‘Everything okay with Nisha and Carol?’
‘Yes, it’s all good.’
She nodded towards his office, and by silent agreement they walked away from the bustle of people. Alex closed the door.
‘I had a talk with Nisha; she says she hasn’t felt right about sex since having her baby. She’s worried about her relationship with her husband.’
He nodded. ‘So what did you both decide?’
‘Nisha’s coming back to see me tomorrow. I’ll examine her, and she’s given me permission to write to her doctor so he can send her for some tests. Once we’ve ruled anything physical out we can discuss relationship therapy here.’
‘She looked as if she was happy about that?’
‘Yes—she said she’d get her husband to come with her tomorrow. He’s tried to talk to her about it, but she says she panics and shuts him down.’
‘Just talking about it helps.’ He threw himself into his chair, staring at the ceiling. ‘Of course, I’m a proven expert on talking about things.’
The heavy irony in his tone set off an alarm bell. Something was up with Alex. His hand was shaking, and it didn’t seem that hopeful nerves about their opening day was the cause.
‘What’s up?’ She sat down.
‘It’s...’ He waved his hand dismissively. ‘Telling you it’s nothing and that we should be getting back isn’t going to wash, is it?’
‘No. There are plenty of people out there to greet visitors, and we’re confident the staff here can manage without us for ten minutes. Aren’t we, Alex?’
‘Yes. Absolutely.’ He puffed out a breath. ‘In that case... I had a boy who came in to ask about bodybuilding classes. He’s only ten. I talked to him a bit, and told him that he’d have to bring one of his parents with him before he could sign up for any kind of exercise class with us.’
‘Why did he want to do bodybuilding?’ she asked, knowing Alex must have had the same instinct she did.
‘It turned out that he’d skipped off school, so I got Tina to phone the school and they sent a teacher down to fetch him. He’s being bullied.’
‘Poor kid. And he wants to be able to fight back?’
‘Yes. His teacher’s going to talk to the parents, and I told her we would enrol him in our anti-bullying programme. He’s a little overweight, so if he wants to do exercises then I’ll get Mike to devise an exercise programme that suits his age and build.’
‘That makes sense.’
‘Yeah... But when he realised I wasn’t just going to sign him up for bodybuilding he threw a tantrum and then...started to cry—’ Alex’s voice broke, suddenly.
‘That’s good, Alex. You got through to him. He must have a lot of negative emotion bottled up.’
Alex was committed to setting up a programme for both kids and adults who were being bullied. He’d applied his customary insight and thoroughness and then left it to a specialist.
Marie had supposed that someone with Alex’s charm and natural leadership ability couldn’t possibly have first-hand knowledge of being bullied, so he’d left the finer points to the experts he’d recruited. But she’d based her supposition on what she’d thought she knew about Alex. The happy childhood she’d imagined for him.
‘You know, I always wanted you to have been happy as a child.’
He looked up at her. ‘Yeah? That’s nice.’
‘Not really. I just wanted to know someone who’d grown up normally. It made me feel better—as if that was something I could shoot for.’
‘Ah. Sorry to disappoint you, then.’ He turned the corners of his mouth down.
‘But, thinking about it, I guess it might have been a bit difficult to make friends when you were little.’
He was gazing at his desk, as if something there might provide an answer. ‘My father didn’t think I should play with any of the kids who lived nearby because I was a prince. I was taught at home until it came time for me to be packed off to an exclusive boarding school. I was a shy kid, with a name that invited a thousand jokes. Of course I got bullied.’
And so he’d become the student who everyone liked. He’d listened to what people said and charmed them all. Marie had never looked past that.
‘I wasn’t much of a friend, was I?’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘What? You were kind and honest. You brought me colour, and you showed me that however hard things are there’s always time to celebrate the good things. I wanted...’
He fell silent suddenly, and in the warmth of his gaze Marie knew what he’d wanted. He’d wanted her. She’d wanted him too. Honesty was good—but this was one place they couldn’t go.
‘I wanted to be like you.’
His smooth refusal to face that particular fact was a relief, because Marie couldn’t face it either. She’d never really moved on from wanting Alex.
‘Will you do me a favour?’ she asked.
‘Anything.’
The look in his eyes told her he meant it.
‘You’ve got a lot you can give to the anti-bullying programme. All those feelings and the things no one ever said. I want you to get more involved with it.’
He laughed suddenly. ‘Don’t underestimate me by giving me the easy option, will you.’
‘You want me to underestimate you?’
‘No, not really. Keeping me honest is what you do best.’ He held his hands up in a gesture of smiling surrender. ‘Yes, I’ll do it. And now we really should be getting back to our visitors.’
CHAPTER SIX
YESTERDAY HAD BEEN a success. The flood of people who’d wanted to be first to explore the new clinic had subsided into a steady but satisfying trickle. Alex had received a couple of calls from local doctors, enquiring about referring patients to the clinic, and he’d shown a consultant from the nearby hospital around. She had a young patient whose family were currently travelling an hour each way to get to a hydrotherapy pool, and was pleased to find a closer facility that would meet the girl’s needs.
Today there was a new challenge.
Alex assumed his best trust-me-I’m-a-doctor smile, and when he looked down at Marie he saw a similar one plastered uneasily across her face.
‘Oh, really, Alex.’ Sonya Graham-Hall flapped her hand at the photographer from the local paper, indicating that he was to stand down while she gave her clients a good talking-to. ‘Can you try not to look as if you’ve eaten something that doesn’t agree with you? You’re supposed to be welcoming. And stand a little closer to Marie. You’re a team...’
Marie was looking a little overawed by Sonya. Alex took a step towards her, feeling the inevitable thrill as her shoulder touched his arm. He bent towards her, whispering an old joke from medical school, and she suppressed a laugh. He couldn’t help smiling, and heard the camera click rapidly.
‘Wonderful!’
Sonya beamed at everyone, and Alex stepped forward to shake the photographer’s hand and thank him. Then Sonya marched across the reception area to where the local reporter was standing, leading him towards the front doors.
‘What’s she doing?’ Marie looked up at him. ‘Can’t he find his own way?’
‘It’s Sonya’s modus operandi. She’s making sure he knows what he’s meant to write. Although he probably won’t realise that’s what she’s done until after he’s filed his story.’
Alex knew Sonya’s husband from school, and knew she was the best PR representative in London. She was so much in demand that it was usual for her to interview clients, rather than the other way round. Alex had been lucky, though, and a phone call had not only managed to secure Sonya’s services, but they were on a pro bono basis, because she loved the idea of the clinic. There was something to be said for the public school network.
‘She’s formidable, isn’t she?’ Marie’s smile indicated that she thought formidable was a really good thing. �
��I’m a little scared of her.’
Alex couldn’t fathom what Marie would have to be scared about. If he’d been asked to define ‘formidable’, the first person who would have come to mind was Marie. But not quite in the same way as Sonya, who relied on killer heels, designer jackets and an upper-class accent that would have sliced through concrete.
‘She knows so many important people...’
‘It’s her job to know people. Anyway, don’t we prefer to think of everyone as important?’
Marie frowned, nudging him with her elbow. ‘Of course we do. You know what I mean.’
Alex knew. Marie had already told him that she felt like a fish out of water with the great and the good, but they were exactly the kind of people who had the money and influence to help them make this project grow into a whole chain of clinics in different parts of the country. He wished Marie would stop thinking of them as somehow out of her league, because she was just as good as any of them.
‘Right, then.’ Sonya returned, beaming. ‘I think he’s on track. While I’m here, perhaps we can review where we are with everything else.’
‘Thanks, Sonya. My office?’
Alex led the way, hearing Sonya chatting brightly to Marie, and Marie’s awkward, awestruck replies.
Sonya plumped herself into one of the easy chairs, drawing a slim tablet out of her handbag. In Sonya’s eyes, paper was messy, and she didn’t do mess.
‘Ooh, look. I love these. Such lovely colours. Can I have one?’
She leaned forward towards the coffee table, catching up the sheet of brightly coloured stickers that Marie had presented him with this morning. They had the name of the clinic on them, along with the main telephone number and website address, but Alex suspected that their real intent was to bring yet another much-needed shot of colour into his office.
‘Help yourself. Marie has had a few printed. Shall we get some more?’ Marie was already squirming in her seat, and Alex decided to embarrass her a little more.
‘Definitely. This is just the kind of fun thing we want. Something to get away from the boring medical image.’
Alex felt his eyebrows shoot up.
‘You know what I mean, Alex. Of course the medical part is the most important, but we want people to feel that you’re approachable and not a stuffy old doctor.’
‘Yes, we do.’ Marie spoke up, reddening slightly at her audacity, and Sonya nodded.
‘Now. I have the local radio interview set up—you’re on your own with that one, Alex.’
‘I can handle it.’ Alex reckoned he could talk for ten minutes about the clinic easily enough.
‘I’m sure you can. But I’m sending you a list of keywords and I want you to memorise them.’
Sonya swiped her finger across her tablet, and Alex heard a ding from the other side of the room as his desktop computer signalled that he had mail.
‘Really? Keywords?’
‘Yes, of course, darling. Think of it as like...’ Sonya waved her hand in the air, groping for the right words.
‘Like talking to a patient? Sometimes you have to emphasise what’s important without confusing them with a load of irrelevant detail,’ Marie ventured.
‘Yes, exactly.’
Sonya gave Marie a conspiratorial smile, indicating she was pleased to see that at least one of them was on track, and Marie reddened again.
‘I’m still working on the TV appearance, and there are a couple of functions that I’d like you to go to if I can get you an invitation.’ Sonya leaned forward in her seat. ‘You still have reservations about promoting the royal aspect in the media?’
Alex felt the side of his jaw twitch. ‘If by reservations you mean that I’m absolutely sure that I don’t want any of that in the media, then, yes, I’m still absolutely sure.’
‘But it’s such a good story, Alex. It would catch people’s imaginations. It doesn’t get much hotter than this—you’re a doctor, very rich, royal, and to top it off a handsome bachelor.’
Alex shook his head, and then Marie spoke. Like an angel coming to rescue him.
‘We’ve agreed a policy about this.’
‘Ah... Yes?’
Sonya turned to Marie, clearly wanting her to elaborate. And Alex wanted to know what policy he’d agreed, as well.
‘The compelling nature of Alex’s story is the problem—it could quite easily prompt a media circus. Our values are that the clinic is the one and only important thing. Once it’s a bit more established we could look at it again, but now’s not the right time.’
Nicely said. Alex shot Marie a thankful look and she received it with the quiet graciousness of a queen.
Sonya nodded. ‘Yes, that makes sense. Why didn’t you say that before, Alex?’
‘Marie sums it up a great deal better than I can.’
Sonya flashed him a look that told him she agreed entirely with the sentiment, and then moved on. ‘Now, I’m rather hoping you have something presentable to wear, Alex.’
‘I have a suit...’ Just the one. It was the suit he wore for job interviews, and he hoped it still fitted.
‘All right. I’ll send you the names of a few good tailors, just in case.’
Alex’s computer dinged again and Sonya swiped her finger across her screen, in clear indication that she’d ticked that particular item off her list.
‘I’m very pleased with the website—are you getting anything via the enquiries page?’
‘Yes, quite a few things. Sofia’s coordinating that.’
‘Good. She seems very efficient. And the mural for your reception area? There are lots of possibilities there. How ever did you find these people? I’ve had a look at their previous work and it’s stunning. Inspirational, even.’
‘That was Marie’s idea.’
‘Of course...’ Sonya’s questioning gaze swept towards Marie.
‘Oh. Yes, well... They’re a group of artists who do wall art for charities and public spaces like hospitals and libraries. They choose the organisations they want to be involved with and work for free—we just pay for their materials.’
‘And who’s in charge?’ Sonya enquired.
‘Corinne Riley’s their coordinator. She’s about as much in charge as anyone is. She’s an artist, and works part-time as an art therapist. Her husband, Tom, is head of Paediatrics at the hospital where I used to work.’
‘And would they consider a magazine article, or even a short TV piece featuring their work here?’
Marie shrugged. ‘I could ask. I know Corinne’s very interested in spreading the word about how art can change spaces and involve people.’
‘It’s fascinating...’ Sonya’s mind was obviously hard at work on the possibilities. ‘Yes, please. And I’d love an introduction if you feel that’s appropriate?’
Alex smirked, wondering if Marie was taking notice of the fact that Sonya had just asked her for an introduction. It seemed she was, because she smiled suddenly.
‘I’ll email Corinne today and get back to you. Do you have any particular time in mind?’
‘If she sends me a couple of dates which suit her I’ll fit in with them.’
Sonya swiped again, and Alex braced himself for the next item on her agenda.
* * *
‘You do have a suit, don’t you?’
Now that Sonya had left, Alex’s office seemed a little quiet. Marie had waited to ask the awkward question.
‘Somewhere. Unless I left it at the dry cleaner’s...’
Marie frowned at him. ‘It’s not that suit you bought for your job interviews, is it?’
‘What’s wrong with that one?’
‘It’s not going to fit you any more.’
Alex put his hand on his stomach, sucking it in, and Marie laughed.
‘I meant across the shoulders. You’ve lost those fe
w extra pounds you were carrying.’
So she’d noticed. Alex couldn’t help smirking. ‘You think I’ve lost a bit of weight?’
She made a thing of eying him up and down. She was teasing, but her gaze made his stomach tighten with apprehension. When she grinned, it felt as if a warm wave was washing over him.
‘You’re in good shape, Alex. But you’ll probably need a proper suit for these functions that Sonya was talking about.’
Alex sighed. ‘Yes. Probably.’
‘How many suits did you have when you were a child?’ Marie homed in unerringly on the exact reason why Alex never wore a suit.
‘Oh, about a dozen, all told. New ones each year.’
‘That sounds excruciating.’
‘It was.’
But he was doing things on his own terms now. Marie had told him that, and she wasn’t going to underestimate him by reminding him again. In the silence he could feel her presence pushing the memories back and turning his gaze forward.
‘You’re right. I’ll order two new suits; that old one probably doesn’t fit me any more.’
She nodded. ‘You’ll be your own kind of excellent and glorious. What about some striped socks to match?’
Alex chuckled. His father would have blown a gasket at the thought of his wearing striped socks with a suit. Or with anything else, for that matter. Having to be excellent and glorious suddenly didn’t seem so bad.
‘Okay. Striped socks it is. You can choose them.’
* * *
The clinic’s first week was reassuringly busy. Marie and Alex had agreed on a ‘walking around’ approach, to see how things were going and to iron out any teething problems, and they took turns with it. One dealt with patients and any urgent paperwork, and the other simply walked around the clinic, visiting all the different departments and talking to people.
It was working well—the staff were encouraged to talk about any difficulties they had, and the clinic’s clients were beginning to know that either Marie or Alex would always be somewhere in the building if they wanted to chat.
Best Friend to Royal Bride Page 7