Proposing to the Children's Doctor

‘Excuse me?’ Rebecca was still trying to absorb the shock. She half turned so that Connor would not be able to see or hear what she was about to say, and Craig must have read the warning signals in her expression because he gave her his full attention.

‘This can’t be right,’ she said in a low tone. ‘No one said anything to me about a helicopter.’ She felt the colour wash out of her face.

‘It was just how things turned out, that’s all. I have to go back up north, and so do you and Connor, so it makes sense for us all to travel together, doesn’t it?’ He stopped suddenly, taking in her pale features. ‘Why, is there a problem?’

‘No, of course not,’ she lied through her teeth. How could she possibly voice her true thoughts with Connor beside her? ‘Why would there be?’

Craig put his head to one side as though he was trying to assess what was going through her mind. ‘You’re used to flying, aren’t you? Living on Islay, I dare say you would find it the best way to travel.’

The lift came to a halt before she had time to answer, and the doors opened out on to the roof space, so that a gust of fresh air met them. Rebecca looked out to see the brightly painted helicopter, ready and waiting on the helipad, its rotors turning.

She patted the blankets in place around Connor to make him snug, but after that she stayed rooted to the spot, so Craig took over the handling of the trolley bed and someone who introduced himself as the copilot came over to greet them.

‘I’ll give you a hand getting the patient on board,’ he told Craig, stopping for a moment to greet Connor. ‘We’ll soon have you tucked up cosy as you like.’

Connor nodded, and turned his head to look at Rebecca. ‘You’re coming, aren’t you, Becca? You said you would.’ His face was pale, and she realised that even this small excitement had been enough to tire him out.

‘Yes, I did. Of course I did.’ She ventured forward a few steps to give him encouragement and then stood still. ‘I’ll just wait here for a moment while they get you on board.’

Craig came to find her when the child was settled inside the cabin. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said. She looked at him. ‘I don’t do helicopter rides. I tried one once and told myself never again. You should have warned me. Someone should have told me.’

‘There’s nothing to it,’ he said. ‘Helicopters take off day in, day out. The sky is clear, and we’re all set to go. What could go wrong?’

‘You tell me,’ she said abruptly. ‘You were the one who said you had to stay over while your transport was fixed.’ She looked him in the eye. ‘That means there was a problem, right?’

His shoulders lifted in a negligent shrug. ‘It was nothing. Just a faint judder in the engine. But they’ve checked it out and everything’s fine.’

‘No, I don’t think it is. Everything is not fine, far from it. No one told me about this and I’m finding it hard to take in.’

‘You’ll only be up there for half an hour…an hour at the most,’ he said. He moved closer to her and placed an arm around her shoulders, drawing her against his chest. ‘I’ll sit with you and hold your hand if you like.’ He pulled an exaggeratedly fiendish face, halfway between a leer and a smile, and Rebecca balled her hand into a fist and thumped him lightly in the arm.

‘This is not funny. It’s not at all funny.’ She was battling with herself, trying to shake off the nerves that threatened to overwhelm her. At the same time she was trying not to think about the way it felt to have his arm draped about her, drawing her into the warmth and shelter of his body. She would not be enticed by the comfort of that embrace.

It was a sham, a pretence set up to fool her into complying with what he wanted her to do.

Like Angie had said of her ex-boyfriend, he was a ratfink. None of them were to be trusted.

CHAPTER THREE

‘YOU’LL be fine,’ Craig told Rebecca. ‘I promise you. Anyway,’ he added, ‘it’s a twin-engined aircraft, and it’s regularly maintained so that you can rely on it to give top performance and ensure your comfort at the same time. Honestly, there’s nothing at all for you to worry about.’

‘I’ve heard all that before,’ Rebecca muttered. ‘Besides, you sound like an advertisement for the helicopter company. I’ll have you know that the last time I flew in one of those contraptions the machine developed a tail rotor failure and the pilot had to make a difficult landing. It was scary, to say the least. Believe me, it isn’t something I’d like to go through again.’

Even now, some years later, she could recall the way the passengers had been thrown about from side to side as the pilot had tried to keep control of the machine. They had been strapped securely in their seats, but she’d borne the bruises from the restraints across her chest for some time afterwards. That was the least of her worries, though. It was the thought of what might have been that bothered her most.

Craig put on a serious expression. ‘I can see how you wouldn’t want to do that, but nothing bad is going to happen, is it? Lightning doesn’t strike twice, and anyway, when all’s said and done, the pilot landed you safely last time, didn’t he? They’re trained to cope in all sorts of circumstances. Believe me, you have nothing to worry about.’

Her gaze narrowed on him. He would say that, wouldn’t he? He was as exuberant and fired up as though there was nothing more to it than climbing on a bus. Nothing seemed to jar his confidence, whereas she was still fighting with herself, trying to come to terms with this new shock to her system.

‘You can’t possibly understand,’ she said. ‘You have absolutely no idea how I feel about this.’

He shrugged. ‘Maybe not,’ he said, ‘but I do know that life is for living and sometimes you have to take chances, otherwise you would do nothing but sit and quiver in a corner and wonder about what might have been.’

Rebecca scowled. He probably thought she was a complete wimp, but what did he know of how she had struggled to come to terms with what had happened before?

In the end, though, what choice did she have in this situation? Connor was relying on her to stay with him throughout this journey, and she couldn’t let him down, could she? He was just a young boy who was sick and dependent on her. He had already been through more in his young life than any child should suffer. How would she live with herself if she went back on her word?

With that solely in mind, she straightened her shoulders and began to walk towards the helicopter, well aware that Craig was staying close by her side the whole time. Perhaps he was afraid that she would change her mind and decide to turn back.

Once inside the helicopter, Rebecca tried to put aside her fears and busied herself by going to check on Connor. She took no notice at all of what Craig might be doing.

‘How are you bearing up?’ she asked the child as she made sure that his safety harness was fixed securely in position.

‘I’m OK.’ The boy mumbled, already half-asleep, and for a few moments afterwards his breathing appeared to be slightly laboured. He looked as though he was exhausted.

She checked the portable monitors. His heart rate had increased and there was a slight flush to his cheeks, but perhaps both of those things were only to be expected, given the nature of the journey ahead. His temperature was slightly raised, but there was nothing that she could see that would give her cause for concern.

‘You should make sure that you’re strapped in,’ the copilot advised her, ‘and then we can be on our way.’

She nodded, acknowledging him and the pilot, a man in his late thirties, who gave a brief wave of his hand before turning back to check his instrument panel. Rebecca looked around at the seating area and then chose a position where she would easily be able to attend to Connor throughout the flight.

In the meantime, Craig slipped a headset in place over the boy’s ears and then went to find his own seat nearby. He fastened his safety harness and checked that she had done the same.

‘Put on your headset,’ he told her. ‘It will be easier for us to talk to one another that way.’ He indicated a switch that enabled two-way communication, and she nodded to show that she understood.

‘He seems to be coping fairly well so far,’ he said, giving a slight nod towards Connor. ‘With any luck we’ll have him settled in the hospital back home before too long. I gather his parents are on the mend and waiting to see him?’

‘That’s right. They’ve been keeping in touch, of course, by phone. I rang the hospital this morning, and the staff nurse said that both of them were doing reasonably well. His father’s had an operation to fix his damaged knee, and Connor’s mother is up and about now, although she’s having to rely on crutches.’

‘That’s good. I expect it will have cheered Connor up to know that his parents are doing all right.’

Rebecca nodded, but her concentration began to waver as the pilot put the helicopter in motion, and she felt the pull of being lifted up into the air. A huge knot started to form in her stomach. For a moment or two she felt nauseous, and after a while she realised that she was gripping the arm of her seat so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

She tried breathing in deeply for a while, but it didn’t seem to be having much of an effect. Pulling a tissue from her pocket, she dabbed at the clammy beads of perspiration that had started to form on her brow.

‘We’ll be going over Kielder Water very soon,’ Craig said. ‘You can already see the moorland and the pine forests coming into view. Keep watching and you’ll see that there’s a lovely hotel just beyond the lake. It’ll come into view any minute now. It’s a great starting point from there to explore the Chevin Hills and the woodland all around.’

Rebecca was trying to listen to what he was saying, but her heart was thumping in an erratic fashion, and she was finding it difficult to stay in control of herself. She had to get a grip on her emotions, because she was there first and foremost to watch over her patient, and what use would she be to him if she let her nerves get the better of her?

‘Take a look out of the window,’ Craig urged. He leaned across her, his chest brushing her arm as he moved to show her the view. ‘See, over there,’ he murmured. ‘There’s a beautiful log cabin, nestled among the silver birch trees. I’ve stayed there, it’s fabulous. There’s a veranda, where you can sit on a hammock and watch the sun sink below the horizon.’

He glanced down at her, a glimmer of teasing invitation in his eyes. ‘You should try it some time. There can’t be anything more satisfying than to simply laze away a summer’s evening with nothing more to do than snack on good food and sip cocktails.’

It might well be a pleasant prospect, but Rebecca was in no state to take in his advice. In fact, she was doing her utmost to try to ignore the way his arm almost wrapped itself around her as he pointed out the distant hills. It set off alarm bells in her head, and her heart, still pounding from the anxiety of take-off, increased its beat to a staccato, heavy thud.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to think about that log cabin for a while. At the least it might help to calm her down. The very image of a log cabin conjured up woodland scenes, fishing by the lake and long walks in the countryside.