‘Yes, there is. The man lying out there is in direct sunlight, and he’s got no water, we gave him some of ours. He’s already looking a little red in the face, and I’m hoping he doesn’t get sunstroke.’
Matt grinned. Go, Flash.
‘Um...’ The man scratched his head. ‘Did he say he felt ill?’
‘No. But prevention’s always better than cure, and I was sure you’d want to know.’ Hannah shrugged. ‘Health and safety, and all that...’
She was being nice about it, but there was a hint of firmness beneath her smile. Matt never had to explain what he wanted, he just made a decision and everyone went with it. Hannah must face this kind of situation every day, and she was clearly practised at getting her own way with the minimum of confrontation and fuss.
‘Yes, of course. Thanks for letting me know, I’ll get straight on it. If we sit him in the shade a little closer to the path, and make sure he has plenty of water, would that be okay with you?’
‘That’s fabulous. Thanks.’ Hannah flashed him a smile, and turned to make her way across to the red table.
‘That’s very sportsmanlike of you.’ Matt shot her a smile, so that Hannah would be in no doubt that he approved. ‘The other teams will be able to see him more easily if he’s closer to the path.’
She shot him a querulous look. ‘You think I should have done anything different?’
‘No. I’m just pleased to see that I have a teammate who won’t stop at nothing to win.’
Hannah flushed a little, then leaned towards him. ‘You just wait and see what I’ll do if you don’t get over to that table. Right now.’
That was almost an incentive to stay put. Hannah could do anything she wanted with him, the more up close and personal the better. The sentiment must have shown on his face, because she raised her eyebrows.
‘Since you asked so nicely...’ Matt turned and walked over to the table.
CHAPTER FOUR
THEY’D SPENT ALMOST an hour going through what they’d brought in their bags, and how they would have treated their patient, with two of the judges. About halfway through, the yellow team had turned up, but there was no sign of the blues or the greens. Finally they were allowed to go, walking with one of the production assistants along a path that led to the perimeter of the park, and then being ferried back to the visitors’ centre by car.
Matt got into the red car, feeling his back pull as he did so. He reached for the ignition, and Hannah stopped him.
‘Your arm’s bleeding.’ She reached under her T-shirt and into the pocket of her jeans, pulling out a packet of antiseptic wipes that she must have saved from the medical bag she’d been carrying.
Matt was vaguely aware that thorns had ripped through both the fabric of his T-shirt and his flesh at some point, and that his shoulder was stinging. Now that he looked, he could see a trickle of partly coagulated blood.
‘It’s okay.’
She gave him the look that she probably saved for any of her patients who proved intractable. Half smiling, half determined.
‘Okay, so you want to be a man about it. I won’t tell anyone. I find that it’s in my own interest to keep you as healthy as possible over the next four weeks, so you’ll just have to take a hit for the team.’
The stinging felt a little too close for comfort to the scar on his shoulder, which he kept hidden from everyone. But he did what he imagined everyone else doing in the face of Hannah’s charm. He pulled the sleeve of his T-shirt up, gratified to find that if he held it in place the dark red mark wasn’t visible.
‘Oh. Nasty.’ Hannah squinted at the gash on his arm. ‘Hold on a minute. Sharp scratch.’
‘Ow! That’s not a sharp scratch. What did you do?’ If he was going to forgo being a man about it, then he may as well go the whole hog.
‘You had a thorn still in there.’ Hannah held up a vicious-looking spike. ‘I think there’s another one. That might be a slightly sharper scratch...’
It was. But this time it didn’t take Matt so much by surprise, and he kept quiet about it. Hannah wiped the wound carefully, and then applied a plaster from her pocket. ‘That should hold it. Although—’
‘Give it a good wash when I get back? I’ve got that part...’ Matt pulled the sleeve of his T-shirt back down again.
‘Yes, of course. Sorry, force of habit.’
She leaned back in her seat, staring out at the sun-dappled grass in front of them. Suddenly Matt didn’t want to start driving again. He was used to knowing people in terms of the way they did their jobs, and it didn’t usually occur to him to make small-talk about his colleagues’ lives. But Hannah was different.
‘You know this place pretty well?’