Worth the Risk(64)

They talked for a few minutes more and then she followed him out, picking up her list of house calls from Helen.

Making a note to add Felicity Webster and Geoff Thompson to the list, she wrapped herself up in her woolly coat and took the keys to the four-wheel drive. Since the snow had started they’d worked the calls so that the one with the calls further afield took the Range Rover.

She called on a man with chest pains first and decided he had indigestion. Then she saw an old lady who’d slipped on the ice and hurt her leg. Examining her gently, she noted that the right leg was shortened and externally rotated. Fractured neck of femur.

‘You’ve broken your hip, Mrs Wise,’ she told her gently, exchanging looks with the woman’s daughter who was hovering in the background.

‘Oh, dear. Does that mean a trip to hospital?’

‘I’m afraid so.’ Ally covered her with a blanket and called an ambulance, waiting with them until it arrived.

Next on her list was Felicity, now three days post-delivery and thriving.

‘She’s such a guzzler!’ Felicity patted her daughter on the back to wind her, and Ally smiled.

‘How are the children taking it?’

‘Oh, they keep poking her.’ Felicity laughed and latched the baby on the breast again. ‘If she survives until Christmas it will be a miracle.’

‘And how are you?’

‘Oh, absolutely fine, thanks to you.’ Felicity glanced up, her expression grateful, and Ally smiled.

‘You did it, Felicity, not me.’

Felicity shook her head, settling the baby more comfortably on her arm. ‘No. I was in a total panic. I had such a bad time with the others.’

‘Well, I’m glad it all worked out so well.’ Ally checked the position of the uterus and then said goodbye, checking that she’d finished her calls before she made her way to the Thompsons. If she did catch Geoff Thompson in, she didn’t want to have to dash off in a hurry to do another call.

The Thompsons’ house looked totally deserted. She rapped on the door twice and squinted up at the windows, but there were no signs of life. Well, they could be anywhere, she reasoned, climbing back in the Range Rover and driving back to the surgery.

Suddenly she felt hideously sick and sat still, trying to fight the waves of nausea and faintness which swamped her. She was breathing steadily with her eyes closed in an attempt to control it when the door was tugged open.

Sean stood there, his dark brows clashing in a frown. ‘What’s the matter? Are you ill again?’

‘No. Yes—maybe a bit.’ Help! She had to give some excuse for the way she felt. ‘I just feel a bit weedy, that’s all.’

He stared at her for a long moment. ‘It’s been a week and a half, Ally. The bug doesn’t last that long.’

He knew. She could tell by the look in his eyes. He’d guessed.

‘Maybe it’s not the same bug.’ Her protest was half-hearted and he gave her a grim smile.

‘I think you and I had better have a talk, don’t you?’

‘Not now, Sean.’ She tugged the keys out of the ignition and took another deep breath to try and control the nausea.

‘Yes, now.’ He jerked open the door and stood waiting while she gathered up her bag and coat and slid to the ground. Her legs gave way under her and she would have gone all the way if he hadn’t caught her.

‘Steady…’ He stiffened slightly and she reminded herself that she wasn’t allowed the luxury of leaning on this man any more. Pulling herself together, she walked towards the health centre with as much composure as she could muster. Once inside he caught her wrist and propelled her through to his room. She stood just inside the door, watching him warily.

‘You’re pregnant, aren’t you?’ His face was set and grim and her heart seemed to drop into her stomach.

‘Sean, I—’

‘When were you going to tell me?’

His expression was forbidding and she slipped a hand onto her abdomen in an instinctively protective gesture.

‘I don’t know. I…’

He was suddenly pale, his eyes cold and distant as if he were talking to a stranger. As if the love-making between them had never happened. ‘It’s the oldest trick in the book, isn’t it?’

She frowned, baffled. ‘Trick? What do you mean, trick?’

‘To get me to marry you.’ He strode over to the window, staring out across the fells.

She stared at his broad back, stunned. ‘You think I did it on purpose to get you to marry me?’

He shrugged, his expression challenging as he turned to look at her. ‘Well, didn’t you?’

‘No!’ Her blue eyes were wide, her expression horrified, as she shook her head. ‘No. Of course I didn’t.’