‘Help?’ Abbey shook her head, dazed.
‘There’s a locum arriving tomorrow. Steve Pryor. I’ve rung a few contacts in Brisbane and they tell me he’s good. We’re lucky he’s free at short notice.’
Disregarding her aching bones, Abbey sat up in bed with a jolt. ‘Ryan Henry, you can’t do this. I can’t afford-’
‘No, but I can.’
‘But I can’t!’
‘Abbey, it’s my job I’m sharing for a bit here,’ Ryan reminded her, ‘not yours.’
‘You agreed to work the week.’
‘Yes,’ Ryan agreed, his voice gentling. ‘And I’m not going back on that promise. ‘I promised to look after your practice for a week. But Dad’s surgery is scheduled for the day after tomorrow and I want to be in Cairns during his operation. And maybe for twenty-four hours afterwards.’
‘Oh, Ryan…’ Abbey’s face creased in distress. ‘Of course. I didn’t think of that. But I can look after things. By the day after tomorrow-’
‘I’ve organised tomorrow, too,’ Ryan said blandly. ‘About my honeymoon… ’
‘Ryan-’
‘Just shut up and listen,’ he told her in a voice that brooked no argument. ‘Abbey, there is no need for you to get your knickers in a knot about my arrangements. Tomorrow I’m taking you out of here and driving you to your honeymoon destination.’
‘Honeymoon…’ Abbey stared. She was starting to feel as if her world was tilting sideways on its axis. And any minute now she’d fall right off.
‘Well, Felicity and I weren’t intending to stay with Dad for our honeymoon,’ Ryan told her. ‘Felicity organised us a place on the beach ten minutes’ drive from here. That’s where you’re going. Tomorrow.’
‘But, Ryan, even if I could, I don’t want to,’ Abbey wailed. ‘I want my little Jack. I want Janet.’
‘Now, how did I know you’d say that?’ Ryan grinned. ‘That’s all organised. I agree with you that Janet could use a rest as well as you and I’d like her fit to face surgery. So I rang the owners of the place we booked and they’ve swapped the booking from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom unit. So… I’ve given the same ultimatum to Janet as I give to you. Pack and be ready for your honeymoon by tomorrow morning or I’ll pick you up and take you in what you’re wearing at the time.’ His grin deepened. ‘And I mean that, Abbey Wittner.’
Then his grin faded at the look of dazed incredulity on Abbey’s face. ‘What’s wrong?’ To Ryan’s astonishment, Abbey’s eyes were filling with tears. ‘Abbey, for heaven’s sake…’
‘A holiday… You really mean a holiday?’ Abbey choked. ‘Ryan, I haven’t had a holiday for years. You can’t really mean… I don’t deserve this.’
‘I think you do, Abbey,’ Ryan said quietly. He stooped and kissed her on the cheek. His hand came down and cupped the curve of her grazed and bandaged cheek, wiping away an errant tear. ‘If anyone deserves a honeymoon you do-and it’s all my pleasure to be able to give you one.’
And what Felicity would say when she realised he’d given away the magic honeymoon destination she’d spent days researching, he hated to think.
Felicity, however, seemed a very long way away.
Felicity was for tomorrow.
CHAPTER SIX
RYAN appeared at about nine the next morning with a youngish, scholarly man in tow. It didn’t take a genius to work out this was Ryan’s new locum. There was a stethoscope around the young man’s neck and an owlish look of anxiety on his face.
Abbey wasn’t in her ward. Ryan tracked her down in the children’s ward.
‘Why aren’t you in bed?’ Ryan glowered from the doorway and then relented enough to smile at the little girl in the bed. ‘Hi, Leith. Still feeling better?’
Leith Kinley managed a wan smile. She was a regular here. A chronic asthmatic, she’d been admitted into hospital more times than Abbey could remember, and each time her attacks seemed to worsen.
At the other end of the hospital, Abbey had slept though Leith’s admission last night, but the nurses had told her this morning that Ryan had had a hard time getting her stabilised.
Ryan had been up all night. Abbey wouldn’t have thought it to look at him now. He seemed bright and alert and raring to go.
‘Hey, Leith, I’ve brought another doctor for you to meet.’
Ryan gave Abbey a smile but he spoke directly to the little girl in the bed. Leith Kinley was terrified of her asthma attacks and, as Abbey watched the way Ryan treated her, she knew Ryan was aware of the child’s terror. ‘Leith, this is Dr Steve Pryor. Dr Pryor, this is Miss Leith Kinley and the lady beside her is an escapee from another ward, Dr Abbey Wittner.’
To Abbey’s astonishment and pleasure, Steve Pryor leaned over and solemnly shook Leith’s hand first
Amazing! A locum who treated patients-even child patients-as humans. And greeted them on a needs basis.
Where on earth had Ryan found someone like Steve? ‘Are you ready to go, Abbey?’ Ryan’s dangerous smile twinkled out ‘Or do I have to carry out my threat?’
‘Despite your threats, I’m going nowhere in a hospital gown,’ Abbey said with dignity, and Ryan nodded.
‘Of course not. There’s a dress on your bed. I chose it myself.’
‘You chose a dress…’
‘I mean, from your wardrobe,’ he said sanguinely. ‘Janet was busy supervising milking when I dropped in. You could go and put it on,’ he added politely.
Then Ryan turned back to Leith. Ignoring everyone else, he stooped and took Leith’s two little hands between his bigger ones while Abbey watched, still hornswoggled.
‘Leith, I know last night’s asthma attack scared you. It scared all of us. This morning I’ve been doing some hard thinking about how we can improve matters, and I’ve been talking to your mum and dad.’
This morning. Abbey glanced disbelievingly at her watch. Ryan had been up all night with an asthmatic child. He’d been out to the farm to find her a dress. Then he’d talked to an ill child’s parents and finally found time to meet a new doctor. All this by nine o’clock. Also she’d heard Ryan doing a ward round at about seven.
‘Your mum and dad agree that we need to do something more than just give you medicine,’ Ryan was saying. ‘Leith, we need to improve your lung capacity. Make your lungs bigger, if you like, so you can get more air.’
Leith frowned. ‘How do I do that?’ she whispered. ‘Swimming,’ Ryan said promptly. ‘And, if you agree, your first swimming lesson is this morning. I’m taking Dr Wittner to the beach and, if you like, you can come too. You can have a gentle swim with me showing you what to do to build your lungs, and then I’ll bring you back here.’
‘I can’t go home?’
‘I’ll bring you back to the hospital for lunch and a really good sleep. Then, if your breathing is OK, your mum and dad will take you home tonight. And we’ve agreed that your mum and dad will take you swimming every day for a month. After a month we’ll think about whether it’s doing you good or not.’
Abbey stared. She’d suggested this. First rule for asthmatics was to attempt to increase lung capacity. But Leith had been reluctant to try swimming lessons and Leith’s parents had always been adamant that they hadn’t time.
Something had changed.
Ryan had said Leith’s parents had agreed.
He’d bulldozed them, Abbey decided. He’d bulldozed them in the same way he bulldozed everyone else. He got his own way just by going in with force.
Well, it had worked. And something else had changed. Leith’s reluctance. Leith was looking up at Ryan with a tremulous smile. ‘I can go swimming with you now?’
‘With me and with Dr Wittner. And maybe with Dr Winner’s baby, Jack, and Jack’s grandma. Is that OK?’ Ryan turned to Abbey and pointed to his watch. ‘What are you hanging around here for, Dr Wittner? Be ready in five minutes or face the consequences.’