In maturity she had become so much more of everything she had already been. He had to see her, talk to her…tell her how he felt and if, after that, she still wanted her freedom…
Quickly he strode out of his office, heading for the exit.
Leaving the taxi driver waiting for her in the car park, nervously Annie started to make her way across it, heading for the main office of the building. It was five o’clock, and staff were already starting to leave, streaming out of the building. Suddenly Annie froze as she saw Dominic amongst them.
‘Dominic!’ She said his name under her breath, so totally fixated on him that her senses couldn’t register anything else. ‘Dominic…’
Some instinct he couldn’t name made Dominic turn his head.
‘Annie…’
What was she doing here? He started to move towards her. She was standing, staring rigidly at him.
‘Annie!’ He called her name, and then cursed as she suddenly seemed to shudder, a statue coming to life.
‘Annie…’
Out of the corner of his eye Dominic saw the car, and realised that Annie was standing right in its path, oblivious to its presence or her own danger. With a superhuman burst of speed he reached her, pulling her down on top of him as he fell to the ground and rolling her out of the way of the car’s front wheels.
As he did so he felt the sharp thud of metal striking his own body and grunted in surprise. His body felt oddly numb…but somehow heavy…Somewhere in the distance he could hear screams…voices…the wails of a siren.
‘Ah, so you’re back with us again. Good, I’ll go and tell Dr Spears.’
Hazily Dominic focused on the smiling nurse standing beside his bed.
‘You’ve been sleeping for so long we thought we’d start to call you Rip Van Winkle,’ she told him cheerfully as she pressed the bell above his head.
Where the devil was he? What was going on? And then abruptly Dominic remembered, struggling to sit up and ignoring both the admonishment of the nurse and the pain in his side as he demanded anxiously, ‘Annie, my wife. Is she…?’
‘She’s fine.’ The nurse smiled. ‘And before you ask, so is the baby.’
‘The baby? The baby…’ Dominic could feel his heart starting to thud with heavy, adrenalin-fuelled beats.
‘Oh, that’s sent your pulse-rate up,’ the nurse commented, examining the screen on the far side of the bed. ‘Your wife was lucky that you had the fore-thought to do what you did. Otherwise it might have been a very different story, both for her and the baby.’
Annie was pregnant!
Dominic closed his eyes, his body suddenly drenched in sweat as he realised what he might have lost.
‘Where is Annie…my wife…?’ he asked thickly.
‘Dr Spears sent her home. She didn’t want to go. She’d been sitting here beside you for virtually twenty-four hours. But he insisted. With her pregnancy at such a very early stage it’s important that she doesn’t over-stress herself.’
Twenty-four hours. Annie had sat with him for twenty-four hours!
‘How long have I been here?’ he asked the nurse.
‘Mmm…nearly two days. The impact of the car knocked you out, and then Dr Spears had to sedate you so that he could examine you properly. He was concerned that there might be some permanent damage to your back, but luckily for you there isn’t. You’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness all afternoon, but I think you’re finally with us this time.’
‘I want to go home,’ Dominic told her, moving to throw back the covers and climb out of the hospital bed. The nurse laughed.
‘What? Wired up to one of our precious machines?’
As Dominic turned his head he realised what she meant, his forehead pleating in a frown as he looked down at the wires attached to his body.
‘If I’m all right, what am I doing with all this?’ he demanded shortly.
‘You’re being monitored,’ the nurse told him dryly. ‘It’s what we do in hospitals. Although you probably don’t feel it, your body’s still in shock,’ she told him in a kinder voice. ‘Nothing was broken by the impact when the car hit you, but you are very badly bruised and you’re going to find it very painful, if not impossible, to move properly for quite a substantial length of time.’
‘How long is that?’ Dominic asked her suspiciously.
‘Well…Ah, here’s Dr Spears,’ she announced, smiling at the man who had walked into Dominic’s room.
‘All I want to know is how soon I can go home,’ Dominic told the doctor when the nurse had left. ‘I want to see my wife; she’s pregnant.’
‘Yes, I know,’ the doctor confirmed, misunderstanding what Dominic had been about to say. ‘Poor girl. I don’t think she knew which of you to be the more anxious about at first. But once we’d reassured her that baby is tucked away safely, just where he or she ought to be, she was able to concentrate all her anxiety on you. I’ve sent her home now. She needed some rest.’
‘She shouldn’t be on her own,’ Dominic told him fiercely. ‘She suffered a bad accident herself some years ago and…’
‘Yes, I do know,’ the doctor told him gently. ‘I was on duty when they brought her in. But I think you’ll find you’re worrying unnecessarily. The maternal instinct is very strong and it empowers a woman with a very special kind of strength.’
‘I want to go home,’ Dominic repeated.
‘Not yet,’ the doctor told him calmly. ‘I want to see that bruising come down a little bit more first. Ah, good, here’s Nurse with a painkilling injection for you.’
‘I don’t want…’ Dominic began, but it was too late, the nurse was already skilfully inserting the hypodermic into his skin and within seconds he could feel himself starting to drift towards unconsciousness.
CHAPTER TEN
‘DOMINIC will be able to come home today.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Annie as she put down the cup of coffee Helena had just made her. ‘They rang me from the hospital earlier. I’m going to pick him up this afternoon and—’
‘When are you going to tell him about the baby?’ Helena interrupted her to ask.
Immediately Annie looked away from her, her voice tense as she told her, ‘I’m not.’ She defended her decision when Helena didn’t answer. ‘There isn’t any point. I’ve told you what happened before, what I remembered. Nothing’s changed, Helena.’
‘No, nothing’s changed,’ Helena agreed. ‘You still love him. You’ve admitted that.’
‘Yes. Yes, I do. But this baby…’ She touched her stomach tenderly. ‘This baby…my baby, has to come first, Helena.’
‘The hospital are only releasing Dominic because they think you’re going to be on hand to look after him. He’s still very badly bruised.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Annie agreed. ‘And I shall be. The baby doesn’t show,’ she told her quickly. ‘It’s not…I’m not…I owe him that much, Helena. After all, if he hadn’t done what he did…’
‘You don’t have to justify your decision to me,’ Helena told her dryly. ‘Although I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t counsel you to think again. This child is his child as well as yours, you know.’
‘No, it’s mine,’ Annie insisted fiercely. ‘He won’t want it; I know that already. I can remember how it was before.’
‘That was five years ago,’ Helena reminded her.
‘Five years—fifty years. A leopard doesn’t change its spots,’ Annie returned grimly.
‘No,’ Helena agreed. ‘But a man isn’t a leopard and he can change his mind.’
‘A man can,’ Annie allowed. ‘But I don’t intend to change mine.’
It was nearly a week now since the accident, and every day she had gone to the hospital to see Dominic, remembering how important contact with the outside world had been for her.
He was on his feet now, and walking, despite the pain she knew he had to be suffering from his bruises.
There was still a dressing on his leg, where the flesh had been
scraped raw, which had to be changed every day.
‘Will you be able to cope?’ the doctor had asked her the previous day.
But before she had been able to reply Dominic had announced sharply, ‘She won’t have to. I can do it myself.’