by Amy Ruttan
It was his fault. He’d chosen his career over love. And when he had started to date again, he’d soon learned that most women were like Cassandra. No one understood his passion for medicine.
Except Geraldine.
Yes, Geraldine understood it, but he wasn’t completely sure how dedicated she was because he knew that she wasn’t completely satisfied with being a cardiologist.
Why is it your concern? It’s her life.
And he didn’t know why he was so concerned about it. Geraldine was nothing more than a work friend.
Is she?
* * *
“That’s a nasty angiosarcoma.” Geraldine didn’t mean to sneak up on Thomas, but he’d been so absorbed in the MRI of a nasty-looking cancer of the heart that he hadn’t heard her come into his office.
He clicked the image closed on his computer and spun around, looking put out that she’d sneaked up behind him.
“Geraldine, I didn’t hear you knock.”
“I did knock, but you didn’t answer and Mrs. Smythe told me you didn’t have a patient so I thought it was safe for me to come in. I can see now why you didn’t hear me knock. That was an impressive angiosarcoma.”
“Yes,” Thomas said evasively. “It doesn’t look good.”
“Have you told the patient about it?” She asked taking a seat.
“The patient knows, but still wants me to proceed with the surgery.” Thomas didn’t look her in the eye and she had the distinct feeling he was hiding something from her.
It’s not your concern.
“Hopefully you can get good margins but with that kind of tumor—”
“I know,” Thomas said, cutting her off. “Is there something I can help you with, Geraldine?”
“Yes, I’m hoping you don’t mind crying off this weekend garden party. I just don’t want to go. I can spend the day in the office and Father will be none the wiser.”
“You’re not crying off. If I have to go, you have to go,” he said sternly.
“If I don’t go, why do you have to go? Father told me you didn’t want to go either. I thought you were sympathetic to my plight.”
Thomas chuckled. “I am, or usually I would be, but your father will have his spies out and I think it’s better we go. It’ll make him happy.”
Geraldine groaned. “You’re right. He’ll have his spies. Who has a garden party in the middle of December anyway?”
He smiled. “The ton are an eccentric group of partygoers. Any excuse for a function or showing off.”
“I’m surprised you don’t throw a party to show off.”
“My father used to, but they weren’t my cup of tea. Of course, he would have functions at the family estate in Buckinghamshire. I live in Notting Hill.”
“What happened to the estate?”
“It’s still there. I rent it out occasionally, and part of it is open for tours. People tour the home and the gardens.”
“Really, one day I would love to see where you grew up.”
“Well, we can go tomorrow after we make our perfunctory rounds at the garden party.”
Now she was intrigued. “That makes going to this garden party almost worth it.”
He leaned across the desk, his hands folded. “And going with me isn’t worth it?”
“I think it’ll be entertaining,” she teased.
“That’s it?”
She shrugged. “What more do you want?”
“Touché.”
“What time are you going to pick me up?”
“I have to drive?”
“I don’t have a car. Remember, I take the Underground regularly.”
“Hmm, how convenient.” Then he grinned. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at ten in the morning. If we get to the garden party unfashionably early then we can probably make the last tour of my childhood home.”
“I don’t get a private tour?”
“Oh, you want a private tour?” His voice was husky and she realized she was treading on dangerous ground. She still remembered those women talking at that party about how the Duke of Weatherstone was a womanizer.
“No, I’ll just stick with the standard one, thank you very much.” She got up. “I’ll leave you to your angiosarcoma. If you need any... What am I saying? I can’t help you with that.”
“You could if you were a surgeon.”
It was a barb. “Why are you so obsessed with me becoming a surgeon?”
“Only because I think you’d be brilliant at it.”
A warm flush spread across her cheeks. “Well, I’m not. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She got out of his office as quickly as she could. She didn’t want to discuss her being a surgeon anymore. It wasn’t any of his business.
What was done was done. She was happy with her lot in life.
Are you?
And the answer was simple. She wasn’t, but she was too scared to change it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“YOU CAME WITH the Duke of Weatherstone?”
Geri had been accosted by another group of ladies. It seemed that at the Gileses’ party she had been seen with Thomas on the dance floor and slinking off to the alcove. He’d warned her that night he was giving her a reputation and he was right. The groups who had slighted her before suddenly couldn’t let her be.
She was the new flavor of the month, it seemed.
“Yes. I did.” It seemed like every time she ran into a new group of people at this garden party and they discovered she’d come with Thomas they were in a bit of shock.
“Thomas Ashwood?” another woman asked, that same dumbfounded look on her face.
“Yes. Is there another Duke of Weatherstone?” Geri was secretly enjoying this. She glanced across the room and could see Thomas engaged in a discussion with another group of people. As if he knew she was looking at him, he looked over and smiled, winking mischievously as if he was in on the joke. She wished for a moment that they were alone. She really hated these social gatherings.
“He’s a bit of a womanizer,” Mrs. Ponsonby, the hostess, said. “A love-them-and-leave-them type. My sister Harriet was his last victim—last winter, I believe. She wanted marriage, though, and he, of course, won’t marry. So she moved on to someone more suitable.”
“So I’ve heard, but I assure you there’s nothing untoward about our relationship. We work together.”
There were a few disbelieving glances exchanged.
“That’s what he wants you to think and then the next thing you know he’s taking you on a tour of his estate and you’re in his bed.”
“Oh, yes,” another woman sighed. “And what a wonderful place to be.”
Geri’s stomach knotted and she almost choked on the glass of wine she was taking a drink from. The women she was standing with continued to talk and all she could think about was the fact that after they left here they were going to see his estate.
She refused to end up in his bed, though. She refused to get involved with another coworker. Not after what had happened to her in Glasgow with Frederick.
Only that relationship had played out similarly. Colleagues then friends and then lovers before Frederick had dumped her for another surgeon, whom he’d ultimately ended up marrying.
And she had a sickening sense of familiarity.
Was Thomas doing the same thing?
“He’s never been the same since Cassandra,” Mrs. Ponsonby said.
“Pardon?” Geri realized that the other ladies in the group had wandered away and it was just her and Mrs. Ponsonby standing there now.
“Thomas and Cassandra Greensby were in a relationship at least seven years ago now. After Cassandra called it off Thomas began his womanizing ways. His father was none too pleased. I think that’s
what caused the late duke’s heart attack.”
Geri rolled her eyes. “I believe it was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy that caused it. It’s when the heart tissue thickens.”
The other woman gave her a confused stare. “What?”
“Never mind.” Geri shook her head. “Why did she break it off?”
Mrs. Ponsonby shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I just know that it absolutely crushed him.”
Geri felt guilty that she was being made privy to this information, which was none of her business. It was up to Thomas to tell her these things and he hadn’t, so clearly he didn’t want her to know. Just like she didn’t tell him the reason she hadn’t pursued becoming a surgeon was because of Frederick. How he’d run the surgical program and she was a coward, not facing her broken heart and not becoming the surgeon she’d always dreamed of being.
Instead, she’d taken the offer of her father.
She never wanted Thomas to know that secret shame of hers and she was sure that he didn’t want her to know about this Cassandra Greensby, whoever she was.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Ponsonby. I think I’ll take a quick stroll around your lovely conservatory.”
“By all means, do. I’m sorry your father couldn’t be here. This is where he met your dear mother.” Mrs. Ponsonby wandered off. She didn’t correct Mrs. Ponsonby over calling her mother “dear.” There was nothing dear about her mother.
“Although your mother was a party crasher.”
“So I heard.” And it was nothing surprising. Her mother had often crashed big formal events. It was embarrassing really.
Geri had no real interest in knowing about how her parents had met, she knew the stories, but the more she lingered at this party the more she wanted to go back to London, back to Holland Park and her bed. Just shut the world out for a couple of hours and lock away all these feelings that were getting stirred up in her today.
The conservatory was quite extensive, overgrown with lush tropical greenery and winding paths. It was like something that should be a tourist attraction. Other people wandered along the paths, drinks in hand, as they soaked up the sun filtering through the glass.
Geri found a quiet bench where she could sit and collect her thoughts and enjoy the rest of her glass of wine in privacy.
“There you are. I despaired of ever finding you in this jungle.”
She glanced up to see Thomas standing in front of her. He was grinning from ear to ear.
“Blast, I thought I was better hidden,” she teased.
He chuckled. “You sounded quite like Lionel there.”
Geri couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Well, he’s a bit of a bad influence and every time I’m in the hospital he demands to see me. He’s also demanding to know when he’ll get out.”
“I know,” Thomas groaned. “And I’ve told him time and time again it won’t be before Christmas, but apparently that’s not the answer that he wants to hear.”
“I don’t blame him. He said he looks forward to the King’s College Choir carols every Christmas Eve. He’s never missed it.”
“He will this year.”
“I was thinking about taking him to it,” she said offhandedly. “As his physician naturally.”
“He’s barely out of the intensive care unit and you want to expose him to all the germs and the draughts of King’s College Chapel and take him over an hour away from the hospital? I think not.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right. I’m always right.” Thomas winked.
“I’ve been getting quite an earful about you,” Geri teased.
“Yes. I’m sure that you have,” he said. “I saw you were talking to our hostess. She’s a busybody.”
“She told me that you’re going to seduce me when you take me out to your estate.”
Thomas’s eyes darkened a bit. “Would you like that?”
Yes.
“Not particularly.”
“Ouch.” He grabbed his chest. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re completely not, because you’re laughing about it.”
“I swear I’m not.” She took another sip of her wine. “When can we make an exit?”
“Oh, we’re not leaving anytime soon. I’m going to drag out this event as long as I can since you’re been so cruel to me.” His eyes were twinkling and she gave him a little shove with her shoulder.
“Mrs. Ponsonby also mentioned this is the place my parents met.”
“You say that with such apathy...”
“How my mother crashed a party. I guess it’s good they met or I wouldn’t be here.”
“And for that I’m thankful.”
Geri blushed at his compliment. “It’s not like it was a great romance. They had a brief marriage and went their separate ways. I was born and my father never knew about me.”
“No, I guess you really don’t have much sentimental value placed on where they met, do you?”
“I would if they’d actually had some kind of romantic feelings about each other, but from what I understand from my mother it was just sex that attracted her to my father. The marriage had been spur-of-the-moment, and the lust wore out eventually, but it resulted in me. That’s what she said. I don’t think she loved my father much either. No love lost there. And, frankly, thinking about my parents together...” She shuddered for effect and Thomas laughed.
“Yes. I understand. I like to think I was an immaculate conception.”
She choked on her wine, trying not to laugh.
“Don’t laugh at me,” Thomas teased.
“You make it so easy, though.” She smiled at him. “I can’t remember ever laughing so much in my life.”
“Well, at least I’m good for something. Did you ever get your father’s side of the story?” Thomas asked.
“No. What does it matter? It’s in the past. You can’t change the past.”
“You certainly can’t,” Thomas said wistfully. “Only I wish...”
“You wish what?” Geri asked as he trailed off, but he wasn’t listening to her. He was staring at the woman and man who had entered the conservatory. The woman was stunningly beautiful, blonde, tall. Like a model.
And she couldn’t help but wonder if it was a past conquest or perhaps Cassandra.
“Let’s go,” Thomas said quickly. He took her hand and pulled her to her feet.
“I’m good with that. I’ve had my fill.”
Thomas didn’t say anything but dragged her along the path away from the woman and the man she was with.
“Thomas?”
He stopped and Geri almost slammed into his back. She could hear him cursing under his breath and he turned around. Geri saw the tall blonde walking toward them.
“Cassandra,” he said through gritted teeth. “How very nice to see you.”
“I doubt that very much, Thomas.” She turned to the man who was with her. “My husband, Lord Greensby.”
Thomas nodded and then pointed to Cassandra. “May I present Lady Collins.”
Cassandra was taken aback. “Lord Collins got married? And to a much younger woman, I see.”
“I’m not his wife, I’m his daughter,” Geri said. She already didn’t like Cassandra on principle for breaking Thomas’s heart, but other than her looks she didn’t know what Thomas saw in her. She was downright snobbish.
The more she saw of this circle her father belonged to the less she liked it. She resented it, as well. Her father put so much stock in this world and for what? She didn’t like the people she met.
Except Thomas.
And he was part of this. If the rumors were to be believed, he’d almost married someone like Cassandra. Was that what Thomas
really liked? If so, she needed to put an end to this because she was never going to be like one of these women. She was never going to be so vain and shallow.
Her career came first.
“Oh, yes, I thought I heard something about that,” Cassandra said flippantly. “I didn’t really pay much attention to it. I am really surprised to see you here, Thomas. I never thought you would be at one of these functions again.”
“I’m surprised that I’m here myself, to be honest,” Thomas said, sounding completely bored.
“Why are you here?” Cassandra asked, and Geri sensed a faint sense of hope in her tone.
“I promised Lord Collins I would escort Lady Collins here. He’s tied up at work.”
“Doctors,” she said with disgust.
“Do you have an issue with doctors?” Geri asked.
“Not in particular, but it’s the weekend.”
“So? Life and death don’t stop at the weekend,” Geri countered.
Cassandra’s ice-blue eyes narrowed on her. “You’re quite passionate about medicine.”
“I’m a doctor as well.”
“How droll. I’ve never heard of an heiress becoming a surgeon.”
“Have you been living in a cave?” Geri was about to hit this woman, but Thomas squeezed her hand and she took a deep calming breath.
“If you’ll excuse us, Cassandra. I have to take Lady Collins back to London.” Thomas didn’t wait for any more polite exchanges as he dragged Geri off. She set her empty wineglass on a tray a waiter held and followed Thomas to pick up their coats in the foyer.
Only when they were outside, waiting for Thomas’s car to be brought round to the front door, did Thomas finally give a sigh, which sounded like one of relief, and then he chuckled.
“‘Have you been living in a cave?’ That was priceless. The look on her face.” Thomas grinned at her and Geri couldn’t help but laugh, as well.
“Well, I mean, honestly. A lot of heiresses have careers. Why does she find it so surprising?”
“Probably because she finds it horrifying,” he replied.
“That I do believe.”
Thomas’s car appeared and he took his keys from the valet. They climbed into the car and Thomas drove away from the Ponsonbys’ home.