Sarah Morgan Summer Collection

‘I need to unpack and take a shower.’ His tone was harsher than he’d intended and he saw the faint frown of confusion in her eyes. For a brief moment he wanted to take her arm and apologise, and the impulse surprised him as much as it would have surprised all of the people who knew him because he wasn’t exactly known for gentleness.

You don’t have a heart, Ethan.

And then he backed off, remembering that he wasn’t in a position to explain anything.

He needed time.

There were things he needed to find out.

Kyla closed the front door behind her and jumped over the tiny hedge that separated the two cottages.

As she let herself into the cottage that she’d converted with the help of her brother and her friends, she considered the powerful chemistry between Ethan and herself. It was there. Pointless to deny it. And yet she sensed that the connection angered him.

He didn’t want to feel it.

Kyla frowned as she flicked on the kettle. And what about her? What did she want?

She’d become so used to leading her own life she hadn’t given any thought to the possibility that things might change.

He wasn’t going to stay, she told herself firmly as she made herself a mug of tea and took it out onto the deck that overlooked the beach. Whatever they shared would be short-term because she would never leave the island.

‘Nurse MacNeil! Kyla!’

She glanced up as she heard her name being called from the beach. Deciding that perhaps the prospect of leaving the island had possibilities after all, she gave a sigh and walked down to the end of her garden, still nursing the mug. At least in inner-city London she might get to drink her tea in peace. ‘Fraser Price. What are you doing on the beach in the middle of a school day?’

Probably bunking off, the way she had as a child.

‘Don’t tell Miss Carne,’ the boy begged, breathless as he struggled in bare feet through the soft sand. ‘She thinks I’m ill.’

‘And you’re not?’ Reminding herself that she was a grown-up now and supposed to set standards, Kyla looked suitably stern. ‘You should be at school. Education is important. Pretending to be ill isn’t a good idea, Fraser.’ She almost laughed as she listened to herself. How many times had she sneaked off to play on the beach?

‘It was the only thing I could think of. And I needed to stay at home.’

‘Why did you need to stay at home?’

‘To look after Mum.’ Suddenly he looked doubtful and unsure. ‘She wasn’t making sense this morning and I didn’t want to leave her. I had a bad feeling.’

‘What sort of bad feeling?’ Kyla was alert now. ‘Is it her diabetes? What do you mean, she wasn’t making sense? Is something the matter with your mum?’

‘I dunno. She just seemed … different.’ He gave a shake of his head and then shrugged. ‘She’d kill me if she knew I was here. I bunked off last week to take the boat out and she really did her nut. Don’t say I was here. Couldn’t you just call in on her? You know, like by accident?’

‘Fraser, I don’t call on anyone by accident.’ Amusement gave way to concern as Kyla saw the look on his face. ‘OK. OK.’ She lifted a hand. ‘Today I’ll find a reason to call on your mum by accident.’

‘Really?’ He breathed an audible sigh of relief. ‘That’s great. Can the accident be right now?’

Banishing hopes of lunch, Kyla nodded. ‘Just let me lock up here and get my car. I’ll meet you back at your house. You can let me in. And, Fraser, about your mum.’ She caught his arm. ‘Can you describe how she looked? How was she different?’

‘She was a funny colour. And her hands were shaking when she gave me breakfast. You won’t tell on me?’ He looked at her anxiously. ‘I said I felt sick and needed a walk in the fresh air.’

Kyla thought of all the sins she’d committed at school. Didn’t everyone need a little latitude? ‘I won’t tell. Off you go. I’ll be there in five minutes.’

‘What will you say?’

‘I don’t know, but I’ll think of something,’ Kyla said firmly, giving him a gentle push and turning back to her cottage. She noticed Ethan standing in his garden and had a sudden inspiration. ‘Dr Walker!’

He turned and she gave an apologetic shrug. ‘How badly did you want a shave and a shower? If you’re not that tired, I need to enlist your help again. I think I might need a doctor.’

CHAPTER FOUR

‘AISLA PRICE is a single mother.’ Kyla snapped on her seat belt and pressed her foot to the accelerator. ‘She moved to the island when Fraser was a baby because she thought it would be a good place to bring up a child. She has a small knitting business that she runs over the internet. Pretty successfully, I believe. She makes really pretty jumpers covered in bits of lace and beads and things like that. They live in a house right by the water.’

Ethan looked at her. ‘And she has diabetes?’

‘Yes. But her diabetes is very well controlled so it shouldn’t be that.’ Kyla frowned as she changed gear and flicked the indicator. ‘But Fraser obviously thinks there’s a problem so we’d better check it out. It might be nothing.’

‘She hasn’t asked you to call? You’re making an impromptu visit?’ Ethan tried to imagine something similar happening in London and failed. But in London a child wouldn’t run across a beach to bang on the community nurse’s door.

‘That’s right. An impromptu visit.’ She stopped the car outside a row of whitewashed cottages and yanked on the handbrake. ‘We’re here.’

Ethan looked at her in disbelief. ‘What on earth are you planning to say? You’re going to bang on her door and say that her little boy thought she looked pale at breakfast?’

‘No. That’s why I’m taking you along.’ She smiled and reached for her bag. ‘You’re the new doctor and I’m introducing you. She’ll be your patient after all. You may as well meet each other.’

Wondering why he was on a wild-goose chase when he could be in the shower, Ethan slammed the car door and followed her towards the house.

The front door opened and it took less than a second for him to register the raw panic in Fraser’s eyes.

‘You have to come quickly! She’s on the floor,’ he said urgently, reaching out a hand and virtually dragging Kyla inside. ‘And I can’t get her to wake up properly. She’s sort of moaning and trying to hit me.’

Ethan sprinted past him into the house, leaving Kyla to deal with the panicked child.

The woman was slumped on the floor of the kitchen, the remains of a cup of coffee spread over the quarry tiles. With a soft curse he dropped into a crouch and checked her pulse.

‘Has she died?’ The small voice came from behind him and Ethan turned.

‘She’s not dead. Fraser …’He kept his voice calm and steady so as not to frighten the child further. ‘I need my bag from Kyla’s car. Do you think you could fetch it for me? It’s on the back seat.’

The little boy nodded and sprinted out of the room while Kyla dropped to her knees beside him. ‘Aisla?’

The woman gave a groan and her eyes fluttered open and then closed again as she muttered something incoherent.

‘Sugar,’ Ethan instructed, glancing around him. ‘Would you know where to find it?’

‘Not a clue.’ Kyla sprang to her feet and started opening cupboards. ‘Come on, Aisla, where do you keep your sugar?’ She rummaged through packets and bottles. ‘Soy sauce, pasta, turmeric, honey. Harissa paste—what on earth is Harissa paste? Gosh, do people really use all this stuff? No wonder cooking confuses me.’

‘Hurry up, Kyla,’ Ethan growled, and she yanked open a few more cupboards.

‘Lucozade. That will do.’ She lifted it down just as Fraser ran back into the room with Ethan’s bag. ‘Can we get her to drink, do you think, or is she past that?’