Hawaiian Sunset, Dream Proposal

‘That’s to be expected,’ Amber told him. ‘It’s nature’s way of telling you to take things easy.’

‘That’s not what I’m used to,’ he said with a wry smile. His gaze wandered to the computer screen. ‘I thought I heard voices,’ he murmured. ‘Ethan, my boy, I’m glad you’re there. What’s happening at the plantation?’ He paused to drag in a shaky breath. ‘Are you managing to keep on top of things?’

Amber raised her eyes heavenward. Caitlin and Ethan had been right when they’d said he wouldn’t let go. Here he was, slowly coming round from the effects of an injection that had made him woozy and tranquil, and he was already asking questions. ‘I’ll leave you in the care of the nurse while I go and look in on my other patients,’ she told him. ‘Have a chat with your family, but don’t go tiring yourself. You need to rest.’

She gazed at the screen and sent Ethan a look that spoke volumes. He nodded, and gave her a smile in return. ‘I’ll make sure of it,’ he said.

Amber took her leave of Caitlin, and went to check on the rest of her patients in A and E. Before too long it was time for her to go off duty and make her way home.

Once she was back in her apartment, the reality of everyday life began to creep in, and weariness swept over her as she recognised that she was totally, utterly alone. She had no doubt that James would have finished his shift and be comforting Caitlin right now, and that left a bitter taste in her mouth.

She reached into her pocket and drew out the letter James had given her. She had been busy these last few hours, but it had taken all her reserves of willpower to keep herself from opening it until now. All her hopes for the future lay within the contents of this envelope, but James hadn’t even asked her what it contained. Perhaps he assumed all would be well…or maybe his priorities had changed, now that Caitlin needed his support.

She tore open the envelope. ‘Dear Dr Shaw,’ the letter began, ‘I am sorry to inform you that, due to a filing error, your application was mislaid, and unfortunately the position you applied for has been filled in the meantime. Please accept our deepest apologies for the mix-up.’

Amber scrunched the letter into a ball and pulled in a shuddery breath. All her dreams were gone in the blink of an eye. She was devastated.

She had worked hard throughout her training to become a doctor, and her one ambition was to specialise in accident and emergency medicine. Now that opportunity had been denied her, and she was to all intents and purposes going to be out of work within a few weeks. It was too late to pursue any other job offer because all the specialist applications were closed.

She wandered around the apartment, seeing nothing, struggling to take in the news. There was no point in ringing James to confide in him, and seek to find consolation together. If he had cared enough, he would have phoned her by now to ask how she was getting on, and she could only guess that he probably had other things on his mind.

Instead, she rang her mother. She, at least, would want to know the result of all her efforts, and Amber had already found a voice message on her answering machine asking her to get in touch.

‘Oh, Amber,’ her mother said, ‘I never dreamed that they would turn you down…Well, they haven’t, have they? It’s all down to administration errors. Is there anything you can do now? Will there be other jobs you can apply for?’

‘I doubt it,’ Amber said in a resigned tone. ‘It’s too late now to sort anything out. All the specialist positions that would have interested me will have been filled by now. The most I can hope for is that I can apply for a locum post. I might be able to fill in when people are sick. It means going from one hospital to another, where I’m needed, perhaps, or working for short stints on contract—a few months at a time, maybe.’

‘It might not be so bad as you imagine,’ her mother commented. ‘Perhaps something will turn up.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ Amber murmured.

They chatted for a little while, about her mother’s work as a graphic artist, and Amber enquired after her father, who worked as a general practitioner at the local health centre.

‘He’s out on call, at the moment,’ her mother said. ‘There seems to be a spate of people going down with flu. I think he’s overworked and stressed just now—one of the doctors is off sick, and another is away on leave, so the practice is under a bit of a strain. He’s had to take on a good share of his workload, as well as his own. We’re both under a good deal of pressure at the moment and things are a bit tense between us at times. I have deadlines to meet, and nothing quite goes the way I want it. I told him what we both need is a good holiday.’

Amber could see how that prospect would be tempting. She could do with a break herself. She had a picture in her mind of boats tethered on a gently sloping beach, while waves lapped desultorily at the shore, leaving white ribbons of foam to fringe the golden sand. Exotic birds would fly from one palm tree to another…and there, in the forefront, gazing at the vista before him, stood a tall, bronzed figure, his blue eyes half-closed against the glare of the sun.

She pulled herself together with a jolt, frowning as she said goodbye to her mother. Why on earth would an image of Ethan Brookes come into her mind that way? Didn’t she have enough problems to deal with, without him popping into her mind every other minute?

CHAPTER THREE

‘YOUR temperature’s way too high, Jack,’ Amber told her patient, ‘so I’m going to give you something to try to bring it down, along with medication to stop you from being sick.’

‘Thanks. I feel really rough.’

‘I can imagine how bad it must be.’ She glanced at his arm. ‘That’s a really nasty sore you have there,’ she said with a frown as she examined him. ‘Do you recall how it happened?’

Jack grimaced. ‘I was bitten by an insect of some kind—a sandfly, I think.’ He was a man in his early twenties, a man who should have been full of vigour and zest for life, but at this moment his skin was sallow, and there were beads of sweat breaking out on his brow.

Amber nodded. ‘I don’t suppose that it happened in this country, did it? Have you been overseas at all, lately?’

‘I was in South America,’ Jack said. ‘I worked there for a couple of months until recently.’ He glanced at her. ‘Do you think that’s what’s causing my illness—the fact that I had an insect bite? That’s what my mates think.’ His face contorted as another spasm of nausea washed over him and he struggled to overcome the urge to vomit. ‘I didn’t feel too bad until I arrived home in the U.K.,’ he managed. ‘I seem to have gone downhill ever since then. I’ve never felt as ill as this before.’

‘It does seem quite likely that’s what happened,’ Amber told him. ‘I’ll do a biopsy, and take some blood for testing. Once we have a clear idea what we are dealing with, I’ll be able to treat you more specifically.’

Jack looked worried. ‘Some of my co-workers have been telling me that this sort of illness can be hard to treat. Some even said that people don’t always recover. Is that true?’

‘What kind of friends are these who say something like that?’ Amber asked, raising a brow in astonishment. She gave him a reassuring smile. ‘Let’s wait until we have the results, shall we? What I will say is that I haven’t lost a patient yet to an insect bite.’

Sarah mopped his brow with a cool flannel. ‘She’s right,’ she said with a faint chuckle. ‘We only bring in lay-consultants after we’ve been scratching our heads for a couple of weeks, because we reckon after that length of time anybody’s guess is as good as ours.’

‘You’re making fun of me,’ Jack said. He gave them a weak smile. ‘You wouldn’t be doing that if you felt the way I did.’

Sarah patted his hand. ‘Only kidding,’ she murmured. ‘Dr Shaw knows what she’s doing. She won’t let you down.’

Amber made quick work of collecting the samples she needed. ‘If it’s true that you were bitten by a sandfly,’ she said, ‘especially a female sandfly, then it’s quite possible that you have a parasitic infection. They can be really nasty and make you feel truly awful, because they attack your immune system and lower your resistance. If that’s what has actually happened, we’ll put a drip in your arm and treat you with a medication that will kill off the parasite. It won’t happen overnight, though. Sometimes it can take several weeks for the treatment to take effect.’

Jack made a face. ‘I’m not going anywhere in a hurry,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t have the energy.’

Amber left him with Sarah a few minutes later. She had been working for a good part of the day in A and E, but now it was time to go and check up on her patients on the surgical ward.

She called in on Martyn first of all. James was there, talking quietly to Caitlin, while Martyn was sitting in a chair at the side of his bed, balancing a laptop computer on his knees and frowning in concentration. He looked weary, a few lines of strain showing around his mouth and forehead, and Amber was immediately on the alert. James and Caitlin were oblivious to anything around them, smiling and sharing anecdotes with one another about life at university.

‘I thought I’d drop by to see how you’re getting on,’ Amber said, greeting Martyn and nodding towards James and Caitlin. ‘I see you have company, though, so I’ll make this a quick visit.’

James got to his feet. ‘I’ve been looking for you all morning,’ he murmured. He came over to her and gave her a hug. ‘I heard about the job,’ he said quietly. ‘That was really bad news. I was so sure you would get it. The whole system is chaotic.’

‘I suppose I can’t complain,’ she said. ‘A lot of us are finding ourselves in the same boat, unfortunately.’ It felt good to have his arms close gently around her. It was a light, comforting embrace that showed her he cared, but she couldn’t help thinking it had come too late. A couple of days had passed since she had received the letter, and this was the first time he had mentioned the subject. She returned the embrace and then, much as she would have liked to prolong the contact, she gently broke away from him, turning her attention towards Martyn. It didn’t seem right to be hugging, however brief and innocent the gesture, in front of a patient and his relative.

‘I hear you’ve been trying to walk about a bit,’ she said, giving Martyn a brief look to try to assess how he was doing. ‘That’s good. Try to do things gradually, though. We don’t want you to tax yourself too soon and end up having a relapse.’ She frowned. ‘Sarah tells me you’ve been making a lot of phone calls these last few days…and that’s fine, if it’s to keep you in touch with family and friends to generally cheer yourself up—only Sarah has the idea that you’ve been talking to people at the office and getting yourself into a state.’

He looked at her, very much like a little boy on the receiving end of a telling-off. ‘It’s just that I’m feeling so much better,’ he said, using a placatory tone. ‘And it’s all down to your care and attention. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m doing really well. You saved my life and I’m always going to be in your debt. I wouldn’t dream of doing anything to undo all your good work.’

Amber sent him a knowing look. ‘Don’t even begin to think you can wind me around your little finger,’ she admonished him. ‘I’m onto your tricks. Your nephew warned me about you.’

‘That was very well said.’ Ethan’s deep, male voice came from across the room, causing Amber to give a startled jump. She frowned at the screen that showed his image. Was that man forever going to be sneaking around and putting in an appearance when she least expected him?

She glanced at the watch on her wrist. ‘Aren’t you up and about again at an altogether unsociable hour?’ she asked. Why couldn’t he turn up when the night shift was on duty and she was safely out of the way? But perhaps he had always been an early riser…and that thought only added to her discomfort. What business did he have looking so fit and energetic when the sun was barely up in his part of the world?

‘Do I detect sour grapes?’ Ethan said, lifting a dark brow. ‘I guess you’ve been hard at work for several hours by now. How is it that you’re still looking after my uncle when your job is supposed to be in Accident and Emergency?’

‘Professor Halloran asked me especially to look after Martyn,’ she explained. ‘But, in fact, my work is divided between A and E, the surgical ward and various other wards. I like it this way, because it gives me the chance to follow up on people who have been admitted to hospital from A and E. That doesn’t usually happen with these senior house officer jobs, but I’ve found I really like being able to do that. It gives the training more depth, and that’s why I applied for this particular rotation.’

‘Didn’t I hear you saying that you’d missed out on getting a job to go to after this one?’ Martyn looked up from his laptop, a faint line indenting his brow. ‘Most of the junior doctors’ contracts come to an end soon, don’t they?’

Amber sent him a fleeting glance. Although he had appeared to be engrossed in what he was doing, he had obviously been listening in to her earlier conversation with James.

‘That’s true,’ she told him. ‘Somebody mislaid my application and by the time it turned up, the job I applied for had been filled. Now it looks as though I’m going to be joining the ranks of the unemployed.’