The Stranger's Secret

by Maggie Kingsley

  ‘The best?’ she repeated blankly.

  ‘I’m leaving on Saturday afternoon. Not just the practice, this house. I’m leaving the island. I’ve bought a ticket for the four o’clock ferry.’

  ‘But you don’t have to go,’ she said, horribly aware that she sounded as though she was begging but quite unable to stop herself. ‘You’ve leased Sorley’s cottage for three months—’

  ‘There’s no point in me staying longer!’ he flared, only to groan inwardly when he saw her flinch. He’d meant simply that he didn’t want to prolong the pain of the inevitable parting, but perhaps it was better if she misunderstood. ‘Jess…Jess, I like you a lot.’ Hell, that had to be the biggest understatement of the year, but to tell her he loved her, then walk away… ‘I can’t stay here. Greensay—it’s not for me.’

  ‘I see,’ she said, her voice empty of all emotion.

  ‘Jess—’

  ‘You’d better go. Fred will be getting anxious.’

  He nodded and strode to the door, but when he turned and glanced over his shoulder she was still standing in the centre of the room, and he knew the memory of her white, stricken face was going to haunt him for ever.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘WOWEE, I thought he was one good-looking man with his beard, but without it…’ Cath’s eyes followed Ezra appreciatively as strode off in the direction of his consulting room with Mrs Cuthbert. ‘Like I said, wowee!’

  ‘I preferred him with it,’ Tracy said critically. ‘I thought it made him look more romantic, mysterious.’

  ‘Yes, but I bet it was hell of a scratchy when he kissed you.’ Cath chuckled. ‘I wonder what made him decide to shave it off?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ Jess replied, suddenly realising that both women were gazing at her expectantly. ‘Perhaps it was his idea of a farewell gesture to Greensay.’

  A frown creased Cath’s forehead as Tracy bustled off to answer the phone. ‘He’s still leaving, then?’

  ‘Of course. Dr Walton’s arriving on Saturday afternoon so there’s no need for him to stay on. Look, Cath, he’s got every right to cut short his holiday if he wants to,’ she added quickly when Cath said nothing. ‘Just because he took Sorley McBain’s holiday cottage for three months, it doesn’t mean he has to stay for three months!’

  ‘Did I say anything?’ the receptionist protested. ‘Did I?’

  She didn’t need to, Jess thought miserably as the postman shouldered open the surgery door and Cath hurried forward to relieve him of his pile of letters and circulars. The sympathy in her receptionist’s eyes had been all too obvious, and the last thing she wanted was sympathy. Not when she was already so deeply embarrassed that she just wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there until Ezra left.

  ‘I like you,’ he’d said last night. ‘There’s no point in me staying longer,’ he’d said, and not even her suggestion of a brief affair—oh, how it made her cringe now just to remember it—had been enough to tempt him.

  If only today was Saturday instead of Wednesday. How was she going to get through the next few days when breakfast this morning had been a nightmare of stilted conversation and hastily averted glances, and the journey down to the surgery in his car had been worse?

  They’d talked about the weather. OK, so it was a dreadful morning—the wind coming in great gusts across the sea, sending huge waves crashing against the harbour wall—but the weather? Last night they would have made love if Fred hadn’t phoned, and now they were both so deeply embarrassed they were reduced to talking about the weather.

  ‘Jess, it’s the infirmary,’ Tracy said, cradling the phone against her chest. ‘Colin McPhail didn’t turn up for his appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon yesterday, and they want to know if he still wants to discuss a possible hip replacement op.’

  Jess sighed. She’d warned Ezra that Colin wouldn’t go, but he hadn’t listened. She supposed she’d better check with him, ask if he wanted to have another shot at persuading Colin…Except, of course, that he wouldn’t. He was leaving. Why, oh, why did she seem to have such difficulty in remembering he was leaving?

  ‘Ask them to make him another appointment,’ she said with an effort, reaching for her next patient’s file, only to pause as her eye fell on the one on top of Ezra’s pile. ‘Tracy, you’ve got Denise Fullarton’s folder out.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘But Denise is having home visits at the moment—’

  ‘Not this morning I’m not.’

  Jess gasped as she turned and saw Denise Fullarton smiling at her. ‘Denise, are you bleeding, feeling ill?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she interrupted. ‘It’s just…You see, I’m going to be twelve weeks pregnant on Sunday, and Dr Dunbar is leaving on Saturday, and I want him to put the stitch in my cervix before he goes.’

  Denise’s husband, Alec, was sitting in the waiting room, pretending to read a magazine, and Jess didn’t know which of the couple she wanted to strangle first—him or Denise.

  ‘I could have done it for you on Sunday,’ she said tightly. ‘I could have asked my new locum to drive me to your house.’

  ‘I want Dr Dunbar to do it. I know this is going to sound silly but…’ She coloured slightly. ‘Somehow I just know if he does it, everything will be all right.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Denise, what’s wrong?’ Ezra exclaimed, coming to a dead halt in the doorway to the consulting room. ‘Are you bleeding?’

  ‘No, she’s not,’ Jess interrupted flatly. ‘She’s here because she wants you to put a stitch in her cervix. She won’t be twelve weeks pregnant until Sunday, you see,’ she continued as Ezra gazed at her, bewildered, ‘and she’s got it into her head that if you do it the baby will be fine.’

  ‘Please, don’t be cross with me,’ Denise said softly, seeing Ezra’s face instantly mirror Jess’s dismay. ‘I know it sounds stupid—irrational—but I can’t help the way I feel.’

  Ezra glanced across at Jess, and she shrugged impotently. There was nothing she could say. There was plenty she wanted to say, but yelling at Denise wasn’t going to do her, or her unborn baby, any good.

  ‘Cath, would you take Denise through to the treatment room and get her ready for me?’ Ezra asked, but the minute Denise had gone he angrily turned to Jess. ‘What the hell was she thinking of, endangering herself and the baby like this?’

  ‘You heard her—she wanted you.’

  ‘That’s just plain ridiculous,’ he fumed. ‘One doctor is pretty much like another…’

  ‘Actually, no, they’re not,’ she said slowly. ‘Gaining a patient’s complete trust is a gift—a talent. It’s ironic, really.’ She laughed. A small, tight, strained, little laugh. ‘You hate even the idea of being a GP, and yet you’d make a damn good one.’

  ‘Jess…’

  His eyes were dark, liquid, and her heart twisted inside her. She was going to burst into tears. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she didn’t get away from him she was going to burst into tears, and quickly she glanced down at the folder in her hand. ‘I’m ready for you now, Mrs Young.’

  She quite patently wasn’t, Ezra thought as he stared after her, and it was all his fault.

  Hell, he wished last night had never happened. He’d spent the last five weeks trying to ensure that nothing like last night could ever happen, but…

  It had been the way she’d looked at him, the little gasp she’d given when she’d seen him without his beard, the throaty chuckle. And before he’d realised it, he’d been kissing her, holding her, touching her, and if Fred Graham hadn’t phoned, he would have made love to her.

  He still wanted to—desperately—but to make love to her then leave…

  If only he’d met her two years ago. Two years ago he’d had a career, a future, a name that had meant something in the medical world.

  She would probably have disliked him intensely, he suddenly realised. The Ezra Dunbar of today was nothing like the Ezra Dunbar of two years ago. The old Ezra had been rude, arr
ogant and overbearing. He could still be all three, but living on Greensay had mellowed him. Falling in love with Jess had changed him completely.

  Jess had said it was ironic that though he didn’t want to be a GP he’d actually make a very good one. Well, there was another irony she knew nothing about. When he could have offered her so much more, she probably wouldn’t have given him a second glance, but now that he had nothing to offer her he couldn’t—wouldn’t—offer just himself.

  ‘Denise is ready for you now, Ezra,’ Cath called, and he nodded, and slowly followed her into the treatment room.

  ‘Now, you’re to go straight home and into bed, Denise—’

  ‘Jess, Dr Dunbar has already told me that ten million times.’ Denise smiled.

  ‘OK, so ten million and one won’t hurt,’ Jess said. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘Sore,’ Denise admitted. ‘Sore, and relieved, and hopeful, and—Oh, Jess, I wish Dr Dunbar wasn’t leaving. I’ve kept hoping and praying he might change his mind.’

  ‘Denise, the island doesn’t need two doctors.’

  ‘Alec says it does. He says you need someone to help you.’

  ‘Part time perhaps, but Dr Dunbar has his future to think of, and working here part time isn’t his future.’

  ‘I guess not,’ Denise sighed. ‘It’s just—well, he’s pretty special, isn’t he?’

  Yes, Ezra was special, Jess thought as she watched Alec help his wife out to their car, but he didn’t want her, and she would just have to accept it.

  And she would. People didn’t die when relationships didn’t work out. They might be a bit bruised by the experience, but they didn’t die. When Ezra left on Saturday she would get on with her life, and eventually she would forget him. People said you could forget almost anything in time.

  ‘You’re looking a bit glum, Brian,’ she commented as she went back to the reception desk to collect her next patient’s file. ‘Something wrong?’

  He grimaced. ‘Dr Dunbar’s just told me it looks as though I’m going to have to be on this allopurinol stuff for my gout for the rest of my life. The level of uric acid in my blood test was high again, and I’ve not been cheating with my diet—not even a little bit.’

  ‘I’m afraid it sounds like you’re one of the unlucky ones,’ she commiserated. ‘Allopurinol can get rid of gout completely, but in some cases it doesn’t and those people are always prone to fresh outbreaks.’

  ‘That’s what Dr Dunbar said.’ He sighed. ‘I can’t say I like the idea of being on a drug for the rest of my life but, according to Dr Dunbar, there’s no alternative. And I’m going to have to have blood tests all the time, too, to see whether the dosage needs altering.’

  ‘Hey, look on the bright side, Brian.’ She smiled. ‘At least the allopurinol will mean no more agonising pain.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ he murmured, then brightened. ‘Dr Dunbar told me he’s leaving on Saturday.’

  ‘That’s right,’ she said noncommittally.

  ‘I’ll be sorry to see him go,’ Brian continued. ‘He seems a good doctor and a decent enough bloke, though I have to say I didn’t much like the idea of him living with you.’

  ‘He had to live with me, Brian, or I would never have been able to cover any night calls.’

  ‘Oh, I know that.’ His plump face suddenly crimsoned with consternation. ‘I hope you don’t think I was implying…I mean, I wasn’t suggesting…’

  ‘I know you weren’t,’ Jess said soothingly. ‘Dr Dunbar and I had a purely professional arrangement, just as Dr Walton and I will have.’

  ‘He’s going to be living with you now?’

  His voice had come out in a squeak and a smile tugged at her lips. ‘I expect Wattie Hope will say I’ve become quite the scarlet woman.’

  ‘Let him try saying anything in my hearing,’ he exclaimed, his plump jowls quivering with indignation. ‘I’m not a violent man, but—’

  ‘I think you’re a lovely man,’ she said gently. ‘And one day I hope you’ll meet someone who is truly worthy of you. Someone who can give you as much happiness as Leanne did.’

  He stared at her silently for a moment, then he bit his lip. ‘But it’s not going to be you—that’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? It’s OK, Jess,’ he continued, as she put out her hand to him. ‘I guess I sort of knew, deep down, that you and I would never…But I kind of hoped, you know—as you do…’

  ‘Brian, I’m sorry.’

  ‘So am I. No—enough said,’ he insisted when she tried to interrupt. ‘I’ll never mention it again, and I just hope, well, I hope we can still be friends.’

  She smiled. ‘Of course we can. In fact…’ She leant forward and kissed him. ‘I hope we’ll always be the very best of friends.’

  ‘Dr Arden.’

  She glanced over her shoulder to see Ezra at the reception desk. ‘Something you want?’

  You, he thought. I want you. ‘Tracy’s given me a list of home visits for this afternoon, and I wondered if there was anyone else you wanted to add.’

  She smiled a farewell at Brian, took the sheet of paper Ezra was holding out to her and scanned it quickly. ‘That seems to be everybody. Was there something else?’ she added, seeing indecision in his face as she handed the list back to him and he pushed it into his top pocket.

  ‘No.’ He reached for his bag, then paused. ‘Yes, dammit, there is. If you marry Brian Guthrie you’re out of your mind.’

  She could have told him that she had absolutely no intention of marrying the farmer, but the condemnation she could hear in his voice had got under her skin.

  ‘I don’t think my private life is any of your business, do you?’ she said tightly, hitching her crutches up under her arms.

  ‘Look, I know he’s reputed to be filthy rich—’

  ‘You think I’d marry a man simply because he was rich!’ she gasped in disbelief.

  ‘Some women would.’

  ‘I am not some women, Ezra.’

  ‘No, I know you’re not, but—’

  ‘Shouldn’t you be starting your home visits?’ she pointed out icily as the surgery phone began to ring.

  ‘Yes, but Brian Guthrie, Jess—’

  ‘Like I said, what I do—or don’t do—is none of your business, is it?’ she snapped.

  ‘Jess…’

  ‘What is it, Tracy?’ she interrupted, suddenly noticing that the girl was clutching the side of the desk convulsively and all colour had drained from her face.

  ‘Danny…It’s Danny.’

  ‘What about him?’ Jess demanded. ‘Tracy, has he had an accident?’

  ‘He…the harbour master said Danny was unloading fish from The Aurora, and he slipped, and…’ A sob broke from the teenager. ‘He’s been crushed between two fishing boats, and they’ve taken him to the Sinclair Memorial.’

  Jess was already making for the door with Ezra close behind when she suddenly realised that Tracy was pulling on her coat. ‘Tracy, you can’t come with us. Cath’s not back from the post office yet—’

  ‘I’m coming, and if you won’t take me I’ll walk to the Sinclair Memorial,’ the girl replied determinedly.

  ‘And leave Reception unattended?’ Ezra exclaimed. ‘Leave the phones unanswered if we get another emergency?’

  Tears filled Tracy’s eyes. ‘But Danny…I’ve been so horrible to him recently. The things I’ve said…’

  ‘Tracy, I know how you feel—believe me, I do,’ Jess declared, her heart going out to the girl, ‘but you must stay here until Cath gets back. Surely you can see that?’

  For one awful moment she thought Tracy was going to argue with her, and the last thing she needed right now was an argument when time was of the essence, then the teenager nodded tearfully. ‘You’ll phone me? If Danny…If he…You’ll phone me?’

  ‘There’ll be no need—I’m sure there won’t,’ Jess said reassuringly, but when she accompanied Ezra out to his car her heart sank.

  The weather was even worse now than it had been
earlier in the day. The wind had risen to storm force, bringing with it driving sleet, and if Danny’s injuries were as bad as they sounded he was in big trouble. The air ambulance would never be able to land in such a gale, and to subject Danny to a long voyage by lifeboat didn’t even bear thinking about.

  ‘OK, do you want the good news or the bad first?’ Bev asked as soon as Jess and Ezra arrived at the hospital.

  ‘Some good news would be nice,’ Jess replied with feeling.

  ‘He’s fractured both his right and left femurs, four of his ribs are fractured and his left cheekbone’s shattered.’

  ‘That’s the good news?’ Jess said faintly.

  ‘His right lung’s collapsed, Jess, and the lifeboat can’t get here for at least an hour and a half.’

  An hour and a half. And then it would take another hour and a half for the lifeboat to return to the mainland, followed by a journey by road ambulance to the nearest hospital with A and E facilities. Danny would assuredly die before he reached help.

  ‘What about the air ambulance?’ Jess said desperately, although she already knew the answer.

  ‘Will called them immediately after he spoke to the lifeboat station, but…’ Bev shook her head. ‘They can’t risk putting a plane or a helicopter in the air until this gale dies down.’

  ‘Then…?’

  Bev nodded. ‘Jess, you’ll have to operate and stabilise him.’

  An icy chill of fear crept round Jess’s heart as she stared at the radiographer. She’d done part of the surgery course at med school, and had carried out many minor operations, but to do something as big as this on her own…Ezra could do it. He had the skill. Or at least he used to.

  Ezra must have realised what she was thinking because he immediately shook his head. ‘No, Jess. You know I can’t.’

  ‘Could you do it, Ezra?’ Bev demanded, her eyes swivelling round to him. ‘I heard about the wonderful job you did on Simon Ralston’s hand—’

  ‘Bev, I haven’t operated on anyone for over a year.’

  ‘But surely it’s something you never forget—like riding a bike?’ she protested. ‘If you can do it—’