'You are perfectly safe,' he snapped impatiently. 'I shall carry you to my boat.'
Luke was as careful as possible as he carried his burden across the narrow beach, but she was unconscious again by the time he deposited her in the well of the boat. In a black mood, he cast off and set off across the water on the short trip back to moor the boat at the marina, thankful, not for the first time, that his berth was well away from the tavernas. He secured the boat, then, praying she hadn't fractured her skull, Luke picked up his unconscious passenger who, though slender, was a dead weight. He braced himself, stepped up onto the quay and buckled her in the passenger seat of the Cherokee. Annoyed because he was breathing hard, he tucked the towel around her, shrugged off the backpack and drove back to the villa.
Spiro and Eleni hurried out to meet him, followed by Milos, the gardener, all of them exclaiming volubly over his unconscious passenger.
'My apologies, kyrie,' said Milos remorsefully. 'My mother needed me. What happened to the lady?'
'She fell on the rocks,' Luke growled, jumping out.
'Dr Riga is out on a call,' reported Spiro, looking worried.
Luke swallowed a curse. 'Will he be long?'
'Alex Nicolaides is home, kyrie. I saw him this morning. I could go down and fetch him,' Milos suggested.
Luke nodded grimly as he checked the girl's pulse. 'Get him here as fast as you can, please.'
'The poor young lady!' Eleni bent to mop the blood from the unconscious girl's temple as Milos rushed off. 'She has hurt her pretty face.'
'Let me help carry her upstairs,' offered Spiro, but Luke shook his head.
'I can manage. But I need you with me, please, Eleni.' As he released the safety belt the girl came round and struggled to sit upright, shrinking away from him in such terror that Luke's patience suddenly ran out.
'You are not in danger,' he snapped. 'I have brought you to my house.'
'No, really-I must get back to my cottage,' Isobel protested, horrified. Before he could stop her, she slid from the car, then gasped in agony as she put her weight on her injured ankle.
With a face like thunder, Luke scooped her up, ignoring Eleni's protests when the towel was left behind. He strode up the curving staircase to a large airy bedroom and deposited his unwilling burden in a chair. 'I will leave you with my housekeeper,' he panted and stalked out of the room.
The woman smiled sympathetically. 'I am Eleni. I speak a little English, but not good.' She took the girl's arm to help her over to the inviting white bed, but Isobel shook her head, a move she deeply regretted when the pain struck so hard the room swam before her eyes.
'Sick,' she gasped, clapping her hand to her mouth, and Eleni acted like lightning to help her hop into the adjoining bathroom. After a painful, humiliating episode, Isobel gasped her thanks and eventually gave in to Eleni's insistence that she remove the bikini, which had suffered badly during the day's various adventures. By this time totally beyond embarrassment, Isobel submitted to Eleni's ministrations as the woman helped her sponge her face and hot, aching body, then wrapped her in a white towelling robe.
'Thank-you-so-much,' said Isobel, teeth chattering in reaction as the woman helped her lie down against banked snowy pillows on the bed.
Eleni picked up the bikini. 'I wash this. You rest,' she said firmly and went out, closing the door behind her.
The session in the bathroom had rocketed Isobel's headache to hammer-blow dimensions, which almost blotted out the pain of her ankle but only accentuated her raging thirst as she tried to make sense of her accident. She remembered some idiot on a Jet Ski coming straight at the beach from the sea, then hitting her head and nothing else until she opened her eyes on the angry, handsome face of a stranger and assumed he was the culprit. Which had infuriated him. She tensed as the door opened and her hostile rescuer approached the bed.
'How do you feel?' he asked curtly.
'Not too well.' She swallowed. 'I'm so sorry to be a nuisance, but could I possibly have some water?'
Cursing silently for not thinking of it first, Luke nodded stiffly. 'Of course.'
Isobel watched him as he strode out of the room. He was tall, with a fabulous physique, and in a better mood would be very good-looking. Not that she was concerned with his hostility, or with anything else other than how in the world she was going to get herself out of here-wherever 'here' was-and get back to the little cottage she'd paid good money for. And one day of her holiday was already ruined. Tears leaked out of her eyes at the thought, but she knuckled them away, impatient with self-pity as her host returned with her backpack, followed by Eleni with a tray. The woman poured water into a glass and handed it to Isobel, then, at a look from her employer, went from the room, leaving the door wide open.
'Eleni has looked after my family for years,' he stated.
Desperate to gulp the water down, Isobel forced herself to sip cautiously. 'She's very kind.'
'I am not?'
'Of course.' Her face grew even hotter. 'I'm extremely grateful to you. And very embarrassed for causing so much trouble.'
Luke shrugged negligently. 'Tell me your name.'
'Isobel James.' She drank the rest of the water and held the cold glass to her cheek, eyeing him questioningly. 'And you are?'
He laughed scornfully. 'You do not know?'
She stiffened. 'I'm afraid not. I only arrived on the island yesterday.'
His dark eyes narrowed to a cynical glitter. 'So why were you on my beach? You paid someone to take you there by boat?'
Isobel's knuckles clenched on the glass. 'No. I went down the path nearest the cottage to the beach adjoining yours. But by mid-morning it was crowded, so when I spotted the gap in the rocks I went to explore.'
'That way is blocked!'
'Not quite. I managed to squeeze through.'
'You were so determined to invade my privacy?' His eyes flamed with distaste, which touched Isobel on the raw.
'Certainly not,' she snapped. 'I had no idea it was a private beach, nor who it belonged to. I apologise-humbly-for trespassing. And now, if you'll be kind enough to call a taxi, I'll get dressed and leave.'
He raised a cynical eyebrow. 'And how do you propose to walk?'
'I'll manage,' she snapped, praying she was right.
Eleni knocked at the open door and ushered in a familiar figure armed with a medical bag. The two men embraced each other and exchanged greetings before Alex Nicolaides moved to the bed, his eyes wide in consternation as he recognised his patient. 'Miss James! What happened?' He turned to her glowering rescuer, obviously asking him the same question in his own language.
'The lady,' Luke informed him in very deliberate English, 'was trespassing on my private beach when she suffered a fall. She was unconscious when I found her. Thank you for coming, Doctor. Please examine her injuries and tell me what must be done for her.'
'I need Eleni to stay, please,' said Isobel urgently.
Luke motioned the woman to the bed, but stayed at the foot of it, obviously determined to monitor the proceedings.
Eleni patted Isobel's hand comfortingly as Alex bent over her.
'This is very bad luck for you, Miss James,' he said gently.
His sympathy was so genuine tears welled in Isobel's eyes, burning as they trickled down her flushed cheeks. Eleni produced tissues to dry the patient's face so Alex could examine the wound, then he shone a torch in her eyes, held up a finger and told her to follow it with each eye in turn.
'You have vomited?'
'Yes.'
'Does your head hurt very badly?'
'Yes.'
'Examine her foot; she hurt that, also,' Luke said, sounding bored.
Alex frowned as he eyed the swollen ankle. 'It is necessary to examine for fracture,' he told Isobel. 'I will be quick.'
'Careful,' warned Luke. 'She faints a lot.'
A lot? Until today, she'd never fainted before in her life! Isobel clenched her teeth, determined not to faint again as Alex probed gently, though at one point it was a near thing.
'The ankle is badly sprained only, not broken, Miss James,' Alex assured her. 'I will apply temporary bandage, then report to Dr Riga, who will take X-rays to confirm. I will also put a dressing on your face, and give you mild painkillers. Take with much fluid.'
'Thank you.' She tried to relax as he strapped her ankle. 'Did you come here in a car, Doctor?'
He looked up in surprise. 'No, on back of Milos's motorbike. Why?'
'I was hoping for a lift back to the cottage,' she said, disappointed, and eyed him in appeal. 'Would you be kind enough to arrange a taxi for me?'
Alex shot a startled look at Luke, who showed his teeth in a cold smile.
'Miss James may stay here as long as she wishes.'
Not one second longer, if she could help it. 'How kind,' said Isobel frostily. 'But I wouldn't dream of inconveniencing you. So will you sort out a taxi for me, Doctor?'