Helen was still sobbing, and the ambulance crew were unsure of whether to increase her distress by separating her from her child.
Kate crouched down, which was no easy task these days. She had to catch the bar on the side of the stretcher to keep her balance.
‘The doctors need to take care of you,’ she told the girl. ‘And we’re going to take very good care of Danni for you.’
‘Is she all right?’ Helen grabbed Kate with her uninjured hand. ‘Oh … God! I couldn’t hold onto her, and I tried … I really tried …’
‘I know, sweetheart,’ Kate said. ‘We’ll check her out thoroughly. Try not to worry. You need to trust us.’ She squeezed Helen’s hand. ‘Can you do that, do you think?’
There was anguish in the girl’s eyes, but she nodded. What choice did she have? The poor girl was hardly more than a child herself, but the bond she had with her baby was palpable. It wasn’t helping either of them to be hearing the other sobbing so miserably.
‘Good girl.’ Kate smiled. ‘Now, take a deep breath for me. And another one.’
Helen complied, controlling her sobs with difficulty. ‘I—I’m sorry.’
‘You don’t have anything to be sorry for.’ Kate gave her hand another squeeze before heaving herself upright again. ‘Let the doctors take care of you, and we’ll have you back together with your little girl just as soon as we can, OK?’
Helen nodded again, her lips clamped shut on another sob as she was wheeled away. Wally was still singing as he was taken to the team waiting to assess and treat him.
‘Could you put Florence and Danni into a cubicle, please, Kate?’ Judy was writing furiously on the big whiteboard, putting the names of the patients into boxes that would track where they were and what treatment was underway. ‘I’ll find a doctor to come and see them. Oh, and could you check on Mrs McCulloch? Do her vitals if you get a chance. I think her nurse is caught up in resus now. I’ll try and get someone in to cover the paperwork.’
An empty stretcher was on its way back to the desk. ‘You can expect the next ambulance in about ten minutes,’ a paramedic said. ‘Possibly longer. The driver and another child were still trapped when we left. The fire service is working on getting them out.’
It wasn’t so much of a shock being close to Rory this time. Her skin still prickled, and there was that odd feeling deep inside her belly that had nothing to do with any movement from all those tiny limbs in there, but Kate could cope.
She had to.
She fitted a clean earpiece to the tympanic thermometer. ‘So, your mother’s Italian?’
‘Yes.’
‘I never knew that.’
‘Why would you?’
Why indeed? But the curt response was unnecessary. Unkind. Kate concentrated on her task and inserted the earpiece as gently as she could, but Marcella stirred and moaned.
Rory said something to his mother in Italian. Something so soothing that Kate could feel the words rumbling into her bones. No wonder his mother’s eyes drifted shut again.
‘Temperature’s thirty-eight point four.’ Kate reached for the chart on the end of the bed. ‘It’s coming down.’
‘Good.’
Kate carefully wrapped a blood pressure cuff around the elderly woman’s arm, trying not to wake her. She felt for a pulse, keeping her eyes firmly on what she was doing, because she really didn’t want eye contact with Rory. He was giving the impression that he considered this to be her fault.
Fair enough—to a point—but, unlike many, she had never chased this man. Never let him know even by a glance how she felt about him. She’d certainly never, ever expected to share her bed with him. And, yes, it was her fault as much as his that they hadn’t used any protection, but the possibility of pregnancy had seemed as unreal as everything else about that night.
Kate pumped up the cuff and let it down slowly, listening for a pulse to reappear. She took her time, because she would have to look up when she’d finished and she could feel Rory staring at her.
Sounds from the adjacent cubicle were muffled, but still audible. A junior doctor was talking to Florence.
‘How old is she?’
‘Nearly two.’
‘And she lives at the Castle?’
‘Yes. Her mum, Helen, came when she was fourteen and pregnant. She’s still living there. She helps with the other kids and gives me a hand with the cleaning and so forth.’
Kate unhooked the stethoscope and wrote down the blood pressure. Then she put her fingers back on Marcella’s wrist to time her heart rate.
‘How many children at the home at present?’ the doctor was asking Florence.
‘Nine—if you count Danni, here. Ten if you count Helen—and she’s still a child, really, poor lamb.’
‘And you were at a Christmas party?’
‘Yes. Big charity do where they give us sacks of gifts for the children. They’re still in the back of the bus. Oh, no! You don’t think someone will steal them, do you?’
‘I’m sure the police will take care of that. Danni seems fine. Let’s have a look at that head of yours.’
Kate could hear the noise level in the department increasing, presumably due to a new wave of arrivals, but that wasn’t what made her brow furrow in concern.
‘Is your mother’s pulse normally irregular?’
‘Yes. She has chronic atrial fibrillation.’
‘I might see if I can find a twelve-lead ECG machine that’s free. I’ll check to see if any results are back on those tests as well.’
‘You might be needed more urgently elsewhere.’
‘Help!’ someone was shouting. ‘Help me …’
‘It hurts!’ a child’s voice cried. ‘It really, really hurts!’
It was a cry that would have torn anybody’s heart. Kate looked up deliberately to catch Rory’s gaze.
‘You could help,’ she heard herself suggesting. ‘While your mum’s asleep.’
‘No.’ The word was a harsh dismissal. ‘I’m no longer a doctor, Kate. It’s out of the question.’
She stared at him. This wasn’t the man she knew. Or thought she knew. The brilliant doctor who’d never missed a beat, no matter how much pressure he was under. The leader who had thrived on coping and still being fanatically careful with his treatment of every patient. The physician whose diagnostic abilities were a legend and his skills with highly invasive procedures even more so. The man colleagues had admired and respected. That patients had adored. That women had fallen in love with.
Like Kate had.
And to ignore a child like the one who had just cried out! She’d seen him with children in the past. He’d always gone to whatever lengths were necessary to help a child.
Who was this man? The lines on his face were as uncompromising as his tone had been. The topic was clearly not open for discussion, but surely Kate had the right to know?
‘You left medicine? Just walked away?’
‘That’s exactly what I did.’
‘What have you been doing?’
‘Not that it’s any of your business,’ Rory said coldly, ‘but I’ve been building roads. New mining development in the south of Australia.’
No wonder