Free A Wedding in the Village by Abigail Gordon Page B

them and not just at the practice.
    It was the end of the day. They were on the point of leaving the surgery, and he little knew that his recent complacency regarding Owen and Oliver was about to receive a severe jolt.
    As he and Megan were going to their cars one of the receptionists came hurrying after them. ‘Phone call for you, Dr Anderson,’ she cried. ‘It’s Rebekah Wainright. There’s been an accident at Woodcote House. One of the boys has been hurt.’
    Megan watched the colour drain from his face. ‘What sort of an accident?’ he cried.
    ‘They lit a firework that someone had given them and…’
    She was talking to his departing back as he flung himself into his car. He’d heard enough. So had Megan, already in the passenger seat, and within minutes they were pulling up in front of the house.
    They found Rebekah round the back of the house, bending over Oliver, while Owen, as white as a sheet, stood sniffling nearby. When she saw them she cried, ‘I’ve sent for an ambulance. The firework went off with an awful blast and he was too near. Didn’t move away quickly enough and he’s been unconscious ever since.’
    As the two doctors dropped to their knees beside him Luke said, ‘He’s breathing, thank goodness. Fast and irregular pulse, and burns down the side of his face.’
    ‘I’ll put a dressing on them while you keep a check on his breathing,’ Megan said, thankful that he’d had a first-aid kit in the car. She was trying to keep calm for Luke’s sake. The boys doing this was the stuff that nightmares were made of.
    ‘They’d asked me about fireworks and I gave them all the warnings,’ he said raggedly. ‘I had no idea they might get one themselves—which just goes to show how wrong I was.’
    ‘We got it off a boy outside the fish and chip shop,’ Owen told them tearfully. ‘He said it was a bargain for five pounds.’
    ‘Do you think it was a bargain now?’ Luke asked grimly, pointing to where Oliver was beginning to come round. ‘I can’t believe you’d put your brother at risk, Owen. Especially after I warned you. Thank goodness Mrs Wainright was here.’
    * * *
    An ambulance arrived and as Oliver was being stretchered on board Owen began to cry. ‘I want to go with him,’ he sobbed. ‘Is Oliver going to die, too?’
    Luke’s face was grey and pinched-looking as he comforted him and assured him that Oliver was going to be all right, but he needed to go to hospital to be treated for the burns and any other injuries that he might have sustained.
    ‘Tell us what happened, Owen,’ he asked gently, as he sat beside him in the ambulance.
    ‘There was a big flash and it knocked him over,’ he gulped.
    Megan was seated facing them and as Luke shook his head in disbelief their glances met. Don’t let him blame himself for this, she was thinking. Oliver is alive, thank goodness, and once we get him to A and E they’ll sort him out.
    ‘Don’t tell Mum what we did, will you?’ Owen pleaded as the ambulance sped towards the city.
    ‘I’ll have to,’ Luke told him. ‘I can’t keep something like this from her, but don’t worry. Once she knows you’re both all right I’m sure she’ll understand that you won’t ever do it again. They’ll most likely keep Oliver in hospital for a few days, so she’ll have to know.’
    * * *
    Oliver was seen by a doctor in A and E and his burns were treated. They were mainly surface injuries on the side of his face and one of his forearms as he’d tried to shield himself from the exploding firework.
    They’d been warned that there might be concussion from the way he’d been thrown by the blast and, as Luke had expected, they were going to be keeping him in for a few days for observation.
    Luke and Megan were concerned that Oliver’s hearing seemed to be affected, and now that he was fully conscious he was saying that it hurt when he swallowed.
    There’d been no visible signs of injury to his throat, but the doctor in A and E