Chapter Thirty-Nine
Hal felt his phone buzzing and pulled it out. He had been expecting a call from his father. James and Odette had taken a holiday to the West Indies, staying with friends, but bad weather had forced them to catch an emergency flight home. They were waiting to catch a flight out of Freeport and they were going to let him know when they were safe. Hal was sorry that Odette had had her holiday spoilt, but he couldn’t help feeling vindicated that his father was not having the time of his life.
Every day Hal was having to deal with tenants who were facing rent rises and customers who were having their accounts closed. Each time he called his father for clarification on a loan or a new demand, James would brush him off and say he couldn’t remember the details of that particular issue. Remarkably, he had rung Hal and asked him to ship out some of his guns. He had then roared down the phone at his son when he discovered they had been auctioned off. That call had ended in both men slamming down their phones.
Odette had called Hal soon after, apologising for James. Since moving to France he had become more and more irascible; he refused to speak French and complained constantly about the food. She was worried he wasn’t quite himself. Hal didn’t know what to suggest; on a previous call James had suggested that Hal had evicted him. Now he was demanding things he knew Hal had sold. He wondered if the shock of the near bankruptcy had addled his mind. Or worse, was this simply more symptoms of an undiagnosed dementia? Had his profligate spending been a sign of illness rather than wanton stupidity. It never rained but it poured.
Looking at his phone, Hal”s heart leapt when he saw it was Paddy calling. The wetsuit had worked better than he could have hoped. Maybe she too had been trying to think of a solution to their problems. Just the thought made him smile as he excused himself from the table and stepped into the hotel foyer.
But as he answered the call, his smile faded, replaced by a growing sense of alarm. Paddy”s voice was barely audible over the howling wind and driving rain, her words jumbled and broken by the poor reception. He strained to make out what she was saying, his pulse pounding in his ears.
‘Crash... dying...’ The words hit him like a punch to the gut, his blood running cold.
‘Paddy? Paddy, where are you?’ he shouted, his voice rising in panic. ‘Paddy, can you hear me?’
The line went dead, the sudden silence deafening. Hal stared at his phone in disbelief, his hand shaking. Then it pinged with a location, the sound unnaturally loud in the quiet of the foyer. He tried to call her back but it just rang out, each unanswered ring ratcheting up his fear.
As he hung up, her final words echoed in his mind, searing themselves into his memory. ‘I need you.’
The function room was a serene oasis of gentle chatter and the clink of crystal and china, a jarring contrast to the chaos inside him. Hal ran his hands through his hair, his eyes wild as he scanned the room for the one person who could help. Finally, he spotted Jamie, looking politely bored at a table at the far end of the room. Hal practically sprinted over, his heart in his throat.
‘Jamie,’ he gasped, tapping his friend on the shoulder.
Jamie took one look at Hal”s face and was on his feet in an instant, his soldier”s instincts kicking in. In the lobby, Hal explained the situation in a rush of words, his voice tight with barely suppressed panic.
‘Paddy’s had a car crash. She”s in a bad way. I need to get to her but I might need backup...’
Jamie frowned. The situation seemed serious but not life-threatening. Yet Hal was wound tighter than a coiled spring, his agitation palpable.
‘Okay, let”s take your car,’ Jamie said calmly, trying to project a sense of control. ‘You get her to safety and I”ll handle the car, whether that means driving it back or getting it towed. Okay?’
Hal sagged in relief, grateful beyond words for his friend”s steadying presence. They headed out into the night, the wind howling like a wounded animal. Rain lashed the windshield, the wipers struggling to keep up. Twigs and leaves battered the car, the impacts making Hal flinch.
Jamie muttered something about the bloody awful weather but Hal barely heard him. All he could think about was Paddy, alone and hurt somewhere in this godforsaken storm. He pictured her trapped in her crumpled car, broken and bleeding, and terror clawed at his throat.
He pushed down harder on the accelerator, the car surging forward into the darkness. Hold on, Paddy, he thought desperately. I”m coming. Just hold on.
But even as he raced through the night, a small, insidious voice whispered in the back of his mind that he might already be too late. That this time, love might not be enough to save them.
Hal gritted his teeth and drove faster, refusing to listen. He would get to her in time. He had to. Losing her was not an option.
Not now, not ever.
***
As they approached the location Paddy had sent, the road began to narrow and twist. Hal had to slam on the brakes to avoid driving into the back of a car that was sticking out across the road, its bonnet crunched against the Cornish hedge. Jumping out both men ran to the car. Hal got there first but it was empty. Alarmed, he looked around and saw a lump in the road ahead illuminated by the headlights. He could see a deer carcass in the road and Paddy hunched over it. As the light swept over her Paddy stood up and staggered towards him. She was covered from head to toe in blood. Hal ran towards her, his dress shoes slipping on the leaves, Jamie shouting at him. As Hal reached Paddy, he grabbed her to him. He was breathing heavily, all that blood. How was she able to stand?
‘Where are you hurt?!’ he shouted over the wind.
Paddy’s eyes were wild; her hair had twigs and leaves in it and blood and mud was smeared across her pale face. Her dress was torn and soaked in blood and rain.
‘It’s his leg I think, and there’s blood coming out of his mouth as well. I can’t stop it.’
‘HAL!’
Henry looked back in confusion as Jamie caught up with him. ‘It’s not her blood.’
‘What?’
‘The blood. I think it’s the deer’s.’
‘Yes!’ cried Paddy. ‘The deer, I can’t stop the blood. I tried pressing on the wound and I wrapped my jacket around it but it’s not stopping. I also tried to pull him to the side of the road so no one else would hit him.’
Both men looked at the deer’s eyes, already dull in the light of the car’s headlamps and knew that the animal had died.
‘Paddy. It’s dead. I’m sure you did everything you could.’
‘I killed it!’ Paddy started crying loudly.
‘No, well yes,’ Jamie stepped forward trying to calm her down, ‘but look, deer are forever jumping out onto roads, they are a bloody menace. It’s really not your fault. What we need to do now is see if you are alright?’ Turning to Hal for support he was surprised by how shocked he seemed to be. God knows they had both experienced worse overseas.
‘Hal, if you could maybe put the poor girl down and we can see if she’s hurt herself. I’ve had a look at the car and it’s not too bad. Easily mended. Were you wearing a belt? Have you hit your head?’
Paddy was shaking but this man with the calm voice and sensible question was helping her to get a grip. Plus standing in the shelter of Hal’s arms was making her feel wonderfully safe and sleepy.
‘Miss! Miss, can you hear me? Hal, what did you say her name was?’ What was wrong with his friend? He seemed to have completely fallen apart. Admittedly as Paddy had walked towards them covered in blood it had been a fleeting shock, but she was fine. ‘Paddy, listen to me. You might be in shock. Perfectly natural, but I need you to stay awake.’
Paddy shook her head. ‘Yes sorry, it’s a bit overwhelming, I drifted off there a bit. Oh God.’ Paddy’s wits came flooding back. ‘The baby. Oh God, Hal! What if I’ve hurt the baby?’
Jamie looked back at the car. ‘I didn’t see a car seat?’
‘Oh God,’ said Hal as he stepped back from Paddy to look at her. ‘She’s pregnant. How the hell could I have forgotten that?’
Jamie looked at the pair of them. The way they were looking at each other, he may have well been on another planet. It seemed Hal had a story to tell but that would have to wait. The stakes had just rocketed.
‘Okay. Change of plan. Hal drive Paddy here to the hospital. No ifs or buts. Get going. I’ll stay here and arrange everything. Now!’
Startled into action, Hal was ridiculously grateful for Jamie’s presence. The sight of Paddy covered in blood had scared the living daylights out of him. He hadn’t even thought of the baby; all he cared about was Paddy. But Jamie was right, Paddy might be fine, but there was no way of knowing if the baby was.
***
Screeching into the ambulance bay he threw his keys, , to a group of paramedics having a quick fag break shouting an apology and carried Paddy in through the doors. The staff took one look at the tall man in a dinner jacket carrying a woman covered in blood and ran to fetch a gurney.
‘She’s been in a car crash. The blood belongs to the deer, but she’s pregnant!’ As he was speaking a team of staff rushed around and soon had Paddy lying down in a small cubicle.
‘Sir, can you let go of her hand a minute, we need to take her blood pressure.’
Hal glared at the nurse, who promptly moved to the other side and took the pressure from there. As she did so one of her colleagues turned to Hal.
‘If you get in our way, we can’t help her. Please sir, we’ve got her.’
Hal looked at the nurse but Paddy gripped his hand tighter and began to cry. Hal felt his heart break.
‘It’s okay, darling, they just want to help.’
‘Don’t leave me!’
He gripped her hand tighter and turned back to the nurse. ‘Sorry. You’ll have to work around me.’
Nodding, the nurse agreed; it would be a mild inconvenience for them but there was little point in agitating the pregnant woman further. As they waited for the ultrasound to arrive, they established the blood wasn’t hers and nothing was broken. She was tender where the seatbelt had snapped her back and Paddy was terrified that it may have hurt the baby. ‘I can’t feel Baby move!’ she wailed. ‘Why isn’t Baby moving?’
The nurse knew better than to speculate but the mother needed to calm down. She held her other hand and patted it maternally. ‘Baby’s had a shock, just like you. If it was me, I’d be hunkered down waiting for the storm to pass. That’s probably what Baby is doing.’ Another nurse chimed in, ‘If he’s like my boy he’s probably fast asleep.’ The women laughed, and some of the fear left Paddy’s face. ‘The best thing you can do for Baby right now, is calm down. All that adrenaline in your blood is probably going to make Baby feel queasy.’ As the women made small talk, Hal ignored them; he was staring at Paddy and thinking he had never loved her more. He stroked her hair and removed leaves and twigs as she looked at him. She wanted someone to promise her the baby was okay. Nothing else mattered; Hal was here. Now she needed to know their child was safe as well. Finally, the ultrasound arrived and Paddy wept with relief as they watched the trace of a strong heartbeat and saw tiny limbs gently twitch.
‘What do you know. Fast asleep! Now, how about Mum does the same?’
‘Can I go home?’ Paddy asked in relief.
The doctor looked at her and whilst everything was fine, she had had a massive shock and the father seemed to be in no fit state to drive either. ‘Let’s admit you for the night. We can keep an eye on you and then you can go home first thing. How does that sound?’
Paddy was about to protest, but the cottage would be cold and dark. She was going to have to face being alone when things got tough but tonight, she just wanted to sleep.
‘Before you go, can you phone Nick for me and let her know what’s happened?’
Hal pulled his phone out of his pocket and then registered what Paddy had said.
‘I’m not going anywhere. Let me step out and call your sister but then I’m back here. Okay? I am not leaving you. Ever.’
As he stepped out Paddy stared after him. What did he mean?
‘You’ve got a good one there,’ said one of the nurses. ‘Now let’s find you a gown. What is this, deer’s blood? They’re a bloody nuisance; you’d be surprised, well probably not now, by how many people come in here after crashing into a deer.’
As they chatted, she was swapped over to the care of two porters who started to move her to a ward for the night. Alarmed, Paddy called out for Hal.
‘He’s outside. Better phone reception. I’ll send him up to you. Now go to sleep.’
As the trolley bed trundled down the corridors Paddy felt herself dozing off, voices drifted across her head and then a warm hand wrapped itself around hers, as she felt a kiss on her forehead and she fell fast asleep.