Free The Doctor Claims His Bride by Fiona Lowe Page B

I haven’t nailed it yet.’ Mia shot him a smile—a mixture of determination and challenge with a spark of something he knew was just for him.
    A picture thudded into his mind of Mia lying next to him, her eyes shining with laughter and lust. His blood immediately pounded hard and fast and he breathed out slowly, filling his mind with every reason why he couldn’t act on this attraction. His body ignored him.
    Mia sat Alice up and showed her the stethoscope and then listened to her heart. ‘I can hear a diastolic murmur.’
    She was getting close but he’d seen doctors get it wrong.
    Mia stroked Alice’s hair and then she came and sat down next to Flynn, her eyes perceptive and keen. ‘Does she have rheumatic fever?’
    He nodded slowly. ‘She does. You did well.’
    She half smiled and half grimaced, as if making the correct diagnosis was, in fact, the wrong thing.
    He understood how she felt. Sometimes being right didn’t give you a buzz of satisfaction.
    Mia bit her lip. ‘You’re right, I’ve never seen it before. Mind you, I hadn’t seen too much scabies either, although down south the kids all seem to get molluscum contagiosum.’ She glanced back to Alice, who clutched her bear close. ‘Poor little thing, no wonder she’s feeling so sick.’
    He rubbed his chin. ‘Current thinking is that scabies is the cause.’
    Mia started. ‘But I thought rheumatic fever followed a strep throat infection. How do skin mites fit into the picture?’
    He leaned forward, enjoying having such an enthusiastic student. ‘Untreated scabies causes skin infections and streptococcus is the culprit. Alice has scabies and her body is busy fighting the strep bacteria, but certain body tissues are similar so we get antibodies fighting heart values and joints.’
    Mia nodded, following his line of thought. ‘And that’s rheumatic fever.’
    ‘Yes, but the strep also causes glomerulonephritis, which leads to kidney disease.’
    Understanding crossed her face. ‘I wondered why there seemed to be such a high rate of kidney problems here. I don’t suppose all those dogs help.’
    ‘Actually, the dogs are in the clear. Mange is caused by a different mite altogether and doesn’t cause human scabies.’ He stood up and walked over to Alice. ‘Skin disease is also linked to high rates of gastroenteritis and pneumonia in kids. Their bodies are so busy fighting the skin infection, they have no reserves left to fight other bugs.’
    Mia’s blue eyes shimmered as the reality of poverty and overcrowding hit home. ‘So next week I get creative on how to tackle the scabies problem.’
    Her compassion and caring wafted over him and for a brief moment he wondered what it would be like to have her care for him.
    Every protective barrier shot back into place with a loud clang. Women don’t care for you. They leave you when you love them .
    ‘So what’s the treatment plan for Alice?’
    Mia’s question broke into his thoughts, grounding him. Giving him a perfect reason to leave Kirra today and avoid the wedding. ‘Good old penicillin, and ongoing treatment with antibiotics. She’ll need an echocardiogram, an ECG and a full blood examination, as well as bed rest. I’ll take her to Darwin.’
    Mia’s pen paused over her notebook and she stared straight at him, confusion darkening her eyes. ‘But we can do all that here except the echocardiogram.’
    ‘Which is why I’ll take her to Darwin.’ The words rushed out brusque and snappy.
    She raised her brows and walked over to a list pinned up on the wall, trailing her long, slender fingers down the paper, pausing halfway down. ‘The cardiologist is due here for his bimonthly visit on Friday and it clearly says, “Echo clinic.”’
    She spun back to face him, a conspiratorial smile flitting across her cheeks. ‘I can sweet-talk the appointments clerk into accepting Alice, and as you say over and over, if we don’t have to evacuate a patient so much the better. And that way you