Page 41 of It Happened in the Highlands
“Jo . . . Jo . . . save Jo.” Charles Barton yelled, waving his arms in desperation. Right behind him, Hamish was up to his waist and shouting to the attendants to fetch blankets and help.
“Save Jo,” Barton cried out, driving through the water to reach her.
He’d seen her. He was calling her name.
“I’m right here,” she said, pushing hair and grass out of her face and taking the man’s hand. “Nothing has happened. I am with you. Right here with you.”
Hamish grabbed the older man from behind and tried to steer him toward other attendants rushing over to help.
Barton fought him and cried out in an anguished voice. “No . . . Jo! Garloch!”
She waded after him, not wanting to let him go. It broke her heart to see him so upset.
Hamish and an attendant dragged Charles toward a more gradual bank to help him out of the water. All the while, the older man continued to cry out and she struggled to get to him. Jo was about to climb out of the pond herself when Wynne was there, splashing into the water and wrapping a blanket around her shoulders.
In the distance, Jo could still hear Charles Barton shouting the same words over and over.
“Garloch! Garloch!”
* * *
“Captain Melfort is pacing the hall like a bear, m’lady,” Anna said, not even trying to hide her delight as she hurriedly braided Jo’s wet hair. “The man may take the door down if we don’t hurry. And the doctor is out there too, arguing thatheshould see you first, him being the medical man and all.”
They’d both have to wait, Jo thought. She was perfectly fine. A quick dip in a fish pond in the month of May was no worse than swimming in the chilly waters of the River Tweed, and she’d been doing that since she was a child. She was made of hardier stock than these two gave her credit for.
Dried and dressed and again presentable, she stepped out of her room a few minutes later and found the two men still patrolling the corridor. Dr. McKendry was the first to reach her.
“You look terribly pale, m’lady. This has been a shock. You should undoubtedly be in bed. The last thing we want is this turning into brain fever. Allow me to—”
“Brain fever? Now Iamcertain that Edinburgh medical college taught you nothing about treating humans,” Wynne barked, shouldering him out of the way. “You can leave Lady Jo in my hands. She looks perfectly well. But I believe one of those shaggy red cows wandering about may need you.”
“Being governor of the hospital hardly makes you a medical expert.”
“And what kind of expertise allows you to jump from a dunking in a fish pond to brain fever? Have you even spoken with the patient to ask how she is?”
“There it is,” Dermot crowed. “You admit she’s a patient. In which case Lady Josephine is under my care.”
The door behind her opened and Anna appeared with her arms full of Jo’s wet clothing. Seeing the gathering in the hallway, she quickly changed her mind and disappeared inside again.
“If I may, gentlemen,” Jo said, using the momentary pause in the men’s bickering to interject. “I’m in perfect health, Doctor, and I assure you there is no need for medical treatment. But far more important, I’m worried about Mr. Barton. How is he?”
Wynne stood next to Jo and glared at Dermot, as if demanding an answer on her behalf.
“Other than his frenzied concern for you, he appears to have weathered the incident fairly well. Hamish brought him back to the ward and stayed with him until he became calmer. As I was coming up here, one of the attendants was helping Barton into dry clothing.”
The door behind her opened a little, and her maid peeked out. Before Jo could tell her that it was safe to go by, she popped her head back in and closed the door again.
“Is there a more suitable place where we can speak?” she asked.
The change in Charles Barton’s sketch this morning. The way he’d jumped into the pond when he’d thought she was drowning. And the word he’d been shouting. She had a number of questions for the doctor, but this was not the place to pose them.
“Of course.” Dermot motioned down the hall. “We can go to my office.”
Wynne’s muttering indicated that he didn’t think of it as a good idea, but he stayed close as they followed the doctor. Arriving at the doorway, Jo watched the young man scurry around the office, trying to clear some space on the floor for her to walk. The place looked as if a tempest had recently blown through. Finding a chair free of parcels and books and stacks of paper would be an entirely separate matter.
Wynne’s voice over her shoulder was a curious mix of derision and triumph. “Never mind this scene of chaos. Come with me.”
When he took her hand, Jo allowed him to lead her down the hall, assuming the doctor would follow.
