Christmas With Her Ex (14 page)

At least Connie was listening but he could feel the
tension vibrating from Harry and he’d bet Kelsie would say it wasn’t helping Connie’s body to relax when they all knew her husband was desperately impatient to see their baby and his wife safely at the end of this pregnancy from hell.

‘Exactly!’ Harry pounced on the opportunity to have input. ‘She needs sleep. So let’s do something about it. Can’t we finish this business with a Caesarean?’ Connor could see the anxiety he was feeling because of the cumulative stresses of many miscarriages—and here they were so close to having all their dreams come true.

And he was probably on the defensive for his wife whom he couldn’t help, either physically by taking her pains or with his usual mental ability to solve problems. For a man used to running his multinational business and dealing with problems immediately, he looked like he was having a hard time being utterly powerless for once.

Connor could sympathise but he wasn’t going to rush into a Caesarean just because Connie had prolonged early labour. This was his business and it was his job to make unemotional, yet correct decisions.

He didn’t believe in unnecessary Caesareans because there were risks in every operation and these pregnancies were so hard to come by that statistically he dealt in choosing the lesser risk. Normal birth was much less risky for mother and baby.

Connor ran his hands through his hair, unsure how to help until unexpectedly the image of Kelsie, serene and confident, on the train came to him. He looked up
and caught both the worried parents’ attention with his sudden smile.

Maybe it was time for a little midwifery magic. He just wished she was there to do it for him but he’d try his best.

‘I believe Connie can and will do this by herself. When your baby is ready. You’re doing amazingly well.’ Connor recited Kelsie’s words and the calm and positive way she’d said them. ‘Both of you. Your baby is very determined, just like her dad and mum, but we have to wait for the labour to establish itself properly.’ He pulled up a chair and sat down.

‘Let me tell you a great story about what happened on the way over in the train.’

Connie’s eyes grew wider as Connor explained about Anna’s baby’s decision to arrive between countries, in a train and feet first, and as he concluded his tale with how he’d seen them that morning before Paris and how well they’d both looked, Connie sighed back into the bed. He saw her search out her husband’s eyes and nod.

‘Maybe I could have one of those sleeping tablets we keep refusing and just have a rest. Wait for it to happen instead of being so determined it has to happen this minute. I do want a birth like that.’

Connor stood up. ‘I want you to have a birth like that too.’

He smiled, could feel the tension dissipate in the room as they finally accepted a delay in their expectations. ‘I can’t promise you a train carriage but I can promise you a couple of hours’ sleep.

‘The good news is that a large percentage of women
do wake up in labour after a sedation at this point. So hopefully you’ll be one of them.’

He looked at Harry. ‘They have a desk you can use for work if you don’t want to leave the building, but I do think you should leave Connie to rest when she gets the sedation. She could text you when she wakes up.’

Harry looked at his wife. ‘Is that okay with you, Con?’

She nodded. ‘I am very tired.’

‘Let’s get this sorted, then.’ Connor glanced at his watch. The train wasn’t due into Victoria for another two hours.

If Connie went into labour he’d have to arrange for someone else to meet Winsome. He’d set that up just in case. In the back of his mind he still had all his balls in the air. He knew where Kelsie was heading tonight and he still had time to talk to her before she left.

Back in the Pullman carriages, rattling towards London, Kelsie and Winsome had passed the towers and keeps of the English countryside during the meal, leaving behind the manors and ploughed paddocks of the country towns.

Passengers were dozing in their seats, replete or even having over-indulged, and the waiters had begun clearing the tables as they began to pass through more suburban areas.

Soon they would arrive at Victoria and Winsome had settled back in her seat with her eyes closed.

Kelsie was wondering if Connor had arrived in time to be there for his client’s birth. She knew how scared
fertility-challenged parents could become. She’d had a recent client of her own who’d had IVF and had been an absolute mess prior to labour.

Shelby had had so many pre-conception visits, so much intense screening and medication to achieve conception, and then such a tense time dreading a miscarriage until the first three months had passed, that when her IVF clinic had sent her back to her old hospital as a now low-risk patient, she hadn’t been used to being left to progress naturally.

Kelsie had coached Shelby and her husband in the prenatal classes, a weekend course, and the improvement in Shelby’s self-confidence and positive birth outlook had been miraculous. She wondered if they had such classes in the UK and suddenly it was something she wanted to talk to Connor about.

Anyway, she didn’t need to go there. She’d be flying back to Australia very soon. Shelby and her husband had had a gorgeous birth not long before Kelsie had come away. When she got home she looked forward to visiting that little family.

Home. Her comfy flat. Her friends. It was ridiculous to think she wouldn’t settle back into it all easily just because she’d met up with an old boyfriend. One who might even be keen for her to stay around.

Who was she kidding? Not just met.
Slept with.

Actually, they hadn’t slept. They’d made incredible, amazing, mind-blowing love. She’d glimpsed a world she hadn’t really believed existed before.

Seen that Connor held a part of her that nobody else
would ever touch. And then they’d bickered their way back to being strangers. How had that happened?

You couldn’t just forget that sort of encounter. But that was what she’d have to do or risk driving herself mad.

She looked across at Connor’s grandmother, and noticed Winsome rub her chest and frown as her eyes flicked open. In fact, she did look a little pale and not at all happy.

‘Are you all right?’ Kelsie asked softly.

‘I might just have a wee nap. Wake me when we get there.’

Kelsie narrowed her eyes and studied Winsome as she closed her eyes. The older lady’s cheeks were white and the tiny frown on her forehead made the soft wrinkles there pucker more than usual.

‘Are you in pain?’ Kelsie didn’t know whether to bother her or not.

Pale blue eyes fluttered open again, accompanied by a rueful smile as she rubbed her chest. ‘I’m a bit sore in the chest. Probably from overeating but it’s starting to bother me. I thought a wee nap might help.’

‘Have you had it before?’ Kelsie stood up and leaned over the older lady’s chair. ‘Let me check your pulse.’ She took Winsome’s wrist in her fingers and felt for the pulse under the soft skin. There it was. Bounding along a little faster than she would have expected.

‘Sometimes I get reflux.’ She glanced around at the quiet carriage and grimaced with embarrassment.

Kelsie regarded her shrewdly. ‘And does this feel like that?’

Winsome began to look extremely miserable. ‘It’s getting worse.’ Big eyes looked mournfully at Kelsie. ‘My husband died of a sudden heart attack, you know. I can’t help thinking of that, even though I’m sure it’s not anything like that. I just wish Connor hadn’t left.’

Kelsie squeezed Winsome’s hand. ‘We’re almost at Victoria and we’ll get you to a doctor.’

Winsome bit her lip to stop the quiver. ‘I want Connor.’

Kelsie’s heart squeezed. ‘I know. You’ll be fine. I’ll stay with you until we find him again.’

One large tear rolled down Winsome’s cheek and Kelsie clasped her hand. ‘I’ll find Connor for you.’

She pushed the service button and while she waited she thought about the food and alcohol offered over the last thirty-six hours and how Winsome had been magnificent in her capacity.

It could just be gastrooesophageal reflux. Her skin chilled. Or it could be cardiac chest pain. She didn’t want to think that but she needed to get someone to see Winsome before Connor’s grandmother did something Kelsie couldn’t handle by herself.

Where was Connor when they needed him? She’d be very happy for him to take control now. He should not have left his grandmother alone. And she’d tell him so. For some strange reason she felt calmer after that decision, and not just because it meant she would see him at least one more time.

She looked back at her patient. ‘If you were ever going to get indigestion, I imagine this would be a popular time.’ She glanced around the cabin and saw most
of the patrons had their eyes shut. ‘What do you usually take when you get that?’

‘My antacid tablets. I forgot to take the prescription one this morning. But they’re in the luggage compartment.’ She glanced around as if searching. ‘I wish Connor was here.’

Kelsie nodded. She did too, and moved back to her seat and reached up to the ornate silver luggage rack and pulled down her tote. In her bag she had some lozenges so she dug around until she found them.

‘How about you take one of my little over-the-counter antacid tablets?’ She glanced into her bag again. ‘And two of my travel aspirins, which would be about half a normal dose of aspirin. That will cover both bases while we wait for help.’ Aspirin was always a good first-aid suggestion with cardiac pain or clots. They had done a lot of sitting and maybe Winsome was in more danger than she thought.

Samuel, the steward, appeared at her elbow and Kelsie turned to him with relief. ‘Mrs Black has chest pain. How long until we arrive in London?’

Samuel looked instantly concerned and frowned over Winsome’s increasing pallor. He spoke quietly, for Kelsie’s hearing only. ‘About ten minutes. I can arrange for an ambulance to meet us, if you wish?’

Kelsie nodded just as Winsome whimpered and rubbed her chest again. ‘Do you feel breathless?’

‘Just with the pain.’ She sounded more frail than Kelsie expected and her concern climbed. ‘It’s difficult to breathe deeply. I just want Connor.’ Her voice faded away and she closed her eyes.

Kelsie’s heart settled a little at that. Cardiac chest pain shouldn’t get worse with inhalation, which made it more likely to be another cause. But it still needed checking. She looked at Samuel then back at Winsome. ‘We’ll have that ambulance, thanks.’

It seemed to take for ever for the train to pull into the station.

The loudspeaker boomed as they came to a stop. ‘Would all passengers please remain seated for the first five minutes while we transfer an ill passenger off the train. Your luggage will be waiting for you once they have been transferred. Thank you.’

Kelsie followed the ambulance officers, who had fireman-lifted Winsome out of the carriage onto the bench seat of another small luggage train, and Kelsie followed onto the platform and the organised chaos of Victoria Station. A row of luggage trolleys laden with Christmas goodies from Europe had arrived and the porters were lining bags up in neat rows for identification and retrieval.

Kelsie saw her suitcase, which towered over the others, almost waving at her, and she grimaced at that problem for later. Winsome first.

They trundled through to a side entrance, where an ambulance waited.

She glanced back into the crowded station. Could she accompany Winsome?

She knew she wanted to but a glance inside the small emergency vehicle didn’t seem to suggest a lot of room and she doubted they’d let her. That was when she realised the snow was melting on her hair and face. Landing
quite heavily on her and the snaking line of people at the cab rank.

It would be hell to catch a cab in this on Christmas Eve but she’d feel she’d let Winsome down if she abandoned her to strangers.

A young woman appeared at her elbow. ‘I’m to meet Mrs Winsome Black. Was that who was just lifted into that ambulance?’

The young woman was dressed from head to foot in black suede, very chic, but Kelsie decided she looked almost like a seal. Even the scarf threaded around her neck was suede to match the cap she wore over her hair.

But seal or not, Kelsie pounced on her with relief. ‘Yes. She has chest pain. Do you have contact with Dr Black?’

The girl’s eyes widened in distress. ‘I can get a message to him.’ The girl scrolled through her contact list. ‘I’ve already arranged with a porter to have her luggage collected.’ The young woman looked up enquiringly. ‘And you are?’

Kelsie blinked, calmed a little now that Winsome was in good hands, and replayed the girl’s words in her head. Well, who was she?

She glanced once into the ambulance but Winsome was being assessed by paramedics and perhaps she wasn’t needed now. She turned away. She almost said, ‘No one important,’ but before the words were out she was stopped by a familiar, if frail voice.

‘She’s with me.’ Winsome’s voice drifted from the rear of the ambulance and Kelsie had to turn and smile.
It seemed Winsome Black didn’t miss anything—even when miserably unwell in the back of an ambulance.

Well, then. She’d better stay. ‘I’m Mrs Black’s companion until she’s seen by Dr Black.’ It was actually a huge relief because she would have worried all night that Connor hadn’t managed to find his grandmother and that Winsome hadn’t recovered with medical care.

‘Please tell him that Kelsie has gone with her.’ She saw the interest in the girl’s eyes and ignored it. She’d suddenly seen a solution to another problem. ‘There is a very large purple suitcase with a K. Summers nametag. Can you arrange for that to be collected, too, please? If possible, have it transferred to the Ritz. I’m booking in there later.’

The girl didn’t seem fazed by the request and Kelsie supposed that Connor would hire efficient personnel. At least she wouldn’t have to wrestle with her bag and if she lost it then it wasn’t a life-or-death matter. Possibly unlike Winsome—until she could be sure.

She’d phone the hotel from the hospital when she knew Winsome was okay.

The paramedic tapped her on the shoulder. ‘Excuse me, miss. Would you please reassure Mrs Black that you’re coming with us? She won’t let us shut the doors. You can travel with the driver.’