‘Do you have to go? Can’t you stay a little longer? For your son’s sake, if nothing else?’
‘You know I can only tolerate it here for so long, Cameron. Besides, I need a new dress for the dance as well as checking in with the agency. I’ll be back before you know it.’ She reached out and tweaked her son’s cheek. ‘You know I’d take you with me if I could, don’t you, darling? But there’s school. And anyway Daddy doesn’t like me to take you away.’ She slid a look in Cameron’s direction, seemingly waiting for a response. When she didn’t get one she continued, ‘I think we’d better leave Dr Galbraith to get dressed, don’t you, Cameron?’ She raised an elegant eyebrow in Meagan’s direction. ‘I’d invite you to dinner, but I’m sure you have plenty you’d rather be getting on with. My family has taken up too much of your time as it is.’
Meagan felt herself flush under the woman’s thinly veiled hostility. She couldn’t imagine wanting to spend an evening in her company.
‘No, I think I’ll have a long bath and watch a movie. Thanks all the same.’ Meagan turned to Ian and Effie.
‘Thank you both very much for your company this afternoon. I can’t remember when I last had such good crew.’
‘Does that mean we can do it again?’ Ian’s cheerful smile had disappeared. Once again he looked like the solemn child older than his years that Meagan had first met.
‘Any time. You just phone me whenever it’s a good day, and if I’m free we’ll just pack a picnic and go. If that’s all right with you?’ Meagan asked Rachel.
‘Whatever,’ Rachel replied, shrugging her shoulders and looking bored. ‘Although I have to say I’m surprised, if you are so keen on kids, that you haven’t any of your own.’
Meagan flinched. Was it possible that this woman knew? No, it couldn’t be. No one knew except Charlie. It had been a stab in the dark. Rachel couldn’t know. She picked up her rucksack and shivering, through whether it was from the cold or something else she couldn’t be sure.
‘I’ll return your sweater to the surgery, Cameron. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll say goodnight.’ She walked away and didn’t look back.
Later that evening the weather turned stormy. The rain was lashing against the windows and they rattled at the onslaught. Meagan was surprised at how quickly the weather had changed, just as Cameron had predicted. He had been right to cut their boat trip short.
Meagan shivered. The house felt cool and she eyed the fire apprehensively before rolling up her sleeves and making an attempt at getting it going. Happily, after her third failed attempt Mrs McLeod appeared, and with a certain amount of disdainful clucking got it going for her.
‘I’ll do it for you this time, but watch carefully so you can manage yourself next time. I won’t always be around to help.’
Meagan was getting the distinct impression that the housekeeper didn’t approve of her.
‘I’m sure I’ll manage next time. I’m quite good at picking things up.’
Mrs McLeod harrumphed, lifted the pail by the fire and headed towards the door.
‘Where are you going with the bucket?’ Meagan asked.
‘Out to the peat stack at the back of the house. You’ll need more to see the fire through the evening.’
‘Oh, no, you don’t. It’s wild out there.’ Meagan took the pail from the protesting woman’s fingers. ‘If anyone’s going, its me.’
Reluctantly, Mrs McLeod let Meagan take the bucket. She handed her a torch. ‘Here. You’ll need this. It’s as black as the peat you’re going for out there.’
By the time Meagan returned, Mrs. McLeod had set a pot of tea and a couple of scones on the table, and was tying a scarf around her head.
‘Get out of those wet things and warm yourself by the fire,’ she said brusquely, but Meagan could tell that she was beginning to unbend. ‘I’ll be off to the house before the weather gets any worse.’
Immediately, Meagan put her jacket back on.
‘I’ll run you up quickly.’
‘No, indeed you won’t,’ the older woman protested. ‘We island women are a lot tougher than you city girls. Although—’ she smiled at Meagan ‘—you are not quite as useless as I thought you might be.’
Before Meagan had a chance to protest further, Mrs. McLeod had left.
Once she’d had a bath and something to eat Meagan, took her book and curled up in front of the fire. The wind had risen further and the little house shook as the wind rattled the windows. She was glad that she didn’t have to be out on a night like this. Once or twice the lights flickered. She had been warned that the electricity often went down during storms. Meagan hoped there were some candles stashed somewhere, but if not she’d just have to make do with an early night. Not a bad idea, she thought as she toasted her feet in the warmth of the fire and snuggled deeper into her thick dressing-gown.
She was just about to go to bed when there was a knock at the door. As she opened it, the force of the wind almost took it out of her hand. Standing in front of her was Cameron. His hair was plastered to his forehead and he was dressed in oilskins.
‘Can I come in?’ He had to shout to make himself heard above the wind. It would serve him right if I left him there, Meagan thought. Then he’d know what it felt like to be soaked to the skin. But something in Cameron’s expression told her that this was no social call. Silently she stood back and let him enter. He strode over to the fire and warmed his hands.
‘We need your help, Meagan,’ he said. ‘One of the fishing boats didn’t return this evening. Search and Rescue are sending a helicopter. It’s too stormy for a lifeboat. I’m going with them but we need all hands on deck at the hospital if we find them. And that means all the doctors at both practices. There are four men on that boat.’ He looked anguished. ‘And I know them all.’
‘Of course. I’ll get dressed straight away. But why didn’t you phone? I could have gone straight to the hospital.’
‘Have you tried your phone in the last couple of hours?’ he asked. ‘The lines are down. The mobiles too. It doesn’t help with the communication problems. And, anyway, I didn’t want you driving to the hospital on your own. It’s high tide later tonight and the wind is already pushing the waves over the causeways. If you don’t know exactly where you are going it’s easy to lose your way. But we will need both cars, so you’ll have to follow me closely. I hope to God people have stayed off the road.’
As Meagan ran upstairs to get dressed he called after her, ‘Be as quick as you can, Meagan. I need to be ready to leave the minute the chopper gets here.’
Within minutes they were making their slow way towards the hospital. Meagan was gripping the steering-wheel so tightly she could feel her nails digging into the palms of her hands. Even with the wipers on their fastest setting she could barely see the road in front of her. Instead, she concentrated on following the red rear lights of Cameron’s Jeep. As they crossed the causeway that separated the two islands, water spewed over her four-wheel-drive. For one horrifying moment Meagan thought she was going to be swept away. Why had she ever thought life was going to be unexciting here?
At last they arrived at the hospital, only to find that they were the only medics there so far. The doctors who lived on the south of the island were still making their way. However Meagan was relieved to find that Dorothy and Sophie from the practice had managed it and were waiting with the three hospital nurses to offer what help they could.
‘Any sign of the helicopter yet?’ Cameron asked.
‘They haven’t been able to take off yet. They’re waiting for another crew member and for the wind to die down.’
Cameron