He didn’t think. Instead he reacted. ‘Want a hand?’
‘What?’ Astonishment lit up her face.
She looked delightful when she forgot to be resolute. ‘I’ll help.’ Where had his brain gone tonight? Hadn’t he already decided not to help her in any way, shape or form? Offering to assist in a medical situation was not a smart move. If he wasn’t careful he’d be telling her his life story. But it was too late to back out. He’d say nothing and act like the cop he’d become. Dropping to his haunches, he pulled her bag towards him and took out some latex gloves that were in a pouch near the top.
Shoving his large hands into the small gloves that barely covered his fingers, he grimaced. ‘Should be safe to pass you things.’
The doc was still staring at him. ‘I can manage.’
‘Want needle and thread?’
Her sigh fell between them. She was about to argue. He could see the gathering words storming across her face. Then Effie groaned, and thankfully the doc’s attention shifted to her patient.
He poked around in the kit for the cotton wool and antiseptic liquid, suddenly aware of the scent of lavender. Was that the doc’s perfume?
‘Thank you.’ She whipped everything out of his fingers.
Ben found suture thread and the needle container. He snapped the plastic vial holding a single needle, pushed the end of the thread through the eyelet and handed it over to the doc. Then he watched as her long, elegant hands expertly pulled the two edges of the first, deeper wound together, stitching internally, then externally down Effie’s leg.
‘Want to give her a tetanus shot?’ he asked thoughtlessly.
Those hands stilled for a brief moment. He’d gone too far. Now the questions really would start. He was way out of line, but the unexpected sense of ease that the familiar items in a simple medical bag gave him had made him careless with what he said.
The doc pulled the thread tight, tied off. ‘Yes, Effie will need immunising when I’ve finished stitching.’
Silence fell in the room, broken only by his quiet search of the kit for the tetanus vial and a syringe, which took a while as he studied familiar tools and vials. Until now he’d have said he never missed his old career. Until now.
The doc asked, ‘Effie, have you got someone to keep an eye on you overnight?’
Effie rolled her head to one side, winced with pain and whispered, ‘My husband and my daughter are away.’
‘Can she stay at your house?’ Rachel asked him directly. ‘She might be concussed.’
‘In principle that would be fine, but Effie’s a married woman, and people might get the wrong idea.’ The islanders might misinterpret his motives. ‘But she could stay with you.’
‘Effie, would you be all right with staying with me here? I’m afraid I haven’t got a spare bed yet.’
‘That would be fine, Doctor.’
The doc stood, stretching up onto her toes as she arched her back. Her hands gripped her hips, and her breasts pushed the fabric of her skimpy blue singlet top upwards. Her slim thighs were taut under the knee-length shorts she wore.
Ben’s mouth fell open. Snapped shut. Hell. He grappled for the very last threads of common sense still available in his skull. ‘Thanks for everything, Doc. Effie, I hope you feel better soon.’ And he almost ran for the front door and the familiar heavy night air where sanity prevailed.
CHAPTER TWO
RACHEL groaned and rolled over to see what the time was.
Four twenty-five. She gave another, louder groan. Those blasted roosters. Her head flopped back on the pillow and she absorbed all the foreign sounds of this tiny nation waking up. Birds she didn’t recognise were also making their morning calls. An occasional motor scooter chugged past her front lawn. A cow mooed from somewhere on the hill behind the house.
She stretched and grinned. It was kind of exciting being in such a different environment. She couldn’t be further from the chilly grey of London with the millions of people and the relentless traffic. And her parents. Her grin slipped.
Mum had been devastated when she’d heard Rachel’s plans but had also been encouraging about taking a chance on a new life. If only Dad had shown signs of opening up to Riley she mightn’t have come. But … she shrugged … dreams were free, and here she was, following one a very long way from her messed-up family.
Yesterday, as she’d watched Riley excitedly taking in the sights of odd-shaped trees with their green coconuts, the funny birds, the beach that followed them right around the island, she’d believed this had been the correct thing to do. On the day they’d arrived Riley had been tired and belligerent after the tedious hours spent in planes and airports. But yesterday he’d been full of beans, and paddling in the beautiful and safe lagoon had been a highlight for both of them.
Slipping out of bed, Rachel shrugged into a short satin robe and headed to the kitchen. A cup of tea on the tiny front deck while she watched the sun rise would be the perfect start to the day.
‘Morning, Doctor,’ Effie greeted her. ‘You want a drink? I boiled the water for you.’
Startled, Rachel spun around. ‘Effie. How’s that head? And your thigh?’ The colours from her bruises highlighting the little woman’s face were impressive. ‘I thought you’d still be asleep.’
‘I’m always up early.’ She held a cup out to Rachel. ‘What do you like?’
‘Tea, thank you, but you don’t have to run around after me.’
‘You fix my leg for me. Why don’t I make your tea?’
How logical. ‘Do you have children to get home to?’
Effie told her, ‘My daughter, Nina, gets herself to school, but last night she stayed with a friend.’ Effie’s voice brightened. ‘She’s fourteen. After school she goes to the grocery shop to work.’ She nodded through the window at the bungalow next door. ‘I’ll go to work for Ben this morning.’
Ben. Rachel turned to stare across the fence at the white bungalow with all its windows wide open. No need to lock up around here, Rachel mused. But, then, who would be game enough to take on such a big man as the local policeman, anyway?
Ben. A man of few words. Last night his abrupt departure had annoyed her. The fact he hadn’t made any mention of seeing her later rankled. She wanted to see him, get to know him a little better.
Thinking about her new neighbour made her tummy quiver as heat unfurled and unfamiliar desire rose. She’d tossed and turned half the night, wondering what it would be like to have him make love to her.
That body was something else. Jamie had also been a large man in superb physical condition so she knew exactly how those muscles would feel under her hands. Could imagine them rippling as her fingers slid over them. She blinked and turned back into the room.
‘How long have you been keeping house for Ben?’ she asked Effie.
‘Since he came more than two years ago.’ Effie giggled. ‘He’s messy. Clothes everywhere, plates and cups in the sink. Naughty man, I tell him, but he only laughs.’
So the man had flaws. Rachel grinned. Flaws were good, perfection was daunting. Then she had a brainwave. ‘Do you want more work? I need someone to do my housework too. I’m only working nine to three most days unless there’s an emergency, but I want to spend my free time with Riley, not on the end of a broom. At least until he’s settled.’
Effie’s