‘Nurse MacNeil! Kyla!’
She glanced up as she heard her name being called from the beach. Deciding that perhaps the prospect of leaving the island had possibilities after all, she gave a sigh and walked down to the end of her garden, still nursing the mug. At least in inner-city London she might get to drink her tea in peace. ‘Fraser Price. What are you doing on the beach in the middle of a school day?’
Probably bunking off, the way she had as a child.
‘Don’t tell Miss Carne,’ the boy begged, breathless as he struggled in bare feet through the soft sand. ‘She thinks I’m ill.’
‘And you’re not?’ Reminding herself that she was a grown-up now and supposed to set standards, Kyla looked suitably stern. ‘You should be at school. Education is important. Pretending to be ill isn’t a good idea, Fraser.’ She almost laughed as she listened to herself. How many times had she sneaked off to play on the beach?
‘It was the only thing I could think of. And I needed to stay at home.’
‘Why did you need to stay at home?’
‘To look after Mum.’ Suddenly he looked doubtful and unsure. ‘She wasn’t making sense this morning and I didn’t want to leave her. I had a bad feeling.’
‘What sort of bad feeling?’ Kyla was alert now. ‘Is it her diabetes? What do you mean, she wasn’t making sense? Is something the matter with your mum?’
‘I dunno. She just seemed … different.’ He gave a shake of his head and then shrugged. ‘She’d kill me if she knew I was here. I bunked off last week to take the boat out and she really did her nut. Don’t say I was here. Couldn’t you just call in on her? You know, like by accident?’
‘Fraser, I don’t call on anyone by accident.’ Amusement gave way to concern as Kyla saw the look on his face. ‘OK. OK.’ She lifted a hand. ‘Today I’ll find a reason to call on your mum by accident.’
‘Really?’ He breathed an audible sigh of relief. ‘That’s great. Can the accident be right now?’
Banishing hopes of lunch, Kyla nodded. ‘Just let me lock up here and get my car. I’ll meet you back at your house. You can let me in. And, Fraser, about your mum.’ She caught his arm. ‘Can you describe how she looked? How was she different?’
‘She was a funny colour. And her hands were shaking when she gave me breakfast. You won’t tell on me?’ He looked at her anxiously. ‘I said I felt sick and needed a walk in the fresh air.’
Kyla thought of all the sins she’d committed at school. Didn’t everyone need a little latitude? ‘I won’t tell. Off you go. I’ll be there in five minutes.’
‘What will you say?’
‘I don’t know, but I’ll think of something,’ Kyla said firmly, giving him a gentle push and turning back to her cottage. She noticed Ethan standing in his garden and had a sudden inspiration. ‘Dr Walker!’
He turned and she gave an apologetic shrug. ‘How badly did you want a shave and a shower? If you’re not that tired, I need to enlist your help again. I think I might need a doctor.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘AISLA PRICE is a single mother.’ Kyla snapped on her seat belt and pressed her foot to the accelerator. ‘She moved to the island when Fraser was a baby because she thought it would be a good place to bring up a child. She has a small knitting busi
ness that she runs over the internet. Pretty successfully, I believe. She makes really pretty jumpers covered in bits of lace and beads and things like that. They live in a house right by the water.’
Ethan looked at her. ‘And she has diabetes?’
‘Yes. But her diabetes is very well controlled so it shouldn’t be that.’ Kyla frowned as she changed gear and flicked the indicator. ‘But Fraser obviously thinks there’s a problem so we’d better check it out. It might be nothing.’
‘She hasn’t asked you to call? You’re making an impromptu visit?’ Ethan tried to imagine something similar happening in London and failed. But in London a child wouldn’t run across a beach to bang on the community nurse’s door.
‘That’s right. An impromptu visit.’ She stopped the car outside a row of whitewashed cottages and yanked on the handbrake. ‘We’re here.’
Ethan looked at her in disbelief. ‘What on earth are you planning to say? You’re going to bang on her door and say that her little boy thought she looked pale at breakfast?’
‘No. That’s why I’m taking you along.’ She smiled and reached for her bag. ‘You’re the new doctor and I’m introducing you. She’ll be your patient after all. You may as well meet each other.’
Wondering why he was on a wild-goose chase when he could be in the shower, Ethan slammed the car door and followed her towards the house.
The front door opened and it took less than a second for him to register the raw panic in Fraser’s eyes.
‘You have to come quickly! She’s on the floor,’ he said urgently, reaching out a hand and virtually dragging Kyla inside. ‘And I can’t get her to wake up properly. She’s sort of moaning and trying to hit me.’