The Sheikh Doctor's Bride. Meredith Webber

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      ‘A place called Amberach, far across the sea. A very small place compared to Australia.’

      ‘Did you come here in a plane?’

      Kate was aware of her mother’s tension returning. Once involved in a conversation, Billy could talk for hours. Should they cut him off?

      She glanced at Ibrahim, who showed no sign of impatience—no sign of anything except, she rather thought, simple kindness.

      ‘Yes, I came on a plane.’

      ‘Next to horses I like planes best. Dad always said one day I could go on a plane with the horses, but Dad died, you know.’

      ‘Yes, I did know that,’ Ibrahim said gently, while Kate held her breath.

       Please, don’t offer him a plane ride, especially if you don’t mean it.

      But Ibrahim’s attention was back on the horse—or was he diverting Billy?

      ‘Would you run him again for me?’ Ibrahim asked, and Billy whistled to Tippy and the pair took off, Billy understanding what was needed and circling in the middle while Tippy raced around the paddock, his delight in movement lending wings to his feet.

      ‘A truly beautiful sight,’ Ibrahim murmured. He turned to one of his men—not the tall, disdainful one. ‘He is everything you said he was.’

      The man nodded.

      ‘Would you like a cool drink or a cup of tea or coffee?’ Kate offered, trying to hide the excitement she was feeling, although she knew her mother would be more apprehensive than excited.

      Selling Tippy was one thing—the money from the sale would save the stables—but keeping him to train—her mother’s long-held dream—was quite another.

      ‘First we might walk around a little, see the other horses, the training track and the hill run I’ve heard about. Dancing Tiptoes was bred here—the mare is here?’ Ibrahim replied.

      ‘In foal again, and with the other mares,’ Sally told him. ‘When they’re pregnant they seem to like the company. We’ll walk this way.’

      She led the party, Ibrahim close behind her, Kate and the entourage bringing up the rear.

      ‘You’d already seen the horse?’ she said to the man beside her—the one to whom Ibrahim had turned earlier.

      ‘I was at your father’s funeral, then came back here with others,’ he said quietly. ‘I know it is late to be offering condolences but I am sorry for your loss.’

      Kate thanked him and lagged behind, caught off guard by his sudden kindness. She remembered little of that terrible day beyond a blur of cars and people and a need to be strong for both her mother and Billy, yet being uselessly emotional all day.

      In fact, it had been Billy who’d been strong for her, and for their mother.

      Maybe he would understand more than they thought if Tippy was sold and moved to another trainer. Maybe he’d transfer his love to a new foal—

      ‘Ka-a-a-a-te!’

      Her mother’s anguished cry brought her out of her reverie. Looking up, she realised the entourage was now some way ahead of her. But instinct had her running down towards the brood mares’ paddock, pushing through the phalanx of minders, seeing the taller man, eyes nearly swollen shut, red welts appearing on his face, pulling at his tie, his collar, trying to say something that sounded like ‘knife’.

      ‘He wants a knife,’ one of the men said, while Kate grabbed the man, trying to ease him to the ground, issuing orders as she did it.

      ‘Call an ambulance—emergency number is triple zero here—and you …’ she pointed to the closest ‘… run up to the stables and get the first-aid box. One of the stable hands will find it for you.’

      The stricken man was still struggling to talk, pointing at his throat and making gargling noises.

      ‘What’s his name?’ she asked Ibrahim, who was looking so pale Kate feared she’d have two patients.

      ‘Fareed,’ Ibrahim whispered.

      ‘Don’t worry, he’ll be all right,’ Kate assured the older man, before turning back to her patient.

      ‘Okay, Fareed, I need you to relax. Lie right back, you’ll be all right.’

      She’d fallen to her knees beside him as she spoke, straightening him out on the ground as best she could when he was still struggling, pushing at her and trying to talk.

      ‘Lie still, you big lunk,’ she yelled, and apparently shocked him into immobility. Seizing her chance, she tilted back his head in case CPR became necessary, automatically feeling for a pulse, counting his breaths, more gasps than breaths.

      ‘He was waving his hands then started gasping,’ Sally was explaining, but Kate had already found the tiny sting the bee had left behind, barely visible on the lobe of the man’s right ear.

      ‘It’s anaphylactic shock,’ she said as she pulled the sting out and felt in the man’s pockets for a pen. ‘Did any of you know he had allergies? That he was allergic to bee stings?’

      The men looked blankly at her but there was no time to explain.

      Tilting the patient’s head farther back, she leaned forward, refusing to even consider the lips she was about to touch as anything other than an anonymous patient’s. Although as she closed her mouth over his, breathing air into his lungs, trying to force it in through a passage she knew would be closing more and more, a shiver of something she couldn’t understand ran down her spine.

      Between breaths she reassured her patient, who was nearly comatose but still struggling, though feebly, against her.

      It was Billy who brought the first-aid kit, and Kate, knowing an ambulance would take at least another twenty minutes to reach the property, didn’t hesitate.

      Opening the big case, she searched for the epinephrine injection she’d told her father to keep there. Either he hadn’t bothered or it had been used, emptied and not replaced. She found a scalpel, still in its sterile wrapping, and a small roll of plastic tubing—heaven only knew its real use. Using scissors, she cut a small piece then pulled on gloves.

      The skin on the man’s neck was smooth and tanned, and her hand hesitated for a fraction of a second but she knew what had to be done.

      She’d drawn the scalpel from its sheath and moved her hand towards that smooth, tanned skin, when one of the entourage stepped forward and, to her astonishment, pulled out a gun.

      A small gun, but no less deadly than a big one would be, of that she was sure.

      He muttered something at her in his own language and Kate turned to Ibrahim.

      ‘His throat has swollen and he can’t breathe—I need to make a hole and breathe into it for him until he can manage on his own. I am a doctor, I can do this.’

      Ibrahim nodded and apparently СКАЧАТЬ