I'M A DOCTOR, CHAPTER NINE
Rita came hurrying through to see what the trouble was.
"Oh Rita" moaned Connie, "It was – well, beyond belief. I know we see things in the ED but this guy never got as far as the ED, or whatever it's called in France!"
"I'll carry her to bed; I've got her already" Jacob offered.
"She doesn't want any of your rubbish" Rita snapped.
Connie began to scream hysterically; Tram Man was back. But this time apart from his grey face and general transparency, he didn't look too bad. Keira stalked behind him.
"Biffo's come to apologise to you" she said, prodding Biffo forward.
"I'm so sorry, Madam, I forgot to change before I left France" said Biffo humbly, "You'll not see me like that again."
Connie nodded weakly.
"Get her up to the bedroom; I'll take it from there" Rita ordered Jacob. He glared at her but was relieved that Connie's terror seemed to be fading.
Tess appeared, looking somewhat moist.
"I'll organise a nice sedative for her" she told Rita, then burst into tears as she saw Keira and Orlando hovering.
"Oh, my babies!"
Poor Tess would always grieve for the twins.
Connie managed to sleep through the night thanks to Tess's sedative. She had a little difficulty actually handing the glass over to Connie, but Rita helped, then slept in the same bed as Connie "in case she woke up screaming."
Lofty and Dylan sought comfort in each other's arms; they might not have seen Biffo at his worst but Connie's scream had disturbed them. Connie was anything but a screamer as a rule.
And Iain and Jacob bemoaned that fact that the prettiest ladies – well, in their opinions - in the ED had to be gay.
"Not that I'm giving up" Iain said cheerfully, "I bet little Rita's more playful than she looks."
Keira and Orlando didn't want to lose their new friendship with Lofty and Dylan so they waited until they were alone to try out their new song, about Connie and Biffo:
"She thought she would win, her last evening, got her head done in.
Mrs Clever-Tits saw poor Biff in bits, her last evening scared her into fits."
Jacob decided to go back to the ED after all as he knew he was on a loser with Connie at the moment. He left without breakfast and was about to climb over the gate when he pulled up, shocked.
The gate was twice as high as the previous night, as was the wall.
He decided to climb over, but retreated back inside the grounds after seeing the horrible sight.
Anybody managing to climb over the wall or gate would have been impaled by the evil-looking metal spikes coming up through the snow.
It looked as if nobody was going back to the ED any time soon.
"Harry Harper?" Lily was using the phone contact number she'd been given.
"Speaking."
"Mr Harper, you are the owner of Redmyres Grange, are you not?"
"I am, my dear. How may I help you?"
Lily bristled at being called 'My Dear'. Louise was 'earwigging' as much as possible without Connie catching her, and smirked. Lily had been throwing her tiny weight around all day and most of the evening. Louise was exhausted and resentful, but had made herself think of the patients.
"It seems the staff who accepted your challenge are marooned out at Redmyres. They have been there for four nights now, when three was the maximum required for them to win the money. Would it be correct to say they have now won the prize?"
"Oh, they'll get what they deserve, sweetheart, don't worry about that. When everything starts to thaw we can see how we all stand."
" My name is actually Doctor Chao. It is just that we are severely understaffed here, and wonder if you could help in any way to get them back to Holby? Say a couple of landrovers, something that can get through deep snow?"
"I tell you what, Doctor Chao, if you can all last out two more nights in the ED, I'll come over to see your colleagues at Redmyres the day after tomorrow when I'm back in the UK. I promise you they will be released then."
"Thank you Mr Harper."
Harry put down the phone and chuckled. He had no intention of giving away a single penny of his fat fortune. Who would he hand a cheque to, anyway, when, if he made sure everything went as planned the next evening, everybody within Redmyres Grange would either be dead or taken away to a psychiatric institution for murder? He raised a glass to Keira and Orlando and the trusting fools who thought he was in Barbados, and sat back to enjoy the Jeremy Kyle show. Harry loved conflict between friends or family.
It was actually a concerned Lofty who suggested to Dylan that Dervla, much as she'd resent it, had better be on her leash once she set foot outside the main door. She'd be climbing the wall and making a bid for freedom before they could stop her.
"Better her angry than my heart broken" replied Dylan, adding to Dervla:
"Come on, Pest. Back inside. It's for your own good."
Dervla whined. Lofty and Dylan felt like joining her.
It was as if the place was closing in on them.
"How are you coping, Robyn?" Cal asked kindly.
"It was scary last night, but I'm okay."
His arms went round her.
"We'll keep it that way. We've got a date with Spamalot, remember?"
She nodded, then a tear ran down her cheek.
"Do you think we'll get out of here alive?"
"Well, sweetheart, those ghosts are playful but they've not actually harmed us yet, apart from Taylorette whacking me the other day. And the snow can't last forever."
She buried her face in his chest and his arms went round her.
Maybe it was the entrance of Biffo the previous night that had brought it home to them how precious life was, but at that moment Robyn and Cal had only one goal in mind.
"Ethan's reading downstairs. Come on, love."
He guided her up the stairs.
Ethan came bounding upstairs. He had suddenly had a chilling thought – what if the food supplies ran out, and wanted to whine to Cal about it. He threw open the door and…
"Oh my God, Cal, Robyn, I'm so sorry!"
"We're not, are we, Robyn?" Cal grinned, nuzzling Robyn's neck.
Ethan crept away and decided to corner Jack instead.
"We don't have our phones to ring for take-aways or online groceries, and what if the food runs out?"
"Ethan, Ethan, Ethan. There's enough food in that fridge to feed an army, and even if it doesn't thaw for a week, we'll have enough to scoff. And if not…"
Jack heard footsteps and looked to see whose they were:
"…We can eat Lofty. You don't mind, do you, mate?"
Lofty gave him a tired smile. He was trying to make the best of a bad situation but Harry Harper wasn't due back from Barbados for two more days.
Lily had been racking her brains all day. Something didn't add up about the Harry Harper situation but she didn't know what.
She suddenly realised and shouted aloud, which did nothing for the lady to whom she was giving an injection.
That number that she'd called on was not a foreign number. What the hell was Harper playing at?