‘Maybe they went in wanting me. Unless I’m very much mistaken, by the time you’d finished with them, they’d forgotten about tax deductions and publicity, and they wanted a clinic.’
‘You might have told me first.’
‘Yes, you made that plain. I’m sorry, I was improvising.’
‘Well, don’t do it again, Hugo. Next time you tell me what you’re about to do.’
The pink of her cheeks, Nell’s passion, and her unerring sense of how to capture hearts. He’d do anything not to see that subsumed into the quiet, submissive woman who had walked next to him into the building.
‘All right. So that means you’ll do the next presentation?’
‘This is your project, Hugo. You’re the boss.’
He didn’t want to be the boss, in N
ell’s eyes. He wasn’t someone whose opinion of her might drag her down and make her feel any less than she was. But on the other hand, being the boss did give him the opportunity to build her up, and he decided to let go of the question of who was supposed to be telling who to do what.
‘So I’m making a decision. You do it better than I can.’ He leaned forward, hoping for some support. ‘Don’t you think so, Ted?’
Ted was keeping his eye on the road and didn’t turn. ‘I didn’t catch that...’
Right. Ted was keeping out of it. Wise move, probably. But if Hugo was venturing where angels feared to tread, he wasn’t going to back down now. It meant far too much to him.
‘So you’ll do the presentation tomorrow?’
Nell was trying to glare at him, but she couldn’t quite conceal her pleasure. ‘I’ll think about it.’
Hugo closed his eyes, trying to conceal his pleasure. Things were going in the right direction.
* * *
‘Ted... Ted, look...’
‘I see it.’ The car slowed suddenly, and Hugo opened his eyes. For a moment he remembered the pain from the stun gun, and almost threw his arm protectively across Nell before he realised that they weren’t under any threat.
At the side of the road, a car had veered off the road, breaking through a fence that bounded a field. Another car, which had stopped at the side of the road, was crushed at the front right-hand side and a young man was climbing slowly out of it.
Almost before Ted had brought the car to a halt, Nell had the door on her side open and was climbing out. Wobbling a little on her high heels, she ran over to the man, calling to him and then changing direction, making for the car that was in the ditch.
‘We’re going to need the first aid kit, Ted.’ Hugo climbed out of the car, knowing that Ted would follow him with the medical kit they carried in the boot. He ran over to where Nell was sliding precariously down a grassy slope towards the stricken car.
This time, he supported her. Reaching out with his right hand, he grabbed her elbow to stop her from falling as they both hurried towards the car. As they approached, Hugo could hear the sound of a baby crying.
Nell carefully pulled the driver’s door of the car open. A woman was sitting inside, trapped by the crushed dashboard and steering column. Mercifully, it seemed that she was just unconscious.
‘I’ll take her.’ Hugo knelt down on the grass, reaching in with his good arm to find a pulse. ‘You get the baby out.’
‘Right.’ Nell opened the back door of the car, reaching in towards the baby carrier in the back seat. It was still firmly strapped in, and that seemed to have saved the child from any injury if the noise it was making was anything to go by. But the angle of the car made it awkward to get to.
She crawled inside without a moment’s hesitation. Hugo felt a flash of regret, wanting to be the one to go inside the car but knowing that Nell was the better choice right now. He bit back his feelings, turning quickly to the woman in the front seat.
Behind him, he could hear Ted calling for an ambulance and a fire and rescue truck. Then another voice came to his ears.
‘Is she all right?’
The man from the other car was standing right behind him, blood beginning to trickle down the side of his face. Ted ended his call and stepped forward, ushering him away. He would check him over for any signs of serious injury, and with the information that Hugo had now, he had to concentrate on the woman. He could see blood beginning to pool under the seat but couldn’t see where it was coming from. She was pinned down by the infrastructure of the car, and even if she hadn’t been, Hugo was loath to move her until the ambulance arrived with the proper equipment.
The woman was breathing but still unconscious. Carefully he pushed his fingers between the seat and her legs, but there was no blood there. The bleeding must have been further down, and he couldn’t see her lower legs. Quickly checking her chest and stomach, Hugo turned his attention to craning inside, cursing quietly as he felt his left shoulder pull. There was no time to think about that right now.