Chapter Fifty-Eight The Balfour Hospital
Chapter Fifty-Eight
The Balfour Hospital
The day after the service, Evie was back sitting beside Ross in his hospital bed, her voice hoarse from constantly talking to him and reading his favourite childhood books, which she had found on a shelf in his room at his parents’ house.
She hasn’t expected to be reading Tom Sawyer to a grown man, but she’d do anything to bring him back. After each chapter she would beg him to open his eyes. But he lay like a marble statue, the only signs of life being the machines he was hooked up to that made his chest rise and fall.
He hadn’t made any improvement, but crucially he wasn’t any worse and Edwyn assured her that was a good sign. She checked in on Freya, who continued to defy the doctors and was constantly asking when she could go home. It wouldn’t be long now.
When she wasn’t at the hospital, Evie spent time with Ross’s parents, trying to reassure them and remain positive.
She felt closer to Ross sitting with them in the family home and hearing stories about his childhood.
His mum proudly showed her lots of photographs of him as a boy and a young man, and Evie grew to love him even more.
She put down the book, held his hand and bent down to whisper goodbye when she felt a tiny movement in his fingers. Her voice shaking, she said loudly, “Ross if you can hear me, squeeze my hand.”
Nothing happened.
“Come on, my love. I know you can hear me. Just hold my hand tightly. You can do it.” She felt a tiny twitch of movement and tried not to overreact. It could just be her imagination. She wanted Ross to wake up so badly that maybe she was fooling herself.
She felt a stronger grip on her hand and looked up at Ross’s face and saw his eyes flicker. She gasped. “Oh my God, he’s coming back to me.”
She pressed the emergency buzzer and a doctor came rushing in. He took one look at Ross and grinned. “This is what we hoped for. He’s finally coming round.”
Evie hugged the startled medic and started to cry tears of pure joy.
Ross was taken off the ventilator as he was now able to breath on his own, and he continued to improve.
His throat was raw and he could only speak in a rasping voice, but it sounded like music to Evie. He couldn’t remember much about that terrible night, but Evie gently told him not to worry. She could fill him in on all of the sad and sorry details when he was stronger.
He looked thinner and older, bruised and battered, but he gazed at Evie and said: “One thing I do remember is you being here. I could hear your voice reading me stories I hadn’t heard since I was a peedie lad in short pants. It really helped.”
Evie smiled through her tears. “I wasn’t sure you could hear me at all. I kept asking you to wake up. It must have been very annoying.”
He chuckled and then groaned. It hurt to laugh. “No, my precious Evie, you pulled me back. I heard your voice and knew I had to come home to you.”
He took her hand in his. Ross hesitated.
What Amelia had done had affected him profoundly.
He felt so stupid to have been conned by her and then almost killed by her.
He finally managed to speak, his voice thick with emotion and regret, “What if she had hurt you instead of me? What if she had hurt the kids? I can’t stop thinking about it.
I’ve gone over and over it in my mind and it’s eating away at me. ”
He looked at Evie with such love in his eyes that she wasn’t prepared for what he said next. “I’m not good for you, Evie. I am damaged in more ways than just the injury to my head and my broken arms and leg.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m scared. I can’t sleep without a pill and I just want to hide away and never see anyone ever again. They must all think I’m a right useless lump.”
Evie’s heart was breaking for him, but pretending to be stern she said, “Ross Isbister. I never thought I would see the day when you would feel so sorry for yourself. Shame on you. We held a service for you at the Italian Chapel, hoping you would pull through. Sophia organised it all and so many people turned up they had to stand outside. It brought us all together and it helped. You woke up the very next day. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I like to think it was the power of love.”
Ross looked haunted and ashamed. Evie’s voice softened. “I know you have been through a horrific trauma, and you’ll need time and proper help to get through it, but never forget that so many people love you and can’t wait for you to be up and about so they can tell you themselves.”
“Och, Evie, we are Orcadians. We don’t go in for all that smarmy stuff. If they buy me a pint that will be enough.”
He managed a wobbly grin and then his expression changed. He said hoarsely, “Seriously though. You are too good for me. I don’t deserve you.”
Evie shrugged and picked up the tattered old copy of Tom Sawyer. “Face it, Ross. Your days of being single are long gone. Whether you like it or not, we are together, and as soon as you are out of here, we will be announcing that to our friends and family.”
Ross opened his mouth to speak again but Evie shushed him. “Just accept your fate. You are stuck with me. Now, where was I? Oh yes, Tom and Huckleberry Finn are hunting for buried treasure. I almost know this whole book off by heart.”
“Maybe one day you will read it to our children,” said Ross, which had Evie smothering him in kisses.