A Courageous Doctor

by Alison Roberts

  ‘Oh…’ A tiny smile plucked at the corners of Maggie’s mouth and then grew. ‘That’s an easy problem to solve.’

  ‘Is it?’ Hugo was aware of an odd feeling. As though the air around them was crackling with something. A tension that was escalating with astonishing speed.

  ‘Mmm.’ Maggie’s smile faded to leave her looking more serious than Hugo had ever seen her look out of a professional setting. ‘I want you to feel that way, Hugh,’ she said very softly. ‘I want you to very much. I’m in love with you as well. I always have been.’

  Hugo could reach out and touch her now. He wanted nothing more than to bury his fingers amongst those auburn spirals and tilt Maggie’s head so that he could touch her lips with his own. And she wanted him to. He could feel it. That crackle in the air was desire and it couldn’t be anything like that powerful if he was the only one contributing to it. Keeping his hands still was the hardest thing Hugo had done for a long, long time.

  ‘I don’t want it to spoil anything,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to lose what we already have, Maggie. That feeling of family.’ It was a small word but it encompassed so much. Emotional safety. Acceptance. A bond that could never be broken.

  ‘We can’t lose that,’ Maggie said. ‘It’s part of who we are, Hugh. Becoming lovers would just give us so much more.’

  Lovers. Even the sound of the word was thrilling but Hugo couldn’t let himself think of how much more thrilling it would be to take the next step. Not just yet.

  ‘I don’t want to hold you back, Maggie. To tone you down. You’d hate that.’

  ‘And I don’t want to drive you crazy by being too outrageous.’ Maggie smiled. ‘Maybe we can learn to find some middle ground.’

  ‘You mean, you dream up the wild ideas and I’ll be boring and sensible and tell you when they won’t work?’

  ‘Mmm.’ Maggie had that gleam in her eyes that Hugo loved so much. Pure mischief. ‘Like, I could suggest that you kiss me. Right here. Right now.’

  ‘And I could say that would be very unprofessional and we should wait until later.’

  The eye contact wasn’t broken even by a blink. And the movement from them both was simultaneous. And then Hugo’s fingers were in Maggie’s wonderful hair, brushing the exquisitely soft nape of her neck, and Maggie’s hands were reaching up over his shoulders. Their lips met gently. Briefly. Once and then again. They drew apart just far enough to read the other’s expression and then a kiss began like no kiss had ever existed before.

  Not gentle.

  And definitely not brief.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE imprint of that kiss would be there for ever.

  Wonderingly, Maggie touched her lips as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror the next morning. The memory of the kiss sent a thrill cascading through her entire body, strong enough to make her catch her breath in a faint gasp. Their first deliberately sexual contact had been all that Maggie had ever imagined it could be. And more.

  And it had been simply a kiss. Some time soon, maybe even today, they could explore this new relationship further but Maggie was happy to revel in the excitement of the sexual tension without tarnishing it with any desperate timetable for consummation. That would come, as inevitably as it now felt for Maggie and Hugo to have come together as man and woman. The ‘rightness’ of it all was so powerful, it filled Maggie with a strange but wonderful sense of peace.

  She loved Hugo. Always had. Always would. She loved his intelligence, his humour and even his inclination to be so sensible. He was rock solid. He had always been there to protect and guide her and to pick up any pieces when things went wrong. She had shared him in that capacity with Felicity but now he would be there just for her. The love that underpinned that protection would be very different, however. Stronger. And so much more exciting.

  Felicity would have approved. Maggie could almost see her now with her dark brown eyes, so like Hugo’s, gleaming with reflected mischief as they planned yet another stunt that would annoy and possibly amuse her older brother. Maggie was smiling as she finished combing her styling product through her damp curls. She would probably still annoy Hugo at frequent intervals but she knew she could still amuse him as well. She could also goad him into being more adventurous and finding more fun in life. He wouldn’t be wearing a suit to the next fancy-dress party they went to, that was for sure.

  Above all, Maggie could love Hugo the way he deserved to be loved. Maggie had no doubt whatsoever that they would be together for the rest of their lives. They would have children and dogs and live by the lake amongst the mountains in an area she had come to love as much as Hugo did. Maggie stroked a little mascara onto her eyelashes. How many children would Hugo want? Maybe they would need a bigger house than the shearers’ quarters had become. And maybe they should live closer to Queenstown so that the children would be close to the stimulation of the town centre and its colourful, international flavour.

  The knock on the bathroom door startled Maggie out of her daydream.

  ‘You finished yet?’ It was Sven. ‘Lisa needs a shower before she goes to work.’

  ‘I’m done.’ Maggie left the relative privacy of the tiny bathroom and went to make herself a coffee.

  ‘You slept in,’ Jason observed. ‘That’s not like you, Maggie.’

  ‘I was tired,’ Maggie told him.

  ‘Did we keep you awake last night after we got home?’ Jason was grinning. ‘Erin’s new boyfriend, Micky, is a bit noisy, isn’t he? You should have seen him at the club.’

  ‘I didn’t mind,’ Maggie said. ‘I wasn’t asleep anyway.’ It was true. Thanks to reliving that kiss and savouring the pure happiness of the permission it had bestowed to imagine a whole new future, Maggie had been wide awake until about four a.m. She had fallen asleep finally and deeply to find it was almost nine when she’d opened her eyes. Having taken her time showering and dressing, Maggie was now ready to start what promised to be the most exciting day of her life.

  ‘We’re all going out this afternoon,’ Jason told her. ‘Erin and Micky want to try the Shotover jet-boat ride. Do you want to come?’

  ‘I’m going to visit Hugh,’ Maggie tried to keep her tone casual. ‘We’ll probably take the dogs for a walk.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Jason raised an eyebrow. ‘Exciting.’

  Maggie grinned. A quiet walk with Hugo and the dogs sounded like a perfectly exciting way to spend a Saturday afternoon as far as she was concerned. They could go over the hills and along the beach and maybe sit for while throwing sticks for Seth and skimming flat stones on the lake surface. OK, so it wasn’t particularly adventurous but it had an appeal that made Maggie realise she wouldn’t want to live anywhere else even if she and Hugo had half a dozen children. The setting was like Hugo. Solid. Safe. It was home.

  ‘Why don’t you bring him along for the ride? I’ll bet it’s a while since he had an adrenaline rush like that. Doc Patterson needs a bit of excitement in his life, I reckon.’

  ‘You could be right.’ Maggie sipped her coffee and avoided meeting Jason’s gaze. What was happening between her and Hugo was private for now. She didn’t want her colleague to guess the kind of excitement she was planning for Dr Patterson in the very near future. She hid her smile. ‘I’ll see what he feels like doing.’

  ‘Cool. We’re going to go out for dinner afterwards and then back to the club where Lisa works. They’ve got a live band tonight.’

  Maggie finished her coffee and rinsed out the mug. The idea of being in a crowd was totally unappealing. This was going to be their day. Hers and Hugo’s. She didn’t want the company of anyone else and hopefully nobody else would need Hugo’s. When she drove past the hospital on her way around the lake thirty minutes later, Maggie was pleased to see that Hugo’s Jeep was not in the car park. That was a good start. Hugo hadn’t rung to suggest any changes to the arrangement they had made last night either so Maggie assumed that things at the hospital were under control.

  Hugo confirmed that this was the
case as soon as Maggie had finished returning the ecstatic greeting the dogs bestowed on her. ‘Lucy’s doing fine. It turned out to be a urinary tract infection but it was well covered by the medication we’d already started. By the time I left the hospital at two a.m. she was showing a good response to the antibiotics. Her temperature’s well down this morning and she’s feeding well. We’ll keep her in for another day and repeat some blood tests, but I’m quite happy to leave her for a while.’ Hugo was smiling. ‘I’m free to do whatever you want.’

  The wash of excitement caused by the expression in Hugo’s dark eyes was followed, unexpectedly, by a peculiar sensation of anxiety. What was going to happen between them might be inevitable and absolutely right but it was still a huge step into unknown territory. For the first time in her life, Maggie felt acutely shy. She had to look away from Hugo and clear her throat to help her find her voice.

  ‘I…I thought a walk with the dogs would be nice.’

  ‘They’ve had a walk,’ Hugo said. His voice sounded a little odd and Maggie wondered if her unease had been contagious. ‘I thought you might like to do something a bit more exciting. Away from home. And then…’ It was Hugo’s turn to clear his throat now. ‘Then we could come back here and cook some dinner. I’ve got a nice bottle of wine and…’

  And they both knew what would happen after dinner. In front of a roaring fire, maybe, or in the longed-for haven of Hugo’s bed. It hung between them. A tension that was delicious but nerve-racking. They couldn’t just take that step now, in broad daylight, but it was hard to think of doing anything else. Maggie caught Hugo’s gaze and knew that he was feeling just as keyed up as she was. Maybe more. Was he nervous that he wasn’t going to be exciting enough company for her? Was that why he was suggesting an adventure of some kind?

  It was a perfect solution. They needed some time with each other to get used to the idea of taking that step into complete intimacy. And the offer Hugo was making here was important as well. He was offering something adventurous. Possibly even bungy-jumping or jet-boating through the terrifying rapids the Shotover River presented. Something he might not be prepared to do for anyone else. And Maggie loved him for it.

  ‘What would you like to do?’ Maggie couldn’t help teasing. ‘Bungy-jumping?’

  Hugo kept his expression under commendable control. ‘If that’s what you’d really like to do.’

  Maggie grinned. ‘No. I was just testing to see how far you’d go as far as excitement went. What about the Shotover jet?’

  ‘Sounds fun.’

  ‘Jason and Erin and some others from the flat are doing that this afternoon. We could join the party.’

  ‘Do you want to?’

  Maggie’s expression stilled. ‘No. I’d rather be just with you, Hugh.’

  Hugo’s face visibly relaxed. ‘I’d like that, too. Let’s make some sandwiches for a picnic lunch and go somewhere just by ourselves. A drive, maybe.’

  ‘We could do the Skippers Canyon,’ Maggie suggested. ‘That would keep us busy till dinnertime and I’ve been hanging out for the snow to melt enough to do that.’

  ‘OK,’ Hugo agreed readily. ‘Do you know what time the trips leave?’

  ‘I thought you wanted us to be by ourselves. We can drive it.’

  ‘But…’ Hugo collected himself. Sure, it might be safer to take a dangerous road in vehicles chosen to cope with the conditions and drivers who did it every day, but suggesting such a course would be sensible and…boring. Plenty of people made the spectacular journey in their own vehicles even though rental companies specifically excluded the road on their insurance policies. ‘But you’d better drive,’ Hugo said instead. ‘You’ve had a bit more experience than me.’ He grinned. ‘As long as there’s no siren going, I’m sure you’ll behave yourself.’

  ‘Sure. We’ll take your Jeep,’ Maggie decided. ‘It’ll be as safe as houses.’

  But the Jeep wasn’t going anywhere. Hugo had neglected to shut the door properly when he’d arrived home in the early hours of the morning and the interior light had drained the battery.

  ‘I haven’t got jumper leads, damn it.’

  ‘Neither have I.’ Maggie watched Hugo climb out of the Jeep. It had been such a wonderful plan, too. Exciting enough to let Hugo know that she appreciated his effort to be adventurous and long enough to fill in all those hours until daylight faded.

  ‘We’ll have to take your car.’

  Maggie blinked. Was Hugo prepared to take on one of the world’s more dangerous roads in her little hatchback? With her driving? That demonstrated a level of trust that almost brought a lump to Maggie’s throat. ‘Would you want to do that?’

  ‘Sure. Why not?’

  Maggie beamed. ‘I love you, Hugh. Let’s do it, then.’

  Hugo had taken his guide book of the area with him and Maggie had to smile at his determination to get as much as possible out of his adventurous afternoon.

  ‘They finished making this road in 1888,’ he informed her as they left the road that led to Coronet Peak well behind. ‘We’ll get to Pincher’s Bluff soon and that was the hardest part to build.’

  ‘Was it named that because it was a pinch to get through?’

  ‘No. Pincher was the name of the road contractor.’

  ‘We’ll see if we can find a place to stop and have a look at it.’ Maggie was concentrating on the single-laned, shingle road that wound into the canyon. The road was tortuous and the drop into the base of the canyon frighteningly steep. It was a little too close to the edge of the road for comfort at times and snow lay in drifts that obscured the edge in places, but there was plenty of room for Maggie’s little car and the weather was gloriously fine, so there was no need to worry that the conditions would get worse.

  ‘It took Pincher’s gang two years to do a section just under three hundred metres long.’ Was Hugo reading his book to avoid the view into the canyon’s base? It was on his side of the car going in this direction. ‘They had to lower gang members on ropes to chip away at the rock with chisels and hammers. Then they’d put some dynamite in the holes. They had to be really careful with the size of the explosions so they didn’t blow up the part of the rock they needed for the road as well as what was on top.’

  Maggie was quite happy to soak in the history as they wound their way to the end of the fifteen-kilometre road. They stopped to look at water-races and sluices left behind by the gold-miners.

  ‘The Shotover River was dubbed the richest river in the world,’ Hugo told her.

  They stopped to stare in awe at the Skippers suspension bridge and the incongruity of finding such an engineering triumph at the back of beyond, and they took time to admire the restored Mount Aurum schoolhouse and homestead where they stopped for a leisurely picnic lunch. Finally they walked quietly around a tiny cemetery hand in hand and stopped to look at a gravestone with a few Chinese characters marking the final resting place of a gold-miner.

  ‘I wish we had the Jeep,’ Maggie said. ‘We could have gone right up the Skippers Creek to Bullendale.’

  ‘We’ll do that another day. It would be a good walk but it takes about two hours and it would be dark by the time we got back.’ Hugo raised an eyebrow. ‘Even with your expert driving I don’t fancy that road in the dark.’

  ‘Fair enough. I don’t fancy it in icy weather either and the temperature’s starting to drop. Shall we head home?’

  ‘Let’s,’ Hugo agreed. He was still holding Maggie’s hand and he gave it a slow squeeze. ‘Don’t know about you but I’m starving.’

  Maggie caught the communication both from Hugo’s hand and the look in his eyes and she had to swallow hard. Hugo wasn’t talking about food.

  ‘Me, too,’ she said softly. ‘Let’s go.’

  Was it the thought of what awaited them when they reached home that made Maggie drive a little more quickly on the return trip? Maybe she was just distracted by Hugo’s proximity and the fact that his hand was resting on her left knee. Or maybe it was the underpo
wered engine of her car that needed such a percentage of its acceleration capacity to get up a particularly steep section of the road that kept Maggie’s foot pressing firmly on the pedal. It was just reaching its peak as they got to the top of the slope. The road dropped away again and they were suddenly going too fast for the automatic transmission of the engine to help with braking.

  The left wheels of the small hatchback snagged the edge of a snowdrift and Maggie felt the control of the steering wrenched from her hands as she tried to brake and steer for the solid side of the road. The car slewed and spun and then Maggie knew there was no hope. The front wheels left the road and the belly of the car ground against gravel and rock as they headed for a dive towards the dizzying drop that led to the river snaking so far below.

  It all happened too fast to feel terrified. Too fast for any kind of reaction. So Maggie had no idea how she’d managed to find and grip Hugo’s hand so tightly. Her eyes were screwed shut just as tightly. At least they were going together. And it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Maggie would have expected a drop like this to be gut-wrenching, the awareness of gathering momentum overwhelming.

  ‘Maggie. Open your eyes, darling.’ Hugo’s voice sounded oddly calm.

  Maggie forced her eyes to obey but she could make no sense of what she was seeing. She turned her head and then felt the movement. A rocking that was anything but soothing.

  ‘Don’t move,’ Hugo said softly. ‘Not even a muscle.’ He gripped her hand so hard Maggie felt her knuckles crack. ‘We’re caught on the edge. I think we’re stable for the moment but we need to be very careful here.’