Joanna Neil - Playboy Under the Mistletoe

He wasn’t far off the mark there, Jasmine acknowledged inwardly. His father had made it clear from the first that he wasn’t expecting him to finish the course, and perhaps that was because his son had such a wide range of interests that he found it hard to stick to one in particular. Ben was a wild spirit, always game for anything, and even at medical school he had managed to raise brows. News of his exploits quickly found its way back home.

‘Well, you did get into trouble for almost setting fire to the kitchen in your student residence,’ she murmured. ‘And then there was that time when you and your friends stayed out all night and turned up at your lecture next morning looking the worse for wear.’

He made a face. ‘ Almost being the operative word about the fire,’ he said. ‘I only left the omelette cooking on the hob for a minute or two while I went to help a fellow student who had cut her hand…and the fact that the smoke alarm didn’t go off was down to someone else removing the battery and forgetting to put it back. I think he was fed up with it going off every time he made toast.’

His brows drew together. ‘And as to the night out, why should that have turned out to be a disciplinary offence? At least we turned up for the lecture on time next day. Some of these people on the boards of universities seem to have no recollection of what it’s like to be a student. Yet I’ll bet they had their moments, if the truth was known.’

‘You make it sound as though it was all unfair,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘Anyway, I’m sure that’s all in the past. I heard you’d done well for yourself in the last few years. There was a piece in the paper about you setting up a new emergency paediatric unit at the hospital in Cheshire…’ She frowned. ‘But that brings me back to what I was saying—if you’re following the same route home as me, I’m guessing you must be living and working somewhere else at the moment.’

He nodded. ‘I’ve been doing some locum work up in Lancashire, so it made sense to stay there for the last couple of months. And, of course, it meant I was able to come and do the stint with the rescue services today, since I’m based not too far away.’

It made sense to Jasmine. He had always been a restless soul, and from what he had just described of his travel arrangements, things didn’t seem to have changed very much.

Now, though, she glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw that he was still following behind her, his beautiful car eating up the miles without the slightest hint of difficulty. She wasn’t so lucky. Her own car had been throwing up problems along the way.

The outside temperature had dropped to below freezing, and it seemed that her tyres were not up to the job of gripping the slippery surface. She had to take extra care on the bends in the road, and as if that wasn’t enough, the snow was still coming down thick and fast so that her windscreen wipers were struggling to clear it away.

The roads were becoming increasingly clogged with snow as drifts began to pile up along the hedgerows, and now she was worried that she might not be able to go on much further. Perhaps Ben had been right when he’d suggested she should stay overnight at the hotel.

Still, she wasn’t the only one who had decided to venture out. A few drivers were following the same route, doggedly determined to get home.

She looked at the road ahead. The car in front of her was negotiating a bend, and as the road sloped downwards the driver seemed to have trouble maintaining a straight course. He swerved as the car in front of him suddenly drifted in an arc across the road, the unexpected action causing him to veer wildly. A second or two later, he rammed his vehicle sideways into a large oak tree. Still in a skid, the other car swivelled around, hitting his front end and coming to a halt halfway across the road.

Jasmine’s stomach clenched and her pulse began to quicken. Her mouth went dry and she was uneasily aware of the thud of her heartbeat as it rose up into her throat. How was she going to avoid being part of the pile-up ahead? Both cars were taking up a good half of the road directly in front of her, and she wouldn’t be able to stop in time to avoid them. She couldn’t brake or she would go into a skid, too. She had no choice but to go on.

Her mind was racing. She was all too conscious of Ben not far behind her, and she didn’t want to risk him being caught up in any collision. Her only hope was that, with any luck, he would have seen what was going on, and would be able to find some way of avoiding trouble.

She wasn’t going fast, but now she changed to a lower gear, slowing the car and carefully steering through the only gap available between the cars and the hedgerow. Thankfully, no one was coming in the opposite direction. Then, as she tried to steer a course away from trouble, the camber of the road changed, throwing the car out of kilter in the bad conditions, and a moment later her vehicle slewed violently around, slamming her headlong into a snowdrift.

The car shuddered to a halt, tipping over at an angle, and she stared at the windscreen, seeing nothing in front of her but a blanket of white. Apprehension clutched at her insides. It seemed very much as though she had plunged part way into a ditch, and maybe the hedgerow had stopped her going any further. Her heart plummeted. Now it looked as though she was going to be stranded here, miles away from anywhere, in a dark, frozen void.

The engine had cut off. There was silence all around, and it seemed as though she was enclosed in a capsule, shut away from the outside world. It was eerie and scary at the same time, being trapped in this pale wasteland.

‘Are you okay?’ A moment or two later, Ben was pulling at the door of her car while she was still trying to take stock of everything that had happened.

Relief washed over her. Ben was safe and she wasn’t alone. ‘Yes,’ she answered, struggling to keep her voice level. ‘I’m okay.’

‘You’re quite sure that you’re not hurt in any way?’

‘I’m sure. I’m not hurt.’ She blinked, looking around at the overwhelming mass of snow that covered three sides of her vehicle like a half-built tunnel. She tried to gather her thoughts. ‘Did you manage to keep your car on the road?’

‘It’s fine. I’ve parked just along the road from you.’ He hesitated. ‘If you’re positive that you’re all right, I need to go and check on the other drivers. If we don’t clear the road fast, there could be another accident before too long. We have two people keeping watch, so that they can try to alert people to the danger, but it isn’t safe and I need to hurry.’

She nodded. ‘I’ll come with you.’

‘There’s no need.’ As she tried to slide out of her seat, he laid his hands on her shoulders, lightly pressuring her to stay. ‘You look as though you’re in shock,’ he said. ‘You’re trembling. Stay there and I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

He was right, she realised after he had gone. Her body was still mourning the loss of his reassuring touch, but that was only because she was in a state of shock, as he’d said…wasn’t it? She tried to move, but her legs let her down and her hands were shaking. Her car was slanted at an odd angle to the ground and she wasn’t at all certain how she was going to get it back on the road.

For a minute or two, she sat very still, concentrating on breathing deeply in an effort to compose herself. No matter what he said, Ben most likely needed help. If they didn’t move the other car to the side of the road, it would be a danger to oncoming drivers. It was also quite possible that one or both of the people involved in the accident might be injured. Sitting here wasn’t an option, and somehow or other she had to pull herself together and try to help out. Bracing herself, she drew another shuddery breath of air into her lungs, and a moment later she slid out of her seat and went to find him.

He and another man were trying to steer the crumpled car to the side of the road, but the vehicle that had rammed into the tree was still in the same position as before. The driver was at the wheel, and she guessed that Ben must have already spoken to him. The man wasn’t moving, but perhaps that was because he was traumatised by what had happened.

She went over to car and opened up the passenger door. ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ she asked. The man was in his fifties, she guessed, with a weathered complexion and streaks of grey in his hair. His expression was tense, as though he was hurt and was steeling himself against the pain. ‘I can see that you’re holding your arm,’ she murmured. ‘Is it giving you some problems?’

He nodded, his lips compressed. ‘I wrenched it when I went into the tree. Help’s on its way, though. The man from the BMW told me he’s a doctor…he came to take a look at me and said I’d probably dislocated my shoulder. He had to go and shift the car out of the way, but he’s coming back.’

‘I’m sure he’ll be able to help you.’ She quickly tried to assess his condition. He was wearing a cotton shirt with a sleeveless fleece jacket over the top, and even in the darkness she could see that the shoulder was strangely distorted. ‘He and I know one another, as it happens—we’re both doctors.’

He managed a weak smile. ‘I suppose I’m lucky, then, that this happened while you were around.’

‘You could say that.’ She hesitated. ‘Is it all right if I switch on the interior light? Perhaps I could take a look at you and see what we’re dealing with?’

He gave a slight nod, and once the light was on she examined his arm and his hand. ‘Can you feel your fingers?’

‘I don’t think so. They’re a funny colour, aren’t they?’ He frowned. ‘That’s not good, is it?’

‘Well, it means we probably need to put the shoulder back in its socket sooner rather than later. Your circulation is being stopped or slowed down, and we have to sort it out fairly quickly.’

She glanced around and saw that there was a cushion on the rear seat. ‘If we put the cushion between your arm and your chest it may help to make you feel more comfortable in the meantime.’

He nodded again, and she went to get the cushion, coming back to gently place it in position. A faint look of relief crossed his features.

‘That feels a bit better,’ he said, breathing hard and gritting his teeth. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome.’ She glanced at him. ‘Are you hurting anywhere else? I noticed the driver’s door is buckled…has that hurt you in any way?’

‘I don’t think it’s done anything too bad. It feels as though I’ll be bruised for a while, but basically I’m okay. It’s just the shoulder. It hurts like the devil.’

‘I can imagine it does.’ She hesitated momentarily. ‘Will you be all right for a minute or two while I go and get my medical bag from the car? We should be able to put your shoulder back in position for you—and we can at least give you something to relieve the pain.’

‘That would be good.’ He seized at the chance. ‘Whatever you can do…’

‘Okay.’ She slid out of the car once more and trudged through the snow to her own vehicle, thankful that she was wearing strong leather boots.

‘What are you doing?’ Ben asked, coming over to her, his brows drawing together in a dark line as she retrieved her bag from the car. ‘I thought I told you to stay where you were. At least you would have been warmer in there, and you know you shouldn’t be wandering around when you’ve just been involved in an accident. You could be injured and not realise it.’