The Midwife's Marriage Proposal (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 3)

Sally laughed. ‘I would have hated it if we had. I love wild weather.’

He stilled, a strange expression flickering in his eyes as he looked at her. ‘That’s right.’ His tone was suddenly soft. ‘So you do.’

For a mom

ent their eyes held and then she turned on her heel and started up the path, her emotions churning.

Being out in the mountains with him was the most bitter-sweet reminder of what they’d once shared. When they hadn’t been working, they’d spent their whole lives outdoors. And she’d often chosen to climb when the weather had been at its worst, and Tom had always come with her.

Reminding herself that dwelling on the past just made the present harder to cope with, Sally increased her pace and strode confidently along the path that led along the valley floor, looking and listening and keeping a sharp eye on the weather. But all the time she was aware of Tom close behind her.

When she reached a fork in the path she paused, and Tom walked up to her, squinting up at the sky.

‘It’s not looking good. So which way? Left or right?’

Sally thought for a moment. ‘Left,’ she said decisively. ‘And if they only walked for an hour, they shouldn’t be far from here.’

She set off again and this time Tom walked by her side, adjusting his stride to hers. ‘Why did you decide on left?’

‘Instinct.’ Sally glanced at him. ‘If I was pregnant I would have taken this path. The views are better and it stays in the valley. The other one creeps up the mountain. It’s steeper.’

‘I can’t imagine that would bother you,’ Tom said dryly. ‘I have no doubt that you’ll still be climbing rock-faces when you’re nine months pregnant.’

Sally dragged her eyes away from his.

She didn’t want him to know how much she still longed for a child. It was one of the factors that had triggered their break-up. She’d wanted a baby and he’d thought she’d been too young.

She focused on the path. ‘I see them. There—by that boulder.’

She increased her pace and they reached the couple quickly.

‘Thank goodness you’re here.’ The man looked pale and tired, his arm around his pregnant wife, who was lying on the ground, her bump smothered by an enormous weatherproof jacket. ‘I didn’t know what to do.’

‘Well, first we need to sit her up,’ Sally said quickly, shrugging the pack off her back and dropping to her knees next to the woman. ‘I’m Sally. I presume you must be Lucy, unless there’s another pregnant woman wandering the fells today.’

Tom dropped to his haunches. ‘Lucy, what on earth do you think you’re doing?’

The young woman gave a gasp and pressed a hand to her swollen abdomen. ‘Oh, Mr Hunter! I didn’t know that you’d come. I just fancied stretching my legs and we lost track of time and then I fell … I’m so sorry to be a nuisance. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to slip!’

‘You’re not a nuisance,’ Sally said immediately, ‘but we do need to sit you up. Lying flat can cause problems at your stage of pregnancy because the weight of the baby presses on your major blood vessels.’

Tom was by her side and together they lifted the woman into a sitting position, propped against a large boulder.

‘She’s been having pains for the past half an hour,’ Lucy’s husband told them, his face drawn and anxious. ‘We never should have come on this walk but it was such a beautiful day when we started out.’

Lucy screwed up her face and sucked in a breath. ‘Oh—the pain is terrible.’

Tom frowned. ‘In your ankle?’

‘No.’ Lucy shook her head, her eyes tightly shut as she struggled with the pain. ‘I think the baby is coming.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Luce.’ Her husband spoke in a falsely cheerful tone that was supposed to hide his anxiety and didn’t. ‘It isn’t due for another three weeks and babies don’t come that quickly.’

Lucy’s features relaxed and she opened her eyes. ‘Sorry to scare you, Mick, but it feels as though it’s coming to me.’

Her husband glanced at Tom, horrified. ‘She’s wrong, isn’t she? It can’t possibly be coming here. That quickly.’

‘Babies don’t usually care too much about the venue and they don’t always care about the timing either,’ Tom said, squatting down beside Lucy and sliding a hand over her abdomen. ‘They come when they’re ready. And you’re definitely having contractions. Sally, you monitor them. I’m going to take a look at your ankle, Lucy, so that we know what we’re dealing with here. If you are in labour, we need to get you to hospital.’