Dating The Millionaire Doctor

CHAPTER FOUR

SHE’D done what she could. The cleaners could deal with the rest. Tori sat in her little white van with Rusty close beside her, and thought leaving wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Stupid or not, it was a grief in itself. Moving away from the ridge…

She and Rusty had spent the first dreadful nights after the fire on Barb’s couch. Then, when they’d found Jake’s place and settled that it could be a staging post for injured wildlife, it had seemed sensible that she move in here. Six months later she was still not looking further than her next patient. Until now.

Rusty was staring out the window with longing, along the road that led to her burned-out home.

Home.

She closed her eyes. It didn’t help to be angry-she knew that-but the rage she felt towards Toby was still real and dreadful. That she could have imagined she loved him… He hadn’t come near her since the fire, which was just as well. He was a coward of the worst kind-and she’d thought she’d loved him.

So don’t trust your stupid heart again, she told herself. Move on from the ridge but do not trust.

She was trying to get her tired mind to think.

Maybe accepting Jake’s invitation for accommodation at the lodge was a mistake, she decided. But staying up here tonight in the empty refuge seemed unthinkable, and landing on Barb again was equally impossible. There were relocatable homes set up down in the valley for anyone displaced by the fires. She could move into one of those.

But not tonight, she thought. She’d give herself this night of respite.

A night with Jake?

No.

This was a night at a lovely guesthouse, she told herself fiercely. It had nothing to do with Jake. It was a night of indulgence before moving onto practicalities. To the dreary other side…

She glanced at Rusty, sitting passively beside the cardboard box that held all her worldly possessions, the practical things-changes of clothes, toiletries, things she’d had to find to survive.

She would survive. She and Rusty.

‘And we’ll come back to the ridge,’ she told the little dog as he looked mournfully along the road towards where they used to live. ‘Dad and Micki and Benedict, and Mutsy and Pogo and Bandit-they’re still here. Just a little bit, but they’re still here.’

But for now they had to leave.

‘We’ll come back,’ she said again, and she flicked the engine into life and drove out the gate-and to Rusty’s great sorrow she turned right instead of left, down into the valley instead of where they’d left so much. ‘I promise you, Rusty. We’ll come home.’

She was coming. She rang Rob and it was all Jake could do not to listen in on the extension.

‘You’re really worried about her,’ Rob said when he finished.

‘She’s had a tough time.’

‘So has half this valley.’

‘I don’t know half this valley,’ he growled. ‘I know Tori.’

‘Only since yesterday… Right,’ Rob said thoughtfully. ‘So shall we give her the honeymoon suite?’

‘What?’

‘The best,’ Rob said patiently. ‘The one I tried to put you in. It’s expensive.’

‘Yes, but charge her half-rates.’

‘You don’t want to give it to her free?’

‘If we don’t charge her, then she won’t come.’

‘And you want her to come.’

‘Yes,’ he snapped, and Rob grinned.

‘I see,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Shall I ring Barb, then, and tell her the five-minute dating was a success?’

‘Just try it.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Rob said. ‘Okay, not yet. But I’m thinking I might get Mrs. Matheson to pull out all the stops. It’s time we had a great dinner.’

‘Nothing special,’ Jake said.

‘You don’t want to scare her?’

‘Rob…’

‘I know,’ his manager said, placating. ‘But I’m thinking lobster. She can think we have it every night, because we’re not trying to impress her at all.’

‘Manwillinbah Lodge.’

She turned into the driveway and she could scarcely believe she was on the same planet as the place she’d just left. The lodge looked gracious and inviting, long and low and sprawling. Beyond rambling rose gardens were acres of grapevines, just coming into bud. It looked not where she belonged at all.

Why was she panicking?

She shouldn’t be here. She should be somewhere she could be alone to think things through. Though hadn’t she had enough time to think things through, and where had that got her?

But before her muddled thoughts could take her any further, her car door was tugged open, and Jake was looking in.

‘Hey,’ he said softly. ‘I was starting to think I’d need to come up the mountain and fetch you. Welcome, Tori. Welcome, Rusty.’

He was smiling. That smile was enough to make a girl panic all on its own. ‘I was just coming to tell you…to tell Rob I wasn’t coming,’ she muttered. ‘And to thank you for the cleaners.’

He nodded, suppressing his smile. ‘That makes sense. Or not. The cleaners were my pleasure. As for not staying… You want to have dinner while you tell us why not?’

‘I can’t stay here,’ she said wildly, gesturing towards the house.

‘Why ever not?’

‘I don’t fit.’

‘You fit in fine,’ he said. ‘Our only two guests were burned out themselves. They’re here to sleep.’

‘I don’t have any clothes.’

‘Odd,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘You’d have thought I’d have noticed no clothes.’

‘You know what I mean.’

He did. His gaze met hers and she knew he understood. ‘You look great,’ he said softly. ‘Tori, you look lovely. Jeans and T-shirt are practically uniform here and no one’s going to judge you even if they weren’t. Dinner’s on the table in an hour. That gives you time to have a bath first.’

‘You’re saying I’m dirty?’

‘I’m saying there’s a heated spa bath on your balcony with a view to die for. It’s totally private. If you’re dirty to start with, there’s only you to notice. Unless you want me to come scrub your back?’

‘No!’

‘No?’ He was laughing now, and suddenly she found herself smiling back. Okay, she thought, maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as it seemed. She didn’t need to trust. She only needed to stay for a night. And tomorrow…

‘Worry about right now,’ Jake said gently and, chameleon-like, his laughter was gone again. It was replaced by a gentle concern she found disconcerting.

Insidious. Impossible to resist.

Inviting her to trust. Terrifying.

‘Okay, no back-scrubbing,’ he said, and he put out a hand to help her from the car. ‘Nothing but bath, food, sleep, and if that’s not what you need I’ll eat my medical degrees. There’s no pressure, Tori. You’re our welcome guest.’

His hand was waiting. Just waiting. All she had to do was accept.

‘I won’t bite,’ he said softly. ‘Rob’s in the house, as is our housekeeper, Mrs. Matheson. There are two elderly ladies lying on Rob’s fabulous lounges on the balcony watching the cockatoos. One’s wearing dungarees, one’s wearing tweed. Life’s safe here, Tori. It’s a refuge, if you like. You provided refuge for your battered wild creatures. Now it’s time for you to take refuge.’

‘I don’t need-’

‘I think you do. Barb thinks you do, too.’ He hesitated but then continued. ‘Maybe I should confess I phoned Barb this afternoon. When she heard your koala was dead she was all for rushing up the mountain and taking you home herself. Only I gather Barb has a husband, five sons and a menagerie. We both thought you’d be best here. So what’s it to be, Tori? Here, or Barb’s, because no one’s going to let you stay in a motel by yourself tonight.’

‘Even if I want to?’

‘If you really want, then we’ll pay for a five-star hotel in the best part of Melbourne,’ he said. ‘And you needn’t think I’d have to personally pay-according to Barb half the valley would have their hands in their pockets in a minute to help you. So what’s it to be?’

Still his hand was held out to her.

What was it to be?

She could still drive away. She knew she could.

There was a bath inside. A bath!

And Jake.

There was the problem.

She looked up at him. He smiled.

She couldn’t trust.

She didn’t need to trust. This was a night in a guesthouse, nothing more.

She took a deep breath. She tried to smile back. She put her hand in his and let him pull her up.

The tug had her rising too fast. She almost overbalanced, but he had her steady, catching her shoulders, holding.

He was so near.

She should pull away-but didn’t.

‘Tori…’ he said uncertainly, and she just looked at him. Sex on legs, she thought absently.

No. He was much, much more.

Get a grip, she thought frantically and shoved her hands up, breaking his grip. She came close to falling back down into the car-but didn’t. Thankfully. A girl had some pride.

‘I… Thank you,’ she muttered and managed to get herself round to the other side of the car to retrieve her cardboard box.

‘I like your luggage,’ he said, and grinned.

‘Eat your heart out, Mr. Gucci,’ she said, managing a smile in return. ‘This is so next year’s catwalk.’

‘I believe it is,’ he said. ‘If there’s anyone who can start a trend it would be you.’

‘Enough with the compliments,’ she said, feeling…disconcerted. No, more than that, totally flummoxed. ‘You promised me a bath.’

‘I did. Let me carry your box.’

‘I can manage myself,’ she said with an attempt at dignity. ‘Once upon a time I depended on others. I don’t do that any more.’

‘It’s only carrying a box,’ he said mildly.

‘No,’ she said softly, as she carted her belongings up the steps and into the house. ‘Believe me, it’s much, much more.’

She lay back in the vast spa; she let the bubbles float up around her and she felt as if she was floating herself. From here she could see all the way across the valley floor. There were candles lit around her, gardenia with maybe a hint of citrus. The housekeeper had lit them as she’d settled her into the room.

‘And don’t worry about privacy,’ she’d said. ‘There’s oneway glass so you can see forever but no one can see you, even if there was someone outside, which there isn’t. The one-way glass is brilliant. Jake had it installed just after his father died.’

‘Jake did that?’

‘He wants this place to be the best. It was his stepmother’s passion, and we want to carry it on.’

Jake’s stepmother’s passion… There was a lot here she didn’t understand, that she hadn’t thought through.

She knew this place had been built by the local doctor and his wife. Charlie McDonald had cared for this community for as long as most people remembered. He’d cared for her mother during her long illness, allowing her to die at home surrounded by her family and her beloved animals. Tori remembered him with deep affection, and with gratitude.

He’d lived in Combadeen and his wife had run the lodge. The place up on the ridge had been his weekend retreat, so they’d been weekend neighbours. But just after she’d started university he’d retired to the city, and she’d not heard of him until his funeral.

And now…

The old doctor was Charlie McDonald. Jake was Jake Hunter.

Illegitimate? Who knew with mixed families?

She tried to remember community gossip. There was talk of a son at his funeral. She remembered a faded baby photo on Dr. McDonald’s surgery wall. That must be Jake.

She’d find out. She had all the time in the world to get it right, she thought dreamily as she sank deeper into bubbles. But then she thought, No, she was only here for a night until she organised something more permanent, and Jake himself would return to New York. There’d be no time for questions.

The thought left her curiously bereft.

But at least she could sleep tonight, she reminded herself. She glanced through into the bedroom, at the enormous bed piled with white-on-white eiderdowns and feather pillows. A woman could melt into a bed like this.

As opposed to melting into a man like Jake Hunter?

She was delirious. That was the only possible explanation for where her mind was taking her. She was not thinking of doing any melting into any man.

All she had to do to stop that was to think of Toby. Betrayal. A heartache that would never leave her.

Jake was different.

Maybe or maybe not, she thought sharply, but Jake was heading back to New York and he didn’t want to even indulge in five-minute dating, much less anything else. She was tired beyond belief and her mind was playing tricks.

So get out of the bath, get to dinner, so you can go to bed.

Right. She wiggled even deeper under the bubbles.

‘Tori?’

Uh-oh. Jake’s voice brought her bolt upright. ‘Tori, are you okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ she managed, feeling…discombobulated. She was covered in bubbles and she was bright pink. Had she locked the door? She didn’t think so.

‘Dinner’s ready. I’ve fed Rusty, but do you want yours here or in the dining room?’

In here, she thought, but then maybe he had it with him. Maybe if she said the word the door would open.

‘In the dining room,’ she squeaked.

‘You want a hand out of the bath?’

‘No!’

She heard him chuckle. ‘Hey, I’m a doctor, remember? I’m used to human bodies.’

‘You’re not my doctor, and you’re not used to this one. Go away.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said and there was silence-and she pulled herself awkwardly out of the bath and thought maybe, just maybe, she should have let him in.

Maybe she even wanted to.

Maybe she was losing her mind.

The meal was served on the terrace. Tori left Rusty on her bed, watching the door-of course-and made her way cautiously through the dining room and outside. And paused.

She could see the whole world.

The valley meandered downhill, following the ancient river path. Far in the distance she could see the faint, flickering lights of the city at dusk, but the foreground was simple, natural beauty.

The dusk wasn’t so deep that she couldn’t see vines around the house, lines and lines, reaching into the distance. Gum trees followed the river-massive eucalypts with wide, spreading branches. For Tori, who’d lived with blackened skeletons for so long, the sight was enough to make her gasp.

‘We thought you might have gone down the drain.’

It was Jake, rising to greet her. As well as Jake there was Rob and two tiny, wrinkled women, smiling a welcome. One of the women had her arm in a sling. She looked pale and strained, and she held her arm as if it hurt. The other looked a little better but not much. Her forehead was badly scarred, and she was glancing nervously at her companion as if she was deeply worried about her. Fire victims both. Six months raw.

They were all six months raw.

‘Do you need introductions?’ Rob said easily, rising as well. She’d recognised the women but was given introductions anyway. ‘Tori, you must know Miss Glenda Parling-postmistress to Combadeen until fifteen years ago. And Mrs. Doreen Ryde? Doreen’s Glenda’s sister. You’ve already met Mrs. Matheson, our own personal wizard-chef, and of course you know Jake. Sit down and wrap yourself round some of Mrs. Matheson’s cooking.’

Jake was holding her chair for her. There was nothing for her to do but sink onto the lovely upholstery-and sink into the night.

Jake and Rob were chatting, drawing the elderly ladies out between them. They let her be, as if protecting her. The conversation had obviously been going on before she got there. She was free to take in her surroundings and the people around her. The lilt of soft music in the background. The fragrance of…more gardenias?

And then the food arrived.

For six months she’d been living on snacks on the run. Whatever Jake and Rob planned for this place, it was obvious snacks on the run were not on the menu.

For all her life afterwards she remembered that meal.

First there were tiny garfish with slivers of lemon and curls of melting butter, cooked to perfection and leaving her mouth exploding with flavours of the sea.

She’d barely finished when fingers of crusty toast arrived, spread thickly with a creamy trout pate, with caviar on the side. Around the plate were tiny tomatoes, shreds of lettuce and curls of shallots. How could a salad taste of sunshine when winter was barely over? The greenhouse at the edge of the balcony gave her the clue.

The night grew more dream-like. Jake was filling her wineglass with something white and cool and luscious. She was achingly conscious of his presence, but he didn’t speak to her and she didn’t speak to him. Conversation was happening around her but she felt as if she was in some sort of bubble, free to be her with no intrusion.

Then came the lobster, and it took her breath away. It had to have been caught this morning, she thought. She’d never tasted lobster like this. She glanced up and Jake was watching her, enjoying her enjoyment. She should think of something to say, but it was too wonderful and she left him to think what he liked and went back to cracking a claw.

Or trying to crack a claw. She was struggling. Then Jake leaned over and cracked it for her, expertly, as though he’d cracked a thousand claws in his life. He tugged the flesh free and held it out. She almost took it straight into her mouth-but what was she thinking? Somehow she pulled back, took it in her fingers and slid it into her mouth herself. Almost decorous, but not quite.

Jake smiled and she tried to smile back and felt…and felt…

She didn’t know what she was feeling. She wasn’t making any sense to herself.

Rob was at her elbow then, asking if she wanted her wine refilled. She put her hand over her glass in a gesture of panic. Had she only had one glass? She felt dizzy. Or maybe floating was a better word.

They were eating by candlelight now. The night sky was full of stars and the moon was rising, vast and round. It was unseasonably warm, and the warmth was adding to her feeling that she’d been transported to another world.

Jake was watching her-she knew it-and that added to the floating sensation as well.

‘You can’t always eat like this,’ she managed as the housekeeper put a parfait of raspberries and chocolate before her. Mmm.

‘Jake said we were to pull out all the stops tonight,’ Mrs. Matheson said.

‘Though the food’s wonderful all the time,’ Glenda ventured. ‘This place is fabulous. Doreen and I keep coming here, whenever we need time out, and it’s like heaven. If only we could bring Pickles…’

‘Pickles?’

‘Our cat,’ Glenda said, suddenly sad, and once again Tori noticed her wince as she moved her hand. ‘He was very traumatised during the fires, but he’s better now. We’re all traumatised. We live in the relocatable village while we rebuild, but we both have health problems. When things get too much we put Pickles in the cattery and come here.’

‘Why can’t you bring him?’ she asked, trying to focus on something other than the food, the night, Jake. Mrs. Matheson was setting down platters of frosted grapes and tiny chocolates, and Jake was watching her with an air of a genie producing his magic. She could reach out and touch him…

No.

‘We don’t welcome animals here,’ Rob was telling her.

‘But Rusty…’

‘Rusty’s a special request from the owner,’ Rob said, giving Jake a rueful grin. ‘Old Doc’s wife was allergic to dog and cat hair. The no-pet rule seemed easiest so we’ve stuck with it.’

‘Old Doc being your father?’ she asked Jake, and he gave a curt nod as if he didn’t want to go there.

But this was obviously news to Doreen and Glenda. Clearly no one had explained who Jake was until now-maybe there’d been no need. Maybe he hadn’t even eaten with the guests until tonight. Now they looked astounded.

‘You’re Doc McDonald’s son?’ they gasped as one, and got another curt nod.

‘Oh, my dear…’ Doreen whispered, sounding awed. ‘Your father? He was the most wonderful man. Oh, when our papa died nothing was too much trouble.’ She hesitated then, looking puzzled. ‘You’re not… He and Hazel didn’t…’ And then her face cleared. ‘I know. You’re Diane’s son.’

‘That’s right.’ Jake’s voice said, Don’t go there, but Doreen had had a wonderful dinner and wonderful wine and she was past picking up subtleties.

‘Oh, my dear, of course you are,’ Doreen said. ‘Thelma said you were at the funeral but no one believed her. But you’re the little boy Doc lost. He broke his heart over you.’

‘Not so much as you’d notice,’ Jake snapped, clearly wanting to move on. ‘I had no contact with my father from the time I was three. I heard from him only once after my mother took me back to the States, but I was a man by then and…well…even then he didn’t seem keen to get to know me.’

‘Well, that’s nonsense,’ Glenda snapped back, as if rising to bait. She clutched her hand and winced again, but a little pain wouldn’t stop her defending a man she clearly idolised. ‘I was postmistress in Combadeen for forty years and I can tell you that your father wrote to you every single week, from the day your mother took you away with that awful American. Big fat letters, they were, crammed with everything he could think of. He posted them every Friday. And you know what? Nearly every one of them came back, marked returned to sender. But he still kept sending them. Then about twenty years ago, he went over to the States. “I’m going to find him, Glenda,” he told me, but three months later he came back. He looked dreadful-and he hadn’t seen you. Your mother wouldn’t let him near. Oh, that woman…’

Glenda’s cheeks were pink with indignation, anger building and building. ‘Not that it’s any of my business,’ she said, ‘but to hear you say there was no contact… It makes my blood boil that your mother wouldn’t let him keep in touch. But then he met Hazel. Even then, he and Hazel couldn’t have children and I know he missed you every day of his life.’

There was a deathly silence round the table. Jake looked as if he’d gone into shock, Tori thought. His face was a mixture of conflicting emotions. Maybe she should reach out and touch him. Maybe she could reassure him.

Maybe she should just keep out of what was clearly not her business.

‘You said he met Hazel twenty years ago,’ Jake said, tightly now, angry and disbelieving. ‘Surely you meant thirty. Or more.’

‘Oh, no, dear,’ Glenda said. ‘That was why they couldn’t have children. Hazel was in her early forties when they met. Of course they hoped, but it didn’t happen.’

‘But my mother left because of my father’s affair with this…Hazel.’

‘No, dear, she left because of the American. His name was Chuck or something appalling, and his automobile broke down here and he had to stay until it was mended and then…well, off he went, with your mother. And you. Your father couldn’t believe it. He loved her so much. Oh, but it was never going to work. Your mother hated the life as a wife of a country doctor. She hated the calls, the feeling of everyone knowing everyone, the community. She just hated…here.’

‘Are you a doctor as well?’ Finally Doreen spoke. Her eyes were alight with pleasure-and with something else.

‘Yes.’

‘Oh, my dear,’ Doreen breathed. ‘To think, Glenda, Doc’s son coming home, and a doctor as well.’ And then she looked uncertainly at her sister and then directly at Jake. ‘If you really are his son, I don’t suppose… You know, Glenda won’t go and see a doctor. She broke her wrist dragging me out of the fire. Since she left hospital she won’t go back, and I know it hurts her terribly. Do you think we could trouble you to look at it. Just to tell us what you think?’

‘I’m not sure that I could help-and I don’t have registration to practise in this country,’ Jake said, sounding flummoxed.

‘No, but you could give us advice.’

‘I don’t think I can.’

‘If you’re Old Doc’s son you could try,’ Doreen said, suddenly stern, and Tori remembered she’d been a school-teacher. ‘She’s in such pain. She hasn’t slept for weeks. It hurts and hurts, and she doesn’t tell me but I know she lies awake night after night. She doesn’t want to go to bed because the pain takes over again. I’m so worried about her I don’t know what to do.’ The sternness left her. She sniffed, and then she sniffed again and finally she hiccupped on a sob, while Glenda stared at her in horror, as if she’d been betrayed.

‘Doreen, don’t.’

‘He’s Old Doc’s son. He’ll help us. He even looks like his father.’

‘I didn’t know my father,’ Jake said tightly. ‘You should go back to see your own doctor.’

‘They just give her sleeping pills,’ Doreen retorted, gulping back more tears. ‘Sleeping pills and those other blue things that stop it hurting for a little bit but then her stomach gets upset and she won’t keep taking them. And the sleeping pills don’t work. She can’t go on like this. Neither of us can.’ She touched her chest, a fleeting gesture that spoke volumes. ‘It hurts us both. Please help us.’

‘We have no right to ask,’ Glenda said, sounding angry and distressed.

Glenda was right, Tori thought. They had no right to ask for professional help from this man. He wasn’t even qualified to practise in Australia.

But then, Tori thought of the way he’d worked with Manya, of the skills he’d shown. And he was an anaesthetist, she thought. He’d know about pain management.

Maybe he could help.

And despite her absolute certainty that she should stay out of this, Tori found herself inexorably caught up in Doreen’s plea.

‘Glenda, Jake’s my friend,’ she said softly, ignoring Jake for the moment and concentrating on Glenda. ‘He helped me try and save my koala. Doreen’s right. You knew Jake’s dad so you know him. Will you let him help? Jake, can you see if there’s anything you can do?’

She caught the flare of shock on Jake’s face-but she’d started now. There was no way she could back off.

‘Jake’s also an anaesthetist,’ she told Glenda, firmly but softly. ‘Pain relief is what he does. Isn’t that right, Jake?’

‘Yes.’ He had no choice but to agree.

‘We know you don’t practise medicine in Australia,’ she continued, inexorably hooking him and keeping him hooked. ‘But if all Glenda’s been offered is sleeping pills and little blue pills… Morphine?’

‘Yes,’ Glenda said hopelessly. ‘But my arm’s better. They put a plate in it, and screws. It’s as good as they can get it.’

And then…

‘Can I see?’ Jake said, and it was as if the whole world held its breath. Can I see. Those three little words had the capacity to turn this desperate little scene around.

Glenda stared at him, wide-eyed, and Jake gazed right back, not speaking, giving her time to make up her mind. The room held its collective breath.

And then, very slowly, Glenda held out her arm, and Tori wondered if Jake knew just how much trust went into that gesture.

Glenda had been postmistress in the valley forever, and her independence was legendary. When her postboys called in sick Glenda had been known to get on a bike and deliver herself, often two or three mail runs in the one day. For her to accept help…

But it seemed she was. Jake was pulling his chair round the table so he could sit facing her. Gently he took her hand in his, and while Glenda submitted her arm for inspection, while Tori watched Glenda place her trust in him, the warmth around Tori’s heart grew and grew.

She should be concentrating on Glenda. She was-sort of. But when he’d taken Glenda’s hand in his, it was as if he’d taken her own.

I could be in huge trouble here, she told herself, feeling dazed. I need to leave, right now. If I stay longer…

But she couldn’t leave now.

Jake was holding Glenda’s hand lightly in his, watching Glenda’s face intently. The tension in the elderly woman’s body was palpable. Was she expecting Jake to hurt her?

‘I’m not probing,’ Jake said softly. ‘I’m just touching.’ He rested her hand in his left hand, and touched her damaged wrist with his right, running his forefinger gently up and down her arm, along her fingers, not pressing, smooth as silk.

‘Stop me the minute I make you feel uncomfortable or I hurt you,’ he told her. ‘Stop me the moment I make anything worse.’

She didn’t stop him. He ran his fingers over the back of her palm, over and over, and then cupped her hand and felt that, too. Around her Tori felt the tension ease. Everyone, it seemed, had been holding their breaths. Even Mrs. Matheson, who’d been clearing coffee cups, had paused, riveted.

‘Press my hand,’ Jake was saying. ‘Here. One finger at a time. Can you clench? No? Don’t try, then. What does that feel like?’

‘Like my hand doesn’t belong to me,’ Glenda whispered. ‘Like it’s not there-only it is. I can feel it but not like I want to feel it. Sometimes it hurts so much I just want to chop it off. It’s not mine any more. It’s not real.’

‘It is real.’

‘I’m being stupid,’ Glenda said, as finally Jake rested her hand in his again and let it lie.

‘No.’ It was such a flat response that Glenda stared. ‘You’re not being stupid. How long have you been putting up with pain like this?’

‘A while.’

‘Months,’ Doreen said dully. ‘And it’s getting worse.’

‘But at the beginning it did seem to get better?’

‘Yes,’ Glenda whispered. ‘That’s why it’s stupid. It got better and all the scans are good and the doctors say I’m cured. Only then the pain started…’

‘I’ve seen this before,’ Jake said. He was still holding her hand in his, so gently he couldn’t possibly be hurting.

‘I’m thinking this is something called complex regional pain syndrome,’ he said, and it was as if he was alone with Glenda-everyone else had disappeared. ‘Everything fits. You’ve had major trauma. So many of the bones and blood vessels and nerves were damaged that often a physical recovery masks more complex nerve problems. The symptoms often occur months after the injury itself. Your hand feels cold and there are areas of sensory blunting. It feels strange and stiff, like it doesn’t quite belong to you. And then there’s the pain. You protect it to stop it hurting, and the more you protect it, the worse it gets. Your fingers are already starting to curl. It’s hard to make them move.’

‘I don’t want to move them,’ Glenda whispered. ‘But it’s only my hand. I was so lucky… I’m better.’

‘You’re not better. You have nerve damage that needs to be addressed,’ Jake said sternly, and Glenda blinked and looked at him with something akin to hope.

‘The doctors say there’s nothing they can do.’

‘That might be because you’ve been talking to surgeons,’ Jake said. ‘And no, there’s nothing more surgeons can do. Now it’s time to move to another specialty.’

‘Like you?’

‘Someone like me. I can’t prescribe in this country-I’m not registered. But I’m happy to write a note for you to take to your family doctor, asking that you be sent to a pain specialist.’

‘More morphine?’

‘Morphine’s not great for this type of pain,’ Jake said. ‘What you need is a drug specifically targeting nerve pain, and there are good ones. My guess is that we can give you immediate relief the moment we get you a nerve-specific drug. If you agree, first thing tomorrow we can find out who knows who in this valley and get you on something that will help.’

‘I know people,’ Tori offered, and Jake sent her a smile that made her feel even more dazed.

‘There you go, then. First cab off the rank is our local vet. They say there are six levels of connection between you and anyone else in the world. I’m thinking Tori will do it in two.’ And then, as Glenda looked at him in disbelief, he touched her cheek, a huge gesture, Tori thought, for someone who seemed to hold himself so aloof.

‘It’s okay,’ he told her. ‘The nerve-specific pain relievers are easy on the tummy, and it’s not like you’ll need them forever. You also need a hand therapist, and you need her urgently as well, if that hand isn’t to turn into a claw. You think you might be able to find us one of those, Tori?’

‘Dad’s old vet nurse has a daughter who’s a hand therapist,’ Tori said, absurdly pleased. ‘She works in the same clinic as the doctor I use.’

‘There you are, then,’ Jake said. ‘But first…let’s pack that hand in heat before you go to bed. We’ll pack it in hot-water bottles, or heat packs if Rob’s got them. We’ll give you some of that morphine-yes, it has side effects, but I’m thinking this is the last time you’ll take it-and then you’ll sleep. That’s an order.’

And he said it so sternly that, to Tori’s astonishment, Glenda giggled.

‘Yes, Doctor,’ she said.

‘That’s what I like,’ he said. ‘An obedient patient.’

‘Thank you,’ Doreen breathed, and Tori looked from Jake to Glenda and then back to Jake and she thought, I am in such trouble.

Do not trust?

How could she not?

She didn’t have a choice. Concentrate on work, she thought suddenly, fiercely. Jake was being kind because he was a doctor. Maybe she should think of a way she could be useful, too.

‘Rob, tomorrow you and I need to talk about your pet policy,’ she ventured, as Glenda glowed at her and then glowed back at Jake. She looked as if she might be as smitten as Tori was feeling. ‘If you’re giving fire victims time out, what they most need is the people and pets they love. Are you allergic to cats, Jake?’

‘No, but…’

‘But what?’

‘But nothing,’ he told her and shrugged and smiled. ‘There don’t seem to be many buts right now.’

Where was the aloof man she’d met at five-minute dating? He was unbending by the minute.

‘You organise it,’ he said. ‘Tell Rob what he needs to do and he’ll do it. What you’re capable of…are you sure you’re just a vet?’

‘I’m just a vet,’ she said, a trifle unsteadily, but Jake’s smile was making her feel as if she didn’t know what she was any more.

Do not trust.

‘If you’ll excuse me,’ she said unsteadily, ‘I’m really very tired and Rusty will be waiting. Goodnight, all.’

And because the night really was getting blurry-because she didn’t understand how the expression on Jake’s face was making her feel-she rose and fled, just as fast as her dignity allowed her.