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‘There were lots of speakers there.’
‘But it was you who packed the room. It was your speech which had the applause practically raising the roof off this hotel.’
‘I’ve always thought, in many ways, that I’m lucky,’ he replied eventually. ‘People come to me when there’s already a fair suspicion that there’s a brain or spinal issue. But you, out there in the field, you never know what you’re going to get. You have to be ready for anything, thinking of everything, catering to all possibilities.’
‘It’s...frightening sometimes,’ she admitted. ‘But it’s also rewarding. Especially when a patient and his family make a trip to the air ambulance base months later to thank you for what you did. But you must get that, too.’
‘Yes. Still, I’d love to see it from your perspective.’
‘So come along.’
Effie shrugged, as if they were in a real relationship. As if considering the future wasn’t strange. As if meeting up in a month or so, when she was back in her flat and any non-relationship she’d ever had with Tak wouldn’t be awkward.
‘We do ride-alongs for press and medical professionals sometimes. You could join us for a day. Because of your expertise you could probably even take the place of one of my paramedics for the shift.’
And he nodded, and kissed her thigh, and told her he would arrange it as soon as they got back. Then he reached for her again, already hard, already wanting her. Just as he would for the rest of the weekend.
And Effie—as foolish as she knew it was, she couldn’t stop—wished it never had to be over.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘GEORGE IS SEVENTEEN years old. Half an hour ago he was with a group of friends climbing on Thor’s Rock when he missed his footing and fell approximately eight feet onto a raised ledge.’
The paramedic from the land ambulance met Effie, Tak and the rest of the air ambulance crew at the base of the rock.
‘He landed on his backside around thirteen feet up from here, on a raised ledge, and there’s suspected spinal compression. He was apparently unconscious for approximately fifteen seconds.’
Effie nodded as she calculated the easiest way up the sandstone structure.
‘He has severe pain in his lower back, and a pins and needles sensation in his legs. We’ve administered ten milligrams of morphine. Marco, the other paramedic, is up there holding the lad’s head and spine straight so that he doesn’t move. We were in the area—we were one of a couple of crews heading out to another incident—and they diverted us here instead.’
She nodded again, then turned to James, her own paramedic, and to Tak, who had chosen today to accompany them, just as they’d talked about in Paris.
It was impossible to pretend to herself that it didn’t feel significant. It was an unspoken acknowledgement that their relationship wasn’t just about sex—which they’d enjoyed night after night since their trip together—but about connecting in the real world as well.
Slowly, bit by bit, she was beginning to shake the fear that it could never last. That this shred of happiness was bound to be ripped from her the way that everything else bar Nell had been.
‘It should be simple enough for us to get to the patient.’ She spoke quietly. ‘There are quite a few people already milling around up there, including George’s friends, so clearly there’s plenty of room on the ledge. However, getting him down—likely on a spinal board—will be a very different matter.’
‘We have Mountain Rescue on hand to help,’ James pointed out. ‘I can start sorting that out.’
‘Good. Okay—Tak, you come with me. We’ll get up there and see what’s going on,’ She located her first hand-and foot-holds and began making her way up, reaching the ledge more quickly than she’d anticipated, with Tak right alongside her.
‘Hi, George—I’m Effie, the air ambulance doctor. How are you feeling?’
Within minutes Effie had completed her first round of checks. The lad was clearly in a bad way, and getting him down was going to be tricky for both the crews and George himself.
‘He can’t straighten his legs, so we can’t get him onto the board and therefore we can’t get him down.’
‘Quite a severe mechanism of injury,’ Tak murmured. ‘I suspect a broken pelvis and spinal damage.’
‘Yep—and time is ticking by. I’m going to administer ketamine, just so that we can get him onto a board. We’re really going to have to be careful getting him down. The last thing I want is for anyone to slip on the rocks trying to lower him. It could end up causing him even more damage.’
‘Understood. Do you want to put him in a pelvic brace?’
‘Yes.’ Effie bobbed her head.
Tak was every bit as proactive as she would have expected. And the way they worked together was so easy, so harmonious. It was a constant battle not to keep reading too much into it. Or into the fact that, even though they’d returned from Paris a week ago, her relationship with Tak didn’t seem to have slowed for even a heartbeat. Even the level of discretion needed to keep Nell from realising the truth only seemed to have added a delicious air of adventure to it.
