* * *
Sally dragged herself through the next few days at work, feeling totally exhausted. The strain of working in such close proximity to Tom was affecting her sleep pattern and she was permanently tired.
And she was thinking too much.
Thinking about the past.
Gritting her teeth and promising herself that she’d spend the weekend outdoors, she walked onto the unit for her last shift before her days off, frowning slightly as her mountain rescue team pager bleeped.
Moments later Tom strode onto the unit, his expression urgent.
‘Grab your things, we need to get going.’
‘Going?’ Sally looked at him, her hand still on her pager. ‘Surely we can’t both leave the unit?’
Emma gave her a little push. ‘We’re quiet, and anyway Chris is around and I can get some help from the ward if I need it. What’s happening, Tom?’
‘Would you believe me if I told you that Lucy Thomas has called from somewhere in the Langdales? She’s fallen and hurt her ankle.’
‘Lucy?’ Emma gaped at him. ‘But she must be eight months pregnant by now!’
‘Apparently she felt like some fresh air.’ Tom let out a breath. ‘I have to admit that of all the incidents I’ve ever attended, this one looks as though it might take the prize. It seems she fell and twisted her ankle and her husband can’t move her. But we can talk about it on the way. I need to grab some extra equipment, Emma. Just in case.’
Sally frowned. ‘But I thought it was her ankle that was injured.’
‘It is, so far …’ Tom was already striding down the corridor towards the storeroom, ‘but I have a bad feeling about this one and clearly so does Sean. It’s the reason he’s asked for both of us to be there.’
He was back minutes later, stuffing various packages into a bag. In the meantime Sally had grabbed her coat and bag.
‘You’ll be pleased to hear I brought the four-wheel-drive today,’ he said dryly, his eyes faintly mocking as he looked at her. ‘So at least you’ll be travelling in comfort.’
The hospital was only minutes from the base, and as soon as Tom pulled up in the car park Sally was out of the door and sprinting inside, grabbing her gear and changing quickly.
‘I’m still waiting for the others,’ Sean told them, ushering them across to the large map that was permanently displayed on the wall. ‘She used a mobile phone but the battery went dead before she could be precise about their location. They stayed on the flat and she said they’d walked for about an hour. Given that she’s eight months pregnant, that can’t put them any further than here …’ He stabbed the map with the end of his pen and frowned thoughtfully. ‘We should be able to land a helicopter there if we have to.’
Tom shook his head in disbelief. ‘What is a heavily pregnant woman doing, walking in the Langdales in this weather? Has the world gone mad?’
Sean grinned. ‘It’s a sunny day. Perhaps she wanted to deliver alfresco.’
‘Don’t even joke about it,’ Tom growled, and Sally glanced at her watch.
‘Let’s get going.’
Part of her was quaking at the thought of going on alone with Tom, but part of her was relieved to be paired with him.
He was a highly skilled climber and a brilliant doctor. He was the perfect partner on any mountain rescue.
She just wished he wasn’t so dangerously attractive.
Or, at the very least, she wished she no longer noticed or cared.
They both jumped back into the four-wheel-drive and Tom drove quickly to the point that he and Sean had identified from the map as being the closest to the path the couple seemed to have taken.
As she slipped her arms into her rucksack, Sally gave a shiver and looked up at the sky.
‘The weather’s closing in.’
‘Of course it is.’ Tom’s tone was loaded with irony. ‘You didn’t really think you were going to carry out this rescue in sunshine, did you?’