Page 61 of Escape for Christmas
‘God knows,’ Brody muttered. ‘Could be a local farmer or someone in the village, I suppose – though why they haven’t phoned, I’m not sure.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You’re not going out in this weather?’
‘If I can help, of course I will. I have to see who it is and what they want.’ He left her and jogged downstairs. ‘Harold! Quiet!’
Harold gave a final woof before lying down in front of the door, ready to repel intruders. The door almost shook with the force of the banging and a familiar voice was shouting, but surely it couldn’t be …
‘Brody! Open up! Brody!’
‘Coming.’ He opened the door to find Sophie standing in the porch, a coat clutched around her and her hair dripping with wet snow. She blinked in the light from the porch.
‘Sophie? What’s the matter?’
‘I need you. Urgently.’
‘Is there something wrong with the cats?’
‘No! It’s one of the guests. She’s gone into labour and we need your help now!’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘Come in,’ Brody said as Sophie stumbled inside Felltop on wobbly legs, clearly shaken by what was happening. She’d run to the farm – as much as anyone could run through deep snow – slipping several times and actually falling into a drift at one point.
Brody put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Take a breath,’ he said calmly. ‘And tell me exactly what’s happened.’
‘It’s not happened. It’s happening right now! A family was stuck in the snow, so I took them in. The woman’s thirty-eight weeks pregnant and now she’s in labour. We’ve tried calling for an ambulance, but they say they can’t get through.’
Maybe coming here to ask for help was a mistake, but Sophie felt like it was her only option. Suddenly she realised that all the lights were on in the farmhouse
‘What about the coastguard helicopter?’ he asked. ‘The emergency services should ask them.’
‘They say they’ll try to get someone to us, but it could be hours. And I don’t think Anna’s baby is going to wait that long. Can you do anything?’
‘I …’ For a horrible moment, Sophie thought Brody was going to say it was nothing to do with him. Then he nodded firmly. ‘Of course, I’ll do my very best to help.’
‘There’s something else,’ she said. ‘There’s a power cut at Sunnyside. I thought it was everyone in the area, but how come all your normal lights are on?’
‘A power cut at Sunnyside?’ He grimaced and Sophie realised he was more worried than he was letting on. ‘I’ve got a diesel generator as back-up. It comes on automatically if there’s a power cut. I noticed the lights flicker, but didn’t think anything because I was – busy,’ he said. ‘Are you sure the power’s completely off and it isn’t the fuses?’
‘I’ve checked,’ Sophie replied tersely.
‘OK,’ he soothed. ‘I only wanted to make sure, because we’re going to need all the light we can get. In the circumstances,’ he added.
‘Don’t I know it!’ Sophie yelled, then said, ‘Sorry, this is – a bit overwhelming. We do have low-level emergency lighting that kicked in after the power went off. But it’s only meant to help guide guests out of the building, in case they need to be evacuated. And it only stays on for three hours.’
‘I’m sure the emergency services will be here before then,’ Brody said.
Sophie wished she shared his confidence. ‘I hope so, but … what if the baby’s born and something goes wrong?’
‘I doubt it will come to that. You said Anna was part of a family, so I’m assuming she has other children?’
‘Two,’ Sophie confirmed.
‘And do you know if she’s had any complications with the previous births?’
‘Not as far as I know. In fact her husband, Pete, said the others had arrived pretty quickly.’
Brody let out a short breath. ‘That’s something, but I can also see the urgency. Let me fetch my kit and I’ll walk back with you.’ He stopped, asking her, ‘I don’t suppose the family had a birth pack with them?’
