Offering the mother a small smile and a brief word, Oti made her way from the tetanus hut to the main medical tent and began to familiarise herself with the new cases that had come in during the couple of weeks since she’d left. She was so absorbed in her work that she didn’t notice Amelia join her until she felt herself embraced in a huge hug.
‘You dark horse.’ Her friend laughed. ‘You never said anything about getting married. Congratulations!’
Delight swept through Oti, though it was swiftly followed by a stab of guilt.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t say anything,’ she began, returning the embrace. ‘I just...’
‘I get it—you didn’t want to jinx it.’
‘Something like that,’ Oti lied, feeling another jab of shame, especially when Amelia linked her arm.
‘What did they tell me his name is—Luke?’
‘Lukas,’ Oti clarified, waiting for her friend to connect the dots. But Amelia was already focusing on her patients. ‘I’ll introduce you later. Maybe at lunch, if there isn’t a sudden influx.’
She didn’t know why she’d said that. More for something to say than anything else, but her colleague looked up in surprise.
‘There’s a supply drop coming in at lunchtime. Your husband went with the loggies to collect it. They left a few hours ago. You didn’t know?’
Lukas had already joined the logisticians on a supply run? And notably one that would keep them away from camp for a few days.
Oti plastered a smile on her face. ‘Ah, well, I can introduce you when they get back. By the look of all these new cases, we won’t be getting out of here for a couple of days, anyway.’
‘I hear you.’ Amelia offered a wry smile. ‘Come on, let me introduce you to Jalka. She was admitted a few days ago after suffering from a miscarriage at fifteen weeks and after carrying out tests we discovered she’s suffering from malaria.’
Oti nodded grimly. Out here malaria accounted for just under half the miscarriages and stillbirths that their medical camp saw.
‘Haemoglobin levels?’
‘Investigative screening showed a level of around half normal levels, at four point eight,’ Amelia confirmed. ‘We were lucky that her mother was a safe match and prepared to donate blood for her.’
‘Great.’ It was good to hear that she had a relative.
Superstition often prevented blood donations, and certainly not to a stranger. If the patient didn’t have a relative who was a match and cleared by the lab technicians as a safe donor, it was often hard to find any blood to donate.
Consequently, Oti had known the volunteer doctors and nurses come off twenty-hour shifts, only to donate their own blood, in the hope that it might save a life.
‘And this was a few days ago?’ Oti confirmed.
‘Yep, your task today is a relatively pleasant one to get you back into the swing of it.’ Her colleague grinned. ‘Carry out a final test on Jalka and, hopefully, discharge her with iron tablets. She should be free to return home.’
‘Great.’ Oti smiled. ‘If only they were all that pleasant.’
* * *
‘À gauche...à gauche,’ Lukas relayed to the driver, Jean-Christophe, as he received instructions over the walkie-talkie from the vehicle that had gone ahead of them.
It had been several days of bumpy driving and the recent rains meant it was all only just passable. Even so, they had finally managed to reach the airstrip to collect the supplies and were finally on their way back to camp. To Oti.
He thrust the thought from his mind.
Had it not been for the skill of their drivers, Lukas was fairly certain they’d have been bogged down in mud more than just the once so far.
It had been unexpectedly satisfying leaping out with the rest of the team to push the four-by-four out of the mud and dirt. The physical exertion had somehow helped towards clearing his mind, just as he’d hoped getting out of the compound would do.
Getting away from Oti.
Spending the night next to her in bed, pretending to himself that he didn’t ache to simply turn over and haul her back into his arms, had been torturous. If he’d thought it had been challenging those last few days back in the UK, keeping his distance from her by spending most of his time at the office, then being stuck in that compound with her for the next month or so was going to be agonising.
He’d needed to find something to do that would exhaust him both mentally and physically. By the looks of things, working with the logisticians would be an ideal solution. From everything he’d been able to glean so far, there were two main areas of work in the HOP camps. The medical team who took care of all the patients and the logistics team who took care of everything else, from the erection of the tents and huts to the working of the generators, the digging of wells, going on supply runs—the list seemed never-ending.
Just the kind of work that Lukas felt he could really get his teeth into—getting back to the mechanical work he had always enjoyed, even from a kid back in that garage. Before LVW Industries had even been a dream.
And exactly the kind of thing that could help him keep his mind off his new wife.
Right?
‘We should have to be stopping soon,’ one of the other logisticians in the back, a softly spoken German lad, announced. ‘It is time we are stoking the generator in the truck.’
‘I’ll alert the other vehicles,’ Lukas confirmed, picking up the walkie-talkie again, grateful that they had given him something tangible to do rather than just being a useless addition to the team.
They’d claimed it wasn’t a big deal, and that they were so shattered that handing over to someone else would free them up to grab a few extra hours’ kip in the back seat. But it didn’t matter to Lukas so long as he was a valuable member of the team.
He didn’t give free rides in business, so he certainly didn’t intend to accept them on this posting. And already, he thought, he was beginning to understand why Oti had spent the better part of the past four years so committed to the charity.
‘José says there’s a bit of a flat area on higher ground a couple of kilometres down the road.’ Lukas replaced the handset again. ‘He thinks that would be the most logical place to stop. Less chance of any of the vehicles getting bogged down.’
‘D’accord.’ Jean-Christophe signalled his agreement. ‘Okay. I stop there. But you are ready for interrogation from José, yes?’
‘Sorry?’ Lukas turned sharply to the laughing driver.
‘You have of the luck, travelling with us. This is first mission in this camp for Alex and me, and we are not knowing Oti much well. But José is knowing her for years. He is nice guy, but he is not knowing about you, and I am thinking that he is not being happy.’
‘Something to look forward to, then.’ Lukas grinned.
‘Yes, indeed.’ Jean-Christophe laughed all the harder.
Lukas settled back, unconcerned. He wasn’t bothered about José asking him questions, or anyone else for that matter. In truth, the closeness of the team was a good thing. Oti had likened it to a close family and now he could see what she’d meant. And that should make it easier for her when their marriage—their fake marriage—finally came to an end.
She would have this job, and this family, to come back to. A place where she felt safer, surrounded by people who cared about her. So why did the prospect fill him with something that felt less like relief...and more like jealousy?
‘There. Là-bas.’ Lukas indicated suddenly, rounding a bend to see one of the vehicles ahead of them heading up a dirt path on the side of a slight hill.
There had to be a turn-off somewhere; it didn’t look as though this road headed that way. It didn’t help to peer through the fly-splattered windscreen—water being too much of a luxury to waste too often, especially not on the passenger side—he stuck his head out of the window.
‘About one hundred metres—there looks to be a turn-off.’
Really, it was more of a muddy patch, but it looked promising. Jean-Christophe clearly agreed since, as he reached the point Lukas had indicated, he turned the wheel carefully, inching the vehicle between the worst of the mud pit and the rocky outcrop on the other side.
The road—not that it could be called that—was so narrow that Lukas wondered how the truck driver had navigated it without the wheels sliding off the side. But by the time they arrived on the flatter top, the other two vehicles were already parked in a circle along with two more old charity cars he didn’t recognise. A small group was gathered around the truck, looking concerned.
Jumping out, Lukas, Jean-Christophe and Alex all hurried over to join them. And as they stepped aside he caught sight of Oti in the middle of the group.
What the hell is she even doing here? he thought as his stomach lurched—but, tellingly, it was a good lurch, not a bad one.
Without a word, they edged slightly away from the group, just as the driver was telling them the generator to the truck had packed in, and Alex the loggie was stepping forward to take a closer look.
‘I didn’t plan this,’ Oti began quietly. ‘We just knew you guys were heading back this way, and there’s a camp in this direction where we’ve been intending to run a measles vaccination drive for months. We just didn’t have the supplies.’
‘So you thought you’d save time and meet us en route.’ Lukas kept his tone steady. ‘It makes sense.’
What made less sense was quite how erratic his pulse was. He could feel it slamming around, especially at his neck.
‘Exactly.’ She looked relieved. ‘So, we’re...good?’
‘Sure.’
He didn’t feel good. He felt something a whole lot more—almost dangerously so. He wanted to say something. Or, worse, do something. Like touch her. Taste her.
With deliberate nonchalance, he turned back to the group in time to hear Alex deliver his verdict.
‘Looks like the filter, maybe?’ he declared. ‘But we’d need Clem to fix it.’
‘Who’s Clem?’ Lukas asked as a rumble of concern made its way around the group.
‘Clem is mechanic.’ Jean-Christophe pulled a face. ‘He is being back in camp.’
Another rumble ran around the group. The supplies they’d collected included anti-malaria drugs and tetanus vaccine, along with some other medical supplies which all needed to be kept in a carefully controlled cool environment. Only a working generator could keep the back of the truck cold enough.
‘And Clem is only one can fix.’ Alex pointed to the generator.
‘Unless you can?’ Oti ventured hesitantly, looking at him.
‘You are mechanic?’ Jean-Christophe frowned.
‘I used to tinker a bit.’
‘He used to build his own racing cars.’ Oti stepped in, glancing at him. ‘Sorry, but this is no time for false modesty. Edward told me he met you at the racetrack once or twice. And if we don’t get this fixed, we could lose a significant amount of the supplies.’
As a murmur of agreement made its way around, Lukas acknowledged her point and peered at the machine. It didn’t take him long to determine that Alex was right; it was the fuel filter that needed replacing.
‘Do we have any spares?’
‘Should have been on supply plane, but no.’ Jean-Christophe bunched his shoulders. ‘Was expected fifteen days ago. We cannot be keeping much supplies in camp, in case of being attacked of bandits.’
Yeah, Oti had explained to him that everything was kept to a minimum the further out the camps were from any main towns or cities. The more remote, the more they depended on regular supplies. The less they kept on site, the less of a target the hospital, the staff and the patients would be to any potential thieves.
In a roundabout way, Lukas supposed it made sense, though it didn’t help in situations like this.
‘There’s nothing?’ he checked. ‘Not even an old generator?’
‘Yes, old generator in car,’ one of the other drivers jumped in suddenly. ‘But is not work.’
‘It doesn’t matter if it works.’ Lukas thought quickly. ‘It’s the fuel filter I need. It just might do.’
‘I get, I get.’ The driver hurried over to his vehicle as Lukas began working at the generator in the truck.
‘Is not same type generator.’ The driver frowned, bringing it over. ‘Filter does not fit.’
‘Let me see?’ demanded Lukas, stretching out his hand. He investigated it closely. ‘No, it isn’t the same, but I reckon I could file the leads down and jimmy something up.’
‘Who is this Jimmy?’ Jean-Christophe frowned as the group began to crowd around Lukas. ‘We backing up, yes? Giving the man space to work. Showing us that he is not being our little Oti’s plus one after all.’
‘Jean-Christophe...’ Oti sounded agitated but a laugh sprung out of Lukas.
‘Is that what they’re calling me?’
He realised he hadn’t heard himself quite that relaxed or happy in a long time. Ironic, given the situation. But it had been creeping up on him for the past month or so.
Ever since his marriage.
‘Oti’s plus one, sí,’ confirmed José, clearly delighted he wasn’t taking it personally.
‘Right, well—’ sliding the screwdriver inside and prising the filter out with a grunt, Lukas cast the grimy diesel-covered part a triumphant grin ‘—we’d better show everyone—including my beautiful new wife—that I’m more than that, don’t you think, gentlemen?’
And he told himself that his chest didn’t swell when Oti flushed that delicious shade of pink that he was beginning to get to know so well.
Not in the slightest.
* * *
‘You know you’re the hero of the week?’
Lukas glanced up as she approached. His face was already taking on a golden colour from the sun, making him all the more handsome, if that was even possible.
She valiantly tried to stop her heart from hammering in her chest.
‘Is that so?’ he drawled.
The hammering increased in intensity.
‘Everyone is buzzing about you.’ She made herself laugh, looking around the small group as they waved their newly acquired supply run beers in the air and turned up the volume a little more on the music. ‘You can’t go anywhere without being a success, can you?’
‘I just rigged up a bit of filter repair.’ He brushed it off in typical Lukas fashion. ‘It was a bit hammy, but it did the job. The vehicles are with Clem, the mechanic, now for some proper repairs.’
‘Don’t underestimate your value,’ she told him, suddenly serious. ‘If you hadn’t cooled that truck in time, we wouldn’t have much in the way of usable medicines, and we sorely needed everything we got. The rains here really impacted our supplies this past month.’
‘Speaking of which, you rushed off so quickly to do that medical drive, once we got the truck generator working again, that I didn’t get chance to ask how the baby is—Shangok, right?’
‘He developed sleep apnoea that second day and the spasms increased, so we feared the worst.’ She didn’t tell him that neither she nor Amelia had gone to bed that night, or the next day. ‘Then, just as we feared he was starting to slip away, the drugs must have begun to kick in and everything stopped getting worse. And then, all of a sudden, he began to improve. Just a little, but enough to give us hope.’
‘And now, with these drugs?’
She nodded, hopeful but not wanting to be unrealistic.
‘Now he really stands a chance of recovery. I hope he does,’ she couldn’t help but emphasise.
She eyed him carefully before speaking again.
‘Did you take the mission with the loggies to keep away from me?’
She noted that he took a lon
g pull of his beer before answering.
‘I think staying away from each other, at least in an intimate setting, is for the best, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Why?’ She shook her head, careful to keep her voice low.
‘Because the last thing I should have done was sleep with you that night.’
‘Was it really that bad for you?’ Oti blurted out suddenly, even as she squeezed her eyes shut and wished she could swallow the words back.
‘What?’
‘Forget it.’ She shook her head violently. She was such an idiot.
‘Oti...’
‘No, really.’ She backed up, hitting a wooden pillar in her haste. ‘Forget I said anything.’
‘You think it was bad for me?’
Fight or flight?
Back home, she might well have done the latter. But out here she always felt different. Bolder. Stronger. More herself.
Straightening her shoulders, Oti looked directly at him. ‘Obviously it was, because you’ve been very fastidious about not being alone with me ever since that night.’
She could hear her heart beating in the long pause before he answered.
‘I was giving you space.’
‘Please,’ she snorted, as if that could somehow conceal her hurt. Her shame. ‘You don’t need to sugar-coat it.’
‘I’m not trying to sugar-coat anything,’ he refuted. ‘I’m trying to be sensitive. More sensitive than it seemed I was when I took you to my bed.’
She frowned. ‘I seem to remember that I was the one who came to your bed.’
‘Because you felt you had to.’ Lukas looked disgusted, but she knew it wasn’t aimed at her. ‘You felt you had to have sex with me.’
Tempted by Her Convenient Husband Page 13
