A Night To Remember

“I’m so sorry, Libby,” he whispered. “So very, very sorry for letting you down.”

“Seb, have you got a minute?”

He looked round when the door suddenly opened and Cathy appeared. “Problems?” he said, standing up. Libby hadn’t moved, she was still curled up asleep. He doubted if she was aware that he was there, which probably wasn’t a bad thing. He was feeling far too emotional at the moment and he couldn’t afford to feel this way if he hoped to convince her that their marriage could work if she’d only give him a second chance.

He had to stay focused, he thought as he followed Cathy out the door. He had to present the idea of them trying again, with confidence and assurance so that she would believe it was worth taking the risk. He knew it was a lot to ask and that he didn’t deserve another chance after the mess he’d made of things, but he couldn’t just let her go without a struggle. He needed her, wanted her, loved her, and he was going to tell her that before this night was over. He wanted his wife back for keeps!

Dear Reader,

We read so much in the press about the number of failed marriages that it’s easy to forget about those that do survive. I wrote this book in the hopes of reestablishing the balance a little.

When Libby Bridges sets out to tell her husband, Seb, that she wants a divorce, she is sure that she is doing the right thing. They have drifted so far apart that their marriage is little more than a sham. However, during the course of the following twenty-four hours, as she and Seb are forced to work together, Libby finds herself reassessing her decision. Does she really want to lose Seb? Seb is devastated when he realizes why Libby has come to see him. He desperately wants to persuade her to give him a second chance, but as the night passes, and one crisis follows another, time is slipping away. Will he be able to convince Libby that he still needs her?

I had fun writing this book. As each hour passed, nearing the time when Libby and Seb must part, I found myself willing them to admit the truth—that they love one another and want to stay together. Did they manage it in the end? You will have to read the book to find out!

Best wishes,

Jennifer

A Night to Remember

Jennifer Taylor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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A&E DRAMA

Blood pressure is high and pulses are racing in these fast-paced dramatic stories. They’ll move a mountain to save a life in an emergency, be they the crash team, emergency doctors or paramedics. There are lots of critical engagements amongst the high tensions and emotional passions in these exciting stories of lives and loves at risk!

CONTENTS

Cover

Dear Reader

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

Friday: 3 p.m.

THE sky had that leaden look that usually heralded a storm. Libby Bridges pulled into a lay-by and checked her map. If there was a storm brewing, she wanted to get to her destination as quickly as possible.

Her finger traced the network of roads and she sighed. By her reckoning, she still had another fifty miles to go before she reached the hospital. Maybe she should phone Seb and warn him that she was coming so he would wait for her. She didn’t want him to leave work before she got there. Although he had sent her his new address when he had moved, she had never been to the house and wasn’t sure if she would be able to find it on her own.

Libby took her mobile phone out of her bag but even as she went to key in the number, she changed her mind. If she phoned Seb and told him that she was on her way to see him, he would want to know why. Did she really intend to tell him over the phone that she wanted a divorce? Maybe they hadn’t been able to make their marriage work but the least she could do was to end it with dignity.

She shoved the phone back into her bag and pulled out onto the road, but her heart was heavy as she set off again. She wasn’t looking forward to the next few hours but what choice did she have? There was no point hoping that she and Seb could work things out because they had passed that point now. The problem was that they were two very different people to the starry-eyed lovers who had met at med school and married on the day they had graduated.

Just remembering all the dreams they’d had once for their future together was almost too painful. They had been so sure that their love would last but the strain of working increasingly long hours had taken its toll. Whole weeks had passed when they had barely seen each other if one of them had been working nights. That was the main reason why she had decided to go into general practice. Working set hours—even long ones—had seemed preferable to never seeing Seb and it had been fine at first, until he’d been offered his dream job in the north-east.

Libby’s pretty mouth compressed as she remembered the argument they’d had when Seb had told her that he was considering taking up the post. She was just getting settled into the practice in Sussex and starting to find her feet when he had dropped his bombshell. They’d ended up having a massive row. She’d told him that he was selfish for expecting her to give up her job and follow him around the country, and he had accused her of having a closed mind. They had gone round and round in circles, neither of them willing to give an inch, until in the end they had gone to bed with the problem still unresolved.

She sighed. That was the first time they’d slept in separate beds since their marriage and it had been their biggest mistake of all. Each time they’d had an argument after that, one of them had retired to the spare room. They had never actually sat down and tried to talk through their problems. They had shut themselves away and, inevitably, they had grown apart.

When Seb had taken up the post as consultant in charge of the newly opened trauma unit on the north-east coast, they had made an effort at first: Seb had driven down to Sussex one weekend and she had driven up the next. However, they had both known that they wouldn’t be able to keep up such a gruelling routine. Something had had to give and in the end it had been their marriage. Now it was time to take the final step and end it. At least this way they might have some good memories to look back on.

‘Clear!’

Seb Bridges placed the paddles on the boy’s chest and sent another surge of electricity arcing through the nine-year-old’s body. Young Liam Baxter had had a fight with a bus on his way home from school and he had come off worst.

‘Come on, come on,’ Seb muttered, his dark brows drawn into a frown as he willed the child’s heart to start beating again.

‘Sinus rhythm,’ the nurse beside him announced, and a collective cheer went up. Seb grinned at his team.

‘Well done, you lot. That’s another one we can chalk up as a success. Carry on like this and we’ll start winning awards!’

Everyone laughed at that. The idea of them being afforded any credit for their efforts was a pipe dream. With government targets to meet, not to mention patients’ increasingly high expectations, they were lucky if they received the odd thank you most days. Cathy, the senior charge nurse on the trauma unit, rolled her eyes at him.

‘You still haven’t got rid of those high-faluting southern expectations, have you, Seb?’

‘Are you calling me a dreamer, hen?’ he demanded in his best imitation of the local accent.

‘If the cap fits…’

Cathy stuck her nose in the air and whisked past him. Seb laughed. One of the best things about this job was the camaraderie he enjoyed with his team. They were a great bunch, every single one of them as dedicated as he was. He really had struck lucky when he’d made the move north. Not only had he found his dream job but he’d made a lot of good friends, too. It had helped make up in a small way for all that he’d lost.

A familiar pain stabbed his heart at the thought of Libby and he swung round so his colleagues wouldn’t see his anguish. There were patients waiting to be seen, and there was no time to waste by thinking about the mess he had made of his marriage. All the regrets in the world wouldn’t change things now.

He left Resus and went to check the whiteboard. Every single cubicle was occupied and there was a patient in the treatment room as well. It had been an exceptionally busy day, even by their standards. The closure of several smaller accident and emergency units in the surrounding area had put extra pressure on them. The Grace Darling Hospital’s trauma unit was not only a centre of excellence, it was the main provider of emergency care for several hundred thousand people. Now he glanced round when his junior registrar, Gary Parr, came hurrying over to him.

‘Looks like your average day in the madhouse,’ he observed drolly.

‘And it’s about to get worse, by all accounts.’ Gary looked worried as he drew Seb aside. ‘We’ve just had the coastguard on the phone. Apparently, there’s a tanker adrift in the North Sea and it’s on course to hit one of the offshore gas platforms.’

‘Hell! What’s the tanker carrying?’ Seb demanded.

‘Some sort of chemicals, although they’re not sure exactly what yet. The coastguard is still trying to get the information out of the tanker’s owners and they aren’t being very co-operative, it seems.’

‘Does the coastguard think they might be able to head it off?’ Seb asked, frowning as he considered the implications of such a scenario. Obviously there would be casualties from both the tanker and the drilling rig if there was a collision, but that wasn’t his only concern. If there was a chemical spillage, it could spread for miles along the coastline and that would put many more people at risk.

‘There are tugs on their way to it but it doesn’t sound very hopeful.’ Gary grimaced. ‘The coastguard says there’s a storm brewing and it’s going to be a bad one, too. The guy I spoke to didn’t rate their chances of avoiding a collision very highly.’

‘In that case, we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario.’ Seb swung round and headed for the office. Gary followed him inside and closed the door.

‘You think it warrants major incident status?’ the younger doctor asked, going pale at the thought.

‘I think it’s worth putting everyone on standby,’ Seb told him firmly, picking up the phone. ‘The last thing we need is to be caught flat-footed.’

He dialled the major incident headquarters and asked to speak to the duty officer. He was put straight through, although he didn’t need to explain why he was phoning—the coastguard had beaten him to it. He nodded when the duty officer explained that an announcement was being prepared and that it would be aired over local radio within the next half-hour.

He hung up and opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet. He took out the file that contained the names of all the staff who were designated to work during a major incident and handed it to Gary.

‘Check who’s already here then make a list of the others so the switchboard can contact them, will you? I’ll go and tell everyone what’s happened and start winding things down in here. The last thing we need is a waiting room full of patients if we end up with a major emergency on our hands.’

‘What about the air ambulance service?’ Gary asked hurriedly as Seb made for the door. ‘Do I need to get in touch with them, too?’

‘You may as well, although they probably know about it by now.’ Seb turned and stared out of the window, sighing when he saw the black clouds that were massing overhead. ‘It looks as though it’s going to be a very long night.’

CHAPTER TWO

Friday: 4 p.m.

THE storm broke just as Libby was turning in through the gates of the hospital. Raindrops as big as golf balls struck the windscreen, forcing her to slow down to a crawl. She switched on the wipers to their fastest setting but even then they couldn’t cope with the deluge.

Rubbing the back of her hand over the glass to clear away the condensation that was forming on it, she peered out. There was a sign up ahead, directing her to the car park, so she cautiously headed in that direction, surprised by the size of the hospital complex. Seb had told her that a whole new wing had been built to house the trauma unit during the recent renovations but she’d not realised before just how impressive it was.

No wonder he’d wanted to work here, she thought as she searched for a parking place. He had always enjoyed being in the thick of things and thrived in a crowd, whereas she preferred to be with a small group of people whom she knew well. She frowned as she manoeuvred the car into an empty space. She’d never realised before how different they were in that respect.

She switched off the engine then found her umbrella. Opening the car door, she stepped out and gasped when the wind immediately tore the umbrella from her hand as soon as she tried to open it. It went bouncing across the car park, its spokes getting battered and broken as it was tumbled around. She sighed as she locked the car doors. There was no point going after it so she would just have to get soaked, although it was annoying when she’d wanted to appear totally in control when she saw Seb.

She made her way from the car park and followed the signs directing her to the trauma unit. Even though it was barely four o’clock, the light was fading fast. The storm was gathering momentum and she was relieved when she spotted the entrance up ahead. If the wind got any stronger, she doubted if she’d be able to stay on her feet and that would be the last straw—to turn up at Seb’s place of work covered in mud!

Libby hurried inside the building then paused to get her bearings. The reception desk was straight ahead with a large waiting area to the right. Rows of chairs were neatly lined up in there and there was a drinks machine in the corner next to a rack of magazines. The place looked exactly as she had expected it would do, apart from one major omission: there were no people.

Where were all the patients? she wondered, looking around. The walking wounded as well as the seriously injured who filled up every accident and emergency department in the country? She couldn’t believe this was a normal Friday afternoon. Seb had told her several times how busy he was and that there weren’t enough hours in the day to see all the people who turned up. Obviously, something must have happened…

‘I’m afraid the emergency department is closed at the moment.’

Libby swung round when a nurse suddenly appeared. ‘I’m not a patient,’ she explained hurriedly. ‘I’m here to see Dr Bridges.’

‘Dr Bridges is too busy to see anyone at the moment,’ the nurse said firmly. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’

‘Libby!’

They both turned when they heard Seb’s voice. Libby summoned a smile but she could see the shock on his face as he moved towards her. ‘Hello, Seb. I seem to have chosen a bad time to arrive. Sorry.’

‘There’s no need to apologise. You weren’t to know that we were in the middle of a major incident alert.’

He returned her smile but she could hear the tension in his deep voice. Was he wondering why she had turned up like this, out of the blue? It was three months since they’d seen each other, and that meeting couldn’t be classed as a success by any stretch of the imagination. The weekend had been a strain for both of them; they’d found it difficult to think of anything to say most of the time. They had drifted so far apart now that they seemed to have no common ground any more.

She’d been relieved when Seb had decided to cut short his visit and return to the north-east. However, it had been that meeting which had helped her make up her mind about what she wanted to do. It had proved once and for all that their marriage was dead and that the best thing would be to end it rather than allow it to drag on.

Now here she was, about to do that very thing, yet she couldn’t just baldly announce her decision. She and Seb needed to sit down and work out the details, like who should have which items of furniture, for instance. However, the likelihood of them being able to do that now seemed extremely remote.

‘Sorry. I’m forgetting my manners. I should have introduced you two. Cathy, I’d like you to meet my wife, Libby. Or Dr Olivia Bridges, if you’d prefer her official title.’

Libby summoned a smile as Seb introduced her to the other woman but she could see the wariness in his eyes when he turned to her and knew that she was right. He had guessed why she’d come and she wasn’t sure if that made the situation better or worse.

‘Libby, this is Cathy Watts, the senior charge nurse on the unit. This place would grind to a halt without her!’

‘It’s good to meet you, Cathy,’ she said quietly, offering the other woman her hand.

‘You too, Dr Bridges.’

The nurse shook her hand but Libby detected a definite coolness about her manner, which surprised her. Although Cathy had gone through the motions, she didn’t appear to be exactly enthusiastic about meeting her and, frankly, Libby couldn’t understand why…Unless Cathy had more than a professional interest in Seb, in which case she would hardly be thrilled to see her there, would she?

The thought that Seb might be seeing another woman was one that had crossed her mind several times in the past year, although she had always dismissed it before. He had never done or said anything to suggest that he was having an affair so she had given him the benefit of the doubt. However, she realised all of a sudden it would be naïve to imagine that a man like Seb would be on his own for very long.

Her gaze skimmed up the long, powerful lines of his body and she felt a little shiver run through her. He’d always had a huge physical impact on her from the first moment they’d met. Tall and dark with the kind of leanly hewn good looks that appealed to so many women, Seb had been her first and her only lover. That he’d had other relationships before he’d met her had never bothered her. It had been enough to know that she had been the one he’d wanted and chosen to marry.

Now everything had changed and it was too much to expect that a man as attractive and virile as her husband would have been content to live the life of a monk these past months. Had he been seeing Cathy, or someone else? Maybe it wasn’t her business any more, but she was only human. She couldn’t help wanting to know the answer.

Seb could feel the shock waves spreading through his entire body. Seeing Libby standing there had knocked him for six. He’d physically had to restrain himself when what he’d wanted to do had been to sweep her into his arms and kiss her until every doubt that had plagued him since their last meeting had been erased for good. It was only the thought of why she’d driven all the way up here to see him that had stopped him. Had she come to ask him for a divorce? He didn’t want to believe it—hell, he couldn’t bear to believe it!—yet he knew in his heart it was true. As far as Libby was concerned, their marriage was over.

Pain sliced through him, but before he could say anything to her the main doors burst open and a man ran into the unit.

‘It’s my wife…She’s outside in the car…Please, you have to help her!’

‘I’ll be right there.’ Seb hurriedly set aside his own feelings as he turned to Cathy. ‘Find Marilyn and tell her that I need her in Resus, stat. I’ll take the patient straight there so you and Jayne get everything ready.’

‘Will do,’ the nurse assured him.

Seb didn’t waste any time as he hurried outside. There was a car parked all askew in front of the door and he could see a young woman lying on the back seat. ‘What happened to her?’ he asked as the driver opened the car door.

‘I don’t know!’ The driver was frantic with worry as he climbed into the car and attempted to lift his wife out. She screamed in agony when he moved her and Seb quickly put a restraining hand on his arm.

‘Let me take a look at her first.’ He waited while the man scrambled back out of the car then bent down to speak to the young woman. Her eyes were glazed with pain and she was clutching her stomach.

‘My name is Seb Bridges and I’m the consultant in charge of the trauma unit. Can you tell me when this all started?’

‘I’m not sure…An hour ago…maybe more…’ She broke off and groaned. ‘It hurts!’

Seb glanced round, intending to tell her husband to go back inside and ask one of the porters to fetch out a trolley. He did a double-take when he discovered that Libby had followed him outside and was standing behind him.

‘Do you need a trolley?’ she asked, anticipating his request.

‘Please.’ He swiftly battened down his emotions. It really wasn’t the right moment to think about all the other times when she had seemingly read his mind. ‘Get one of the porters to bring it out here. I’ll need him to help me move her. There’s no way she can walk in this state.’

‘Of course.’

She hurried away as he crouched down beside the car again. He gently eased the woman’s hands away from her abdomen, but she cried out in pain when he tried to examine her and he paused.

‘I know it hurts but I need to find out what’s going on in there. Just yell if the pain gets too much for you. I have very strong nerves so don’t worry about scaring me.’

She seemed reassured by his tone and allowed him to continue, moaning softly as he carried out a rudimentary examination. The abdominal wall was rock hard to his touch, the underlying muscles obviously in spasm. The pain seemed to be worse in the lower abdomen; the patient certainly complained loudest when he probed that area. However, before he could ask her any questions which might have helped with his diagnosis, Libby arrived with a porter and the trolley he’d requested.