Chapter 39
CHAPTER
After Dougie, swearing and groaning, is handed over to three burly members of the maintenance crew, Nicola, the doctor, takes charge.
Gloved, masked and snapping directions about the wheeled stretcher, she removes Sebastien’s outer layers and cuts around the top of his shirt sleeve.
When she and Kingsley tell Sebastien they’re going to help him lie him down on the stretcher, he looks relieved.
Nicola grimaces when she peels back the sleeve. ‘My first ever stab wound, and this is a doozy.’ She covers his arm with a stark white pad but the blood seeps through immediately.
‘Sebastien?’ My voice wobbles, but no tears spill. Not yet. ‘You said your grandfather’s knife was used for fishing. Did he gut fish? Nicola would want to know that.’
‘Twenty years ago.’ He shifts position on the stretcher to look at his arm. ‘Fuck.’
‘I have pain relief,’ Nicola says, drawing clear liquid into a syringe.
‘I’ll need surgery.’
‘After I stop the bleeding, I’ll contact Hobart for advice on the best way to patch you up before we get you out of here. You’ve lost a great deal of blood already, so I’ll do a transfusion. What’s your blood group?’
‘AB Negative.’
‘Shared by one per cent of the population.’ Nicola sounds rattled. ‘I don’t have much AB.’
‘Guess what?’ Kingsley leans over Sebastien. ‘It’s your lucky day.’
A half-smile. ‘Keep it warm for me.’
Sebastien is lying on his side on the floor of the mess. It’s a bright sunny day with soft blue skies but the ocean is red. Crimson whitecaps. Blood-stained sand.
‘No!’
‘Flick!’ A thump on the door. ‘Flick!’
‘No!’
‘Flick! Wake up!’ Robin stands at the side of the bed. ‘You’re having a dream. A nightmare.’
I scrub tears from my face and steady the sobs. ‘I’m sorry.’
Hair wild, Robin perches on the side of my bed. Light streams in from the hallway. ‘What did you dream?’
‘It was about tonight.’ I check the time—one thirty am. ‘Last night.’
‘How was he when you left?’
‘I waited at the surgery while Nicola took Kingsley’s blood. Nicola said Summer should stay with Sebastien for the transfusion because I had to clean up and sleep.’
‘You’ve only been here two hours. You can’t go back yet.’
‘I shouldn’t have left.’
‘You were covered in blood. You needed rest. More rest than you’ve had.’
I pull a jumper over my pyjama top, take off my pyjama bottoms and yank on jeans. ‘Sorry I woke you.’
‘Flick.’ She takes my arm and gently shakes. ‘Listen to me. You’re exhausted. I suspect you’re also in shock. Go back to bed.’
‘They won’t let me go to Hobart with him.’ My voice rises with every word. ‘I heard Clarissa talking to Nicola. She said I’d panic on the ship, so Summer should go.’
‘Summer is not only a skilled naval officer, she knows a thing or two about medical procedures. If not you, there couldn’t be anybody better.’
‘Yes.’ I hold back tears.
‘And given Seb’s tendency to appear when least expected, we’ll see him soon enough.’
Within five minutes, I’m at the clinic. Summer is curled up as best she can in a chair. Headphones on, she taps a beat on her knee with one hand and raises her thumb.
Sebastien’s hair is dark against the pillow; his lashes are inky black against his cheeks. The hospital gown draped over his torso is blue and his arm is swathed in a thick white bandage. I swallow the gigantic lump in my throat.
This is goodbye.
I touch a finger to the back of his hand. Then I rest my palm on his forehead. When I push back his hair, his eyes flutter open.
‘Lisse.’
‘A navy ship is on its way.’ I stroke the faintest of lines on his forehead. ‘It has a helicopter. The weather is too bad for it to land on Morrison, so you’ll have to wait for a boat to collect you, but when the ship gets closer to Hobart, they’ll be able to fly you to the hospital.’
His eyes close then open again. ‘What medications …’
‘Sedatives, because you’ll bleed again if you don’t keep still, and they don’t want that.’
He frowns. Nods. Swallows. ‘This is fucked.’
‘You were right to be concerned about Dougie.’ My voice cracks. ‘I’m sorry you got hurt.’
‘The ship …’ He struggles to focus. ‘When?’
‘Five to six hours. Clarissa won’t let me come with you because she thinks I’ll be in the way.’
He looks at his hand as if it isn’t his, but then he gives it to me. ‘The demons.’
I nod but keep the tears back. ‘It’s a large ship with a dedicated surgery. Summer will travel with you. She knows about medical things and she won’t pass out. Clarissa contacted Kit. When you get to Hobart, he’ll be waiting.’
‘You can finish your work.’
‘Yes.’ A monitor beeps in the way it beeped for the professor. I swallow and swallow again. ‘By the time you need the journal work, it’ll be done.’
‘You’ll be home soon.’ He squeezes my hand. ‘Back to Matilda and your wetlands birds.’
‘Will you go back to Norway after the surgery? You could work on your project remotely.’
He shifts on the bed. ‘I want to be with you.’
‘Nicola said only five minutes.’ Tears tumble out; I tug at my hand but he won’t let go. ‘You have to rest.’
‘Why are you crying?’
I wrap my free hand around his wrist and find his pulse. ‘You could have died.’
His chestnut eyes are sleepy. ‘I didn’t.’
When I lift our joined hands and kiss the base of his thumb, his eyes flutter closed.
He breathes deeply and then his grip eases.
I pull my hand free and take his grandfather’s ring, leather still threaded through, from around my neck.
After swiping at my eyes so I can see more clearly, I untie the knot.
‘Lisse?’ Sebastien’s eyes are open again. ‘What are you doing?’
Tears run down my face as I push the ring onto his finger. ‘Your grandfather would want you to have it.’
When Sebastien calls from the ship, I hear nursing staff talking in the background and Summer’s voice. A monitor beeps.
‘Lisse.’
At eight this morning, Sebastien was lying on a stretcher with lines in his arms. Nicola had added a portion of Kingsley’s blood to other medical supplies and equipment before Sebastien was alternately wheeled and carried through the wind and torrential rain to the boat that would take him to the ship.
An hour later, Dougie, arm in a sling and face obscured by the hood of his jacket, was marched to the beach by six burly sailors.
Nicola, concerned about Nate’s concussion, also wanted him to leave, but he refused.
He wanted to smooth things over as much as he could with everyone on Morrison, and to be with Angelina.
I press the phone close to my ear. ‘Have you bled again?’
He mumbles something. Then, ‘I don’t know.’
‘Does it hurt?’
‘No.’
‘Clarissa will post daily updates and Nate will brief me too. Please rest.’
‘I saw an albatross.’
‘From your porthole?’
‘I think so.’
‘What was the wingspan?’
‘Two metres.’ His words are slurred.
‘It could have been a light-mantled sooty albatross. They’re one of the smaller species.’
‘Why was it there?’
‘It might’ve been trailing a fishing boat. I hope he doesn’t get caught in the nets.’
‘Lisse …’ His voice peters out.
‘Sebastien?’
No response.
‘Sebastien!’
‘All good, Flick,’ Summer says. ‘He’s asleep again.’
‘He’s confused, isn’t he? What’s going on?’
A few seconds of silence.
‘They’ll sort him out when he gets to the hospital in Hobart.’