The Australian's Bride. Alison Roberts

be OK. He’s got your dad here to look after him now.’

      Alex glanced up at her words. ‘Could you intercept whoever’s coming from the clinic? Make sure they’re carrying some oxygen and diazepam? Otherwise we’d better find a way to transport Danny pretty quickly.’

      Susie didn’t have to go far before she met Beth coming in their direction in a cart, a large first-aid kit on the seat beside her and Garf riding in the trailer.

      ‘What’s happening?’ Beth queried. ‘Has the seizure stopped?’

      ‘No.’ Susie did a U-turn and trotted beside the cart. ‘Do you have oxygen with you? And diazepam?’

      ‘Yes. Who’s with Danny at the moment?’

      ‘Benita. And Alex—Stella’s dad. He asked me to check what you were carrying.’

      They were back at the scene now and Susie could only stand beside Stella and watch as the two doctors treated little Danny.

      ‘How old is he?’ Beth asked.

      ‘Nearly six,’ Benita told her. ‘He’s just very small for his age.’

      The nurse held Danny’s small arm as still as possible as Alex slipped a cannula into a vein. Susie could see what a difficult task it had to be, but Alex made it look simple. Beth calculated his weight and drew up the required dose of sedative.

      Finally, the seizure stopped. Alex picked up the still unconscious child. ‘I’ll carry him,’ he said. ‘Let’s get him back to the clinic.’

      ‘Has he got any relatives with him?’ Beth asked Benita.

      ‘No. He’s one of the unaccompanied ones. My responsibility. I should come with him, shouldn’t I? But I sent the rest of the group back to the camp and I’ll have to make sure someone’s looking after them.’

      ‘We can do that,’ Susie offered. ‘Can’t we, Star?’

      Stella’s nod was surprisingly eager.

      ‘Cameron went to find Beth,’ Benita continued. ‘But he knows to go back to the younger ones. There should be five of them waiting on the steps by the dining hall.’

      ‘We’ll find them,’ Stella said. ‘I can take them for a walk to look for frogs.’

      The reminder of just how capable she was of doing that made Susie catch Alex’s gaze. He had seated himself in the front of the cart now, with Danny in his arms and the oxygen cylinder between his legs. Beth was putting the first-aid kit into the trailer.

      ‘Shove over, Garf,’ she instructed. ‘Make room or you’ll have to run behind.’

      Alex looked as if he did things like this all the time, Susie thought. As though it was completely normal to be cradling a sick child and caring for him no matter how unusual the circumstances. Her heart twisted with another shaft of the astonishing depth of the new emotion she was feeling for this man, and she knew her smile was wobbly.

      Alex smiled back. Calm and confident but apologetic as he shifted his gaze to his daughter.

      ‘Sorry about this, chicken. I’d better help Beth get Danny settled and assessed, but I shouldn’t be too long. We’ll do something special together later, yes?’

      ‘Sure.’

      It wasn’t Susie’s imagination. Stella was standing taller. Looking somehow older and far more mature. Where was that slightly sullen teen she had spoken to just an hour or so ago? The one who had been muttering about getting less attention than her father’s patients?

      ‘It’s OK, Dad,’ Stella added. ‘Danny needs you more than I do right now.’

      Susie wasn’t the only one to notice the change. A flash of the pride Alex had shown earlier returned, and Stella was clearly soaking it up. Her smile was almost smug as she turned to Susie.

      ‘Let’s go,’ she said.

      Susie followed, still amazed at the change she could feel. That moment of victory she had engineered for Stella had opened new doors within relationships, it seemed.

      For all of them.

      An hour or so later, Alex was trying to find his daughter.

      The camp seemed deserted but in the dining hall he found staff setting tables in preparation for the evening meal.

      ‘Try the pool,’ a young woman who was arranging trays on a table suggested. ‘Or the beach. It’s so hot, I think everyone wanted to swim. Which one’s your daughter?’

      ‘Stella. Wears a baseball cap and she’s got crutches.’

      Maybe not for much longer, though, on both counts. Her hair was growing back and the prospect of seeing his girl walking confidently—even running or dancing—without her crutches was now a real possibility in the near future.

      Thanks to Susie.

      ‘I know her,’ the camp worker nodded. ‘She’s not sick?’

      ‘No.’

      Not any more. The aggressive therapy and even the amputation had been the right thing to do. As far as they were able to tell, Stella was cured of her cancer. She could go on and be free of the dreadful disease for the rest of a long lifetime, thank God.

      ‘That’s good. Only there’s a bunch of them in one of the dormitories. It’s been turned into a giant sick bay and we’re doing special meals that they’ll have in bed.’ She pointed at the trays she was setting. ‘Shame, isn’t it? Having a bug like this going around when these kids are supposed to be having such a good time.’

      ‘It is,’ Alex agreed. ‘Thank you. I’ll go and find Stella.’

      He cast a glance towards the dormitories as he headed for the swimming pool. Hopefully, Stella was finally robust enough to ward off a dose of flu but even if she didn’t, it was highly unlikely that this viral illness was really dangerous and the camp had still been worthwhile.

      And thank goodness he had made the effort to get here himself. To have the opportunity to witness those early—unaided—steps that Stella had taken.

      Now that arrangements were in place to cover his extended absence from Sydney, Alex could see the bonus this quarantine represented, even though he still considered it to be an overreaction.

      Unexpectedly, he was being given time to get to know the young woman his daughter had suddenly morphed into. He could get used to the idea that she was no longer a little girl and actually appreciate the glimpses he was getting of the adult she would become.

      Like the way she had put someone else’s needs ahead of her own and accepted that Alex had to look after Danny. More than that, the way she had been prepared to take responsibility for the care of other children in Benita’s absence.

      It should be easy to find her because she would be with Susie and a group of younger children. Alex could see Benita near the pool, sitting in the shade of a fig tree, a child wrapped in a fluffy towel on her lap. He scanned the whole area but, disappointingly, neither Stella nor Susie could be seen.

      ‘I got back here a while ago,’ Benita told Alex when he approached her. ‘I left the medical centre while you were off talking to Dr Wetherby. Stella was doing a great job with this lot but she looked a bit tired. I told her and Susie they should go and chill out on the beach.’

      Alex nodded his thanks. ‘I’ll catch up with you later and give you an update on Danny. I said I’d go and check him again in a couple of hours.’ He tapped the pocket of his shorts. ‘I’ve got my mobile on and Beth knows to call me if she’s worried.’

      Halfway down the track leading to the beach, Alex figured out why this search seemed an odd thing to be doing. He never went looking for women. They were always just there—waiting for him. Following