Questions of Trust A Medical Romance - By Sam Archer Page 0,62

a man who had just, Chloe understood, saved another human being’s life.

And it was the face of the man she loved.

***

The cottage was in darkness except for a dim light coming though the drawn living room curtains. Tom stumbled up to the door and knocked hesitantly.

After a minute he was about to knock again when the door opened. Chloe peered out, fully dressed though her feet were bare, the befuddlement of the newly wakened in her eyes.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,’ he whispered. ‘I knocked because I thought the doorbell might wake the kids up.’

She stood aside for him, her smile full of concern. ‘They’ve both been asleep for hours,’ she said. ‘I think I must’ve nodded off for a few minutes myself.’

In the living room he glanced at the clock on the wall. Three fifteen. ‘Look, I’m sorry. I should have gone back home.’

‘Nonsense,’ she said. ‘Cup of tea?’

‘Yes,’ he said, thankfully. ‘That would be wonderful.’ He’d had his fill of hospital coffee in plastic cups from vending machines over the last few hours, but a good home-brewed mug of tea would really hit the spot.

In the kitchen, over their beverages, Tom brought Chloe up to date.

Rebecca was out of danger. She had a mild concussion but had avoided serious head injury, and although her tibia, the shinbone, was broken, it was a clean fracture and should heal completely given enough time. The potentially most serious injury had been the one to her chest. One of her ribs on the right-hand side had been broken and punctured the pleura, the sac encasing the lung. Air had been sucked into the cavity around the lung and had been building up, compressing the lung and forcing her windpipe over to one side. In a few more minutes, perhaps seconds, she would have gone into respiratory arrest, and her heart function might have been compromised.

Tom explained as simply as he could what he’ done. He had used the scissors to gain entry to the pleural cavity, then used the shell of the ballpoint pen to open a makeshift channel so that air couldn’t build up around the lung any longer. The hiss Chloe had heard was the compressed air escaping from around the lung.

‘She’s got a proper drain in her chest now to get rid of any remaining air,’ he said. ‘They’ll take it out in a day or two. But she’ll need surgery on that leg.’

‘How is she?’ said Chloe. Tom glanced across the table at her. She must be as exhausted as he was; she’d been awake about as long, going to pick up Kelly after Tom had departed for the hospital and looking after the girl at the cottage with Jake, feeding and bathing them both and putting them both to bed.

‘I mean… I know you’ve told me how she is,’ chloe said. ‘But – how is she? Otherwise?’

He gave a weary shrug. ‘She’s not great,’ he said. ‘Rebecca’s a troubled woman. As you know only too well, Chloe. She’s going to need to get help after all this. I think she knows it. We had a bit of a heart-to-heart, though she wasn’t really in the best state to talk about things like that.’

‘Do you think she did it deliberately? Jump in front of that car?’

Again he raised a shoulder. ‘Who knows? Only Rebecca. And even she probably isn’t certain.’

‘Is her man coming?’

‘Andrew? Yes, he’s on his way. He’s been abroad in the Middle East on business but he’s flying in. He’s an okay guy, even if he did run off with my wife. He’ll be a good source of support for her.’

Tom realised he must have been lost in thought, because he became aware that Chloe had been watching him for some time. Her elbow was propped on the table top, her chin resting on her hand. The faintest of smiles touched her lips.

‘What?’ he grinned, all at once as self-conscious as an adolescent.

‘I was just thinking,’ she murmured. ‘Marvelling, actually. After everything, after all that’s happened, even right up until this afternoon… you had every reason to hate Rebecca. And yet you’re still concerned about her. You still saved her life.’

‘I couldn’t very well let her die there on the road,’ he said. ‘I am a doctor, after all. I took an oath.’

‘I know. Of course you had to do what you did. I understand that. It’s just…’ She broke off, looked down, almost shyly. ‘You said this Andrew’s an “okay guy”. Well, you’re an