LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ONE

      SHE MIGHT BE Kate’s favourite relative and most stalwart support, but Aunt Alice was adept at catching Kate in unguarded moments and tonight was no exception.

      ‘You’ve only worked a half-shift today, and you’re off duty tomorrow, so it couldn’t be better, and you’ve got the excuse of that team meeting you had this afternoon,’ Alice pointed out.

      The team meeting that afternoon was the reason Kate was unguarded, though flummoxed would have been a better word. Arriving late from Theatre, still pulling off her theatre cap and running her fingers through her chaotic, needing-a-cut hair, she’d rushed into the SDR meeting room, and the first person Kate had seen had been Angus.

      Not surprising, the seeing part. Men who stood just over six feet tall and had the shoulders that went with the height weren’t easy to miss.

      But Angus?

      Here!

      Shock halted her momentarily, then, as her bones had turned to jelly, she’d subsided into the nearest seat, rather wishing her weight would take it straight down through the floor.

      Or there’d be an earthquake, tornado, hospital on fire—any distraction...

      The worst of it was that whatever had flared between them three years ago on the island was just as electrifyingly alive as it had been back then. She could feel that inexplicable awareness that had rocked both of them arcing across the room between them. Looked up to check she couldn’t actually see it in the form of flashing lightning because she’d heard it in the thunder in her veins.

      Angus!

      ‘You can tell Harriet what was discussed,’ Alice was persisting, bringing Kate out of the horrendous memories of the afternoon meeting of the Specialist Disaster Response team. ‘She’s really down about missing it, well, not the meeting so much but as being part of the team. She could have gone to the meeting, but I think that Pete was supposed to collect her and, as far as I can make out, he’s been conspicuous by his absence lately.’

      Not much got past Alice, who, although unconnected to the hospital, was a long-term resident of the apartment block where so many of the staff lived.

      In her head Kate acknowledged her great-aunt was right, and not only about Harriet’s boyfriend disappearing. Before she’d injured her leg in an accident on a training day for the SDR, Harriet had been an integral and enthusiastic part of the team but after battling operations and infections she must be wondering if she’d ever be able to join it again, while she and Pete had been one of the glamour couples of Bondi Bayside Hospital’s social scene.

      Not that Kate was part of that scene, but in any hospital there were few secrets.

      ‘Go on,’ Alice was saying. ‘You’ve lived here two years, you work at the same hospital, belong to that team together, and you barely know Harriet. You can’t shut yourself away for ever—it’s just not natural. She probably thinks you’re a terrible snob because you’re a surgeon and she’s only a nurse.’

      ‘Hardly “only” a nurse, Alice,’ Kate said. ‘She’s one of the top nurses in the ICU and that’s probably one of the most important jobs in the whole hospital.’

      Kate was glad of the conversation—anything to keep her mind off the SDR meeting.

      Off Angus!

      He can’t be here!

      He is!

      She dragged her mind back to the subject of Alice’s conversation, to Harriet Collins.

      ‘Intensive Care is high-level nursing. It’s just that with work and study and keeping up the level of fitness I need to stay on the team I don’t really have time—’

      ‘Tosh!’ said Alice. ‘You’re hiding away from something—from life itself, in fact. I know you needed to grieve for the baby, that’s why I asked you to come and live here with me. New hospital, new job, new people—but you should have moved on by now. This self-imposed isolation of yours has gone on long enough. So get over to Harriet’s apartment and tell her about the meeting. Find a way to convince her she’ll get back on the team before long.’

      Knowing it was futile to argue, Kate had a quick shower, washed her hair, pulled on jeans and a light sweatshirt and made her way along the corridor to Harriet’s apartment, her feet beating out an accompaniment to the phrase running over and over in her head.

      I will not think about Angus, it went. I will not think about Angus. I will not think about Angus...

      Harriet’s apartment was at the front of the block so as Harriet opened the door—more than slightly startled—Kate could see straight through the living room to the ocean beyond, painted pale pink and violet as it reflected the colours of the sky at sunset.

      ‘Kate!’

      The exclamation told Kate she’d guessed right, although she now substituted ‘extremely’ for the ‘slightly’ in the startled stakes.

      ‘I hope I’m not interrupting you but I thought you might like to know what went on at the meeting.’

      Harriet stared at her and seeing the blankness in her hazel eyes, and the pale drawn skin beneath the lovely auburn hair, Kate had to set aside her own preoccupation and accept that Alice—as ever—had been right. All was not well with the usually vibrant Harriet.

      ‘So, can I come in?’

      Wordlessly, Harriet stepped back and waved her hand towards the living room.

      ‘What a fantastic view! You take in the whole bay. It’s unbelievable. You must see the beach and ocean in so many moods. Are you a photographer? You could take a thousand pictures from your balcony with not one of them the same.’

      Kate knew she was blethering, but Harriet’s silence was unnerving and she’d already been totally unnerved once today.

      ‘Did Alice send you to cheer me up?’

      Not exactly the conversation opener Kate had expected but it would do.

      ‘Yes, she did. She’s worried about you. We’re all worried about you.’

      Deep breath!

      ‘Actually, to be honest, she’s worried about me too. She thinks I work too hard, but the SDR meeting was interesting. Blake had brought along an army bloke who has been working on a new emergency response tent. You know, one of those ones that fold up and can be dropped into disaster zones and comes complete with all our medical needs. Apparently, he has a new prototype he wants to trial next time we have a callout to somewhere fairly isolated.’

      ‘Not close to a local hospital or, say, in a bushfire where the hospital’s been damaged or destroyed,’ Harriet said, picking up on the idea immediately. ‘I’ve seen army ones on exercises we’ve taken with other teams. They really are a complete package, right down to food, water and accommodation for the first responders—enough for them to be self-sufficient for a fortnight.’

      Taking the words as a small spark of interest, Kate said, ‘Shall I tell you about it? Will we sit down?’

      Harriet was frowning slightly, but as Kate perched on the sofa, her hostess dropped into an armchair. The frown was understandable. Here was this neighbour, who’d been in the apartment block for two years yet had never ventured over the threshold, making herself at home.

      And talking, talking, talking—

      The doorbell shrilled, and Harriet’s frown deepened.

      ‘It must be someone from another apartment because they didn’t ring at the front door.’

      It

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