Beneath Still Waters. Alex Archer

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СКАЧАТЬ would shortly be landing at one of the biggest airports in the area, and, suddenly wide awake, the pleasure of the moment had washed over him.

      He’d spent six months on an exchange arrangement with a large children’s hospital in the States and for the most part had enjoyed the change and the challenge it had presented. Yet he had refused when the chance to become a regular member of its staff had been presented to him.

      Work-wise it hadn’t been a joy ride. He’d worked long and hard alongside other experts in his field, with each taking note of the others’ expertise in orthopaedic paediatrics. Yet there had been time to socialise too.

      He’d been wined and dined by those he’d come to demonstrate his skills to, and had met more than a few attractive women on those occasions who would have liked to get to know him better, but past experience had shown him that the road to romance could be a rocky one.

      So could the path up to the moors above the town that he walked with great enjoyment when he got the chance, but unlike that other road there was no heartache waiting for him at the end of it.

      * * *

      Once he was up and dressed he went to the small convenience store at the end of the riverside and did a food shop. When he returned he prepared his first English breakfast in months and, while enjoying it totally, began to plan his day.

      It was Saturday and he wasn’t due back at the famous Heatherdale Children’s Hospital until Monday. With the day stretching ahead of him, he decided to take that walk up to the moors, the place where he always found the precious peace and tranquillity that his work as an orthopaedic paediatrician sometimes denied him.

      He saw himself as a loner who carried past mistakes around with him like a protective shield that no woman was going to break through. Always there were those who tried, but it soon became obvious that he was not in the market for marriage.

      And now, with all those thoughts put to the back of his mind, he had a couple of days to himself. Once out in the open with his pack on his back calm always descended upon him.

      * * *

      Every step took him further along a winding, deserted road that led to higher ground. The magic of the moment was broken when the noise of a motorcycle engine came from somewhere behind him, and in seconds it passed him. It swerved around a bend in the road at a crazy speed then there was the sound of it crashing into rocks at the roadside, followed by startled shouts.

      Hurrying to the accident scene, Callum couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The motorcyclist lay twisted and motionless beside his vehicle as a group of dumbfounded teenagers looked on, unsure of what to do.

      A woman was on her knees beside the injured rider. He couldn’t see her face because she was bent over him, trying to loosen his leather jacket to feel for his heartbeat, while at the same time frantically urging the teens to keep calm as some of the girls began to react to the moment with screams and tears.

      ‘I’ll take over. I’m a doctor,’ he barked.

      The kneeling woman had managed to open the injured rider’s leather jacket so they could get to his chest and to his relief Callum saw that it was rising and falling. The patient was breathing but without any signs of consciousness.

      ‘Have you got a phone with you?’ he asked abruptly, as he noted that both the man’s legs were twisted at a worrying angle.

      She nodded and reached into her rucksack, but on producing it she shook her head. ‘We probably won’t get a signal up here.’

      ‘Give it to me,’ he said impatiently, ‘and if I can’t get through, I’ll try mine.’

      As she obeyed, observing him unsmilingly, he dialled the emergency medical services for the area and surprisingly got a reply.

      ‘We are going to need a helicopter,’ he said. ‘An ambulance would not be able to get up here. I can give you our exact position as I know the area well. We need help for the injured driver of the motorcycle as soon as possible. Under these circumstances there is little we can do for him other than keep a firm check on his heartbeat and try to ascertain what other injuries he might have sustained in the crash.’

      When he handed the phone back to the woman she got to her feet. ‘I need to speak to my group. They’re very upset by what they’ve witnessed.’

      ‘May I ask your name?’

      ‘My name is Leonie Mitchell and I’m a nurse,’ she said, and saw his surprise. ‘I help at the local community centre in Heatherdale in my spare time, along with a friend of mine who is usually in charge of the activities that we arrange for the children, but she isn’t well today and I said I would step in so that they wouldn’t be disappointed.’

      ‘You can carry on with your walk. There is nothing more you can do here,’ he told her. ‘It’s best if the children get clear of the scene.’

      He’d resigned himself to a helicopter trip to a hospital in Manchester. He didn’t have to go with the young man, of course. There would be at least one doctor on board when it arrived, but he’d seen the lad’s twisted legs and if anybody could put them right, he could.

      ‘And once you get back to Heatherdale can you contact the garage on the riverside? If they can send someone to collect the bike, I will sort out the bill. They can invoice me.’

      ‘I will need an address to do that,’ Leonie said, anxiously taking up her kneeling position beside the unconscious rider once more.

      Callum didn’t answer her; his concern for their patient was increasing.

      ‘He’s going into heart failure, we are going to have to resuscitate!’ For what seemed like a lifetime, they worked on him together until they could feel his heartbeat once more.

      The sound of rotor blades whirring signalled that the helicopter had arrived, and the group grew silent as they watched it land beside them. As the doctor and nurse on board alighted, Callum filled them in.

      ‘We were able to resuscitate a few moments ago as there was no heartbeat, and there are fractures of both legs.’

      ‘Are you a doctor?’ the medic asked.

      ‘I’m Callum Warrender,’ he replied levelly, and the other man’s eyes widened.

      ‘Not the Warrender from Heatherdale Children’s Hospital?’ he exclaimed as he bent over the injured youth.

      ‘Let’s just say that I can spot a fracture a mile off and I’m coming along for the ride,’ he replied, and stepped aside as two paramedics appeared with a stretcher.

      Oh, no! Not Callum Warrender, thought Leonie. Hospital gossip was that he was in America and wouldn’t be returning for another couple of weeks, but it would seem that it was wrong. And as she was sister-in-charge of the orthopaedic unit it seemed that they would soon be meeting again. She hoped that he wouldn’t recognise her as the same person he’d come across up on the moors, with her hair tucked out of sight beneath the woolly hat that was pulled low down on her head and wearing a shapeless waterproof jacket.

      He’d asked who she was and she’d told him her name and that she was a nurse, but he wasn’t to know that she was a member of his staff. Callum Warrender had been in America when she’d joined the team.

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