‘She’s not…?’

‘There’s still a pulse-faint. No, she’s not dead. Go, Jess…’

Jess went.

Outside, the yard had come alive. The electricity servicemen had arrived and set up huge floodlights to show them what they were dealing with. Jess grabbed what she needed, threw orders for stretcher bearers and returned at a run.

She worked beside Niall in silence, concentrating fiercely on anticipating his needs.

He had the pressure points.

‘Take over here, Jess,’ he ordered in the same clinical tone he’d use for a theatre nurse. ‘Press down here-hard. If the bleeding restarts then you’re not pressing hard enough.’

With Jessie controlling the bleeding, Niall was free for other things. In minutes he had the worst of the bleeding staunched by pressure bandage, a drip set up and morphine administered into Ethel’s limp body.

Still the woman didn’t stir.

How badly had she been electrocuted? It couldn’t have been lethal if she’d moved afterwards.

‘Blood pressure about ninety on fifty.’ Niall swore. ‘And dropping. We’re going to need some plasma fast. I’ll radio ahead to Geraldine to prepare for crossmatching.’

He looked up then, assessing his manpower.

‘OK, let’s move her,’ Niall said swiftly. There were men crowding into the room behind them and he snapped a warning.

‘Watch your feet,’ he told them. ‘Don’t move until you see what you’re standing on. There are two fingers missing-and if they’re intact they might be salvageable. Find some ice in the refrigerator and bring them down to the hospital after us. Jess, I need you to come. Now.’

They shifted Ethel’s slight weight to the stretcher and Jess followed the bearers back into the night As she went she cast a sympathetic glance at the dog.

‘There’s a kennel out the back,’ she told the men remaining. ‘Carry the dog out, tie him up and remove the muzzle before he wakes. Make sure he has plenty of water available. I’ll decide what needs to be done for him in the morning.’

There was nothing more she could do for the dog.

There was only Ethel.

The fingers were unsalvageable.

The men found remains of them spattered onto the chainsaw. They brought them down to the hospital and Niall inspected them in grim silence as Jess and Geraldine prepared Theatre.

‘Non-viable,’ he said bitterly. ‘Damn…’

The surgery was difficult enough, anyway.

Jess gave the anaesthetic-a role she’d learned as the island’s vet One doctor and one vet on the island meant that the only option was to give anaesthetics for each other’s patients in emergencies, despite genetic differences.

‘It’s only learning about one more sort of animal,’ Jess had joked to her cousin the first time she’d been asked to do it-but it was more than that. Human life was infinitely precious-and infinitely complex…

And Ethel was frail at the best of times.

Jess concentrated fiercely on Niall’s instructions as he debrided the wound and tied off slashed blood vessels.

Niall operated as if he was completely at home at the operating table and Jess had the feeling that he was competent to deal with worse dramas than the one he was dealing with here.

He took Jessie’s lack of human experience on board without a murmur, swiftly assessing how much she knew and didn’t know and changing his own role accordingly. His fingers moved swiftly and skilfully-and Jess was sure that she was looking at something other than basic general practice training.

‘I thought you were a GP,’ she said bluntly and Niall smiled.

‘Well, I guess I am,’ he agreed. ‘Or was. But I’m also a surgeon.’

‘I…I see…’

Jess didn’t see at all. There were things about this man that she could only guess at.

She couldn’t guess at them now, though. There was too much else to concentrate on.

To Niall’s and Jessie’s relief Ethel had stirred from unconsciousness briefly before going under anaesthetic-but had welcomed the anaesthetic like a friend.

There was no joy for her in consciousness.

Geraldine crossmatched blood as they worked, leaving Jess as the only assistant. Ethel needed unit after unit of blood.

‘She’s so thin,’ Niall muttered as he operated. ‘There are no reserves. Tell me about her, Jess.’

‘What do you want to know?’ Jess was concentrating totally on the task at hand. She hardly heard the question.

‘What sort of woman are we operating on?’

Jess forced herself to think.

‘A pathetic one,’ she said at last. ‘Barry knocks her round-it’s common knowledge on the island. She doesn’t have enough money for the basic necessities.’ Jess paused as she concentrated on her row of dials and then started again. ‘Barry drinks all the little money he earns-and most of hers. She takes in ironing and does other people’s housework.’

‘There are bruises here not caused by any chainsaw.’

Jess nodded. ‘That doesn’t surprise me.’

‘Has anyone talked to her about leaving him?’

‘I have.’ Jess had agonised over intervening the first few times she’d met the haunted, softly spoken woman but had finally decided that she couldn’t ignore Ethel’s cringing every time her husband was mentioned.

‘Last time her dog was vaccinated I had to stitch the dog’s shoulder where Barry had planted a boot-and Ethel had bruises which looked worse.’ Jess shrugged. ‘I didn’t achieve much. It’s a huge thing for Ethel to walk away from her husband. She married him thirty years ago when she was sixteen. Her children have long since left the island because of Barry’s evil temper.’

‘Well, she’s not going to get a lot older if she stays with him, that’s for sure.’ Niall sighed and straightened. ‘Reverse please, Jess.’ He moved position to assist her. ‘I’ve done all I can-but she needs a trip to the mainland.’

‘For plastic surgery?’

‘They can rebuild her thumb. By the look of the wear on her hands she’s left-handed and she’ll be lost without the thumb. With clever grafting they’ll shift a toe-if she agrees.’

‘A toe…’

‘Big toes are extraneous,’ he smiled wearily. ‘Missing thumbs are a real pest. We’ll give her the choice in the morning. But for now…for now…’

For now Ethel needed to sleep. She lay shrunken and pallid on the trolley as she started to breathe normally and Jessie’s heart went out to her.

‘What about Barry?’ she asked as Geraldine wheeled Ethel out into the ward and Niall and Jess removed their gowns at the sink.

‘I’ll go to the lock-up now,’ Niall told her. ‘I’d prefer to dress his hand there. Sergeant Russell will keep him under observation for the night-and I’d rather have him making a fuss out of earshot of Ethel.’

‘I’d like to know why she locked him out.’

‘Some of those bruises are recent,’ Niall said grimly. ‘And by the look of her arm I’d say there’s a break that hasn’t been set properly. If I had to guess I’d say the lady’s been living in fear for quite a while.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll go now and dress Barry’s hand and come back…’

‘You’ll stay here the night?’

‘I’d rather be close until Ethel’s stabilised,’ he said. ‘Paige will be right with Hugo. Ethel’s fairly traumatised-and she’s lost a lot of blood.’

Jess nodded. ‘I’ll…I’ll go to bed, then,’ she told him softly. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘You do that,’ he smiled and touched her face lightly with one finger. ‘You do that.’

CHAPTER NINE

BED…

Not yet. First there were her two little orphans.

For Jess there were always her two-or more-little orphans. They were restless when she got back to her flat, the little wallaby out of his pouch and nosing around the kitchen. Jess sat on the floor by the stove and gave them their milk, using the time to settle her jangled nerves.

She should relax…

She couldn’t.

Niall was gone. He was down at the police station attending the awful Barry.

So…

If Niall was gone why were her senses alight as though electrified? Her whole body seemed to be straining-listening for his return.

He’d go straight to his flat, she told herself crossly. There was no reason for him to come past her room.

He’d check Ethel again.

He could come this way.

It didn’t matter if he did. He’d just walk straight down the corridor, check Ethel, keep going, turn left and go to his side of the hospital.

Right.

So she should get into bed and not sit here by the fire nursing stupid wallabies and listening for stupid footsteps.

‘I’m going nuts,’ she told the little wallaby, and the tiny animal looked up as though in complete agreement.

A car.

The ambulance returning from the police station.

Footsteps down the corridor. They checked outside Ethel’s room. Paused. Stayed for ten minutes. There was a low conversation at the ward door as Niall gave Geraldine her instructions for the night.

The footsteps came on.

Down the corridor and turn left.

Down the corridor…

They didn’t turn left. The footsteps stopped right outside Jessie’s door.

She was hardly breathing. Somehow her lungs had stopped-or was it her heart?

‘Jess?’ A light tap on the door-not loud enough to be heard by Geraldine. ‘Awake?’

No. She shouldn’t be awake. She should be inside her bed with the bedroom door locked and with chains on her heart

Instead of which she was placing the tiny wallaby on the floor and crossing to open the door.

‘Niall…’

‘Who did you think it was?’ he asked wickedly. ‘Santa Claus?’

‘It might have been a call,’ she said with quiet dignity. ‘I do get them.’

‘Surely your farmers don’t come scratching on your bedroom door at three in the morning?’ he teased. He took a step into the room but paused as Jess laid a warning hand on his arm. ‘What’s wrong?’