Storm Haven

CHAPTER EIGHT

LUKE left her with five minutes to spare.

Luckily Amy chose this morning to sleep late, so Nikki was able to shower and pull her disordered mind back into some sort of control before her daughter and their visitor burst in.

‘Luke’s in the swimming-pool,’ Amy informed her. ‘Beattie says we can swim too, but will you come as well?’ Then she frowned at her mother. ‘You look different.’

‘I wore this dress a couple of days ago,’ Nikki said self-consciously. It was one that Charlotte had sent. ‘Don’t you like it?’

‘I remember. It’s a pretty dress,’ Amy agreed. She eyed her mother up and down. ‘It’s not that that’s different. It’s…’ She stopped. ‘I don’t know what it is.’

‘Your mum’s smiley,’ Karen announced suddenly. ‘She’s not usually smiley.’

‘Well, I hope your mum’s smiley today too,’ Nikki said softly, stooping to give Karen a swift hug. The hug did more than show affection to the little girl. It also enabled Nikki to hide her mounting colour. ‘She’s coming to see you today, and maybe she’ll take you for a walk to show you your new house.’

‘Will I go back home today?’

‘We’ll get you moved into your new house first,’ Nikki promised. ‘Karen, it might be a week or two before your mum’s got things under control. Do you think you can put up with us for that long?’

Karen nodded solemnly. ‘I like it here,’ she said seriously. ‘And if you think Mum needs a rest…’

‘I think you both need a rest,’ Nikki told her. ‘When your arm’s a bit better and you can go back to being your mum’s best helper then we’ll send you home so fast we won’t see you for dust. Faster than a speeding bullet…’

‘Faster even than Superman…’ Amy giggled. ‘I like having Karen here. Mummy, are you coming swimming with Luke?’

Nikki shook her head. ‘No.’ She dared not. The thought of Luke in the swimming-pool…The thought of Luke anywhere at all was enough to turn her knees to water. She needed strong black coffee and some distance between them. ‘You girls go,’ she ordered.

‘But Luke’s waiting!’

‘Let him wait!’

Once again they breakfasted by the side of the pool. Whispering Palms was transformed, Nikki thought fleetingly as the children’s laughter sounded across the water. Beattie was beaming and affable. She kept looking from Luke to Nikki and back again, and Nikki knew exactly what was in her mind.

‘You need to find yourself a nice new man,’ Beattie had told Nikki over and over again, and now, seemingly, one had found her cherished Dr Nikki. And such a nice young man! Beattie handed out extra pancakes and her smile broadened.

‘Are you staying home to study all day?’ Beattie asked Nikki, refilling her coffee-cup, and Nikki nodded.

‘Though I’ll have to go in to the hospital first,’ she told the housekeeper. She was carefully avoiding Luke’s eyes. ‘I need to check Mrs McDonald.’

‘I can do that,’ Luke told her lazily.

‘No.’ Nikki flushed and stared intently at her cup of coffee. ‘Lara’s my midwifery patient and I should see her.’

‘Suits me.’ To her surprise Luke didn’t argue. He pushed back his chair. ‘Thanks for breakfast, Beattie.’ He lifted his brows at Nikki. ‘Coming, then?’

He could as well have kissed her. His eyes smiled at Nikki as he moved to help her rise and she felt herself flush to the core of her being. She felt beautiful and desirable and…and loved. Oh, if only she were…

There was a minor hiccup. Luke had been using Nikki’s car and Beattie needed the house car to take the girls to school and kindergarten. ‘It’s no problem,’ Luke told her as Nikki voiced doubts. ‘I’ll drop you back after the hospital rounds. You’ll still be home in time for enough study to suit your rigid requirements.’ Nikki looked up at him suspiciously but he wasn’t laughing. He wouldn’t laugh at her, she thought suddenly. He’d laugh with her maybe, but not at her.

They found Lara McDonald perched up in bed eyeing her breakfast dubiously. ‘Do you think I should?’ she asked as Nikki and Luke entered.

Luke grinned. ‘I don’t see why not, do you, Dr Russell?’

‘Not too much,’ Nikki advised. She crossed to the bed. ‘Feeling better, then?’

‘A hundred per cent.’ Mrs McDonald took a deep breath. ‘You know, maybe some of the pain was just fear. I thought the baby was coming and it got worse.’

‘It happens.’ Nikki lifted the chart and smiled at what she saw. ‘Everything’s fine, then. I see no reason why your husband can’t take you home this afternoon. Stay until after lunch, though. We’ll see. how your tummy responds to breakfast first.’

‘He won’t want me home.’ The woman smiled shyly. ‘He cossets me that much! If he had his way I’d stay in hospital for the next two months.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t blame him. This baby means so much to both of us.’

‘I know,’ Nikki said gently.

‘Well, maybe you don’t,’ the woman said. ‘You had your baby young, if I remember right. My husband and I, though-well, we’ve been trying for ten years. Ten years is a lot of time to be without a baby when you really want one.’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know how people cope when they can’t have children. I think…I think I might have gone mad.’

‘Or maybe you would have found the strength to cope,’ Nikki said gently, trying hard not to look up at Luke. ‘There’s more to life than having children.’

‘You say that, but then you have your daughter,’ Lara said firmly. ‘And maybe I’ll say that when I’ve got my brood safely round me. But not until then.’

A slight sound made Nikki turn. Luke had quietly left while the woman talked, closing the door behind him.

‘Oh,’ the woman in the bed said. ‘He’s gone. I guess he’s in a hurry and I was wasting your time with my small talk.’ She looked up at Nikki. ‘Such a nice man,’ she smiled.

‘Yes,’ said Nikki dully. ‘Such a nice man.’

There was little else for Nikki to do. All the other patients in the hospital had been handed over to Luke. She spent ten minutes in the office going through correspondence and then made her way back out to the car. Luke appeared fifteen minutes later.

‘There should be a taxi service in this town,’ Nikki said lightly as he lowered himself into the car beside her. For once, Luke’s face was set and grim. Nikki turned away, not wanting to see the etching of pain in the lines around his eyes.

’It’s no problem to drive you back.’

’No. But it’ll make you late for surgery.’

’Will you dock my pay if I’m late?’ Luke demanded, and Nikki swung back towards him, surprised by the intensity of his tone.

’Don’t be daft.’

He laughed without humour. ‘It’s happened before. Being a locum is the pits.’

‘So why do you do it?’

Luke’s mouth tightened even further. He swung the little car out of the car park and was silent for the rest of the drive home.

That was the last time they talked for the day. Back at Whispering Palms, Nikki left the car without a word. For the life of her she couldn’t think of a thing to say. Tackle what’s really wrong, her medical training told her. Probe the hurt. And yet…And yet this was the man she loved and she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hurt him further.

She spent the rest of the day desultorily studying, but to her surprise she achieved a lot. ‘I’m in danger of passing this blasted exam,’ she told her reflection as she dressed for dinner. ‘Which makes Luke Marriott’s arrival well worth while.’

The thought held no comfort at all. Nikki stared bleakly at her reflection and then turned away. What on earth was happening to her nice ordered life? She had no idea.

Luke wasn’t in his customary position in the kitchen when she appeared. Beattie shook her head disapprovingly at Nikki’s questioning look. ‘He won’t be in,’ she said tightly. ‘Rang and said he had a case out the other side of town. It’s only Verity Birchip. I told him if he spent his life running all the way out to Birchips for every one of Verity’s imaginary ills he’d have his work cut out for him, but he wouldn’t listen. Said he’d grab something to eat in town and be home late.’

‘Maybe there really is something wrong with Verity,’ Nikki said mildly.

‘That’ll be the day,’ Beattie snorted. ‘You mark my words-Verity Birchip’ll go to her grave swearing she has something the medical textbooks haven’t even heard of and demanding to know why the heck the doctors are worrying about her dying of old age when she’s got something far more interesting.’

Nikki managed a chuckle and Beattie looked at her closely.

‘What’s the matter, then, lass?’

‘Nothing.’ Nikki crossed to the cutlery drawer to avoid Beattie’s penetrating gaze.

‘Something is. And it wouldn’t be why Dr Luke had suddenly decided to spend tonight out, would it?’

‘Beattie Gilchrist, you’re out of line!’

‘You’d say that to your own mother.’ Beattie crossed her arms and fixed Nikki with a look. ‘And it’s your substitute mother talking now. Nikki Russell, if you play your cards right-’

‘Beattie, be quiet.’ Nikki clapped her hands on her ears and glared at her housekeeper. If only Beattie knew that Nikki was playing every card she had-and it wasn’t going to be enough.

There was a long silence, and then, thankfully, the door burst open and two small girls tore in.

‘We’re starving,’ Amy said breathlessly. ‘Mummy, where’s Dr Luke?’

‘He’s out on a call,’ Nikki told her abruptly, stooping to kiss her small daughter. She smiled down at Karen. ‘How was your day, Karen?’

‘Good,’ the little girl said seriously. She appeared to consider the question. ‘Mummy picked me up after school and took me around to see the house she’s been offered. We think…’ Despite her solemn tone the child’s face suddenly twisted into a smile. ‘We think it will be satisfactory. It has one bedroom for Mummy, one for the girls, one for the boys and…and one left over. And it’s nice! It’s even got an inside toilet!’

‘That’s great.’ Nikki swooped to give Karen a hard hug. ‘And when does Mummy think she might be able to move?’

‘The lady at the hospital has offered to look after the littlies.’ Karen was back to being solemn-an eight-year-old matron. ‘Mummy says it will take her a week to have everything sorted out. She said if I was able to help she’d be much faster, and she really misses me.’ Karen looked up anxiously. ‘She said she’s really sorry she hurt me. She said she was so worried she went a bit crazy, but you and Dr Luke are fixing it up so she’ll never get like that again. She cried, and she hugged me and…I…I don’t think she’ll do it again.’ ‘I don’t think she will either,’ Nikki told her, with a small rush of relief. Sandra was talking to her child. The lines of communication were open and, by the sound of it, Karen still considered them friends. Sandra was still only twenty-two and her relationship with her daughter might always be more one of friendship than mother-daughter-but then, that was OK too.

’Can I go home when she’s moved in?’

’Of course you can, sweetheart,’ Nikki assured her, and made herself a promise to contact Sandra the next day. By the look of things the situation was improving rapidly, but it needed to.

It was a long night. Nikki read the girls to sleep, and then went back to her study. Every time a car came up the road she let her book fall as she listened, but it was close to midnight when Luke finally came home. Nikki listened to the brisk tread of steps along the hall and then his bedroom door closing firmly behind him.

She was being shut out. Whatever intimacy had existed between them last night had ceased to exist now.

She prepared herself for bed and climbed between cool sheets in her lonely bed. Last night Luke had been here. Last night…The memory of him was all around her and he was so close…

The night was hot. Above her head the wooden ceiling fan lazily stirred the air but it wasn’t enough. Nikki tossed and turned as she struggled for sleep, but it wasn’t forthcoming.

Finally she could bear it no longer. She slipped out of bed and padded along the bare wooden boards of the hall. Her naked feet made no sound.

There was a light shining underneath Luke’s door. Nikki hesitated for a moment and then, taking a deep breath, softly knocked.

Silence. Had he gone to sleep with the light on? Then, as she turned reluctantly away, afraid to go further, the door opened inwards.

Luke was still fully clothed. He had been working. The desk behind him was strewn with papers, and a pen had been tossed hastily aside. All this Nikki saw before Luke moved to block her view.

‘What is it?’ he asked abruptly, and Nikki flinched.

‘I…I couldn’t sleep.’

He looked down at her for a long moment, his eyes inscrutable as he took in her slim form scantily clad in her wispy cotton nightdress. ‘I dare say you have sleeping-tablets in your bag,’ he said roughly at last.

Nikki drew in her breath. ‘I don’t need a sleepingtablet,’ she managed angrily. ‘I need to talk.’

‘What about?’

‘Luke Marriott, what the hell is going on?’ Despite her struggle for dignity and control, Nikki’s voice rose. Her words echoed down the darkened corridor and instinctively she looked towards the door behind which the children slept. ‘Luke, can I come in?’

‘No.’

‘Why the hell not?’ Suddenly Nikki’s fragile hold on her temper snapped. ‘What are you playing at? Last night you treated me as the most desirable woman you knew and tonight…tonight you don’t even want to talk to me. What have I done to deserve being treated like a one-night stand?’

Her voice was a whisper, intense, angry and wavering. To her fury she felt hot tears slip down her cheeks, and she brushed them away angrily with her hand.

Behind them she heard the sound of a child stir in her sleep and cough. Nikki winced. Luke stood before her, implacable and immovable. Remote.

‘Damn you, Luke Marriott,’ she whispered brokenly, and turned away.

He moved then. In two swift strides he caught her, seized her shoulders and swung her round to face him.

Away from the light of the open door Nikki couldn’t make out his expression. Not that she looked. She was aware that her body was trembling as she tried to stay rigid in his grasp.

‘Hell,’ he muttered savagely.

‘It is,’ Nikki whispered. ‘Maybe you’d better let me go, Luke.’

‘Nikki…’

The child coughed again and Luke swore. Seizing Nikki’s hand, he pulled her forward into his bedroom and closed the door behind him.

Silence stretched out between them. Within the small room, Luke released her. Nikki stood numbly against the closed door, her hand idly rubbing her arm. There would be bruising there where he had pulled her.

‘God, Nikki, I’m sorry.’

The words were wrung from him. Nikki looked up at him, her eyes dull and heavy. ‘For making love to me?’ she asked flatly.

‘I never meant to.’

‘No.’ She kept rubbing her arm as if by doing so she could assuage some of the hurt in her heart. ‘I don’t suppose you did. Charlotte said…’

‘Charlotte?’

‘My friend in Cairns. She said you couldn’t help yourself where…where women were concerned.’

‘God, Nikki, last night was different.’ He turned away, his voice agonised. ‘I’d say that anyway, wouldn’t I?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s the truth.’ He turned back to her and- grasped her shoulders. ‘It’s the truth but it still can’t make a difference to the final outcome. The truth is that I was mad. I forgot…I don’t want you, Nikki. I don’t want a woman. Not now. Not ever.’

‘That’s not how it felt last night.’

‘No. But last night…last night I was crazy. Just for a little…’

‘You forgot that you can’t father a child?’ Nikki took a deep breath. ‘Is that what it is, Luke?’

‘No. Yes.’ He thrust her back from him. ‘God, Nikki, you’re so lovely. You stand there and all I want to do is make love to you and…’

‘And what?’ Nikki said gently. ‘Luke, you accused me of shutting the world out. Aren’t you doing the same thing?’

‘Leave it, Nikki,’ he said roughly.

‘No.’ Nikki shook her head, her red-gold hair tossing from side to side. ‘You’ve hauled me from my splendid isolation and now…now you’re telling me I’m really alone after all.’

‘You’re not alone. You have your daughter… Beattie…this town…’

‘Oh, yes. That’s not what you said a week ago.’

‘Nikki, it doesn’t matter.’ Luke’s eyes hardened. ‘Whatever I said, whatever I’ve done doesn’t alter the fact that I want no one. I should never have made love to you, because, of course, you want more…’

Nikki’s green eyes flashed. She took a deep breath. ‘You arrogant toad!’ she spat.

‘I meant…’ He rubbed his hand wearily through his hair. ‘Nikki, I didn’t mean that to sound…I just mean that lovemaking implies emotional commitment and I can’t give that. Not now. Not ever.’

‘Not ever’. The phrase echoed harshly around them. Nikki took a ragged breath and leaned against the door. At least he was honest. Last night…Last night she had thought it would be enough. Now…Now she hated his damned honesty.

She hated him. He was avoiding the issue. Running. Just like her father. Just like Scott…

So what was left? Their professional relationship. She could tell him to get out of her house now-or somehow she could act professional. One doctor to another…

‘How was Mrs Birchip?’ she asked suddenly.

‘Mrs Birchip?’ Luke looked blank.

‘The lady you spent the night with.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You did a house call to Verity Birchip,’ Nikki said coldly, striving desperately for a return to normality. ‘And it kept you all night.’

‘Oh.’ Luke’s blank look suddenly faded and he managed a smile. ‘Mrs Birchip thinks she has heredity.’

‘Heredity?’ It was Nikki’s turn to sound blank.

‘She read somewhere that heredity can cause all sorts of problems, so she thinks she’s got it. I suspected a bad cold, but she’s sure it’s heredity.’

‘You know, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprise if she’s right,’ Nikki said slowly. ‘It would explain a lot.’

And Luke managed to grin. ‘Yeah…’

So this was all there was. Over. A fine romance, Nikki thought bitterly. Gone the way of all the loves in her life. Walking away from her.

Nikki drew in her breath. ‘I guess…I guess I’d better go to bed, then.’

‘I think you should,’ Luke said gently. His smile faded. ‘Nikki, I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t.’ It was practically a cry. She bit her lip and then gestured to the pile of papers on his desk. ‘I’m…I’m sorry I interrupted you. What…what were you doing?’

‘I’m writing a newspaper column.’

Nikki’s eyes widened. ‘A news…What sort of newspaper column?’

‘“Who Cares?”’

‘“Who Cares?”’ Nikki stared in amazement. In disbelief she crossed to the desk and stared down. There were loose sheaves of handwritten pleas for help, and attached to each was a neatly written paragraph. Nikki picked up and read the first note.

Dear Doctor,

My fifteen-year-old daughter has one breast bigger than the other and I can’t get her to agree to visit our family doctor. I know she’s scared stiff she’ll be like this forever…

Then there was the response, carefully worded under the major heading ‘Who Cares?’.

And Nikki didn’t have to read the response. She had read ‘Who Cares?’ every week for the past eighteen months with a growing sense of admiration for the measured, careful and caring responses given by the anonymous answering doctor. She knew just what the reply would be-a careful reassurance, amusing anecdotes of ‘lopsided adolescents I have known’ as well as a plea to back up the reassurance by a visit to the girl’s own doctor.

Nikki let the sheaf of papers fall to the table. ‘You’re the doctor behind “Who Cares?”,’ she whispered. She stared. This was making less and less sense. The column must pay well. Why then was he doing locums?

‘Yes.’ He came abruptly forward and pushed the papers into a folder. ‘I started doing it while I was ill.’

‘For the money?’

He laughed without humour. ‘You guessed it. And besides…’

‘It’s a job you can do without people.’

‘Nikki, I’m not trying to avoid people.’

‘Only involvement.’

‘Look who’s talking.’

‘You still think I’m trying to avoid involvement?’ Nikki demanded. She put her hand wearily to her eyes. ‘I think…I think I’m cured.’

He looked hard at her then, his eyes narrowing. ‘Nikki, I-’

‘You don’t want to hear,’ Nikki finished for him. ‘Well, you’re going to. You came up here for God knows what reason, but whatever your motive you decided on a nice, Boy Scout objective. Get Dr Russell out of herself. Involve her with the human race again. Teach her to love.’

‘Nikki, I didn’t mean-’

‘I don’t care what you meant.’ Tears welled up in Nikki’s eyes and she turned away. ‘And I don’t care what you were trying to do. All I know is that I love you…’

There. The words were said. She could do no more. This man was all she wanted in life and she had laid her heart on a plate for him to take. If he wanted it…

It seemed he didn’t. He stood motionless for a long moment and then came to turn her gently towards him. ‘Nikki, don’t,’ he said gently.

‘Cry? Why the hell not? Isn’t falling in love with yet another man who doesn’t want me something to cry about?’ She wrenched back away from him, her fingers searching for the doorknob while she watched his face. It was bleak and hard. Whatever she said would make no difference.

‘Nikki, I’m sorry,’ he said softly. Implacably. There was no love for her in the words.

‘I’ll bet you are,’ Nikki whispered. She shrugged. ‘And so am I.’

Her fingers found the knob and twisted. Nikki turned and walked out of the room. Regardless of sleeping children and housekeeper, she slammed the door. Hard.

She hadn’t stalked more than three feet from the door when the front doorbell rang.

Nikki stopped dead. Now what?

Her hand flew up to her tear-stained face. Great. If she was needed now…

Luke’s bedroom door opened again as he too heard the bell. ‘I’ll go,’ he said roughly. ‘You’d better wash your face and pull yourself together.’

Great. Professional caring and sympathy. And to make it worse he was right. Nikki watched him stride along the passage and if she’d had something in her hand she would have thrown it. Something hard and big, she thought savagely. Something that would break into a million fragments and release some of the awful tension within her.

Instead of which she went meekly back into her bedroom to repair some of the ravages of the last few minutes.

She had hardly started before Luke was back. His knock on her door showed as little respect as Nikki had for the still sleeping occupants of the house.

‘Nikki, I need you.’

Like hell you do, Nikki thought bitterly. You don’t need anyone, Luke Marriott. She didn’t say it, though. Instead she let her robe slip to the floor, hauled on the dress she’d been wearing that afternoon and opened the door. ‘What’s wrong?’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘Are you fit to operate?’

‘Of course.’ Nikki’s hands were fumbling to fasten the front buttons on her dress, and once again she cursed fate at having sent Luke to stay in this house. She was forced to be intimate in such surroundings.

‘We’ve a nasty tear and fracture to repair A fisherman got his hand caught in a cray-pot rope. It’s darn near torn off his thumb.’

Nikki nodded. It happened. The fishermen worked fast and often didn’t stop the motor when they dropped the pots. Occasionally one fouled on a propeller. There had been a couple of nasty accidents since Nikki had started practising.

‘I usually send them down to Cairns,’ she said quietly, trying to make her voice sound professional and detached. ‘I can’t…I don’t have the skills…’

‘I do.’ He was striding away. ‘Ring the hospital and tell them to prepare Theatre. Then come. I’ll drive him down.’

‘He’s here?’ Nikki’s eyes widened.

‘He’s currently making a mess of Beattie’s hall,’ Luke said grimly. ‘His mates were set on a night prawning and wouldn’t interrupt to take him to the hospital. They dropped him at the wharf and he walked up here because Whispering Palms is closer than the hospital.’

‘Good grief.’ Nikki frowned in disbelief.

‘Hurry, Luke told her, turning away. ‘The kid’s lost a lot of blood and the thumb’s hanging by a thread. The faster we get it sewn back, the more chance he has of keeping it.’

‘The kid…’

‘He’s not much more than a teenager…’

It was a fiddly, delicate operation. Once more Eurong was in luck having Luke as acting locum, Nikki thought reflectively, knowing that if the boy had been sent to Cairns his thumb would have been well and truly dead by the time they got him there.

As it was he had a good chance of keeping it. Luke meticulously cleaned the shattered bone, inserted a tiny metal pin which would hold the bones together and then slowly stitched the mass of torn muscle and flesh back into the shape of a thumb. He used skills Nikki could only wonder at.

It took hours. The first trace of dawn was showing through the big south window of the operating theatre as Luke finally raised his head.

That’s it,’ he said wearily. ‘The best we can do.’ He moved to adjust the intravenous line. It was feeding antibiotics through, which hopefully would keep the wound free of infection. Infection now would mean all their work was wasted.

It was considerate of Luke to include Nikki in his assessment of what had been done, but the work had been Luke’s. Nikki’s job as anaesthetist had been relatively easy, keeping a fit and healthy nineteenyear-old asleep for the time it had taken.

‘Well done,’ she said softly to Luke, signalling one of the nurses to assist him with his gown. He looked exhausted, and Nikki suddenly remembered that the man had been ill himself. Was he completely recovered?

‘Is Mr Payne here yet?’ she asked the charge sister. Jim Payne had given permission for himself to be operated on-at nineteen he was able to do so-and in response to their enquiries he had replied that his dad didn’t give a stuff anyway. Beneath her hands the boy stirred as he took over his own breathing.

‘Not as far as I know,’ Andrea told Nikki. ‘We telephoned home but no one answered. I guess his dad will still be at sea.’

Luke frowned down at the boy. ‘Does he have any other family?’ He had been scrubbing while Nikki had questioned the boy earlier.

‘Only his father here,’ Nikki said grimly. ‘His father owns the boat Jim works on. He would have been the one to put Jim off last night.’

‘With instructions to walk to hospital.’ Luke stared down at their still sleeping patient. The boy was pale beneath his weathered complexion. At nineteen he still looked very young-and very vulnerable. ‘Some people don’t deserve to have children,’ he said softly.

‘No.’ Nikki shook her head. ‘There are some cases where parents can’t seem to help mistreating their children-like Sandra Mears. It’s just the build-up of hardship that proves too much for them. But Bert Payne’s different…He’s always been rough and uncaring. Jim’s mum took off when Bert’s roughness finally got too much for her, and since then Jim’s had to cope with it alone.’

Luke’s mouth twisted into a grimace, ‘Poor bloody kid,’ he said softly. ‘I’ve given him back his thumb, but what sort of chance does he have?’

‘He’ll survive,’ the nurse told them. ‘The Paynes are tough.’

‘Yeah. And toughness breeds toughness. Next generation…’

‘Well, maybe he’ll marry a nice girl who gives him all the cuddles he’s missed out on,’ Nikki said roundly.

‘Ah, yes. The happy ending.’ There was no mistaking the derision behind Luke’s words and Nikki flushed.

‘I’ll finish up here,’ she said tightly. ‘You’re tired.’

‘Feeling sorry for me, Dr Russell?’

Nikki’s eyes flew up to his and flashed fire.

‘No,’ she said between her teeth. ‘I just want to get rid of you.’