Page 56 of Stranded with the Surgeon

‘She should come.’ Maggie sounded unusually serious, but then she flashed Jennifer an almost imperceptible wink. ‘She’s one of us.’

‘We’re wasting time,’ one of the Queenstown men growled.

Wayne nodded. ‘Let’s move.’ He turned to Guy. ‘It’s up to you, mate. If you want Jenna, you’ll have to take responsibility for her.’

* * *

That was it in a nutshell, wasn’t it?

Ifhe wanted Jenna.

Of course hewantedher. He’d be mad not to. She was gorgeous, intelligent, talented and kind. She was going to be the mother of his child, for heaven’s sake, but even that paled into insignificance compared to the fact that she lovedhim.

Guy watched as people fussed around Jennifer.

Nathan had provided the overalls. Maureen had taken off her work boots and was now zipping up Jennifer’s in their place.

‘Classy,’ she pronounced. ‘Might keep these.’

There were encouraging smiles, hands patting her back and a lot of voices wishing her luck. Somethinghadchanged. There was no way that the Professor Allen from that conference would have been treated like this. Or been such an integral part of the gathering at the Glenfalloch pub last night.

He’d seen that heart to heart she’d been having with Maureen at one point when the two women had been leaning towards each other over the bar as though sharing something very private.

He’d seen her dancing with Mack, of all people, her cheeks reddened by the vigorous activity and her head thrown back in laughter at her own lack of expertise.

He’d even seen that impromptu examination of old Mrs O’Donell’s bunions in a quiet corner. How could she have gone on to stuff herself with chocolate eclairs afterthat?

Maggie had been so right. She – and the others – sensed something he had refused to allow himself to believe. Deep down, where it really mattered, Jennifer was one of them. She wasn’t – could never be – an outsider, the way Shannon had been.

Guy’s mind was only half on what he was doing as they started the search down the riverbank. Jennifer was a little ahead of him, keeping pace with Wayne. He hadn’t seen her walking from this perspective before. She’d been trailing after him for that whole walk out of the mountains.

It seemed unbelievable now that his choice would have been to leave her behind. He actuallyhadleft her behind, hadn’t he? For a moment the wash of shame was enough to make Guy forget that he was on a mission to try and help someone else survive.

The reason he’d tried to leave Jennifer at the crash site and go on alone had been because it had been the easy way out. And wasn’t that precisely what he was doing again now? Pretending he was doing what was best for both of them when, in actual fact, he was opting out. Refusing to go with Jennifer on a journey that had the potential to leadhimaway from the wreckage this time. The wreckage of his past marriage and the rubble of other relationships he’d lost with those he’d loved.

* * *

The river was wide at this point with several channels divided by shingle banks. Some channels were shallow enough to simply walk across, but the central flow was far too deep and swift to negotiate. Huge tree branches had been swept down to clutter the banks. Some had tangled to present dams that only increased the speed of the deep water. It would be so easy for someone to have become entangled in such obstacles and then drowned. Every area needed searching, which included poking below the water surface with long branches.

‘Oh…God!’

Adrenaline flowed at Jennifer’s groan of despair.

‘Have you found something?’ Guy stepped over boulders and snapped small branches in the few steps it took to catch up with her.

‘It’s one of the presents Phil collected last night. Look!’

The sodden teddy bear had been wedged in the fork of a tree branch. Jennifer pulled it free and Guy could see the control she was exerting not to cry.

‘He’ll be okay after a wash,’ he told her. ‘We’ll take him home with us.’

‘It’s not that…’ Jennifer gulped in a breath and turned away from Guy. ‘This is just all so sad,’ she said brokenly. ‘There’s not really much hope, is there?’

‘There’s always hope, Jenna. Don’t give up.’

But Jennifer was moving again. Guy saw her scrub the tears from her face, resolutely square her shoulders and move on, with her bowed head the only evidence of how bleak she realised this situation was and how little hope any of them had of finding Phil alive.

She was hanging in there till the bitter end, though, wasn’t she?

---