with them. It would be an awful blow if we were to be snowed in and I couldn’t get there, wouldn’t it? I thought I might take the train, actually. It might be simpler. My mother does us proud every year…there’s so much lovely food that we’re stuffed for the rest of the day.’ Lorna frowned. ‘I don’t think I could contemplate not getting there.’

  ‘Too true. I suppose if that did happen, though, you could always come over and spend the day with my family.’ Izzy laid out the pies to cool on a rack. ‘Unless, of course, you get an invitation to share Christmas with Jason Trent,’ she added. ‘I heard you and he were planning on having a meal together at a posh restaurant this weekend. It sounds as though things are heating up for you two.’

  Lorna’s eyes widened. ‘Word soon gets around, doesn’t it? I thought we’d kept that pretty much to ourselves. We didn’t want the whole neighbourhood talking about it. Next thing the press will be hanging around, taking photos.’

  Izzy studied her briefly. ‘Then he shouldn’t have told Murray about it. A nurse overheard them chatting, and now it’s the talk of the hospital.’ She laughed. ‘Maybe you’ll have to change the venue.’

  ‘Too right.’ Lorna smiled ruefully. ‘I should have known.’ She took a bite out of a mince pie. ‘Mmm…these are delicious—hot, though.’ She grinned, savouring the pastry. ‘Murray’s doing all right after his nasty accident, isn’t he? He said they’ve filmed all his major scenes, and he’ll be able to get by with the ones that are left because there’s nothing too strenuous involved—only some dialogue and a bit of canoodling with one of the leading ladies. Greg said he had the luck of the devil, and your Alice laughed and said she hadn’t realised Greg was the jealous type. She’s been teasing him ever since, apparently.’

  Izzy smiled, shaking icing sugar on to the golden crust of the pies. ‘It sounds as though she’s pretty much back on form, doesn’t it? She’s still unsteady on her feet, but I’m sure that will remedy itself given time.’

  ‘She’s lucky to have done as well as she has, by all accounts.’ Lorna was looking at the mince pies, debating whether to have another one. ‘The crash left her with head injuries and spinal contusions, didn’t it? As well as a host of other things? She’s a miracle of modern medical science.’ She reached for another temptingly aromatic pie.

  ‘You’re right. I can’t wait to see her properly up and about again.’

  The doorbell rang, and Izzy went to answer it, expecting Ross. Instead she found her parents waiting there. She hugged each of them in turn and invited them into the house.

  ‘We came to bring Christmas presents for Lorna to take home with her, and I wanted to make sure you knew what our arrangements were,’ her mother said. ‘You are going to come to us for Christmas dinner, aren’t you? Your grandparents will be there, along with your aunt and uncle.’

  ‘Of course,’ Izzy said, showing them into the kitchen. ‘I’ve just baked a batch of pies to bring over to you. That’s if there are any left after Lorna has finished dipping into them.’ She grinned, and Lorna put a hand to her mouth as though to hide her guilt.

  ‘Oops,’ she said. ‘Mind you, Izzy did make quite a lot. She said
she was going to take a few over to Alice.’

  ‘I thought she might appreciate a few home comforts,’ Izzy said. ‘Just to get her in the mood for Christmas.’

  ‘Of course—you’re bringing her home today, aren’t you?’ her mother said.

  Izzy nodded. ‘Ross is coming to pick me up in a while.’ Out of the corner of her eye she was aware of her father stiffening, and her spirits sank.

  ‘I expect the children must be over the moon.’ Her mother took no notice of her husband’s attitude but smiled, clearly thinking about the reunion.

  ‘They are,’ Izzy murmured. ‘But I’m not so sure that they’re going to be too keen on the journey there and back to fetch her. You know how it is with youngsters being cooped up in a car. They’ve made the drive several times, and they get very restless. Maggie was going to look after them, but she has to see to her own family and do some last-minute Christmas shopping, with the great day being just a short time away.’

  ‘I would have kept them here with me,’ Lorna said, ‘but I have to go to work this afternoon. I think Ross was hoping that he might find a babysitter. Last I heard, he hadn’t told the children that today’s the day.’

  Izzy’s mother glanced towards her husband. ‘I wouldn’t mind looking after them.’

  ‘We can’t do that,’ he said. ‘You know we’re going to visit your father. He’s not been well.’

  ‘It’s only a cold, Stuart,’ her mother retorted. ‘You’re just making excuses.’

  ‘I don’t need to make excuses,’ he answered. ‘You know how I feel about the situation. Every day Buchanan does something to remind me of what’s gone on in the past. He’s even brought more earth-moving equipment onto his land in the last few days. It was holding up the traffic again a couple of days ago. What’s he planning on doing with it, do you think? He’s having more foundations dug out, I’ll be bound. He’ll have a fight on his hands if I find he’s gone against the planning regulations. Is he determined to take away my business?’

  Izzy frowned. ‘I thought the building work was pretty much finished,’ she said. ‘Maybe he’s brought the equipment in to help with the tree-planting? I know he wanted to put in some mature trees on one part of the estate to provide a barrier against the wind. They can be pretty hefty, from what I’ve heard, and need large cavities for the roots. And he also mentioned shoring up the land in some parts to act as a flood barrier on one area of the estate.’

  ‘Hmmph. There’s not much likelihood of that happening on my part of the river, is there? I’m sure he’s damming it upstream.’

  She could see her father wasn’t convinced by any alternative explanation she tried to give. The doorbell rang again, and Izzy contemplated how she was going to manage the situation with her father and Ross in the same room. It was difficult, being plunged into the role of peacemaker, and it was something she would much rather do without.

  Molly and Cameron were full of news about their plans for the day. ‘We’re going to the doctor’s house,’ they told her. ‘Mrs Slater says she’ll take us shopping. She says she has to buy some food for Christmas, so we’re going to help her choose it, and we can pick out some goodies for our celebrations.’

  Izzy glanced at Ross. ‘So you found a solution, then?’

  He nodded. ‘That’s right…And I managed to find a wheelchair for Alice, too.’ He glanced briefly at the children. ‘Luckily I hadn’t mentioned any other happenings, so there are no problems there.’

  ‘That’s good.’ Their comments appeared to have gone over the top of the children’s heads, but now she signalled with her eyes towards the kitchen. ‘My parents are here.’ It was the least she could do to warn him.

  Izzy led the way into the kitchen. ‘Ross has managed to find a wheelchair for Alice, for when she comes home,’ she told her parents.

  ‘I’m glad you thought of that,’ her mother said, smiling at Ross. ‘I was a little worried about how she was going to manage.’ She studied him thoughtfully. ‘You’ve been very kind to her, bringing her to the hospital in Inverness and making sure that she’s all right.’

  Izzy’s father made an exasperated sound. ‘Does it not occur to you that his conscience is driving him? How is it that Alice came to be in the hospital in the first place?’

  ‘My mummy had an accident in the car,’ Molly piped up in all innocence, as though she was explaining to someone who knew nothing of what had gone on. ‘Uncle Ross looked after her and he called the ambulance.’

  Stuart McKinnon looked uncomfortable, a frown etching itself on his brow and his mouth turning down a fraction at the corners. He probably hadn’t expected a small child to take any note of what he was saying.

  ‘Would you children like to come and see the decorations we’ve put up in the living room?’ Lorna suggested hurriedly, obviously sensing trouble brewing. ‘We’ve decorated the tree with gold and silver baubles. I think it looks lovely.’

  The children followed her, happily unaware of any tension in the atmosphere and eager to inspect the Christmas trimmings. As soon as they had gone, Morag McKinnon turned on her husband. ‘How could you say such a thing—and in front of the bairns, too?’

  His shoulders moved in an awkward gesture. ‘I speak as I find. Would you have me do otherwise?’ He looked directly at Ross. ‘It has to be guilt that’s driving you. You were there when the accident happened. It was probably you that caused it, with your constant arguments with your brother. The fact that he ran off with your girlfriend must have stuck in your craw. Perhaps that’s why you were following them. Everyone knows that you were driving behind them on the day of the accident. Maybe they were trying to get away from you. You’re most likely the reason that Alice is in hospital.’

  Ross studied him for a long moment. ‘From the way you’re talking, anyone would imagine that you are concerned about what happened to Alice,’ he said. ‘If that’s the case, why haven’t you been to visit her? Why haven’t you tried to reconcile your differences with her? You looked after Alice as though she was your own daughter for years, and yet the instant she went against you you abandoned her—you cast her off as though she meant nothing to you.’

  He frowned. ‘Since she’s been injured, you haven’t made any attempt to visit her, or to make arrangements for where she’s to stay on her release from hospital. I don’t see any vestige of love in that kind of response. So why should you care either way about my involvement with her?’

  ‘I don’t.’ Izzy’s father started to walk towards the door, his expression dark as a thundercloud.

  Izzy felt a pang of anguish as he threw a backward glance towards her mother. Would this feud never end? Could these two men never be in the same room together without arguing?

  ‘We should go, Morag,’ he said abruptly. ‘Your father will be expecting us.’ He went out into the hall and out of the front door.

  Izzy’s mother watched him leave, and hesitated before sending Ross an apologetic look. ‘I know this isn’t your fault, Ross, and I hope you will try to understand—he has great difficulty coming to terms with what happened. Alice left without a word, without giving us any indication of where she was going, and she didn’t get in touch afterwards for a long, long time. We had to rely on other people to tell us what was going on. She knew how we felt about her being with your brother, and I think it really hurt Izzy’s father that she didn’t try to talk to him about it.’

  She pulled in a deep breath. ‘I know why she did what she did, of course. He can be brusque and inflexible and very hard to approach. But underneath it all he cares very deeply. I know he’s torn. On the one hand he blames her for leaving with the son of his lifelong enemy, and on the other he feels that she was like a daughter to him and she let him down. I don’t know how to break down that barrier. I wish I could. I hate to see him hurting, and it grieves me to see Alice suffer, too.’

  ‘I understand, Morag.’ Ross gave a brief nod of acknowledgement, his mouth making a faint downturn. ‘But he has to find a way to get
over his antagonism before it destroys him. It’s gone on for too long through the generations, and it’s even affecting Alice’s children at school—with youngsters pointing the finger at them. They don’t deserve any of this. I’m not going to stand by and see them vilified for what went on in the past.’

  Molly and Cameron came into the room. ‘There’s a beautiful star at the top of the tree,’ Molly told Izzy’s mother. ‘It sparkles, and you can see lots of different coloured lights in it.’

  ‘I like the lanterns,’ Cameron said. ‘They’re all shiny and bright, and they kind of float in the air. Lorna says when you open the door they start to twirl.’

  ‘I’ve seen them,’ Morag said. ‘They’re very pretty.’ She gave each of the children a quick cuddle, and then said, ‘I must go. We’re off to see Izzy’s grandad. He’s been poorly.’

  ‘I want to give Grampops our card,’ Molly said. ‘We made it for him for Christmas.’

  ‘We made one for you, as well,’ Cameron said, handing a homemade card to Izzy’s mother. ‘Maggie helped us to make them. I stuck the sparkly baubles on the tree—see? They’re a bit crooked, but they look pretty, don’t they?’

  ‘I think it’s a beautiful card,’ Morag said, deeply touched. ‘Thank you very much, both of you. I shall put it on my mantelpiece where everyone can see it.’

  The children beamed happily and followed her to the door. Izzy’s father stood outside, a solitary figure waiting by a tree.

  Molly went over to him, looking up at him in a puzzled fashion. ‘Are you cross?’ she asked. ‘You look cross.’

  ‘No, Molly,’ he said looking down at her. ‘I’m not cross with you.’

  ‘Good.’ She gave him a wide smile. ‘Sometimes you look as though you’re a bit sad,’ she said, ‘so I’ve made you a card. Well, me and Cameron made it together. It’s Santa Claus. He’s got a big smile on his face and he makes everyone happy.’ She thrust the card into his hands. ‘Happy Christmas, Grampops.’

  He took the card she offered, holding it in his hands as he looked down at the brightly coloured Santa, with a cotton wool beard and cherry-red cheeks. He swallowed hard, and for a moment Izzy thought his eyes misted over. He blinked, though, and straightened up, saying huskily, ‘Thank you for that, both of you. That was very thoughtful of you. Thank you very much.’