‘Thank you, Mrs Phipps,’ he said and turned away.
‘But don’t you want to leave your bag? You’ll stay here surely?’
He looked down at the bag he was carrying, having decided a taxi was easier than a hire car in a city he didn’t know well.
Would he stay here?
Would he be wanted?
He wished he were as certain as Mrs Phipps seemed to be.
‘Best not,’ he said, ‘but thanks.’
And with that he headed down the ramp, out onto the street and up the road to where the hospital was built to look out over a part of Sydney’s magnificent harbour.
With the money the twins’ maternal grandparents had left in trust for Christopher, he would always have twenty-four-hour care, private hospitals and the best of doctors and specialists. So this hospital was a special place, and he would be getting the best possible treatment here.
But Keanu’s heart quaked at the thought of Caro losing her brother. They might not have been physically close but there’d always been a special bond between them. Even as a child, if she woke with a nightmare in the night his mother would be sure to get a call the next morning to say Christopher wasn’t well.
Poor Caro.
Would she let him comfort her? Take whatever support he could offer her?
Or had he hurt her too badly for that?
Once at the hospital, he asked a friendly receptionist if he could leave his bag behind her counter, then enquired about Christopher’s whereabouts.
‘He’s in Room 22 on the second floor, but I think it might be family only. Dr Lockhart and his sister are in with him right now. He’s very frail.’
The woman blinked back tears, and Keanu realised just how special Christopher was to all those who’d come in contact with him.
He tapped gently on the closed door of Room 22 then eased it open. Max was asleep in a big chair by the bed, while Caroline was sitting close to the bed, Christopher’s hand clasped in hers, her head bent over it, possibly dozing as well.
He opened the door wider, and a slight squeak made her turn.
‘Keanu?’
She mouthed his name, set Christopher’s hand down on the bed and got up stiffly from the chair, easing out the door and closing it behind her.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded, but fairly weakly as her exhaustion clearly showed in the shadows under her eyes and the taut lines drawn in her skin.
‘I hadn’t said I loved you, really loved you—the now you not the past or anything else, just you,’ he replied, and realised how lame it sounded when he saw the puzzled look on her face.
‘I just wanted you to know. I know I don’t deserve your love after the way I treated you, but somehow it seemed important to tell you anyway. We talked all around it at times, but on my way to Atangi it came to me that I’d never said the words. Not properly …
‘There, I have more I need to talk to you about, much more, but that’s the crux of it,’ he added a little later, when the only reaction from the woman he loved had been a bewildered stare.
‘Now, how bad is Christopher? You look exhausted and I’ve never seen your father look so grey. Why don’t you take him home for a proper sleep and I’ll sit with Christopher? I’ll call you the moment there’s any change and don’t bother about that stuff I said, just go home and rest for a while.’
‘You’ll sit with him?’
Teardrops sparkled on her eyelashes, and it was all he could do not to kiss them away.
‘Of course I will. Don’t you remember when he had measles at the island that time and I’d had them so I was okay and I sat with him every day? We like each other.’
Caro reached up and kissed his cheek.
‘I’ll get Dad,’ she said, nothing more, but somehow Keanu felt it was enough.
For now …
Max and Caro left, Max shaking Keanu’s hand in welcome, and thanks and goodbye.
‘We won’t be long,’ he promised, ‘but don’t hesitate to call if there’s any change.’
‘I won’t,’ Keanu promised, then he watched them walk away, Caro turning at the door to give him a puzzled look.
Keanu took his place in the chair Caro had been using and took Christopher’s hand in his, holding what was little more than a bag of frail bones and skin very gently.
He massaged the skin, just rubbing it, and, remembering himself and Caro sitting with Alkiri, he began to talk, quietly but clearly.
‘It’s Keanu, mate. I’ve sent the others home to sleep. You’re causing them a bit of worry at the moment. Anyway, I’m glad I’ve got this chance to sit with you because there’s a lot I have to tell you. I love her, you see, your sister, though I’m not sure how she feels about me. For a while there, back on Wildfire, I thought she might love me back, but I’ve made a bit of a mess of things so it’s hard to tell.’
He paused, then continued, this time gently rubbing Christopher’s withered arm, spreading cream on it he’d found on the table by the bed.
‘If she does love me, mate, I want to let you know that I’ll never let her down. I did before because I didn’t want to hurt my mum, and then again, recently, when I told her I’d married someone else. But you have to believe me, that part of my life is over, it’s really over now that my divorce has finally come through. And I swear to you, Christopher, that I will never do anything to hurt her again. She’s so special, your sister, that she deserves the very best, and although I know I’m not that, I’d do my darnedest to become it just for her.’
Was it his imagination or had Christopher’s eyes fluttered open, just momentarily?
Keanu kept talking, moving to the other side of the bed to put cream on the hand and arm over there. He talked of the island, of how well the hospital was doing and how much his family had done for the people of M’Langi.
He talked about the day outside, cool but cloudless so the sun sent sparkly diamonds of light dancing across the waters of the harbour.
‘I guess you’ve seen it like this before if they always put you in this room, but it’s magic to me. I’d like to buy her a diamond, but then I think of her eyes and wonder about sapphires. I don’t suppose you have any idea of her stone preferences? Not that she’s likely to want anything from me. I kind of did something that upset her.’
And this time the eyelids definitely fluttered, and Keanu could have sworn he’d felt a tiny bit of pressure from the claw-like hand clasped in his.
‘But I guess if she doesn’t love me, there’s not much I can do.’
Definite pressure this time. Keanu looked up at the nurse who’d remained in the room to do the regular obs and update Christopher’s chart.
‘Did he move his fingers?’ the young man asked. ‘I’m sure he did, and his eyelids fluttered as well.’
‘I’d better get the family back,’ the nurse said.
‘They won’t have had much sleep.’
The nurse was obviously torn.
‘I’ll give them another ten minutes and phone the house. The housekeeper will know whether to wake them.’
‘Maybe suggest she wake Caroline. I’m sure Dr Lockhart has been more sleep deprived than she has.’
The nurse did his checks, agreed that all the