A Wife Worth Waiting For

by Maggie Kingsley

  ‘Ready, Jock?’ he said, and when the fire chief nodded, Hugh took a deep breath, and shouted, ‘Pull!’

  For a minute both men strained their hardest, then Alex let out an ear-splitting whoop.

  ‘It’s out!’ she exclaimed, her eyes very bright. ‘You did it, Hugh. You did it!’

  Dimly he was aware that she’d called him by his Christian name, and that Jock Sutherland was slapping him on the back, but what he was most aware of was the whir of helicopter blades overhead and he sent up a silent prayer of thanks.

  Within minutes the air ambulance paramedics had transferred Ewan to a backboard, inserted fresh IV lines, and the helicopter had taken off again. Bill Tulloch set off to organise a clean-up of the road, and after many comments of, ‘The pair of you must have charmed lives,’ Jock and his fire crew finally left too.

  ‘Do you think Ewan will make it?’ Alex asked as she and Hugh walked over to her motorcycle.

  ‘I hope so,’ Hugh replied, then cleared his throat. ‘Thanks for your help.’

  ‘It’s what I’m here for.’ She met his gaze. ‘At least it’s supposed to be what I’m here for—to help—if you’ll let me.’

  ‘After witnessing what you just did, you bet I’ll let you,’ he replied. ‘You did a great job.’

  She blinked, then her expression changed to one of exaggerated disbelief.

  ‘Did mine ears deceive me or did you actually—could you possibly—have just paid me a compliment?’

  ‘Alex—’

  ‘And you’ve just called me by my Christian name,’ she exclaimed. ‘Praise the lord, another first.’

  He gave her a very hard stare. ‘Are you always this much trouble wherever you work?’

  ‘Oh, absolutely.’ She nodded, and when his lips twitched into a reluctant smile, she added, ‘I’m also a good doctor, Hugh, but I don’t want to take Jenny’s place. I’m here simply because your practice needs some help, and in two and a half months I’ll be out of your hair, but in the meantime what say we call a truce?’

  He thrust his fingers through his black hair awkwardly. ‘That crack I made earlier—about jumping when I say jump—I’m sorry. I was out of line.’

  ‘Yes, you were,’ she said, ‘but I was out of line, too, when I said you were a pompous, arrogant twit.’

  ‘Actually, it was the “thirty-nine going on sixty” bit that hit home hardest,’ he said ruefully.

  ‘I’m sorry about that,’ she said, looking as though she meant it. ‘Look, what say we make a bargain? You forget what I said, and I’ll forget what you said.’

  ‘You’re a lot more forgiving than I would be in your shoes,’ he said, and she smiled.

  ‘I’m not a bad person, Hugh.’

  ‘Which makes me…?’

  She tilted her head thoughtfully. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t figured you out yet.’ She glanced down at her watch and let out a muttered oath. ‘I’d better go. I haven’t even made my first home visit yet and it’s almost half past one.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ he said as she reached for her helmet. ‘Your face is filthy.’

  ‘I’ll wash it when I get to my first patient,’ she said dismissively, and he shook his head.

  ‘No you won’t,’ he said. ‘You are not riding around the country looking as though you’ve been in a fire. I have a handkerchief, and some water in my car. I’ll clean you up.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Dr Lorimer, you are going to let me clean you up,’ he declared, ‘or you’re heading straight back to the surgery.’

  She stuck out her tongue at him. ‘You’re a bully, you know that, don’t you?’

  ‘Alex.’

  ‘OK—OK,’ she said, resignation plain on her face, ‘but can you make it fast or your patients will be starting to organise a search party for me.’

  He tried to make it fast but he would have been a lot quicker if she hadn’t kept twisting her mouth around.

  ‘Will you keep still?’ he exclaimed as she jerked her chin out of his hand once again.

  ‘Hugh, this is my face, not a brick,’ she protested. ‘You’re scrubbing too hard.’

  ‘Wimp,’ he said.

  ‘Am not,’ she retorted mulishly.

  She wasn’t, he thought as he clasped her chin again, and began to rub more gently, but she definitely needed a minder. Somebody to watch out for her, someone who would make sure she didn’t do anything dumb, and it looked like it was going to have to be him. Malcolm was too busy, and her boyfriend was God knows where, so it would have to be him or heaven knows what mess she would get herself into. OK, so she would undoubtedly chop him off at the knees if she knew what he was thinking, but she was his locum, his responsibility.

  ‘Aren’t you finished yet?’ she said, and he shook his head at her.

  ‘You’ve no patience, have you?’

  ‘Yeah, right, and like you have?’ she replied, and he chuckled.

  She had such fine features, he thought, as he rubbed at a particularly stubborn patch of oil on her cheek, such very delicate bones. Jenny hadn’t been fine-boned. She’d been a woman, with a woman’s curves, but Alex…

  She was definitely a water sprite. A water sprite with such very pale skin. A water sprite with enormous green eyes, and, as Hugh stared down at her, he forgot the handkerchief he was holding. Forgot everything as all sound faded, and the world seemed to slip away, leaving just the two of them, until he saw her eyes change from impatience, to confusion, and then—just for a second—to something that caused his heart to inexplicably tighten in his chest before she quickly stepped back from him.

  ‘I…I have to go, Hugh,’ she mumbled. ‘The patients…My home visits…’

  ‘Right.’ He nodded. ‘Your face…I didn’t mean it to take so long. I just….’

  Just what? he wondered. One minute he’d been trying to get the oil off her skin, thinking she needed a minder, and the next…

  ‘It was my fault,’ she muttered. ‘I wouldn’t stand still. I…’ She backed up another step. ‘I really do have to go.’

  ‘Me, too,’ he said, not moving at all, but when she pulled on her helmet he couldn’t help but add, ‘Alex, all these locum posts you take…Why don’t you accept one of the partnerships you’ve been offered?’

  She shrugged. ‘Itchy feet, I guess.’

  ‘Yes, but…’

  He couldn’t have said any more if he’d wanted to. She had already closed her visor, effectively shutting him out, and when she hit her ignition the roar of her bike prevented any further conversation.

  ‘Drive carefully,’ he shouted, but she didn’t even nod.

  She just rode off, leaving him staring after her.

  There was more to it than itchy feet, he thought as he walked slowly back to his car. In fact, he suspected there was a whole lot more to Alex Lorimer than she ever let the world see. She was a puzzle, and no mistake. Just as that very odd feeling he’d experienced when he’d been cleaning her face had been a puzzle.

  Post-traumatic stress, he told himself dismissively. When people were put into dangerous situations, the relief of surviving them often made them feel strange, not quite themselves. It was easily explained, easily accounted for, but Alex Lorimer…She really was a puzzle.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ALEX frowned as she gently examined Jamie Allen’s elbow. She could see a very definite swelling, with quite a bit of discolouration. The six-year-old hadn’t been able to bend his elbow, and when she’d tried to do it for him he’d let out a yelp of pain.

  ‘He could simply have badly jarred it,’ Alex said, sitting back on her heels, and staring up at the boy’s mother, ‘but I have to say I think it’s more likely he’s got a supracondylar humerus fracture—a fractured elbow. He fell out of a tree, you said?’

  Grace Allen nodded.

  ‘He was pretending to be a Power Ranger,’ she replied. ‘In the spring he broke his ankle when he fell off the garden shed pretending to be a spy. I tell you, Doctor, he’s only six, but
he’s broken more bones since he was born than his seven brothers put together.’

  ‘You like climbing, Jamie?’ Alex said, shifting her attention back to the little boy, and he grinned back at her with the kind of impish wide-eyed expression that Alex knew from experience generally spelt trouble.

  ‘I want to be an astronaut when I grow up,’ he replied, ‘or a tightrope walker.’

  ‘Always supposing he lives that long,’ his mother said ruefully. ‘So it’s off to the hospital for an X-ray, is it, Doctor?’

  Alex nodded. ‘They’ll probably X-ray both of Jamie’s elbows because it can be quite hard sometimes to tell whether someone so young has sustained a fracture. If there’s what we call a “fat-pad” visible on the X-ray, then it’s definitely a fracture. If there isn’t—’

  ‘It’ll be a fracture,’ Grace Allen interrupted with resignation. ‘It always is with Jamie. At least he’s so accustomed now to plaster casts that he just takes them in his stride. When he had pneumonia last year, we had the devil’s own job trying to get him to take the medication.’

  ‘You don’t like taking pills, Jamie?’ Alex said, smiling at the little boy, and he shook his head vigorously.

  ‘They always taste like sheep droppings.’

  ‘Jamie.’

  ‘It’s all right, Mrs Allen.’ Alex laughed, seeing the mortification on the woman’s face. ‘Shall I tell you something, Jamie?’ she said, leaning towards him conspiratorially. ‘I don’t like taking pills either. I needed to take quite a few some years back and I thought they tasted like sheep droppings, too.’

  ‘Do you still have to take them?’ Jamie asked, and Alex nodded.

  ‘Not the sheep droppings ones, thankfully, but I do need to take some.’ Too much information, Alex, she thought, suddenly realising that Mrs Allen was staring at her curiously. You’re giving away far too much information. ‘How’s Ewan doing?’ she said, quickly changing the subject, and Mrs Allen smiled.

  ‘They moved him out of Intensive Care yesterday. He’ll be in the hospital for at least another five weeks, but the consultant says he should make a full recovery in time. I still can’t thank you enough for what you did, Doctor,’ Mrs Allen continued. ‘Dr Hugh told me if it wasn’t for you, Ewan wouldn’t have survived the crash.’

  ‘Dr Hugh exaggerated,’ Alex said firmly. ‘It was a team effort.’

  ‘I know what I know,’ the woman said. ‘Did Neil bring in the box of groceries for you?’

  ‘He did, but there was no need for you to give me a present, Mrs Allen,’ Alex replied. And especially not the live chicken. ‘I did no more than my job.’

  ‘Which doesn’t mean I can’t show my appreciation,’ Mrs Allen said, getting heavily to her feet, then glancing down at her son. ‘Come on, you wee rapscallion. We’re off to the hospital again, but I’ll see you next week, Doctor. I’m coming to your slimming classes,’ she continued as Alex stared at her in surprise. ‘It’s about time I lost some weight, and your classes sound fun.’

  Alex hoped they would be as she walked Mrs Allen through to the waiting room, then waved goodbye. She’d thought long and hard about how she could kick-start the classes back into life, and making them fun seemed the best way.

  ‘What’s young Jamie broken now?’

  Alex turned to see Hugh standing behind her, and smiled.

  ‘His elbow,’ she said, ‘but I gather from Mrs Allen that he’s quite accident prone.’

  ‘And how. He’s broken a leg, a collarbone, an ankle, an arm and a wrist up to now.’

  Alex frowned slightly. ‘You don’t think he could possibly have—’

  ‘Osteogenesis imperfecta?’ Hugh shook his head. ‘After his second fracture I had him tested for brittle bone disease, but his scans were clear. He’s just never happier than when he’s climbing, and I’m afraid his enthusiasm is better than his balance and he keeps falling.’

  ‘I don’t know how Mrs Allen is still sane after having brought up eight sons,’ Alex declared. ‘Are all of them blond like Ewan, Jamie and Neil?’

  ‘Every single one of them.’ Hugh shot her a speculative glance. ‘I hear Neil was back in again yesterday. I’ve seen him just once in the past ten years, and now he appears to virtually haunt the place.’

  ‘Thank goodness he doesn’t bring a live chicken with him every time he comes,’ Alex said with feeling. ‘Did you manage to find a good home for it?’

  ‘The very best,’ Hugh replied. ‘It’s in the butcher’s freezer ready for you to collect whenever you want.’

  ‘It’s in…?’ She stared at him, open-mouthed for a second, then a bubble of horrified laughter sprang from her. ‘Hugh, that is gross.’

  ‘It’s practical,’ he protested. ‘Of course, if you would rather have kept it, bought it a lead, called it Rupert…?’

  ‘You know perfectly well that I wouldn’t,’ she exclaimed. ‘But when I asked you to find it a good home I was thinking of a farm, or a croft.’

  ‘It would have ended up in a pot eventually,’ he said, ‘so it might as well be yours.’

  ‘I guess so.’

  He shot her another glance. ‘Just as I’m sure you also know why Neil has suddenly become a regular feature at our surgery over the past fortnight.’

  ‘He can save his journeys as far as I’m concerned,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m not interested.’

  ‘Even though he’s blond, blue-eyed, personable, and owns his own garage?’

  ‘Neil Allen could own the whole of the north of Scotland and I still wouldn’t be interested.’

  ‘Then what about Rory Murray?’ Hugh observed, his grey eyes gleaming. ‘You wouldn’t believe the number of times he’s turned up to have his hip checked, and he’s always extremely disappointed when Chrissie sends him through to me. OK, so he’s ten years older than Neil, and doesn’t have blond hair, but he’s a plumber, and plumbers earn more than doctors do nowadays.’

  Alex fixed him with a beady glare. ‘You know, you’re asking for a slap.’

  ‘You’d give me one, too, wouldn’t you?’ Hugh laughed. ‘Just three referral letters to type this afternoon, Chrissie,’ he added as the receptionist joined them. ‘One for orthopaedics, one for dermatology—and, yes, I do know I’ll probably be receiving my pension by the time we get an appointment for that department,’ he continued as Chrissie groaned, ‘and one appointment for ENT.’

  ‘What is it with dermatology departments?’ Alex asked. ‘No matter what part of the country I’ve worked in, I can guarantee it will take for ever to get a patient an appointment with them.’

  ‘They say there aren’t enough of them,’ Hugh replied. ‘We say they should pull their collective fingers out.’

  ‘Talking of collective fingers,’ Chrissie declared, ‘Malcolm phoned to say don’t wait for him but to just go ahead with the post-surgery debriefing. He doesn’t know when he’ll be back from his home visits. He has an extra call to make. To Lady Soutar.’

  It was Hugh’s turn to groan.

  ‘I take it Lady Soutar is bad news?’ Alex observed, glancing from Hugh to Chrissie. ‘I’ve not met her yet—’

  ‘You will,’ Hugh interrupted. ‘She owns Glen Dhu lodge, plus 40,000 acres of deer, salmon and trout, and she’s…difficult.’

  ‘You mean I’ll probably need therapy after I’ve visited her,’ Alex said, and Hugh grinned.

  ‘I’d bet money on it.’ He glanced down at his watch. ‘Debriefing in my room in ten minutes if that’s OK with you?’

  She nodded, and as Hugh strode away Alex became aware that Chrissie was observing her with a singularly smug expression.

  ‘Told you he was a good man, didn’t I?’ the receptionist declared.

  ‘OK—all right—I was wrong, and I admit it,’ Alex replied. ‘He’s a nice man when you get to know him.’

  ‘And you’ve got him laughing,’ Chrissie continued. ‘Malcolm was just saying the other morning that he hasn’t seen Hugh laugh so much in years.’

  ‘Yup, regula
r circus clown act, that’s me,’ Alex said lightly, and Chrissie shook her head at her.

  ‘I mean it, Alex, you’re good for him—’

  ‘Hey, hold on there a minute,’ Alex interrupted. ‘If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking…’

  ‘I meant the practice,’ Chrissie said hurriedly, her cheeks darkening. ‘You’re good for the practice.’

  ‘It’s already a good practice,’ Alex said. ‘All it needs is another doctor. You can’t run it with just two—your patients are too scattered.’

  Chrissie nodded, then cleared her throat.

  ‘I don’t suppose you’d consider staying on here when your contract’s up? It’s a really nice place to live,’ the receptionist continued quickly as Alex began to shake her head. ‘You can leave your front door open, your car keys in the ignition, and if you’ve got kids they can roam about in perfect safety.’

  ‘Number one, Hugh is going to want somebody a whole lot more experienced than me for a full-time post,’ Alex replied. ‘Number two, I have plans and staying on here isn’t one of them, and number three, a place like this is really only great if you’re married with kids.’

  ‘And you don’t plan to do either?’

  ‘Nope.’

  And she didn’t, Alex thought as she went back into her consulting room to collect her notebook. She would never marry, and as for children…

  Her heart twisted slightly and unconsciously she put her fingers to her cheek. How long had it been since she’d been touched by a man? Jonathan had walked away almost four years ago. But it wasn’t Jonathan’s touch that she couldn’t forget.

  It was Hugh Scott, scrubbing away at her face for all he was worth, clearly thinking she was a lunatic, until he’d suddenly stopped. He’d just stood there, cupping her chin in his hand, and she’d been about to make a joke, to say, Come on, dozy daydream, when his quicksilver eyes had caught hers, and, without warning, her heart had suddenly filled with such longing, with such an inexplicable yearning, that she’d wanted to walk straight into his arms, and stay there.

  Which was crazy. OK, so she liked him—more than liked him if she was honest with herself-but she was just passing through.