The Doctor's Christmas Bride (10 page)

Bryony gave a shiver and pulled her fleece up to her chin. ‘Well, it looks nice on the Christmas cards but it’s not so great when you’re out on the mountains. Why didn’t you let me go with Toby?’

‘Because he’d be so busy staring at your legs he’d let you fall down a crevice.’

Bryony gaped at him. ‘Jack, I’m wearing fleece trousers. They’re hardly revealing!’

‘Your legs would look sexy in a bin bag.’

She stopped dead. He thought her legs were sexy? He’d never said anything like that to her before. She was staring after him in confusion, wondering why he’d said that, when he glanced back at her.

‘Why have you stopped? You needed to admire me from a distance?’

She grinned, suddenly feeling light-hearted. ‘Why are men like placemats?’ Shifting her rucksack slightly to make it more comfortable, she caught up with him. ‘Because they only show up when there’s food on the table.’

He smiled and as they continued up the path it started to snow again. ‘I hope they’ve got some form of shelter,’ Jack muttered, and Bryony nodded, her expression concerned.

‘I hope we find them soon. It’ll be dark in a couple of hours.’

They trudged on and the snow suddenly grew thicker underfoot.

‘Crampons and ice axes, I think, Blondie,’ Jack muttered, pausing by a snow-covered rock and swinging his rucksack off his back.

They stopped just long enough to equip themselves
safely for the next part of the rescue and then they were off again.

Bryony stayed behind Jack, watching him place his feet firmly and confidently in the snow, the sharp points of his crampons biting into the snow.

They walked for what felt like ages and then suddenly heard shouts from above them.

‘Sounds hopeful,’ Jack said, increasing his pace and altering his direction slightly. ‘We’ll check it out and then I’ll radio in to base.’

Bryony breathed a sigh of relief when they rounded the next corner and saw two women huddled together.

‘Watch your footing here,’ Jack said, frowning slightly as he glanced to his right. ‘There’s a slope there and a sheer drop at the end of it. I know because I climbed up that rockface last summer with your brothers. This snow doesn’t feel very stable to me.’

‘Shall we rope up?’

He shook his head. ‘We’re all right for now, but we’ll rope up before we go down.’

They reached the two women and one of them immediately burst into tears.

‘Oh, thank goodness…’

Bryony dropped onto her knees beside her, aware that Jack was already on the radio, giving their exact location to the rest of the team.

‘You’re going to be fine,’ she said gently, slipping her arm around the woman’s shoulders and giving her a hug. ‘Where are you hurt?’

‘I’m not hurt,’ the woman said, but her teeth were chattering and she was obviously very cold. ‘But my sister slipped on the snow and hurt her ankle and cut her wrist. I think she must have hit a rock when she
landed. It was bleeding very badly so I pressed on it hard with a spare jumper that we had in our bag and it seemed to stop.’

‘Good—you did just the right thing.’ Bryony shrugged her rucksack off her back. ‘I’m Bryony and I’m a doctor and a member of the local mountain rescue team. What’s your name?’

‘Alison Gayle.’ The woman was shivering. ‘And my sister’s name is Pamela. I feel so guilty dragging you out in this weather. We’ve put everyone in danger.’

‘Don’t feel guilty,’ Bryony said immediately, ‘and you haven’t put us in danger. It’s our job and we love it. And we have all the right equipment for this weather.’

Which was just as well, she reflected ruefully, because the weather was getting worse by the second.

The snow started to fall heavily and Bryony brushed the soft flakes away from her face with a gloved hand and looked at the sky with a frown. The visibility was reducing rapidly. She moved over to check on Pamela and Jack joined her.

‘All right, the rest of the team is on their way up.’ He dropped down next to her and smiled at Alison. ‘Lovely day for a stroll in the hills.’

Bryony moved over to Pamela and noticed that the woman looked extremely pale and shocked.

‘You’re going to be fine now, Pamela,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m just going to check your injuries and then we’re going to get you off this mountain.’

She pulled off her gloves and carefully unwrapped the blood-soaked jumper so that she could examine the wrist injury more carefully. As soon as she re
leased the pressure and exposed the wound, blood spurted into the air and Bryony quickly grabbed the jumper and pressed down again.

‘It’s an artery, Jack,’ she muttered and he was by her side in an instant, the bulk of his shoulders providing a barrier between her and the elements.

He was strong and confident and, as usual, she found his presence hugely reassuring.

‘I’ve put Alison into a casualty bag so she’ll be fine for the time being.’ He unwrapped the wrist himself, quickly assessed the extent of the injury and then pressed a sterile pad over the laceration and smiled at Pamela.

‘That’s going to be fine,’ he said smoothly, elevating her arm and handing a bandage to Bryony with his free hand. ‘We’re going to bandage it tightly and keep it up just until we can get you off this mountain.’

The woman looked at him with frightened eyes. ‘I can’t walk down—my ankle hurts.’

‘Don’t you worry about that. That’s why we bring my blonde friend here,’ Jack said cheerfully, winking at Bryony. ‘She’s the muscles of the operation.’

While he chatted and teased, Bryony tightened the bandage and gave him a nod. ‘All done.’

‘Good. So now let’s check the ankle. How painful is it, Pamela?’

The woman looked at him, her lips turning blue with the cold. ‘Agony.’

‘So we’ll give you some gas and air to breathe while we check it out,’ Jack said immediately, reaching into his rucksack. ‘I want you to take some slow breaths. Great—perfect.’ He looked at Bryony. ‘Right, can you cut that boot off and let’s see what
we’re dealing with here? And make it quick. She’s cold and we need to get her into a casualty bag.’

Bryony sliced through the laces and gently removed the boot and then the sock. ‘The ankle is very swollen,’ she murmured, and Pamela gave a little groan and took several more breaths of the gas and air. ‘Could you put any weight on it after you fell, Pamela?’

The woman shook her head. ‘It was agony. I fell straight away, that’s how I cut my wrist.’

‘What do you reckon, Blondie?’ Jack asked, his arm around Pamela as he supported her.

‘She’s tender over the distal fibula and the lateral malleolus,’ Bryony said quickly. ‘I think it’s probably a fracture. She’s going to need X-rays when we get her down.’

‘So we splint it now, give her some more analgesia and then get her into a casualty bag until the rest of the team gets here with the Bell,’ Jack said decisively, his arm still round Pamela. ‘You’re going to be fine, Pamela.’

Pamela groaned. ‘Have I broken it? And why do you need a bell?’

‘A Bell is a type of stretcher that we use, and it looks as though you might have broken your ankle,’ Jack said, watching as Bryony pulled out the rest of the equipment. ‘Don’t you worry. We’re going to make you comfortable. We have these amazing fleecy bags that are very snug. In a moment you’re going to feel like toast. Did you hear about the blonde who ordered a take-away pizza? The waiter asked her if she wanted it cut into six slices or twelve—’ swiftly
he helped Bryony apply the splint ‘—and she said, “Six, please. I could never eat twelve.”’

‘Just ignore him, Pamela,’ Bryony advised with a smile. ‘He doesn’t know the meaning of politically correct and frankly it’s amazing he hasn’t been arrested before now. If I didn’t need him to carry you down this mountain, I’d push him off the cliff myself.’

But despite the pain she was obviously suffering, Pamela was smiling. ‘He’s making me laugh, actually.’

Bryony groaned. ‘Don’t tell him that or he’ll tell you blonde jokes all the way down the mountain. Trust me, you’d rather be left on your own in the snow than have to listen to Jack in full flow.’

She and Jack kept up their banter, taking Pamela’s mind off the situation she was in, working together with swift efficiency. They’d just got Pamela into a casualty bag when the rest of the team approached out of the snow. Bryony’s brother was among them.

Jack rolled his eyes. ‘The last thing we need up here is an obstetrician,’ he drawled. ‘Who’s delivering all those babies while you’re wasting your time on the mountain?’

Tom adjusted the pack on his back. ‘They’re all queuing up, waiting for me to come back.’

‘Well, you took so long you needn’t have bothered coming.’ Jack stood up, tall and broad-shouldered. ‘You’ve missed all the action. Blondie and I have sorted it out as usual. Don’t know why we need such a big team really.’

‘If we weren’t here you wouldn’t have anyone to boss around,’ Tom said dryly, working with the rest
of the team to get a stretcher ready. ‘We rang the RAF to see if there was any chance of an airlift but the weather is closing in so it looks like we’re going to have to carry them down.’

Jack walked over and conferred with Sean, the other A and E consultant and the MRT leader, and discussed the best way to get the two women off the mountain while Bryony kept an eye on Pamela. Fortunately the casualty bag had zip access, which meant she was able to check on her patient without exposing her to the freezing air.

Finally Pamela was safely strapped onto a stretcher. Her sister had revived sufficiently to be able to walk down the mountain with some assistance from two bulky MRT members who roped her between them.

Bryony reattached her crampons and picked up her ice axe. The snow was thick now and she knew that one false step could have her sliding halfway down the mountain.

The snow was falling so thickly she could barely see and she scrubbed her face with her hand to clear her vision.

‘Rope up, Blondie,’ Jack’s voice said, and as she opened her mouth to answer, the ground beneath her suddenly shifted and she was falling.

She didn’t even have time to cry out, sliding fast down the slope towards the edge of the cliff that Jack had described so graphically.

Immediately she braced the axe shaft across her body, digging the pick into the snow slope and raising her feet so that they didn’t catch in the snow. She jerked to a halt and hung there for a moment, suspended, her heart hammering against her chest, her
hands tightly locked on her ice axe, which was the only thing holding her on the slope.

She heard Jack calling her name and heard something in his tone that she hadn’t heard before. Panic.

She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She didn’t want Jack to panic. Jack never panicked. Ever. Jack panicking was a bad sign. Realising just how close she was to the edge of the cliff, she kept a tight hold on her ice axe and gingerly moved her feet, trying to get some traction with her crampons.

‘Hang on, Bry,’ Tom called cheerfully. ‘Jack’s just coming to get you. You won’t live this one down in a hurry.’

But despite his light-hearted tone, Bryony heard the anxiety in his voice. And it was hardly surprising, she thought ruefully, risking another glance below her. Another couple of metres and she would have vanished over the edge of a sheer cliff.

And it could still happen.

‘Hang on, Blondie,’ Jack called, and she glanced up to see him climbing down towards her, a rope attached to his middle.

‘You think I’m going to let go?’ Her voice shook slightly. ‘You think I’m that stupid?’

As he drew closer she could see his grin. ‘Of course you’re stupid. You fell, didn’t you? And you have blonde hair. You must be stupid. It says so in all the books.’

Bryony tried to smile but then she felt the snow give under her ice axe and she gave a gasp of fright and jabbed her feet into the slope.
‘Jack!’

‘I’ve got you, angel.’ His voice came from right beside her and he slid an arm and leg over her, hold
ing her against the slope while he attached a rope to her waist. ‘God, you almost gave us all a heart attack.’

She turned her head to look at him and his face was so close that she could feel the warmth of his breath against her cheek and see the dark stubble shadowing his hard jaw. He looked sexy and strong and she’d never been so pleased to see anyone in her life.

Then she glanced down at the drop beneath her and thought of Lizzie. ‘Oh, God, Jack,’ she whispered, and she felt his grip on her tighten.

‘Don’t even say it,’ he said harshly. ‘I’ve got you and there’s no way I’m letting you go.’ He glanced up the slope and shouted something to Sean, who was holding the other end of the rope. ‘They’re going to take you up now, sweetheart. Try not to do anything blonde on the way up.’

She gave a weak smile and he smiled back. ‘Go for it.’

And gradually, with the aid of the rope and her ice axe and crampons, she managed to climb back up the slope, aware that Jack was behind her.

Finally she reached the top and Tom rolled his eyes. ‘Thanks for the adrenaline rush.’

‘Any time,’ Bryony said lightly, but she was shaking badly now that the danger had passed, and Jack must have known that because he pulled her into his arms and held her until his warmth and strength gradually calmed her.

He didn’t speak. He just held her tightly, talking all the time to Sean and Tom as they reassessed the best way to get safely down the increasingly treacherous slope.

Bryony stood in the circle of his arms, wishing that she could stay there for ever. There was no better place in the world, she decided, closing her eyes and breathing in his tantalising male scent.

And when he finally released her she felt bereft.

She looked at him, trying to keep it light as he checked the rope at her waist. ‘I didn’t know you were into bondage.’

He smiled down at her as he pulled on the rope. ‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Blondie,’ he drawled, his blue eyes teasing her wickedly. ‘There’s no point in learning to do all these fancy knots if you don’t put them to good use.’

She smiled and then her smile faltered. ‘Thanks, Jack.’ Ridiculously she felt close to tears. ‘I would have done the same for you.’