Midwife in a Million Read Free Page B

the dark place they belonged, along with the guilt that he’d caused his parents’ misfortunes.
    No wonder he’d never wanted to come back after Kate’s letter. Kate, who hadn’t needed him for what seemed a lifetime but needed him now.
    The lightning flickered and a few drops of rain began to form circular puffs of dust in the road. ‘Lovely weather for ducks,’ he muttered out loud—his mother’s favourite saying and one he hadn’t said for years—to shake off the gloomy thoughts that sat like icy water on his soul.
    He pushed open the door and walked down the hall to the clinic.
    Rory’s first sight of Kate winded him as if he’d run into one of those shutters banging in the street on the way.
    He’d tried to picture this moment so many timeson the way but she looked so different from what he’d imagined and a whole lot more distant.
    She was dressed in fitted tan trousers that hugged her slim hips and thighs above soft-skinned riding boots. The white buttoned shirt just brushed her trim waist and an elusive curve of full breast peeped from the shifting vee of her neckline and then disappeared, a bit like his breath, as she turned to face him. He lifted his gaze.
    Thick dark hair still pulled back in a ponytail, no sign yet of grey, but ten years had added a definition to her beauty—womanly beauty—yet the set of her chin was tougher and steadier and she’d probably reach his chin now so she didn’t look as fragile as he’d remembered.
    Lord, she was beautiful.
    He’d have liked to have sat somewhere out of sight and just studied her to see the changes and nuances of this Kate he didn’t know. Breathe in the truth that he was here, beside her, and acknowledge she still touched him on a level no other woman had reached. But his training kicked in. There’d be time for that later.
    ‘Rory,’ she said but she was talking to the wall behind his head, which was a shame because he ached with real hunger for her to look at him. ‘Thank you for offering to help.’ She barely paused for breath, as if to eliminate any possibility of other topics. ‘I’m worried about Lucy and the sooner we leave the better.’
    Her voice was calm, unhurried, unlike his heart as he struggled for an equal composure. ‘I’ve fuelled the truck and packed emergency supplies,’ he said. She nodded but still wouldn’t meet his eyes again and suddenly it was impossible to continue until she did. ‘Kate?’
    ‘What?’
    How could she keep talking to the wall?
    ‘Look at me.’
    Finally she did, chin up, her beautiful grey eyes staring straight into his with a guarded challenge that dared him to try and break through her barriers. There was no doubt he’d love to do that. But he knew he had no right to even try.
    In that brief moment when she looked at him he saw something behind her eyes, something that hinted about places in her that were even more vulnerable than the delicate young princess he’d left behind, or maybe he was imagining it.
    Either way, he wouldn’t delve because he wanted to close doors on this trip, not open them. ‘For the next twelve hours I’ll drive, you care for your patient and I’ll get you both to Derby safely.’ Then he’d say his piece and leave. ‘So we’ll talk on the way back.’
    She blinked and he could sense the loosening of the tension in the air around her. Sense it with what? How could he sense things like that about a woman he’d not seen since they were both teenagers and yetnot be able to sense anything about others more recent? It wasn’t logical.
    ‘Of course.’ Her glance collided with his for a long, slow moment before she looked at the clock. ‘Thank you, Rory.’
    When she turned away, Rory swore he could feel physical pain from that loss of eye contact like tape ripping off his face. There you go. He still had it bad and, to make it worse, he doubted she felt anything. But that was his problem, not hers. He looked through the door to the patient on the bed.