‘And make that poor lad a cup of tea, Sophie. He looks done in.’

  The mechanics of making a cup of tea in the tiny kitchenette of the clinic were helpful. The actions of filling the electric jug and pushing the button to make it work, opening a cupboard to take out mugs, opening the old toffee tin to find some teabags—was a curiously normal bubble in the aftermath of the explosion.

  Had her mother known that it would make Sophie feel a little calmer?

  ‘Do you take milk?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Sugar.’

  ‘Yes, please. Two.’

  Sophie poured boiling water into the mugs and then paused to wait for them to steep. She didn’t turn to where she knew Finn was leaning against the wall.

  ‘You can’t have done it legally.’

  His hesitation said it all. ‘Not exactly, no...’

  She turned to hand him a mug and then waited for him to lift his gaze again.

  ‘So who broke the law?’

  His gaze shuttered. ‘I’m not saying. I will say that she’s a friend of mine and...and she was persuaded by the circumstances.’

  Sophie sipped at her own drink but she was eyeing Finn over the rim of her mug. Yeah...with those looks and that Irish brogue, she had no doubt that he could turn on the charm and persuade women to do whatever he wanted them to.

  Well...she wasn’t one of those women, even if she had been drawn to give him a lingering second glance when she’d first laid eyes on him.

  ‘You want a biscuit?’

  ‘No, thanks. I’m not hungry. Could we...ah...sit down somewhere for a moment?’

  Sophie would have been quite happy to have this conversation standing up. It wasn’t as if it was going to be a cosy chat, was it? But her mother had been right in saying that this uninvited guest looked done in. Well-honed instincts suggested that he might even be unwell given that it wasn’t warm enough in here to have provoked what looked like a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. She’d had more than enough people threatening to collapse on her today already.

  ‘Fine...come with me.’

  The chairs in her consulting room were still as she’d positioned them to talk to Shirley. Side by side instead of one in front and one behind the desk. Briefly, Sophie considered dragging her chair to make the desk a kind of protective barrier but the unexpected gesture of Finn waiting for her to be seated first made it a step too far. Or maybe it was the hint of a crooked smile—as if he knew exactly how she might be feeling and he was offering an apology.

  She did, however, shuffle the chair further away from the one he took. There was definitely no need to be within hand-holding distance this time.

  ‘So...’ Sophie put her mug down on top of a medical journal she hadn’t had time to open yet. ‘What kind of circumstances were enough to persuade this friend of yours to break the law?’

  * * *

  Finn had both his hands wrapped around the mug because it was providing a source of warmth that his body was currently craving.

  He hadn’t felt this cold since...oh, no...not since he’d picked up that dose of malaria when he’d backpacked through Thailand on his way to Australia. Now the lack of appetite and his headache could be attributed to more than the stress he was dealing with. This could be yet another problem but, right now, there was a bigger issue to address. A whole heap bigger.

  ‘Ten years or so ago,’ he told Sophie, ‘my brother, Sean, met and fell in love with a nurse. Stella, her name was.’

  Never mind that he’d been the one who’d met Stella first. That he had fallen in love with her first. That he’d taken her home to Ireland that Christmas with the intention of popping the question. Sophie didn’t need to know the sordid details of his family’s betrayal and his subsequent estrangement from them.

  ‘They wanted to have a family straight away,’ he continued. ‘But it wasn’t happening. They spent years trying and having investigations and, in the end, it turned out that it wasn’t going to happen naturally at all. Stella had had major problems with endometriosis and it had apparently affected the quality of her eggs. The only way they were going to have kids was by egg donation.’

  Sophie made an impatient noise. ‘I don’t need the back story,’ she muttered. ‘However touching it is. I want to know why you’re here, with these children, on my doorstep. What you’re expecting me to do?’

  ‘I don’t expect anything.’ Finn closed his eyes.

  He was telling the truth. He didn’t expect anything, especially in the face of the defensiveness that was radiating from this Sophie Bradford. He’d known she would be shocked but he could actually feel the solid barriers she had put up around her. This wasn’t just the last thing she had expected to happen. It was the last thing she had wanted to happen. He wasn’t about to let the future of his nieces be influenced by someone who didn’t even care. It was more than disappointing, however. On some level, it felt as if he already knew this woman. He certainly would have recognised her in the street after the amount of time he had now spent with his nieces. They were gorgeous children. This Sophie Bradford was a gorgeous woman—to outward appearances, anyway...

  The coldness that had seemed bone-deep was ebbing fast. Being replaced by heat. He had the medication he knew he needed but it was in his bag in the car. He couldn’t exactly excuse himself and go to fetch it, could he? He opened his eyes and focused on the woman beside him. This wouldn’t take long. He could tell her what she needed to know and then leave her to think about it. He would go and find the girls and then find somewhere to crash for the night and, if he dosed himself up well enough and got a good night’s sleep, maybe tomorrow would bring more than a new day. Maybe it would bring some kind of solution?

  ‘Okay...’ He kept his voice matter-of-fact. ‘Three weeks ago Sean and Stella were in a car crash. The kids were home with a babysitter. Stella was killed instantly. Sean was badly injured and in a coma. He was put on life support and I was contacted as next of kin. I flew back to find that my role as the closest relative was to give permission to turn off the life support and make his organs available for donation. There was a double funeral for them yesterday.’

  Finn could feel sweat trickling down between his shoulder blades and prickling at his hairline. He rubbed his forehead and wasn’t surprised to feel the alarming heat on his skin. He was sick all right, and getting rapidly sicker. It was getting harder to focus as well.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Sophie’s voice sounded oddly distant.

  ‘I will be. It’s just a bit of a relapse, that’s all. I know how to deal with it. I’m a doctor myself.’

  She was silent. Was his brain playing tricks on him already or did the silence feel judgemental? Maybe she thought he was an alcoholic, perhaps? Or a drug addict, or on death’s doorstep from something like leukaemia?

  ‘Who’s been looking after the children?’

  ‘They were taken into foster care after the accident but I took them back to their own house with the help of a nanny while things got sorted. As their guardian, it was obviously my responsibility to make decisions about their future, along with planning the funerals and everything.’

  There was another silence. What had the question been? Oh, yeah...why was he here?

  ‘It didn’t seem right to hand Ellie and Emma over to Social Services for fostering or adoption when they had a living relative who had no idea what was going on. It’s not that I’m expecting anything... I just thought you had the right to know, that’s all.’

  Sophie’s breath came out in a huff that sounded incredulous. ‘What about you? You’re their guardian. And you’re alive...’ Her tone changed into one of concern. ‘Although you’re not looking that great at the moment. Maybe I should have a look at you...’

  Finn could feel his energy levels dropping alarmingly. He couldn’t even start to feel that disappointment morphing into any kind of resentment that he’d come up against a human brick wall who had no interest in her biological children. All he wanted to do was find a bed and curl up. To take his pills and then ride out the fever and chills until he could surface and think clearly again. But he didn’t have that choice, did he? Somehow, he had to keep going.

  ‘My life is in Australia,’ he told her. ‘I’m single and that’s not about to change. I work in the Outback with the Flying Doctor service and I have a punishing roster. I live on the base, and I can get called out at any time, and there’s no guarantee of when I’ll get back. It’s no place to raise kids.’

  ‘They’re your nieces.’

  ‘I hadn’t even met them until I had to turn off their father’s life support.’

  The silence this time held an edge of shock. Curiosity, too, perhaps, but Finn wasn’t about to tell her anything else. With a huge effort he pushed himself to his feet.

  ‘This was a mistake,’ he said. Was it his imagination or were his words a little slurred? ‘I’m sorry.’

  Why had he thought it was remotely the right thing to do? Because he’d felt guilty? He hadn’t needed Sophie to remind him that he’d broken ethical codes, if not the law, in getting the information he’d needed to track her down.

  What had he thought might happen here? That he’d find a woman who already had her own family but had been altruistic enough to donate eggs to help someone else achieve the bliss of motherhood? That she’d instantly recognise the biological bond and welcome some new additions with open arms?

  The way her mother seemed to have done?

  Finn shook his head. Where had the mother taken the girls? He needed to find them and get out of here. But shaking his head had been a mistake. It triggered a spinning sensation that rapidly escalated. He tried to catch the edge of the desk to steady himself but only succeeded in knocking over the mug of tea that he’d never finished drinking. He watched the puddle of liquid spreading to reach a stack of medical journals as Sophie leapt to her feet.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said again. ‘I’m really sorry.’

  And then he felt her arm go around his waist.

  ‘I don’t believe this,’ he heard her mutter as she looped his arm around her neck. ‘Not again...’

  He was moving now. Towards the bed in the corner of this consulting room. He was being helped up the step and being turned so that he could sit and then lie down. The spinning hadn’t stopped but the pillow felt cool and soft.

  So did Sophie’s hand against his forehead.

  A soft touch, he thought. Nice...

  ‘What’s going on, Finn?’ There was no animosity in her tone now. She had a patient and she was determined to help him. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

  ‘Malaria... Had it once before but this is the first relapse. I’ve got the drugs I need...out in my car...laptop bag...’

  ‘Keys?’

  ‘In my pocket.’

  He felt her hand against his hip and then the rattle of the keys being extracted; then, as the shivering kicked in, the weight of a woollen blanket being draped over his body.

  ‘Don’t move,’ she ordered. ‘I’ll be right back.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE PACKET OF TABLETS, a combination therapy for the treatment of malaria, was easy enough to find in the bag that Sophie carried back into her consultation room in North Cove’s medical centre.

  Finding head space where she could even start trying to process this turn of events in her life was rather more difficult.

  Impossible, even.

  Her daughters? Hardly. The mother of those two little girls was a woman called Stella who’d chosen to bring them into existence. Who’d carried them in her belly for nine months and given birth to them.

  It would be a different story if she’d had these babies herself and then given them up for adoption but her only contribution had been an egg donation. She’d given up some biological material to be used by someone who’d had need of it.

  Like giving a blood donation. It had been made and that was the end of it.

  So why did it feel as if an uncontrollable series of future events was only just beginning?

  It was too huge even to know where to start.

  And she had something more important to think about right now, in any case.

  ‘I’m not sure I’m happy to hand out drugs without making a clinical diagnosis,’ she told Finn.

  He looked as though it was taking an effort to open his eyes. Such dark eyes, Sophie noticed, that it was hard to tell if his pupils were dilated or not. And, when his gaze touched hers again, there was something different about it. Because she knew why he was here, now?

  No. Sophie suspected it would have been the same if they’d caught each other’s gaze on a street somewhere. There was something else here. A sense of connection. Recognition, even?

  ‘You’re not handing them out. They’re mine. I diagnosed myself. I’ve kept the drugs on hand ever since I contracted malaria in the first place. In case this happened.’

  ‘What about differential diagnoses?’

  Finn sighed. ‘Such as?’

  ‘A viral illness like influenza. Sepsis. Food poisoning. Hepatitis...’ Sophie racked her brains. Malaria wasn’t a common illness in these parts. ‘Plague,’ she added.

  Unexpectedly a corner of Finn’s mouth twitched. ‘It does kind of feel like plague at the moment, I have to confess.’

  So he had a sense of humour? Even more unexpectedly, Sophie felt a twinge of liking this guy, closely followed by a wave of sympathy. He hadn’t actually come here with the intention of ruining her life, had he? He was faced with a massive problem and he’d been grasping at straws.

  ‘Even if your self-diagnosis is correct, it’s my job to decide whether you’re sick enough to be admitted to hospital.’ Sophie picked up her tympanic thermometer and fitted a plastic shield onto it. She smoothed back rather damp waves of his hair to find his ear hole. It was a perfectly normal thing to be doing, so why did it suddenly seem a little too personal? Intimate, even? Maybe her words were for herself as much as him. ‘Right now, you’re a patient in my medical practice.’

  Finn submitted to having his temperature taken. ‘It was uncomplicated malaria the first time round. I don’t need to be admitted anywhere. I just need to take my medication and find somewhere to stay for a day or two. Until I’m fit to drive.’

  Oh, yeah... He’d already realised that he’d made a mistake and he’d been intending to rectify it by leaving and taking the children with him. She had to admire that decision given that he’d said he was no more in a position to take on his orphaned nieces than she was.

  But why had he only met them so recently? There was more to this story than she’d been given. Possibly because she hadn’t wanted to listen and had told him as much in no uncertain terms. She hadn’t wanted her heartstrings tugged, to get involved with this story at any meaningful level.

  The thermometer beeped and Sophie glanced at the readout. ‘Forty point one,’ she announced. ‘That’s quite an impressive fever.’

  ‘Which will probably drop quite soon and then make a reappearance later.’ But Finn was pushing away the blanket she’d covered him with. ‘Would you have a glass of water available? I’d like to take my pills.’

  ‘Just a minute... I want to have a listen to your chest. And a feel of your tummy, if you don’t mind.’

  Finn’s head dropped back against the pillow again. ‘It’s not necessary.’

  ‘You’re currently my patient,’ Sophie reminded him. ‘You don’t get to fall over in my consulting room and then tell me what is or isn’t necessary. Okay?’

  He made no response but Sophie almost got the feeling that he was happy to comply. Maybe he was feeling so awful that being forced to get checked was almost a relief?

  Malaria could have nasty complications. Fatal ones, such as cerebral oedema, organ failure and coma due to hypoglycaemia. This might be the first case of malaria that Sophie had come across but the professional part of her brain was actually revelling in retrieving information learned long ago.

  ‘Your lungs sound clear. No pulmonary oedema.’

  ‘I could have told you that. I’m not having any respiratory issues.’

  Sophie had got past that disturbing beat of feeling that this situation had a personal rather than purely professional edge. She was totally focussed now. ‘Would you mind undoing your jeans for me, please?’

  She laid her hand on a very flat abdomen, pressing gently to examine a lower quadrant. ‘When did you last have something to eat?’

  ‘I’m not sure. We stopped for lunch but I was more worried about whether Ellie and Emma were eating. Which they weren’t...’

  ‘Don’t worry. If I know my mum, she’ll be filling them up with something like fish fingers and ice-cream right about now. Hmm...that hurt, didn’t it?’

  ‘A bit...’ The admission was reluctant.

  ‘That’s right over your spleen and I’d say it’s enlarged. It can rupture, you know, in a severe case of malaria.’

  ‘Yeah...thanks for that.’

  ‘I’m going to take some blood as well. I can do a blood glucose here but I’ll have to send the rest away to check on your renal function.’

  She helped him roll up the sleeve of his woollen jumper and pulled a tourniquet tight above his elbow. He didn’t flinch when the needle pierced his skin. A high pain threshold? She’d need to take that into account the next time she was pressing on his abdomen.

  ‘Blood sugar’s low normal. Could just be a result of you not eating recently.’

  ‘You happy now? Can I have my meds?’

  Sophie handed over the packet of pills and filled a glass of water from the basin in the room. She would hardly call her state of mind any shade of happiness.

  What on earth was she going to do now?

  ‘Let’s see how steady you are on your feet,’ she said, finally. ‘I’ll take you to my parents’ house which is just past the car park. Between us, I’m sure we can sort something out about a place you can stay. Not that North Cove has much in the way of hotels, but there are a few B&Bs and a guest house or two.’