‘But-’

‘It’s slow as bedamned. Keep breathing for him, Kirsty.’ He was hauling an oxygen mask from his kit. As he readied, Kirsty moved aside. In seconds Jake had the mask fitted and was breathing for him, pushing pure oxygen into Angus’s lungs.

Kirsty didn’t stop. They needed an IV. Sodium bicarb. Atropine…

What was happening?

Angus had ischaemic heart disease. She knew that. If his pulse hadn’t completely gone then maybe this was a mild infarct. Maybe they’d get him back. That was the best-case scenario.

The thought that it could be a stroke with all its ramifications was unbearable.

Her fingers were flying. Jake had the old man’s chest moving up and down with a reassuring rhythm. They just had to get him breathing for himself again. Maybe the sodium bicarb. could be enough to prevent any long-term damage.

If he still had a pulse… It must have just happened. Maybe he’d woken with the smell of bacon and the sound of voices in the kitchen. He must have stumbled. As Jake worked to set up an IV line, she was thinking all the time.

Please.

And then a tiny gasp, so small they might have imagined it. But then another. Another and a choking, gasping cough.

Breathing re-established. Breathing re-established!

Dear God.

The old eyes fluttered open. Angus winced as though in pain, and then seemed to focus. On Jake. On to Kirsty.

‘Sue…Susie,’ he murmured, and Kirsty’s eyes flew to the door. But her twin pre-empted her. Susie couldn’t have heard Angus’s whisper, but sometimes what was said to Kirsty was said to Susie, and Susie was already manoeuvring herself within Angus’s field of vision.

‘I’m here, Angus.’

He stared up at her, bewildered. Trying to talk. ‘Shush,’ Jake murmured, but he lifted the mask back so Angus could say what he obviously desperately wanted to say.

‘Stay safe,’ Angus murmured at last. ‘Susie… Rory…’

‘I’m safe,’ Susie said gently, and she laid her hand on her swollen belly, guessing the core of his fear. ‘Rory’s baby is safe. We’re worried about you.’

‘Spike,’ he whispered. ‘He’ll die…’

Kirsty even let herself smile at that. If he was worried about his pumpkin then surely there was hope. Surely there was a tomorrow for this gentle old man who she and her sister were only starting to know.

Who she and her sister were starting to love.

‘Susie will take care of your pumpkin,’ Jake said softly, and by the look on his face Kirsty knew he was as emotional as she was. ‘She won’t let him die. Meanwhile, Susie’s come a long way to have this baby where you can play great-uncle, so you’d better make an effort for her. You’re going to hospital.’

‘I’m not.’ That was said so loudly, so indignantly that Kirsty wanted to laugh out loud. There were still miracles in this job. Sometimes-just sometimes-she loved being a doctor. To have this outcome…

‘Oh, yes, you are, you old coot,’ Jake was saying, and there was no disguising the emotion in his voice now. ‘You’re coming in for complete assessment, and that’s an order. Do you really not want to be around to support Susie as she has her baby?’

‘I… No.’ Kirsty was administering morphine. She could tell he was hurting-badly. Understandably. The way she’d pounded his ribs was enough to make anyone hurt.

‘Then you’re coming to hospital.’

‘Spike,’ Angus whispered, and closed his eyes.

‘I promise I’ll look after your pumpkin,’ Susie told him. ‘Me and Ben.’

‘Come on.’ Jake stooped and lifted the old man into his arms, motioning to Kirsty to lift the various pieces of attached medical paraphernalia. ‘Kirsty, will you come with me?’

‘I can walk,’ Angus said weakly.

‘Yeah, and I can fly,’ Jake retorted. ‘But let’s not do either unless we have to.’

CHAPTER NINE

TWO hours later Kirsty drove back to the castle in a borrowed hospital car, feeling as if maybe, just maybe things would be OK.

The electrocardiogram showed minor damage, as did the cardiac enzymes. Nothing that couldn’t repair itself. Angus was sleeping, recovering from the combined effects of painkillers and shock, but his breathing was deep and almost normal.

‘He’ll go to Sydney and get thorough cardiac assessment now,’ Jake growled. ‘I haven’t been able to get the stubborn old coot into this hospital before this, and I’m going to move so fast he won’t know what hit him.’ He hesitated. ‘Kirsty…’

‘You’d like me to go with him?’

His face cleared. ‘If you would. I’ll take care of Susie for you.’

‘Of course you will,’ she said softly, and then looked away.

Her job in a hospice at home was often heart-wrenching, but her heart had never been wrenched as it was now. What was it with this place, these people…this man?

She’d fallen in love with a whole community, she thought bleakly as she drove home, and she didn’t know what to do about it. Because although she’d fallen for this place, she knew she could never separate the two. Her love for Dolphin Bay and its people.

Her love for Jake.

Maybe a couple of days away would be good for her, she thought. Jake was arranging for air ambulance to transport Angus that afternoon and the plan was for her to accompany him. As his medical attendant-but also as his family.

Because that’s what I am, like it or not, she admitted to herself. Family. Somehow this whole place has wrapped itself around my heart, and I don’t know what to do about it.

Do what comes next and nothing more, she told herself fiercely. Go home. Reassure Susie and everyone else. Pack an overnight bag and go to Sydney. Stay there until you’re sure Angus is out of danger.

Get away from Jake.

Right.

But when she drove into the castle forecourt there was more drama. She couldn’t have time out just yet.


‘Spike’s dying.’

Kirsty was barely out of the car door before Susie appeared from the gate leading to the kitchen garden. Boris was by her side, looking as concerned as Kirsty.

‘Kirsty, Spike’s dying,’ Susie yelled again. ‘Angus must have been trying to tell us…’ She was balancing precariously on her crutches. As she saw her twin she took hasty steps forward-too hasty-and started to stagger. Kirsty reached her before she hit the ground.

‘Jake phoned,’ her sister said. ‘He said Angus would be OK and you were going to Sydney. Everyone left and then I came out to see. Kirsty, Spike-’

‘Susie, calm down.’

‘I’m calm, but-’

‘You’re not calm. Be sensible. Where’s everyone else?’

Susie took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, obviously fighting for composure. ‘Ben’s gone home to water his own vegetables. Margie says that’s the first place he goes when he’s upset. Then when Jake phoned and said he wanted you to go to Sydney, Margie said she’d shop now as she doesn’t want me to be alone for too long, and after you go I will be. So she and the twins have gone into town. But when they left…’ Her voice broke on a sob.

‘Hey, hush.’ Kirsty put her hand on her twin’s, trying to stem what sounded like rising hysteria. ‘It’s OK.’

‘But it’s not,’ Susie sobbed. ‘I know why Angus had his heart attack. He must have seen. When they left I went to check. Angus and I cleared all the leaves near the pumpkin, leaving the stem exposed. Someone’s pulled it. They’ve hauled the roots right out of the ground. I’ve replanted him, but it’ll take days for his roots to re-establish themselves. He’s wilting while I watch.’


The pumpkin was indeed poorly. Kirsty’s specialty was dying people, not pumpkins-but she knew a dying pumpkin when she saw one. If she’d been selecting pumpkins for a hospice, Spike might well have met her criteria.

He wasn’t totally limp. Some of the leaves closer to the roots were still stiff and healthy, but the leaves close to the pumpkin itself were visibly wilting. Susie had rigged up a sheet to give shade. She’d soaked the ground with water, so the patch was sodden, but obviously not enough water was getting through.

‘Someone’s wrenched him out of the ground,’ Susie whispered. ‘I guess we were lucky the whole plant didn’t break off, but as it is, Spike can’t get water and he’ll die.’

‘Won’t it ripen anyway?’ Kirsty said doubtfully-and received the look she’d used not so long ago on a junior intern who’d suggested using aspirin for renal colic.

‘It’s too soon. He’ll get bigger before he ripens. If he’s picked now he’ll never be any good. This must have been why Angus had his attack. He’ll have looked out the window and been rushing to help. Who can have done such a thing?’ Susie sank onto the wet ground and lifted the main stem into her hands. ‘This will break Angus’s heart. The damaged roots can’t supply enough water to get through.’

Kirsty opened her mouth to say something, and then she stopped.

No. What she was thinking had to be dumb.

‘What?’ Susie said. ‘Why is it dumb?’

‘You know, Jake does this to me, too, now,’ Kirsty complained. ‘Can’t a girl even think by herself?’

‘Jake loves you as much as I love you,’ Susie retorted. ‘He just doesn’t know it yet. What’s dumb?’

Ignore the Jake comment, Kirsty told herself. Concentrate on important matters. Like dying pumpkins.

She was a palliative-care physician. Her specialty was taking care of the dying. Not lifesaving. So far today she’d helped save Angus and now… Could she save a pumpkin? A medical step sideways.

‘I was thinking…’

‘I know you were thinking,’ Susie said, exasperated. ‘But you need to stop thinking and do something or the pumpkin’s cactus.’

‘You know, palliative-care doctors don’t use the word cactus,’ she said thoughtfully, her mind still racing. ‘It’s not a good image.’

‘Spike will die, then,’ Susie said, sounding even more exasperated. And fearful. She’d fallen for Angus in a big way, Kirsty thought. Angus was Rory’s uncle and he was therefore Susie’s family.