fleetingly as the children’s laughter sounded across the water. Beattie was beaming and affable. She kept looking from Luke to Nikki and back again, and Nikki knew exactly what was in her mind.
‘You need to find yourself a nice new man,’ Beattie had told Nikki over and over again, and now, seemingly, one had found her cherished Dr Nikki. And such a nice young man! Beattie handed out extra pancakes and her smile broadened.
‘Are you staying home to study all day?’ Beattie asked Nikki, refilling her coffee-cup, and Nikki nodded.
‘Though I’ll have to go in to the hospital first,’ she told the housekeeper. She was carefully avoiding Luke’s eyes. ‘I need to check Mrs McDonald.’
‘I can do that,’ Luke told her lazily.
‘No.’ Nikki flushed and stared intently at her cup of coffee. ‘Lara’s my midwifery patient and I should see her.’
‘Suits me.’ To her surprise Luke didn’t argue. He pushed back his chair. ‘Thanks for breakfast, Beattie.’ He lifted his brows at Nikki. ‘Coming, then?’
He could as well have kissed her. His eyes smiled at Nikki as he moved to help her rise and she felt herself flush to the core of her being. She felt beautiful and desirable and…and loved. Oh, if only she were…
There was a minor hiccup. Luke had been using Nikki’s car and Beattie needed the house car to take the girls to school and kindergarten. ‘It’s no problem,’ Luke told her as Nikki voiced doubts. ‘I’ll drop you back after the hospital rounds. You’ll still be home in time for enough study to suit your rigid requirements.’ Nikki looked up at him suspiciously but he wasn’t laughing. He wouldn’t laugh at her, she thought suddenly. He’d laugh with her maybe, but not at her.
They found Lara McDonald perched up in bed eyeing her breakfast dubiously. ‘Do you think I should?’ she asked as Nikki and Luke entered.
Luke grinned. ‘I don’t see why not, do you, Dr Russell?’
‘Not too much,’ Nikki advised. She crossed to the bed. ‘Feeling better, then?’
‘A hundred per cent.’ Mrs McDonald took a deep breath. ‘You know, maybe some of the pain was just fear. I thought the baby was coming and it got worse.’
‘It happens.’ Nikki lifted the chart and smiled at what she saw. ‘Everything’s fine, then. I see no reason why your husband can’t take you home this afternoon. Stay until after lunch, though. We’ll see. how your tummy responds to breakfast first.’
‘He won’t want me home.’ The woman smiled shyly. ‘He cossets me that much! If he had his way I’d stay in hospital for the next two months.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t blame him. This baby means so much to both of us.’
‘I know,’ Nikki said gently.
‘Well, maybe you don’t,’ the woman said. ‘You had your baby young, if I remember right. My husband and I, though-well, we’ve been trying for ten years. Ten years is a lot of time to be without a baby when you really want one.’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know how people cope when they can’t have children. I think…I think I might have gone mad.’
‘Or maybe you would have found the strength to cope,’ Nikki said gently, trying hard not to look up at Luke. ‘There’s more to life than having children.’
‘You say that, but then you have your daughter,’ Lara said firmly. ‘And maybe I’ll say that when I’ve got my brood safely round me. But not until then.’
A slight sound made Nikki turn. Luke had quietly left while the woman talked, closing the door behind him.
‘Oh,’ the woman in the bed said. ‘He’s gone. I guess he’s in a hurry and I was wasting your time with my small talk.’ She looked up at Nikki. ‘Such a nice man,’ she smiled.
‘Yes,’ said Nikki dully. ‘Such a nice man.’
There was little else for Nikki to do. All the other patients in the hospital had been handed over to Luke. She spent ten minutes in the office going through correspondence and then made her way back out to the car. Luke appeared fifteen minutes later.
‘There should be a taxi service in this town,’ Nikki said lightly as he lowered himself into the car beside her. For once, Luke’s face was set and grim. Nikki turned away, not wanting to see the etching of pain in the lines around his eyes.
’It’s no problem to drive you back.’
’No. But it’ll make you late for surgery.’
’Will you dock my pay if I’m late?’ Luke demanded, and Nikki swung back towards him, surprised by the intensity of his tone.
’Don’t be daft.’
He laughed without humour. ‘It’s happened before. Being a locum is the pits.’
‘So why do you do it?’
Luke’s mouth tightened even further. He swung the little car out of the car park and was silent for the rest of the drive home.
That was the last time they talked for the day. Back at Whispering Palms, Nikki left the car without a word. For the life of her she couldn’t think of a thing to say. Tackle what’s really wrong, her medical training told her. Probe the hurt. And yet…And yet this was the man she loved and she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hurt him further.
She spent the rest of the day desultorily studying, but to her surprise she achieved a lot. ‘I’m in danger of passing this blasted exam,’ she told her reflection as she dressed for dinner. ‘Which makes Luke Marriott’s arrival well worth while.’
The thought held no comfort at all. Nikki stared bleakly at her reflection and then turned away. What on earth was happening to her nice ordered life? She had no idea.
Luke wasn’t in his customary position in the kitchen when she appeared. Beattie shook her head disapprovingly at Nikki’s questioning look. ‘He won’t be in,’ she said tightly. ‘Rang and said he had a case out the other side of town. It’s only Verity Birchip. I told him if he spent his life running all the way out to Birchips for every one of Verity’s imaginary ills he’d have his work cut out for him, but he wouldn’t listen. Said he’d grab something to eat in town and be home late.’
‘Maybe there really is something wrong with Verity,’ Nikki said mildly.
‘That’ll be the day,’ Beattie snorted. ‘You mark my words-Verity Birchip’ll go to her grave swearing she has something the medical textbooks haven’t even heard of and demanding to know why the heck the doctors are worrying about her dying of old age when she’s got something far more interesting.’
Nikki managed a chuckle and Beattie looked at her closely.
‘What’s the matter, then, lass?’
‘Nothing.’ Nikki crossed to the cutlery drawer to avoid Beattie’s penetrating gaze.
‘Something is. And it wouldn’t be why Dr Luke had suddenly decided to spend tonight out, would it?’
‘Beattie Gilchrist, you’re out of line!’
‘You’d say that to your own mother.’ Beattie crossed her arms and fixed Nikki with a look. ‘And it’s your substitute mother talking now. Nikki Russell, if you play your cards right-’
‘Beattie, be quiet.’ Nikki clapped her hands on her ears and glared at her housekeeper. If only Beattie knew that Nikki was playing every card she had-and it wasn’t going to be enough.
There was a long silence, and then, thankfully, the door burst open and two small girls tore in.
‘We’re starving,’ Amy said breathlessly. ‘Mummy, where’s Dr Luke?’
‘He’s out on a call,’ Nikki told her abruptly, stooping to kiss her small daughter. She smiled down at Karen. ‘How was your day, Karen?’
‘Good,’ the little girl said seriously. She appeared to consider the question. ‘Mummy picked me up after school and took me around to see the house she’s been offered. We think…’ Despite her solemn tone the child’s face suddenly twisted into a smile. ‘We think it will be satisfactory. It has one bedroom for Mummy, one for the girls, one for the boys and…and one left over. And it’s nice! It’s even got an inside toilet!’
‘That’s great.’ Nikki swooped to give Karen a hard hug. ‘And when does Mummy think she might be able to move?’
‘The lady at the hospital has offered to look after the littlies.’ Karen was back to being solemn-an eight-year-old matron. ‘Mummy says it will take her a week to have everything sorted out. She said if I was able to help she’d be much faster, and she really misses me.’ Karen looked up anxiously. ‘She said she’s really sorry she hurt me. She said she was so worried she went a bit crazy, but you and Dr Luke are fixing it up so she’ll never get like that again.
