Determined not to boost his ego by revealing her thoughts, Flora screwed up her face and adopted what she hoped was a puzzled expression. ‘Conner…Conner…The name is familiar—were you below me at school? Or were you above me?’

His blue eyes glinted with wicked humour. ‘I don’t recall ever being above or below you, Flora,’ he murmured softly, ‘but that may be my defective memory.’

She felt the heat flare in her cheeks and remembered, too late, that anyone trying to play word games with Conner was always going to lose. His brain and his tongue worked in perfect unison whereas hers had always been slightly disconnected. Without fail she thought of the perfect thing to say about two days after the opportunity to say it had passed.

‘Well, you do look vaguely familiar,’ she said quickly, stepping back and concentrating her attention on Logan to cover up how unsettled she felt. A moment ago she’d been happily existing in the present, enjoying her life. The next she’d been transported back to her childhood and it was a lonely, uncomfortable place. If this was time travel, then she wanted none of it.

She’d had such a desperate, agonising crush on Conner. A crush that had been intensified by the fact that her father had forbidden her to mix with him. ‘Sorry to disturb your reunion, but Amy Price just rang me. Heather has chickenpox.’

‘And?’ Logan frowned. ‘Tell her to buy some paracetamol and chlorpheniramine from the pharmacy.’

‘I’m not worried about Heather. I’m worried about your wife. Evanna saw the child in clinic yesterday.’

‘And the child would have been infectious.’ Understanding dawned and Logan cursed softly. ‘Has Evanna had chickenpox?’

‘I don’t think so. That’s why I thought you ought to know straight away. I remember talking about it with her a few months ago. She was telling me that her mother sent her off to play with everyone who had chickenpox, but she never caught it.’

‘Chickenpox is a disease that you don’t want to catch in the third trimester of pregnancy.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

Somehow she was managing to have a normal conversation with Logan, but her head and senses were filled with Conner. In some ways he’d changed, she mused, and yet in others he hadn’t. The muscular physique was the reward of manhood but other things—the air of supreme indifference and the ice-blue eyes—had been part of the boy.

What was he doing here, anyway? Like everyone else, she’d assumed he’d never show his face on the island again.

Logan walked to his desk. ‘I’ll call Evanna now.’

‘I’ve already done it. She’s about to start her clinic, but she’ll come and talk to you first. I thought you might want to delay your first patient or pass him across to the new doctor when he arrives.’