‘Completely.’
‘Good. You may have to go out in the ’copter sometimes, though, on a retrieval. You do know that?’
Although Tiggy had heard it might be a possibility that she’d be asked to accompany the medical emergency response team, she hoped to hell it wouldn’t happen. If last night’s flight had been scary, how much worse would it be going into an actual hot zone? She lifted her chin. ‘If I’m needed, of course I’ll go. I’m here to do my bit, the same as everyone else.’
‘Good girl.’ He straightened and once again Tiggy was aware of his eyes sweeping over her body.
‘Hey, do you play poker?’ one of the male nurses asked. ‘I need someone new to take some money from. With the exception of Nick here, no one else will play with me any more.’
As everyone laughed, Nick turned towards them. ‘Time for ward rounds. Let’s go.’
They all started to troop away, leaving Tiggy feeling like a spare part. Nick fell back and touched her elbow.
‘What’s up, Red?’
If there was one thing Tiggy didn’t like it was being teased about her hair. She had put up with twenty-six years of it from her brothers and she was damned if she would put up with it from him.
‘The name’s Tiggy,’ she said through clenched teeth.
As Nick’s grin widened, dimples appeared on either side of his mouth and her overactive heart skipped another beat. Why did he have to be so damned sexy?
‘You’ll find out everyone here has a nickname,’ he drawled, and ruffled the hair on top of her head. ‘Come on, follow me.’
Had he actually done that? Ruffled her hair? Like she was his kid sister?
She raised her hand to her curls in a vain attempt to restore some order. She had cut her hair into its current pixie style hoping it would make it more manageable, but the heat of the desert had its own ideas and she knew her fringe was curling.
She nibbled her lip. Why the hell was she fretting about how she looked? Just because she’d be working with a hunk it was no reason to be fretting about a curling fringe. And hunk or not, he clearly thought he was God’s gift to women and, by the looks of it, probably tried it on with every new arrival. On the other hand, what did she have to worry about? Someone like him was bound to go after tall blondes with sylph-like figures—not curvy redheads with freckles.
She stared after his retreating back. Why, then, did the realisation give her no pleasure?
* * *
There were four patients between the two wards. In the first were three soldiers who, Sue explained, were in for observation and rehydration after a nasty bout of gastroenteritis. ‘We don’t keep the injured men here for long. We patch them up, operate if we have to, then we pack them off to the Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham as soon as they’re stable. You’ll find that nursing here is a mixture of frenzied activity followed by hours of boredom.’
Sue introduced her to the patients while Nick read their notes. After he’d ordered more tests he spent a few minutes chatting with them, teasing them a little for shirking. Then they moved to the next ward.
Its only occupant was a little Afghan girl with masses of dark curls and round brown eyes who was sitting up in bed looking lost and scared. Her body, from her forehead to the top of her pyjama bottoms, was covered in red angry welts and her right arm was heavily bandaged.
‘This is Hadiya,’ Sue said with a smile at the little girl. ‘She knocked over the family’s paraffin heater a few days ago and sustained severe burns to her face, neck, chest and arm. We managed to save the arm, but she’s going to require extensive reconstructive surgery if she’s to regain full use of it.’
Nick said something in Pashto and the little girl giggled. All at once some of the fear left her eyes and she looked up at Nick with adoration.
‘The surgeons had to remove a great deal of tissue from her hand and arm,’ Sue continued, ‘but she needs grafts.’
‘The problem is,’ Nick said slowly, ‘we can’t do it for her. Now she’s stabilised she has to go to a local hospital and it’s highly unlikely she’ll get the surgery she needs there.’
‘Why can’t we do it here?’ Tiggy asked.
‘Because this is a military hospital and the reality is, if we make an exception for one civilian, how do we say no to others? Our resources would soon be overwhelmed. As difficult as it is, we have to transfer non-combative cases once they have stabilised.’
‘But that’s not right!’
Nick raised an eyebrow. ‘What would you have us do?’
‘I don’t know! Something.’
He eyed her thoughtfully. ‘I haven’t given up on her if that’s what you’re thinking. In the meantime, however, we have other patients to see.’
CHAPTER TWO
HOW ANYONE COULD expect her to run around the perimeter of the camp in this heat while carrying a rucksack that weighed more than her own body weight, Tiggy couldn’t imagine. It wasn’t as if she was ever going to go out on patrol. That was left to the regular army doctors and the medics.
Although it was only just after six, the sun was already beating down and making her skin sizzle. She gasped for breath. If they didn’t let her stop soon she was going to have a heart attack.
‘Okay. Drop to the ground and give me twenty press-ups,’ the sadistic sergeant shouted. Twenty! She doubted she could manage more than five. If that.
She didn’t so much drop to her knees as collapse in a heap.
She had just finished her fourth press-up and was lying face down with her forehead resting on her hands when someone grabbed the back of her trousers and lifted her six inches off the ground.
‘I believe you have a few more to go,’ a familiar voice said. She didn’t have to turn her head to know it was Nick, and that he was laughing.
She tried to wriggle out of his grasp but it was no use. The grip he had on the waistband of her trousers was such that she couldn’t even turn far enough to see his face. ‘Let me go,’ she hissed.
‘The sergeant isn’t going to let up until you finish.’
As she was bobbed up and down she turned her head to the side. Sure enough, everyone else had finished and were all, including the traitorous Sue, sitting back on their haunches, taking long swigs from their water bottles and watching the scene with evident glee.
‘Sixteen, seventeen,’ Nick called out, and to Tiggy’s added chagrin he was joined by several voices.
‘Eighteen!’
Was this nightmare ever going to end? She took her mind off what was happening by imagining what she would do to Nick when she got the chance. Diuretics in his coffee? No, this needed something worse.
‘Nineteen! Twenty!’ He let her go so unexpectedly she sprawled face down in the dust. She staggered to her feet and furiously patted the dust from her front.
Nick held out his water bottle. ‘You might need a drink.’
‘If you ever—and I mean ever—do that to me again,’ she snarled, ‘I’ll...’
He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. ‘Do what?’
She drew herself up to her full height and pushed away the water bottle. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. ‘Try it again, and you’ll see.’ God! Was that the best she could manage?
Then,