Echo of the Dead - William Lorimer Series 19 (2022) by Gray Alex

Author:Gray, Alex [Gray, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

‘Auntie, can you stop. Please!’ Juliet twisted round in the wheelchair, a moan escaping from her lips. ‘What is it?’ Jean Noble applied the brake and crouched down in front of her niece, a worried expression on the older woman’s face as she saw Juliet clutching her stomach.

‘Is it the baby?’

‘I don’t know … ’ Juliet looked at her aunt, pleadingly. ‘Maybe … ’

Jean whipped out her mobile and dialled the emergency number then waited, prickles of sweat beading her hairline.

Pauline Brown picked up the telephone and listened to the anxious voice on the line.

‘I’ll be straight over,’ she said. ‘Keep the patient warm but don’t give her anything to eat or drink till she’s seen by a doctor.’

In minutes she was out of the door, coat over one arm, her medical bag grasped in her right hand. The dead climber’s widow had been admitted to the local hospital after complaining of abdominal pains.

‘Shouldn’t have come all this way in her condition,’ Pauline muttered to herself. Too many people risked their lives on those mountains and now this silly woman had risked the life of her unborn child by trailing all the way to Glencoe. And for what? Some sentimental nonsense about seeing where her husband had been? What good would that do her?

Pauline’s anger reduced to a simmer as she drove to the hospital. Taking deep breaths, she deliberately relaxed her tense muscles, something she had shown countless patients over the years. It would do nobody any good for her to bring a sense of recrimination to the patient. Besides, her training had made her understand the need for a calm demeanour at all times. Hers had not been an easy choice of profession, working as a psychiatric nurse then transferring to the more varied practice in the local cottage hospital in Glencoe.

By the time she had parked the car and left her coat in the locker, Sister Brown gave every appearance of her normal professional composure. The patient was in a cubicle off a corridor, and she could see the shape of another woman sitting just inside the nylon curtain.

Two pairs of eyes looked up as Pauline entered their space and she smiled down at them.

‘Right, now, let’s have a look at you, shall we?’

Jean Noble sat in a grey plastic chair near the door of the canteen, watching as different men and women walked by; a few nurses in uniform, a couple of porters plus a young man who might have been a doctor. (Who could tell nowadays since they never wore white coats? And he looked so young!) It had been nearly two hours since she had brought her niece into the little hospital building and wheeled her anxiously to the nearest reception desk.

She looked at her watch again and sighed. If Juliet lost this baby … she bit her lip. One tragedy had been devastating for the young woman, but to lose her firstborn … Tears sprang to her eyes as she thought of the possible consequences for her niece.

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