LITMIR.BIZ

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doing the checks. I’m Caroline—I’m the nurse.’

      She stood up and held out her hand, which he took gingerly.

      ‘You should have gloves on, ma’am,’ he said quietly.

      ‘But then I might miss a little gold dust sticking to my fingers.’

      Aware that she’d already held up things for too long, she waved him along the table towards Keanu, who already had the first card in front of him.

      Reuben had helpfully laid out the medical implements between the two of them—a stethoscope, ear thermometer and covers, and a lung capacity machine. So what did she do? Act as welcoming committee? Wait for orders?

      Behind her desk Reuben had also opened the doors on what looked like a well-stocked medical cabinet.

      Maybe she did the dressings.

      But, in the meantime, there was the accident book to go through. She looked at the recent pages, then flipped back, interested to see if there were always so few accidents recorded.

      It wasn’t hard to work out when the crushing and extracting operations had closed down as most of the reported accidents had been caused by some chance contact with some piece of the machinery.

      In the background she heard Keanu chiding men for working in flip-flops instead of their steel-capped boots, listened to explanations of water not being pumped out, and her heart ached for the days when the mine had been a well-run and productive place.

      ‘If you’re done, you can give me a hand.’ Had Keanu guessed she’d been dreaming?

      The next miner hadn’t tried to hide the fact he’d been working in flip-flops—they were bright green and still on his feet. The skin between his big toe and the second one, where the strap of the sandal rubbed, was raw and inflamed, and a visible cut on his left arm was also infected.

      Caroline worked with Keanu now; he cleaned and treated wounds, handing out antibiotics, while she did the lung capacity tests and temperatures.

      ‘I’m surprised there are any antibiotics to give out,’ she said when there was a gap between the miners.

      ‘I keep the keys of the chest and no one but me can ever open it,’ Reuben said firmly. ‘I suppose it was too big for Mr Lockhart to take away and he couldn’t break the bolt, although I think he tried.’

      Caroline sighed.

      Her uncle had left a poisonous legacy behind him on what had once been an island paradise.

      And, given her name, she was part of the poison.

      ‘We definitely have to close the mine.’ Keanu’s voice interrupted her dream of happier times, and she realised the parade of miners—a short parade—from the mine to the table had ceased. ‘It would be irresponsible not to do it.’

      ‘And that will damage the Lockhart name even more,’ Caroline muttered as shame for the trouble her uncle had caused made her cringe.

      He touched her quickly on the shoulder. ‘We’ll talk about it later,’ he said, pulling the accident book from in front of her and checking the few notes she’d made.

      ‘Given the state of the mine, there’ve been remarkably few accidents,’ he said. ‘Unless, of course …’ he looked at Reuben ‘… you haven’t been recording them.’

      Reuben’s indignant ‘Of course I have,’ was sincere enough to be believed, especially when he added, ‘But remember, not all the men are working. Only this one team at the moment.’

      ‘But even if there haven’t been many accidents, that doesn’t mean there won’t be more in future,’ Caroline said, seeing the sense in Keanu’s determination that the mine should close.

      So what could she do?

      Find out whatever she could?

      ‘Reuben, would you mind if I looked at the accounts and wages books?’

      He looked taken aback—upset even.

      ‘I’m not checking up on you, but it would help if I could work out how much the miners are owed. I know Dad would want them all paid. Do you have the wages records on computer?’

      ‘It’s all in books, but I keep a copy on my laptop,’ Reuben told her, disappearing into the back of the office and returning with the little laptop, handing it over to her with a degree of reluctance.

      ‘We do have to close it down,’ she admitted to Keanu as they climbed back up the steep steps to the top of the plateau. She was clutching the laptop to her chest.

      ‘You’re right,’ he said, ‘but do you think the men will stop working just because we say so? I’ll phone your father—he’s the one to do it, and if he can’t come over, he can send someone from the Mines Department, someone who might carry some weight with the miners. They could come on Friday’s flight.’

      Keanu got no answer to his common-sense suggestion. She’s plotting something, he realised as they climbed back up the steep steps to the top of the plateau.

      He knew Caroline in this mood and more often than not whatever she was up to would be either rash or downright dangerous.

      But he had worries enough of his own. The elders had placed their faith in him to save the livelihood of the island and the continuation of medical facilities.

      ‘Do we have to go straight back to the hospital or can we sit down with a coffee and work out what to do? I can try to get in touch with Dad,’ Caroline said as she led the way towards the house, as if assuming he would agree.

      Keanu followed, but hesitated on the bottom step of the big house, his mind arguing with itself.

      Of course he could go in—it was just a house, the place where he’d spent so much of his childhood.

      Yet his feet were glued to the step.

      Caro turned back.

      ‘You’re not coming? Do you think we should go back? Bessie would get us some lunch and we could have a talk.’

      Then, as if they’d never been apart, she guessed what he was thinking, headed back down to where he stood, took his hand and gently eased him down onto the step, sitting close beside him, her arm around his shoulders.

      ‘Tell me,’ she said, and although she spoke softly, it was an order, and suddenly he needed to tell, as if talking about that day would help banish the memories.

      He looked out over the island, down towards the sea surrounding it, green-blue and beautiful.

      Peaceful …

      ‘I came home on an earlier flight. One kid had measles just before the holidays so they closed a week early. I didn’t tell Mum, wanting to surprise her.’

      And hadn’t he surprised her! The memory of that ugly, desperate scene lived on in his nightmares. He concentrated on the view to block it out of his mind even now …

      ‘I walked up from the plane and into the house. I knew Mum would be in there—dusting or cleaning—she loved the house so much.’

      Had Caro heard the break in his voice that her arm tightened around his shoulders?

      ‘They were in the living room, on the floor, on one of your grandma’s rugs, like animals.’

      He turned to Caroline, needing to see her face, needing to see understanding there.

      ‘I thought he was raping her. I dragged him off, yelling at him, trying to punch him, and …’

      ‘Go on.’

      The words were little more than a gentle whisper but now he’d gone this far he knew he had to finish.

      ‘He laughed!’ The words exploded out of him, his voice rising at remembered—and still lingering—anger. ‘He stood there, pulling

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