Page 113 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

‘You rang and I came.’

‘Did I? I don’t remember that.’

‘What do you remember?’

‘All in good time—no need to rush things.’ The medic, who had presumably been summoned by the nurse, walked across to his patient in the bed. ‘I’m glad to see you are back with us. There might be a few gaps in your memory.’ He half turned to include Joaquin in the conversation as he continued, ‘Your fiancée needs rest.’

Fiancée? There were three people in the car? Joaquin was engaged?

Emotion thickened in her throat, but the tears pricking her eyes were, she told herself, nothing to do with Joaquin’s marital plans and everything to do with her weakened state.

They said she’d been in some sort of accident. Surely she was allowed to cry!

‘Is she all right?’ Clemmie asked.

‘Is who all right?’ asked the nurse.

Clemmie’s heavy-lidded gaze shifted groggily from the nurse to Joaquin. ‘Your fiancée?’ She ran her tongue across the dry outline of her lips and told herself she was happy for him. ‘Congratulations.’ Clemmie closed her eyes. ‘I’m a bit tired.’

‘Of course you are. Do you have any pain?’ the nurse asked, adjusted the IV dripping into her arm before smoothing the pristine white sheet beneath it. ‘Such a beautiful ring...’

The comment tickled a hazy memory in Clemmie’s head, but it remained frustratingly out of reach. There had been a ring—but she didn’t wear rings. Her brow furrowed and she opened one eye, squinting at her hand. A moment later both eyes flew wide as she held up her hand and began to struggle to raise herself.

‘That’s not mine!’ she cried as she collapsed back on the pillows in an untidy heap. She turned her glance of appeal to Joaquin, hoping for him to provide some sort of answer, but saw the doctor was speaking to him in a low monotone.

Joaquin had been listening to the doctor voicing soothing medical platitudes, with an expression of interest on his face, while most of his attention was focused on Clemmie’s pale face. The pallor was now alleviated by twin bright red spots on her cheeks.

If he hadn’t been so focused on her injuries he might have anticipated this situation, but he hadn’t. Going along with the assumption they were engaged had seemed harmless enough, but less so now. There had been some vague idea in his head of the ring on her finger scenario being a story they would both laugh about on some later date over a glass of wine.

There was no laughter in her face now. Just confusion and, yes, alarm. Her response to the idea of being engaged to him appeared to be a combination of panic and horror.

Well, he always had been able to rely on Clemmie to puncture his ego, he reflected. But he was not smiling at the thought because she looked so anxious that he wanted to hug her.

‘Joaquin...?’ she said, as if she was registering his presence all over again. ‘How are you here? Why are you here? You are in New York.’

‘I came back.’

‘You might have told me you were coming back. I would have booked a day or two off work.’

‘There was car crash...we were in my car.’

‘How was I in your car?’ she croaked, her hoarse voice rising in panic. She shifted restlessly in the narrow bed and clutched her head with her hand. ‘I’m in hospital... Oh, God, I can’t be in this place.’

He moved towards the bed. ‘Relax, Clemmie, there was an accident.’

‘This isn’t mine.’ She shook her head and stared at the ring on her finger.

‘It was my grandmother’s. Don’t you remember?’

She shook her head. ‘No, you are in New York.’

‘Well, he’ll just have to propose again, won’t he, darling?’

Ruth Leith stepped into the room.

‘Mum?’Clemmie felt tears press at the back of her eyes. She sniffed. ‘I want to go home. And Joaquindidn’tpropose to me. He is never going to get married; he promised me he wouldn’t get married. Married people hate each other.’

Her mother swept across the room. ‘Oh, your poor little face,’ she said selecting an unbruised spot to kiss. There were tears in her eyes as she turned her gaze to Joaquin. ‘You saved my baby. How can I ever thank you? When I saw the news report, I thought... Then the news reader said it was a miracle there were no fatalities.’

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