close down the mine.’
Caroline nodded. ‘Yes, good idea.’
Perhaps she hadn’t felt what he’d felt when they’d hugged, because she’d never sounded more together—practical, professional—putting the past firmly behind her.
But then, she’d always been a superb actress, having grown adept at hiding her feelings.
Though usually not from him …
HAD THEY BEEN going to kiss?
Surely not!
But Caroline was very relieved he’d pulled away, and hopefully without seeing her suddenly breathless state.
And if he hadn’t?
Would that surge of attraction have led to a kiss—right there on the front steps of the house?
Her heart ached for him after hearing the story of his return from school, his mother’s humiliation, and imagining the pain the pair must have suffered, leaving the place that had been their only true home.
Her first reaction had been numbness. After Bessie’s chance remark about no woman being safe around Ian, she’d imagined rape, but humiliating Helen as he had done had been emotionally so damaging. How impotent Keanu must have felt in the face of Ian’s callousness.
Of course she’d had to hug him!
But hugging Keanu had never felt like that before!
Hugging Keanu had never produced that kind of mayhem in her body. Not even Steve, who’d never failed to boast about what a great lover he was, had ever managed to evoke something like that.
Or was that unfair to Steve?
He hadn’t really boasted of his prowess, it was just the impression she’d got from his confidence, and the fact that other women had envied her the man who had wooed her with flowers, and gifts and promises of undying love.
Actually, now the hurt was gone and she could look back rationally, it had been the undying love thing that had got her in the end; the fact that this person had come into her life, vowing to be there for ever—to never let her down or abandon her. That last had been the clincher.
How stupid had she been?
A practised lover, he’d sniffed out the silly issues she had with abandonment—with the loss of so many people in her life and the distraction of others—and had worked on it!
Jilly had been right, she was well out of that relationship, and as the days had turned into months Caroline had realised that as well, glad the man she’d thought she loved had turned out to have not only feet of clay but whole legs of it!
And Keanu?
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply then decided she wouldn’t think about that right now. She had more important things to consider, the first being to find some way to pay the miners what they were owed.
She didn’t think it would go all the way to restoring the Lockhart name but those people had worked for her family—they deserved to be paid.
And they would be.
She’d phone Dad, talk to him about the mine closure and the problems Ian had left behind him on the island—the damage he had done to the Lockhart name.
Although could she add that much more worry to his already over-burdened shoulders?
An image of her twin rose up in front of her—Christopher’s crippled, twisted body, his lovely blue eyes gazing blankly towards her as she talked to him, the pigeon chest battling for every breath …
No, she couldn’t pull Dad away from Christopher, especially right now when he had been hospitalised again …
So it was up to her.
Or was she fooling herself?
‘Nurse Hettie phoned to say she expected you back at the hospital.’ Bessie appeared at the front door. ‘I told her you’re having a late lunch and will be down soon.’
Bother!
‘Thanks, Bessie, I’ll go right now.’
‘You’ll do no such thing. You come into the kitchen and have lunch.’
‘But Reuben gave Keanu and I fruit salad and cold juice. I don’t need lunch.’
‘You do need lunch!’
Realising it was futile to argue, she went into the kitchen to eat the gargantuan sandwich Bessie had prepared for her.
Footsteps on the veranda sent Bessie scurrying from the kitchen, and Caroline carefully wrapped the remainder of the sandwich and popped it into the fridge.
The deep voice she heard was definitely Keanu’s.
Her heart made a squiggly feeling in her chest as she hurried to the front veranda.
‘There was no need for you to come up, I just had to wash and put on a clean top—it was dusty down there.’
Keanu nodded, just that, a nod, the story he’d shared with her like a glass wall between them.
Or had it been the hug?
Whatever, he’d turned away and started back towards the hospital, pausing only to explain, ‘Hettie’s done two trips the last two days so she’s taking a break, but the patient with the Buruli ulcer needs the skin around it debrided and the wound cleaned, and Anahera has her hands full with the other patients.’
Other patients?
Caroline realised with a start how little she knew about the hospital and what was going on there. She was a nurse, and the patients should be her first concern, not worrying how to pay the money owed to the miners.
She followed Keanu down the path, ignoring the hitch in her breathing at the breadth of his shoulders and the way his hair curled against the nape of his neck, catching up with him to ask, ‘Do we use the treatment room where I first saw him or the operating theatre?
‘He doesn’t need a full anaesthetic, just locals around the wound, but the theatre is more sterile so we’ll do it there.’
Caught up in what lay ahead, Caroline set aside the disturbances Keanu’s presence was causing and concentrated on the case.
‘Are we using the theatre because the ulcer bacteria are easily transmitted?’
Keanu shook his head.
‘We’ve no idea how it’s transmitted, although the World Health Organization has teams of people in various places working on it. Using the theatre is a safeguard, nothing more.’
‘And
