Before now he hadn’t even considered it.
So what made him want to get behind those defences of hers and understand what made Bridget Gardiner tick?
Wasn’t he the one who talked about lines in the sand? About leaving their night of intimacy back in the UK, and focusing solely on a professional relationship out here? The way he wouldn’t have had any trouble doing had it been any other woman. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have given in to the temptation back home had she been any other woman.
And now wasn’t he the one blurring those lines?
As if to prove his point, Bridget cleared her throat, clearly pulling herself together.
‘Okay, well, the last week has been eventful. More frightening, draining, and sadder than I’d imagined it might be. Every other camp I’ve been to has had a small operating theatre and at least one surgeon, but this time we haven’t had even that. I don’t think I fully appreciated how many extra lives we could save with just one more tent and one more medical professional. And yet...’
‘And yet...?’ he prompted when she hesitated, keen to get them back to a more stable point, though he couldn’t have said why it mattered to him so much.
Or perhaps he could have said so if only he’d cared to admit it.
‘It always feels so satisfying when we manage to succeed. Even when we’ve had to endure losing three others, four, more, that one life we managed to save makes it all bearable.’
‘I can understand that, Birdie.’ He reached out to touch her cheek, but stopped himself. ‘So, what are you all working on now?’
She narrowed her eyes at him.
‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Why am I showing an interest in your part of
a joint charity-military project, do you mean?’ He arched his eyebrows.
‘Don’t be facetious. You know what I meant.’
The worst thing was that he did know, and he wasn’t at all sure what had got into him. He would never be so interested if it was anyone other than Bridget talking to him. But the fact remained he did truly want to hear about what she was doing, and how she was.
‘I want to know how you are, Birdie. We might be drawing a distinction between our personal lives and our work lives, but that doesn’t mean I can’t ask about you. About how you are.’
‘So you’re saying you really want to hear about my day?’ she repeated sceptically.
‘I really do.’
And he didn’t care what that said about how blurred his so-called lines were becoming.
‘Okay,’ she began slowly. ‘So, the main problems we get out here are complications during birth, water-borne illnesses, and one of the biggest diseases we’re dealing with here is kala-azar. It isn’t something you learn about back at home, but other people told me it was a major issue out here, so I researched a little. Still, I didn’t realise quite how many of our patients would be affected.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it,’ he admitted. Although, having been on operations in so many different countries, he’d heard of many diseases, even if he didn’t fully understand them.’
‘No, it isn’t something you really study back in the UK.’ Bridget exhaled, her passion and empathy twisting inside his chest. ‘Another name for it is visceral leishmaniasis and, similar to malaria and mosquitos, kala-azar is a parasitic disease spread by the bite of a sandfly.’
‘That’s concerning.’ Hayden frowned, trying to concentrate on what she was saying, and ignoring the inexplicable urge to draw her into his arms. ‘Sandflies are so tiny they can even get through the mesh on a standard mosquito net.’
‘Exactly. And it develops slowly with initial symptoms being fever, swollen glands and an enlarged spleen, which basically lowers the healthy red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells in the bloodstream, leaving the victim prone to more infections, which, in a place like this, is like inviting any number of sick buddies to the party. TB, malaria, diphtheria, malnutrition, cholera, measles...the list goes on.’
‘So I would guess that it’s usually the complications of other illnesses that bring them to you, rather than the initial symptoms of kala...what did you call it?’
He might not know this particular disease, but he’d worked in enough areas to know the score. In places like this, hours’ or even days’ walk from medical help, from foreigners who the locals didn’t necessarily yet trust, it was often too late by the time people sought help.
‘Kala-azar.’ She tilted her head. ‘And yes. The later symptoms usually include anaemia, severe wasting and/or anything else I mentioned. Left untreated, most cases of kala-azar prove fatal.’
Sadness burned in her eyes and he wondered how many cases she had seen already to look that way. And how old the sufferers had been.
Not for the first time, he was grateful for his job. He didn’t envy Bridget—or his sister, Mattie, for that matter—the job of working with the sick and dying out here.