She closed her eyes and hauled her hands away. When she opened her eyes again she had her facts right.

‘I can’t,’ she said flatly. ‘I’m not ill and I don’t have a choice here, Ryan. I work.’

‘Get a locum,’ he said brutally. ‘And don’t tell me you can’t.’

Abbey sighed and shook her head. ‘That’s just it-I can’t. It’s November. There’ll be no graduating medical students wanting fill-in jobs yet-not until next month when they finish their finals. There are only the professional locum services and they cost an arm and a leg.’ She managed a rueful smile. ‘And I don’t have a leg, Ryan.’

‘Well, maybe you can find one who just charges an arm…’ Ryan smiled back but shook his head. ‘Abbey, that’s silly. With this hospital… well, you must be making enough to pay a locum.’

‘No.’ Abbey’s smile faded and her face set. ‘And it’s none of your business how much I earn. I can’t pay a locum and that’s that.’

Eileen entered the theatrette again with her hands full of bandages. And her eyes full of mischief.

‘What we need is a doctor who’ll work for nothing,’ she said cheerfully-innocently. ‘Maybe someone with local background. Someone with a spot of time on his hands. And someone whose fault it was that our own doctor is out of service…’

Ryan stared.

‘Hey, just a minute…’ It didn’t take Einstein to see what Eileen was on about. ‘I’m here on my honeymoon.’

‘So we heard, but where’s your bride?’ Eileen arched her eyebrows. ‘Did you leave her sitting by the side of the road when you knocked Abbey off her bike?’

‘No. She’s still in Hawaii-’

‘And she’s arriving here later today?’

‘No, but-’

‘Then what’s the problem?’ Eileen smiled at Abbey and then smiled at Ryan.

Abbey stared-and Eileen stared right back.

‘Don’t you dare say we don’t need him, Abbey Wittner,’ Eileen said firmly, ‘because we do. If I can persuade him…’ She turned again to Ryan. ‘Well, Dr Henry?’