Joanna Neil - Return of the Rebel Doctor

Colin McKenzie digested that information. ‘Okay, just as long as you both realise he’s in deep trouble.’ He looked at Finn. ‘If it weren’t for this incident with the dog—’

‘And that’s the point, Sergeant,’ Katie interrupted him as Finn paled all over again. ‘I haven’t finished with my patient yet, so I’d appreciate it if you would leave us while I tend to him.’

He nodded. ‘Of course. He’s all yours, Doctor. For now.’

Katie looked at the shaking boy and debated whether she ought to give him a sedative. On the other hand, he had Ross to bolster him now, and maybe that would be the boost he needed.

She wrote out a prescription for antibiotics, and handed it to Ross. ‘Could you get this filled for him? There’s a late-night pharmacy on the High Street.’

‘I’ll do that.’ He gave her a thoughtful look and said softly, ‘I’ll be seeing you around, Katie. Maybe you’ll think some more about having dinner with me—if only as a way of letting me thank you for taking such good care of Finn.’

‘Maybe,’ she murmured. His fingers brushed hers as he took the prescription from her, and the brief, intimate contact sent shock waves rippling throughout her body.

Her heart was thumping, banging against her rib cage in a heavy, pounding rhythm. It was so confusing, having him here on the island, in her surgery. After all this time she’d thought she’d managed to blot him out of her mind, but here he was, back in full, whirlwind force.

How on earth was she going to cope, having him around?

‘ISN’T IT GREAT? I could hardly believe it when Maggie at the post office told me Ross McGregor is back on the island.’ Jessie was bubbling with excitement, full of the news that was the talk of the village. ‘I wonder if he’ll decide to stay?’

‘I don’t think that’s very likely.’ Katie was listening to her sister with half an ear while she busied herself getting ready for a trip to the mainland. She’d spent the last half-hour checking her overnight bag for last-minute essentials. ‘I wonder if I’ll need a special dress for the evening? It’s only a two-day conference after all.’ She frowned, thinking it through. ‘Perhaps I’ll take a cocktail dress just to be on the safe side.’

‘Aren’t you thrilled, though, Katie?’ Jessie’s grey eyes were shining with enthusiasm, making her look like an excited teenager.

Katie glanced at her, holding up a simple black dress that was adorned with an embroidered pattern of silver thread at one side of the bodice. ‘Excited…why? It’s just a conference about using video technology for health services. There’ll be a few speeches and some hands-on use of the equipment, but nothing too spectacular, I imagine. Except for the castle where it’s being held, of course.’ She paused to dwell on that for a moment or two. ‘Now, that could be really interesting. It looks out over the loch.’

Jessie threw up her hands in a gesture of impatience. ‘Honestly, Katie, you’re so single-minded. Haven’t you heard a word I’ve been saying? I’m talking about Ross—I’m so happy he’s back. I’ve only managed to see him for a day or so each time he’s been home over the last few years, but I’ve heard all sorts of things about him while he’s been away. I wonder if he’ll drop by McAskie’s Bar one evening? It would be so good to meet up with him again.’

Katie laid the dress inside the bag and closed the zipper. ‘I’m not so sure it would be wise to get involved with him,’ she cautioned. ‘You’re not teenagers any more, and he could break your heart if you give him half a chance. Besides, he’s only here for as long as it takes to sort out the business with Finn, and he’ll walk away from us without even looking back, the same as he did before.’

‘I’m not talking about getting involved with him.’ Jessie shook her head, her silky black hair settling in a neat bob just below her ears. She was a beautiful young woman, with a perfect oval face, a peaches-and-cream complexion and full, well-shaped lips. She had the figure to go with all that, too. Being curvaceous and good-natured, she was every man’s dream girl.

‘Anyway, he didn’t have much choice about leaving,’ she said, her face taking on a drawn, anxious expression. ‘The way things were for him at home, and with all the village against him—I don’t blame him for wanting to go.’

Katie’s mouth made a flat line as she thought back to that awful time. It still bothered her, all these years later, what had happened that fateful night. Ross had met up with Jessie at the Old Brewery, a secret get-together, by all accounts, because her parents had made it clear they were dead set against either of their daughters seeing him.

Nothing had happened between them, Jessie had insisted afterwards—that hadn’t been the intention when she’d asked him along. She’d dared him to go there with her, flouting all the rules. At fifteen, she’d been a bit wild and reckless, seeking adventure, and Ross must have seemed like the ideal partner in crime. She’d known the place was unsafe, and that had been the thrill, until it had all ended in tragedy.

Ross had suffered a terrible accident there but only after he had somehow managed to set fire to one of the outhouses.

What could have possessed him to behave in such a way that afterwards his only recourse had been to leave the village where he had grown up? There had been talk of a drifter hanging about the place, and it had been suggested that maybe he had started the fire, but no one had really believed that. Ross was the one they’d had in their sights. There had been no actual proof against him, but everyone had laid the blame at his door.

Katie still had trouble squaring it in her mind. He’d always been reckless, but causing a fire was something beyond the pale, even for him, surely?

‘No,’ she murmured, bringing her mind back to Jessie, ‘but you know how you felt when he went away. You were devastated. You sobbed for days and moped about the house for weeks, as I recall.’ Katie guessed it had probably been guilt that had made her sister react that way, but she knew that even now Jessie was impulsive, with a tendency to let her heart rule her head.

‘Only because it was so tragic, him having to leave. Besides, I was only fifteen, then.’ Her sister’s voice faltered and she started to flounce out of the room. ‘I’m older now, and much more sensible.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Katie picked up the holdall and followed her downstairs. ‘I’m just saying you don’t owe him anything. You don’t have to make up to him for what happened in the past.’ She frowned. ‘I don’t want to see you get hurt.’

‘That’s not going to happen, Katie. Ross and I are just friends, nothing more. You don’t need to worry about me.’

‘Well, okay, I’ll try.’ Katie looked around the neat, farmhouse kitchen, ticking off a list of last-minute jobs in her head. ‘If the roof man phones while I’m away, will you remember to make a note of the day he’ll be coming to do the work?’

‘I will.’

‘And try to persuade him we need the work done like…yesterday.’

‘I will.’

‘And don’t let young Jack from next door do any weeding in the garden without supervision—he pulled up some of the aubrietia from the rockery last time I let him loose in there.’

‘I won’t.’ Jessie laughed. ‘You can trust me. I’ll look after the place while you’re off gallivanting.’ She picked up a slice of toast left over from breakfast, slathered it with butter and bit into it. ‘It’s good of you to let me stay here, Katie. I thought everything was done and dusted once I’d signed the papers for my house, but I didn’t realise it would take so long for everyone in the chain of buyers to move out of their own properties, or that I’d need to get my extension finished before I could move in.’