leaving all her patients in her charge.
‘I have some office work to do…’
‘No, you don’t,’ Kitty said blithely, as Joss fastened a dressing over her thumb. ‘Amy works too hard, Dr Braden. Make her go home.’
‘Tell you what,’ he suggested. ‘I’ll stop at the store and cook for both of us.’
‘You?’
‘Me.’ Once again she’d caught him unprepared and he reacted with ego. ‘I can cook, and I need to do something to pay for my lodging.’
‘I think you’ve done enough. One Caesarean. A healthy mum, a gorgeous baby and four treated residents…’
And one secretary minus her splinter-who was match-making for all she was worth. ‘I’ll donate a bottle of wine,’ Kitty said blithely, beaming from Amy to Joss and back again. ‘Mum gave it to me because she doesn’t like it-and I can’t think of an occasion more splendid.’
‘Kitty-’
‘More splendid than a welcome to Iluka’s new doctor.’
‘Hey, I’m only here until it stops raining,’ Joss said uneasily, and Kitty beamed.
‘Then long may it keep raining.’
‘Keep your wine to stop you thinking about your thumb,’ Amy suggested, and Kitty shook her head.
‘Nope. I’ve been thinking about my thumb for four days now and suddenly it’s better.’
‘The anaesthetic hasn’t worn off,’ Joss warned, but Kitty would have none of it.
‘Go on. Shoo, the pair of you. Have a wonderful night.’ And as she pushed Amy out the office door and closed it after them she was crossing every finger and every toe. ‘For a change,’ she said.
Amy didn’t go home at once. ‘I’m not travelling in a pink Volkswagen even if you are,’ she told Joss. ‘And besides, I want my car at home. I’m not leaving it here.’
She wanted her independence. She certainly didn’t want to be stuck out at White-Breakers with no way of getting back here but to be driven by Joss. So she sent him homewards and did a bit of busy work around the place-and finally popped in to see Charlotte.
The young mother was just waking. Marie was still on watch, and Mary was hovering nearby. Amy signalled them to disappear for a while. Charlotte should be up to talking but the last thing she wanted was a crowd.
‘Feeling better?’
Charlotte gave her a wan smile. Her baby was sleeping beside her in a makeshift cot made out of a filing cabinet drawer and a television stand. It served the purpose, however. The little one looked blissfully content.
‘I am…a bit.’
Amy pulled up a chair and smiled sympathetically at the new mother. ‘You can say you feel lousy if you feel lousy.’
‘OK, then. I feel lousy.’
‘Dr Braden’s written you up for pain relief. You can have something now.’
‘I’ll wait a while. I’m having enough trouble as it is, getting my head around…what’s happened.’
‘Is there someone you’d like us to contact?’ Amy asked her gently. ‘Someone must be worried about you?’
‘No.’
That was blunt. ‘You’re really on your own, then?’
‘Yes.’
Amy hesitated but then pressed further. There was a pallor about the girl’s face that spoke of deep-seated misery-not just the shock of the day’s events. ‘Charlotte, can I ask why you were in Iluka?’
‘I came here…looking for someone.’
‘And did you find him?’
‘Her.’ She closed her eyes. ‘And yes. Yes, I did.’
‘So you do know someone in Iluka.’
‘No one who wants to know me.’
‘Charlotte, can I help you?’ Impulsively Amy reached out and took the girl’s hand. No one should be alone like this-especially when she was hurting so badly. And the pain wasn’t just from the head wound and the effects of the Caesarean. The pain was soul deep. ‘Let me close,’ she urged. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’
‘No.’ The girl’s face was shuttered and closed and she pulled away her hand.
Amy backed off. The last thing she wanted was to put more pressure on her. ‘OK. I’m here if you want me.’
‘How long am I stuck?’
‘The river’s in full flood. It may be up to a week before there’s access, but you need a week in bed anyway. For now you must lie back and let your body recover-for your daughter’s sake if not for your own.’
The girl looked down at her sleeping baby and her face twisted in something that was close to despair. ‘She is beautiful, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she is.’ Amy looked down at the perfect little girl and she could only agree. ‘Have you thought of what you might call her?’
‘I… I need to speak…’
‘To her daddy?’
The girl’s face closed and she bit her lip. ‘No. I don’t need to speak to him. I can make up my own mind.’ She chewed her lip for a little and then looked again at her daughter. ‘What do you think of Ilona?’
‘Ilona?’
‘It’s Hungarian for beautiful.’
‘Then it’s perfect.’ Amy put a finger down and traced the soft curve of the baby’s cheek. ‘Ilona. It’s just right.’
‘It’s sort of… I mean, she was born in Iluka. Iluka-Ilona.’
‘Then it’s even more perfect.’
The girl’s face flushed with pleasure and she smiled. For the first time Amy saw her as she could be-a truly beautiful woman. ‘You really think so?’
‘I really think so.’ She rose. ‘You need to sleep now but, before you do, can I bring you the telephone? Isn’t there someone you want to contact?’
‘I don’t-’
‘I’ll bring you the phone anyway,’ Amy told her, stepping in before she refused entirely. ‘Then when there’s no one else around, you can make up your own mind who you want to tell about Ilona.’
Amy came out of the room and found Joss waiting. He was leaning against the wall of the corridor with his arms crossed, looking like a man prepared to wait for however long it took. He looked like a man waiting for his wife to try on a dress, she thought suddenly. He had just that proprietorial air.
The thought was stupid. Nonsense. She brought herself up with an inward jolt. ‘I thought I sent you home.’
‘I don’t always go when I’m sent.’ He grinned down at her and another image sprang to mind-a half-grown Labrador who’d just brought her the next-door neighbour’s newspapers. He was pleased and guilty all at the same time.
He made her want to smile.
‘You realise we don’t have anything to eat now,’ she said, trying to sound cross. ‘The general store closes at six and there’s nowhere else.’
‘Hey, I’ve been and come back,’ he told her, wounded. ‘I have a car full of supplies. I’m not silly. And I am hungry.’ Then his smile faded and he looked toward the closed door of Charlotte’s room. ‘Any joy?’
‘She’s not saying anything.’
‘Her name’s Charlotte Brooke. The police sergeant got that from her plates. He just rang in with the information. She lives on the other side of Bowra.’
‘She’s a long way from home, then.’
‘Sergeant Packer wants to know whether he should check out the address-just in case someone’s frantic about her.’
