What a place to bring up children! The place must be crawling with snakes, Nikki thought grimly, and it was miles from anywhere. Sandra had been isolated from the Eurong community since she’d had her first child, but by living here her isolation was complete.
There was complete silence as they approached the house. A rusted-out Ford sedan stood forlornly in front of the veranda, and a light showed through a single window. They could see a vague shape through the cracked glass. The figure rose while they watched and came towards the door.
‘What a dump!’ Luke stood at the edge of the veranda and looked up, whistling soundlessly between his teeth. ‘Surely there must be better places…’
‘What do you want?’
Sandra was standing at the door, the solitary light behind her casting her shadow twenty feet out into the night. She was wearing a worn dressing-robe, and her long hair was matted and wild. Her figure was so thin that she appeared almost emaciated. She stood, barefoot, her arms folded. Her stance spoke of defiance and a fear so tangible that Nikki felt she could almost touch it.
‘You didn’t come to see Karen,’ Nikki said gently. ‘We thought you might.’
‘Karen shouldn’t be in hospital. She’s only got a broken arm-’
‘We’re not keeping Karen in hospital because she has a broken arm,’ Luke said harshly. ‘Mrs Mears, may we come in?’
‘No.’
Luke nodded. ‘Then we’ll keep Karen until the social workers arrive from Cairns,’ he said firmly. ‘We have no choice.’
‘But-’
Luke looked up at the woman on the veranda, and in the dim light his eyes were suddenly implacable and hard. ‘Mrs Mears, Karen has bruises all over her. She has a broken arm and it’s not the first time it’s been broken. She flinches when I raise my hand as if she’s used to being beaten. And she’s malnourished. Hungry, Mrs Mears. Now, are we going to come inside and talk about it, or do we contact the authorities in Cairns?’
Sandra Mears gave an audible gasp and her hand flew to her mouth. She took a step back as if Luke had slapped her.
‘We need to talk, Mrs Mears.’ Luke’s voice had softened but was no less implacable.
There was a long silence. Then Sandra slowly turned as if sleep-walking, and walked inside.
Nikki had expected chaos. Judging from the outside, the house was a ruin and Sandra incompetent. To her amazement the place was almost pathetically clean, the cleanliness accentuating the abject poverty in the place. She looked around in amazement and then down to Sandra. Sandra had sunk to sit at the kitchen table. Her head fell forward on to her arms and her shoulders heaved. This girl was wretched, and despite her anger Nikki felt a wave of compassion. What sort of mess was this girl in?
‘So tell us, what happened?’
The compassion hadn’t touched Luke. He was standing over Sandra almost like the interrogator in a bad movie. Nikki put up a hand in protest but he silenced her with a look.
Sandra looked up, her tear-stained face a plea, but Luke wasn’t interested in pleas. ‘Tell us, Sandra,’ he said.
‘She…she broke her arm.’
‘No. Tell us.’
The silence stretched out. Outside on the veranda a cane toad started its harsh croaking. The naked lightglobe made the effect surrealistic and awful.
‘You know,’ Sandra said at last.
‘No. You tell us.’
Sandra cast a scared look up at him and dashed a hand across her cheek. Luke didn’t stir. His gaze didn’t waver.
‘She was…she wouldn’t…she wouldn’t do what I told her…’ She took a deep breath. ‘It’s not true,’ she said suddenly. ‘It was Jamie. My…my youngest. He’s four. I’d just been to town and bought some biscuits. We hadn’t had biscuits for so long but…but the kids asked and asked. One packet of biscuits.’ She looked up, pleading with them to understand. ‘I just couldn’t bear not to-so I got them and then I went outside and when I come back Jamie had got at them and eaten six and shoved the rest in the toilet ‘cos he was full and he didn’t know what to do with the halfeaten packet and was scared I’d find them. And they blocked the toilet and I found them and I hit Jamie, but I couldn’t hit him hard ‘cos he’s only four and he gets asthma, and then Karen started crying and said I
shouldn’t hit him and…and I just-’ Her voice
broke off into tears.
‘So you hit Karen instead,’ Luke said, and to Nikki’s surprise his voice had gentled.
‘Yeah.’ The girl’s face came up. ‘I always do. She’s so like me. She just stands there and takes it. She doesn’t even cry. She just stands there. The other kids were crying ‘cos they hadn’t had any biscuits but not Karen…’
‘She’s so like you…’
‘Yeah.’ Sandra’s head sank on to her arms and she gave a broken sob. ‘I feel so bad. I love her so much and I hurt her…’ She managed to look up again. ‘Maybe it’s best if you take her away. I know I’ll keep hurting her. And I love her.’ She gave a desperate gulp as if to gain strength to continue. ‘I know it sounds crazy but I love her more than the rest of the kids put together and yet I hurt her…’
‘You didn’t come to the hospital…’
‘She’d look at me,’ Sandra said brokenly. ‘I know she’d just look at me and not say anything. She won’t even cry.’
Luke sat down at the bare, scrubbed table and his hand came out to cover Sandra’s. ‘Mrs Mears, you’ve reached the point where you accept help or watch your family disintegrate,’ he said softly. He motioned backwards to where Nikki was standing, silently watching. ‘Dr Russell and I can help, but only if you let us. You’ve admitted there’s a problem. If you love your daughter, then you must admit that you need help. And then accept it.’
Sandra’s eyes once more met his. There was a long silence. Even the cane toad outside had hushed. Nikki found she was holding her breath. So much depended on these next few moments.
Then Sandra took a ragged breath, and then another. She looked over to Nikki and back to Luke.
‘I’m in trouble,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know what to do. Please…please help me.’
Luke nodded as if he had expected no less. His hand stayed exactly where it was, and Nikki had a sudden sense of how Sandra must feel. To have this man touching her, feeding strength, reassurance and warmth into her through his touch. There was a sudden, crazy moment of irrational jealousy, quickly stifled.
Luke stood, and motioned to Nikki. ‘Do we have any sleeping-pills, Dr Russell?’
‘Yes.’ Nikki frowned. She wouldn’t have thought leaving sleeping-tablets for this woman was the most sensible thing. Sandra seemed almost suicidal.
‘We’ll leave you two tablets for the night,’ Luke told Sandra, heading off Nikki’s criticism. ‘I want you to take them and get a solid night’s sleep. Tomorrow morning I want you to get up, wash your hair, put on your nicest dress and bring the children into the hospital. I’ll arrange the nursing staff to take care of them for the rest of the day. You’ll visit Karen and then meet me in my surgery at twelve.’
‘My surgery’. Nikki flinched on the words. This man had taken right over. Still, he had achieved more so. far than she had ever been able to with this sullen, frightened girl.
‘But-’
‘No buts.’ Luke was standing, still not taking his eyes from Sandra. ‘By twelve tomorrow I’ll have a list of options available for you, and I want you to come knowing that every option is better than what’s happening now.’
‘But there’s nothing…’ It was a frightened whisper.
‘There’s everything.’ Once more, Luke’s voice gentled and his hand came down on to her shoulder. ‘There’s a whole great world out here for you and your children, Sandra, and it’s time you started finding it.’
‘But Karen…’
‘Karen loves you.’ He smiled then and his smile warmed the bleak little room. ‘If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t help you. But Karen loves you and she’s a smart little g
irl. She wouldn’t love you unless you were worth loving. So let’s get to work and repay her trust.’
They left her then, sitting staring out bleakly into the night. Nikki was aware of intense disquiet as they bumped down the overgrown track away from the house.
‘You don’t think she’ll do anything stupid, do you?’ she said softly.
Luke flashed her a quizzical look. ‘Like suicide?’
‘Like suicide.’
He shook his head. ‘She loves her family too much.’
‘You sounded tougher before you met her.’
Luke nodded as he manoeuvred the little car out on to the road and turned homewards. ‘She’s OK.’ He was talking almost to himself. ‘Sometimes life is just too much. I think for Sandra it’s reached that point. But now she’s said she needs help-well, I reckon there’s light at the end of her tunnel, anyway.’
Nikki frowned across at him. His voice had suddenly flattened as if he was doing some sort of personal comparison. Surely this self-confident, overbearing male couldn’t have major problems in his life. And yet…He was at Eurong for a reason. What on earth was it?
‘Tell me why you’re doing country locums,’ she said gently, and he flashed her a look of amusement.
‘Probing into my ghosts, Dr Russell?’
Nikki flushed. ‘You’re a successful surgeon,’ she continued, and was annoyed at the trace of resentment she heard in her voice. ‘Why…why have you given it up?’
‘I haven’t given it up.’
‘Doing a locum in a backwater like Eurong is hardly a strategic career move,’ she said waspishly.
‘No.’ He smiled across at her. ‘Neither is burying yourself here in a house too big for you in a community that’s known and labelled you from childhood. And that’s what you’re doing, Dr Russell.’
Nikki bit her lip angrily. ‘Beattie-’ she started.
‘If you think I can practise for half a day in this place and not learn all the local gossip, you don’t know much about the town you live in,’ he told her.
‘Especially when you ask!’
He grinned. ‘Especially when I ask.’
The car slowed suddenly and Nikki looked out. They were still two miles from home on the beach road. Luke was pulling the little car on to the kerb, and coming to a halt.
‘Wh-what are you doing?’ Nikki stammered.
‘I’ve been in a stuffy surgery all day,’ Luke told her. ‘And the moon is full and the beach is calling. I’m taking a short walk, Dr Russell. Are you coming or do you intend to sit in the car and sulk while I walk?’
‘But…’
Luke didn’t hear. The car was stationary and Luke had left, striding swiftly around to hold the door open for her. ‘Coming, Dr Russell?’
A walk on the beach was how Nikki often ended her day. After hours spent trying to solve everyone else’s problems, the sea and the moonlight were often the only way she could calm her tired mind. But to walk with this man…
She looked up, and his eyes held a challenge. Afraid? they mocked, and suddenly she knew she was. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want what seemed to be happening whether she wanted it or not.
‘Don’t be so bloody stupid,’ he said, for the second time that night, and his eyes mocked her.
Nikki took a deep breath. ‘I should be in bed,’ she said tightly.
He held up the car keys. ‘Well, the car’s going nowhere,’ he said gently. He held out his hand to take hers. Helplessly Nikki felt herself drawn up and out of the car. ‘A walk,’ he said firmly. ‘Nothing else, Dr Russell. Not yet.’
CHAPTER FOUR
THE night was still and warm. A gentle breeze from the sea stopped it being oppressively hot. October on the coast along the Great Barrier Reef was the loveliest of months-the time before the real oppression of the steamy wet season began.
Nikki walked slowly down towards the sea. As she had risen from the car Luke had released her hand and had gone before, leaving her to follow if she would. Now he strode easily across the firm, tide-washed sand, his face lifting to the moonlight as though soaking in its beauty.
Once more Nikki found herself wondering about this man of many parts. How many men took time to soak up the loveliness of a night like this?
What had she expected? That he would use this opportunity to make a pass at her? He seemed now to be oblivious to her presence, and Nikki knew that Luke would have stopped the car and walked even if he’d been alone.
As he was now. He walked alone across the moonlit beach, alone with whatever demons drove him, and Nikki was left to her own demons.
And they were there. The ghosts from Nikki’s past were never far from this place. Her parents. Scott…
What was Scott doing now? Married again? Of course he’d be married, Nikki told herself bitterly. Scott was charming and personable and desperate for money. He’d be married now to some lady who could support the lifestyle he craved.
Bitterness at the past rose up in her, threatening to overwhelm her. How could he have treated her like that? Men were bastards, she thought bleakly, remembering Sandra Mears’ haggard face. She and Sandra both…
Why on earth hadn’t she been able to see Scott’s true colours before she’d been crazy enough to marry him? She’d been so stupid.
Well, it wasn’t going to happen again. Not ever. She needed no one and Amy was solely dependent on her. Amy would be brought up with security and love, but no man was needed.
The bitter words Scott had flung at her had stayed in her heart for five long years. He had called her a lying, deceitful whore. He had laughed at her for believing that he had married her for love-he’d told her that no one would ever want her for herself alone.
Nikki took a deep breath and turned her face into the warm night air. The bitterness was all around her, and she was so alone. She looked down to the water’s edge at Luke, and a sense of empathy edged into her consciousness. Somehow this man was alone as she.
It was curiously comforting. The soft night wind whipped the fine fabric of her dress around her bare legs. Her hair blew lightly around her face and she drank in the salt air greedily.
Something was happening to her. She didn’t know what it was but she only knew that something inside her was being released-just a little-from the bondage that Scott had imposed. Was it Charlotte’s crazy, impulsive action in forcing her into attractive clothes? Or was it something else?
Luke was walking slowly back up the beach towards her, his face in shadow with the moon behind him. As he reached her he held out his hands and Nikki took an involuntary step back.
‘I’m not going to rape you,’ he said easily, and there was a trace of mocking laughter in his voice. ‘Oh, so scared, Miss Prim. Why?’
‘I’m not scared.’ Nikki sounded like a defiant child.
He nodded as though humouring her, then sank on to the sand and hauled his shoes off. Then his socks. Then…
‘What are you doing?’ Nikki gaped open-mouthed, and then blushed crimson as she realised just what he intended.
‘I’m going for a swim, of course.’ She couldn’t see his face but there was no mistaking the laughter. ‘Coming?’
This was something Nikki had done in the long-forgotten past. Eurong beach stretched for miles and the tiny population meant that it was almost always deserted. Eurong was not a tourist destination-the locals kept its beauty as a closely guarded secret-and it meant it was possible to come down here, strip to nothing and swim undisturbed.
The last time Nikki had done such a thing had been five years ago-five years…
‘Don’t be…’ Nikki turned away with a gasp as she realised her protest was falling on deaf ears. His naked body in the moonlight was breathtaking-and the last thing she wanted to do was look. ‘I’ll…I’ll wait for you in the car.’
‘It’s a magnificent night,’ he protested, still half laughing. ‘Why waste it on prudery, Miss Prim?’
‘I’m not…’
‘You don’t have
to strip,’ he told her. ‘Or are you worried about spoiling your beautiful new clothes?’
‘I’m…’
‘Scared?’ To Nikki’s horror she felt his hands grip her shoulders. His body touched the soft fabric of her dress, sending a sensuous shiver through her skin. ‘Life’s short,’ he said softly. ‘And you’re wasting it, Dr Russell. You wouldn’t really go back to bury yourself in books tonight, would you?’
‘Let me go.’ Nikki wrenched herself away but was no match for his strength.
‘Why?’ His voice softened and the humour faded. ‘Nikki, life is for living. God knows what tomorrow holds. Surely you can’t ignore tonight?’ His grip on her shoulders tightened. ‘Look up. The stars are magnificent. The sea is ours. The night is ours, Dr Russell, and I don’t intend to go tamely home to bed. And I can’t soak it up if I know you’re sitting in the car tapping your fingers on the dashboard with impatience. So, as far as I see it, there’s only one thing for it.’
‘I-’
‘You’re going to have to come in too.’
‘No!’ Nikki’s cry of refusal was cut off in a staccato shriek. It was ignored. In one fluid movement Luke Marriott had dropped his hands to her waist and pulled her up into his arms.
There was nothing she could do. Nikki was cradled helplessly against him, powerless to struggle. Heedless of the futility of her actions, she crashed her fists into his bare chest. It was as much use as a moth fluttering against a lighted window. Luke’s chest showed as little impact, and he strode purposefully forward.
‘Put me down.’ It was a cry of outrage. No man had touched Nikki Russell for five years and she had no intention of permitting it now. Especially not this man!
‘I’ll put you down,’ Luke promised drily, ‘when I’m ready.’
‘But-’
‘Dr Russell, you are withering into dust with your old house and your elderly housekeeper and your books. Beattie has more life in her than you and she’s near seventy. Your housekeeper says you need something to cheer you up, and I’ve taken it on board as a personal challenge.’
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