Unknown (13 page)

'It was one of the Copley boys. He's gone to Accident and Emergency to be checked over, but he seemed all right.'

'And you? Are you all right?'

'Yes. I'm fine. Just very tired, that's all,' she told her, and wondered if Alice was asking out of concern or curiosity.

'Then you'd best get to bed, hadn't you? Or you'll be needing a doctor yourself,' she said, and Fenella decided that it had to be concern for her well-being that was behind Alice's comments.

'Goodnight, Alice,' she said softly, 'and thanks for bothering about me. When I call on you tomorrow I hope you won't be offended when you know why I've come.'

'I probably will be,' was the uncompromising reply. 'But we'll have to wait and see, won't we?' And that was that.

When Max called for her the next morning he said immediately, 'No after-effects, I hope?'

'No. I'm fine,' she told him. 'And you? I once heard of a man who lost all his hair after he'd fallen into a canal somewhere.'

'So I've got that to look forward to, have I?' he said in mock horror. 'Thanks a bunch. Perhaps I'd better say that I'm all right
so far.

'I rang the Copleys last night, but there was no reply, so I took it that they were still at the hospital. However, I managed to get hold of the boy's mother this morning and she said that they'd kept him in overnight, as I thought they would, but he'll be coming home later in the day. So all's well that ends well.'

Fenella nodded. The boy had been the first concern in her mind when she'd woken up and now she was going to voice the second.

'So how was Sonya when you called?'

'OK,' he said easily. 'A bit frazzled around the edges, but happy to see a familiar face. I think she got a kick out of showing me round the old hall, but I can't see her wanting to be rattling around that place on her own for long.'

'So what is she going to do now that she's back?'

He shrugged. 'I don't know. Get involved in village life maybe. Or find a job. Though I don't think she needs the money. It would appear that she came out of the divorce with a good settlement.. .and a lot of regrets.'

'Are you glad that she's come back?'

'I'm neither glad nor sorry,' he said as the lock-keeper's cottage came into view. 'I've moved on, Fenella.'

He would have liked to have said more, a lot more, but hoped that for the time being that would put her mind at rest.

'Do you mind if I pop in for a moment?' she asked when he stopped the car. 'Just to make sure that list night's episode didn't upset my mum and Simon too much. They could have done without it on his first day home.'

'Sure,' he said easily. 'Now that you've got transport, I'll leave you to make your own way back. But don't be too long. We have a full day ahead of us. Thank goodness it's the weekend tomorrow.'

'Mmm. Thank goodness indeed,' she said flatly, as it stretched ahead emptily.

Until the incident in the club Fenella would have been out on the town with Julie. But both of them had given the nightspots a wide berth since then, and her friend was dating some man she'd met at the supermarket checkout. Julie had also given up drinking after the humiliation of her parents being called to the police station to collect her. All of which left Fenella at a loose end when Friday and Saturday nights came along.

She found her mother and Simon having a leisurely breakfast, and after they'd enquired about young Copley and she in turn had made sure the previous night's trauma hadn't affected either of them, Fenella set off for the practice, where she discovered the mumps epidemic was now in full spate and any child who hadn't received the MMR vaccination was being invited to come to the surgery and have it.

Max was on the phone, arranging an appointment for one of his patients, when she was ready to start her rounds, so she left him to it and went out to her car. As she was about to lower herself into the driving seat there was a screech of brakes and when she looked up a car had braked sharply on the main street of the village and a motorcyclist was lying in the road.

Fenella was out
of the car in a flash, dragging her doctor's bag off the back seat and running towards the road. The motorcycle, which was lying in the gutter, was a flashy, trendy machine and a slim, boyish figure was lying unconscious in the road.

The car driver was bending over him crying hysterically, 'It wasn't my fault. He came out right in front of me.'

'I'm a doctor,' she told him urgently. 'Will you move to one side, please?'

At that moment Max came rushing out of the surgery and when he reached her side he asked, 'Is he breathing?'

'Yes,' she told him, 'and it's a she.'

'Right.' He was checking her heartbeat and pulse and as Fenella observed him anxiously he nodded. 'She's still with us. We can leave her helmet on, but watch her breathing. And she's hurt her arm.'

Blood was seeping steadily through the padded sleeve of the young woman's jacket and Fenella said anxiously, 'Is the ambulance on its way?'

Max nodded. 'The receptionist has phoned the emergency services and in the meantime we have to cut the jacket off to get to the arm. We need to try and stop the blood loss, otherwise she could bleed to death.'

He was calm, extremely so, totally in charge of the situation, while Fenella was sick with apprehension. They couldn't let this girl die. It looked as if she'd ridden into the path of the car sideways on and her arm had taken the brunt of the impact.

As they cut away the jacket with a huge pair of scissors from the practice, Fenella gave a gasp of horror. The arm was almost severed and at that moment the rise and fall of the girl's chest stopped.

'Let's get the helmet off. We're going to have to resuscitate her,' Max said. 'You apply a tourniquet to stem the blood flow, and I'll do the mouth-to-mouth.'

'OK,' she croaked, as they quickly removed the helmet.

Fenella applied the tourniquet and eventually saw the girl's chest start to rise and fall again as Max gave mouth-to-mouth. Thankfully, at that moment the ambulance arrived.

'The arm is almost off,' Max told the paramedic in charge. 'We've got her breathing again and applied a tourniquet.'

'We'll transfuse on our way to A and E,' he was told, 'and radio ahead for them to be ready and waiting.'

Fenella had gone to speak to the motorist, who looked on the point of collapse himself. 'Come into the surgery and we'll make you a cup of tea,' she told him. 'Are you hurt in any way?'

He was a balding, middle-aged man in his fifties, and he shook his head. 'My chest hurts from when I was flung against the steering-wheel, but that's all at the moment. It isn't myself I'm worried about. It's that poor girl. I thought it was a lad but it's not, is it?'

'No, it isn't,' she said gently, and took his arm, but he didn't budge. He was watching the ambulance drive away with sirens blaring and lights flashing.

'She's going to die, isn't she? She stopped breathing.'

'Yes, but we did get her breathing again, so she has a chance. Just as long as they get some blood into her,' Max told him as he came to join them.

'Are you from around here?' Fenella asked to try and keep him calm.

He shook his head. 'No. I'm from down south. I was on my way to pick my wife up. She's been staying at her sister's in the next village.' But he was not to be sidetracked. 'Do you know who the girl on the bike is?'

As Max was about to reply, a police car pulled up beside them and he told those inside, 'This gentlemen is in a very distressed state. We're about to take him into the surgery. Would you like to interview him there?'

It was over. At least it was for the two doctors and the motorist, but far from over for the young victim. The man had got back into his car and driven off after the police had taken a statement from him and checked his documents.

'If I don't get back behind the wheel now, I never will,' he'd told them, and they'd understood his feelings.

The crowd that had gathered had dispersed and now there were the house calls to catch up on.

'So,' Max said, observing Fenella's chalk-white face, 'was that the first serious accident you've been involved with?'

'Yes, and I was in a panic. I felt useless, Max. I've been trained for that sort of thing, but I was scared stiff that I would do something wrong. Do you think she'll pull through? She is so young and so badly hurt.'

'Whether our young motorcyclist recovers relies on the skills of the team in A and E
and
her own resilience, I'm afraid. As to you being useless, of course you weren't. You did what you were told.' He was smiling. 'We are a team, you and I, Fenella, and now, like it or not, we still have work to do.

'There will be folks up and down the hillside who are thinking we've forgotten them. The police have gone to tell the girl's parents about the accident and by now I imagine they'll be on their way to A and E.

'I don't know them, but one of those looking on recognised her. She's the daughter of people who have just moved into the neighbourhood. The motorcycle was a gift for her birthday last Saturday. Did you see the learner plates?'

Fenella shook her head. 'No. I didn't. I was afraid to take my eyes off her in case we lost her.'

'That might still happen, so be prepared. We'll check With the hospital when we get back, and if she's still with us we can go to see her when she's allowed visitors.'

'You read my mind.'

'Not always,' he countered, 'but we do have our moments, don't we?'

Max had said they were a team. She was presuming that he'd meant medically and supposed she should be satisfied with that, but she wasn't.

When Alice opened the door to Fenella early that evening she said dourly, 'Come in. Nobody's crossed the doorstep since the last time you were here.' She continued without pausing for breath, 'What have you come to see me about? They haven't cancelled my appointment, have they?'

Fenella shook her head. 'No, certainly not. I've come to see if you are getting all the benefits you're entitled to, Alice. I don't want to pry, but lots of elderly folk are not receiving what is due to them because they are uninformed.'

She watched Alice's narrow shoulders stiffen inside the cross-over pinny she was wearing and knew she was going to have to tread carefully.

'I'm all right, thank you,' the old lady said with unconvincing harshness. 'I've never asked for charity in my life and I'm not going to start now.'

'We're not talking about charity,' Fenella told her gently. 'Does anyone come this far with meals on wheels?'

'No. And if they did, I wouldn't want 'em. I'm a good cook when I've got something to put in the oven.'

'Exactly. I'm going to leave you some leaflets that will tell you what benefits you can apply for, and if you need any help with filling in the forms, give me a ring.'

'So you don't want to know my affairs?' Alice said, softening slightly.

'No. Not if you don't want to discuss them, but, please, read the leaflets I've brought.'

'Aye, I'll read them,' she said reluctantly, 'and before you rush off, how's the daft lad who fell in the canal?'

'All right, as far as I know. There has been another worrying accident since then.'

'And what was that?'

'A girl on a new motorcycle drove into the path of a car and is seriously injured. Dr Hollister and I were the first on the scene.'

'You two are like Batman and Robin,' Alice said, and when Fenella began to laugh she laughed, too, amazed that she'd cracked a joke.

When their amusement had subsided Alice asked, 'Are you going to stay for a cup of tea?'

Fenella hesitated. She was tired. It had been a stressful day, but Alice had said that no one had been since her last visit, and a few minutes of her time could mean a lot to the proud elderly woman.

'Yes, all right,' she said with a smile. 'A quick cuppa would be lovely.'

As she was leaving Alice's place a little later, Max's car pulled up outside. He got out and with a wave to the old lady waited for Fenella to draw near.

'Have you got news of the girl?' she asked anxiously.

He nodded. 'Yes, and her name is Caroline by the way. Caroline Stephens. She is alive and at this moment having her arm operated on. It will be microsurgery and she'll be in Theatre for some time.'

Fenella let out a sigh of relief. 'At least she's alive.'

He nodded sombrely. 'Yes, for the present.'

'Supposing they find that microsurgery won't work?'

'Then they'll have to amputate. Her family are with her so I don't think we should intrude. But maybe tomorrow we could get in touch to see how she is and tell them what happened as far as we know. I could take you after we've finished at the surgery.'

'Yes, I'd like to do that.'

'We seem fated to be together, don't we?' he said wryly. 'Do you think some imp of mischief is pulling our strings?'

'I don't need anyone or anything to do that, Max. I think you know how I feel about you. But I'm blessed if I know how you feel about me. You change from moment to moment.'

'Maybe it's because you've come into my life like a whirlwind and whirlwinds are known to blow themselves out.'

'I'd have thought I was the gentle breeze type.'

He was laughing. 'You know better than that.'

Alice had gone inside but she was watching them from the window. Remembering their conversation earlier, Fenella told him, 'She thinks we are like Batman and Robin.'

The laughter was still there as he told her, 'I'm not into capes,
or
hoods, for that matter.' He was getting back into his car. 'I'm off, Fenella. Sleep tight and don't forget to lock all doors and windows, as we still don't know if Saracen was the culprit.'

When they went to the hospital the following evening the two doctors discovered that Caroline's arm had been saved. Time would tell how much use she would have of it, but at least they hadn't needed to amputate.

Her parents and young brother were at her bedside in Intensive Care and she told them weakly, 'These are the two doctors who saved my life. The nurses told me what they did.'