Chapter Thirteen

Eden Martin watched the investigative team work to validate her and David’s findings, but her mind was occupied with the imminent arrival of the rest of the party. Abby would not have been happy with the situation. They should have met her partner long before five years had passed. Their beautiful, willful daughter, who had such a love of life, would never come home again, and that was still difficult to believe. The feeling of acute loss was overwhelming, and she showed it more so than her husband did. David simply lost himself in their work to hide his pain. She believed grieving was essential, and she had done that for a long time.

In some ways, she blamed the woman who was on her way to see them. At one time, in the early days of her anguish, she had considered leaving the company and moving over to the Cole operation as their friend Randy had done. David wouldn’t allow it. He knew it was her grief talking, and that eventually she would see that it wouldn’t have been right for them. And she had, although it had taken months since other family issues had come into play during that period. Now, she wondered if fate had intervened by allowing them to focus entirely on their work. If the outcome was what she thought it would be, they had the potential to help improve thousands of lives.

“Eden, would you mind going over a few things with Doctor Lawrence here?” Peter St. Clare asked the woman quietly. He had seen her preoccupation and didn’t want to startle her. From all the reports he’d read over the past few days, Harry was going to be ecstatic, despite the injury to her ankle. All they had to do now was get the samples confirmed with a rudimentary synthetic product; then, they would know the exact potential of the find. Nichola Ralston was needed now.

“Sure, I’ll be happy to go over whatever the doctor wants.”

“Thanks.”

As he spoke, a bell could be heard ringing from the main camp and Eden turned to the sound. They’re here at last!

Nicky felt like shit. Her legs were like lead weights, each step an effort of mind over matter. Only the image of the main camp and what she would find there kept her on her feet.

Manuel had discreetly supported her for the last half hour; without his aid, she doubted that she would have made it. Harry had taken some painkillers and had fallen asleep, so she hadn’t seen the pair change from leaders to stragglers. Jacob had given her a concerned glance as he and Roja moved forward. The native guide merely shook his head, presumably at the vulnerability of women under difficult conditions.

The camp was close. Nicky heard the ringing of the bell that indicated visitors were approaching. Not only was the bell useful, but at times, an essential part of the communication process. Harry and the others would be there already. They had moved ahead and out of view a few minutes before.

“Not far now, Nicky. Just around the ridge. How would it be if I carried you?” He spoke in his native tongue and gave her a shy smile. He knew that the young woman was independent and didn’t want to show weakness. If she expended all her energy and sapped her strength, she would have difficulty fighting of the effects of the malaria.

“No! Please, Manuel, I can’t go into camp that way. It is very important to me, you will understand when we get there.” Her voice rasped in her throat, and she felt the perspiration dripping from every pore in her body. Even knowing it was bordering on suicidal, she had to enter the camp under her own power. I must!

“Okay. We are near. Just a few more yards and the camp will be there.”

The steamy confines of the jungle opened miraculously to allow them into a clearing that held several cabin like buildings and three or four tents. People were getting closer, but she could hardly see them in her fevered haze. Still, she’d made it on her own.

A seemingly friendly native lifted Harry off the stretcher and gently placed her in a comfortable-looking chair. She didn’t actually know if he was friendly or not, but at least he was smiling. Her eyes roamed around the camp and saw Eric and another much shorter man looking beyond her to the entrance of the camp. When Harry glanced in that direction, what she saw tore at her heart. Nicky, who had generously helped her throughout the trek, was stumbling into the camp aided by Manuel.

Why the hell doesn’t that guy pick her up and help her? The shorter man was rapidly walking towards the two newcomers, while Eric made his way over to her. “Who is that, Eric?” Harry asked, her eyes never leaving Nicky. What is wrong with her?

“David Martin,” the large man said quietly as he watched the scene unfold. The camp was silent as the others watched as David Martin and Nicky Ralston met face to face.

What happened next Harry was sure she would remember the rest of her life as a moment when she was actually at a loss for words.

“Nic?”

Silver green eyes, glazed in fever, looked into a mirror of concern in matching eyes. “Daddy, I’ve missed you.” The words seemed to echo around the camp as the woman pitched forward into her father’s arms. He picked her up as if she was a featherweight and walked with surprising speed toward a cabin, as several natives joined him.

“Daddy? Daddy? Did I hear that right, Eric? David Martin is her father?” Harry was open mouthed. How can that be? Why didn’t I know that Nicky was related? That makes her Abby’s…

Eric felt sorry for the woman beside him going through her own hell as she tried to comprehend everything at once. “Yeah. Nicky is David and Eden’s youngest daughter, Abby’s sister.”

“Why? Why didn’t I know? Why didn’t she ever say?” Her whispering voice shook in disbelief. Suddenly, the bell was being rung vigorously by one of the natives.

“You need to ask her that when she feels better. Now they want the doctor and Eden. She’s going to be livid at Nicky’s condition.”

“She’s not the only one; I’m upset, too. She’s my responsibility; even more so now! What could be wrong with her? She was okay a few days ago, even this morning.”

“From what I could see and what I heard David say when he spotted her, malaria.”

“Malaria? What the hell! How did she get that? We were all inoculated, or so I was informed. Will she be alright?”

“Harry, she is in the best possible hands. Her parents know how to handle this. Nicky has suffered before. Obviously she didn’t take the necessary precautions. Knowing that kid, she was out and about in the rain and wasn’t protected against the mosquitoes, either.”

There was a commotion as Eden Martin arrived at the camp. Someone was speaking to her in a native tongue and what she heard made her ruddy complexion turn ashen. She swiftly mounted the steps of the largest cabin on the site and went inside. Rita Lawrence, her medical bag in hand, followed within a few strides.

“I’ll help you to the cabin. You might get some rest yourself.” Eric had seen the look of horror pass over her face. Something is wrong here and whatever it is, I need to find out and make it all okay.

Harry sat quietly digesting what she knew and what she felt. This woman, Nichola Ralston, had opened a heart she thought was dead. Now she was lying gravely ill, not knowing how much she was cared for. “My God, this just makes it all worse. Oh God, Abby, what would you think of me now?”

Abby’s voice whispered to her again. It will be all right. Continue down this path, Harry.

“But what if I get lost?”