Page 18 of Prognosis Incompatible

‘You’re not well.’

What a brilliant deduction! ‘Yeah, well, you’re not helping.’

‘Did you forget our date?’

Madeline sat up abruptly in bed, wincing as the sudden movement reverberated through her grey matter. ‘Date?’

‘You were going to show me the sights?’

‘Oh, God.’ She did groan this time. ‘I’m sorry — I forgot.’ The headache had obliterated everything.

‘That’s OK. We’ll do the date another time.’

‘It’s not a date,’ she said, not bothering to hide her irritation. ‘I was being polite. I wouldn’t date you if you were the only man on earth.’ Pain knifed into her skull again and she lay down quickly as a wave of nausea hit.

Marcus would have laughed but when Madeline clutched her head and collapsed backwards, he realised she was in a bad way.

‘Headache, Maddy?’ He moved into the room and sat beside her on her bed.

‘Madeline,’ she corrected him through gritted teeth.

‘When did it start?’ Reaching for her wrist, he felt for her pulse.

Madeline flinched at the contact, adding a few more beats to her already racing heart. She would have moved away from him had she not been gripping her shirt so tightly to stop from vomiting right here in front of him.

Marcus noted the vice-like grip turning her knuckles white.

‘Yesterday afternoon.’

‘Is this a regular occurrence?’

She shook her head, finding his fingers at her pulse quite soothing. ‘Once every few months.’ She relaxed her grip on her shirt as the nausea subsided.

‘What brings them on?’

‘Stress,’ she stated bluntly.

‘And what’s been stressing you lately?’ he asked innocently.

Yeah, right! Like he didn’t know! He was the main reason she had this wretched headache. If she hadn’t spent hours worrying about this stupid outing —

A fresh wave of nausea struck and she wriggled her hand away to stop her treacherous body betraying her. It was his fault she felt dreadful.

‘You are kidding, right?’ she said, opening one eye and fixing him with a glare.

Marcus smiled. He had given her the headache? Well, that was a first. He’d been known to cure them before...

‘Have you always had them?’

‘No, I got my first one about five years ago.’ About? Who was she kidding? Madeline remembered it as if it were yesterday. The afternoon of Abby’s funeral she’d been practically incapacitated.

‘Was that a particularly stressful time then?’

She shut her eyes, not wanting him to know just how awful it had been. ‘You could say that.’

Marcus watched as Madeline rolled onto her side, facing away from him. End of conversation. He rubbed his jaw absently as his gaze followed the slender curve of her back. In holistic medicine, knowing about stress triggers and what caused them was an important part of his diagnosis and treatment.

But it was clear he wasn’t going to find out at the moment and, whatever the deep-rooted cause, Madeline’s debilitating symptoms were of more pressing concern.

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