Marion Lennox – Saving Maddie's Baby (страница 1)
‘Marion Lennox’s
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‘A very rewarding read. The characters are believable, the setting is real, and the writing is terrific.’
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Meet the small but dedicated team of medics who service the remote Pacific Wildfire Island.
In this idyllic setting relationships are rekindled, passions are stirred, and bonds that will last a lifetime are forged in the tropical heat …
But there’s also a darker side to paradise—secrets, lies and greed amidst the Lockhart family threaten the community, and the team find themselves fighting to save more than the lives of their patients. They must band together to fight for the future of the island they’ve all come to call home!
Read Caroline and Keanu’s story in
Read Anna and Luke’s story in
Read Maddie and Josh’s story in
Read Sarah and Harry’s story in
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Wildfire Island is my dream destination—a tropical paradise where all things are possible. Our island is breathtakingly beautiful, its weather wonderful one day, perfect the next. I close my eyes and imagine myself soaking up the sun as I float by the waterfall feeding the freshwater lagoon, preferably holding a drink with a wee umbrella.
Of course all tropical paradises have their bad days, and that’s what happens in
MARION LENNOX has written over a hundred romance novels and is published in over a hundred countries and thirty languages. Her international awards include the prestigious RITA® Award (twice) and the
Saving Maddie’s Baby
Marion Lennox
To Meredith and Alison,
who make my writer’s life fun.
Table of Contents
HEROES AND HEROINES don’t choose to be brave, Maddie decided. Mostly they have bravery thrust upon them. In her particular case, a heroine was created when vast chunks of rock trapped one doctor in an underground mine, a mine she should never have been near in the first place.
This heroine wasn’t brave. This heroine was stupid.
Everyone knew the mine was dangerous. Ian Lockhart, the owner, had left Wildfire Island weeks ago, with salaries unpaid and debts outstanding. The mine had been closed for non-compliance with safety standards not long after Ian’s disappearance.
So whose bright idea had it been to see if they could tap one of the seams close to the surface?
There were reasons this seam hadn’t been tapped before. The rock was brittle. Without salaries, though, and desperate for income, the islanders had cut through the fence and quietly burrowed. No one was supposed to know.
But now … The call had come through an hour ago. A splintered piece of shoring timber and a minor rockfall had left one of the islanders with a fractured leg.
If it hadn’t been badly fractured they might have brought Kalifa down to the hospital, keeping their mining secret. Instead, his mates had had the sense to ring Maddie, asking her to come across the mountains to the overgrown mine site.
Maddie—Madeline Haddon—was heavily pregnant but she was the only doctor available. The miners had told her there were shards of bone puncturing Kalifa’s skin, so transporting him by road before assessment meant the risk of cutting off the blood supply.
She’d had to go.
Once at the mine site, it had taken work to stabilise him. Kalifa needed specialist surgery if he wasn’t to be left with a permanent limp, and she was worried about the strain on his heart. She’d just rung Keanu, the other island doctor, who was currently on his way back from a clinic on an outer island. She’d been asking him to organise Kalifa’s evacuation to Cairns when there was an ominous rumble from underground.
The mouth of the mine had belched a vast cloud of dirt and dust.
She’d thought Kalifa and the two friends who’d called her had been working alone. She’d never imagined there were men still in there. Surely not? But out they came, staggering, blinded by dust.
She’d been helping lift Kalifa into the back of the jeep—her jeep was set up as a no-frills ambulance, used in emergencies for patient transport. She’d turned and gazed in horror as the miners stumbled out.