Bachelor Cure

‘If it’s not too late…’

With everything they could do having now been done, it was time now for Dr Westcott to revert again to being just plain Tessa—and just plain scared. The theatre door had been opened and the relatives ushered in. Tess was now Tessa, the relative. She looked down at the man lying on the sand, and her face twisted. ‘Oh, Grandpa, don’t you dare die. Not when we’re so close…’

‘Don’t give up, Tess,’ Mike said roughly, putting a hand out and taking hers in a strong, hard grip. ‘He’s alive and that’s more than we hoped for. We’ve had a miracle. Let’s see if we can score another one.’ He gave her a tight, strained smile, and then turned to his phone.

He watched her sit and listen while he barked orders to unknown people at the end of the telephone link, and her hand stroked her grandfather’s face as she waited. That he’d been here for so long—alone. Her hand went down and gripped the fingers of her grandfather’s hand, willing life into his veins. By her side, Strop nosed forward and gave her spare hand a lick, and Tessa’s strained look eased, as though that one lick had been immeasurably—stupidly—comforting.

‘Grandpa… I’m here, Grandpa,’ she faltered. ‘It’s Tessa. I’ve come home.’

Mike’s eyes never left her face as he spoke into the phone. Home…It sounded right.

That was a crazy thought! This wasn’t Tessa’s home. She had no life here, and why such a thought had the power to jolt him he didn’t know. Tessa had nothing to do with this valley—nothing to do with him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but as he did he saw Tessa’s eyes widen as she stared down at Henry. He glanced down, and a muscle moved almost imperceptibly at the corner of Henry’s right eye.

‘Grandpa…’ She leaned closer, and Mike stared, unable to believe he’d seen the movement. He let the phone drop to his side. He wasn’t imagining it—Tess had seen the movement, too. He took Henry’s other hand.

‘Henry, it’s Mike Llewellyn here.’ He flashed an uncertain look at Tessa, unsure how she was reacting, and then he fixed all his concentration on Henry. ‘It’s Doc Llewellyn. You’re quite safe, Henry, and your granddaughter’s here, too. Tessa’s come all the way from the States to find you. We’ve been searching for days, but no one but Tessa knew where the cave was. Now we’ll stay with you until we can stretcher you out to hospital. You’re quite safe.’

Henry’s right eye fluttered open and he saw them.

His gaze wandered from Tess to Mike…and then back to Tess. It was clear that focussing was an enormous effort. There was confusion in his look. His left eye stayed closed, but the hand Tess was holding tightened convulsively.

Henry’s lips moved, ever so faintly, and Tess bent to hear.

‘Tess…’

The word was blurred to the point of being unintelligible, spoken through one side of his mouth and with a chest that rattled and wheezed and barely functioned, but they knew it for what it was. Tessa’s eyes filled with tears.

‘It’s really me, Grandpa,’ she murmured. ‘We’re here. Mike and I are here.’

‘Mike and I…’ It sounded good. It sounded reassuring, even to Mike’s ears.

‘Don’t worry, Grandpa,’ she said. ‘We’ll have you in hospital in no time.’

‘S-stay.’

‘I will.’ It was a vow, and suddenly, as she made it, Mike knew the vow she was making wasn’t a light one. She’d stay.

‘I’ll see that she stays, Mr Westcott,’ he said softly. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’

Now why on earth had he said that?

‘She’s gorgeous.’

‘Yes.’ There was no doubt in his mind just who they were talking about.

It was six in the morning. Mike had snatched a few short hours’ sleep, interrupted at two a.m. by a child with croup and at five by a drip which had packed up, and at six he hit the hospital kitchen for strong black coffee. Bill had arrived a few minutes earlier and the charge nurse was wrapping himself around a plate of porridge.

‘Will she stay?’ Bill asked.

‘What do you mean, will she stay? I guess she’ll stay until Henry decides whether to live.’

‘But will he live?’ The news of Henry’s discovery had hit Bill the minute he’d entered the hospital. Predawn or not, Bill guessed it’d be all over the valley by now.

‘Maybe.’

‘But maybe not?’

‘I can’t tell how bad the stroke was,’ Mike said. ‘Not until we get him rehydrated, get the intravenous antibiotics working on his chest and get him over his shock. He’s had a hell of an ordeal and he has a massive chest infection.’

‘He looks dreadful.’

‘You’ve seen him?’

‘I poked my head around the door when I got in.’

‘Are his obs OK? They were settling when I left him at midnight and no one’s rung to say there’s a problem. There’s been no change?’

‘Tessa’s happy with them.’

‘Tessa…’ Mike stared. ‘Tessa’s asleep. I set Hannah to special him.’

‘Tessa’s sitting by his bedside,’ Bill said blandly. ‘Hannah’s down in the nursery with Billy and his croup. Billy’s a real handful—he’s been giving the night staff hell—and Tessa told her she wasn’t needed. She’d look after her grandpa herself.’

‘But I told Tessa to go to bed.’

‘She’s not the sort of girl to follow orders,’ Bill said, a faint grin playing over his face. ‘At least, not unless she agrees with them.’

‘She’s exhausted,’ Mike said grimly. ‘That’s stupid.’

‘Is she as tired as you, then?’

‘I’m not tired.’

‘Oh, no?’ Bill leaned back and folded his arms across his large chest. ‘You’ve had on average of—let me guess—about four hours’ sleep a night for the last two weeks. And you’re telling me you’re not tired.’