She was so confused right now. And who was making all that noise? She shivered, pulling her coat closer around her. Rhuaridh. Sometimes thinking about him made her angry, sometimes it made her feel warm all over. Her mind would drift back to that second on the beach...then that second sitting in the woods together. Her life currently felt like a bad young adult romance novel.
‘Kristie. Kristie.’ Someone was shaking her. ‘We need to go. Here, give me the keys. I’ll drive.’
‘What? No?’ She stood up and promptly swayed and sat back down. Had she actually fallen asleep?
Gerry was looking at her oddly. ‘You’re sick,’ he said, holding out his hand for the car key. ‘I’ll drive. It’s the same place as last time.’
She thought about saying no. She knew Gerry didn’t like driving ‘abroad’, as he put it. But she was just so darned tired. She pushed the keys towards him. ‘Okay, just once. And don’t crash.’
* * *
‘Kristie? You need to drink something.’
She moved, wondering why the bed felt so lumpy, trying to turn around, but her face met an unexpected barrier. She spluttered and opened her eyes. Dark blue was facing her. What?
She pushed herself back, trying to work out why there was a solid wall of dark blue in the bedroom in the cottage.
The voice started again. ‘Kristie? Turn back this way. You need to drink something.’
Her brain wasn’t making sense. Was she dreaming?
She moved back around again. Opening her eyes properly. They took a moment to focus. Directly ahead was a flickering orange fire. She pushed herself up, the material underneath her unfamiliar, velvety to touch. She looked down. She wasn’t in her bed in the cottage. In fact, she didn’t recognise this place at all. ‘What? Wh...where am I?’
A face appeared before her. One she couldn’t mistake.
‘Rhuaridh?’
He nodded and knelt at the side of what she presumed must be his sofa. ‘Here.’ He held a glass of water with a straw. ‘Will you drink something?’
Her throat felt dry and scratchy. She grabbed the straw and took a drink of the cold water. Nothing had ever tasted so good.
She moved, swinging her legs so she was sitting up right. ‘Ooh...’ Her head felt as if she’d been pushed from side to side.
‘Careful. You haven’t sat up for over a day.’
She blinked and took a few breaths, looking down at the large, soft white T-shirt she was wearing, along with an unfamiliar pair of grey brushed-cotton pyjama bottoms.
‘Whose are these? And...’ she looked about again ‘...how did I end up here?’
Rhuaridh pulled a face. ‘The clothes? I guess they’re yours. I had to buy emergency supplies for you. And you ended up here because Gerry panicked. He couldn’t wake you up or get you out the car after you landed from the ferry. Your temperature was through the roof and you were quite confused.’
‘I was?’ She hated that she couldn’t remember a single thing about this. ‘But...you’re busy. You don’t have time to look after someone.’ She was suddenly very self-conscious that she staying in the doctor’s house.
He shrugged. ‘I’m the doctor. It’s what I do.’
Her head was feeling a little straighter. She tugged at the T-shirt self-consciously. ‘What’s been wrong with me?’
‘You’ve had some kind of virus.’
‘You’re a doctor, and that’s all you can tell me?’ she asked, without trying to hide her surprise.
‘Yes,’ he said as he smiled. ‘Your temperature has gone up and down as your body has fought off the virus. It made you a bit confused at times. You needed sleep to give your body a chance to do the work it had to.’
‘Why didn’t you send me to hospital?’
‘Because you didn’t need to go to hospital. You needed complete rest, simple paracetamol and some fluids.’ He stood up. ‘And some chicken soup—which I’ve just finished making. I’ll go and get you some.’
He walked away towards the kitchen then ducked back and gave her a cheeky wink. ‘You gave me five minutes of panic, though—you had a bit of a rash.’