just as much force as those damned oysters. Only the effects are much more long-lasting-aren’t they, Fern?’
‘The effects just mean I have to get back to Sydney-fast,’ Fern whispered. ‘Surely you can see that?’
‘You mean you can feel it, too?’ There was a trace of relief in Quinn’s voice as though he’d been sure-but not too sure.
‘Oh, I can feel animal attraction,’ Fern said bitterly. ‘But that’s all this is. We’d go to bed and it’d be over in a week.’
‘Want to try and see?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Fern’s face whitened and her fingers clenched again. ‘Quinn Gallagher, are you or are you not married to Jessie?’
There was a long, long silence. Quinn Gallagher was facing some sort of internal war and when it was over the defeat was back in his voice.
‘Jessie’s and my marriage is in name only.’
‘But she’s here, she’s still your wife and she has no intention of leaving the island. Where does that leave me in your plans, Dr Gallagher? A bit on the side-or are you planning on installing me as second bride?’
‘Jessie understands. She knows how I feel. Believe me, Fern…Or if you won’t believe me, ask Jess.’
‘Oh, sure.’ Fern thought back to Jessie’s white, shadowed face and mentally cringed. ‘Sure. Go and talk to Jessie. Ask her if she’d mind if I took over her husband…You’ve got rocks in your head. She’s a lovely, gentle person, Quinn Gallagher. She doesn’t deserve you.’
‘The marriage is finished.’
Fern shrugged. ‘There’s a law in Australia,’ she said conversationally. ‘It’s that married couples have to separate for at least twelve months before they can divorce.
‘We can’t,’ Quinn said heavily. ‘You must be able to see that.’
‘I don’t think I can see very much at all,’ Fern whispered, her voice breaking. ‘I don’t understand. I don’t understand what you’re saying we should do. I don’t understand what I’m feeling. I only know…I only know that I have to get away fast. I can’t cope…’ She struggled with the doorhandle. ‘Quinn, unlock the door. Let me go- please…’
‘Let you go?’ he said dully. He shook his head. ‘I told you, Fern. What I’ve caught is incurable. I’ll let you get out of the car-even go back to Sydney-but I can never let you go.’
He lifted his hand and touched her hair, as if he were touching a dear and fragrant memory. His eyes held the same bleakness and loss as a man looking at a lost love.
‘You’d better go, Fern,’ he said bleakly. ‘But not, please God, not for ever…’
CHAPTER NINE
FERN spent the night staring sleeplessly at the ceiling-and making some very hard decisions.
The next morning she again waited until Quinn was safely in Clinic and then returned to the hospital.
She visited Bill first.
The young man was sleeping deeply, obviously exhausted from the previous night’s drama.
To Fern’s relief his asthma seemed to have settled and he was breathing with relative ease. The dry, hacking cough was still there, though. It shook his body as he slept and his pillow was specked with blood.
She had to be right, Fern thought grimly. If she wasn’t…
She must be.
She lifted the chart from the end of the bed. Bill’s temperature was still high but it was too early to expect the pneumonia treatment to be working. It was TB…If they could keep him alive for the course of treatment to take effect…
It was Bill’s only chance at life.
Quinn was following her advice to the letter.
For one crazy moment Fern let her mind drift. What if…What if she considered Quinn’s mad proposal? She and Quinn running this hospital. Together…
With Jessie in the background!
‘Don’t be a fool,’ she said harshly to herself. Her decision had been made.
She left Bill without waking him.
Aunt Maud was propped up on pillows in the next ward, a magazine lying on the coverlet in front of her. She wasn’t reading, though. Maud lay staring out of the windows at the distant sea, as though soaking up every inch of view she could get.
Impulsively Fern crossed to the windows, throwing them wide to let the smell of the sea permeate the room.
Her aunt sighed with pleasure.
‘I wanted to do that myself, Fern, dear,’ she admitted, ‘but it seemed too much effort to get out of bed.’
Fern sighed. ‘Aunt, you must have the bypass surgery,’ she said softly. She walked back to the bed and took her aunt’s hands. ‘There’s no choice. The way it’s looking-well, to be blunt, I don’t like your chances of coming home unless you do.’
Her aunt nodded. ‘I know that.’ Maudie looked again out to sea. ‘I just wish…’
Fern stooped to give her aunt a swift hug. ‘You just wish it’ll all be here waiting when you get back. The sea. The island. They will be. I promise.’
‘And you? Fern, why won’t you come home?’
Silence.
Fern stepped back from the bed, searching for something to say. There were slow tears of distress and weakness sliding down her aunt’s cheeks.
‘I did come home,’ Fern whispered. ‘I always come home for visits. And I’ll take you to Sydney and then I’ll bring you back again. I promise.’
‘And leave again.’
‘I can’t practise here,’ Fern said gently. ‘Even if I wanted to now, I can’t. Dr Gallagher is the island doctor.’
‘He says he’s asked you to be his partner.’
Fern bit her lip. ‘Has he also told you he’s married?’ Fern’s aunt sniffed into a tissue, pulling herself back to her normal prosaic self with a visible effort. ‘Well, of course, he’s married,’ she said bluntly. ‘Jessie’s a lovely girl, too, even if she is painfully shy. But Fern, Dr Gallagher being married shouldn’t stop you being his partner. That’s silly.’
Silly…
She supposed it was.
The whole darned thing was silly. Silly to the point of hysterical!
‘Staying here’s impossible,’ Fern said at last. ‘Believe me, Auntie…’
‘Because we haven’t healed you…’
Fern’s eyes widened. ‘I don’t…I don’t know what you mean.’
Maud sighed. ‘Oh, Fern, we did so want children, your uncle and I. And when your parents were killed-well, we thought, at least we’d have a daughter. Someone we could love like our own. Selfish, really. Only…only we never really reached you. You’ve put up barriers so high…Fern, you’ve built those barriers and we can’t get through. No one can. It tears us in two-your uncle and I…’
Fern swallowed. ‘I…But I do love you,’ she said softly. ‘You know I do.’
‘But you won’t depend on us,’ Maud said. ‘The giving always has to be on your side. You won’t take. You think if you take, then you expose yourself to hurt again. You won’t take our love…’
‘I do…’
‘You don’t,’ Maud said gently. ‘And what I’m really fearful of, my Fern, is that you won’t take anyone’s. Are you going to depend on anyone, Fern-ever?’
‘I guess…I guess I have to say I hope not,’ Fern said, struggling to keep her voice light. If Maud only knew…If
