The Surgeon’s Family Miracle

everything. She rode, she fished, she swam, she built the world’s biggest sandcastle, she read late into the night, she rose at dawn to jog on the beach…

Rosa and Doug watched and said little. Benjy was drawn to them, she knew. They offered to take over his care and let her rest, but rest wasn’t on her agenda. Neither was clinging to her son, but her legacy from the last few days was one of fear, and everywhere she went, Benjy went, too.

Benjy loved the horses. Rosa and Doug grazed beef cattle-that was the farm’s main income-but Rosa had four mares and one stallion-just to give her pleasure-and they gave Benjy pleasure, too.

One of the mares was heavily pregnant and Benjy was fascinated. ‘We can’t go until Flicker’s had her foal,’ he told Lily, and Lily thought she wasn’t sure how long she could stand being there.

She was still in overdrive, playing as hard as she’d worked on the island. The events of the past few days haunted her. The effects they’d had on Benjy haunted her as well, making her worried sick that there might be long-term repercussions. He hardly talked to her of the time in the compound. He hardly spoke of Kira. He never spoke of Jacques.

She’d betrayed her son by loving Jacques. Or…by thinking she’d loved Jacques?

She hardly slept.

‘You’re like a wound-up clockwork toy,’ Rosa said on the third night. Doug was feeding the dogs, Benjy was supervising and Lily and Rosa were picking peas from the vegetable patch. ‘Why don’t you go for a walk by yourself after dinner? Let Doug read to the boy. It’d do them both good.’ Her smile faded a little. ‘I worry about Doug.’

‘Why?’

‘He has chest pain.’

Lily frowned. ‘What sort of chest pain? Do you want me to talk to him? You know I’m a doctor.’

‘No.’ Rosa grimaced. ‘He’d hate it that I said anything. He hardly admits it to me, and I’m sure it’s worse than he lets me see.’ She hesitated. ‘But when Ben comes…maybe Ben will do something.’

‘Rosa, if it really is chest pain, he needs urgent medical assessment.’

‘If he goes to the doctor when Ben’s not here and the doctor says he has to stop doing housework then we’ll leave here,’ Rosa said, sounding desperate. ‘After Ben’s been so good to us there’s no way Doug would stay on if he can’t work for his keep.’ She hesitated. ‘But maybe if it was Ben that was to do the telling… I know it sounds foolish but pride’s one of the few things left to Doug.’

‘Rosa, chest pain can mean-’

‘There’s nothing you can do or I can do,’ Rosa said with finality. ‘We wait for Ben. And as for now, you’re to go for a walk. Ben says you should.’

‘When did he tell you that?’ she demanded, startled, and Rosa smiled.

‘He rang us when you were at the beach. He worries about you.’

Then, as if on cue, the phone rang again. ‘What’s the bet this’ll be Ben?’ Doug called from the veranda. ‘Rosa told him this morning that you wouldn’t slow down, and he’s worried.’

Suddenly she found she was shaking. Maybe Ben was right, she conceded. Maybe she was cracking up.

‘It is Ben,’ Doug called.

She walked up the steps to the kitchen. Rosa and Benjy followed. So much for privacy. They were all watching her. She turned her back on the lot of them. Rosa, Doug and Benjy were gazing at her as if she was their evening’s entertainment.

She was cracking up.

‘Hi,’ she said, and took a deep breath and tried again. ‘Hi.’ That was better. Her voice didn’t squeak this time.

‘Rosa says you’re running on overdrive,’ Ben said.

Lily thought, Great, cut to the chase, why don’t you?

‘I’m fine,’ she told him. ‘I need to come home.’

‘The island’s OK without you,’ he said softly, as if he understood where her head was, which was crazy for how could he know? ‘Sam and Pieter and I have the medicine here under control. You’re not coming home until you’re well.’

‘I am well.’

‘You’re not well. I want you to do something for me.’

‘Not unless I can come home.’

He chuckled, that deep throaty chuckle that had once made her smile but now suddenly made her want to weep. ‘It’s not going to happen, sweetheart,’ he said.

‘Don’t call me-’

‘Lily,’ he corrected himself. ‘If I’ve figured out the time difference right, you should be just about to have dinner.’

‘How did-?’

‘Doug’s meals are like clockwork.’

‘How often do you come here?’

‘We’re talking about you. Not me.’

‘We shouldn’t be.’

‘Just shut up for a minute. If you go out straight after dinner-’

‘I can’t.’

‘Let me speak,’ he said, exasperated. ‘There’s a track from the house to the ridge up on Blair Peak. It’s a full moon here so it’s a full moon there as well. We’re under the same moon, Lily. Remember that. Anyway, I want you to put some decent boots on and take yourself up to the peak.’

‘Tonight?’

‘Tonight,’ he said. ‘Sit up at the peak for as long as you need. Then walk straight down to the beach and wander back with your toes in the water.’ She heard his smile again. ‘Take your boots off first.’

‘Is this some sort of order?’

‘It’s a medical prescription.’

‘Benjy can’t-’

‘This is not for Benjy,’ he said. ‘It’s for you.’

‘It’s dumb.’

‘It’s a medical prescription, Lily,’ he repeated, his voice softening. ‘Trust me.’

‘Why should I?’

‘For no reason other than I’m asking,’ he said. ‘Lily, do this. For you.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Yes, you can, my love. Or, at least, you can try.’

‘Don’t tell me what to do.’

‘OK. I’m not telling. I’m suggesting. You can be angry while you do it, but I still think you should do it.’

And the phone went dead.

She replaced the receiver on its cradle, and turned slowly to face the rest of them. They were all looking at her, expectant, waiting for news. You can, my love… He had no right to call her that.

But he had.

‘He said I should go up to Blair Peak,’ Lily said, noticing in some abstract way that her hand was no longer shaking.

‘That’s a fine idea,’ Rosa approved. ‘Wear boots.’

‘That’s what Ben said.’

‘The snakes don’t move so much at night,’ Doug added. ‘But you should err on the side of caution.’

‘Snakes,’ she whispered, and suddenly her mind was sharp again. ‘Are you out of your minds?’

‘Nope,’ Rosa said cheerfully, dumping peas on the table and starting to pod. ‘It’s a tiny risk and with boots it’s negligible. And so worth it. Ben’s right, dear. You have to go.’

‘I don’t have to do anything.’

‘If you want to get well, you need to go,’ Doug told her. ‘It’s better than all the medicine in the world.’

‘Go, Mama,’ Benjy said. ‘You want to be better.’

She stared down at her small son, confounded. ‘I’m not sick.’

‘No, but you want to be better,’ Benjy said. ‘It might stop your hands from shaking.’