Read The Doctor's Society Sweetheart Online
Authors: Lucy Clark
The Doctor's Society Sweetheart (17 page)
‘Then why don’t we go to Tarparnii?’
‘But PMA has rules.’
‘Let’s see if we can’t…alter them a little.’ She nodded encouragingly. Dart looked at the woman before him, seeing that she was deadly serious.
‘You’re serious?’ He laughed. ‘You are.’
Emmy’s blue gaze was intent. ‘Why can’t we change things? What if we go to Tarparnii contracted not only to run but also to build a surgery and set it up. I’m talking about a real dedicated building with running water, not a bamboo hut. Think of how it will help Meeree and Jalak in their village. And in J’tagnan’s village, we could build another one.’ Emmy was becoming excited about the possibilities.
‘All of that takes money, investment backers.’
She spread her arms wide and angled her head to the side. ‘Why do you think I was meeting Felix?’
‘That’s why you were meeting him?’
‘I could see the other night that you weren’t comfortable with the paparazzi and even though you’re willing to put up with them, that’s no sort of lifestyle for our new life together.
I met Felix to get him to crunch some numbers, to see if it’s doable.’
‘Obviously it is.’
‘It is.’ She laughed and he knew he’d never get tired of hearing that sound. ‘This is going to work.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Why not?’
Dart was astounded. ‘You’d finance it?’
‘Most of it. I have trust funds from my parents and both sets of grandparents. I don’t need them, Dart. Money has brought me nothing but misery for most of my life so, yes, I think these projects will definitely work. My brother’s already on board and two of his colleagues are showing interest.’
‘You’ve been busy these past few days.’
‘I wanted to have your present ready to give you when I came to Brisbane to see you.’
‘You were really going to come?’
‘I was going to wait in a hospital waiting room, drinking vending-machine coffee, until you agreed to talk to me. Instead, you’ve come to find me.’
‘My heart belongs with yours, Em. Always will.’ Dart’s mouth settled over hers and Emmy had never felt better in her life.
She was finally home, in the place where she’d always belonged, in Dart’s arms, for evermore.
Two years later, Emmy sat looking out of the plane window at Sydney Harbour below. They were coming home to Australia and she was surprised not to get that same excited feeling she’d had on previous occasions whenever she’d been away from her country.
She looked across at her husband, who was pretending to snooze, his head back, his eyes closed. That’s when the excited feelings started tingling within her. Her husband, being with him, staying together, that was where her happiness came from now and it was just the way she wanted it.
They were returning to Sydney for her brother’s wedding after spending the past eighteen months working in Tarparnii, erecting clinic buildings, complete with running water and proper examination beds rather than stretchers, in several villages. There was still a lot of work to do but she and Dart had trained other PMA personnel and soon, after the wedding, they were looking forward to relocating themselves to Cairns, in far north Queensland.
‘It’s close to Tarparnii, the climate is similar and I’ve never lived there before so we can make fresh memories. Our memories,’ Dart had said, and kissed her.
Now Emmy couldn’t wait for the wedding to be over. Tristan had gone the road of the big society wedding, which was just fine for him. Emmy and Dart had been married
on a golden-sand beach at sunrise, no press, no fanfare, just the two of them with a few of their close friends, Emmy’s camera crew taping the ceremony for posterity. Their
real
wedding had taken place in Tarparnii, with their PMA friends around them for the
par’Mach
festival, which was where the Tarparniian women chose their life partners. There, she and Dart had been bound together for all eternity.
A smile touched her lips as she twirled the plain gold wedding band she’d worn for almost two years before she entwined her hand with Dart’s strong, lean fingers…fingers that knew every part of her body, knowing just where to touch, to excite, to love.
He opened his eyes. ‘Are we almost there?’
‘We are. Four days of press, of interviews, of smiling until your cheek muscles hurt. The paparazzi are going to be all over this wedding.’
Dart shrugged. ‘Good for the paparazzi. I’m more concerned about you.’ He reached over and touched her stomach with his free hand, caressing her belly and knowing her pregnancy would soon start to show. For now, though, he loved it that it was just their secret.
She relaxed at his words, glad he’d now accepted that from time to time the press would invade their privacy. It didn’t last for ever, though. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘I’ll make sure you are.’
She leaned up and kissed him. ‘
My
protector.’
‘For ever,
my
Emerson-Rose.’
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2009
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18–24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Anne and Peter Clark 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4089-1844-9