Nurse, Nanny...Bride!
Nurse, Nanny...Bride!
Alison Roberts
She’s happy as a nurse… But his little girl needs a nanny…and he needs a bride!Nurse Alice Palmer’s world is turned upside down by the new A&E consultant Andrew Barrett. Not just because he’s gorgeous, nor even because he forced her to leave London in disrepute. No, it’s because, despite everything, he’s the man she fell in love with – and she’s never recovered from her unrequited crush.The question is, what’s he doing in New Zealand? Why is his beautiful little daughter motherless? And how is Alice going to stop her frantic heart from beating so loudly he must be able to hear?And when Alice becomes part-time nanny to his little girl, it’s as if fate is dealing her the most remarkable hand of all…
‘And you.’ Andrew straightened with an easy, smooth motion. He walked towards Alice and held out his hand again. ‘You saved my daughter.’
How weird to be offered a handshake. Except when Alice accepted her hand wasn’t shaken. Andrew took it in both of his and clasped it firmly.
‘There are no words,’ he said softly, ‘that could tell you how grateful I am.’
He didn’t need words. Alice could feel it. Like a miniature version of the circle his arms had created earlier. And she could feel her eyes widening with the wonder of it. The power.
She couldn’t hold his gaze because it was too much. The longing that stirred deep within her was so sharp it was unbearable. She had to break the contact. To look away and pull her hand free.
Alison Roberts lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. She began her working career as a primary school teacher, but now juggles available working hours between writing and active duty as an ambulance officer. Throwing in a large dose of parenting, housework, gardening and petminding keeps life busy, and teenage daughter Becky is responsible for an increasing number of days spent on equestrian pursuits. Finding time for everything can be a challenge, but the rewards make the effort more than worthwhile.
Recent titles by the same author:
HER BABY OUT OF THE BLUE
HOT-SHOT SURGEON, CINDERELLA BRIDE
THE ITALIAN SURGEON’S CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
MARRYING THE MILLIONAIRE DOCTOR*
*Crocodile Creek
Nurse, Nanny…Bride!
By
Alison Roberts
MILLS & BOON®
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHAPTER ONE
SO THIS was what it felt like to faint.
As if a plug had been pulled out of your brain and all the blood was disappearing in a rush to leave a curious buzzing sensation in its wake.
Alice tried to move her feet but they were lead weights. Just as well she could still move her arm. Catching hold of the metal rail along the side of one of the few empty beds in this emergency department was her best chance of remaining upright.
‘Are you okay, Ally?’ The voice of the nurse lowering the rail on the other side of the bed seemed to be coming from a very long way away. ‘You’ve gone as white as a sheet.’
‘I…’ Alice was gripping the rail as if her life depended on it. The black spots interfering with her vision were starting to fade. Any second now and she would be able to take a second look. She must have been mistaken, surely? It couldn’t possibly really be Andrew Barrett standing on the other side of this department. He was a world away. In London. A world she’d been only too happy to leave behind in the end.
‘Sit!’ Strong hands were guiding Alice towards the chair beside the bed. The one the patient’s relatives usually sat on. ‘Sit down and put your head between your knees.’
Alice resisted the pressure. ‘I’m okay, Jo.’
She was. The buzzing was gone. Blood was reaching her brain again almost as fast as it had left, thanks to the increase in her heart rate. ‘I’m just a bit…’
Shocked. Slapped by a reminder of a past she had worked very hard to escape from. It probably wasn’t even him. Just someone who looked a bit like him from the side. Tall and well built with slightly scruffy dark blond hair and the weathered skin of a man who loved to be outdoors. A figure familiar enough to push a lot of old buttons.
Bright ones like desire.
Much darker ones such as envy.
‘Exhausted?’ Jo supplied. ‘I’m not surprised. What time did you get back home last night?’
‘About eleven, I guess.’
‘And how long was the drive?’
‘More than ten hours. Mostly thanks to the radiator boiling with my old truck trying to pull a horse float over the pass.’
‘Oh, no! You poor thing. I’ll bet it took an hour or more to offload Ben and get things sorted when you got home, too. You probably haven’t had more than a few hours’ sleep and that’s on top of a week of having to sort your gran’s property and everything.’ Jo’s arm came around Alice in a swift hug. ‘Have you even had any breakfast, hon?’
‘No.’ In fact, it was hard to remember when she’d last had a proper meal. No wonder she’d nearly fainted. Or was imagining things. The swirl of disturbing emotions was still there. Making her stomach feel a shade queasy.
‘Go into the staff room right now and make yourself some toast. And hot chocolate. I’ll tidy up in here.’
Again, Alice shook her head. The route to the staff room would mean having to brush past the two men who were peering at one of the wall-mounted X-ray screens on that side of the department. And maybe she hadn’t been imagining things. Maybe one of those men was someone she hadn’t expected and really didn’t want to see. Ever again. It would be too hard going down that particular road again. Negotiating painfully bumpy terrain that led absolutely nowhere.
‘I’m fine now, really.’ Alice smiled. She was. She could move again. She lowered the rail on the bed and tugged at the sheet that needed changing. ‘And it was worth all the hassle. I couldn’t have left Ben for more than a week when there was nobody to keep an eye on him and the beach rides more than made up for the stress of having to clean out Gran’s place. The last tenants made a hell of a mess. It’s no wonder it barely sold for enough to cover the mortgage.’
‘At least it’s settled.’ Jo was moving back to the other side of the bed as Alice rolled up the sheet and stuffed it into the linen bag. ‘Having to pay that on top of your rent for the last year’s been a killer, hasn’t it?’
Alice nodded. There was nothing she could say. It had just been one of those things. It had to be done so she’d done it. The same way she had dealt with all the hard stuff that life had a habit of dumping her in. Head on. Standing tall. Fainting was definitely not an option. Alice took a deep breath and deliberately shifted her gaze. She was ready to get her bearings.
‘Who is that?’ she asked calmly. ‘Talking to Peter?’
Jo glanced over her shoulder. When she turned back to Alice, her eyebrows were a little higher and a smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. ‘Andy Barrett. New consultant. Cute, huh?’
Alice couldn’t say anything. Hopefully Jo wouldn’t interpret her stare as anything more than curiosity.
‘He’s English. Started work here the day after you left last week. We were all surprised. Turns out that Dave had health issues he didn’t want anyone to know about and finding his replacement had been kept well under wraps. Apparently we really scored getting this Dr Barrett. He’s been the head honcho at some big London hospital for years. Can’t remember which one. Hammersmith, maybe.’
Alice couldn’t trust herself to open her mouth. If she did she might tell Jo that it hadn’t been Hammersmith. It had been the same hospital she had worked in herself for over a year.
Until she’d been as good as fired.
By one Dr Andrew Barrett.
Jo didn’t know any of that story. No one here did and that was exactly the way Alice wanted it to be. No way was she getting pulled back anywhere near that black period of humiliation again. Not now. Apart from the death of her grandmother a year ago and the ten days leave she had just taken to sort out the eventual sale of the isolated cottage the only remaining member of her family had lived in, Alice’s life was finally on track again.
She was still staring at the profile of the man who presented a new and very unwelcome threat. Both professional and personal.
Why had he come all the way to the opposite side of the earth and picked the one place that was hers? It wasn’t as if New Zealand was that small. He could have picked one of the larger cities in the north island. Maybe they didn’t have as many ski fields or mountains to climb but they had plenty of water. He could have learned to sail. Or surf!
Maybe Pam would know why. Contact with the only friend she had kept from her time in London was well overdue and if what she was seeking was the kind of gossip she deliberately avoided, so be it. Knowledge was power and Alice certainly needed a boost.
Just making the decision to email Pam gave Alice the illusion of regaining some control. About to drag her gaze away from the new member of staff, she only just caught the movement as he raised his left hand to indicate something of interest on the image.
Unaware of the frown on her face, she turned to help Jo smooth and tuck fresh linen onto the bed. The last time she had seen Andy Barrett he had been wearing a wedding ring. A tight band of gold that had successfully suffocated any stupid fantasies she might have nurtured.
He wasn’t wearing it now.
The case in Resus 1 was a trauma. A thirty-five-year-old woman who was well known to emergency department staff: one of their ‘frequent flyers’. Her boyfriend had gang affiliations and was only too ready to use his fists and his feet when something displeased him, but Janine had steadfastly refused to lay any complaints against him on earlier visits. Maybe this time would be different, the triage nurse told the consultant. It was the worst punishment they’d ever seen her receive.
Janine lay, oddly quiet, on the bed, her face now so swollen it was obviously painful for her to speak.
‘No!’ she managed in response to Andrew’s careful suggestion. ‘No police. I told you. I fell down the stairs.’
Yeah…right. Stairs that had knuckles and heavy boots. The lacerations on her eyebrow and upper lip needed extensive suturing. A cheekbone was probably fractured and Andrew didn’t like the ugly purple bruises already appearing on her ribs as a nurse cut away her clothing.
‘Can you take a deep breath for me?’ Andrew was using both hands to examine her ribs as gently as he could.
‘Ahhh!’ It was the first indication Janine had given of her level of pain.
‘Pretty sore, isn’t it?’ Her breathing was adequate but unsurprisingly shallow. ‘What score would you give it on a scale of one to ten, Janine? Ten being the worst.’
‘I’m all right.’ Janine sounded as if she was holding her breath now. She had her eyes closed and beads of perspiration mingled with the blood on her forehead. She was a long way from being all right.
‘Anything else hurting that much?’
A tear escaped puffy eyelids. ‘My…arm, I guess.’
The sleeve of a ragged jersey was being peeled away and the deformity of Janine’s wrist and lower arm was obvious. Another fracture. Almost open. Andrew could see the bone just under the skin. Checking limb baselines like movement and sensation and perfusion seemed inadvisable until the fracture was secured. Even trying to wriggle her fingers might be enough to break the skin and risk infection. He turned to the nurse and lowered his voice.
‘She didn’t come in by ambulance, did she?’
Jo shook her head. ‘Private car. She was left outside Reception to make her own way inside.’
Andrew’s mouth tightened as he shook his head in disgust. He had to bury the anger that might have made him storm out of here if the bastard was hanging around. He had to rid his head of the ugly words he would like to have said to the kind of man who could treat a woman like this.
And, most of all, he had to dismiss the memory of what it felt like to be suspected of being that kind of man. ‘Let’s get an IV line in and a splint on this arm,’ he ordered crisply. ‘We’ll get some pain relief on board and then do a thorough secondary survey before we start the X-rays.’
Another nurse entered the resuscitation area as Andrew slipped a tourniquet around Janine’s arm and tightened it. ‘I’m going to put a small needle in your hand,’ he warned his patient. ‘Then we can give you something for the pain. Okay?’
Janine nodded. The movement made her wince. In his peripheral vision, as he anchored a vein and slipped a cannula into place, Andrew could see the new nurse sliding a well padded cardboard splint under Janine’s broken arm and then starting to secure it. Her movements were sure and careful enough not to cause further damage or pain.
He taped the cannula and looked up properly this time, intending to let the nurse know that she’d done a good job. It was just as well he hadn’t done this a few seconds ago. He might have missed the vein completely.
Alice Palmer?
He’d known she came from New Zealand. Why had it not even occurred to him that she might be working in a hospital here again? Because the odds of it being the same one he’d been offered a job in by an old acquaintance were so small? Or was it because he’d been so determined to put any thoughts of her and the period of his life she’d been a part of completely behind him?
How ironic that he’d come this far to get away from it all. To start again and here it was, staring him in the face. Right beside a case that graphically represented most of what he’d been trying to escape.
He stared back.
How much did Alice know? Not much, presumably, because she’d lost her job before it had started. Unfair dismissal, as it had turned out. And he’d been responsible. He had had every intention of telling her, but when he’d gone to the address the woman in Personnel had given, he’d found an empty house with a ‘For Sale’ sign outside that had a cheerful ‘Sold’ sticker planted in the centre. It had been six months after the event, in any case, and someone in Emergency had suggested that Alice had left the country.
He couldn’t tell her now. It was ancient history and here she was, working in a senior position so it hadn’t affected her career. And if he did tell her, she’d want to know how he knew and that was what had had to be left behind.
For Emmy’s sake.
He held her gaze and kept his tone carefully neutral as his brain worked overtime, tossing up whether to acknowledge the fact that they knew each other.
‘I’d like some morphine drawn up, please,’ he said.
No. He couldn’t acknowledge her. That would bring a flurry of interest from others. Questions he didn’t want to hear, let alone answer. His next words emerged before he’d had a chance to even think them through. A form of attack as a defensive shield.
‘If you have keys to the drug cabinet, that is.’
Heat scorched Alice’s cheeks.
She dragged her eyes away from his face. An olderlooking face. Thinner and far more distant. Had he changed so much from the man she remembered or was this coolness due to a determination to hide recognition? So this was how it was going to be. They were not going to acknowledge having worked together, let alone knowing what they did know about each other.
A warning shot had been fired. If she said anything about the rumours she’d been hearing before she left London, he would warn her superiors that allowing her access to restricted drugs might be inadvisable.
The unfairness of it added a new element to the emotional turmoil Alice was dealing with. Despite the traitorous reaction of her body earlier, she knew she wasn’t in love with the man any more. She’d got over that a very long time ago. About when she’d been standing in front of his desk and he’d said he couldn’t trust her enough to let her keep the job she loved.
She’d tried to hate him for that but hadn’t succeeded. Her heart had been incapable of flipping the coin to embrace the dark side of love. Especially when her head, coupled with an innate sense of fairness, had forced her to acknowledge that he’d only been doing what he had to do as head of department. Quite generously, really, when he’d offered her the opportunity to resign instead of launching an official investigation and a paper trail that would have haunted the rest of her working life.
What was really unfair was that she’d never believed the rumours about him. Even now, with the dark emotions sparked by seeing the poor battered woman they were treating at the moment and the cool distance he had placed between himself and an old colleague, she knew he was as incapable of hurting someone deliberately as she was of stealing and taking drugs. If Andrew had been interested enough to actually get to know her properly, he would have had—would still have—the same kind of faith in her.
Clearly, he didn’t. The implication beneath his request for morphine had been a deliberate reminder of the humiliating rumours she’d been unable to disprove. That he hadn’t trusted her. That he’d never really seen who she was. That hurt.
Quite apart from being an intimately personal slight, mud had a habit of sticking. Enough to ruin lives. Alice actually felt sick to her stomach as she pulled an ampoule of morphine from the cabinet and signed the register. She could feel Andrew watching her.
Jo did the drug check with her. The name of the drug. The dose. The expiry date. She watched as Alice snapped the top of the ampoule and slid a needle in to draw it up. Try as she might, Alice couldn’t disguise the subtle trembling of her hands.
‘You still need toast,’ Jo whispered.
Alice needed something a lot more than food. She needed to be a long way away from their new consultant. How could she possibly work with him when he was watching every move she made? Knowing that, despite the best of intentions and for very different reasons, she would have to fight the desire to watch every move he made? Looking for a reminder of the man she remembered. Hoping not to find one, possibly, so she could decide it had been a lucky escape and move on, once and for all.
She could switch departments, she thought wildly. Go into Cardiology. Or Paediatrics. Or Theatre. No. This was where she loved to work. Where she got a taste of everything and the adrenaline rush of helping to deal with major, life-threatening situations. This department was a big part of why her life was on track again.
She drew up the saline to dilute the morphine. She taped the ampoule to the barrel of the syringe to identify its contents and then she walked back to the bed to hand it to Andrew.
Watching Janine relax as the effect of the narcotic took the edge off her pain had a curiously similar effect on Alice. She eyed the bruised and swollen face of the woman again. The marks of brutality on the woman’s ribs and the misshapen arm now resting in a splint. The thought of someone enduring a beating like this was horrific. Sickening. Alice raised her gaze, knowing that her reaction would be evident in her eyes.
Deliberately capturing the gaze of Andrew Barrett before that reaction dimmed.
Maybe she hadn’t believed any of it but allowing Andrew to think she might have was possibly the only defence she had.
They both had something they didn’t want their colleagues to know. Things they didn’t want to lose. Alice was more vulnerable. She had something she didn’t want Andrew to know, as well. It was good that he’d chosen not to acknowledge her. Distance was safe and, if it stopped being safe, then she was prepared to fight, if that was what it would take to protect herself.
Andrew’s gaze was steady. So was he, it told her.
For the moment at least, this appeared to be a standoff.
This was a disaster.
Alice clearly knew a lot more than he would have expected. Was she still in touch with old friends in London? People who would be only too happy to gossip about a police investigation involving a consultant emergency physician? That she knew too much was as unfortunate as knowing he was perpetuating a lie by letting her think he still believed the worst of her. But what else could he do?
He’d come this far and had found what appeared to be the perfect place for himself and Emmy. They’d only been here for a little over a week but he’d never seen his daughter so happy. He knew he’d made the right decision despite how hard leaving had been. Running away from it all had gone against the grain so hard it had been painful. An admission of defeat that some would probably interpret as guilt, but he’d done it for his daughter. He wasn’t going to let his little girl grow up anywhere within reach of a tainted past.
He couldn’t keep running. The world of medicine was surprisingly small and, no matter where you went, someone always knew someone else. Look at the way Dave had contacted him about the possibility of this position when they hadn’t seen each other since a short stint in an American hospital together ten years ago.
Andrew was between a rock and a hard place, here. Damned by his conscience whichever way he turned. The unwanted distraction filled his mind as he waited for Janine’s X-ray views to appear on the screen in front of him. Should he follow his first instinct and simply talk privately to Alice? Tell the truth and then apologize? Lay his cards on the table and ask for her help?
Why would she want to do that? She’d not only lost her job. When he’d heard that she’d left the country, he’d also heard that the sale of her house had been forced by the bank. That she’d lost everything. He could have talked to her then. Tried to make amends, even, but nobody had seemed to know where she’d gone. And then the real trouble had started and he’d forgotten everything other than trying to survive. To keep Emmy safe.
What could he say now? An excuse that he couldn’t have simply taken her word for her innocence and an apology for any inconvenience caused was hardly going to clear the air. It might actually make her jump at the chance for revenge.
The notion was jarring. It didn’t fit with the Alice Palmer he remembered from five years ago. The attractive, competent nurse working in his emergency department. A young woman doing her O. E. who’d made friends with his fiancée. Who’d come to their wedding, in fact. She’d been good at her job. Caring. The evidence that she’d been stealing morphine and other restricted drugs had been shocking. Unbelievable, really, but you never knew with women. Look at how things with Melissa had turned out.
Oh, God…No! Andrew rubbed his temple and then raked his fingers through his hair. He didn’t want to think about Mel. Or London. Or any of what had been left behind and that was why working with Alice Palmer was a complication he didn’t know how to resolve.
Images began appearing on the wall-mounted computer screen. It was a relief to focus as he scrolled through them. The cheekbone probably needed wiring. The nasty fragmented fracture of the radius and ulna would require surgery. Orthopaedics were on the way and someone from plastic surgery should be contacted to deal with the facial suturing that could be done in Theatre as well. Andrew turned back to Resus 1. He had a job to do here. His patient needed care. And protection. A delicate situation when he couldn’t know whether it might make things worse for Janine by encouraging her to lay a complaint about her boyfriend.
Alice would be in Resus 1 as well. Another delicate situation and Andrew needed more time to try and figure out what he was going to do about it. Maybe he could buy time by putting some distance between them. Adjust his shifts, perhaps, so they spent as little time as possible in the department together?
No. Why should he have to do that? He was a senior consultant in this department now and he needed to start the way he intended to carry on. Alice was a nurse. A very good nurse, probably, but as far as a balance of power went, it was weighted firmly on his side. An advantage that Andrew couldn’t afford not to use. He needed to take control and make sure he kept it.
The department was relatively quiet for a long time after Janine had been taken to Theatre. Downright boring, really. Alice was looking after an epileptic man who was sleeping off the post-ictal phase of his seizure, a diabetic patient from a rest home who needed her insulin dose adjusted and another very elderly incontinent woman, Miss Stanbury, who was still suffering the effects of a gastric disturbance and needed rehydrating and frequent changing.
When an ambulance brought in a forty-year-old man with a markedly accelerated heart rate, Alice was more than ready to take on the case.
‘This is Roger,’ the paramedic told her. ‘Narrow complex tachycardia. Rate 196. Oxygen saturation ninety-eight per cent. No cardiac history.’
Roger looked pale and frightened but he wasn’t in the kind of danger he would have been in if the spikes on his ECG were wide enough to suggest the ventricles of his heart were in trouble. Alice enjoyed cardiology. She could read a twelve lead ECG better than most junior doctors and she particularly loved this kind of case. One where a dramatic result and relief for the patient could be provided.
‘Have you got any chest pain?’ she asked Roger.
He shook his head. ‘I feel a bit short of breath, that’s all. And I can feel my heart.’
‘Have you ever felt it going this fast before?’
‘No.’
Alice helped the paramedics transfer Roger to the bed in Resus 2, where they had good telemetry facilities to monitor his heart. She raised the back of the bed so their patient was sitting up, which would help his breathing effort. Jo came in as she was transferring the oxygen tubing from the portable cylinder to the overhead outlet.
‘SVT,’ Alice told her. ‘Is Peter around?’
‘No.’ Another figure pushed through the curtains as the paramedics took the stretcher out of the small area. ‘I’ve got this case.’ Andrew was holding the patient report form the ambulance crew had supplied. A long strip of pink paper recording the cardiac rhythm en route was attached to it and he was looking at the monitor beside the bed as he spoke.
He introduced himself to his patient, who was still looking alarmed.
‘Am I having a heart attack?’
‘It’s one of the possibilities we’re going to investigate,’ Andrew told him. ‘But, so far, we’re not seeing any sign of it. Your heart’s going a bit too fast to really see what’s happening so we’re going to try and slow it down for you. Try and relax.’
Roger made a sound like a strangled bark of laughter and Andrew’s smile was sympathetic.
‘I know. Easy for me to say, standing on this side of the equation, isn’t it?’ He touched his patient’s arm. ‘I know this is scary but we’re on the case and you’re in the best possible place to get things sorted.’
His smile and his touch had a visible effect on Roger, who lay back against the pillow with a sigh and a nod.
They had a hopefully invisible effect on Alice.
This was a glimpse of the real Andrew. How many times had she seen the effects of this man’s words and smile and touch? She hadn’t really been aware of how nobody else quite measured up to the standards Andrew Barrett had set. Or how much she’d missed working with him.
Until now.
Andrew had turned to Jo. ‘Got a straw handy?’
‘Sure.’
‘And grab a technician to come and do a twelve lead, will you, please?’
‘I can do that,’ Alice said quietly.
‘Fine. Go ahead.’ Andrew was pulling on gloves. ‘I’ll get the bloods off.’
Alice could have managed that as well, but maybe the consultants were also finding their day somewhat dull. She pulled the machine she needed from the corner and began attaching all the electrodes needed to get a complete picture of the electrical activity of Roger’s heart.
Jo was cutting a short length of plastic straw.
‘I want you to take a deep breath,’ Andrew instructed Roger. ‘Seal your lips around the straw and then blow through it as hard as you can for as long as you can.’
A valsalva manoeuvre was one of the dramatic ways to get this kind of cardiac arrhythmia to revert to normal. They all watched the monitor screen as Roger’s face reddened with the effort. There was no change to the rate.
‘Get your breath back,’ Andrew said. ‘And then we’ll give it another go.’
The respite gave Alice a chance to get the twelve lead ECG. The electrodes were all in place.
‘Try and keep as still as you can,’ she asked Roger as she pressed the start button.
But he was too out of breath to comply and the trace was nothing like the clean image Alice had hoped for. Dammit! She screwed up the sheet of paper, hoping that Andrew wasn’t watching.
‘Let’s try that again,’ she said calmly. ‘If you could manage to hold your breath for just a second or two while the machine captures a picture, that would be great.’
Roger managed but the sheet that emerged was missing several pieces of information that it should have recorded.
‘You’ve lost a leg lead.’ Andrew was probably looking at her with the same kind of studied neutrality his tone held. Alice felt her cheeks reddening as she pushed the sticky patch more firmly to the skin of Roger’s left ankle.
This was mortifying. Such a simple task that she was more than capable of performing, but she was managing to make herself look completely incompetent. Worst of all, this was more important than it should have been. The old need to attract praise by being the best was so ingrained it was automatic. She still wanted to be noticed. To be seen. How pathetic was that?
Andrew was getting Roger to blow through the straw again so he’d be out of breath and she’d have to wait to try getting the recording again. When she did and it worked beautifully, Andrew wasn’t even paying attention. Peter had come in and they were discussing the next management step. Because their patient was wide awake, they couldn’t use an external electrical charge to the heart to revert the rhythm unless they sedated him heavily. The better option was to try adenosine—a drug that gave the chemical equivalent of a jolt of electricity.
It usually worked a treat and Alice knew exactly what to do. The procedure was tricky because the drug had a very short time of being effective. It had to be injected into the right arm to get to the heart as fast as possible and it had to be chased along with a large bolus of saline. Two people had to work in unison and Alice had been the one to push the flush on many occasions.
A favourite task. A bit of a challenge to get the timing right; a few seconds delay and, sometimes with even the first dose, they would watch the screen and see the heart rate magically decreasing. The adenosine was drawn up. The big fifty mil syringe of saline was drawn up. There was one port of the IV line and both needles would go in at the same time.
Peter was hanging around to watch. The paramedics had come back from tidying their ambulance and they wanted to watch, too. Andrew had the adenosine in one hand, the saline in the other. It took two hands to push that flush as fast as possible so he needed a nurse. One who knew what she was doing.
‘Alice is experienced,’ Peter said. ‘Done this a few times, haven’t you, Ally?’
She nodded, aware of a wave of pleasure at the boost to her self-esteem as she moved around the head of the bed to change sides. The perfect twelve lead ECG was sitting on top of the machine she was leaving behind but it had yet to be seen. Alice was more than happy to be given an opportunity to redeem her apparent lack of competence.
But Andrew was looking at the nurse who was already standing by his side. ‘Have you done this before, Jo?’
‘No.’
‘Nothing to it. Hold the barrel of the syringe firmly and put the base of your other thumb on the plunger. I’ll inject the adenosine and as soon as you see my plunger hit the bottom, you push in the saline as fast as you can.’
Jo shot a glance at Alice, who had stopped in her tracks and was probably looking as dismayed as she felt.
Alice glanced at Peter but the head of department merely raised an eyebrow. If their new team member wanted to take the time to help staff develop their skills then he could hardly protest.
Neither could Alice, despite feeling even more mortified than she had when she’d messed up getting that ECG trace.
‘You’re IV qualified, aren’t you?’ Andrew asked Jo.
‘Yes.’
‘Then let’s do this.’
Jo positioned herself closer to Andrew. Their gloved hands were touching. Side by side. Syringe by syringe. Of course, Jo had no trouble performing her part of the task and then everyone was looking at the monitor.
Alice heard the distinctive sigh from Roger which showed that the drug had reached its target, but she didn’t wait to enjoy the potential satisfaction of seeing a successful result. Nobody noticed as she turned and quietly slipped out of the Resus area.
Alice wasn’t needed in here. And she certainly wasn’t wanted by the consultant in charge.
CHAPTER TWO
NOT being able to afford a decent car had its advantages.
You could throw anything into the back of this ancient four-wheel drive. Dogs, saddles, dirty covers—it made no difference. You could also have your foot flat to the floor and not break the speed limit. Even if you were very angry and upset and weren’t even thinking about how fast to take the corners, you were safe.
Living this far out of town had its advantages, too. You left the city well behind and could see only the green of paddocks and hills and the deep blue of a late afternoon sky. Autumn colours gilded tall poplar trees and animals grazed peacefully beneath them. Sheep and cattle and fat pet ponies. A goat on a chain was eating the long grass of someone’s roadside verge.
Work was left behind along with the city and the further away Alice got, the more she could feel all the upsets of her day receding. Some time out was exactly what she desperately needed. Escape to the place she loved more than any patch of the earth she had ever discovered. Turning off the main road, she drove into a valley. Towards the end of this road was a property bordered by a river and enclosed by hills like a geographical hug. Hidden from the world and, for the moment at least, entirely hers.
The long driveway was lined by oak trees that were well over a hundred years old. Leaves drifted lazily from great heights and Alice rolled down her window to smell the season. A hint of damp moss and rich soil. A faint whiff of smoke from a bonfire on some neighbouring farm. The chimneys of the enormous old house weren’t giving off any smoke, of course. Why would they, when the house had been empty for so long?
Finding new owners seemed unlikely in the short term. Who could afford a rather rundown old mansion these days when it was a good twenty minutes drive from the city? The cost of petrol alone would put people off, never mind the extensive renovations needed and the effort of keeping up a hilly property of at least fifty acres. The longer it took, the better as far as Alice was concerned. She was more than happy to be here as the only human tenant.
Alice took the fork in the driveway before she got more than a glimpse of the big house through the trees. She drove towards the river now. Towards the cottage that had once housed shearers and had been rented out a year ago to her friend, Mandy. Seeing the small weatherboard dwelling ahead of her, with her dog, Jake, guarding the front step, Alice could finally let go of everything bad the day had thrown at her.
The shock of being pulled back to a past she had thought long gone. Having the ashes of a distant one-sided romance stirred and finding it still showed a dismaying warmth. Enough of a glow to make the embarrassment of being deliberately put in her place as a less important staff member far more intense. Last, but by no means least, was the knowledge that if she wanted to keep the life she’d worked so hard to create for herself, she really would have to fight for it.
Alice climbed out of the truck and crouched to hug her dog, burying her face against his shaggy neck for a moment, feeling his whole body wag pleasure in her return. Alice let out her breath in a long sigh and she was smiling as she stood up.
‘I’m home,’ she said aloud. ‘How good is that?’
Even better, she had a good two hours of daylight left. Time to saddle up Ben and take a gentle trek up the hills, through the forest and back to the river. Her huge black horse was getting on in years now and was probably a bit stiff after the long stint of being shut in the float yesterday. Besides, Alice couldn’t think of anything she would rather do to centre herself again. The other things she needed like a good home-cooked meal and a long sleep could wait.
Climbing into soft old jodhpurs and pulling on her short leather boots dispelled any thoughts of uniforms. The smell of well cared for leather as she collected her tack from the stable put anything shiny and clinical on another planet. Best of all was the soft whinny of welcome from Ben when she went out to the paddock behind the cottage with Jake walking close enough to brush her leg.
She was wanted here. Trusted. Loved by her boys. Yeah…life was full of hard bits but it could also be very, very good and this was as good as it got.
A short time later, Alice swung herself up into the saddle and clicked her tongue. Ben wasn’t showing any sign of being stiff. He took the bit and pulled eagerly. Maybe he was thinking of that long empty paddock where the forest track ended. The gentle uphill slope that was the perfect place to stretch out into a good gallop.
Alice grinned.
Yes!
Television was so boring!
Emmeline Barrett was fed up with the squeaky cartoon voices. With a heartfelt sigh, she wriggled around to kneel on the couch backwards, her chin resting on her hands as she gazed out of the window at the green hills and blue skies that were so different from anything she’d ever known it was like being in a fairy tale.
Haylee, her new nanny, was lying on the other couch, flat on her back with cushions under her head and her cellphone against her ear as she continued yet another phone call.
‘No! Oh, my God! She didn’t…Oh?’ A contemptuous snort followed. ‘Whatever! As if he’d be interested in her!’
Haylee had promised to take her for a walk this afternoon. Down to see the river or up to where the trees were thick enough to make that dark and scary patch on the hillside that never failed to give Emmy a lovely tickle inside when she looked at it.
Suddenly, she knelt bolt upright, not even noticing that the interminable phone call was ending on the other couch. Her jaw dropped as she watched a big black horse come out of the forest and start galloping up the hill. A dog was running behind and it had to be a lady riding the horse because Emmy could see long hair streaming out behind the hat she was wearing.
Was it a real fairy tale now? An enchanted forest? Could the lady be a princess? She watched until the magic horse disappeared over the top of the hill and then she climbed off the couch.
‘Haylee?’
‘Hmm?’ The nanny’s response sounded remarkably like a yawn.
‘Can we go for our walk now? Please?’ she added hurriedly as she remembered her manners.
‘In a minute, okay?’ Haylee’s eyes were closed. ‘I just need to rest for a bit.’
Emmy scowled. She looked back at her couch that faced the blaring television. She looked at the door which led into the big hallway with the tiny stones that made patterns on the floor. If she went all the way down, there was a really big wooden door that was probably too heavy for her to open, but, if she went the other way, she knew she would find the kitchen and that funny room full of tubs and taps that had a much smaller door. If she went past the clothes line outside that door, she might be able to find the hill.
She might be able to see that magic horse and the princess again.
Emmy looked at Haylee, whose eyes were still firmly shut.
‘I’m going to the bathroom,’ she announced. ‘I need to go to the toilet.’
‘Can you manage by yourself?’
‘Of course I can.’ The indignation was automatic. ‘I’m five!’
‘Cool. Come straight back.’
Emmy got to the door but then turned to watch for a moment longer. She saw the way Haylee’s fingers relaxed their grip on the cellphone. Her new nanny didn’t even notice when it slipped out of her grasp and bounced onto the floor.
Emmy stopped chewing her bottom lip. With her lips set in a rather determined smile, she went out of the door in search of magic.
Forty-year-old Roger was about to walk out of the door of the emergency department.
‘Wait!’ Andrew took another glance at the slip of paper in his hand and stepped in front of his patient.
‘What for?’
But Roger took a step back towards the bed he’d recently vacated, having rested for a couple of hours after the successful management of his cardiac arrhythmia.
‘I’ve just received the results of the last blood tests we took.’
‘You said there was nothing wrong with my blood.’
‘There wasn’t. The first results came back with completely normal cardiac enzymes.’ Andrew tweaked the curtain shut behind him and showed Roger the paper he held. ‘This one, however, shows a raised TNT.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means that there’s been some damage to heart tissue.’
Roger sat down on the bed. ‘You mean, like a heart attack?’
‘Yes. The level is low enough to suggest it’s minor but we’re going to need to admit you and run some more tests.’
‘But…I want to go home.’
‘I know,’ he said sympathetically. ‘I’m sorry.’
Roger wasn’t the only one who wanted to go home. Andrew’s shift had officially finished, but he took the time to explain things to Roger again and then he paged Cardiology and waited for the registrar to arrive so he could transfer care of this patient. Finally, he unhooked his stethoscope from around his neck, put on the pinstriped jacket of his suit and headed for the car park.
Minutes later and he could put his foot down. Just a little, because that was all it needed for a surge of power from his gorgeous new car. The powerful engine purred softly and the miles between work and home evaporated. Andrew sped past the rolling paddocks without seeing the autumn colours of the trees. He barely noticed the goat on the side of the road.
It seemed a very long time since he’d kissed Emmy goodbye this morning and he needed to get back to her. To their new home. To remind himself why they’d journeyed here from the far side of the world. To convince himself it was worth the disturbing prospect of having to work with someone who was such a tangible link to his old life.
He’d won the first round, though, hadn’t he? Made it very clear that if they were to work together it would be on his terms. So why wasn’t it making him feel any better about the future? Why had he been left with this kind of unpleasant aftertaste as though he was being forced not only to recognise, but to bring out a side of himself that he didn’t particularly like?
Andrew slowed just a little as the car bounced over the undulations in the driveway formed by ancient tree roots. He glanced to his left at the fork and caught a metallic glimmer that begged a second look. A horse float was parked under the shelter of some trees. Good. The tenant had returned. Amanda someone, the solicitor had informed him.
Andrew needed to talk to this Amanda. To let her know that, unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to let her renew the lease on the cottage that was due to expire at the end of this month. He needed the cottage as accommodation. The agency had assured him they would be able to find a married couple who would jump at the opportunity of living here and working for him. A housekeeper-nanny and a farm manager. Free accommodation should ensure he got the best available and nothing but the best would do. If the couple had children, it would be a bonus. While he was making arrangements for Emmy to start school in the city, it was too far away to make out-of-school play dates easy. How much better would it be if she had company closer to home?
The sound of the television made Andrew frown as he let himself in through the front door of the magnificent old house. Why on earth was Emmy watching rubbish when she could be outside in the fresh air and enjoying the kind of exercise and surroundings that had been impossible in central London?
Finding the temporary nanny sound asleep on a couch in the small sitting room that had once been a library was a shock. Andrew snatched up the remote and killed the noise, staring at the young woman in disbelief and then automatically scouring the room for evidence of something worse than being simply asleep. Empty bottles? Syringes? Not that it made any difference. History was still repeating itself. He had apparently left his daughter in the care of someone who wasn’t competent enough to keep her safe, let alone care for her the way she deserved.
The sudden silence had been enough to wake Haylee.
‘Where’s Emmy?’ Andrew demanded.
‘She went to the loo.’
‘Oh?’ Andrew strode to the door, trying to calm down. ‘Emmy?’
He called again but he could feel the emptiness of the house as he stood in the vast hallway. His pace increased as he checked the cloakroom under the sweeping stairway. He took the stairs two at a time to reach the gallery that overlooked the foyer. He checked Emmy’s bedroom. His own room. He threw open door after door of rooms that didn’t even contain any furniture yet.
‘Emmy!’
Downstairs, he found Haylee standing near the kitchen, looking frightened.
‘How long were you asleep for?’
‘I…I’m not sure. Not long.’
Andrew brushed past her into the kitchen. Empty. Not even any sign of the pantry being raided for snacks. The old laundry was also empty. The back door was open.
‘She’s gone outside?’ Andrew tried to quell a spark of panic. ‘By herself?’
‘She won’t have gone far.’
‘How on earth would you know that? You don’t even have any idea how long you were asleep.’ Anger surfaced with a vengeance. ‘And how far do you think she would need to go to get into trouble? There’s a river out there, for God’s sake!’
‘I—I’ll help you look.’ Haylee looked ready to burst into tears.
‘No.’ Andrew didn’t spare the time to look back at the girl. She wasn’t to know that he was as angry with himself as he was with her but fear overrode any habit of kindness. ‘Get your things and go home, Haylee. I don’t want you looking after my daughter. You’re fired!’
He scanned the kitchen yard, with its clothes line and pattern of herb gardens surrounded by tall thick hedges that hadn’t been trimmed in years. The gateway set under an arch of greenery was overgrown. Almost invisible and only just ajar. Quite enough of a gap for a small girl to have squeezed through, however.
Andrew wrenched the gate open further.
‘Emmy!’
Good grief!
There was a small girl standing in Ben’s paddock. A very pretty little girl with a mop of blonde curly hair and big blue eyes that were gazing up at her in open admiration. Awe, even.
‘Jake!’
The warning was unnecessary. Her large dog had dropped to his haunches well away from the child. He put his nose on his front paws and prepared to wait patiently. Ben also seemed to realise that caution was advisable. He stopped, not even looking at the water trough beside the girl.
‘Hello,’ Alice said. ‘Who are you?’
‘Emmy.’
‘Hello, Emmy. I’mAlice.’
She swung her leg over Ben’s back and slid to the ground, pulling off her helmet and then grabbing the reins before Ben could think of stepping forward. This child was tiny. So fragile-looking close to Ben’s fluffy dinner-plate-sized hooves. Especially in that pretty pink dress with her long white socks.
‘I saw you,’ Emmy said. ‘From the window.’
‘Oh?’ Alice looked around, despite knowing perfectly well there were no windows nearby. This was getting weird.
‘Are you all by yourself?’
Emmy nodded. ‘Haylee’s asleep. She’s tired.’
Maybe Alice was too. Suffering from exhaustion. Or low blood sugar or something. Having some kind of delusional experience.
‘Are you a princess?’
Definitely delusional. ‘No.’
‘Is he magic?’
A tiny finger was pointing at Ben. Big blue eyes were looking up. Way up at the head of her horse. Something in the child’s expression was very familiar. The kind of longing she remembered from when she was that small. A longing that had become a dream of one day having her own pony.
Alice smiled. ‘He’s kind of magic,’ she said softly. ‘Because he makes good things happen. Would you like to pat him?’
Already big eyes widened dramatically and Alice could see the sudden tension in the small body. A flash of fear. She heard the deep breath Emmy sucked in and then saw a determined nod.
‘Yes, please.’
Brave kid. Alice held out her hand. ‘He wouldn’t hurt you. He loves children.’
The diminutive hand went trustingly into hers. ‘I’ll lift you up,’ Alice said, ‘so you can reach his neck. That’s the best place to pat him.’
Emmy’s fingers looked tiny and very pale against Ben’s black coat.
‘He’s big, isn’t he? That’s why he’s called Ben. After Big Ben. That’s a clock. In London.’
‘I know that.’ The child sounded indignant. ‘I’m five!’
Alice was too startled to smile at the tone. She’d been chatting quietly simply to put Emmy at ease. It was only now that she registered the accent.
‘Did you live in London, Emmy?’
‘Yes.’ Emmy was stretching up to reach Ben’s mane.
‘Where do you live now?’
‘Here.’
She couldn’t have walked from a neighbouring farm to get here by herself, surely. That left only one potential home. The big house. It was still quite a walk for a five-year-old to have made by herself. Who was Haylee? A sister? And where were the parents? Did they have no idea of the kind of hazards a property like this could present? What if she hadn’t been home or Ben wasn’t as gentle as he was? What about the river, for heaven’s sake?
Alice would have something to say to Emmy’s parents when she saw them.
‘What’s your last name?’ she queried.
Emmy didn’t answer. She was busy threading her fingers through a handful of mane.
Alice tried again. ‘What’s Daddy’s name?’
‘Daddy.’
Alice smiled. She gave up. Surely someone would come looking for the child soon enough. They were probably busy moving in right now and hadn’t noticed her wandering off.
‘Would you like to sit on top of Ben?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘You’ll need to wear my hat. It’s a special helmet just for people who sit on horses.’
A moment later and there she was. A little princess with blonde curls poking from beneath the helmet, sitting on the huge black horse which made her look like a pea on a pumpkin. A very happy princess. It was the first time Alice had seen the child smile and it was the best smile, simply radiating joy, quite contagious enough to have Alice standing there, smiling back.
They could have stayed like that for a very long time. Both totally content, but then Jake raised his head from his paws. The shaggy hair on his neck came up and he emitted a low growling sound.
And then, from some distance behind Alice, came the sound of a man’s voice. A very angry man.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing with my daughter?’
Emmy burst into tears.
Jake’s growl reached an ominous level and was reinforced with a loud bark.
But Alice didn’t turn around. She couldn’t. Not yet. Not when she’d recognised that furious voice.
By some twist of a malevolent fate, ‘Daddy’ was Andrew Barrett and he was closer by the moment.
Oh…God!
‘Don’t cry,’ she said to Emmy. Or was she talking aloud to herself? ‘It’s all right.’
‘Nooo!’ Fat tears rolled down pink cheeks. ‘Daddy’s cross with me.’
‘Actually…’ Alice found a smile ‘…I think he’s cross with me.’
Emmy’s tears stopped. She stared at Alice. ‘Why?’
Why, indeed? If anyone was to be blamed for anything right now, it most certainly shouldn’t be Alice. She turned and had the satisfaction of seeing Andrew stopped in his tracks. Not only by the menacing form of Jake, who’d positioned himself between his mistress and the threatening man, but by the shock of recognition.
‘What are you doing here?’
There was dawning horror on the face of her old boss and, for just an instant, Alice had the peculiar notion that he was afraid of her. Totally ridiculous, of course, but it was enough for her to dredge up some confidence.
‘I live here. What are you doing here?’
‘I own this property,’ Andrew snapped. ‘And you most certainly do not live here.’
‘Yes, she does, Daddy.’ Emmy gave a huge sniff. ‘So does Ben.’
‘Be quiet, please, Emmeline. I’m talking.’
Good grief! What kind of father was Andrew Barrett? Talking to a five-year-old this sternly made any fantasy of his parental skills evaporate into an unpleasant mist. Alice didn’t like what she was seeing. Neither did Emmy, apparently. The small girl stuck out her bottom lip and scowled at her father. Andrew tried to take a step forward and Jake growled again.
‘Call it off,’ Andrew commanded.
Alice waited for a heartbeat. And then another. ‘Jake,’ she said softly. Her wonderful dog moved to sit beside her, pressed against her leg.
‘And now get my daughter down from that monster.’
That was too much for Emmy. ‘He’s not a monster!’ she declared. She leaned forward in the saddle and tried to wrap her arms around Ben’s neck. They barely made it to the halfway mark. ‘He’s lovely,’ Emmy said passionately. ‘He’s my new friend and he’s a magic horse. Alice said so.’
Alice was gripping Emmy’s leg, unsure of the child’s balance. At the same time, she was watching the muscles in Andrew’s face move. As though he was trying to digest the mutiny he was faced with and decide how he would deal with it. Or maybe he was trying to understand how this could possibly be happening.
Alice was with him on that one. This was a nightmare! Part of her brain, however, was registering the fact that Andrew wasn’t punishing his daughter in any way for the contradiction. Maybe he wasn’t as strict and controlling as first impressions had suggested. Or maybe he was just distracted by dealing with her for the moment. He didn’t look indecisive any longer. He looked furious. His gaze was chilly enough to send a shiver up her spine.
‘Where—precisely—do you live?’
‘In the cottage.’
Andrew shook his head. ‘No. The tenant in the cottage is someone called Amanda.’
Alice nodded. ‘Mandy Jones. She signed a twelvemonth lease but she decided to go to Italy with her boyfriend. I was already living with her so I took over the lease last October, when it still had six months to run.’
‘I wasn’t informed of any sub-lease.’
‘We saw the solicitor. I signed a contract.’
‘We’ll have to see about that. Won’t we?’
A horrible thought occurred to Alice. What if the contract was somehow illegal? Could Andrew simply kick her out? Where on earth would she go, with a horse and dog? She touched Jake’s head with her free hand, seeking reassurance. Trying to stem the awful sinking feeling that, once again, her life was falling apart.
‘Alice?’
She turned her face up to Emmy.
‘I’d like to get down now, please.’
‘Sure. Bring your leg over to this side and I’ll help you.’ Alice raised her arms and caught Emmy as she slid off the horse. Ben stood like a rock, bless him, but she held the little girl closer for just a moment when her feet touched the ground. Letting her know that she was safe. It was a long time since she’d hugged a child and her arms felt curiously empty when she let go.
Emmy patted Jake on his head and then walked towards her father. ‘Come on, Daddy,’ she said. ‘I’m hungry and I want to go home.’ She looked over her shoulder at Alice. ‘Can I have another ride, please? Tomorrow?’
‘Um…you’ll need to talk to your daddy about that.’
A discussion that was unlikely to give Emmy what she wanted, judging by the look Alice was receiving from Andrew right now. If she’d felt unwanted in Resus this afternoon when he’d chosen Jo over her, she felt far less desirable right now. More like something he needed to scrape off his shiny black shoe.
Except his shoes weren’t very shiny any more, after storming over the paddock. The ends of his pinstriped trousers looked a little worse for wear, too. No doubt he would blame Alice when he noticed and then she would have to face him again at work in the morning. Not that she had to do anything to gain this man’s displeasure. Existing was more than enough.
Alice had to fight the urge to burst into tears the way Emmy had on hearing her father shouting. Just as well she was good at fighting. She’d learned to tap into stronger feelings. Like anger. She raised her chin.
‘You might like to let Emmy’s mother know it’s not a good idea to let her wander around by herself,’ she said crisply. ‘The river’s quite deep in places and it’s not fenced off.’
Emmy turned again. She was shaking her head. ‘I haven’t got a mother,’ she told Alice. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she, Daddy?’
‘Yes.’ The monosyllabic response was giving nothing away.
It certainly wasn’t inviting even one of the questions Alice had tumbling in her head. What had happened to Melissa? How long ago? Did Emmy miss her dreadfully? Did Andrew? Was that why he had decided to come to the other side of the world to be a solo parent?
‘I’ve got a nanny instead,’ Emmy continued.
‘Not any more.’ Andrew sounded weary now. ‘Haylee’s not going to be staying with us any longer.’
‘Because she was so tired?’
That got a smile. One that Alice was completely excluded from. The bond between this father and daughter was clearly strong enough for her to have been forgotten as the two of them talked to each other. That impression was deepened as Andrew bent down and Emmy raised her arms to be picked up. And when she was, she wrapped her arms around her father’s neck and her legs around his waist and tucked her head against his neck. A fluid series of movements that spoke of a well-rehearsed routine.
‘Yes, sweetheart. Because she was too tired to look after you properly. Now say goodbye to Alice. We’re going home.’
Emmy peeped over the solid wall of her father’s shoulder. Big blue eyes and golden curls, just like her mother had had. The same kind of fragile prettiness that most men had found irresistible, but it had been Andrew that Mel had chosen.
‘Goodbye, Alice,’ the little girl said.
‘Bye, hon.’
She was used to living here alone. It was more than five months since Mandy had gone. She had Ben. And Jake.
So why on earth did watching the retreating figure of Andrew, holding his child in his arms, make her feel not only alone but lonely?
Afraid, even.
CHAPTER THREE
‘ARE you sure?’
‘I’m sorry, Dr Barrett. This is a witnessed signature and all perfectly legal. The reason I wasn’t aware of the sub-lease was because I was overseas at the time it was arranged and my junior partner dealt with it. Unfortunately, the filing of the document was incorrect.’
‘So I’m stuck with it.’
‘Only for another three weeks or thereabouts.’ The solicitor raised an eyebrow. ‘You didn’t seem concerned about waiting for the lease to expire when you purchased the property.’
‘That’s because I had no idea who was really living in that cottage.’
‘And the tenant is a problem?’
‘Yes.’ The word was heartfelt.
‘In that case…’ The solicitor smiled, pulling a blank piece of paper in front of him. ‘What is she doing that’s unacceptable?’
Andrew frowned. She was just…there; wasn’t that enough? It was more than enough for him to find it disturbing. Especially when his daughter seemed convinced that Alice Palmer had magic powers of some kind. It was all she could talk about last night and she’d been almost breathless with excitement and talking so fast at times it had been hard to hear everything.
Apparently she had watched her gallop up a big hill with her hair streaming out behind.
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Alison Roberts
She’s happy as a nurse… But his little girl needs a nanny…and he needs a bride!Nurse Alice Palmer’s world is turned upside down by the new A&E consultant Andrew Barrett. Not just because he’s gorgeous, nor even because he forced her to leave London in disrepute. No, it’s because, despite everything, he’s the man she fell in love with – and she’s never recovered from her unrequited crush.The question is, what’s he doing in New Zealand? Why is his beautiful little daughter motherless? And how is Alice going to stop her frantic heart from beating so loudly he must be able to hear?And when Alice becomes part-time nanny to his little girl, it’s as if fate is dealing her the most remarkable hand of all…
‘And you.’ Andrew straightened with an easy, smooth motion. He walked towards Alice and held out his hand again. ‘You saved my daughter.’
How weird to be offered a handshake. Except when Alice accepted her hand wasn’t shaken. Andrew took it in both of his and clasped it firmly.
‘There are no words,’ he said softly, ‘that could tell you how grateful I am.’
He didn’t need words. Alice could feel it. Like a miniature version of the circle his arms had created earlier. And she could feel her eyes widening with the wonder of it. The power.
She couldn’t hold his gaze because it was too much. The longing that stirred deep within her was so sharp it was unbearable. She had to break the contact. To look away and pull her hand free.
Alison Roberts lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. She began her working career as a primary school teacher, but now juggles available working hours between writing and active duty as an ambulance officer. Throwing in a large dose of parenting, housework, gardening and petminding keeps life busy, and teenage daughter Becky is responsible for an increasing number of days spent on equestrian pursuits. Finding time for everything can be a challenge, but the rewards make the effort more than worthwhile.
Recent titles by the same author:
HER BABY OUT OF THE BLUE
HOT-SHOT SURGEON, CINDERELLA BRIDE
THE ITALIAN SURGEON’S CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
MARRYING THE MILLIONAIRE DOCTOR*
*Crocodile Creek
Nurse, Nanny…Bride!
By
Alison Roberts
MILLS & BOON®
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHAPTER ONE
SO THIS was what it felt like to faint.
As if a plug had been pulled out of your brain and all the blood was disappearing in a rush to leave a curious buzzing sensation in its wake.
Alice tried to move her feet but they were lead weights. Just as well she could still move her arm. Catching hold of the metal rail along the side of one of the few empty beds in this emergency department was her best chance of remaining upright.
‘Are you okay, Ally?’ The voice of the nurse lowering the rail on the other side of the bed seemed to be coming from a very long way away. ‘You’ve gone as white as a sheet.’
‘I…’ Alice was gripping the rail as if her life depended on it. The black spots interfering with her vision were starting to fade. Any second now and she would be able to take a second look. She must have been mistaken, surely? It couldn’t possibly really be Andrew Barrett standing on the other side of this department. He was a world away. In London. A world she’d been only too happy to leave behind in the end.
‘Sit!’ Strong hands were guiding Alice towards the chair beside the bed. The one the patient’s relatives usually sat on. ‘Sit down and put your head between your knees.’
Alice resisted the pressure. ‘I’m okay, Jo.’
She was. The buzzing was gone. Blood was reaching her brain again almost as fast as it had left, thanks to the increase in her heart rate. ‘I’m just a bit…’
Shocked. Slapped by a reminder of a past she had worked very hard to escape from. It probably wasn’t even him. Just someone who looked a bit like him from the side. Tall and well built with slightly scruffy dark blond hair and the weathered skin of a man who loved to be outdoors. A figure familiar enough to push a lot of old buttons.
Bright ones like desire.
Much darker ones such as envy.
‘Exhausted?’ Jo supplied. ‘I’m not surprised. What time did you get back home last night?’
‘About eleven, I guess.’
‘And how long was the drive?’
‘More than ten hours. Mostly thanks to the radiator boiling with my old truck trying to pull a horse float over the pass.’
‘Oh, no! You poor thing. I’ll bet it took an hour or more to offload Ben and get things sorted when you got home, too. You probably haven’t had more than a few hours’ sleep and that’s on top of a week of having to sort your gran’s property and everything.’ Jo’s arm came around Alice in a swift hug. ‘Have you even had any breakfast, hon?’
‘No.’ In fact, it was hard to remember when she’d last had a proper meal. No wonder she’d nearly fainted. Or was imagining things. The swirl of disturbing emotions was still there. Making her stomach feel a shade queasy.
‘Go into the staff room right now and make yourself some toast. And hot chocolate. I’ll tidy up in here.’
Again, Alice shook her head. The route to the staff room would mean having to brush past the two men who were peering at one of the wall-mounted X-ray screens on that side of the department. And maybe she hadn’t been imagining things. Maybe one of those men was someone she hadn’t expected and really didn’t want to see. Ever again. It would be too hard going down that particular road again. Negotiating painfully bumpy terrain that led absolutely nowhere.
‘I’m fine now, really.’ Alice smiled. She was. She could move again. She lowered the rail on the bed and tugged at the sheet that needed changing. ‘And it was worth all the hassle. I couldn’t have left Ben for more than a week when there was nobody to keep an eye on him and the beach rides more than made up for the stress of having to clean out Gran’s place. The last tenants made a hell of a mess. It’s no wonder it barely sold for enough to cover the mortgage.’
‘At least it’s settled.’ Jo was moving back to the other side of the bed as Alice rolled up the sheet and stuffed it into the linen bag. ‘Having to pay that on top of your rent for the last year’s been a killer, hasn’t it?’
Alice nodded. There was nothing she could say. It had just been one of those things. It had to be done so she’d done it. The same way she had dealt with all the hard stuff that life had a habit of dumping her in. Head on. Standing tall. Fainting was definitely not an option. Alice took a deep breath and deliberately shifted her gaze. She was ready to get her bearings.
‘Who is that?’ she asked calmly. ‘Talking to Peter?’
Jo glanced over her shoulder. When she turned back to Alice, her eyebrows were a little higher and a smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. ‘Andy Barrett. New consultant. Cute, huh?’
Alice couldn’t say anything. Hopefully Jo wouldn’t interpret her stare as anything more than curiosity.
‘He’s English. Started work here the day after you left last week. We were all surprised. Turns out that Dave had health issues he didn’t want anyone to know about and finding his replacement had been kept well under wraps. Apparently we really scored getting this Dr Barrett. He’s been the head honcho at some big London hospital for years. Can’t remember which one. Hammersmith, maybe.’
Alice couldn’t trust herself to open her mouth. If she did she might tell Jo that it hadn’t been Hammersmith. It had been the same hospital she had worked in herself for over a year.
Until she’d been as good as fired.
By one Dr Andrew Barrett.
Jo didn’t know any of that story. No one here did and that was exactly the way Alice wanted it to be. No way was she getting pulled back anywhere near that black period of humiliation again. Not now. Apart from the death of her grandmother a year ago and the ten days leave she had just taken to sort out the eventual sale of the isolated cottage the only remaining member of her family had lived in, Alice’s life was finally on track again.
She was still staring at the profile of the man who presented a new and very unwelcome threat. Both professional and personal.
Why had he come all the way to the opposite side of the earth and picked the one place that was hers? It wasn’t as if New Zealand was that small. He could have picked one of the larger cities in the north island. Maybe they didn’t have as many ski fields or mountains to climb but they had plenty of water. He could have learned to sail. Or surf!
Maybe Pam would know why. Contact with the only friend she had kept from her time in London was well overdue and if what she was seeking was the kind of gossip she deliberately avoided, so be it. Knowledge was power and Alice certainly needed a boost.
Just making the decision to email Pam gave Alice the illusion of regaining some control. About to drag her gaze away from the new member of staff, she only just caught the movement as he raised his left hand to indicate something of interest on the image.
Unaware of the frown on her face, she turned to help Jo smooth and tuck fresh linen onto the bed. The last time she had seen Andy Barrett he had been wearing a wedding ring. A tight band of gold that had successfully suffocated any stupid fantasies she might have nurtured.
He wasn’t wearing it now.
The case in Resus 1 was a trauma. A thirty-five-year-old woman who was well known to emergency department staff: one of their ‘frequent flyers’. Her boyfriend had gang affiliations and was only too ready to use his fists and his feet when something displeased him, but Janine had steadfastly refused to lay any complaints against him on earlier visits. Maybe this time would be different, the triage nurse told the consultant. It was the worst punishment they’d ever seen her receive.
Janine lay, oddly quiet, on the bed, her face now so swollen it was obviously painful for her to speak.
‘No!’ she managed in response to Andrew’s careful suggestion. ‘No police. I told you. I fell down the stairs.’
Yeah…right. Stairs that had knuckles and heavy boots. The lacerations on her eyebrow and upper lip needed extensive suturing. A cheekbone was probably fractured and Andrew didn’t like the ugly purple bruises already appearing on her ribs as a nurse cut away her clothing.
‘Can you take a deep breath for me?’ Andrew was using both hands to examine her ribs as gently as he could.
‘Ahhh!’ It was the first indication Janine had given of her level of pain.
‘Pretty sore, isn’t it?’ Her breathing was adequate but unsurprisingly shallow. ‘What score would you give it on a scale of one to ten, Janine? Ten being the worst.’
‘I’m all right.’ Janine sounded as if she was holding her breath now. She had her eyes closed and beads of perspiration mingled with the blood on her forehead. She was a long way from being all right.
‘Anything else hurting that much?’
A tear escaped puffy eyelids. ‘My…arm, I guess.’
The sleeve of a ragged jersey was being peeled away and the deformity of Janine’s wrist and lower arm was obvious. Another fracture. Almost open. Andrew could see the bone just under the skin. Checking limb baselines like movement and sensation and perfusion seemed inadvisable until the fracture was secured. Even trying to wriggle her fingers might be enough to break the skin and risk infection. He turned to the nurse and lowered his voice.
‘She didn’t come in by ambulance, did she?’
Jo shook her head. ‘Private car. She was left outside Reception to make her own way inside.’
Andrew’s mouth tightened as he shook his head in disgust. He had to bury the anger that might have made him storm out of here if the bastard was hanging around. He had to rid his head of the ugly words he would like to have said to the kind of man who could treat a woman like this.
And, most of all, he had to dismiss the memory of what it felt like to be suspected of being that kind of man. ‘Let’s get an IV line in and a splint on this arm,’ he ordered crisply. ‘We’ll get some pain relief on board and then do a thorough secondary survey before we start the X-rays.’
Another nurse entered the resuscitation area as Andrew slipped a tourniquet around Janine’s arm and tightened it. ‘I’m going to put a small needle in your hand,’ he warned his patient. ‘Then we can give you something for the pain. Okay?’
Janine nodded. The movement made her wince. In his peripheral vision, as he anchored a vein and slipped a cannula into place, Andrew could see the new nurse sliding a well padded cardboard splint under Janine’s broken arm and then starting to secure it. Her movements were sure and careful enough not to cause further damage or pain.
He taped the cannula and looked up properly this time, intending to let the nurse know that she’d done a good job. It was just as well he hadn’t done this a few seconds ago. He might have missed the vein completely.
Alice Palmer?
He’d known she came from New Zealand. Why had it not even occurred to him that she might be working in a hospital here again? Because the odds of it being the same one he’d been offered a job in by an old acquaintance were so small? Or was it because he’d been so determined to put any thoughts of her and the period of his life she’d been a part of completely behind him?
How ironic that he’d come this far to get away from it all. To start again and here it was, staring him in the face. Right beside a case that graphically represented most of what he’d been trying to escape.
He stared back.
How much did Alice know? Not much, presumably, because she’d lost her job before it had started. Unfair dismissal, as it had turned out. And he’d been responsible. He had had every intention of telling her, but when he’d gone to the address the woman in Personnel had given, he’d found an empty house with a ‘For Sale’ sign outside that had a cheerful ‘Sold’ sticker planted in the centre. It had been six months after the event, in any case, and someone in Emergency had suggested that Alice had left the country.
He couldn’t tell her now. It was ancient history and here she was, working in a senior position so it hadn’t affected her career. And if he did tell her, she’d want to know how he knew and that was what had had to be left behind.
For Emmy’s sake.
He held her gaze and kept his tone carefully neutral as his brain worked overtime, tossing up whether to acknowledge the fact that they knew each other.
‘I’d like some morphine drawn up, please,’ he said.
No. He couldn’t acknowledge her. That would bring a flurry of interest from others. Questions he didn’t want to hear, let alone answer. His next words emerged before he’d had a chance to even think them through. A form of attack as a defensive shield.
‘If you have keys to the drug cabinet, that is.’
Heat scorched Alice’s cheeks.
She dragged her eyes away from his face. An olderlooking face. Thinner and far more distant. Had he changed so much from the man she remembered or was this coolness due to a determination to hide recognition? So this was how it was going to be. They were not going to acknowledge having worked together, let alone knowing what they did know about each other.
A warning shot had been fired. If she said anything about the rumours she’d been hearing before she left London, he would warn her superiors that allowing her access to restricted drugs might be inadvisable.
The unfairness of it added a new element to the emotional turmoil Alice was dealing with. Despite the traitorous reaction of her body earlier, she knew she wasn’t in love with the man any more. She’d got over that a very long time ago. About when she’d been standing in front of his desk and he’d said he couldn’t trust her enough to let her keep the job she loved.
She’d tried to hate him for that but hadn’t succeeded. Her heart had been incapable of flipping the coin to embrace the dark side of love. Especially when her head, coupled with an innate sense of fairness, had forced her to acknowledge that he’d only been doing what he had to do as head of department. Quite generously, really, when he’d offered her the opportunity to resign instead of launching an official investigation and a paper trail that would have haunted the rest of her working life.
What was really unfair was that she’d never believed the rumours about him. Even now, with the dark emotions sparked by seeing the poor battered woman they were treating at the moment and the cool distance he had placed between himself and an old colleague, she knew he was as incapable of hurting someone deliberately as she was of stealing and taking drugs. If Andrew had been interested enough to actually get to know her properly, he would have had—would still have—the same kind of faith in her.
Clearly, he didn’t. The implication beneath his request for morphine had been a deliberate reminder of the humiliating rumours she’d been unable to disprove. That he hadn’t trusted her. That he’d never really seen who she was. That hurt.
Quite apart from being an intimately personal slight, mud had a habit of sticking. Enough to ruin lives. Alice actually felt sick to her stomach as she pulled an ampoule of morphine from the cabinet and signed the register. She could feel Andrew watching her.
Jo did the drug check with her. The name of the drug. The dose. The expiry date. She watched as Alice snapped the top of the ampoule and slid a needle in to draw it up. Try as she might, Alice couldn’t disguise the subtle trembling of her hands.
‘You still need toast,’ Jo whispered.
Alice needed something a lot more than food. She needed to be a long way away from their new consultant. How could she possibly work with him when he was watching every move she made? Knowing that, despite the best of intentions and for very different reasons, she would have to fight the desire to watch every move he made? Looking for a reminder of the man she remembered. Hoping not to find one, possibly, so she could decide it had been a lucky escape and move on, once and for all.
She could switch departments, she thought wildly. Go into Cardiology. Or Paediatrics. Or Theatre. No. This was where she loved to work. Where she got a taste of everything and the adrenaline rush of helping to deal with major, life-threatening situations. This department was a big part of why her life was on track again.
She drew up the saline to dilute the morphine. She taped the ampoule to the barrel of the syringe to identify its contents and then she walked back to the bed to hand it to Andrew.
Watching Janine relax as the effect of the narcotic took the edge off her pain had a curiously similar effect on Alice. She eyed the bruised and swollen face of the woman again. The marks of brutality on the woman’s ribs and the misshapen arm now resting in a splint. The thought of someone enduring a beating like this was horrific. Sickening. Alice raised her gaze, knowing that her reaction would be evident in her eyes.
Deliberately capturing the gaze of Andrew Barrett before that reaction dimmed.
Maybe she hadn’t believed any of it but allowing Andrew to think she might have was possibly the only defence she had.
They both had something they didn’t want their colleagues to know. Things they didn’t want to lose. Alice was more vulnerable. She had something she didn’t want Andrew to know, as well. It was good that he’d chosen not to acknowledge her. Distance was safe and, if it stopped being safe, then she was prepared to fight, if that was what it would take to protect herself.
Andrew’s gaze was steady. So was he, it told her.
For the moment at least, this appeared to be a standoff.
This was a disaster.
Alice clearly knew a lot more than he would have expected. Was she still in touch with old friends in London? People who would be only too happy to gossip about a police investigation involving a consultant emergency physician? That she knew too much was as unfortunate as knowing he was perpetuating a lie by letting her think he still believed the worst of her. But what else could he do?
He’d come this far and had found what appeared to be the perfect place for himself and Emmy. They’d only been here for a little over a week but he’d never seen his daughter so happy. He knew he’d made the right decision despite how hard leaving had been. Running away from it all had gone against the grain so hard it had been painful. An admission of defeat that some would probably interpret as guilt, but he’d done it for his daughter. He wasn’t going to let his little girl grow up anywhere within reach of a tainted past.
He couldn’t keep running. The world of medicine was surprisingly small and, no matter where you went, someone always knew someone else. Look at the way Dave had contacted him about the possibility of this position when they hadn’t seen each other since a short stint in an American hospital together ten years ago.
Andrew was between a rock and a hard place, here. Damned by his conscience whichever way he turned. The unwanted distraction filled his mind as he waited for Janine’s X-ray views to appear on the screen in front of him. Should he follow his first instinct and simply talk privately to Alice? Tell the truth and then apologize? Lay his cards on the table and ask for her help?
Why would she want to do that? She’d not only lost her job. When he’d heard that she’d left the country, he’d also heard that the sale of her house had been forced by the bank. That she’d lost everything. He could have talked to her then. Tried to make amends, even, but nobody had seemed to know where she’d gone. And then the real trouble had started and he’d forgotten everything other than trying to survive. To keep Emmy safe.
What could he say now? An excuse that he couldn’t have simply taken her word for her innocence and an apology for any inconvenience caused was hardly going to clear the air. It might actually make her jump at the chance for revenge.
The notion was jarring. It didn’t fit with the Alice Palmer he remembered from five years ago. The attractive, competent nurse working in his emergency department. A young woman doing her O. E. who’d made friends with his fiancée. Who’d come to their wedding, in fact. She’d been good at her job. Caring. The evidence that she’d been stealing morphine and other restricted drugs had been shocking. Unbelievable, really, but you never knew with women. Look at how things with Melissa had turned out.
Oh, God…No! Andrew rubbed his temple and then raked his fingers through his hair. He didn’t want to think about Mel. Or London. Or any of what had been left behind and that was why working with Alice Palmer was a complication he didn’t know how to resolve.
Images began appearing on the wall-mounted computer screen. It was a relief to focus as he scrolled through them. The cheekbone probably needed wiring. The nasty fragmented fracture of the radius and ulna would require surgery. Orthopaedics were on the way and someone from plastic surgery should be contacted to deal with the facial suturing that could be done in Theatre as well. Andrew turned back to Resus 1. He had a job to do here. His patient needed care. And protection. A delicate situation when he couldn’t know whether it might make things worse for Janine by encouraging her to lay a complaint about her boyfriend.
Alice would be in Resus 1 as well. Another delicate situation and Andrew needed more time to try and figure out what he was going to do about it. Maybe he could buy time by putting some distance between them. Adjust his shifts, perhaps, so they spent as little time as possible in the department together?
No. Why should he have to do that? He was a senior consultant in this department now and he needed to start the way he intended to carry on. Alice was a nurse. A very good nurse, probably, but as far as a balance of power went, it was weighted firmly on his side. An advantage that Andrew couldn’t afford not to use. He needed to take control and make sure he kept it.
The department was relatively quiet for a long time after Janine had been taken to Theatre. Downright boring, really. Alice was looking after an epileptic man who was sleeping off the post-ictal phase of his seizure, a diabetic patient from a rest home who needed her insulin dose adjusted and another very elderly incontinent woman, Miss Stanbury, who was still suffering the effects of a gastric disturbance and needed rehydrating and frequent changing.
When an ambulance brought in a forty-year-old man with a markedly accelerated heart rate, Alice was more than ready to take on the case.
‘This is Roger,’ the paramedic told her. ‘Narrow complex tachycardia. Rate 196. Oxygen saturation ninety-eight per cent. No cardiac history.’
Roger looked pale and frightened but he wasn’t in the kind of danger he would have been in if the spikes on his ECG were wide enough to suggest the ventricles of his heart were in trouble. Alice enjoyed cardiology. She could read a twelve lead ECG better than most junior doctors and she particularly loved this kind of case. One where a dramatic result and relief for the patient could be provided.
‘Have you got any chest pain?’ she asked Roger.
He shook his head. ‘I feel a bit short of breath, that’s all. And I can feel my heart.’
‘Have you ever felt it going this fast before?’
‘No.’
Alice helped the paramedics transfer Roger to the bed in Resus 2, where they had good telemetry facilities to monitor his heart. She raised the back of the bed so their patient was sitting up, which would help his breathing effort. Jo came in as she was transferring the oxygen tubing from the portable cylinder to the overhead outlet.
‘SVT,’ Alice told her. ‘Is Peter around?’
‘No.’ Another figure pushed through the curtains as the paramedics took the stretcher out of the small area. ‘I’ve got this case.’ Andrew was holding the patient report form the ambulance crew had supplied. A long strip of pink paper recording the cardiac rhythm en route was attached to it and he was looking at the monitor beside the bed as he spoke.
He introduced himself to his patient, who was still looking alarmed.
‘Am I having a heart attack?’
‘It’s one of the possibilities we’re going to investigate,’ Andrew told him. ‘But, so far, we’re not seeing any sign of it. Your heart’s going a bit too fast to really see what’s happening so we’re going to try and slow it down for you. Try and relax.’
Roger made a sound like a strangled bark of laughter and Andrew’s smile was sympathetic.
‘I know. Easy for me to say, standing on this side of the equation, isn’t it?’ He touched his patient’s arm. ‘I know this is scary but we’re on the case and you’re in the best possible place to get things sorted.’
His smile and his touch had a visible effect on Roger, who lay back against the pillow with a sigh and a nod.
They had a hopefully invisible effect on Alice.
This was a glimpse of the real Andrew. How many times had she seen the effects of this man’s words and smile and touch? She hadn’t really been aware of how nobody else quite measured up to the standards Andrew Barrett had set. Or how much she’d missed working with him.
Until now.
Andrew had turned to Jo. ‘Got a straw handy?’
‘Sure.’
‘And grab a technician to come and do a twelve lead, will you, please?’
‘I can do that,’ Alice said quietly.
‘Fine. Go ahead.’ Andrew was pulling on gloves. ‘I’ll get the bloods off.’
Alice could have managed that as well, but maybe the consultants were also finding their day somewhat dull. She pulled the machine she needed from the corner and began attaching all the electrodes needed to get a complete picture of the electrical activity of Roger’s heart.
Jo was cutting a short length of plastic straw.
‘I want you to take a deep breath,’ Andrew instructed Roger. ‘Seal your lips around the straw and then blow through it as hard as you can for as long as you can.’
A valsalva manoeuvre was one of the dramatic ways to get this kind of cardiac arrhythmia to revert to normal. They all watched the monitor screen as Roger’s face reddened with the effort. There was no change to the rate.
‘Get your breath back,’ Andrew said. ‘And then we’ll give it another go.’
The respite gave Alice a chance to get the twelve lead ECG. The electrodes were all in place.
‘Try and keep as still as you can,’ she asked Roger as she pressed the start button.
But he was too out of breath to comply and the trace was nothing like the clean image Alice had hoped for. Dammit! She screwed up the sheet of paper, hoping that Andrew wasn’t watching.
‘Let’s try that again,’ she said calmly. ‘If you could manage to hold your breath for just a second or two while the machine captures a picture, that would be great.’
Roger managed but the sheet that emerged was missing several pieces of information that it should have recorded.
‘You’ve lost a leg lead.’ Andrew was probably looking at her with the same kind of studied neutrality his tone held. Alice felt her cheeks reddening as she pushed the sticky patch more firmly to the skin of Roger’s left ankle.
This was mortifying. Such a simple task that she was more than capable of performing, but she was managing to make herself look completely incompetent. Worst of all, this was more important than it should have been. The old need to attract praise by being the best was so ingrained it was automatic. She still wanted to be noticed. To be seen. How pathetic was that?
Andrew was getting Roger to blow through the straw again so he’d be out of breath and she’d have to wait to try getting the recording again. When she did and it worked beautifully, Andrew wasn’t even paying attention. Peter had come in and they were discussing the next management step. Because their patient was wide awake, they couldn’t use an external electrical charge to the heart to revert the rhythm unless they sedated him heavily. The better option was to try adenosine—a drug that gave the chemical equivalent of a jolt of electricity.
It usually worked a treat and Alice knew exactly what to do. The procedure was tricky because the drug had a very short time of being effective. It had to be injected into the right arm to get to the heart as fast as possible and it had to be chased along with a large bolus of saline. Two people had to work in unison and Alice had been the one to push the flush on many occasions.
A favourite task. A bit of a challenge to get the timing right; a few seconds delay and, sometimes with even the first dose, they would watch the screen and see the heart rate magically decreasing. The adenosine was drawn up. The big fifty mil syringe of saline was drawn up. There was one port of the IV line and both needles would go in at the same time.
Peter was hanging around to watch. The paramedics had come back from tidying their ambulance and they wanted to watch, too. Andrew had the adenosine in one hand, the saline in the other. It took two hands to push that flush as fast as possible so he needed a nurse. One who knew what she was doing.
‘Alice is experienced,’ Peter said. ‘Done this a few times, haven’t you, Ally?’
She nodded, aware of a wave of pleasure at the boost to her self-esteem as she moved around the head of the bed to change sides. The perfect twelve lead ECG was sitting on top of the machine she was leaving behind but it had yet to be seen. Alice was more than happy to be given an opportunity to redeem her apparent lack of competence.
But Andrew was looking at the nurse who was already standing by his side. ‘Have you done this before, Jo?’
‘No.’
‘Nothing to it. Hold the barrel of the syringe firmly and put the base of your other thumb on the plunger. I’ll inject the adenosine and as soon as you see my plunger hit the bottom, you push in the saline as fast as you can.’
Jo shot a glance at Alice, who had stopped in her tracks and was probably looking as dismayed as she felt.
Alice glanced at Peter but the head of department merely raised an eyebrow. If their new team member wanted to take the time to help staff develop their skills then he could hardly protest.
Neither could Alice, despite feeling even more mortified than she had when she’d messed up getting that ECG trace.
‘You’re IV qualified, aren’t you?’ Andrew asked Jo.
‘Yes.’
‘Then let’s do this.’
Jo positioned herself closer to Andrew. Their gloved hands were touching. Side by side. Syringe by syringe. Of course, Jo had no trouble performing her part of the task and then everyone was looking at the monitor.
Alice heard the distinctive sigh from Roger which showed that the drug had reached its target, but she didn’t wait to enjoy the potential satisfaction of seeing a successful result. Nobody noticed as she turned and quietly slipped out of the Resus area.
Alice wasn’t needed in here. And she certainly wasn’t wanted by the consultant in charge.
CHAPTER TWO
NOT being able to afford a decent car had its advantages.
You could throw anything into the back of this ancient four-wheel drive. Dogs, saddles, dirty covers—it made no difference. You could also have your foot flat to the floor and not break the speed limit. Even if you were very angry and upset and weren’t even thinking about how fast to take the corners, you were safe.
Living this far out of town had its advantages, too. You left the city well behind and could see only the green of paddocks and hills and the deep blue of a late afternoon sky. Autumn colours gilded tall poplar trees and animals grazed peacefully beneath them. Sheep and cattle and fat pet ponies. A goat on a chain was eating the long grass of someone’s roadside verge.
Work was left behind along with the city and the further away Alice got, the more she could feel all the upsets of her day receding. Some time out was exactly what she desperately needed. Escape to the place she loved more than any patch of the earth she had ever discovered. Turning off the main road, she drove into a valley. Towards the end of this road was a property bordered by a river and enclosed by hills like a geographical hug. Hidden from the world and, for the moment at least, entirely hers.
The long driveway was lined by oak trees that were well over a hundred years old. Leaves drifted lazily from great heights and Alice rolled down her window to smell the season. A hint of damp moss and rich soil. A faint whiff of smoke from a bonfire on some neighbouring farm. The chimneys of the enormous old house weren’t giving off any smoke, of course. Why would they, when the house had been empty for so long?
Finding new owners seemed unlikely in the short term. Who could afford a rather rundown old mansion these days when it was a good twenty minutes drive from the city? The cost of petrol alone would put people off, never mind the extensive renovations needed and the effort of keeping up a hilly property of at least fifty acres. The longer it took, the better as far as Alice was concerned. She was more than happy to be here as the only human tenant.
Alice took the fork in the driveway before she got more than a glimpse of the big house through the trees. She drove towards the river now. Towards the cottage that had once housed shearers and had been rented out a year ago to her friend, Mandy. Seeing the small weatherboard dwelling ahead of her, with her dog, Jake, guarding the front step, Alice could finally let go of everything bad the day had thrown at her.
The shock of being pulled back to a past she had thought long gone. Having the ashes of a distant one-sided romance stirred and finding it still showed a dismaying warmth. Enough of a glow to make the embarrassment of being deliberately put in her place as a less important staff member far more intense. Last, but by no means least, was the knowledge that if she wanted to keep the life she’d worked so hard to create for herself, she really would have to fight for it.
Alice climbed out of the truck and crouched to hug her dog, burying her face against his shaggy neck for a moment, feeling his whole body wag pleasure in her return. Alice let out her breath in a long sigh and she was smiling as she stood up.
‘I’m home,’ she said aloud. ‘How good is that?’
Even better, she had a good two hours of daylight left. Time to saddle up Ben and take a gentle trek up the hills, through the forest and back to the river. Her huge black horse was getting on in years now and was probably a bit stiff after the long stint of being shut in the float yesterday. Besides, Alice couldn’t think of anything she would rather do to centre herself again. The other things she needed like a good home-cooked meal and a long sleep could wait.
Climbing into soft old jodhpurs and pulling on her short leather boots dispelled any thoughts of uniforms. The smell of well cared for leather as she collected her tack from the stable put anything shiny and clinical on another planet. Best of all was the soft whinny of welcome from Ben when she went out to the paddock behind the cottage with Jake walking close enough to brush her leg.
She was wanted here. Trusted. Loved by her boys. Yeah…life was full of hard bits but it could also be very, very good and this was as good as it got.
A short time later, Alice swung herself up into the saddle and clicked her tongue. Ben wasn’t showing any sign of being stiff. He took the bit and pulled eagerly. Maybe he was thinking of that long empty paddock where the forest track ended. The gentle uphill slope that was the perfect place to stretch out into a good gallop.
Alice grinned.
Yes!
Television was so boring!
Emmeline Barrett was fed up with the squeaky cartoon voices. With a heartfelt sigh, she wriggled around to kneel on the couch backwards, her chin resting on her hands as she gazed out of the window at the green hills and blue skies that were so different from anything she’d ever known it was like being in a fairy tale.
Haylee, her new nanny, was lying on the other couch, flat on her back with cushions under her head and her cellphone against her ear as she continued yet another phone call.
‘No! Oh, my God! She didn’t…Oh?’ A contemptuous snort followed. ‘Whatever! As if he’d be interested in her!’
Haylee had promised to take her for a walk this afternoon. Down to see the river or up to where the trees were thick enough to make that dark and scary patch on the hillside that never failed to give Emmy a lovely tickle inside when she looked at it.
Suddenly, she knelt bolt upright, not even noticing that the interminable phone call was ending on the other couch. Her jaw dropped as she watched a big black horse come out of the forest and start galloping up the hill. A dog was running behind and it had to be a lady riding the horse because Emmy could see long hair streaming out behind the hat she was wearing.
Was it a real fairy tale now? An enchanted forest? Could the lady be a princess? She watched until the magic horse disappeared over the top of the hill and then she climbed off the couch.
‘Haylee?’
‘Hmm?’ The nanny’s response sounded remarkably like a yawn.
‘Can we go for our walk now? Please?’ she added hurriedly as she remembered her manners.
‘In a minute, okay?’ Haylee’s eyes were closed. ‘I just need to rest for a bit.’
Emmy scowled. She looked back at her couch that faced the blaring television. She looked at the door which led into the big hallway with the tiny stones that made patterns on the floor. If she went all the way down, there was a really big wooden door that was probably too heavy for her to open, but, if she went the other way, she knew she would find the kitchen and that funny room full of tubs and taps that had a much smaller door. If she went past the clothes line outside that door, she might be able to find the hill.
She might be able to see that magic horse and the princess again.
Emmy looked at Haylee, whose eyes were still firmly shut.
‘I’m going to the bathroom,’ she announced. ‘I need to go to the toilet.’
‘Can you manage by yourself?’
‘Of course I can.’ The indignation was automatic. ‘I’m five!’
‘Cool. Come straight back.’
Emmy got to the door but then turned to watch for a moment longer. She saw the way Haylee’s fingers relaxed their grip on the cellphone. Her new nanny didn’t even notice when it slipped out of her grasp and bounced onto the floor.
Emmy stopped chewing her bottom lip. With her lips set in a rather determined smile, she went out of the door in search of magic.
Forty-year-old Roger was about to walk out of the door of the emergency department.
‘Wait!’ Andrew took another glance at the slip of paper in his hand and stepped in front of his patient.
‘What for?’
But Roger took a step back towards the bed he’d recently vacated, having rested for a couple of hours after the successful management of his cardiac arrhythmia.
‘I’ve just received the results of the last blood tests we took.’
‘You said there was nothing wrong with my blood.’
‘There wasn’t. The first results came back with completely normal cardiac enzymes.’ Andrew tweaked the curtain shut behind him and showed Roger the paper he held. ‘This one, however, shows a raised TNT.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means that there’s been some damage to heart tissue.’
Roger sat down on the bed. ‘You mean, like a heart attack?’
‘Yes. The level is low enough to suggest it’s minor but we’re going to need to admit you and run some more tests.’
‘But…I want to go home.’
‘I know,’ he said sympathetically. ‘I’m sorry.’
Roger wasn’t the only one who wanted to go home. Andrew’s shift had officially finished, but he took the time to explain things to Roger again and then he paged Cardiology and waited for the registrar to arrive so he could transfer care of this patient. Finally, he unhooked his stethoscope from around his neck, put on the pinstriped jacket of his suit and headed for the car park.
Minutes later and he could put his foot down. Just a little, because that was all it needed for a surge of power from his gorgeous new car. The powerful engine purred softly and the miles between work and home evaporated. Andrew sped past the rolling paddocks without seeing the autumn colours of the trees. He barely noticed the goat on the side of the road.
It seemed a very long time since he’d kissed Emmy goodbye this morning and he needed to get back to her. To their new home. To remind himself why they’d journeyed here from the far side of the world. To convince himself it was worth the disturbing prospect of having to work with someone who was such a tangible link to his old life.
He’d won the first round, though, hadn’t he? Made it very clear that if they were to work together it would be on his terms. So why wasn’t it making him feel any better about the future? Why had he been left with this kind of unpleasant aftertaste as though he was being forced not only to recognise, but to bring out a side of himself that he didn’t particularly like?
Andrew slowed just a little as the car bounced over the undulations in the driveway formed by ancient tree roots. He glanced to his left at the fork and caught a metallic glimmer that begged a second look. A horse float was parked under the shelter of some trees. Good. The tenant had returned. Amanda someone, the solicitor had informed him.
Andrew needed to talk to this Amanda. To let her know that, unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to let her renew the lease on the cottage that was due to expire at the end of this month. He needed the cottage as accommodation. The agency had assured him they would be able to find a married couple who would jump at the opportunity of living here and working for him. A housekeeper-nanny and a farm manager. Free accommodation should ensure he got the best available and nothing but the best would do. If the couple had children, it would be a bonus. While he was making arrangements for Emmy to start school in the city, it was too far away to make out-of-school play dates easy. How much better would it be if she had company closer to home?
The sound of the television made Andrew frown as he let himself in through the front door of the magnificent old house. Why on earth was Emmy watching rubbish when she could be outside in the fresh air and enjoying the kind of exercise and surroundings that had been impossible in central London?
Finding the temporary nanny sound asleep on a couch in the small sitting room that had once been a library was a shock. Andrew snatched up the remote and killed the noise, staring at the young woman in disbelief and then automatically scouring the room for evidence of something worse than being simply asleep. Empty bottles? Syringes? Not that it made any difference. History was still repeating itself. He had apparently left his daughter in the care of someone who wasn’t competent enough to keep her safe, let alone care for her the way she deserved.
The sudden silence had been enough to wake Haylee.
‘Where’s Emmy?’ Andrew demanded.
‘She went to the loo.’
‘Oh?’ Andrew strode to the door, trying to calm down. ‘Emmy?’
He called again but he could feel the emptiness of the house as he stood in the vast hallway. His pace increased as he checked the cloakroom under the sweeping stairway. He took the stairs two at a time to reach the gallery that overlooked the foyer. He checked Emmy’s bedroom. His own room. He threw open door after door of rooms that didn’t even contain any furniture yet.
‘Emmy!’
Downstairs, he found Haylee standing near the kitchen, looking frightened.
‘How long were you asleep for?’
‘I…I’m not sure. Not long.’
Andrew brushed past her into the kitchen. Empty. Not even any sign of the pantry being raided for snacks. The old laundry was also empty. The back door was open.
‘She’s gone outside?’ Andrew tried to quell a spark of panic. ‘By herself?’
‘She won’t have gone far.’
‘How on earth would you know that? You don’t even have any idea how long you were asleep.’ Anger surfaced with a vengeance. ‘And how far do you think she would need to go to get into trouble? There’s a river out there, for God’s sake!’
‘I—I’ll help you look.’ Haylee looked ready to burst into tears.
‘No.’ Andrew didn’t spare the time to look back at the girl. She wasn’t to know that he was as angry with himself as he was with her but fear overrode any habit of kindness. ‘Get your things and go home, Haylee. I don’t want you looking after my daughter. You’re fired!’
He scanned the kitchen yard, with its clothes line and pattern of herb gardens surrounded by tall thick hedges that hadn’t been trimmed in years. The gateway set under an arch of greenery was overgrown. Almost invisible and only just ajar. Quite enough of a gap for a small girl to have squeezed through, however.
Andrew wrenched the gate open further.
‘Emmy!’
Good grief!
There was a small girl standing in Ben’s paddock. A very pretty little girl with a mop of blonde curly hair and big blue eyes that were gazing up at her in open admiration. Awe, even.
‘Jake!’
The warning was unnecessary. Her large dog had dropped to his haunches well away from the child. He put his nose on his front paws and prepared to wait patiently. Ben also seemed to realise that caution was advisable. He stopped, not even looking at the water trough beside the girl.
‘Hello,’ Alice said. ‘Who are you?’
‘Emmy.’
‘Hello, Emmy. I’mAlice.’
She swung her leg over Ben’s back and slid to the ground, pulling off her helmet and then grabbing the reins before Ben could think of stepping forward. This child was tiny. So fragile-looking close to Ben’s fluffy dinner-plate-sized hooves. Especially in that pretty pink dress with her long white socks.
‘I saw you,’ Emmy said. ‘From the window.’
‘Oh?’ Alice looked around, despite knowing perfectly well there were no windows nearby. This was getting weird.
‘Are you all by yourself?’
Emmy nodded. ‘Haylee’s asleep. She’s tired.’
Maybe Alice was too. Suffering from exhaustion. Or low blood sugar or something. Having some kind of delusional experience.
‘Are you a princess?’
Definitely delusional. ‘No.’
‘Is he magic?’
A tiny finger was pointing at Ben. Big blue eyes were looking up. Way up at the head of her horse. Something in the child’s expression was very familiar. The kind of longing she remembered from when she was that small. A longing that had become a dream of one day having her own pony.
Alice smiled. ‘He’s kind of magic,’ she said softly. ‘Because he makes good things happen. Would you like to pat him?’
Already big eyes widened dramatically and Alice could see the sudden tension in the small body. A flash of fear. She heard the deep breath Emmy sucked in and then saw a determined nod.
‘Yes, please.’
Brave kid. Alice held out her hand. ‘He wouldn’t hurt you. He loves children.’
The diminutive hand went trustingly into hers. ‘I’ll lift you up,’ Alice said, ‘so you can reach his neck. That’s the best place to pat him.’
Emmy’s fingers looked tiny and very pale against Ben’s black coat.
‘He’s big, isn’t he? That’s why he’s called Ben. After Big Ben. That’s a clock. In London.’
‘I know that.’ The child sounded indignant. ‘I’m five!’
Alice was too startled to smile at the tone. She’d been chatting quietly simply to put Emmy at ease. It was only now that she registered the accent.
‘Did you live in London, Emmy?’
‘Yes.’ Emmy was stretching up to reach Ben’s mane.
‘Where do you live now?’
‘Here.’
She couldn’t have walked from a neighbouring farm to get here by herself, surely. That left only one potential home. The big house. It was still quite a walk for a five-year-old to have made by herself. Who was Haylee? A sister? And where were the parents? Did they have no idea of the kind of hazards a property like this could present? What if she hadn’t been home or Ben wasn’t as gentle as he was? What about the river, for heaven’s sake?
Alice would have something to say to Emmy’s parents when she saw them.
‘What’s your last name?’ she queried.
Emmy didn’t answer. She was busy threading her fingers through a handful of mane.
Alice tried again. ‘What’s Daddy’s name?’
‘Daddy.’
Alice smiled. She gave up. Surely someone would come looking for the child soon enough. They were probably busy moving in right now and hadn’t noticed her wandering off.
‘Would you like to sit on top of Ben?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘You’ll need to wear my hat. It’s a special helmet just for people who sit on horses.’
A moment later and there she was. A little princess with blonde curls poking from beneath the helmet, sitting on the huge black horse which made her look like a pea on a pumpkin. A very happy princess. It was the first time Alice had seen the child smile and it was the best smile, simply radiating joy, quite contagious enough to have Alice standing there, smiling back.
They could have stayed like that for a very long time. Both totally content, but then Jake raised his head from his paws. The shaggy hair on his neck came up and he emitted a low growling sound.
And then, from some distance behind Alice, came the sound of a man’s voice. A very angry man.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing with my daughter?’
Emmy burst into tears.
Jake’s growl reached an ominous level and was reinforced with a loud bark.
But Alice didn’t turn around. She couldn’t. Not yet. Not when she’d recognised that furious voice.
By some twist of a malevolent fate, ‘Daddy’ was Andrew Barrett and he was closer by the moment.
Oh…God!
‘Don’t cry,’ she said to Emmy. Or was she talking aloud to herself? ‘It’s all right.’
‘Nooo!’ Fat tears rolled down pink cheeks. ‘Daddy’s cross with me.’
‘Actually…’ Alice found a smile ‘…I think he’s cross with me.’
Emmy’s tears stopped. She stared at Alice. ‘Why?’
Why, indeed? If anyone was to be blamed for anything right now, it most certainly shouldn’t be Alice. She turned and had the satisfaction of seeing Andrew stopped in his tracks. Not only by the menacing form of Jake, who’d positioned himself between his mistress and the threatening man, but by the shock of recognition.
‘What are you doing here?’
There was dawning horror on the face of her old boss and, for just an instant, Alice had the peculiar notion that he was afraid of her. Totally ridiculous, of course, but it was enough for her to dredge up some confidence.
‘I live here. What are you doing here?’
‘I own this property,’ Andrew snapped. ‘And you most certainly do not live here.’
‘Yes, she does, Daddy.’ Emmy gave a huge sniff. ‘So does Ben.’
‘Be quiet, please, Emmeline. I’m talking.’
Good grief! What kind of father was Andrew Barrett? Talking to a five-year-old this sternly made any fantasy of his parental skills evaporate into an unpleasant mist. Alice didn’t like what she was seeing. Neither did Emmy, apparently. The small girl stuck out her bottom lip and scowled at her father. Andrew tried to take a step forward and Jake growled again.
‘Call it off,’ Andrew commanded.
Alice waited for a heartbeat. And then another. ‘Jake,’ she said softly. Her wonderful dog moved to sit beside her, pressed against her leg.
‘And now get my daughter down from that monster.’
That was too much for Emmy. ‘He’s not a monster!’ she declared. She leaned forward in the saddle and tried to wrap her arms around Ben’s neck. They barely made it to the halfway mark. ‘He’s lovely,’ Emmy said passionately. ‘He’s my new friend and he’s a magic horse. Alice said so.’
Alice was gripping Emmy’s leg, unsure of the child’s balance. At the same time, she was watching the muscles in Andrew’s face move. As though he was trying to digest the mutiny he was faced with and decide how he would deal with it. Or maybe he was trying to understand how this could possibly be happening.
Alice was with him on that one. This was a nightmare! Part of her brain, however, was registering the fact that Andrew wasn’t punishing his daughter in any way for the contradiction. Maybe he wasn’t as strict and controlling as first impressions had suggested. Or maybe he was just distracted by dealing with her for the moment. He didn’t look indecisive any longer. He looked furious. His gaze was chilly enough to send a shiver up her spine.
‘Where—precisely—do you live?’
‘In the cottage.’
Andrew shook his head. ‘No. The tenant in the cottage is someone called Amanda.’
Alice nodded. ‘Mandy Jones. She signed a twelvemonth lease but she decided to go to Italy with her boyfriend. I was already living with her so I took over the lease last October, when it still had six months to run.’
‘I wasn’t informed of any sub-lease.’
‘We saw the solicitor. I signed a contract.’
‘We’ll have to see about that. Won’t we?’
A horrible thought occurred to Alice. What if the contract was somehow illegal? Could Andrew simply kick her out? Where on earth would she go, with a horse and dog? She touched Jake’s head with her free hand, seeking reassurance. Trying to stem the awful sinking feeling that, once again, her life was falling apart.
‘Alice?’
She turned her face up to Emmy.
‘I’d like to get down now, please.’
‘Sure. Bring your leg over to this side and I’ll help you.’ Alice raised her arms and caught Emmy as she slid off the horse. Ben stood like a rock, bless him, but she held the little girl closer for just a moment when her feet touched the ground. Letting her know that she was safe. It was a long time since she’d hugged a child and her arms felt curiously empty when she let go.
Emmy patted Jake on his head and then walked towards her father. ‘Come on, Daddy,’ she said. ‘I’m hungry and I want to go home.’ She looked over her shoulder at Alice. ‘Can I have another ride, please? Tomorrow?’
‘Um…you’ll need to talk to your daddy about that.’
A discussion that was unlikely to give Emmy what she wanted, judging by the look Alice was receiving from Andrew right now. If she’d felt unwanted in Resus this afternoon when he’d chosen Jo over her, she felt far less desirable right now. More like something he needed to scrape off his shiny black shoe.
Except his shoes weren’t very shiny any more, after storming over the paddock. The ends of his pinstriped trousers looked a little worse for wear, too. No doubt he would blame Alice when he noticed and then she would have to face him again at work in the morning. Not that she had to do anything to gain this man’s displeasure. Existing was more than enough.
Alice had to fight the urge to burst into tears the way Emmy had on hearing her father shouting. Just as well she was good at fighting. She’d learned to tap into stronger feelings. Like anger. She raised her chin.
‘You might like to let Emmy’s mother know it’s not a good idea to let her wander around by herself,’ she said crisply. ‘The river’s quite deep in places and it’s not fenced off.’
Emmy turned again. She was shaking her head. ‘I haven’t got a mother,’ she told Alice. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she, Daddy?’
‘Yes.’ The monosyllabic response was giving nothing away.
It certainly wasn’t inviting even one of the questions Alice had tumbling in her head. What had happened to Melissa? How long ago? Did Emmy miss her dreadfully? Did Andrew? Was that why he had decided to come to the other side of the world to be a solo parent?
‘I’ve got a nanny instead,’ Emmy continued.
‘Not any more.’ Andrew sounded weary now. ‘Haylee’s not going to be staying with us any longer.’
‘Because she was so tired?’
That got a smile. One that Alice was completely excluded from. The bond between this father and daughter was clearly strong enough for her to have been forgotten as the two of them talked to each other. That impression was deepened as Andrew bent down and Emmy raised her arms to be picked up. And when she was, she wrapped her arms around her father’s neck and her legs around his waist and tucked her head against his neck. A fluid series of movements that spoke of a well-rehearsed routine.
‘Yes, sweetheart. Because she was too tired to look after you properly. Now say goodbye to Alice. We’re going home.’
Emmy peeped over the solid wall of her father’s shoulder. Big blue eyes and golden curls, just like her mother had had. The same kind of fragile prettiness that most men had found irresistible, but it had been Andrew that Mel had chosen.
‘Goodbye, Alice,’ the little girl said.
‘Bye, hon.’
She was used to living here alone. It was more than five months since Mandy had gone. She had Ben. And Jake.
So why on earth did watching the retreating figure of Andrew, holding his child in his arms, make her feel not only alone but lonely?
Afraid, even.
CHAPTER THREE
‘ARE you sure?’
‘I’m sorry, Dr Barrett. This is a witnessed signature and all perfectly legal. The reason I wasn’t aware of the sub-lease was because I was overseas at the time it was arranged and my junior partner dealt with it. Unfortunately, the filing of the document was incorrect.’
‘So I’m stuck with it.’
‘Only for another three weeks or thereabouts.’ The solicitor raised an eyebrow. ‘You didn’t seem concerned about waiting for the lease to expire when you purchased the property.’
‘That’s because I had no idea who was really living in that cottage.’
‘And the tenant is a problem?’
‘Yes.’ The word was heartfelt.
‘In that case…’ The solicitor smiled, pulling a blank piece of paper in front of him. ‘What is she doing that’s unacceptable?’
Andrew frowned. She was just…there; wasn’t that enough? It was more than enough for him to find it disturbing. Especially when his daughter seemed convinced that Alice Palmer had magic powers of some kind. It was all she could talk about last night and she’d been almost breathless with excitement and talking so fast at times it had been hard to hear everything.
Apparently she had watched her gallop up a big hill with her hair streaming out behind.
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Alison Roberts
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: She’s happy as a nurse… But his little girl needs a nanny…and he needs a bride!Nurse Alice Palmer’s world is turned upside down by the new A&E consultant Andrew Barrett. Not just because he’s gorgeous, nor even because he forced her to leave London in disrepute. No, it’s because, despite everything, he’s the man she fell in love with – and she’s never recovered from her unrequited crush.The question is, what’s he doing in New Zealand? Why is his beautiful little daughter motherless? And how is Alice going to stop her frantic heart from beating so loudly he must be able to hear?And when Alice becomes part-time nanny to his little girl, it’s as if fate is dealing her the most remarkable hand of all…