‘Let me see to your legs,’ he said, and she gazed down as if wondering what he was talking about. Seeing the bloody scratches, she merely shrugged.
‘They’ll be fine. Trivial stuff.’
‘Not so trivial if they get infected.’
‘I have more to worry about than infected legs.’
‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But legs come first. You want to come voluntarily or do you want to be carried? I’m a lieutenant, you know. I have authority in this place.’
She managed a feeble smile. ‘I’d rather be bribed with sweets,’ she said, and he shoved a hand in his pocket and produced a handful.
‘Eat one,’ he said, and she shook her head.
‘When did you last eat?’
‘I can’t remember.’
‘Then eat a sweet,’ he told her. ‘I’ll bathe those legs and then you’re going to be fed.’
‘But-’
‘Don’t argue, Dr Cyprano. As of last night your deputy head of council gave us authority in this place. I’m therefore representing the occupying force and what I say goes. You eat.’
She opened her mouth to protest. He’d been unwrapping a sweet while he’d talked and he popped it in.
‘No protests.’
‘No, sir,’ she told him with a mouth full of red sweet. ‘Or, yes, sir. I don’t know which.’
He dressed her legs. She stayed silent throughout, which suited his mood. There were things that had to be said but he didn’t know where to start. Bathing her scratches, applying antiseptic and dressing the worst of them gave him time to think. It was as if he was getting used to her all over again.
She lay passively on an examination trolley while he worked. She stared straight ahead, seemingly oblivious when he had to scrub, though he must have hurt her. Then he took her to the mess tent, waved away anyone who would have talked to them, sat her down and watched as she mechanically ate the pasta he brought her, as she drank coffee, and as she pushed her mug away and rose and said, ‘Thank you very much, I need to go now.’
‘I’m coming with you.’
Unless there were new developments Ben wasn’t needed now in the hospital. The uprising had been quelled so fast that maybe they could have managed with less manpower. But the fact that they’d come fast and hard had maybe averted a greater tragedy, he thought.
But for now there were enough medics to cope with medical needs. There was no more organisation for Ben to do. He could stay by Lily’s side. For she intended to go back to the roadblock in front of the compound. He knew that without asking. That was where negotiations were taking place. If he had been Lily, that was where he’d want to be.
And it was where he wanted to be. For it was his son held hostage. The concept was so overpowering he didn’t know what to do with it, but all he knew was that he needed to go with her.
The roadblock was half a mile from the hospital, across the beach road. It was mid-afternoon and the heat was getting to him. Lily was lightly dressed but Ben was wearing fatigues, and he was feeling it.
‘Walk on the beach,’ he suggested, and Lily diverted her footsteps without saying a word.
Her silence was starting to scare him. This wasn’t the Lily he remembered. She’d been bright, bubbly, fun and startlingly intelligent. Her professors had described her as smart as paint, and more than one had said it was a shame she wasn’t staying in Australia to specialise. But Australia’s loss would be Kapua’s gain. They had all known that, and she’d never questioned her destiny.
He hadn’t questioned her destiny either.
‘Lily, we need to talk,’ he said as they walked through the fringe of coconut palms to the beach beyond.
‘What good is talking?’ she whispered dully, and he heard how close to breaking point she really was.
‘He’ll be fine, Lily,’ he said softly. ‘The men and women doing the negotiating are the best. We flew them in as soon as we realised how serious the hostage situation was. They’re never going to blast their way in. I’ve watched these people before and seen the way they work. They have all the patience in the world. It might take days but they’ll get them out alive. They know their stuff.’
But Lily had only heard the one word. ‘Days,’ she choked. ‘With those murderers? He’s six years old. What he must be thinking… I should have taken him to Kira’s myself. But the woman I was treating…she’d have bled to death. I couldn’t. Dear God, I couldn’t.’
‘You had medical imperatives,’ he said gently. He’d talked to the finance councillor by now-the woman was recovering in hospital-and he’d seen the wound Lily had somehow pulled together. Lily was right. If she’d taken the time to take care of her son before she’d treated her, the woman would be dead. ‘You saved her life, Lily.’
‘But I should have kept Benjy with me,’ she whispered. ‘He’s my son. I’m all he has.’
‘Doesn’t he have Jacques?’ he asked, and she looked blindly up at him, uncomprehending. ‘Your fiancé’s in there as well, isn’t he?’
She steadied a little at that. ‘Jacques,’ she said, and then more strongly, ‘Jacques. Maybe that’s why he’s there. Maybe he went to Jacques.’ But then she shook her head. ‘But he’d have had to come past the hospital to reach Jacques.’
‘Jacques is in administration?’
‘He’s in charge of finance,’ she told him. ‘Oh, we have a finance councillor but Louise isn’t exactly smart. She does what Jacques says. Except for selling oil. Louise dug her heels in over that. So did we all.’ She fell silent. She was trembling, Ben saw, even though the day was hot. She was walking in the damp sand near the water’s edge. Here the water was a turquoise blue, clear to the bottom. Ben could see fish feeding on weed drifting in and out in the shallows. The beach was wide and golden. This place was indeed a tropical paradise. That such tragedy had come to it…
Lily must have been thinking the same. A tremor ran though her, and Ben took her hand.
‘He’ll be OK, Lily.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
‘There’s no-’
‘I mean I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Benjy.’
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t.
‘He’s such a…such a…’ She took a deep breath. ‘He’s very much like you. Ben, if anything happens to him and you haven’t met him…’ She hiccuped on a sob and then seemed to regroup. ‘I thought I had the right,’ she told him. ‘I thought… It was me who was pregnant, not you, and I knew you’d be appalled. But seeing you here… He’s your son, Ben, and I should have made the effort. Even if you didn’t want him.’
‘Why would I not want him?’
‘What were we, Ben?’ she demanded, suddenly angry. ‘Babies ourselves. We were young for med school. We were young for life. You were so lit up about joining the army. You were off to save the world. Armies are used for peacekeeping, you told me, but it was excitement that was in your heart. Action. Drama. Sure, you didn’t want to fight, but you did want to go wherever there was action. And me…all I wanted to do was come home. My mother had sold everything she owned to send me to med school, and the islanders helped because everyone here needed a doctor. I was as excited as you were-but I was excited at coming home to help my people.’
‘Did it work out?’ he asked, and she took a deep breath. There wasn’t a trace of colour on her face. She looked sick.
‘I guess it did,’ she said slowly. ‘But there was a cost. My mother died just after I got back. She had cancer. She’d known for two years but she hadn’t told me because she hadn’t wanted to interrupt my studies.’
‘Oh, Lily…’