Free A Secret Shared... by Marion Lennox

that...she had a great life. She went to uni, had fun, met a gorgeous boy and married him, had Harry. Nothing stopped her.’
    ‘I don’t...I don’t like karate,’ Susie managed, and Jack had to suppress a smile. Harry’s tragedy, Beth’s death were taking a back seat to Susie’s problems. Of course they were. Could any adolescent be different?
    ‘Sports come in all shapes and sizes,’ he told her. He glanced out at the sea. ‘What about swimming? Do you like swimming with the dolphins?’
    ‘Yeah, but...’ She hesitated, licking her lips, and Jack knew she’d still be struggling with the feeling of coming out of the fog. Her mouth would be thick and dry, she needed fluids, then rest with quiet. But for some reason instinct told him he should go along with this conversation. ‘I wanted to dance,’ she whispered, and he knew he was right.
    ‘So why don’t you?’
    ‘She had an episode at dance class last year,’ her mum said. ‘The girls...weren’t very kind.’
    ‘Ouch. Other girls can be horrid at your age,’ Jack said bluntly. ‘Beth used to complain about them, too. But she never let them stop her. Do you know that one person in every fifty is an epileptic? Two people in every hundred. So I’m willing to bet that some of the most famous dancers in the world are epileptic.’
    ‘They can’t be,’ Susie breathed.
    ‘Want to bet?’ Jack demanded. ‘Tell you what, if I’m wrong I’ll let all the kids bury me up to my neck in sand and leave me there for an hour. But I bet I’m right. I have my computer here, and a printer. I’ll look it up tonight and I’ll have a list of dancers who have epilepsy sitting on your doorstep tomorrow.’
    ‘You’re...silly,’ Susie managed.
    ‘He is.’ Harry beamed. Finally, here was something he agreed with. ‘Jack’s silly.’
    ‘And I hope he’s not bothering you.’ It was Kate; of course it was Kate. How long had she been there, on the other side of the screens, listening and waiting for a chance to break in? He tugged back the screen and she was calmly sitting on the sand, with Maisie’s head in her lap, as if this was where she sat all the time. ‘Jack’s an excellent doctor but he can be silly,’ she told Susie, as if she’d been part of the conversation all along. But there was no mention of what had just happened. No fuss. ‘I went to university with him,’ she told Susie. ‘So I should know.’
    ‘He says I can still dance,’ Susie faltered.
    ‘Then make him prove it.’
    ‘He says he will. I...hope.’
    ‘Then, silly or not, if he says he will then he will,’ Kate said, smiled down at Susie. ‘You feeling okay now?’
    ‘I... Yes.’
    ‘Not too fuzzy-headed to swim with the dolphins this afternoon?’
    ‘No!’
    ‘Maybe a wee rest first?’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘Great,’ Kate said, and moved on, as if the whole episode was behind them.
    * * *
    ‘How did you know what happened?’ Jack demanded, as Susie and her mum made their way back to the bungalows, walking hand in hand as if nothing had happened.
    ‘I saw,’ Kate said. ‘I was about to come up but then you took over. Thank you.’
    ‘You’re welcome.’ He hesitated. ‘How many medical problems do you have in this place?’
    ‘More now that I’m here,’ she said. ‘We don’t advertise medical care, but now I’m here we don’t turn away kids with conditions like Toby’s. But Susie doesn’t need medical care. She just needs...confidence.’ She smiled down at Harry. ‘And, Harry, your Jack might be silly but he did a great job looking after Susie. He said just the right thing. I’m grateful.’
    What was there in that to make a man want to blush? Nothing. It was a simple compliment, nothing more. But Kate’s smile transferred itself to him and he definitely wanted to blush. Or something.
    That smile had stayed the same since the first time he’d met her.
    That smile was really something.
    ‘You want to meet the dolphins now?’ Kate asked Harry, and the