Chapter 20
20
‘Are you hurt?’ Julien’s voice snapped the silence like the crack of a whip.
‘I… don’t think so…’
How could she know? Ellie couldn’t identify any immediate pain but she could barely catch a coherent thought. And Julien wasn’t listening now, anyway. He had unclipped his safety belt and was twisting in his seat to see into the back of the car.
‘Theo? Theo…? Oh, mon Dieu…’
The note of horror in Julien’s voice made Ellie’s blood run cold. She twisted herself to try and see what he was seeing, but was it her movement that made the car shift and scrape as it moved against the boulders? No… Julien was trying to wrench open the driver’s door, but it was clearly jammed.
‘ Ne bouge pas, Theo, Ne bouge pas…’
There were people outside the car now. Some were the Lycra-clad cyclists. A burly man – the truck driver, perhaps? – was shouting into a phone. Julien was shouting as well. Ellie couldn’t understand a word, but someone was picking up a small rock. Julien turned and held out his arms to shield her as the rock was used to smash the window of the driver’s seat and then clear the shattered glass until he could put his arms through the frame for people to pull him from the vehicle.
Ellie unclipped her own safety belt as she felt the first lap of icy water around her feet, and a new terror dug its claws into her. She had to get to Theo. Maybe she could fit through the gap between the front seats and release him from his safety belts to pass him out through the empty window frame in the front?
She turned.
And then she froze.
Theo wasn’t unconscious, as she’d thought he would be when that scream had been so abruptly terminated. He was staring back at her, his little face as white as a sheet and his eyes wide and terrified. He was as frozen as she was, and she could see what had made Julien’s voice so frighteningly raw.
Theo was still holding that branch he’d wanted to bring home with him. The glossy, green leaves looked exactly as they had when he’d picked it up to dip into the gargouille . The other end – the jagged, sharp end where the branch had broken from the tree – was nowhere to be seen.
Because it was inside Theo. The shocking jolt against rocks that had stopped the car’s momentum so suddenly must have turned the branch into the spear that was now lodged in his stomach.
‘It’s okay, darling. We’ll get you out. We’re going to look after you and make it all better.’
Ellie heard the words coming out of her mouth and knew that she couldn’t possibly know that anything she was saying was true. She knew that Theo wouldn’t even understand what she was saying, but surely he would hear the comfort she was trying to give him?
The love…?
It was in that horrible moment that Ellie realised she had done the one thing she’d tried so hard to protect herself from. She had fallen in love with Theo Rousseau as much as she had fallen in love with his father. This small, solemn boy had captured her heart – probably from the moment she’d first held him in her arms to save him from what she’d believed was a serious risk from dangerous donkeys. From the moment he’d opened his eyes and called her Maman …
She had been able to keep it safely below a conscious admission, however. Even when he’d climbed up onto the couch beside her on the night she’d been looking after him and she’d felt that curly-topped head against her arm get heavier and heavier as he’d fallen asleep.
Even when he’d taken hold of her hand at the wolf park and it had felt like those small fingers had been holding her heart as much as her hand.
There was no hiding from it now.
She loved Theo.
And he was hurt.
Badly hurt.
Was she about to face losing another child?
No… she couldn’t let that happen, if there was anything at all she could do to prevent it, even if it meant losing her own life.
Ellie tried to push herself into the gap between the seats, but the car was rocking now. There were so many people around the outside of the vehicle. Were they attempting to lift it over the boulders that were preventing the doors from opening? Ellie turned back. She hadn’t been thinking clearly. Maybe she could open the door on her side of the car? And then open the back door?
But people were reaching in through the window where the glass had been smashed. Shouting at her with what were clearly instructions to get close enough to the window so that they could pull her out.
The water was almost up to her knees.
And the back door of the car was opening with a screech of metal against rock. It was Julien who was climbing into the back and reaching to release the safety belt holding the car seat in place.
A man had his head and shoulders through the driver’s window space now. He grabbed hold of Ellie’s arm and pulled.
‘ Vite, vite… il n’y a pas le temps…’
Ellie let herself be pulled. When her own head and shoulders were through the gap she could use her feet to push against the seat and make it easier for her rescuers. She saw Julien backing out of the rear door with the car seat in his arms and, when the people who’d been supporting the car chassis let go, she saw the vehicle turn and get caught by a current strong enough to lift it away from the boulder that had jammed the driver’s door. It turned further and sank on the passenger side as water filled the interior, and then it got swept into the deepest part of the river, with only the roof visible as it moved downstream.
More people had gathered to help and there were cars blocking the road in both directions. The storm had blown past with the same speed with which it had arrived, and Ellie could hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance. At the same time she saw people looking up and pointing. She could hear the sound of an approaching helicopter.
Ellie looked back at the hunched figure of Julien beside the car seat that was now safely on the tarmac of the road.
Expert help was almost here.
But was it going to be too late?
The scene was crowded already, but Julien could hear the sirens getting louder, advertising the arrival of the people he really needed around him.
He was aware that Ellie was somewhere behind him, amongst the people who were trying to help. He had seen her being pulled from the car and helped to safety. He was also aware that being unable to understand what was being said to her might be adding to a terrifying experience, but there was nothing he could do to help her.
His son was the only thing that mattered in this moment.
Julien could hear the approaching helicopter and wondered where it would land. The flashing lights of a police car could be seen further up the canyon road, already controlling oncoming traffic, and an ambulance was edging past to get closer to the scene.
Thank God for that.
He would have expert assistance and, more importantly, the equipment that would be needed to keep Theo alive until they could get him to a hospital.
Into an operating theatre where they could remove the stick that had penetrated that small abdomen.
They couldn’t move it yet. For all he knew, without the technology of something like a CT scan, the piece of wood inside his son might be the only thing protecting him from a catastrophic haemorrhage – from a ruptured artery or a laceration to his liver or spleen – which meant that his priority was to ensure that this impaled foreign object wasn’t bumped or moved in any way. Julien had one hand around the base of the stick, where it protruded from Theo’s tee shirt, and was using his other to shield the leafy end from an accidental nudge.
Theo was quiet and pale and not even attempting to move, which was a good thing, but it was also a warning sign for Julien that he could already be in serious trouble from internal bleeding. Children were so good at compensating for blood loss by increasing their heart and breathing rate, but they could crash fast, too. The way Theo’s eyes were drifting shut, like they did when he was on the point of falling asleep, sent a chill down Julien’s spine.
He caught a glimpse of Ellie as the back doors of an ambulance opened and uniformed medics came towards him carrying their packs of gear. She was standing, watching. A blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a frightened face that was almost as pale as Theo’s.
And then he forgot all about her.
With Theo on the stretcher minutes later and word, via the police officers on scene, that the helicopter had landed further up the road and the crew was awaiting transfer of the patient, the work to make sure he was stable enough to travel kicked up a gear.
There were rushed introductions and a rapid collection of information about the condition of their patient and what exactly had happened in the accident. All while Julien maintained the stability of the branch. He wasn’t going to let it go, he told the medical team. He was a paediatrician himself. He knew what he was doing.
The SAMU doctor put his hand on Julien’s shoulder as he spoke. Did he want him to change his mind?
‘ Non .’ There was no way Julien could let anyone take over this responsibility. He could do this, no matter how difficult it might be. He prepared to focus absolutely on his task as they got ready to roll the stretcher towards the ambulance and then drive to meet the helicopter. But something was interfering with his concentration.
‘Ellie…’
She was still standing there, watching him. And she was close enough to hear him utter her name. She came even closer until a police officer put an arm out to stop her getting too near the stretcher.
‘ Non ,’ he barked. ‘ Arrêtez là .’
Julien told him who Ellie was. That she’d been in the car with him. He asked for someone to make sure she got home to Tourrettes-sur-Loup.
The officer nodded. He could arrange that.
‘ Ellie ne parle pas beaucoup fran?ais ,’ Julien added.
‘No problem,’ the officer said, in English. ‘I’ll stay with her.’
Julien moved only his eyes to catch Ellie’s attention. ‘I’m going to the hospital with Theo,’ he told her. ‘This policeman will see that you get home safely. If you’re sure you’re not hurt?’
Ellie’s eyes were huge and still so very frightened. She looked down at Theo and then back to Julien.
‘I’m not hurt.’ She shook her head for emphasis. ‘But could I come with you anyway? With Theo?’
The stretcher was starting to move and Julien had to move with it. He tightened his fingers around the doughnut dressing that was providing another level of support so that the stick remained stable. He had to stay with his son. He had to summon the courage to face any upcoming decisions and be strong for Theo, and he knew that things could get a lot worse before there was any chance of them getting better.
There was no time to explain that he was part of a fight for Theo’s life. That it felt like a fight for his own life as well and there was nothing Ellie could do to make that any easier, however much she might want to. That it would be better for her not to be there if the worst happened. He couldn’t begin to try and put that into words.
All he could do was shake his head.
‘You can go home, Ellie,’ he said, his gaze already shifting back to Theo. ‘We don’t need you…’