In His Loving Care

by Jennifer Taylor

  ‘I don’t doubt that you mean what you say, Dr Cole. However, I would be lying if I said that I don’t have reservations about offering you the job.’

  Helen Daniel’s voice cut through his thoughts like a hot knife through butter, and he stiffened. He stared back at her, blanking out every thought apart from the fact that he had to get this job.

  ‘Because of my lack of experience in general practice work?’ he suggested neutrally, and she shrugged.

  ‘That’s not my main concern. I’m sure you would cope admirably in whichever field you chose to work. However, working in a town like Summerfield would be a whole new experience for most people, and it would be vastly different to what you’re used to.’

  ‘In what way?’ he demanded, struggling to remain calm, no easy feat when he knew where the conversation was leading. Helen Daniels was trying to let him down as gently as possible but he didn’t want to be let down—didn’t want to let Kristy down when she was depending on him!

  ‘There is nothing hi-tech about this practice. We’ve always relied on the principle of good, accurate diagnosis followed by the appropriate treatment. After-care is also extremely important to us so we make sure that we don’t lose touch with our patients once we’ve treated them.’

  ‘I agree.’ Lewis summoned a smile, hoping it would disguise his chagrin. Dr Daniels obviously didn’t rate him very highly if she thought that she needed to explain that principle to him.

  ‘It’s an approach I employed at St Leona’s. Every patient I treated there was called back for a further consultation six weeks after their surgery and I made a point of seeing them myself rather than relying on a junior to do it for me. Not only did it enable me to assess their fitness, it also gave me the opportunity to fine-tune the treatment I’d provided for them and maybe improve on it for the next patient I saw.’

  ‘Oh! I hadn’t realised that.’

  Lewis felt a wave of tenderness wash over him when he saw a little colour touch her cheeks. His tone softened, taking on a gentleness that he rarely employed apart from when he was speaking to Kristy.

  ‘There’s no reason why you should have known, Dr Daniels. The work I did at St Leona’s was vastly different to what you do here. I understand that. I’m also aware that I still have a great deal to learn about general practice work. However, I’ve completed my training and the experience I gained during that time has given me an insight into what might be expected of me.’

  ‘Of course,’ she replied stiffly, obviously embarrassed by her gaffe. ‘I never meant to imply otherwise, Dr Cole, I assure you.’

  ‘I’m sure you didn’t,’ he replied smoothly. He certainly didn’t want to make her feel that she was in the wrong when it could have repercussions on her offering him the job. He needed this job for Kristy’s sake and wanted it for himself, too. He could imagine himself working very happily with Helen Daniels.

  Lewis cleared his throat, somewhat surprised by the thought. It was rare for him to make snap judgements and he couldn’t understand why he’d done so in this instance. ‘All I can say is that I will do a good job if you offer me the post. With your help, I feel that I could fit in here and make a valuable contribution to the community.’

  ‘I appreciate your enthusiasm, Dr Cole. However, as I’m sure you will understand, I need to consider your application in light of the others I’ve received. The standard has been extremely high so it may take a few days for me to reach a decision.’

  She stood up, making it clear that the interview was over. Lewis’s heart sank as he got to his feet. He knew without having to be told that he’d blown it. He’d been too forceful, too sure of himself, and she wasn’t having any of it.

  He really couldn’t blame her, he thought as he shook her hand. He would have had reservations, too, if he’d been the one doing the interview. A forty-year-old consultant surgeon moving into general practice wasn’t the usual run-of-the-mill candidate so any prospective employer would have had doubts. Not for the first time he found himself wondering if he’d been mad to take this step, yet what choice had he had?

  Kristy needed him to be there when she got home from school. She needed him to be there in the middle of the night when she woke up, screaming in terror. What use was he to her if he was stuck in Theatre or at one of the endless fundraising dinners he’d been expected to attend? His whole lifestyle had had to change, although he didn’t regret it for a second. He owed Kristy this and a lot more after the way he’d failed her for the first six years of her life!

  He swung round, wishing there was something more he could have done to convince Helen Daniels that he was the best candidate for the post. She followed him from the room and he could sense her eagerness to get rid of him as she escorted him to the reception area. She paused by the desk, a polite smile fixed to her lovely mouth, and he sighed. There was no point holding out any hope that he would be offered the job so maybe he should cut his losses and make this as easy as possible for her.

  ‘Thank you for seeing me, Dr Daniels. I appreciate you giving up your time.’

  ‘Thank you for coming all this way,’ she countered politely. ‘Did you drive up here or travel by train, by the way?’

  ‘I drove. The trains can be a little erratic and I wanted to make sure I was back when Kristy got home from school,’ he replied, without thinking, because he was busily watching the light from the window playing across her hair. It really was the most glorious colour, he thought, watching a winter sunbeam bounce fiery lights off the silky red tendrils…

  ‘You have a daughter?’

  The surprise in her voice reclaimed his attention and he nodded. ‘Yes. Kristy is six,’ he explained in the noncommittal tone he used whenever anyone exhibited surprise at the fact that he was a father.

  ‘A lovely age. Old enough to enjoy her company yet still young enough that you can take care of her. You spend all your time worrying about them when they’re old enough to leave home.’

  Lewis frowned. He wasn’t sure what to make of that comment. He would have put her age at somewhere in her mid-thirties so she must have been very young when she’d had her family if her children had left home. Bearing in mind the years she would have spent studying, it seemed very strange and he was still trying to work it out when she continued.

  ‘How does your wife feel about moving out of London? Is she happy about the idea?’

  Lewis forgot about Helen’s family as he tried to decide how to answer the question. Normally, he avoided any mention of Tessa because he found it too difficult to talk about her. It also upset Kristy to hear her mother’s name mentioned so he skirted around the subject whenever anyone asked about her. However, for some reason he felt that he had to be truthful with Helen Daniels.

  ‘I’m not married. I never have been, in fact.’

  ‘Oh! I’m sorry. I just assumed you were when you spoke about your daughter…’

  She broke off in embarrassment and he grimaced because now he’d made matters worse. The only way to rectify the problem was to tell her the full story and to hell with what she thought…only it wasn’t that simple. For some, inexplicable reason he didn’t want her to think badly of him.

  ‘Kristy’s mother and I had a brief affair some years ago before she moved to Florida. She never told me that she was pregnant before she left so I had no idea that she was expecting my child. I only found out last year when a firm of lawyers from Miami informed me that I had a daughter.’

  ‘It must have been a shock for you.’

  ‘It was.’ He smiled grimly, thinking that must be the biggest understatement of all time. Even now, a full year later, he still woke up at night sometimes and wondered if he’d dreamt it.

  ‘You said that you found out about your daughter when you were contacted by lawyers? Was there a reason for that?’

  Lewis felt his heart swell when he saw the concern in her beautiful eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at him that way, he thought wistfully. He realised that he neede
d to terminate the conversation before he got in way too deep for his own good. Once he left The Beeches that would be the last he saw of Helen Daniels so there was no point wallowing in all that wonderful sympathy.

  ‘Unfortunately, Tessa was involved in a road accident and subsequently died of her injuries. She was living with some guy in Miami at the time, and after she died he decided that he didn’t want to be responsible for Kristy.’ He shrugged, trying to damp down the anger he felt whenever he thought about what had happened. ‘He took off one day and left Kristy in the apartment. Fortunately, a neighbour heard her crying and called the police, but from what they could gather she’d been on her own for almost a week by then.’

  ‘But that’s awful!’ Helen exclaimed. ‘How could anyone just abandon a young child?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. Anyway, once the authorities discovered that Tessa was dead, they put Kristy into care. It was only when the police finally tracked down the guy Tessa had been living with that my name cropped up. Tessa had told him I was Kristy’s father, so the lawyer who was working on the case got in touch with me. I flew out to Miami the following day and was granted custody of her.’

  ‘It must have been a huge shock for you, though.’

  ‘It was.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I’d never thought about having a family and all of a sudden I had a six-year-old daughter I had never even known existed.’

  ‘You could have had her adopted,’ she said, her eyes locked to his face in a way that would have bothered him if it hadn’t been for what she’d said. The fact that she believed him capable of giving up his own child made him see just how low an opinion she had of him, and it hurt to realise that, hurt far more than it should have done, bearing in mind that he barely knew her.

  ‘Kristy is my child and I would never put her up for adoption,’ he stated in a voice like steel. ‘I’ve enough to feel guilty about without adding that into the equation.’

  ‘But you didn’t even know that you had a daughter!’ she protested.

  ‘No, I didn’t know about her, but that isn’t an excuse for what’s gone on. The poor child has suffered enough heartache in her young life and I intend to do everything I can to make up for it.’

  He looked straight into her eyes, wanting to convince her yet unsure why it mattered so much. ‘I’m going to do my best to be the perfect father to her, and if that means giving up my career and moving home then that’s what I shall do. The only person who matters now is Kristy and there is nothing I won’t do to make her happy!’

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘THERE’S a staff meeting today at twelve. It will be a bit of rush to fit it in before we do the house calls but we find it helpful to get together a couple of times a week to discuss any problems we have.’

  Helen summoned a smile, wishing she didn’t feel so on edge whenever she had to speak to Lewis. After all, it had been her decision to offer him the job so it wasn’t as though she hadn’t had any choice in the matter. Would she have taken him on if he hadn’t told her about his daughter, though? she wondered all of a sudden.

  She’d already decided that she wasn’t going to offer him the job when he’d told her about Kristy, and it had been that which had made her reconsider. The thought of what the child had been through had had a huge bearing on her decision, although it hadn’t been the only reason she’d changed her mind. It had been Lewis’s determination to do all he could for the little girl which had been the deciding factor, and it was unsettling to know that he had that much power over her. It wasn’t surprising that she felt so nervous around him in the circumstances.

  ‘Fine by me. There’s a couple of queries I’d like to raise.’

  He smiled ruefully and Helen’s heart performed the strangest manoeuvre—something between a leap and a hiccup. She had to make a determined effort to concentrate as he continued in the same wry tone.

  ‘My lack of experience in some areas of general practice work is starting to show so I’m hoping the rest of the team can give me a few pointers.’

  ‘That’s what we’re here for,’ she agreed briskly, deciding that enough was enough. She made her way to the door, pausing reluctantly when he spoke again. She would have preferred to make her escape rather than risk a few more seconds in his company.

  ‘I forgot to ask whose car we’re going in this afternoon to do the home visits. I don’t mind driving if you feel like a break.’

  ‘We’ll go in mine,’ she said shortly. It was irritating to have these ideas flashing into her head all the time. She’d worked with Ian for over twelve years and not once had she experienced even a hint of the awareness around him which she felt around Lewis.

  The thought was less comforting that it should have been and she hurried on. ‘We need to visit one of the local farms today and your car really isn’t suitable.’

  ‘Hmm. A sports car isn’t the ideal vehicle to get around the area, is it?’

  He sighed as he tossed his pen onto the desk and stretched his arms above his head. Helen looked away when muscles began to ripple beneath his shirt. She was trying to defuse the tension, not add to it!

  ‘I’m going to have to bite the bullet and change my car, I suppose.’ He heaved another sigh then dropped his hands onto the desk in a gesture that smacked of defeat.

  ‘Obviously a major sacrifice,’ she said tartly, because it seemed safer not to sympathise with him as she would have done with any other member of the staff.

  ‘Oh, I’m not worried for myself. A car is a car, so far as I’m concerned, but Kristy loves it. The only time I’ve heard her laugh, in fact, was when I took her to the seaside in the summer and we put the top down. I think it reminded her of drives with her mother. Tessa was driving a convertible when she was killed.’

  Helen immediately felt guilty. It had been wrong of her to try and offset the effect he had on her by thinking badly of him. ‘How is Kristy settling in?’ she asked, because there was no way that she could apologise for being so sharp with him. It would only make him wonder why she’d spoken to him in that fashion in the first place, and that was the last thing she needed.

  ‘So far, so good.’ He crossed his fingers. ‘She seems to like her new school well enough and the fact that there’s an after-school club has been a real bonus. I’ve not had to find a child-minder to look after her until I get home from work. However, what really swung it was the house. The place we’re renting backs onto a farm and there’s a horse in the paddock. Kristy spends all her spare time standing by the fence, stroking it!’

  Helen laughed. ‘A lot of little girls are mad about horses. I know I was at her age. Maybe you should think about booking some riding lessons for her.’

  ‘Actually, I have it on my list of things to do. Unfortunately, it’s a very long list and I haven’t got round to it yet.’ He tipped back his chair and smiled at her. Helen’s heart performed another interesting manoeuvre, a kind of double somersault this time.

  ‘I can imagine,’ she said as calmly as she could. ‘It must be difficult to keep on top of everything with moving house and starting a new job.’

  ‘Tell me about it! There don’t seem to be enough hours in a day to fit everything in. But arranging for Kristy to have riding lessons should be a priority, really. I don’t suppose you know where the nearest stables are?’

  ‘I’m afraid there aren’t any in Summerfield.’

  ‘That’s a blow. I was hoping I’d be able to find somewhere local to take her for lessons.’

  ‘Jill Sandford at Sandy Brook farm is a qualified instructor. She used to take a few pupils so maybe you could try phoning her?’ she suggested, hating to hear him sounding so deflated.

  ‘That’s a great idea! Can you let me have her number? I’ll give her a call tonight after work.’

  ‘I’ll hunt it out for you. And now I really must get down to some work.’

  She quickly excused herself and made her way to her room. There were three consulting rooms at The Beeches, plus a treatment room which was normally
occupied by Amy, their practice nurse. Helen had taken over Ian’s room after he’d died because it was the sunniest, while Harry Scott, their locum, was currently using the room she’d once had. She’d given Lewis the room that had belonged to Ian’s father and now she found herself wishing that she’d arranged to have it decorated. It had always been a gloomy room and a fresh lick of paint would have brightened it up. She should have got rid of some of the old-fashioned furniture, too. Ian had insisted on keeping the room exactly as his father had left it, but it was time the place was updated.

  She frowned as she opened the door to her own room. It, too, desperately needed modernising. Ian had always refused to modernise the surgery but maybe it was time she did so. She couldn’t keep clinging to the past because it was what Ian would have wanted. She had to make her own decisions and it was a surprise to find herself thinking along such lines. She wasn’t sure what had sparked it off so she tried to forget about it as she summoned her first patient. There would be time enough for colour charts and fabric swatches later!

  Her first patient was Diane Hartley, a teacher at the local high school. Helen smiled when she came into the room. ‘Hello, Diane. It’s not often I see you here on a weekday.’

  ‘No, and I feel dreadful about taking time off work, too, but I just had to come and see you.’

  She suddenly burst into tears so Helen quickly got up and led her to the chair next to her desk. ‘Here, take this,’ she said, handing Diane a tissue. She waited while the other woman wiped her eyes then smiled at her. ‘Now, tell me what’s wrong.’

  ‘I don’t know! That’s the trouble. I feel so miserable all the time and I can’t seem to stop crying.’ Diane blew her nose. ‘It’s as though there’s this black cloud hanging over me all the time. It’s driving poor Martin mad.’