Five minutes in the pool, she promised herself. A token to appease Amy. And then work!
Only of course it wasn’t five minutes.
The morning sun was hot by the time Nikki slipped self-consciously into the water, and the water was a balm to her tired body. She had slept badly and was thick with bad dreams and self-doubt. Somehow the sun and the water and her daughter’s laughter dispelled the black cloud. Luke was teaching Amy dead man’s float, taking his duty very seriously. Nikki floated aimlessly on her back, watching man and child enjoy each other.
This was what Scott should be doing. Enjoying his daughter. Loving his daughter. Instead of which… She had written to him, but Scott had never even acknowledged that his little girl existed.
It was a bitter thought, but this morning it didn’t seem as bitter as it usually did. Somehow the sting was eased.
Because Luke was here? The thought drifted around Nikki’s mind as she floated, and she had to acknowledge that while Luke was here she had no place in her mind for Scott. For the first time Scott’s face blurred in her mind, as though the memory was fading. The laughing eyes…the mocking smile. Where were they?
Gone with Scott. Replaced suddenly with eyes that laughed with a sympathy that was not feigned-that mocked, but mocked with kindness and compassion. She looked to where Luke was bending over the small, wet Amy, holding her still while the child tried desperately to keep her body floating. Kindness…This wasn’t some errant playboy making a line for her. This was a man who genuinely wanted her small daughter to feel good about herself.
And then his eyes shifted to her and his smile faded a little. ‘Feel better for your swim, Dr Russell?’
Nikki found her feet and stood upright, breast-deep in water.
‘Thank you. I’d…I’d better be settling down to work. And…’
She was absurdly shy somehow, having trouble making her voice work. It was so…well, so darned domestic, to be in the water-the two of them with the child. ‘And you’d better be thinking about morning surgery,’ she managed.
‘Not yet.’ It was Beattie’s voice cutting across the morning stillness. Nikki looked up to see the housekeeper smiling down at them. She was carrying a vast, loaded tray. ‘Pancakes,’ she called. ‘I saw you out here and decided you might like a special breakfast.’
‘Pancakes!’ Amy surfaced from her float, still bubbling with excitement. She looked from Luke to Nikki. ‘Pancakes for breakfast! We haven’t had pancakes for breakfast-ever.’ She looked anxiously across at her mother as if expecting this treat to be somehow snatched away. ‘Will you both stay to eat them?’ The child was used to Nikki eating on the run. ‘Please?’
‘Of course we will,’ Luke promised, holding out his hand to tow Amy to the side of the pool. ‘Won’t we, Nikki?’ And he held out his other hand.
It would be churlish not to take his hand. Amy stared at her mother, waiting for Nikki to take the proffered hand. Nikki wavered helplessly.
‘Come on, Dr Russell,’ Luke said gently. ‘Pancakes await us. And I’m not one to hesitate where pancakes are concerned. Are you?’
Still the hand was out. To avoid it Nikki had to walk right by, brushing him aside. Amy watched.
The sun was warm on her face. Nikki’s body was cool in the water, but all of a sudden the water wasn’t enough. It was as if she was flushing all over.
Slowly she brought up her hand. Luke’s eyes were still, watchful, the laughter gone. In a slow, considered movement he brought his fingers closer and closed on hers. The three were entwined, man, woman and child.
‘Come on, Amy,’ Luke said slowly. ‘Let’s take your mother to breakfast.’
Somehow that morning Nikki managed a little study, but little was the operative word. Even with her contact lenses, her eyes refused to focus on the books, and when she forced herself to read the words aloud they failed to make sense.
What on earth was the matter with her? Amy was at kindergarten. Beattie was shopping and Luke was running morning surgery. She had the house to herself and she had less than three weeks to the exam.
‘So work,’ she muttered savagely. ‘Make yourself work.’
She stared back at the page but all she saw was Luke-Luke lifting her daughter high in the air smiling up at Amy, smiling across at her…
‘I’m going nuts,’ Nikki whispered. ‘I can’t…’
Can’t be falling in love? The words suddenly slammed into her head and stayed. Falling in love with Luke Marriott? What on earth was she thinking of?
‘You just feel sorry for him,’ she told herself savagely. ‘Because of the cancer…’
But that wasn’t true at all. This morning the fact that Luke Marriott had suffered from Hodgkin’s disease had been thrust away into some far recess of her mind. She hadn’t been thinking of it while she had been in the pool.
All she had been thinking of was him. All she had been aware of was his body-his presence-binding her to her small daughter, entwining them into a threesome like a family…
Oh, good grief! She had to stop this. Luke Marriott was here for another few weeks and then he would be gone-forever. Just like Scott.
Not like Scott. Her mind suddenly rebelled, refusing to link the two men, and she stood abruptly. She was getting nowhere at all. If she went on like this she was going to fail this damned exam.
The phone cut across the silence and she answered it gratefully. Anything to get her mind away from these dangerous thoughts. It didn’t help, though. It was Luke on the end of the line.
‘Nikki, I’m seeing Sandra Mears at twelve,’ he told her. ‘I’d like you to be present.’
‘But-’
‘I know. I’m covering for you. But Sandra needs someone who’s going to provide ongoing support. If I persuade her to trust me and then leave, she’ll be no better off than before. I’ve done the groundwork, but I want you to be involved.’
So who was whose boss? Nikki held the receiver back and stared at it. She was used to giving the orders.
He was right, though. Her exam-her studying-was important, but not more important than the long-term happiness of the Mears family.
‘I’ll be there,’ she told him slowly. ‘What have you done so far?’
‘I’ve another patient in the waiting-room,’ he said curtly. ‘I can’t talk now. But I’d like you here at twelve.’
Yes, sir. Nikki thought the words but wasn’t given a chance to utter them. The line was dead.
CHAPTER SIX
BY THE time she reached the clinic, Nikki had worked herself up to anger. It was the only feeling she was capable of defining, and it covered a number of other emotions she was trying to dismiss.
Luke Marriott might have been ill but it hadn’t stopped him being autocratic. He said jump and he expected the world to jump. He should have asked- not ordered.
Maybe I should dock his wages, Nikki thought humourlessly. On the grounds of insolence.
The thought gave her a fleeting ray of comfort, putting the relationship back on a purely professional basis. She climbed out of her little car, self-consciously smoothed down the next frock from Charlotte’s neverending supply, and made her way indoors. Her receptionist met her.
‘Hi, Doctor,’ Mary said happily. ‘Wow, you look gorgeous.’ She grinned. ‘I don’t blame you. Our new locum’s worth dressing up for, isn’t he?’
‘I’m not dressing up for any locum,’ Nikki snapped, but her receptionist simply arched her eyebrows and grinned.
‘Mrs Mears is in with him now,’ she smiled. ‘The children are all over at the hospital. And I’ve cleared an hour if you need it.’ She held up her fingers, showing them crossed. ‘Good luck. Sandra’s not going to take to interference very kindly.’
‘She no longer has a choice,’ Nikki said.
Sandra was sitting in an easy-chair in the surgery. Luke had come from behind the desk and was sitting beside her. They looked up as Nikki knocked and entered, Luke giving her a small, professional smile and Sandra look
ing downright scared.
‘I asked Dr Russell to join us,’ Luke said gently. ‘I’m only here for another two and a half weeks and you’ll need Nikki for longer than that.’
‘Nikki’…The use of her name jolted her, and Nikki flashed Luke a look of annoyance before sitting. He didn’t seem to notice.
‘How’s Karen?’ he asked Sandra.
‘She’s fine.’ Sandra’s voice was apprehensive. ‘At least…’
‘Did you go and see her?’
‘No.’ Sandra shook her head defensively. ‘I…I went and talked to the sister in charge. She says…she says Karen’s OK.’
‘Why didn’t you go and see her?’
‘She wouldn’t want to see me.’
‘I think she would.’ Luke frowned. ‘Sandra, what do you think Karen would say to you now if you went to see her?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing? You mean, she wouldn’t be upset that you hurt her?’
‘No,’ Sandra said bitterly. ‘She’ll just…she’ll just look at me…’
‘You’d like it better if she yelled at you?’
‘Well…’ Sandra’s head sank down so that she was staring at the carpet. ‘I…I hurt her.’
‘So what are you going to do about it?’ Luke’s voice was unemotional and firm. It was as if he were asking what Sandra intended to have for dinner that night. That she should have something was as inevitable as the fact that she was now forced to take action.
Sandra raised tear-filled eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ she said hopelessly. ‘I don’t…’
‘Sandra, why are you living in that dump?’ It wasn’t a criticism, just a statement of fact, and Nikki’s eyes flew to Luke. She would never have been so blunt.
‘I…I can’t afford anything else.’
‘But you’ve the supporting mother’s benefit. I’ve been on to the Department of Social Security here. They tell me what you get should cover one of the Housing Commission homes down near the river. They’re basic but they’re clean and well-kept-and with your skill as a housekeeper you’d get one looking great in no time. And they’re right in town. The children could walk to school and you could walk to the shops.’
‘But…’
‘But what?’
Sandra swallowed. ‘My husband…my husband ran up debts before he left. I’m paying them off but so far…so far I’ve done no more than cover the interest.’
‘Does your husband pay any child support?’
For the first time Sandra’s dark eyes flashed anger. It was as if something deep within her was hidden-and as though she was afraid of exposing her hatred.
‘Of course not,’ she said bitterly. ‘He and his girlfriend are further south-he’s a cane-cutter and makes a heap, but I’m left with nothing but his debts. His debts and the kids.’
Luke nodded. ‘But you’d like some help?’
‘I’ve no hope of getting it.’ Sandra’s voice flattened again. ‘He spends as fast as he earns.’
‘No.’ Luke smiled then. ‘The new rules require all employees-even casual workers-to register tax file numbers with employers wherever they work, and there’s no way your husband can be working without doing that. All we have to do is ask Social Security to place a garnishee on his wages. You’ll be paid before he is. And we’ll ask for his debts to be transferred to his name. If you’ve sole responsibility for the children there should be no problem there.’ He grinned. ‘And he’ll find his debtors have no trouble garnisheeing even more of his wages. Your husband might find himself with a little less easy money in the future, Mrs Mears. And you might find things a whole lot easier.’
Sandra stared, hope and disbelief warring visibly in her tired eyes. ‘If…if I lived in town I could sell the car…’
‘That’s right.’
‘But-’ Sandra swallowed ‘-folks around here
think I’m a tart. Because I got pregnant before I was married. They’d give me a hard time…’
Nikki moved then. She rose and walked around the table. ‘Sandra, there are lots like you in the town,’ she said gently. ‘Everyone has their ghosts. You can either move to a bigger city where you can be anonymous or stay here, look people in the eye and ride it out. You’ll find history is forgotten as long as you act as though it’s forgotten. Honest!’
Sandra looked up and smiled. ‘You had a hard time too, didn’t you, Doctor?’
‘I sure did,’ Nikki said ruefully. ‘But I still wanted to stay. A small town has some good things going for it when it comes to raising children.’ She touched Sandra’s shoulder. ‘And there are supports here that you won’t find in the city. If you accept them.’
‘I should have before this.’ Sandra hesitated, looking from Luke to Nikki. ‘If I’d admitted I was in trouble earlier, I could have got help…I wouldn’t have hurt Karen maybe…’
‘You’re asking for help now,’ Luke said gently. ‘That’s all that matters.’ He rose as well, handing Sandra a slip of paper. ‘The Housing Commission tells me there’s a house vacant at the moment. Go and have a look before you commit yourself.’
‘But…’
‘But what?’ He was smiling down at the girl, daring her with his eyes. ‘This is going to take courage, Sandra. But you have it. I know it, and so does Karen.’
‘Karen…’
He nodded. ‘Your little girl has faith in you. You’re all she has, Sandra.’
‘Can I take her home?’
Luke shook his head. ‘Not yet. You need time to sort yourself out, and Karen needs you at your best. Until you move you’ll be worried and anxious, and that’s the time when Karen is most likely to be at risk, isn’t it?’
Sandra hung her head. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘But I wouldn’t…’
‘We can’t risk that.’ Luke’s voice was firm. ‘Karen doesn’t need hospital but she does need care. I’m not fussed about involving community services and sending her to Cairns for foster care. I suggest that she spend the next couple of weeks with us at Whispering Palms.’
Nikki’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth to protest but Luke’s eyes were on her, hard and challenging.
‘We have a great housekeeper, a comfortable bed and a little girl who’ll enjoy your daughter’s company. You can pop in and see her once a day, but you can have two weeks’ time out from each other.’ He smiled. ‘It’ll make you realise just how much you do care for your eldest daughter, and how much you risk losing if you don’t put her first.’
‘I don’t risk losing-’
‘Yes, you do.’ Luke’s smile faded. ‘Sandra, if I reported this break to community services, they’d have no choice but to place Karen in foster care. Now, what we’re offering is an alternative. Do you accept?’
Sandra looked wildly from Nikki to Luke and back again. ‘But…but you don’t want my daughter. She’ll be a nuisance…’
‘We’d love to have your daughter as our guest,’ Luke said firmly. ‘Whispering Palms is built for children, isn’t it, Dr Russell?’
Nikki took a deep breath. She looked down at Sandra, and read the desperate need in her eyes. This woman had reaped a harvest more bitter than Nikki’s from her relationship with her man. And Nikki could help. Luke was right.
‘Whispering Palms is built for children,’ she repeated slowly. She smiled at Sandra and her voice firmed. ‘We’d love to have Karen.’
‘You could have asked me!’
Nikki barely waited until Sandra had closed the door behind her before her anger burst forth. ‘For heaven’s sake, Luke Marriott, who do you think you are? It’s my house!’
‘And Karen needs it.’
‘And you need it. And so does half the population of North Queensland, as far as I know. And you intend inviting them home. Home! My home. Not your home, Luke Marriott, my home!’
‘Nikki Russell, do you know how extraordinarily beautiful you are when you’re angry?’
Nikki slumped back into her chair and gazed up at the man before her in fulminating fury
. ‘If you think you can worm your way around me with your insincere compliments to get you what you want…You don’t care, do you?’
‘For your privacy?’ He smiled. ‘Not a lot. It seems you’re taking enough care of that for both of us.’
‘Just because I like keeping to myself-’
‘And blocking the world out.’ He shook his head. ‘Nikki, Amy needs the rest of the world, even if you don’t.’
‘Luke Marriott, I am not your patient.’
‘No?’
‘No!’
‘Well, then.’ His smile deepened and he pulled his white coat from his shoulders, hanging it behind the door. ‘If you’re not my patient, then you can come to lunch with me. Hungry, Dr Russell?’
‘No.’
‘Liar,’ he said equitably. ‘Coming, or do I have to sling you over my shoulder and take you by force?’
‘You wouldn’t dare!’
Once more the irrepressible smile.
‘Try me, Dr Russell. Maybe we’d both enjoy it.’
Nikki glared. Luke’s smile didn’t slip. She placed one foot tentatively forward and Luke’s smile deepened even further. He would enjoy it, Nikki realised. He’d enjoy carrying her past her patients and receptionist with no thought at all for her dignity…with no thought for the fact that she was here forever in this town and had her reputation to consider.
‘I’m going back to Whispering Palms for lunch,’ she said half-heartedly, but he simply shook his head and took her hand.
‘Beattie packed me enough lunch for three,’ he told her. ‘I want sea, sun, sandwiches and swim in that order. Let’s go, Dr Russell.’
‘I don’t-’
‘If you’re worried about your precious virtue, you needn’t worry,’ he smiled. ‘We’re taking Karen.’
‘Karen?’ Nikki said blankly. ‘But she’s in hospital.’
‘For the next three minutes,’ he agreed. ‘We’re taking her to the beach for lunch and then you’re taking her home to Whispering Palms.’
‘Luke Marriott, do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?’ Regardless of listening ears on the other side of the door, Nikki’s voice rose hysterically. ‘I have exams in two and a half weeks. My house is filling with strangers. I never allow my work to impinge on my private life. To take a child home…’
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