he’d feel if ever he let go.
‘There’s no need for you to stay now,’ he told Tess brusquely, and even Hannah threw him a curious glance. He sounded strained and angry-not as if he’d just performed a successful operation. ‘If you’re supposed to be looking after Louise’s mum…’
‘Mmm.’ Tess glanced at her watch and then back to Mike, her face expressionless. ‘The ball starts at nine. That’s twenty minutes ago. Aren’t you due to be there?’
‘I’m meeting Liz inside.’
‘Liz?’
‘My date.’
‘Oh, right. Of course. Your date.’ Tessa’s eyes twinkled a little. ‘Not your lover?’
‘Tess…’
‘OK, OK.’ She held up her hands in mock defeat and looked down at the pathetic little bundle coming into life on the table. ‘I’m off. You take care good of Sally.’ There had been no need to say that-she knew he would. ‘I’ll tell Kylie that she can come in now, shall I? And her parents? Are they here yet?’
‘If they’re not, I’ll stay here until they come,’ he said heavily. ‘And until Sally’s fully out of the anaesthetic. Liz won’t mind if I’m late.’
‘I’ll bet she will,’ Tess said softly, thoughtfully. ‘I’ll just bet she will mind, Mike Llewellyn, but she won’t say so. It seems to me that you have the ladies in the valley too well trained for their own good.’
‘I’d drink to that,’ Hannah retorted before she could stop herself, and Tess grinned.
So did Hannah, which left Mike feeling…
Stupid?
CHAPTER EIGHT
AS BALLS went, it was a fizzer.
Maybe it was the tragedy of the fire the night before that was casting a pall over the night, or maybe it was just that Mike wasn’t in the mood for dancing.
It wasn’t his partner’s fault. Liz was at her vivacious best, svelte and lovely in shimmering black and silver. Usually he enjoyed her company. Liz was a hard-headed career woman with no aspirations for emotional entanglements, and with her he could dance, knowing there was no hidden agenda.
Or could he?
Tessa’s words still stung.
‘Liz, do you think I’m a bastard?’ he asked, as the evening drew to a close. The music was slowing and couples were dancing cheek to cheek.
Liz was dancing easily in his arms, matching his steps superbly, but there was no desire on either part for them to dance any closer.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve had it implied that I’m a heartless bastard for not taking out any girl more than twice.’
‘You’ve taken me out more than twice.’
‘That’s different.’
Liz grinned. ‘Yeah. But that’s because I’m also a heartless bastard. “Love ’em and leave ’em”-that’s my motto. My dad was like that, and I am, too. There’s no way any man’s going to tie me down. You and I suit very well, Dr Llewellyn.’ Her grin deepened. ‘But don’t get any ideas about us suiting too well or I’ll run a mile.’
He smiled back. Right. It was fine.
It was fine with Liz, but what about the other women? Women like Hannah, whom he’d dated twice and when she’d clung he’d put away fast. Maybe Tess was right. It wasn’t fair.
So where did that leave him, then? Should he only be dating women like Liz?
Yes. A vow was a vow!
Just on midnight he got another call. Mavis rang from the hospital to say Myrtle Jefferson had suffered a fall and needed an urgent house call. It seemed Myrtle had taken an hour to crawl to the phone to call for help, but when Mavis had offered to send the ambulance the old lady had become almost hysterical. She’d told Mavis she only needed the doctor. She needed Mike, she’d wept, but she needed no one else.
It was almost a relief to leave. He left Liz to the attentions of the remaining Bellanor bachelors, and Liz didn’t mind him going in the least.
So… That was the way he wanted it-wasn’t it?
Yes, it had to be, so concentrate on medicine, he told himself fiercely. Concentrate on Myrtle. His medicine had to be the only thing that mattered.
Myrtle certainly needed him. It took him ten minutes to get into the house because she wasn’t capable of reaching the front door to unlock it. In the end he broke a bathroom window, to find her lying on the hall floor by the phone. She’d broken her hip, but what was of even more concern to the old lady was that she’d lost control of her bladder.
Myrtle was rigid with mortification, and it took him a while to figure out just how much of her distress could be put down to embarrassment and how much was due to pain.
‘It’s OK, Myrtle,’ he told her. ‘No one’s going to judge you by this. It often happens after an accident-even to young, fit teenagers.’
But Myrtle would have none of it. She sobbed weakly in distress so, despite his reluctance to move her more than necessary, he administered morphine and then set himself to fix things. By the time the ambulance arrived, Myrtle had been sponged with warm water and was dressed in a clean, soft nightgown. Her soiled night things were soaking in the laundry.
‘Now no one will ever know except you and me,’ he told her, smiling. ‘And you and I go back a long way, Myrtle. I reckon you might even have changed a nappy or two of mine, so that must make us about quits.’
‘I reckon that’s right,’ she said weakly, clutching his hand in gratitude. ‘You were the sweetest little boy. And you’ve turned out… Well, your mother would be proud of you. This new lady doctor’s a lucky young woman.’
‘This new lady doctor…?’
‘Mrs Abbot saw her at surgery this morning and she told Henrietta Smiggins and Henrietta told me. She’s just what you need.’ The morphine was kicking in, her dignity was restored and Myrtle was bouncing back to her old impertinent self.
‘As a medical partner-’
‘No, dear.’ Myrtle patted his arm and fixed him with a knowing look. ‘As a proper partner. That’s what you need, dear. You need a wife, and I won’t let you tell me any different.’
‘Myrtle-’
‘I think I need to go to sleep now, dear,’ Myrtle said weakly, closing her eyes on his protest. ‘I just thought you ought to know…the whole valley’s very happy for you. And so am I. You and Henry’s granddaughter… Well, well.’
He couldn’t stand it.
Tessa had been in the town for a whole three days and the entire district was matchmaking. He travelled back to the hospital behind the ambulance with his mouth set in a grim, angry line.
This was nonsense, stupid, crazy stuff. Fluff! It seemed like the whole town was going nuts.
‘Everyone except me is crazy here,’ he said into the night. ‘I’m not going nuts. I’m the one that’s level-headed here. For heaven’s sake, if she thinks she can bulldoze me…’ His voice died away.
If Tess thought she could bulldoze him, how on earth was he to stop himself being bulldozed?
It took a while to settle Myrtle. He X-rayed her hip and, at Myrtle’s insistence, decided on a conservative approach. The bone wasn’t displaced. With care and bed rest she could recover without internal splinting. Splinting required a trip to an orthopaedic surgeon in Melbourne and a general anaesthetic, and Myrtle wasn’t having a bar of it.
