The Australian's Proposal. Alison Roberts

himself over all three of them.

      ‘Off! Sit!’ Hamish ordered, and the dog looked at him in surprise, then, to Kate’s astonishment, obeyed.

      ‘I’ve been teaching him to sit, like you told me,’ CJ said, giving the dog a big hug and kiss. ‘He’s a very clever dog, isn’t he?’

      ‘Yes, he is,’ Hamish told him. ‘It’s just a pity he’s going to have to go and live somewhere else.’

      ‘But he can’t go somewhere else to live,’ CJ protested. ‘He’s my dog!’

      He gathered an armful of dog to his chest as he spoke, and glared at Hamish over the spotty head.

      Hamish nodded.

      ‘He is, but if he keeps causing trouble, like making you run away from child care, your mom will just have to give him away.’

      Silence, and Kate, who thought Hamish’s chiding had been unnecessarily harsh, reached around behind his back to pat CJ on the arm.

      ‘They laugh at me.’

      The whispered words were barely audible, but understandable enough to make Kate’s stomach clench.

      Hamish, however, seemed unmoved.

      ‘Who?’

      ‘Some of the kids. They say I talk funny.’

      ‘Bloody kids,’ Kate muttered under her breath. OK, so CJ appeared to have a slight American accent, but did that make him so different? At child-care level? What age would the kids be? Four? Five at the most?

      ‘Of course you do—that’s because you’re half-American—and it’s not funny, it’s just an accent, like mine is. But kids love to pick on anyone who seems different. The trick is to ignore them and eventually they’ll get tired of it and pick on someone else.’

      ‘Then that someone will be sad,’ CJ pointed out, and Kate glanced at Hamish, wondering how he’d handle that one.

      ‘Why don’t you make your difference count?’ he suggested, ignoring the bit Kate had wondered about. ‘Think of all the great things that have come from the United States of America—spaceships and astronauts and all the movies those kids at school go to see, not to mention most of the television they watch, and X-Boxes and video games.’

      ‘Could I tell them my father was an astronaut?’ he asked, and Kate looked at the burnt red curls and raised her eyebrows at Hamish.

      ‘It’s complicated,’ Hamish said in an aside to her, before tackling CJ’s question.

      ‘I wouldn’t tell a lie,’ he said mildly. ‘Lies are hard because you have to remember what you said the first time you told it, and then they grow bigger and bigger and it all gets very complicated. But you could tell them that you’re going to be an astronaut when you grow up, and you could take spaceship stuff along to child care to show them.’

      ‘I don’t have any spaceship stuff.’

      Kate smiled. The kid had Hamish now.

      ‘Cal will help you make some,’ he said. ‘Cal knows all kinds of things about space and the solar system and other solar systems. You ask him to help you.’

      CJ considered this for a moment, then he nodded.

      ‘He does know a lot of stuff. I like Cal. But he’s working and so’s Mom, so would you take me back and tell the teacher I was late because the man with the gun made the helicopter late?’

      Hamish sighed.

      ‘I’ll take you back to child care and tell the teacher you had trouble getting Rudolph to stay home,’ he said. ‘Remember what I told you about lies?’

      CJ nodded, and lifted one of Rudolph’s silky ears.

      ‘I’d like child care a whole lot better if he could come with me.’

      The wistful statement made Kate smile, but Hamish was getting to his feet, giving orders for Rudolph to stay and sending CJ to wash his hands and face before they departed.

      ‘Mom, Dad, Cal?’ Kate asked him, when the boy had disappeared.

      ‘I’ll explain later,’ Hamish promised. ‘In the meantime, would you mind seeing that Rudolph doesn’t follow us? The dopey dog once chased my car right up the main street of the town, just because I had CJ with me. I’ll get his lead—Rudolph’s, not CJ’s, although maybe he needs one too—and if you can just hold him while we get going, then tell him to stay, he should be OK. The child-care centre is just the other side of the hospital, so I won’t be long.’

      Hamish disappeared inside the house, reappearing with CJ a few minutes later. He waited patiently while CJ kissed the dog goodbye, clipped on the lead and handed it to Kate, then he herded CJ through the house and out the front door.

      Kate shifted from the step to an old settee set back in the shade of the back veranda. Rudolph needed no invitation to climb up and flop beside her.

      ‘Dog-minding duties? I assume you’re Kate and no doubt Hamish roped you in to hold that hound.’

      A woman with a cascade of deep brown curls and a soft American accent was taking the steps two at a time.

      ‘Is CJ with Hamish? Did Hamish take him back to child care?’

      Kate nodded, and the woman pushed the dog to one side and flopped down on the couch.

      ‘I’m Gina,’ she said, ‘CJ’s mother, in case you hadn’t guessed. I don’t think it’s the child-care place that’s bothering CJ so much as not being here. From the day we arrived, he’s been petted and spoilt by everyone in the hospital, so now he thinks he might be missing out on something if he’s not here. What was his excuse this morning?’

      Kate stared at the woman who was frowning at the spectacular view beyond the garden.

      ‘He had to bring the dog home,’ Kate offered, and Gina gave a scoffing laugh.

      ‘This dog could find his way to Mars if he had to,’ she said, patting the head of the dog in question with absent-minded affection. ‘I keep wondering if it’s because of Cal. CJ’s more or less had me to himself since my husband died, and now he has to share me with Cal, but he seems to love Cal and the two did boy things together all weekend, so …’

      She sighed, then added, ‘I don’t know! Perhaps I should stop work and be a full-time mother, though I know I’d hate not working and the hospital needs a cardiologist.’

      She stopped again, and flashed a smile at Kate.

      ‘Heavens, but you’re good! You arrive here and get whisked away on a rescue mission, then get shot at, then left to mind a dog, and now some total stranger is unloading on you—and you’re just sitting there and taking it. Tell me to go get a life!’

      Kate smiled at her vehemence.

      ‘I’m really too tired to tell anyone to do anything,’ she admitted. ‘I’d be inside sleeping only once I go to sleep I might not wake for twenty-four hours and I promised Jack—the young man we brought in—I’d be there when he comes out of Theatre, so I may as well be dog-minding and listening to anyone who wants to unload.’

      Gina reached across the dog and gave her a hug.

      ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘But now I know CJ’s gone back—one of the carers rings me as soon as they realise he’d done a bunk. Problem is, they can’t work out how he gets out, with the child-proof locks on the gates. Anyway, that’s my problem, or theirs, really, because they have to stop it happening. For now, this mongrel …’ she brushed his ears with loving hands ‘… can be shut on the side veranda, so why don’t you have a shower and lie down? I promise I’ll come over and wake you when Jack comes out of Theatre. Have you got a room? Did you get that far when you arrived?’

      ‘I have and I did, but I haven’t unpacked. Maybe