About the Author

As a child SARAH MORGAN dreamed of being a writer and, although she took a few interesting detours on the way, she is now living that dream. With her writing career she has successfully combined business with pleasure, and she firmly believes that reading romance is one of the most satisfying and fat-free escapist pleasures available. Her stories are unashamedly optimistic, and she is always pleased when she receives letters from readers saying that her books have helped them through hard times.

Sarah lives near London with her husband and two children, who innocently provide an endless supply of authentic dialogue. When she isn’t writing or reading Sarah enjoys music, movies, and any activity that takes her outdoors.

Readers can find out more about Sarah and her books from her website: www.sarahmorgan.com. She can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Wish

Upon a

Star

Christy

Miranda

Sarah Morgan

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my parents, with love.

And thanks to my children for providing endless authentic dialogue and for proving that any bed can be broken if you bounce hard enough.

To Julia, for her friendship, brainstorming skills and staying power.

Christy

Sarah Morgan

PROLOGUE

‘MUM, where are we spending Christmas?’

Christy glanced up from the letter she was reading. ‘I don’t know. Here, I suppose, with Uncle Pete and your cousins. Why do you ask? Christmas is ages away.’ And she was trying not to think about it. Christmas was a time for families and hers appeared to be disintegrating.

And it was all her fault. She’d done a really stupid thing and now they were all paying the price.

‘Christmas is a month away. Not ages.’ Katy leaned across the table and snatched the cereal packet from her little brother. ‘And I don’t want to stay here. I love Uncle Pete, but I hate London. I want to spend Christmas with Dad in the Lake District. I want to go home.’

Christy felt her insides knot with anguish. They wanted to spend Christmas with their father? She just couldn’t begin to imagine spending Christmas without the children. ‘All right.’ Her voice was husky and she cleared her throat. ‘Of course, that’s fine, if you’re sure that’s what you want.’ Oh, dear God, how would she survive? What would Christmas morning be without the children? ‘I’ll write to your father and tell him that you’re both coming up to stay. You might need to spend some time at Grandma’s because Daddy will be working at the hospital, of course, and it’s always a busy time for the mountain rescue team and—’

‘Not just us.’ Katy reached for the sugar. ‘I didn’t mean that we go without you. That would be hideous. I meant that we all go.’

‘What do you mean, all? And that’s enough sugar, Katy. You’ll rot your teeth.’

‘They go into holes,’ Ben breathed, with the gruesome delight of a seven-year-old. He picked up the milk jug and tried to pour milk into his cup but succeeded in slopping most of it over the table. ‘I learned about it in school last week. You eat sugar, you get holes. Then the dentist has to drill a bigger hole and fill it with cement.’

‘You are so lame! What do you know about anything, anyway?’ Katy threw her brother a disdainful look and doubled the amount of sugar she was putting on her cereal. ‘Stupid, idiot baby.’

‘I’m not a baby! I’m seven!’ Ben shot out of his chair and made a grab at his sister, who immediately put her hands round his throat.

‘Why did I have to be lumbered with a brother?’

‘Stop it, you two! Not his throat, Katy,’ Christy admonished, her head starting to thump as she reached for a cloth and mopped up the milk on the table. ‘You know that you don’t put anything round each other’s throats. You might strangle him.’

‘That was the general idea,’ Katy muttered, glaring at Ben before picking up her spoon and digging into her cereal. ‘Anyway, as I was saying. I don’t want Ben and I to go home for Christmas, I want all three of us to go.’

The throb in Christy’s head grew worse and she rose to her feet in search of paracetamol. ‘This is home now, sweetheart.’ Thanks to her stupidity. ‘London is home now.’

As if to remind herself of that depressing fact, she stared out of the window of their tiny flat, through the sheeting rain and down into the road below. There was a steady hiss as the traffic crawled along the wet, cheerless street. Brick buildings, old, tired and in need of repainting, rose up high, blocking out what there was of the restrained winter light. People shouted abuse and leaned on their horns and all the time the rain fell steadily, dampening streets and spirits with equal effectiveness. On the pavement people jostled and dodged, ears glued to mobile phones, walking and talking, eyes straight ahead, no contact with each other.

And then, just for a moment, the reality disappeared and Christy had a vision of the Lake District. Her real home. The sharp edges of the fells rising up against a perfectly blue sky on a crisp winter morning. The clank of metal and the sound of laughter as the mountain rescue team prepared for another callout. Friendship.

Oh, dear God, she didn’t want to be here. This wasn’t how it was supposed to have turned out.

As if picking up her mood, Ben’s face crumpled as he flopped back into his chair. ‘It isn’t home. It’ll never be home, it’s horrid and I hate it. I hate London, I hate school and most of all I hate you.’ And with that he scraped his chair away from the table and belted out of the door, sobbing noisily, leaving his cereal untouched.

Feeling sick with misery, Christy watched him go, suppressing a desperate urge to follow and give him a cuddle but knowing from experience that it was best to let him calm down in his own time. She sat back down at the table and tried to revive her flagging spirits. It was seven-thirty in the morning, she had to get two children to a school that they hated and she had to go on to a job that she hated, too. What on earth was she doing?

She topped up her coffee-cup and tried to retrieve the situation. ‘London at Christmas will be pretty cool.’

Katy shot her a pitying look. ‘Mum, don’t try and communicate on my level. It’s tragic when grown-ups do that. I can say cool, but it sounds ridiculous coming from anyone over the age of sixteen. Use grown-up words like “interesting” or “exciting”. Leave “cool” and “wicked” to those of us who appreciate the true meaning.’ With all the vast superiority of her eleven years, she pushed her bowl to one side and reached for a piece of toast. ‘And, anyway, it won’t be cool. The shopping’s good, but you can only do so much of that.’

Christy wondered whether she ought to point out that so far her daughter hadn’t shown any signs of tiring of that particular occupation but decided that the atmosphere around the breakfast table was already taut enough. ‘I can’t go back to the Lake District this Christmas,’ she said finally, and Katy lifted the toast to her lips.

‘Why not? Because you and Dad have had a row?’ She shrugged. ‘What’s new?’

Christy bit her lip and reflected on the challenges of having a daughter who was growing up and saw too much. She picked up her coffee-cup, determined to be mature about the whole thing. ‘Katy, we didn’t—’

‘Yes, you did, but it’s hardly surprising, is it? He’s Spanish and you’re half-Irish with red hair. Uncle Pete says that makes for about as explosive combination as it’s possible to get. I suppose things might have been different if you’d been born a blonde.’ Katy chewed thoughtfully. ‘Amazing, really, that the two of you managed to get it together for long enough to produce us.’

Christy choked on her coffee and made a mental note to have a sharp talk with her brother. ‘Katy, that’s enough.’

‘I’m just pointing out that the fact that you two can’t be in a room without trying to kill each other is no reason to keep us down here in London. We hate it, Mum. It’s great seeing Uncle Pete but a short visit is plenty. You hate it, too, I know you do.’

Was it that obvious? ‘I have a job here.’ In the practice where her brother worked as a GP. And it was fine, she told herself firmly. Fine. Perfectly adequate. She was lucky to have it.

‘You’re a nurse, Mum. You can get a job anywhere.’

Oh, to be a child again, when everything seemed so simple and straightforward. ‘Katy—’

‘Just for Christmas. Please? Don’t you miss Dad?’

The knot was back in her stomach. Christy closed her eyes and saw dark, handsome features. An arrogant, possessive smile and a mouth that could bring her close to madness. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, she missed him dreadfully. And, at this distance, some of her anger had faded. But the hurt was still there. All right, so she’d been stupid but she wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t been so—so aggravating. ‘I can’t discuss my relationship with your father with you.’

‘I’m eleven,’ Katy reminded her. ‘I know about relationships. And I know that the two of you are stubborn.’

He hadn’t contacted her. Pride mingled with pain and Christy pressed her lips together to stop a sob escaping. He was supposed to have followed her. Dragged her back. He was supposed to have fought for what they had. But he hadn’t even been in touch except when they made arrangements about the children. He didn’t care that she’d gone. The knowledge sat like a heavy weight in her heart and stomach. Suddenly she felt a ridiculous urge to confide in her child but she knew that she couldn’t do that, no matter how grown-up Katy seemed. ‘I can’t spend Christmas with your father.’

She’d started this but she didn’t know how to finish it. He was supposed to have finished it. He was supposed to have come after her. That was why she’d left. To try and make him listen. ‘A wake-up call’, a marriage counsellor would probably call it.

‘If I have a row with one of my friends you always say, “Sit down, Katy, and discuss it like a grown-up.”’ Katy rolled her eyes, her imitation next to perfect. ‘And what do you do? You move to opposite ends of the country. Hardly a good example to set, is it?’

Christy stiffened and decided that some discipline was called for. ‘I’m not sure I like your tone.’

‘And I’m not sure I like being the product of a broken home.’ Katy finished her toast and took a sip from her glass of milk. ‘Goodness knows what it will do to me. You read about it every day in the papers. There’s a strong chance I’m going to go off the rails. Theft. Pregnancy—’

Christy banged her cup down onto the table. ‘What do you know about pregnancy?’

Katy shot her a pitying look. ‘Oh, get a life, Mum. I know plenty.’

‘You do?’ She just wasn’t ready to handle this stage of child development on her own, Christy thought weakly. She needed Alessandro. She needed—

Oh, help…

‘And don’t write to him. Ring him up.’ Katy glanced at the clock and stood up, ponytail swinging. ‘We’d better go or we’ll be late. The traffic never moves in this awful place. I’ve never spent so many hours standing still in my whole life and I don’t think I can stand it any more. I’ll ring him if you’re too cowardly.’

‘I’m not cowardly.’ Or maybe she was. He hadn’t rung her. Gorgeous, sexy Alessandro, who was always wrapped up in his job or his role on the mountain rescue team, always the object of a million women’s fantasies. Once she’d been wrapped up in the same things but then the children had come and somehow she’d been left behind…

And he didn’t notice her any more. He didn’t have time for their relationship. For her.

‘Ben’s upstairs, crying. I’m here eating far too much sugar and you’re ingesting a lethal dose of caffeine,’ Katy said dramatically as she walked to the door, her performance worthy of the London stage. ‘We’re a family in crisis. We need our father or goodness knows what might happen to us.’

Christy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ‘You haven’t finished your milk,’ she said wearily. ‘All right, I’ll talk to him. See what he says.’

It would be just for the festive season, she told herself. The children shouldn’t suffer because of her stupidity and Alessandro’s arrogant, stubborn nature.

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘Yay!’ Katy punched the air, her ponytail swinging. ‘We’re going back to the Lake District for Christmas. Snow. Rain. Howling winds. I’ll see my old friends. My phone bill will plummet. Thanks Mum, you’re the best.’

As she danced out of the room, no doubt en route to pass the joyful news on to her brother, Christy felt her stomach sink down to her ankles. Now all she had to do was summon the courage to phone Alessandro and tell him that they were planning to return home for Christmas. How on earth was she going to do that?

CHAPTER ONE

‘EMERGENCY on its way in, Mr Garcia.’ The pretty nurse stuck her head round the office door. ‘You’re needed in Resus.’

Alessandro dropped the report on staffing that he was reading and wondered how many times a day he heard that statement. He was always needed in Resus. Sometimes he felt as though he lived in Resus. Particularly at the moment when almost forty per cent of the staff were off with flu.

He strode out of his office, nodded to one of the A and E sisters who hurried past him, looking harassed, and shouldered his way through the double doors into Resus.

Chaos reigned.

‘She’s bleeding from somewhere, we need to find out where.’ Billy, one of the casualty officers, was trying to direct operations and he looked up with a sigh of relief as Alessandro appeared by the side of the trolley. ‘Oh, Mr Garcia. Thank goodness. Dr Nicholson is already tied up with that climbing accident and—’

‘What’s the story?’ Alessandro cut him off and Billy sucked in a breath.

‘Her husband brought her in by car. She was complaining of abdominal pain all night and he was driving quickly in an attempt to get her here and took the car into the ditch.’ Clearly out of his comfort zone, he dragged a hand through his hair, leaving it more untidy than ever. ‘She’s had a bang on her head and her obs suggests that she’s bleeding but we don’t know where from.’

Alessandro took the gloves that a nurse was holding out to him and made a mental note to speak to Billy about the quality of his handover skills at some point in the near future.

‘Does “she” have a name?’ he enquired softly and Billy coloured.

‘Megan. Megan Yates.’

Alessandro swiftly dragged on the gloves and turned to the woman who was lying on the trolley, noted her pale, blood-streaked cheeks and the fear in her eyes. ‘Megan, this must be very frightening for you, but you’re in hospital now and we’re going to make you comfortable as quickly as we can.’ He lifted his gaze to Billy. ‘Bleep the on-call gynae team,’ he instructed calmly, donning the rest of the necessary protective clothing and glancing at the monitor. ‘We need to keep an eye on her pulse and blood pressure.’

Her pulse was up, her blood pressure was dropping and she was showing all the signs of haemorrhage. But, unlike his less experienced colleague, he had no intention of sharing his concerns with an already worried patient.

Billy followed his gaze. ‘The gynae team?’ His tone was level but his expression was confused. ‘I thought after an RTA and trauma, she’d need—’

‘And she’s of childbearing age, and before her husband landed the car in the ditch she was suffering from abdominal pain,’ Alessandro reminded him, ‘so that is not to be forgotten. I want two lines in her straight away, wide-bore cannulae.’

Responding immediately to his decisive tone, Nicky, one of the A and E sisters, pushed a trolley across Resus and Billy put a tourniquet on the woman’s arm and ripped open the first cannula. ‘You think she might have a ruptured ectopic?’

‘I don’t know yet, but let’s just say I have a low threshold of suspicion so I’m treating it as that until I have reason to think otherwise.’ Alessandro continued to deliver a steady stream of instructions while the staff around him bobbed and moved in perfect unison. They were so used to working together that they often anticipated each other’s needs. He turned back to his patient. ‘Megan, is there any chance that you could be pregnant?’

‘No—well, I mean…’ The woman closed her eyes briefly. ‘It’s so unlikely it’s virtually impossible.’

‘In this department we deal with the unlikely and the impossible on a fairly regular basis,’ Alessandro replied with a wry smile. ‘When was your last period?’

‘Months ago,’ she whispered. ‘I have endometriosis.’

He heard the catch in her voice and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘That must be hard for you,’ he said gently. ‘But right now we need to find out what injuries you suffered in the accident and try and get to the bottom of your abdominal pain. We need to undress you so that we can do a proper examination, head to toe, and find out exactly what is going on. Nicky?’

Nicky was already removing clothes, fingers and scissors moving swiftly as Alessandro started his examination.

‘Where’s her husband?’ He was checking the body methodically, on the alert for anything life-threatening. ‘Was he injured?’

‘He’s fine,’ Billy muttered as he successfully put the second line in and taped it in place. ‘Waiting in the relatives’ room. Nicky put him there.’

‘She has a nasty laceration of her shoulder.’ Nicky reached for a sterile pad while Alessandro examined it swiftly.

‘That’s going to need stitching but it can wait,’ he murmured, his gaze sliding to the monitor again. ‘Her pressure is still dropping. I want to know why. And I want to know now. Did someone bleep the gynae team?’

‘On their way,’ a staff nurse reported and Alessandro’s eyes narrowed.

He didn’t like the look of his patient.

‘Oh…’ Nicky finished cutting off the woman’s clothes and her face reflected shock before she quickly masked it. ‘We have some blood loss here, Alessandro.’

One glance was all it took for him to measure the degree of the understatement. ‘Fast-bleep Jake Blackwell,’ he ordered in a calm voice. ‘Cross-match six units of blood and get her rhesus status. We may need to give her anti-D. And someone get a blanket on her before she gets hypothermia.’

Jake Blackwell, the consultant obstetrician, strode into the room minutes later. ‘You need my advice, Garcia? Struggling?’ His eyes mocked but Alessandro was too worried about his patient to take the bait.

‘I need you to do some work for a change,’ he drawled, but although his tone was casual and relaxed, his eyes were sharp and alert and his handover to his colleague was so succinct that Billy threw him a look of admiration.

Jake listened, examined the woman swiftly and then nodded, all traces of humour gone. ‘Megan, it looks as though you might have an ectopic pregnancy—that means that the egg has implanted somewhere other than your uterus and, in your case, it seems that it may have done some damage that we need to put right with an operation.’ He lifted his eyes to Alessandro. ‘She’s going to need surgery. We’ll take her straight to Theatre. Damn. I’m supposed to be somewhere else. I need to make a couple of calls—speak to the anaesthetist, juggle my list.’

Alessandro leaned across and increased the flow of both the oxygen and the IV himself. ‘Just so long as you juggle it quickly. We’ll transfer her to Theatre while you do what you need to do. Her husband is in our relatives’ room if you want to tackle the issue of consent.’

‘Great.’ Jake walked to the phone and punched in a number while Alessandro monitored his patient.

‘Phone down and get that blood sent up to Theatre as soon as it’s available,’ he ordered, and Nicky hurried to the nearest phone to do as he’d instructed.

Minutes later the woman was on her way to Theatre and Jake disappeared to talk to her husband.

He reappeared in the department hours later, after Alessandro had dealt with what felt like a million road accidents, intermingled with a significant number of people with flu.

‘Why don’t people stay in bed when they have flu?’ he grumbled as Jake appeared in the doorway of his office. ‘For a start, if they can get out of bed then it isn’t flu and it certainly isn’t an accident or an emergency. Why come to a hospital and spread it around?’

‘Because they’re generous?’ Jake strolled into the office and dropped onto the nearest chair without even bothering to move the pile of files that were covering it. ‘Hell, I’m knackered. I’ve spent the whole day in Theatre saving lives. One drama after another. You don’t know you’re born, working down here.’

Alessandro thought of the two major RTAs, the heart attack and the sickle-cell crisis he’d dealt with since lunchtime. And the only way he’d known it had been lunchtime had been because he’d looked at the clock on the wall. He hadn’t eaten for hours. ‘That’s right. I spend my life sitting on my backside.’

‘Backside?’ Jake grinned. ‘That doesn’t sound like a particularly Spanish word, amigo.’

Feeling tired and bad-tempered, Alessandro scowled at him. ‘Haven’t you got anything better to do with your time than sit in my office, moaning?’

‘Actually, I came down to see if you fancy grabbing a couple of beers after work. I have a feeling that our problems are nothing that alcohol can’t fix.’

Alessandro pulled a face. ‘Not tonight.’

Jake yawned. ‘You working late?’

‘I’m cleaning up the house.’ Alessandro felt the tension rise inside him. ‘Christy and the kids are arriving tomorrow for Christmas. I need to throw out four months’ worth of take-away cartons and fill the fridge with broccoli or she’ll hit the roof. You know Christy and her obsession with nutrition.’

Jake stared, his blue eyes suddenly keen and interested. ‘You guys are back together?’

‘No. We’re not back together.’ Alessandro all but snapped the words out, his anger suddenly so close to the surface that his fingers tightened on the pencil he was holding and broke it in two. ‘We’re spending Christmas in the same house for the sake of the kids.’

‘I see.’ Jake’s eyes rested on the broken pencil, his expression thoughtful. ‘Well, that promises to be a peaceful Christmas, then. Better warn Santa to wear his flak jacket when he flies over your barn. Wouldn’t want him to be caught in flying shrapnel as you two tear bits off each other.’

Alessandro thought about all the occasions he’d seen Christy in the last six weeks. Brief occasions when they’d handed over the children. They’d barely spoken, let alone rowed. ‘It isn’t like that any more.’ Christmas promised to be as icy cold as the weather and Alessandro was suddenly struck by inspiration. ‘Why don’t you join us? You’re their godfather.’

Jake nodded. ‘I might do that if I can drag myself away from the irresistible lure of this place. You know how I am with cold hospital turkey and lumpy gravy. I’ve been trying to break myself of the addiction for years.’ He stretched his legs out in front of him. ‘You know, about this thing that’s going on with you and Christy—’

‘There’s nothing going on. We’re separated and that’s all there is to it. And I don’t want to talk about it.’ Alessandro’s gaze was shuttered and Jake sighed.

‘I just hate to see the two of you like this. You’re my best friends and if anyone was ever meant to be together, it’s you two. You should hang onto what you’ve got. It’s hard enough finding anyone you get on vaguely well with in this world. Christy was crazy about you, right from day one. And you were crazy about her. I remember the day you guys met—’

‘I said, I don’t want to talk about it,’ Alessandro said coldly, his dark eyes stormy and threatening as he rose to his feet and paced over to the window, angry with Jake for stirring up memories that he’d spent ages trying to bury. How could he ever forget the day he’d first met Christy?

He stared out of the window. Outside, snow lay thick on the ground, disguising the usually familiar landscape. In the distance the fells rose. He studied their familiar jagged lines and then turned, his volatile Mediterranean temper bubbling to the surface. ‘She left me.’

‘I know.’ Jake’s voice was soft. ‘I wonder why she felt she had to do that?’

Alessandro’s jaw tensed. ‘If you’re implying that any of this is my fault, you’re wrong.’

‘Christy adores you. She’s crazy about you and always has been. If she left you, she must have been desperate,’ Jake said quietly. ‘She must have felt there was no other way to get through to you.’

‘That’s ridiculous. She could have talked to me.’

Jake’s expression was inscrutable. ‘Could she? Did you make yourself available?’

Alessandro sucked in a frustrated breath. ‘How could we talk when she left me?’ He sounded impossibly Spanish and Jake gave a wry smile.

‘So is that what this is all about?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Pride? She was the one to walk away from you so you’re not going to go after her? Why did she leave you, Al?’ Jake’s voice was calm as he rose to his feet. ‘Try asking yourself that question while you’re binning take-away cartons.’

And with that parting shot he left the room and closed the door quietly behind him.

Christy had changed her clothes a dozen times and in the end settled on a pencil skirt, a pair of heels and a blue jumper in the softest cashmere, which she’d bought in a small shop on the King’s Road to cheer herself up. It hadn’t worked, but she knew she looked good in it. And she wanted to remind Alessandro what he was missing. Not that she wanted them to get back together again, she told herself hastily, because she didn’t. Oh, no. She wasn’t that stupid.

Obviously he wasn’t interested in her any more. Their marriage had worn itself out. He was an arrogant, selfish, macho workaholic who suited himself in life and clearly he didn’t love her any more. If he’d loved her, he never would have let her leave.

As they drove deeper into Cumbria she saw the fells rise under a crown of snow and felt the tension leave her. The winter winds had dragged the last of the leaves from the trees and the sky was grey and menacing but it was wild and familiar. It was home.

Why, she wondered, had she thought that she could be happy in London? She’d never been a city girl. For her, life had always been about being outdoors. Being active and close to nature. When Christmas was over, she’d move back up here and find a job in the Lake District. There must be some other department she could work in that didn’t have links with Alessandro. She didn’t have to throw away everything she loved just because their relationship was on the rocks.

She needed to build a new life.

A life that didn’t include Alessandro.

‘Mum?’ Ben’s little voice whined from the back of the car, disturbing her thoughts. ‘Are we there yet?’

‘Nearly. Don’t you recognise those trees?’ Christy changed down a gear and took the sharp turning that led down the lane to the barn.

They’d discovered it during the second year of their marriage. Katy had been a baby and they’d both fallen in love with the potential of the old, tumble-down building bordered by fields and a fast-flowing river. They’d spent the next few years living on a building site while they’d lovingly turned it into their dream home.

And there it was, smoke rising from the chimney like a welcome beacon.

Christy swallowed and slowed the car. Except it wasn’t a welcome, was it? Alessandro didn’t want her any more. He’d made that perfectly clear. For him, their marriage was over. And the fact that they were about to spend three weeks together was everything to do with the children and nothing to do with them.

It was going to be something akin to torture.

She was going to be dignified, she reminded herself as she pulled the car up outside the front of the barn and switched off the engine. They were both civilised human beings. They could spend time together for the sake of their children.

She wasn’t going to lose her temper. She wasn’t going to show him how upset she was. She wasn’t going to reveal that she wished she’d never left. She wasn’t going to cry and most of all she wasn’t going to let him know that she thought about him day and night.

But then the front door was pulled open and all her resolutions flew out of her head.

Alessandro stood there, his powerful, athletic body almost filling the doorway. He looked dark and dangerous and Christy caught her breath, just as she had on that very first day they’d met. One glance at those brooding dark eyes was enough to make her forget her own name. Wasn’t time supposed to put a dent in sexual attraction? she thought helplessly. Wasn’t she supposed to have become bored and indifferent over time? Well, it certainly hadn’t happened in her case. But that was probably because Alessandro was no ordinary guy, she thought miserably as she switched off the engine and tried to slow the rhythmic thump of her heart. He was strong, unashamedly masculine, hotly sexual and almost indecently handsome. The combination was a killer and no woman would ever pass him by without giving a second and third look.

He stood now in his usual arrogant, self-confident pose, legs planted slightly apart, his hair gleaming glossy black in the fading winter sunlight, his shoulders broad and muscular under the thick, ribbed jumper. He wore scuffed walking boots and ancient jeans and she thought, with a lurch of her heart and a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, that he’d never looked more attractive. And she had absolutely no doubt that other women felt the same way.

He was a red-blooded male with a high sex drive and they hadn’t shared a bed for almost two months.

Had he taken a lover?

The thought flew into her head from nowhere and she pushed it away again, too sick at the thought to even dwell on the possibility.

‘Dad!’ Katy and Ben were out of the car before Christy had a chance to get herself together and suddenly she realised that they were doing what she wanted to do. She wanted to run and hug him. She wanted him to tell her that this was all a ridiculous misunderstanding and hear him tell her that everything was going to be all right.

And then she wanted him to take her to bed and fix everything.

But he didn’t even glance towards the car. He just hugged the children and fussed over them, which meant that it was up to her to make the first move.

Thank goodness for the children, she thought miserably as she opened her car door. Because of them, they wouldn’t have to spend time as a couple and clearly Alessandro didn’t consider them to be a couple any more.

She strolled over to him, glad of the cashmere jumper. It was cold. Significantly colder than London.

He was still hugging the children but their eyes met over the top of two dark little heads.

‘Christianne.’ His voice was cool, his handsome face blank of expression, and suddenly she wanted to leap at him and claw him just to get a reaction.

How could he seem so indifferent?

How could he call her Christianne in that smooth, formal tone when he only ever called her Christy?

After everything they’d shared—a fierce, perfect passion—how could he be so cold towards her?

‘Alessandro.’ Rat. Snake, she thought to herself. How could you do this to me? To us?

‘Good journey?’ He had a trace of a Spanish accent that he’d never lost despite the fact he’d lived in England for the past twelve years. She’d always loved his accent but suddenly it just seemed like a reminder of the differences between them.

‘Fine, thanks. Traffic was pretty heavy coming out of London, but I suppose that’s to be expected at this time of year. First day of the Christmas holidays.’ She almost winced as she heard herself talking. She sounded so formal. As if they were strangers rather than two people who had shared everything there had been to share for the last twelve years. Any moment now, they’d be shaking hands.

Fortunately Katy grabbed Ben and started to dance a jig. ‘No more school,’ she sang in a delighted voice. ‘No more vile, horrid school with demented, stinky, bullying teachers.’

But Alessandro wasn’t looking at the children. He was looking at her, with those hot, dark eyes that were a symbol of his Mediterranean heritage.

She saw his gaze slide down her body and rest on the high-heeled shoes; the shoes that had seemed so pretty in London and now felt utterly ridiculous with snow on the ground and the cold bite of winter in the air. In London, it hadn’t felt like winter. It had just felt wet and miserable. The shoes had cheered her up. Given her confidence. Reminded her that she was a woman.

Noting his disdainful glance, her confidence evaporated and she knew instinctively that he was thinking about all the people he’d had to rescue from the mountains because they’d been wearing ridiculous footwear. Suddenly she wanted to defend herself. To tell him that she wasn’t walking anywhere but that the shoes made her legs look good and she’d wanted him to notice.

Suddenly nervous and not understanding why, she waved a hand at the fells. ‘When did it snow?’

‘A week ago.’ His wry tone said it all and she looked back at him, noting the dark shadows under his eyes with a flash of surprise.

She knew that Alessandro had endless stamina. Why would he look tired?

‘I suppose you’ve been really busy, then.’ She almost laughed as she listened to herself. What a stupid thing to say. When was Alessandro ever not busy? Work was his life. As she’d discovered to her cost.

‘The weather isn’t helping.’ He strode over to her car and retrieved the cases from the boot. ‘I’m afraid I have to go back to the hospital after you’ve settled in.’

Katy groaned an instant protest. ‘Daddy, no!’

‘Sorry, niña.’ Alessandro stooped and dropped a kiss on his daughter’s head. ‘There are lots of staff off sick, but I’m sure they’ll be better soon. I’ll have more time next week and we’ll go climbing, that’s a promise.’

Christy frowned as she followed him into the barn. ‘You’re not taking her climbing in this weather, Alessandro.’

‘You used to climb in this weather.’ His sardonic gaze made her heart tumble.

They’d argued about it so many times. When they’d first met, she’d been young and reckless. He’d been fiercely protective. Possessive. Hadn’t wanted her out there in the mountains where danger might exist. And she’d teased him and gone anyway, loving the fact that he cared enough to want to stop her from doing anything remotely dangerous. Provoking him. Pushing him to the edges of patience.

‘Well, I don’t climb now.’ Her life was so safe and boring that it was enough to make her scream. She frowned at the thought. It was funny, she mused, how your lifestyle could change so gradually that you didn’t even notice it happening. One day you were hanging from a cliff by your fingernails and the next you were wading through a pile of ironing, listening to the radio.

How had it happened?

There’d been a time when she would have tugged on her walking boots and her weatherproof jacket and headed out into the hills without a backward glance. But all that had changed once the children had arrived.

Pushing aside the uncomfortable thought that her life was posing some questions she didn’t want to answer, she walked past him into the house. ‘Perhaps we’ll talk about it later.’ She tossed her hair out of her eyes. ‘When you eventually come back from the hospital.’

The atmosphere snapped tight between them and Christy cursed herself. She hadn’t intended to irritate or aggravate him. She’d wanted to be super-cool and indifferent in the same way that he was clearly indifferent to her.

If he wasn’t indifferent, he would have followed her to London and talked about their problems.

He would have dragged her home where she belonged.

But he seemed to hurt her at every turn. Even now, by going straight back to the hospital, by not wanting to be with her, he was hurting her.

His eyes narrowed, his mouth tightened and his shoulders tensed. ‘I’ll take the cases up to your room.’

He sounded like a hotel concierge, Christy thought miserably as they trailed their way upstairs. Showing her around. Any minute now he’d be wishing her a pleasant stay. She’d expected anger and hostility, but what she hadn’t expected was his coldness. She didn’t know how to deal with coldness.

The children ran ahead, whooping and shrieking, excited about seeing their rooms again, oblivious of the rising tension between the two adults.

Envious of their carefree, uncomplicated approach to life, Christy watched them go. ‘They’re so pleased to be here,’ she said softly, and Alessandro turned to her with something that was almost a growl.

‘Of course they are pleased to be here. It’s their home. They never should have left. And you never should have taken them!’

She inhaled sharply, shocked by the sharp stab of pain that lanced through her. He’d said that ‘they’ never should have left. He hadn’t said anything about her. He didn’t care about her. The only reason that he cared that she’d moved out was because he missed his children.

It was all about the children.

She felt a lump building in her throat and swallowed it down with an effort, reminding herself that she had to behave like an adult even though she wanted to break down and cry like a child.

‘You’re blaming me for this situation, Alessandro?’

‘You’re the one who decided to move out of the family home.’

It was only supposed to be temporary, she wanted to shout. You were supposed to come after me. But pride stopped her saying what she wanted to say. Pride and the knowledge that he hadn’t cared enough to come after her.

Her eyes blazed into his. ‘And that makes this my fault?’

‘I missed one lousy anniversary.’ His eyes flashed dark with frustration and he ran both hands through his hair. ‘And you walked out.’

Christy bit her lip. He just didn’t get it. He couldn’t even understand why she was so upset. How had they come to this?

She swallowed hard. ‘It wasn’t about the anniversary, Alessandro.’ Although that had hurt badly. ‘It was so much more than that. And we can’t talk about this now. The children will hear us.’

‘You didn’t talk about it at any time,’ he said roughly, his eyes dark and dangerous, his accent thicker than ever. ‘You just left, ripping all the important things in my life away from me.’

She winced at his description and forgot her resolutions not to argue with him. ‘I tried to talk to you but you were always at the hospital or out on a rescue!’

‘It’s my job, Christy.’

And he’d been avoiding the issue. ‘We never communicate any more, Alessandro. When did you last spend time with me?’

‘You were in my bed every single night.’ His arrogant declaration brought a flush of colour to her pale cheeks.

‘That was just sex,’ she muttered. ‘The only place we ever spent time together was in bed.’

Right from the first moment they’d met, they’d been unable to keep their hands off each other—to exercise anything even remotely resembling self-control.

Awareness throbbed between them and as she caught the passion and fire in his eyes, only partially concealed by thick, dark lashes. Painfully aware of his vibrant masculinity, she turned away, trying desperately to ignore the agony of need that flared inside her body.

It didn’t mean anything, she told herself miserably. Alessandro was a red-blooded Mediterranean man and sex had always been important to him. It didn’t mean that he loved her. Sex was not a way to solve problems.

But maybe it would be a start, she thought to herself.

If they shared a bed tonight, perhaps they’d feel closer and could start talking.

‘When did we last spend time together, Alessandro?’ she said in a choked voice. ‘Wasn’t I important? Do strangers in trouble matter more than your own wife?’

A muscle worked in his jaw and he let out a long breath, but before he could speak, the children came barrelling out of their bedrooms. ‘We’re going outside to play in the snow,’ Katy yelled, ponytail flying as she took the stairs two at a time with Ben close behind her.

‘Don’t forget your coats,’ Christy called after them, suddenly desperate for them to stay, to breathe life and fun into the place. She didn’t want to be on her own with Alessandro. Didn’t have the energy for the confrontation that was brewing.

Reading her mind, he took a step towards her. ‘So—I’m here now. If you want to talk, then talk.’ He looked remote and unapproachable and she felt everything sink inside her.

She knew that some of the nurses and junior doctors found Alessandro intimidating, but she’d only ever loved the fact that he had no tolerance for anything less than perfection. It was what made him such an excellent doctor. So why did she suddenly find him so formidable?

‘We can’t talk about this in five minutes with you due back at the hospital. It’s too important for that.’

‘If you’ve got something to say, say it.’ His mouth was grim as he moved towards her. ‘You’re trembling. Do I make you nervous, Christy?’

If he kissed her, she was lost.

She backed away and hated herself for it. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you don’t make me nervous.’

‘Feeling guilty about leaving?’ He kept on coming, his eyes locked on hers. ‘Conscience pricking you?’

‘I don’t have anything to feel guilty about.’

‘Yes, you do.’

‘You’re seeing everything from one side as usual, which is totally unreasonable.’

‘You talk to me about unreasonable when you were the one who walked out?’

There was a long silence while the atmosphere throbbed and hummed. His dark eyes slid down to her mouth and she thought she saw a sudden flare of hunger. But then it was gone and he bent to pick up her case.

‘You’re right. This isn’t the right time to talk about it. You’ve been gone for almost two months so waiting a few days longer for a cosy chat isn’t going to kill either of us. I’ll take this through to your room.’ His tone was flat, emotionless and she watched him as he walked.

Her room? What did he mean, ‘her room’?

Her knees still shaking, she followed him, her heart diving south as she saw that he’d put in her in the guest room. He stood for a moment, one dark eyebrow raised in challenge, and she bit her lip, hiding the pain.

So much for using sex as a problem-solver.

Was he expecting her to beg? Clearly he didn’t want her sleeping in the same room as him, the same bed as him, but she wasn’t going to let him know how much that hurt her. She had too much pride.

‘Great. This is excellent.’ She swept into the room as though the sleeping arrangements had been her choice. ‘We did this up nicely, didn’t we? I always liked the throw on the bed.’

His gaze was steady on her face. ‘You should be comfortable enough.’

Oh, no, she wouldn’t, she thought miserably. She wouldn’t sleep a wink, knowing that he was just down the corridor. Sleeping naked… Alessandro always slept naked and she felt a sudden rush of heat at the thought. She missed him so much. ‘I’ll be fine. This is perfect.’

Something flamed in his dark eyes and she wondered what she’d said to anger him. After all, he’d been the one to put her in the spare room. If anyone had a right to be angry, surely it should be her? But he’d drawn the battle lines and made his position clear.

He didn’t even want her in his bedroom. Didn’t want their relationship to be mended.

And why did that come as a surprise? If he’d wanted to mend it, he would have followed her to London and dragged her back.

Which was what she’d thought he’d do.

She felt tears prick her eyes but fortunately Katy chose that moment to race back into the room, her hair and brightly coloured jumper dusted with snow. ‘Oh, Mum, this is wicked. There’s so much snow and—’ She broke off and glanced around her. ‘What are you doing in here?’

‘This is where I’m sleeping, sweetheart.’ Christy kept her tone bright, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for she and Alessandro to be sleeping apart, but Katy’s expression changed from happy to stubborn.

‘In the spare room?’

Christy suppressed a groan. Katy definitely saw too much. ‘Your father and I need some space,’ she said quietly, and Katy glowered at both of them.

‘This is Christmas. Goodwill and all that. If you argue, you’ll upset Ben.’

‘We’re not arguing,’ Christy said weakly, and Alessandro gave a disapproving frown.

‘Our sleeping arrangements are none of your business, Katherine.’ He spoke quietly, but there was a warning note in his voice that made Katy’s narrow shoulders tense.

‘No.’ Her expression was mutinous. ‘You’re not sleeping in here. I want you to sleep in the same bed, like everyone else’s parents.’

‘Sweetheart, plenty of your friends’ parents don’t sleep together. Look at Rosie’s mum and dad. They—’

‘That’s different. They’re divorced.’ Katy glared at her fiercely. ‘You and Dad are not getting divorced. That isn’t going to happen.’

Christy heard Alessandro drag in a long breath and bit her lip hard. Just hearing the word said aloud made her feel sick but at that moment all her thoughts were channelled towards alleviating her daughter’s distress.

‘Look, sweetheart, you’re too young to understand at the moment.’ She kept her tone modulated and reasonable. ‘But you have to leave this to Daddy and I. We’ll sort it out together in our own way.’

Katy put her hands on her hips and gave an innocent smile. ‘You think so?’ And she turned on her heel and left the room.

Alessandro swore softly in Spanish. ‘I will speak to her—’

‘No.’ Christy shook her head. ‘She’s upset. I’ll talk to her later, when she’s had time to calm down.’

‘And what are you going to tell her? That this was your choice? I need to get back to the hospital.’ He gave her a long, burning look loaded with accusation and then strode out of the room. Christy stared after him, feeling numb. It was clear that he blamed her for the entire situation and the knowledge that he’d absolved himself of all responsibility should have stoked her anger. Instead, it left her feeling exhausted. She’d known Alessandro angry, she’d known him passionate but she’d never known him cold before now.

There was no hope for them. None at all.

And it promised to be anything but a happy and peaceful Christmas.

CHAPTER TWO

ALESSANDRO drove too fast, eyes narrowed, hands gripping the steering-wheel of his sports car.

He’d put her in the spare room, expecting to get a reaction, expecting her to throw herself into his arms. She hadn’t even blinked.

Until she’d walked out three months earlier, they’d never even slept apart. Now she was behaving as though separate beds were an everyday occurrence.

Clearly it was what she wanted.

He parked in his space, still thinking about Christy, oblivious to the biting cold or the wail of approaching sirens.

She’d looked more beautiful than ever. She was the only woman he’d ever met who could appear so impossibly slender and yet still manage to have curves in all the right places. The gorgeous blue jumper had brought out the amazing colour of her eyes and her silky soft hair had tumbled past her shoulders like a blatant taunt. Had she done that on purpose? She knew how much he adored her hair. And then there were her legs, long, slim and tempting in those ridiculously high heels. She looked sexy and alluring and nothing like the way that a respectably married mother of two children was supposed to look.

Had she already taken another lover?

Discovering the meaning of insecurity for the first time in his life, Alessandro climbed out of the car, battling against a burning desire to put his fist through something. An ominous expression on his handsome face, he slammed his way through the doors that led from the ambulance bay into the department and almost crashed into his colleague.

‘What are you doing here? We weren’t expecting you back.’ Sean Nicholson, the senior consultant in the A and E department and the leader of the mountain rescue team, took a step back, eyebrows raised in question.

Alessandro dragged in a breath and bottled up his temper. ‘We’re short-staffed,’ he said tightly. ‘And this seems as good a place to be as any.’

Sean’s eyes narrowed. ‘That bad, eh?’

‘Don’t ask.’

‘Doesn’t do to run away from women,’ Sean drawled. ‘They catch up with you in the end.’

Only if they want to, Alessandro mused, his temper still stewing and simmering. Clearly Christy wanted no more to do with him. She’d moved out, come home only because she wanted the children to have a family Christmas, and she had no qualms about sleeping in the spare room.

Sean thrust a set on notes into his hand. ‘Well, I’m not sorry you’re here. This place is starting to resemble a war zone.’

A bit like home, then, Alessandro thought bitterly, walking through to a cubicle to see the patient that Sean had given him, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Sean caught his arm.

‘Alessandro?’ Sean’s eyes were suddenly intent and thoughtful. ‘I don’t suppose Christy wants to come back to work, does she? Just for the two weeks leading up to Christmas? We’ve got six nurses off sick at the moment. The numbers just aren’t adding up.’

‘Christy?’ Alessandro frowned. ‘She’s a practice nurse…’

Sean raised his eyebrows. ‘Only for the last few years,’ he said, his tone mild. ‘Before that she was an A and E nurse, and a damn good one. I know it’s a long shot, but…’ He caught the dubious look on Alessandro’s face and gave a shrug. ‘Give it some thought.’ He walked off and Alessandro stared after him.

It had been years since Christy had worked in A and E. She’d carried on working in the department part time after Katy’s birth, but once Ben had arrived she’d given up completely for a few years and then taken a part-time job in the local GP practice.

Why would Sean think she could fill the gap in A and E? She’d be out of her depth, out of touch, unable to cope with the pressure—it was a ridiculous suggestion. Christy was a mother now. The children were her priority. There was no way she’d be able to cope with the demands of A and E.

He dismissed the thought instantly and buried himself in work. He worked through a long and busy night without taking a break and eventually arrived home at five in the morning.

The house was in darkness as he showered and crawled into his cold, empty bed. Sleep should have swallowed him whole but instead he stayed on the edges of wakefulness, unable to find the rest he craved.

His mind was full of Christy, at that moment probably sleeping peacefully in their spare bedroom.

The thought of her warm, perfect body sent his tension levels soaring and he eventually gave up on sleep just as the weak, winter light was filtering through the curtains. Cursing softly, his body thrumming with frustration, he pulled on a pair of fleecy tracksuit bottoms and a sweatshirt and went out for a run.

The snow was crisp and fresh on the ground, unmarked, and his breath clouded the air as he pounded silently along the track that led from his house to the river. Today the boulders were tipped with snow and the water was ice cold and as clear as glass. He ran until the breath tore at his lungs and his muscles ached and eventually arrived home to find the children sprawled on the sofas, watching Christmas cartoons on television. Christy was in the kitchen, making pancakes.

She glanced up as he walked into the room and for a moment they just stared at each other. Then she cleared her throat and turned back to the frying-pan, jiggling it with one hand to stop the pancake burning.

‘Do you want some breakfast?’ She was wearing a pair of jeans that fitted her snugly and the same blue jumper that he’d admired the day before. Her hair was loose, her cheeks were flushed and she looked pretty and far too young to be the mother of the two children watching television in the next room. Alessandro felt a vicious tug of lust that had him backing out of the room. It was just because he hadn’t seen her for two months, he told himself firmly. As soon as he got used to having her around, he’d be able to control himself. Until then, he needed to keep some distance.

‘No, thanks. No breakfast.’ His stomach was growling, the pancakes smelt delicious, but he couldn’t trust himself to be in the same room as her and not grab her. Later, he promised himself, when he had his feelings well and truly under control, they’d talk. ‘I need to get back to the hospital.’

‘Alessandro.’ Her voice was exasperated and she tilted her head to one side, her amazing, fiery hair sliding over her shoulder. ‘You didn’t come in until five and you were out running two hours after that. Even you need to rest some time!’

The only way she could possibly know the detail of his movements with such accuracy was if she hadn’t been able to sleep either.

Registering that fact, he studied her face, saw the colour seep into her cheeks as she realised just how much she’d betrayed. Felt a flash of satisfaction that she wasn’t as indifferent as she appeared to be. Maybe there was hope for them.

‘Just for a few hours this morning,’ he said huskily. ‘We’re ridiculously short-staffed. Everyone is off sick. I’ll be back after lunch.’ Suddenly he wished the children were at school so that he could just grab her and do what he wanted to do. He’d have her on the kitchen table in five seconds flat, naked in ten.

And he had a feeling that she wouldn’t resist.

When had either of them ever been able to hold back in the bedroom? Their mutual passion had always been a driving force in their marriage. It was how they’d solved most of their problems.

‘So short-staffed you’re not even allowed to sleep?’

‘There’s a flu bug going around,’ he muttered, dragging his eyes away from the smooth skin of her neck and trying to kill the erotic images dancing around his brain. ‘Half the nurses are off sick.’

‘You’ll be joining them if you carry on pushing yourself like this,’ she said tightly, and he sighed.

‘You know what A and E is like.’

‘Yes.’ She grabbed some plates and slammed them down on the table with more force than was necessary. ‘I should do. I used to work there and I was married to you for long enough.’

‘Was?’ He repeated the word, a jealous, possessive anger springing to life inside him. She must have detected something ominous in his tone because she looked up at him and he saw the misery in her eyes.

His insides twisted and he ran a hand over the back of his neck to relieve the growing tension. In all their years of marriage, he’d never seen Christy cry. He’d seen her helpless with laughter and wild with temper, but he’d never seen her cry and the shimmering mist of tears in her green eyes brought a sick feeling to the pit of his stomach.

‘Christy—’

The phone rang and Christy leaned across to answer it, clearly relieved at the interruption.

Knowing her as he did, he guessed that such a display of weakness would have horrified her.

Alessandro watched as she pulled herself together. He heard her clear her throat and speak, saw a smile touch her wide, generous mouth and watched her glorious hair slide over her shoulder as she tilted her head and listened. He’d always loved her hair. The colour of autumn leaves, it fell past her shoulders in soft, wild curls. He was so absorbed by the soft, feminine curve of her jaw that he didn’t even realise she’d replaced the receiver.

‘That was Sean.’

‘Nicholson?’ Alessandro struggled to concentrate. ‘Did he want to talk to me?’

‘No.’ Her voice was calm as she reached into the oven for the stack of pancakes she was keeping warm. ‘He wanted to talk to me.’

‘What about?’

Christy put the pancakes in the middle of the table. ‘Working in A and E. He wants me to do bank work for the two weeks leading up to Christmas to cover all the nurses you have off sick.’

Alessandro watched while she reached into the fridge for maple syrup. ‘And you said no.’

‘Actually, I said yes.’ She added a plate of lemon slices and a bowl of sugar to the table.

Alessandro stared at her in blatant astonishment. ‘Why would you say yes?’

Her gaze lifted to his, her green eyes cool. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

‘Well, because…’ He dragged a hand through his dark hair and frowned, suspecting that he was about to get himself into hot water. ‘Because it’s a long time since you’ve worked in A and E. You’ve been at home with the children for years now and—’

‘And you think my brain has gone to mush?’ Her tone had an edge to it as she reached into the cutlery drawer and withdrew a knife. ‘Why don’t you just say it, Alessandro? You don’t think I’m up to it, do you?’ She slammed the drawer shut with a decisive flick of her hand and Alessandro closed his eyes briefly and wished he’d stayed at the hospital.

‘I’m just thinking of you. You’ve no idea what A and E is like now.’ He spread lean, strong hands to emphasise his point. ‘Every day there’s a new piece of high-tech equipment to master and the work is full on and relentless. Every single day we’re stretched to the limit. And then there’s the violent drunks—’

She put the knife on the table next to the syrup. ‘You don’t think I can cope with a violent drunk?’

Alessandro eyed the dangerous glint in her eye and felt the hot burn of lust spread through his body. He’d always loved her passion and her strength. The fact that she was afraid of nothing. ‘You’re a strong woman, that’s true, querida,’ he drawled, ‘but—’

‘But nothing! Believe it or not, I still have a brain, Alessandro, and giving birth to your children hasn’t changed that fact.’ Passion and fire burned in her eyes and he was suddenly relieved that she’d put the knife down.

‘You’re overreacting.’

‘Well, excuse me, but when I’m patronised I do have a tendency to overreact,’ she said in a dangerously sweet tone. ‘And let’s be honest here for a moment, shall we? You’re not thinking of me. You’re thinking of yourself. You’re afraid I’ll embarrass you. Or that when you get home, your dinner won’t be cooked. Or that I’ll be too tired for sex—’

‘Enough!’ He said the word sharply, his eyes sliding to the door, but there was no sign of the children.

‘Yes, Alessandro. I’ve had enough.’ She glared at him. ‘But you’re not thinking of me, are you? You just don’t want anything to upset the perfect order of your life.’

He inhaled sharply. ‘A and E is busy and challenging and—’

‘And you don’t think I’m up to it,’ Christy repeated, her jaw lifting in a stubborn expression that he knew so well. ‘Well, I’m going to prove you wrong. I was a good nurse, Alessandro. You seem to have forgotten that.’

‘I haven’t forgotten that and you don’t have to prove anything to me,’ Alessandro said stiffly. ‘You’ve been looking after the children and that’s important. It’s enough.’

‘For you, yes. But what if it isn’t enough for me?’ Her voice was strangely flat. ‘You carry on building your career, moving forwards and upwards, and you’ve never once stopped to wonder whether I’m happy standing still.’

Alessandro stared at her. ‘I thought you were happy being at home with the children. Being a practice nurse.’

‘Ben has been in full-time education for three years,’ she replied shortly. ‘And being a practice nurse was a forced decision based on the hours. You know that.’

Did he? Did he know that? Had he ever stopped to think about the choices she’d made? Feeling trapped in a corner, Alessandro ran a hand over the back of his neck.

‘If you weren’t happy, you should have talked to me.’

‘When? The only way to guarantee an audience with you over the past year would have been to break something vital and arrive at your place of work in an ambulance.’ She slammed a pan down on the side. ‘I tried talking to you, Alessandro. You weren’t listening.’

‘I’m listening now.’ He refrained from saying that he couldn’t hear much above the banging and clattering that she was making as she worked her way around the kitchen.

She paused, the rapid rise and fall of her chest an indication of the depth of emotion bottled up inside her. ‘And now isn’t the time. Isn’t that typical?’ Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she gave a humourless laugh and took a breath. ‘Children! Breakfast!’

Alessandro didn’t budge from the doorway. ‘We’re going to talk about this, Christy.’

‘Some time, yes, but the pancakes are getting cold so it can’t be now.’ She slid a pancake onto Ben’s plate. ‘But I’m starting at the hospital this afternoon. Late shift. You’re looking after the children.’

Alessandro opened his mouth to suggest that she delay it a few days to give him time to run through the essentials with her, but the children pushed past him and he decided that Christy was right. This wasn’t the right time. She had no idea what A and E was like now, he thought fiercely, and made a mental note to ask Sean and Nicky to keep a discreet eye on her.

‘You’re working at the hospital, Mum?’ Katy poured maple syrup over her pancakes. ‘What’s going to happen to us?’

‘When Daddy isn’t around, you’ll go to Grandma’s,’ Christy said immediately, and Katy’s face brightened.

‘Cool. Shopping.’

Alessandro frowned. ‘You don’t mind spending most of the week at your grandmother’s?’

‘Why would I?’ Katy gave a wide smile. ‘She always says that the great thing about being a grandma is having someone to spoil. I’m more than happy to be that someone.’

‘Her chocolate cake is awesome,’ Ben added, heaping sugar in the middle of a pancake. ‘It’s all gooey and she cuts really big pieces. And she never worries about it spoiling your appetite.’

‘You see?’ Christy looked at Alessandro and gave a shrug. ‘And, anyway, it will only be for part of the day. I’ll still have plenty of time to spend with the children. Everyone’s happy.’

Were they? Alessandro poured himself a strong cup of coffee and wondered what it would be like having Christy working in the department.

He was finding it hard enough being around her for the short period of time he was at home without contemplating falling over her at work, too.

‘Look at it this way.’ She gave him a smile loaded with subtle messages. ‘You’re always at the hospital. At least this way I get to see you.’

And that, Alessandro decided, was going to be the biggest problem. He wouldn’t be able to use work to take his mind off Christy because she was going to be right there, under his nose. ‘I can’t believe you said yes to this.’ Nicky, the A and E sister, grabbed Christy and gave her a hug. ‘We are so pleased to see you back.’

‘It’s been years and I’m a bit nervous,’ Christy confessed, stroking a hand down the blue scrub suit that the nurses wore in A and E. It felt unfamiliar. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to make a mistake.’

‘No way.’ Nicky shook her head and waved a hand dismissively. ‘You’re an experienced nurse. And, anyway, if in doubt just shout.’

‘Alessandro doesn’t think I can do it,’ Christy said softly, and Nicky gave her a searching look.

‘Well, he’s a traditional Mediterranean man but I guess you knew that when you married him. I suppose he sees you as his wife and the mother of his children. But that’ll change after you’ve been in Resus together.’

Unless she messed it up. Christy felt a stab of insecurity. It was obvious that Alessandro thought she’d been away from A and E nursing for too long to be much use.

Would she be able to prove him wrong?

She, of all people, knew how exacting he was. He was noted for his absence of tolerance when it came to mistakes.

‘Anyway, you’ve picked a good shift to start on,’ Nicky said cheerfully, leading her round to the main area of the department. ‘Your handsome husband isn’t working this afternoon, so you can find your feet without him watching you with those brooding dark eyes. And it’s Sunday afternoon. Lots of rugby injuries. Yummy men dressed in virtually nothing and covered in mud. My idea of heaven. Bring ‘em on!’

Christy laughed, suddenly realising just how much she’d missed the camaraderie that was so much a part of working in the A and E department.

‘Where do you want me to work this afternoon?’

‘Out here at the sharp end,’ Nicky said immediately. ‘You can help me. It will be like old times. If it’s quiet, we can warm our bottoms on the radiator and catch up on the gossip.’

Almost immediately the phone rang. Remembering that it was the hotline to Ambulance Control, Christy picked it up without hesitation, listening carefully while the person on the other end outlined the injuries of the patient they were bringing in.

When she’d replaced the receiver, she repeated the information to Nicky, her tone brisk and professional. ‘Sounds bad. Shall I get Sean?’

‘We need to assemble the trauma team,’ Nicky agreed. ‘Shame your Alessandro isn’t on, it’s right up his street. Still, never mind, we’ll bleep the on-call orthopaedic reg.’ Her eyes gleamed with humour. ‘He’ll have to do.’

The children were already asleep when she arrived home and Christy fell into bed, exhausted but elated. She’d done it. She’d worked a shift in A and E and she hadn’t killed anyone or even slightly injured them. And she’d had fun. It had been exciting and unpredictable and the time had passed so fast that she’d been astonished when Nicky had pointed out that it was time to go home. Astonished and disappointed because she’d been enjoying herself. Really, really enjoying herself.

And now she was back in the spare bedroom. For a short time she’d forgotten about her problems. But there was no forgetting them now, with the cold, empty stretch of bed next to her.

He didn’t want her, she reminded herself miserably.

He didn’t want her in his bed and he didn’t want her in his A and E department.

Leaving home and going to London had just brought to a head something that would have happened anyway.

Their marriage was on a slow downhill slide and she didn’t seem able to stop it.

The next morning, Christy scraped a thick layer of ice from her windscreen, dropped the children with her mother and arrived at A and E to find the department in chaos. The waiting room was full to bursting and the triage nurse looked unusually stressed as she tried to calm everyone and maintain order, filtering the urgent from the non-urgent.

‘A bus carrying Father Christmas and a bunch of elves hit a patch of black ice at the head of the Kirkstone pass,’ Nicky told her as she hurried past, carrying an armful of equipment. ‘Mostly walking wounded but they’ve just brought the driver in and he’s badly injured. Can you go into Resus and help? Alessandro is in there and they’re short of a circulation nurse. Donna is there but she’s newly qualified and I’m worried that your husband might take her head off if she’s less than perfect. I need you to give her some help. I’m helping to stave off a riot out here. Apparently even elves don’t respond well to four-hour waiting times.’

Without arguing or asking any further questions, Christy pushed open the doors of Resus and felt her heart hammer hard against her chest.

She hated to admit it, but the prospect of working with Alessandro made her nervous. She didn’t need Nicky’s reminder that he was capable of removing someone’s head if he wasn’t happy. It was one of the things she’d always respected about him. He cared deeply about each patient and wasn’t willing to settle for anything other than best practice. She knew him to be an exacting taskmaster with a zero tolerance for anything other than perfection.

It was all very well for Nicky to tell her to keep an eye on Donna, but who was going to keep an eye on her?

What if she couldn’t remember what to do?

A blood-stained Father Christmas outfit lay in a pile and the patient was groaning with pain. Alessandro stood at the head of the trolley, co-ordinating the medical team as he assessed the patient. ‘There’s some bruising over the anterior chest wall,’ he murmured as his eyes slid over the patient, conducting a visual examination. ‘No evidence of open wounds or penetrating trauma.’

Christy walked towards the trolley, momentarily distracted by the sight of him in action. She’d forgotten what an exceptionally gifted doctor he was. Slick, competent and a natural leader. Nothing ever fazed him.

He lifted his eyes from the patient and saw her. His expression didn’t change. ‘You need protective clothing before you handle the patient,’ he said coldly. ‘At the very least, latex gloves and an apron.’ He turned his attention back to his patient and Christy felt the colour flood into her cheeks. Of course she knew that the first thing she should have done was to reach for protective clothing. All blood and body fluids had to be assumed to carry HIV and the hepatitis virus. She knew that. It was just that seeing him had rattled her. Affected her confidence.

Determined not to let him get to her, she quickly donned the clothing that she needed and walked back to the trolley.

Her hands were shaking and her heart was banging against her ribs. She’d done this before, she reminded herself firmly. Many times.

Alessandro was listening to the patient’s chest, his face blank of expression as he concentrated. When he was satisfied, he looped the stethoscope round his neck and turned to the circulation doctor, a pretty blonde girl who was examining the patient’s femur. ‘Blood loss?’

‘I’m keeping pressure on that wound and it’s under control.’

‘OK, I want two peripheral lines in and take some blood for cross-matching, full blood count, U and Es, and let’s get an arterial sample. I want blood gas and pH analysis. What’s his blood pressure doing? I need an ECG here.’ His instructions were smooth and seamless and swiftly Christy took over from one of the other nurses, who was clearly struggling and whom she presumed to be Donna.

Instinctively her eyes flicked to the monitor as she reached for the adhesive electrode pads and attached the patient to the ECG monitor. ‘It’s dropping. Ninety over fifty.’

Suddenly her hands weren’t shaking any more. Her movements were smooth, confident and almost automatic. She knew what she was doing and it was as if she’d never been away.

‘We’ll start with a litre of Hartmann’s,’ Alessandro said immediately, and Christy busied herself with her patient while he made a rapid assessment of brain and spinal-cord function.

‘Put your tongue out for me,’ he instructed the patient. ‘Wiggle your toes.’

‘His blood pressure is still dropping,’ Christy said quietly, and Alessandro’s gaze flickered to hers.

‘Increase the flow rate and let’s give him some analgesia.’

‘First line is in,’ the blonde doctor said as she slid a wide-bore cannula into a vein and Christy pulled the IV stand towards her so that she could attach the giving set and start the infusion.

‘Get that second line in straight away, Katya,’ Alessandro instructed, and the blonde doctor reached for the second cannula and moved round the trolley to the other side of the patient.

The man gave a groan of pain and Alessandro immediately switched his attention back to his patient. ‘We’re going to give you something for the pain now, Derek,’ he said calmly and Christy reached for the drugs that she knew would be on the trolley. ‘Morphine and cyclizine?’

With speed and efficiency she drew up the drug and handed it to Alessandro, along with the ampoule to check. Then she moved closer to the trolley and closed her hand over the patient’s, offering comfort.

‘We’ll soon have you more comfortable, Derek,’ she said quietly, and felt the man’s fingers tighten over hers.

This was the bit that the doctors often forgot or ignored, she thought to herself as she felt the man’s grip. They forgot the importance of touch. They forgot that as well as being injured, the patient was anxious and scared.

It was another thing that she’d always admired about Alessandro. No matter how tense the situation, he never forgot his patient. He wasn’t a touchy-feely doctor, but he understood the importance of communication in lowering stress levels.

Her eyes flickered to the machines next to her. ‘His blood pressure is stable,’ she said quietly, and Alessandro gave a nod.

‘Good. He’s still in pain so I’m going to give him a femoral nerve block before we splint and X-ray.’

Immediately Christy reached for the needle she knew he was going to need and an ampoule of lignocaine.

Alessandro felt for the femoral artery and cleaned the skin. Then he held out his hand for the local anaesthetic that Christy had prepared.

She watched while he inserted the needle perpendicular to the skin and then aspirated to check for blood. ‘That’s fine,’ he murmured, moving the needle up and down as he injected the local anaesthetic.

Katya moved forward, standing close to Alessandro. ‘What happens if you puncture the artery?’

‘I resign.’ Sounding impossibly Spanish, Alessandro dropped the syringe back on the tray that Christy was holding and gave a brief smile. ‘But before I resign, I compress it for five to ten minutes or until the bleeding stops. Then I carry on with the femoral nerve block.’ He turned his attention back to his patient. ‘That should give you some relief very quickly, Derek.’

Katya turned away but not before Christy had seen the flirtatious glance.

She wanted Alessandro.

Christy’s stomach lurched and she swallowed hard.

She was used to women staring at Alessandro. It had always happened and perhaps it always would because he was a man who inevitably attracted the attention of the female sex. But this was the first time she’d seen it happen when their marriage was in trouble.

Had he done something about it?

She bit her lip. Katya was very pretty. Alessandro was a hot-blooded Spaniard with a high sex drive, she knew that better than anyone. With their marriage in its current state, it was hard not to worry.

Had something happened between them?

The man closed his eyes and shook his head. ‘We were on our way to a school—delivering presents.’

‘Don’t worry about that now.’ Pushing aside disturbing thoughts of Katya with her arms wrapped around Alessandro, Christy gave a reassuring smile as the man gripped her hand tightly.

‘Will you get someone to phone the school and explain? These kids believe in Father Christmas. What will they think if I don’t turn up?’

Alessandro looked taken aback but Christy squeezed the man’s hand. ‘I’ll talk to one of the nurses outside see if one of your elves can make a call.’

Alessandro looked at her blankly and she just smiled and turned to Donna, who was hovering nervously. ‘Can you speak to Nicky?’ she said quietly. ‘Ask her to talk to one of the elves and call the school.’

Visibly relieved to be given an excuse to leave, Donna backed out of the room.

Alessandro watched her go with an ominous frown in his dark eyes. ‘She’s nervous.’

‘She’s learning and you can be scary,’ Christy said calmly. ‘Do you want to immobilise the limb now?’

He looked at her. ‘I’m scary?’

‘Not everyone is born with your confidence. Derek, we’re going to splint this leg of yours and for that I need to take some measurements on your uninjured leg.’ Having offered an explanation, Christy moved the blanket and measured the uppermost part of the patient’s thigh.

Donna slipped back by her side. ‘It’s done,’ she said breathlessly. ‘They’ve phoned the school and everyone is fine.’

‘Good. Well done.’ Christy smiled at her patient. ‘You can stop worrying. Even Father Christmas is allowed to be held up when he’s delivering presents.’

He smiled weakly. ‘You probably think I’m mad, worrying about that while I’m lying here with a broken leg, but I don’t want to disappoint the children. I think the pain is getting easier.’

‘The splint will help the pain, too,’ Christy explained, and then turned to Donna and handed her the measurements she’d taken. ‘We’re going to use a Thomas splint. Can you go and fetch me one, please? You’d better get the size above and below, just in case. It will save you making another journey.’

Working as a team, they prepared to fit the splint and Christy applied the adhesive tape and then wrapped the leg from ankle to mid-thigh with gauze bandage, talking Donna through what she was doing.

The girl lost her nervous appearance and moved closer to the trolley, her expression keen and interested.

Alessandro applied traction to the leg, gently pulling the ankle with one hand and supporting the knee with the other.

Katya stood closer to him than was strictly necessary and Christy tried not to mind and concentrated instead on helping Donna.

‘You can see that he’s correcting the abduction and the external rotation,’ she explained as she helped manoeuvre the splint onto the leg until it was in the right position.

She and Alessandro worked together smoothly, closely observed by both Katya and Donna.

Once the cords were tied and twisted, Christy put wool roll padding under the thigh. ‘Now we just need to bandage the whole splint from thigh to lower calf,’ she said to Donna, ‘lift and support the leg on a pillow and check the distal pulses.’

‘Great.’ Alessandro turned to Katya. ‘Can you arrange for X-rays and then we’ll refer him to the orthopaedic team? I want X-rays of the pelvis, hip and knee.’

Katya gave a feline smile. ‘Of course, Alessandro.’

Donna shot a questioning glance at Christy, who dragged her gaze away from her scrutiny of Katya and volunteered the information she knew was needed.

‘For the femoral shaft to fracture, there must have been a violent high-energy impact and that is associated with other injures.’ He wouldn’t be sleeping with Katya, she told herself firmly. Alessandro wouldn’t do that. He might be the archetypal alpha male, but he was an honourable man with strong principles. ‘So when we’re X-raying, it’s important to check pelvis, hip and knee.’

But if he considered their marriage to be over, would he do that?

CHAPTER THREE

CHRISTY started to clear up some of the debris that had accumulated while Katya and Donna arranged the X-rays. She knew how important it was to keep Resus tidy and well stocked, and she thought that the comfort of routine might relieve the sick feeling building in her stomach.

Forcing herself to be rational and mature, she hung a fresh bag of IV fluid from the drip stand and then started to replenish the drugs that they’d used.

Eventually the patient was transferred to Theatre and she was left alone in the room. She picked up a laryngoscope from the intubation tray and snapped it open, testing that the bulb worked. She stared down at the curved, silver blade in her hand and didn’t hear the door open behind her.

‘So—working in A and E is obviously like riding a bike.’ Alessandro’s deep, masculine drawl came from directly behind her and she turned, her stomach jumping. There was no reason to feel nervous, she told herself firmly. They’d worked together as a smooth, efficient team. She hadn’t done anything wrong.

‘It came back to me.’

‘Obviously.’ His dark eyes lingered on her face. ‘You’ve missed it, haven’t you?’

She caught her breath. It had been years since she’d stopped working in A and E and yet that was the first time he’d ever asked her that question. ‘Yes,’ she breathed. ‘I missed it terribly.’

Something flickered in his eyes. ‘You never said.’

‘You never asked.’

Their eyes met and held and Christy felt the heat flicker and stir in her pelvis.

Why did she have to find him so completely irresistible? The attraction between them was so powerful that it blinded her to every other aspect of their relationship, which was probably the reason they hadn’t sorted their problems out earlier.

‘We should talk more,’ he said roughly, and she gave a wan smile.

‘You’re not always that easy to talk to, Alessandro.’

‘Am I really scary?’ There was a frown in his eyes and she realised that her earlier comment had genuinely bothered him.

‘You can be intimidating,’ she said honestly. ‘But that’s partly because of your skills and experience. You can’t expect a newly qualified nurse to respond to an emergency situation with your confidence.’

‘If she can’t cope with the situation, she shouldn’t be in Resus,’ Alessandro growled, and Christy sighed.

‘You’re so hard on people. In an ideal world, I suppose you’re right. But we don’t live or work in an ideal world. And the best way to learn is by the patient’s bedside, gaining hands-on experience with the appropriate supervision.’ She scanned the trolley, checking that she’d replaced all the drugs they’d used. ‘All the studying in the world doesn’t prepare you for the pressure and demands of Resus when a patient is bleeding before your eyes.’

Alessandro looked at her thoughtfully. ‘You were good with her,’ he conceded. ‘The nurse, I mean.’

It was so unlike him to offer praise that she blinked in astonishment and then felt the warmth spread inside her.

‘Thank you.’

‘Do I scare you?’ His direct question made her catch her breath.

She wondered whether she ought to admit that the only thing that scared her was the thought of losing him.

She opened her mouth to tell him, but pride trapped the words in her throat before she could utter them. She was sleeping in the spare room, she reminded herself. He hadn’t come after her.

It was the wrong time to be honest about her feelings when she was so unsure about his.

‘No,’ she said finally, her voice quiet. ‘You don’t scare me, but you can be difficult to reach and sometimes I just give up rather than keep trying.’

He muttered something in Spanish and ran a hand over his jaw, a jaw that was already showing signs of stubble. Then he reached out and slid a hand behind her head and pulled her face to within inches of his in a gesture that was both male and possessive. ‘I don’t want a divorce, Christy. Be clear about that.’

She stared up at him, hypnotised by the look in his dark, brooding eyes. They were the words she’d waited to hear for two long months and he’d chosen to say them in Resus under harsh, fluorescent lights with the likelihood that they’d be disturbed at any moment. She wanted to ask why he’d let her go. She wanted to ask about Katya. Suddenly, she wanted to know how he’d spent the last six weeks. ‘And what if I want a divorce?’

She said the words to goad him and remembered too late that goading Alessandro, with his volatile, Latin temperament, was not a good idea.

‘You don’t.’ He slid his other arm and around her and jerked her against him in a decisive gesture that was so much a part of him.

She felt the strength and power of his body and the breath trapped in her throat. ‘Alessandro…’ she couldn’t concentrate on anything when he was this close. Couldn’t think…

‘Need me to prove it to you?’ He breathed the words against her mouth, his tone silky smooth and dangerous, and she gave a whimper, knowing what was coming and willing herself to reject him. ‘Need me to prove that you still want me?’

‘No, I don’t, I—’

His mouth came down on hers with seductive intent and immediately she sank against him because no one kissed like Alessandro and resisting him was impossible. His hand was buried in her hair, the skilful slide of his tongue erotic and demanding as he took her to the edge of sanity with a speed that shocked her.

His kiss was hungry and primitive and she clutched at him, pressing against him, her need so intense that she forgot everything except her desire for him.

Kissing him gave her the reassurance she needed and then he released her and stepped back, his expression cold. ‘The children need both their parents. We’re a family, Christy, and that isn’t going to change.’

The tiny flicker of hope died inside her. ‘Alessandro—’

‘We won’t ever speak of divorce again, Christy. And don’t pretend you don’t want me.’

Oh, she wanted him. How could she pretend otherwise when her nipples were pressing hard against the soft fabric of her scrub suit and her mouth was still swollen from the ravages of his kiss?

She wanted him. But how did she explain that she needed more than the physical when his solution to every problem was sex? He was a red-blooded, Mediterranean male with a high sex drive. She’d known that right from the first. Had loved the fact that he couldn’t get enough of her.

And the fact that he’d made it clear that his thoughts were only for the children caused her intense pain. The kiss hadn’t been about her, she thought miserably. It had been about the children. Alessandro was Spanish, through and through. He believed utterly in the sanctity of the family.

He would stay married to her for the sake of the children.

Could she do the same? Could she stay with him, knowing that he didn’t love her any more?

‘We can’t talk about this here, Alessandro,’ she croaked. ‘Not now.’

His eyes dropped to her mouth and the tension rose between them.

‘When, then?’

‘I don’t know.’ She felt so shaky and miserable that she didn’t feel up to another confrontation. Didn’t feel up to listening to more evidence that he was determined to save their marriage for the sake of the children.

‘Well, it has to be soon.’ He was standing close to her. So close that her heart rate increased alarmingly.

Was it normal? she wondered. Was it normal to be married to someone for twelve years and yet still want to rip their clothes off at every opportunity?

‘I need to go home and prepare dinner,’ she said huskily as she dragged off her gloves and washed her hands, seeking any excuse to turn away from him. ‘Mum’s dropping the children in an hour. Are you joining us?’

She expected him to tell her that he was staying at the hospital but as she risked a glance at him she collided with his hard, unyielding gaze.

‘Sí.’ His Spanish accent was more pronounced than usual. ‘I’m joining you, querida. I want to eat dinner with my children. Why wouldn’t I?’

The children.

It was all about the children, she thought dully as she washed her hands and walked out of the room.

As a couple, they didn’t exist any more.

Checking that her parents were still seated at the dining table, Katy grabbed her brother’s hand and dragged him upstairs and into the spare bedroom. ‘It’s time to interfere.’

‘What’s interfere?’ Ben started playing with his toy aeroplane and Katy snatched it away from him and held it out of reach.

‘Interfere is when you try and help someone do something they should be doing for themselves.’ She threw the aeroplane onto a chair and grabbed his hand. ‘Come on. We’re going to bounce on the bed.’

Ben tried to jerk his hand away from hers. ‘I was playing with my aeroplane.’

Katy rolled her eyes. ‘You can play with it again in a minute, but for now we’re going to bounce.’

Ben eyed the bed doubtfully. ‘We’re not supposed to jump on the beds.’

‘And when has that ever stopped you?’

‘I’ll get into trouble with Mum.’

‘And if you don’t do it, you’ll get into trouble with me,’ Katy informed him sweetly. ‘Take your pick.’

‘I do like bouncing.’ Ben looked at the wide bed with something close to yearning. ‘Come on, then. Just a quick one. How hard do you want me to bounce?’

‘Just hard enough to break it,’ Katy muttered under her breath, slipping off her shoes. ‘I’ll help you. Come on.’ And she leapt into the middle of the bed and started jumping, her dark ponytail flying around her shoulders as she leaped higher and higher.

Ben gave a delighted giggled and climbed up next to her.

‘Come on.’ She grabbed his hands and encouraged him to bounce, too.

Downstairs in the kitchen, Christy and Alessandro were finishing their meal in tense silence when there was an enormous crash above them, followed by a plaintive yell.

‘Oh, no.’ Driven by her maternal instincts, Christy was out of her seat and up the stairs in record time, Alessandro right behind her.

In the bedroom they found Ben sobbing noisily on the carpet and Katy with her arms around him. She looked up when her parents entered. ‘Poor Ben. He bounced on the bed and…’ she gave a baffled shrug, her expression both innocent and mystified ‘… it must have broken or something. Unbelievable, the rubbish they sell you these days.’

‘The bed broke?’ Christy looked at the collapsed bed in horror and disbelief. ‘Oh, my goodness. It looks as though the frame has snapped right through. How did you—?’ And then she saw the blood on Ben’s cheek and dropped to her knees. All the training in the world didn’t prepare you properly for coping when your own child was injured, she thought frantically. ‘You’re bleeding. Alessandro, he’s bleeding.’

‘I see it.’ Calm and steady, Alessandro scooped his son into his arms and swept the aeroplane and Christy’s clothes off the chair so that he could sit down. ‘What’s happened to you?’

‘Katy told me to bounce,’ Ben hiccoughed, his face blotched with crying, ‘so I bounced, but when the bed broke I fell off and banged myself. It hurts.’

‘Where did you bang yourself?’ Alessandro ran strong fingers over the little boy’s arms and legs, hunting for damage—trying to find the source of the bleeding. He found it on the boy’s palm. ‘It’s fine. Just a scratch. He must have run his hand over his cheek. That’s why he has blood on his face.’

Christy stood there, heart thumping, relieved that Alessandro was there. She’d always been a wreck inside when either of the children had been ill or injured. She suddenly realised how much she’d missed his strength.

Still cuddling Ben, Alessandro threw a frowning glance at the bed. ‘That’s well and truly broken. You won’t be sleeping there tonight.’

Christy gave a tiny frown and turned to Katy. ‘I’ll have Ben’s room. Your brother can share with you.’

‘No way!’ Katy shrank back, her face a picture of exaggerated sibling horror. ‘He snores, fidgets and talks in his sleep. No way am I sleeping with a monster baby like him.’

Ben clutched at the front of Alessandro’s shirt and scowled at his sister. ‘I’m not a baby!’

Christy sighed. ‘Katy, there’s no other option.’

‘Yes, there is. If there’s sharing to be done, you can jolly well share with Dad. At least you’re married. I’m not sharing with my brother! That’s totally gross.’ And she stomped out of the room, ponytail swishing like a statement.

Alessandro stared after her with an expression of blatant masculine incomprehension. ‘Is she hormonal?’

Christy rubbed her aching forehead. ‘Hardly. She’s eleven years old.’

‘She’s acting like a teenager.’

‘She’s going through a difficult phase. She’s…’ Her eyes met his and the words tailed off. They both knew that if Katy was going through a difficult stage, it was probably their fault. Christy’s hand fell to her side. ‘On top of everything else, I suppose it isn’t exactly fair for her to have to share with her brother. She is getting to an age where privacy is important,’ she murmured, and Alessandro nodded agreement.

‘You can use our bedroom. I’ll take the sofa downstairs.’

Christy felt the heavy punch of disappointment deep inside her but smiled. ‘That’s very decent of you. Thanks.’

She didn’t care, she told herself. She didn’t care that he obviously couldn’t face the thought of sharing a room with her, let alone a bed. She didn’t care that he’d rather sleep on the sofa than be with her.

Once, they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other. They’d been like greedy, naughty teenagers seizing every opportunity to rip each other’s clothes off and feast. Now it seemed as if they couldn’t create enough distance.

‘How will Father Christmas come if Daddy’s sleeping downstairs?’ Ben’s anxious voice interrupted her thoughts. ‘We all know that he can’t come if anyone is there to see him.’ The sweet innocence of his question made her heart twist.

‘I… er… He…’ Christy fumbled for an answer that might work, casting a desperate look at Alessandro.

‘I’ll keep my eyes tightly shut for the whole night?’

Ben shook his head, his expression solemn. ‘That won’t work. If you’re awake, he knows.’

‘Well, Daddy’s under a lot of strain at the moment,’ Alessandro growled, ‘so I’m sure I’ll be asleep.’

Was he under strain? He always looked infuriatingly cool and relaxed, Christy mused as she studied his handsome face for clues. Perhaps those dark, brooding eyes were a little more shadowed than usual and the sexy mouth a little more grimly set.

The strain of having her to stay, she thought miserably.

He was only tolerating her because of the children. Everything he did was because of the children.

‘That’s settled, then,’ Christy said brightly. ‘Daddy will sleep on the sofa. Now, let’s get you into bed. It’s getting late.’

She woke early to the sound of clattering and thumping in the kitchen, accompanied by harsh masculine curses. Trying to ignore the fact that she’d had less than four hours’ sleep, she slipped on her dressing-gown and went downstairs to investigate.

Bare-chested and wearing only a pair of old jeans, Alessandro was muttering to himself in Spanish as he smashed his way around the kitchen.

Her Spanish was by no means fluent, but she’d lived with him for long enough to understand that he was in a foul temper.

‘What’s the matter with you?’

Alessandro shot her a stormy look as he made himself a large espresso. ‘It’s morning. I hate mornings. Especially after a night spent in the equivalent of a shoebox.’

She tried not to look at that tempting expanse of muscular chest. He had an incredible physique. Hard. Strong. Male. ‘That sofa was expensive.’

He made a sound that was close to a snarl. ‘Believe me, you’d never guess by sleeping on it. I’m aching in parts of my body that I never even knew I had before now.’

He looked so cross that she felt a smile coming and lifted a hand to her mouth to cover it.

He paused with the cup halfway to his lips, his smouldering gaze hooded. ‘Are you laughing at me?’ He rolled the ‘r’, sounding more and more Spanish as he always did when he was angry.

‘I’m not laughing at you.’

Slowly, he placed the cup back on the work surface, his eyes glittering dark and dangerous as he moved purposefully towards her. ‘Because if you’re laughing at me, querida, you can spend the night on the sofa tonight.’

Her heart started to thump hard against her ribs and she found herself backing away. ‘Alessandro, I wasn’t laughing.’ It was ridiculous that he could still have this effect on her, she told herself firmly. They’d been together for twelve years. It wasn’t possible for a man to make a woman weak at the knees after twelve years. It didn’t happen that way. People became bored with each other. Sex was supposed to become routine and infrequent.

‘You would fit better on the sofa.’ He was right up against her now, and she was right up against the wall. Breathing heavily. ‘You are smaller. More delicate.’

At that particular point in time she didn’t need him to point out their differences. Her eyes were in line with sleek, male muscle and dark body hair. He was pumped up and hard and breathtakingly sexy. There was certainly no missing the differences between them.

‘I’ll sleep on the sofa if that’s what you want.’ Why did he persist in standing so close to her? What was he thinking?

And then she made the mistake of lifting her eyes to his and instantly knew exactly what he was thinking. He was thinking of sex. She recognised the sudden darkening of his eyes, saw the tiny pulse flicker in his rough jaw. He hadn’t shaved yet and he looked more like a bandit than a senior doctor loaded with responsibilities.

Her tongue flickered out in what was actually a nervous gesture, but his eyes dropped to her mouth and she sensed the change in him.

He lifted a hand and brushed her cheek gently, his breathing unsteady. ‘Christy…’

He was going to kiss her.

She closed her eyes, her blood thundering round her body in excited anticipation, and then there was a clatter and laughter as the two children surged into the room.

Alessandro cursed softly and backed away from her, retreating to his abandoned coffee-cup and leaving Christy ready to sob with frustration.

‘Hi, Mum.’ Katy dragged a chair away from the table and sat down with one leg curled underneath her. ‘Dad. Good night?’

‘Marvellous. Perhaps you would like to bounce on the sofa as well as the bed,’ Alessandro suggested with sarcastic bite, ‘and then I wouldn’t have to sleep on it.’

Ben frowned, puzzled as he poured milk into his cup, slopping it everywhere. ‘But you don’t like us bouncing on the furniture.’

‘Dad was joking,’ Katy said calmly, reaching for a cloth to mop up the mess her brother had made. ‘He’s obviously in a bad mood because he slept badly. Tonight he’d better sleep in the bed.’

Alessandro threw his daughter an exasperated look and then turned to Christy. ‘How does she suddenly know so much?’

Christy gave a weak smile. ‘She’s growing up. Don’t worry. I’ll sleep on the sofa tonight. We’ll take turns.’

She poured herself another cup of coffee and missed the thoughtful smile on her daughter’s face.

The first person she saw when she arrived at work was Jake Blackwell, the obstetrician.

‘Babe! I heard you were back.’ He strolled towards her and dragged her into his arms for a hug.

Christy closed her eyes and held onto him. He was their oldest friend and suddenly she wondered exactly what Alessandro had told him. ‘It’s good to see you.’

Jake gently disengaged himself and looked down at her with a searching gaze. ‘That bad, huh?’

‘Oh, no, everything is fine,’ she lied with a forced smile, and Jake gave a soft laugh.

‘If everything is fine, my angel, then why is Alessandro taking everyone’s heads off and walking round like a volcano on the brink of eruption?’

‘He’s angry with me because I took the children away,’ Christy muttered, and Jake looked at her thoughtfully.

‘You think so?’

Christy stepped back and ran a hand through her hair to check it was still in place. ‘What other reason would there be?’

Jake’s eyes narrowed. ‘Well, I can think of another one but this probably isn’t the time or the place to go into that. Are you going to offer to cook me dinner some time? Don’t forget I’m just a poor, starving bachelor and I haven’t had one of your meals for weeks.’

Christy smiled. It was so good to have friends, she reflected. ‘Of course.’ It would make eating with Alessandro less tense. ‘Are you dating someone special at the moment?’

Jake gave her a wicked smile. ‘You know me, still auditioning for Miss Right.’

Christy sighed. She did know him. Knew his fearsome reputation with women. ‘You should settle down, Jake.’

‘When I find the love of my life, I’ll settle down,’ he drawled, ‘and not a moment before. I have you and Alessandro as an example.’

‘Us?’ She looked at him, startled. ‘What sort of an example are we?’

‘The very best,’ Jake said softly, lifting a hand to her cheek. ‘And don’t you forget that. You’re crazy about each other.’

‘We’re separated.’

‘So?’ Jake gave a dismissive shrug. ‘You’re both passionate, fiery people. You’ve lost your way for a while but you’ll find it again.’

No, they wouldn’t.

She’d lost hope.

Suddenly Christy wanted to blurt everything out. She wanted to tell Jake that Alessandro had put her in the spare room and that he wasn’t interested in her any more, but she couldn’t do that standing in a draughty, hospital corridor.

As if to confirm that point, Jake’s bleeper suddenly sounded and he lifted it from his pocket and read the number with a rueful smile. ‘Here we go again. Women just can’t do without me.’

Christy couldn’t help the smile. ‘You haven’t changed.’

‘And neither have you and Alessandro.’ He put the bleeper back in his pocket and gave her a thoughtful look. ‘Remember that, Christy. I’ll see you later.’

She watched him go, knowing that he was wrong. She had changed. Probably more than she’d realised.

‘Christy?’ Nicky appeared in the corridor. ‘I’ve got a woman coming in by ambulance who collapsed on the tennis court. Can you deal with her?’

Christy hurried towards her. ‘Tennis? There’s snow on the ground.’

‘Indoor court.’ Nicky grinned and pushed her into Resus. ‘She’s on her way now. Billy can help you to start with and he can call Alessandro if he needs to. We don’t really know how serious it is. Her sister is following by car. I’ll put her in the relatives’ room with a cup of tea but don’t forget to update her when you have some news.’

The woman arrived still dressed in her white tennis gear and clutching a vomit bowl.

‘This is Susan Wilde. She was very sick in the ambulance,’ the paramedic said as they lifted her from their stretcher onto the trolley. ‘She was playing tennis when she suddenly complained of a headache and collapsed.’

Christy covered the woman with a blanket while she listened to the handover and then Billy arrived and started his examination.

‘Mrs Wilde? Can you remember what happened?’

The woman turned her head slowly and looked at him blankly, as if she was having trouble focusing and concentrating. ‘Don’t know… Pain…’ She groaned. ‘Neck, head.’ Her eyes drifted shut again and Christy checked her observations quickly.

‘Her pulse is down and her BP is up,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll get you a venflon so that you can put a line in and we’ll give her some oxygen straight away.’

Billy stared at her and then nodded. ‘OK. Yes. Good idea.’ He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. ‘I might just give Mr Garcia a call. Ask him to take a look at her.’

‘You get a line in and I’ll call him for you,’ Christy advised, handing him the necessary gear and then attaching ECG electrodes to the patient’s chest. ‘He’s going to want you to have obtained venous access. It looks as though she might have had a subarachnoid haemorrhage.’

‘Right.’ Taking the tourniquet from the tray she’d handed him, Billy slid it onto the patient’s arm and pulled it tight. As he searched for a vein and slid the venflon into place, Alessandro walked into the room.

‘Everything all right in here?’

‘I was just going to come and ask your advice,’ Billy confessed, releasing the tourniquet and raising his eyebrows as Christy handed him a selection of bottles. ‘What are those for?’

‘BMG, FBC, clotting screen and U and Es,’ Christy said calmly, reaching for the forms to go with the bottles and filling out all of them except the doctor’s signature. ‘I’ll just go and arrange for a chest X-ray because it’s obvious that you’re going to need one of those.’

She thought she saw a flicker of amusement and admiration in Alessandro’s eyes as she walked towards the phone.

By the time she’d finished, Alessandro was examining the patient, who by now was so drowsy she could barely answer and was making little sense at all.

Christy was just wondering whether the woman had actually lapsed into unconsciousness when she gave another groan, rolled onto her side and vomited weakly.

Christy got the bowl there in time and Alessandro frowned.

‘We need to give her some morphine and an anti-emetic. Christy, I want you to arrange an urgent CT scan and contact the neurosurgeons.’

‘I’ve already arranged the scan and the neurosurgeons are on their way down.’ Christy drew up the drugs that he’d requested and gave them to him to check while Billy stared in amazement.

‘You called the scanning department already? When did you arrange that?’

‘At the same time that I arranged the chest X-ray. It seemed sensible.’ Christy checked the woman’s observations on the monitor. ‘She’s showing signs of raised intracranial pressure, do you want to give her some IV mannitol?’

‘We’ll do the scan straight away and discuss it with the neurosurgeons,’ Alessandro said, a strange light in his eyes as he looked at her. ‘I’d forgotten what it was like to work with you.’

She gave him a cool look. ‘Had you?’ He thought of her as the mother of his children, she realised suddenly. He didn’t really see her as an individual any more.

Didn’t think she was a capable nurse.

‘Is there anything else you need?’ she asked. ‘Because her sister is in the waiting room and she needs an update. I can send Donna through to help you here and go with her to the scanner.’

‘Go and talk to the sister,’ Alessandro said immediately, ‘and tell her I’ll be able to tell her more once we’ve done the scan and talked to the neurosurgeons.’

Christy pulled off her apron, washed her hands and then walked towards the relatives’ room.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘SO WHAT’S it like having your wife under your nose in the department,’ Jake asked cheerfully as he piled butter onto a baked potato and dropped two bars of chocolate on his tray.

‘Surprisingly good. At least she knows what she’s doing, which is more than can be said for half the people I’m expected to work with at the moment.’ Alessandro eyed Jake’s tray with disbelief as they stood in the queue, waiting to pay. ‘Blackwell, you do realise that the contents of your tray are likely to give you a heart attack before morning?’

Jake shrugged. ‘Chocolate and baked potatoes are the only edible objects in this restaurant. And I don’t see why you’re surprised about Christy. She was always a brilliant nurse. The brightest I ever worked with.’

‘I forgot you worked with her.’

‘She did an obstetrics module. All the doctors were crazy about her.’

Alessandro scowled. ‘I didn’t need to hear that.’

‘Why not? It’s the truth.’ Jake studied a cake loaded with cream. ‘Christy is gorgeous.’

‘You’re talking about the mother of my children,’ Alessandro said coldly, and Jake shrugged and walked past the cake.

‘So? That doesn’t stop her being gorgeous. And, anyway, I thought you didn’t want her any more.’

Alessandro inhaled sharply. ‘Who said I didn’t want her any more?’

‘You didn’t follow her to London.’

‘She left to get away from me,’ Alessandro said grittily. ‘I assumed that following her would inflame the situation.’

‘Did you?’ Jake shot him a curious look. ‘You really don’t understand women at all, do you?’

Alessandro stared at his friend with mounting irritation. ‘And you do?’

‘Of course. I’m an obstetrician. I’m paid to understand women.’ They arrived at the till and Jake beamed at the plump, smiling woman who looked at his tray and clucked with disapproval.

‘Where’s the nutrition in that lunch, Dr Blackwell?’

‘I need energy, not nutrition, Delia,’ Jake said cheerfully. ‘We’re busy on the labour ward and I’m going to need more than carrots to see me through until midnight. That’s a nice jumper. The colour suits you. Is it new?’

‘You always notice the little things.’ Delia beamed and handed him his change. ‘Early Christmas present from my daughter who lives in Canada.’

‘Is that Gillian? The one with the two-year-old?’

Delia blushed with delight. ‘Is there anything you don’t remember, Jake?’

‘I’m programmed to remember the details of everyone’s labour and delivery,’ Jake responded with a cheerful wink as he pocketed the change and lifted his tray.

Alessandro rolled his eyes as they walked to the nearest vacant table. ‘Do you have to flirt with every woman you meet?’

‘Yes, I think I probably do.’ Jake sat down and picked up his fork. ‘Believe it or not, Garcia, women like it when you notice them. You ought to drop your intimidating Mediterranean macho act and try it some time. Having a guy who behaves like a caveman might be a woman’s fantasy, but when it comes to reality they want a man to talk to them.’

Alessandro bit into his sandwich with more savagery than was strictly necessary. ‘What are you implying?’

‘Nothing.’

Alessandro put the sandwich down on his plate. ‘You’re suggesting that I don’t talk to Christy, but she was in London before I realised anything was wrong and now she’s back I can’t seem to reach her.’

‘No.’ Jake dug his fork into the potato and gave him a bland smile. ‘Of course you can’t.’

‘Did you think Christy was happy being a practice nurse?’

Jake chewed thoughtfully. ‘Well, she liked the hours, of course, because it meant that she could always be there for the children.’ He waved his fork. ‘But she missed the pace of A and E. Hardly surprising, really. I think she quite liked things like the asthma clinic because she could make quite a difference to the patients’ lives, but syringing ears and doing dressings drove her nuts.’

Alessandro stared at him. ‘When did she tell you all that?’

‘I don’t know.’ Jake pushed his plate away and reached for his first bar of chocolate. ‘We’ve chatted about it over the years. Christy was quite a high-powered nurse. She invariably knew more than the doctors when she worked in A and E. It’s hardly surprising that she was frustrated, working in a village practice. A bit like putting a racehorse in a riding school, I suppose.’

Had she been frustrated? Alessandro abandoned the sandwich and ran a hand over the back of his neck, suddenly realising that it hadn’t ever occurred to him that she was anything less than happy in her work. And he didn’t like the fact that she’d confided in Jake. Since when had Christy confided in Jake? They were friends, that was true, but he didn’t like the idea that his friend knew more about his wife than he did.

Checking that her mother was safely occupied in the kitchen, Katy slunk into the living room where her brother was orchestrating a battle between dinosaurs and toy soldiers.

‘Ben, here’s a really, really large glass of blackcurrant squash.’

Ben stared at it. ‘I’m not thirsty.’

‘Good,’ Katy said sweetly, ‘because I don’t want you to drink it. I want you to spill it on the sofa.’

Ben’s eyes widened. ‘No way! You spill it on the sofa.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Katy’s tone was condescending. ‘I’m eleven. I’m way past spilling drinks on the sofa. You’ll have to do it.’

‘But that will make the sofa wet and purple.’

‘That’s the general idea.’

‘Why?’

‘Because despite our efforts, our parents are still not sharing a bed,’ Katy said with an impatient sigh. ‘And they’re never going to get back together if they don’t share a bed. Everyone knows that adults should share a bed if they’re married. It’s how they mate.’

Ben picked up another dinosaur. ‘What’s mate?’

‘You’re far too young to understand,’ Katy said disdainfully. ‘You’re just going to have to trust me.’

‘I don’t see how spilling blackcurrant squash will help,’ Ben muttered, and Katy rolled her eyes.

‘Because it will make the sofa sticky and wet you stupid, idiot baby.’

‘I’m not a stupid, idiot baby!!’

‘Then trust me and spill the squash!’

‘Mum will be mad.’

Katy glared. ‘Do you want to go back and live in smelly old London? Do you want Mum and Dad to live together again or not?’

Ben’s face crumpled. ‘Of course, I do, but—’

‘Then spill it, Ben! Just spill it and stop asking questions!’

‘But—’

‘Ben, you spill things all the time.’ Her tone was exasperated. ‘You spilt your milk at breakfast. You dropped your pasta at supper. Spill the blackcurrant before I strangle you!’

‘Mum says you’re not allowed to put things round my neck. And if I spill blackcurrant, it will ruin the sofa.’

‘That’s the idea. Don’t worry about that. It won’t cost them anything because they can put in an insurance claim, but that will take weeks to come through,’ Katy said airily, and Ben looked at her doubtfully.

Katy ground her teeth. ‘Ben…’

‘All right, I’ll spill it.’ Ben snatched the squash from her, sprinted across the living room, tripped over a toy he’d left there and spilt the entire contents of the glass over the sofa.

‘Even better than I could have predicted,’ Katy breathed, staring at the spreading, deep purple stain on the sofa with admiration and satisfaction. ‘Well done, baby brother.’

Ben’s lip wobbled as he stared at the mess. ‘Mummy’s going to be mad.’

‘Very possibly,’ Katy agreed, ‘but she isn’t going to be sleeping here tonight, and that’s the only thing that matters. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.’

‘You shouldn’t have had a drink in the living room.’ Christy kept her voice level, reminding herself that it wasn’t good to shout at one’s children, especially when they were so clearly remorseful. Ben stood in front of her with his head down and his lip wobbling.

‘Katy told me to do it!’ He burst into sobs just as Alessandro walked in through the front door.

‘What’s going on here?’

Christy sighed, wondering whether everyone’s family was as noisy and complicated as hers. ‘I haven’t had time to cook any dinner yet. Ben spilt blackcurrant all over the sofa. It’s ruined.’

‘Good thing,’ Alessandro drawled, shrugging his broad shoulders out of his jacket and loosening his tie. ‘It was ugly and uncomfortable and sleeping on it was having a detrimental effect on my spine. You’ve done me a favour, Ben.’

Katy appeared in the doorway, a yoghurt in one hand and a spoon in the other. ‘That’s decided, then. You’ll just have to sleep in the bed with Mum.’

Alessandro turned to look at his daughter, a gleam of suspicion lighting his dark eyes. ‘Are you behind this, Katherine?’

Katy took a few steps backwards. ‘Don’t look at me like that. It isn’t good to intimidate your children. And you can’t blame me for the fact that Ben spills everything. You know he spills everything.’

‘Intimidate?’ An ebony brow rose as Alessandro surveyed his daughter. ‘Since when did I ever intimidate you?’

Ben’s sobs grew noisier. ‘It’s all her fault. She made me do it and she—’

‘Hush.’ Christy pulled him into her arms and cuddled him close. ‘I’m not mad with you, sweetie, honestly. Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry. It isn’t important. It’s only a sofa.’

‘My house is turning into a war zone,’ Alessandro muttered, dragging a hand through his dark hair and letting out a long breath. ‘Seeing that you haven’t cooked any dinner yet, let’s go out.’

Katy’s face brightened. ‘Great idea. You’ll need to get us a babysitter. I nominate Uncle Jake.’

Christy blinked. ‘I think Daddy meant all of us.’

‘Oh, no, we’re much too tired to go out.’ Katy gave an exaggerated yawn to prove her point. ‘I’ve got holiday homework to finish and Ben needs his beauty sleep. Not that all the sleep in the world is going to make him half-decent to look at,’ she added as an afterthought, and Ben sat up and poked his tongue out.

Alessandro gave a shrug and looked at Christy. ‘So—you and I can go out.’

‘But…’ How could she say that she didn’t really want to go out on a date that had been engineered by the children? If he’d asked her, that would have been different. ‘Jake won’t be free.’

‘He’s free—I saw him at lunchtime.’ Alessandro was already on the phone, and Christy sighed.

‘All right. I’ll go and change.’

‘Wear the black dress, Mummy,’ Katy hissed, and Christy frowned.

‘What black dress?’

‘The little one that makes Daddy grab you from behind.’

Christy blushed and wondered at exactly what point her daughter had started noticing so much. ‘That’s a party dress, sweetheart.’

‘So? You look pretty in it.’

Christy bit her lip. But did she want to look pretty? Yes, of course she did. But wearing a party dress to go out to dinner in the middle of the week would look desperate, and she had too much pride to show Alessandro just how desperate she was.

Crazy, she thought as she rummaged through her wardrobe. She was having an informal supper with her husband and she had absolutely no idea what to wear.

She wanted to look attractive, but not obvious.

She wanted him to want her.

Wanted him to kiss her. Would that fix things? she wondered. If he kissed her and took her to bed, would they be able to heal their wounds?

In the end she settled for a slinky velvet skirt in a shade of heather and teamed it with a slinky black top that dipped temptingly at the front.

Jake walked through the door as she reached for her coat. He immediately strode over and kissed her. ‘You look stunning and beautiful,’ he breathed, his eyes lingering on the neckline of her top.

Glancing at Alessandro, Christy wondered why he was glaring. Presumably he was still annoyed at having their evening manipulated by the children.

Clearly he had no real wish to spend time with her. Unlike Jake, he hadn’t even commented on what she was wearing.

Jake swept Ben into his arms and stooped to hug an excited Katy.

‘Uncle Jake!’

‘Did you bring me a present?’ Ben wrapped his legs and arms around Jake like a monkey, and Christy gasped in horror and embarrassment at his question.

‘You don’t ask people that, Ben,’ she admonished, but Jake just grinned.

‘Why not? Honesty gets you a long way in life, I always think. If only women were as uncomplicated as children, life would run much more smoothly.’ He whipped a bag out from behind his back. ‘Sweets and a DVD and maybe a small toy because I haven’t seen you for so long.’

‘Finally, a grown-up who understands us.’ Katy grinned, reaching into the bag to check out the DVD. ‘I’m allowed to watch 12s now. This is a PG.’

‘That’s right. My psyche is sadly underdeveloped and I don’t want to risk nightmares. I thought I’d be all right if you held my hand all the way through.’ Jake winked at her, his smile placid. ‘Lead me to your father’s whisky cabinet, angel. I’ve had a long day.’

‘We won’t be late,’ Christy began, but Katy frowned and pushed them towards the door.

‘Don’t come back before the end of the DVD or you’ll spoil it.’

Christy sighed. ‘Don’t keep them up late, Jake.’

‘Go and enjoy yourselves,’ Jake said, delving into the bag he’d brought and producing a new dinosaur for Ben. ‘We’ll be fine.’

But would she? Christy wondered.

It had been so long since she’d spent an evening with Alessandro that she didn’t quite know what they were going to talk about.

Alessandro took her to a noisy, Spanish tapas bar in the middle of town.

Disappointed that he hadn’t chosen somewhere quiet and romantic, Christy slid into her chair and reached for a menu.

‘We used to come here a lot when we first met—do you remember?’

‘The service was quick and what with the hospital and the mountain rescue team, we never had enough time.’ Alessandro turned to the hovering waiter and ordered in Spanish.

Christy closed the menu and tried not to mind that he hadn’t asked what she wanted.

It was just the way Alessandro was, she thought with weary resignation. The dominant male. Always strong and controlling. At times, it was wonderful. In A and E, with a desperately sick patient, his astonishing leadership qualities saved lives. At home, just occasionally, it would be nice if he showed an interest in her views.

‘So…’ He lounged back in his chair and surveyed her across the table, his eyes glittering dark in the dim light of the restaurant, ‘how are you enjoying being back in A and E?’

Given her thoughts of a few moments earlier, Christy was surprised he’d asked. ‘I… Well, I really like it.’

‘You’re good.’

‘And that surprises you?’

He gave a slow smile. ‘No. What surprises me is that you seem to have forgotten nothing in the time that you’ve been away.’

Should she confess that it had surprised her, too? ‘I suppose I worked there for so long that some of it is second nature.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Do you hate having me there?’

‘It is impossible to hate someone who makes your working life easier,’ he drawled, lifting his glass of wine. ‘With so many people off sick and others inexperienced, it becomes difficult to deliver your best performance.’

‘And that’s so important, isn’t it?’

‘Of course.’ He gave a shrug. ‘The patient deserves no less.’

‘That’s true. But the patients are not your whole life. What about me?’ Her voice was soft. ‘Didn’t our marriage deserve the same attention?’

His broad shoulders tensed. ‘We’re going to talk about this now? All right, let’s talk about this now.’ His eyes narrowed and his fingers tightened around the glass. ‘We both had busy lives—’

‘With no time for each other.’ She folded her hands in her lap and looked him in the eye, determined to have her say. Determined not to let him intimidate her. ‘Do you know how many times I scraped your dinner into the bin during the twelve years of our marriage, Alessandro?’

‘My working hours are unpredictable, it’s true, but—’

‘How many times did we sit down together and talk during the week?’

‘At the dinner table, rarely,’ he admitted, ‘but always we were in the same bed at night.’

The remark was so typical of him that she gave a wry smile. ‘That’s just sex, Alessandro.’

One ebony brow swooped upwards in silent mockery. ‘Just sex, querida?’

Her stomach rolled and fire licked through her veins. She wasn’t going to think about sex now, she told herself frantically. She wasn’t going to remember what it was like to be in bed with Alessandro. He was a spectacular lover.

‘A relationship takes more than an encounter in the bedroom to keep it alive,’ she said huskily, and he studied her in brooding silence.

‘And that’s why you left? You felt neglected? I didn’t ask you about your day often enough?’

‘I don’t think you ever asked me about my day. You’re a great father, a skilled and talented doctor, a fantastic climber…’ She swallowed. ‘But—’

‘But I’ve been a lousy husband,’ Alessandro drawled softly, and she shook her head quickly.

‘Not lousy, no.’ She gripped her glass. ‘But you’re so driven, so focused on what you do and… I suppose I feel as though you don’t notice me any more.’

She wanted to ask about Katya. Wanted to know whether he’d had an affair during the weeks that they’d been apart. But something held her back. He wouldn’t do that, she told herself. Alessandro wouldn’t do that.

‘How long have you hated being a practice nurse?’

She looked at him, surprised by the question. ‘I don’t hate it.’ She hesitated. ‘But I suppose part of me is always frustrated. I miss the pace and unpredictability of A and E. You know what it’s like—sort of an addiction.’

He gave a wry smile. ‘You get high on the adrenaline rush of not knowing what’s coming through the door next?’

She returned the smile. ‘Yes, in a way. In general practice it’s all so much more predictable and routine. And a bit lonely. I was shut in a room all day, seeing an endless stream of patients. We have practice meetings, of course, and I speak to the GPs about various patients, but I miss the teamwork of A and E.’

Alessandro sat back in his chair as the waiter delivered plates of food to their table. ‘So why have you stuck at it for so long?’

‘Because it fits with school hours,’ Christy said slowly, leaning forward to examine the various dishes he’d ordered. ‘It’s convenient for family life. But the children are older now…’

Should she tell him that she didn’t think that she could go back? Should she tell him that, after experiencing the buzz of A and E again, she was starting to rethink her whole life?

‘Why did you never tell me any of this before?’

She shrugged. ‘What was the point? One of us had to be there for the children and that wasn’t going to be you—you’re not that sort of man. I knew that when I married you and that was fine. And, anyway, you had a great career. And I suppose I’ve never told you any of this before because…’ She broke off, suddenly hesitant. ‘Well, because you’ve never asked.’

‘Perhaps because I assumed that if there was a problem you would tell me.’ He frowned. ‘I’m not great at guessing games and reading minds. That’s more Jake’s forte.’

‘Jake. He’s such a good person, isn’t he?’ Christy smiled to herself and missed the dangerous flash in Alessandro’s eyes. ‘I can’t believe we’ve been friends for such a long time. And I can’t understand why he hasn’t settled down with some very lucky woman long before now.’ She heard Alessandro’s sharp intake of breath and glanced up.

‘Perhaps he wants someone who is unavailable,’ he snapped. His tone was icy cold and she looked at him, surprised by the comment.

‘Oh, no! Jake isn’t like that. He’d never go after a married woman.’

‘But if she wasn’t married any more, she’d be fair game,’ Alessandro said tightly. ‘Isn’t that right?’

‘Well, I suppose so. Maybe.’ Christy stared at him, wondering why he suddenly seemed so tense and moody. Had she said something? ‘Anyway, why are we talking about Jake?’

There was a long, pulsing silence while Alessandro studied her and drummed his fingers on the table. ‘He just seemed to come up in conversation,’ he said silkily, and she gave a puzzled smile.

‘Well, we’ve all known each other and been friends for the same length of time, so I suppose that’s natural.’ She helped herself to a spoonful of another dish and tried not to mind that Alessandro suddenly seemed tense and uncommunicative.

He didn’t enjoy her company any more, she thought miserably as she chewed her way through a mouthful of food that she didn’t even want. And he still hadn’t said anything about what she was wearing or made a single move in her direction.

It was so unlike him. In the past, whenever they’d had a problem, he’d just grabbed her and that had been that. Now he didn’t seem to want to touch her.

Was it because he didn’t find her attractive any more?

Or was it because he was seeing someone else?

Back in the barn, the DVD had just finished and Ben was changing into his pyjamas in front of the fire.

‘Uncle Jake, what’s mating?’

Jake choked on his whisky. ‘Well, I…’ He cleared his throat and vowed never to babysit again. ‘Ben, you’ve had seven years to ask that question. Why do you have to ask it now, while Mummy is out?’

‘Because Katy said it earlier,’ Ben said solemnly, wriggling his arms and head into his pyjama top. ‘She said that we have to get Mummy and Daddy back into the same bedroom so that they can mate. It’s why I broke the bed and spilled my drink.’

Jake gave up on the whisky. ‘You did what?’

‘I broke the bed,’ Ben said patiently, ‘by bouncing hard. Katy did it, too. So Mummy couldn’t sleep there any more. But it didn’t work.’

Jake put his glass down on the nearest table. ‘It didn’t?’

Ben shook his head. ‘Daddy went and slept on the sofa, so I spilt my blackcurrant on it.’

Jake’s gaze slid to the sofa on the far side of the room, now covered in towels. ‘So you did.’

‘Now Daddy has to sleep with Mummy in the bed,’ Ben said proudly, and Jake looked at him thoughtfully before shifting his gaze to Katy.

‘It appears that you’ve been rather busy, young lady.’

‘You can’t tell me off. You’re my godfather. You’re only responsible for my religious education.’

He lifted a brow. ‘No more presents, then.’

She grinned. ‘Presents are acceptable.’

‘I just bet they are.’ Jake studied her face and thought how much she resembled her father. ‘Have you been interfering?’

‘Maybe. Just a little.’ Her expression was wary, as if she was unsure of his response. ‘Never underestimate a child.’

‘I don’t,’ Jake said dryly, rising to his feet and reaching for his glass. He had a strong feeling he was going to need a large refill. ‘Let’s get your brother to bed and then you and I need to have a talk, Katherine Isabel Luisa Garcia. You have some serious explaining to do.’

CHAPTER FIVE

‘YOU look knackered.’ Nicky juggled an armful of dressings and frowned as Christy walked onto the unit. ‘Heavy night?’ She gave a saucy wink and Christy gave a wan smile.

What would Nicky say, she wondered, if she confessed that she’d spent the night lying next to Alessandro and he hadn’t laid a finger on her? Not only that, but he’d clearly had no trouble sleeping, whereas she’d lain there, tense and breathless, waiting for him to touch her. His steady, rhythmic breathing had done nothing for her ego or her hopes for the survival of their marriage.

Oh, damn, damn, damn.

He obviously didn’t even find her attractive any more. It was the only possible explanation for not touching her.

And just to bolster her insecurities still further, Katya chose that moment to stroll up to them. ‘Hi, there.’ Her voice was smoky and seductive and her blonde hair fell down her back in a perfect, smooth sheet. She wore a pale pink roll-neck jumper and a tight navy skirt that ended just above the knee, and could have walked straight out of the pages of a glossy magazine. ‘Have either of you seen Alessandro? He promised to spend some time talking me through some interesting X-rays.’

Christy gritted her teeth and swallowed hard. She wasn’t going to be jealous, she told herself. She wasn’t going to be paranoid or childish. So, the girl was beautiful. That didn’t mean anything…

‘Alessandro is with a head injury patient in Resus,’ Nicky said in a cool tone, ‘and I need you to tie your hair back in this department, please. It’s unhygienic worn loose.’

Katya frowned slightly and then shrugged. ‘No problem. I have some grips in my bag.’

‘Good.’ Nicky gave a brisk nod, very much the sister-in-charge. ‘I’d appreciate it if you’d use them.’

Katya strolled off and Nicky stared after her, still clutching the dressing packs to her chest. ‘I don’t like that girl. Where does she think she is? On a catwalk?’

‘She looks great.’ Christy said with a forced smile, and Nicky grinned.

‘Oh, yeah—and how great is she going to look when a drunk has vomited down her pink cashmere? Are you OK? You look pale.’

‘Just a bit tired.’

‘Look…’ Nicky put a hand on her arm, her gaze sympathetic, ‘I know things are rough for you and Alessandro at the moment, but I know you’ll work it out. The two of you were meant to be together.’

Were they?

She was starting to wonder.

‘There you are!’ Sean strode down the corridor towards them, interrupting them in mid-conversation. ‘Christy, the mountain rescue team have had a call about a man who has fallen some distance. Might have chest and head injuries. The details are a bit hazy but we’re trying to send an advance party of five out, with the rest of the team following.’

Christy stared at him blankly. ‘And?’ What did it have to do with her? She hadn’t been out with the MRT for several years.

‘We’re a bit thin on the ground in the team at the moment,’ Sean said wearily. ‘Everyone is either in bed with this flu bug or they’re snowed in or all sorts of other feeble excuses. Alessandro is going and I wondered if you’d join him in the advance party.’

‘Me?’ Christy’s voice was an astonished squeak and Sean gave her a keen look.

‘Why not you? You’re fit and you know these mountains. You were the best climber we had at one time.’

Christy licked her lips. ‘Yes, but I had the kids and—’

‘I wasn’t aware that childbirth affected your mountaineering abilities,’ Sean drawled, glancing round as Alessandro approached. ‘Garcia, just the man. I’m trying to persuade your wife to join you on this callout while I scrabble around and try and get some other people together.’

Alessandro’s brows met in a frown. ‘Christy?’

‘Why does everyone think it’s such a strange idea?’ Sean wondered aloud, and Alessandro’s mouth tightened.

‘Because the weather is foul and I don’t want her risking—’

‘I’ll go,’ Christy said immediately, turning to Nicky. ‘If that’s all right with you?’

Alessandro didn’t think she could do it, and she was determined to prove him wrong, just as she had by working in A and E. What was the matter with the man?

‘I’m used to it.’ Nicky gave a resigned smile. ‘I’ll just run the department on fresh air as usual.’

‘My walking boots are in the car but all my other gear is at home.’

‘You can use Ally’s gear,’ Sean was already walking towards the door. ‘You’re about the same size. My dear wife never gets round to removing it from my boot. Come on.’

As they walked towards the car Christy’s anger at Alessandro mingled with excitement. Ahead of them the fells loomed, covered in snow and ice and potentially lethal. Who had gone walking in this weather? she wondered. How had they got themselves into trouble?

‘You stick right by me,’ Alessandro growled as they slid into his car, and she turned and glared at him.

‘Why? In case I fall down a hole? For crying out loud, Alessandro, when I was twenty I could outclimb you any day!’

It wasn’t strictly true and she saw by the lift of his eyebrow that he was aware of that fact, but he didn’t contradict her.

‘You’re not twenty any more.’

‘No, I’m thirty-two. Ancient.’ She stared at him in disbelief. ‘Is this what this is all about? You think I’m suddenly too old to do these things?’

‘It has nothing to do with age.’ Alessandro crunched the gears viciously. ‘You’re the mother of my children.’

‘And what? That means I should stay at home and knit?’ Her voice rose and she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. ‘Giving birth to children doesn’t come with a personality transplant. Believe it or not, I’m still the same person I was twelve years ago when you first met me!’

‘You can’t just swan up a mountain when you haven’t been near one for years.’

‘That’s rubbish! I may not have been on the team, but I’ve done plenty of climbing and walking and I’m every bit as fit as you are!’

The atmosphere in the car was simmering with mounting tension and she looked away, so angry that she wanted to hit something. Or someone.

‘Fine.’ His voice was tight as he concentrated on keeping the car on the road in the lethal conditions. ‘Just no heroics.’

‘Heroics?’ She turned and glared at him as she tugged a hat onto her head. ‘Since when have I suffered from a hero complex?’

‘You always took risks when you were climbing.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘As you said yourself, you haven’t been with the team for a long time.’ Alessandro changed gear with a vicious thrust of his hand. ‘What you’ve forgotten could prove dangerous. I just don’t want your ego to get in the way. If you don’t know something, say so.’

‘What I know is that I’m not the one with the ego around here,’ she spat angrily, jamming her feet into her boots and yanking so hard at the laces that she almost snapped them. ‘There’s only room in this car for one ego and yours is taking up all the space!’

He had no confidence in her whatsoever, she thought, her temper building to dangerous levels. ‘I hadn’t been in A and E for years either,’ she pointed out angrily, ‘but so far I haven’t killed anyone! This used to be my life, Alessandro! This was what I did, but somewhere along the way I’ve lost it all. I’ve lost A and E, I’ve lost Mountain Rescue and now I’ve lost—’ She had been about to say ‘you’ but she stopped herself just in time. Instead, she clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip and blinked back the hot sting of tears.

His opinion of her was obviously at rock bottom, she thought miserably as she turned her head and stared out of the window while she struggled for control.

He slowed down to take an icy corner. ‘You make it sound as though your entire married life has been one big sacrifice.’

‘No.’ Confident that she was back in control again, she turned her head and studied his hard, handsome profile. She loved him so much. Despite everything, she completely adored him and always would. ‘That isn’t how it is. The children are everything. But there are parts of me that I put to one side while they were small and you can’t blame me for wanting them back now.’

Alessandro was silent, his strong hands gripping the steering-wheel. ‘I had no idea that you missed it so badly.’ His voice was a low growl and she swallowed hard, her anger dissolving to nothing, suddenly desperate to make him understand.

‘Wouldn’t you miss it? If you were the one who had to give it all up, wouldn’t you miss it?’

‘That’s different.’

‘How is it different, Alessandro? Because you’re a man and I’m a woman?’ Her temper boiled up again and she resisted the temptation to thump him hard. ‘Well, I’ve got news for you, my Neanderthal, chauvinistic male, it isn’t different at all! Which marriage rule book says that it’s the woman who has to make all the changes in her life?’

He inhaled sharply. ‘You knew when you married me that I wasn’t the sort of man who could stay at home and change nappies, but if you’d wanted a nanny you could have said so.’

‘I didn’t want a nanny! I wanted to be the one to raise our children.’ She was shouting now, shouting as she zipped up her jacket and reached for her gloves. ‘But I’m allowed to be honest about missing some bits of my old life. And I’m also allowed to see if I want some of those bits back now that the children are older. Is that really asking too much?’

Alessandro flicked the indicator and pulled into the car park at the mountain rescue base. Then he switched off the engine and sat staring into the freezing cold December day, his handsome face blank of expression. ‘No,’ he said finally. ‘It isn’t asking too much.’

‘When we first met, we were doing the same things,’ she said, suddenly desperate to say the things that had been building inside her for months. ‘We were on the same path. But somehow that’s all changed. You’ve gone on ahead and I’ve been left behind.’

He turned towards her. ‘Is that how you see it?’

‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s just how it is.’

She wanted to ask where that left their relationship but he seemed so distant and icily remote that she didn’t know what to say and was relieved to see Jake and two other members of the MRT striding across the car park towards them.

‘Oh, great—there’s Jake.’ Grateful for a reason to escape from the chill inside the car, she opened the door and slid out.

Alessandro sat for a moment, simmering with mounting tension, the expression in his dark eyes approaching dangerous as he watched her greet Jake with a warm hug.

Had she always been so demonstrative with Jake?

Why had he never noticed how physical they were before now?

He knew that Jake found Christy attractive but never before this moment had he had reason to ask questions about where Christy’s affections lay because he’d always known that she adored him. He’d been utterly secure in their love.

From the first day they’d met, he’d taken her adoration and devotion for granted. They had been so crazy about each other, so hot for each other, that it had never entered his head that she would ever look at another man.

But something had obviously changed over the years and now it seemed that Jake knew things about Christy that he didn’t. Private, intimate things. Like the fact that she’d never really been happy as a practice nurse. And the fact that she missed bits of her old life.

Alessandro stared out of the window and his mouth tightened.

He should have known those things about his wife.

Why hadn’t she told him? Why had Jake been easier to talk to? Experiencing self-doubt for one of the few times in his adult life, Alessandro cursed softly and reached into the back seat for the rest of his gear.

He’d get this rescue out of the way and then he was going to sort this out.

He loved her. He loved her desperately and keeping his distance from her was turning him into a crazy man. But if she was in love with Jake then he’d give her the freedom she wanted. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do with someone you loved? Set them free?

Christy lifted the pack onto her back, careful not to look at Alessandro.

He didn’t think that she could do this, but she was going to prove him wrong. Prove that she was more that just the mother of his children.

‘According to the call we had, he was one of four walkers taking a path just below the summit,’ Alessandro said as he assembled the advance party. ‘They called the police on a mobile and one of them had a global positioning instrument so we’ve got a good idea where they are.’

‘Weather’s looking unfriendly,’ Jake observed as he lifted his pack onto his back and settled it comfortably. ‘Might need to carry him off the hill if the helicopter can’t fly in this.’

Alessandro nodded. ‘That’s a distinct possibility. One of his group reported that he had breathing difficulties so we’re carrying an oxygen cylinder just in case. All right, let’s go.’

He strode out in front and Christy walked behind him, hoping that she wasn’t going to fall down gasping for breath because that would be too humiliating for words. She was fit, she reminded herself. And she knew these mountains as well as she knew her own back garden. The fact that she hadn’t been part of a proper rescue for a few years really didn’t signify. Once it had been a huge part of her life. The regular training sessions, callouts, social events—she’d done it all and she’d loved every minute of it. And all that knowledge was still there, she reminded herself.

All the same, she was quite relieved to be sandwiched between Alessandro and Jake. Having someone in front and behind made it easier to resist the temptation to slow the pace.

They walked steadily for two hours in decreasing visibility and deteriorating weather conditions and then heard shouts from up ahead.

‘Bingo,’ Jake murmured, as they pushed on through the swirling snow and mist and finally saw torches and bright jackets on the path ahead.

By now Christy’s cheeks were stinging with cold and her eyelashes were wet and clumped together. But she loved being outdoors in the mountains. The wind had picked up, the weather was wild and unforgiving and it all seemed as far from the rain-washed streets of London as it was possible to be.

The injured man was sitting propped against a rock, covered in several coats. There was blood on his forehead and he had a hand on his chest, his face crumpled in pain. Hope lit his eyes as he saw them trudge towards him through the mist and snow.

Crouching next to him, offering moral support, was one of his fellow walkers, and he stood up as they arrived, his relief plainly visible on his tired features. ‘Boy, am I glad to see you! My first aid isn’t up to the challenge, I’m afraid. He fell about twenty feet,’ he told them, ‘and since then he’s had real trouble with his breathing. It’s really noisy. He was really struggling so I sat him up—I hope I did the right thing. I know you’re not supposed to move an injured person, but—’

‘You’ve done well,’ Christy assured him quickly, heaving her rucksack off her back.

Alessandro was already reaching for the oxygen, his movements as decisive as ever.

That was one of the things she loved and admired about him, Christy thought to herself. Some doctors were fine as long as they were in a hospital, surrounded by high-tech equipment and a phone to give them access to doctors from different specialities. Alessandro was equally cool and self-assured when he was halfway up a mountain in a blizzard with a potentially seriously injured patient.

He was a man who thrived on challenge and she’d always found his inner strength and bold self-confidence incredibly seductive. There was no situation that Alessandro wouldn’t be able to handle.

Ignoring her aching shoulders, she dropped to her knees beside him, trying to ignore the angry howl of the icy wind that threatened to obliterate her vision.

‘His name is Simon Duke,’ the friend volunteered, ‘and he’s fifty-two.’

‘Did you see what happened?’ She knew that an account of the accident might give clues as to the injuries they were potentially dealing with.

‘We’ve been out since early this morning. We’d just started our descent when Simon slipped.’ He pulled a face. ‘I’ve been climbing and walking in the mountains for most of my life. I never thought I’d be calling on the services of the mountain rescue team. To say that I’m finding this highly embarrassing would be a major understatement.’

‘It happens to the best of us,’ Jake said cheerfully, squinting through the blizzard as he heaved the pack off his back and removed the oxygen cylinder he’d been carrying. The snow was now blowing horizontally and their packs had started to freeze. ‘I must say, you chose fabulous weather for your walk.’

‘Ignore him, he’s deranged,’ Christy said dryly, then glanced towards Alessandro for guidance. ‘If he fell twenty feet then he should probably be wearing a collar?’

‘Definitely. But we also need to get him into a shelter while I check him over.’ Alessandro reached into his rucksack and pulled out the necessary equipment. ‘Jake, get that oxygen going and let’s get him into a bivvy tent so that I can examine him properly. We’re going to have to carry him off because there’s no way they can fly a helicopter in this.’

Simon gasped and closed his eyes briefly. ‘So sorry to be such a nuisance,’ he panted. ‘Can’t believe I need oxygen.’

‘I’m glad you do,’ Jake drawled as he removed his gloves so that he could adjust the flow rate. ‘If I’d lugged this canister all the way up this hill for nothing, I would have been steaming mad.’ He handed the mask to Christy and she fixed the mask over the man’s mouth and nose.

‘There.’ She spoke gently. ‘That should help. We’re just going to get you some shelter before you get too cold.’

Jake moved across to help Alessandro with the shelter. ‘Has anyone placed a bet on a white Christmas?’

‘We always have a white Christmas up here.’ Noticing how pale Simon looked, Christy checked his pulse while her team members erected a tent. She glanced up at the patient’s walking companion. ‘So was this a pre-Christmas holiday?’

‘Supposed to be.’ He gave a rueful smile. ‘We were making the most of a few days’ peace and quiet before we go down to London for Christmas.’

‘And he slipped?’

‘Just seemed to lose his footing. I suppose there must have been a patch of ice on the rock,’ the man shrugged. ‘One minute he was walking along happily, in front of me, the next he was slithering downwards. Gave me a bad moment, I can tell you. I think he managed to grab hold of a rock or something, otherwise goodness knows how far he would have fallen.’

The injured man tried to say something and Christy put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. ‘Don’t talk, Simon,’ she said quickly. ‘We’ll soon have you inside the bivvy tent and then the doctor can look at you.’

His companion looked at her in surprise. ‘He’s a doctor?’

‘You’ve got half the A and E department up here,’ Jake said cheerfully, walking back across to them, ‘and just to cap it, if you want a baby delivered then I’m your man.’

Christy giggled and then caught something black in Alessandro’s gaze and her laughter faded. What was the matter with him? Normally he found Jake as amusing as she did.

Soon Simon was safely inside the protective covering of the tent and Christy saw more lights flashing through the snow. ‘Looks like the rest of the team are arriving.’

‘More? Obviously we’ve bothered a great number of people.’

‘It takes a lot of people to stretcher someone off a mountain,’ Christy explained. She stuck her head inside the bivvy tent and Alessandro looked up from his examination.

‘He has broken ribs and a broken ankle. He’s not showing any signs of a pneumothorax,’ he said swiftly, ‘so I’m going to splint the ankle and give him some analgesia and get him off this hill before he gets hypothermia.’

Christy helped him stabilise the injured walker and get him into a fleece-lined casualty bag.

The rest of the team joined them and Christy helped them put together the two halves of a stretcher that would be used to carry the casualty down off the mountain. It was a task that they’d practised over and over again during training evenings, assembling the stretcher as fast as possible. Once, she recalled, they’d even done it in the dark to try and mimic the conditions they might face on the mountain. Now, with Alessandro’s gaze resting on her all too frequently, she was glad of that training. Glad that she knew exactly what to do and wasn’t letting herself down.

Only when they were ready did they remove the shelter that was protecting their casualty.

By now, a team of twenty-five had assembled and one of the other MRT members stood at the head of the stretcher and acted as an anchor to prevent the stretcher moving downhill while it was being prepared for evacuation.

Alessandro made another check on his patient and then tied a rope to the stretcher with a bowline knot.

‘We’re going to have to do this very carefully,’ he instructed, ‘because he’s already suffering from chest injuries.’

‘How do I know you’re not going to drop me?’ Simon said weakly, and Christy smiled.

‘Because you’ve got ten bulky guys holding onto the stretcher and a rope as back-up. And if we drop you, we’re fired.’

The man managed a smile. ‘You’re all volunteers.’

‘You think we do this for nothing?’ Jake’s blue eyes gleamed with wicked humour as he tightened the straps. ‘That would make me certifiably insane, don’t you think?’

Christy heaved her pack onto her back. ‘Well, now that you mention it…’

How had she survived without this? she wondered. The comradeship and the banter. The physical challenge of extracting someone from a perilous situation.

Eventually everyone was satisfied, the safety checks had been made and the team started their descent, picking their way over boulders made treacherous by ice and snow. Whenever possible, they sledged the stretcher down the mountain and finally the mist and snow cleared and the road came into sight.

As Christy slithered and slipped, she noticed Alessandro constantly glancing in her direction.

Checking up on her?

The MRT vehicle that doubled as an ambulance was waiting.

‘You’re only a ten-minute drive from the hospital,’ Christy told Simon as they carried him the final few metres. ‘They’ll soon have you comfortable.’

He shook his head. ‘My wife is going to kill me. She’s always telling me I’m too old to be walking in the hills.’

‘Ignore her,’ Jake advised cheerfully as he yanked open the back of the vehicle and prepared to lift the stretcher inside. ‘What do women know about anything?’ He winked at Christy and she gave a wan smile.

Thanks to Alessandro, she was starting to feel as though she knew nothing.

Leaving the rest of the work to their colleagues, Jake pulled her gently to one side and gave her a searching look. ‘You all right, babe?’

‘Of course.’ Behind her, they were loading the injured man into the ambulance. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘Hey.’ Jake frowned. ‘This is me you’re talking to. Not some stranger. I can tell you’re not all right. I don’t suppose the look on your face has anything to do with the broken bed and the ruined sofa?’

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