have a little cottage at the end of the village.’
Jack’s gaze slid to the picture of Tim on her desk and turned it more towards him. ‘And is this your fiancé?’
‘Yes… He lives in Glasgow,’ she replied, slightly irritated at his probing questions. She continued crisply, ‘He comes here at the weekends when he can—or I go to stay with him.’ She turned the conversation firmly back to the matter in hand. ‘Now, about the practice—we have six thousand patients scattered over a wide area, and I’m afraid we’re responsible for an on-call service at night, which we share with two other practices down the coast, but we only do it once a week. I hope that won’t be a problem?’
Jack shook his head and looked out of the window where the view could just be seen through the half-closed blinds. ‘It’s a lovely area to work in,’ he commented. ‘Do we have any patients on the island over there?’
Sally nodded. ‘Yes—there’s a ferry that comes and goes, but the sea can be treacherous. Although the island is so near it means that the ferry can’t always get across and in an emergency the rescue helicopter has to be used.’
There was a loud bang on the door and Joyce stumped in with a tray of coffee. ‘Here you are, then. I’m afraid there’s no sugar left,’ she said tersely, putting the tray on the desk. ‘I’ll send Sharon out for some when she gets here.’
Sharon was the other receptionist, a constant thorn in Joyce’s side, giggly and good-natured and addicted to women’s magazines with the latest tips on how to improve oneself—which she was always trying to persuade Joyce to follow, without much success.
‘Joyce, this is Jack McLennan, who’s going to be helping out while Jean’s in New Zealand.’
Jack stood up and smiled down at Joyce. ‘A pleasure to meet you. I’ll be relying on you to keep me on the straight and narrow!’
He gave her that melting lopsided grin, and even as Sally watched, Jean’s dour face relaxed into an unwilling smile.
‘Och, I’ll be pleased to help if I can. Just let me know if you’re not sure about anything,’ she said as she went out.
Jack obviously hadn’t lost his skill in turning on the charm, thought Sally, almost amused by his ability to bring a smile to Joyce’s face. Thank goodness she herself was immune to it now! She opened one of the desk drawers to give Jack a sheaf of papers relating to the practice and the local health authority, and just as she did so, loud screaming started outside.
They both looked up, startled, then Jack frowned and put down his coffee, getting up from his chair and striding to the window.
‘Sounds as if someone’s in trouble,’ he murmured, pulling aside the blinds to look outside. He gave a sudden horrified exclamation as he leaned forward to look at the scene.
‘My God!’ he exclaimed. ‘There’s someone in the water, and it’s hellish rough. A little girl’s watching it from the side—she’s the one that’s screaming. I’d better go and see if I can do anything.’ He dashed out of the room and Sally gazed openmouthed after him, before pulling herself together and running after him through the waiting room.
‘Get the emergency services, Joyce. It looks like someone needs rescuing from the sea,’ she shouted as she followed him.
Outside she stood transfixed. A few yards out, a man and a dog were being tossed like corks on the surface of the heaving sea. Waves were crashing against the breakwater, throwing white spume into the air. Clinging to the railings overlooking the sea a small child was screaming, and Jack was pulling off his clothes frantically, preparing to dive into the water. Sally ran up to the child and put her arms round her.
‘It’s all right, sweetheart, don’t worry. Help’s on its way very soon. You come inside with me for a minute…’
The child clung obstinately to the railings. ‘I want my grandpa and Fudge,’ she screamed. ‘Get them out.’
Sally had to get the little girl away from watching this scenario. A traumatic scene like this could stay with the child for the rest of her life and she didn’t want her to witness a tragedy if they couldn’t get the man out of the water soon. She bent down, picked up the struggling child and took her into the surgery.
‘Joyce!’ she shouted above the child’s crying, ‘Can you get this little one a drink and a biscuit and distract her while I go back and see if there are any lifebelts?’
Joyce might normally have an abrupt manner, but in an emergency she was a stalwart. She took the little girl behind the desk, talking soothingly to her all the time, then sat her on her knee with some milk and began showing her a comic from the waiting room. Sally dashed out again and ran to the lifebelt fixture on the wall a short distance away.
‘My God,’ she muttered. ‘The damn thing’s been vandalised!’
She stared at the rusting remnants of the hooks that had held the lifebelt in place—obviously it had been stolen. She looked back at Jack, now stripped down to his underpants, his suit and shirt flung in a heap on the ground behind him, preparing to leap into the water. It was still early in the day and the road as yet was deserted. There was no one to help.
‘Wait, Jack!’ she screamed. ‘Let me get a rope from somewhere…please!’
‘No time!’ he shouted back. ‘Don’t worry!’
Sally caught her breath as he dropped into the water and began to swim laboriously towards the bobbing heads of the man and dog, making slow headway in the heaving water. She looked around desperately—what the hell could she use to help him? His head kept disappearing in the swell of the waves. Each time she thought he’d gone, and then he’d reappear again slightly nearer the stricken man. Where was everybody? To her immense relief, a van came down the road, and Sally ran up to it, waving for it to stop. It drew into the kerb and a burly man dressed in overalls got out.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.
She pointed breathlessly to the sea and the man and dog in the water. ‘Have you got a rope…anything to throw to them?’ she yelled.
Without a word the man opened the doors and miraculously produced a coil of thick nylon rope.
‘I’ll get it to them—don’t you worry,’ he shouted.
Sally watched on tenterhooks as he quickly tied one end of the rope to the railings, then he took off his overalls and within a few moments had also jumped into the water, holding the rope as he did so. People were beginning to gather round now and all of them watched tensely, murmuring to each other as the two men tried to reach the man struggling tantalisingly close to them but behind a great wall of waves.
Jack was a strong swimmer, that was easy to tell, but even so it took him a nerve-racking few minutes to get within touching distance of the distressed man. The man was panicking, shouting and throwing his arms up, and when Jack took hold of him he struggled, clutching at Jack’s neck so that it was impossible to get a firm hold of the man to tow him back.
Sally gripped the railing, her eyes glued to the drama being played out before her, willing Jack to calm the man so that he could be helped. Gradually the van driver, although not as good a swimmer as Jack, made headway towards them and somehow they both managed, despite the heavy swell, to pass the rope round the man’s
