Page 19 of Best Laid Plans

She’d left her car and her other set of keys at Mattie’s parents’ house, but there was a spare key under the flower pot on theporch. Tonight, however, there was more than a flower pot on the porch. A hessian bag had been left on the doorstep.

Lucy saw it and sighed. Caring for wildlife wasn’t part of her veterinary responsibilities, but people knew she had a soft heart and they were always bringing her injured bush creatures. Animals hit by cars were the most common and this was sure to be another one – a wounded sugar glider, an orphaned kangaroo, or perhaps an injured possum.

She was dead tired tonight, but now, before she could crawl into bed, she would have to attend to this.

She found the key, opened the front door and reached inside to turn on the porch light. Behind her, Will was waiting at the front gate and she sent him a friendly wave. ‘Thanks for the lift,’ she called.

He returned her wave, and she watched as he headed back to the truck, then with the flowers in one arm, she picked up the sack. The animal inside wriggled, which was a good sign. Maybe it wasn’t too badly hurt and she wouldn’t lose too much sleep tonight.

She heard her dogs scratching at the back door, but they would have to wait a bit longer for her attention. She took the sack through to the surgery, put the roses and lilies in one of the huge metal sinks, and set the bag down gently on the metal examining table.

First things first, she kicked off her shoes. That wasso-o-o-omuch better. Yawning widely, she unknotted the string around the neck of the bag.

A snake’s head shot out.

Lucy screamed.

Panic flooded her!

A snake was the last thing she’d expected. The worst thing. She loved animals. She loved all animals. But she still couldn’t help being terrified of snakes.

Her heart leapt in a rush of instinctive, primeval terror. She couldn’t deal with this.

Not now. Not alone in the middle of the night.

Paralysed by fear, she thought of Will driving off in his truck and seriously considered chasing after him, yelling for help. She whimpered his name and was ready to scream again when footsteps thundered up the path and Will appeared at the surgery doorway.

‘Lucy, what’s the matter?’

‘A s-snake!’ With a shaking hand she pointed to the sack.

‘Let me deal with it.’ He spoke calmly and just like that, he crossed the floor to the wriggling hessian bag.

Lucy watched, one hand clamped over her mouth to hold back another scream, as Will carefully pulled the top of the sack apart, then with commendable cool, gripped the snake firmly, just behind its head.

‘It’s a carpet python,’ he told her smoothly as he lifted it out and took hold of the tail, while the snake thrashed wildly. ‘And it’s wounded.’

A carpet python.

Right. Lucy drew a deep breath. Her racing heartbeats subsided. Carpet pythons weren’t poisonous. Actually, now that she was calming down, she could see the distinctive brown and cream markings on the snake’s back.

‘I’m afraid I panicked,’ she said. ‘Someone left the bag on my porch and I was expecting a small, motherless, furry creature.’

‘Instead you have an angry snake with a nasty gash on its back.’ The expression in Will’s grey eyes was both tender and amused.

No longer trembling, Lucy came closer and saw the wound half way down the snake’s length. ‘I’m afraid snakes are the one species of the animal kingdom I find hard to love. But this fellow’s actually quite beautiful, isn’t he?’

‘As snakes go – he’s extremely handsome,’ Will said dryly. ‘What do you want to do with him? Would you try to treat a wound like this?’

‘I can at least clean it up. Maybe give it a few stitches.’

‘Can you leave it till tomorrow? Will I put it a cage for you?’

She bit back a sigh and shook her head. ‘The biggest threat for him is infection, so I really should see to the wound straight away.’ Shooting Will an apologetic glance, she said, ‘it won’t take long, but I’m afraid I couldn’t possibly manage without an assistant.’

He chuckled. ‘No problem. I’m all yours.’

The sparkle in his eyes sent heat flaming in her cheeks. Tightly, she said, ‘Thank you. If you’ll keep holding him right there, I’ll get organised. First, I’m going to have to feed oxygen and anaesthetic down his trachea.’

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