Two people who thirty-six hours ago had wanted to die were now both aching for the day to begin.
Was she aching for her day to begin?
Maybe she was.
She was going to help Jake operate this morning, she remembered, but excitement wasn’t exactly her overriding emotion.
Maybe there was also a tinge of fear.
Why fear? Was she fearful of the way she responded? Jake had let her know in no uncertain terms that he wanted nothing of that response.
She needed to ring Robert, she decided. Robert, her nice safe boyfriend back home. He was an optometrist she’d known for ever and their romance had been proceeding placidly-if tamely-when she’d had to leave with Susie.
She hadn’t rung Robert for a week. It was time to get in touch with him again. Maybe he’d be surprised to hear from her. Their relationship was lacklustre at the best of times, and she suspected a month’s absence was probably killing it for good, but she needed to ground herself somewhere and Robert was eternally useful.
Right. She’d ring Robert. After she’d telephoned Mavis Hipton to see how she’d got on in the night. After she’d organised Angus down to his garden. After she’d bullied Susie and Angus into eating breakfast.
But maybe the bullying wouldn’t be because they weren’t interested in eating, she thought suddenly. It would be bullying because they’d be too busy to eat.
Suddenly Susie and Angus were excited by life again.
She needed to get excited, too.
She was going to operate with Jake.
She was excited.
There was no relationship, she told herself crossly.
No-but she was still excited.
CHAPTER FIVE
DOLPHIN BAY Bush Nursing Hospital was a neat little building made of the deep grey stone of the local cliffs. It had wide verandas and a lovely, rambling garden, and as she pulled into the parking lot she could see half a dozen people pottering in the flower-beds. There were glimpses of the sea through the tangle of honeysuckle and bougainvillea, and a flock of white galahs was screeching and fighting for places on the branches of the towering gums.
She should transplant this place to Manhattan, she thought longingly. What a wonderful place to die.
What a wonderful place to live.
They all knew who she was. The moment she climbed out of the car she was watched, by the gardeners and by the patients sitting in the sun on the veranda, and a chirpy young nurse bustled out to greet her.
‘You’ll be Dr Kirsty. I’m Babs. We’ve been waiting for you.’
Dr Kirsty. Babs. This was as formal as it got in Dolphin Bay, Kirsty thought wryly, but she grinned.
‘Dr Cam- Dr Jake said to be here at ten.’
‘Yes, but Francis is in such a state that if we don’t knock him out soon, he’ll do a runner,’ Babs told her. She ushered her inside and flung open the theatre doors. ‘It’s OK, Jake. Kirsty’s here.’
Jake was already in theatre gear. He was systematically checking equipment but as Kirsty walked in he turned and smiled, and her heart did that crazy backflip she was starting to recognise. And starting to resent. Darn, why didn’t she get that backflip when Robert smiled?
This man didn’t want a relationship. Not!
‘You’ve been waiting for me?’ she managed.
‘We have the world’s scaredest patient,’ he told her. ‘Francis is sixty years old. Until his hernia got bad he was our local fire chief. Put him in front of wildfire and he’ll be the coolest head in the district, but show him a drop of blood and he’ll faint. He’s still in his room. I thought if we wheeled him along here and he caught sight of theatre gear, he might end up dying of shock.’
‘I’ll check him there, then, shall I?’ she asked, and he smiled again.
‘If you would. Is there anything else here that you need?’
She did a fast check. This should be a simple procedure-a simple anaesthetic. Even catering for terror.
The little theatre looked brilliant.
‘How many beds does the hospital have?’ she asked in surprise.
‘Twenty. Plus ten nursing-home beds.’
‘That’s too many for one doctor.’
‘You’re telling me. I have to work hard to keep them healthy.’
‘Jake makes his patients work in the garden,’ Babs said cheekily from the doorway. ‘He has a method of bowel control that’s second to none. You stay regular or you get garden duty.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘He gives out garden duty for everything,’ Babs continued. ‘You just sigh in this place and someone sticks a trowel in your hand.’
‘Don’t the patients object?’
‘They love it,’ Jake said, attempting a glower at the nurse. ‘Babs, go introduce Kirsty to Francis. I want him back here asleep in ten minutes.’
‘That’s if my checks are OK,’ Kirsty said, attempting to find some vestige of authority.
‘They will be,’ Babs said. ‘Otherwise you’ll be handed a trowel as well. Our Dr Jake runs a tight ship.’
There was no need for the trowel.
Francis was a big man, but he’d kept himself fit, he didn’t smoke and he had no underlying medical conditions to give her concern. The only problem was his terror, which was palpable the moment she entered the room.
‘Hi. I’m Dr Kirsty, your anaesthetist. I’m here to make you relax enough for Jake to fix your bump.’ Then she hesitated. The man was physically cringing. ‘Am I so scary?’
‘N-no, but…’
‘Does your wife ever get her hair set at the hairdresser? Does she ever sit under a dryer?’
‘Sure,’ he whispered, not knowing where this was going.
‘Well, I don’t want to scare you any more than you already are, but your wife has more chance of getting electrocuted under the dryer than you do of getting damaged by my anaesthetic. But Dr Jake’s telling me you’re scared.’
‘I’m not…it’s not…’
‘It’s not logical,’ she said, smiling and lifting his wrist, ostensibly to feel his pulse but in reality to give him the comfort of touch. ‘I know. Like I’m scared of moths. I can’t stand them; they make my hair stand on end. But if I had to face them in order to fix my life…’
‘You would?’
‘Actually, I wouldn’t,’ she conceded with a rueful smile. ‘Not without a lot of screaming and running and general loss of dignity. What I might do, though-if I had to face them-is ask a nice doctor to give me something to make me sleepy and dreamy and away with the fairies, so that any moth could go bump into me and I’d simply wave and smile.’
That drew a reluctant smile. ‘You’re saying you could give me something like that.’
‘Ooh, the very nicest of drugs,’ she told him. ‘Guaranteed to make you smile and wave till the cows come home.’
‘Till the cows come home,’ he said, dazed. ‘I thought you were from New York?’
‘I’m learning the local lingo,’ she said, with a certain amount of pride. ‘Australian country talk. I can talk about mates and blokes and anything to do with a heap of dung you care to mention. I think I have an ear for languages. Now I’m staying with Angus, it’s Australian with a Scottish accent. So will you let me give you my hallucinogenic substance?’
