‘Ben,’ Lily whispered, and she lifted her hands clear. Her fingers were trembling so much she couldn’t go on.

‘Doctor,’ Pieter said urgently, and magically Ben was there, lifting the clamps from Lily’s fingers and checking the monitor.

‘Get that plasma here now,’ he roared in a voice that could be heard in the middle of next week. He glanced at Pieter, who was acting as anaesthetist. ‘Are you a doctor?’

‘I’m a nurse with the basic training Lily’s taught me. I’m Pieter.’

‘Then, Lily, you take over the anaesthetic,’ Ben snapped. ‘Pieter, no offence but…’

‘Of course there’s no offence,’ Pieter said, motioning to Lily to take over. ‘If you knew how pleased I am to leave this to you guys…’

‘I can imagine,’ Ben said, and fixed his gaze on Lily, forcing her to steady. ‘You can do this,’ he said.

She took a deep breath. ‘I can.’

‘Right,’ he snapped. ‘Don’t you dare collapse. There’s no time. Let’s get this kid out of danger and worry about everything else later.’

Ben was there.

She was so exhausted she could hardly think, but the knowledge settled in her heart and stayed. It made her feel…not better but somehow less hopeless.

Which was crazy. It was ridiculous to think that Ben Blayden could make all right with her world. Though he’d thought so from the start. He was loud and bossy and sure that his way was right.

‘There are no easy answers,’ she’d told him at the end of med school. They’d been discussing their future, but they’d already accepted their future didn’t involve each other.

‘Of course there are easy answers. You follow your vocation and you don’t get distracted,’ he’d said, and she’d wanted to agree with him but she hadn’t been able to. She had already been distracted.

And now here he was again, just as distracting. She could hardly see him under his mask and theatre cap, but she’d glimpsed enough to see that he’d hardly changed. Still with that mass of jet-black curls that always looked unruly, that always looked supremely sexy. Still with those deep brown eyes, creased at the edges from constant laughter. Still with that body that said he worked hard and he played hard, strongly physical.