‘Laura, I’m here to support you in what you do.

‘If you have any problems, you should bring them to me. You’re not expected to manage things on your own.’ He turned his blue-grey eyes on her, his glance trailing over the oval of her face in such an intent fashion that she felt her cheeks flush with heat. ‘You’re a good doctor, and you should have confidence in yourself.’

Nick laid a hand lightly on her shoulder and turned her towards the doctors’ lounge. ‘Now, go and get yourself some coffee.’

Laura didn’t know what to think. She wasn’t used to having him quite so close, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to concentrate when his arm was draped around her like that. It was a totally innocuous gesture, but the warmth of his hand permeated the thin cotton top that she was wearing, and his gentle touch was doing unbelievably strange things to her insides.

The Doctor's Family Secret

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 Ten

CHAPTER ONE

‘WE SHOULDN’T have to wait for too much longer before we can get an X-ray picture of your leg, Lewis,’ Laura said gently, trying to encourage the fretful five-year-old in her care.

He wasn’t at all happy because of his sore limb, but at least she had done what she could to make sure that he was reasonably comfortable in the wheelchair.

‘I’m sorry that they’re not ready for us yet. Tell you what, we’ll go and have a look at some of the pictures in the corridor, shall we? It will help pass the time and I think you’ll like them.’

‘All right.’

Laura turned the chair and pushed it carefully into the corridor outside the X-ray department. At the far end of the passageway, a man came through the swing doors.

He was walking purposefully in their direction and she cast him a quick glance as she manoeuvred the chair into position. He was tall, dressed in an immaculately tailored suit, the jacket loose to reveal a pristine shirt, and as he came closer, her heart sank in quick recognition.

Nick Hilliard was the last person she’d expected to see, but it looked as though even down here there was to be no escaping him. The specialist registrar managed to get everywhere, didn’t he? Sometimes she couldn’t help wondering if he followed her around deliberately, just to annoy her.

Reaching them, he stopped to give her a quick nod. ‘Hello, Laura.’ Nick’s deep voice was rich and smooth, rippling over her senses like dark melted chocolate. Why did he always have that effect on her? It put her at a disadvantage, when she would much rather keep a clear head.

Nick turned his attention to the child. ‘Hi, Lewis,’ he said, his smiling glance travelling over the little boy. ‘Are you all finished here and ready to go back to A and E?’

Lewis shook his head miserably. He squirmed in his seat, but couldn’t move very far because his left leg was stretched out in front of him, supported by a padded footrest. ‘They’re not ready for me yet.’

‘They’re not?’ Nick’s blue-grey eyes darkened in a frown. ‘You’ve been down here for quite a while, haven’t you?’

Lewis nodded. ‘I was getting fed up, so Dr Brett brought me out here to look at the pictures in the corridor while we wait.’

‘I see.’ Nick turned his gaze on Laura, and she stiffened a little, tightening her grip on the wheelchair.

‘It’s only been a few minutes really,’ she murmured. ‘It just seems longer, that’s all.’ She looked around for something that would distract Lewis.

There was a beautiful appliquéd tapestry decorating the wall in front of them, and she moved the chair so that he would be able to see it properly. Perhaps the colourful scene would take his mind off things for a moment. The poor boy had enough to put up with, suffering pain and discomfort, without having to wait around in total boredom.

Nick followed her movements, his gaze narrowing on her as she reached over to set the brake. The stretchy cotton top that she was wearing rode up with the movement of her arm, and suddenly she worried that it might be just a little too clingy. Her skirt, too, was a snug fit, hugging the curve of her hips like a warm caress. She had raided her wardrobe this morning, searching for clothes that would be comfortable and easy to wear, but right now she was beginning to doubt the wisdom of her choice.

To her relief, though, Nick turned his attention back to Lewis.

‘Mum’s gone to phone my dad and tell him what’s happening,’ the child confided.

‘That’s a good idea,’ Nick said. ‘At least he’ll know that you’re all right, and in good hands.’

The boy shifted restlessly in his seat. ‘Mum says I might have to stay here for a few days.’ He chewed disconsolately at his bottom lip. His fair hair gleamed under the overhead lights and Laura noted that his cheeks were faintly flushed with fever. His leg was obviously distressing him, and the reddened, swollen area around his shinbone was plain to see. Understandably, he was feeling uncomfortable and out of sorts.

Nick gave him a thoughtful look. ‘I know this is upsetting for you, Lewis, but we’ll get you sorted out as soon as we can. In the meantime, I’m sure that Dr Brett will look after you, and your mother told me that she’s going to stay close by, so there’s nothing for you to worry about.’

Reaching into his jacket pocket, he drew out a small plastic box wrapped in Cellophane and then crouched down beside the boy so that he was at his level. As he leaned towards the child, Laura found herself staring down at the faintly bronzed nape of Nick’s neck. Her glance strayed. His black hair was attractively styled, cut short in clean lines, and rays of sunshine slanted in through the window behind him, picking out iridescent lights.

‘Here you are,’ he said, softly, handing the box to the child. ‘You can have this, if you like.’

‘What is it?’ Lewis looked curiously at the small package.

‘It’s a kind of puzzle,’ Nick explained. ‘You fit the pieces together in different ways to make lots of funny-looking people. If you’re feeling up to it, you might want to play with it for a while.’

Lewis’s eyes widened. ‘Thanks.’ Intrigued, he pulled at the wrapping, then opened the box and began to sort through the cards that were in there, his mouth gradually quirking into a smile.

Watching the boy, Laura’s mouth softened. She had seen Nick do this kind of thing before, and she had to admit that he was very good with children. He had a way of putting them at ease, and she guessed that he must have a store of small games and puzzles that he produced to distract children whenever they had to sit and wait for a diagnosis or treatment.

Seeing that Lewis was preoccupied, Nick straightened up. He looked at Laura and frowned, drawing her to one side. ‘What’s going on here?’ he demanded, his voice low and terse.

‘I thought it best if I brought Lewis down to X-Ray myself.’ The mass of her bright curls tumbled around her face, lightly brushing her shoulders in its usual unruly fashion. In a defensive gesture, she pushed back a coppery strand of hair from her cheek. ‘We aren’t too busy in A and E at the moment, and I was due for a break. He seems more settled with me around, so I thought I would bring him here and then go and grab some lunch.’

‘I realise all that, but you came down here ages ago.’

Laura shrugged lightly. ‘That’s a matter of opinion. Anyway, the radiologist had just begun to take a series of X-rays of a rheumatoid patient from one of the afternoon clinics, when we arrived. It’s taking longer than we expected.’

‘It certainly is…much too long. We have critically ill patients in our department who need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.’

‘It’s hardly the radiologist’s fault,’ Laura pointed out mildly. ‘I’m sure she’s working as quickly as she’s able.’

‘I appreciate that,’ Nick said firmly. ‘What I’m saying is that it’s not right that our patients should have to wait at all. I’ve been saying for a long time now that we need an X-ray machine dedicated for A and E use.’

‘If it had been an outright emergency I would have intervened, of course. As it is, I expect we’ll only have to wait for a few more minutes and then Lewis can go in.’ Laura’s finely arched brows drew together. ‘You’re probably asking for too much if you’re expecting the department to get new equipment at the drop of a hat. You and I both know that funding will only stretch so far.’

His jaw tightened. ‘So your father says. I’m sure that if he put his mind to it he could bring his influence to bear. And it isn’t just the question of the X-ray machine—it’s the whole set-up in A and E, especially where children are concerned. It’s a soulless place for them to have to wait to be treated. There’s no atmosphere whatsoever, just dull, plain hospital surroundings. It’s enough to put any child off.’ He was glowering now. ‘Something needs to be done about it.’

Laura held back a faint sigh. They were back to this again, were they? She had only worked at the hospital for around three months, and in all that time she and Nick had hardly ever been able to see eye to eye on things, especially where her father was concerned.

A faint atmosphere of antagonism had sprung up between them almost from the beginning. At first she had put it down to the fact that she had been brought in to replace another doctor who had been scheduled to start work on the team. A domestic upheaval had caused the man to change his plans at the last minute and move to another area instead, and from all accounts Nick had been put out by that turn of events. He had been part of the initial interview panel, but the way things had gone, it must have seemed as though Laura had been foisted on him, and she had been a completely unknown entity.

Now, though, Laura wondered if the real thorn in Nick’s side was the fact that her father was chief administrator here at the hospital.

‘My father does what he can. He doesn’t make the decisions on his own…you know that. He has to consult with the rest of the management team.’

‘I also know that he holds a lot of sway with them and, if he wanted to badly enough, he could change things.’ He glanced down at his watch. ‘I have to get back to A and E right now, but I’ll have a word with him later on today. There are quite a few things I need to go over with him.’

The determined set of his mouth alarmed her. ‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea,’ she said hurriedly. ‘Not just at the moment. This is his first day back at work, and he’ll have a lot on his plate…’ But Nick had already turned away and was moving swiftly along the corridor.

She would have called after him, but at that moment the radiologist appeared and beckoned her into the X-ray unit.

‘Sorry to have kept you waiting,’ the woman said. ‘Do you want to come through?’

‘Thanks.’ Laura gave Lewis a bright smile. ‘Come on, then,’ she said. ‘Let’s have a look at what’s going on with your leg, shall we? As soon as we have the pictures we can decide what needs to be done to make you feel better.’

She already had some idea of what the X-rays might reveal. Lewis’s mother had brought the child into A and E, and she had explained that her son had been limping for the last week or so. Gradually, his condition had worsened, and now the limb was severely painful and it was also beginning to suppurate at the point of tenderness, although the mother was fairly sure that Lewis hadn’t banged his leg or hurt it in some way.

She had also mentioned that Lewis had been quite ill with a chest infection, and Laura believed there might be some connection.

The X-rays took a few minutes, and when they were done, Laura wheeled the little boy back along the corridor.

‘We’ll go and meet your mother in A and E,’ she told him. ‘Why don’t you have another look at your puzzles while we’re on our way? They’re fun, aren’t they?’

‘OK.’ He nodded tiredly and winced as he tried to move his leg into a more comfortable position.

Laura felt a surge of compassion for the little boy. He reminded her so much of her young nephew, although Connor was a year younger than Lewis. They both had the same mischievous features, despite the fact that Lewis’s were tinged with pain right now. She couldn’t imagine how she would feel if Connor was ill.

The sooner she could start Lewis’s treatment, the better. She had the X-rays, now all she needed were the results of the blood tests she had ordered.

Arriving at the A and E department, she pushed Lewis’s wheelchair towards a cubicle that had been set aside for paediatric patients.

Lewis looked around at the austere white-painted walls, and his eyes were wide and frightened as he stared at the lifesaving equipment nearby, but he didn’t say a word, and that worried Laura. There were no other children being treated right now, and she guessed that he must be feeling very lonely. She desperately wanted to comfort him.

‘I’ll draw the curtains around so that you can be a little more private,’ she told him gently. ‘I expect your mother will be here soon. Try not to worry, Lewis. We’ll look after you, I promise.’ She glanced at the box of puzzles in his lap and pointed a finger at a picture he had made up. ‘Goodness, it looks as though that girl’s had a real fright, doesn’t it? Her hair’s standing on end.’

‘I bet she’s seen a spider.’ Lewis giggled. ‘I’m going to make another one, with a really scary face.’

Laura smiled at him. ‘I can see you’re good at this.’

‘I take it you’ve finally finished with the X-ray department?’ A familiar deep voice came behind her and she made a faint grimace. Didn’t that just prove what she had been thinking earlier? Nick seemed to follow her everywhere. He had scarcely given her time to settle her young patient before he had appeared once more.

‘Yes, we’ve finished.’

‘What was the result?’

Laura glanced down at Lewis and saw that he was still engrossed with his puzzles. At least they were taking his mind off his troubles.

‘I need to check with the laboratory to be absolutely certain,’ she said in a low voice, ‘but I think the X-rays confirm that the original respiratory infection has travelled and is affecting the bone.’ She turned to the nurse who had come to stand alongside the bed. ‘Would you stay with Lewis for a while, please, Jenny? His mother should be back at any moment.’

The dark-haired nurse smiled. ‘Of course.’ She walked over to Lewis’s side, and said cheerfully, ‘I’m just going to make sure that you’re comfortable, sweetheart, and then I’ll take your temperature again.’

Laura moved out of the cubicle and drew the curtains behind her. Nick followed. ‘So you think it’s osteomyelitis?’ he queried.

‘I do.’

‘OK. If you’re right, you should admit him and start antibiotics. He may need surgical drainage.’

‘Yes, I know. I’d intended to start him on antibiotics straight away.’ Her green eyes flashed momentarily. Didn’t he believe that she was capable of making her own diagnosis? Why did he feel it necessary to step in with advice?

She pulled in a deep breath. There was no point in feeling resentful, was there? After all, he was in charge while the consultant was away, and he was just doing his job as he saw fit. Maybe when he got to know her better he would come to realise that she was a good doctor, and that she knew her stuff.

Frowning, he said, ‘You may find that you need to explain it carefully to the parents. They could be worried that it might mean a long spell in hospital for him.’

‘It doesn’t necessarily mean that, though, does it? He might have to take antibiotics for several weeks but, provided he shows signs of improvement after his initial stay in hospital, he could probably continue those at home.’

‘Yes, you’re right. Have you thought about analgesia?’

‘Of course. It’s obvious that he’s in pain.’ She sent him a brooding look. ‘I am capable of looking after my patients, you know.’

His eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘Sorry. It gets to be a habit, overseeing junior doctors. A lot of them are nervous when they start work in A and E. They come across things they’ve never seen before, and they need as much support as we can give them.’

His unaccustomed humility came as a surprise, and she found herself looking at him in a new light. Her gaze travelled over his strongly sculpted features, the edges softened now by wry amusement. He was a good-looking man by any standards, but when he smiled it lit up his face, and she was uncomfortably aware of his sheer maleness. She looked away. She didn’t want to find him attractive—that was the last thing on earth she wanted.

‘I appreciate that you don’t know me very well yet,’ she murmured. ‘But you can have confidence in me. I’m not going to let you down.’

‘Well, we’ll see. You wouldn’t be the first to believe that you have it all under control.’ He paused, and then added, ‘There is just one other thing that you might not have thought about. It’s possible that the parents might be feeling guilty. Perhaps that’s something you should address.’

‘Why should they feel guilty? They’ve done nothing wrong.’

‘Sometimes parents feel that they should have recognised the problem before it reached this stage. That’s something you might need to reassure them about.’

He walked away then, leaving Laura to dwell on his words. Was he right? Lewis’s mother had seemed confident enough on the surface, though now she came to think about it, the woman had been a little weepy. Laura had put that down to natural worry about her son, but there could be more to it after all.

She went off to check with the lab about the blood tests, and just as she put the phone down, Lewis’s mother came hurrying towards her.

‘I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I had trouble getting through to my husband at work. I didn’t realise he was already on his way here.’ She looked anxiously at Laura. ‘How is Lewis? Have you had any results yet? Do you know what’s wrong with him?’

Laura nodded. ‘It looks as though Lewis’s recent chest infection could be the source of his troubles. The infection has been carried in his bloodstream and is affecting the bone in his leg. It’s a very painful condition, but we’re giving him something to ease that.’

Mrs Watkins looked panic-stricken. ‘It’s bad, isn’t it?’ Her face crumpled. ‘It’s all my fault. I didn’t realise how bad it was. I should have done something sooner.’

Laura shook her head. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong, Mrs Watkins. You must believe that.’

She grimaced inwardly. Much as it troubled her to admit it, it looked as though Nick had been right. The woman did blame herself, and it should be a lesson to Laura that she took too much for granted. She still had a lot to learn.

‘Lewis had treatment for his chest infection,’ Laura explained, ‘but the bacteria were aggressive and resistant. There was nothing you could have done about that.’

She gave the woman a reassuring smile. ‘We’re going to give Lewis much stronger antibiotics than those that he had before,’ she said. ‘We’ll be giving them intravenously so that we can do everything in our power to beat this infection. We’re expecting him to recover completely, but it will take a while, possibly a few weeks.’

‘Will he have to stay in hospital?’

Laura nodded. ‘Yes. Just for a week or so, until we’re sure that he’s on the mend. After that, as soon as he’s well enough he should be able to go on with the drug therapy at home.’

‘Can I see him?’

‘Yes, of course you can. You can stay with him as much as you like. I’m going to set up his intravenous line right now if you want come with me.’ Looking closely at the anxious woman, she added reassuringly, ‘We’ll soon have him feeling better.’

‘Thank you. I know that you’re doing all you can for him. It’s just that he’s so young…he’s all that I have.’

‘I’m confident that we’ve caught this in time,’ Laura said softly. ‘Come and see him. You’ll be able to cheer him up.’

Laura was kept busy for the rest of the afternoon, and thankfully managed to keep out of Nick’s way. She didn’t want him breathing down her neck, watching her every move. It wasn’t as though he singled her out for attention—he kept firm control over everything that went on in A and E—but she found his presence unnerving. It was bad enough that he hadn’t wanted her on his team, and his ongoing disagreements with her father were an additional irritation.

She wondered how her father was coping. He hadn’t been well, and she had been concerned about him all day. Now that things had quietened down again, she could go and see him.

His office was on the next floor and, approaching it, she saw his door begin to open. She slowed her pace a little. If her father was at his desk, and free, she would pop her head round the door and say hello.

Instead, she heard the sound of a voice clipped in anger, and her heart sank.

‘No, David, I don’t see your point at all,’ Nick was saying. ‘In fact, you can take it from me that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot that can be done to make the department run more smoothly and efficiently, and I’ve a number of ideas as to how we can make the place more user friendly. I don’t accept that it can’t be done, and if I were in charge of the department I would be on your case every day. As it is, I’ll make sure Tom Edwards knows what I think.’

Laura drew in a sharp breath. It was a good thing that the general public didn’t use this corridor. It wouldn’t have been helpful for them to hear the argument that was going on. She hesitated, not wanting to eavesdrop but not knowing what she should do. She had come to talk to her father, and it looked as though his meeting with Nick was about to come to an end. There was hardly any point in retracing her steps.

‘I’m sure that Tom already knows what needs to be done,’ her father responded shortly. ‘As the consultant in charge, I imagine that he wants to see changes every bit as much as you do.’

He paused. ‘Look, Nick, I do agree with you that we need to run the department in an effective manner. I know how important these things are, and what you’re saying is reasonable enough, but it’s a question of priorities. A lot of the time the X-ray machine that we have is left idle—evenings and weekends, for instance, when the outpatient departments are closed. Surely you must see that?’

‘What I see is that patients are vulnerable,’ Nick said firmly.

Laura stepped away from the door and began to examine the scene from the nearby window, but she could still hear what was being said.

‘I don’t think you appreciate the problems we have to deal with, Nick.’ Her father’s tone was curt. ‘I’m made to account for hospital expenditure the whole time. We’re overstretched as it is, and we have to make careful decisions as to what can be put in place.’

‘That isn’t my concern. My priority is the well-being of the patients.’

‘Even so, you should be aware of the wider picture. Just keeping up with maintenance can be a minefield. Take the MRI machine as an example…it’s a hugely expensive piece of equipment to maintain, and we’re already paying people to man it for extra hours. There’s a long waiting list of people needing MRI scans. Whenever the machine breaks down we have to get it fixed and back in action as a matter of urgency, or even more patients would be left vulnerable. We have to weigh one thing against another, and make decisions accordingly.’

‘I know that, but you still need to take note of what I’m saying. I work in A and E almost every day, and I know what needs to be done to make the department function better. I want management to know exactly what we need to make this place second to none.’

‘Believe me, you’ve made your position very clear.’ Laura could imagine her father’s tight-lipped expression. ‘I can assure you that I will put your ideas to management.’

‘I’m glad to hear it, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for anything to happen,’ Nick said, thrusting the door open even wider. ‘And much as I’d like to stay and argue the point with you, I have an A and E department to attend to.’

David’s comment was equally terse. ‘And I have a desk full of paperwork and a lot of catching up to do. I’ll talk to you later, Nick.’

Nick swept out into the corridor and slowed to a halt as he saw Laura. She pretended to be engrossed in the view of the landscaped quadrangle below the window, but she glanced up as he approached.

‘Is my father free now?’

He sent her a seething glance. ‘He’s all yours.’

‘Well, that’s good. I thought I would spend my coffee-break with him.’ Without further ado, she walked into the office and closed the door behind her. After the exchange she had just heard, she didn’t care that she’d left Nick standing in the corridor.

‘Laura…it’s good to see you.’ Her father looked up and put aside the file that he had just opened, laying it down on the desk.

‘How has your first day back at work gone? I’ve been worried about you. I didn’t think you were well enough to come back yet.’

He shook his head. ‘It was just a virus. I’m well enough now and, anyway, I get bored just sitting at home with nothing to do. I may just as well be here and getting on with things.’

Laura looked at the paperwork cluttering his desk. ‘You mean you wanted to get back to work because you knew all this would be piling up. You work too hard. I’m sure that’s why you got the virus in the first place. They put too much on you.’

She studied him carefully. ‘I just saw Nick coming out of your office. Has he given you more problems to deal with?’

He gave a faint grimace. ‘I expect that young man will go far. I always knew that he would be a man to be reckoned with one day. When I was a consultant here, he was on my team, and I could see that he was energetic and full of ideas. He has a quick intelligence, a brilliant mind, but he’s also headstrong and impatient.’

‘He’s giving you trouble?’

‘He wants to see things change, and he wants it brought about quickly. So do I, but I’m used to the way these things work. Nothing gets done overnight, no matter how hard you push. It’s the way things are, and I’ve learned not to let it get me down. There are people in management who have their own ideas of what changes need to be made, and everything is a matter of compromise.’

‘Are you regretting that you went into management?’

‘No, not at all. I couldn’t carry on as an A and E consultant after the accident affected the use of my hand, but I knew that I could be an effective administrator and that my experience as a doctor would be invaluable in making sure that administrative decisions were solidly based.’

Laura reached out and covered his hand with hers. ‘And now you have Nick hassling you every day. That wasn’t what you’d bargained for, was it?’

He smiled wearily. ‘It’s all part and parcel of the job, I suppose. I need to try to meet Nick halfway because he’s full of good ideas, and basically I’ve always thought that should be encouraged. I think we might lose him otherwise, and much as we rub each other up the wrong way, and as much as his going would make my job easier, it would be a great loss for the hospital, I’m sure. There aren’t many men who have his expertise.’

Laura frowned. ‘Is that a possibility? Is he thinking of leaving?’

‘I know that he wants a post as a consultant. He has all the qualifications necessary and I know that he’s been looking around.’

If Nick went, that would make things easier all round, Laura reflected, but she kept her thoughts to herself. The way things were, the constant arguments with Nick couldn’t be doing her father any good at all. ‘I wish there was something that I could do to make life easier for you. I hate to see you looking so drained.’

He smiled. ‘If I look like that it’s only because I’ve been unwell for a while. Anyway, you do enough to help me already. It’s good to be able to talk things through with you. I know you have a difficult job of your own. I know what it’s like to deal with the cut and thrust of A and E. It isn’t easy.’

‘Which reminds me,’ she said, taking a quick glance at her watch, ‘it’s time I was getting back to work.’ She gave him a quick hug. ‘I’ll see you at home later.’

Back in the department, she checked on Lewis and then made the final arrangements for him to be admitted to a ward. His analgesics were working, and he looked a lot more comfortable.

She dealt with a few minor injuries, and was thankful that no major emergencies cropped up in the moments before her shift finished for the day. She had been on the go for several hours, and she would be glad to get back home.

Her jacket was in the doctors’ lounge, and when she went to retrieve it, she found that Nick was there, helping himself to coffee from the espresso machine.

He was frowning over the rim of his cup.

She glanced at him. ‘You look serious. Is that because of a problem in A and E, or could it be that you didn’t get what you wanted from my father when you went to see him this afternoon?’

‘A and E doesn’t give me too much of a headache. As for your father, at least now we both know where we stand.’

‘I tried to warn you to stay away from him. I don’t think you should be pressurising him right now. He’s been off sick with a nasty virus, and this is his first day back in his office. I’m not convinced that he’s fully well yet and, added to that, he has a backlog of work to get through. The last thing he needs is you harassing him. You need to give him time to get himself sorted.’

‘If he’s not well enough, he shouldn’t be back at work.’

Laura glared at him. ‘And then things really would grind to a halt, wouldn’t they?’ She pressed her lips together. ‘I might have known you’d take that attitude. I don’t think you appreciate just how much he does for this hospital. But, then, you’ve never tried to see things from his point of view, have you? If you did, perhaps you wouldn’t be so hard on him.’

His expression was cool. ‘Do you really think your father needs you to rush to his defence? I know that you came to Wales to be near him, and that you’re living under his roof, but does that mean you have to watch over him every minute of the day like a mother hen?’

Her mouth tightened. ‘That isn’t what I do. I don’t think you can have any idea of normal family life,’ she said, fighting to keep her self-control, ‘or you wouldn’t talk like that.’

‘I believe my family gets along very well together,’ he commented mildly. ‘We live within a reasonable distance of one another and we visit regularly. I was simply saying that the fact that you’ve been away from home for some time and only recently returned to the nest might have made you a little over-protective.’

Her head lifted. ‘Since you brought the matter up, I’ll tell you how it is. I moved back into my old home because it was the sensible thing to do. I needed somewhere to stay, and my father offered me a place. He and I get along well together and I care very much for him. But perhaps you find that too difficult to understand?’

Nick gave a wry smile. ‘I understand it well enough. I just don’t know what could have possessed you to up sticks and come back here when you had a perfectly good job in Lincolnshire. You were doing well at the hospital from what I heard, and you could have gone on to better things. The city had a lot to offer—good accommodation, plenty of nightlife. Why leave all that behind to come and live here in the wilds?’

‘You seem happy enough to stay here,’ she retorted. ‘Why should I be any different?’

‘I was born here. I grew up with the mountains all around, and the sound of the sea in my ears.’

‘Perhaps you don’t realise that I’ve spent most of my life here, too,’ she said tautly. ‘I went away to train as a doctor, to see what life was like in other parts of the country, but deep down I feel that I belong here more than anywhere else. And after my mother died a few years ago that feeling was even stronger. I felt that I needed to be with my father.’

She sent him a stony look. ‘Seeing what he has to put up with, I’m more than glad that I did return. I don’t know why you have to be at loggerheads with him all the time. You shouldn’t be pressurising him this way.’ She pulled in a deep breath. ‘Anyway, you’re not the consultant in charge. Why don’t you leave it to Mr Edwards to make the decisions? It’s not right that you should go over his head. You’ll be able to put your own ideas into place well enough when you’re a consultant yourself.’

‘You know as well as I do that Tom Edwards is near retirement. In the meantime, he’s content to let things meander on in the same old way that they’ve always done. Besides that, it seems to me that he’s not been well for a long time now. He won’t admit it, but it all adds to him not wanting to alter the status quo.’

He had a point, certainly. Laura had noticed that Tom Edwards had been struggling to cope recently. It had been worrying her for some time because she knew that Tom suffered from angina, but he was insistent that he could cope and that he wasn’t a danger to his patients. Up to now he had been managing, keeping his condition under control with medication, but she had a feeling that his attacks were becoming more frequent these days.

‘At least you seem able to recognise frailty in some people,’ she retorted. ‘I was beginning to wonder if that was possible. I wouldn’t put it past you to have his job in your sights already.’

Nick’s expression was drily amused. ‘You wouldn’t be too happy about that, would you?’

‘Not if it meant that you would have the opportunity to hassle my father even more than you do now. I think I would sooner you applied your energies to anything but that.’

‘I’ll do what I can to oblige,’ he murmured, ‘but I’m making no promises, you understand.’

She stared at him. There was a dancing light in his eyes that belied his words, and she sensed that he enjoyed riling her.

Turning away, she shrugged into her jacket. She wasn’t going to spend time dwelling on what he said.

Even so, as she left the room the image of his wry smile stayed with her.

CHAPTER TWO

‘ISN’T that your brother in the waiting room, Laura?’ Sarah Harris, the triage nurse, surveyed the rows of patients who were waiting to be seen. ‘Shall I send him along to see you?’

Laura quickly signed off a patient’s chart and went to look through the treatment-room door to the waiting room beyond.

‘Matthew…here? What on earth can have happened?’ Worriedly, she noticed that four-year-old Connor was with him. ‘I hope nothing’s happened to Connor.’ She filed away the chart and said quietly, ‘It’s all right, Sarah, I’ll go and have a word with him.’

Connor must have seen her already, because he came rushing towards her with a whoop of joy. ‘Aunty Lor,’ he exclaimed, putting his arms up and hugging her around her legs. ‘My daddy’s cut himself. Can you make him better?’ He looked up at her, his little face a mixture of enthusiasm and confident expectation.

‘I promise I’ll do my best, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and talk to him, shall we?’ Lightly ruffling his fair hair, she held his hand and walked back with him towards her brother.

‘Hello, Matthew,’ she said with a slight frown. ‘What are you doing here? What happened?’

Matthew gave her a quick smile. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, really. It was just one of those stupid accidents. I wanted to have a go at fixing the fence back home, and I was cutting through a fence panel when it happened.’

He lowered his voice, turning his head away slightly so that his son wouldn’t hear. ‘I didn’t realise that Connor was right behind me, and when he said something to me, the saw slipped and cut my hand. I don’t think it’s too bad, but I thought perhaps it might need a stitch or two.’ His mouth made a rueful quirk. ‘Catherine’s out on a shopping trip, so I had to bring Connor with me. I wouldn’t normally want him to be hanging around an emergency room.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after him.’ She inspected Matthew’s injured hand and winced. ‘Come on through to the treatment room, and I’ll take a proper look at it.’

Nick was already at work in the treatment room, and as Laura walked in he emerged from a cubicle where he had been examining a woman with an injured hip.

He spoke quietly to the nurse, asking for various tests to be carried out and calling for a surgical consultation. Then he walked towards Laura and said, ‘Tom’s dealing with a burns patient, and I think he might need someone standing by. Would you be able to do that?’

It was an unusual request, and Laura paused before answering. He hadn’t asked her to assist, just to stand by. ‘How urgent is it?’ she queried. ‘I can help, but this is my brother and his son, Connor. I’d like to attend to them myself, if possible.’

He nodded, glancing at dark-haired Matthew and the boy. ‘OK. I’ll get someone else to work with Tom.’

Laura frowned, sensing that there was something more going on than she was being told. ‘Is there a problem?’

He gave Matthew and Connor a fleeting glance, and then said in a low voice, ‘Probably not. It’s just a feeling. Tom was looking a bit off colour this morning.’

‘This probably won’t take me too long,’ Laura said. ‘Matthew’s had a bit of a disagreement with a saw. From the look of things, that hand will need three or four stitches.’

Connor fidgeted. He was looking around, his eyes screwed up in a frown as he took everything in. The unit was busy this morning. Several of the cubicles were occupied, and there was a smell of antiseptic about the place, which added to the austerity of the atmosphere. Laura had the feeling that her young nephew felt uncomfortable amongst all these strangers, who were all so much larger than him.

Nick must have sensed it, too, because he smiled at Connor and said, ‘Perhaps one of the nurses can find you a colouring book and some pencils, or maybe a jigsaw. Would you like that?’

Connor nodded solemnly, but still clung to Laura’s hand. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was staying firmly by her side.

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Nick promised. Looking at Matthew, he studied his features carefully, and then said in a contemplative tone, ‘I can’t say that I can see much of a likeness between you and your sister.’

His blue-grey eyes travelled over Laura, coming to rest on her wild shoulder-length curls with a curiosity that made Laura’s cheeks flush with heat. Her hair was naturally curly, and she had never been able to make it do what she wanted.

‘Then again,’ he murmured, ‘perhaps you’re glad that you don’t have her flame-coloured hair.’

Matthew smiled wryly. ‘That’s true enough. It looks good on Laura, though. People say much the same about Connor and me because he’s fair and I’m dark. He takes after his mother.’

Laura interrupted gently. ‘I really think we should see to your hand now, Matthew, don’t you? It must be very sore. We should at least get you cleaned up.’

Nick moved away to attend to his own patients, and Laura led Matthew to a cubicle, making sure that Connor was seated where he wouldn’t be able to follow proceedings too closely.

After a moment or two a young nurse put her head round the screen and brought the jigsaws and colouring materials Nick had promised. ‘There you are, young man,’ she said lightly. ‘These should keep you occupied for a while.’

‘Thanks, Amy,’ Laura said. At least while Connor was busy she could concentrate better on Matthew’s hand. The gash was quite deep and rough around the edges, but she cleaned it up and injected a local anaesthetic, before suturing the wound.

‘You’ll need to keep it clean,’ she told him. ‘I’m putting a dressing on it, but you might need to pop into the GP’s surgery and get that changed after a day or so. The stitches can come out in about ten days. I’ll do that for you at home, if you like.’

‘Thanks, Laura. I’m glad that you were on duty today. I feel foolish enough about landing myself in this situation as it is. I’d sooner keep it in the family.’

She grinned at him. ‘Perhaps this will teach you to be a bit more wary. I thought it was common knowledge that when you have a four-year-old around you need eyes in the back of your head.’

He laughed. ‘Just wait till you’ve got one of your own.’

Laura gave him a crooked smile. That wasn’t likely to happen any time in the near future, was it? Up to now she hadn’t met anyone that she wanted to spend her life with, and even when she did meet a man who was halfway decent, she always felt that some element was missing.

It probably wasn’t the men who were at fault. She sometimes wondered if there was something within herself that was acting as a barrier to finding happiness and fulfilment. But she didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. She had work to do, and that at least provided her with deep satisfaction.

She saw Matthew and Connor out a few minutes later. ‘Perhaps I’ll see you both at home later?’ she said, waving them goodbye. Catherine’s shopping trips usually went on for longer than an hour or so, which gave Matthew an excuse to come and visit.

Laura went in search of Tom, to find out whether he still needed help.

Nick was attending to Tom’s burns patient, a young man, and Laura wondered where the consultant had gone.

‘We’ll get you transferred to the burns unit within the next hour,’ Nick was saying. ‘For the moment we’ll keep the area moist and make sure that there’s no danger of infection setting in. Just ask the nurse if you need more pain medication.’

He spoke quietly to the nurse, and then turned to Laura. Moving away from the cubicle, he said, ‘I take it that your brother’s gone home?’

‘Yes. It didn’t take long to fix him up.’ She glanced around. ‘Where’s Tom?’

‘He went to have a word with the patient’s relatives. He’d done all that was necessary for his patient, but the family were anxious and needed reassurance.’

‘He was coping all right, then? From what you said earlier, I thought there might be a problem looming.’

Nick shrugged. ‘I guess I was wrong.’

Laura gave him a sideways glance. It wasn’t like him to admit a mistake…or to make one, for that matter. ‘It was thoughtful of you to send those jigsaws for Connor,’ she murmured. ‘They kept him amused for quite a while.’

His jaw moved in a faint grimace. ‘Well, you know my feelings about this place and children. It isn’t a good environment for them, and if I can brighten up the experience for them in any way, that’s what I try to do. It’s something I’ve mentioned to your father.’

‘You could try approaching the Friends of the Hospital for funds. I’m sure if you put your case in a suitable fashion they would want to help in any way they could.’

‘I think my plans would take more financing than they would be willing to provide. Besides, I believe that your father, being in administration, is the man who holds the key to unlock the funds. You’d think that since he was a consultant himself in A and E, he would know what needed to be done and he would have some sympathy for the changes I’m suggesting.’

Laura bridled at his tone. ‘I’m sure that he does. After all, he was the one who set aside separate cubicles with resuscitation equipment especially for paediatric patients. When he was in charge there wasn’t the money to do any more than that. Besides, he spearheaded the drive to get the public to donate funds for the MRI machine that the hospital has now. That took a lot of effort and persuasion and years of hard work. You don’t give him enough credit for what he has done.’

Nick’s eyes darkened. ‘I accept that he did a good thing where the MRI machine was concerned. It’s what he plans to do now that concerns me.’

‘Whatever he does, it will be with the best of intentions,’ she said sharply. ‘If my father is cautious, you should realise that it’s because he sees both sides of the coin.’

‘You mean that he has to toe the management line. He’s forgotten what it was like to be at the cutting edge of things.’

‘That’s unfair.’

‘Is it?’

Laura’s opened her mouth, ready to speak her mind, but just then Jenny hurried towards them.

‘You have to come quickly, both of you,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s Tom—I think he’s having a bad angina attack. He’s in the doctors’ lounge. I’ve tried giving him his usual medication, but it’s not working.’

‘We’re on our way.’ Nick was already moving towards the door, and Laura was at his heels.

Tom Edwards was in his early sixties, a tall, thin man, with greying hair. Now he was slumped on the floor, beads of perspiration on his forehead and his face ashen.

‘I left him in the chair while I went to get help,’ Jenny said. ‘The attack must have worsened while I was coming to find you. I’ve already given him aspirin.’

‘Good thinking.’ Nick was loosening Tom’s tie and then he positioned him so that his upper body was elevated. Laura grabbed some cushions to help support him.

‘Tom, can you hear me?’ Nick spoke in a low, urgent voice and Tom made a faint movement of his head in acknowledgement.

‘You’ll be all right. We’ll take care of you,’ Nick said, beginning to make a swift examination. ‘Are you in pain?’

Again, Tom managed to nod faintly. ‘Chest. Bad.’ He began to choke, and Nick said quickly, ‘Don’t try to talk. We’ll take care of you now.’

Tom subsided, and Nick turned swiftly to Laura. ‘I’ll intubate. Let’s get him hooked up to oxygen quickly.’ Glancing at Jenny, he said, ‘We’ll give him glycerine trinitrate sublingually to expand the arteries, and set up an infusion of isosorbide dinitrate. You had better do an ECG, and keep an eye on his blood pressure.’

‘Will do.’

Laura was already starting an intravenous line. Tom looked to be in a bad way, and she was afraid that if they didn’t work fast he would go into cardiac arrest. ‘Are we giving beta-blockers and morphine?’

He nodded, working swiftly as he answered. ‘I’ll make arrangements for him to be admitted.’

Laura taped the IV line in place, and for the next few minutes they worked as a team to resuscitate their consultant.

‘If he’s not pain-free in forty-eight hours, they’ll probably want to do coronary angiography. Given his condition over the last few months, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up having bypass surgery. It’s been a wonder to me that he’s coped for this long.’ His mouth tightened as he spoke, and Laura frowned.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I guessed this would happen one day,’ Nick said under his breath. ‘I’ve been telling him for a long time now that he should have opted for early retirement on health grounds, but he wouldn’t listen.’

‘Can you blame him for that? He’s worked hard all his life to get where he is, and no one would lightly throw it all away.’

His mouth twisted. ‘That’s what your father said. They’re great friends, aren’t they, he and Tom? He went out of his way to defend his actions.’

‘Because he believed the medication was working.’

Nick shook his head. ‘It’s clear that it wasn’t. I told Tom that he shouldn’t be treating patients while he was ill, but he always said that we work as a team and that there would be enough warning of an impending attack for him to be able to hand over to someone else.’

Laura sent Tom a swift, anxious glance, but it was doubtful that their patient could hear what they were saying.

‘That’s true, though, isn’t it?’ she murmured. ‘He put himself at risk by carrying on, but not his patients.’

‘Like your father, you’ll believe what you want to believe.’

Frowning, she looked up at Nick. Was he right? No matter what her reservations were about him, she had to respect him as a doctor. He was doing everything in his power to save Tom. He worked quickly and efficiently and he was very clear thinking. But, then, as he’d said, he’d seen this coming, hadn’t he?

She said quietly, ‘What about fibrinolytics?’

‘That’s probably a good idea,’ he said in a low voice. ‘We’ll get the test results first, but there’s no history of ulcer or recent surgery so they’re probably advisable in this instance. We need to do whatever we can to unclog these arteries.’

As soon as they had Tom stabilised, Nick arranged for him to be transferred to the cardiac unit. Laura watched Tom being wheeled away a little later, and hoped fervently that he would be all right.

‘At least we were on hand to treat him,’ Nick said. ‘If he had been on his own, I doubt whether he would have survived. As it is, he’s in the best place.’

She had the feeling that he was trying to comfort her. ‘I know. I haven’t known him for very long but, even so, I get on very well with him. He’s so kind and thoughtful, and he always has time for other people. He was very good to me when I started here.’

‘He’s good to everyone. His problem has always been that he works too hard, and doesn’t pay enough attention to his own health. If he had done, he might have heeded some of the signs that things were going wrong. Perhaps now he will begin to listen.’

Laura bit her lip. She felt as though she was losing a friend and ally. In the few months that she had known him, Tom had always been steadfast in his concern for his colleagues and his patients, and now he was the one who needed support. What had happened to him this morning was serious and life-threatening, and now he must be feeling vulnerable and frightened.

‘He’s in good hands. Our cardiac unit is one of the best in the country.’

She nodded. ‘I know. We deal with these kinds of incidents all the time, and that should make it easier for us to cope, but Tom is one of our own. He’s not all that much older than my father. It sort of brings things home to you, and makes you think of how these things affect families.’

‘That’s true.’ He was silent for a moment, then said in a musing tone, ‘Talking of families, that was a nasty gash your brother had. Is he keen on DIY?’

‘Not especially, but it makes a change from sitting behind a desk all day. He likes to dabble in all sorts of things that involve keeping busy, like gardening, decorating, sport.’

‘What work does he do?’

‘He works in a bank. He enjoys what he does, but he says that having a desk job means he doesn’t get enough exercise.’

‘Then he wasn’t interested in following family tradition and going into medicine?’

‘No, not really.’

‘He’s very much like your father, physically. Has his lack of interest in medicine caused any friction? I know that David was particularly pleased when you decided to go to medical school.’

‘Perhaps he was, but all he really wants is for us to be happy, whatever we decide to do.’

Nick looked at her curiously. ‘I still think it’s strange that you and your brother are so very different in appearance. I met your mother once, when she came to a function at the hospital, but you don’t seem to take after her either.’

Laura gave a faint, wry smile. She had to give him full points for observation. ‘You’re perfectly right,’ she said softly. ‘The truth is, Matthew is their natural son, but I was adopted. It doesn’t matter to me, because I don’t really remember it being any other way. I love my father dearly, and I miss my mother more than words can say.’

She lowered her head slightly, remembering her adoptive mother. ‘It was a great shock to all of us when she died.’

Nick frowned. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’

She lifted her head and braced herself. ‘That’s all right, I’m fine. I’ve had more than a few years to get over the fact that she’s gone. It’s just that it was so unexpected. She was a good driver, but it was a foggy night and there were patches of ice on the road. That particular bend in the road was an accident black spot. At least now they’ve made it safer by putting warning signs up.’

‘She would have been proud to know that you passed your medical exams, and that you became a fully fledged doctor.’

‘Yes, I believe she would…even though I may still have a lot to learn.’ Remembering his comments on her junior status from a few days ago, she threw him a hooded glance, and perhaps her gibe hit home because his mouth twisted at the corners.

He didn’t follow it up, though, because an emergency admission dragged them both back to work.

The thought still rankled in her mind, though. Whenever she was on duty at the same time as Nick, she felt that he was keeping an eye on her, and she often wondered if he was expecting her to fall flat on her face. A and E was a challenging speciality, and she was doing her level best to master it. You never knew what to expect, but she wanted to do her utmost for her patients, and she knew that she would go on learning for quite some time. She just didn’t need Nick to remind her of that.

When she went back home that evening, Matthew was there with Connor. Her father was showing Connor how to colour pictures on the computer, and he looked up and smiled as she walked into the living room.

‘Matthew tells me that you had to stitch his hand for him this morning. You’d think a doctor’s son would be more careful, wouldn’t you?’

Laura chuckled. ‘You would, but this is Matthew we’re talking about. He’s always been slightly accident-prone. He gets absorbed in what he’s doing, to the exclusion of everything else.’ She sent Matthew a smiling glance. ‘I take it that Catherine’s not back from her shopping trip yet?’

He nodded. ‘She phoned to say that she met up with a friend, and they’re having a meal together to celebrate the friend’s birthday. She’ll be back later on this evening.’

‘Would you like to stay for dinner with us?’

‘That would be great. I’m sure Connor will enjoy spending some more time with both of you.’

Over dinner, she told her father what had happened to Tom.

‘I heard about it,’ her father said. ‘It’s a bad business. I like Tom. We’ve worked together for years, and he’s always been a good friend to me.’

Matthew frowned. ‘Is this the same Tom who goes fishing with you in the summer?’

‘That’s right. I’m sorry to see him brought down by something like this.’ He sent Laura a quick glance. ‘I’m glad that you and Nick were there to take care of him.’

‘I think Nick was expecting it, to be honest. I knew that Tom had been unwell for some time, but I didn’t know how bad it was.’

‘Nick’s more observant than most, I’ll give him that. He’s a very clear-headed young man, but he’s very forthright in his views, too. He doesn’t pull his punches, and he forgets that there is more than one side to most situations.’ He frowned, his mouth tightening in a spasm of anger. ‘We’ve had more than a few arguments over this very subject. He didn’t think Tom should have still been working in A and E.’

‘I know.’

‘Sometimes it seems as though Nick is totally insensitive to what other people are going through. I can understand how Tom must have felt, faced with the thought of giving up his work. I know what it’s like to have to give up a career in medicine. It isn’t an easy thing to accept that your way of life, everything that you’ve worked for, has to come to an end. It can be a brutal blow, but Nick will never appreciate that.’ There was a bitter edge to his words. ‘For him it seems like a simple enough decision, but for Tom it was something he couldn’t even bear to consider.’

‘It’s been forced on him now.’

‘Yes. He’ll have a lot of thinking to do over these next few months while he recovers his strength.’

He reached for the coffee-pot and filled his cup. ‘Actually, I called in to see Tom before I came home this evening. He said that you’d been in to see him, too, and I think it’s made him feel a lot more cheerful to know that he’s surrounded by friends. He seemed resigned to the fact that he’s not going to be able to avoid surgery.’

‘A triple bypass would give him a new lease of life.’

‘That’s true enough.’ He shook his head in grim reflection. ‘It’s a sad fact, but I can’t see him being able to come back to work. He’s only a year or so off retirement, and I think in the end he’ll come around to the fact that he will have to accept his limitations.’

‘That’s probably true, but at least he’ll have his family around him. That will be something for him to look forward to.’

Her father nodded. ‘I’m sure he’ll be glad of their support.’ His expression was sombre. ‘On the other hand, as far as we’re concerned, this whole sorry business leaves us with something of a predicament.’

Laura looked at him curiously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that the A and E department has been left with no consultant in charge.’

‘Yes, I had thought of that. I suppose, if Tom is ill for any length of time, which seems likely, the hospital will have to appoint an acting consultant, a locum perhaps.’

‘I don’t imagine it will be easy to get someone suitable as a matter of urgency. What’s most likely to happen is that Nick will be asked to stand in temporarily.’ His features darkened. ‘I expect he’ll be glad enough to step into Tom’s shoes. With nobody standing in his way, he’ll have free rein, won’t he? What is there to stop him from going after what he wants?’

Laura’s eyes widened. ‘You mean that he will be in charge?’

‘Unfortunately, I think that’s a strong possibility.’

Laura struggled to absorb that. Nick, in charge? While she respected him as a doctor, there was no way she would be happy for him to have overall control of her daily work situation. It was bad enough at the moment, when there seemed to be constant friction between them. She was forever having to bite her tongue when their sometimes heated disagreements threatened to get out of control. How would it be when he was the acting consultant?

And that was without even beginning to consider the damaging effect his sudden promotion would have on his working relationship with her father. The result would be calamitous and didn’t bear thinking about.

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