Page 120 of The High Island

‘Everything hurts, I think from lying on the concrete floor.’

‘So no cramping?’ Jo checked.

Rachael shook her head. ‘But I’m afraid, if I stand up . . .’ Her voice was an anguished whisper.

‘You’re not going to stand up,’ Jo told her. ‘We’re going to carry you to the boat.’

At that moment, her phone rang and, answering, she heard Erling’s voice.

‘You’re in range again, Sergeant. Where are you exactly?’

When she explained about the lighthouse and Rachael’s condition, Erling ordered her not to move the girl.

‘An air ambulance is on its way,’ he told her. ‘I called it out when you went offline. I’m on the police launch. We’ll be there shortly too.’

59

Jo had been alone in the waiting room since the air ambulance had dropped them at the Balfour. Herself, Kris and Rachael.

Rachael had asked that Jo come with her in the helicopter and Kris had joined in her plea. Jo realized Kris was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to calm Rachael if her condition worsened during the flight.

Although keen to stay with the girl, Jo had also been fearful of her own reaction should the threatened miscarriage actually happen.

Rachael had gripped her hand throughout the short journey and Jo understood why. She had been the one she’d told of the unplanned pregnancy. The first to listen to Rachael’s fears. The first to offer the girl support.

Back then, Rachael had been lost. Not understanding why Kris had left her. Or whether he would return. She was a stranger in a strange land. Pregnant, confused and full of fear.

It had been her job, Jo knew, to reassure her and offer help, both as a police officer and as a woman. When Rachael heard her words, she’d instinctively known that Jo had been in the same situation as Rachael. Had once been as fearful as she was back then.

And lying there in the air ambulance, Rachael wasn’t frightened about being pregnant, but fearful that she might be no longer. Fearful that the baby she and Kris had talked about in their time on Cava was already lost.

She’d gripped Jo’s hand and held it until they’d wheeled her into surgery.

Jo could still feel the pressure, even as she prayed to her father’s God and all the gods in heaven and on earth that Rachael wouldn’t lose the baby.

It was at this moment that the door opened to let someone in. Glancing round the waiting area, he spotted her and immediately came over. The sight of Ethan’s concerned face lifted her spirits a little and she rose to greet him.

‘How are things?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t know. No one’s come to tell me. I’ll give it a little longer then ask.’ Sometimes it was better not to know. For a little longer at least. And hope instead.

He seemed to understand her unspoken words.

‘How did you get back here?’ she said as he took a seat beside her.

‘I raced the patrol boat,’ he told her with a smile.

‘You didn’t?’ she said, aghast.

‘I brought theAngelover with them and got a lift to Kirkwall.DIFlett suggested I come and check on you. Actually, I told him I intended on coming to check on you,’ he added.

‘Thank you,’ she said and meant it.

‘Can I fetch you a coffee from the canteen? Maybe something to eat?’

‘That would be good,’ she said gratefully.

‘I’ll call in and check on Mackie on my way. You’ll want to wait for news here, I expect.’