‘I’ll get this into him and we’ll check him out while it’s working. A couple of minutes at this stage won’t make a difference.’
Check out the mother, too, Kate thought, noticing for the first time that Julie was pregnant.
Hamish was asking her if Jason was on any medication, and Julie was answering calmly enough, but a flutter of fear trembled beneath the words and revealed itself in the tremor of the hands that rested lightly on her son’s shoulders.
‘We’ll take you both back to the mainland,’ Hamish said, when Kate had finished jotting down Jason’s details on the initial assessment form. ‘Stonefish toxin can affect many parts of the body, so we need to keep an eye on Jason, at least overnight. We also need to treat the wounds themselves. I want an X-ray to make sure no fragments of the spines broke off in his foot, and it’s possible he’ll need antibiotics if the wounds become infected.’
‘What about my husband?’ Julie asked. ‘He went off on a fishing trip early this morning—he doesn’t know about this. What will he do?’
‘Do you want us to let him know? We can radio the fishing boat,’ Kurt offered.
Julie thought about it for a moment, then turned to Hamish.
‘Should I let him know?’
Kate knew the question behind the question was, Is my son’s life in danger? And she silently applauded Julie’s courage in asking it.
‘We’ll watch Jason carefully for any signs the venom is affecting him. The resort has a small helicopter and I’m sure if you needed your husband urgently, they would fly him over, but the decision about whether you tell him now or later is up to you.’
Kurt nodded his agreement, adding they could always airlift him off the fishing boat.
‘Then let him enjoy his day out,’ Julie said. ‘He’ll be angry I didn’t contact him but he’s been working far too hard and been under a lot of stress. He needs whatever relaxation he can get.’
‘The fishing trip gets back in time for him to take this afternoon’s flight back to the mainland,’ Kurt offered. ‘I’ll get the housemaid to pack up your things, then I’ll meet the fishing boat and tell Mr Anstead what’s happened. Our agent in Crocodile Creek can meet the chopper and take him to the hospital.’
Hamish nodded his approval of this arrangement, though he was still furious with Kurt for neglecting to keep the contents of the medical kit up to date.
‘OK, let’s get you into the helicopter, young Jason,’ he said, reaching down, removing the oxygen mask and lifting the child into his arms. Kate had already slung one backpack across her shoulders and she carried the second as she herded an anxious Julie across the helipad.
And though 98 per cent of Hamish’s concentration was on his patient—feeling the steady rise and fall of the child’s chest against his, watching the throb of a pulse beneath Jason’s chin—the other two per cent had been enticed into consideration of Kate—and the way she’d been avoiding him for the last few days.
Perhaps it was for the best. He could understand her reluctance to get involved again, yet he couldn’t clear his head of the daft idea that she was the only woman in the world for him.
He, who had never believed in such nonsense! As if there would only be one perfect match for every person in the world!
But the deep ache inside him gave lie to his argument. It told him there was only one person in the world for him.
Kate …
‘Want to sit up front?’ he asked Jason, knowing young children who didn’t need mechanical support or monitoring were usually happier if they could ride up front.
‘Yes please.’
Jason’s response was so wholehearted Hamish was reassured that his initial assessment of the child—that he hadn’t taken in a huge dose of venom—had been correct. Whether the stonefish was immature or Jason’s bodyweight was so light the spines didn’t penetrate deeply, Hamish didn’t know, but apart from the excruciating pain Jason hadn’t shown any of the toxic effects of stonefish venom.
So far!
Rex helped him settle the boy into the copilot’s seat, and pointed out what all the controls did.
‘You can help me fly it if you like,’ Rex offered. ‘Just hold on here and do what I do.’
He fitted a pair of headphones to the small head.
Kate, who was helping Julie fasten her seat belt, looked towards the cockpit with alarm, and Hamish smiled. As far as he knew, she hadn’t ridden up front on a flight yet, so wouldn’t realise the second set of controls wasn’t effective unless a special switch was thrown.
Hamish handed Julie a second pair of earphones.
‘Here. You can talk to Jason through the mouthpiece.’ He pointed to the small attachment, then passed Kate one of the white helmets she’d worn on her first flight—helmets that held both earphones and a microphone.
A microphone so those in the helicopter could converse without shouting, yet it couldn’t help him talk to Kate—even if they’d been alone. You couldn’t talk to someone who didn’t want to hear.
Charles met them at the helipad.
‘The boy all right?’ he asked Hamish, as Kate helped Julie out of the chopper and Rex lifted Jason out, settling him on the stretcher two orderlies had waiting nearby.
‘You get a ride to the hospital, kid!’ Rex said, and Hamish saw the look of hero-worship in Jason’s eyes.
‘I liked the helicopter best,’ he assured Rex, and Hamish nodded to Charles.
‘Yes, I think the boy’s all right,’ he said, ‘but we’re going to have to do something about the medical kit at Wallaby. They don’t deserve to have it there if the person in charge can’t be bothered to check it regularly.’
‘I’ll go over myself later this week and sort it out,’ Charles promised, then he frowned, not at Hamish’s concern but at Kate, who was walking beside Jason on his wheeled stretcher.
It was the first time Hamish had ever noticed this reaction—the frown Kate had mentioned to him before she’d started avoiding him.
‘She’s a good nurse—very empathetic,’ he told Charles, although he knew Kate wouldn’t thank him for sticking up for her.
Charles turned his frown on Hamish.
‘Do you think I don’t know that?’ he demanded.
Frowns all round! Hamish was sure one was gathering on his forehead.
‘You were frowning at her,’ he pointed out, then saw a look of sadness cross Charles’s face.
‘Frowning at my own bitter thoughts, Hamish, not at your Kate.’
‘She’s not my Kate!’ Hamish snapped, and he walked away, moving swiftly to catch up with the cavalcade of stretcher, patient, mother and nurse, which was now inside the hospital grounds.
He tagged along as they entered the ED, in time to ask the orderlies to take Jason straight to a treatment room. He could use a portable X-ray machine to check for spines in his foot, then debride the wounds and dress them. If he had to operate to remove pieces of spine, it was a minor procedure and could be done in the treatment room.
She’d never be his Kate, unless he could come up with a miracle.
Grace met them as they came in, introducing herself to Jason and explaining she’d be helping Dr Hamish look after him.
Hamish caught the look that passed between Kate and Grace. Was Kate really so worried about propinquity between them that she’d enlisted Grace’s help in avoiding him?
The thought saddened the two per cent of his brain he was allowing to linger with Kate, but as he followed Grace into the small treatment room he pushed even that small portion aside. Jason deserved one hundred per cent.
‘We’ll be banished from the room while they take the X-ray,’ Kate said to Julie. ‘Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?’
‘Please!’ Julie said. ‘Weak tea with plenty of milk. I’m trying to totally avoid caffeine but I think I deserve a cuppa today.’
Kate sent an aide to get tea and biscuits, then settled Julie on a chair outside the treatment room.
‘When’s the baby du
e?’
Julie turned to her with a puzzled expression, then pressed a hand to her stomach.
‘Do you know, I’d almost forgotten about the baby!’ She patted her bulge as if apologising to it. ‘I’m thirty-two weeks. My husband had a week off and we took the opportunity to take a holiday before the baby arrived. Heaven knows when we’ll get away again once we’re a family of four.’
Kate waited with Julie until Hamish was satisfied he’d cleaned out Jason’s wounds and the boy could be transferred to the children’s room, so called because it looked more like a magical playroom than a hospital ward.
‘I want to watch him overnight,’ Hamish explained to Julie, ‘and start him on a course of oral steroids. The antivenin is made from horse serum and in some cases can cause serum sickness. The steroids guard against that happening.’
‘Aren’t steroids bad for kids?’ Julie asked.
‘Only if they’re taking them to improve their sports performance,’ Hamish teased. ‘We’re not talking massive doses—fifty milligrams of prednisolone daily for five days. It’s a drug used often for children—particularly those with chronic asthma. We’ll divide the dose into three so he takes three tablets a day.’
Julie accompanied Jason and Hamish to the children’s room, but Kate caught up with her later that day when she finished work and went to see how her small patient was faring.
Bad move as Hamish was there, but Kate was happy to see Jason’s father had arrived and was to spend the night with his son, while Julie went to the hotel to rest.
‘I think we connect more to patients we bring in on emergency flights,’ Hamish said, walking with her out of the hospital.
Kate nodded, but didn’t answer. It didn’t seem to matter how much she avoided Hamish, because the instant he was back in her presence again all the attraction came roaring back to life, made stronger rather than diminished by her stringent avoidance tactics.
Did he know she always walked back through the garden that he guided her that way?
It was early evening, the moon not yet risen, and though bright stars threw mellow light the path was darkly shadowed.
‘I’m sorry I left you at your door on Saturday night,’ he said.
It was the last thing Kate had expected to hear, although he had said something similar before. She stopped—quite close to the ginger plant, for she could smell the flowers—and looked at her companion.
‘Why?’
Hamish drew a deep breath. If he told her he loved her, would it destroy the very fragile thread that linked them?
Or was he imagining even that?
But for days he’d gone along with her avoidance tactics, thinking space might clear his brain, but all it had done had been to confuse him even further.
And if she’d asked Grace to help her avoid him? Well, that hurt!
He took another breath.
‘Because if I hadn’t we’d have made love, and maybe, during love-making, if I’d told you I loved you, it might have meant more than baldly coming out with it in a garden with no moonlight and that damned ginger plant overwhelming me with its perfume.’
‘It is rather strong,’ Kate remarked, and Hamish wondered if she’d even heard his declaration.
He was no good at this. He was good at detached. Very good at flippant. Heartfelt declarations of love were too new. Even thinking about them, practising what he had to say, had made him feel raw and exposed.
Now he’d messed things up with the ginger plant.
Had he actually said the love bit? Had he told her?
If he had, she showed no inclination to reply, merely walking a little further along the path.
He followed, feeling like Rudolph when he’d had a scolding.
‘Well?’ he demanded. Rudolph would have barked.
Much better at flippant!
But the cramp was back, and his knees were shaking, and he knew flippant wasn’t any use to him at all.
He steadied himself, took hold of her elbows and looked down into her shadowed eyes.
‘I love you, Kate,’ he repeated, just in case he hadn’t said it earlier.
Or she hadn’t heard it.
‘I know, Hamish,’ she whispered. ‘But I don’t know how to answer you. I’m just so confused.’
It wasn’t much but Hamish felt considerably heartened.
‘Let’s go to dinner at the Athina and talk about it. Talk it through. There has to be an answer to this somewhere. Besides, you haven’t been there—it’s the most ro—’ he caught himself just in time ‘—beautiful place. Mike’s parents own and run it.’
He took her hands, lifted them to his lips and kissed her knuckles one by one. Would physical contact strengthen his invitation? He took more heart from the fact she didn’t draw away, but even in the shadows he saw her shake her head.
Anger came so swiftly he had no time to stem it!
‘You didn’t say no to a trip to the pub with Harry last night.’
The accusation hung in the air between them, then Kate said softly, ‘There’s no danger in a drink with Harry at the pub. And we were celebrating the fact that Jack’s off the hook. Todd and Digger have been arrested, and because Jack’s agreed to testify against them and Digger’s story backs up Jack’s, it means he’s free and clear. It was a celebration.’
‘Dinner with me could be a celebration!’ he snapped, angry beyond reason, although her explanation had made sense.
‘We’ve nothing to celebrate,’ she reminded him.
‘Because you won’t give in.’ He was speaking far too loudly, but the hot rush of emotion welling inside him refused to be capped. ‘You must feel something for me, or you wouldn’t be avoiding me. You’d be treating me the way you treat Cal, or Mike, or—dare I say it?—bloody Harry! But you’re not. You’ve even got Grace helping you—’
‘Grace? Helping me what?’
‘Helping you avoid me.’
He knew as he said the words they were wrong. Kate was such a private person there was no way she would have talked about her feelings to Grace, or anyone else.
He wanted to unsay it, but it was too late.
The thread—real or imaginary—had surely broken.
Or had it?
Kate had taken back her hands but she hadn’t moved away.
He tamped down the still smouldering anger and took her in his arms, holding her close, reminding himself that this emotional vulnerability was probably far harder for her than it was for him.
Although he couldn’t imagine it!
He took a steadying breath and tried another tack.
‘Did you ask Harry about your mother?’
The movement of her head against his chest told him she hadn’t.
‘For some reason?’
A nod this time.
‘Still having second thoughts, Kate?’
She edged away and looked up at him, a pathetic attempt at a smile trembling on her lips.
‘And third and fourth and fifth thoughts, Hamish,’ she said quietly. ‘Does it matter? Do I really care? I don’t know any more.’
She kissed him gently on the lips then drew away again.
‘I was running on emotion as I headed north. The idea of finding my father helped me set aside things I couldn’t cope with—grief and loss and anger. And I believed having something to do—a quest—would give me time to arm myself in some way—build defences to protect myself against hurt like that again.’
Another kiss brushed against his lips.
‘Then I met you, before the defences were in place—and that’s terrifying, Hamish.’
He held her closer, wrapping her tightly in his arms, desperate to protect her from the hurt she feared, his own hurt and anger forgotten in the rush of love engulfing him.
She nestled against him.
‘I know I’ve hurt you these last few days, avoiding you the way I have, but it was only to avoid a greater hurt later on.’
Hamish kissed the top of her head.
&nb
sp; ‘To borrow your own word—piffle!’ he said, sounding more like a frog than a prince as emotion choked the words on their way out. ‘Greater happiness, that’s all there’ll be later on. We’ll work it out.’
‘Will we?’ she asked, moving away. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Well I do!’ he said, releasing the reins on both anger and flippancy.
There were times when only they would do.
‘But I’d like you to know this is not exactly a walk in the park for me,’ he grumbled. ‘How do you think I’m feeling—thirty years of age and finding myself in the clutches of the phenomenon I’ve scoffed at all my adult life? Romantic love, I’ve pontificated—usually after several single malts—is an illusion, perpetuated through the ages by merchants with a winning way with words. Think back to the seers and witches who sold love potions—it’s always been a commercial con.’
He paused, looking down into her face and brushing her hair back from her forehead.
Could she feel the change in him? Guess how just looking at her made him feel?
How to explain?
‘And until one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I believed this foolishness,’ he said quietly. ‘Until one afternoon, when a sunbeam shone on a brown curl and turned it gold …’
He knew he sounded strained, and though he’d tried to make light of his emotions, Kate must have heard his pain. She reached up and kissed him on the lips, her kiss denying all the things she’d said. Passion, deep and hot and hard, stirred his blood until he could feel it thrumming through his veins.
CHAPTER NINE
‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you did all that organising for the rodeo then opted to work the day it was on,’ Kate said, looking at the man who’d come lounging into the Emergency Department in search of distraction.
Hamish shrugged broad shoulders in a gesture so familiar she couldn’t believe she wouldn’t be seeing it for ever.
‘The others will all have an ongoing relationship with Wygera and the people out there. I leave next week and probably won’t ever see them again.’
The Australian's Proposal (Mills & Boon By Request): The Doctor's Marriage Wish / The Playboy Doctor's Proposal / The Nurse He's Been Waiting For Page 13