Читать книгу Wildfire Island Docs - Алисон Робертс - Страница 15

HAD THEY BEEN going to kiss?

Surely not!

But Caroline was very relieved he’d pulled away, and hopefully without seeing her suddenly breathless state.

And if he hadn’t?

Would that surge of attraction have led to a kiss—right there on the front steps of the house?

Her heart ached for him after hearing the story of his return from school, his mother’s humiliation, and imagining the pain the pair must have suffered, leaving the place that had been their only true home.

Her first reaction had been numbness. After Bessie’s chance remark about no woman being safe around Ian, she’d imagined rape, but humiliating Helen as he had done had been emotionally so damaging. How impotent Keanu must have felt in the face of Ian’s callousness.

Of course she’d had to hug him!

But hugging Keanu had never felt like that before!

Hugging Keanu had never produced that kind of mayhem in her body. Not even Steve, who’d never failed to boast about what a great lover he was, had ever managed to evoke something like that.

Or was that unfair to Steve?

He hadn’t really boasted of his prowess, it was just the impression she’d got from his confidence, and the fact that other women had envied her the man who had wooed her with flowers, and gifts and promises of undying love.

Actually, now the hurt was gone and she could look back rationally, it had been the undying love thing that had got her in the end; the fact that this person had come into her life, vowing to be there for ever—to never let her down or abandon her. That last had been the clincher.

How stupid had she been?

A practised lover, he’d sniffed out the silly issues she had with abandonment—with the loss of so many people in her life and the distraction of others—and had worked on it!

Jilly had been right, she was well out of that relationship, and as the days had turned into months Caroline had realised that as well, glad the man she’d thought she loved had turned out to have not only feet of clay but whole legs of it!

And Keanu?

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply then decided she wouldn’t think about that right now. She had more important things to consider, the first being to find some way to pay the miners what they were owed.

She didn’t think it would go all the way to restoring the Lockhart name but those people had worked for her family—they deserved to be paid.

And they would be.

She’d phone Dad, talk to him about the mine closure and the problems Ian had left behind him on the island—the damage he had done to the Lockhart name.

Although could she add that much more worry to his already over-burdened shoulders?

An image of her twin rose up in front of her—Christopher’s crippled, twisted body, his lovely blue eyes gazing blankly towards her as she talked to him, the pigeon chest battling for every breath …

No, she couldn’t pull Dad away from Christopher, especially right now when he had been hospitalised again …

So it was up to her.

Or was she fooling herself?

‘Nurse Hettie phoned to say she expected you back at the hospital.’ Bessie appeared at the front door. ‘I told her you’re having a late lunch and will be down soon.’

Bother!

‘Thanks, Bessie, I’ll go right now.’

‘You’ll do no such thing. You come into the kitchen and have lunch.’

‘But Reuben gave Keanu and I fruit salad and cold juice. I don’t need lunch.’

‘You do need lunch!’

Realising it was futile to argue, she went into the kitchen to eat the gargantuan sandwich Bessie had prepared for her.

Footsteps on the veranda sent Bessie scurrying from the kitchen, and Caroline carefully wrapped the remainder of the sandwich and popped it into the fridge.

The deep voice she heard was definitely Keanu’s.

Her heart made a squiggly feeling in her chest as she hurried to the front veranda.

‘There was no need for you to come up, I just had to wash and put on a clean top—it was dusty down there.’

Keanu nodded, just that, a nod, the story he’d shared with her like a glass wall between them.

Or had it been the hug?

Whatever, he’d turned away and started back towards the hospital, pausing only to explain, ‘Hettie’s done two trips the last two days so she’s taking a break, but the patient with the Buruli ulcer needs the skin around it debrided and the wound cleaned, and Anahera has her hands full with the other patients.’

Other patients?

Caroline realised with a start how little she knew about the hospital and what was going on there. She was a nurse, and the patients should be her first concern, not worrying how to pay the money owed to the miners.

She followed Keanu down the path, ignoring the hitch in her breathing at the breadth of his shoulders and the way his hair curled against the nape of his neck, catching up with him to ask, ‘Do we use the treatment room where I first saw him or the operating theatre?

‘He doesn’t need a full anaesthetic, just locals around the wound, but the theatre is more sterile so we’ll do it there.’

Caught up in what lay ahead, Caroline set aside the disturbances Keanu’s presence was causing and concentrated on the case.

‘Are we using the theatre because the ulcer bacteria are easily transmitted?’

Keanu shook his head.

‘We’ve no idea how it’s transmitted, although the World Health Organization has teams of people in various places working on it. Using the theatre is a safeguard, nothing more.’

‘And debriding tissue?’

He turned to look at her as they reached the hospital.

‘Are you asking questions to prove your worth as a nurse or because you’re genuinely interested?’

The deliberate dig took her breath away but before she could get into a fierce, and probably very loud, argument with him, he added, ‘I’m sorry, that was unfair. I’m so damned mixed up right now.’

He sighed, dark eyes troubled, then touched her lightly on the shoulder.

‘The thing about Buruli is that it produces a toxin called mycolactone that destroys tissue. We have the patient on antibiotics but they are taking time to work, so we’re going to clean it up in the hope that we’ll kill off any myolactone spores.’

Caroline’s mind switched immediately to nurse mode. They’d need local anaesthesia, scalpels, dressings, dishes to take the affected skin to be disposed of in the incinerator.

And she had no idea where that was or, in fact, where any of the other things were kept. Instead of prowling around in the dark with Keanu last night, she should have been checking out the hospital.

She must have sighed, for Keanu said, ‘It’s okay, Mina will have everything set out for us.’

He was still reading her mind!

And, given some of the thoughts flashing through it, that could prove very dangerous—and downright embarrassing.

The ulcer was inflamed and looked incredibly painful, but the young man was stoic about it.

Keanu injected local anaesthetic into the tissue around the wound, then checked the equipment while he waited for it to take effect.

‘I want to keep as much of the skin intact as I can,’ Keanu said, speaking directly to her for the first time. ‘I’ll trim the edges and try to clean beneath it. I’ll need you to swab and use tweezers to clear the damaged bits as I cut.’

Caroline picked up a pair of forceps. The wound was long but reasonably narrow, and she could see what Keanu hoped to do. If he could clean out the wound he might be able to stretch the healthy skin enough to stitch it together.

‘If you stitch it up, would you leave a small drain in place?’

He glanced up from his delicate task of scraping and cutting and nodded. Seeing his eyes above the mask he was wearing made her heart jittery again.

This was ridiculous. She was a professional and any interaction between them, at least at the hospital, had to be just that—professional!

She selected another pair of forceps and lifted the skin towards which he was working.

He continued to cut, dropping some bits in one dish and some in a separate one.

Intrigued, she had to ask.

‘Why the two dishes?’

He glanced up at her with smiling eyes and any last remnants of hope about professionalism flew out the window—well, there was no window, but they disappeared. That smile re-awoke all the manifestations of attraction that she’d felt earlier, teasing along her nerves and activating all her senses.

‘I think I mentioned Sam’s a keen bacteriologist,’ Keanu was explaining while she told herself she was being ridiculous. ‘He’s never made Buruli a particular study but he’ll be interested to look at it under a microscope. The more people around the world peering at it the better chance we have of developing a defence against it. It’s not so bad here in the West Pacific but in some African and Asian nations when it’s not treated early it attacks the bone and causes deformities or even loss of limbs.’

‘I don’t want to lose my leg,’ their patient said firmly, and Keanu assured him that no such thing would happen.

‘We’ve got you onto the drugs early enough and once we clean it up you should be fine.’

Keanu was being professional—purely professional.

Until he looked up, caught her eye, and winked.

‘I think that’s it,’ he said, much to her relief. It had been an ‘I’m finished’ wink, nothing more.

Yet her reaction suggested that keeping things purely professional between herself and Keanu would prove impossible—from her side at least.

No way! She was stronger than that. And she had plenty to occupy her mind. The sooner she could get the back payments for the miners sorted out, and get the mine closed until it could be made safe, the better it would be for the hospital, and if she concentrated on that—

‘Okay, I’ll get Mina to do the dressing. I think we deserve a coffee.’

She glanced at the clock—they’d been standing over their patient for more than two hours and probably did deserve a coffee.

Well, she could do coffee …

Except he was smiling.

Possibly not.

‘What I need more than coffee is a tour of the hospital so I know where everything is and what patient is where. I’ll do the dressing then maybe Mina can show me around.’

Keanu could hardly argue, although he could alter the plan slightly.

‘Let’s stick with Mina doing the dressing and I’ll show you around instead.’

Caroline’s reaction wasn’t what you’d call ecstatic.

More resigned, if anything, but after being distracted by the telling of his mother’s distress and their departure from the island earlier, he was hoping to have a chat about the situation at the mine—to find out what she was thinking.

Because she was thinking of something she could do to help matters. He’d known her too long and too well not to have picked that up.

But he could hardly ask about it while touring the little hospital and introducing patients, so he’d have to find another time.

‘There are four wards, if you can call small two-bed spaces wards. Three on this side, with sliding doors that can close each of them off, although most of the time we leave it open for the breezes.’

He led her into the first of these, which, at the moment, had two patients, young men from another island who had taken the tide too lightly and had been injured when the boat they’d been in had overturned on the reef. ‘As you can see,’ Keanu pointed out, ‘one has a broken arm, the other an injured ankle, and both have quite bad coral grazes—’

‘Which can easily become infected if not treated promptly and continually.’

Keanu nodded. Anyone who grew up in the islands knew about infections from coral so he wasn’t going to give her any brownie points for that. But walking with her, talking with her—even professionally—was so distracting to his body he couldn’t help but resent her presence.

If she wasn’t here—

No, he was glad she was here.

She belonged here, just as he did. He just had to get over this physical attraction thing.

Be professional.

‘The patient in the third bed, in what’s technically another ward, you might recognise—Brenko, Bessie and Harold’s grandson. The flying surgeon took out his spleen last week after he’d had an accident on his quad bike. More muscle than sense, haven’t you?’

The young man grinned, and the patients, who had been quiet as Keanu had brought the stranger into the room, all began to talk at once.

Was she really Caroline Lockhart? How could any Lockhart show her face here? What was going to happen with the mine?

The questions, and the animosity behind some of them, must have hurt Caroline deeply because he heard her sigh with relief when he stopped the talk.

‘Caroline is here as a nurse, so if you don’t want her jabbing you with unnecessary needles, you’d better start treating her with respect. She’s spent more time in these islands than some of you have been alive and is not to blame for anything her uncle did.’

The anger that underlined Keanu’s words quietened the young men, then Brenko said, ‘I’m glad you’re back, Caroline. I still have the ukulele you gave me when I was little.’

Caroline smiled at the memory, but Keanu guessed that one happy memory wouldn’t make up for the animosity that had been thick in the air around her.

He led her through the next small room, this one closed off with the shutters. An elderly woman patient was sleeping soundly, although the young men’s voices could be heard quite clearly.

‘Unstable diabetic,’ Keanu murmured.

‘It’s the curse of all the Pacific islands,’ Caroline replied quietly, and he nodded, then, feeling the hurt he knew she would be nursing, he put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze.

She shot away as if he’d burned her, then must have realised her reaction had been a little extreme and moved close again.

But not close enough for hugs or squeezes, however sympathetic.

In the fourth room, a young woman was sitting up in bed, nursing her baby, Anahera standing by in case either of them needed a bit of help.

‘We don’t have a maternity ward because we transfer all pregnant women to the mainland at thirty-four to thirty-six weeks, depending on the advice of our flying obstetrician, but this little fellow arrived early,’ Keanu explained, smiling at the sight of the mother and child.

‘By rights he shouldn’t be here. His mum was to be going out on today’s flight,’ he continued. ‘But Hettie and the local midwife who delivered him suspect his dates were wrong. As you can see, he’s a good size and he’s feeding lustily.’

He turned to smile at Caroline.

‘In all truth, we love having him here—we’ve all gone a bit soft. Because the women and their babies usually fly in and go straight to their homes, we don’t get to see the babies except on clinic runs. Consequently, we’re happy to keep these two here just in case anything goes wrong. We’ve got them isolated in this room to keep them clear of any infection.’

‘Because you don’t know how Buruli ulcers are transmitted?’

‘Exactly.’

‘The lad with the ulcer will be transferred to the ICU across the passage, beyond the theatre, once Mina has finished dressing the wound. It’s next to the recovery room and ICU is probably a grand name for it but it’s got a ventilator and monitoring equipment in it. The lad doesn’t need it but it does keep him isolated.’

Caroline nodded her understanding.

‘We’re not finished, are we?’ she asked. ‘Don’t you have linen cupboards and drug cabinets and instruments and sterilisers and a million other things that a hospital, even a small one, needs? Where’s your radiography department, for a start?’

‘Through here,’ he said, moving into a separate wing. ‘The theatre you’ve already seen and all the sterilising stuff is in an annexe off that. Cupboards for sterile clothing, etcetera are also in the annexe, and there’s a shower and locker room next to that and beyond the theatre is Radiography.’

‘It’s well planned,’ Caro commented.

‘We’ve your father to thank for that,’ he said. ‘And him to thank for us having the best and latest in radiography machines. Money from the mine put in the basics—X-ray and ultrasound—and the Australian government donated a mammography machine, but he won a grant from one of the big casinos to put in a CT machine. He really does everything he can for the island and the hospital.’

‘The hospital and Christopher,’ Caro pointed out, and Keanu heard the catch in her voice. Did she think her father cared more for the hospital and his son than he did for his daughter?

Keanu remembered that as a child Caro had felt guilty about her mother’s death, and Christopher’s cerebral palsy, blaming herself for both problems, but there was no way Max would feel that.

‘That was bitchy!’ she said suddenly. ‘Both the hospital and Christopher need him far more than I do. And Dad has so much on his shoulders, the least I can do is understand that and do whatever I might be able to do to lift some of the burden.’

Keanu wanted to argue that she had every right to feel left out, but he wondered if Max’s avoidance of the island whenever possible was entirely to do with work and his disabled son, or was it that he was still haunted by his young wife’s death?

Would too many heartbreaking memories lay siege to him whenever he was here?

Caro was wandering around the equipment, checking it all.

‘So, what do you think?’ he asked, dragging his mind from the Lockhart family tragedies to the present.

‘It’s great equipment for a small hospital but, given the isolation, I’d say it’s all necessary. And I can see why Dad’s been working his butt off, not only for money to keep the place afloat but doing all the lobbying with business and government.’

The way she spoke told Keanu she saw little of her adored father, but as he watched she shrugged off whatever she was thinking and tugged at one of the curtains that screened off various sections of the room.

She poked her head out from behind the curtain and grinned cheekily, doing terrible things to Keanu’s heart, lungs, not to mention his determination to keep things professional between them.

‘We didn’t think of all of this when we decided to become the doctor and the nurse on Wildfire, did we?’

‘Didn’t know “all this” existed,’ Keanu reminded her, hoping he sounded more in control than he felt.

Trying to get her and the past out of his mind, he remembered the look on her face as they’d come back from the mine and his wanting to find out what she was up to.

‘The laundry cupboards and other stuff are closer to the kitchen and even if you don’t want a coffee, I do.’

She followed him obediently, said hello to the cook when he introduced them, then politely but adamantly refused to answer any questions.

‘To tell you the truth, Keanu, I have no idea what I can do to sort out all that’s happened at the mine, but I know I have to do something. The hospital needs a functioning mine, and the islands need the hospital, so we can’t just let it all fizzle out. Besides, it was a Lockhart who caused all the problems, so it’s up to me to at least try to do something to sort it out.’

But what?

The question bugged him, to the extent that he found himself, much later, when all was well in the hospital and Sam and Hettie both on call, walking up the hill, skirting the lagoon, to the house where he’d grown up.

They’d grown up.

He climbed the steps but once again hesitated on the veranda, reluctant to go in.

‘Caro?’

His call was tentative—pathetic, really.

‘If you want to see me you’ll have to come in,’ she yelled from somewhere inside, and he guessed from the direction of her voice that she’d be sitting at the big table in the dining room, pen and paper at hand, trawling through the information on the laptop.

Of course he could go in. It had been his home as much as hers, and although as a Lockhart she probably had more rights, his mother had run the place for years.

Until …

Then Caro was there, so much sympathy in her eyes he thought his heart might crack.

She put both arms around him and drew him close.

‘I know it must be dreadful, having to walk through here again, but I’m in the dining room, and you have to do it some time. Standing out here isn’t going to banish the memory, now, is it?’

Her hair touched his shoulder, soft as silk, and the woman smell of her filled his head with fantasy.

So much so, his arms returned her hug until it became more than a hug and they were kissing—gentle, exploratory kisses that nonetheless sent fire throughout his body and a throbbing need deep inside it.

Eventually—fortunately—she eased away.

‘Well, that was weird,’ she said lightly, before leading him firmly into the house.

But it was more than weird, it was dangerous. The attraction he was feeling was obviously mutual, but there were so many ifs and buts about it …

She’d led him into the dining room, and Keanu looked at the bits of paper scattered across the shining surface.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ he demanded.

‘I’m trying to work out exactly how much the workers are owed, and once I know that I’d like to know how much it costs to run the mine on a weekly or monthly basis.’

‘And then you’ll know how much you need to win on Lotto to fix everything up,’ Keanu finished for her.

She glared at him.

‘You may mock, but while it might be hard to find money for projects like this, it would be impossible if we don’t know what we need. If I can work out a kind of ballpark figure, we can take it from there—get some investors, speak to banks, big businesses, whatever. It might be beyond us whatever we do, but at least we’d know we tried.’

Keanu understood what she was saying and a tiny spark of light flickered in his brain. The seed of an idea he couldn’t yet grasp.

Kind of hard to grasp at glimmers of ideas in his head when most of it was occupied with telling his body that a sympathy kiss from Caroline meant nothing, and the fact that his body was attracted to hers was probably nothing more than their closeness in their childhood, and he was still married …

Probably.

Was she feeling the awkwardness too, that she suddenly bundled up all her bits of paper into a very rough pile and said, ‘The moon’s up, let’s go for a walk. I haven’t been down to the lagoon since I got back—there always seems to be something else to do.’

She made it sound like a peaceful stroll down to one of their favourite childhood places, but his body screamed at him to resist at all costs. The moon was not just up, it was full. The lagoon would be bathed in its soft glow, as would the woman with whom he was strolling.

But when had he ever been able to say no to Caro?

Once outside, in the light of the said moon, Caroline realised what a stupid idea it had been. Bad enough that she’d already been kissing Keanu, kissing him and wanting to keep kissing him. It was more than weird, it was scary.

But wonderful.

That thought filled her with a kind of awe …

And how was she going to cope with Keanu and moonlight, twin attractions, twin magic?

But she could hardly back off now, so she strode down the slightly overgrown path they’d used as children towards the end of the lagoon just above the small waterfall, where a large, flat rock only inches above the level of the water gave a wonderful view, not only of the entire lake but of the village beneath the plateau.

Keanu caught up with her as she reached the thicker rainforest that protected the waterhole, reaching out a hand to steady her as the track was rough. Roots and vines conspired to catch at their feet and they brushed against each other often.

Definitely not one of her better ideas.

The touch of his hand had been enough, but skin on skin contact, no matter how accidental, had made goose-bumps rise on her arms and neck as her nerve endings battled with the notion that this was Keanu—just a friend!

They reached the lagoon, and trod carefully around its rocky edge towards the small opening through which the water tumbled its way down a rocky path to the flat land below.

And there was their rock. Caroline hurried on, anxious to be there as if sitting in such a familiar place would protect her from all the unfamiliar reactions she was getting from being around her old friend.

But once he’d joined her she realised the rock had shrunk.

Ridiculous, they had grown, so now they sat, close together, feet flat, knees raised, hands looped around their legs.

Very close together!

And in spite of the moonlight, the lagoon looked dark and mysterious, the surface silvered, but with a sense of hidden depths lurking beneath that shining skin.

Hidden depths …

The man beside her would have those too, not deliberately hidden but ideas, emotions, even ethics and beliefs that developed with maturity so for all she thought she knew him, she really didn’t.

‘I have got one idea to get the money,’ she said tentatively, as the side of her body closest to Keanu heated towards fever level. ‘Do you remember Dad explaining to us—well, to me, I suppose, but I’m sure you were there—that my mother’s parents had left their house in Sydney jointly to Christopher and me? They’d also left most of their money, which was apparently considerable, in trust for Christopher and the interest on that pays for his full-time carers and the housekeeper and upkeep on the house.’

She leant forward so a curtain of hair saved her from looking at Keanu’s face. Studying it in the moonlight that picked out the strong bones of his cheeks and jaw, the straight line of his nose was just too distracting.

‘I vaguely remember, but is this story going somewhere?’ Keanu replied, moving slightly and tucking her protective curtain back behind her ears, presumably so he could see her face, for he’d turned to study her at the same time.

She felt the brush of his fingers as he moved her hair, could feel his eyes on her skin—soft eyes, gentle, understanding, like a caress …

‘Well, it might be—it could be a solution,’ she said, her voice wavering as her body reacted to his gaze, and realised just how stupid this was all going to sound. ‘I thought if I could borrow enough money by mortgaging my half of the house, we might just be able to get the mine working again and eventually there’d be money over and above what it pays to the hospital for me to repay the loan.’

He hesitated for a moment, then slipped his arm around her shoulders, as if preparing her for a hug when he disappointed her with his reply.

‘Caro …’ His voice was deep and husky and his arm tightened around her shoulders. ‘I know you said it was your first idea, but if you don’t mind my saying so, it isn’t the best idea you’ve ever had. What if we can’t get the mine going again, and the bank forecloses and Christopher loses his home?’

‘But surely they’d …’ Caroline protested, so flustered by Keanu’s touch she’d forgotten what she’d meant to say.

‘Only take half a house?’ Keanu finished for her, showing just how ridiculous the idea had been.

Had she looked so disappointed that Keanu used the arm around her shoulders to pull her closer? A comforting hug, nothing more, but given where her comforting hug to him had led earlier, she really should pull away.

Except it was comforting.

Too comforting …

For Keanu too, as he suddenly let his arm slip and got back to practicalities?

‘Now, as you were right about knowing a ballpark figure for the amount of money we need,’ he said, ‘let’s go back to your notes and see what we can come up with.’

He stood up, reaching down to help her to her feet, then keeping her hand in his, not exactly imprisoned because she knew she could pull hers out but firmly, as if he wanted it there.

Here she went again, feeling things between her and Keanu when in reality it was nothing more than their old friendship.

Back in the house, she made tea, and put out biscuits Bessie had cooked that day, carrying them through to the dining room where Keanu was already going through her figures.

Or would have been if he hadn’t been holding the old notebook she’d pulled out of her room to use the blank pages in it, running his fingers over the hearts and flowers she’d drawn on the cover—the hearts with the arrow running through them, linking her initials to his.

She snatched it out of his fingers.

‘It’s the first thing I could find to write on,’ she muttered. ‘But to get back to the mine, the closest I’ve got to a total is the wages owed and the full wages for running the mine—from figures back when Peter was here. I just need weekly or monthly running costs from Reuben and we’ll have some idea of what’s needed.

‘We can get them later,’ Keanu assured her, taking the book from her but flipping back to the cover of the book and smiling at her. The teasing warmth of that smile sent ripples of what felt very like desire downwards through her body.

‘I was ten, just look at the figures!’ she snapped, but he kept smiling.

Damn the man. It was just so much easier being near him when he wasn’t smiling.

But they stood up together, the air between them dense with tension.

In the end it was he who broke the spell, stepping back, so they stood, a foot apart, still looking into each other’s eyes.

Then Keanu smiled, and she regretted the foot of space between them, because right then there’d be nothing she’d have liked more than to be locked in his arms.

Locked in his arms?

As in romance?

‘You loved me when you were ten,’ he reminded her, before turning and walking quietly out of the room, down the hall, across the veranda and down the steps.

Gone …