Unwrapped by the Duke

by Amy Ruttan

  “This is Mr. Ashwood?” Geraldine asked. Thomas couldn’t help but notice the mild disgust in her voice. “This is the Mr. Ashwood who is your partner in your practice?”

  Thomas bowed slightly at the waist. “One and the same, dear lady.”

  Geraldine’s eyes shot daggers at him.

  “Have I missed something?” Charles asked, apparently confused.

  “No, nothing at all, Charles. I didn’t exactly make my presence known to your enchanting daughter when I arrived. I’m afraid I took her a bit by surprise.”

  Charles Collins cocked his eyebrows. “Oh. Well, that explains everything.”

  “Aye?” Geraldine blushed and cleared her throat. “I mean, I suppose it does.”

  Thomas had been charmed the moment the “Aye” had slipped past her lips. She seemed refined, but she had obviously not been raised in the world he was used to, the world that both he and Charles came from.

  And that intrigued him all the more, which was a dangerous thing indeed. He had to make an expeditious exit or he might do something he’d regret. And he thought too highly of Charles to besmirch the good name of Collins.

  “Well, if you’ll both excuse me...” As he was trying to make his excuse his pager and Charles’s both went off. It was their patient, Lord Twinsbury. He was on his way to hospital and E.

  “Blast,” Charles said. “I have an office full of appointments.”

  “I can handle this, Charles,” Thomas offered.

  “I can assist,” Geraldine said to her father. “You can head back to the practice and I can assist Mr. Ashwood.”

  No.

  “That’s an excellent idea,” Charles said. “You met Lord Twinsbury last week when he visited. You’re familiar with his file. What say you, Thomas? I mean, you’ll eventually have to work together when I retire officially, so why not take the plunge now?”

  “I don’t think I’ll need Dr. Collins’s assistance in this matter.” He was grasping at straws, but he really needed to get away from Geraldine. She piqued an interest in him that he hadn’t felt in some time and he didn’t like the way it made him feel.

  “With all due respect, Mr. Ashwood, we don’t even know if this is a surgical case,” Geraldine said firmly. “And I will be present as we both examine Lord Twinsbury.”

  She had spirit. He liked that.

  “You don’t have hospital privileges.”

  It was a weak excuse.

  “I do, as a matter of fact. I was granted them this morning.” Geraldine crossed her arms, smiling very smugly.

  “Now, instead of standing here and arguing, why don’t we meet Lord Twinsbury in A and E and give him the attention he needs?”

  Thomas was stunned as Geraldine moved past him and headed out into the hall. Even Charles looked a bit shocked but Thomas didn’t have time to sit there and hash it out with him. Instead, he ran to catch up with Geraldine, who was marching away, her back ramrod straight and honey-brown strands of hair escaping that severe bun that was pinned at the back of her head. He couldn’t help but admire her backside as she marched down the hall.

  Don’t think about her like that. She’s off-limits.

  “Do you even know where the A and E department is?” Thomas asked as he fell into step beside her.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be silly. Of course I do.”

  “Good, because right now you’re headed to the operating theater floor and A and E is this way.” Thomas motioned over his shoulder in the opposite direction. He should’ve just let her go and get lost. Then he could deal with Lord Twinsbury himself, only something deep inside him, that nagging conscience he tried so often to ignore when it came to the opposite sex, was yelling at him to do the right thing.

  She skittered to a stop and looked down the hall, her hazel eyes sparkling with determination, annoyance and possibly embarrassment, her red lips pressed together in a firm line.

  “Are you going to show me the right way, then, or am I to find the way myself?”

  “If I was going to let you fend for yourself I wouldn’t have stopped you and told you were going in the wrong direction.”

  Geraldine’s shoulders relaxed and a small smile crept onto her face. “Thank you. I didn’t think you would... That is to say...”

  “There’s no explanation needed.” Thomas knew what she was trying to say, that she didn’t think he would help her, and part of him was telling him not to. To let her flounder. She was, after all, the competition. Only he couldn’t do that.

  He might go by “the Dark Duke” in his social circle, the rake who seduced debutantes and left them the next day, but he was, after all, a gentleman above all else. Only, since the moment he’d first begun arguing with her, he’d been trying not to think about all the ungentlemanly things he wanted to do to her.

  “It’s this way,” he said, motioning with his head.

  She nodded and they walked side by side down the hall, not saying a word. He was truly impressed that she was able to keep up with his long easy strides in her tight pencil skirt and heels.

  She was graceful, refined, but there was something hidden beneath that polished, emotionless surface. Something quite different from the women he was used to. She was tough, hardened but he had no doubt she was soft and feminine under that facade. He would like to find out, she intrigued him.

  But he would not seduce Charles’s daughter and since settling down was out of the question for him, he would just have to keep a safe distance from Geraldine Collins.

  They entered A and E and were waved over by the consultant in charge.

  “He insisted on having his cardiology team come and look at him,” Dr. Sears said, looking over at Geraldine, confused, before turning back to Thomas. “Where is Dr. Collins?”

  “I am Dr. Collins.” Geraldine pushed past him and Thomas shrugged, smirking. He had to admire her tenacity.

  Lord Twinsbury was quite pale and lying back on the gurney. He smiled, though, when Geraldine came in.

  “Ah, I thought I would be seeing your father but I assure you this is a better substitute.”

  Geraldine smiled. “Lord Twinsbury, you’re a flirt.”

  “How many times do I have to insist you call me Lionel?”

  Thomas cocked his eyebrows. Never in the thirty-odd years he’d known Lord Twinsbury personally and the five years he had been the man’s surgeon had he been permitted to call him Lionel.

  And Lord Twinsbury was one of his godfathers.

  “Lionel, then.” Geraldine smiled. “What seems to be the matter?”

  Lord Twinsbury craned his neck and looked at Thomas. “Young fellow, they paged you as well. That’s good.”

  “I would certainly hope that they would page me as well, my lord, or perhaps you’ll allow me to call you Lionel, as well?”

  Lord Twinsbury fixed him with a stare, much like his own dear departed father used to do. “I think not. You’re not an attractive lady, like Geraldine is.”

  The stern smile softened as he looked over at Geraldine, who was taking Lord Twinsbury’s blood pressure and frowning.

  “Look at this, Mr. Ashwood,” she said. Thomas leaned over to look at the reading and grimaced.

  “Well? What’s wrong? I can tell by your faces that my blood pressure isn’t good.”

  “No, it’s not, my lord.” Thomas pulled out his stethoscope. “Do you mind if I have a listen?”

  Geraldine helped Lord Twinsbury sit up as Thomas listened to the erratic sound of Lord Twinsbury’s heart trying to pump blood through his clogged arteries. He had been warning Lord Twinsbury for years that his clogged arteries would only get worse. They had done several angioplasties at different times, but Thomas knew and had told him that one day it would come to open heart surgery.

  It looked like that
day had come.

  “I can tell by your face, Thomas, that you’re going to tell me something I really don’t want to hear,” Lord Twinsbury said.

  “You can call me by my given name but I can’t call you Lionel?”

  “Your father would have a thousand fits knowing you’re being so informal with me,” Lord Twinsbury warned.

  Thomas rolled his eyes. “My lord, you know what has to happen. I’ve told you this day would come. You need a coronary artery bypass graft and you need one today. Now. Or the next time you’re speaking in the House of Lords you’re liable to drop dead.”

  Geraldine gasped. “You have a terrible bedside manner, Mr. Ashwood.”

  Lord Twinsbury chuckled and patted Geraldine’s hand. “Nonsense. I’m used to his behavior. I like his frank talk, my dear. It keeps me on my toes.”

  Geraldine frowned and Thomas winked at her.

  “I’ll have you admitted, Lord Twinsbury, and then we’ll get you ready to go up to the operating theater today.”

  Lord Twinsbury nodded and then turned to Geraldine. “I do hope you’ll stay, my dear. Your father has been treating my heart for so many years and I want to make sure I have someone I can trust in there.”

  Thomas groaned and walked out of the room.

  Lord Twinsbury was an eccentric character. He was also pompous and arrogant. Never took his advice. Probably because he still saw Thomas as that little boy who’d destroyed his Tudor hedge maze during Royal Ascot when he was ten.

  “Mr. Ashwood, can I speak with you a moment?”

  Good. Lord.

  His day had been going so well. He’d done a great LVAD surgery to extend the life of a patient and was planning on returning to his office to get some charting done. He had not planned to deal with Charles Collins’s daughter today.

  He turned around. “How can I help you, Dr. Collins?”

  “Do you treat all our patients in such a manner?”

  “I do, as a matter of fact, because most of them I’ve known for quite some time. I haven’t had any complaints yet.”

  “Do you think that he warrants a coronary artery bypass graft? Wouldn’t another angioplasty or perhaps an endocardectomy work in this case? Is surgery really the answer for a seventy-three-year-old man in poor health?”

  This was a little too much.

  “Have I missed something, Dr. Collins? Are you or are you not a surgeon?”

  Red tinged her cheeks and he’d hit a tender spot on her hardened walls. A chink in the armor, as it were. So perhaps there was a weakness, a crack in her icy facade. “I am a cardiologist so, no, I am not a surgeon.”

  “Then do not question my surgical opinion.”

  “Lord Twinsbury is as much my patient as yours.”

  “Your father would never question my surgical decisions,” Thomas snapped.

  “Perhaps he should.”

  Thomas took a step closer to her. “How long have you been treating Lord Twinsbury, Dr. Collins? A few hours, perhaps. I have been treating him for five years and over that five years I’ve done numerous angioplasties and made a failed attempt at a carotid endocardectomy, which almost killed him. I have informed my patient that he would need a coronary artery bypass graft. I have tried to keep the procedures as minimally invasive as possible for the sake of my patient, who has been in congestive heart failure for a long time, but there is no other option, so unless you’re able to perform in the operating theater and have discovered a new, minimally invasive way of doing a coronary artery bypass graft, I would suggest you head back to our surgery in Harley Street and leave the surgical procedures to the qualified individuals.”

  He turned on his heel and left her, hating himself for taking her down like that in the hallway, in front of the A and E department and other physicians. Physicians she’d be working with.

  He hated himself for making her feel that way.

  If it had been anyone else, he wouldn’t feel as bad as he did now. He’d given dressing-downs like that before and they had never eaten away at his conscience, but this was different.

  He didn’t know why, but it was and he didn’t like it one bit.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I SHOULD LEAVE.

  Geri bit her lip as she paced the viewing gallery of the operating theater where Thomas Ashwood was currently performing a coronary artery bypass graft on Lord Twinsbury. How she wished she could be in there, assisting. She’d read so many papers Mr. Ashwood had written. A few hours ago she would have given anything to learn from him.

  Now she knew that would be a mistake. Just like Frederick had been a colossal mistake. She was here to start afresh. To prove herself. There was no way she was going to become entangled in a dalliance at work because the last time it had cost her her surgical career.

  It didn’t have to.

  Geri shook that thought away and closed her eyes, thinking about the surgery and how she wished she was in that operating theater. Only Mr. Ashwood had made it perfectly clear that he did not want her around.

  She’d been embarrassed and after her temper had cooled she’d realized he was right. She wasn’t a surgeon; she may have seen and done surgeries during her residency, but she wasn’t a full-fledged surgeon and she never would be. Besides, she’d only known Lord Twinsbury for a week and even though she read over his file she hadn’t worked with him as long as Mr. Ashwood had.

  She wanted to apologize to him.

  “Apologizing is a sign of weakness.”

  Geri shook her mother’s voice from her head. Apologizing in this case was not a sign of weakness but respect. She’d been wrong.

  Geri had been less than thrilled to learn that the arrogant, pompous surgeon who had come sweeping into the doctors’ lounge, making assumptions about her, was her new partner. And she’d been taken a little off guard by the fact that he was a devilishly handsome, well-spoken man of breeding. As well as a surgeon she admired.

  Which meant he was completely off-limits.

  Definitely.

  She had been hoping that she wouldn’t have to see him again, but to find out that he was the cardiothoracic surgeon and partner in the practice was too much to bear. She’d been expecting Mr. Ashwood to be someone like her father. Older and possibly on the verge of retirement.

  If Mr. Ashwood was venerable she’d eat her hat and try to find out where he kept the youth elixir. She couldn’t help but wonder what her father saw in him. Her father only seemed to associate with those of his own class, members of society, what would’ve once been affectionately referred to as “the ton” if all those historical romance novels she’d read as a girl were correct.

  She had been surprised to see her father’s partner was someone so young and his complete opposite. Her father was reserved, awkward and well-bred. Mr. Ashwood had a relaxed, devil-may-care attitude. A definite rogue. Then again, her father had partnered with her mother, a common daughter of a Glasgow teacher, and had produced her.

  Yeah, but that didn’t last too long, did it?

  Geraldine paused in her pacing to look down at him, operating on Lord Twinsbury. Even in the operating theater he had a commanding presence and she couldn’t help but admire his technique. She may not be a surgeon, but she’d watched many surgeries and Mr. Ashwood knew exactly what he was doing and he was doing it with finesse.

  “There you are, Geraldine.”

  Geri turned to see her father enter the observation room.

  “I thought you went back to the office?” she said.

  Her father shrugged his shoulders. “I was going to, but then I heard a rumor that Thomas gave you quite a dressing-down in the hall.”

  Heat bloomed in her cheeks. Great. She was already making the rumor mill here. She swallowed her pride. “And rightfully so. I stepped out of line.”

  �
�I should say so.” A smile played on her father’s lips and she couldn’t help but smile secretly to herself. He was still handsome. Even at sixty-nine she could see why her mother had fallen for her father. Or had at least stuck around long enough to conceive her.

  She just didn’t see what her father had seen in her mother.

  “I’m hoping he’ll allow me to apologize to him,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck.

  “It’s best not to bring it up. Don’t let him see your soft underbelly. You gave an opinion, and though not the right one, it was still an opinion nonetheless. Thomas is ruthless. It’s why I asked him to be a partner. He’s talented but ruthless. If you want to survive in a successful practice with him you have to stand by everything you say. You have to bite back.”

  Geri cocked an eyebrow. “Bite back?”

  Her father nodded. “It will blow over and you’ll both find a rhythm of partnership. So why don’t we head home? I had Jensen bring the car around.”

  Even though she was sorely tempted to leave and not expose her soft underbelly to Mr. Ashwood, she couldn’t leave things like they were. She had been wrong to question him.

  And she wasn’t going to run this time. She was here for the long haul.

  “I think I’ll stay if it’s all the same to you.”

  “Are you sure, Geraldine?”

  She nodded. “Positive.”

  Her father reached down and squeezed her shoulder. “Just call for the car when you need it, then. Jensen won’t mind.”

  “Of course.”

  Only she wouldn’t. She’d take the tube to Holland Park. She may not be from London, but she knew her way around public transportation just fine. She just wouldn’t tell her father that. He would have a thousand fits if he knew that she was taking public transportation like a commoner. Only that was what she was.

  She may talk in a refined way, because she worked hard to drop the rough accent she’d had since childhood, but she didn’t belong in this world she’d just been thrust into.

  The first time she’d had a formal dinner at her father’s large Holland Park home she’d been so confused by the number of forks she’d made an excuse about not being hungry and had left the table.