Read Online The Doctor's Proposal by Marion Lennox - Free Book Online

not, who would stay to take care of him? Maybe it could be her. But if so…that would meanthat Susie stayed, too, and if she stayed then the baby would be born here and this man would have to deliver her. And—
    â€˜We’re going too fast,’ Jake said, and she blinked.
    â€˜Pardon?’
    â€˜Has Angus met Susie yet?’
    â€˜No. I thought—’
    â€˜Let’s take this one step at a time, shall we?’ he said, his smile a little wry. ‘First things first. I’ve learned my triage, Dr McMahon, and I’m figuring out priorities. You know what I suggest you do first?’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Get yourself decent,’ he told her. ‘You have a very nice cleavage, and it’s still just a cleavage but only just. That towel is way too skimpy. You’re messing with my triage and making my priorities all wrong. So go cover priority number one with a T-shirt or similar while I find our patients. Then we can figure out what may or may not be more important than one scant inch of towelling.’
    Â 
    Dressed in record time, but still flushing bright crimson, Kirsty remerged from her gorgeous bedroom. There were voices coming from the room next to hers. Susie’s room.
    To her astonishment they were all in there. Susie was sitting up in bed, looking interested. Angus was seated in the armchair beside the bed. He was obviously still having breathing difficulties, but his colour was better than the night before. His nasal tube was taped in place and there was a small wheeled oxygen cylinder beside him. Like a tame pup.
    The not-so-tame pup—Boris—was draped over the bed, looking adoringly up at Susie, and Susie was scratching his ears. Jake was beside the window.
    They were all staring out the window to the garden beyond.
    â€˜He’s not thriving,’ Angus was saying in a voice that said the end of the world was nigh. ‘I may as well go to that nursing home. If Spike dies…’
    â€˜Do we have another patient?’ Kirsty asked, mystified, and they all turned to look at her.
    â€˜That’s better,’ Jake said, his eyes twinkling a little as he examined her demurely clad figure—but then he shook his head. ‘Or maybe I just mean safer.’
    She ignored him. Almost. ‘Who’s Spike?’
    â€˜Angus’s pumpkin,’ Susie said, and Kirsty blinked.
    â€˜Pardon?’
    â€˜He’s a Queensland Blue,’ Susie told her, as if that should explain all. ‘Look at that veggie patch out there. Have you ever seen such a veggie patch?’
    Kirsty crossed cautiously to the window and peered out, worrying that she had three demented patients on her hands. And a demented dog.
    But it was indeed a veggie garden—and a veggie patch to take the breath away. It stretched over maybe a quarter of an acre, row upon row of vegetables and fruit trees of every imaginable variety with what looked like a conservatory on the side.
    â€˜Wow,’ she said faintly.
    â€˜Wow’s right.’ Susie was pushing back her bedcovers—and pushing back Boris. ‘I have to get out there.’
    â€˜You really think you can help?’ Angus asked, and Susie gave him the sort of look Kirsty reserved for relatives of a patient who might well die. Huge sympathy and not wanting to encourage false hope.
    â€˜I’ll do my best. We’ll run soil tests. Maybe it’s too damp. I’d imagine this rainfall’s unseasonal for early in autumn. Is it?’
    â€˜Yes,’ Angus said, with doubt. ‘It’s normally much drier.’
    â€˜Then maybe we can lift the whole vine—just enough to get it off the surface dirt and maybe get a bit of sunlight underneath. It can be done by thinning out the leaves. That should help the plant a lot. We need to be so careful. Dampness can cause rot this late in the growing season.’
    â€˜Rot,’ Angus said in the voice of a parent hearing the word