Marion Lennox - Prescription-One Bride

‘If Lionel Hurd ever was one,’ Geraldine said shortly. The capable nurse was almost visibly bracing herself for a rocky future. She met Jessie’s look with grim determination. ‘Where does that leave us, Jess? Without a doctor at all? And for how long?’

‘I guess we still have Dr Mountmarche…’ Jess was thinking aloud but she hardly believed the words as she said them. ‘If Niall Mountmarche is really a doctor himself. I suppose we don’t even know that. Good grief!’

‘Niall Mountmarche saved Frank Reid’s life,’ Geraldine said solidly. ‘He’s a better bet than Lionel Hurd ever was. All you have to do, Jess, is persuade him to help us.’

‘Oh, yeah…’ Visions of the Ogre of Barega flooded back and Jessie visibly flinched.

‘Well, at least you know him,’ Geraldine reasoned. ‘I guess if you don’t succeed we can send an island deputation. But I think you should try first, Jess.’

‘What, now?’

Geraldine smiled. ‘Well, maybe give him until morning. I’ll keep Frank’s saline drip going overnight. It can’t hurt, after all, even if I don’t have specific orders. His blood sugar’s still dropping. Tomorrow, though…Well, I’ll need a doctor to assess further insulin dosage and antibiotic levels. So, as long as you talk this Dr Mountmarche into starting by lunchtime…’

‘Geraldine, I get the feeling the man doesn’t want anyone going near the place-much less persuading him to come out on a regular basis. If he doesn’t want to…’

‘He must.’ Geraldine spread her hands. ‘Jess, you either persuade him to come or we’ll have to airlift Frank off the island-plus every other emergency that comes to hand. He has to help us. Surely…’

Surely.

‘Get yourself a good night’s sleep first,’ Geraldine advised kindly. ‘It’s never a good idea to tackle ogres after a sleepless night.’

‘Gee, thanks,’ Jess said expressively. ‘That really helps, Geraldine. I bet I’ll sleep like a baby.’

SLEEP like a baby!

Jess slept for maybe all of ten minutes and it was a heavy-eyed vet who drove out to the vineyard the next morning.

The sign was still on the gate.

TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT.

‘Oh, help,’ Jess whispered to no one in particular as she stopped to haul open the gate.

Oh, help…

Niall Mountmarche was home. There was smoke curling from the chimney in the still morning air and up on the ridge Jess could hear a tractor working among the vines.

It must be Hugo on the tractor. As Jess pulled up by the farmhouse Niall Mountmarche emerged from the back door.

The man was wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. Tanned and naked to the waist, the sight of the man almost took Jessie’s breath away. The sun glinted on his bronzed skin and Jessie’s very proper upbringing was at complete odds with how she felt.

Good grief…

‘Dr Harvey…’

As a welcome it could have been better. Niall’s voice was like a douche of cold water.

‘Dr Mountmarche…’ If he could be formal then so could she. Jess climbed from her small sedan and faced him.

She’d dressed a little more carefully this morning-in jeans, to match his, and a clean white blouse. She never looked her age, she knew, but at least this morning she didn’t have grubby, scratched knees and her blonde-brown hair was neatly brushed and tied back from her face.

‘What can I do for you?’ Still the absurd formality.

‘I…We need your help,’ Jess started, her words faltering.

If only the man didn’t look…didn’t look…well, so darned male! It was enough to make any self-respecting female get in her car and bolt for cover.

Her mother had never warned her of reactions like this.

‘My help?’ he asked non-committally and waited for more.

‘Lionel Hurd has left.’

‘Has he?’ Niall’s voice grew suddenly thoughtful. There was a bench beside the back door. Niall lifted a shirt from a pile of clothing and absently pulled it on. ‘Well, well…’

‘It doesn’t surprise you?’

‘No.’

‘You scared him off.’

‘I guess you could say that.’ Niall cast a glance inside the house as though checking that there was no one within earshot and then relaxed a little. ‘He’s not qualified, you know.’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Well, you damned well should. I made a couple of phone calls last night. The man failed fourth-year medicine. He got himself into some alcoholic mess and dropped out. After that..well, he attempted to restart at a couple of interstate universities but never got anywhere. He’s in trouble with the New South Wales police for impersonating a doctor and for some scam involving fake cancer therapies.

‘I intended to ring the island police this morning after talking to you but it seems the threat of exposure was enough to make our Dr Hurd run.’

‘I see.’

Jess bit her lip.

Niall hadn’t come near her. He was standing by the back door as if waiting for her to say her piece and go. Fast.

‘How’s Frank?’ he asked.

‘He’s recovering.’ Jess took a deep breath. ‘I…We need to know insulin dosages and flow rates for the drip. And the antibiotic regime. The nurses need their orders.’

‘You’ll have to get yourselves a doctor, then.’

Jess shook her head. ‘There are none available. That’s why we accepted Lionel. It’s October. The medical year ends at Christmas and everyone’s safely in jobs until then. Even if there was one free it would take a month to advertise and have them respond.’

‘Then you have a problem, Dr Harvey,’ Niall said brusquely. ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you.’

‘You can.’

‘No.’

There was silence. The sound of the tractor was muted in the hills behind them. There were cockatiels in the high gums around the house, chattering in early-morning excitement.

Nothing else.

‘Please…’ Jess said at last. ‘Otherwise, Frank has to go to the mainland. We’ll have to arrange an emergency airlift. And it wouldn’t hurt…’

‘Wouldn’t hurt who?’

‘You.’

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Niall said roughly. And then swore as a child’s cry came from inside. ‘Dr Harvey, you’ll have to leave…’

And he turned and walked inside.

Jess didn’t.

TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT.

The sign’s harsh warning sounded over in her head but Jess stayed where she was.

She was fighting for Frank.

And maybe she was fighting for something she didn’t understand herself.

She closed her eyes, searching for courage, and then walked into the house after him.

The first room was a massive kitchen, bigger than Jessie’s. Like Jessie’s, it had a vast slow combustion stove.

Niall was kneeling beside it, holding his waif of a daughter close-and his daughter was screaming.

The child was still in her nightclothes. Although held tight in her father’s arms she seemed unresponsive to his hold. Her frail body was held rigid and her distraught sobs were laced with terror.

What on earth was happening?

Jess stayed motionless. She should leave-she should-but there was some instinct within telling her to stay.

Her love of wild creatures…

It was what had driven her to be a vet in the first place. She couldn’t walk past an injured or distressed animal. And this child…

This child seemed to be just such a creature. Lost and bereft…

‘Niall, can I help?’ she asked gently. The child’s sobs were going right through her and Paige was holding herself frantically rigid in her father’s arms. Niall seemed helpless in the face of his daughter’s distress.

‘What the hell…?’ Niall swung to face her. ‘Get out of here,’ he snapped. ‘Now!’

‘Not before you tell me what’s wrong.’ Jess bit her lip, aware that she was intruding in the worst possible way-but also powerless to stop. There was something about this child that cut through her defences like a knife.

Niall wasn’t reaching his daughter. The child’s sobbing was bereft and frightened as if she didn’t know where she was or what was happening to her. She was lost…

The ugly callipers stuck out from the little cotton nightdress. The child’s hair was unbraided, flowing free round her red-blotched face, and her hands were tightly clenched fists. She was beyond responding to her father, her sobbing wild and terrified.

‘Let me try,’ Jess said, and walked toward them.

‘No.’ Niall moved his body in an instinctive act of defence. A hawk protecting his young. The child was pulled closer to him-but there was no comfort for her there.

‘I’m good with…with little ones,’ Jess told him. ‘Please…’ Ignoring his gesture of defence she stooped before Paige and held out her hands.

For a long moment Niall glared. His body was rigid with anger and his eyes were black with it-yet there was also a hint of helplessness. Of hopelessness. Of a man at the end of his tether.

‘Please,’ Jess said again and then, as though he had assented, she lifted the child away from her father and pulled her to her breast.

Jess didn’t say anything. Not a word. Instead, she gathered the sobbing child to her body and held her as close as it was possible for woman and child to be. Cradling the child against her, Jess walked over to a big armchair beside the stove. She sank into its depth, the terrified child still held tight.

‘Can you warm us some milk?’ she asked Niall briefly and then bent over the child.

She ignored Niall.

For ten long minutes she ignored Niall. Jess was conscious of him-totally conscious-of his dark, brooding presence as he heated the milk and watched the pair in the armchair. She had to put his presence away, though. There was only the child.

This was what she did with her wild creatures-her orphans-when she found them.

Their need was basic: warmth and contact with a substitute mother. No threats until they had learned to trust.