The whole nightmare of yesterday was ready to slam back into place, but as reality hit there were two small comforts holding her steady. Or, if she was honest with herself, they weren’t small comforts. They were huge comforts.
Robbie was here. Robbie was safe.
And out in the front room was Grady.
Why should that be a comfort?
Grady’s life was disaster management. Grady’s life had nothing to do with hers. But now that she was in the midst of the worst kind of disaster, at least Grady could be here. For a tiny while.
And then what?
Reality.
Comfort faded. She felt Robbie stir. The sun had just caught the sill and flooded the bed, disturbing them both. Robbie rolled over and found her, his expression changing from one of panic to relief in a moment.
‘Morag. You’re here.’
‘I’m here.’ She’d hugged him in the night as she’d replaced Elspeth and climbed into bed beside him, but she was unsure how awake he’d been. He’d hugged her back but he’d hardly woken. Now she saw consciousness return. And with it relief-but also the enormity of what he’d been through the day before.
‘Morag,’ he said again, and buried his small face against her breast and burst into tears.
She held him. It was all she could think of to do. She’d held him like this too often, she thought drearily. There’d been too many times in this small boy’s life when fate had slapped him hard. And now there’d be more people he knew, more people he loved, who he wouldn’t see again.
Hamish. Please, God, not Hamish.
Thank God Robbie had been up here with her, she thought. Thank God they both had. If they’d been on the flat and she’d been hurt… If he’d had to cope without her…
No. She was here for him and she wasn’t going away.
She had to get up. There was so much to do. A priority had to be a trip out the Koori settlement, she thought, but then…There was so much.
But for this minute there could only be Robbie.
There was a tentative knock and Grady was peering around the door as if he didn’t want to intrude. He flinched at the sound of Robbie’s sobbing.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s OK.’ She gave Robbie a hard hug, ran her fingers through his hair, then lifted his tear-drenched face so she could see him. ‘Robbie’s having the cry that everyone else had last night. Sometimes the only thing to do is cry. Don’t you think so, Dr Reece?’
‘I surely do.’ He smiled and crossed to the bed, then stood looking down at them. It was a weirdly intimate moment, Morag thought, still dazed by sleep. Grady was standing over Hubert’s big bed while she and Robbie lay in a huddle of aunt-nephew sogginess and tried to recover their mutual composure.
At least Grady was composed. He was in his yellow overalls. Dressed and ready for the day, he looked cool and competent and…dangerous?
Where had that word come from? Ridiculous.
‘Hi,’ Grady was saying, holding his hand out to Robbie. ‘I’m Grady Reece. I’ve heard about you. I’m a friend of your aunt’s-a doctor-and I’ve come to help.’
Robbie sniffed. He sniffed again but Grady’s hand was still outstretched and finally he took it.
‘Did you come in the helicopter?’ Robbie asked, a trifle warily but seemingly willing to be distracted from his misery.
‘That’s right.’
‘You guys in the yellow overalls were the first to arrive. We saw you land through the field glasses.’
‘We’re the emergency Air-Sea Rescue team.’
‘You came to rescue us?’
‘It seems,’ Grady said, smiling but with a depth of seriousness behind the smile, ‘that you’ve done a fine job rescuing yourselves already.’
‘Some people are dead.’
There was only one answer to that, and Grady had the sense to give it. ‘Yes.’
Robbie seemed to think about it. He gazed up at Grady but his small body was still curved into Morag’s. And here came the question she’d been dreading. ‘What about Hamish?’
‘Hamish?’ Grady looked questioningly at Morag.
‘Hamish is Robbie’s cousin and his best friend,’ Morag told him, feeling more and more unreal. She was lying in bed discussing the outside world with a man above her, for all the world as if she was a patient and he was her doctor. It was completely alien. It was as if somehow she’d been placed in the position where it was someone else who did the caring. Not her.
Which was ridiculous. Ever since she’d returned to the island the weight of the world had rested firmly on her shoulders, and that weight was never lifted. To think that Grady was somehow going to alleviate that burden was a nonsense.
And there was so much to do…
Grady was still talking to Robbie. Taking his concerns seriously. Let him respond to his query about Hamish, she thought dully. She couldn’t.
‘I don’t know who the islanders are yet.’ He raised his brows at Morag. ‘Do you know anything about Robbie’s friend?’
‘I didn’t see Hamish yesterday,’ Morag admitted. ‘I know that his parents-Peter and Christine-were injured. They were the couple you evacuated last night.’ She turned back to Robbie. ‘Peter and Christine had broken limbs that need to be set by experts in Sydney, but we think they should be OK. As for the kids…one of the nurses told me Lucy had scratches down her leg and they were treating her, but I didn’t see her and I haven’t seen Hamish. But I’ve been so busy…’
And that was all she could think of to say. It was all there was to say.
Hamish hadn’t been brought into the cricket pavilion with his parents or Lucy. And his name-she was sure Hamish had been on the list as a query. She hadn’t had a chance to ask questions.
No. She hadn’t been brave enough to ask questions, she conceded. And maybe by now he’d been found. Maybe…
She glanced up at Grady and found his face closed. Uh-oh.
Did he know something she didn’t?
She still wasn’t going to ask. Not now. Not with Robbie listening to every word.
How much grief could one child stand?
‘Can I go and look for him?’ Robbie asked.
‘The professionals are looking for everyone,’ Grady said gravely. ‘We have people searching everywhere, trying to sort out where everyone is. Meanwhile, your friends are gathering down in one of the big tents. I’m about to go down there and I’ll check for myself. Give me Hamish’s details and I’ll let you know.’
Robbie considered and seemed to find that satisfactory, at least in the short term.
‘Is that why you’re here?’ he asked curiously. ‘Do you go round the country rescuing people?’
‘We do. I’m a doctor. Our team helps the injured.’
‘But there’s more people looking than just the guys in yellow overalls.’
‘We have the army here as well. They’ll keep searching until everyone’s found.’
‘And then what?’
‘What do you mean?’ Grady asked. Morag might as well not be there. Robbie was intent on inquisition and Grady, it seemed, was accepting being grilled.
‘Will you take us all to the mainland ’cos our island’s smashed?’
Whew. What a question. How had Robbie figured that one out?
At least one of them was focused, Morag decided. But it wasn’t her. She was feeling more and more disorientated. She was still stunned that somehow she’d ended up in Hubert’s bed and she was here, holding Robbie, while this man stood above them…
