“Just hold the tea towel there,” I said. “Okay, now let me look at—holy shit, there’s so much blood.”
“Just help me bandage it.”
“I think maybe Red Joe needs to look at it.” Red Joe wasn’t a doctor or anything, but he was in charge of the medical chest from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, so he was who we went to when an aspirin and a Band-Aid wouldn’t cut it.
“Natty.” Will gave me a narrow look, but there was something underneath it, something vulnerable, that made my stomach twist up. “I need you to help me stop the bleeding. Now.”
“Just...” I swallowed. “Just hold the tea towel there, okay? I’ll be back!”
“Fuck’s sake,” Will said through a growl. “Natty!”
But I was already out the kitchen door and halfway across the back yard. I scrambled over the sagging fence between our yard and Dominic’s. I didn’t need the moonlight to find my way through his yard; I knew it better than my own after all the hours I’d put in. I banged on Dominic’s back door.
He wasn’t in uniform when he answered it. And he didn’t say anything about the whole wanking thing either. He just took one look at my face and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Will,” I said. “My brother. He’s cut his hand, and it looks bad. Can you go up to the lighthouse and tell Red Joe we need him?”
“Is he conscious and breathing?” Dominic asked.
“Yeah. I think he’s okay? There’s a lot of blood though, and it won’t stop.”
“Okay,” Dominic said. And then, instead of running up to the lighthouse like he was supposed to do, he hurried towards the back fence instead.
Jesus. Nobody was doing what they were fucking told tonight, were they? I hurried after him.
“Hey,” he said to Will as he strode into our kitchen. “I’m Dominic, remember? Can I have a look?” And, over his shoulder to me: “Natty, grab some more tea towels or something, please.”
He sounded really calm. Maybe he’d seen more blood than I had. I mean, he probably had, in his job, right? Enough that he didn’t have to look away when he peeled the tea towel back and saw the blood still pumping out of Will’s hand.
“Right,” he said. “That looks pretty deep.” He held out his hand for a fresh tea towel and folded it. Put it on Will’s hand. “I need you to elevate it, and put as much pressure on that as you can, okay?”
Will nodded. He was even more pale than before.
“Natty,” Dominic said. “Come here and sit with him. You can help keep the pressure on.”
“Yeah, he’ll be good at that,” Will muttered, and Dominic’s mouth twitched. Will put his elbow on the table, holding the tea towel to his injured hand. I sat beside him and clasped his hand like we were about to an arm wrestle.
“Okay,” Dominic said, “You two sit tight, and I’ll be right back with Red Joe. Keep the pressure on, okay?” He said that last thing to me, and I nodded and he left.
A few moments later, I heard the splutter and roar of his dirt bike starting up, and then the sound fading as he sped away.
“How’d you do it?” I asked, because Will was blinking slowly, as though his eyelids were heavy, and I knew he had to stay awake.
“I don’...” His chin dropped to his chest before he jerked it up again. “I don’t fucking know. I jus’ slipped. Stupid.” He sounded tired. “Where’s Mum?”
“In bed.”
“Go and see if she’s asleep,” he said. “Don’t... don’t let her come in here.”
“Dominic said I had to stay with you.”
“Dominic.”
“Yeah, he has a fucking name, Will!” He tried to pull away from me, but I didn’t let him. “Mum won’t notice you’re hurt anyway.”
“Yeah.” He huffed out a shaky breath. “Course she bloody won’t.”
My stomach twisted again, and I bit the inside of my cheek. “That’s not fair.”
