Prescription-One Bride

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IT WAS a night of loneliness.

A night of pain.

A night so long that Jess never wanted to go through it again in her life.

Jess somehow managed to get through her normal tasks. She drove out to the Benns’ to help settle the little mare in her new home, hoping that it might help ease the hollow ache inside-but nothing would.

Nothing.

She lay in the dark in the empty hospital and she’d never felt so alone in her life.

When the telephone rang at three a.m. it was almost a relief.

She’d rather have a difficult calving in the middle of a paddock than this awful emptiness.

It wasn’t a sick cow.

It was Sergeant Russell, sounding anxious.

‘Jess, are you safely locked up there?’

Jess frowned. She leaned over and switched on her bed light.

‘What…? How do you mean?’

‘Barry Simmons is out.’

‘Barry…’ Jess frowned. ‘You mean he got bail?’

‘I don’t mean anything of the sort,’ the sergeant said wearily. ‘There was a car crash over the other side of the island. Drunk teenagers. No damage to themselves but a lot of property damage. I had to go. Barry must have heard me go and used the opportunity to fool Marie.’

Marie…The sergeant’s wife.

‘What happened?’

‘He started screaming blue murder five minutes after I left. Said his hand was killing him-said the bandages the doc put on his hand were cutting off circulation and his fingers were turning black. When Marie went down to the cells he made out he was having some sort of convulsion-grabbed his hand, choked and fell over like he was unconscious. So…’ He sighed. ‘So she broke every rule in the book and went in. And he hit her and took off.’

‘Is she all right?’ Jess asked anxiously.

‘Sore, sorry for herself and feeling stupid,’ the policeman told her. ‘But he locked her in the cell and she was there for an hour till I got home. So, now…Well, I guess he’ll probably head home. I’ll go there now.’

Jessie’s heart missed a beat. She should have taken the Rottweiler out of harm’s way. ‘Sergeant, Kiro…Ethel’s dog’s there. Barry threatened to kill it.’

‘Yeah. He’s angry enough to do anything,’ the sergeant said. ‘The only worry is, he’s furious at Ethel. He knows she’s laid charges and I didn’t tell him she’s left the island for Sydney.’

‘You didn’t tell him…?’

‘I haven’t been able to get within earshot of him for abuse since he found out Ethel was laying charges,’ the sergeant said. ‘I couldn’t have told him even if I’d wanted to. Which I didn’t,’ he said fairly. ‘After treating Ethel the way he has the least he knows about her whereabouts the better. But now…’ He sighed.

‘Jess, if he thinks she’s still at the hospital…he could come. Just make sure the place is locked. I’ll check the house and be right with you. Ten minutes. But lock the place, Jess.’

‘It already is locked.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Y-yes.’

‘That’s something, then. But Jess, be careful.’

He hung up, a worried man.

So what was Jess supposed to do now?

Go calmly to bed?

Jess had been wide awake before. Now she was so alert that every noise was magnified a thousand times.

The place was locked. Only staff had keys.

It was a rambling building. If Barry broke a window on the far side-on the hospital side…

The policeman would be here within ten minutes and Barry Simmons would surely only break a window to gain access to the women’s ward. If he found his wife gone…

Jessie’s ears strained. There was something banging over in the other wing. A gentle thumping that was so soft that it had been in the background and she hadn’t heard it.

An intermittent thumping. Like a French window banging gently in the wind.

It shouldn’t be open. The nurses were under strict instructions to leave the place locked.

But Niall had been back this afternoon.

Niall, whom a woman would be mad to trust…

She would go mad by herself here with a window open so close. Jessie bit her lip in indecision.

This was stupid. Barry Simmons was no threat to her. Even if he broke in he didn’t want Jess. He was angry with his wife. There was no need to think that the man was intent on violence to anyone other than Ethel.

‘So lock the window,’ Jess told herself harshly. ‘Before you go nuts.’

She opened the door out into the corridor and stepped out into the darkened hospital.

It was definitely one of the French windows banging.

Out here she could hear it clearly. It was a wonder that she hadn’t heard it earlier in the night-but maybe the wind had only just risen.

She walked slowly down the corridor, nervous despite herself. The light switches were near the nurses’ station. Jess flicked them and the place lit up.

The light should have reassured her. Instead, it did no such thing.

It increased her sense of urgency.

There was a smell…

Petrol.

The hospital reeked of petrol.

Dear heaven…

Jess flung open the door into the women’s ward. This was where the sound had come from. The French windows were open wide and, as she watched, the breeze caught them and swung them gently closed with the thump she had heard.

If the place smelled of petrol…

The smell was unmistakable. She should get out. Jess walked quickly over to the windows and out onto the verandah.

There was nothing here.

So why the smell?

She frowned. She had to be right. The smell couldn’t be from a small container. It was stronger in different places-and there were dark, damp patches on the floor.

Even out here on the verandah there were damp splotches-and the lock on the French windows was splintered and broken.

Barry must have been here…

Maybe he still was. If he’d poured petrol around the place…There was only one reason why he’d do that.

To set fire to the building…

There was no fire yet. Maybe he’d put the petrol down and changed his mind. Discovered that his wife wasn’t here.

But if a spark ignited the petrol…the place would go up like a bomb.

Jessie’s heart froze in fear.

Her animals-Wilfred and tiny Wobble-were still inside.

Things-buildings and contents-could be replaced but not her wallaby and wombat. Jessie looked frantically back into the hospital, her mind racing.

From out here it looked safe-normal-but there was no ignoring that smell. She wasn’t going back through the corridors. If the petrol caught she’d be trapped.

She’d go around. Break a window from the outside and get back into her flat that way. Even if she was imagining the smell…

A light cut through the night, lighting the verandah where she stood. Jessie turned to face it. A car was screeching to a halt in the car park and a dark figure emerged.

It wasn’t the police sergeant. Jess could pick this profile anywhere.

Niall Mountmarche…

Niall could obviously see Jess on the verandah and Jess could discern relief in the way his shoulders sagged.

Sergeant Russell must have phoned him…

Why, for heaven’s sake? What use was Niall Mountmarche, except to upset her still further? Jess didn’t want Niall. She wanted only to concentrate on her animals.

What help was he?

Jess turned again toward the broken French doors. Not that way, she told herself fiercely, blocking out Niall’s presence. Don’t be stupid, Jess…You’ll have to go around the verandah…

She took one step forward toward the verandah steps-and the world exploded around her in a brilliant, molten rush of engulfing flames.

She woke to damp earth and dazzling light.

Someone was pushing her face into the grass. Jess had a mouthful of the stuff and it was threatening to choke her.

There was a weight on top of her, bearing her down.

Blind panic took over.

Frantically Jess fought against the weight and, instead of being pushed down, the weight rolled aside and she was being pulled into strong, fierce arms.

‘Lie still, you little termagant. Dear God, Jess…’

‘Let me go…Let me go…’

She could see Niall’s face above her now, glowing in reflected flame. There was soot on his jaw and his forehead-black grime, deeply embedded-and Niall’s eyes were dark slits.

‘Jess, you’re burned. Hurt. Lie still.’

‘I’m not burned…’ Jessie’s face was tingling. She put a hand to her forehead and felt singed hair. ‘I’m not…’

‘The explosion knocked you out on the verandah. I got you off just before the roof came down.’ Niall’s arms held her close and she could feel a shudder run the length of his body. ‘Dear God, if I hadn’t been here…’

‘B-Barry…’ Jessie’s voice was a choked whisper. ‘It must have been Barry…’

‘He’s torched the place.’ Niall was using his body to shield her from the worst heat. Now he shaded his face with one hand to try to see. They were lying full length on the lawn and the heat was sweeping over them in waves. ‘God knows where he is. Jess, there’s no one else inside, is there? Think.’

‘No…No one…’

Yes, there was…

‘Wilfred…’

Frantically Jess tried to haul herself away from Niall’s encircling arms to see. The fire was all through the front of the hospital-but Jessie’s flat was at the rear. Maybe…

‘Let me go,’ she screamed. ‘Niall, let me go.’

‘Wilfred?’ Niall’s voice was blank. He was still lying prone, his arms restraining her with absurd ease.

‘My animals. They’re in my flat. Let me go!’

‘If you think I’m letting you go near that…’

She lashed out then, shoving with fists and elbows and feet, clawing like a wild creature. The attack was fierce and unexpected and Niall’s hands released their grip for a fraction of a second.

It was all she needed. Jess was on her feet and running barefoot, her charred nightgown tattered around her. If she could get through the garden…

Jess was lithe and fit and running was something she could do well. It would take Niall Mountmarche a mammoth effort to catch her, especially as she knew her way round every inch of this garden.

She had to beat him. She couldn’t let him stop her.

The heat was almost overpowering. The wind was coming from the north, pushing her along with its blast and Jess knew that most of its strength was from the fire.

There was no saving the hospital now.

There were only her animals.

She couldn’t let them be incinerated. They trusted her absolutely. She was all they had.

They were all she had…

Heaven knew what Niall was doing. She couldn’t care. Jessie’s feet flew, careless of flying cinders or gravel on the paths. Here was the gate to the back yard-and here the path leading to her flat door. There was a glass pane in the door. If she smashed it…

The flames weren’t here yet. Soon…

The smoke must be unbearable inside…

Jess stooped to grab a rock by the path and raised her arm to smash but her arm was stopped in mid-air.

The stone was lifted effortlessly from her nerveless grasp.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

Niall’s voice was hoarse with smoke. She could hardly see him for billowing clouds of acrid fumes.

‘I’m going in.’

‘The hell you are!’

‘They’ll die,’ Jess sobbed.

‘Jess, they’re animals.’

‘Yes, they are,’ she screamed at him. ‘And they’re helpless. They’re locked in their pouches. They depend on me and I can’t let them die…’

‘You can’t go in. OK, it’s not burning yet but if he’s spread the petrol…Jess, it could go up any second.’

‘I’m going in. There can’t be petrol. I was in there while he was spreading it.’ Frantically she fought him, wild with grief.

Fighting was useless. The only reason she’d broken from him before was because she’d surprised him. This time he was ready.

Niall stood holding her against him in an iron grip, one of his hands holding both of hers behind her back and the other encircling her body.

‘You don’t care,’ she sobbed. ‘You don’t care about anything.’

‘I care about you. And you’ll die in there.’

‘So what?’ she screamed. ‘At least I’ll die trying-and they need me. No one else does. It doesn’t matter about me. Let me go!’

‘Jess, you haven’t even got shoes on.’

‘I don’t care. Let me go.’

He took a deep breath then and steadied. His dark eyes perused her frantic face. ‘Tell me exactly where they are, Jess. The same place as I saw them last night?’

‘Why?’

‘I’m going in.’

Jess stared through frantic tears. ‘You…you can’t.’

‘I can. Tell me, Jess. The same place…?’

‘Y-yes. But…’

‘Stand back, then.’ Niall stooped to find Jessie’s rock again, then raised his arm with it held high.

The world was turning somersaults. He couldn’t. He didn’t care…

‘No!’ She clutched his arm and he paused for a fraction of a second. ‘Niall, you’ll be killed.’ Jessie’s voice broke in fright. It was OK for her. But for Niall…’No!’

‘Better me than you.’

‘But…’

‘Don’t you understand?’ Niall said fiercely. He smashed the rock into the window, sending a shower of glass into the room. ‘It’s me or you. And if you die…It’d be a damned sight better to be dead myself.’

‘But Paige…’

‘She has Hugo-and you. Look after her like you look after your wild animals if anything happens to me, Jess,’ he said roughly as he hauled himself up and over the sill. ‘That’s all I ask. Don’t follow me in. Promise me, Jess. Promise!’

‘I…’ Jess could hardly make her voice work for confusion. She felt dizzy and sick with fear.

He paused for a fraction of a moment.

‘Promise.’ It was a harsh command.

‘I…I promise,’ she made herself whisper.

‘My love…’

Niall leaned to give Jess one last fierce kiss-a kiss that bruised her lips-and then he was gone.

What followed was the worst three minutes of Jessie’s life. She stood by the shattered window, fighting for breath through the smoke, and her world shifted crazily on its axis. Shifted and spun so fast that she was in danger of falling off.

This wasn’t the Niall Mountmarche she’d condemned.

This man…

This man was risking his life for her animals. For two wild creatures.

She heard him coughing desperately as he stumbled through the room and smoke was pouring from the shattered window. It was all Jess could do not to climb in after him.

Crazy…

She had to force herself to stay outside.

She couldn’t go in because of Paige.

One of them had to be safe for Paige. Niall had made her promise and she had.

Please…

Please…

There was the sound of shouting from the other side of the building, frantic through the roar of flames. She opened her mouth to scream a response but no words came out.

How could it?

There were two hands at the window, a closed pouch in each.

Jess seized both pouches and laid them gently on the ground.

Then she took Niall Mountmarche’s grimed and bloodied hands in hers and helped him out of the window.

Somehow they got away from the fire.

They lifted the pouches back onto the lawn and staggered back away from the worst of the smoke.

There were no words said. When the wriggling pouches were laid on the lawn, safe, they turned as one to watch the end of the Barega hospital.

The flames were in possession of the building. Their smashed window was spewing smoke with fiercer and fiercer force-and then crimson flames spurted through the gap and the shattered window disappeared into the fireball that was once the hospital.

Jess could no longer bear to look.

She turned her face into Niall’s chest and wept.

The whole island was in the hospital grounds by the time the building subsided to a massive pile of glowing embers. The local firefighters were joined by every able-bodied man and woman on the island, and a few kids and dogs as well.

Jess and Niall were surrounded by a group of horrified well-wishers.

Well-wishers or not, there was nothing that could be done to save the hospital.

Geraldine’s daughter appeared out of the night and took Jessie’s charges back to her mother’s house.

‘They’ll be better off away from this,’ Lucy said fiercely, ‘and I’ve formula there I took home when I looked after them last time.’

Jess could only be grateful. She had nowhere to take them. She had no home.

She stood in the protective circle of Niall’s arms and she couldn’t stop shaking.

‘T-tell me if they seem stressed,’ she managed and Lucy looked at her dubiously.

‘I know who seems stressed,’ the teenager said. She peered into the pouches. ‘I doubt if these two even knew there was a fire. It’d take a bit for smoke to get through all this wool. Good grief, though, Dr Harvey. You should see your face.’

‘It’s burned,’ Niall agreed. He held Jess close. ‘I’ll get you away from this.’

‘I don’t know where to go…’

‘You’ll come home with me,’ Geraldine said out of the darkness but Niall shook his head.

‘No. I’ll look after her…’

‘Begging your pardon, Dr Mountmarche…Geraldine directed a torch down to Niall’s hands ‘…but you need looking after yourself. How did you cut your hands?’

The broken glass on the window…Jess stared down at the bloody lacerations on Niall’s strong hands and a convulsive tremor shook her.

‘They’re nothing,’ he said harshly.

Someone had brought a blanket and Niall was holding it round Jess, keeping her vaguely decent in her tattered nightdress and holding the night chill at bay. Her feet, though, were still bare on the damp lawn.

Niall swore.

‘Enough of this.’ Regardless of his damaged hands, Niall lifted Jess strongly into his arms. ‘I’m taking the lady home.’

‘But…’ Geraldine was made of stern enough stuff to defy even Niall Mountmarche ‘…who’ll look after your hands, Dr Mountmarche?’

Niall smiled then, an exhausted smile with the strain showing through but a smile for all that.

‘I’ve just the lady in my arms to look after me,’ he said softly and his weary eyes were a caress. There was no fight left in Jessica Harvey and Niall knew it. ‘Will you look after me, my Jess?’

‘I…’

‘After I’ve finished taking care of you, that is,’ Niall added, and kissed her tenderly on her singed hair. ‘And that, my love, is going to take a very long time. I think maybe a lifetime…’

The rest of the night passed in a blur.

Jess sat in the front seat of Niall’s Range Rover and tried to make herself think.

There was no way that her mind would work.

Niall drove with one eye on her and the other on the road. As she shook he swore softly into the night.

‘You shouldn’t have been in that damned place alone. Never again…’ He was talking more to himself than to her but his words sank home and were somehow comforting.

In the terror of the night somehow things had changed.

The tilting world had somehow righted itself again.

What she’d learned of Niall that morning-dear heaven, was it only that morning?-had seemed crazy. Out of balance.

And in one mad night the balance had been righted.

She huddled tight within her blanket, trying to keep her teeth from chattering, but deep inside a warmth was settling and spreading with a speed that put a petrol fire to shame.

Niall Mountmarche had risked his life for two little animals.

For her…

This was no man set on finding a convenient mother for his daughter. There were easier ways than trial by fire.

She ventured a glance sideways up at him and found his eyes on her-and the warmth grew.

Her chattering teeth stilled.

‘Niall…I’m sorry…’

Niall lifted his hand and laid it tenderly on hers.

‘Don’t be. We’ll have you warm in bed soon, my love,’ he said gently and the warmth engulfed her totally.

After that…

Hugo was waiting, frantic with anxiety. Sergeant Russell had contacted Niall and asked him to go to the hospital-just in case-and ten minutes later Hugo had seen flames shoot skyward.

He couldn’t leave Paige and Niall’s mobile phone wasn’t working. On investigation Niall found that it was missing-torn off some time…Consumed by flames.

Hugo’s face when Niall finally brought Jess.out of the car said a thousand words.

Niall carried Jess into the big master bedroom and laid her on the bed as if she was made of fragile china. Then he and Hugo cleaned and washed her burns. Her eyes were carefully checked and her throat and her burns coated with antiseptic cream.

‘I’m giving you something to stop the pain and make you sleep,’ Niall told her as Jess drifted in a haze of unreality.

‘I don’t need anything…’

‘Remind me to ask next time I want a vet’s advice on what my patient needs,’ Niall said softly.

He gave her an injection she didn’t feel, pulled soft blankets up to her scorched face and then sat by her side until she drifted into sleep.