Page 67 of A Wedding in a Week

I hear it as soon as I pass Marc my phone, close enough that I get to listen in to what my brother couldn’t tell me. This information is confidential, for the ears of a next of kin only. That’s who he wanted to speak to, not to a best friend of his that I just confessed to loving, or to my partner in a business I hoped would save both my farm and him.

Marc’s the closest contactable person for someone on a knife-edge, and right now I can’t care about Love-Land Weddings or about Marc’s one chance at success, not when Lukas cuts to the heart of what really matters.

“It’s about Noah. I’m at the Royal with him.” That’s the premier cardiac hospital in the country. I remember Lukas mentioning in his very first uni application. I can’t parse how that fits in with Marc’s brother until Lukas says, “I was trying out for a spot shadowing the trauma-centre team when he was blue-lighted here.”

Marc barks, “Noah was? You’re sure?”

Lukas confirms it. “Yes. Your mother or his father would usually be the first point of contact, but they aren’t answering phone calls.”

“About?”

“About the surgery Noah needs for a chest wound.” That cool, calm act drops. Lukas bleeds emotion. “He’s been stabbed. I’m so sorry.”

“Stabbed.” Marc clasps my arm like it’s strong enough to hold him. “What? No! How?”

Lukas reverts back to collected, and I don’t know how he does it. “We don’t know anything apart from that the blade is still in place. The team are going in now to remove it and to try to fix the damage to his heart.”

I take Marc’s whole weight then, bracing him when he buckles.

Lukas can’t see that but he does bleed more emotion. “He won’t be alone, I promise. I’ll stay with him for as long as it takes you to get here.”

My brother asks one last question.

“Be as quick as you can, yeah?”

The practice manager crosses the street, his frown full of concern, and I do what it’s taken three years and seven days to master.

I ask for help instead of staying silent.

Ask?

No.

This time I beg for help until I get it.

24

I’ve described the coast road as serpentine before. From the air, it really does twist like a snake along the coastline. It’s also clogged with traffic. Lines of camper vans move slowly while this helicopter rushes us to London so much faster than a car or train could.

Its pilot must toggle a switch because Rex Heligan’s voice fills my headset. “We’re just under ninety minutes out. Unless there’s another emergency, we’re cleared to land on the Royal’s helipad.”

Marc must also hear him. “What if we can’t land there?”

“My PA is already on it,” Rex promises. “Jack will locate the next closest option. He’ll set up transport to get you where you’re needed ASAP.”

Another voice cuts in, rough and booming. “Jack’s a bloody marvel.” The duke twists in his seat beside Rex, and he has to see what I do—Marc’s so bone-white he looks bloodless, gored by what’s happened to his brother.

The duke’s next aside is quieter, gentler, full of what I’d heard for a first time outside a sculpture garden where panic gripped me. It’s the same compassion that practice manager offered along with the use of his office to make phone calls. Hayden used the same tone when he’d answered. Rebecca too after I called her, promising to help, no questions asked. John’s version had come down the phone line sounding thicker, choked with more emotion, and I know how that goes.

Marc’s also part of this wider network, only he couldn’t ask them for help or thank them, not while shocked, so I did it for him. I do it again now. “Thanks for coming so fast.”

“No problem,” the duke booms. “It’s good you called when you did. We were about to fly upcountry.”

“Oh. I’m sorry—”

“No need. This is only a short detour. We’ll get you there.” He grasps his grandson’s shoulder then peers at Marc, features craggy with concern. “First time in a chopper? Don’t you worry for a minute. Rex is a fabulous pilot.”

Marc’s paleness isn’t due to fear of flying or to interview nerves like this morning. This is a fear I know so well that my heart breaks for him.

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