Back cometh the ogre…

‘I thought I introduced myself,’ she made herself say, replacing his smile with one of her own. ‘That makes me not a stranger, Dr Niall Mountmarche.’

She was fighting here. For Harry…

For a moment she expected a stinging rebuff. He wanted to give her one-she could tell.

Then Niall looked down again at the dog in Jessie’s arms and his look softened. If he was fighting a war then he was losing. Somewhere inside was a soft core.

‘I guess you’re not,’ he said slowly and in his voice was a small note of discovery. ‘Well, Dr Harvey. If you’re not a stranger then I suggest you act like a medical colleague. And we’ve got a job to do. So let’s get on with it.’

He stooped and took the dog from her as though the creature was weightless and, as Jessie supported the trapped pad, Niall swung Harry gently up to lie cradled against his body.

The impression of a man of compassion was stirring and beginning to grow. Jessie looked up at man and dog-and there was something else stirring within that she didn’t want to think about.

Niall Mountmarche met her look and his eyes widened.

It was as if he’d read her thoughts.

As if there was some sort of communication channel between them that needed no words. That was beyond words…

She was being ridiculous.

With a mammoth effort Jessie tore her eyes away, made sure Niall’s hand was supporting the injured pad and then turned to find her bag.

‘Let…let’s go, then, Dr Mountmarche,’ she said unsteadily and fumbled in the undergrowth for her belongings.

‘Let’s go.’ Niall Mountmarche repeated and by his words Jessie knew that she wasn’t imagining it.

Whatever she was feeling, Niall Mountmarche was feeling it too.

They didn’t talk on the walk to the house.

Jessie walked swiftly beside Niall, struggling to keep up with his long strides, support the trap and watch the big dog’s pain-dulled eyes at the same time. He was so far gone. At any moment she expected to see those big eyes glaze over…

The Mountmarche house was three minutes’ walk along the creek bed. It was a ramshackle old homestead, grand in its day but long fallen into disrepair. Jessie had expected the house to be deserted but as they neared the house she stared in astonishment as a man emerged from the back door.

The man was elderly, wiry and wrinkled to almost prune-like appearance. He looked like a man who’d spent his life in the sun. Like he’d been dried in the sun…

‘What the…?’ The elderly man stopped short as he caught sight of the group emerging from the bushland. His hand rose to scratch his bald head in a gesture of bewilderment. ‘What’ve you got there, Doc?’

Doc…So Niall really was…

‘An injured dog,’ Niall said brusquely. He motioned with his head to Jessie by his side. ‘Hugo, this is Jessica Harvey, the local vet. The dog’s been caught in a trap, Hugo. Can you bring the Range Rover round before Paige sees us?’

She’d already seen. There was someone else emerging from the house behind Hugo.

‘Daddy…’ The word was a cry of shock.

Niall’s face changed. He faced the door of the house like a man expecting trouble.

‘Paige…’

A tiny, elfin-like creature was limping into the doorway.

She was maybe five or six-no more-with a body that was thin to the point of malnourishment. The child’s white-gold hair was tied with a red ribbon that only added to her paleness and her eyes were huge in her pinched, wan face.

The little girl’s body swayed a little as though she was unused to the crutches she was using for support. Both her stick-like legs were encased in callipers-iron frames that seemed too big for her tiny body.

‘Daddy…’ It was both an accusation and a cry of pain and Jessie saw Niall Mountmarche flinch like a man struck.

Silence stretched out. There was something going on here that Jessie had no idea of.

All she could do was to stand and wait.

And watch…

Finally, Niall seemed to come to a decision. He gently moved Harry in his arms so that he and not Jessie was supporting the injured pad. Then he carried the dog over to where Paige stood, stooping so that the child could see the injured animal.

‘Paige, I know I promised you no one would come,’ Niall said softly, and his voice reminded Jessie of the tone she used with wild creatures. ‘I promised it would be just you and Hugo and I. But this is Harry. He’s a three-year-old Border collie and his leg’s been caught in a rabbit trap. You can see that he’s dreadfully hurt.

‘Now, this lady is Dr Harvey and she’s the local vet. She’s been searching for Harry. If it’s OK with you I’m going to drive Dr Harvey and Harry down to the veterinary clinic and help her operate on Harry-but if 1 keep my promise to you and keep us completely to ourselves then I can’t help and Harry might die. It’s up to you, Paige.’

What on earth was he doing? Jessie looked from man to child in bewilderment.

The child was obviously almost as confused as Jessie. She looked from Jessie to the dog in her father’s arms and then back to Jessie. Her eyes didn’t trust Jessie one inch.

‘She’s…she’s a dog doctor?’ The voice was trembling.

‘Dr Harvey’s a dog doctor.’

The little girl looked down at Harry and her hand went out in involuntary compassion.

‘He’s…The doggie’s hurting.’

‘Yes, Paige,’ Niall told her, still in that low, gentle tone, as if expecting the child to turn and run. ‘He’s hurting badly. You can see that.’

‘And…and you can help the lady doctor make the dog better.’

‘You know I’m a doctor, too, Paige,’ Niall said gently. ‘It’s my job. If you agree.’

The child touched the dog’s soft ears.

‘He really could die?’

‘He really could die.’

The little girl sighed-the sigh of someone letting something precious go out of sight and not knowing if she’d ever see it again-but willing to take the risk. For something as priceless as the life of this dog.

‘You’ll be longer than when you go to the shops?’

‘Much longer, Paige. But Hugo will still be here.’

‘OK,’ Paige whispered. ‘But…But hurry back…’

The drive to the clinic was in near-silence. Jessie sat on the passenger side of Niall Mountmarche’s gleaming Range Rover with the dog cradled against her and let a thousand questions crowd through her mind as Niall drove.

There were answers to none of them.

The dog whimpered and stirred in her arms and Jessie’s hold on him tightened.

‘Soon,’ she whispered to the big collie.

It couldn’t be soon enough for Harry.

They operated on Harry fifteen minutes later.

‘Instructions, please,’ Niall said briefly as they carried the dog into Theatre.

Niall listened with care as Jess outlined the anaesthetic procedure. It wasn’t so different from human intubation. Niall flung fast questions at her and Jess began to relax as she responded. She not only had a skilled doctor here. In Niall Mountmarche, Jess had found someone who was prepared to learn and learn fast.

There was minimal delay.

As soon as the anaesthetic took effect the dreadful trap was removed, allowing Jessie to see what she was facing.

It was bad-but it could have been worse.

Swiftly, moving as a team with this strange new doctor, Jessie staunched the blood flow and X-rayed. Three of the metacarpals were fractured which meant that she’d have to fix the bones. There was necrotic tissue on the front of the pad and up the dog’s foreleg, as though infection had spread, but Niall was right. There was still circulation.

There was still hope.

Niall Mountmarche intubated the dog with skill, moving his obvious skills with human anaesthesia to the animal arena with thoughtfulness and intelligence. The questions he needed to know he asked before Jessie thought of telling him and she was left alone to concentrate on the wound.

It was enough.

She never could have coped with such a severely traumatised dog and vicious wound if she’d had to do the anaesthetic herself. Over and over in her head as she operated Jessie was offering silent prayers of thankfulness for this man’s arrival.

The dog would be dead without him.

It was a nasty piece of surgery, requiring all her skill.

The rotten flesh had to be cut away and dirt, grass and hay seeds carefully cleaned from the festering wound. It was a time-consuming task, made more difficult by the small number of blood vessels remaining viable.

Then the metacarpals had to be fixed into position with K-wire. If only one of the outer metacarpals had been broken Jess could have let it be but with three fractured the dog would lose function if they weren’t fixed.

A huge job…

Jess could amputate if she had to-but the shock of such radical surgery could be enough to kill an already weakened, frail animal. Even taking the trap from his foot without an anaesthetic might have been enough to send him over the edge.

At least the pad still had circulation because, miraculously, the rotten flesh hadn’t invaded the major blood vessels. Yet…Another half a day and it would have been too late.

Too late for both the leg and for Harry, Jessie thought grimly as she worked. He would have been dead from starvation and infection.

Not now…Please…If they gave him maximum dose antibiotic and intravenous fluid to rehydrate the body…

Niall Mountmarche had given the dog a chance at life. She had to be grateful.

Niall…

Even though her whole concentration was needed for the job in hand, Jessie couldn’t help being aware of the man working silently by her side. He was watching everything she did, she knew, and the thought, instead of making her feel nervous, in fact steadied her.

What on earth was such a man doing in a place like this? Growing wine? The thought seemed ridiculous and yet only hours ago the thought of him being a doctor had seemed ridiculous. And what was wrong with the little girl?