‘I never asked.’

Flora rolled her eyes. ‘Men! OK. Well, to keep it brief, Logan was married before. His first wife died in childbirth, here on Glenmore. There was a terrible storm and he couldn’t get her off the island and she…’ Flora bit her lip. ‘Well, she died. There isn’t time to tell you more than that. There was nothing anyone could do, but don’t try telling Logan that because he still blames himself.’

‘Right.’ Conner lifted his eyes and stared at his cousin’s retreating shoulders. ‘So we can expect him to be very relaxed and calm about the whole thing.’

‘If he can’t get Evanna off Glenmore for the delivery, he’ll probably have a breakdown. We have to be very, very sensitive about this whole situation,’ Flora said quietly, and Conner shot her a look, his expression faintly mocking.

‘Sensitive? Perhaps I should just leave right now.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. We need a plan. You can deliver the baby, I’ll reassure Evanna and Logan—’

‘No way.’ Conner lifted his hands and stopped her in mid flow. ‘I don’t deliver babies. The only thing I know about babies is how not to produce them.’

Flora stared at him. ‘Are you telling me you’ve never delivered a baby before? You’re a doctor.’

His gaze was sardonic. ‘There isn’t a great deal of need for obstetrics in the army. Of course I’ve delivered a few babies but let’s just say that my experience in that area is limited.’

‘Mine, too. But we mustn’t let them know that.’ Flora bit her lip and thought fast. ‘It doesn’t matter. I can deliver the baby as long as it’s straightforward. If there’s a problem, you’ll have to help. It will be fine. What they really need is reassurance. We just need to be confident. Really confident. Babies come by themselves…’ she glanced at him doubtfully ‘…usually.’

‘I can do confident,’ Conner said, a trace of humour in his eyes, ‘but I can tell you now that Logan isn’t going to let me touch his wife.’

‘Logan is traumatised. He’ll do what we tell him.’ She pushed him through the door and he lifted an eyebrow.

‘I didn’t know you were capable of being so dominating. Don’t ever expect me to believe you’re shy after this performance.’

Flora shrugged. ‘You don’t know me at all, do you?’

‘Evidently not.’

They found Evanna in the breakfast room, a huge sunny room at the back of the house that adjoined the kitchen and looked over the garden.

‘You can’t possibly want to push,’ Logan was saying in a hoarse voice, his arm round Evanna’s shoulders. ‘This is your first baby. First babies take ages. Days sometimes.’