Sarah Morgan - Summer Kisses

‘They’re here, Conner.’

Conner wasn’t listening. His attention was focused on the child. ‘Come on, baby girl,’ he murmured softly, ‘breathe for me.’ His eyes were on her chest and Flora watched him, wondering. Had he seen something? Had he felt a change in her condition?

‘Do you think she—?’

And at that moment Lily gave a choking cough and vomited weakly.

‘Oh, thank God,’ Flora breathed, and Conner turned the child’s head gently and cleared her airway.

‘There’s a good girl. You’re going to be all right now, sweetheart.’

He spoke so softly that Flora doubted that anyone else had heard his words of comfort and she felt a lump block her throat as she watched him with the child.

So he was capable of kindness, then. It was there, deep inside him, just as she’d always suspected .

But then he lifted his head and his eyes were hard as ever. ‘Get some blankets, dry towels, coats—something to warm her up,’ he ordered, and then looked at the paramedics. ‘Give her some oxygen. I want to get a line in and give her a bolus of fluid and then we’re out of here.’

‘How much fluid do you want?’

Conner wiped his forearm across his brow, but he kept one hand on the child’s arm. Offering reassurance . ‘What’s her weight? How old is she? We can estimate—’

‘I know her weight exactly,’ Flora said. ‘I saw her in clinic last week. She’s 16 kilograms. Do you want a calculator so that you can work out the fluid?’

‘Start with 160 mils of colloid and then I’ll reassess. I don’t want to hang around here.’ Conner released Lily’s hand and started looking for a vein, while one of the paramedics sorted out the fluid and the other gave Lily some oxygen.

The child was breathing steadily now, her chest rising and falling as Conner worked. Occasionally her eyes fluttered open and then drifted closed again.

‘She’s got no veins,’ Conner muttered, carefully examining Lily’s arms. ‘Get me an intraosseous needle. I’m not wasting time looking for non-existent veins. We need to get her to hospital. We’ve messed around here long enough.’

The paramedic dropped to his knees beside Conner, all the necessary equipment to hand. ‘You want an intraosseous needle?’

‘Actually, just give me a blue cannula. She might just have a vein I can use here.’ Conner stroked the skin on the child’s arm, focused. ‘One go—if it fails, we’ll get her in the air and I’ll insert an intraosseous needle on the way.’

Flora leaned forward and closed her fingers around the child’s arm, squeezing gently and murmuring words of reassurance. Lily was drifting in and out of consciousness and didn’t seem aware of what was going on.

There was a commotion next to them but Conner didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t look up or hesitate. Instead, he applied himself to the task with total concentration, slid the needle into the vein and then gave a grunt of satisfaction. ‘I’m in—good. That makes things easier. Let’s flush it and tape it—I don’t want to lose this line.’

The paramedic leaned towards him with tape but just at that moment Jayne launched herself at Conner and tried to drag him away. ‘What are you doing to my baby?’ Her face was as white as swan’s feathers, her eyes glazed with despair. ‘Let me get to her—I need to hold her— Get him away from her .’

‘Jayne, not now.’ Flora quickly slid an arm round her shoulders and pulled her out of the way so that the paramedic and Conner could finish what they’d started.

‘But she’s dead,’ Jayne moaned, and Flora shook her head.

‘She’s not dead, Jayne,’ she said firmly. ‘She’s breathing.’

‘Not dead?’ Relief diluted the pain in Jayne’s eyes but then panic rose again as she saw Conner bending over her child. ‘What’s he doing to her? Oh, God, there’s blood everywhere.’

‘Lily cut herself very badly,’ Flora began, but Jayne began to scream.

‘Get him away from her! Get him away from my baby! I don’t trust him! ’

‘You should trust him. He’s the reason the bairn’s breathing now.’ It was Jim who spoke, his weatherbeaten face finally showing signs of strain. Gently but firmly he drew Jayne away from Flora. ‘Flora, you help Dr MacNeil. Jayne, you’re staying with me. And you’d better remember that Conner MacNeil is the reason Lily is alive right now. I know you’re upset, and rightly so, but you need to get a hold. The man is working miracles.’

Conner straightened, conferred with the paramedics and together he and the crew transferred Lily’s tiny form onto the stretcher. Then he wiped his blood-streaked hands down his soaked shorts. His handsome face was still damp with sea water and the expression in his ice-blue eyes cold and detached as he finally looked at Jayne. ‘We’re taking her to hospital.’

Jayne crumpled. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’ Tears poured down her cheeks as she looked from him to Lily’s still form. ‘Can I come with you? Please?’

Conner took a towel that a tourist tentatively offered him. ‘That depends on whether you’re likely to assault me during the flight.’ He wiped his hands properly, watching as Jayne breathed in and out and lifted a hand to her chest.

‘I—I really am sorry.’

‘No, you need to understand.’ Conner handed the towel back, his voice brutally harsh. ‘This isn’t over. If she arrests during the flight, I’ll be resuscitating her. Can you cope with that? Because if you can’t, you’re staying on the ground.’

Jayne flinched but for some reason his lack of sympathy seemed to help her pull herself together and find some dignity. ‘I understand. Of course. And that’s fine. I’m just grateful that you …’ She swallowed and nodded. ‘Do everything,’ she whispered. ‘Everything. I just—I just want to be near her. And with her when we get there. I—Thank you. Thank you so much. Without you …’ Her eyes met Conner’s for a moment and he turned his attention back to Lily.

‘We’re wasting time. Let’s move.’

In a matter of moments the helicopter was in the air and Flora watched as it swooped away from Glenmore towards the mainland.

Suddenly she realised how much her hands were shaking.

She stared down at herself. Her shorts were streaked with blood and Lily’s blood still pooled on the grey concrete of the quay. ‘Someone get a bucket and slosh some water over this,’ she muttered to Jim, and he breathed a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face.

‘I haven’t seen anything like that in all my time on Glenmore.’

‘No. I suppose it was because the quay was so crowded. She must have been knocked off the edge and into the water.’

‘I didn’t mean that.’ Jim stared into the sky, watching as the helicopter shrank to a tiny dot in the distance. ‘I meant Conner MacNeil. He was in the water like an arrow while the rest of us were still working out what had happened. And he just got on with it, didn’t he?’

‘Yes.’ Flora cleared her throat. ‘He did.’

‘Logan says he was in the army.’ Jim pushed his hat back from his forehead and scratched. ‘I reckon if I was fighting in some godforsaken country, I’d feel better knowing he was around to pick up the pieces.’

‘Yes. He was amazing.’

‘He’s not cuddly, of course.’ Jim held up five fingers to a tourist who tentatively asked whether or not the ferry would be running. ‘Five minutes. But in a crisis which do you prefer? Cuddly or competent?’

Flora swallowed, knowing that Jim was right. Conner’s ice-cold assessment of the situation had been a huge part of the reason Lily was still alive. He hadn’t allowed emotion to cloud his judgement, whereas she …