there’ll be a delay before he inherits. But when he realised Susie was pregnant, he almost passed out.’
‘She won’t want wealth,’ Kirsty whispered. ‘She’d never want it.’
‘I figured that,’ Jake said gently. ‘Finally. You just have to know you, Kirsty, to know what a loving, giving person Susie must be.’
‘Don’t,’ she said distressfully. ‘You know nothing about us. Rory and Ken were brothers and they’re so different.’
‘Kenneth’s ill. You’re not ill,’ he said softly. ‘Kirsty…’
‘Leave it, Jake,’ she said harshly. The hospital corridor was deserted and she felt suddenly exposed. How could he say such things to her and not mean…? Not mean anything?
She didn’t want him to mean anything.
‘So what do we do about Kenneth?’ she asked, louder than she’d intended, and she flushed. ‘I mean…’
‘There’s not a lot we can do,’ he said, his eyes still thoughtful. But he wasn’t thinking about Kenneth, she thought suddenly, and her flush deepened. ‘As I said, I’ll try and find a psychiatrist who knows him and get some advice. I’ll try and arrange transport to one of the better psychiatric institutions. We can only hope that when he wakes up he’s come to terms with the new order.’
‘He never thought he’d inherit before,’ she said, struggling to move past her emotions. ‘Not until Rory died.’
‘So we hold to that. Maybe it’ll be fine.’
‘How can it be anything but fine?’
‘That’s right,’ he said, but he looked worried as he glanced at his watch. ‘I might get the Boyces and the kids to stay on at the castle for the rest of the day,’ he went on slowly. ‘It’ll take everyone’s mind off what’s happened and…’
‘And it’ll provide more security for Angus and Susie?’
‘It will,’ he said gravely, and then he paused for a moment and kept on thinking. ‘You know, the castle is very big. There’s lots of bedrooms.’
‘You’re thinking of filling them?’
‘It might be fun for the Boyces and the twins,’ he told her. ‘Not to mention Susie and Angus. I’ll phone Angus and run it past him. Maybe I’ll say it’ll make you free to help me.’
‘If the twins stay there…’
‘I’ll stay there, too,’ he said. ‘Just until I know Kenneth’s out of the district.’ He hesitated and then confessed, ‘He makes me nervous.’
‘Me, too.’
‘And we should be able to keep our hands off each other for a few days.’
She stiffened. What on earth was he playing at?
‘I don’t know about your hands but my hands haven’t got the slightest inclination to wander your way,’ she snapped. ‘Unless it’s to give you a good swipe across the ears. Of all the arrogant, egotistical statements…’
‘You do feel it, too.’
‘Get lost,’ she retorted, the emotions of the afternoon venting themselves in anger. ‘Take your rotten feelings and play with them somewhere else. I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ And she turned and stalked out of the hospital with her nose in the air.
‘How will you get home?’ he called after her.
‘I’ll walk.’
‘Wait a few minutes and I’ll drive you.’
‘I wouldn’t trust myself,’ she managed without pausing. ‘You and me in a car with all that molten passion… We’d be a road safety risk, Jake Cameron. I’m not coming near you again until you have your passion safely in a glass jar in a locked cabinet. And me… I’m taking my molten whatever for a good long walk.’
She stalked out-past the unsuspecting Babs, who was just coming in.
‘Molten passion?’ Babs asked. ‘Am I missing something?’
‘We both are,’ Kirsty told her with a tired smile. ‘Dr Cameron and I have just admitted a patient with psychiatric disturbances, but if I were you I’d be worrying about who’s treating who. As far as psychiatric disturbances go, it might be a case of physician heal thyself.’
And she left, with Babs staring after her.
She didn’t know whether Jake was staring after her. She didn’t trust herself to look back and find out.
It was a long walk but she needed it. By the time she reached home she was only just nearing a state where she could think with anything approaching calm. And that was only when she very carefully made herself think of anything other than Jake Cameron.
She walked into the forecourt and swung the gate closed behind her. Home, she thought, and then gave a wry grin. Two days ago could she ever have imagined herself thinking of this crazy place as home? But she made her way to the bathroom and greeted Queen Victoria almost like a friend.
It’d be OK. Kenneth might be threatening but this place was built like a fortress after all.
‘You and me will keep them safe,’ she told Queen V. ‘We don’t need any Jake Cameron.’
She got a disapproving look for her pains. Victoria had had her Albert, and then her Mr Brown. Was she egging Kirsty on toward the involvement she’d always forsworn?
‘I don’t need anyone,’ Kirsty declared, more than a little self-consciously, and went to find the rest of the castle inhabitants. She might not
In the end it was harder to find someone to talk to than she’d thought. Angus and Susie and the twins were all asleep. Finally she tracked down Margie who was peeling potatoes in the kitchen while Ben supervised.
‘It seems you’re stuck with us, dear,’ Margie said, welcoming her with a wave of a floury hand as Kirsty entered. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d make pasties for dinner.’
‘Jake’s talked to you?’
‘Dr Jake’s talked to His Lordship and he’s talked to us. We all think it’s a fine idea. Don’t we, Ben?’
Ben, a wisp of a man who’d practically disappeared in the fireside chair, nodded emphatically.
‘Kenneth is a worry to us all,’ he said gravely. ‘Angus is very upset. It took his mind right off his pumpkin.’
‘But we’ve reassured him,’ Margie assured her. ‘He and Susie were in a right state, but the twins decided mud pies were boring so we’ve made brambleberry pies instead. There’s a great patch right outside the gate. I had everyone pick while I made the pastry and it’s kept everyone nicely distracted. Now we’ve all eaten so much it’s coming out our ears-there’s some in the pantry for you, lass.’
This was real medicine. Kirsty served herself pie-still warm-and decided maybe Kenneth needed pie instead of tranquillisers. If only it were that easy.
But for Susie and Angus it had been that easy. They’d been distressed and they’d been cured by a big dose of family.
Jake’s idea of everyone staying together was an excellent plan, she decided, and she wondered again about the difficulties of being a country doctor.
Jake had been upset that she knew more about palliative medicine than he did, but his cures were so much more diverse. He’d looked at this problem and he’d cured it by a case of lateral thinking. But…
‘How can you all just move into the castle?’ Kirsty asked, confused, and Margie raised her eyebrows in astonishment.
‘Wouldn’t you come here if you were asked? There’s not a person in this district who wouldn’t give their right arm for such an invitation. My Ben here and His Lordship go back a long way. They’ve been comparing pumpkins for ever. And with Ben’s arthritis we don’t get out all that much any more. When Jake rang and suggested it we thought, well, it sounds just like a holiday. Now you’re here, I’ll pop back home and get our night things…’
‘And water our veggie garden,’ Ben said from his cavernous chair.
‘It rained yesterday so there’s no need,’ his wife said serenely. ‘You see, no trouble.’
‘But… Jake…’ Kirsty said slowly. This was so far away from the city medical practice she knew that it seemed a different world. Jake was worried about his patients so he moved in with them? Unbelievable.
‘I think our Kenneth has put the wind right up our doctor,’ Margie said, watching her face and guessing her thoughts. ‘Mind, it’ll be good for him to be out here for a bit as well. His hospital apartment’s a dreary place.’
