When Joanna Neil discovered Mills & Boon®, her life-long addiction to reading crystallised into an exciting new career writing Medical Romance™. Her characters are probably the outcome of her varied lifestyle, which includes working as a clerk, typist, nurse and infant teacher. She enjoys dressmaking and cooking at her Leicestershire home. Her family includes a husband, son and daughter, an exuberant yellow Labrador and two slightly crazed cockatiels. She currently works with a team of tutors at her local education centre to provide creative writing workshops for people interested in exploring their own writing ambitions.

Recent titles by the same author:

EMERGENCY AT THE ROYAL

IN HIS TENDER CARE

THE CONSULTANT’S SPECIAL RESCUE

THE EMERGENCY DOCTOR’S PROPOSAL

Her Boss and Protector

Joanna Neil

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER ONE

‘THIS is it, children. We’re here.’ Jade parked the car alongside the pavement and then went around to the passenger side to open the door and let the children out. ‘Will you help me with some of the bags? Connor, perhaps you could bring in the toys and, Rebeccah, maybe you could manage the schoolbags?’

‘Is this your house?’ Four-year-old Connor stepped out of the car and looked the place over. He was frowning, his lip jutting a fraction, as though he was trying to decide what to make of it.

‘Yes, it is, for the next few months, at least.’ Jade had only just moved in over the last few days, and she was still getting used to it herself. She glanced at the ivy-covered cottage and tried to see it through his eyes. The afternoon sun was warm and bright, its rays highlighting the yellow Cotswold stone where it peeped through the covering of ivy.

‘I know it might seem a bit strange to begin with, but this is going to be your home for a while. Try to remember the name of the street and the house number…Sweetbriar Cottage, Number three, Meadow Lane.’ It shouldn’t be too difficult for them to do that—in fact, they were fairly isolated out here, with only one or two buildings spread out along the country road.

Connor dutifully muttered the words to himself and she gave a wry hint of a smile. That had been her mother’s mantra when she had been a little girl—always remember where you live, in case you get lost and have to ask a policeman for help.

She didn’t share her thoughts with the children, though. They had been through enough already this afternoon, and she wasn’t going to be the one to pile any more uncertainties on their heads.

A brief flicker of pain shot through her as the worries came flooding back. Things had to work out—she couldn’t bear it if anything more went wrong. As to how she was going to manage these next few weeks, taking on the care of two young children—it was a daunting task. She pulled in a deep breath. She would make it work. She had to.

‘It’s not very big, is it?’ Rebeccah said doubtfully, and Jade looked down at her. At five years old, she was a pretty little girl, with brown hair that fell in a sleek line to her shoulders and grey eyes that reflected candour and the wide-eyed innocence of youth. She looked like a smaller version of her mother.

‘No, but it’s bigger than it looks inside, and at least you’ll be able to have a bedroom each.’

‘Who lives there?’ Connor pointed towards the house next door. He, too, had his mother’s grey eyes, but his hair was a little fairer, as though it had been kissed by the sun. ‘His house is ’normous…like a mansion. I bet he’s rich as rich, richer than anyone.’

Busy unloading the boot of the car, Jade stopped to look across at the neighbouring house. Connor was right. The house was impressive, built of honey-coloured Cotswold stone, a sprawling building, with deep gabled roofs clad with stone tiles, and dormer windows, with more windows nestling under the eaves. An overhanging roof covered the entrance porch. Altogether it was a pleasing house, and the front garden complemented it perfectly. It was well stocked, with flowering trees and shrubs that were looking a little overgrown now, and she wondered how long they had been left untended.

‘I don’t know about that,’ Jade said. ‘The man that lives there is away at the moment, so the house is empty.’

‘How do you know that?’ Connor was frowning again, his head tipped back to look up at her.

‘The agent told me…that’s the man who leased me this house,’ she added in explanation. He hadn’t said a lot about the man next door, just that she might not see a great deal of him because he sometimes worked unsociable hours, much like herself. ‘I needed somewhere to live that was close to where I’m going to be working, and he found me this little cottage.’ She collected the bags and cases together and locked the boot. ‘Shall we take all these things into the house?’ She started to lead the way up the path, and began to open the front door.

‘I think it’s haunted,’ Connor said in awed tones, looking back at the house next door. ‘I seed a ghost up at the window. It was staring at us.’ His eyes were growing larger by the minute, and his sister took advantage of his apprehension, starting to make wailing noises and bending her arms up in front of him like an apparition, backing him into a corner. Connor started to squeal.

‘It wasn’t a ghost. It must have been the sunlight playing tricks on you,’ Jade said.

Rebeccah let her arms fall back by her sides and studied Jade. ‘You’re going to work at the hospital, aren’t you? Is that where they took my mummy?’

‘That’s right.’ Jade made a face as a ripple of unease ran through her. She didn’t want to be reminded of Rebeccah’s mother lying injured in a hospital bed. It was altogether too heartrending. As to her work, she wasn’t ready for that either. Her new post, as senior house officer in A and E, was due to start the next day, and she had been feeling nervous about it from the first. She wasn’t experienced in emergency work, and it was going to be a challenge. Now, with everything that had happened, it was just one more problem to add to everything else that she had to contend with.

‘Is Nanna there as well?’ Connor looked troubled.

Jade nodded and ushered the children into the cottage and along the hallway towards the kitchen. She wasn’t sure how to tackle this situation, and the truth was she was feeling completely out of her depth. Perhaps it was best just to let the children ask questions, and to answer them as simply as she was able.

‘Can we go and see Mummy?’ Rebeccah asked. ‘And Nanna? Will we be able to go and see them?’

Jade put their belongings on the worktop in the kitchen and then turned to face the children. ‘I hope so…when they’re feeling a little bit better perhaps. The doctors and nurses are looking after your mummy and nanna as best they can. We just have to wait a little while until they start to get well again.’

She said it confidently enough, but inside she felt sick with worry. When she had last seen Rebeccah’s mother, the medical team had been battling to save her life. They had been giving her intravenous fluids to keep her from going into shock, and they had been calling for the assistance of a surgeon. As to her own mother, they were still trying to find out whether she was suffering from any internal bleeding. It seemed as though the world had been turned upside down in a matter of minutes, and now Jade was left struggling to cope with the aftermath.

She went over to the fridge and brought out a bottle of milk. ‘Do you want milk and biscuits? They might keep you going until I get things sorted out for tea.’

Connor nodded and came over to the table. ‘Why can’t Daddy come and look after us?’ he said, climbing up onto a chair. ‘Then we could stay at our house.’

‘He’s away, Connor—he’s working on the oilrig out at sea. Don’t you remember?’ She frowned. ‘It won’t be so bad staying here with me, will it?’

‘No…but I haven’t got all my toys. I want my fire engine.’

‘It’s his favourite toy,’ Rebeccah said knowledgeably. ‘He even takes it to bed with him.’ She turned to her brother and said with a sneer, ‘He isn’t our dad, anyway. Not our real dad…and he’s hardly ever at home.’

‘So? I don’t care.’ Connor was scowling, and Rebeccah glared at him in return. Jade wondered whether she ought to intervene.

‘I think I picked up your fire engine and put it in one of the bags,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you two go outside and play in the garden for a while?’ She sensed that they were unsettled after what had happened, and were fizzing inside like a volcano that was about to erupt. Maybe they needed to let off some steam. With them off her hands for a while, perhaps she could take the time to phone her half-brother and let him know what had happened.

The children didn’t need a second bidding. They wolfed down the milk and biscuits and then they were off like a shot through the French doors and out into the wilderness that passed for a garden. Jade watched them go. Absently, she noticed that the grass needed cutting and there were weeds that needed to be pulled, but for the time being other things had to take priority.

She went over to the phone and dialled her brother’s number, aware of a hollow feeling in her stomach as she waited for the call to be put through. She could see the children through the glass doors, and she frowned when Connor came back into the kitchen and began to rummage through the bags on the worktop. Belongings were scattered far and wide until he found what he was looking for.

He looked at her in triumph. ‘Got my fire engine,’ he said, and ran outside once more.

Sounds of squabbling came from the garden, but just then her brother’s boss answered the phone and she tried to ignore what was going on outside for a while. ‘I need to talk to Ben,’ she told him. ‘Is he able to come to the phone? Something’s happened that he needs to know about.’

‘He was diving earlier today, checking the pipelines,’ the boss said. ‘Right now he’s undergoing decompression—is there anything I can do for you?’

‘There’s been an accident,’ she told him, ‘and his wife and our mother are in hospital. I was hoping that he would be able to come home.’

‘I’m so sorry. Of course I’ll let him know. How are they? Is it bad?’

Jade was watching the children as she spoke, and she saw that Connor had started to climb onto the shed roof, with Rebeccah close on his heels. Her stomach knotted. It was a lean-to shed, positioned up against the fence that separated their property from the one next door. She guessed that they were trying to get a better look at the tree in the next garden. Its branches overhung the shed a little, and it was probably a big temptation to them. The children looked safe enough for the moment, but she would have to go and get them down from there.

She said, ‘I don’t know all the details yet. They’re still doing tests at the hospital.’ She pulled in a shaky breath. ‘They were out on a shopping trip, and as they were crossing the road a car jumped the lights and hit them. My brother’s wife has a suspected pelvic fracture and head injury, and our mother is being treated for a shoulder fracture and abdominal trauma. We don’t know the full extent of their injuries yet.’

‘I’m dreadfully sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll certainly get the message to Ben, and we’ll make sure that he’ll get back to you as soon as we can manage it. It might take some time—he’ll be in the decompression chamber for another day or so, and then we have to wait until conditions are right to fly him home. The weather isn’t always in our favour out here, but we’ll send him back to you as soon as is humanly possible.’

‘Thank you.’ She cut the call, and sat for a moment staring bleakly into space. She had desperately wanted to talk to Ben. He was her one point of contact, and now that had been denied her she felt devastated. It was as though she was totally alone in the world, and memories poured in, washing over her like a tidal wave…recollections of a bleak childhood spent waiting for a father who never came.

Shouts from the garden drew her back to the present. There was a cracking sound as a tree branch broke, but she could see that the children were safe. Hurrying out through the French doors, she went over to the shed to see what the fuss was about. ‘Come down from there,’ she said.

‘I seed the ghost,’ Connor shrieked. ‘He’s coming to get us.’

Rebeccah was pale. ‘I heard him,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘He’s got a big deep voice, and he said he wants to talk to us.’

Jade frowned as she helped the children down. She had no idea what had upset them, but it was clear that they were both shaken. She looked around but there was no sign of anyone but the three of them. ‘There aren’t any ghosts,’ she said.

‘Is, too,’ Connor insisted. ‘We wasn’t being naughty. We was just trying to look at the tree.’

Jade turned her attention to Rebeccah, and Connor disappeared round the side of the shed. She thought that maybe he was trying to hide, but then she heard him scrabbling about. As she went to investigate what he was up to, a voice caught her unawares.

‘Could I speak to you for a moment?’

Jade turned to see where the sound was coming from, putting a hand up to her temple, brushing back her shoulder-length golden curls and shielding her eyes from the sun. The children were right. It was a deep, male voice, and she was pretty sure that it didn’t belong to any spectre.

The children weren’t hanging around to find out who it was, but took to their heels and fled into the house. Jade glanced after them. Connor was carrying something, but she couldn’t make out what it was, and at the moment she was more interested in finding out who the voice belonged to.

‘I’m over here, by the gate,’ the man said, and she turned to where the large wrought-iron side gate separated the back garden from the front of the house.

The sight of the man standing there gave her something of a jolt. He was tall, over six feet, with broad shoulders and lean hips, and he was dressed in a dark grey suit that screamed of expensive tailoring. He was also incredibly good-looking, with night-black hair and startlingly blue eyes.

Her heart had begun to thump discordantly but she wasn’t at all sure why he was having this effect on her. It was probably more to do with the shock of seeing him standing there than with anything else.

‘What do you want?’ she asked, dry-mouthed. ‘You’ve just given the children the fright of their lives. It’s a wonder they didn’t fall off the roof.’

‘That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,’ he said. ‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be letting them loose like that. They’re very young. Anything could have happened. They might have hurt themselves.’

‘I realise that. I was watching them.’

He raised a dark brow. ‘Were you? I don’t think you were making a very good job of it. They shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, but from what I could see they were out here on their own for several minutes before you decided to do anything about it.’

‘Yes, well—at least they didn’t come to any harm, and there’s no damage done in the end, so I think it probably best if we just forget about it for now. Thank you for your concern, but I’ll handle things from here on.’ She used a dismissive tone and hoped that would be the end of it, but he wasn’t about to be fobbed off.

‘I’d like to come round and talk to you,’ he said.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’ At that moment she was thankful that there was a sturdy padlock on the gate. ‘I’ve no idea who you are, and I’m certainly not inviting you around here after you’ve just scared the living daylights out of the children.’

He gave a faint grimace. ‘I didn’t mean to do that. They took fright as soon as they saw me.’

‘I’m not surprised. You’re not supposed to be there. The owner of the house is away, and for all I know you could be a burglar.’ She had to admit that she had never seen a burglar dressed in a suit before now, but anything was possible.

‘I am the owner,’ he said. ‘I’ve been away on a course, but I arrived back just a short time ago.’

‘Anyone could say that,’ Jade said. ‘The agent assured me that the owner would be away for another fortnight at least.’

‘There was a change of plan.’ He studied her. ‘Perhaps it would help if you take a look at my driving licence. Would that satisfy you as to my identity?’ There was a thread of sarcasm in his voice, and he probably expected her to refuse the offer, but Jade wasn’t giving in to intimidation of any sort.

‘It might,’ she said.

He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a thin wallet, handing it to her through the wrought-iron bars of the gate. She read the name on his licence—Callum Beresford—and winced. It was the name the agent had mentioned to her. She handed the wallet back to him.

‘I had to make sure,’ she said. ‘I hope you understand my concerns.’

‘I do.’ His mouth made an odd shape, his expression halfway between cynicism and a grimace. ‘Perhaps I should even be grateful for your vigilance.’ He frowned. ‘I’ll go around to the front of the house, shall I? I really think we should talk some more.’

Jade guessed that it would be less than neighbourly to refuse his request. After all, he had at least been concerned for the children’s welfare. She hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. ‘All right, give me a minute, and I’ll let you in.’

She started to walk back to the house. She wasn’t looking forward to prolonging the conversation with him, and she wasn’t at all sure what awaited her as far as the children were concerned. Given everything that had gone on today, they were totally wound up and she was dreading to discover what they might be getting up to next.

Going into the kitchen, she saw that they were bent over something on the floor. Connor was busily pouring milk into a saucer, spilling most of it in the process, and she frowned, wondering what was going on.

‘We found a kitten in the garden,’ he said, looking up at her. ‘He’s hungry. We’re going to give him some milk.’

Jade glanced around and caught sight of a pathetic-looking little black kitten that was staring at them with large eyes and trying unsuccessfully to blend in with the kitchen units. She gave herself a mental shake, and didn’t even think of making an issue of it. By now, she was just thankful that they were both over their fright and she was busy trying to work out how she was going to get along with her new neighbour. They hadn’t had the best of beginnings.

She opened the front door to Callum Beresford and stood back to let him into the hallway. He made an imposing figure on her doorstep and she was more than a touch wary of him. His blue eyes studied her assessingly and seemed to miss nothing.

‘We’re in the kitchen,’ she murmured, waving him through. ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess. We’ve not long arrived home.’

He walked ahead of her as she indicated, and stopped at the doorway into the room, looking in on the scene of devastation in there. Standing beside him, Jade’s heart sank. It was worse than she remembered. There were toys strewn all along the worktops where Connor had abandoned them, and the rest of the bags were where she had left them when they had first come in. Added to that, there were puddles of milk all over the floor, though the kitten was doing his very best to lick them up.

Callum’s features were impassive. She had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. He probably had her down as the worst housekeeper in the Cotswolds. The children stared up at him, open-mouthed. Connor was the first to recover, and looked up at him, his eyes dark with suspicion. ‘Who are you?’ he said.

‘I’m the man who lives next door,’ Callum answered.

‘In the big house?’ Rebeccah asked.

‘That’s right.’

‘No one lives there,’ Connor said doubtfully, still giving him that mistrustful look. ‘Is you a ghost?’

‘I don’t think so. At least, I wasn’t the last time I looked in the mirror,’ Callum answered, straight-faced. Seeing the children’s worried expressions, he quickly added, ‘No, I’m not. I’ve been away from home for a while, but now I’ve come back.’

Connor was clearly still unconvinced, and Jade said, ‘This is the man who was trying to talk to you in the garden. He’s not cross with you, and there’s no need for you to be frightened.’ She hoped that was true. She glanced at her neighbour, her expression willing him to agree with her.

‘That’s right,’ he murmured, but when he looked back at her niece and nephew his expression was serious, and Jade began to wonder whether he had ever had much contact with children. These two were a handful, to be sure, but his manner with them was verging on cool. ‘I do want a word with you, though,’ he said. ‘I think you have something of mine, don’t you? I would like to have it back.’

Jade stared at him. ‘I don’t understand. I didn’t see them take anything.’

His gaze flicked over her, skimming her jeans-clad figure and taking in the snug fit of her cotton top. ‘Perhaps that’s because you weren’t taking too much notice of what they were getting up to.’ He kept his voice low, but his tone was curt, condemning, and her mouth quivered slightly at the unfair criticism.

He turned back to the children. ‘When you leaned over to look at the tree, I think one of the branches broke off, didn’t it? Did you pick up the little birdhouse and feeder that was attached to the branch? It’s important to me. It belonged to someone who was in my family, and I wouldn’t like to lose it.’

Connor gave him a sombre look, but said nothing, and Jade guessed that he was too overwhelmed by the presence of this tall stranger to admit to anything. Rebeccah, wanting to do the right thing, spoke up for both of them. ‘We didn’t mean to take it. We just wanted to look at it.’

‘Do you still have it? It belonged to my grandparents, and it’s very precious to me. I would like to have it back.’

Jade decided that it was time to take control of the situation. ‘I’m sorry about this,’ she told him. ‘I had no idea that this happened, but I’m sure they meant no harm. They’re a little overexcited today.’

‘Yes,’ he said in a dour tone, ‘I gathered that.’

She ignored the implied censure. Glancing at Connor, she said, ‘Do you know where the birdhouse is?’

He nodded solemnly.

‘Then go and fetch it for me, please.’

He did as he was told, but hesitated before handing over the bird box. He held onto the branch from the tree, looking up at Jade. ‘Can I keep the stick?’ he said. ‘It’s a well good whacker.’

Stifling a smile, she said, ‘That’s up to Mr Beresford, I think.’ She sent her new neighbour a quick glance. ‘What do you think?’

He looked at the boy. ‘I imagine that will be all right,’ he said, ‘as long as you promise that you won’t go breaking anything with it. I don’t want to look out from my house and find that you’ve smashed a window or broken down the plants in the garden.’

‘It’s not up to you,’ Connor said. ‘We live here. It’s not your garden.’

Callum made a wry face. ‘Actually, it is, in a way. I’m your landlord. Do you know what that means?’

Connor shook his head, giving him an uncertain look.

‘It means that the house belongs to me, but I’m letting you live in it for a while. I want you to enjoy staying here, but there’s to be no more climbing on the shed. It’s dangerous, and you could hurt yourself. Do we understand each other?’

Connor nodded.

‘Good. Then perhaps we can be friends.’

Connor clearly wasn’t so sure about that. It was something he would have to think about. Giving the stranger a look from under his lashes, he sidled away, putting the stick in a safe place in a gap between the side of the fridge and the kitchen wall. He probably thought Callum wouldn’t bother trying to remove it from there.

Going over to the kitten, Connor coaxed it up into his arms. Then he stood and watched the man from a corner of the room, silently weighing him up, until Rebeccah whispered to him and led him outside.

Jade studied her new neighbour. ‘I didn’t realise that you owned both properties,’ she said. ‘I hope that’s not going to be a problem while I’m living here. I prefer to deal with the children in my own way, and if you have any issues with them I would rather you spoke to me about them than to them.’

He nodded. ‘That’s fair enough. At least now we both know where we stand.’ He picked up the birdhouse and feeder. ‘I’m glad that we’ve had the chance to talk,’ he said, ‘but I should go now. I have a lot of things to be getting on with.’

She nodded and started to move towards the hallway.

‘You don’t need to trouble yourself,’ he said. ‘I’ll see myself out.’ He glanced towards the garden. ‘I expect you’ll want to go and keep an eye on the children.’

‘They’ll be fine,’ she murmured. She went to the front door. Opening it, she said, ‘I’m sorry that we had such a bad start, but I’m sure you won’t have any cause for complaint from now on.’ She fervently hoped that was true. The last thing she needed was to be embroiled in a battle with her landlord.

He gave a brief smile. ‘I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.’

As soon as he had gone, she went back to the kitchen. The children were playing with the kitten on the lawn, and she watched them, thinking about her mother and her sister-in-law, and feeling sad inside for everything that had happened. She was all that the children had for the moment, and she would do all in her power to see that they were safe and happy.

Picking up the phone, she called the hospital and asked for news. The encounter with Callum Beresford had unsettled her, but she had to let it go. She had enough problems on her plate, without worrying about her dealings with her aloof, unsociable neighbour. She would try to put him out of her thoughts, and with any luck they would be able to avoid running into each other for the foreseeable future.

CHAPTER TWO

‘CONNOR—put the kitten down and start getting dressed for school, please. We need to hurry up.’ Jade was becoming increasingly anxious about the way time was slipping away from her. Looking after children was an entirely new thing for her, an undertaking that was strewn with pitfalls, and so far, no matter how efficiently she had tried to organise things, nothing seemed to be going right.

Added to that, she was supposed to make a start in A and E that morning and she was desperate for everything to go well. It wouldn’t do to be late on her first day, would it? Despite her nervousness, she wanted to make a good impression.

She recalled the first meeting with her new boss—at her interview just a short time ago—when she had quickly learned to respect him for his obvious skill and experience. Mr Ramsay, the consultant, was an older man, in his fifties, she guessed, a kindly, thoughtful man, and she didn’t want to let him down. They had got on well together, and she felt that he would be supportive, but it was still up to her to give of her best.

‘As soon as you’re both dressed, I want you to go downstairs and get your breakfast. I put some cereal out in your bowls but then I found out that there’s not enough milk, so you’ll have to leave those and eat the toast I’ve made for you instead.’ She hadn’t realised that Connor had been busy filling up the kitten’s saucer at regular intervals, and it was too late now to go and get fresh milk.

‘Can we keep the kitten?’ Rebeccah asked, picking it up as it escaped Connor’s clutches.

‘I don’t know.’ Jade made a face. ‘I know how much you both like him, but we don’t know where he’s come from. We’ll keep him for now, to make sure that he’s safe, but I’ll have to put some notices out to see if someone’s looking for him. He might belong to another family.’

Rebeccah wasn’t deterred. ‘But if no one comes for him, he might get to stay with us for always,’ she said, smiling happily.

‘Perhaps, but don’t get your hopes up too much. His real family might be missing him.’ She glanced at Rebeccah, who was nearly dressed. ‘You’re doing very well,’ she said. ‘I want to go and have a quick shower—I’ll be five minutes, that’s all. Will you take Connor downstairs and make sure he gets his breakfast? I should be down before you’ve finished.’

Rebeccah nodded, looking older and wiser than her tender years. ‘Mummy always asks me to help get Connor ready. He’s not very good, you know. He takes ages to get his clothes on because he always stops to play with his toys.’

Jade made a wry smile. ‘I’d noticed that.’ She made sure that the children had finished getting dressed, and then went to the bathroom. Ideally, she wanted to sit down with the children and have breakfast with them, but things were running away from her this morning. Instead, she took the quickest shower she’d ever had and then hurried downstairs. To her relief, she found that the children were sitting at the kitchen table, munching away at their toast and also at their breakfast cereal.

‘Are you fetching us from school today?’ Connor asked. He looked up at her, his mouth smeared with a creamy white covering of milk, and Jade frowned, wondering where that had come from.

‘No, your mummy’s friend, Libby, is going to meet you when school finishes, and she said that she’ll look after you until I come home from work. You’ll be able to play with her children, won’t you? I expect you’ll like that.’

They both nodded. ‘We sometimes go to Libby’s for tea.’ Rebeccah’s expression became serious. ‘When will Mummy and Nanna be coming home?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Jade told her. ‘I talked to the doctor on the telephone a little while ago, and he said that he’s doing everything he can to make them feel better. I’m going to see them at the hospital today, and I’ll let you know how they are when I come home. I’ll give them a kiss from both of you, shall I?’

‘Yes,’ Rebeccah said, and Connor began blowing kisses across his palm. Jade watched the children for a moment then glanced at their breakfast bowls. Their cereal was already half-eaten, and that struck her as odd. Scanning the table, she saw that there was a white jug in the centre, filled to the brim with milk.

‘Where did that come from?’ she asked. ‘There wasn’t any milk left in the fridge.’ Her brows met in a furrowed line. Come to that, she didn’t even recognise the jug.

‘We got it from the man next door,’ Connor told her.

Jade stared at him. ‘I don’t understand. Are you saying that you went round and asked him for a jug of milk?’

‘Yes, we both did.’

She blinked, trying to take that in. Surely they hadn’t? ‘How could that be? I thought you were afraid of him. How did you pluck up the courage to do that?’

‘I wanted my breakfast,’ Connor said in a matter-of-fact tone, as though he was amazed that she still didn’t get the full picture. ‘I didn’t want toast. I always have wheaty flakes for my breakfast, so I took my bowl round and asked him to put some milk on them.’

Jade felt a wave of heat rise up inside her and flood her cheeks. Was it possible for her to be humiliated any more? Could the floor open and swallow her up?

‘I think he felt sorry for us,’ Rebeccah piped up, ‘because he went and fetched a jug and filled it up for us. He said, “Are you two getting enough to eat?” and Connor said, “Well, sometimes we don’t get no tea if Mummy’s too busy.” And the man said, “Oh dear,” and I said, “But we might have a take-away instead.”’

Jade closed her eyes and groaned inwardly, the wave turning to a tide of embarrassment that surged through her. What must her neighbour have thought when these two little waifs and strays had appeared on his doorstep, holding out their cereal bowls and pleading for sustenance? It didn’t bear thinking about. If he believed she was their mother he probably had her marked down as a serious candidate for neglect of her responsibilities, given their previous encounter.

There was no time to remedy the situation right now, though. ‘I think you should leave it to me to sort out the milk situation next time,’ she said. Jade braced herself. ‘Now, we need to get a move on. We have to leave here in a few minutes, so I want you to hurry up and finish your breakfast and then we must get in the car and set off for school.’

Thankfully, she didn’t run into her new neighbour as they left the house. She wasn’t ready to face him, and she certainly hadn’t the wherewithal for a confrontation with him just now. There were enough butterflies in her stomach already at the thought of starting work in A and E. It was one of the most demanding specialties and, being relatively inexperienced in emergency work, she would need all the help she could get.

As it was, things turned out quite differently to what she was expecting when she arrived at the hospital. Instead of a gentle easing in and a helping hand from one of the nurses to show her where everything was, she found herself being plunged straight into chaos.

‘I don’t have time to talk now,’ the triage nurse said, pushing a hand through her chestnut-coloured hair. ‘We’re run off our feet. There was an accident at one of the factories in town, and we’ve multiple casualties to deal with. Dr Franklin is co-ordinating everything, and you’ll just have to pitch in as best you can. There’s a man being brought in by ambulance—a suspected heart attack. He should be here in about ten minutes. Perhaps you can take the lead with that one.’

‘Yes, of course.’ Jade hoped that she was up to it. Glancing around, she asked, ‘Where is the consultant…Mr Ramsay? I haven’t seen him around anywhere.’

‘No—you won’t be seeing him.’ The nurse frowned. ‘He was taken ill—but you wouldn’t have heard about that, would you? He was away on holiday for a few days and went down with some sort of food poisoning. It’s affected his kidneys, and now he’s being treated in the renal unit. For a while it was touch and go as to whether he would pull through.’

Jade was shocked. ‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I hope he’ll be all right.’

‘So do I. We all think the world of him. As it is, he’s going to be laid up for some time, from the sound of things. That is bad enough, from his point of view, but it’s left us all in a state of upheaval here.’ The nurse managed an apologetic smile. ‘Look, I have to go. I’m supposed to be helping out with a multiple fracture. I’m Katie, by the way. If you need any help, just yell.’

Jade winced. Everyone was snowed under, and she doubted if anyone would be able to spare the time to spoonfeed a new senior house officer. She was being thrown in at the deep end, and she guessed it was a case of swim or go under.

Katie hurried away, and Jade decided that maybe the best way for her to prepare for the incoming patient would be to find out where everything was kept, so that she could lay her hands on whatever it was that she might need. She went and collared a nurse who was fetching supplies, and showered her with questions.

‘Blood and lab forms are in boxes behind the reception desk,’ the girl said. ‘Medications are next to the A and E makeshift laboratory, and other supplies are in the room opposite the doctors’ lounge. If you need anything else, ask Dr Franklin, the registrar, or James in Reception.’ The nurse hurried away, leaving Jade floundering.

‘But surely, I need a key for the drugs cupboard?’ she called after her, but she was too late. The nurse had disappeared round a corner.

‘Is there a problem here?’

Jade froze at the sound of that voice. It couldn’t be, could it? A prickle of tension ran along her spine. There was no getting away from it…the deep, gravelled tones were somehow disturbingly familiar. Turning around slowly, she looked up at the owner of the voice and immediately felt as though the stuffing had been knocked out of her.

‘What are you doing here?’ The words were dredged up from inside her, shock draining the blood from her face as she took in the sight of Callum Beresford’s long, lean frame.

‘I could ask you the same question.’ His glance moved over her, taking in the white doctor’s jacket that she wore over smoothly fitting black trousers and cotton top. He looked as though he was almost as stunned as she was.

She lifted her chin. ‘I work here, as of today. I’m the new senior house officer—Dr Holbrook.’

He shook his head. ‘No, surely not? That can’t be…Fate wouldn’t be so unkind, would it? I was expecting someone sensible and efficient, someone who would be in control of the situation…a doctor that I could rely on to be on top form.’

Her shoulders stiffened. ‘What makes you think that I’m not all of those things?’

His mouth made a wry slant. ‘We’ve met before, remember? I imagine you have a fulltime job looking after those two wayward children. I would have thought that they would be more than enough to keep you occupied and at home.’ He laid a slight emphasis on that last word.

She lifted a brow. ‘Are you seriously suggesting that a woman’s place is in the home, by the kitchen sink, surrounded by young children?’ She frowned and shook her head. ‘If so, I have to tell you that isn’t always the case these days.’

He studied her broodingly. ‘Yes, I realise that. In some instances it seems that’s an unfortunate fact.’

She stared at him, about to make a pithy comment in reply, but then a siren sounded in the distance, and she said, ‘I have a patient coming in, and I need to get ready for him. Do you know where I can get a key to the drugs cupboard?’

‘I’ll sort one out for you, just as soon as we’ve checked your details. I’ve been busy transferring patients to Theatre or I would have dealt with this earlier.’ He made a brief grimace. ‘You had better come with me.’

‘My patient?’ she queried. ‘I was supposed to be looking after a heart-attack patient.’

‘I’ll get Dr Franklin to supervise that one.’

He turned away and she hurried after him. ‘It’s all very well you giving me orders,’ she said on a terse note. ‘I don’t even know who you are—or what your position is here.’

‘I’m the acting consultant while Mr Ramsay is away. I was brought in to take over from him.’

She winced. She might have known. He certainly looked the part. He was wearing another immaculate grey suit, which sat well on his tall, firmly muscled frame, and he appeared to be every inch the consultant, an authoritative, confident man, totally in command. Her spirits sank.

He stared at her. ‘If what you say is correct, I’m afraid it looks very much as though you and I are going to be working together for some time. Perhaps we had both better get used to the idea.’

He wasn’t taking any chances, though. It was only after he had verified that she really was supposed to be there that he reluctantly allowed her to go and start work. As she moved away from him and went in search of her patient, she felt his gaze searing into her back and she had the feeling that he was going to be watching her like a hawk.

She tried to put him out of her mind and hurried to meet the ambulance crew as they wheeled in a little boy on a trolley.

‘This is Dean Matthews,’ the paramedic said, bringing the trolley to a halt in a side bay. ‘He’s four years old, suspected poisoning from beta-blockers—propranolol. Apparently he took some pills out of his grandmother’s bag. We have the bottle, and it’s almost empty.’

Jade was worried. The child looked very ill, and she knew that a propranolol overdose could be fatal. ‘Do we know how many he took?’

The paramedic shook his head. ‘No, but there should have been a fair few in the bottle, and the family think he must have taken them well over an hour ago. His heart rate has fallen dramatically and he’s hypotensive. We’ve been monitoring his cardiac output on the way here.’

‘It doesn’t look good, does it?’ Jade said in an undertone. She signalled for a nurse to come and help. ‘I’m going to get him on activated charcoal right away.’ She worked quickly, hoping that the charcoal would help to remove any of the drug that hadn’t already been absorbed into his bloodstream. The boy was being given oxygen through a mask, and her main concern was that the drug had reduced the activity of his heart to an extent where it could damage his organ systems. Her priority was to restore perfusion to those systems.

‘Thanks,’ she told the young paramedic, who had hung around to await results. She could see that he was worried. ‘We’ll take over from here. Do you want me to let you know how he gets on?’

He nodded. ‘Please. I’ve another call coming in, but I would like to know what happens here.’

‘Of course. I’ll update you when you come in again.’

‘Thank you. I’m Sam, by the way.’

‘OK, Sam.’ She acknowledged him briefly, and with that he went away. With the nurse’s help, Jade wheeled the child into an available treatment room and made sure that he was hooked up to the monitors. Just as they settled him, though, the little boy started to convulse, and a few seconds later he lost consciousness.

‘I’m not getting a pulse,’ Jade said anxiously. ‘He’s gone into cardiac arrest.’ She worked as fast as she was able to put in an endotracheal airway, and then started chest compressions with the palm of her hand, while the nurse took over with the oxygen.

Jade was desperately afraid that her efforts were to no avail, but after a while the nurse glanced at the monitor and said, ‘He’s back with us.’

Jade was relieved, but she was still feeling apprehensive. The child’s cardiac output was thready, and she swiftly established an intravenous line and gave the child atropine.

It didn’t appear to be having much effect. ‘Helen,’ she said, “we’ll start him on the charcoal. You’ll need to watch him in case of vomiting.’

The nurse nodded. ‘What about blood tests?’

‘I want U and E and blood glucose, a complete blood count and a toxicology screen. We’ll monitor him for pulse, blood pressure and perfusion.’

‘OK.’

A woman came into the treatment room and clutched at Jade’s arm. ‘What’s happening to my little boy? Nobody’s telling me anything. He’s just lying there. Can you do something to help him?’

‘We’re doing everything that we can,’ she told the woman, using a soothing tone. ‘He’s absorbed a lot of his grandmother’s medication, and that has had the effect of slowing down his heart and causing a collapse of his vital functions. We’re working to restore his heart and circulation.’

‘But he’ll be all right, won’t he?’

‘I hope so,’ Jade said gently. ‘We’ll need to admit him for observation, so that we can monitor his condition over the next few hours.’

The woman was near to tears. ‘We had no idea that he’d been searching in his grandmother’s bag. It was up on a high cupboard, and we didn’t think he could reach that far. Then we found out that he had pulled up a chair, and climbed on to it. He thought his grandmother had some sweets for him.’

Jade was sympathetic. ‘I know that it can be hard to watch children every minute,’ she said. ‘He’s at an age, though, where he’s likely to be into everything, and you need to make sure that any tablets and medicines are locked away securely.’

‘I will. I won’t ever let this happen again…if only you can save him…’ She sent Jade a pleading look. ‘I want to stay with him.’

Jade nodded. ‘That’s all right. He seems to be stable for the moment, and the nurse will be here to answer any questions that you might have. I have to go and see to my other patients, but I’ll come back and check on him in a few minutes.’

She was glad that the child’s mother was by his side. Seeing them together made her think of her own mother, lying ill in a hospital bed, and a feeling of sadness overwhelmed her. She had been trying so hard to keep going, to do everything that was necessary, but all the time she was struggling with the knowledge that people she loved were fighting major battles of their own. Just as soon as she had the opportunity, she was going to look in on them. She needed to know that her mother and sister-in-law were going to be all right.

‘How is the child?’ Callum was waiting for her as she left the treatment room. He was looking over the boy’s chart, and she wondered if he was checking to see if there was anything that she had omitted to do.

‘It’s too early to say, just yet. His condition has stabilised for the moment, but he isn’t out of danger just yet. Helen is monitoring him.’

‘All right. Perhaps you could go and look at the patient in treatment room four. He appears to have trodden on a nail.’ He handed her the chart, his hand brushing hers, and a shower of invisible electric sparks shot along the length of her arm, confusing her and rooting her to the spot.

He seemed to hesitate momentarily, and she hardly dared look at him in case he had registered her sudden tension. Perhaps he was waiting for an answer, but her voice seemed to be stuck in her throat. Instead, she simply nodded.

He moved away from her, and she hoped that would be the end of it, but for the rest of the morning she had the nagging feeling that he was keeping an eye on her. He never made it too obvious, but she was aware that he was checking up on her, either by glancing through the tests she had ordered or by inspecting her notes and scrutinising the medications she had prescribed.

By the time her lunch-break came along, she was glad to get away. It was one thing to be supervised, but it was quite another to be under constant surveillance as though he expected her to make some dreadful mistake at any minute.

Keyed up, and thoroughly on edge, she went up to the ward where her mother was being cared for. Her mother was lying propped up in bed, looking frail and lost, her fair hair falling in soft tendrils against her cheeks. Jade could see that her left arm was in a sling.

Jade gave her a gentle hug. ‘I can’t believe this has happened,’ she said, ‘but I’m so glad that you’re at least sitting up and able to talk to me.’

‘It was all a bit of a shock,’ her mother said. ‘I thought I’d just fractured my shoulder, but then I started to feel really ill and they all started to rush about doing tests and things. They said that I was bleeding inside, and they didn’t know what was causing it, but in the end they had to send me to Theatre for an operation. I feel much better now, but I’m a bit sore.’

‘I expect you will be for a while,’ Jade said. ‘I had a word with the doctor. He said that they found a small tear in your liver, but they managed to stitch it up. As long as you rest, you should be all right, but they’re going to keep you in here for a few days, just to make sure.’

Her mother looked at her, her green eyes troubled. ‘How are you coping? You’re looking after the children, aren’t you? Is everything working out all right? How are they bearing up?’

‘Everything is fine,’ Jade said. ‘Don’t worry yourself. The children are worried, obviously, but they seem to be taking it all in their stride. Rebeccah is older, so she seems to have more of an inkling about what’s going on, but she’s coping. They were both hoping that Ben would come home, but he’s still in the decompression chamber. I should think he’ll be here as soon as he’s able.’

‘That will make Gemma feel better, I expect.’ Her mother frowned. ‘How is she?’

‘I’m not absolutely sure, but I’m going to see her in a few minutes. As far as I know, they’ve managed to stabilise her pelvis in Theatre. She’s lost a lot of blood, though.’

They talked for a while longer, and then Jade gave her mother a kiss and stood up, ready to go. ‘I brought you some magazines,’ she said. ‘I’ll hunt out a few more for you and bring them along tomorrow. You take care now, and get some rest.’

Her mother smiled. ‘You’re an angel. You always were able to cope, no matter what life threw at you. You always seemed so strong. Look at how you looked after your brother when he was little—I feel so guilty sometimes because of the way I failed you back then, and here you are, going through a similar situation all over again.’ She sent Jade a pensive look. ‘I know this can’t be easy for you, and you must have a lot to contend with just now. You should try to take some time out for yourself.’

‘I will.’ Jade didn’t think there was much chance of that, but it would make her mother happy to think all was going well.

‘You were going to start your new job today, weren’t you? Is everything working out all right?’

‘Yes, it’s turning out just fine,’ Jade lied. She wasn’t going to burden her mother with her problems. ‘At least it means I’m on hand to come up and visit you whenever I get the opportunity.’

She left the room a minute or so later and went in search of Gemma, her half-brother’s wife. Gemma’s condition was much worse than her mother’s, and Jade was shocked when she saw her. The accident and the haemorrhage that followed had taken their toll on her.

Her sister-in-law was almost as white as the bandages that held the dressing in place on her head, and the brown of her hair made a stark contrast to her pale skin. She seemed very weak and tired, and Jade guessed that she was in quite a lot of pain and discomfort.

Even so, Gemma wanted to know about the children. ‘Are they all right? Have they settled in with you?’

‘Yes. They’re doing just fine, and they send their love. I told them that you’ll be staying here for a little while, but that they could come and see you as soon as you were feeling stronger. The doctors don’t think it would be a good idea for them to come in just yet.’

‘I know.’ Gemma was near to tears. ‘Thanks for taking care of them for me. I was hoping that Ben would bring them to me, but I expect he’s still out on the rig. He spends more time there than he does with us, but perhaps that’s how he wants it. Sometimes I wonder if we made a mistake, getting married.’

Jade reached out and touched her hand. ‘You mustn’t think like that. Ben loves you.’

‘I don’t think so—not enough, anyway. Why else would he spend so much time away from us? And I don’t think he cares about the children—why should he after all? They’re not his, so I suppose he can’t be expected to love them the way I do.’ Her voice faded.

‘I’m sure you have it all wrong,’ Jade said. ‘He loves all of you, and he’ll be here just as soon as he can manage it. The last I heard, he was still in the decompression chamber.’

‘Maybe.’ She could see that Gemma wasn’t convinced. ‘It takes something like this to make you take stock of things and realise what’s important in life. At least I have the children.’

‘You have Ben, and me and Mum as well,’ Jade told her. ‘You’re not alone. You mustn’t think like that.’

Jade stayed with Gemma until her sister-in-law’s mood had lifted a little. She knew something of what Gemma was going through…she was feeling lost and alone. Her own childhood experiences had left her feeling much the same way, making her reluctant to believe that she could rely on anyone.

Her lunch-break came to an end and she hurried back to A and E. The little boy who had taken the propranolol was showing signs of recovery, and she was pleased about that. She checked him over, and left the treatment room feeling glad that at least something was going right.

‘He was fortunate,’ Callum said, coming over to sign her chart and allow her to pass the boy over to admissions. ‘If his family had left it much longer before they realised what he had done, things could have been far worse.’

She nodded. ‘It’s easy to be wise after the event, I suppose. Children will always get up to mischief of some sort, but I expect his family will keep medicines securely locked away from now on.’

He gave her a long look, those blue eyes lancing into her. ‘I imagine that’s something you know a lot about—the mischief, I mean.’

She managed a hollow smile. ‘That reminds me—about this morning,’ she began. ‘I didn’t know that the children had come to you, asking for milk. I was in the shower, and I didn’t realise that they had left the house.’

‘I guessed as much, and it sort of went along with what I’ve come to expect. You don’t have to explain.’

‘No…but I want to. You see, under normal circumstances I would have had enough milk to keep us going, but then we took in a stray kitten, and he seems to have guzzled all I had.’

‘I noticed him yesterday. As for your breakfast problems, I take it that your husband is no good at helping out in that kind of situation? I’d have thought that with two of you in the house, one or other of you could manage to keep an eye on things.’

‘I’m not married,’ she told him.

‘Ah…I see.’

‘I don’t think you do.’

She was about to explain the situation to him, but before she could get her act together he said, ‘Well, let’s just say that it all makes some kind of sense now. No wonder you’re struggling, if you’re on your own.’

He gave her an assessing glance, and then added, ‘I’m afraid I didn’t really have time to say very much to the children this morning—I planned on getting into work early, and they caught me on the hop, so to speak.’

She frowned. ‘I’m sorry that they came and disturbed you. They shouldn’t have done that.’

‘It’s not a problem,’ he said. ‘I realise that you’re having trouble keeping it all together, but I guess you’re not alone. A lot of single parents seem to find it difficult to manage.’

He signed her chart while she was still staring at him open-mouthed, and he didn’t give her the opportunity to set things straight. He didn’t stay around to talk any longer, but strode away to treat a patient who was being rushed into the emergency room.

Jade was kept busy for the rest of the afternoon. She was a bit out of her depth, but she tried to get by without asking for help as far as she was able, because she didn’t want to give Callum any more reasons for regretting that she was on his team.

Despite her anxieties, for the most part things went well. She even managed to have a laugh with the paramedic, Sam, who came in to see how little Dean was doing.

‘Hi,’ he said, coming across the room to her just as she finished a coffee-break. ‘How is the little fellow? Did he pull through all right?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, he’s doing much better now. We’re going to keep him in hospital for a day or so, but it’s more of a precaution than anything else. I think he’ll be fine from now on.’

‘That’s good.’ Sam smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he studied her. ‘I expect we’ll run into each other quite a lot if you’re going to be working here from now on. It seems as though my visits to the hospital are suddenly going to be much brighter than I could have hoped for.’ He looked her over. ‘Things are definitely looking up. You’re by far the best-looking doctor I’ve seen around here in a long while.’

Jade gave him an answering smile. ‘And you’re a smooth-tongued Casanova if ever I heard one,’ she said. ‘I bet you’ve had plenty of practice charming the girls.’ He was a good-looking young man, with dark hair that fell softly over his forehead and grey eyes that were full of dancing lights.

‘Not nearly as much as you’d think.’ He moved a little closer to her. ‘I’d really like to get to know you better. How about we take off from here when you finish work and go and get ourselves something to eat? I know a good place not too far from here.’

‘Sorry, but I can’t,’ she said. Even if she had wanted to, there were two small reasons why assignations of any kind were out of the question right now. Rebeccah and Connor would be taking up most of her free time for the foreseeable future.

Sam frowned, but just as she thought of trying to soften the blow, a shadow came between them.

‘Perhaps you two should continue your cosy little chat later,’ Callum said. ‘There are patients waiting to be seen.’ He looked at Jade, his jaw set in a firm line. ‘I think it would be a good idea if you were to go and attend to them.’ Then he turned a fraction, his gaze shooting warning sparks in Sam’s direction.

Sam took the warning on board and began to make a strategic exit, but he managed to mouth, ‘Be seeing you,’ to Jade as he went.

Jade sent Callum a guarded look. ‘I was on my way back from a break,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I was being remiss in any way. I was just about to head for the treatment room.’

‘I hope you were,’ he said. ‘Break’s over.’ He moved off in the direction of the reception desk, and Jade stared after him.

She sighed inwardly. It wasn’t going to be easy working with Callum Beresford, that was for sure, and the fact that he was her neighbour and landlord only served to make things doubly difficult.

Was she going to be able to find a way to get along with him? At the moment, that seemed highly unlikely.

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