“I know. He really is smart.”
“If you say so,” he teased, ruffling her already-tousled hair.
“Aw, Dad. You know he—”
A muffled shriek and a heavy thump from another part of the house interrupted Alice’s words. Seth set the tea glass down so abruptly that liquid splashed on the counter, but he didn’t linger to clean it up. He dashed out of the kitchen toward the foyer stairway.
His heart almost stopped in response to the sight that greeted him there.
Nina lay at the bottom of the stairs, one leg twisted horribly beneath her, her face ashen and damp with the tears streaming from her eyes. “Oh, Seth, I—”
“Don’t try to talk,” he urged, kneeling beside her and taking her hand. He didn’t want to move away from her even long enough to grab a phone. “Alice, call 9-1-1.”
Looking shaken, his daughter dashed for the closest telephone. Alice had been trained from an early age how to make emergency calls for help, Seth reminded himself, folding both his hands around Nina’s icy one.
“I fell,” Nina explained unnecessarily through trembling lips, her voice a choked, pain-ridden whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
He couldn’t imagine why she was apologizing. He hoped she wasn’t going into shock. Frustrated by his sense of almost overwhelming helplessness, he tried to keep his voice calm and soothing. “Just lie still, Nina. Alice is calling an ambulance. We’re going to take very good care of you, you hear?”
She closed her eyes. Her hand was so cold and limp in his that it scared him for a minute, but he could hear her ragged breathing. She looked so uncomfortable in the twisted position, but he was terrified to try to move her. What if she had a spinal injury or something? He had very little experience with emergency first aid.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Alice reported breathlessly when she returned, her young face bleached of color. “Is she going to be okay, Daddy?”
“She’ll be fine,” he said firmly, hoping to reassure Alice and Nina—and himself, as well.
Nina groaned softly without opening her eyes. He wasn’t even sure she’d heard him.
The doorbell rang only a couple of minutes later. It seemed too soon for the ambulance to have arrived, he thought with a frown. Nor had he heard a siren.
Alice rushed to open the door. “Meagan,” Seth heard her say, to his surprise. “Nina’s over here, at the foot of the stairs.”
He felt the frown he was already wearing deepen. Alice had called Meagan? He wasn’t sure why. They needed paramedics, not a friendly neighbor.
Looking more composed than any of them, Meagan knelt at Nina’s other side, giving Seth a little nod of greeting as she did so. Leaning over the housekeeper, she spoke quietly, her voice reassuringly steady. “Nina? Can you hear me?”
Her eyes still closed, Nina whispered, “Yes.”
Doing a quick visual assessment of the housekeeper’s position, Meagan asked, “Will you open your eyes for me?”
Maybe Meagan had dealt with this sort of thing before, Seth thought, finding some measure of comfort in her composure. She seemed to have some idea of what she was doing—which was more than he could say for himself.
“I hurt.” Nina’s broken whimper was heartbreaking. Seth squeezed her hand gently again, wanting to remind her that he was there for her.
Though her expression held sympathy, Meagan continued to speak firmly. “I know you do, but I’d like you to open your eyes for just a minute. Did you hit your head?”
Her face pinched and dazed, Nina responded to the resolute tone. Still clinging to Seth, she squinted up at Meagan. “I—I don’t think so. My leg.”
Meagan held Nina’s other wrist now, her fingers placed purposefully on the older woman’s pulse. Definitely knew what she was doing, Seth concluded, rapidly adjusting his previous impressions of her. For some reason he couldn’t explain, he’d thought of her as an office worker at the hospital. Now he guessed RN. It seemed odd now that they’d never talked about her work.
“Yes, I can see you’ve broken your right leg.” Meagan ran a hand lightly down Nina’s side and hip, her fingertips skimming the twisted leg through the fabric stretched over it. “Lie very still and I’ll try to ease you into a little more comfortable position while we wait for the ambulance, okay? I don’t want to move you much, but it must hurt twisted under you this way.”
“Uh—should you move her at all?” Seth asked in concern. “I mean—”
Meagan gave him a rather quizzical look, but replied lightly, “I’m only going to shift her position a very little. It will take some of the pressure off her hip and knee and maybe ease her discomfort a little. Let her keep holding your hand. Do you understand, Nina? Squeeze Seth’s hand if you need to. I don’t want you to try to move at all, just let me make the adjustments. Tell me if I do anything at all that causes you more pain.”
Biting back another protest, Seth watched as Meagan carefully and competently eased the older woman into a somewhat less twisted position. And then he blinked in bemusement when she drew a stethoscope out of the canvas bag she’d set on the floor when she’d knelt down. He’d thought it was a purse.
“Does your blood pressure normally run high, Nina?”