THE MAVERICK DOCTOR AND MISS PRIM/ABOUT THAT NIGHT... (27 page)

She had no idea what was going on in the village right now. Was everyone safe? She couldn’t bear the thought that anyone from the village had been injured trying to protect and hide her and her team.

Urbi. What would have they done with her? Someone must have told them the midwife had been working with the American doctor. Would she be safe?

What about the men who had come into the village? Were they still there, waiting for her to reappear? Had they been able to identify her team among the villagers?

She didn’t even know what the men looked like. How many had there been? She’d only heard one voice. She’d heard the gunfire and the shrieks. Then the whispers that they were looking for her and wanted to kidnap her.

It was terrifying.

It didn’t matter that she’d had safety briefings. She hadn’t really believed they would be at risk. There had been no trouble in that area before and the truth was she’d always felt safe with the people in Natumba.

She hated that this had happened. She hated that this could put the polio program in jeopardy.

And she hated what this might be doing to Evan.

If it was possible, her blood would be running cold right now. He would be frantic—and in that state of mind there was possibility that he wouldn’t act rationally.

Evan could put himself in danger—for her, and for the rest of the team, and she couldn’t stand the thought of that.

She already knew that losing another team member was his greatest fear. She couldn’t imagine the agony he was going through right now.

And he was the one person she wanted to talk to. It seemed almost ridiculous that she’d spent the past two weeks avoiding him. At any point she could have sat down with him and talked things out.

But no. She’d been too stubborn.

Her brain had still been mulling over what he’d told her. It had stung initially. That tiny second of deliberating whether he’d actually been to blame for Helen’s death.

Of course he hadn’t been. It was ridiculous.

But what was really obvious was that Evan had a way to go before he was ready to move on. She’d been deadly serious when she’d told him the first person he needed to forgive was himself.

She knew a lot about that.

She’d had a mountain to climb in order to forgive herself over her daughter’s death. There was no blame to apportion and sometimes that made it all the harder to move on. To take the step forward to a new life.

She really didn’t think she could handle someone else’s unjustified guilt when she’d just managed to walk away from her own.

There was a rustle of leaves right next to them. She jumped and Hasana’s eyes widened. She was in the grips of another labour pain—they were coming much quicker now—and she looked as if she wanted to cry out.

Hasana grabbed a piece of dry bark and pushed it between her teeth.

Violet felt as if she couldn’t breathe because even taking a breath made a little noise that someone might hear. That could reveal their position.

She put her fingers silently to her lips, praying that Hasana wouldn’t let a noise escape.

The leaves rustled again and Violet strained her ears. She couldn’t hear footsteps. She couldn’t hear voices. And somehow she didn’t think these men would come through the forest quietly if they were looking for her.

The rustle continued. Then a small reptilian head appeared, followed by a body slithering along the ground.

A snake. The rustle had been a snake.

Violet didn’t know whether to let out a sigh of relief or not. Was that type of snake poisonous?

She pointed with her finger and Hasana shook her head, gripping the tree bark with her teeth. A snake was the last thing on her mind right now.

Violet watched as the snake seemed to look in their direction once then slithered off without another glance.

Maybe bringing Hasana into the forest hadn’t been such a good idea.

She waited for a few more seconds, listening for any other noises. But there were none.

She placed her hands on Hasana’s belly. The baby was in the correct position. Its head had engaged and the labor seemed to be proceeding well. The baby was a good size. Maybe too big for a first-time mother?

Violet hoped not. She didn’t have access to a theatre if an emergency Caesarean section was needed. She didn’t even have access to a set of forceps if the baby’s head became stuck on the way down.

Hasana was going to have to do all this on her own.

She checked the position of the baby again. The head was crowning. It was time for Hasana to push.

Something washed over her. She was about to face her greatest fear all over again. Only this time the pain wouldn’t be hers, it would be someone else’s. She had to be strong. She had to be strong for Hasana.

She had to push all her thoughts and fears aside. She had to get through this.

Stillbirths weren’t unusual in Nigeria. But more than half of them occurred while the woman was in labor. Most happened in rural areas where skilled birth attendants or midwives weren’t available.

That hadn’t been the case for Hasana. But there were five major reasons for stillbirth. Childbirth complications, maternal infections, congenital abnormalities, fetal growth restriction and maternal disorders such as diabetes or pre-eclampsia.

Violet was running through all these in her head. The baby felt a reasonable size so there couldn’t be a fetal growth problem. Urbi had told her there had been no complications during the pregnancy, so she was assuming pre-eclampsia, diabetes and maternal infections were not a possibility. There was no way to know if there were any congenital abnormalities—not until the baby was born.

Back home in the U.S. women were screened for congenital abnormalities and things were often picked by obstetricians doing detailed scans. But Hasana had had none of these tests available to her. They wouldn’t be able to tell if something was wrong with the baby until he or she was born.

Hasana’s muscles contracted tightly again—another contraction. And Violet held up her fists and scrunched up her face, miming pushing.

Hasana let out a cry, pushing with all her might. The time for being silent had obviously passed. The baby’s head appeared between her thighs.

Violet’s actions were second nature. It didn’t matter that this baby was already dead. She’d gone back into junior doctor phase and was checking around the baby’s neck for a cord. There was nothing there. Nothing restricting the baby’s breathing. Nothing that could have led to its death.

Another push and the shoulders appeared, quickly followed by the rest of the slippery body. Violet caught the little baby in her hands, grabbing one of the blankets to wrap it in.

A baby boy. Hasana had a baby boy.

She wiped his little face. Praying against everything that he would breathe. But his pale lips against his dark skin showed that would never happen.

He was perfect. In every single way.

Her heart felt as if it could break all over again.

Hasana lay panting, exhausted after the delivery of her sleeping child.

There was no obvious congenital abnormality. No obvious reason for this baby to have been born asleep.

Just like hers. Just like her own daughter.

It didn’t matter that nothing here reminded her of home and her own experience. It didn’t matter that this forest floor was about as far removed from an Atlanta hospital as it was possible to be.

All that mattered was the perfect little boy in her hands. The little boy who should have been breathing.

She lifted him to her shoulder and held him for a few seconds. The umbilical cord was still attached, still making him part of his mother. She would deal with that in a few seconds.

She took a deep breath. Baby. New baby smell. It surrounded her in all its wonder. If only this moment could be different. If only she could be handing over a screaming baby to his mother.

She didn’t care about the potential kidnappers in the forest. She didn’t care about being silent anymore. She only wanted to will this little baby to life.

A single tear dripped down her face.

Life was so unfair. This little boy should be taking his first breaths. This little boy should be allowed to grow. He should have a life ahead of him.

He should be able to learn to crawl and to walk and talk. He should be part of a loving family. He should grow from childhood to teenage years, to adulthood. A life probably with intermittent hardships but a life worth living.

Instead, in her arms she had a silent, beautiful baby boy.

She helped Hasana sit up. She didn’t have syntometrine to inject and help with the third stage of delivery. She was lucky to have something to clamp and cut the cord.

There was no one to translate for her now. Hasana spoke mainly Hausa, and she herself only English. But, here in the middle of the forest, they would have to muddle through.

She handed over the baby to Hasana. “You have a beautiful son, Hasana.” She couldn’t help the tears that fell down her cheeks. Hasana would think she was crying for her son—and in a way she was. She was crying for every sleeping baby that had ever been born. As only a mother could.

She wrapped her arm tightly around Hasana’s shoulders, watching her embrace her little boy. She watched as Hasana dropped kisses on each of his eyelids and lifted his hands from the blanket and counted his tiny fingers.

It was almost as if she was embracing his perfection. The fact that in every way he looked like a healthy baby.

Her shoulders were racked with sobs and her tears soaked Violet’s
buba
shirt. The light was beginning to dim among the trees. But Violet didn’t want to pull her watch out and check the time.

Time here was more precious than anything. Hasana needed this time to spend with her son. To mourn his loss. To start the long grieving process that Violet knew inside out.

The hopelessness.

The despair.

The endless questions.

Everything would change once they returned to the village. Her family and friends would take over. Probably arranging a burial and blessing for the baby. Doing what they thought was best for Hasana.

But right now, right here, there was no need for any of that.

This was a time for mother and son to be together.

And although the rest of the world might not understand, this was the most precious time of all.

The one thing you could never get back.

And Violet had all the time in the world.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

L
UKE
 
PULLED
 
THE
 
truck over to the side of the road. “Now we go on foot.”

Evan’s eyes scoured the surrounding area. They hadn’t reached the village yet but the last thing he wanted to do was announce their arrival.

They’d met Jaja on the road. He’d been hysterical and had wanted to come back with them. But it was obvious he wouldn’t be of any use. He was jabbering incessantly and still shaking with fear. It had taken all Evan’s self-control not to shake him by the shoulders to get some sense out of him.

Finally, they’d managed to find out a little more. The men had arrived in the village around 3:00 p.m. There had been four of them, all in one truck. They’d fired shots into the air and had demanded to know where the American doctor was.

Jaja had been on the other side of the compound, next to the truck in which Violet and the rest of the community workers had arrived. He hadn’t had time to look for the others. He knew that Violet had been with the local midwife, Urbi, and the others working between houses in the villages. The armed men had been between Jaja and his colleagues. And as he’d jumped into the truck and sped away to raise the alarm, they’d fired at him. The evidence was all around the body of the truck.

Evan had quickly checked him over and sent him back to the camp. There was still no further information from headquarters.

“You know we should wait, don’t you?” he said to Luke as they walked alone the edge of the dusty road.

Luke raised his eyebrow. “Are you going to wait?”

Evan couldn’t meet his eyes.

“Then neither am I. But you do exactly as I say. I don’t have a gun, we don’t have any kind of weapon. We’re going to skirt around the outside of the village and see if we can work out if the kidnappers are still there.”

Evan glanced at his watch. It was nearing seven o’clock and the light was beginning to fade. The village was nearly ninety minutes away from camp, but the journey had seemed much longer.

His brain had computed a million possibilities in that time, most of which he didn’t want to consider. He hated the way he kept falling on the worst-case scenario. He hated the way the rational part of his brain had ceased to function.

As their truck had sped along the dusty road he had kept praying someone from the village would make contact via the satellite phone but no one had heard a word. And they had no other form of communication.

In the shadows the outline of the village houses started to appear. Luke signaled him to get behind him as they crept slowly around the edge of the first house. Everything was silent. A quick glance told them no one was inside.

They worked their way systematically toward the center of the village. From the deathly silence on the outskirts they started to hear the gentle hum of voices. As they moved closer the noise level increased.

Evan tilted his head to one side as they strained to hear. “It sounds like panic,” he whispered. “A lot of shouting, mainly in Hausa, with a little English.”

Luke gave him a nod. “I’m going to get a little closer.” He put his hand up as Evan tried to move behind him. “You’re the doctor. Stay here. It will only take me a few seconds. Once I know for sure there’s no one with guns, I’ll signal you.” His dark eyes flashed. “I mean it, Doc, don’t move. There might be people in the village who need your help. I don’t want you to get injured.”

He moved away silently around the edge of one of the houses, virtually invisible in the fading light.

Evan strained to hear. The voices just sounded like a rabble to him. But there was no gunfire. No shooting. He hated having to stay here. His legs were itching to run—to run and find Violet. To make sure she was safe.

But if the kidnappers were still in the village, they would be only too happy to find another American doctor, and he knew that. Luke was right. He had to wait a few minutes and then see if any of the villagers needed attention. He knew all about his duty as a doctor. But what about his duty to Violet?

“Evan! Come out, you’re needed!” Luke’s deep voice cut through the dying light. Evan’s blood started to pump and he ran toward the voice.

The noise around him increased rapidly. It seemed as if every resident of the village had made their way into the village center. That’s why all the houses were empty and silent. There were several people on the ground. He recognized one of them immediately. Urbi. The village midwife.

He was at her side in seconds. Luke appeared at his shoulder. “The men left the village little over an hour ago. They couldn’t find Violet. They searched everywhere.”

One of the community workers touched Evan’s elbow. Her dark face was filled with anxiety. “We had to hide Dr. Hunter. When the men appeared, we had no choice but to hide among the villagers.”

Evan was examining the deep wound on Urbi’s head. “What happened?”

“Urbi was knocked unconscious. She delayed the men from reaching Violet. She told them Violet had already left the village. They hit her with a rifle butt.”

His stomach was clenching. Violet. This woman had been injured trying to save Violet.

He couldn’t stop himself. His head flicked frantically around. “Where is she? Where is Violet?”

He took a pack of swabs from his bag and held them to Urbi’s forehead. Her small hand reached up over his. “We don’t know, Dr. Hunter. She must have heard me shouting. When they got to the birthing room she was gone. She was helping me with a patient.” She winced as he tried to stem the flow of blood. “They discovered some of her things in the birthing room. She must have dropped them. That’s when they hit me.”

Evan’s stomach flipped over again. “But they didn’t find her?”

One of the other villagers was shaking his head. “No.”

Luke was kneeling next to another man. His shoulder had been grazed by a bullet. Another seemed to have been punched and one of the village elders had a similar wound to Urbi’s.

Evan looked around at these people—most that he didn’t know—who had hidden his staff and saved their lives. “Thank you,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you for looking after the health workers.”

A hand appeared on his shoulder and a variety of items were deposited on the ground next to him. Violet’s bag. Her smashed satellite phone. Some of the polio supplies.

The sight of her battered belongings in front of him tore at his soul. It was obvious why no one had been able to contact them. The men had obviously destroyed the satellite phone once they’d found it.

He cast his eyes over the patients. Luke was a physician’s assistant in the U.S. There was nothing here he couldn’t deal with. He stood up. “Luke, can you deal with these people, please? I need to look for Violet.”

Luke nodded briefly. The danger was past. There was no reason for him to stop Evan.

“Urbi, do you have any idea where Violet could be?”

“She was with a patient. A villager who was in labor. They must have gone somewhere to hide.”

“But where could they have gone?” His eyes took in the surrounding area. The uneven rows of houses around them. The backdrop of the forest.

The forest.
The ideal place to hide a conspicuous white face.

Urbi’s hand reached out to his. “Dr. Hunter—the patient...”

He knelt back down. “What is it? Was something wrong with the patient? Was that why Violet didn’t leave her?”

Urbi’s expression was guarded. She gestured for him to move closer so she could whisper in his ear. “The baby. It was too late for the baby. There was no heartbeat. But the mother still had to deliver it.”

Evan nodded. Violet must have been worried about complications of delivery for the mother. That’s why she’d stayed by her side. That’s why she’d taken her with her.

But there was something else. Urbi pulled him a little closer. “Dr. Violet. She understood. Once she realized the baby was dead. She said she wanted to stay. She wanted to help.”

Evan pulled back a little. Violet was a compassionate person. He didn’t think she had much experience in obstetrics, and he knew there was a high stillbirth rate in Nigeria so she must have wanted to help.

“Please find them.” She squeezed his hand.

Finding Violet was all he could think about right now—all he could focus on. Someone pressed a torch into his hand. “You might need this.”

He stared down at the torch. The confusion in his brain didn’t matter. The way that things were circling in his head didn’t matter. There was movement beside him and he looked. A number of the villagers had formed a group around him.

His understanding was instant. In the poor light it would be difficult to find anyone in the forest. He had no idea how far Violet and the woman in labor might have traveled. It could be anything from a few hundred yards to as far as they had been physically able to.

Again, the people in this village were prepared to help. He was touched.

He drew his shoulders back. “Okay, Luke?”

Luke nodded. “No problem. I’ll be waiting for you when you get back.” The unspoken words were there.
When you get back with Violet
.

Evan nodded at the people around him. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” They walked swiftly through the houses to the edge of the forest. There, the villagers started to talk among themselves and split into groups.

He pulled out the laptop he’d been given and reloaded the GPS software. The little red blip on the aerial view was still evident. He held up the laptop so the people around him could see, showing the view of the forest and where the red blip lay. “That should be Violet,” he said out loud. He tried to picture where they were on the map. “We need to head in that direction.” It seemed as though Violet had veered off to the left and headed into the forest for about half a mile. A hard trek in these conditions—let alone with a pregnant woman in labor.

There were no obvious paths into the forest, no tracks leading in different directions. Several of the stronger men had brought stiff canes with them, obviously to beat back some of the thicker leaves and jagged bushes.

Evan took one that was being held out toward him. He watched as several others starting beating at the bushes in front of them, clearing a path into the forest.

He started doing the same. Several of the men followed him, their torches helping to light up the dark forest. Shadows and outlines seemed to loom everywhere. The noise of the insects around them increased with every step they took further into the forest. He started slapping at his skin. Mosquitoes. He hadn’t even thought about insect repellent. By the time they finished they would be eaten alive.

The deeper they went, the denser the forest became. The ground around his feet seemed alive. Every step crunched on something underfoot. The trees were closer together now, their trunks thicker and leaves slapping around him. The distance between the groups was increasing as they spread out to cover more ground between them.

Evan wasn’t really sure which direction they were heading in any more. The forest could be disorientating. Especially at night. How would Violet be feeling? Would she be scared? Would the patient be in trouble?

He stopped for a second, looking around, sweeping his torch through the leaves and bushes.

There was no point in pulling out the GPS software now. It was only useful if you knew where you were in relation to the signal. He could hear shouts around him. The other searchers were obviously getting disorientated. Was it safe to continue?

There was no way Evan was going back to the village without Violet. No way at all. “Violet! Violet!” He started shouting like the others, stopping every few seconds to listen for any response.

Nothing. Were they heading in the right direction? He started to move a little more left, his torch trying to find an easier path for their feet.

His shoulders and arms were aching relentlessly as he tried to beat the bushes and leaves back. At least Violet would have been able to see these in the daylight and duck out of their way. He could hear some muttering behind him. How long had they been out here? Were the villagers starting to lose heart?

His torch caught a glimpse of something unusual. A color he didn’t expect to see. He dropped to the forest floor and scrabbled about. A notebook. Violet’s notebook with the distinctive purple flowers. His heart leaped. They were heading in the right direction.

“Look! It’s Violet’s!” He showed it to the men behind him, who instantly shouted to the other groups.

His adrenaline surged. The pain in his arms was forgotten. She must be close. She must be nearby. “Violet! Violet!”

Every step had renewed vigor. His calls were louder than before. His shouts echoed through the forest. All the men were repeating them over and over.

Then he heard something. Something different.

“Quiet!”

He stopped moving and held his breath.

Then he heard it. A hoarse reply. “Evan?”

He’d never heard anything sweeter.

He flung his stick aside, crashing through the forest toward the voice. He burst through into a little clearing. Dark moss, set among some trees. Violet huddled on a fallen tree trunk, her arm around another figure and a little wrapped bundle in her arms.

“Evan.” The relief in her voice washed over him. Her pale face could be picked out easily in the dark night. He crossed the clearing in a couple of strides and pulled her into his arms.

“Are you all right? I’ve been so worried. No one knew where you’d gone.” His eyes caught the woman to her right. “Did the delivery go okay? Is there something we can do for your patient?”

Violet shook her head silently. The men from the village had heard the shouts and crowded into the clearing. One of them rushed forward and took Hasana in his arms, shouting with relief.

Violet felt the tears on her face instantly. She laid a gentle kiss on the baby in her arms. She whispered to him, stroking the skin on his face as she talked to him a little longer.

And in that instant, Evan knew.

It felt as if a hand was squeezing his heart inside his chest. It was the tenderness, the look on her face. Pieces of the puzzle started dropping into place.