Sandra shook her head. ‘I didn’t see until now. Oh, Nikki…’
‘Jim, we’re shoring up the entrance to where you are.’ Nikki gave a warning look to Sandra and the men as she raised her voice. ‘I want you to come out.’
‘I’m not leaving. I told you…Dad’ll die.’
‘He’ll die if you stay,’ Nikki said brutally. ‘You sound as though you’re drifting in and out of unconsciousness. ‘Do you have the strength to maintain pressure on that leg, or is it still bleeding?’
‘It’s still bleeding,’ Jim managed.
‘But you can move?’
‘Yeah…but…’
‘Jim, I can’t get in unless you come out,’ Nikki said harshly. ‘And your father needs me.’
Sandra gave a gasp. ‘But Nikki…You can’t…’
She was stopped by Nikki’s fierce grip on her arm. ‘Sandra, Jim’s hurt and I don’t know how badly. This is the only way he’ll come out.’
It was. Nikki had known it since she saw the entrance. It was unpalatable but true. She bent down and peered into the recess. One of the SES men was directing a flashlight through the rubble. ‘OK, Jim,’ she ordered. ‘Start moving slowly backwards. Now!’
‘But Dad’ll die…’
‘The faster you get out, the faster I get in,’ Nikki said ruthlessly. ‘Move, Jim.’
Three minutes later Jim emerged to daylight. Nikki did a lightning check on the dazed young man, satisfied herself that she could leave him to the care of the people around him, and then stooped down. The SES man stopped her as she placed her hand on the door-beam.
‘Doc, this is just Bert Payne you’re risking your neck for,’ he said uncertainly. ‘I…I don’t like this…’
Nikki nodded. ‘I know it’s just Bert Payne,’ she whispered, looking over to where Sandra was holding Jim. ‘But he’s dying in there, and I’m a doctor. I haven’t a choice.’
‘He wouldn’t do the same for you,’ the man said brutally.
‘No.’ Nikki shook her head. ‘But then he doesn’t seem to have passed his cruel attitudes on to his son, thank heaven…And we can’t afford to be like him.’ She took one last look at Jim and Sandra, took a deep breath and lowered herself into the makeshift passage.
Jim had been wearing heavy denim jeans, which had protected him a little from the worst of the jagged splinters and nails, and for the first time in weeks Nikki regretted that she wasn’t wearing the same. Charlotte’s pretty clothes had become part of her-a legacy of her time with Luke. Now the dress she was wearing ripped three feet into the tunnel and she felt a nail jab into her bare leg. She swore and kept going.
I’ll ring Charlotte and give her a hard time when I get out of here, Nikki thought grimly as she felt her way forward through the mass of broken timber. The thought of Charlotte-of Cairns-of somewhere other than this hell-hole-was somehow steadying. She had to think of something other than the tree poised above.
Where on earth was Bert? Jim had backed out this way. Bert Payne must be somewhere here…
She shoved forward, her hands groping in the dim light, and her hand met something soft. Here he was…
Nikki could see nothing. What she was feeling seemed to be a leg. She’d attached a rope to her waist before coming in, and now she turned to tug it after her. Her bag came sliding roughly through the debris, and attached to its handle was a flashlight. Nikki looked back along the tunnel and saw daylight being blocked by anxious faces. She flashed her light at them and then turned back to her patient.
And her heart sank. Bert Payne lay half crushed by the huge tree. It held his body in a vice, and Nikki couldn’t see his left arm or leg. His face was near her, his skin devoid of any colour, and his breathing was shallow and uneven. Nikki’s hand slid down the exposed leg, and met the warm ooze of blood.
Instinctively Nikki felt for a pressure point, but she knew already that her action was useless. There must be massive internal injuries. With her free hand she felt for a pulse, and as she did Bert’s eyes flew open.
‘Jim…’ he whispered.
‘We’ve taken Jim out,’ Nikki said gently. ‘He has a broken arm, but he’s safe.’
‘But…’ The man’s eyes concentrated in a sheer effort of remembrance as Nikki groped in her bag for morphine. ‘But he was here…’
‘Yes.’
‘He came back to see I was all right…’
‘Yes, he did.’ Nikki twisted her body to a position where she could fill the syringe. She turned and drove it home, wondering as she did so whether there was time for it to take effect.
‘I was…I was a bastard to him,’ the big man muttered. He reached forward with his one free arm and gripped Nikki’s hand. ‘You’re sure…you’re sure he’s all right?’
‘He’s safe.’ Nikki was no longer worrying about the oozing blood. It was too late for that now. She gripped Bert’s free hand in hers and held it.
Tell him…tell him I’m sorry.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Nikki told him evenly. ‘I promise.’
‘And tell him…’ The elderly fisherman closed his eyes as if he had reached a point where he could go no further. His words were an almost superhuman effort. ‘Tell him he’s been a good kid and I’m…I’m proud of him. Tell him…’
‘I’ll tell him.’
It was the last thing Bert Payne ever said. Five minutes later he died.
There was nothing more for Nikki to do. She let Bert’s hand rest on the pile of rubble, and pushed her bag back out of the way. There was no point in her staying. Not now…
But as she moved so did the tree. Nikki looked up in fear as the massive trunk started slowly to settle. She flung herself backwards, but it was too late.
The mass of rubble in the tunnel behind her came down in a dust-laden roar. The dust filled her head, blinding her. She put her hands instinctively to her head and waited.
And it came. The huge mass of debris above her head shifted downwards. Nikki felt a blow to her shoulder and then a massive, crushing weight on her head. She tried to cry out, but no sound came. The weight…
‘Nikki!’ The sound came from outside the shifting rubble. ‘Nikki…’
‘Luke…’ Nikki whispered a response uselessly into the shifting, tearing dark. It was Luke. He had come back to her…‘Luke…’
Then she knew no more.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THERE was something gripping her head. It was an iron vice, clamping behind each ear and slowly squeezing…
Nikki opened one eye and then shut it again fast. Whatever was holding her gripped a thousandfold tighter with light. She lay absolutely still, not daring to move. Whatever vice her torturers were using might stay in abeyance if she only kept still.
‘There’s my girl. Come on, Nikki, love. You can do it. Come on, my love.’
She was dead and was dreaming. Nikki’s eyes stayed firmly closed while she thought about the voice.
It was Luke’s. It was Luke’s voice. Her love…
Maybe it was…Maybe…Maybe if she opened her eyes she would see him, but then again, maybe not. Maybe she was dead and dreaming.
‘Come on, Nikki, love.’ There was no mistaking the voice. Nikki felt her hands being taken between two strong ones, and gripped. And somehow Luke’s hold on her hands lessened the gripping pain surrounding her head.
‘Come on, Nikki, love. You can do it. Come back to me, Nikki.’
‘Come back to me’…Still Nikki didn’t stir. She lay and let the voice drift around her.
It was Luke. He was here, with her, and his voice held love.
If she opened her eyes then she might find it was all a dream. That it was all some cruel joke. Her head hurt so…
A tear crept down her cheek and she tasted it as it reached her lips. She was dead and dreaming that Luke was here…that Luke had come back to her…
And then the hold on her hands tightened and a mouth covered hers, kissing away the salt tear. ‘Come on, Nikki, love. Come back to me. I love yo
u so much…’
And she opened her eyes.
It was no dream. He was here-her Luke. He was holding her as if she were the most precious thing in the world, and his kiss held the tenderness she had only dreamed of.
He must have felt her slight movement. Luke’s head lifted from her face and his troubled eyes looked down. And he saw her eyes on his.
There was no mistaking the joy in his face. It lit him within, blazing down on her like a blessing.
‘Nikki…’ His voice was hoarse with strain. ‘Nikki…’
‘Luke…’ Nikki wasn’t too sure where her voice came from. She only knew that somehow the nightmare had receded. The pain in her head was still there but so was Luke-and who could feel pain with so much happiness inside?
Tears slid helplessly down her face. ‘Luke,’ she whispered again, and he closed her lips with his fingers.
‘Don’t try to speak, Nikki, love. You’re safe. Amy and Beattie are fine. And you’re safe. That’s all that matters.’
‘You came…’
‘Too damned right I came,’ Luke said grimly. He gathered her tenderly to him, holding her tight while leaving her carefully still on the white hospital bedclothes. ‘And I’m never leaving you again. Not ever. And that’s a promise, my love.’
‘My love’…Nikki closed her eyes again as the words drifted round and round her. ‘My love’…
It was with her still as she drifted into sleep.
* * *
When next she woke the pain in her head had all but disappeared. Nikki lay for a moment staring sightlessly up at the hospital ceiling. The pain had gone, but so had Luke.
Had she dreamed the whole thing? Had it been some crazy nightmare…?
She put her hand tentatively up to her head. A large bandage covered her forehead. She’d been hit on the head and had been dreaming.
The disappointment almost made her cry out, but as her hand dropped to the pillow the door opened and Andrea bustled in.
‘Well, well,’ the charge nurse smiled. ‘So you’re awake, Dr Russell. About time too.’
Nikki tried to focus. ‘How…how long have I been asleep?’
‘Oh, about two days.’
Two days!
‘Well, not all of that time asleep,’ Andrea told her, lifting Nikki’s wrist and looking down at her watch to check her pulse. ‘You were unconscious for twenty-four hours.’ She grimaced down. ‘You gave us the fright of our lives,’ she confessed.
‘I gave me the fright of my life,’ Nikki agreed weakly. She put her hand back up to her bandages. ‘What’s…?’
‘A fractured skull and twelve stitches,’ Andrea told her. ‘But it’s a simple fracture and there doesn’t appear to be any internal bleeding. Dr Luke says-’
‘Dr Luke…?’
‘Dr Luke says you’ll live.’ Andrea grinned happily down at Nikki. ‘And Dr Luke seems a whole heap happier since he made that announcement, I can tell you.’
‘So he really is here. I…I thought I dreamed it.’
‘He’s here,’ Andrea told her. ‘He’s checking a plaster at the moment or he’d probably be beside you right now.’ She smiled again. ‘He’s spent a fair amount of time next to this bed over the last two days.’
‘I…I thought I heard him when…when the tree came down.’
‘You did,’ Andrea told her. ‘I gather he was in Cairns and when the cyclone warning came through he moved heaven and hell to get back here. He came storming in here about fifteen minutes after you left for Bert Payne’s. He got a helicopter to Port Douglas, but heaven knows how he got through the blocked roads to here. The call came from the SES people about two minutes after he arrived, asking for more men and longer shoring timbers and telling us why.’ They told us you were in the ruins with Bert, and Dr Marriott…well…’ She shook her head. ‘I think Dr Marriott seemed a little crazy.’
‘So he was there…’
‘He got there just as the tree came down,’ Andrea told her. ‘The SES men told me he worked like a madman.’ She hesitated. ‘Have a look at his hands next time you see him. They’re torn to bits. He didn’t stop until they got you out, and even then…well, even then I think he was a little crazy.’ She shook her head. ‘You looked awful. You were deeply unconscious and there was so much blood…’
‘But Bert Payne…’
‘Bert Payne’s dead,’ Andrea told her. ‘But Jim’s alive, thanks to you. The SES people say it was a miracle you weren’t crushed to death. Anyone as big as Jim would be dead for sure.’
‘Jim’s…Jim’s OK?’
‘Jim’s OK. It’s his plaster Dr Marriott is checking now.’
‘It’s checked.’ The strongly masculine voice came from the doorway, making the charge nurse twist around with a start. Luke was standing there, his stethoscope swinging from his fingers and his eyes on Nikki. ‘He needs a new sling, though, Sister,’ he said without taking his eyes from Nikki. ‘If you could.’
The charge nurse looked from Nikki to Luke and back again. She smiled broadly. ‘I was just taking Dr Russell’s obs,’ she said demurely. ‘But if you think my services are wanted elsewhere…’
‘I think your services are wanted elsewhere,’ Luke confirmed.
‘You won’t disturb my patient, will you, Doctor?’ the nurse grinned. Luke picked up the observation chart threateningly.
‘Get out of here, you insolent baggage,’ he smiled. ‘Dr Russell, I’m sorry to inform you that you have a very insubordinate staff.’
‘It’s hard to command respect when Andrea and I went to kindergarten together,’ Nikki whispered, and Luke crossed swiftly to the bed to take her hand. Behind him Andrea made her departure, still grinning.
‘Don’t you worry about that, my love,’ he said gently. ‘The staff’ll fall in line now I’m back working here. Together we’ll pull this place into shape.’ He smiled down at the bed in a way that made Nikki’s heart almost stop beating.
‘Together’…And Luke was looking at her as… as she had always dreamed a man would look at her.
Not just a man. Her Luke.
‘We…’ she whispered.
‘This medical service is damned inefficient,’ Luke complained with mock-severity. He sat on the bedside chair and possessed himself of her other hand. ‘Leaking roofs. Draughty corridors. Nurses wearing torn jeans and swearing their uniform blew out the window when I complain. A hospital kitchen with a living pot-plant wedged right through one wall. I like a bit more antiseptic and sparkle myself. A staff who say, “Yes, Doctor, no, Doctor, three bags full, Doctor.”’
‘You don’t stand a chance in a million,’ Nikki smiled. ‘But…but, Luke…’
‘Yes, my love?’ His eyes were twisting her in two. His eyes were making love to her all by themselves.
‘You’re not staying?’
Luke frowned. ‘Nikki, Whispering Palms is one of the few undamaged houses in the district. You don’t have any reason to leave.’
‘I…N-no.’
‘Well, there you go, then. You’re staying. I’m staying.’
‘Luke…’ Nikki looked helplessly up at him. Her head was spinning in a dizzy haze of light. ‘Luke, don’t…don’t say it…’
‘Don’t say it isn’t true,’ he finished for her. He nodded and his smile faded. His grip on her hands tightened. ‘I shouldn’t. But I can be happy here. There’s enough medicine to keep me content, and I can keep my journalism going as well. But whether I stay depends.’
‘Depends?’
‘On whether one crazy, courageous, beautiful girlwoman will find it in her heart to forgive me for walking away on the most precious gift I’ve ever received. On whether my heart…my life…my lovely Nikki will marry me.’
Nikki drew in her breath. ‘Luke…’
‘I know I left you,’ Luke said softly. ‘But, Nikki, I almost went out of my mind. I thought…I thought family was so damned important. My masculinity was such an issue that I couldn’t cope. And then…then I walked away and I real
ised you and Amy were my family already, whether you agreed to marry me or not. Because my heart is yours, Nikki Russell. For now and forever.’
Nikki took a long, shuddering breath. Tears of weakness and joy were sliding down her face and Luke swore as he bent to kiss them away.
‘You don’t have to say anything yet,’ he told her gently. ‘God, Nikki, I shouldn’t be saying this. But… but I thought I’d lost you. And I thought there was nothing as bad as that. The cancer. Infertility. Nothing. To lose my lovely Nikki…’ He shook his head and then kissed her lightly on the lips. ‘You need to sleep. We can talk about this later.’
‘Yes…’ It was a sleepy murmur. Nikki’s hand didn’t relinquish her grip, and her hand was not relinquished in turn. She was where she wanted to be for the rest of her life.
‘Nikki, love…’
‘Mmm?’
‘Nikki, before you sleep, can you do a wriggle for me? Test your fingers and toes.’
Nikki thought about this for a moment. It was sensible, and it didn’t interfere with her euphoric happiness. She tried.
‘Ouch,’ she said softly.
‘Where?’
‘I’ve got full movement,’ she told him sleepily. ‘But my lower back feels as though it’s been kicked by a horse.’
‘You’ve got a thumping bruise there,’ Luke told her. ‘It looks like just bruising, but maybe I’d better take an X-ray to make sure.’
Nikki’s eyes flew wide suddenly. ‘Luke…Luke, I haven’t been bleeding, have I?’
He frowned. ‘No. Apart from your head.’
She closed her eyes in thankfulness. ‘Thank God,’ she whispered.
‘Thank…’ Luke let her hands fall and he bent forward. ‘Nikki, what the hell…?’
She smiled faintly and her eyes opened again. This was right. There would never be a better time.
‘I was just thinking maybe you shouldn’t do that X-ray,’ she whispered.
‘Why not?’ Luke’s eyes were dark with anxiety.
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