Page 2 of Welcome to the Cornish Country Hospital

It had been the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, but it had driven her on, overriding any doubt she might have had about leaving. The next day she’d signed the paperwork and finished packing up her flat. She’d refused the offers of help from Esther and her family with the move down to Port Kara. And she’d started her new job, burying herself in work when she was on shift and escaping between the pages of a book at night. But, at first, even that hadn’t worked the way it used to and she’d rung Joe, just like she’d done when they were at separate boarding schools, hundreds of miles apart, and the longing for their beloved dad had got too much.

‘I’ve made a mistake moving to Cornwall.’ Her voice had been small, almost as if she was afraid to admit the magnitude of her error out loud.

‘No you haven’t.’ Joe hadn’t even asked why she thought that, and his tone had been so certain, somehow she immediately felt a bit better. ‘You’re just lonely that’s all, and you miss having someone to take care of.’

‘What do you mean? I’ve got just as many patients who need me here and—’

‘I’m not talking about your patients.’ Joe’s voice had taken on an edge, the way it always did when a certain person’s name cropped up.

‘I know what you’re going to say, but I don’tlook afterLucas. We’re colleagues and friends, and we’re on an equal level.’ She’d hesitated for a moment, concern about taking a step down in her career stabbing her all over again. ‘Or at least we were.’

‘No, you weren’t. You were his loyal cheerleader, always there to massage his ego. I bet he can’t stand the fact his number one fan is no longer around.’

‘You just don’t like him.’ Danni had sighed. Joe’s first meeting with Lucas, on one of his annual trips home from Australia, hadn’t gone well. Somehow, a couple of bottles of wine into the evening, the conversation had got on to the subject of their schooling. Esther was the only one who’d been to state school and Lucas had made some throwaway comment about that being obvious, given the jobs the three of them had ended up doing. Joe was a psychiatrist, with a practice in Melbourne, and a string of academic publications to his name.

‘There are three doctors at this table, so you can see the value of a proper education.’ Lucas had nudged Esther, and they’d both laughed, but Joe had felt the need to jump to her defence, telling Lucas he was condescending and a snob. Lucas had laughed again, explaining to Joe that he’d got it all wrong; what he’d been implying was, if Esther had been given a similar private education, she’d have been more than capable of being a doctor too. That had just seemed to inflame Joe even more and he’d argued that the best doctors he’d met in his career were those who’d had to work the hardest to get where they were, not the ones who’d been given every advantage. Lucas had said that they’d just have to agree to disagree about the value of a private education, because there was nothing that would dissuade him from making that the top priority for his own children when they came along.

‘I’d have traded my education to have the sort of family life Esther clearly did. That’s something money can’t buy.’ Joe had shot Danni a look at that point, and she allowed herself just the smallest nod. She hadn’t wanted to say out loud that she’d agreed with Joe, because she’d known Lucas hadn’t meant anything derogatory by what he’d said. The two men had just got off on the wrong foot, that was all, and she’d been convinced it was a blip they could quickly overcome. But, if anything, Joe’s view of Lucas just seemed to harden every time they met. So, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that her brother’s opinion of Lucas was still unfavourable.

‘You’re right, I don’t like him, but that’s beside the point.’ Joe’s voice had softened again. ‘I understand why you feel like you’ve made a mistake. It took me more than two years to stop feeling that way about living out here. Having Lucas and Esther to prop you up wouldn’t have lasted forever anyway. Once they get married and have a family, things are going to change. I think it’s brilliant that you were the one to walk away first and take the step to start making a life for yourself. It might not feel great now, but it will be worth it. Trust me. Just hold on for a bit, and fake it until you make it, like I did. Then, one day, you won’t have to pretend any more.’

So she’d followed Joe’s advice, surviving and getting through life a day at a time. Then things had started to change, just like he’d said they would. Adopting Brenda from a rehoming service had been a huge part of finally making it feel like she was starting a new life, rather than just escaping from the old one. She’d formed some friendships at the hospital and was particularly close to one of the nurses, Aidan, who made her miss Esther just a tiny bit less. Things were going well, and her boss had suggested it wouldn’t be long before a consultant’s post came up, and had told her he’d support her in going for it. Everything Joe had promised was happening and eventually her feelings for Lucas would fade too. Not seeing him every day would make that so much easier. She’d been so certain of it… until she’d got the voicemail.

‘Hey, anyone would think you were screening my calls!’ The sound of Esther’s voice had immediately made Danni feel homesick. ‘You’re not going to believe this, but we’re moving to Cornwall! Mum, Dad, Nan and Pops have been talking for ages about all getting a place together and they found the perfect house down there a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to say anything, but it got me and Lucas thinking. There’s no way we want to be hundreds of miles away from everyone we love, so we contacted St Piran’s Hospital to see what jobs might be coming up and it was like everything falling into place. We’ve found somewhere to rent in Port Kara and we’ll be moving down as soon as we’ve worked our notice. Now ring me, Haggage, and tell me just how excited you are that we’re coming down! Love you.’

Esther’s laugh had still been ringing in Danni’s ears when the voicemail came to an end. They’d always shown their affection by calling each other silly names. Danni’s nickname had come from the day she’d gone out in the drizzle and had come back with hair like Hagrid, which no amount of anti-frizz serum had been able to tame. In turn, she called Esther Nugget, after her friend had been on a date – before she’d met Lucas – with a guy whose idea of a romantic night out was ordering a sharing box of chicken nuggets from the McDonald’s drive-through. Esther had been too nice to tell him she didn’t even like nuggets and, after managing to eat one or two, had hidden the rest of her share in the pockets of her coat. The nuggets had then fallen out all over the floor of their flat, when she’d chucked her coat over the arm of the sofa after she’d got back from her disastrous date.

Danni has missed all of that familiarity, the sound of Esther’s laugh, and most of all her friendship, even more than she’d thought she would, but the voicemail had still filled Danni with dread. She’d called Esther straight back and tried every argument she could think of to persuade her that moving to Cornwall was the worst idea in the world, including that Danni might well be moving again herself soon, but none of it had made any difference. Esther had made her mind up and nothing Danni said was going to stop her.

She’d thought about phoning Lucas and telling him to do something, but she hadn’t spoken to him since the night he’d turned up at her flat. And now Esther and Lucas were moving into their new house and, in twenty-four hours’ time, they’d be starting their first shifts at St Piran’s Hospital too.

‘You’d think he’d have put a stop to it, wouldn’t you?’ Danni looked at Brenda again, who was sniffing a damp patch of unknown origin, when a text suddenly flashed up on her phone.

Major incident reported on the A3689 Port Tremellien to Port Kara Road. Multiple casualties. All available critical care staff to contact the major incident team leader.

‘Come on, Bren. I’m really sorry, girl, but we’ve got to go.’ Clipping the lead onto the dog’s collar, Danni pulled the reluctant basset hound back down the track as fast as she could, scrolling through the contacts on her phone to find the team leader’s number at the same time. There were people out there who needed her help and for once, as the call connected, Lucas was the last thing on her mind.

2

Connie craned her neck to try and see over the high bank, which was topped with hedgerow, in the hope of catching a glimpse of the sea. But this was Cornwall, and the tall hedgerows were as much a characteristic of the landscape as the coastline itself. It was all coming back to her now. Whenever she’d thought of Port Kara, as she had so many times in the thirty-eight years since her last visit, all she’d pictured was the seemingly endless stretch of sand. Back then, if she’d gone there at the right time of day, the only trace of human life existing would have been two sets of footprints. Hers and Richard’s.

‘This driver wants to slow down a bit. If a tractor comes round the corner with him going at this pace, one of us is going to get run off the road.’ The woman sitting next to Connie jabbed her in the side with her elbow as though they were old friends, rather than total strangers who just happened to be crammed in next to each other on the only bus heading to Port Kara from the station at St Ives. It was a single decker that had already been three-quarters full when they’d left the station, but by the time they were twenty minutes into the journey, it was standing room only.

Port Kara had become a lot more popular in the last ten years. Connie had seen it in her Sunday supplement, only the week before, in an article about the most popular locations for celebrity staycations and second homes. It was clearly drawing in the celebrity-spotters too and she’d heard two young women in the seat behind talking about Harry Styles being spotted there filming for a new movie. Apparently, it was why they’d simply had to get down to Port Kara before everyone else found out. Connie was just impressed with herself for knowing who he was. She had to google most of the celebrities her history students spoke about these days, but then they’d probably never heard of Led Zeppelin either. Years ago, Connie and her sister, Janice, had spent every bit of money they could scrape together trying to get to one of their gigs, and she’d been convinced she was going to marry Jimmy Page. Or Harrison Ford if she decided to go the movie star route. No one had come close to either of them – all through her uni years, or for a whole decade afterwards. But then she’d met Richard.

‘He’s driving like a lunatic; I’m going to tell him to slow down before he kills us all!’ The woman sitting next to Connie moved to get up, just as the bus lurched violently to the right, sending her crashing back down into her seat.

At the same time, a man at the front of the bus started shouting, ‘He’s collapsed. The driver’s collapsed!’

Suddenly everyone around Connie seemed to be screaming and all she could do was watch as a couple of the passengers at the front of the bus tried to get into the cab. Everything was happening so fast, but at the same time it almost felt as though the world was moving in slow motion. Connie looked down at her hands; she was gripping the bar of the seat in front of her so hard that her knuckles had gone white. But she still couldn’t scream.

For a few seconds the noise of metal scraping against a stone wall, as one side of the bus peeled open like someone had taken a can opener to it, was so loud it drowned out the sounds of panic. But then the bus left the ground, flipping in the air as if it were made from paper, and Connie finally let out an ear-piercing scream. By the time the bus landed, everything in her world had turned black.

3

The new hospital had developed its own definition of what constituted a major incident and protocols for dealing with such a situation, should one arise. Danni had been asked if she was willing to be part of the on-call pre-hospital critical care team, which allowed A&E doctors to be sent out to provide emergency care to patients, alongside paramedics, at the scene of an incident. It hadn’t even taken a moment for her to decide, even though the likelihood of anything major happening in Port Kara had seemed pretty remote. Now she was heading for Port Tremellien, with no idea how bad things were going to be when she got there, but it didn’t take long to find out.

‘Oh God.’ There was a sea of blue lights ahead of where Danni pulled into the layby. Poor Brenda had been shoved unceremoniously through the door of the cottage five minutes after the major incident alert, and Danni had changed into her uniform in a time that Wonder Woman would have been proud of. She had the on-call kit provided to every doctor in the pre-hospital critical care team. Anything else she needed would be provided by the paramedics.

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