all her shyness, or perhaps because of it, she was good with people, knowing instinctively how to approach them, intuitively understanding their pain or weaknesses, easing her way into their confidence.
‘And are you enjoying it? The island? The people?’
They were on a straight stretch of track, coming out of the thick rainforest into a more open but still treed area, and he could see cabins and huts nestled in private spaces between the trees.
Apparently more sure of the path now, she turned towards him before she answered, and her clear blue eyes—Bobby’s eyes—met his.
‘Oh, yes!’ she said—no hesitation at all. ‘Yes, I am.’
Then her brow creased and she sighed.
‘Or I was until the kids starting getting sick. What shall we do, Angus, if it is bird flu?’
‘Let’s wait and see,’ he said, touching her arm to reassure her.
Or possibly to see if her skin was really as soft as he remembered it…
He shook his head, disturbed that the strength of the attraction he felt towards Beth hadn’t lessened in their years apart. Perhaps it was a good thing she had a problem at the medical centre—something he could get stuck into to divert his mind from memories of the past.
Although sick children were more than just a diversion —they were a real concern.
She pulled up in front of a new-looking building, the ramp at the front of it still trailing tattered streamers and limp balloons. The dog leapt out and began biting at the fluttering streamers, trying to tackle them into submission.
Was this the medical centre and these the remnants of the official opening celebrations? The building was certainly new, and built to merge into its surroundings—tropical architecture, with wide overhangs and floor-to-ceiling aluminium shutters to direct any stray breeze inside. Beautiful, in fact.
‘Around the back,’ Beth said, leading him down a path beside the building. ‘The front part is Administration and a first-aid verging on ER room. The hospital section is behind it, here.’
They walked up another ramp and had barely reached the deck, when a woman with tousled curls and a freckled nose came out through a door, greeting Beth with obvious relief.
‘Thank heavens you’re back,’ she said. ‘I’ve called Charles, but you’re the only one who can calm Robbie. He’s babbling—hallucinating, I think—just when we thought he might have turned the corner.’
‘I’ll go right through,’ Beth said, then, apparently remembering she’d brought him to this place, turned to Angus.
‘Grace, this is Angus. Angus, Grace. He’s the doctor I told you about, Grace. Could you take him around so he can see the other patients, introduce him to Emily if she’s here and Charles when he arrives?’
The ‘doctor’ not ‘ex-husband’, Angus thought, feeling annoyed about the wording for no fathomable reason, though he did manage to greet the distracted nurse politely.
Beth hurried back to Robbie’s room. The virus that had struck the camp had started off with drowsiness, and the children seemed almost to lapse into unconsciousness in between bouts of agitation. Right now Robbie was agitated, tossing and turning in his bed, muttering incoherently, his movements more violent than they’d been during the night.
Beth checked the drip running into his arm, then felt his forehead. Not feverish, she guessed, then picked up his chart to confirm it. The paracetamol she’d given him earlier must be working.
‘Hush, love, it’s all right, I’m here,’ she whispered to the fretful little boy, holding his hands in one of hers and smoothing his dark hair back from his forehead with the other.
But even as he stilled at the sound of her voice, fear whispered in her heart. They were treating the symptoms the patients had without any idea if this was an aggressive cold or something far more sinister. Alex Vavunis, a paediatric neurosurgeon who was a guest on the island, had taken samples of spinal fluid from the sickest patients the previous day, but it was too early to expect results.
Beth knew her assurances could easily be empty—that everything might not be all right for Robbie.
‘We’ve three children not feeling well, still in the camp, but Robbie and Jack are the most severely affected. My ward, Lily, was admitted yesterday and she’s a little better today.’
Beth heard Charles’s voice before she saw him, and turned to see he’d guided his wheelchair silently into the room, Angus seeming taller than ever as he stood beside the chair.
‘How is he, Beth?’
Charles wheeled closer as he asked the question.
Beth shook her head.
‘Agitated,’ she said, ‘although there is some good news. Jack seems a little better this morning. Lily?’
She heard Charles’s sigh and knew the little girl must still be unstable.
‘Jill has been with her most of the night. And Grace tells me you’ve been here all night. You should go home and rest.’
‘I dozed between checking on the others,’ Beth assured him. ‘Emily’s on duty today, but I’ll stay now in case Angus needs some help with tests or information.’
She glanced towards the man who had moved to the chair beside Robbie’s bed and was reading through the notes on his chart.
‘You’ve how many sick?’ Angus asked, looking at Charles who nodded to Beth to reply.
‘We have the adult from the resort, one of the rangers and three children, making a total of five. There are another three children at the camp showing symptoms. We’ve moved those three to a cabin and the staff and volunteers there are entertaining them, keeping them as quiet as possible and making sure they take in plenty of fluids. Among the staff, the rangers, even people at the resort, there could be more who are simply not feeling well, people feeling the “beginning of flu” symptoms but who haven’t said anything.’
‘And you’re how far off the mainland?’
This time Charles fielded Angus’s question himself. ‘A half-hour flight by helicopter—less by seaplane.’
‘You’ve got to close the island, Charles,’ Angus said. ‘You must have had similar thoughts yourself, given the number of dead birds you say have been found. We have to quarantine the whole place—resort, national park, the camp and eco-resort—at least until we know more. It’s a thousand to one chance it’s anything sinister, but even that’s too big a chance to take.’
Beth stared at him, sure her jaw had dropped in disbelief.
‘You’re serious? You think it could be bird flu?’
She looked at the little boy still twitching restlessly on the bed and pain washed through her.
‘No!’ she whispered, but she doubted whether the men heard her, Charles asking questions, Angus answering, Charles
