‘I’m sorry?’ Nikki frowned, trying to make sense of his words.

‘You do want a locum?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Nikki was under control now, moving aside to make way for him. As she did she was intensely conscious of his size-his smell-and it wasn’t all fishing-boat smell either. ‘It was only that you were so… well, unexpected.’

‘Because I wasn’t due until tomorrow?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ she said firmly. Why else?

She turned to usher him into the house, but as she did the telephone on the hall table started to ring. Now what? She flashed him a look of apology and went to answer it. It was almost a relief to turn away-to give her confused mind time to settle.

She wasn’t granted time. The voice on the other end of the line was harsh and urgent.

‘Nikki?’ It was Sergeant Milne’s voice, Eurong’s solitary policeman.

‘Yes?’ Nikki knew trouble when she heard it. Dan Milne’s voice was laced with it.

‘You’d better get here fast,’ the policeman barked into the phone. ‘I’ve got two kids trapped in a wreck on the beach road and I doubt if either’ll make it. They look bloody awful!’

Luke Marriott and a car crash all in one night! Nikki turned from the phone to find her new locum watching her. He’d placed his luggage down on the polished boards of the hall and was listening in concern to Nikki’s terse queries.

Behind them, Beattie Gilchrist appeared in her dressing-gown and fluffy slippers. The housekeeper raised her brows in surprise at the strange man making himself at home in the hall, but didn’t speak until Nikki put down the phone.

‘Trouble?’ she said as she saw Nikki’s face. What she saw there made her treat the stranger’s presence as secondary.

‘Beattie, this is Dr Marriott, our new locum,’ Nikki said briefly, pushing her hair back in a gesture of exhaustion. ‘Can you find him supper and a bed? I have to go. There’s a car come off the back beach road and a couple of kids are still inside. Sergeant Milne’s there and it looks bad-’