Marion Lennox - Stormbound Surgeon

‘You weren’t being logical last night,’ he told her wearily. ‘You weren’t making sense. Charlotte, this is all about our future. Our baby’s future. Amy’s worth a fortune and if I marry her, if I support her for the time she’s trapped in Iluka… Charlotte, it’ll set us up for life. Even if I only get my hands on ten per cent of what she’s worth, it’ll be enough. It’s only at weekends. You know she can’t leave Iluka. During the week we can be together, like we always have been.’

‘And our baby?’

It was too much. Malcolm gave a grunt of sheer exhaustion. ‘Charlotte, I can’t think. Not now… Please.’

It was time for the physician to call, Joss decided. He might be riveted to this conversation but he didn’t want Malcolm to collapse.

The sciatic nerve was a hell of a nerve to insult. Malcolm would be in pain for months, and Joss thought it couldn’t happen to a nicer person. He took a deep breath, rose and twitched back the curtain.

They stared at him in the dim light. He must look quite a sight, he thought. Surgeon in hospital gown, having slept off the effects of coming close to drowning.

They didn’t look too flash themselves. They might be as old as he was but they looked for all the world like two silly kids in trouble.

Malcolm closed his eyes-he didn’t know who Joss was and his body language said that he didn’t much care. Joss gave him a searching look and rang the bell. OK, the man had treated Amy like dirt but he needed morphine.

‘I’ll get you something to ease the pain,’ he told Malcolm, and then he looked at Charlotte. Charlotte knew who he was, and he could tell by her dawning horror that she’d figured he’d heard everything that had happened.

His argument wasn’t with Charlotte. She was as much a victim here as Amy was. Maybe more.

‘You need to go back to bed,’ he told her gently. And then, as Amy appeared at the door and looked in bewilderment from Joss to Charlotte to Malcolm and finally back to Joss, he said, ‘Amy, here’s Charlotte ready to go back to bed. Can you bring me ten milligrams of morphine for Malcolm? Then maybe you could go and tuck Charlotte in. She has something to tell you.’

Then, as Malcolm jerked into awareness and started to speak, he held up his hand.

‘Leave it,’ he told Malcolm. ‘You’ve done enough damage as it is. I risked my life saving you and now I’m not sure why. For now, Charlotte has a choice. She tells Amy what I’ve just overheard-or I do it for her.’

The helicopter arrived an hour later to collect Malcolm. It landed on a newly gravelled patch at the back of the golf course, the rain had miraculously stopped, the wind had eased back to moderate and the landing was easy.

Iluka was back in touch with civilisation.

‘You can go, too,’ Amy told Joss. It was a subdued Amy who’d returned from seeing Charlotte to hand him a pile of cleaned and dried clothes. She’d said nothing-just shaken her head in mute misery at his enquiry. Now she returned to his bedroom to find him fully dressed and looking down at a sleeping Malcolm. ‘If you want to go back to Sydney you can go with him.’

If he wanted to go…

He gazed across the bed at Amy and he thought, Why the hell would he want to go to Sydney?

Why not?

‘Um…my dog’s here. I can’t leave Bertram.’

‘We can take care of Bertram until you have time to come back and collect him. If you like, I’ll have someone drive out and collect your belongings from White-Breakers.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Jeff’s bringing the helicopter team here now to prepare Malcolm for the flight. They’re paramedics, so you’re not needed on the flight, but if you want to go…’ She took a deep breath. ‘If you want to go, then decide now.’

He thought about it for another two seconds. ‘No.’

‘No?’

‘Let Charlotte take my place.’

‘Charlotte wants to stay here.’

‘Does she?’

‘She’s one mixed-up lady,’ Amy whispered. ‘Just like me.’

‘Do you feel like kicking this louse?’ he asked curiously, and she thought about it.

‘No,’ she said after a long time. ‘For one thing, he’s already kicked himself harder than I ever could. For another…’ She hesitated. ‘He’s not so bad.’

‘He two-timed you.’

‘Yes, but…’

‘But what?’

‘But maybe I would have gone mad without him.’ She looked up at Joss and her eyes were bleak. ‘You think that sounds soft. Maybe it is. But four years ago, when I knew I had to come back here, I felt I was living in a nightmare. Malcolm was my friend. He coped with all the paperwork-he made it possible for this place to be built-he was here for me.’

‘He was here for Charlotte as well.’

‘No, that came later.’ She sighed. ‘Charlotte is very…honest. She’s explained everything to me. She met Malcolm a couple of years back and they started a friendship-which turned into a relationship. After all, what Malcolm had with me was a weekend once a fortnight.’

‘And the promise of a fortune.’

‘Maybe.’ She was watching Malcolm’s face. He was deeply asleep, his chest rising and falling in a regular rhythm, his body sleeping off the battering shock it had received. ‘Charlotte said that wasn’t the only reason he wanted to keep the engagement going. Why he wanted to marry me. She said he was worried about me.’

‘And you believe that?’

‘Maybe I do.’ She met his look, and her eyes were challenging. ‘Maybe I need to.’

‘Why?’

‘Because he was all I had.’ She swallowed. ‘He was a future. A husband. Babies. A semblance of normality.’

‘You’re not thinking of still going through with it?’ he demanded, and she shook her head.

‘Of course not. Charlotte’s had his baby. Regardless of what Malcolm wants, as far as I’m concerned our relationship is over.’ She tugged at the engagement ring on her third finger until it came off. Then she stood staring down at the diamond glistening in her palm. ‘The helicopter’s here,’ she said bleakly. ‘You can go. You can all go.’

‘Do you love him?’ Joss asked, watching her bleak face.

‘I…’

‘Amy?’

‘Leave it,’ she whispered and turned and walked out the door.

Should he go to Sydney?

Joss rang Jeff who said, yes, the chopper was here, the machine could fit four passengers and they were prepared to take him as well as Malcolm. He was bringing the van to the hospital now to collect anyone who wanted to go.

Could he be ready himself?

No.

Malcolm was as ready as he ever would be. Joss wrote up a patient history ready for handover and then walked out to the living room.

Lionel was there, cutting a vast ream of yellow fabric into kite pieces. He’d lost his favourite kite and another one had to be made pronto to take its place. Heaven forbid that there ever be spare space in the living room!

‘More kites?’

‘There are never enough kites,’ Lionel told him, and Joss nodded in full agreement. No. There were never enough kites. He looked around at the jumble of crazy constructions that Amy put up with and he wondered how many nursing-home managers would have allowed it.

There were never enough kites.

There was never enough…joy?

‘You should sell them,’ Joss said, more for something to say than anything else. ‘You make great kites. You could make some money from them.’

‘Not here I couldn’t,’ Lionel said morosely. ‘When I retired I thought I’d set up a little shop here and sell them to kids coming to the beach. That’s a joke. Even if kids came-which they don’t-the only place I could sell them now is from the nursing home. Who comes to a nursing home looking for a kite?’