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that moment saved Kerry from having to answer the question and both women pulled faces.
    'Did you feel that hot north wind this morning?' Kerry said. 'Worst weather for fires. But the change is due through late this afternoon from the south-west, with rain.'
    'Thank goodness! Although the season isn't over yet.'
    'We're always at the mercy of the climate in this country, aren't we?'
    'You don't have to tell me! I'm a farmer's daughter.'
    It took two hours to go through all the formalities that Personnel dictated to be necessary, and Lucy was finally free for a late lunch, which she ate quickly in the staff cafeteria, sitting alone as she tried to collate her first impressions. It hadn't been a typical day so far, but the signs were good, and there was that subtle, indefinable sense that the accident and emergency department was a happy one, and ran smoothly.
    She wasn't surprised, since it had Malcolm Lambert at its head. He was the kind of man who knew when his staff were happy, and cared if they weren't.
    He'd even found time to care today, she found a moment later as his shadow fell over her table and he pulled up a chair to sit down. 'Did Personnel terrorise you with forms?' he asked.
    'A bit. And I'd forgotten to bring my tax file number.'
    'You bad person!'
    'I know. I have a mental block about my tax file number. Would a sensible person commit it to memory?'
    'I've asked myself the same question in the past. I can reel off the first three digits of it, but somehow, to people who concern themselves with such things, that's never enough, and they want the whole nine.'
    'Good heavens! How petty of them!' she teased.
    'I know. Like us boring medical people insisting on knowing exactly what prescription medicine someone is taking, not just that it's "something for my heart". But, seriously, no problems so far?'
    'None,' she answered him truthfully. 'It's a lovely hospital, isn't it?' she went on, perhaps too quickly. 'The setting, I mean. All surrounded by trees and wild bushland, yet so close to the centre of the city.'
    'The only thing I regret about having chosen to work in emergency medicine,' he answered, 'is that A and E departments are always on the ground floor.'
    'I think there's a reason for that,' she dared to tease again.
    'I know.' He laughed. 'But every now and then I do envy obstetricians and cardiologists and renal specialists, who get to stroll around on the upper floors when they do their rounds and take in that glorious view of the surrounding trees and the mountains to the west through the windows of every ward.'
    They'd always been able to talk easily like this, Lucy remembered as he got up to leave a few minutes later. He'd eaten hungrily and fast—she suspected this was breakfast as well as lunch for him today—and hadn't slowed himself down with tea or coffee. He'd insisted that she do so, however, so she had time to think after he'd gone.
    Which wasn't, perhaps, a good thing. She thought about him , and all those times six years ago when they'd sat quietly together over meals. She realised only now, for the first time, just how strong a foundation they'd laid, during those times, for what had happened afterwards. She realised, too, how little either of them had understood about the danger.
    And she wondered if it would have happened if Malcolm hadn't been drinking. She wondered if it would have happened if she'd realised earlier that she'd been in love with him then.
    They'd been standing outside Gabrielle's—Ellie's— door. There had been a nightlight plugged into a power outlet in the hall at ankle level, giving the thickly carpeted space a dim golden glow. He'd smelled—not unpleasantly—of the red wine he'd been drinking, and she'd already made a mental note to herself: headache tablets and B vitamins and lots of fluids for him in the morning.
    Her heart had ached for him so badly. Perhaps that had been why she hadn't guessed much sooner how she'd truly felt. She'd had such overwhelming