‘Dr Wittner hasn’t had a holiday for as long as I can remember,’ Eileen said solidly. ‘And you knocked her off her bike.’
‘Eileen, leave him alone,’ Abbey said wearily. ‘We don’t need him.’
‘Oh, yes, we do.’ Eileen fixed Ryan with her very hardest glare. ‘You damaged our doctor, Dr Ryan. Provide us with a replacement model!’
‘Eileen!’ Abbey was half laughing, half horrified.
But Ryan looked down at Abbey and his protests died. He didn’t see her laughter. He saw weariness and pain and need. In fact, he saw absolute exhaustion. Until now he’d thought of himself as tired. This girl was bone-weary.
And she was way too thin. Abbey’s eyes were ringed with shadow. Her hands were aged beyond their years with hard physical work.
He saw what Eileen’s defiant glare was telling him. And there was no way he could get out of this one.
What on earth would he tell Felicity?
Well, Felicity had already sabotaged the first part of their honeymoon. And now circumstances and these two women were hijacking the rest.
A man knew when he was beaten.
‘Very well,’ he said wearily. ‘I know when I’m licked. Lie back, then, and let me put this damned leg into position, Dr Wittner. From now on it seems you’re on my honeymoon! ’
Abbey stared up at him. ‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘I mean I damaged your leg and I’m on holiday,’ Ryan said bluntly. ‘Or I was on holiday. It seems that now we just swap roles.’
If Ryan had thought Abbey would accept his offer with open arms he was very soon put right Abbey protested the whole time he and Eileen carefully cleaned, positioned and dressed her leg. In the end, Ryan took drastic measures.
‘One more word out of you and we administer a general anaesthetic,’ he told her. ‘Shut up and keep still.’
Abbey gasped. ‘You can’t administer a general anaesthetic against my will.’
Ryan sighed and looked across at Eileen. ‘Sister Roderick, would you say this patient is behaving unreasonably?’
‘I surely would.’ Her problems solved, Eileen was now enjoying herself immensely.
‘Maybe caused by the bump on her head?’
Eileen nodded. ‘Could be.’
‘So we-as caring, professional providers of emergency treatment-would be justified in doing whatever we need to administer appropriate treatment.’
Eileen’s grin widened. ‘Sounds good to me. Short of a sledgehammer, Dr Henry, I’m with you all the way.’
‘So shut up, Abbey,’ Ryan said kindly. ‘You’re beaten.’ He took the leg carefully between his hands and checked Abbey’s face. Abbey had been given a sedative and as much morphine as Ryan thought she could tolerate. He watched her face carefully for signs of pain. None.
With one fast, decisive click, he rotated the lower leg to the right.
Abbey gasped. Her eyes widened in shock-and then she stared down and her pale face creased into a smile. Underneath the swelling the patella looked normal again. One kneecap back in position.
‘Well done,’ she whispered-and then she went right back to arguing.
‘Now let’s think this through. If you think I’m lying back and doing nothing-’
‘Sister, how far up do you think we should wind this bandage?’ Ryan asked. ‘How about somewhere near her armpits?’
‘Mouth sounds better.’ Eileen chuckled.
‘Know when you’re beaten, Abbey,’ Ryan told her, and kept right on winding.
And there was absolutely nothing Abbey could do. So Abbey Wittner finally shut up.
She hardly said a word until Ryan had her in his car, driving northwards towards her home. The jellyfish victim was recovering nicely. Eileen had Ryan’s mobile phone number to contact him in an emergency and the transfer of authority was complete. But Abbey didn’t like it one bit.
‘You don’t need to do this,’ Abbey told him in a voice that was subdued. In fact, she was tired almost beyond belief. The pain and the shock of the accident was taking its toll, and Ryan’s offer to take her home to bed was sounding so good that she wanted to give in to it.
Only she couldn’t.
‘I do,’ Ryan told her. Abbey was stretched out on the back seat of his car again and he was talking to her over his shoulder as he drove. ‘Believe me, Abbey, I’ve looked at it from every angle and I don’t see that I can get out of it. You said yourself that the accident was my fault. I was driving too fast.’
‘Yeah, but I didn’t look-’
‘And you now have a massively bruised leg and I have a guilty conscience. So let’s fix both, shall we?’
‘By letting you be a martyr?’ Abbey’s voice was sharper than she’d intended and Ryan winced.
That was just how he was feeling-a martyr. Another twinge of guilt hit home.
Should he call what he was doing here martyrdom? This was his home town after all. And he had just squashed the local doctor. Well, Sapphire Cove had been good to him as a child. He owed it something so maybe he could give it, without calling himself a martyr.
‘It’s not martyrdom, Abbey,’ Ryan said, in a voice that was gentler than any he’d used before. ‘Let me do it. Please.’
‘Be doctor here for a week?’
‘Or longer, if you need me.’
‘But… you are here on your honeymoon,’ Abbey said cautiously. ‘Everyone knows that. That’s why your dad said you were coming.’
‘You still know my father?’
‘Of course I still know your father.’ Abbey cast him a strange look. ‘He’s a good friend of my mother-in-law. He spends a lot of time with us, and as far as knowing how he is-well, I’d imagine I know him better than you do.’
Ryan’s face set. ‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning he’s my friend and he’s also my patient.’
Ryan frowned, thinking this through. And accepting, reluctantly, that she was right. She’d have to know his father better than he did. But Abbey as his father’s doctor? That took some getting used to.
‘Is there anything wrong with him?’ he asked.
‘Don’t you know how his health is?’ Abbey demanded. ‘He tells me you write to each other’
‘Of course we write.’
‘Hmm.’ Abbey compressed her lips and Ryan could see judgement, standing out a mile. And condemnation. ‘So,’ she asked, changing the subject, ‘where’s your bride, then, Dr Henry?’
‘In Hawaii.’
‘Oh.’ Abbey thought this through and then nodded wisely. A doctor-of-the-world nod. ‘I see. Separate honeymoons. That’s very… very modern.’
‘Abbey!’
Abbey hadn’t changed one bit, Ryan thought bitterly. Abbey had always said exactly what she’d thought. She’d always told him. And he’d loved her for it.
‘Did you get together for the wedding?’ Abbey continued, in a voice that was dispassionately interested. Nothing more. ‘Or can you do a wedding via teleconferencing these days? Or maybe via the Internet?’
Despite his darkening humour, Ryan couldn’t suppress a smile. A teleconferenced wedding! That would be just Felicity’s style. Now why hadn’t she thought of that?
Abbey’s bright eyes were watching him, gently mocking. His smile faded. He went into defence mode. With Abbey, defence had always been a good idea.
‘We haven’t married yet. We’ve organised to be married in Sapphire Cove when Felicity gets here.’
‘Oh.’ To Ryan’s surprise, Abbey’s face softened. ‘Oh, Ryan, your father will like that.’
‘I wouldn’t imagine he’d care very much.’
‘Oh, he’ll care,’ Abbey said grimly, almost to herself. ‘You can’t imagine how much.’ Then she leaned forward and pointed to a turn-off. ‘Here, Ryan. Turn here. This is where I live.’
Ryan stared.
Where Abbey was pointing was to a farmhouse, but it wasn’t what you’d call the home of the landed gentry. The farmhouse was a simple cottage, set back among encroaching tropical wilderness. It looked as if it had been built a hundred years ago and nothing much had been done to it since.