The Wife He Never Forgot

She stared after his retreating back. Why, then, did the realisation give her no pleasure?

* * *

There were four patients between the two wards. In the first were three soldiers who, Sue explained, were in for observation and rehydration after a nasty bout of gastroenteritis. ‘We don’t keep the injured men here for long. We patch them up, operate if we have to, then we pack them off to the Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham as soon as they’re stable. You’ll find that nursing here is a mixture of frenzied activity followed by hours of boredom.’

Sue introduced her to the patients while Nick read their notes. After he’d ordered more tests he spent a few minutes chatting with them, teasing them a little for shirking. Then they moved to the next ward.

Its only occupant was a little Afghan girl with masses of dark curls and round brown eyes who was sitting up in bed looking lost and scared. Her body, from her forehead to the top of her pyjama bottoms, was covered in red angry welts and her right arm was heavily bandaged.

‘This is Hadiya,’ Sue said with a smile at the little girl. ‘She knocked over the family’s paraffin heater a few days ago and sustained severe burns to her face, neck, chest and arm. We managed to save the arm, but she’s going to require extensive reconstructive surgery if she’s to regain full use of it.’

Nick said something in Pashto and the little girl giggled. All at once some of the fear left her eyes and she looked up at Nick with adoration.

‘The surgeons had to remove a great deal of tissue from her hand and arm,’ Sue continued, ‘but she needs grafts.’

‘The problem is,’ Nick said slowly, ‘we can’t do it for her. Now she’s stabilised she has to go to a local hospital and it’s highly unlikely she’ll get the surgery she needs there.’

‘Why can’t we do it here?’ Tiggy asked.

‘Because this is a military hospital and the reality is, if we make an exception for one civilian, how do we say no to others? Our resources would soon be overwhelmed. As difficult as it is, we have to transfer non-combative cases once they have stabilised.’

‘But that’s not right!’

Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘What would you have us do?’

‘I don’t know! Something.’

He eyed her thoughtfully. ‘I haven’t given up on her if that’s what you’re thinking. In the meantime, however, we have other patients to see.’

CHAPTER TWO

HOW ANYONE COULD expect her to run around the perimeter of the camp in this heat while carrying a rucksack that weighed more than her own body weight, Tiggy couldn’t imagine. It wasn’t as if she was ever going to go out on patrol. That was left to the regular army doctors and the medics.

Although it was only just after six, the sun was already beating down and making her skin sizzle. She gasped for breath. If they didn’t let her stop soon she was going to have a heart attack.

‘Okay. Drop to the ground and give me twenty press-ups,’ the sadistic sergeant shouted. Twenty! She doubted she could manage more than five. If that.

She didn’t so much drop to her knees as collapse in a heap.

She had just finished her fourth press-up and was lying face down with her forehead resting on her hands when someone grabbed the back of her trousers and lifted her six inches off the ground.

‘I believe you have a few more to go,’ a familiar voice said. She didn’t have to turn her head to know it was Nick, and that he was laughing.

She tried to wriggle out of his grasp but it was no use. The grip he had on the waistband of her trousers was such that she couldn’t even turn far enough to see his face. ‘Let me go,’ she hissed.

‘The sergeant isn’t going to let up until you finish.’

As she was bobbed up and down she turned her head to the side. Sure enough, everyone else had finished and were all, including the traitorous Sue, sitting back on their haunches, taking long swigs from their water bottles and watching the scene with evident glee.

‘Sixteen, seventeen,’ Nick called out, and to Tiggy’s added chagrin he was joined by several voices.

‘Eighteen!’

Was this nightmare ever going to end? She took her mind off what was happening by imagining what she would do to Nick when she got the chance. Diuretics in his coffee? No, this needed something worse.

‘Nineteen! Twenty!’ He let her go so unexpectedly she sprawled face down in the dust. She staggered to her feet and furiously patted the dust from her front.

Nick held out his water bottle. ‘You might need a drink.’

‘If you ever—and I mean ever—do that to me again,’ she snarled, ‘I’ll...’

He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. ‘Do what?’

She drew herself up to her full height and pushed away the water bottle. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. ‘Try it again, and you’ll see.’ God! Was that the best she could manage?

Then, unbearably conscious of everyone’s eyes on her, she stalked away with as much dignity as she could muster.

* * *

Later, after she rinsed as much of the sand from her hair as she could in the dribble that passed for a shower, she went to report for duty, pausing only to pick up a banana from the mess.

She was still livid with Nick. Okay, so she might have poured out her life story—or at least the first half of it—to him while they had been on the plane, but that was no reason for him to treat her like an annoying kid sister. Hell, she was twenty-six.

And she didn’t want Nick to treat her like a kid sister.

The thought brought her up short. Damn, she was no better than the rest of Nick’s admirers. But she had one card up her sleeve. At least she knew he couldn’t be taken seriously. Her brother Charlie had been just like Nick. He too had thought he was God’s gift to women, having had a seemingly endless series of short-term girlfriends until he’d met and married Alice. Her other brother, Alan, was still working his way through the female population of the UK.

To her dismay, Nick was standing outside the main tent when she arrived, almost as if he’d been waiting for her. He had a cup of coffee in his hand.

‘Recovered?’ he asked.

‘Very amusing. You’ve had your fun, now why don’t you go...’ she waved her hands vaguely in the direction of the camp ‘...and do some weightlifting or something?’

Dark eyes studied her and a small smile played on his lips. ‘Don’t be mad,’ he said softly.

‘I don’t get mad. I get even.’

She groaned inwardly. Couldn’t she have thought of a retort that was a little less clichéd? She was becoming more inarticulate by the minute. At least it was better than blushing.

‘Look,’ she said, ‘I know you’re a major and I’m only a lieutenant, but I won’t be made a fool of.’

That was better! Now she was showing some backbone.

He lost the smile, although there was still a suspicious glint in his eyes. ‘You’re right.’ He raised his hand to his head in a mock salute. ‘I apologise. Unreservedly.’

Flustered by his unexpected apology, she looked at her watch. Seven-thirty. ‘Don’t you have work to do?’

He tossed the dregs of his coffee onto the ground. ‘Actually, I don’t. I’ve finished rounds and it’s all quiet.’ He eyed her speculatively. ‘Don’t suppose you play poker?’

‘As a matter of fact, I do. However, unlike you, I have work to do.’ She swept past him, aware that he was following her. Every hair on her body stood to attention.

‘What about tomorrow? When you’re finished for the day? Come over to the bar—the NCOs’, that is. It has, let’s just say, a more relaxed atmosphere there.’

Why was he so interested in what she did in her spare time? Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? If he wanted someone to amuse him there were bound to be plenty of others happy to fill that role. However, a plan was forming in her mind. She turned around and smiled. ‘Sure. Why not? Let’s say six.’

* * *

Determined never to have a repeat of the fiasco with the press-ups, Tiggy decided to run around the camp perimeter every morning before breakfast. Despite the humiliation of having hundreds of men calling out encouragement as she wheezed and puffed her way around the track, she gritted her teeth and kept telling herself that she could do it. Anything was better than yesterday’s embarrassment of having Nick’s hands on the waistband of her trousers when he’d helped her complete her press-ups.

But once again, damn the man, he appeared like the devil from hell beside her. He shortened his strides to keep pace with her.

‘Hello, Red. Turned over a new leaf, have you?’

‘If you call me Red again,’ she wheezed, ‘so help me, I won’t be responsible for my actions.’

A slow smile crossed his face. He held up his hands with his fingers crossed. ‘I promise never to call you Red again. If I do, you can have all my poker matches and that’s a promise.’

She hid a smile. She hadn’t known she could smile and run at the same time. He turned round so that he was running backwards. He was shirtless and his combat trousers were so low on his hips she couldn’t help but notice his six-pack. She averted her eyes, pretending an interest in a passing Jeep.

‘How many circuits?’ he asked.

‘This is my last.’ She wasn’t about to tell him it was also her first. One circuit was torture enough and she was determined to wait until she got to the safety of her quarters before she collapsed.

‘I’m impressed.’ His toffee-coloured eyes crinkled at the corners.

‘Don’t you have lives to save or something?’ She indicated the hospital tent with her arm.

‘Not right at the moment.’ Even running backwards, he managed to look her up and down. ‘I saw you come out for your run and the thought struck me that I might have to save yours. Looks like exercise hasn’t exactly been high on your agenda until now.’

Was he implying she looked like a couch potato?

‘Although you clearly do something to keep in shape,’ he added.

Oh, please. Despite everything, the look of frank admiration in his eyes made her heart skip a beat.

Come on, Tiggy. Get a grip. This man is out of bounds and even if he wasn’t, he is so not your type.

But it was as if her mouth had a mind of its own. ‘Been watching me, huh?’ A stitch had started somewhere below her ribs and the last word came out more as a cry of anguish than the casual reference she’d meant it to be. How long could one kilometre be? It could be the damned end of the world as far as she was concerned.

She gasped for air, trying to ignore the increasing pain in her side.

His eyes flickered over her and he frowned. ‘You all right?’

‘Never been better—or at least I will be when you leave...me...alone...’ She managed another couple of strides and then had to stop. She bent over, clutching her knees, as a wave of pain slammed into her. Dear God, was she having a heart attack?

Before she knew it she was being lifted over his shoulder.

‘Put me down,’ she yelled into his back—a back that she couldn’t help noticing, even from her upside-down position, was ridged with muscle.

‘I will as soon as I find some shade. Don’t you know better than to exercise in this heat? Are you crazy, woman? You should have started earlier, or there’s a decent air-conditioned gym on the other side of the camp that’s better suited for someone who’s not used to exercise.’

There was a gym? An air-conditioned gym? Why on earth had no one told her? Why hadn’t she asked?

Then she was inside her tent and he was laying her on the bed. Sue rushed over, concern furrowing her brow. ‘What happened? Is she okay? Tiggy, speak to me.’

‘I’m fine. Just need some water.’ Sue held a bottle to her lips and she gulped thirstily.

‘What have you been doing to the poor girl, Nick?’ Sue demanded.

‘Hey, don’t blame me. I was just an innocent bystander.’

‘Come off it! You’ve never been innocent or a bystander in your life!’

Nick laughed. ‘Make sure she cools down before she goes on duty.’ He leaned over and ruffled her hair. ‘Stick to the gym in future.’

* * *

Later that afternoon, Tiggy studied the cards in her hand and suppressed a smile. Although every muscle ached, including some she hadn’t known she had, her mood was improving.

She tossed a matchstick onto those already on the table. ‘I’ll raise you ten.’

Nick lifted an eyebrow. He counted out some matchsticks from his pile and added them to hers. They’d no casualties that day and Tiggy had spent most of her day with Hadiya, re-dressing her burns and being taught some words of Pashto by the little girl and her giggling mother. When the patients had all been seen to they’d set up a temporary poker table, at Nick’s suggestion, in an empty cubicle. Some of the nurses and technicians had started off playing, too, but after two hours Nick and Tiggy were the only ones left in the game.

The rest of the team was either watching them play, flicking through magazines or answering the occasional call from the patients.

Nick wasn’t to know, of course, that she played most nights with her father and her brothers whenever they were at home.

‘Twenty and I’ll see you.’

Nick leaned back in his chair and grinned. He placed his hand face up on the table. ‘A flush! Beat that!’

Tiggy pretended to look dismayed, studying his cards as if she couldn’t quite believe her bad luck. Then she allowed herself a small smile before laying hers down. ‘Think my four aces beats your flush.’

Nick laughed. ‘Beaten by a girl! Who would have thought? You have some poker face there, Red.’

She glared at him but before she could say anything he smiled and corrected himself. ‘Apologies. Not Red, Tiggy.’

She blushed. She wished she managed her poker face as well in her private life.

At that moment the siren sounded.

‘Two men down and possibly civilian injuries forty klicks away,’ Sue interpreted the cackle from the radio. ‘They’re requesting a rapid medical response team to go in and bring them out.’

Nick had stood and was shrugging himself into his flak jacket. ‘I need a nurse—any volunteers?’

‘I’ll go,’ Tiggy said.

‘No way,’ Nick replied tersely. ‘Anyone else?’

Irritated and relieved in equal measure, Tiggy glared at him. He didn’t even seem to notice.

There was a show of hands and Nick picked an older man. ‘Okay, Scotty, you’re with me. The rest of you prepare to receive the casualties. I’ll let you know what to expect as soon as I’ve made an assessment. Those who aren’t needed and haven’t donated recently, please give blood—just in case. Sue, turf out anyone from the wards who doesn’t absolutely have to be there.’ He grabbed his helmet and strode out of the room.

Instantaneously, everyone exploded into action. Sue, remembering Tiggy was there, propelled her towards the resus room. ‘We need to make sure we have everything ready. At this stage we don’t know what to expect or how much blood we’ll need. What group are you?’

‘O positive.’

‘Perfect. One of the medics will get you started on a line.’

‘Can’t I help prepare for the casualties?’

Sue hesitated. ‘We need your blood more than we need you right now. Don’t worry, you’ll get your fair share of action before your time here is up. In the meantime, watch and learn.’

When Sue was satisfied everything was ready for the incoming casualties, she came to check up on Tiggy.

She eyed the bag of blood. ‘Another ten minutes max.’

While she’d been waiting for the bag to fill with her blood, Tiggy had been thinking about the little Afghan girl. She hoped Nick hadn’t included her in his instructions to clear the ward.

‘What about Hadiya?’ she asked Sue. ‘We’re not going to discharge her too?’

Sue shook her head. ‘Nick wants to keep her in for a bit.’

‘But are we really going to send her away without further surgery?’

‘It can’t be helped.’

‘Surely Nick can make an exception?’

Sue sighed. ‘Believe me, if he could he would. And I haven’t given up hope that he won’t. If anyone can make a miracle happen, it’s Nick. Now, I’d better get on. You just relax.’

* * *

Tiggy had finished giving blood, although Sue had insisted that she stay lying down afterwards. Frustrated, she watched as everyone double-checked that everything was ready. The radio crackled again and the staff paused to listen.

‘We have two soldiers with shrapnel wounds. One has an injury to his left arm, the other abdominal wounds.’ Nick’s voice was calm over the roar of the helicopter’s engines. ‘ETA five minutes.’

The surgeon in charge of receiving the casualties turned to his team. ‘It sounds as if we’ll need both theatres. Everyone to your stations.’

Tiggy eased herself up from the gurney and grabbed a leftover biscuit from the coffee table where everyone had been sitting. Although she still wasn’t hungry, she knew she had to eat something. She was damned if she was going to stand by while everyone else around her worked, and fainting wouldn’t endear her to anyone. Slipping into the changing room, she found a clean pair of scrubs and changed quickly. Her throat was still dry but she knew it wasn’t from dust this time.

Before she could find Sue, the doors burst open and Nick entered, along with a couple of soldiers pushing a trolley. Nick was kneeling on top of his patient, doing chest compressions.

‘He stopped breathing in the ’copter, but CPR has been given continuously. We’ve given him two units of red cells and two litres of colloid en route. We need to get him to Theatre stat.’

Willing hands stepped forward and rushed the patient through to Resus. Moments later, Scotty and more soldiers burst through the swing doors with the other stretcher.

‘This man has shrapnel wounds to his arm,’ Scotty called out. ‘I’ve applied a temporary dressing and started a drip. Vital signs all okay.’

The injury to the second soldier’s hand was such that for a moment Tiggy couldn’t move.

As he too was wheeled into Resus, her training kicked in. She grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting away the soldier’s uniform, only vaguely aware of the staff crowded around the other patient, shouting orders.

Sue wheeled the portable X-ray over to Tiggy’s patient. There was another flurry of activity as the soldier with the abdominal wound was taken into Theatre.

Nick crossed over to them, peeling off his gloves. Tiggy handed him a fresh pair. The soldier’s vitals were getting worse. His blood pressure was dropping and his pulse becoming increasingly rapid and weak.

‘We need to get his arm off. It’s the only way to stop the bleeding,’ the orthopaedic surgeon said, examining the wound.

‘Let’s try and stop the bleeding first, shall we?’ Nick said quietly. ‘The hand might not be salvageable, but we might be able to save his lower arm.’

‘You have five minutes,’ the orthopod said. ‘After that, he’s going to Theatre.’

They did everything they could to stop the bleeding, pumping the soldier with blood, but when Nick, along with the other surgeon, looked at the X-ray of the soldier’s injury, he sighed, his eyes bleak. ‘The damage is too bad,’ he said. ‘You’re right, Simon. Amputation is the only way to go.’

Before she could help herself, a small cry escaped from Tiggy’s lips. ‘Are you sure? Isn’t there anything we can do?’

Nick and Sue were already preparing the casualty for Theatre. ‘If there was, we would do it,’ Nick said tightly.

Tiggy swallowed hard. The boy was so young. But she knew Nick was right. The X-ray was there for them all to see, and Nick had already taken a chance by not sending the lad to Theatre straight away.

Nick looked at Tiggy and if she had any doubts as to how much he’d hoped to save the soldier’s arm they vanished when she saw the anguish in his eyes. ‘I promised these boys we would get them home and that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll assist, Simon.’

Moments later, the resus room was empty.

* * *

Much later, when Dave, the soldier whose arm had been amputated, was settled on the ward, Tiggy escaped outside. She tried to control the tremors that kept running through her body.

‘You okay?’ Nick’s voice came from behind her.

‘No. Yes. I will be.’ She took another deep breath. ‘He’s so young to lose an arm.’

‘He’ll learn to live without it.’

She whirled around. ‘How can you say that? You don’t have the remotest idea what it will be like for him.’

Nick’s expression didn’t change. ‘No, you’re right. I don’t. If I lost my arm or the use of any of my limbs, I don’t know what I’d do. But at least he’s alive. At least he won’t be going home in a body bag. Not like his colleague.’

They had been unable to save the other casualty. They all felt his loss as if he’d been their brother, their husband. When Nick had told them, his expression hadn’t changed, and Tiggy wondered if she’d imagined his anguish earlier.

‘How can you be so...’ she sought for the right word ‘...unaffected?’

‘Because they need me to be professional. They need us all to be professional.’ Nick’s voice was flat.

Tiggy slumped against the wall and wiped a hand across her perspiring brow. He was right, of course he was. If he could have saved the soldier’s arm, he would have. Wishing otherwise wouldn’t help anyone, least of all Dave.

She thought about her brothers. God help them all if either didn’t make it. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how her own mother would react. She loved her children with a tiger-like ferocity. Without warning, tears sprang to her eyes and she blinked furiously. She just couldn’t help herself. It was too awful.

‘Hey, Tiggy. Don’t do that. Dave will be okay.’ It was the first time outside work she’d seen him look serious. ‘We make it our job to get these boys back home alive, and mostly we do.’ His eyes darkened. ‘God, don’t you think I hate not being able to send that boy home in one piece?’

‘It’s not just him—or the man who died. It’s all of them. They’re so young. And my brothers—they’re out there, too.’

‘There will be another team doing the same for them if they ever need help.’

Tiggy dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. ‘I can’t bear to think of them hurt.’

Nick reached out a hand and touched her shoulder. ‘Most soldiers make it home, Tiggy,’ he said. ‘You have to hold on to that.’

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

He took her by the arm and steered her across the dusty strip of land in front of the hospital. ‘Let’s walk.’

‘I’m not sure I can after this morning,’ she said. Nevertheless, she allowed him to lead her across to the far side of the camp. A gentle breeze stirred the dust of the camp, cooling the intense night air. Above them a thousand stars studded the crystal clear sky. How could a place so beautiful hold so much heartache? When they reached a flat rock, Nick indicated with a nod of his head that they should sit. For a while they remained silent. Eventually Nick turned to her and grinned.

‘So, Tiggy, the last I recall we were up to when you were thirteen. Why don’t you tell me the rest?’

* * *

Later that week Tiggy was sitting outside her tent, drinking coffee with Sue. Across the camp men, most stripped to their combat trousers, were playing football or working out. Thankfully there had been no more life-threatening injuries to deal with. Dave had been transferred to the military hospital in Birmingham.

As a bare-chested soldier jogged past them, Sue grinned.

‘You see? It’s not all bad out here. Where else would you get the chance to ogle so many fit guys?’

‘I can almost see the testosterone,’ Tiggy admitted. Her eyes drifted over to Nick, who was pulling himself up on a bar suspended between two walls. He too was stripped to his combat trousers and the muscles in his naked back bunched every time he raised himself. Some soldiers sat in a circle, counting off every time he pulled himself up.

Sue followed the line of her gaze. ‘As I said, forget him. He might be a hero but he’s a woman’s worst nightmare. As soon as he gets the girl he’s been chasing, he loses interest. There’s hardly a female on the camp—or off it for that matter—who hasn’t had her heart broken by him.’

‘You don’t have to worry on that score. Nick might be a fine doctor, but his type has never appealed to me.’

Sue groaned. ‘Don’t say that! If he sees you’re not interested, that will only make him worse.’

‘I doubt I’m any more his type than he is mine, so you can rest easy.’

Sue eyed her speculatively. ‘I would say you’re just his type.’ She drained her coffee mug.

Something Sue had said was niggling at the back of Tiggy’s mind. ‘Hey, before you go, what do you mean about Nick being a hero?’

Sue hesitated before sitting back down. ‘Well, I guess I should tell you, although I’m surprised you haven’t heard the story already.’ Sue looked across at Nick. ‘It was last year. Nick was out on an op with the men. They were making sure that a deserted village wasn’t being used as a base for insurgents. It was a joint op with the Americans.

‘Anyway, they got to the place—they call it a sangar—where they were going to base themselves for the couple of weeks they expected the mission to last when fighting broke out. To cut a long story short, Nick left the safety of the sangar and, despite being fired on, ran to the aid of an injured man who had been dragged into one of the houses.’

‘Good God!’ Tiggy glanced across at Nick with new respect. So he wasn’t just a playboy? Of course she already knew he was a great doctor but this latest revelation was making her assess him all over again.

Sue half smiled. ‘That wasn’t the end of it, though. While he was treating the American, one of his fellow soldiers came looking for him and took shrapnel to his upper thigh—straight into his femoral artery.’

Tiggy knew what that meant. The soldier wouldn’t have stood a chance so far away from a proper medical facility.

‘Poor sod.’

Sue rolled her empty mug between her hands. ‘That’s just it. He made it. And all because of Nick. Incredibly, Nick managed, while under fire and with the enemy practically at the door, to clamp off the artery. Thankfully he’d called in the medevac ’copter and God knows how but they managed to land close enough to get Nick and the injured man on board. Nick kept him alive until they made it back to camp. You can imagine how slim the soldier’s chances of survival were—never mind keeping his leg—but Nick refused to give up. Somehow, he and the rest of the team were able to save the soldier’s life and also salvage his leg.

‘Since that day he’s become a bit of a hero around here—and, believe me, there are no shortage of heroes in a place like this—as well as a talisman. The men believe that as long as Nick is with them, or as long as he’s here on camp, they’ll be all right. Sometimes I think they’ve invested him with supernatural powers.’

Perhaps that went some way to explaining Nick’s arrogance, the air of total confidence surrounding him like an aura. She only hoped to hell there would be someone like him around if ever her brothers needed help.

‘I had no idea,’ Tiggy said softly.

‘It’s not something he goes around telling people.’ Sue glanced at her watch. ‘Time to get to bed.’ When she looked back at Tiggy, her eyes were bleak. ‘He might be a hero to the men but I think it’s also a burden. Nick isn’t a miracle-worker. He’s human. I sometimes wonder if he hasn’t started to believe his own legend.’

‘And what’s that?’ Tiggy asked, rising too.

‘Believing he’s indestructible. And that as long as he’s here, he can save everyone who has a chance.’

Tiggy’s eyes strayed back to Nick. He had finished showing off and had picked up a towel and was wiping the sweat from his chest. Some six-pack, Tiggy thought distractedly. At that moment he looked up, and catching her staring at him, winked.

Tiggy blushed.

‘Oh, dear,’ Sue said. She picked up her mug again. ‘Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. See you at six.’