‘I’m sure you were.’
It was her turn to smile. ‘Now I’m pleased they didn’t. Can I ask you something?’
‘You can ask. I don’t promise to answer.’
‘There was a spate of minor shoplifting at that time but everyone else was taking sweets and crisps. You took the oddest assortment of things. What did you want it all for?’
Conner leaned back and smiled. ‘I was making a bomb.’
* * *
‘He blew up the science lab!’ Flora stood in front of Logan, trying to make him to see reason.
‘Funny.’ Logan scanned the lab result in front of him. ‘Conner said that you’d bring that up.’
‘Of course I’m bringing it up. It says everything about the type of person he is.’
‘Was.’ Logan lifted his eyes to hers. ‘It tells you who he was. Not who he is.’
‘You really think he’s changed?’
‘Are you the same person you were at fifteen?’
Agonisingly shy, barely able to string a sentence together in public. Flora flushed. ‘No,’ she said huskily. ‘Of course not.’
Logan shrugged. ‘Perhaps he’s changed, too.’
‘And what if he hasn’t? What sort of doctor is he going to make?’
‘An extremely clever one. Most people wouldn’t have had such a good understanding of the reactivity series to cause that explosion. Anyway, I thought you were relieved that I’d found another doctor.’
‘I was, but I never thought for a moment it would be—I mean, Conner?’ Flora’s expression was troubled. ‘He’s right, you know. The locals won’t be happy. What if they make life difficult for him?’
‘They always did. He’ll cope. Conner is as tough as they come.’
‘I can’t believe he’s a doctor. How did you find out? I mean, he vanished without trace.’
‘I stayed in touch with him.’ Logan lifted his gaze to hers. ‘He’s my cousin, Flora. Family. I knew he was a doctor. When I knew I needed help, he seemed the obvious choice.’
‘Are you sure? He used to be very unstable. Unreliable. Rebellious. Disruptive.’ Attractive, compelling, addictive.
‘You’re describing the teenager.’
‘He created havoc.’ she looked at him, wondering why she had to remind him of something that he must know himself. ‘He was suspended from school three times. If there’d been an alternative place for him to go, I’m sure he would have been expelled. Not only did he blow up the
science lab, he set off a firework in the library, he burned down the MacDonalds’ barn—the list of things he did is endless. He was wild, Logan. Totally out of control.’ And impossibly, hopelessly attractive. There hadn’t been a woman on Glenmore who hadn’t dreamed of taming him. Herself included.
She’d wanted to help.
She’d wanted…
She pushed the thought away quickly. She’d been a dreamy teenager but she was an adult now, a grown woman and far too sensible to see Conner as anything other than a liability.
‘His parents were going through a particularly acrimonious divorce at the time. There were lots of rumours about that household. My aunt—his mother—left when he was eleven. That’s tough on any child.’ Logan turned his attention back to the pile in his in-tray. ‘Enough to shake the roots of any family. It’s not surprising he was disruptive.’
‘He isn’t interested in authority.’
Logan threw the pen down on his desk. ‘Perhaps he thinks that those in authority let him down.’