He shook his head and his hands came up suddenly to grip her shoulders. ‘Dr Russell, do you know what I’m wearing at this particular moment?’
Nikki stared. His deep eyes were challenging her, and behind the challenge was the hint of laughter.
‘I don’t know…’ Nikki looked down, writhing in the unaccustomed hold. She didn’t enjoy being so close. Then she gasped. Luke Marriott was wearing a theatre gown. Nothing else. Below the gown hard, muscled legs emerged-naked. Even his feet were bare.
‘I’m in my birthday suit,’ he grinned. ‘Without my theatre gown I’m really something.’ His smile deepened, and he released her to turn his back, so that the ties behind him faced her. ‘Want to untie me and check it out?’
‘No!’ Nikki stepped back in horror. He turned back and smiled.
‘Well, I’m sure as hell not wearing an operating gown all the way to Cairns. My stuff was caked with dirt. I couldn’t wear it in Theatre. And these gowns are meant to fit someone about six inches shorter than I am. Sister’s already told me you keep a change of clothes here, Dr Russell. On the grounds that you’d look better in your change of clothes than I would, you’re going to Cairns.’
‘But-’
He sighed, leaned back and folded his arms. ‘What’s the matter, Dr Russell? Aren’t you happy leaving Eurong and your daughter to my tender mercies? Don’t you trust me?’
Nikki stared up at him. The deep blue eyes mocked her with their trace of laughter.
For the life of her, she couldn’t answer.
CHAPTER TWO
MARTIN recovered consciousness before the plane touched down at Cairns.
For Nikki it was a weird journey. She felt as if she had been snatched from her nice, safe existence, and only part of that feeling was due to flying to Cairns. She watched over her patients while she tried hard to avoid thinking of Luke Marriott.
‘He’s nice, isn’t he?’ Lisa whispered as she stirred from her drugged sleep and found the strength to speak.
‘Who?’ Nikki asked. She knew already whom Lisa was talking about.
‘The new doctor. He…he saved my life.’
Nikki shook her head, but part of her acknowledged the truth of Lisa’s words. His presence might not have saved Lisa’s life but it had probably spared her legs, and as for the boy she was with…
Nikki checked Martin for the hundredth time and noticed with satisfaction the lessening of his unconsciousness. He stirred just as they touched down, his eyes flickering open and gazing upwards in dazed confusion.
‘You’re safe,’ Nikki told him gently. ‘You and Lisa crashed the car. Lisa’s here with you. She’s OK. We’re taking you both to hospital.’
It was all he could cope with hearing. His eyelids lowered and he slept.
At Cairns Nikki was suddenly redundant. Forewarned, there were ambulances and doctors waiting as their flight landed. Martin’s condition was less serious now than they had feared, so Nikki could slip into the background. She was content to do so. By now the cumulative effects of two sleepless nights were showing. It was five in the morning and she was close to exhaustion.
Someone showed her to a sparsely furnished room at the hospital. All Nikki saw was the bed. Somehow she shed her clothes, slipped between cool sheets, and seconds later was asleep.
Nikki woke to heat. There was a big ceiling fan in the bedroom but she’d been too tired to think of turning it on. Now the temperature in the room had risen to the point of discomfort. Nikki opened her eyes, looked automatically at the wristwatch on her arm and sat up with a start. Midday.
Midday! It couldn’t be. She stared again and shook her wrist. The daily flight up to Cooktown-her only means of getting home-left at eleven a.m. Now… now she was stuck here for another twenty-four hours whether she liked it or not.
She flung back her sheet in distress. Someone should have woken her. They knew the routine. The staff here knew she had a flight to catch. Then a knock on the door made her dive back for the modesty of her bedclothes. The door opened and a smiling face appeared. It was Miss Charlotte Cain, a young surgeon whose friendship with Nikki dated from medical school.
‘Hi, Nikki,’ Charlotte smiled. ‘Welcome to the day.’ The white-coated young doctor looked down at her watch and her smile widened. ‘I can’t say good morning any more, that’s for sure.’
‘Charlie, what on earth were you doing letting me sleep?’ Nikki demanded angrily. ‘You knew I had a plane to catch.’
‘I’m only following orders,’ Charlotte grinned. ‘I hardly dared do anything else.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just that Luke Marriott rang from Eurong early this morning,’ she told the bemused Nikki. ‘He rang to find out how his patients were-
‘Mr Marriott…’ Nikki stared up at Charlotte in confusion. ‘So the man really is a surgeon?’
‘One of the best,’ Charlotte said simply. ‘As your young Martin can testify. He’s fully conscious and showing no signs of permanent damage.’ Charlotte shook her head. ‘I wish I could operate like that.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Nikki folded her sheet more closely about her and stared up at her friend.
‘What don’t you understand?’
‘Anything,’ Nikki wailed. ‘But especially I don’t understand why someone with Luke Marriott’s skill and training accepts the job as my locum. It doesn’t make sense.’ She looked desperately at her friend. ‘Make sense of it for me, Charlie?’
Charlotte shook her dark hair. ‘I can’t,’ she admitted. ‘We were all amazed when you contacted us last night and told us who was operating. Luke Marriott resigned from this place two years ago. We thought he’d gone overseas but no one heard. And then he springs up with you in Eurong-in the nick of time, as far as I can gather.’
In the nick of time…It had certainly been that. But why?
‘Did anything happen?’ Nikki asked slowly… ‘I mean, why did he leave here to do locum work?’
‘Who knows?’
‘There must be something,’ Nikki frowned. ‘Did something dreadful happen? Was there a lawsuit or medical mistake that would make him give up surgery?’
‘Didn’t you ask for details of his past when you employed him?’ Charlotte asked, amused. ‘Surely an outstanding lawsuit would have to appear on his curriculum vitae?’
‘I didn’t ask for his curriculum vitae,’ Nikki snapped, and then at the look on her friend’s face she changed her tone. ‘I checked he was currently registered and left it at that. Honestly, Charlotte, I was just so tired I thought anyone would do, as long as they were qualified and registered. I mean, I wasn’t going to leave the town.’
‘You mean you were going to do your usual trick of employing a locum and then doing the work yourself,’ Charlotte said drily. ‘For heaven’s sake, Nikki-’
‘Leave it, Charlie,’ Nikki said brusquely. She looked up, saw the fleeting look of hurt in her friend’s eyes and immediately regretted her words. ‘Look, Charlie, it’s just that…’
‘It’s just that if you stop working then you have time to think,’ her friend retorted. And then a sudden smile flashed over her face. ‘Well, you and Luke Marriott should get on famously. Two workaholics and only enough work for one. Dear, oh, dear…’
‘So tell me about him,’ Nikki demanded, anxious to get the conversation away from herself. ‘Why on earth is he acting as a locum if he’s so darned clever and conscientious? He looks like…’ She thought back to Luke Marriott’s disreputable appearance, and the sudden memory of naked legs appearing from under his scanty hospital gown
