by Joanna Neil
Saskia pulled in a deep breath. ‘Of course I am.’ She stopped hopping and gingerly put her foot to the floor. ‘I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.’ The last thing she needed was for the children to be concerned about her. They had enough on their plates right now. Instead, she flicked the switch on the kettle and tried to ignore the stinging in her foot, busying herself adding coffee powder to a couple of mugs.
‘I don’t suppose you have a first-aid kit to hand, do you?’ Tyler asked, and Saskia thought about it then shook her head.
‘I recall seeing it somewhere.’ She frowned.
‘I’ll go and fetch mine.’
‘There’s no need, really. I’ll be fine.’
He gave her an assessing look. ‘You won’t be if you go on the way you’re doing now. Sit down and stop spreading blood over the floor. You don’t want to get an infection, do you?’
‘N-no, of course not.’
‘Good. Then sit down and wait there until I get back.’
After he’d gone, Caitlin finished making the coffees and then studied the chew toy once more. ‘I’m going to put this in the bin,’ she said. ‘Maybe Boomer should go out in the garden and get some fresh air. He has way too much energy.’
‘That’s a good idea. Perhaps Charlie would like to play with him out there? Anyway, he and Becky need to go and feed their rabbit.’
‘Yeah, I’ll tell them as soon as I’ve cleaned up the floor.’
Saskia smiled at her. ‘Thanks, Caitlin. You’re a treasure.’
Tyler was back within a couple of minutes. Noticing that Boomer was nowhere to be seen, he glanced out of the kitchen window and saw that the dog was racing around outside, having a whale of a time with the two younger children.
Hearing their laughter, Saskia guessed Becky must have forgiven Boomer for his earlier misdemeanour.
Tyler placed a fresh carton of milk in the fridge and then set out a fully equipped medical pack on the kitchen table.
‘I guess that’s the flower border done for,’ he murmured on a rueful note, glancing out of the window once more as he went over to the sink and poured warm water into a bowl.
‘I’m really sorry about all this,’ Saskia said. She waved a hand towards his coffee mug. ‘Please, help yourself.’ Perhaps a reviving drink would help him to feel better.
‘Thanks.’ He went on setting out his equipment.
Saskia bit her lip. ‘Maybe I could put some sort of decorative fencing up to keep him away from the plants.’ She frowned. ‘You’ve caught us at a bad time, but we planned on getting to grips with everything today—well, over the weekend, at least. Caitlin’s just gone to start unpacking clothes and to put things right upstairs.’
He nodded, drawing up a chair in front of her and laying a towel over the seat. ‘Rest your leg on there. I’m going to bathe your foot first to make sure there are no bits of debris in the wound.’
‘Okay...thanks.’ She watched him as he hunkered down and began to work. He was very thorough, cleaning her foot with meticulous care and then gently drying it.
‘There are several small puncture wounds,’ he commented. ‘I’ll press some gauze against it for a while until the bleeding stops.’
‘You look as though you’ve done this sort of thing before,’ she murmured, looking over his medical pack with interest.
‘I have, although I usually have to deal with rather more serious injuries than this,’ he answered soberly. ‘I’m a doctor. I work at the hospital on the island, in the emergency department, and I’m on the rota as a first attender where the paramedics need a doctor to go along and help out.’
‘Ah, that explains it,’ she said, speaking half to herself.
‘I beg your pardon?’ He glanced at her, absently resting his hand lightly on her leg before pausing to check under the gauze to see if the bleeding had stopped.
She cleared her throat. His touch was doing very strange things to her nervous system. Things she’d thought she’d long forgotten. ‘It’s just that you have that kind of air about you,’ she explained, ‘as though you’re very capable, well organised, and know exactly what has to be done. I expect seeing the state we’re in here has been a bit of a shock for you.’
He didn’t answer, but his mouth moved in a faint curve. He applied a topical antiseptic and then bound up her foot, securing the neat bandage with tape.
‘That should be a bit more comfortable for you,’ he said. Finally, he stood up, reaching for his coffee and taking a long swallow. He paused for a moment, staring at his cup in puzzlement, and she guessed he was faintly surprised to discover that he quite liked the taste. ‘So how do you fit into the picture here?’ he asked. ‘Did you decide to move over here with your brother and his family, or were you already living on the island?’
‘Uh, I came over here when my brother and his wife were...delayed.’ She still didn’t want to talk about what had happened and hoped he wouldn’t persist. ‘I have to get the children into school for the new term, and of course the removal had been planned and booked a few weeks ahead. It was important that things went smoothly.’
He nodded. ‘What do you think of our island? Have you been here before?’
She shook her head, making the silky, copper curls quiver and dance. ‘I saw it for the first time on Thursday. It’s so beautiful, it took my breath away—the lovely beaches and the clear blue water, the palm trees... It’s like a subtropical paradise.’
His mouth curved. ‘Yes, it is.’ He stood up and started to clear away his equipment just as the kitchen door burst open and Charlie came rushing in.
‘Boomer’s been sick all over the flowers,’ he announced. ‘It’s yucky. He’s brought up all of his breakfast and there’s lots of grass in it, too.’
Saskia groaned. ‘Did you let him out into the garden first thing this morning?’
‘Becky did.’
She sighed. ‘That must have been when he did it. We’ll have to stop him eating grass somehow.’ She looked at Charlie. ‘Okay, I’ll come and hose it down in a bit. Try to stop him from running around, will you, but keep him out there for a bit longer if you can until his stomach settles down?’
‘Okay.’ Charlie went outside once more and Tyler sent her a brief, sympathetic glance.
‘I’d better leave you to get on. It looks as though you have your hands full.’
She nodded, giving him a regretful look. ‘Like I said, it should all be sorted out over the weekend.’
She stood up, testing her foot against the hard floor. ‘That feels good,’ she said. ‘It must be all the padding you put in there. Thank you so much for helping me out. And thanks for the milk—I appreciate it. You’ll have earned yourself a thousand brownie points with Caitlin.’
He smiled. ‘You’re welcome.’ He left by the kitchen door, and she heard him saying goodbye to the children as he left. As she glanced out of the window, she saw him briefly pat Boomer on the head.
She looked disconsolately at the mess around her. There couldn’t have been a worse time for the landlord to pay them a visit, but that wasn’t the worst of it, was it? They shared the same profession. She was a doctor, too. How would it be if he heard about her application for a job at the hospital where he worked? She couldn’t see that going down too well.
For all that he’d been pleasant to her and he had helped her out, she suspected that he didn’t think very much of her lackadaisical ways. There was no point suggesting that she would put everything right...she had a strong feeling that, left to him, he would have organised things properly from the start, and everyone, probably even the dog, would have been given a job to do to help out.
Still, she couldn’t help wishing things had been different. After all, he was the kind of man women dreamed of, and she was by no means immune...even though she’d sworn off men. He’d made her body tingl
e just by being near... And when he’d rested his hand on her bare leg...phew.
She sighed. Maybe it was just as well she’d made a bad impression on him. It would nip things in the bud from the outset...because she really ought to have learned her lesson by now. After all, it was only when you got to know men that things started to go wrong.
CHAPTER TWO
‘CHARLIE, WILL YOU hurry up, please? We need to get a move on or we’ll be late.’
Saskia looked around the kitchen, mentally ticking off a list in her head. ‘Becky, don’t forget your PE kit—you need to take that with you as well as your backpack.’
‘Yeah, okay.’
‘Do you have everything you need, Caitlin?’ She peered into the hallway to look at the teenager, who was frowning at her hair in the mirror and trying to brush loose strands into place, something she’d been doing for the last several minutes. ‘What about your geometry set—did you remember to put it in your bag? Perhaps I should have a quick look, just to make sure.’
Caitlin whipped the backpack away from her before Saskia had a chance to investigate. ‘I can sort my own things out,’ she said, turning away and pressing a hand against her forehead as though her head was aching. ‘I don’t need anyone checking up on me.’
Saskia winced. So far, nothing was going to plan. Her vision of a smooth, hassle-free morning getting ready for this first day of the school term was dissolving with every minute that passed. Caitlin had been tetchy ever since she’d dragged herself out of bed, and when you added in Becky’s insistence on taking time to go outside to pet her lop-eared rabbit, and Charlie’s complete oblivion to everything going on around him, getting them all organised and ready was rapidly turning into a stressful situation.
‘Charlie, can you switch off that computer game? We’re leaving right now.’
It must be great for Tyler next door to simply ease himself into his sleek, shining BMW and head off for the hospital without a care in the world. She’d seen him leave his house about half an hour ago, perfectly groomed, dressed in an immaculate dark suit, his hair crisply styled. She’d caught the glint of a cufflink as he’d reached to open the car door. His whole life was probably streamlined.
She shepherded everyone towards the front door, but as they were about to leave Becky said urgently, ‘Saskia—wait. I think Boomer’s being sick in the kitchen. I can hear him.’ The little girl went back in there to take a closer look. ‘Yeuw! It’s got lots of bits of tissue in it.’
Saskia sighed. Tyler certainly never had to deal with anything like this, did he? She looked at Charlie. ‘Have you been feeding Boomer paper towels again?’
He shook his head vigorously, but she noticed he couldn’t quite meet her eyes.
‘It’s bad for him,’ she said firmly. ‘And it’s not helping us either, because now I have to stop and clean up after him when we’re already pushed for time. Perhaps you’d better come and give me a hand. Go and let him outside in case he needs to be sick some more.’
A few minutes later she settled Boomer down in his bed in the kitchen and they finally started out on the walk to school. It was a good thing the primary and secondary schools were on the same site, Saskia reflected. At least it made things a little easier.
Of all the mornings to be delayed, this was the worst, because as soon as she had dropped off the children she was supposed to go for her interview at the hospital. She really needed that job, and she was more than a little anxious about it. In fact, she was beginning to feel quite apprehensive. There was money coming in from her brother’s bank account to pay the rent, but now she had three extra mouths to feed and the bills were mounting up. Her savings would only take her so far.
Arriving at the school a few minutes later, she gave Becky and Charlie a hug and told a still fractious Caitlin she hoped she’d have a good day. She would have hugged her, too, but the teenager made it clear she didn’t want any demonstration of affection, especially not in front of the other students.
She was about to leave when someone said, ‘Ah, Miss Reynolds—or should I call you Dr Reynolds? I saw you helping Charlie to find his peg in the cloakroom a little while ago and realised you must be the newcomers to our school.’
Saskia glanced at the woman who had approached her. She was tall, with medium-length dark hair cut in a stylish bob, and there was an undeniable look of authority about her. ‘Hello. Yes, that’s right. I’m Dr Reynolds.’
The woman smiled. ‘I’m Elizabeth Hunter, the headmistress—I’m so glad I managed to meet up with you.’ She was keen to talk to Saskia about the children’s parents and how their accident might have affected the youngsters. ‘We want to be as supportive as possible,’ she said.
‘Thank you. I appreciate that. It has been a difficult time for them, but I’m hoping that if we let the children talk about their worries it might help.’ Saskia spoke to the headmistress for a few minutes, wanting to ease the children’s transition into their new school as best she could but conscious all the while that the clock was ticking and she needed to get away to the hospital.
At last, though, she was free to rush away to keep her appointment. Glancing at her watch, she realised with growing alarm that there was no way she was going to make it to the interview on time.
Perhaps it had been a mistake to walk to school. It had taken a lot longer than she’d anticipated, with Charlie dawdling and Becky stopping to search for wild flowers in the hedgerows, but this was a small island and she’d hoped she might get away without buying a car. Walking, she’d reasoned, would at least give them the opportunity to enjoy the green hills and valleys along the way and let them take in the view of the bay and the bustling harbour in the distance. Now, though, she still had a further ten minutes’ walk ahead of her.
The hospital, she discovered, was relatively small, a pleasing, white-painted building, with a deep, low-slung roof. Alongside it was a health centre and a pharmacy. She hurried through the automated glass doors at the entrance.
The receptionist was talking to a young woman, a slender girl with chestnut hair arranged into an attractive braid at the back of her head. She was a doctor, Saskia guessed, judging by the stethoscope draped around her neck.
‘Hello. Can I help you?’ The receptionist broke off their conversation so that she could attend to the new arrival.
‘Oh, hello. Yes, thanks,’ Saskia said, a little out of breath from her exertions. ‘I’m Dr Reynolds. I’m here to see Dr Gregson.’
‘Oh, yes,’ the woman answered with a smile, ticking her name off a list on her desk, ‘you’re the nine-fifteen appointment. They’re waiting for you. If you’d like to come with me, I’ll take you along to the office.’
The woman doctor glanced down at her watch and made a face. Noting her reaction, Saskia almost did the same. She could guess what she was thinking. She wasn’t making a very good start.
‘Just tell Dr Beckett that I’d appreciate his involvement in the new cardiovascular clinic, would you?’ the doctor murmured. ‘Perhaps he might be able to spare me a few minutes later today?’
‘I’m sure he’ll make the time,’ the receptionist answered.
She walked with Saskia along the corridor. ‘Here we are,’ she said, knocking lightly on a door marked in bold, black lettering ‘Dr James Gregson’.
A gravelly voice responded, ‘Come,’ and Saskia pulled in a deep breath before going into the room. She took in her surroundings in one vague sweep.
A large, mahogany desk dominated the room, and behind it sat a well-dressed, distinguished-looking man who studied her with interest over rimless reading glasses that sat low down on his nose. There were two other, younger, men on either side of him, some small distance away, seated at an angle to the table.
One of them had his head down, immersed in studying papers in a manila file, and for a dreadful moment, as she stared at the
top of his dark head, Saskia felt a wash of stomach-lurching familiarity run through her. Her heart began to thump, increasing in tempo as though she’d been running. Could this really be her new neighbour?
‘Dr Reynolds, it’s good to see you. Please, come in and take a seat.’ Dr Gregson stood up and waved her to a leather chair in front of the desk. He was a man of medium build, with square-cut features and dark hair, greying a little at the temples. Above the glasses his brown eyes were keen, missing nothing.
‘Let me introduce you to my colleagues,’ he said. ‘This is Dr Matheson—Noah Matheson. He’s our man in charge of the minor injuries unit.’
Dr Matheson stood up to shake hands with her. He was young, handsome, in his early thirties, tall, lithe, and it was obvious right away that he was most definitely taken with Saskia. Interest sparked in his hazel eyes as he drank in the cloud of her Titian hair and his gaze skimmed her slender, curvaceous figure. She was wearing a cream-coloured suit with a pencil-line skirt and a jacket that nipped in at the waist. It was a feminine outfit yet at the same time businesslike, and it gave her a fair amount of confidence to know that she looked her best.
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ Noah said, holding onto her hand for a second or two longer than was strictly necessary.
‘And this is Dr Beckett—Tyler Beckett. He’s in charge of Accident and Emergency.’
Her spirits plummeted, her worst fears confirmed.
Tyler stood up and clasped her hand firmly in his. His glance moved over her, clearly appreciative. His smile was warm, welcoming, and she relaxed a little. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all. He looked terrific, lean and flat-stomached, every bit as good as the first day she’d seen him. The jacket of his suit was open, revealing a deep blue shirt teamed with a silver-grey tie. His cufflinks were of the same silver-grey pattern.
‘Dr Reynolds and I have already met,’ he said, addressing his colleagues. ‘It turns out that she’s a neighbour of mine.’ He looked into her green eyes, adding in a low voice, ‘I didn’t know the name of our applicant until this morning, and even then I wasn’t sure it would turn out to be you.’ His well-shaped mouth made a faint curve. ‘Perhaps I should have guessed as time went on. It sort of fitted somehow.’ He didn’t look at his watch, but she caught his drift all the same.
