Rescuing Dr. MacAllister

But later on, when they were home…

She pushed open the door of the relatives' room and frowned as she saw the slumped figure of a woman in one of the chairs.

'Mrs Williams? Tina?' Ellie's voice was gentle as she walked quietly across the room and crouched down beside her. 'Has anyone been in to see you?'

The woman sniffed and nodded, her eyes swollen with crying. 'The doctor said that she almost died. And it's all my fault.' Her face crumpled again and Ellie slipped an arm around her.

'She's been taken up to Intensive Care but so far she seems to be doing all right.'

'I never should have driven so fast,' the woman whispered, 'but I panicked.'

Ellie frowned. 'Why did you panic?'

The woman swallowed and shredded a tissue. 'Because of him.'

'Him?' Ellie took a wild guess. 'Your husband?'

'Ken Foggarty is not my husband.' Tina Williams gave a sob. 'I'll never be able to marry him now. And I told him so. And that's why he did it. He was furious with me.'

Ellie was struggling to make sense of what she was saying. 'What did he do?'

The woman took a shuddering breath and shook her head. 'I can't tell you.'

'But—' Ellie broke off as the door opened and Ben walked in, his handsome features strained and tense.

'Mrs Williams?' His tone was unusually short and Ellie frowned slightly as Ben described the baby's injuries and what had been done so far.

He was cool and unemotional, with none of the empathy she'd seen him show to patients before.

'I should never have driven so fast,' the woman whispered again, and Ben's face was expressionless.

'So why did you?'

'Ben...' Ellie tried to catch his eye, aware that he'd misunderstood the situation and not wanting him to make things worse. But far from being offended by his curt question, Tina seemed to take it as a cue to blurt out the whole story.

'Because he was after us,' she sobbed, huddling her arms round her waist as if for protection. 'I told him that I wouldn't marry him and he just lost it. He was throwing things. He—he said he hated Fiona—said it was all her fault.'

Ellie handed her another tissue. 'How could it be a baby's fault?'

Tina gave a twisted smile. 'Irrational, isn't it? But, then, that's Ken all over. He blames Fiona for the fact that things have gone wrong between us. He reckons that before she came along we were happy, and maybe we were.' She sniffed and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. 'But once the baby was born, he changed.'

'In what way?' Ellie prompted her gently, aware that Ben was standing as still as a statue in the far comer of the room, his face a mask.

'It was like he resented every moment I spent with her.' She blew her nose. 'He was...angry all the time.'

'Did he hurt you physically?'

Tina nodded. 'Every time I paid the baby any attention.'

'And did he hurt Fiona?'

'Not so far, but I suppose it's only a matter of time. Every time she cries he boils up inside, and she's teething at the moment so...' She broke off and looked at Ellie helplessly.

'I can imagine.' Ellie gave her shoulder a squeeze. 'So what happened today to make you leave?'

The woman swallowed. 'I told him once and for all that I wasn't going to marry him and he went berserk. I managed to lock him in the house and I made a dash for the car, but he was only seconds behind me. That must be why I didn't do her seat belt up properly.' She started to sob again. 'I was so desperate to get away from him that my hands were shaking.'

'And that's why you drove too fast,' Ellie finished for her, shooting a glance at Ben, checking that he'd understood the situation. 'Tina, you know that you need to get the police involved, don't you?'