A Doctor Worth Waiting For

by Margaret McDonagh

  ‘We will. Bye, Conor. Thanks again.’

  As Kate returned to the desk, he waited for her to complete the necessary paperwork for the swab and make up the notes. ‘Nicely done, Kate.’

  She murmured an acknowledgement, appearing embarrassed by his praise, still not meeting his gaze. He was impatient to find out more about her but there was no time to waste as their next patient arrived.

  Conor made sure Kate took various cases for the rest of morning surgery, satisfied as time went by that they had an exceptionally good doctor in their midst. Whether she believed in herself was another matter. When their list was over, they snatched a few moments for a hasty drink before house calls and he discovered Kate shared his taste for hot chocolate. Other staff were on a break and he noted Kate’s wariness if anyone asked a direct question about her life or her work.

  She was tense when they left the surgery but by the time they had completed most of the visits on the list and were in the car heading back towards Glentown-on-Firth for their final call, Conor was even more impressed with her work. She established a rapport with patients, and he was delighted with her kindness, her ability to listen and the way she treated everyone with genuine respect and patience. Although she still hadn’t smiled. Nothing more than a tilt of her lips that failed to strip the deep inner sadness from her eyes.

  ‘This is a beautiful area.’

  Startled that she had initiated a conversation, he flicked her a glance before returning his attention to the narrow country road.

  ‘It’s wonderful. So are the people. I came here nine years ago and can’t imagine ever living anywhere else,’ he told her, keen to keep her talking, hoping to change the poor opinion she had formed of him. ‘It’s a diverse region with many varied environments.’

  ‘You don’t come from around here?’

  His childhood had not been stable or happy but that wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. ‘No. I trained in Aberdeen—that’s where I met Kyle Sinclair, one of the GPs at the practice in Rigtownbrae. We both wanted to work in a rural area and were lucky to settle near each other. I love the hills, the outdoors. I have the best of both worlds in Glentown, the natural environment plus the satisfaction of community medicine, getting to know the patients and their families, being involved in their lives.’

  ‘It must be rewarding,’ she allowed, a wistful note in her voice.

  ‘To me it is.’ He glanced at her again, wishing he could get inside her head, know what she was thinking and feeling. ‘Maybe you’ll find it so, too.’

  A sigh whispered from her lips. ‘Maybe I will.’

  ‘I know from your CV that you trained in London,’ he probed, recalling the recent employment gaps that puzzled him. ‘Has it always been the City for you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The reply was clipped, her voice stiff, and he knew she was lying. As he slowed the car at a crossroads, he looked at her but she turned her head away. Her hands betrayed her, though. They were clasped in her lap, her knuckles white with tension. Driving on, he was convinced Kate’s doubt and anxiety were deep-seated. This woman had secrets. Painful ones. His heart ached in response and he reached out a hand to cover hers, only to have her pull away from the contact, denying the comfort and understanding he yearned to offer.

  ‘Kate, I—’

  His was interrupted by the intrusion of his mobile phone and he cursed in frustration. As he searched for somewhere to pull off the narrow lane, Kate unwound her fingers and reached to take the phone from its rest.

  ‘Shall I do it?’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘It’s Jenny,’ she told him after a moment, frowning as she listened. ‘Yes, I’ll tell him. Just a minute.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Joyce Bingham has phoned to say that Lizzie Dalglish has fallen down the stairs. She’s distressed and asking for you.’

  New concern tightened in his chest. ‘Tell Jenny we’ll go straight there, please, Kate, and ask her to ring Douglas, our next appointment, and tell him we’ll be late.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘And let Joyce know we’ll be there soon.’

  As Kate relayed the messages, Conor put his foot down, anxious about what they would find when they arrived.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘IS IT FAR?’ Kate tightened her hold as Conor guided the four-wheel-drive with skill along the rural roads.

  ‘About two miles. Joyce Bingham is Lizzie’s next-door neighbour.’

  The reply had been terse and she dared a glance at his set face. Lizzie was someone he cared about but, then, he had demonstrated time and again his dedication to his patients. The morning had been full of surprises, misjudgements and close shaves, and she felt mentally exhausted from the time spent with Conor, fighting to ignore the sexual tension that crackled between them and desperate to deflect his probing questions and not divulge more about herself.

  Within minutes Conor drew up outside three old farm-workers’ cottages and Kate followed in his wake as he grabbed his bag and hurried up the path to the middle house, where the front door stood ajar.

  ‘Conor, thank goodness you’re here,’ an anxious, middle-aged woman greeted them.

  Kate saw him smile and give the woman’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. ‘Hello, Joyce. What happened?’

  ‘I heard this fearful crash,’ the woman explained. ‘I knew Billy was at work and Yvonne had gone shopping, so I rushed round. Poor Lizzie’s in a state. I’ve called the ambulance but she was asking for you. She wanted to move but I told her to stay where she was until you came.’

  ‘You did perfectly,’ he praised, introducing Kate as they stepped from the porch into a small sitting room. ‘Joyce, could you be an angel and track down Yvonne for me?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  The woman seemed relieved to have something to do. Kate followed Conor as he made his way to the foot of the stairs, finding the frail figure of an elderly lady lying there, her head propped on a pillow, a blanket covering her. She watched as Conor knelt down and took one thin, papery hand in his.

  ‘Lizzie? Can you hear me?’

  ‘Conor?’ The thready voice was a mere whisper as pale blue eyes opened and struggled to focus.

  ‘I’m here,’ he soothed. ‘What have you been doing to yourself?’

  A grimace crossed the pain-ravaged face. ‘So silly. Should have waited for Yvonne,’ she confided, her voice a little stronger.

  ‘Don’t worry now. Did you trip on something? Can you remember? Did you feel dizzy or black out?’

  ‘No, I wasn’t dizzy. I caught my foot.’

  ‘All right, Lizzie, we’ll get you sorted out as quickly as we can,’ Conor promised, reaching for his medical bag and turning back the blanket so he could check the elderly woman’s condition and vital signs.

  ‘Sorry to be such a nuisance.’

  He tutted in disapproval. ‘You’re never a nuisance. Can you tell me where it hurts?’

  ‘M-my right leg,’ she managed, her face twisting with pain again.

  Kate shifted to give Conor more room as he began to examine the woman’s injuries. From where she stood, Kate could tell the femur was broken by the hip, the external rotation and shortening evident. Her gaze met Conor’s as he glanced up with a grimace, sadness dulling his green eyes.

  As he returned his attention to Lizzie, Kate stepped carefully round the other side and knelt down, ready to help if he needed anything, wriggling closer in the tight space between their patient and the wall. ‘Hello, Lizzie, I’m Kate, the new locum. I’m helping Conor today.’

  ‘Lucky Conor.’

  Kate heard him chuckle at the spirited reply. ‘Does anything else hurt, Lizzie? Did you hit your head when you fell?’ Connor probed. Kate could see nasty bruises along the frail limbs.

  ‘No. Just my leg.’

  After checking Lizzie’s eyes and the reaction of her pupils, Conor monitored heart, lungs and blood pressure again, hooking the stethoscope round his neck and recov
ering Lizzie with the blanket. ‘How bad’s the pain, Lizzie?’

  ‘Grim,’ she confirmed, sounding tired.

  ‘We’ll give you something for that now,’ he promised, and Kate drew up some analgesia, handing him the syringe so he could check and administer it. For a moment he looked right at her, his expression so warmly intimate that she forgot how to breathe. ‘Thanks, Kate.’

  ‘No problem.’

  She lowered her lashes and forced herself to focus on writing up notes of what they had done, drugs used and doses given—information that would be required by the paramedics and hospital doctor. Anything but look at or think about Conor.

  ‘It should start to ease now, Lizzie,’ he was saying, sitting back on his heels after another check of her vital signs and holding her hand again. ‘The ambulance will be here soon.’

  The woman shook her head. ‘No! Conor, I don’t want to go to hospital.’

  ‘I know you don’t, sweetie,’ he said gently, his voice calm in response to Lizzie’s distress. ‘But there’s nothing else for it, I’m afraid. You’ve broken your thigh bone right by the hip and it has to be X-rayed and properly seen to.’

  Lizzie’s eyes closed and she was silent for a few moments. ‘I’m not going to be claiming that dance from you any time soon, then, am I?’ she rallied with a weak smile.

  Moved both by Lizzie’s spirit and Conor’s compassion, Kate watched as he brushed some thinning strands of white hair back from the pale face, his softly accented voice husky with affection. ‘I’ll save you one, I promise.’

  ‘Conor?’ Joyce called, returning to the room. ‘The ambulance is pulling up. I’ve rung the Glentown post office and Jeanie Harris is searching the village for Yvonne.’

  ‘Thanks, Joyce, you’re a star.’

  Conor concentrated on keeping Lizzie as calm as possible as the paramedics arrived and prepared to transfer the fragile lady to the ambulance, putting in an IV line to give her fluids and placing her on oxygen. Kate accompanied them outside, noting how Conor held Lizzie’s hand until the last moment.

  ‘We’ll take good care of her, Conor,’ one of the paramedics promised, closing the back doors of the ambulance.

  ‘I know you will.’ Conor smiled, handing over his hastily scribbled letter plus the notes Kate had already prepared. ‘Thanks, guys.’

  They watched as the ambulance left, Joyce coming to stand beside them. ‘Poor old Lizzie,’ she sighed.

  ‘Thanks for your help, you were great,’ Conor said. ‘Are you OK? You’ve had a shock.’

  ‘Nothing a strong cup of tea won’t help. Would you both like one?’

  Glancing at his watch, he shook his head. ‘We’d better not, Joyce, but thank you. I need to tell Yvonne about her mum, then we have a call to make before we get back for afternoon surgery. Ring me if you need anything, all right?’

  ‘I will. Thank you, Conor.’

  After packing up the medical bag, they left the house in time to see another car arrive, a woman in her mid-forties scrambling out and hurrying up the path towards them, tears shimmering in her eyes. ‘Oh, Conor, I’ve just heard! Is Ma going to be all right? I never thought she’d do anything like this. I was only going out for some essentials.’

  ‘It’s not your fault, Yvonne. Lizzie’s in the best possible hands,’ he reassured her, giving her a sympathetic hug. ‘Are you going to be able to get to the hospital?’

  ‘Yes, thank you, I rang Billy and he’s coming home straight away. We’ll go together,’ she told him with a watery smile.

  ‘Billy is Yvonne’s husband, manager of the village bank,’ Conor explained, introducing them. ‘Call if I can help. I’ll ring the hospital later and be in to visit Lizzie when I can.’

  ‘Bless you, Conor. I’m so relieved you were here.’

  ‘Your mum’s a special lady, Yvonne.’

  A special lady but a frail one, Kate thought, climbing back into the car. ‘Do you think Lizzie will be all right?’

  ‘I hope so.’ He shrugged, but she could see the concern on his face. She’d only been working with him half a day but her misjudgement of him as a doctor had been glaring. He cared deeply about these people. ‘Lizzie’s long-term prognosis is worrying. You know as well as I do the high mortality and disability rates after these sorts of fractures in a person of her age. Her bones are fragile and she’s become infirm and unsteady recently—that’s why she left her own house in the village to move in with Yvonne and Billy. It’s not an ideal situation for any of them.’

  ‘The stairs can’t help.’

  ‘No, they don’t. Lizzie has a bed-sitting room upstairs as the only bathroom facilities are up there. It means she’s restricted. And she misses the village activity and her friends.’

  He lapsed into silence, a frown on his face, and she suspected he was wondering about a solution…if and when Lizzie was well enough to come home.

  The rest of the day was hectic with the completion of the home visits followed by clinics, consultations and a couple of minor emergencies, but Kate welcomed the busy pace because it gave her little time to worry about the job or fret about Conor. It was well after six before she was ready to leave, and when she discovered Conor was giving advice to a patient on the telephone she took the opportunity to escape. She nodded goodbye from the corridor, ignoring his gesture for her to wait, slipping past his consulting-room door before he could detain her and subject her to any more uncomfortable questions. She needed to recharge her mental batteries before facing him again.

  After saying goodnight to those members of staff yet to head for home, she declined their offers to join them for a meal or a drink at the village pub, needing to be alone to assess her first day. She walked round the side of the building and down the path, unlocked the door and went up the stairs to the spacious two-bedroom flat that was her home in Glentown-on-Firth.

  The village nestled at the foot of a wooded valley, bounded along the southern edge by the coastline of the Solway Firth, while to the north lay farmland, woods and the stunning Galloway hills. Situated in the heart of the village, the Solway Medical Centre was housed in an impressive two-storey granite building under a slate roof. Originally two residential villas, they had been combined and renovated with a modern extension added at the rear during a recent expansion of the practice.

  Having telephoned her father in London to reassure him she had survived her first day, the sound of his voice and his concerned support making her homesick, she prepared a light meal and sat at the large bay window in the living room, blind to the magnificent views because her mind was buzzing with thoughts and images—far too many of them featuring Conor Anderson.

  She would never forget her first sight of him. Or the instant wave of desire she had experienced, more powerful than anything she had felt before, but she was not ready to think about involvement with a man again. Not yet. And certainly not with a casual romeo like Conor who appeared to have half the women of south-west Scotland at his beck and call, each hoping to be the one to tame him but getting a broken heart for her trouble. No, she had enough problems sorting out her career and deciding what to do with the rest of her life.

  Today she had learned that Conor’s care for his patients was genuine. If there was anything to be done to make life easier for Lizzie and her family, Kate had no doubt he would do it. She had been concerned about Conor’s casualness but the patients loved his easygoing, touchy-feely approach to their care. He was a maverick, not at all what she was used to, but she respected him as a doctor. As a man he scared the hell out of her. She had never responded so intensely to someone. Her stay here was always going to be difficult professionally—the unwanted physical attraction to Conor made the weeks ahead even more alarming.

  ‘How did things go today?’

  Conor seated himself in Fred’s kitchen and gratefully accepted the drink offered to him. ‘Thanks. It went well. We had a busy day, routine for the most part, but I’m afraid that Lizzie Dalglish had a fall down the stairs and has broken
her femur.’

  ‘Oh, no.’ Fred frowned, stirring a teaspoon of sugar into his steaming drink. ‘Have you heard how she is?’

  ‘I rang the hospital before I left the surgery. She’s come through the operation which is a good start. We’ll have to see how her rehabilitation goes. I’ll visit when Lizzie is well enough.’

  Fred ran the palm of one hand over his balding pate, a characteristic habit when he was anxious or lost in thought. ‘How did Kate get on?’

  ‘I was very impressed; she’s an excellent doctor.’ He paused, declining to mention his intense and immediate attraction to her. Meeting Fred’s blue gaze, he watched the older man’s expression. ‘I’m not sure Kate knows it, though.’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘She was tense, nervous about her work—at least until she got started,’ he explained, knowing Fred well enough to tell when he was being evasive.

  Looking away, Fred shrugged. ‘That’s not unusual for first days.’

  ‘It was more than that,’ Conor persisted, puzzling over his unanswered questions and still miffed at the way Kate had sneaked home, denying him the chance to speak with her again. ‘She’s more than capable of holding her own consultations, but I’ll keep taking her on house calls until she’s better acquainted with the area.’

  ‘Good. That’s fine. But I don’t want to rush her.’

  Again Conor sensed that his partner was protecting Kate. But from what? Why? ‘Do you know her history?’

  ‘Kate’s?’ Fred parried, delaying a response when Conor nodded. ‘Not much.’

  Frustrated, Conor frowned and rested his arms on the table. ‘So tell me what you do know.’

  ‘I can’t tell you any more than I already have, Conor.’

  ‘Come on, Fred! I’m a partner here, too.’

  ‘Yes, you are. But I can’t break a confidence, you know that.’ The older man sighed.

  ‘Kate’s confidence…or the professor’s?’