‘I’m rested,’ he told Cameron. ‘Besides, it looks as if you could do with a couple of stitches.’
Cameron reluctantly agreed to let Meagan suture his wound.
‘I could do it myself,’ he growled. ‘Just give me a mirror.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Meagan said. ‘Of course you can’t manage yourself. I’ll do it.’
‘I just hope you’re not seeing double with tiredness,’ he complained. ‘You need to get some sleep.’
But eventually, seeing that Meagan was determined, he let her close the wound. He hardly flinched when she injected some local anaesthesia. As she cleaned the gash, he grabbed her hand. ‘You did well out there,’ he said. ‘You’re a very brave woman, but I wish you hadn’t put yourself in danger.’ His eyes glinted as he held her gaze. Meagan felt her spine tingle.
‘Why? Were you worried about me?’ she teased.
‘You’re my responsibility,’ he said. ‘I promised Colin I would look after you. How would the practice cope if both of us had been lost?’
Meagan felt an irrational stab of disappointment. Was that how he saw her? His responsibility? Was that all? But, of course, she was forgetting about Rachel. No doubt he was still in love with her and hoping for a reconciliation. Meagan dismissed the slice of pain she felt at the thought. He had chosen Rachel over her once before, and would probably do so again. She of all people could never—would never—come between two people if there was even the smallest chance they could patch things up, especially when there was a child involved. She began to stitch, resisting the urge to stab him with her needle.
‘It seems to me that you are the one needing to be looked after. You’re the one who’s hurt after all. There’s not a scratch on me.’
He grinned and the tiredness left his features.
‘Ah, Meagan, why was our timing all wrong?’
She wasn’t sure what he was saying. Did he mean he wished he’d met her before Rachel? And if so how, did she feel about that? Her heart gave another flip. She knew how she felt. She knew deep in her bones that she and Cameron were meant for each other. She had known it the first time she had met him and she knew it now. She could love this man. She could love him with every fibre of her being. But it was too late. Much too late.
By the time Cameron and Meagan left the hospital, the sun was beginning to climb in the sky. The wind had almost dropped completely and it looked as if the day would turn out fine. Meagan guessed she wouldn’t be seeing most of it. A warm bath, something to eat then bed, she promised herself. Then she fell asleep.
She woke to the sensation of being lifted gently out of the car. She knew she should resist, but she felt so comfortable held against Cameron’s chest. He kicked her front door open and with her still in his arms climbed the stairs two at a time. She felt herself being lowered onto the bed. She wanted to open her eyes and say something, but they felt too heavy. For once she was unable to resist being taken care of. Besides, she didn’t have the energy to fight this man all the time.
Just before she gave in to sleep once more, she felt lips as light as a feather brush her temple. She thought she heard him murmur her name, but when she opened her eyes he had gone.
CHAPTER SIX
MEAGAN slept until lunchtime. After dressing, she checked the phone and was relieved to find the lines had been restored. The nurse at the hospital told her that all the patients from the night before were doing fine and not to worry about coming in as Dr Stuart had already done rounds a few hours earlier and was expected back shortly.
Did the man never sleep? Meagan wondered.
Conceding that there was little point in her going to the hospital, she decided to take a walk up to the big house to see Jessie. It would do her good to stretch her aching legs, she thought. It felt as if every bone in her body had been attacked with a hammer.
Jessie opened the door to her. She seemed delighted to see her. ‘Come on in,’ she said. ‘I’ll just put on the kettle and then you can tell me all about last night’s excitement. Goodness, Meagan, ever since you arrived, it’s been all go.’
Meagan collapsed into a comfy chair and related the night’s events, interrupted only by Jessie’s oohs and aahs.
‘He’s something else, our Cameron, isn’t he?’ Jessie said, giving Meagan a coy look from her lively green eyes.
Meagan realised she must have being going on a bit about Cameron. But anyone who had seen him in action the night before would have told the same tale.
‘C’mon, Jessie. You can stop looking at me like that. As I told you before, I’m not looking for a relationship.’
‘But,’ Jessie said, glancing at Meagan’s ringless left hand, ‘you’re not married. Or have you left someone back home?’
‘I was married, Jessie,’ Meagan said, surprised that she could say the words without flinching inside, ‘but he was killed in a car crash a couple of years ago.’
Jessie reached for Meagan’s hand. ‘I’m so sorry.’ She paused. ‘I lost my husband too. He died of a brain aneurysm not long after Effie was born.’ She shook her head and offered Meagan a small smile. ‘It seems we have more in common than we thought. You think you’ll never get over it then one day you wake up and life seems bearable again. It might seem right now as if that’ll never happen but it does.’
‘At least you had Effie,’ Meagan said, trying to keep the envy from her voice.
‘Yes. To a large degree, having her to look after is what saw me through those first awful weeks and months. Obviously you and your husband didn’t have any.’
Meagan bit her lip. She hardly knew Jessie, but already it felt as if they were good friends. She had never really talked to anyone before about what had happened.
‘About twelve months before Charlie died, I discovered I was pregnant. At first I wasn’t happy—I thought we were too young and that a baby would ruin my career plans—but after a day or two I got used to the idea. Then, as it became more real to me, I decided to hell with a career, a baby was more important.’
‘What happened?’
‘I had an ectopic pregnancy. The embryo lodged in one of my Fallopian tubes. They had to operate and remove my tube. While they were operating, they discovered that the other tube was damaged. It’s impossible for me to get pregnant naturally. Odd, huh? Losing the baby made me realise how much I wanted children. Now all that’s gone for good.’ Her voice cracked slightly. Losing the baby and the chance to have children still hurt.
‘Poor you.’ Jessie looked into the distance. ‘I don’t know if I could have borne Hamish’s death if I hadn’t had Effie,’ she said softly, before reaching out and taking Meagan’s hand. ‘Could you try IVF? A friend of mine got pregnant that way.’
‘I don’t think it would be for me. Anyway, I have no intention of marrying again, so the question of having children is moot. Do you mind if we talk about something else?’
Jessie looked at her sympathetically, before changing the subject.
‘About last night,’ she said. ‘Weren’t you scared at all?’
The question took Meagan by surprise. Probably because she hadn’t thought about it. She supposed she should have been but somehow, working alongside Cameron, she hadn’t been scared at all. At least, not for herself. There had been moments when she had been worried about the patients and more than one moment when she had been terrified on Cameron’s behalf, as any colleague would have been, but no she hadn’t been truly scared.
‘That’s just it, Jessie—I loved every moment!’ she said. ‘Instead of being frightened, I