‘So what would you do, Dr Russell?’ The hand holding Nikki’s suddenly tightened, and Luke’s smile slipped. ‘Would you send Karen home to her mother before Sandra’s been given a chance to sort her life out? Or would you put her on a plane to Cairns to be put into a foster home there? She knows you and she trusts you. Sandra can pop in and see her when she feels like it…’
‘More people in my home!’
‘Yes.’ The smile crept back. ‘With any luck, by the time I leave that place will start feeling like a home. Let’s go, Dr Russell.’
Karen was still in bed when they reached the hospital, propped up by so many pillows that her wan little face all but disappeared. She didn’t smile as they approached-just watched them gravely.
‘How’s my girl?’ Luke smiled as he reached his small patient. His hand came down and ruffled the short, cropped hair. ‘Feeling better?’
‘Can I go home?’ Karen’s voice was lifeless and uninterested. Her eyes flicked over to the door as though she was expecting someone else to come.
‘Karen, we’re going to hold on to you a while longer.’ Luke sank down to sit on the bed. He took Karen’s small hand in his and his body blocked her view of the door. He looked down, silent until he was sure he had her full attention. ‘Karen, your mum broke your arm, didn’t she?’
The child stared up, silent, and Luke nodded.
‘You don’t have to tell us,’ he said. ‘But it’s not you who needs the treatment-it’s your mum.’
‘You’re taking her away…’
‘No.’ Luke’s hands came up to grip Karen’s slight shoulders. ‘Karen, you’ve seen a balloon burst, haven’t you? What’s happening to your mother at the moment is very much like what happens when you blow a balloon up too far. She has so many worries-and each one is like a puff into a balloon. The worries build up and build up, until the last little puff makes her explode. That little puff might be just a child coughing at the wrong moment-or tea burning-or even just a draught from an open door. It’s not the person who caused the tiny puff who’s at fault, but the explosion comes just the same.’
‘You mean…you mean when she gets angry…’
‘I mean that’s what happens when your mum hurts you.’ Luke’s eyes didn’t leave the child. ‘Your dad isn’t giving your mum the money she needs to support you. She can’t afford to buy the food you need. The littlies are causing her too much work. She’s lonely and she’s worried and all these things are just building up and building up to the point where she hurts you. She feels dreadful about it, Karen.’
‘But…’
‘I know. She doesn’t come. It’s because she’s ashamed, Karen. Can you understand that?’
Karen’s big eyes filled with tears. She looked wildly up at Nikki, the doctor she knew and trusted. ‘She doesn’t have to be ashamed. And she shouldn’t be worried. I can look after her. I try…’
‘I know you do.’ Nikki moved swiftly to give the little girl a hard hug. ‘But you’ve been trying on your own for long enough. Now it’s time for Dr Marriott and me to take a turn. What your mum needs now is a rest and a chance to sort herself out. So while she does that she’s agreed to let you come to stay with us for a holiday.’
‘Us?’ Karen looked through her tears from Nikki to Luke and then back again.
‘Yes.’ Nikki’s voice firmed. She didn’t look at Luke. OK. He was right. This little girl needed Whispering Palms more than Nikki needed her privacy. ‘You know Amy-my little girl-and Mrs Gilchrist. We’ve a swimming-pool and lots of toys and books. Your arm can heal while your mum finds a new place for you to live.’
‘A new place…?’
‘Yes.’ Luke grinned and pulled back Karen’s covers. ‘A perfectly splendid new home where you and your mum and brothers and sister can all live happily ever after. Now, Miss Mears, we have a picnic lunch to eat and a quick swim before Dr Russell takes you to your temporary accommodation.’
‘But-’ Karen looked up wildly ‘-I won’t be able to swim. I haven’t got my bathers and…and you said I mustn’t get my plaster wet.’
Luke shook his head solemnly. ‘No problem.’ He glanced around to the ward nurse. ‘Sister here will provide us with a large plastic bag and a rubber band for your arm, and as for the rest-well, if you’re wearing a plastic bag you can’t be accused of skinnydipping, can you?’
Karen looked from one doctor to another. Her tear-drenched eyes widened. And then, very softly, she giggled.
So what was happening to her nice, quiet study period? Nikki sat in her study and gazed out over the pool. Amy and Karen were sitting under the vast grape-vine discussing the merits of alternative ways of dressing Barbie dolls. It was evidently a very solemn topic-both little girls were taking the matter very seriously. Despite herself, Nikki smiled. It hadn’t occurred to her to have children here to play with Amy, and now-now she saw how much pleasure Amy could get from it.
And Karen too. Karen had enjoyed her picnic to the full, laughing at Luke’s silly jokes and thoroughly enjoying frolicking in the shallows with him. Later, though, as Nikki had tucked her into bed for an afternoon sleep, the shadows had come back over her face. ‘I want to go home,’ she’d whispered.
‘Not yet, sweetheart,’ Nikki had told her. How to tell a child that her mother was still so tense that she might strike her again? They couldn’t risk it. Then, as tired tears had welled in Karen’s eyes, Amy had appeared clutching her teddy and a battered stuffed monkey.
‘I have to have an afternoon sleep too,’ she’d announced. ‘And I thought I could sleep with Karen if…if I let her use Monkey.’
It was the perfect solution. Karen had moved over in the big bed and the two little girls cuddled down together. They were asleep in minutes.
So Luke was right. Luke Marriott was always right, Nikki had thought bitterly. He could organise everyone’s life except his own.
She had picked up her-abandoned text and stared at it uselessly. She’d still been staring two hours later when the sounds through the house had announced that the girls were awake and ready for fun.
The exam was starting to seem irrelevant. So what if I fail it? she’d asked herself, and then blinked. What had she just said? She looked out of the window as the two little girls emerged to the poolside. As she watched, Beattie brought out a tray of lemonade and biscuits. Nikki saw her glance doubtfully across to Nikki’s window. She’d be wondering whether to disturb her, Nikki knew, and suddenly Nikki threw her text aside. It was time for a few minutes with the children, she decided. Some things were more important than exams.
A few minutes? An hour and a half later Nikki was still by the poolside. Amy’s entire collection of dolls was dressed to the young ladies’ satisfaction and the young ladies themselves were clothed in a variety of evening wear supplied by Nikki. They looked amazing. Both had high heels, stockings down around their ankles, mock pearls and diamonds and enough makeup to supply an entire chorus line. Luke arrived home just as Nikki was lining up the giggling girls and assorted dolls to be photographed for posterity.
‘Wow,’ he said reverently, emerging from the French doors to the astounding sight. ‘A real bevy of beauties.’
‘We’re gorgeous, Dr Luke,’ Amy announced importantly. ‘Aren’t we?’
‘You certainly are,’ Luke grinned. He picked Amy up and swung her high, causing her stockings to fall down around his face. ‘Ugh. What are these?’
‘They’re my pantyhose,’ Amy said indignantly, making a futile clutch as they fell. ‘I don’t know how Mummy keeps ‘em up.’
‘Mummy has hips,’ Luke said, grinning wickedly across at Nikki. ‘Ample hips is what you need, my girl.’
‘Are Mummy’s ample?’
‘They certainly are.’
Nikki gasped. Without thinking she abandoned her camera, scooped down and brought up a huge handful of pool water, directing it straight at Luke. It hit him full in the face.
Karen’s jaw dropped but Amy crowed in delight. ‘Yay, Mum,
’ she yelled. ‘Do it again.’
‘I’m not sure I could,’ Nikki said nervously, backing away from the pool.
Luke grinned. He picked up a towel and carefully wiped his face. His shirt-front and tie were sodden.
‘Mummy growls at me when I get my clothes wet,’ Amy giggled. ‘Are you going to growl at Mummy?’
‘Of course I am,’ Luke said severely. He frowned direfully down at the two children. ‘What do you think I should do to her?’
‘Nothing,’ Karen said nervously, but Amy was made of sterner stuff.
‘I think she should be spiff…spifflicated,’ she pronounced.
‘Oh, yes?’ Luke’s straight face broke. ‘And what exactly is spifflication?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Amy confessed. ‘I think…I think it’s sort of like tickling.’
Luke grinned. ‘I can do that,’ he agreed. He turned back to Nikki. ‘Prepare to be spifflicated, Dr Russell.’
‘Don’t you touch me-’
‘In front of the children,’ Luke finished for her smoothly. ‘Of course not. You have your dignity to maintain. I only ever spifflicate in private. Beattie!’
The housekeeper appeared from nowhere. She had obviously missed nothing of the proceedings. ‘Yes?’ Beattie Gilchrist was close to laughter, fighting to keep a straight face.
‘Is dinner something that will spoil?’
‘It’s casserole, Dr Luke.’
‘Would it ruin your day if I told you I was taking Dr Russell off to dinner and hence to a fate of spifflication?’
Beattie chuckled delightedly. ‘Of course not,’ she beamed. ‘The casserole will taste better than ever tomorrow night, and me and the girls will cook ourselves hamburgers. You won’t mind, will you, girls?’
‘No way,’ Amy shouted, but Karen looked troubled. Luke crossed to the little girl and knelt down.
‘What is it, Karen?’ he asked gently.
‘You won’t…you won’t hurt Dr Russell, will you?’ the child asked tremulously. ‘She didn’t mean to get you wet.’
‘Don’t you believe it. Our Dr Russell did so mean to get me wet.’ Luke took Karen’s hands in his and gave them a reassuring squeeze. ‘But no, Karen. I may tickle Dr Russell until she screams for mercy but I won’t hurt her. Not now. Not ever. I don’t hurt people. That’s a promise.’
The laughter had gone from his voice. He met the little girl’s eyes, and what she read in his seemed to reassure her. The corners of her mouth struggled to smile. ‘I like hamburgers,’ she said simply.
‘Then that’s settled.’ Luke turned to Nikki. ‘Go and get yourself into a pretty dress, Dr Russell. I’ll take off one sodden shirt and then…then prepare to meet your doom!’
‘But I like hamburgers too,’ Nikki said weakly. This was going too fast for her. She had no intention of going out to dinner with this man.
‘Beattie, if you were doomed to spifflication, where would you want to eat your last meal?’ Luke demanded, ignoring Nikki’s protest and turning to the housekeeper.
Beattie chuckled. ‘Only one place to eat out hereabouts,’ she told him. ‘The fishing co-op runs a club. The dining-room looks out over the harbour. It’s real pretty and the food’s not bad either.’
‘It sounds just what the doctor ordered,’ Luke smiled. ‘OK, Dr Russell. You have ten minutes to prepare yourself. Let’s go.’
The man was like a bulldozer, Nikki thought grimly. She stood in her bedroom and gazed helplessly at the mirror. A meal out…To be taken out by a man…
To be taken out by Luke Marriott! Nikki closed her eyes as a wave of confusion ran through her. What was happening? She should be staying at home studying. She should put her hands on her not so ample hips and tell Luke Marriott exactly what she thought of him.
If he hadn’t been ill, she would do, she decided, but it was hardly fair when he’d been through such a bad time.
‘That’s not the reason and you know it,’ she told her reflection out loud. ‘You want to go out.’ No, you don’t, a little voice inside her protested.
‘Yes, you do.’
Nikki thought back to Luke Marriott kneeling before the troubled Karen, and a feeling of warmth flooded over her. This man was kind and caring and…
This man was trouble. Capital T. Trouble.
He would be gone in a couple of weeks. He was transient-a transient presence in a life which so far hadn’t been all that much fun.
‘Why shouldn’t I go out, then?’ Nikki demanded of her reflection. ‘Seize the day. Live for the moment.’
You’re talking rubbish! that inner voice asserted.
‘Oh, leave me alone!’ Nikki turned her back on her wiser self and stared into the wardrobe. She had hung the clothes Charlotte had sent her and then ignored all that she could. Now she crossed to pull the racks apart.
Charlotte was never a girl to do things by halves. She had taken Nikki’s wardrobe as a personal challenge, omitting nothing.
And there was something just right for tonight. Something just right for a first and last date. A night to forget she was Dr Nikki Russell who took the world seriously. A night to forget the loneliness of the rest of her life…Taking a deep breath, Nikki slipped the fabric over her shoulders.
The dress was soft white silk, loose-fitting but clinging with the sheerness of the fabric. It hung low across her breasts, the soft sleeves cut away so that they exposed her slender arms. The dress fell in delicate folds around her thighs and down to swirl around her long legs. A ribbon of palest green looped around the waist and down to hint at its presence among the folds as she moved.
The dress turned her into someone she wasn’t. Or someone she had once been but had forgotten existed. Nikki stood before the mirror and stared. Unconsciously she brought her hand up to gather her hair into a loose, curling knot of flame. The action made her seem younger, and more vulnerable. She let it fall, and then in swift decision put it up again. Before she had time to change her mind she pinned it and turned from the mirror. She had done it. She was ready.
‘Wow!’ It was Amy, bursting through the door, her new friend tagging behind. ‘Wow, Mummy, you’re beautiful. Isn’t she beautiful, Karen?’
‘My mum’s prettier,’ Karen said stoutly. ‘But…but you’re really pretty, Dr Russell.’
‘Is she ever!’ Luke Marriott was standing in the passage. He too had changed, into a dark suit which made Nikki see just why he had caused so many problems among the nursing staff in the city. Drop-dead handsome, the man was. She looked up, blushed and looked away again. What on earth was she doing?
‘Have a really good time, now,’ Amy ordered them. ‘What time will you be home?’
‘By midnight, Mother,’ Nikki laughed, swooping her small daughter up to give her a kiss. ‘Don’t wait up for me.’
‘Don’t spifflicate her too hard, will you, Dr Luke?’ Amy warned.
‘I make no promises,’ Luke grinned. His arm came around Nikki in a proprietorial gesture. ‘Vengeance is mine, Dr Russell. For tonight, you’re at my mercy.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
IF THERE was to be only one evening left in the world, this could well be the evening. It was a night to forget the past, forget the future and just be.
Something had snapped inside Nikki’s controlled head. Who knew what had caused it? Was it the culmination of long years of work and worry, Charlotte’s lovely dress floating around her slim form, the balmy tropical night, or the presence of the man at her side-a man whose smile made her heart do crazy jumps inside her body and made her forget that she was Dr Nikki Russell with the weight of the world on her shoulders? Which of these things was causing the feeling of euphoria creeping over her? Nikki didn’t know, and she no longer cared. The night was hers.
And somehow for Luke it seemed the same. The world was put on hold. They were alone together and nothing else mattered.
Miraculously there was a table available in the best part of the club-a sheltered alcove with windows looking out over the lights of the
harbour to the sea beyond. The waiter showed them to their seats with an astonished second look at the town’s transformed lady doctor. I didn’t know you existed, his glance said, and Luke’s hand tightened on Nikki’s waist as he guided her forward.
The lady’s mine for the night, his hand said. Keep off. Nikki should have shrugged the hand aside but she wouldn’t. Not tonight.
Afterwards Nikki couldn’t remember a thing they’d talked about. Inconsequential nonsense, she suspected. Luke kept her in a ripple of laughter as they ate. The tiny pieces of calamary still tasted of the sea, and of the lemon groves in the hills above the town-and the grilled whiting melted in Nikki’s mouth, blending in with her perfect night.
He made her seem the most desirable woman in the world, Nikki thought, and wondered fleetingly how many other women had been given the same treatment. It didn’t matter. Not tonight. Tonight was hers.
They ate huge red strawberries and farm-fresh cream, drank their coffee and then rose reluctantly to leave. Miraculously the beeper in Luke’s pocket stayed silent. It was as if the world were holding its breath.
‘A walk, I think,’ Luke told her as they emerged to the star-filled night. ‘I’m not ready for bed yet, Dr Russell, and I don’t think you are either.’
‘N-no.’ It was true. Nikki didn’t want this evening to end. In the morning she would be back with her books, and Luke would be back to being her locum, and the world would have shifted on to its rightful axis. But not yet…So they walked along the sand, barefoot, with shoes dangling in their free hands. One hand of each was in use, linked unconsciously with the other.
They walked far from the lights of the jetty and of the town, around the headland where the beach stretched out for mile upon endless mile of deserted sand. The moonlight played on their faces. From somewhere a long way off Nikki heard herself talking of her childhood-telling this man things she had told no one-of a lonely childhood with eccentric parents in a house too big for her-but with love and laughter always present. And Luke talked too-a little-of his family in Melbourne and his life before…before he knew he had cancer.
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