Bachelor Cure by Marion Lennox Page A

concentrate on work. ‘Sandra, can we pop your son back into his crib so I can give his mum the once-over?’
    â€˜Sure. He’s not feeding any more. He just likes cuddling.’ She planted a kiss on her son’s head. ‘Give me two minutes and I’ll cuddle you again,’ she promised. She lay back and eyed Mike again, her eyes speculative. ‘I know what,’ she said. ‘How about when I get home I organise a dinner? It can be a thank-you dinner for you for delivering Toby and a welcome dinner for Tessa all in one. How would that be?’
    â€˜If all goes well, Henry will be on the mend and Tess will be back in the States by the time you get home,’ Mike said shortly.
    â€˜Not if this valley has anything to do with it.’ Sandra grinned hugely. ‘The whole valley’s talking about Tessa Westcott, and the whole valley thinks she might be a really good thing.’
    â€˜Sandra…’
    â€˜We’ll work on it,’ she said placidly. ‘Give us time. Like about a day or so!’
    Â 
    By the time Mike reached the little room he used as Intensive Care, he was starting to feel as if he didn’t want to enter. The whole hospital, staff and patients alike, had started to have really strange ideas about Tessa Westcott, and he wasn’t enjoying them. Hisnormal cheerful smile had faded and he approached ICU with misgivings.
    Hell, what was happening here? Sure, Tessa was one different woman and, sure, the valley needed another doctor, but Tessa lived in the States, for heaven’s sake! She had nothing to do with him. She was here for maybe a week.
    Which was all very sensible, he thought, but logic didn’t account for the way his heart lurched when he opened Henry’s door.
    Tess was dozing with her head on Henry’s counterpane. Her wonderful hair was spread out in a flaming halo on the white bedlinen. She was wearing exactly the same clothes she’d had on when they’d brought Henry in.
    It had been a really major job to get Henry out of there. The ambulance boys had had to traipse over rough country to reach them, and then there were only two of them. They hadn’t waited for back-up because Mike had wanted oxygen and equipment fast. Henry’s lungs were barely functioning.
    Then to get a stretcher over rough ground with only two stretcher-bearers had been risky, but Tess hadn’t waited for back-up even then. No way. In the end, Mike and Tess had taken a stretcher corner each to give them four bearers and make the stretcher stable.
    â€˜I can do it,’ she’d told them when they’d said they’d wait for help. ‘He’s my grandpa, I’m as strong as a horse and I don’t have to use my bad arm. Just shut up and let’s get him somewhere safe.’
    So she’d done it, but heaven knew how. Even if she’d been fit, it would have been harder for Tess thanfor the men because she was inches shorter and, try as they might, they hadn’t been able to compensate entirely—but even though she’d carried with her good arm she was still so badly bruised it must have hurt.
    It must have hurt like crazy, but she wouldn’t listen to their protests, and it was the two ambulance men who’d decreed they stop and rest every two hundred yards or so—not Tessa.
    She had an iron will. If things needed doing, Tess Westcott just went ahead and did them.
    She was such a kid, he thought. From where he was standing, with her head resting on her grandfather’s bed and in her grimy jeans and T-shirt, she looked all of fourteen years old.
    Hell. Hell!
    Get a hold on yourself, Mike Llewellyn, he told himself harshly. She’s only a woman, and you know your vow. So keep your thoughts to yourself. Hands off.
    Easier said than done.
    He had work to do here, he reminded himself. So do it!
    He stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. Tessa’s eyes flew wide in panic, and she’d