Emergency: Wife Lost and Found by Carol Marinelli Read Free Book Online Page A

know.’ He could see the terror in her eyes. Her voice was still hoarse from the endotracheal tube and no matter how much of an improvement there was, he was reminded, if he needed it, just how very ill she had been recently. ‘I mean, I know there was a car accident, I know I was in London for some job inter-views,I just don’t understand what’s happened to me. I didn’t want to worry my parents by telling them how confused I am. I feel like I’ve missed the start of a film and I can’t ask anyone to explain. I don’t even know what day it is till someone tells me.’
    ‘Hey.’ This he could deal with. In this case he did know what to do. ‘You’ve been so ill, Lorna. Just three days ago you were in Intensive Care. It’s normal not to be able to remember things.’
    ‘Not as badly as this—’
    ‘Yes.’ James interrupted. ‘Yes, Lorna. The fact we’re even having this conversation shows you’ve got insight. That’s good.’
    ‘I guess.’ She let his word soothe her, lay back on the pillows and closed her eyes for a moment.
    ‘Do you want me to fill you in?’ James saw her frown and because it was Lorna, even with a head injury, he knew what she was thinking. ‘I meant fill you in on the last week.’ He watched a smile lift the edges of her pale lips as he continued, ‘Not the last decade!’
    ‘Please, then.’
    ‘Do you want me to write it down?’ He smiled a touch when she gave a small giggle.
    ‘Just tell me and if I’ve forgotten again by the time you go then, yes, write it down.’
    ‘You did have a car accident, there was a coach crash on the M1, you do have a head injury, but from all the reports it’s slight.’
    ‘But I was unconscious for hours, Mum said, before they found me.’
    ‘No. Do you keep a blanket in the car?’ She frowned and nodded.
    ‘On the back seat. There’s a tear…’
    ‘Well, you were wrapped in it when they found you so you must have come to at some point and had the ability to know you were cold and needed to get warm. Lorna, it took them a long time to find your car.’ He couldn’t stand to think of what she’d been through. Maybe it was better if she didn’t remember it, but James realised she had to know the truth. ‘It was four or so hours before your car was found. You’d veered to avoid the collision apparently—and you lost control. In all the chaos of the major incident your car wasn’t noticed till the clear-up.’
    There was a tiny chirrup, like a bird singing that she couldn’t see but could picture, an image flitting into her mind of trying to get her phone but not being able to reach to the floor of the car, her head a lead weight against the headrest, snow billowing in through the smashed windscreen. Inching her arm around the twisted seat, it had taken for ever, but she had reached the blanket, she had known to stay warm.
    ‘You’ve been through an awful lot, but you’re coming out of it now.’ James said assuredly. ‘You really are doing marvellously.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Really.’ James nodded. ‘You’ll soon be back to the old Lorna.’ He gave a small swallow, as he remembered the Lorna of old. ‘Okay, I’d better get down to the department now.’
    ‘You’re a consultant?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You always said that’s what you wanted to do.’
    Oh, there had been a lot of things he’d wanted, butJames just smiled, wished her well again and deliberately didn’t kiss her on the cheek.
    ‘Are you on over the weekend?’
    ‘Not officially. I’ll be called in a couple of times no doubt.’
    ‘Well, if you are, it would be nice if you could stop by.’
    He gave a small nod that didn’t say yes and didn’t say no—more a we’ll see —and she lay watching the door long after he’d gone, soothed by his visit but unsettled all the same. She should never have asked him to come and visit her. Lorna turned and stared at the now familiar sight of the hospital generator. She was depleted completely by the morning’s