Was it so obvious that she was in love with Blake?

She hoped not.

He’d already made it clear that he didn’t want her to keep expressing her thanks. So how would he react if he discovered her feelings went a lot deeper than that? Since the day they’d kissed he’d never touched her, and she didn’t know why.

She wished she knew. But maybe tonight the answer would present itself. Just the two of them alone in the cosy cottage.

POLICE SURGEONS

Heart-racing romance—Heart-stopping drama—Medicine on the beat!

Working side by side—and sometimes hand in hand—

dedicated medical professionals join forces

with the police service for the very best

in emotional excitement!

From domestic disturbance to emergency room drama,

working to prove innocence or guilt, and

finding passion and emotion along the way.

The Police Surgeon’s Rescue

Abigail Gordon

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

SO THIS is it, Helena thought as the taxi pulled away and she was left standing at the bottom of the drive surrounded by her luggage. ‘Home sweet home’.

It looked decent enough, the small detached house in a suburban cul-de-sac, but it wasn’t the place where she’d been brought up. That had been in a town much farther north than this, in a pleasant house on a road not far from the noise and bustle of the city.

Looking around her, she wondered what she was going to do in a place like this. She’d like to bet the folks around here were all in bed each night before ten. Maybe her dad was beginning to feel his age and that was why he’d moved, but he could at least have consulted her first. He’d known she wasn’t going to be away for ever.

The door opened and he was there, smiling at her. Putting to one side her feeling of grievance, she ran up the drive and into his arms.

He looked older and thinner, Helena thought as they carried her bags inside. He’d lost the robust jollity that had kept them going after they’d lost her mother, and even though she’d only just set foot in the place she had to ask, ‘Why did you move house, Dad? This is miles away from all the places I know. Why didn’t you tell me what you were planning? I couldn’t believe it when I got your letter. I know the old house was a bit big for the two of us after Mum died but…’

There was no smile on his face now. It was more sombre than she’d ever seen it.

‘I’m going to put the kettle on, Helena,’ he said, ‘and when we’ve had a cup of tea I’ve got a story to tell you that will explain why I’ve done what I have. I’m afraid that you’re going to think this is a very poor homecoming.’

‘Fine,’ she told him, feeling better now that she’d got it off her chest and having no inkling that ‘fine’ was the last word she would think of to describe the situation once she’d heard what he had to say.

Later, much later, as she lay in a strange bedroom, exhausted but sleepless after the long flight, she was trying to take in what she’d been told and amongst a jumble of emotions the one uppermost was fear.

* * *

As Blake Pemberton looked down on the body of the man lying on the smooth green turf of the golf course his eyes widened beneath raised brows. He’d seen plenty of dead bodies since he’d started working with the police in a medical capacity and the causes of death had varied. Natural causes, accidental and in some instances the victim had died in suspicious circumstances.

But it wasn’t any of those factors that were causing surprise. For the first time ever he’d been called out to examine the body of someone he knew. It was the elderly man who’d moved into the house next door who was gazing upwards with sightless eyes.

‘Somebody walking their dog found him, not long ago,’ one of the policemen who’d been summoned to the scene told him, ‘and when we radioed back to the station they said to ask you to come out to examine him before we moved him. What do you think, Doctor? There’s no obvious signs of injury.’

Blake had got over his surprise and was examining the body of his neighbour with swift expertise. Noting the froth on blue lips, the grimace of pain on the waxen features. The body was still faintly warm but there was no pulse or heartbeat. Getting to his feet, he told the constable, ‘I would think he suffered a massive heart attack. Even if help had been at hand I don’t think it would have made any difference.’

As the policeman nodded his agreement Blake told him, ‘You don’t have to worry about his identity. He’s my next-door neighbour. Only moved in recently and was living on his own until yesterday when he was expecting his daughter home from Australia. So there’s sorrow for someone.

‘I don’t know if she’s actually arrived but if you like I’ll go and break the news to her, and if she’s not there I’ll put a note through the door asking her to contact me.’

‘Sure,’ the other man agreed. ‘I’ll leave it in your capable hands and we’ll get the poor fellow to the mortuary.’

As he drove back home Blake wasn’t looking forward to passing on such sad tidings to the man’s unsuspecting daughter, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to break that kind of news to a member of the public, far from it. The good, the bad and the unthinkable were all part of the day-to-day routine of the GP.

It was a quarter to eight in the morning and thankfully it was Sunday, otherwise he would be having to dash off to the surgery once the deed was done. The man must have gone for an early morning stroll and it had turned out to be his last.

* * *

Helena awoke to the ringing of the doorbell and for a moment she lay there, bewildered, wondering where she was, then it all came back. As the bell rang once more she still didn’t move waiting for her father to answer it, but it rang again and this time she swung herself out of bed and padded to the window.

The caller had given up. He was walking down the drive with a purposeful step, a tall, dark-haired man, broad-shouldered, trim-hipped, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt.

She opened the window to call to him and then thought better of it. After what her father had told her the previous night the less they had to do with strangers the better, and she shrank back into the shadows.

But he’d heard the window catch being lifted. He stopped and turned and even though he couldn’t see her he called up, ‘Could you come down to the front door, please? I need to speak to you urgently.’

There didn’t seem any point in cowering out of sight if he knew she was there, so showing herself she leaned forward and said, ‘I’m listening.’

He frowned.

‘I don’t want to tell all the neighbourhood. It’s about your father.’

‘Yes. I’ll bet it is!’ she cried. ‘If you don’t clear off immediately I’m going to call the police.’

‘I am from the police,’ he said patiently, with the feeling that this was going to be even worse than he’d imagined, ‘and I’m also your next-door neighbour. My name is Blake Pemberton. Will you, please, come downstairs? I have some grave news concerning your father.’

‘Hold on!’ Helena cried.

If it was a hoax her father would be in the dining room, having his breakfast, but if that was the case, why hadn’t he answered the door?

He wasn’t there. But a scribbled note was. It said, ‘Gone for a stroll along the golf links. Will cook you breakfast when I get back.’

As she stood with the note in her hand Helena could see the man’s shadow through the glass of the front door, and with dread in her heart she went to open it. Not knowing if it was the right thing to do, but with the certainty that if something had happened to her dad she had to know.

Her first thought as the door swung back was that he didn’t look like a thug. There was nothing shifty about the level gaze meeting hers and he was making no move to come any nearer.

‘I realise from your manner that you are wary of me for some reason,’ he was saying, ‘but I do assure you I mean you no harm. It was true what I said. I am with the police. I’m a doctor, working with them. They were called to the golf links a short time ago as the body of a man had been found by a passer-by and they got in touch with me in my position as police surgeon.

‘Sadly it was too late for me to help him. There was nothing I could do. But I did recognise the man as your father and offered to come to tell you what had happened. I am so very sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.’

If her face hadn’t been so transfixed with horror she would have been beautiful, he thought. High cheekbones, a sweetly curving mouth and green eyes beneath a tangled russet mop.

Her pyjamas weren’t the last word in glamour, soft cotton with no frills or flounces, but those were details scarcely registering as she croaked, ‘Oh, no! So they got to him after all. How could they?’

As Blake eyed her questioningly she began to crumple and he caught her as she fell. As she wept in his arms he asked above the crown of her head, ‘What’s your name?’

‘Helena,’ she sobbed. ‘Helena Harris.’

‘So tell me, Helena,’ he coaxed gently, ‘what did you mean by what you just said?’

He felt a shudder go through her and silently thanked the providence that had sent him to her in such a moment of distress.

‘My dad was the only witness to a shooting on a garage forecourt some months ago in the town where we lived. He testified in court and after that received threats. So the police took him into the witness protection programme and moved him out here.

‘He wrote and told me he’d moved but didn’t explain why until I came home yesterday. I’ve been in Australia, nursing, for the last twelve months. But it was all a waste of time, wasn’t it?’ she sobbed. ‘They found him in spite of everything.’

‘No,’ he said softly. ‘It wasn’t like that, Helena. Your father died from natural causes. He had a massive heart attack out there on the golf course and there was no one about to help him, Though I doubt it would have made any difference if there had been. So, you see, there is nothing to fear. If you’d like to get dressed I’ll drive you to where they’ve taken him.’

‘He wasn’t murdered, then,’ she whispered.

‘No. There were no signs of injury on his body. It’s my job as police surgeon to look out for that sort of thing, and there was nothing. But there was evidence of a massive cardiac arrest.’

‘I’m so sorry that I was so dubious of you when you came, but you can understand why, can’t you?’ she asked, moving out of his arms as if she’d suddenly realised where she was.

She looked sad and very vulnerable and yet there was a sort of quiet dignity about her as she stood before him in the sensible pyjamas.

‘So go and get dressed,’ he suggested again, ‘and while you’re gone I’m going to make you a cup of hot sweet tea.’

Helena nodded mutely and padded back up the stairs. When she’d gone he put the kettle on and then stood deep in thought. His expression was grim. The girl and her father had been traumatised because the man had done his duty as an honest citizen, and who was to say that the heart attack hadn’t been a direct result of the position he’d found himself in?

There’d been no mention of her having a mother. He hoped that she did have someone to turn to, and as she sipped the tea that he’d made Blake asked carefully, ‘Do you have anyone to help you through this sad time? Brothers, sisters or any other relative you can rely on?’

Helena shook her head. ‘No. I’m afraid not. I’m an only child and both my parents were the same, so I’ve no aunts, uncles or cousins.’

She was calm now but pinched-looking and drained of all colour. When she’d drunk the tea she got to her feet.

‘Will you, please, take me to where my dad is?’ she asked.

‘Yes, of course. My car is the black Volvo outside the house next door. Here’s the key. Go and settle yourself inside and if you’ll give me a door key I’ll lock up behind us.’

Helena looked around her and shuddered again.

‘Yes, please. This place feels spooky to me after what Dad told me last night.’

He couldn’t leave her in that house tonight, Blake was thinking as they drove to the hospital mortuary. She was having a horrendous homecoming. Yet what was the alternative? Would she be willing to sleep in his spare room?

They hardly knew each other. She might think spending the night in the house of a stranger even more nerve-stretching than the thought of who might be lurking. When he got back he would impress upon the police to make public the fact that the witness in the recent trial was dead, so that if the friends of the convicted man had been trying to find James Harris, they would now give up.

* * *

Helena clung to Blake’s hand when they were shown her father’s body, but she managed to hold back the tears when a doctor came to inform her that there would have to be a post-mortem.

* * *

On the way back Blake made up his mind what he was going to do, and when they stopped at the front of their two houses he said, ‘Would you like to use my spare room tonight? You’ve had a dreadful shock and I would like to keep an eye on you.’

Surprised green eyes met his as he posed the question.

‘That’s very kind of you, Dr Pemberton. Are you sure I wouldn’t be in the way? Do you have family?’

He shook his head. ‘No. There’s just me. I did have a family once, but they aren’t around any more.’

‘Oh. I see.’

She didn’t, of course. Didn’t see at all, but what else was there to say if he wasn’t going to explain further? And it looked as if he wasn’t.

‘In that case, I would very much like to stay. I should have got a better grip on things by tomorrow and thank you for your kindness. I couldn’t have got through the ordeal at the mortuary without you.’

‘I’m only too happy to have been of help,’ he told her, ‘and if I make us a belated breakfast, do you think you could manage to eat something?’

‘I don’t think so. Please, see to yourself and while you’re doing that I’ll go next door and do some unpacking. My things are still in the cases from when I arrived last night.’ She halted in the doorway and with the unease back in her eyes said, ‘Will you be around for the rest of the day?’

‘Yes, I will,’ he told her firmly, thinking that this young woman’s needs were of more importance than the couple of rounds of golf he’d promised himself later in the day. Also, did he want to see the links again so soon after what he’d been faced with on his earlier visit?

When Helena came back that evening she was very pale but composed. ‘I’ve made the funeral arrangements,’ she told him. ‘There will be just myself.’ After a moment’s hesitation she added, ‘Unless you would care to come as moral support.’

Blake didn’t answer immediately and she said quickly, ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I’ve already put on your good nature enough as it is.’

‘Of course I’ll support you,’ he told her. ‘I was just wondering when you’d arranged it for as I’m senior partner in a group practice not far from here and if it is in surgery hours I’ll have to find a replacement.’

‘It’s at half past one next Monday,’ she informed him, ‘which gives them time to conduct a postmortem.’

‘Good. That will be between surgeries. One of the other partners can do my house calls.’

‘Thanks, Dr Pemberton. I’ll be really grateful for your company and when it’s over I suppose the best thing would be for me to book a return ticket to Australia.’

‘Were you intending going back?’

‘No. My contract was up. But there’s nothing to keep me here now. I have no job and when the witness protection people come to want the house back I’ll have no home, and in any case I wouldn’t want to be in there on my own.’

‘What kind of nursing were you doing?’ he asked with a degree of interest that surprised him.

‘I did six months in obstetrics and six months in paediatrics. I fancied a change and off I went. I knew nothing about the court case until I got back last night and I was horrified when Dad told me that he’d been in such danger…and maybe still was.

‘He hadn’t been a bit keen for me to come home, but I’d thought it was because I’d let him see how upset I was over him selling our old house. I didn’t know that it was my safety he was concerned about.’

And that makes two of us, Blake thought grimly. The police had better get their act together and get any possible revenge attacks sidetracked now that her father was dead.

This beautiful sorrowing woman was getting to him as no one had for a long time. She was arousing all the protective instincts that had lain dormant ever since he’d lost his wife and son.

At ten o’clock Helena said, ‘Would you mind if I go to bed, Dr Pemberton? It’s been a terrible day and I’m exhausted.’

‘Of course I don’t mind,’ he told her. ‘The bed is made up. Shall I give you something to help you sleep? A mild sedative maybe?’

Helena shook her head. ‘No. I’ll try to manage without.’

She was moving towards the staircase and he said, ‘Just one thing before you go, Helena.’

‘Yes?’

‘The name is Blake. Forget the Dr Pemberton.’

There was weariness in her smile as she told him, ‘I’ll remember that. Goodnight…Blake.’

When she’d gone he sat unmoving, but if his body was still his mind wasn’t. All sorts of thoughts were going round in it. The kind of thoughts that less than twenty-four hours ago would never have had cause to surface.

His reverie was interrupted by the doorbell and as he got to his feet he could see a car belonging to one of the partners in the practice parked at the bottom of the drive.

He sighed. Maxine Fielding was a good doctor. She was also husband-hunting and Blake had a feeling that she saw him as prey. The seas would run dry before he succumbed to her, he kept telling himself, but he was loth to create an embarrassing situation at the practice unless he was forced to.

When he opened the door to her it was clear that in spite of the hour it was a social call, and before he could nip it in the bud she’d seated herself and was telling him that she was gasping for a gin and tonic.

He obliged, with eyes upward raised and ears pinned back for any sounds from above, but all was still until Helena’s voice called from the top of the stairs, ‘I think I will have the sleeping tablet if you don’t mind…Blake.’

Maxine was on her feet faster than the speed of light and, peering up the staircase at the person responsible for the unexpected interruption, she said tightly, ‘And who might that be?’

‘A guest,’ he told her calmly, and to Helena. ‘I’ll be up with it right away, Helena.’

‘So?’ Maxine said when he came back down.

‘Helena is the daughter of my next-door neighbour who died suddenly today. The police called me out when his body was found and I had the unenviable task of breaking the news to her that her father was dead. She is very distraught, needless to say, and I felt that she shouldn’t be alone tonight. Does that satisfy you, Maxine?’

‘I suppose so,’ she said tartly, ‘but I’m not going to stay and chat with someone listening upstairs.’

‘You flatter yourself if you think Helena will be interested in anything we might have to say after the sort of day she’s had.’

‘Nevertheless I’m going,’ she said, ‘and don’t forget we have a practice meeting arranged for after morning surgery tomorrow.’

‘I’m not likely to forget,’ he told her drily. ‘I was the one who arranged it.’

There were three partners at the practice—himself, Maxine, who had come highly recommended from a practice that he’d since discovered had been glad to see her go, and Darren Scott, a young, recently qualified GP.

Darren and Maxine didn’t get on too well as she was always criticising him instead of offering encouragement, and Blake was left to keep the peace. The rest of the staff were a hard-working, contented lot and for most of the time there was harmony.

He’d started working for the police twelve months previously and from the beginning had pledged himself to help those of the public, whether innocent or guilty, who found themselves in a cell because they were suspected of breaking the law.

His duty was to protect them from harming themselves or anyone else, and if a prisoner was taken ill to be there to see that they received proper treatment. There would be no deaths in the cells if he could help it.

His relations with the police were good. They knew they could rely on him to turn up when sent for and that his findings would be meticulously passed on to them.

* * *

When Blake had brought her the sedative Helena said apologetically, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you had a visitor.’

He smiled.

‘Think nothing of it. Maxine Fielding is one of my partners from the practice. She won’t be staying long and as soon as she’s gone I shall be turning in myself. Remember, Helena, if you need anything in the night you have only to call.’

‘Yes, I know,’ she said gratefully and turned her face into the pillow, wishing that she didn’t look so ghastly and that she wasn’t wearing the shapeless pyjamas.

* * *

Helena cried out in the night and Blake went to her. As he soothed her back to sleep he saw the sedative was on the bedside table. She was a nurse, he thought, and would know that no matter what she took to help her sleep she would awake to desolation in the morning. Clawing her way out of the same kind of black hole that he’d crawled out of every morning for a long time after Anna and young Jason had been killed in a car crash on the school run on a bright spring morning three years ago.

He still had his dark days but time did heal. It wasn’t just a platitude that was trotted out to help the grieving. Gradually the pain eased and if one was lucky only the happy memories remained.

Hopefully that was how it would be for his unexpected visitor, only in her case there’d been fear to cope with, too.

* * *

When he awoke in the morning Helena had gone. She’d found an empty envelope and had written on the back of it, ‘Have gone home. There is much to sort out. Thank you for last night, Blake. I hope I didn’t disturb you too much as I know you have a busy day ahead. Best regards, Helena.’

As she’d been writing the note her face had been burning. She’d known that he’d held her some time during the night, but she’d been too exhausted and traumatised for it to register properly, and in the light of day she hadn’t been able to believe that she’d let her nightmares be soothed away by a man she’d only known a matter of hours. Yet it hadn’t felt like that. It had been as if she’d known him always.

For the rest of the day she tried to keep busy. A police sergeant and a young constable called in the middle of the morning and told her that they were making sure that the newspapers printed an account of her father’s death. That should finally wrap up his connection with the Kelsall case, they told her, and surprised her by saying that it was at Dr Pemberton’s suggestion.

As she tried to force a sandwich down at midday Helena began to wonder about his visitor of the night before. The aggressive-looking blonde with the cold grey eyes had glared up at her as if she’d been about to steal the silver, and she wondered if they were a couple. She hoped not. Blake Pemberton deserved better than that. Much better.

She was humbly grateful that he’d agreed to attend her father’s funeral with her. For the moment she couldn’t think any further than that. But once it was over it would be decision time, and of one thing she was certain—she wasn’t staying in this house.

Maybe she could find something in nursing over here with accommodation thrown in. The authorities in the UK were always saying there was a shortage of nurses. It might be the time to test the water.

* * *

The practice meeting in the late morning was going smoothly enough, with the manager announcing that they were meeting their budget and Blake’s two partners for once not bickering. But it took a downward turn when a letter from one of the two practice nurses was read out, asking that she be permitted to leave at the end of the following week. No reason was given but most of the staff were aware that she’d just found herself a new man, a Welshman, and wanted to move to Wales to be with him.

‘Shall I advertise?’ the practice manager asked, and Blake shook his head.

‘Let’s leave it for a few days,’ he suggested. ‘I might know of a replacement. If nothing comes of it we’ll advertise then.’

It would be one way of keeping an eye on Helena, he was thinking. Purely from a protective point of view…of course. Not for any other reason. She’d felt so fine-boned and vulnerable both times he’d held her close that he knew he would be on edge if she was out of his sight in the weeks to come.

He was worried because she had no one to turn to but himself. Yet wasn’t he in a similar position? But he had a lot more going for him. He had the practice, his job with the police and his own home. In other words, plenty to occupy him…

As they left the meeting to go out on their calls Blake was waylaid by Maxine.

‘Well,’ she said. ‘Has she gone?’

‘If you mean Helena, yes,’ he told her coolly. ‘I’ve left it to her to decide if she wants to come back tonight.’

She was eyeing him dubiously.

‘You’ll have people talking.’

He laughed and her face tightened.

‘Maybe it’s time I gave them something to talk about.’

‘I could help with that,’ she said skittishly.

‘I was joking, Maxine,’ he told her. ‘Anna would be a hard act to follow and I don’t see suitable replacements on every street corner.’

He could tell that had gone down like a lead balloon but she didn’t get a chance to reply as a patient she’d seen earlier was hovering. Relieved to be away from her, Blake set off on his rounds with the intention of making Helena’s house his first stop.

‘Why didn’t you stay for breakfast?’ he asked when she opened the door to him.

She looked awful. There were dark smudges beneath eyes that were red-rimmed with weeping and her face was even paler than the day before.

‘How much sleep did you get?’ he asked, as the doctor in him took over.

‘Some,’ she replied, with her face warming again at the memory of how he’d held her in his arms and comforted her in the dark hours of the night. To cover her confusion she said, ‘I’d like to invite you for a meal to make up for all you’ve done for me, but I haven’t got around to doing any food shopping, and as Dad lived rather frugally there isn’t much in the fridge.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of letting you cook for me,’ he said immediately. ‘You’re in no fit state. But there’s no reason why we can’t eat out. I’ll take you for a meal. It will be one way of making sure you’re managing to get some food down.’

His glance was taking in the uncluttered worktops and a sink bare of used pots. ‘Unless you’re a very tidy person I would guess that you’ve had nothing so far.’

Was he overdoing the caring neighbour bit? he wondered. She’d turned away and was staring through the window. Maybe she was finding him too overpowering.

Yet she was saying, ‘I’d like that. To dine out. It will help to take my mind off everything for a little while.’

He was smiling and Helena thought that this attractive stranger really was doing his best to be supportive, but there was still one thing that Blake Pemberton couldn’t make right for her, even though he’d done his best.

She pointed to the early edition of the evening paper lying on the kitchen table, and as his gaze transferred to it she said, ‘On the inside page.’

Blake picked it up and turned to where she’d said and his eyes narrowed as they focused on a short piece at the top of the page. The police had done as he’d suggested. It said that James Harris, the main witness in a recent gangland trial, had died of natural causes the previous day. That was all, but hopefully it would be sufficient.

It was the kind of scenario that he’d been on the edge of in some of the incidents where the police had asked for his assistance in recent months. Especially in some of the more run-down parts of the city. So it wasn’t all that new to him.

But to this innocent woman who’d come back from Australia, expecting life to be as it had been before, what she’d been met with must seem like a nightmare. Not only was she having to cope with losing her father, she’d been touched by the seamier side of life in the process.

‘I’m still wondering if I should go back to Australia to get away from all this,’ she said, breaking into his thoughts.

‘Yes, but do you want to?’

She’d thought she did, but now she wasn’t sure. If she went back she would never see Blake Pemberton again. Their meeting would end up as just ships that had passed in the night and she didn’t want that. She liked him. Liked everything about him. If that woman from last night was special, it didn’t matter. She would be happy to have him as just a friend.

CHAPTER TWO

‘I DON’T know whether I want to go back or not,’ Helena said into the silence that had followed Blake’s question. ‘There was nothing to keep me there and now there’s nothing to keep me here.’

It wasn’t the moment to mention that there was a vacancy at the practice, but he would bring it up while they were eating tonight, he decided. It would give Helena the chance to be thinking about it while she waited for the funeral to take place.

He had another suggestion that he was going to tag onto it and felt that it might influence whatever decision she came to, but that could wait until that evening, too.

And so he sidetracked the issue by saying, ‘There’ll be time to worry about that when you’ve laid your father to rest. And with regard to tonight, you are welcome to use my spare room again if you don’t want to be on your own in this place.

‘Or, if you want, I’ll come and sleep on the sofa here. But, Helena, do remember that no one, apart from those involved in the witness protection scheme, knows where your father had been moved to. There are no details of where he was living in the piece in the paper, so you should be quite safe here until you decide what to do.’

She nodded, turning away from him again as she did so, and he hoped she wasn’t thinking that he was implying she was making too much of the situation she found herself in.

‘Yes. I know, Blake,’ she said flatly. ‘I’m not usually so reliant on others. It’s just that I can’t seem to gather my wits after finding out from my father what’s been happening while I’ve been away, and then you bringing me the news of his death so soon afterwards. Of course I’ll be all right here. I’ve intruded into your life enough as it is.’

He was wishing that he hadn’t said anything now. In trying to reassure her he’d put her on the defensive. Made Helena feel she was letting everything get out of proportion. He was going to have to tread more carefully. The last thing he wanted was to alienate her at such a time.

‘You haven’t done anything of the kind,’ he assured her and changing the subject, he went on, ‘I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock if that’s all right. There’s a small restaurant not far from here where I dine when I want something special. The food is good and so is the service.’

Blake found he was holding his breath. He sensed that she’d gone into her shell. Was she going to say she’d changed her mind?

‘Yes, all right,’ she agreed listlessly. ‘I’ll see if I can find something decent to wear.’

She was dressed in old jeans, a sloppy coarse-knit jumper and had taken her hair off her face with a rubber band. It would be nice to see her in something else, he thought. Yet he knew that beneath the nondescript outfit were slim hips, firm breasts and skin that had been soft and fragrant to the touch when he’d held her close.

Helena Harris had been propelled into his life and he didn’t want her to disappear from it as suddenly as she had come. She was the first woman he’d really looked at in a long time, but he was pretty sure that she saw him as if through a fog. In her present state, he didn’t think it would register with her if he were seven foot tall and wore a leopardskin.

* * *

When he’d gone on his rounds Helena went to the mirror and looked at herself. Her face was drained of colour. It hadn’t seen make-up since she’d left Australia. Her hair was unkempt, her clothes begging to be sent to a rummage sale. Blake must be dreading what she was going to look like when he took her out to dine later.

It was as if she’d had a personality transplant. The level, uncomplicated attitude that she applied to life in general had been replaced with a zombie-like trance, and who could blame her? She’d spoken briefly with her father on the night of her arrival. It hadn’t been pleasant, and the next thing she’d known he was gone for ever.

But into the middle of her nightmare had come a stranger, a man who had taken her into his care and supported her through some of the worst hours of her life. She owed it to him to make herself presentable, and with the first lifting of her spirits since she’d arrived back in England she set about repairing the ravages.

* * *

When Helena opened the door to him that night Blake’s eyes widened. Her dress of clinging silk was the same colour as her eyes and brought out the glints in her russet hair. Carefully applied make-up gave colour to a face that was still ashen from shock and grief, and if the thought of food made her feel physically sick her smile didn’t give any inkling of it to the man who was putting his own affairs to one side on her behalf.

She’d had a couple of half-hearted relationships before she’d gone to Australia, both of them with hospital staff that she’d worked with, and had gone out with a husky Australian for a couple of months while she’d been over there, but none of them had made her heart beat as fast as it was now.

Blake had style and presence as well as a sort of rugged attractiveness, and she wondered what he’d meant when he’d said that his family weren’t around any more. Was he divorced and his wife had taken the children with her? He didn’t look like the sort of man who would neglect his family commitments.

He was returning her smile.

‘I feel I must have got the wrong house,’ he said teasingly. ‘I’m looking for Helena Harris and you don’t bear any resemblance to her.’

‘The answer to that is simple,’ she told him. ‘I spent some time in front of the mirror and what I saw was not a pretty sight.’

He took her hand, holding onto it for a fleeting second, and then tucked her arm in his.

‘Let’s go and eat,’ he said.

* * *

The moment they walked into the restaurant the proprietor, a fair-haired man in his forties, came forward to greet them with outstretched hand.

‘Dr Pemberton,’ he said warmly. ‘Good to see you…and the lady. How are things with you?’

‘Fine, Robert,’ he replied. ‘How’s that brother of yours?’

The man shrugged his shoulders.

‘All right as far as I know. I try to keep tabs on Michael, but it isn’t easy with this place to run.’

He was showing them to a table and Blake said, ‘I would think that last episode will have made him think twice about a repeat.’

‘I hope so, but he still drinks too much,’ the other man said, and handed them the menu.

‘Are you wondering what all that was about?’ he asked Helena when they’d ordered.

She nodded.

‘Robert’s younger brother was arrested on a drink-driving charge and put in the cells for the night. The police sent for me in the early hours because he’d been complaining of severe stomach pain, but when I got there the discomfort seemed to have gone and they were wishing they hadn’t been panicked into calling me out. But, of course, they can’t take any chances. When a prisoner dies in a cell all hell is let loose.

‘I wouldn’t go without examining him. They’re not the only ones who don’t take chances. There was something about him that worried me and to cut a long story short I found signs of a perforated appendix.

‘As we both know, appendicitis can be fatal and the time of greatest danger is when the agonising pain suddenly disappears. If he’d been left all night he might have died as the police would have taken no heed of his drunken mumblings, the pain having gone.’

‘And so you saved his life.’

He smiled. ‘Only partly. The hospital had something to do with it, too. He was operated on immediately.’

‘He and his family must have been grateful for your presence in the cell. I can see why his brother was so welcoming when you appeared.’

‘Yes, we’ve become firm friends, but Michael, the guy who had the appendicitis, is still drinking too much for his own good and everyone else’s.’

‘You must get a lot of job satisfaction from your police work.’

‘Yes. I do,’ he agreed. ‘Just the same as when I’ve been able to bring a patient back to good health. And with regards to the practice, how would you like to work for us?’

She stared at him in amazement. ‘In what capacity?’

‘Practice nurse, of course. We employ two, but one of them wants to leave in a hurry. As early as next week, in fact. If you are interested, I have another proposition to put to you.’

Still taken aback, she asked, ‘And what’s that?’

‘I have a small house that I rent out not far from the surgery. It was my wife’s before we were married. It’s vacant at the moment. If you took the job you might want to consider living there instead of where you are now. ‘

‘I’ve never worked in general practice,’ she explained. ‘I’ve always been hospital-based.’

‘Does that matter?’

He wasn’t going to tell her that he’d offered her the position because he wanted her near him. He wasn’t sure why, but he did. Maybe it was because she’d been left high and dry after her father’s death and he was concerned for her. Or were his motives more selfish than that? He didn’t want to get bogged down in self-analysis.

He could imagine Maxine’s reaction if Helena took the job. Fortunately he had the main say and if she didn’t like it, too bad.

‘I’d like to think about it if you don’t mind,’ Helena was saying. ‘I feel that you’ve already done enough for me.’

Suddenly he was the senior partner rather than her good Samaritan. ‘You would be expected to cope with a heavy workload and would get no special concessions from me.’

‘I wouldn’t expect any!’ she exclaimed. ‘I’m used to being treated on my own merits. What about the woman who was at your house last night? Did you say she was connected with the practice?’

‘Yes, that was Maxine Fielding. She and Darren Scott are the other two partners. By all means think about the offer. I just felt that both suggestions might solve your problems for the time being.’

So he had no thought of it being on a more permanent basis, she told herself. No need to feel flattered that Blake was keen to employ her. Once again he was merely trying to be supportive at a time when she needed someone. He was anticipating that once she’d got herself sorted she would move on.

Yet what had she expected? They’d only known each other a couple of days. It was incredible that he was making her such an offer in so short a time. The suggestions he’d made were like a lifeline in her present situation and even if they hadn’t been, there was a feeling of rightness about them that she couldn’t ignore.

‘Tell me about yourself,’ he said as they ate a leisurely meal. ‘How long have you been in nursing?’

‘Ever since I left school. My mother was a nurse and I always wanted to be the same.’

‘So you find it fulfilling.’

She was smiling and he thought how different she looked. She ought to do it more often, but he reminded himself that since they’d met she’d had very little to smile about.

‘Yes, I do. Fulfilling…and tiring,’ she told him, adding on a sudden impulse that she knew she might have cause to regret, ‘You already know quite a bit about me, but I know nothing about you, except that you’re a GP who is also involved in police work. You said that your family weren’t around. Dare I ask why?’

She watched his expression change and wished she’d contained her curiosity. It was as if a cloud had settled on his face, but his voice was pleasant enough as he told her, ‘You can ask, but I’m not sure whether I want to answer. If I do it will bring painful memories into a pleasant evening.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said contritely. ‘I presume something awful must have happened.’

‘It did,’ he agreed heavily. ‘My wife, Anna, and our seven-year-old son, Jason, were killed in a car crash three years ago.’

‘Oh, you poor man!’ she said softly. ‘You must think I’m making a big thing out of what has happened to me. No way does it compare with that.’

‘I don’t think anything of the kind,’ he told her. ‘I’m only too sorry that you came home to what you did, but I think a change of subject is called for.’

Helena nodded her agreement and said, ‘So tell me about the practice.’

He launched into an account of a visit he’d made that afternoon to elderly twin sisters who were always ill simultaneously with the same complaint, and how, garrulous and hyperactive, they vied for his attention.

She was laughing as he described their antics and Blake thought that it was incredible that this green-eyed woman was fancy-free. Or was she? She hadn’t said so. There might be someone in Australia anxiously awaiting her return.

Though if that were the case, she wouldn’t be hesitating about going back, would she? And if she’d left some guy behind when she’d gone out there, he would have been the one she’d turned to rather than himself.

‘If you’ll excuse me for asking, how old are you, Helena?’ he asked.

‘I’m twenty-five.’

‘And commitments?’

It was one way of asking if she was unattached, though it misfired somewhat.

‘You know that I haven’t. I’ve already told you I was an only child.’

‘I was referring to relationships.’

‘Oh, I see. Would it matter if I was in one?’

‘No. Of course not,’ he said smoothly. ‘But again it’s the sort of thing you might be asked about by the other two partners.’

‘But not by you?’

‘No. Not by me. I’m offering you the job because of what’s happened.’

‘Because you’re sorry for me, you mean?’

‘Yes. Partly. And also because you came back to a raw deal. I admire your father for what he did. There are lots of folk who won’t risk life and limb in the cause of justice, but he did. Thankfully no one got to him, which is not surprising as the witness protection service allows for no margin of error. So your father died the way the rest of us hope to go…naturally.’

He wasn’t offering the job because he was attracted to her, then, she thought wryly. She’d been a fool to think he might be. Blake Pemberton, senior partner, police surgeon…and childless widower…must have them queueing up for the chance to take his dead wife’s place.

Blake had allayed her fears about going back to the house but Helena was in no hurry to return. As they lingered over coffee at the end of the meal he said, ‘So are you happy to go back to the house? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.’

‘No. I’m fine,’ she told him. ‘I’m not afraid any more. And, Blake, I will take the job at the practice if you’re sure you want me. And I’ll rent the house, too. You’ve solved all my problems for me.’

She meant it, but couldn’t help feeling that with the sorting of one lot of problems others might appear, focused around a one-sided attraction.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I’m glad you’ve decided to accept. Maybe you could call at the practice some time tomorrow to meet the rest of the staff and have a chat with the practice manager. Would you be able to start the day after the funeral? That’s when the nurse employed at present wants to leave.’

‘I’d be glad to,’ she told him. ‘As then, more than ever, I will need to be occupied.’

When he pulled up outside their two houses Helena said, ‘Thanks for your time…and the meal, Blake. I can’t help but feel that I’m being something of a nuisance.’

He smiled and in the shadowed interior of the car she experienced the same feeling of familiarity that she’d felt earlier. Theirs was a very new relationship but it didn’t feel like it. She felt safe in this man’s company. Maybe it was because he knew so much about her in such a short space of time.

‘The only time you’re likely to be a nuisance is if you keep insisting that you are one,’ he was saying easily. ‘If you feel I’m being too intrusive, you have only to say so. Otherwise, I’ve promised myself that until you’re over this awful thing that has happened to you, I’m going to be around. And if you’re coming to work at the practice, we’re likely to be in each other’s company for some time to come.’

Why did her heart lift at the thought of that? she wondered. She had only to observe him and the answer was there. Blake Pemberton made every other man she’d met seem insignificant, but there was nothing to say that she was having the same effect on him. If what he’d just said was correct, she was more in the waifs-and-strays category than that of the desirable woman.

When he’d seen her safely inside the house, Blake said, ‘Shall we say midday tomorrow for you to meet the team at the Priory Practice?’

‘Yes,’ she agreed, adding as the memory of cold grey eyes came to mind, ‘Are you sure they won’t object to me joining them sideways, so to speak?’

‘My partners respect my judgement and will be only too relieved that we’re not going to be without a practice nurse for any length of time,’ he assured her. ‘The only problem would be if you weren’t up to the job, and somehow I don’t see that particular difficulty arising. You have references, of course?’

‘Yes. Though the ones from Australia might take some time to reach you. Unless you ask that they email them.’

‘No problem. We’ll sort that out. Lock up after I’ve gone. I can assure you again that you are safe here…and once you move into that house of mine you’ll feel even safer. It’s available as soon as you feel like making the transfer.’

‘Tomorrow?’ she suggested, wasting no time in taking him up on the offer.

‘Yes, if you like…tomorrow. I had it contract-cleaned after the last tenant, so it’s ready for you to move into any time.’ He was looking around him. ‘It’s furnished, by the way. Do I take it that the stuff in this place goes with the house?’

‘Yes. My father said that he’d put our furniture in storage, so I might as well leave it there.’

She couldn’t believe it was happening. Earlier in the day she hadn’t been able to see where she was going to go from here, and now she had a job and a new place to live. Would she ever be out of his debt?

But it seemed that Blake was still out to make her realise that he wasn’t expecting it to be permanent as he said, ‘Yes, leave it where it is. Then whenever you decide to leave us it will be there waiting.’

So it was only the waif-and-stray treatment she was getting, Helena thought wryly. Within his pledge to protect the living while in police care and help bring justice for those who had met their ends through foul play, he was doing his best for another lost sheep…herself. And she wasn’t sure that was how she wanted it to be. He was seeing her at her worst. Lost, weepy and floundering.

When this was over she would have to show him that there was another side to her. That she was her own person, independent, resilient and a good nurse. Suddenly it was vital that Blake should have a good opinion of her, and he was offering her the chance to do something towards that end by taking her on at the practice.

With spirits lifting at the thought, she watched him go down the drive. When he reached his own front door he turned and waved, and as she waved back Helena knew she wanted him to be more than just someone who had befriended her in a time of trouble.

* * *

When Blake announced at the beginning of surgery the next morning that he’d found a replacement for the practice nurse who was leaving, Darren said, ‘Great stuff. What’s she like? Nice-looking, I hope.’

Blake didn’t reply. His glance was on Maxine and he knew what was coming next.

‘And where have you so conveniently found a nurse at such short notice?’ she wanted to know.

‘You’ve already met her briefly,’ he said with bland pleasantness. ‘The woman who has just lost her father, Helena Harris. You saw her the other night when you called.’ Before she could interrupt he went on, ‘She’s been nursing in Australia for the last twelve months and had no sooner come home than her father died.’

‘Then it was obviously her lucky day when she met you, Blake,’ Maxine said frostily. ‘Don’t you think you’re rather overdoing the good-neighbour bit? First of all you have her staying with you and then you’re suggesting bringing her into the practice.’

‘None of us know when we may need a friend,’ he told her, without raising his voice. ‘It might happen to you one day, Maxine.’

‘That could be a bit tricky,’ Darren said, and found her cold gaze transferred to himself.

‘Helena is coming in to meet everyone at the end of morning surgery, so you’ll both be able to have a chat with her then. In the meantime, we have patients waiting to be seen,’ Blake said, ignoring the ever-present sparring between the two.

He’d anticipated a cool reception when Maxine heard of his plans and that Darren would be his usual flippant self. But he wasn’t all that bothered about either of their reactions. If he discovered he’d made a mistake by offering Helena a job at the practice, he would take the blame.

He had other concerns regarding her and the main one was that after going out of his way to befriend her, he’d sent out conflicting signals the night before by inferring that he wasn’t expecting anything permanent to come of their acquaintance when all the time she was never out of his thoughts.

Was he so out of touch with the chemistry between the sexes that he felt the need to put up fences when it appeared from an unexpected source? he’d asked himself during a restless night.

As someone who never did anything by halves, his love for Anna had been deep and strong. In the three years since her death he’d had no yearnings towards any other woman. Certainly not Maxine.

Then out of the blue had come a young nurse with beautiful green eyes and russet hair. She was getting to him as no other woman had, and what was he doing? Encouraging the relationship one moment and the next stepping back from it.

But the folks in the waiting room had their problems, too, and he was about to be confronted by them.

Amongst them was a middle-aged woman suffering from blackouts for no apparent reason. Being the kind of patient loth to bring her concerns into the open, she’d been slow to seek a consultation, but after having hurt herself quite badly from the last fall she’d been persuaded to seek help.

There were no signs of high blood pressure. It was rather low if anything. An examination of her eyes indicated no problems there. She wasn’t suffering from headaches. In every way she seemed to be in good health, though obviously she wasn’t. Blackouts were not something to be ignored and he referred her to the neurology department at the hospital.

A woman in her twenties followed her into his consulting room. She had digestive problems that he’d felt were cause for alarm and he’d sent her to hospital for tests. The results were now back.

They weren’t exactly life-threatening but they were not good. Dark eyes in a thin face were watching him apprehensively from the other side of the desk and, always reluctant to put the blight on the lives of the young, he gave her a sympathetic smile.

‘It is what I thought it might be, Samantha,’ he told her. ‘Coeliac disease or gluten enteropathy as it’s sometimes known. The type of biopsy they gave you at the hospital shows that you have a gluten problem. A failure to absorb the nutrients from wheat, rye, and other cereals.

‘All the unpleasant things that have been happening to you are the result of the illness. The anaemia, skin problems, poor bowel functioning and the rest should gradually disappear once you’re on a gluten-free diet.

‘With all other foods you should have no problem, but it will be essential to keep off wheat products. Other tests will follow to make sure that the diet is working, but I think that very soon you’re going to feel much better.’

‘So I’m not going to die?’ she breathed, with the beginning of a smile.

‘No, you’re not,’ he said gently. ‘You’ve had a worrying and distressing time but we’re going to put you on the right track. The nurse will give you diet sheets and will answer any questions you might have regarding food.’

She was getting to her feet and as he observed her pallor and weight loss Blake thought, poor girl. She was so frail. Hopefully by the next time he saw her she might have filled out a little and have some colour in her cheeks.

* * *

As Helena hesitated beside Reception at twelve o’clock, a cool voice said from behind her, ‘And you are?’

When she swung round the woman who’d called at Blake’s house the other night was observing her as if she were something best seen under a microscope.

‘I’m Helena Harris,’ she said levelly. ‘Dr Pemberton is expecting me. He’s offered me the position of practice nurse and invited me to come in to meet the staff.’

‘Really. Well, he must have forgotten as Dr Pemberton is not on the premises.’

‘Has he been called out perhaps?’ Helena asked in the same even tone.

‘I’m sure I don’t know. You’ll have to come back some other time,’ she was told.

‘Yes. I can do that,’ she agreed equably. ‘Time is something that I have in abundance at the moment.’

‘I think there’s been a mistake, Dr Fielding,’ another voice said at that moment, and Helena saw a fair-haired man, younger than Blake, eyeing her appreciatively from the doorway.

‘Dr Pemberton received a call from the police station just as surgery was finishing,’ he said with a winning smile that showed a lot of white teeth. ‘He left a message to say that he would be back as soon as possible and for you to make yourself at home while you’re waiting. My name is Darren Scott. I’m the junior partner here and I volunteered to look after you until he gets back.’

‘And in the meantime everything goes to pot, does it?’ the unwelcoming Maxine said.

‘Surely, not with you around, Dr Fielding,’ he said, and Helena knew what Blake had meant when he’d said that these two weren’t the best of friends.

‘There is no need for you to look after me,’ she told him. ‘As Dr Fielding has suggested, I can come back another time.’

She was beginning to wish she hadn’t come at all. The last thing she’d expected was that Blake wouldn’t be there. Obviously it had been unavoidable, but five minutes with Maxine Fielding had damped her enthusiasm somewhat.

‘Dr Pemberton wouldn’t like that,’ Darren insisted. ‘He was most emphatic that you were made welcome. If you’d like to come this way I’ll introduce you to Jane Benyon, the other practice nurse. She’s been here for years and will be only too happy to show you the ropes. She’s the person you’ll be working with most. Then there’s the practice manager, Beverley, who keeps us all in order and tells us off if we prescribe drugs that are too expensive.’

This was better, Helena thought as she met the rest of the staff. Jane Benyon looked as if she was climbing up to retiring age. She had a kind smile and twinkly blue eyes. Beverley Martin, in her late forties, was a smart type in a suit, with dark hair in a short stylish cut and a brisk manner that indicated a person who got things done. The three receptionists were all friendly and by the time they’d done the rounds Maxine’s hostility was fading.

* * *

When the call had come through from the police Blake had given an exasperated sigh. It had been the worst possible moment. Helena had been due to arrive any time, but he hadn’t been able to refuse.

A prisoner had been brought into the station with facial cuts and bruises and showing signs of concussion. There was some concern as to how his injuries had occurred, but that was for the authorities to sort out. They needed him there to determine the seriousness of his condition and to advise if hospital treatment was required.

On examining the man, he decided that it was. He was confused. His pupils were dilated and his head was beginning to swell. It seemed that he had attacked someone in the street and had either got more than he’d bargained for or had received rough handling from those who’d arrested him.

Blake was impatient to get back to the practice and when the ambulance had taken the injured man to Accident and Emergency he avoided the chat that the station sergeant would have liked to have had by excusing himself with the explanation that he had someone waiting to see him.

As he drove back to the practice he was hoping that he wasn’t being too presumptuous, that Helena wouldn’t have been offended by his absence and would be there, waiting.