Hamish watched her walk away then took himself out onto the back veranda, settling into the old settee.
He needed to get rid of the baggage of his feelings and think this through with cool, unemotional logic.
Was he stupid, pursuing this attraction Kate obviously didn’t want?
Yes.
So he should stop.
Right.
Would he?
Didn’t even need to ask that question. This was different. This was special. This was something he’d never felt before …
Jack’s condition improved steadily, and the following afternoon he watched Megan feed the baby, then held his son for a short time, before nodding off to sleep.
Megan was in the nursery, bathing Jackson before returning him to his crib, and Kate was putting a new dressing on Jack’s wound when Harry wandered in.
‘OK if we talk a bit?’ he said to Jack, while Kate tried to act as if she was part of the furniture.
Jack did his eye-closing thing, but Kate knew he was refreshed and this was probably a good time for Harry to question him.
‘You have to talk to Harry some time,’ she said quietly. ‘Why not at least start now. I’ll be here, and if I see you getting tired I’ll send Harry away, but at least start, Jack.’
He opened his eyes, looked at her for a moment, then nodded and turned to Harry.
‘I honestly had no idea that they were anything more than cattle drovers,’ he said. ‘Not at first.’
‘And who were “they”?’
Jack looked startled.
‘Todd and Digger of course.’
‘That’s all the names you knew?’
Jack nodded.
‘Met them in a pub out past Gunyamurra. They had a camp in an old station house way out on the edges of some property. Could even have been Wetherby Downs, but it was a place I’d never been. Todd said they had to hold these cattle there because they were expecting more.’
Kate had finished the dressing and now she took Jack’s arm, unobtrusively holding his wrist so she could feel if his pulse began to race or falter.
Jack sipped from a glass of water, then continued.
‘About the time of the Gunyamurra rodeo they gave me some time off—I tried to visit Megan but couldn’t get the right lifts. I thought they were going to the rodeo because they kept talking about it, but when I got back they’d brought more cattle in. That’s when I saw the brands.’
‘What brands?’ Harry asked, as Megan walked back into the ward and, seeing Harry with Jack, came flying across to the bed.
‘It’s OK, Megan,’ Kate said quietly, but Megan was not to be stopped.
‘He’s still too sick!’ she yelled at Harry. ‘Can’t you see that?’ Then she turned her fury on Kate. ‘You should have stopped him.’
Behind her, Kate sensed another presence and turned to see that Hamish had come in quietly.
‘He has to answer questions some time, Megan,’ Hamish told her, but Megan refused to be appeased, and as Jack had closed his eyes again, this time with a finality Kate recognised, she indicated to Harry to walk away. She followed him out of the room, leaving Hamish to reassure Megan that her loved one was all right.
‘Jack was getting tired,’ Kate said to Harry. ‘Why don’t you come back in the morning? Patients are always fresher then. And in the morning Megan is due to spend some time with Susie, learning massage techniques for Jackson.’
Harry smiled.
‘She was as fierce as a mother bear protecting her cub, wasn’t she?’ he said, and Kate nodded, though she was thinking not of Megan’s behaviour but of Hamish, who had said the same thing to her the previous evening.
Hamish who was now holding Megan in his arms and no doubt whispering all the soothing, special, comforting things she needed to hear.
He was special …
Get your mind off him and onto your patient! Think Jack!
Kate set her mind to it, recalling the questions and answers. Jack had been talking easily about the cattle until he’d come to the bit about the brands.
‘Worries?’
So much for getting Hamish out of her mind by thinking about Jack! But, then, maybe Hamish could help.
Kate glanced back into the room to see Megan sitting quietly at Jack’s side, while he apparently slept, and turned her attention to the man she’d been determined to avoid.
‘Jack was upset by the questions before Megan came in,’ she explained. ‘Remember when you were telling me what might have happened and you said Jack might have recognised the Wetherby Downs brand and realised the cattle were stolen?’
‘In the cave?’
Kate nodded.
‘Well, what if they weren’t Wetherby cattle but Cooper cattle he recognised? Would he want to admit that? When Jim had just welcomed him to the family and Megan was nearby to hear?’
Hamish put his hand on her shoulder.
‘Do you always take on the worries of the world?’
‘It’s not the world, it’s Jack,’ she retorted. ‘And if Harry comes back in the morning to cover this tricky stuff, I’d like to be there, but I’m not a lawyer and maybe that’s what he needs.’
She used her own hand to lift his away and determinedly ignored the effects of both touches, but he wasn’t going to be put off.
‘It’s your tea-break—I checked,’ he said. ‘Let’s go talk to Charles about it.’
He led the way, guiding her along corridors and tapping quietly at the door before entering. Jill was there, which pleased Kate who was beginning to feel she was making a fuss about nothing but obscurely felt Jill might understand.
Jill could also change her shifts!
Charles greeted them as if he was used to small staff delegations wandering through his door, and asked how he could help.
‘Kate will explain,’ Hamish offered, so she brought Charles up to date and explained her worries.
‘So,’ she added, directly to Jill this time, ‘I know it’s a nuisance to keep switching shifts around, but if I could work maybe nine to six tomorrow, I’d be there in the morning when Harry comes, and still there in the afternoon if he happens to be held up.’
Jill assured her it would
