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‘Right,’ she said tonelessly, ‘then we’d better get her out of there, hadn’t we? It will be fine, Mike. Trust us.’
‘Don’t patronise me with all that false reassurance stuff. We’re stuck on a mountain pass in the snow and my wife is in labour,’ Mike snapped. ‘There’s nothing fine about it.’
‘All right. If I admit we’re in trouble, will you stop whining and let us do something about it?’ Meg grabbed her bag out of the mountain rescue vehicle and staggered under the weight. ‘We’re here, and we’re good at what we do. Dr Zinetti here has an Olympic gold medal.’
Mike rubbed snow from his face. ‘Olympic gold medal? Do they award one of those for delivering babies?’
‘Men’s downhill, you idiot. Go back to Sue. We’ll be with you in a minute.’ Meg gave him a push. ‘And smile. Tell her everything is going to be OK. We’re right behind you.’
As Mike struggled back to the car through the snow, Meg reached into the vehicle for a spare coat. ‘What a total idiot. That guy always did have a low burn threshold. Maturity doesn’t seem to have improved things.’
‘You know him. Is he an ex-boyfriend?’ Dino only realised how cold his tone was when she sent him an astonished glance.
‘Do you really think I’d hook up with a wimp like him? We went to school together. He was as spineless then as he clearly still is now. The sort who has to have a really, really fragile woman in order to feel big and manly.’ She paused, her hand on the strap of her bag. ‘What’s the matter with you? You look as though you’re about to thump someone. What is your problem? I know Mike can be beyond irritating, but you just have to take a breath. To be fair on him, you’d be tense, too, if your wife were about to give birth in a snowdrift.’
Dino fastened his jacket. ‘He was rude to you.’ And that had triggered a primitive response far beyond anything he’d experienced before. ‘I didn’t like it.’
‘I didn’t like it much either, but that’s life. Some people are rude.’ She didn’t say anything, but he knew that Mike’s nasty comment had hurt her feelings.
Knowing that this wasn’t the time or place to deal with it, Dino made a mental note to tackle the subject later.
‘So let’s check on your friend, Sue. What did the air ambulance say?’
‘Still grounded, but paramedics are going to be waiting for us at the head of the pass so we just have to deliver the baby and get them back up this hill.’ Surefooted, she picked her way through the deep snow to the car.
‘I’m not sure the relevance of telling them about the Olympic gold medal.’ Dino used a ski pole to measure the depth of the snow. ‘Being able to ski downhill at stupid speeds in tight Lycra isn’t much of a qualification for delivering a baby outdoors with a wind chill of minus fifteen.’
‘I was trying to impress him. He was one of those sporting jocks at school. Football captain—that sort of thing. Appreciates manly sporting endeavour.’ She stopped for a moment to take a breath. ‘Winning a gold medal shows grit and determination. A will to succeed and be the best. Not to mention a certain recklessness that might just come in useful given the situation we’re in.’
‘I’m never reckless with my patients.’
‘Today, you might not have a choice. Come on.’ Meg pulled open the car door and slid inside quickly. ‘Sue? Fancy bumping into you here—I’ve been dying to catch up with you for ages, although this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.’
Hearing Sue giggle, Dino gave a smile of admiration. No matter who the patient was, Meg always seemed to put them at ease. Even with Mike, she’d managed to control the situation.
Putting his head inside the car, he had his first glimpse of the woman. Short red hair framed a face that was as white as her husband’s, and Dino saw instantly that ‘delicate’ was a fair description. Any thinner and she would have risked being blown away by a gust of wind. Against her slender limbs, her swollen belly looked grossly disproportionate. ‘Sue, we need to get you to the ambulance. There’s more room and we have better equipment.’
‘I can’t move. Honestly, I can’t move. There’s too much pain and I’m scared of the snow. I might slip and that would hurt the baby.’
Dino bit back the comment that being born in a snowdrift wasn’t going to do wonders for the baby either, and tried to give her the reassurance she so clearly needed. ‘I won’t let you fall, I promise.’
‘I really don’t—’
‘Sue, I’ve been timing your contractions.’ Meg’s voice was firm. ‘They’re coming every two minutes, fast and furious. We really have to move you to the ambulance. We’re going to wait until the end of the next contraction and then we’re going to get you out of the car and on your feet.’
‘I won’t get across there before the next contraction starts.’ Sue’s voice was reed thin and shaky and Mike swore and punched his fist into the seat.
‘Can’t you see she can’t walk? Just get a helicopter or something!’
‘She can walk if she does it between contractions.’ Meg wrapped an extra coat around Sue’s thin shoulders. ‘All right. Get ready to swing your legs out of the car. I’m going to help.’
Sue shrank back. ‘These boots are new. They’re an early Christmas present from Mike. I’m going to ruin them if I walk in the snow.’
Hanging onto his patience with difficulty, Dino exchanged a fleeting glance with Meg. ‘I’ll carry you.’
Sue’s eyes widened and she looked at his shoulders. ‘You’ll put your back out.’
‘No, I won’t.’ Ignoring Mike’s blustering, Dino moved to the car door. ‘Slide forward. Put your arms around my neck—that’s it.’ He swung her into his arms. Checking his footing carefully, he trudged his way through the snow to the four-by-four in less than the two minutes it took for another contraction to start. Meg was already there, opening the doors at the back, and moments later Sue was safely inside what was a comparatively warm place, her new boots dry and untouched by the snow.
