Proposing to the Children's Doctor. Joanna Neil
a fuss over nothing, but that’s my Aunt Heather all over. She’s always been an independent soul. I’ve been reluctant to interfere, but it will be just as well for me to go and keep an eye on her for a while.’
‘I think that’s a good idea. Down here, you’re a long way from being able to do anything to help. That’s the trouble with old folk, isn’t it? They say they’re all right because they’re afraid of being a burden, but sometimes you have to read between the lines, don’t you?’
A small spark of irritation flared in her eyes. Was he implying that she hadn’t been able to do that? What was it to do with him, anyway?
‘My aunt isn’t all that old. At least, she doesn’t seem to be. She’s always been active and energetic.’ Why was he so intent on wrongfooting her? She loved her aunt dearly, but he didn’t seem to be taking that on board.
She had to admit that he’d hit a sore spot, though. Right from the start she’d had misgivings about leaving her home to go and work in Northumberland with her boyfriend. It had only been Ben’s enthusiasm and gentle insistence that had convinced her it had been the thing to do.
‘It’ll be wonderful,’ he had said. ‘You’ll be able to work in paediatrics, and I’ll take on the research fellowship. We could buy a house close to the hospital, and it’ll be great for both of us.’
The doubts had stayed with her, firstly because she had been worried about leaving Aunt Heather behind, despite the fact that her sister was going to be staying around to watch over her for some of the time, and secondly because she had been uncertain about moving in with Ben.
She’d thought he had been the one for her, but after all was said and done, he hadn’t offered her total commitment, had he? Just an arrangement that had been convenient. And so she had resisted the temptation to move in with him, and that had proved to be a wise decision, hadn’t it, given the way things had turned out?
‘I’ve kept in touch with my aunt while I’ve been away,’ she said now. ‘And I’ve been home to see her a few times. It’s not as though she’s been abandoned.’
Craig studied her, a flicker of scepticism in his expression. ‘You don’t have to convince me,’ he said. ‘She’s not my aunt, so it hardly matters to me. I just happened to remark that it looks as though you must have decided to go back to her.’
‘Yes, well, that’s true, I have.’ She frowned. ‘There are actually lots of things that I need to do, and I ought to leave right now,’ she told him. ‘I’m due at the hospital in twenty minutes.’
He nodded. ‘Me, too. We could walk there together, if you like.’
She frowned, taken aback by what he had just said. He’d only stayed here for two nights, and now he was off to the hospital with his overnight bag. Was it possible that she had added two and two together and come up with the wrong answer? Was he ill? Had she completely misjudged him?
She looked again at the bag he was holding. ‘Are you going to be staying at the hospital?’ she asked. He looked as though he was in perfect health, in the prime of his life, in fact, a thirtysomething example of vigorous masculinity, but that didn’t necessarily have to mean that he didn’t need treatment of some kind, did it? A warm flood of guilt raced through her from head to toe.
‘No,’ he answered slowly. ‘I wouldn’t have thought I would be there for too long. Just the time it takes to sort things out.’
‘I’m sorry—of course it’s none of my business.’ It was dreadful to think that she might have been imagining him as some kind of drifter when all the time he was ill and preparing for a stay in hospital.
He looked at her in a slightly perplexed fashion for a moment or two and then opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, but she swivelled around and headed for the door of her flat, saying hurriedly, ‘I’ll just go and check that everything’s in order before I lock the place up. Then I’ll be ready to walk with you.’
She was back by his side within a moment or two, and they left the building together.
The block of flats was a ten-minute walk away from the hospital where she had worked for the last couple of years, and now, as she shut the main door behind her for the last time, she looked back with a feeling of sadness mingled with expectation. The island home of her youth beckoned her, but at the same time she was leaving behind friends and colleagues, and that was a painful experience.
‘How is it that you have to go in to work if you’re all set to leave here?’ he asked as they set out along the street. ‘Presumably you’re travelling later today? I dare say there aren’t many people who would be able to cope without their luggage for very long.’
‘I have to transport an eight-year-old patient back home to Scotland. He was brought down here to Northumberland for specialist treatment after he was badly injured in a road accident, but now he’s well enough to be transferred back to his local hospital. He was supposed to have gone yesterday by ambulance, but we were concerned about his condition and so we delayed things for a while.’
‘So it wasn’t necessary for you to wait to go with him? You could have left it to someone else to escort him?’
She made a face. ‘I suppose that’s true, but I’ve been looking after him for a while now, overseeing his care, and he wanted me to stay with him. It’s been a difficult time for Connor, because his parents were injured in the crash as well and they had to stay behind in Scotland. I think that’s why he took to depending on me, because he was so vulnerable. The poor child had no one and he was lost and alone.’
‘Then I expect you must feel that you made the right choice.’ He sent her an oblique glance. ‘So, what do you do at the hospital? Are you a nurse, or a doctor perhaps?’
‘A doctor. I specialised in paediatrics, and mostly I work with seriously ill children on the surgical ward.’
‘That must be rewarding.’ His blue-grey gaze moved over her fleetingly.
‘It can be. There are times when it’s difficult to handle, though, like when the child has a serious heart condition or worse. You want so much to help them, but sometimes there’s a limit to what you can do. I find that heartbreaking.’
He nodded. ‘I can see how that might affect you. For myself, I tend to think that children are resilient for the most part. They cope with problems in a way that puts adults to shame.’
Rebecca smiled. ‘Yes, they do.’ She sent him a thoughtful glance. She knew next to nothing about this man, and yet he already had the lowdown on her lifestyle, her work and her plans for the future. Well, maybe not all of them, but a good part. How had he managed to glean so much about her in such a short space of time?
‘Here we are already,’ he said as the glass doors to the main entrance of the hospital swished open before them. ‘That was quick. You certainly landed a prime position, with your flat being just a hop and a skip away from here.’
‘I suppose I did.’ Rebecca hesitated, and then started to move away from him in the direction of the stairs. ‘I have to go to the surgical ward to collect my patient,’ she told him. ‘Do you know your way about, or do you need directions?’
‘I’ll manage,’ he murmured. ‘I’ll take the lift.’
‘OK.’
He inclined his head towards her and she returned the gesture with a brief ‘Goodbye,’ before going on her way.
She didn’t turn back to watch him take the lift. She wouldn’t be seeing him again and that was perhaps just as well, because he seemed to have a very strange effect on her. In the few hours she had known him, he had managed somehow to put her on the defensive and caused her to examine her reasons for doing things, and she was tired of all that uncertainty.
What she needed now was a fresh start, a chance to go home to her island roots and find peace within herself once again.
Pushing