JESSICA HART - Last-Minute Proposal

‘You can’t,’ she said, fresh problems rearing their ugly heads. ‘What about the announcement?’

‘I’ll explain to Maggie. If we win, she can accept the cheque for us. This whole thing has been about the hospice anyway, so I can’t see there’ll be a problem. I’ll have a word with Suzy, too.’

‘But it’ll take hours to drive to Allerby from here!’ With a strangely detached part of her mind, Tilly noticed that she was actually wringing her hands. ‘You’ll never get back in time for your flight tomorrow.’

‘There will be other flights,’ Campbell said.

‘What about your meeting, though? You said it was really important.’

‘It’s not as important as getting you to Seb. Now, I’m not going to tell you not to worry,’ he went on without giving her time to react, ‘but you don’t need to panic. We’ll get on our way and you can ring Harry and find out what’s happening. You’ll feel better when you’ve got more information.’

Tilly let herself be persuaded. She knew she shouldn’t be relying on Campbell like this, but he was exactly what she needed. He was calm and competent and he was going to take her to Seb.

He dealt with all the practicalities, which meant that all she had to do was to bundle her things into her bag and hurry down to where he had the car already waiting. In a fever to get to the hospital, she hadn’t even taken the time to change and was still in her blue ball gown.

At first, Tilly sat rigidly staring ahead, too tense to think about anything except what might be waiting for her at the hospital, but, as the miles passed, she gradually succumbed to the quiet reassurance of Campbell’s presence and leant back inch by inch until she could relax into the luxurious leather seat.

Only then did she let herself think about the man beside her. Campbell hadn’t wasted time changing either. Like most men, the severe lines of a dinner jacket suited him beautifully. Tilly eyed his profile from under her lashes, and something about the angle of his cheek made her ache.

Be careful what you wish for . Wasn’t that the saying? She had longed to be alone with him, and now here they were, driving through the dark in the quiet, powerful car, but she was too consumed by anxiety to be able to say any of the things she had wanted to say to him. There would be no invitation to her room, no last night of passion, no kiss goodbye.

Tilly’s heart twisted at the opportunity lost, but then she immediately felt guilty. How could any of that matter when Seb was injured?

Campbell’s car was fast and comfortable and he drove it the way he did everything else, with an austere competence and utter control. He let Tilly sit quietly when she wanted to, and when she wanted to talk about her brothers, he listened.

‘They were always trouble, even as little boys,’ she remembered with a wobbly smile. ‘It’s not that they’re bad boys. They can be lovely, but they can be thoughtless and irresponsible like a lot of young men, too, and they egg each other on, just the way they used to do when they were toddlers.

‘You’d think they’d be growing out of it now.’ She sighed. ‘They’re twenty. I keep hoping they’ll settle down when they graduate and have to get jobs…’ Tilly trailed off as she remembered that Seb might never graduate and fear clutched at her afresh.

‘It’s not just Seb I’m frightened for,’ she confessed in a low voice. ‘It’s Harry, too. They’ve always been so close. If anything happens to Seb…’ She swallowed hard. ‘Harry won’t be able to bear it, I know he won’t.’

She was twisting her fingers in her lap, and Campbell reached out and covered them with one big, warm hand. It felt incredibly reassuring.

‘Harry will be with Seb now,’ he said. ‘His phone will have to be switched off in the hospital, and that’s why you can’t get through, but at least that means they’re together.’

Tilly often wondered afterwards how she would have got through that night without Campbell. He was a fast driver, but even so it took over four hours to get to the hospital. They stopped once to fill the car up, and he bought her some coffee and chocolate biscuits, which steadied her a little, and he didn’t try to tell her everything would be all right.

When they finally drew up outside the hospital, he let Tilly out so that she could run inside while he found somewhere to park. They still hadn’t been able to contact Harry, and Campbell hoped he would be there or Tilly would be frantic with worry about him, too.

Fortunately, Harry was where he was supposed to be for once. Campbell eventually tracked Tilly down to a waiting area linking three wards, and found her sitting with her brother on the kind of rigid seats he always associated with airport departure lounges-the ones specially designed to discourage you from getting comfortable at all, let alone lying down.

Tilly was looking crumpled and tear-stained, but she jumped up when she saw Campbell and came instinctively towards him with her hands held out.

Campbell gripped them between his own, afraid of what the tear stains might mean. ‘Seb?’ he asked tensely.

‘He’s going to be OK.’ Tilly pulled her hands away so that she could search for a tissue. ‘He’s sleeping, but I’ve seen him, and the nurse said everything went well. I’m so relieved, I can’t stop crying. It’s stupid, isn’t it?’

‘Here,’ said Campbell, producing a clean handkerchief, and she took it with a watery smile and blew her nose.

‘Thank you,’ she said gratefully.

‘Tell me what happened.’

‘I haven’t heard the full story yet, but it sounds as if they were all messing around at some party, and walking along walls. Seb fell badly, and broke his arm and his ankle, which will teach you not to be so silly,’ she added with a darkling glance at Harry. ‘It’s lucky you’re not both in hospital!’

Belatedly realising what all the crying must have done to her make-up, Tilly used the handkerchief to wipe under her eyes. Sure enough, it came away with great black streaks. Now not only did she look like a panda, but she had ruined Campbell’s handkerchief.

‘Apparently his arm had a particularly nasty fracture, so they had to reset it under anaesthetic, but he should be fine.’

‘I told you not to worry,’ said Harry defensively. He turned to Campbell. ‘I can’t believe she dragged you all the way up here! Seb’ll be furious when he finds out.’

‘It was no problem.’ Campbell intervened quickly before a full-blown argument developed. ‘I was glad to help.’

‘I’m afraid it was a problem,’ Tilly said ruefully when Harry had gone off to pass on the good news about Seb, and probably to continue partying, as she had observed with a sigh.

‘You’ve missed the ceremony, your flight and your meeting,’ she reminded Campbell. ‘I feel terrible now. I’ve dragged you all the way up here for a broken arm! I’m so sorry,’ she said, scrubbing absently at her face with the handkerchief. ‘I should have found out more before I panicked.’

Too tired to think what to do next, Tilly dropped back down on to the bench seating under a framed print of some anonymous seaside scene. Someone had done their best, but it was a depressing place. A selection of tired-looking magazines lay on the low table with a couple of discarded plastic cups of coffee from the vending machine down the hall. At this hour of the night, the wards around them were quiet, the lighting dim.

After a moment, Campbell sat down beside her. ‘You needed to be here,’ he said, ‘and I needed to be with you.’

‘You had much more important things to do,’ she said, balling the handkerchief between her hands, but Campbell shook his head.