Niall’s dark eyes were smiling but the question stayed.
‘I can’t…Please don’t ask.’
‘I see.’ He nodded. ‘Jess, the first time I met you, you were as scared as Paige. Why, I wonder?’
Jess took a deep breath. ‘Who wouldn’t be?’ she managed lightly. ‘All those signs…And you were carrying a gun.’
‘We’d heard howls coming from the creek.’ Niall leaned back against the wall of the surgery and crossed his arms. He looked like a genie playing a game with his favourite toy. ‘I thought there might have been an injured animal-so I took a gun down in case I had to put something out of its misery. In fact, Hugo and I had decided it must be an injured fox.’
‘There are no foxes on Barega.’
‘I know that now. Frank told me.’
‘Bully for Frank.’ Jess crossed to the door. ‘If you’ll excuse me…’
‘You still haven’t told us why you’re scared.’
‘I’m not scared.’
‘Then why won’t you come to dinner?’
‘Because I’m busy,’ Jessie snapped. ‘I have responsibilities…’
‘Then tomorrow for lunch?’
‘No.’
‘Don’t you like us, Jessie?’ Paige asked sadly and Jess fought to recover calm.
‘Of course I like you, Paige,’ Jess told her, crouching to meet the child’s worried look. ‘But you know I can’t leave my animals.’
‘You do every time you do a house call,’ Paige corrected her. ‘Why don’t you do a house call on us?’
‘Because you’ll get sick of me,’ Jess told her. She straightened. ‘Paige, you live on your farm and I live here. I’ll see you on Monday when your dad does a clinic. But for the weekend…I need to be alone.’
‘Why?’ Paige asked and Jess shook her head.
‘Because,’ she said stubbornly and could think of nothing more to add. It was a child’s excuse-and that was how she felt. Like a scared child. She held the door for Niall and his daughter to leave. ‘I’ll look forward to seeing you both on Monday. But not before.’
Niall nodded slowly. ‘I think we can take the hint,’ he said evenly, scooping his little daughter up into his arms. ‘It’s just you and me for the weekend, Paige. Can you cope with that?’
‘I s’pose so,’ Paige said sadly. ‘But I love Jess.’
‘But Jess doesn’t trust us,’ Niall told her. ‘I guess it’s up to us to figure out how to cure that.’
Jessie had two long days without seeing either Niall or his daughter.
Niall visited Frank briefly on Saturday and Sunday morning, checking his medication and assuring himself that all was well but Jess managed to be safely out of the way both times. The good thing about Niall having a distinctive vehicle was that she could hear it approach and duck for cover.
She was behaving like a frightened schoolgirl, Jess knew, but she couldn’t stop herself.
She’d never been so frightened in all her life.
And for the life of her, she didn’t know what she was frightened of.
Fern and Quinn telephoned from the mainland on Sunday morning for their regular update on the island’s happenings. Dr Fern Rycroft and Dr Quinn Gallagher, husband and wife, were the island’s permanent doctors and were due back at the end of summer.
The couple were appalled to know what had happened.
‘But tell me about Dr Mountmarche,’ Fern demanded as Jess finished outlining the story. ‘Is he a permanent resident on the island? Will we have three doctors instead of two?’
‘I wouldn’t think so,’ Jess said shortly. ‘The idea is that he cures his daughter and then goes home.’
‘Back to England?’
‘Back to England.’
‘I see.’ There was a long silence at the end of the line. Then Fern finally continued, ‘Jess, you don’t think he could be talked into changing his mind, do you? If we offered him a permanent job?’
‘There isn’t enough work for three doctors on the island.’
‘There, might be,’ Fern said cautiously. ‘Especially…especially if one of the doctors is pregnant.’
Another long pause.
‘You’re kidding,’ Jess said blankly.
‘Kidding is right.’ There was a chuckle on the other end of the line and Quinn came on. ‘Kidding is right, Jess, love. Kid number one, due next April. Congratulate us.’
‘That’s…that’s wonderful,’ Jess managed.
‘This Dr Mountmarche…Is he good?’
‘It’s too early to say. Better than Lionel Hurd, at any rate.’
‘Well, thank heaven he’s there,’ Quinn told her. ‘Otherwise one of us would have been forced to come home- and we really need to finish these training stints. Jess, find out about him and if he’s OK, talk him into permanence. A part-time medical practice with his winery might suit him and us magnificently. I’ll set some enquiries into motion from this end.’
‘Quinn, I don’t want to.’
Another silence.
‘Why not?’ Quinn asked cautiously.
‘Because…Quinn, I hardly know him.’
‘Well, get to know him,’ Quinn ordered. ‘And talk him into staying. If he’s good we could have the best staffed island in the South Pacific.’
It was easy for Quinn to say.
He didn’t have to work with Niall Mountmarche…
The two men might get on, Jess decided as she tried to think things through without emotion.
It was only Jess who might have to leave if Niall Mountmarche stayed.
There had to be some way she could face him without feeling like…like her world was blowing round her like dandelion seeds in a high wind.
The weekend was medically peaceful. Almost unnaturally so.
Jess had learned to mistrust the peaceful times. It was almost as if the world paused before a crisis so that it could catch its breath.
The calm came to an end as Sunday afternoon drifted to a peaceful close. The telephone rang in Jessie’s flat.
‘Jess…’
Why did her breath do that? Catch in her throat at the sound of Niall Mountmarche’s voice?
‘Yes.’
‘Problem, Jess,’ he said briskly as if he hadn’t heard the sharp intake of breath. ‘Can you come?’
‘Paige?’ Jessie’s breath was suddenly caught in fear and Niall heard it.
‘Paige is fine. It’s an animal problem.’
‘Oh.’
‘I had a call on the mobile phone Geraldine so kindly arranged for me. One of the local fishermen-Ray Benn-do you know him?’
‘Mmm.’ Ray Benn had a five-acre plot just outside Barega township where his wife and kids kept a menagerie of different animals. At any given time there was always an egg-bound chook or a dog with a grass seed in its ear or a cat with kittens. ‘I know the Benns.’
‘There was a local gymkhana this afternoon. One of their kids-ten-year-old Sam-was riding Matilda and came off. He’s given his knee a fair thump and they were worried it’s broken. I’m sure it’s not’
‘But…’
‘I’m out at their place at the moment,’ Niall told her, ‘and I was thinking it’d be an idea if you were to have a look at the horse.’
‘Has Matilda hurt herself?’
Jess had never been asked to treat the horse but she knew her. Matilda was a placid old brown mare, gentle
