Bachelor Cure (7 page)

The kitchen was dark and deserted. He flicked on the lights and headed for the fridge. In ten minutes he had a vast mound of eggs and bacon and fried bread in front of him. This was standard fare. Bother cholesterol. Without eggs and bacon, he'd starve.

He sank down at the table and ate two mouthfuls—and then the door swung open to admit Tessa.

Once again, this was a different Tess.

She was dressed all in crimson but this time it was a bathrobe. The thick red towelling wrapped her from neck to toes. Her hair swung free in a riotous flaming mass, and her toes were bare. Her toenails peeped out from under her robe and Mike blinked as his gaze reached them. Her nails were painted blue, and each toenail had a tiny gold star painted over the blue lacquer.

She followed his astounded gaze, and she grinned. She flopped down in a chair beside him, put a toe up on the table for inspection and wriggled it.

‘Do you like my toes?'

‘I don't think…' He stopped. For the life of him, he couldn't think of a single sensible thing to say.

‘You don't like,' she said sadly. She put both feet up before her and wiggled all ten bare toes. ‘I do. They cheer me up. It took me ages to do them.'

‘I can imagine,' he said faintly.

She grinned and shook her head, her magnificent hair flying.

‘You know, I'd almost be willing to bet my boot-laces that you can't imagine.' She chuckled. ‘One of my patients taught me how to do it.' Her face clouded a little. ‘She was a sixteen-year-old with cancer. This is my legacy from a brave kid. Star toes.' Then she brightened again. ‘Want to let me paint yours? Then you'll really see how long it takes.'

He shoved his safely booted feet further under the table and managed a smile. Hell, this girl took his breath away.

‘No. Thank you very much, but no.'

‘Politely said. Cowardly but polite. Where's your dog?'

‘Asleep.'

‘Where you should be,' she said wisely. ‘Grandpa says you're offering me a job.'

He sucked in his breath. If his breathing got any harder here, it'd stop entirely.

‘Keep eating your eggs,' she told him. ‘Don't let me interrupt. I just woke so I popped in to see Grandpa. He's nearly asleep but he told me you were job-offering. Louise says it's true and she told me to find you here and take you up on it before you have the chance to change your mind.'

‘That was big of Louise.' He took a mouthful of bacon and glowered.

‘She's a lovely girl. Repressed, though,' Tess said thoughtfully. ‘Did you know she's an only child and her mother has an asthma attack every time any boy asks Louise out? It's ruining her love life. Louise is thirty-two and if her mom doesn't shuffle off this mortal coil soon, she'll dwindle into reluctant spinsterhood.'

‘How the hell do you know that?'

‘She told me.'

‘Why?'

‘I asked,' Tess said kindly. ‘I can see I'm needed around here, Dr Llewellyn, if only to do something about Mrs Havelock's asthma.'

‘Mrs Havelock's asthma is fine.'

‘It's all in her head?'

‘No. But she uses it—'

‘As a tool. I guessed that. But what have you done about it?'

‘Nothing,' he said more sharply than he'd intended. ‘It's none of my business.'

‘Yes, it is. Louise is depressed and I'll bet Louise is your patient, too.'

‘Yes, but—'

‘You don't have time to look after the psychological well-being of all your patients.' Tess nodded sympathetically and studied her toes. ‘You know, I think Louise could do with gold stars. I think I'll suggest it. And tomorrow…'

‘Tomorrow?' He was listening in trepidation. What next?

‘Harvey Begg has asked Louise to go to the shire ball with him tomorrow night. Is Harvey an eligible young man?'

Mike blinked. Harvey… Conversation with Tessa was like holding onto an octopus, he thought, confused. You never knew which hand would grab you next. Or where you'd be led. Harvey Begg…

‘I guess you could say Harvey Begg's eligible.' He managed a smile. ‘Harvey's our local accountant. He's very solid, in every sense of the word. Balding. Mid-thirties. Drives a Volvo and plays cribbage.'

‘Ugh.' Tessa's nose wrinkled. ‘Not my cup of tea. Still…' She smiled. ‘Louise seems smitten. Each to his own, I say, and maybe there's passion in cribbage that I haven't seen before. And the back seats of Volvos are huge!'

‘Tess!'

She chuckled. ‘Oh, well, maybe not. But Louise is
getting her chance to find out tomorrow. I've arranged to mom-sit.'

‘You…'

‘Grandpa will be still in hospital.' Her face grew serious for a moment. ‘I can't keep staying here, taking up a hospital room. I know that. So tomorrow night I'll stay at Louise's place—Louise's mom can think it's because Louise is doing me a favour, offering me accommodation—but it'll let Louise go to her ball. And after that…'

‘After that?' Mike was eating but he was eating on automatic pilot. He felt as if he were being pushed along by a tidal wave.

‘After that I'll go back out to the farm and stay there until Grandpa comes home.'

‘You really are serious about staying?'

‘I really am.'

Mike hesitated, not sure where to take it from here.

‘And…you seriously would like a job?' he asked slowly.

Her face brightened.

‘Absolutely.' Her eyes met his and there was determination behind her gaze. ‘Mike, I do want to stay, but Grandpa's going to feel too guilty if I stay just to look after him. It would be much better if I could combine my medicine with his care.'

‘For how long?'

‘For however long it takes.'

‘Tess, we could be talking years here. There's no guarantees Henry will be fit enough to look after the farm on his own again. Ever.'

‘I know that.'

‘So what will you do, then?'

‘If you're agreeable, I'll take him back to his farm and keep him as happy as I can for the rest of his life,' she said simply. ‘If I can practise medicine here, then everything falls into place. If Grandpa needs extra help, I'll be able to afford it.' She hesitated and her tongue flicked out to moisten her lips. It was a gesture of uncertainty—her first. ‘If…if you'll have me.'

If he'd have her… He stared across the table at this extraordinary woman while he tried to figure out what to say. She'd burst into his life like a flash of flame and he'd felt breathless ever since. As if his world were being turned upside down.

He didn't want this girl. He didn't. In less than two days she'd destroyed the even tempo of his existence. For Mike Llewellyn, life was work. Life was medicine and dedication and caring. Life had nothing to do with painting gold stars on your toenails.

But…

But the valley was grossly medically understaffed. Maureen had been right when she'd said he was overworked. There had been times of late when Mike had been forced to cut corners—to not question as closely as he should during an examination, or to make do with changing a dressing three times a week rather than daily. And a vaccination programme should be started in earnest, and a health programme for the elderly and…

And the town needed another doctor. But not this…flibbertigibbet.

‘Why don't you want me?' she asked curiously,
watching his face. ‘Louise tells me you need a doctor. Every nurse in this hospital— Every person I've met says the valley needs an extra doctor. Is it because I'm US-trained?'

‘No.'

‘Is it because I'm a woman, then?'

‘No!'

‘Look, I'm serious about working here,' she said firmly, her smile fading. She put her hands flat on the table and met his look. ‘Mike, I'm a good doctor,' she told him. ‘I know I'm trained in city medicine and there's a heap here I need to learn, but I'm willing and I want to try.'

‘But…why do you want to leave the States?'

‘I don't,' she said flatly. ‘But, well, Mom and I have always felt dreadful about Grandpa. We felt bad that Dad wouldn't come home. Mom's always brought me up to think I was half-Australian. And this way…'

She sighed, her voice now serious. ‘Mike, I've told you I'm interested in family medicine,' she said. ‘That's not a lie. But in the States, well, more and more, medicine's being taken over by the specialists. As an internist I won't get to see kids or trauma or heart attacks or surgery. Family doctors can't do anything hands-on without getting sued.

‘Here…here I can deliver babies and help with road trauma and counsel Louise about her love life and help old men with prostate problems. I won't just be sitting behind a desk, handing out pills and referrals.'

‘But—'

‘And Mom's behind me on this,' she said solidly. ‘A hundred per cent. She was an only child and her parents are dead. She's always felt like Grandpa was our family and we shouldn't be so far apart. It's my guess that if I stay then she'll be over here in a flash, and that's a worry because she's bossier than me. But I do want to stay. I do. So employ me.'

‘Tess…'

‘Now—tomorrow morning,' she said softly, brooking no interruption. ‘Louise says you have Saturday morning clinic. How about if I run it—with you watching?' Then, as he opened his mouth to protest, she held up her hands to silence him.

‘No. Don't refuse. I know I won't be able to do heaps of things. I haven't a clue as to Australian rules and regulations. But I'm a fast learner, and if we give each patient the choice when they come in as to whether I can practise on them… We'll tell them my registration isn't through yet, so anything I say has to be backed up by you…'

‘You have it all worked out, then.'

‘Yes.' She tilted her chin, a trace of defiance colouring her voice. ‘I do. Anything wrong with that?'

What could be wrong?

If someone had asked him a month ago—or even a week ago—whether he'd like a partner, he'd have jumped at the chance like a shot. He was tired past the point of exhaustion.

But a partner had always seemed an impossibility. No doctor in their right mind would practise here. The doctor who'd been here when Mike's mother died had been an alcoholic and that's why he'd ended up in
such a remote place. Nowhere decent would have him.

To work here meant practising medicine at its most basic. There was no specialist back-up available. At worst, a helicopter could come in and evacuate but there was no landing strip for a light plane and in rough weather even a helicopter had trouble.

Doctors today wanted back-up and nights off and private schools for their kids. There were few opportunities in the valley for the things most doctors and their families had come to expect, and Mike knew that to attract anyone here would take a miracle.

And here was a miracle. A slim, fiery, bossy, determined miracle—with blue toes and golden stars.

So grab her and hold…

That was just what he wanted to do, he thought suddenly. That was the problem. She was sitting beside him at the big kitchen table, made to seat a staff of twelve or more. Her feet were propped up before her. Her bathrobe was vast and warm and she looked like a gift package in crimson.

She was sitting so that her gown just brushed his shoulder.

He pulled back, suddenly acutely aware of the touch, and she grinned.

‘Hey, I'm not proposing to seduce you here, Dr Llewellyn,' she said mildly. ‘Only work with you.' And then she furrowed her brow. ‘Anyway, why so touchy? You're not gay, are you?'

‘No!'

‘Hmm.'

‘Hmm, what?' She was watching him as if she
were looking at a frog on a dissecting table, and Mike found the sensation unnerving.

‘There's a problem here, but I don't know what.' She brightened. ‘I'll bet you have a past.'

‘A past…'

‘A deep and mysterious love life of which we know not.' She grinned again. ‘A skeleton in the closet. Am I right?'

‘Dr Westcott…'

‘Oh, I am right.' Her smile widened. ‘How about I do a bit of matchmaking? If the Volvo and cribbage doesn't do the trick, how about Louise?'

‘Tessa!' His voice was an explosion but for the life of him he couldn't stop a chuckle. This girl was incorrigible. And now she was smiling straight back at him.

‘That's better,' she said approvingly. ‘You look ever so nice when you smile.' She swung her crazy feet off the table and stood up. ‘How about it, Doctor? As of tomorrow, can I be on probation, please, sir? If you think I'll make a good doctor, can I stay?'

‘Tessa…'

‘Just say yes,' she begged. ‘Then you can go to bed, which is just where you look like you ought to be.'

He stared at her, baffled. She stared right back.

‘I'll be a good little doctor,' she said meekly. ‘I won't cause any trouble, please, sir. And I'll even take your most difficult patients.'

‘Tess…'

‘Just say yes.'

There was no choice. He stared at her for a long,
long moment, but he was too tired—too confused—too just plain baffled—to make his mind think of anything but how gorgeous she looked. How he'd like to touch that magnificent flaming hair. How he'd like to—

‘Yes,' he said quickly, before his traitorous mind took him one step further. ‘Fine. Starting tomorrow morning, Dr Westcott, you're on probation.'

T
ESSA'S
probation started fifteen minutes later. Mike had barely put his head on his pillow when the phone rang. It was Louise, ringing from Reception.

‘Doctor, there's a fire at the hotel. Rachel from the fire brigade just rang. She needs you.'

‘How bad?' Mike was suddenly wide awake, all trace of weariness gone. At the sound of his voice Strop lifted his head from his basket, cast him a reproachful glare and went straight back to sleep.

‘Rachel says there are people trapped,' Louise said, her normally placid voice unsteady. ‘I'll call in all staff. If you go ahead with the ambulance, I'll organise things here.'

Hell!

It took Mike all of ten seconds to haul on pants, sweater and shoes. Leaving Strop to his beauty sleep, he emerged from his apartment at the rear of the hospital in time to see the valley's second fire engine screaming past.

The ambulance officers were already backing the ambulance up to the casualty entrance.

‘What'll we take, Doc?' one of them called, as they saw his shadowy figure running toward them. ‘Any extras?'

‘Shove in as much saline as we have in the emer
gency room, and soak some blankets before we go. Leave them on the floor of the van, sopping wet.'

Mike was barely awake but his mind was working lightning fast. This was his nightmare—an accident with multiple casualties where there was no medical back-up. ‘Do we know what's happening?' he demanded.

‘I don't think they know down there yet,' Owen, the senior ambulance officer, told him. ‘But Rachel sounded sick and you know Rachel. If she's worried then it's bad.'

‘Right. Let's get down there and see.'

‘I'm coming too.'

It was Tessa, slipping out of the casualty entrance to join them. She'd replaced her crimson bathrobe with black jogging pants and a crimson sweater, her hair had been hauled back in a knot and she was shoving her feet into sneakers as she ran. ‘I was talking to Louise when the call came. Louise told me what's happening, and you might need me.'

Before Mike could say a word, she heaved herself up into the rear of the ambulance. She took the bags of saline from Owen and shoved them behind her, as if she'd been working with the man for years. Then she looked down into Mike's astonished face. ‘Well, what are we waiting for?' she demanded.

There was no way Mike could argue. Argument took time, and if there were multiple casualties…well, he'd be grateful to have Tessa. He'd be grateful to have any medical body, he thought, Bill's words about Doris the pig echoing once more in his mind.

But suddenly, especially, he was grateful for Tess.
Why did the thought of her alongside him make the thought of what lay ahead less fearful?

Tess moved aside to make room for him, and he climbed in to join her without a word. It seemed his medical partnership was about to start.

 

Mike was silent on the three-minute ride down to the town. The boys had the siren screaming and lights flashing so to speak would have been impossible anyway, but mentally Mike was gearing himself for what lay ahead.

It was midnight. By this time of night the pub should be closed for casual drinkers so there shouldn't be scores of trapped victims. There'd only be the guests.

The valley's hotel had seen better times as an accommodation house. Trendy bed-and-breakfast accommodation had taken over the once lucrative tourist trade. The hotel's guest rooms had become run-down and little used.

There were always one or two people using them, though. The guests now were usually men who had little choice—men who paid a few dollars for minimal accommodation and didn't expect much.

Mike was aware of Tessa's eyes on him, watching. It was as if she were reading his mind, he thought. She just watched…

No. It was as if she could see into his mind and didn't need to read. It was as if she just knew… She sat calmly on the stretcher opposite him, her hands clasped loosely in her lap as she waited for the ambulance to reach its destination.

For a fireball, she was a restful woman, Mike thought suddenly. She was making no demands on him now, and Mike sensed that she'd support him all the way here. She was acting like a true professional, and Mike felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude that she'd come.

And then the ambulance screamed around the last corner, and every other consideration but immediate need was washed away.

The hotel was well alight. The old, two-storied building hadn't been painted for years. This year's summer had been long and hot. The cooler weather of approaching winter was here now, but there'd been little rain. The building was therefore tinder-dry. Whatever had happened here—whether it had been a small spark or a larger explosive force setting things off—the flames had caught and held, and one look was enough to tell Mike that there was no way the local firefighters could save this.

And who was inside? Could anyone help them?

May there be nobody, please, God…

The whole top floor was alight and, as the ambulance screamed around the corner of the main street and the occupants of the ambulance stared in horror, the top left-hand side of the hotel roof started caving in on itself.

Dear God.

Then the ambulance was pulling in behind the fire units, careful to leave space for men and hoses between, and Mike was striding down into the noise and heat to see what he could do in all this.

He got two feet from the ambulance doors before
he was caught by Rachel Briny, head of the fire team. Rachel was tiny and tough and as capable as ten men. Wherever there was trouble in the town, there was Rachel—and thank God for it.

‘I've got Les Crannond over here for you, Doc. He needs seeing first.'

Mike nodded. Les was the local publican, and if Rachel said he needed to be seen first then Mike believed her.

‘Burns?'

‘Yeah. He's down behind the firetruck. I've got boys dousing him with water. Don't think he'll conk out on us, but his legs… Pants caught alight just as we got him out.'

‘What else, Rach?'

‘Nothing yet,' she said abruptly. ‘Worse luck. Can't get upstairs, and upstairs is starting to come downstairs all by itself. Let you know if we find anything but don't hold your breath. Les says there're two left up there, but God help them if he's right.'

And she turned and started barking orders as she ran again to face the fire.

Mike turned to find Tess beside him, her arms full of sodden blankets and clutching Mike's bag under her load.

‘Tell me where to go.'

He didn't answer, but swerved behind the truck where Rachel had said he'd find Les, leaving Tess to follow.

Les was in a mess.

The publican lay flat on the bitumen, his face grey with shock and pain. He looked as if he was about to
pass out. One of the firemen was running water over his legs, and Mike saw that the cloth of his pants had burned almost away.

‘Keep going, Robby,' he told the young firefighter. ‘Keep that water going. The cooler you can get those legs, the less chance we'll have of having full-degree burns.'

Few people realised that even after the source of the burn was removed, flesh could keep burning. Twenty minutes continuous cooling was the rule in emergency medicine, and Mike wasn't about to break it now.

He knelt down before Les, and Tess knelt beside him. As Mike lifted Les's wrist to find his pulse—the man looked deeply shocked and cardiac arrest was a real possibility here—Tess hauled open Mike's bag.

‘He has a heart condition,' Mike said brusquely. ‘He had a heart attack two years ago and bypass surgery.' The burns were bad, but a heart attack was what he was most afraid of here.

‘You want morphine?' Tess asked, nodding as her eyes rested on Les's face. If he had a heart condition on top of shock and these burns… Tessa's expression said she knew what they were dealing with.

‘Saline, then morphine.'

‘You got it.'

They worked silently and at speed, and Mike was once more overwhelmingly grateful for Tessa's presence. The two ambulance men had disappeared, no doubt leaving the major casualty to Mike and doing their own reconnaissance of what else needed doing.

That was the way they usually worked in emergen
cies. With only one doctor in Bellanor, it was impossible for Mike to perform triage—the careful sorting out of priorities—in an emergency. The ambulance boys did it for him.

There was no doubt when Mike stepped back from Les they'd have more work for him, and if they thought someone needed him urgently then they'd find him soon enough. Mike was accustomed to working alone—but to have Tess beside him was a godsend.

The heat here was indescribable. No firefighter would get off unscathed, and yet they had to try. There was no way they could simply allow the hotel to burn to ash. With the hotel so close to other buildings they had to try and contain it, and contain it fast.

And there was still the possibility of more people inside.

Mike couldn't think of that. Tess was handing him a syringe. He took it, and she set up a makeshift stand for the saline while he found a vein. By the time he had the saline running, the bag was self-supporting.

He didn't have to ask Tess for what he needed next. The minute the saline was in, she had morphine ready.

Les muttered and his eyes rolled back in his head. Mike was inserting the syringe of morphine so it was Tess who lifted Les's wrist and found the pulse. She bent her face close to his so he could hear her over the roar of the flames and the shouts around them.

‘It's OK, Les,' she said softly—urgently. ‘It's OK. You're out of danger. The fire's being contained. Just relax. Don't fight it. We're in charge now. Not you.
The painkiller will take effect in just a moment, but I don't want you to fight it. Just relax.'

Mike glanced up at her in swift surprise. She sounded so much in control…

What had he expected? He didn't know, but he now knew what he had here. Tessa sounded competent and sure and totally reassuring. She almost had Mike believing there was nothing to worry about.

‘Sam…' Les moaned. ‘It was Sam…'

‘Is Sam Fisher inside?' Mike demanded, and Les managed a weak nod.

‘Stupid bastard. I told him no radiators. I told him. But he keeps sneaking them in. Then he drinks in bed—gets himself blind drunk—gets hot and throws the covers off.'

‘It's happened before.'

‘Last week. He burned a bloody great hole in the floor before he woke up. I nearly chucked him out then, but he swore he wouldn't do it again.'

‘Sam Fisher's an alcoholic,' Mike explained grimly to Tess. ‘He often stays in the hotel. It's almost his permanent home.'

He finished administering the morphine and took Les's hand. Still the young firefighter was playing water gently over Les's legs, and Mike's eyes silently ordered Robby to continue. ‘You're OK now, Les,' he told the publican. ‘We have you safe. It looks like Sam might have burned himself to death, but you know as well as me that by the time Sam goes to sleep he's so far drunk he's almost paralytic. The smoke will have taken hold before he felt a thing.'

‘But Hugh,' Les moaned.

‘Hugh…?'

‘Hugh Wade's in there. You know him, Doc. Young fella. My nephew. Getting married next Saturday to Doreen Hirrup. Lives on a farm ten miles out. Come down for the wedding rehearsal and I gave him a room free.'

Oh, no…

There was no time to take this in. There was a sudden warning shout from closer to the fire, and then a crash so loud it hurt Mike's ears. The flames reached a roaring crescendo, and there were sparks flying two hundred feet into the air. Mike looked up as the whole top storey of the place crumpled.

‘Oh, God…' Les groaned beneath their hands, and his face turned even more grey.

‘Mike…' Tess said warningly. If Les went into cardiac arrest here… Mike glanced up at her face and he could guess what she was thinking. She wanted her ER facilities she was used to back home in the States. She wanted a crash cart—electronic defibrillator—a cardiac specialist or six at the ready…

They had themselves plus one white-faced fireman—no more than a boy—who was trying to keep his hand steady as he sprayed the water across Les's legs. And that was all they had.

And then there was another shout behind them, different from the barked orders and shouts from the firefighters. This was a male voice, strong and full of fear, and he sounded as if he'd been running.

‘Les! Les! Oh, God, Les… Has anyone seen my uncle?'

‘Hugh!' Mike stood, searching the weird, flame-lit night for the source of the voice. ‘Hugh!'

A long, lanky youth came stumbling toward them, his face ashen.

‘Doc, it's my uncle. Have you seen him? Les… Oh, God, is he in there?'

‘He's here, Hugh,' Mike said roughly, hauling the lad down so Les could see his nephew as well as Hugh see his uncle. ‘He's burned his legs but he's safe.'

‘Oh, hell, Les…' And the boy burst into tears.

‘OK.' Mike got wearily to his feet. He'd done all he could do here for the moment. ‘Can you look after this, Tess?' He motioned to Les and the boy. ‘I'll see what else needs doing.'

And he slipped away into the night to seek further casualties.

 

It was twenty minutes before they finally loaded Les into the ambulance. In that time they'd treated six firefighters for smoke inhalation and scorched eyes. Finally, though, the great burning heap became manageable. There were no more tragedies waiting to happen here so Mike and Tess could be spared to take Les back to the hospital.

One of the ambulance men stayed back with first-aid gear, but any more casualties would surely just be minor and could either make their own way back to Casualty or be driven in a normal vehicle. There was only one more major casualty expected—and no one was expecting miracles for Sam Fisher.