Jennifer Taylor - Touched By Angels

Suddenly, Meg knew that she’d had enough for one day. She was sick and tired of being in the dog house when she hadn’t done anything to deserve it! She scrambled to her feet, avoiding Jack’s eyes as she smiled at the rest of the team.

‘I don’t know about you lot, but I’m worn out. I think I’ll call it a night if nobody minds.’

‘Well, I don’t for starters.’ Kate got up as well, groaning as she arched her aching back. She shot a wry look at Jack. ‘Yvonne was right to cry off at the last minute if you ask me. I bet she knew you were going to have us bouncing around over miles and miles of dirt tracks!’

Jack laughed deeply as he rose to his feet. In the flickering glow from the fire, his face looked almost saturnine until he smiled, and then there was such a transformation that Meg had to look away, because she didn’t like the way her heart had started to bounce up and down.

It was only a smile, for heaven’s sake! she told herself sternly. And it hadn’t even been directed at her. Yet her foolish heart was playing leap-frog with her ribs.

‘You could be right about that. I should have told her that we’d be travelling by limo and then she might have felt well enough to come along.’ He sighed as he looked at the others. ‘I’m sure we’re all going to miss her.’

Especially when he’d been saddled with a replacement he didn’t want!

Meg turned away, afraid that the hurt she felt would show on her face. Was he deliberately trying to be cruel? she wondered sickly as she hurried towards the hut she’d been allocated to sleep in.

‘Meg, wait a moment!’

She paused when she heard Jack calling her name, although she didn’t turn round because she wasn’t sure that she had her emotions in check sufficiently to face him. She kept her back towards him, staring at the inky blackness of the trees that surrounded the village, yet she knew to the second when he stopped behind her.

That inner radar again, working overtime, she thought with a surge of black humour. Maybe she should use it as an early warning system for whenever he was in the vicinity. She certainly could do with avoiding him from the look of it!

‘I didn’t mean that as it sounded.’ He got straight to the point without any preamble, surprising her enough so that she half turned. She saw the regret in his grey eyes and somehow that undid all her good work, setting free her carefully shored-up emotions. It had been a long, tiring day and Jack’s intransigent attitude hadn’t helped one bit!

She felt her lower lip quiver before she could stop it and quickly turned away, hating herself for letting him see that he had the power to upset her.

‘Oh, hell!’ He reached out, as though he was going to touch her, then let his hand fall to his side without actually making contact. ‘Look, Meg, I wasn’t trying to make you feel that I wanted Yvonne here instead of you,’ he ground out, as though the words had cost him an awful lot of effort.

Maybe they had, Meg thought with unaccustomed cynicism. It certainly couldn’t have been easy for Jack to lie for the sake of harmony within the team!

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said with an insouciance which cost her even more. ‘I certainly shan’t!’

He didn’t actually grind his teeth but the effect was much the same. Her blue eyes widened when she saw myriad emotions cross his face at that moment. It was a measure of his strength of mind that he managed to control himself, but she was shaking in her boots.

Why in the name of all that was holy did she know that he’d been tempted…sorely tempted…to kiss her? She had no idea but the thought was enough to make her head spin.

‘I apologise, anyway. Goodnight.’

He strode away, leaving her standing there, staring after him. Meg took a tiny breath and let it trickle into her lungs. A bigger one might have helped but she didn’t seem capable of that. Breathing was an effort, thinking even more of one, but feeling…well, feeling was easy-peasy!

She shivered as a hot trickle worked its way up her spine, shuddered as a cold one flowed the other way. Hot and cold chills were suddenly racing through her body however they chose and she couldn’t stop them!

She closed her eyes and tried to subdue the little devils but that was a mistake of gigantic proportions. Jack’s face suddenly filled her mind—lean cheeks, moody grey eyes, enticingly kissable lips…

‘Oh!’ Her eyes shot open before her wayward mind could go any further. Stills she could just about deal with, but if that picture had become animated and moved to the next frame—a close-up of the kiss Jack had so very nearly bestowed on her…

She groaned then clapped a hand over her mouth in case anyone heard her. She had to get a grip! So what if Jack had been tempted to kiss her just now? It didn’t mean that she would have let him or responded. It took two to tango, as her mother was so fond of saying, only that didn’t sound nearly as reassuring as it should have done. While she had absolutely no desire to tango with Jack…

She cut the rest of that thought dead!

Meg wasn’t sure what had woken her. She was so tired that it was a wonder anything had. Yet suddenly she found herself wide awake and staring round at the darkness. Lesley was snoring softly in the adjoining campbed so obviously whatever had woken Meg hadn’t disturbed her.

For a moment she debated rolling over and going back to sleep, but the nagging feeling that something was wrong wouldn’t go away. Pushing back the mosquito net, she took her shoes from the end of the bed and shook them to dislodge any creepy-crawly visitors before slipping them on her feet.

Leah had left them a candle to light the hut with while they’d got undressed but they’d blown it out and now there was only the pale shimmer from a sickle moon to see by as Meg made her way to the door. She peered out across the clearing in the centre of the village and felt her skin prickle with alarm when she saw shadowy figures moving about in front of one of the huts. What was going on? Who was out there? And, more importantly, should she go and find out?

Meg hesitated but the feeling that something was wrong wouldn’t go away. Her legs felt like lead as she stepped from the relative safety of the hut and began to cross the clearing. It was a relief when she spotted Moses among the crowd of people gathered by the hut.

‘Is something wrong?’ she asked, going straight over to speak to him.

He turned to her and his face looked grey and drawn in the moonlight. ‘It is Leah, Dr Meg. The baby is coming but there is something wrong and he cannot be born.’

He gave an expressive shrug which said more than any words could have done. Meg felt her heart sink as she wondered what the problem might be. There were so many things that could go wrong during a birth, although thankfully most could be dealt with in the safety of a hospital. However, this was the middle of the African bush and she had no idea what she was letting herself in for as Moses eagerly accepted her offer of help. At that moment, it seemed a very long time since she’d done her stint on the maternity unit.

The hut was lit by candles, and as Meg went inside she could see several women gathered around the low pallet that Leah was lying on. It was obvious that they were the local midwives and she was conscious that she might offend them if she offered her help. However, they made no objection when she knelt beside Leah, simply moved aside to make room for her. She had a feeling that they believed they’d done all they could and her heart sank even further at that thought, although she tried not to show any trace of concern.

‘Hello, Leah. It’s Dr Meg,’ she said softly, noting the lines of pain that bracketed the girl’s mouth. ‘Can I just check how your baby is doing?’