Bachelor Cure

CHAPTER THREE

FOR a moment Tess and Mike thought Henry was dead.

For one long moment, she stood in the small doorway while her eyes adjusted to the dark. Her grandfather was huddled in a far corner, and he wasn’t moving.

She gave a gasp of dismay, but then Mike pushed her aside, striding across the sand to stoop over the huddled figure. He lifted a limp wrist and turned to stare at Tess in the gloom.

‘He’s alive, Tess. Help me.’

‘Alive…’ Somehow Tess made her legs carry her over to where Mike was kneeling in the sand. ‘Oh, Mike, alive…’

Strop fell back. He’d been trained to do this. He wasn’t all stupid. When Mike’s voice hit a certain tense pitch, Strop knew enough to shove his butt down and wait.

‘How…? How…?’ Tess stared down.

‘He’s unconscious, Tess, but there’s a heartbeat. He’s so dry. Hell, feel his skin! His mouth is parched and his tongue is swollen. You’ll find a torch in my pack, and a saline pack.’ His hands were running over the old man as he spoke, moving with care and concern. ‘For him to have been here… He must have been here all this time!’

Tess was hauling Mike’s backpack from his shoulders and fumbling inside for a torch. The flashlight rested right on the top. She flicked it on and directed it down at her grandfather’s face.

The sight before her must be a dreadful shock, Mike thought grimly. Tess hadn’t seen her grandfather for ten years and Henry then would have been a vigorous seventy-three-year-old-healthy and strong and full of life.

Now… The eighty-three-year-old man lying on the sand seemed drained of everything. His skin was as white as alabaster under his tan, and it stretched across his old bones as if it were parchment. Henry’s eyes had sunk into their sockets and were staring sightlessly at the opposite wall. His cheeks were gaunt hollows and his lips were so dry they’d cracked, bled, half healed and cracked over and over again.

‘Find me a swab, Dr Westcott.’ Mike cast a glance up at Tess, hoping like hell she wouldn’t faint on him. His voice sliced across Tessa’s distress like a knife. ‘Tessa, you’re wasting time. I need a swab and then I need help to set up a saline drip. Fast. We haven’t found him to let him die now.’

‘Oh, Mike… He looks so dreadful.’ He looked like death!

But Tess didn’t intend fainting. She took a deep, steadying breath and somewhere in that breath she turned from a frightened grandchild into a competent doctor. The fact that this was her beloved grandpa was thrust aside. Henry was an emergency patient, dying under their hands.

‘What do you think-?’

‘He’s dehydrated,’ Mike snapped. ‘You just have to see his lips… If he’s lain here for days with no water… Everything else can wait, Tess, but we have to get fluids in.’

‘OK.’ She was already moving, sorting out swabs and syringes and tubing from Mike’s bag and handing them across in the dim torchlight.

Mike knew there were two people inside her head now. One was Tessa Westcott, scared-stiff granddaughter, and the other was Dr Westcott, efficient medical practicioner. For now, though, she was efficient and she was professional. The first lady had been sent outside for the duration to wring her hands in private. Henry needed Dr Westcott now, and so did Mike.

Two minutes later they had saline flowing. Mike had everything they needed in his backpack, and Tess found it, prepared it and handed it across at need as if she were in a properly equipped Casualty cubicle, rather than squatting in an ill-lit cave. Mike adjusted the saline to full flow. He took the stethoscope that Tess offered and held it to Henry’s chest-and then finally he sank back on his heels and looked across at her.

‘We have a massive chest infection here, and it’s no wonder after this long without attention,’ he told her. ‘There’s a mobile phone in my bag, Tess. Hand it to me and we’ll call in help. The ambulance boys will bring a stretcher in and carry him out.’

‘If it’s not too late…’

With everything they could do having now been done, it was time now for Dr Westcott to revert again to being just plain Tessa-and just plain scared. The theatre door had been opened and the relatives ushered in. Tess was now Tessa, the relative. She looked down at the man lying on the sand, and her face twisted. ‘Oh, Grandpa, don’t you dare die. Not when we’re so close…’

‘Don’t give up, Tess,’ Mike said roughly, putting a hand out and taking hers in a strong, hard grip. ‘He’s alive and that’s more than we hoped for. We’ve had a miracle. Let’s see if we can score another one.’ He gave her a tight, strained smile, and then turned to his phone.

He watched her sit and listen while he barked orders to unknown people at the end of the telephone link, and her hand stroked her grandfather’s face as she waited. That he’d been here for so long-alone. Her hand went down and gripped the fingers of her grandfather’s hand, willing life into his veins. By her side, Strop nosed forward and gave her spare hand a lick, and Tessa’s strained look eased, as though that one lick had been immeasurably-stupidly-comforting.

‘Grandpa… I’m here, Grandpa,’ she faltered. ‘It’s Tessa. I’ve come home.’

Mike’s eyes never left her face as he spoke into the phone. Home…It sounded right.

That was a crazy thought! This wasn’t Tessa’s home. She had no life here, and why such a thought had the power to jolt him he didn’t know. Tessa had nothing to do with this valley-nothing to do with him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but as he did he saw Tessa’s eyes widen as she stared down at Henry. He glanced down, and a muscle moved almost imperceptibly at the corner of Henry’s right eye.

‘Grandpa…’ She leaned closer, and Mike stared, unable to believe he’d seen the movement. He let the phone drop to his side. He wasn’t imagining it-Tess had seen the movement, too. He took Henry’s other hand.

‘Henry, it’s Mike Llewellyn here.’ He flashed an uncertain look at Tessa, unsure how she was reacting, and then he fixed all his concentration on Henry. ‘It’s Doc Llewellyn. You’re quite safe, Henry, and your granddaughter’s here, too. Tessa’s come all the way from the States to find you. We’ve been searching for days, but no one but Tessa knew where the cave was. Now we’ll stay with you until we can stretcher you out to hospital. You’re quite safe.’

Henry’s right eye fluttered open and he saw them.

His gaze wandered from Tess to Mike…and then back to Tess. It was clear that focussing was an enormous effort. There was confusion in his look. His left eye stayed closed, but the hand Tess was holding tightened convulsively.

Henry’s lips moved, ever so faintly, and Tess bent to hear.

‘Tess…’

The word was blurred to the point of being unintelligible, spoken through one side of his mouth and with a chest that rattled and wheezed and barely functioned, but they knew it for what it was. Tessa’s eyes filled with tears.

‘It’s really me, Grandpa,’ she murmured. ‘We’re here. Mike and I are here.’

‘Mike and I…’ It sounded good. It sounded reassuring, even to Mike’s ears.

‘Don’t worry, Grandpa,’ she said. ‘We’ll have you in hospital in no time.’

‘S-stay.’

‘I will.’ It was a vow, and suddenly, as she made it, Mike knew the vow she was making wasn’t a light one. She’d stay.

‘I’ll see that she stays, Mr Westcott,’ he said softly. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’

Now why on earth had he said that?

‘She’s gorgeous.’

‘Yes.’ There was no doubt in his mind just who they were talking about.

It was six in the morning. Mike had snatched a few short hours’ sleep, interrupted at two a.m. by a child with croup and at five by a drip which had packed up, and at six he hit the hospital kitchen for strong black coffee. Bill had arrived a few minutes earlier and the charge nurse was wrapping himself around a plate of porridge.

‘Will she stay?’ Bill asked.

‘What do you mean, will she stay? I guess she’ll stay until Henry decides whether to live.’

‘But will he live?’ The news of Henry’s discovery had hit Bill the minute he’d entered the hospital. Predawn or not, Bill guessed it’d be all over the valley by now.

‘Maybe.’

‘But maybe not?’

‘I can’t tell how bad the stroke was,’ Mike said. ‘Not until we get him rehydrated, get the intravenous antibiotics working on his chest and get him over his shock. He’s had a hell of an ordeal and he has a massive chest infection.’

‘He looks dreadful.’

‘You’ve seen him?’

‘I poked my head around the door when I got in.’

‘Are his obs OK? They were settling when I left him at midnight and no one’s rung to say there’s a problem. There’s been no change?’

‘Tessa’s happy with them.’

‘Tessa…’ Mike stared. ‘Tessa’s asleep. I set Hannah to special him.’

‘Tessa’s sitting by his bedside,’ Bill said blandly. ‘Hannah’s down in the nursery with Billy and his croup. Billy’s a real handful-he’s been giving the night staff hell-and Tessa told her she wasn’t needed. She’d look after her grandpa herself.’

‘But I told Tessa to go to bed.’

‘She’s not the sort of girl to follow orders,’ Bill said, a faint grin playing over his face. ‘At least, not unless she agrees with them.’

‘She’s exhausted,’ Mike said grimly. ‘That’s stupid.’

‘Is she as tired as you, then?’

‘I’m not tired.’

‘Oh, no?’ Bill leaned back and folded his arms across his large chest. ‘You’ve had on average of-let me guess-about four hours’ sleep a night for the last two weeks. And you’re telling me you’re not tired.’

‘I can cope.’

‘But Tessa Westcott’s another doctor,’ Bill said thoughtfully, his calm, intelligent eyes thoughtful. ‘You know, if there’s one thing we need around here, it’s another doctor.’

‘We don’t need Tessa.’

‘Mike, we’d accept Doris the pig if only she had a medical degree,’ Bill told him bluntly. ‘And your Tessa has a medical degree. Mike, boy, you have a duty here.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean you have enough address to charm a whole harem of Tessas.’ Bill held up a hand to silence Mike’s involuntary protest. ‘Now, don’t deny it. I’ve seen you woo old ladies till their pulse rates shoot through the roof. They come in droves to get their flu injections, and I’ll tell you what-it’s not fear of flu that does it. And the old ladies have nothing on the young ones. You create havoc with my nursing staff-and all they get for their pains is a hopeless case of unrequited love. Or lust.’ He grinned. ‘Or maybe both.’

‘Bill…’

‘Hey, we could make this a proper partnership here,’ Bill continued, thinking this through. ‘Now, look, Mike. Be serious here. You know, if you snap your fingers, you could date any single lady in this valley. Even my Barbara says you make her pulse rate wobble-and she’s the mother of my four kids. Yet you never go out with anyone more than twice. So…’ He held up his hand again to silence Mike’s interruption.

‘No. Shut up and let me speak. So therefore…it stands to reason that you’ve been saving yourself. And I reckon the lady you’ve been saving yourself for has just entered your orbit.’

‘You have to be kidding!’

‘Would I joke about anything as serious as matchmaking?’ Bill demanded. He grinned and lifted one finger on his raised hand. ‘You listen to Uncle Bill, my boy. One. The lady is seriously desirable. Even I can see that, despite my commitment to my Barbara. If Barbara can look sideways at Mike Llewellyn, I can look sideways at Henry Westcott’s granddaughter.’

Then another finger went up. Bill was on a roll here and he wasn’t to be stopped. ‘Two… The lady is a qualified medical practitioner.’ A third finger. ‘Three. The lady has a need to stay in the valley. All you have to do is keep Henry alive and needful of family. And four…’ He said this as Mike rose and stalked to the door. ‘Four, you need to be married, Mike Llewellyn. You need a wife and a few kids and a mortgage just like the rest of us.’

And as Mike walked out and slammed the door behind him, Bill’s face split into a huge grin.

Because Mike Llewellyn didn’t look angry. He just looked confused.

Bloody hell! Could they really have something going here?

‘I just might have another plate of porridge, Mrs Thompson,’ Bill said to the hospital cook. ‘I’d drink champagne if I could, but porridge will have to do. Believe it or not, we might have Dr Mike seriously interested in something other than work!’

Dr Mike wasn’t seriously interested. Or…was he? He did his ward rounds with a strange feeling hanging over his head.

Normally his mind was totally on his job. Apart from his devotion to one crazy dog-and the small matter of his love affair with his car-he gave one hundred per cent concentration to his patients.

Now, though… His patients sensed that there was something different about Mike this morning. He was just as attentive, but there was an air of bewilderment about him.

‘Are you worried about Henry Westcott?’ Sandra Lessing asked. She’d been the cause of his lack of sleep the night before last. Now she was sitting up in bed feeding her day-old son, and, like every patient in the hospital, she was agog with the news of Henry being found.

‘I guess.’ Mike shrugged and smiled down at the downy little head nestled against his mother’s breast. ‘I don’t know, Sandra. There’s no way of telling just how bad the damage is yet.’

‘He was so lucky to be found.’ Sandra’s family farmed a property on the other side of the ridge to Henry’s and she knew at first hand just how hard the country around here was to search. ‘If it wasn’t for his granddaughter coming back…’ She looked at Mike, her eyes twinkling. ‘She’s really something, isn’t she? Bill introduced me to Tessa yesterday when he was showing her over the hospital. She’s just lovely.’

‘Yes,’ Mike said shortly, but he didn’t want to think of how lovely Tessa was. He needed to concentrate on work. ‘Sandra, can we pop your son back into his crib so I can give his mum the once-over?’

‘Sure. He’s not feeding any more. He just likes cuddling.’ She planted a kiss on her son’s head. ‘Give me two minutes and I’ll cuddle you again,’ she promised. She lay back and eyed Mike again, her eyes speculative. ‘I know what,’ she said. ‘How about when I get home I organise a dinner? It can be a thank-you dinner for you for delivering Toby and a welcome dinner for Tessa all in one. How would that be?’

‘If all goes well, Henry will be on the mend and Tess will be back in the States by the time you get home,’ Mike said shortly.

‘Not if this valley has anything to do with it.’ Sandra grinned hugely. ‘The whole valley’s talking about Tessa Westcott, and the whole valley thinks she might be a really good thing.’

‘Sandra…’

‘We’ll work on it,’ she said placidly. ‘Give us time. Like about a day or so!’

By the time Mike reached the little room he used as Intensive Care, he was starting to feel as if he didn’t want to enter. The whole hospital, staff and patients alike, had started to have really strange ideas about Tessa Westcott, and he wasn’t enjoying them. His normal cheerful smile had faded and he approached ICU with misgivings.

Hell, what was happening here? Sure, Tessa was one different woman and, sure, the valley needed another doctor, but Tessa lived in the States, for heaven’s sake! She had nothing to do with him. She was here for maybe a week.

Which was all very sensible, he thought, but logic didn’t account for the way his heart lurched when he opened Henry’s door.

Tess was dozing with her head on Henry’s counterpane. Her wonderful hair was spread out in a flaming halo on the white bedlinen. She was wearing exactly the same clothes she’d had on when they’d brought Henry in.

It had been a really major job to get Henry out of there. The ambulance boys had had to traipse over rough country to reach them, and then there were only two of them. They hadn’t waited for back-up because Mike had wanted oxygen and equipment fast. Henry’s lungs were barely functioning.

Then to get a stretcher over rough ground with only two stretcher-bearers had been risky, but Tess hadn’t waited for back-up even then. No way. In the end, Mike and Tess had taken a stretcher corner each to give them four bearers and make the stretcher stable.

‘I can do it,’ she’d told them when they’d said they’d wait for help. ‘He’s my grandpa, I’m as strong as a horse and I don’t have to use my bad arm. Just shut up and let’s get him somewhere safe.’

So she’d done it, but heaven knew how. Even if she’d been fit, it would have been harder for Tess than for the men because she was inches shorter and, try as they might, they hadn’t been able to compensate entirely-but even though she’d carried with her good arm she was still so badly bruised it must have hurt.

It must have hurt like crazy, but she wouldn’t listen to their protests, and it was the two ambulance men who’d decreed they stop and rest every two hundred yards or so-not Tessa.

She had an iron will. If things needed doing, Tess Westcott just went ahead and did them.

She was such a kid, he thought. From where he was standing, with her head resting on her grandfather’s bed and in her grimy jeans and T-shirt, she looked all of fourteen years old.

Hell. Hell!

Get a hold on yourself, Mike Llewellyn, he told himself harshly. She’s only a woman, and you know your vow. So keep your thoughts to yourself. Hands off.

Easier said than done.

He had work to do here, he reminded himself. So do it!

He stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. Tessa’s eyes flew wide in panic, and she’d half risen from the bed before she realised he was smiling and shaking his head.

‘It’s OK, Tess. There’s no need to hit the panic button.’ He lifted the observation chart from the end of the bed and studied it while she regained her composure. ‘This looks great,’ he told her. ‘I wouldn’t have disturbed you but I wanted to talk to you before I started work for the day.’

She blinked, rubbed her eyes and checked the clock. It was seven a.m.

‘So…where’s your dog?’

‘He’s fast asleep. Where you should be.’

‘You’re here to do your ward rounds?’ she said cautiously, and he grinned. He lifted Henry’s wrist and nodded in satisfaction when Henry didn’t stir. Like Strop, Henry was soundly asleep. It looked like it’d take a bomb to wake him. He had fluids aboard, he had a comfortable bed and he had his granddaughter beside him. There was nothing he needed now but sleep.

‘I’ve done my ward rounds.’ He smiled down at her and the feeling of weird intimacy grew stronger. It was almost as if he’d known her in another life. In fact, it was just plain crazy! ‘The patients in this hospital are used to early morning calls,’ he said, trying to keep his voice steady. ‘I left you until last.’

‘Until last!’ She grimaced. ‘Gee, thanks, Dr Llewellyn. If this is a late call, remind me never to get sick in this hospital. I like my sleep.’

‘I thought you’d be grateful.’ His lazy smile deepened. ‘You can now do what most of my patients do,’ he told her kindly. ‘Enjoy the dawn chorus, have breakfast and then go back to getting some beauty sleep. That means go back to bed. You shouldn’t be here, Tess. You know we’ll take care of Henry. He’s sound asleep. The saline’s working, he’s rehydrating nicely and the antibiotic should kick in within twelve hours. With the fluid on board, he’s getting better by the minute.’

‘There’s no fluid output yet.’

‘You wouldn’t expect that,’ he said, and he had his voice under control again. ‘I’m hoping we got to him before there’s any long-term kidney damage.’

‘Even if there’s no kidney damage, it’s obvious he’s had a stroke,’ Tess said grimly. ‘And we don’t know how badly he’ll be affected.’

‘No. We don’t know that, and he’s far too weak to do any testing yet. But there are some good signs, Tess. The fact that he’s still alive now is a very good sign.’

‘Yeah, terrific.’

‘I mean it,’ he said seriously. ‘You realise Henry must have had the stroke five days ago. It’s obvious he has a hemiplegia. At the moment, the left side of his body seems almost totally paralysed. He’s slurring his speech and he appears confused.

‘But he’s survived for five days, Tess, and the only way he can have done that is if he’s had water. Also, there’s a pressure wound on his hip but it’s not a major one. It doesn’t look like he’s lain in the one position for five days. Therefore he must have been able to drag himself out of the cave and down to the creek and back again. If he’d been totally paralysed for five days, he’d be dead by now.’

‘So what are you saying?’

‘I’m saying that once he’s got his fluid balance back to normal-once he’s recovered from shock and exhaustion and we get on top of his chest infection-he may well make a full recovery from his stroke,’ he told her. ‘The fact that he was able to say your name last night was amazing, and even though he hasn’t spoken since the muscles must be still operating. That’s all I wanted to tell you, Dr Westcott. I’m sure you’ll figure it out for yourself, but it might take time and I don’t want a gloomy face scaring Henry into another stroke.’

‘My face is not gloomy,’ she said before she could stop herself, and he grinned.

‘Well, maybe you’re right,’ he agreed. ‘In fact, it’s not gloomy at all.’ He smiled down at her, and Tess found herself flushing under his careful scrutiny. ‘But fearful, though,’ he amended gently. ‘Fearful of your grandfather’s future.’

Her momentary lightness faded. ‘He’s at risk of another stroke, Mike. Isn’t he?’

She didn’t need to ask. She knew the odds.

‘He is,’ he said bluntly. There was no use giving false reassurance. ‘But you know we’ve started him on heparin as well as digoxin. I’m sure much of his weakness now is due to being left so long without attention rather than the stroke itself. I’d say, with good rehabilitation, we’ve a very strong chance of getting Henry back to his beloved farm. Between us, I think we’ve done an excellent night’s work.’

‘I guess…’

He looked down at Tess and his smile died. He could see what she was thinking.

Henry had been so near death. To have pulled him back…well, there were no guarantees now that Henry would be grateful-especially if he was left with a body that wouldn’t do as he commanded. To be left with partial paralysis…

‘I’m telling you, Tess, there can’t be major paralysis,’ he said gently, and his hand came down on the bed to cover hers. It was an unconscious action which he did with many patients, but he was suddenly acutely aware of the contact. He was acutely aware of the linking of their two hands. But he didn’t pull away.

‘No, but…’

‘But?’

‘He won’t be out of trouble in a week,’ she said sadly. ‘Or even a month. He can’t be. So what happens now?’ She stared down at her grandfather’s gaunt face and a muscle worked at the side of her mouth.

‘I won’t be able to return to the States now,’ she said at last. ‘I’ll have to stay.’

Mike frowned, but he was aware of a tiny jerk inside him. It was like something deep within was really pleased with the words he’d just heard.

Go for practicalities…

‘Where does that leave you?’ he asked. ‘Are you on leave from your job?’

‘I quit to come here.’

‘You quit?’

She looked up at him then, and her mouth twisted into a wry smile. She hadn’t moved her hand. It was still under his, and for the life of her she couldn’t find the energy to move it.

This man was her only comfort in all this.

‘It sounds dramatic, doesn’t it?’ She shrugged and managed a grin. ‘It’s not. I’ve been working in emergency medicine for the last two years. It’s been exciting but now… I’ve had enough excitement. I’m moving into family medicine.’

‘You have a job to go to?’

‘I’ve applied for a heap of positions in the States,’ she told him. ‘I was really just waiting to hear if-or where-I’ve been accepted when I had to leave to come here.’ Her gorgeous grin flashed out again. ‘If you must know, I’m expecting a pile of job offers-with salary commensurate with my expected lifestyle, of course-to be waiting when I get home. So it seemed only fair to tell the hospital I wouldn’t be back.’

‘So you’re a free agent?’

‘I guess. Until I have to start working to pay for food.’ She smiled again, that blindingly attractive smile that almost shook his socks off. ‘It seems to me that if Grandpa’s farming one sow, eight piglets and six goats and not a lot else, then I might be in trouble if I expect the farm to pay for my keep-and I don’t much fancy living on piglet.’

‘No.’ Mike gave Tess a smile in return, but his mind was racing.

Bill’s words were echoing strongly in his mind. ‘You have a duty here…’ And ‘We’d accept Doris the pig if only she had a medical degree.’

Hell!

The room was suddenly way too small.

The door opened. It was Bill, with a junior nurse in tow. Just as well. His blood pressure was climbing through the roof as he tried to think this through. ‘We’ve come to do the real work around here,’ Bill said cheerfully. The charge nurse looked from Tess to Mike with amused speculation and then watched as they selfconsciously disengaged hands. Hmm. Things were moving along nicely here. ‘Doctors aren’t wanted,’ he added, kindly forbearing to comment on the hand-holding. ‘Unless you have anything urgent to do here…’

‘I’m just going,’ Mike said curtly, in a voice that made Bill frown. ‘Let me know when he wakes, Bill.’

‘I’m staying,’ Tess said.

‘No.’ Mike shook his head. ‘No way. You need to sleep.’

‘I can sleep here,’ she told him. ‘I want to be here when Grandpa wakes.’

‘Tess…’

‘Butt out, Dr Llewellyn,’ she said firmly. ‘This is my grandpa. Go find a grandpa of your own.’

‘He has ten or so grandpas-grandmas, too-booked into surgery this morning,’ Bill said, grinning again. ‘He can choose.’

‘There you are, then,’ she said kindly. ‘Bye-bye, Dr Llewellyn. Off you go and care for the medical needs of the valley grandpas and grandmas en masse. We’ll cope with this one ourselves.’

And he was left with nothing to do but leave.

It’d be evening before he had an excuse to make another trip to Henry’s room, he thought as he closed the door reluctantly behind him. Unless Henry woke…

He hoped to hell that Henry woke. And it wasn’t just for Henry’s sake, either.

Mike worked flat out for the whole day, but Tess hardly left her grandfather’s side. Bill persuaded her to shower and change while he took over her watch, but apart from that she hardly left his side.

‘It’s just so hard,’ she told Bill, her voice strained. ‘I’m just trying to figure what to do for the best here. Maybe Mike’s right and he’ll make a full recovery, but meanwhile he can’t go back to the farm to live alone. Where’s the nearest rehabilitation unit?’

‘Melbourne.’

‘So unless he has someone at home to care for him-someone to help him do his exercises and make sure he’s safe-then he’ll have to go to the city. A few months of institutionalised living will make him unlikely to be able to care for himself again, and meanwhile someone has to care for the farm.’

‘The farm could be sold.’

‘No. That’s unthinkable.’

‘Why?’

Tess thought that one through. ‘I don’t know,’ she said slowly. ‘Or maybe… Maybe I do. From the time I was little, my dad talked of this place as home. He was homesick, but too pig-headed and proud to ever think about returning. Instead, he passed on his love to me. By the time I saw the farm and met Grandpa I was sixteen and felt like the place was where I belonged, and the three months I spent here as a teenager cemented that impression. I love it.’

‘You’re a farm girl?’ There were things that needed doing, but still Bill lingered. Tessa was desperate to talk to someone and he let her talk.

‘No way. I was raised in the city, but maybe I’m a farm girl at heart. That was why I decided to go into family medicine-so I could move to the country.’

He quirked an eyebrow. ‘Eat a lot of peaches?’

Tess grinned. ‘OK, so I’m an idealistic twit!’

He smiled. ‘Don’t knock it. Idealistic twits are valued in this hospital.’

‘You mean, that’s what Mike is?’

‘Hey, I didn’t say that.’

‘No, but…’ Tess hesitated. ‘Maybe you don’t have to. Mike has a medical practice which must take all his time and more, but somehow he organised his work so he could spend a night searching for Grandpa. When we arrived back here last night, there were two more patients to be seen before he went to bed, and I don’t have to ask why he was up so early this morning. He was paying now for his time off last night. He’s some doctor. He has the most wonderful car and the craziest dog…’

‘Sounds like he’s won a heart,’ Bill said with a chuckle. Then, as a buzzer sounded down the hall, he grimaced and waved a hand in farewell. ‘Duty calls. I’ll leave you to your plans, then, Dr Westcott, and I’ll be very interested to know what they are.’

‘And so will I,’ Tess muttered as the door closed behind him. ‘Because if you’re making plans around Mike, then you’re an airdreamer, Tess Westcott.’

And then she swerved to look down at the bed. Henry was stirring-and he was watching her.

‘An airdreamer…’ Henry’s voice was a slurred whisper, but it was enough. Tessa’s face burst into joy, and she buried her face into his shoulder.

‘Oh, Grandpa…’

‘I thought you were a dream,’ he whispered into her mass of hair. ‘My Tess. An airdream… Is that the same thing?’

‘Nope.’ She lifted her head and looked at him, long and lovingly. ‘I’m real. I’m a hundred per cent accounted for. I was just making plans.’

‘Plans?’

‘Plans for me. Plans for you. And…’ she took a deep breath ‘…plans for Mike Llewellyn.’

‘I see.’ The ghost of a twisted smile played on Henry’s face.

‘I bet you don’t see at all.’ She lifted her grandfather’s gnarled old hand and rubbed it against her cheek. ‘I don’t see things very clearly myself. I only see that you’re alive. I have you back again.’

‘And you’re here, girl. If you knew how much I’d wanted you…’

‘Oh, Grandpa.’ Her voice broke with emotion. Then she caught herself and managed a glare. ‘Hey, haven’t I always told you to be careful? What do you mean by taking yourself off to that cave to have a stroke?’

‘Is that what I’ve had?’ The left side of Henry’s mouth wasn’t working properly. Each word was a twisted effort. ‘A stroke?’

‘Looks like it.’ Tessa’s voice softened and her hand gripped her grandfather’s with love. ‘It’s a mild one, but definitely a stroke.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. So, why the cave, Grandpa?’

‘I was feeling lousy,’ he told her, his mouth forming each word with care. ‘I had a king-sized headache I couldn’t shake. I knew you were ringing Saturday night so I took the afternoon to visit the cave. Just in case…’ He grimaced. ‘It was like…if it was something serious I could say goodbye.’

‘So if it was something serious you could lie for five days without medical help!’

‘Do you have to be bossy?’ Henry’s voice was a frail thread, and she chuckled.

‘Yeah. You know me, Grandpa.’

‘The original Miss Bossy-Boots.’

He fell silent, exhausted, and it was ten minutes before he spoke again. Mike had told her to ring him when Henry woke but Tess resisted. There was time enough in the future to let the world break in. For now she was content to be alone with Henry.

‘So what plans are you making for Mike Llewellyn?’ he whispered at last, and she started.

‘Oh, nothing.’

‘Tell me.’

‘Well, it’s just that Mike is overworked, overgenerous and over-endowed with niceness-plus, he has more than his fair share of good looks.’ She twinkled. ‘And I need to stay here and look after you but I also need an income. So…’

‘So?’

‘So I might just have chosen myself a partner,’ she said simply. ‘If he’ll have me.’

‘And if he won’t?’

‘Then we’ll just have to think of a way to make him change his mind.’