My thanks, as always, to those of you who left reviews for my previous chapter. Your enthusiasm for the story encourages me so much and I am very grateful for your continued support.
So, I left the previous chapter at a dramatic moment. I hope it didn't come across as too cliché. I feel a little bit bad about being so horrible to Gwen all through the story, but I hope you will think it's worth it. I have researched the problem Gwen is now suffering from as carefully as I can and I hope it is as realistic as I can make it, although I must say I have played some of the symptoms she might experience down a little, so as not to be too graphic and also because some people do not experience all of the symptoms her problem can cause. You will find out exactly what is going on with her in this chapter, so I hope you will stick with me for that. In this chapter you also find out what Arthur's problem is, so read, enjoy and please, drop me a review. Finally, I should point out that the hospital Guinevere is in, which I also refer to in Six Weeks To Midnight, is entirely fictitious, although it is very broadly based on the local hospital in my own area, which is not Winchester.
After spending the night in his car in the depths of the Hampshire countryside, Arthur spent days on the road. The only thing he had with him in the car was the black holdall he'd packed before leaving for Manchester, which contained a clean shirt, a tie and a pair of trousers for work, and some casual clothes, a couple of t-shirts and a pair of jeans. With some underwear, he had everything he needed in the bag for a few days, but with every day that went by, the feeling began to grow inside him that staying away wasn't the answer to the mess he was in, but then the image of Guinevere and that man looking so cosy together would come to the forefront of his mind again and he would move on.
Almost as soon as he'd stormed out of the Rising Sun after arguing with Gwaine, Arthur began to question himself. How could his life come to this, he asked himself, over and over again. He'd been happy with Guinevere. They'd worked so hard to put themselves back together after losing Gwydre and they'd built a new life with Llacheu and Amhar. Guinevere had a job she enjoyed and he'd taken Pendragon Homes to new heights when he'd taken over the company when his father retired, so where had everything gone so wrong? The answer loomed before Arthur in the shape of the private developments he was building across the country.
When Arthur had taken Pendragon Homes into construction, he'd intended it to be an interesting side-line, a few affordable houses that would give him another string to his bow and enable him to begin to give Guinevere the life she deserved, especially because Llacheu was on the way and they were starting again after losing Gwydre. Looking back, Arthur admitted to himself, he'd also gone into construction to prove something to his father, to show he could do something his father had wanted to do, but had never got round to.
Those first few houses had led to more. Arthur had received offers from local authorities all over the country for plots of affordable housing. Having made provision to expand, Arthur accepted the work, his eyes and mind drawn to the possibilities it would create for his family. What he hadn't prepared for was how much the work would take him away from home, and how reluctant local authorities would be to pay for work they had contracted out, given that the struggling economy was leading to them cutting the services they provided, which hadn't been the case when the local council had paid him handsomely for those first homes he built in Winchester. It led to Arthur spending half of his time overseeing building work, often leading to him travelling from one construction site to another, usually miles apart, whilst spending the rest of his time chasing up local councils to pay for work he'd completed. All too soon it meant he was spending less and less time at home, and much less time running Pendragon Homes' estate agencies.
When Arthur accepted the chance to go into private housing, to build private estates of large houses and exclusive flats in affluent areas, he thought the problems he was having with the local authorities would be eased. He thought long and hard about working in this new area. Was he experienced enough, did he really know what he was doing? He asked himself every question he could think of, thinking of everything that might go wrong, but in the end he had taken the chance, seeing the possibilities building such developments would provide for his family. He'd be able to send the children to private schools eventually, he told himself. He could give Guinevere all the things he'd ever wanted to give her, new clothes, expensive jewellery, the exotic holidays they'd enjoyed when they were first married, but hadn't been able to have since the children came along. He'd even come up with a plan for attempting to talk Guinevere into letting him buy her a new car, so that she could get rid of the old mini she'd driven for years, despite the money she'd insisted on paying out of her earnings from the care agency to put rear seatbelts in the mini when Llacheu started pre-school.
When Arthur was considering his options in deciding whether or not to go into private housing, he really thought he'd considered every possibility, every contingency. Had he been short-sighted? Had he put too much emphasis on the end result, the things he could give Guinevere and the children, without thinking of how he was going to reach the end goal? The answer stared him in the face now, cold and stark, but at the time, buoyed by the success of the first few properties he'd built in Winchester, and the growing number of local authorities across the country offering him work, which, admittedly, they were always reluctant to pay market value for, Arthur really believed he could do it and so he threw caution to the wind, bolstered by Guinevere's encouragement.
What Arthur hadn't been able to find the words to admit to Guinevere was that the private housing developments wouldn't provide him with any real sort of financial gain until the work was completed. When the work was done, he would have money to burn, but until then he would earn next to nothing from the developments. He had also kept the local authorities reluctance to pay for the work he'd completed for them, from his wife. He'd told himself she would worry and he wanted to spare her the stress he was beginning to feel, so he kept it from her and tried to spend as much time as possible on the developments, because the sooner they were built, the sooner he would be paid, and Guinevere would never need to know there had ever been a problem.
The private developments didn't go smoothly. A week didn't go by without Arthur having to oversee some sort of crisis. Having decided not to take on site managers to oversee the private developments because he thought he had the experience to cope and know what he was doing, a stark contrast to those first few properties he built, when the site manager oversaw the day to day work and just kept him informed of how things were going when he went to check on the site, or by phone if he was too busy at Pendragon Homes to get away, Arthur had to increase the travelling he was doing again, cutting the hours he could spend at the office in Winchester, which led to him worrying about the business in his long absences and made him become controlling and paranoid with Percival, who ran the main office like clockwork, to the point where Arthur was checking and rechecking every decision Percival made in his absence, which created an atmosphere of distrust between him and the man he would have once consulted for every business decision he made. It also led to him spending even less time with Guinevere and the children, especially when he made the decision to stay in hotels and bed and breakfast's to cut down the number of times he was disturbing them when he arrived home from travelling late at night. Arthur had told himself he was doing the right thing when he decided to stay away overnight instead of disturbing his family by going home late, but deep down he knew the truth. If he stayed away it would give him less time with Guinevere, less time for her to question what was wrong with him, why he was being so distant and moody, and why, all of a sudden, he didn't have the energy, or, it seemed, even the ability, to show his wife how much he loved her.
The stress Arthur was feeling began to mount when the bank started to become concerned about the mortgage for the house. By this time, a while after he'd gone into the private developments, he was spending virtually no time in the office, and the various local authorities around the country were still dragging their feet about paying for the properties he had built for them. The money from those first properties in Winchester was also beginning to run out, draining away rapidly due to the size of the mortgage on the house they'd bought before Llacheu was born.
Arthur responded to the stress he was feeling by withdrawing into himself. He couldn't bring himself to approach the bank and admit he was struggling. He wouldn't consider discussing the issue with his father, knowing that if he couldn't keep a roof over his own family's heads, no one would trust him to sell them a home, so Pendragon Homes would be in serious trouble, which could lead to him having to put dozens of his employees out of work and close down the business his father had built from nothing. Worse, he couldn't face Guinevere and tell her he had failed her so spectacularly and put everything they'd built together at risk, so he distanced himself from her and the children even further and set about trying to get out of the mess he'd created, a mess Guinevere didn't even know existed.
Having driven aimlessly from one place to another for days, Arthur went back to work in an attempt to bury everything bottled up inside him. He'd spent the last few nights in a bed and breakfast, tossing and turning while images of Guinevere with that man continued to taunt him. He was working in Warwickshire, two hours from Winchester, when he received the call. He was overseeing the latest work on the properties he was building there when his mobile phone rang. He half expected it to stop ringing if he ignored it and carried on talking to one of the workmen on the site, but when it didn't stop, something in his head told him to answer the call. He grabbed at the phone from his belt, his stomach twisting into knots and his heart racing when Guinevere's number and name flashed on his caller display. The builder he'd just been talking to about some detail on the blueprints for the development, gave him a knowing look, nodded and made himself scarce.
Arthur pressed the button to answer the call on his phone. His heart was hammering in his ears. "Guinevere?" He sounded exhausted, even to his own ears. He wondered if she would notice or even care.
A voice Arthur didn't expect came over the line. "Arthur, I know you don't know me, and I'm sure I'm the last person you want to speak to, but it's Lance, Gwen's friend."
Anger shot through Arthur and it was all he could do not to put the phone down. Where was Guinevere? He asked himself the question, images of her with the man on the end of the phone coming to mind again, tormenting him. "What are you doing with my wife's phone?" Arthur demanded, almost shaking with fury. "Where is she? Put her on right now!" By now he was shouting, oblivious to the looks and raised eyebrows he was getting from the workmen around him.
"Listen, Arthur," The man on the other end of the line spoke quickly. "Don't hang up or anything, because Gwen needs you. She's not well, she's unconscious. I'm waiting for an ambulance, she's very ill."
For one split second Arthur didn't believe the man on the end of the phone line and his finger hovered over the button to end the call, but suddenly it was as if an ice cold hand had gripped his insides and squeezed. For reasons he couldn't even explain to himself, he was suddenly afraid. "What have you done to her?" Arthur's fear made him lash out at the man on the end of the line. "I swear to God, if you've done something to her, if you've harmed a hair on her head, so help me, I'll…." He issued a string of threats and language he had rarely used to anyone before. In that moment he didn't care. All he could think about was Guinevere.
"Damn it man, will you listen!" The man on the end of the phone line raised his voice urgently, almost shouting down the line. "Gwen needs you to come home right now, so just get in your car and get home to your wife, right now Arthur, I mean it!" Arthur suddenly heard the noise of a siren from somewhere in the distance. It took him a second to realise it was coming from the phone and his heart seemed to turn over in his chest, but he couldn't make his thoughts come together enough to speak again. "I need to go, the ambulance is here. Get home now, Arthur!" The other man spoke again and then, before Arthur could get his thoughts together, the phone line went dead.
Arthur stood holding his mobile phone to his ear long after the call ended. He felt numb, frozen, as if someone had pressed pause on his life and left him stuck in one position forever.
"You all right, boss?" A voice to his left startled Arthur, dragging him out of his stunned stupor, and his head jerked around sharply, his eyes staring in bewilderment at a large man wearing low hanging jeans and a tatty t-shirt beneath a high visibility jacket. The man was wearing a white hard hat on his head, which he pushed up towards his forehead to look Arthur straight in the eye. "Boss?" The builder spoke again, fixing Arthur with a confused frown.
Arthur suddenly snapped out of his daze. Yanking at the high visibility jacket and hard hat he'd put on when he arrived on the building site earlier, he threw them down on the ground.
"Hey, where are you going?" the builder who'd just startled Arthur demanded urgently, when Arthur went to run towards his car. "You can't go yet, there are things you need to see, decisions you need to make."
Exasperated, Arthur glared at the big man. He inhaled sharply and tried to calm down before he could speak. "Look," he looked into the other man's eyes and gestured with a hand to the building site around him. "Let's be honest, you probably know more about all this," he indicated the site again, "than I will ever know, so prove it. Make a list of all the things that need doing and do them, or find someone who can do them. I trust your judgement and I give you a free hand, now I need to go."
"But…?" The other man said, his eyes reflecting his disbelief.
"I mean it," Arthur said, beginning to walk towards his car, the builder following in his wake. "I'm appointing you site manager, so manage. I've had my priorities all messed up for months, but now I haven't. I have a wife who needs me, so I'm going." With that, Arthur walked away from the builder, who stood in stunned disbelief, shaking his head, until a shout from the building site behind him made him turn and go back to work.
Arthur almost ran across the building site to his car. As soon as it came into sight he pulled his keys from the pocket of his jacket and pressed a button on his car key. His headlights flashed once and a beep alerted him to the car being unlocked. Reaching the car at last, panting as he tried to catch his breath, Arthur opened the door on the drivers side and jumped in. He barely gave himself time to start the car and pull his seatbelt across his body before starting the engine and driving away.
Back in Winchester, Lance followed the ambulance through the city. He stayed as close to the vehicle in front of him as he could, determined not to lose sight of it for a moment. He swore vociferously when another driver pulled out of a junction and tried to cut in front of him, trying to take advantage of the way the emergency vehicle was able to manoeuvre through the city traffic so easily with its siren blaring. Beeping his horn as he slammed on his brakes, Lance held his ground and fixed the impertinent driver with a deathly glare. The other driver backed down sheepishly and indicated with his head for Lance to go ahead. Putting his foot on his accelerator, Lance quickly caught up with the ambulance and heaved a sigh of relief.
When the city traffic began to ebb away, Lance knew the hospital must be close by. Continuing to follow the ambulance closely, he spotted a road sign indicating the hospital. His heart pounded, torn between feeling glad that the hospital was so close, and wondering what he would see when the ambulance doors opened. Why had it taken so long for the ambulance to move outside Alice's house? he asked himself again. How bad was Gwen really, and what was wrong with her? All he knew was that she had obviously been in a lot of pain and she'd looked very ill when he saw her last. Now fear of the unknown gripped him. Would Arthur come home? Lance had no idea, but it was clear that Arthur was stunned when he told him how ill Gwen was. Perhaps the shock might do him good, he thought, knowing even in his head, he sounded bitter.
Soon the ambulance began to slow down. It indicated to the left and Lance followed, risking leaving a wider space between his car and the ambulance now, knowing they would need room to get Gwen out of the back. The ambulance turned into a short roadway and then into a busy car park, where people in uniforms in various shades of blue went in and out of a large building that looked like an airport terminal. They were followed by other people, some carrying flowers and fruit, or other things that appeared to be gifts for people inside the building The hospital, Lance heaved another relieved sigh.
All of a sudden Lance realised he wouldn't be able to park in the ambulance bay outside the hospital, when the ambulance finally came to a halt and the siren was silent at last. He looked around the car park for an empty space, his heart lifting when he spotted a big car pulling away. Turning his car into the space the other car had just left, Lance stopped his car and jumped out. Locking up quickly, Lance's eyes turned to the ambulance bay and the paramedics, who were now opening the back of the ambulance. Glancing around quickly to make sure no vehicles were coming towards him, Lance ran across the car park and reached the ambulance as fast as he could. He was almost holding his breath when one of the paramedics climbed into the back of the ambulance and began to push Gwen's stretcher forward, down the short ramp which came out from beneath the vehicle's floor. The other paramedic assisted his colleague and guided the stretcher to the ground safely. Gathering his courage, Lance looked at Guinevere for the first time since she was put into the ambulance. He was startled by how pale she was. She lay with her eyes closed, her skin a sickly shade of white, contrasting sharply with her dark hair, which pooled around her on a pillow beneath her head. He tried to stay out of the paramedics way when they began to push Guinevere's stretcher into the Accident and Emergency department, but he couldn't help edging closer when he thought he heard her trying to speak, though her eyes remained closed.
"You're all right, Gwen," Lance said softly, stepping up to Guinevere's side and taking her hand. She was mumbling incoherently, but Lance was sure he heard one thing clearly, a name. 'Arthur.'
Lance swallowed hard and gripped Guinevere's hand tighter. "He's coming Gwen," he tried to sound positive for her. "I phoned Arthur and he's coming, so you just hold on, all right? Arthur's coming Gwen, I promise." He silently prayed it was true.
When they finally got through the entrance to the Accident and Emergency department, chaos seemed to break out around Lance. He found himself pushed from Guinevere's side when doctors and nurses appeared from nowhere. He heard one of the paramedics giving a man with wiry grey hair and half-moon spectacles, wearing a long white coat, a series of details. He heard words like 'pregnant' and 'collapsed', along with alarming words like 'blood pressure crashed in the ambulance' and 'suspected internal bleeding.' He struggled to take in what they were saying and went to follow them through a pair of thin light-wood doors with frosted glass panels in the top and bottom, but found his progress halted when a hand stilled him. He blinked and found a nurse with hazel eyes, auburn hair and a kind expression, looking up at him. "I'm sorry sir," she said, shaking her head gently. "You can't go in there, that's for staff only."
"But she's on her own," Lance's voice seemed to strangle as he spoke and he cleared his throat. "I can't leave her on her own."
"Is she your wife, or your girlfriend?" The nurse eyed him sympathetically.
Lance shook his head. "No, she's a friend from work, her husband is away working. She asked me to phone him before she collapsed. He's on his way...I think he's on his way."
The nurse nodded and steered Lance towards a block of brown plastic chairs in the middle of the bustling department, where dozens of people seemed to be rushing around. She almost guided him down into one of the chairs before she spoke again. "Well, when her husband gets here, he owes you a favour. I can't say too much, I'm not allowed to because you're not a member of her family, but let's just say, you might have just saved her life today." The nurse allowed a hint of a smile to cross her features.
Lance's brows arched in shock. "Saved her...what do you mean?" he asked, breathlessly.
The nurse's face fell. She knew immediately, she'd said too much. Looking around in case she was overheard by one of her superiors, she lowered her voice. "All I can say is, your friend is very ill, she's being prepared for emergency surgery right away, but if you hadn't responded so quickly when she collapsed…."
The nurse stopped talking and Lance filled in the rest. If Guinevere hadn't got to hospital when she did, she might have died. The thought was terrifying. "What….What's wrong with her?" He asked a moment later, when he could speak again. His mind was reeling.
The nurse gave him another sympathetic look and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to tell you, but you should know, you've given your friend every chance of making a good recovery. It'll take a while," she went on, still keeping her voice low and making sure no one was listening, "but your friend has every chance now, and that is because of you."
The nurse eventually walked away, telling Lance he could stay where he was and she would see if someone would come and tell him some news in a while. She also told him to go to the reception desk and give them Guinevere's details, which he did gladly, finding it filled up some of the time.
When Lance was finished at the reception desk, he found a sign on the wall asking people to go outside if they wanted to use their mobile phones, to avoid disturbing other people in the department. Lance really didn't want to move, but, he reminded himself, Hunith still didn't know what had happened to Gwen, and she would be getting calls by now from clients whose calls they'd missed. Getting to his feet, Lance walked out of the department and found a spot near the entrance to the hospital. He took out his phone and spoke to Hunith quickly, telling her about what had happened to Gwen and what he knew about her condition, which, he realised, was next to nothing. When Hunith asked if she needed to call Gwen's husband, Lance admitted he'd done it, because Gwen asked him to. Having given Hunith the facts, Lance switched his attention to the work he hadn't got through with Gwen that morning. Hunith immediately reassured him, telling him she would cover it, even if she had to go out herself and do some calls. Glad Hunith had dealt with this sudden change in the usual routine so smoothly, Lance said he would be happy to go and do a few of Gwen's calls a bit later, if Hunith was okay with him working unsupervised. He said he would phone in when he was ready to go back to work, and he would do some of Gwen's late afternoon calls. Thanking him heartily, Hunith ended the call, and Lance went back into the Accident and Emergency department and took a seat in the waiting area. He found his eyes drawn to the clock on the wall above the reception desk. He watched the hands tick the time away, while he waited for news of Guinevere.
While Lance waited for news at the hospital in Winchester, Arthur was on the motorway. Driving through Warwickshire had almost driven him mad. He got stuck in traffic due to the cricket season being at its height, bringing people from Warwick and its surroundings areas into the county. It was also the time of year when tourists began to flock into the country, visiting beauty spots and local sights, leading to heavy traffic, which Arthur had to sit in, whilst inside he was miles away, Guinevere at the forefront of his mind.
Arthur felt relief washing over him when he finally reached the motorway. Able to put his foot down at last, he pushed his car onwards. All the time anxiety gripped him. That man had said Guinevere was very ill. How bad was she, and what was wrong with her? The unanswered questions buzzed in Arthur's mind. She was unconscious, that man had said. Why was she unconscious? Arthur asked himself. What had happened to her, and would she be all right?
"She has to be," Arthur answered his question out loud. "She has to be all right, I need…." He stamped down on the thought, refusing to give in to the fear churning in his stomach. All the same, his heart pounded violently, while his mind turned over the questions he had no answers for.
In the confines of his car, with miles of his journey stretching before him, Arthur thought about the last year, the days and weeks he'd spent away from his family while he worked and tried to find a way out of a mess he knew was entirely of his own making. He'd been so wrapped up in his own stress, he'd pushed Guinevere away. He'd been so afraid of admitting his failure, he'd abandoned his wife and children, and now he was paying for his stupidity. What if his arrogance and selfishness cost Guinevere her life? The thought came from nowhere. What if his desire to give his wife the material things she'd never even said she wanted, cost him the most important thing, Guinevere's presence in his life and the love she showed him, even when he failed her over and over again?
Arthur's journey home seemed to take forever. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, with clear blue skies. Usually, even on the hardest days, he would try to get some pleasure out of the endless travelling he'd been doing for months, whether it was the scenery he got to see, or even the roadworks on the motorways not being quite as bad as he'd expected, but now, all he could think about was Guinevere, his mind creating darker and darker pictures of what could be wrong with her. That man, he wouldn't give him a name even in his own head, had said she was very ill. What was wrong with her?
Thinking back, the only time Arthur could remember Guinevere being really ill was after Gwydre died, when, without him even noticing because he was so wrapped up in his own grief, she detached herself from the world and had a breakdown. They'd spent months apart by then, their marriage had crumbled under the strain of their loss, and he hadn't seen Guinevere's condition coming. He thought she'd blamed him for Gwydre's death and turned her back on him, so he left her and went to stay with Gwaine and Leon, being stupid enough, he still ached with guilt to remember, to file for a divorce because he thought Guinevere no longer wanted him. He went home when her illness became obvious and she eventually recovered, but Arthur knew he would never forget those dark days when Guinevere seemed to shut the world out and needed everything done for her. Had he missed something now, he asked himself?
Eventually, after what seemed like days, the road signs in front of Arthur began to show how far away he was from Winchester. The thought simultaneously lifted him and filled him with dread. What would he see when he got to Guinevere? How bad was she? He had no idea. All Arthur knew was that whatever happened, whatever lay ahead, he needed to be with her. The thought made him press down on the accelerator harder, driving the car forward.
Half an hour later, Arthur was able to get off the motorway and drove for the centre of Winchester. His heart sped up, knowing he would soon have answers to all the questions in his head. In the distance, as he entered the city, he could see Winchester Cathedral, it's Gothic architecture standing out against the skyline, the long nave of the building, one of the longest of any cathedral in Europe, clearly visible in the sunshine of the early summer.
Just as he arrived in the city, it suddenly occurred to Arthur, he had no idea which hospital Guinevere was in. There were a few in the area she could have been taken to. Part of him wanted to call each one and ask if Guinevere had been admitted, but he knew the quickest thing to do would be to call that man and ask where Guinevere was, and as much as he didn't want to speak to that man again, he wanted to find Guinevere as quickly as possible. Pulling over into the first parking space he could find, Arthur turned off the engine and got out of the car to make the call. The last thing he needed, he thought, was to be delayed further by a policeman, determined to catch someone for using their mobile phone at the wheel, so he got out and stood in the space the open car door created. Reaching for his mobile phone, he dialled Guinevere's number and waited.
Swearing loudly when the call went unanswered the first time, Arthur tried again. "Hello, Gwen's phone, Arthur?" A breathless voice on the line finally answered.
"Where the hell were you?" Arthur snapped, his patience running low. "This is my second call, you didn't pick up the first time!"
Arthur heard a sound like someone trying to catch their breath. "Sorry," Lance spoke again. "I couldn't answer the phone in the Accident and Emergency department, I had to run outside and you rung off before I could answer."
Arthur rolled his eyes and inhaled deeply. "I'm in Winchester," he said, getting straight to the point, not wanting to talk to that man any longer than he needed to. "I just want to know where my wife is, you never said which hospital she was taken to." He told himself he couldn't help the accusation in his tone.
"She's in the General Hospital," Lance replied, his voice not giving away any sign of offence at Arthur's attitude. "But since I spoke to you, I've been told she's in theatre, she was taken down about an hour and a half ago, a nurse told me they're expecting her out of theatre soon."
Lance's voice cut through Arthur's thoughts of getting off the phone as quickly as possible. His breath caught in the back of his throat and he had to will himself to breath before he could find his voice. "Why...Why is she in theatre, what's wrong with her?" he demanded, his voice beginning to rise in panic.
"If I knew, I would tell you," Lance replied reasonably. "They won't tell me much because I'm not family, but I'm sure they'll tell you more, when you get here."
"I'll be there in a few minutes," Arthur said, and then he hung up and got back into his car.
Ten minutes later, Arthur drove into the car park of the General Hospital. This place held so many memories for him and Guinevere, he remembered. It was where they found out Gwydre was gone, it was where they'd seen the scans for Llacheu and Amhar when Guinevere was pregnant again. It was where they'd become parents again when Llacheu and Amhar were born. What would it have in store for them now, he wondered, his feelings of dread increasing.
Acknowledging another driver, who was just pulling out of a parking space, Arthur reversed into the space they'd just left and parked, turning the engine off again. The silence in the car was deafening now, all Arthur could hear was his own heartbeat and he closed his eyes for a moment to gather himself for whatever was coming. Opening his eyes after a few seconds, Arthur got out of his car and ran as quickly as he could towards the building in front of him.
Arthur was just about to walk through the main entrance to the Accident and Emergency department, when a voice stopped him in his tracks. "Arthur?" He knew immediately who it was, the man whose face had tortured his attempts to sleep for days.
Lance stood in the entrance to the hospital and walked towards Arthur. He instinctively stuck his hand out, attempting to shake hands with the other man, but withdrew it when Arthur stared at it blankly. "How was your journey?" he asked awkwardly, for want of something to say.
Arthur shook his head and fixed the dark haired man in front of him with a glare. "I'm not going to indulge in small talk with you, in fact, you can go now." He went to push past the other man, who halted him by grabbing his arm.
Arthur moved to give the other man a shove out of his way, but Lance held his ground and wouldn't be moved. He fixed Arthur with a steely expression. "Look Arthur," he kept his voice even and low. "I don't know what you think is going on between me and Gwen..."
"I don't want to hear about it, just leave us alone!' Arthur began to shake with suppressed fury and went to shove Lance out of the way again.
Lance went on holding his ground, undaunted by Arthur's anger. "You've got it wrong, you've got it all wrong. That woman in there," he pointed towards the hospital, "loves you, Arthur. She's devoted to you and your children."
Arthur stopped trying to shove Lance out of the way. "I said, I don't want to…." He made another effort to cut the other man off before he could say any more, but something silenced him.
Seeing he was beginning to get Arthur's attention, Lance went on. "The fact is, I do like her, I more than like her. I haven't known her long, but the fact is, I know I could love her if she'd let me, but she won't Arthur, because she loves you, she's completely wrapped up in you and those kids, so do yourself a favour, stop being so stupid and show her the love she deserves, because if you don't, I'm telling you, you'll regret it."
As he spoke, Lance held out his hand, offering Arthur Guinevere's mobile phone. Arthur took it, holding it tightly in his hand, as if it was a precious object. "Tell Gwen not to worry about her clients, Hunith will get them covered, and tell her I'll see her when she's back on her feet." With one last penetrating look at Arthur, Lance walked away, towards the hospital car park.
Arthur stood in the entrance to the hospital for a minute, thinking about what Lance had said. Had he got it wrong when he saw Guinevere and that man together? Guinevere had insisted he was a friend, nothing more than a friend, but he'd been so angry, so sick with jealousy, he'd refused to believe her.
Arthur thought back, trying to think of a time when Guinevere had ever lied to him, but he couldn't think of one, until, or so he'd thought, he saw her with that man in their garden and accused her of being unfaithful. He knew better than anyone, Guinevere took honesty seriously. He knew perfectly well, she would rather be told the truth, even if it was a truth that hurt, than be told a lie, and she lived her own life on the same principles. Guinevere was honest and wouldn't set out to hurt anyone deliberately, especially anyone she loved. Did she still love him, after all the pain he'd caused her over the last year? She'd told him so, when she found him crying one night over the mess he'd got them into, in the living room at home, weeks ago, but he'd been so wrapped up in his fears, he'd doubted her. The hurt in her eyes that night came back to him, the tears in her voice when she said the words again when he questioned her feelings.
In a moment, Arthur knew the truth. He had got it wrong. He'd seen Guinevere with that man and his own mind, twisted by jealousy and anger, had filled in the rest. How could he have ever doubted her? He had no idea now, but then, that day, the image of her with that man, combined with the fear of losing her he'd always tried to hide, had stopped him thinking clearly and he'd jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Remembering where he was, Arthur walked into the hospital, praying he would have the chance to put his mistakes right.
Arthur went to the reception desk in the Accident and Emergency department and took his turn in a short queue. The department seemed eerily quiet now, at this stage of the afternoon. Most of the chairs in the waiting area were empty, though a few staff lingered around. He suddenly found himself at the front of the queue and cleared his throat to speak. "Yes sir?" A cheerful looking blonde smiled brightly.
Arthur cleared his throat again. "I'm looking for my wife, she was brought in earlier as an emergency. I believe she's having surgery, Guinevere Pendragon?"
The young woman checked a computer on the desk in front of her and then nodded. "Yes sir, your wife came in this morning. She was taken for surgery as soon as possible. I'll call up to gynaecology and someone will come down and speak to you shortly, will you take a seat for a moment?"
"Gynaecology?" Arthur repeated, his eyes widening.
The young woman in front of him nodded. "Yes sir, if you'd just like to sit down, I'll make the call now."
His head spinning, Arthur backed away from the reception desk and almost fell into one of the plastic chairs in the waiting area. Gynaecology was something to do with having babies, wasn't it? He suddenly wished he'd listened more in biology at school, rather than sniggering with his mates when the class studied human reproduction.
Arthur had been waiting for a while when he was approached by a man in a white coat. He had grey, wiry hair and wore half-moon spectacles with silver frames, which shone under the artificial light of the department. "Mr. Pendragon?" The man asked, in a soft and reassuring tone. "I'm Mr. Louden, I was bleeped to Accident and Emergency when your wife was on the way into the hospital. I operated on her, I suppose you know, she was pregnant?"
Arthur's heart nearly jumped out of his chest and he gasped in shock. He shook his head. "No, no, I didn't know that." Then his mind latched on to something the man in front of him had said. His heart pounding in his ears, he asked the question. "You said she was pregnant, what...what did you mean, is she….?" He couldn't make himself say the words. Fear gripped him.
The doctor could see the colour drain from the face of the man he was speaking to. "Your wife will be fine," he said, sounding confident. Then his tone softened. "But I'm afraid she has experienced something called an ectopic pregnancy."
"A...what?" Arthur was struggling to think clearly. The only thing he had really taken in was the doctor saying Guinevere was going to be fine. Everything after that was a blur.
The doctor looked at Arthur, a solemn expression on his face. "An ectopic pregnancy, a pregnancy that develops outside the womb. In your wife's case, it had started to develop in one of her fallopian tubes, which, I'm sorry to say, ruptured. Your wife would have been in considerable pain for some time, and then, her fallopian tube ruptured, which led to her collapse today. When she was admitted she was very seriously ill, Mr. Pendragon, the paramedics who brought her in said her blood pressure crashed when they put her in the ambulance. They struggled to find a reading and had to stabilise her before she could be moved, which is no surprise to me, given that her internal bleeding was very bad." The doctor continued to speak, his tone steady and serious. "I believe a friend of your wife's called the paramedics today. You can take it from me, you probably owe him a very large drink. If he hadn't called the paramedics when he did, you would be about to visit your wife in the hospital's chapel of rest, but she got here just in time, thanks to him, so if you'll come with me, I'll take you up to see your wife now. We've put her in a side-ward, partly because we're so busy in the main ward, we just don't have any empty beds, but on the side-ward she'll also get more rest today, which she needs now. You should be aware, your wife has only been out of theatre a short time. She'll probably still be drowsy when you see her, but the anaesthetic will wear off soon, and then we'll make sure her pain relief is right, she'll be sore for some time yet."
"You're telling me my wife would have…?" Arthur found his voice again, but still wouldn't let himself say the word his mind turned away from with horror.
The doctor nodded. "Your wife would almost certainly have died, if she hadn't got here when she did."
"And….the baby?" Arthur dreaded the answer he sensed was coming.
The doctor shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid, in cases like this, the foetus can't be saved. I know it is no comfort to say it, but it would never have been a viable pregnancy. Your wife will need all the love and support you can give her, Mr. Pendragon. She will recover physically in the coming weeks, though a full recovery will take at least six weeks, she won't be able to drive for some time, or lift anything heavy. She won't be able to stand for long periods for a while, so she'll need looking after, but emotionally she will need even more support. Your wife will feel like she's lost a baby, she will need you to support her through the days and weeks ahead. Now, are you ready to see her?"
Swallowing hard, wondering how he would find the strength to give Guinevere the support she would need, but determined to try, Arthur nodded and followed the doctor towards the lift at the end of the department. It was time to see his wife.