The Army Doctor's Wedding (4 page)

"Cameron," she
whispered. He didn't stir. Not surprising, she supposed. Although she felt bad
about him sleeping on the floor, it was best to let him sleep rather than wake
him to change beds.

Sami whimpered and made the
sucking sound she knew meant he was hungry. Alice sat up and slid off the bed.
Careful not to step on Cameron, she went to the bassinet.

"Hey, sweetie, are you
hungry again?" The baby had already put on weight—a born survivor. She
slipped on a voluminous white gown Lieutenant Grace had given her, pushed her
feet in her boots, and hurried down the corridor to fetch the bottle she had
mixed up earlier. After checking the temperature, she returned to the room.

Sami's little grunts and whimpers
of hunger had increased, but Cameron slept on. Alice unrolled the plastic
changing mat on the bed, laid Sami on it, and changed his diaper. It was still
awkward, changing him with only one good hand, but she'd honed her technique
and was much quicker now.

She cleaned her hands on an
antiseptic wipe and balanced the tiny boy between her crossed legs to feed him.
As usual, he sucked down the contents of his bottle quickly.

"You are such a good boy,
Sami." She kissed the baby's hair and stroked his cheek, smiling when his
head turned towards her finger, seeking the nipple for more milk. "You'll
pop if I give you any more." She lifted him up to her shoulder and rubbed
his back. "Let's get those burps up so they don't give you a tummy
ache."

She rocked him gently, stroking
his back and humming softly. This was such a strange setup, almost surreal,
living in this windowless room with a baby, trying to keep out of the way and
not bother anyone. She had decided a long time ago that her mission in life was
to help the vulnerable women and children who so often suffered at the hands of
men—to help others avoid going through what she had suffered.

Until she found herself
responsible for this poor motherless baby, she'd never had a maternal feeling
in her life. Now the thought of passing him on to someone else pinched her
heart.

She angled the tiny boy, cradling
his head in her palm so she could see his face. He had a split in his lip that
went up to his nostril and his shiny pink gum showed in the break. A
disfigurement that made his clan reject him. Yet to her he was the most
beautiful, special baby in the world.

His eyes had closed, already
asleep after his feed. He was such a good baby. No trouble at all. This little
guy had stolen her heart. Reluctantly, she settled Sami back in his bassinet
and climbed in bed.

She lay on her side, her good arm
underneath, and her cast rested on a pillow in front of her, the most
comfortable position even though the pillow made her hot. She closed her eyes,
but now she had woken she couldn't go back to sleep. Her eyes opened and her
gaze strayed to Cameron. Unfamiliar sensations crept through her. It wasn't
just Sami who'd stolen her heart; Cameron had touched her emotions as well.
Were her feelings for this man real or just a product of the strange
circumstances?

Boots echoed in the corridor
outside. Low, urgent voices spoke of a medical emergency with one of the
patients. As if he were specially attuned to such things, Cameron's eyes
opened.

His gaze met hers and held. For
long moments they stared at each other in the shadowy room, neither saying a
word. Then Cameron pushed up on an elbow.

"Do you need me?" he
asked, his tone pitched low to reach the medics in the corridor but not disturb
Sami.

"No, you get some sleep,
Knight." It was Major Braithwaite who answered. Alice recognized the
anesthetist's voice.

Cameron glanced down and noticed
he was uncovered. With a mumbled apology, he pulled the sheet up over his hips
before he laid his head back on the pillow.

"You should have the
bed," Alice whispered.

"No, I'm fine. You learn to
sleep anywhere when you're in the army."

One didn't have to be in the army
to get used to that. Her mind swept back to the nights when she'd slept on the
floor underneath her bed or in her toy cupboard or closet, hiding from her
father.

"Sorry I more or less
abandoned you," he said, rubbing his eyes. "I've lost track of how
many days it's been."

"Three."

"Kelly—I mean, Lieutenant
Grace—said you coped well."

"I was fine. I'm glad things
have quieted down now, though." Not just because it was awful for the
wounded soldiers who'd been through the hospital, but because she had missed
Cameron.

A question popped into Alice's
head. Normally she wouldn't dream of asking him such a personal thing, but in
the intimate darkness of the small room, they felt more like friends than
doctor and patient. "Is Kelly your girlfriend?"

Cameron's gaze sharpened as if
the question woke him up. "She used to be, but not anymore."

"Ahh." That explained
why they seemed to be close.

"I was going to tell you
tomorrow, my father sent across a visa for Sami. He can legally enter the UK
now."

"That's great." She
didn't ask how Cameron's father had managed such a thing so quickly. She was
just relieved he had. "I need to go to the government offices in Rejerrah
and inquire about taking him out of the country for medical treatment."

"Do you speak the
language?"

"Just enough to get
by."

"I'll come with you. I'm
pretty good with languages, and I don't like the idea of you going on your
own."

"Thanks, Cameron."

He grinned. "You're
welcome." He reached up and ran a finger along her forearm. That simple
touch sent tingling fire streaking across her skin.

His grin fell away and they
stared at each other, his brown eyes dark and mysterious in the low light.

"Best get some more
sleep," Cameron said.

Alice nodded, a flurry of mixed
emotions charging through her. She liked Cameron, really liked him. If she had
met him under different circumstances, she might have wanted to explore these
feelings she had for him. But right now Sami had to be her first and only
priority.

Chapter Four

"You're a maverick, Major. You don't follow the
rules," Lieutenant Colonel Jasper said, frowning.

Cameron sat across the desk from
his commanding officer in a tiny room with one wall half-demolished after the
recent bombardment. Dust coated everything, even though they'd tried to clean
up.

He'd come here to tell Jasper
that he'd let Alice and Sami bunk in his room while the hospital was busy,
deciding it was best to come clean rather than wait for Jasper to find out from
someone else.

"It's only because you're
such a good doctor that you get away with it."

Cameron knew Jasper was right,
although he preferred to think of himself as a dedicated doctor. He only ever
broke rules to help his patients. He might be an army officer, but he was a
doctor first. Patients came before rules. Fighting to save lives on a daily
basis had a way of focusing the mind on what was important in life. Usually it
wasn't a rule dreamed up by a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defense.

The lieutenant colonel flattened
his palm on the desk and stared at it for a moment. "Is the girl still
bunking in your room?"

"No, sir. As soon as we had
the space, I moved her back onto the ward. This morning, actually."

"Good. Then we'll say no
more about it." He straightened and cleared his throat. "Let's move
on to other business. I hear your brother has been promoted to colonel. I'm not
at all surprised. An exceptional man, your brother. I served with him in Afghanistan
a few years ago. He impressed me greatly."

Cameron smiled. "I hadn't
heard. That's great." And it was. But a strange hollow feeling punched
through his solar plexus. All his life he'd tried to match up to his older
brother. He'd thought if he worked hard and did his best, he would be as good
as Radley. It never worked out that way.

Radley had something special, a
star quality that set him apart—and Cameron didn't have it. He was the one who
screwed up and let his parents down.

Radley traveled the world
speaking at medical symposia about his limb-salvage techniques. He had the
glittering career, the beautiful wife, and the lovely children. He even had
Cameron's son.

Cameron averted his gaze,
perturbed by his flash of resentment. He'd thought he'd come to terms with the
situation years ago. Although he loved his son, he hadn't been ready to be a
husband and father. He'd accepted that George would grow up thinking Radley was
his father while Cameron played the part of uncle. Every time he returned to the
UK on leave, he made a point of seeing his son.

Maybe it was being around Alice
and Sami that had stirred up Cameron's feelings again. He didn't want to dwell
on this. He should have put the issue behind him long ago.

"I'd like permission to take
a couple of hours to accompany Alice Conway to the government building. She
wants to take the orphaned baby with the cleft lip back to the UK for
treatment. My father has secured a visa but we're not sure what the legalities
are on this end."

"Best if you ride with one
of the patrols. Things are a little sticky after the recent bombardment. Some
of the locals blame NATO for the escalation in the attacks. They don't want to
admit the rebels would have overrun the city months ago if we weren't
here."

Cameron stood. "Thank you,
sir. Good suggestion."

He headed for the door to take
Alice the news. Although he tried to focus on the issue of Sami, thoughts of
his son still drifted through the back of his mind, memories of when he was a
tiny baby, of the excitement Cameron had felt the first time he saw him and
realized the baby boy was his.

Cameron turned into an empty
room, closed his eyes, and pressed his back against the rough stone wall. He
sucked in a couple of deep breaths and blew them out, willing himself to relax
and let his remorse go. He didn't want to feel like this when he went home on
leave for George's birthday. His relatives were bound to pick up on his mood.
Despite his feelings, he knew he'd made the right decision for his son. Radley
was a much better father than Cameron could ever hope to be.

***

Alice stepped out of the field hospital into the blistering
heat, the sky unbroken blue, stretching to the horizon. Across the desert, the
ramshackle tents and cabins of the refugee camp formed a jumbled pattern
against a backdrop of distant mountains.

Cameron put a hand under her
elbow and pointed at a sandy-colored military vehicle parked a short distance
away. One soldier was already on top, manning a gun.

"We're going in the
Foxhound. I'll ride up front," Cameron said. "You go in the back.
It's probably safer."

She climbed in and shuffled past
the legs of the gunner, then pulled down a folding seat behind the driver and
sat down. Under her voluminous floor-length robe that covered her T-shirt and
shorts, Cameron had strapped up her cast in a sling. It helped ease the ache in
her shoulder.

Cameron hopped in the front
passenger seat and dumped his medical backpack on the floor near her. She
leaned forward to see out the windshield, scrunching the fabric of her robe in
her hand nervously. She had expected to catch a taxi to the government
building, not ride with a patrol. This seemed a little over the top.

Another two soldiers got in and
sat down, their guns across their knees.

"Do you expect
trouble?" she asked.

The driver glanced over his
shoulder. "Don't you worry, love. An explosive device could go off right
underneath us and we'd still survive. This vehicle is a great piece of
engineering."

She smiled tentatively, far from
reassured.

Cameron reached back and squeezed
her hand with a nod of encouragement. The engine rumbled to life and the
vehicle pulled away.

Alice hung on as the Foxhound
bumped into potholes and weaved between heaps of rubbish and rubble, heading
away from the air base and hospital to the main part of Rejerrah. They joined
the busy road around the city. Men on motor scooters and in old beaten-up cars
raced every which way. Dust rose in plumes from the tires; Alice tasted it
gritty and dry on her tongue.

The squat stone and cement
buildings lining the road looked half-finished or half-demolished, she wasn't
sure which, many with corrugated-iron roofs.

The Foxhound turned into the old
city and threaded its way through narrower roads, frequently having to slow
down for people. Old men with donkeys piled high with bundles trudged along in
the middle of the road, and women in brightly colored robes walked with babies
wrapped on their fronts or backs.

"We're heading over
there." Cameron pointed.

Through the dust drifting in the
air, Alice made out taller buildings in the center of Rejerrah.

"I landed at the commercial
airport on the other side of the city when I arrived." That seemed like a
lifetime ago now, not just four months. She had been naive and unprepared for
the living conditions in the desert with the nomads, or the brutal reality of
the war. She'd witnessed terrible things that would stay with her forever.

What had happened to the others
from Safe Cradle who'd come with her? Three teams flew in, destined to work
with different nomadic groups. She'd discovered that the two women who had been
working with her had both been airlifted to safety shortly before the rebels
attacked. They hadn't come to find her. Maybe they hadn't had time.

Alice leaned forward and rested a
hand on Cameron's shoulder. "You said the charity workers were evacuated
to a hotel?"

"Yes. All the foreign
nationals were rounded up about a week ago. The hotel's on the other side of
Rejerrah, near the commercial airport. I expect a lot of them have been flown
out by now."

Alice had only joined the charity
a month before she came out here. She wondered briefly if they could help her
arrange for Sami to leave the country. But she'd been the junior member of her
team, and they hadn't exactly looked after her. She trusted Cameron far more,
despite the fact he was not only a man but a soldier—something she would never
have believed possible a few months ago.

A loud crash pulled her back to
the moment and set her heart racing. The corporal in charge of the patrol
shouted orders and a second soldier stood and manned a gun sticking out the top
of the vehicle, but they didn't slow down.

"It's all right,"
Cameron said after a few tense moments. "Just kids throwing rocks."

The men seemed to settle down
again, and Alice's pulse returned to near normal. They entered an area that was
obviously a business district with taller buildings. Many of them looked
abandoned.

The Foxhound slowed outside a
three-story cement building with burn marks up the walls and boarded-up windows
on one side. Alice spoke a little of the language but couldn't read it, so the
words painted on the front meant nothing to her.

"Here you are," the
corporal driving said. "We'll wait for you."

Cameron jumped out and extended a
hand to help Alice down. She folded the white fabric over her head and Cameron
tucked it in. They had already decided it was best to cover her blonde hair.

"So are we going to start
with their version of Child Protective Services, or the emigration
office?" Cameron asked. They had researched the local government structure
and identified these two departments to contact.

"Child Protective Services.
They deal with orphanages and adoptions."

"Okay."

Cameron led the way inside a
dimly lit entrance foyer. A hot, stale smell filled the place—totally foreign
and unwelcoming.

Some people lined up at a desk
while others sat along the wall on wooden benches. The man behind the desk was
arguing with the guy at the front of the line, both shouting and gesturing.

Back at the hospital, when they
discussed this trip, Alice had been hopeful. Now they were here, her heart
dropped to her boots. Suddenly negotiating this foreign system seemed like a
nightmare.

The two men who'd been arguing
fell silent as they noticed Cameron in his uniform. Everyone stared. The man
behind the desk rose and approached, firing questions.

Alice's minimal grasp of the
language was useless. She had no idea what he was saying, and he didn't look
friendly.

Lucky for them, Cameron obviously
did understand the man. He answered calmly and confidently. The man's
belligerence faded and he directed Cameron to some stairs.

"Well, we're in the right
place." He led the way upstairs.

"What did the man say?"
Alice asked.

"He was defensive at first.
I think he thought I'd come to cause trouble. When I told him why we were here,
he calmed down." Cameron halted on the second landing and looked around.
"Here we are." He knocked on a door and opened it.

Two men sat at scarred wooden
desks heaped with brown folders. More folders were stacked against the walls,
many with the contents hanging out.

Cameron spoke to the officials
and obviously answered some questions. Eventually one of them searched in a
drawer and pulled out a form.

Alice took the offered document,
glancing at the unreadable text. "What's this for?"

"The only way they'll let
you take Sami out of the country is if you adopt him. That's what the form's
for."

Alice's heart leaped and
fluttered in her chest like a trapped bird. Adopt Sami? She had hardly let
herself imagine she might be able to do this. It was what she wanted, more than
anything else in the world.

Sitting down at an empty desk,
she pushed aside some papers. Cameron took a pen from his pocket and held it
out. "Do you want me to translate for you?"

"Yes, please." She
tamped down the excitement bubbling inside her. This was only the start of the
process. She had no idea how long they would make her wait before she could
bring Sami to the UK. They might even turn her down. This was not the time to
think that. Be positive, she told herself.

Cameron leaned over her.
"Name and address," he said, running his finger over the words.

Alice wrote and Cameron
translated: her age, twenty-six; her educational qualifications, college
diploma in social work; her home address, London, England. They seemed to want
to know everything except her shoe size. Thirty minutes later when she had
finished, she signed the form with a flourish and handed it back to Cameron,
her heart racing.

"Will you tell them he needs
surgery? I want to take him home as quickly as possible."

"I have already. I don't
think they usually allow people to walk in off the street and fill out adoption
forms. Officers who work in the orphanages normally have to recommend you. The
fact Sami needs surgery is why they've bent the rules."

Cameron placed the form on the
man's desk, but he shook his head and tapped his finger on Alice's signature.
Cameron exchanged a few sentences with the government official, then his lips
thinned.

"What's the matter?"
Alice was light-headed with tension, her emotions swinging from excitement to
fear that they would turn her down.

"He says you can't sign the
form."

"I don't understand. Who
does sign it then?"

"Your husband."

Alice stared at Cameron, totally
confused, sure she had missed something. "I don't have a husband."

"He wanted me to sign the
form," Cameron said. "He thought I was your husband. They only allow
married couples to adopt children here. It's one of the rules."

Alice pressed a hand over her
mouth, her gaze fixed on Cameron's suddenly guarded expression.

"I can't leave Sami here in
an orphanage. I won't."

"I agree. I haven't visited
an orphanage but I can guess what the conditions are like."

"Will you sign then, please?
Pretend to be my husband?"