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‘I hope that won’t be the case for both your sakes,’ he said gravely, then added, with his voice lightening, ‘Can I take it that you won’t be bossing me about when we start working together?
She gave a weak smile.
‘You mean like this morning?’
‘Hmm. Although I do admit there were extenuating circumstances.’
‘You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?’ she said smoothly, and on that note she opened the door and was gone.
Josh had just been settled into the children’s ward when she got there, and now that his leg was more comfortable and his cuts and bruises had been treated he was feeling more cheerful and ready to enjoy the novelty of the situation he found himself in.
When Selina appeared at his bedside he looked up at her with the bright blue eyes that were so like Dave’s and said, ‘I know that Dad is dead, Mum. I don’t know why I said what I did.’
‘You were hurt and frightened, my darling,’ she said softly, ‘and wanted your dad as well as your mum. It was understandable, and although Dad isn’t with us anymore he’ll be watching over you somewhere, I’m sure.’
He was smiling.
‘Do you think they have traffic accidents in heaven…like when they get onto the wrong cloud or have a skid on the Milky Way?’
Selina laughed and there was relief in it because he was joking about Dave now, not crying for him.
Gavin had gone off duty. By now he would be home and would have told Jill what had happened. Her sister-in-law, who was also her closest friend, would be horrified.
By nine o’clock that evening Josh was fast asleep after his distressing day, and one of the nurses on the children’s ward said, ‘He’s happy enough with us, Mrs Sanderson. Why don’t you go home and get some rest? We’ll ring you if there are any problems.’
‘All right,’ she agreed reluctantly, ‘but I’ll be here by six o’clock in the morning.’
* * *
Gavin and Jill lived in a big Victorian semi by the village green and, before letting herself into the cottage, Selina called in to see them.
‘How awful for you both!’ her petite sister-in-law said, hugging her close. ‘Whatever were the school thinking of to let Josh run out on to the road like that?’
‘I don’t know,’ Selina said sombrely, ‘but I have a feeling that it might have been his own fault. He tells me that when the ball went over the wall his friends were all urging him to go and get it and while the playground supervisor’s back was turned he lifted the chain off the gate and ran out. But even so I shall be having a talk with the headmaster once I’ve calmed down.’
Gavin sighed. ‘Show a boy a ball and he undergoes a complete change of personality. How is he now?’
‘He was asleep when I left him, but I’ll be back there first thing.’
* * *
In the double bed that she’d once shared with Dave, Selina found she couldn’t sleep. Pictures of the day’s happenings kept going through her mind like shots from a horror movie, and mingled with them was the memory of the meeting with her new partner, Kane Kavener.
Where was he sleeping tonight? she wondered. He would have finished the day shift at seven o’clock and what then? Gone for a meal? Finished his unpacking? Or was there someone waiting for him, eager to hear how his first day had gone?
Why had she been in such a hurry to tell him she was a widow? she asked herself. She hated the sound of the word. For one thing it was a reminder that Dave wasn’t around any more, and for another it was like having a badge pinned on her, indicating that she was once again available. A marriageable woman. But not without strings attached. The ‘string’ in her case was an adorable fair-haired boy, whom she could have lost if a certain motorist hadn’t been driving slowly…and hadn’t clapped on his brakes as fast as he had.
Maybe at the back of her mind, when she’d said what she had, had been the memory of a couple of passes that men had made at her in recent weeks.
She’d quickly rebuffed them and afterwards had thought tearfully that she hated being in the position of a lone woman.
And so why should it be any different with him? she asked herself. She didn’t know. But something about Kane had told her that he wasn’t the chatting-up type. And why, for heaven’s sake, was she taking it for granted that he might be even remotely interested in anything concerning her?
In the end she got up, showered, made herself a quick breakfast in the summer dawn, then set off for the hospital once more.
* * *
Josh was discharged on Sunday morning, and as he swung himself along the garden path on a small pair of crutches Selina was just glad to have him home again.
‘One of the paramedics came in to see me last night after you’d gone, Mum,’ he’d said earlier when she’d arrived on the ward.
‘Really! Which one?’
‘The new one…Kane.’
‘That’s strange!’ she exclaimed. ‘He would have been off duty by then.’
‘Mmm, he was. He brought me some comics and sweets…and told me to look where I was going in future. He asked where you were and I said you’d gone home to have a rest.’
‘I see.’
She didn’t really. It had been a kind thought, but was it because he was sorry for them both?
Jill, Gavin and their three-year-old twin daughters called round in the afternoon, and after the tension of the last few days it was nice to have the house filled with noise and laughter.
‘So what about next week?’ Jill asked as they were leaving. ‘When are you going back to work?’
‘Not until I’m happy to leave Josh,’ she told her. ‘You’ve got your hands full with the twins and I don’t want to make life difficult for you.’
‘You won’t be,’ Jill told her serenely. ‘We’re used to having him around and the twins are fascinated by the crutches.’
‘Then in that case I might go in on Tuesday. I should have been on nights today and tomorrow, but the station officer has arranged for one of the other trainees to fill in for me. Which means that I’ll be going back to day shifts.’ She paused and then added meaningfully, ‘With my new partner.’
‘And who might that be?’ Gavin asked.
‘The paramedic who came out to Josh.’
‘So you’ve already met?’
‘Yes, we’ve already met,’ she said glumly.
He laughed.
‘And what did he think of your trendy outfit?’
What had he thought? she wondered. Especially when he’d seen what had been under the raincoat.
‘Cheer up, sis,’ he said reassuringly. ‘Wait till he sees you in action. You’ll knock him cold.’
‘I hope not,’ she said with gloom still upon her. ‘He’s not exactly the warmest person I’ve ever met.’
CHAPTER TWO
AS HE’D let himself into a soulless flat in a high-rise block in the city centre on the Friday night, Kane’s mind had been on his meeting with Selina Sanderson earlier in the day.
First there’d been the ride in the ambulance when, mother of the victim or not, he’d wanted to throttle her for trying to take over.
At that time he hadn’t known who she was, and he’d been thinking ever since what a bizarre way it had been of getting to know each other.
Then there’d been the brief visit to her home and the glimpse of what she hadn’t been wearing beneath the raincoat. She was quite something in an understated way, he thought as he filled the kettle at a well-used stainless-steel sink.
It was sad that she’d lost her husband so young. Even more sad had been the youngster crying for the dad he wasn’t ever going to see again.
As he soaped himself under the shower it occurred to him that it was the first time in days he’d thought about anyone but himself.
It had taken the frantic young mother and the injured child to make him take a good look at himself, and he wasn’t too chuffed at what he was seeing.
You need to snap out of it, he told himself. It’s over and done with. You came out of it with your reputation untarnished, so what’s the problem?
It didn’t make him feel any less angry, though, and future working partners of the opposite sex would be kept at a wary arm’s length…even if they were leggy, blonde and appealing.
He’d never had trouble with women before. They were attracted to him for some reason and he’d had some pretty interesting relationships.
Yet they’d never lasted. There’d never been anyone that he’d wanted to make a commitment to. Of all things, he didn’t like to be pursued and that was how it had been with Eve Richards.
It still made his skin crawl when he thought about what she’d done, even though it had come to light that there’d been extenuating circumstances.
He’d decided to move as far away as he could get from her, and when she’d found out Eve had complained that she’d been sexually harassed by him.
If he hadn’t been so devastated it might have been amusing, as she had been the one guilty of that. From the moment she’d been assigned to him as an ambulance technician she had been like an infatuated limpet. Touching him whenever the opportunity arose. Buying him gifts. Inviting him out to lunch. And in the end blatantly asking him to sleep with her.
If she’d been the last woman on earth he wouldn’t have wanted to do that. She was reasonably attractive in a sloppy sort of way, but definitely not his type, and in the end he had asked for her to be partnered with another woman.
The station officer had been sympathetic, but new rotas and staff shortages had meant that the move had been a long time coming and in the end Kane had decided that the only thing to do had been to remove himself from her orbit.
There was a hysterical scene when she knew he was going and the next thing was the complaint against him. It was his word against hers and he knew with a sinking feeling that a woman was often believed in that sort of situation.
But where the station officer had been slow in the first instance, he moved quickly when the complaint was made and had the authorities delve into Eve Richards’s records.
They discovered that she’d been treated for a severe mental disorder in the past and it had been overlooked when she’d applied to join the ambulance service.
It made him feel less angry with Eve but furious with those responsible for him having to endure such harassment, even more so because their patients could have been put at risk by her unstable behaviour.
For weeks he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Whether he would be suspended. Whether the position in the north that he’d accepted would be lost if he couldn’t take it up on the date specified.
A date for a disciplinary hearing was set and it was very near to the time when he was due to move to Cheshire to start the new job. He was summoned to attend and did so, angry at the kind of limbo he found himself in.
However, the medical evidence regarding Eve’s state of mind was so conclusive that before he knew it he was cleared of the charge.
The relief was exquisite, and though those in authority tried to persuade him to stay he was adamant that he was leaving.
And now here he was. In a dingy flat which was all he could find at such short notice.
He wondered if he would have been so aware of its shortcomings if he hadn’t been to Selina’s cottage in the delightful Pennine village. Maybe he ought to move in that direction when he started house-hunting…just as long as no one was going to get any wrong ideas.
With mother and child still on the edge of his consciousness, he popped in to see the boy on Saturday night when his shift was over.
It was done on impulse. He’d gone to buy an evening paper and had ended up buying comics and sweets at the same time, and as the hospital was only a few minutes’ walk from the flat he went round there with them.
There was no slender blonde beside the bed and he didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry. Josh told him that his mum had just left after being there all day, and that he was going home next morning.
‘Good for you,’ Kane said with one of his rare smiles. ‘I’ll bet your cousins are looking forward to seeing you again.’
‘Those girls? The twins?’ Josh said with boyish scorn. ‘All they think about are their dolls.’
‘And what is it with you?’ Kane asked, hiding a smile. ‘Footballs? Like the one you went on to the road for?’
Bright blue eyes refused to meet his.
‘I know. I was stupid. I won’t do it again.’
‘I should think not. Watch what you’re doing in future.’
As he got up to go Josh surprised him by saying, ‘When will I see you again?’
He hesitated. This visit was just a one-off because the lad was in hospital and because he lived but a stone’s throw away.
‘I’m not sure,’ he told him, ruffling the boy’s fair locks. ‘It depends on what your mother has to say.’ And he went on his way, thinking that it might be quite a lot, with words like ‘presumptuous’ featuring prominently.
* * *
As Selina walked Josh across the village green to her brother’s house early on Tuesday morning she was wondering if she’d done the right thing by agreeing that he could go to school.
He was getting around all right on crutches and in every other way was back to his normal self, but her confidence had been badly shaken by the accident and on Monday morning she’d been to see the headmaster.
It had transpired that the blame lay equally between Josh and the school. On his part because he’d unfastened the gate to get the ball, and on their part because the fastener on the gate hadn’t been completely childproof. There had also only been one playground supervisor on duty instead of two.
‘We admit that we are partly to blame, Mrs Sanderson,’ the headmaster had said, ‘but Joshua knew that he wasn’t allowed to leave the school yard and…well…we both know what happened. He got carried away in the excitement of the moment and all he could think of was to retrieve the football.’
‘What about the motorist?’ she’d asked and the head had smiled.
‘He was an elderly man passing through and, luckily for Joshua, a very cautious driver.’
She’d shuddered.
‘Yes, indeed.’
And now, in half an hour’s time, she would be back at the ambulance depot, and some time after that Jill would drop Josh off at school before taking the twins to their playgroup. And with Gavin already on his way to another day in Accident and Emergency, they would all be in their appointed places.
For some reason she was apprehensive about what the coming day might hold for her. She’d last seen Kane Kavener on Friday afternoon when he’d taken her home to change.
The circumstances under which they’d met weren’t what she would have wished, but there was no putting the clock back. And they were going to be workmates, for heaven’s sake! The best way to approach the coming meeting at the ambulance station was with pleasant, polite professionalism and see how that went down.
As soon as she walked into the staffroom behind where the ambulances were garaged, Selina was surrounded by those going off duty and those coming on.
‘How’s the boy?’
‘How’s young Josh?’
Their concern brought a lump to her throat.
These were people who were seeing pain and sickness every day of their lives, often in their more dire forms, and a degree of impersonality was the only way they could cope. But when it came to one of their own—and it was Selina, who had already had one awful tragedy to cope with—they were right behind her.
She was aware that Kane was on the perimeter of the group around her, standing to one side, aloof and silent as if he didn’t belong, but when their eyes met he smiled.
It wasn’t on a par with the morning sun, more a relaxing of the face muscles, but at least it was a welcome of sorts, and with a feeling that it was going to be a very interesting day she helped herself to a mug of hot tea and waited for him to make the first move.
He didn’t have to. She’d barely put the drink to her lips when the station officer appeared and beckoned her over.
‘I believe you’ve already met Kane Kavener, who is to replace Charlie Vaughan,’ fifty-year-old Mark Guthrie said. ‘You will partner him as you did Charlie…and, Selina, make him welcome. He’s a newcomer to the unit and a stranger in our town, and you know how keen I am to have harmony amongst the staff.
‘A couple of the other guys would have liked you to be partnering them, though I can’t think why,’ he went on, with a twinkle in eyes that could be as bleak as a winter day when things went wrong. ‘But Kane is here as Charlie’s replacement and you were his partner.’
The twinkle was still there as he said, ‘It’s not always wise to let you folks have all your own way. So just to be awkward I’m putting you with the one who isn’t too keen on working with a woman, and those who are bursting to turn out with you remain as before.’
There was a troubled frown on her face.
‘I don’t want to be an object of distrust…or desire. All I want is to do the job to the best of my ability and then go home to my son.’ Her voice was flat. ‘So Kane is putting up with me on sufferance? What’s he got against womankind?’
‘Probably nothing. He came with excellent references. Was a top performer at his last place. So perhaps—’
‘He thinks that the casualties we collect won’t be the only passengers?’ she said tightly.
‘I don’t know. But if he does, you’ll have to show him how wrong he is, won’t you?’
‘Yes, won’t I?’ she agreed, and as Mark departed for the inner sanctum of his office Selina went to face the day with a man she had been prepared to like but now wasn’t so sure.
But he had taken the trouble to visit Josh in the hospital and she couldn’t let it pass without thanking him. So as he turned away from the refreshment counter where he’d been chatting with Olga, the tealady, she said, ‘It was good of you to go to see Josh on Saturday night. He’s short of male company.’
That would let him see that even if he was sexist, she wasn’t. But then he wouldn’t know that Mark had just spilled the beans about him preferring a male partner.
‘It was my pleasure,’ he said easily. ‘I’m renting a flat that’s only minutes away from the hospital.’
‘And have you settled in all right?’
He grimaced. ‘It’s not exactly from the Better Homes Guide, but because of coming down here at the last minute I took the first thing I was offered. However, in the near future I shall be looking to change my habitat, maybe to somewhere in the vicinity of your delightful village.’
Long-lashed violet eyes observed him in surprise. That might have been nice to know if it hadn’t been for the fact that he wasn’t keen to work with her.
‘I’m sure you’ll find somewhere,’ she said casually. ‘Not everyone can settle into country life.’
It was his turn to stare. So that was it, he thought. She might have to put up with him workwise, but she didn’t want her home territory invaded.
Their first call of the day came through at that moment, putting an end to the stilted conversation. Kane was already moving, with Selina right behind him.
One ambulance had already gone out while Mark Guthrie had been talking to her and now it was their turn.
As they left the canteen Kane pressed the button to activate the machinery that would raise the heavy metal exit doors, and once they’d climbed aboard they were off within seconds.
They were allowed eight minutes to arrive at the scene of the emergency and by that time would have discovered from information received on the computer in the cab what degree of urgency there was in the request for an ambulance.
The most urgent, like heart attacks or chest pains that might lead to cardiac arrest or the sudden onset of other life-threatening illnesses, along with serious traffic accidents or major catastrophes, were classed as red alerts.
Less serious-sounding accidents, inside and outside the home, were amber alerts, and anything not so urgent, yet requiring the service of am ambulance, were logged as green.
Being prewarned about the seriousness of the incident that they were approaching gave the crews the chance to prepare themselves for whatever lay ahead.
Obviously there were times when a red alert had become amber or even green by the time they got there, or vice versa, but in the main the system worked for both paramedics and patients.
The one they were speeding towards had a seriousness all of its own—a house fire on an estate on the outskirts of the city.
Fire Services were already there and the ground floor of the property was well alight according to the message received at the ambulance station.
Selina had attended fires before with Charlie, and his calm skills had helped combat the horror of what they’d found awaiting them in many instances.
But today another man was in charge, an unknown quantity, and she hoped he was going to be as efficient as his predecessor.
‘Have you been out to a fire before?’ Kane asked crisply as she sat beside him in the passenger seat, deep in thought.
‘Yes. I’ve been to a few,’ she said quietly.
‘Any fatalities?’
‘Some.’
‘Not pleasant.’
‘No. Certainly not!’ she agreed with a shudder and a quick glance at his unrevealing profile.
Was this how it was going to be? Selina wondered. Staccato sentences, fired at her like bullets. Was it the moment to tell him that she’d heard he didn’t like working with women, and if that was so, it was just too bad as up to now she wasn’t over the moon with jovial Charlie’s replacement?
But the comment had come to her secondhand and Selina believed in making her own judgements. Kane had been kind to Josh and herself on two occasions when he’d barely known them, so what it was going to be like working with him was a matter of wait and see.
There was just one casualty, she was relieved to see—a man with burns to the arm and chest. The remains of a sweater of some sort were hanging loosely around him.
He was sitting on the grass verge outside the house while firemen were round the back, tackling the kitchen, which was burning fiercely.
It appeared that he was a night worker who had decided to make himself a meal when he’d got in at seven o’clock that morning. But tired after a long shift, he’d fallen asleep with the chip pan on and had only awakened when the kitchen had been ablaze.
He’d suffered what looked like second-degree burns as he’d tried to put out the fire, but on seeing that it was too widespread he’d run outside only just in time.
‘The wife’s at work,’ he croaked as they helped him into the ambulance. ‘She’ll never forgive me for this. I’ve burnt the house down and frizzled myself, all because I fancied some chips.’
‘She might just be glad that you’re alive,’ Selina said as Kane opened the water-gel kit they carried for emergencies such as this.
It was a big moist blanket made to cover burns, with a twofold purpose. It stopped the skin from drying and tightening and kept the air away from tissue that had been exposed in the fire.
Kane had said little, leaving Selina to offer what consolation she could, but he’d displayed a sort of speedy efficiency that had immediately made her think that Charlie must have slowed down somewhat in latter years.
Here was a man who was really into the job, she thought. It was the kind of call-out that she’d taken part in on many occasions, but with Kane it felt different. He was confident and obviously very experienced, so the fact that he wasn’t into the usual chit-chat didn’t really matter.
By the time they arrived at Accident and Emergency the burns victim was having rigors and Kane eyed him in quick concern.
‘He’s in shock and becoming dehydrated,’ he said as he leapt out of the ambulance. ‘Let’s get him in there fast, Selina.’
When they’d delivered the patient to the A and E staff and were about to return to the unit, Kane said, ‘I noticed that your doctor friend isn’t on today.’