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knowing things no one around them could know. Kate could feel her own gaze softening this time. Acknowledging the simplification of what had been a major intervention. That tiny gap between life and death and the battle that had been fought. And won.
    Lucy accepted the explanation. It was almost all she needed. ‘Why?’ she asked quietly.
    ‘Sometimes when things get bumped they can break or bleed, and if that’s happening in the spaces where air is supposed to be, it makes people very sick.’
    ‘Where is he now?’
    ‘He’s gone to have an operation. To fix any broken bits and to make sure nothing’s bleeding inside.’
    ‘Will he be all right?’
    Rory was as focussed on Lucy as the girl was on him. His arms were still around the smaller girl, who had put her thumb into her mouth and was leaning back, looking up, as though she was also listening and finding reassurance in his words.
    Kate was watching, too. So captured by this scene she hadn’t even thought of moving. It was no surprise when she found a small boy by her side. And then another on the other side. Rory had always drawn people towards him. Especially children. Her hands seemed to find their hands without any conscious effort and they stood in a little row. Hand in hand.
    Watching. Listening. Holding their breath as they waited for the verdict on Michael to be delivered.
    The children on either side of her wouldn’t be seeing what Kate saw. A man who respected children enough to be as honest as their level of understanding allowed. Someone so sincere they instinctively trusted him. Did he know he won that trust so easily? Was that why he’d always been so honest with them?
    This was the man Kate had come to love so much. Not the brilliant physician or the fun-loving party animal. Not even the gorgeous poster boy with the perfect look for a model young doctor. He could have been short and dumpy and bald and she would still have loved him for the way he cared so much.
    ‘Michael’s still very sick,’ he told his small audience gravely. ‘But there are lots of people who are working very hard to try and make him better. Our job is to be brave while we wait and to look after each other. Can you do that?’
    Lucy nodded slowly. ‘But what about Aunty Mary?’
    ‘I’ll go and find out for you.’
    ‘She had a sore nose,’ one of the boys beside Kate piped up. ‘I saw   lots   of blood.’
    ‘I saw more than you did, Alex,’ the other boy said. ‘I got some on my shirt—see?’
    The small girl pulled her thumb from her mouth. ‘I want to go home,’ she informed Rory.
    ‘What’s your name, poppet?’
    ‘Nicola.’
    ‘And you don’t have anything that’s sore?’
    A small blonde head shook vigorously. ‘We have to go home,’ she said with considerable urgency. ‘Josie’s having her baby.’
    Rory’s eyebrows rose and his tone evinced surprise. ‘ Is   she?’
    Lucy scrubbed at her face. ‘She   might   be having her baby,’ she said, with all the authority of being the eldest. She gave Rory a look that put them on an equal footing in the authority stakes. ‘She’s late,’ she explained. ‘Aunty Mary says she can’t for the life of her understand why she hasn’t had her baby already, but maybe it’s because it’s Christmas and she wants it to be a present for us all.’
    Rory nodded, but the glance he sent Kate held a distinct edge of concern. ‘And Josie’s at home? All by herself?’
    ‘In the stable,’ the boy called Alex confirmed.
    ‘That’s where she lives,’ the other boy added.
    Kate could see Rory relax. She saw the beginnings of a smile that made her grip the small hands within hers a little more tightly.
    ‘And Josie is…?’
    ‘Our   donkey ,’ the children chorused.
    ‘Her real name’s Josephine,’ Lucy said. ‘Because of—you know—donkeys and Christmas and stuff. Mary was riding a donkey because—’
    ‘Not   Aunty   Mary,’ Alex interrupted. ‘The Mary in the story.’
    ‘Shut