by Sarah Morgan
Nikos questioned her about the child, and about the consultation she’d had with her own doctor.
‘Did he examine Harry’s stomach?’
‘No. He said it was just a virus and that I should have waited until after the weekend to bring him back.’ Carol’s eyes filled again. ‘So I took Harry home, but he looked so awful and all morning he’s been getting worse. I didn’t know what to do so I just thought I’d bring him here. I know you probably want to yell at me too…’
As if on cue, another toddler in the waiting room started to cry and Nikos winced.
‘As you can hear, it’s the children that do the yelling in this department.’ His tone dry, he rose to his feet and closed the door of the cubicle. ‘I want to examine Harry properly, Carol. Can you lift him onto the trolley for me? Ella, do we have any toys? Something to distract him?’ His smile was disarming. ‘Normally I have toys, but I have just come from a meeting with the hospital manager and I have never yet persuaded them to take play seriously.’
Ella fished a different car out of the box and then tried a puppet, but in the end no distraction was needed because Harry lay quietly on the trolley while Nikos gently examined his stomach. Watching his skilled, confident hands move gently over the toddler’s tiny body, Ella felt some of the tension leave her. She had no doubt whatsoever that he’d be able to identify the problem.
He was a brilliant doctor.
Had he dismissed Carol? No. He’d taken her concerns really seriously.
‘Temperature?’
‘His temperature is normal.’ Ella wondered if he was finding it as hard to concentrate as she was. ‘Do you think it’s a virus?’
He didn’t answer for a moment, his expression thoughtful as he felt the toddler’s abdomen with gentle fingers. ‘No,’ he said finally. ‘I don’t. The signs aren’t classic, but…’ his eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he studied the pale, listless child. ‘I wonder…? Ella, ring Ed Green for me. Ask him to come down.’
Ed Green was the paediatric surgeon and Ella hurried to the phone and made the call, wondering what was going through Nikos’s mind.
Nikos was talking to Carol. ‘You were right to bring him,’ he said quietly, ‘and to trust your instincts.’
Carol looked at him anxiously. ‘It isn’t a tummy bug?’
‘No. Harry has something called intussusception.’ He reached for a pen and a piece of paper and quickly drew a diagram. ‘This is the bowel, yes? Sometimes one segment of the bowel can telescope into the next part—this is what we call intussusception.’
‘And Harry is showing signs of that?’
‘Actually no,’ Nikos conceded, returning the pen to his pocket. ‘He isn’t showing any of the classic signs.’
‘Then how do you know what it is?’
‘I just know.’ Nikos gave a ghost of a smile. ‘You have maternal instincts that told you something was wrong, and I have instincts also. Doctor instincts. A gut feeling, I think you call it.’
‘Is it something serious?’
‘It can be,’ Nikos said carefully, ‘but in this case I think we have caught it early, thanks to those instincts of yours. My colleague is on his way now, and—’
‘Nikos?’ Ed, the paediatric surgeon, strode through the door, a slight man with glasses and sandy-coloured hair. ‘What can I do for you?’
Nikos briefly outlined the history and Ed walked to the side of the trolley.
‘Intussusception?’ He checked the observation chart that Ella had completed.
‘Harry is displaying none of the classic signs,’ Nikos said in a cool tone. ‘No temperature, a small amount of diarrhoea yesterday, but nothing since, one episode of vomiting and no abdominal mass.’
‘So you’re making an educated guess.’ Ed examined the child’s abdomen himself. ‘Could be appendicitis.’
Nikos shook his head, confident and sure of himself. ‘It’s intussusception. And it’s not a guess.’
Ed lifted an eyebrow, his gaze challenging. ‘You can’t be sure, Mariakos.’
Nikos met his gaze full on. ‘I’m sure. As he’s showing no signs of perforation, a barium enema is probably the most appropriate choice.’ He walked away from the trolley and took Carol to one side. ‘Mr Green is going to sort out the problem. And I will phone your GP.’
‘Thank you so much.’ She was tearfully grateful, visibly worried about Harry, and Nikos closed a strong brown hand over her shoulder in a gesture of support.
‘It took great courage for you to come here, having already been told that he was fine,’ he said softly. ‘You were very brave and you have done Harry a great service because if the condition had been left too much longer, the outcome might not have been so good. You are an excellent mother and Harry is a lucky boy.’
Carol’s cheeks grew pink but his words seemed to give her an extra boost of strength and she was calm as Harry was transferred into the care of the surgeons.
A few hours later Ella caught up with Nikos as he worked his way through the long queue of children waiting to be seen. Two more doctors had come over from the main emergency department to help, but it was Nikos who saw the difficult cases.
‘Ed Green just called.’
Nikos looked up from the set of notes he was writing. ‘How is Harry? Did Ed leave a message?’
‘Yes.’ Ella hesitated. ‘He said to tell you that you’re an arrogant Greek and one day you’re probably going to fall flat on your handsome face, but in the meantime if either of his kids are ever brought into Paediatric Casualty, please can you make sure that you’re on duty.’
Nikos smiled. ‘I’ll do my best.’
‘He was telling you your diagnosis was correct.’
‘I know it was correct. I was never in any doubt about that. But you are also responsible for the fact that the child is going to be all right.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘You were right to call me out of that meeting. Well done.’
The praise lifted her spirits. ‘Did you speak to the GP?’
‘Yes.’ With that economical answer, Nikos calmly rose to his feet. ‘And now to an entirely different subject. You’re not spending another night on that canal boat. I want you to move in with me. We will drive over to the boat after work and fetch your things.’
Stunned, Ella just looked at him. ‘I’m not marrying you, Nikos. Didn’t you listen to anything I said to you?’
‘Yes. You said that you don’t know me.’ His tone was cool. ‘So—move in with me and you will soon realise that I am exactly the same person with or without money. The money just means that someone else cooks our cheese on toast and we have more room in the bed.’
‘It isn’t that simple, Nikos! I can’t possibly move in with you!’ It was hard enough resisting temptation without living under the same roof as him. ‘No.’
‘We can fight about this if you wish.’ Carefully, he put down his pen. ‘But I will win.’
‘No, you won’t!’
His strong, confident hand rested briefly on her stomach. ‘I’m the father, Ella,’ he said softly. ‘What are you going to tell him when he asks you why his parents are not together? How are you going to explain that?’
She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. ‘That’s fighting dirty, Nikos.’
‘Then don’t fight me. I will do whatever it takes to get you to do the right thing for our child. You say that you don’t know me, and maybe you don’t because if you did then you would know that I would never let my child be brought up outside marriage. And now I’ve told you that about myself, I want to know something about you. Look at me.’ His hand slid under her chin, tilting her face. ‘I want to know why you are being so stubborn about this.’
‘You know why,’ she croaked, struggling to ignore the stroke of his fingers. ‘You walked out on me. You ended our relationship. You chose to leave. The only reason you’re here now is because of the baby and that isn’t good enough for me. You haven’t stayed with any woman for more than six months. You don’t show commitment.�
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He lifted an eyebrow. ‘I’m prepared to marry you—that shows commitment.’
‘What happens when you decide to move on? I’m protecting my baby, Nikos.’
‘Our baby,’ he said harshly, his hands caging her face. ‘It’s our baby, agape mou. And the role of protector is mine. I am the man, no? I am the one who goes hunting, who carries a spear and repels invaders. You can rely on me to protect our baby. That isn’t something you need to worry about.’
Unless the threat to the baby came from him.
What happened when he got tired of her and moved on to another woman?
‘You’ve regressed to caveman mode again,’ she muttered, hating the fact that part of her responded to his ultra-traditional male views. ‘You don’t care about being politically correct, do you?’
‘I care about what’s best for our child.’ Dark lashes shielded his expression as he watched her. ‘What about you, Ella? What do you care about?’
‘I also care about what’s best for our child.’
‘Then marry me and stop this nonsense.’
Ella pulled away from him, feeling as though she was suffocating.
He was so sure of himself. And the really cruel thing was that she wanted to say yes so badly.
She loved him and she really, really wanted to let him put the ring back on her finger and pull her into the fairy-tale life he was offering her.
But she didn’t dare. If she made that leap, she’d fall.
And her baby would fall, too.
‘I don’t want to talk about this any more.’ Tense, on edge, she backed towards the door. ‘I’m living on my canal boat and that’s final.’
His only reaction to her words was a tightening of his beautiful mouth. ‘How many nights have you spent on that boat?’
It seemed like a strange question. ‘Last night was the first one. But I don’t see what that has to do with anything.’
He didn’t answer. He simply looked at her for a long moment and then straightened and glanced at his watch. ‘I’m due at the university—I’m giving a lecture to a bunch of medical students. I’ll see you later.’
Ella opened her mouth to repeat that she wasn’t going to move in with him but his long stride meant that he was already halfway down the corridor.
She stared after him in confusion, still wondering why he was interested in how many nights she’d spent on the boat.
What did that have to do with anything?
It didn’t matter how many nights she’d spent on the boat. She wasn’t going to change her mind and move in with him. How could she? How could she ever risk that?
Remembering what he’d said to her, her hand dropped to her abdomen.
‘I’m doing it for you,’ she whispered to the baby. ‘He doesn’t love me. He didn’t choose to be with me. He’s only here because of you. And that isn’t good enough, is it? You wouldn’t want that. Trust me. I know.’
Frustrated by Ella’s determined refusal to marry him, Nikos strode towards his car, scrolling through his emails on his BlackBerry.
His mouth tightened impatiently as he ruthlessly deleted anything and everything that didn’t grab his attention.
One email caught his eye and he scanned the contents.
Sliding behind the wheel of his car, he made a call. ‘The house is all confirmed?’ Listening to the stammering excuses of an incredibly starstruck estate agent, Nikos sighed. ‘I don’t want to wait a month. I want the house today. Give me the phone number of the family who own the house. I will speak to them myself.’ Ignoring the man’s feeble protests that he was paid to conduct negotiations on the property, Nikos skilfully extracted the number out of the man and then called the family who lived in the house.
The house he wanted.
It took him under two minutes to negotiate an outcome that was satisfactory to both parties and a further minute to make arrangements for the key to be delivered to the hospital. He placed one further call to Athens and then gave a satisfied smile.
The job was done.
He had a house. A house that she was going to love. She obviously wanted a slice of country living and he’d just bought her an extremely large slice. It was set in acres of grounds, which should satisfy Ella’s need for a rural retreat, and it was right on the beach.
All he had to do now was persuade her that she was going to live in it.
And she was going to fight him all the way, of course, because she seemed determined to fight him about everything.
Reversing out of his space, Nikos tried again to work out what was going on in her head.
Was she really resisting his proposal simply because he hadn’t divulged the details of his financial situation?
What difference did it make that he had money? Most women would have been delighted to discover that their future was secure. Particularly someone like Ella, who was obviously struggling by on a ridiculously tight budget.
But Ella didn’t seem remotely interested in his money. Just in the fact that he hadn’t told her about it.
He felt a rush of frustration because her reaction didn’t make sense.
And then he experienced the same feeling that he always had when a sick baby was brought into the department. They couldn’t tell him what was wrong and he loved the challenge of using all his skills to reveal the answer.
It would be the same with Ella, he vowed as he turned onto the road that led to the university. He was a doctor, wasn’t he? He needed to take a step back. Be more objective. Examine the clues.
But the first step was to have her living under the same roof as him.
Exhausted after the end of a long shift, Ella changed into her jeans, slung her bag over her shoulder and said good-night to the night staff who had just come on duty.
There was no sign of Nikos and that surprised her because she’d been braced for another argument about the unsuitability of living on a canal boat.
In the darkness outside in the ambulance bay, she fumbled with the lock on her bike and then wheeled it down the dark alleyway that led from the emergency department to the back of the hospital and the canal path.
It was the first time she’d seen the canal at night and cold fingers of unease trailed down her spine.
She’d been asleep when Nikos had carried her home the previous evening. Only now was she realising what it would be like to cycle home along this lonely path at night.
And as for sleeping on the boat on her own…
Suddenly she wished she hadn’t been quite so quick to dismiss Helen and Nikos’s concerns. Perhaps pregnancy had done strange things to her imagination, but she felt horribly, horribly uneasy, staring along the dark, lonely path.
Irritated with herself, she switched on the light at the front of her bike.
Looking at the sinister darkness that stretched ahead, Ella almost wished Nikos was there. His powerful shoulders and raw male strength would have done a great deal to calm her nerves.
Knowing him as she did, she was frankly a little shocked that he’d allowed her to cycle home without more of a fuss.
Swallowing hard, she stared into the shadowy darkness and felt another lurch of unease. What was the matter with her? This was what she wanted, wasn’t it? She’d chosen to live here. She’d chosen peace and tranquillity. She’d wanted independence. Acknowledging the contradiction in her attitude, Ella sighed with frustration.
She accused him of being a caveman, so he let her cycle alone. And now she was wishing he’d been more forceful about stopping her.
Desperately, she tried to pull herself together. Really, she was being pathetic. She had a light on her bicycle so there was no chance that she was going to cycle into the canal. And as for everything else…
Refusing to examine any other fear, she pushed her foot down on the pedal and started along the path. The wheels of her bike crunched lightly on the rough ground and high in the trees an owl gave a ghostly hoot, reminding her that the surrounding woodland was very much alive at this
time of night. Something gleamed between the branches of the trees—a pair of eyes?
Her heart was pounding, her hands were clammy and she was filled with a dark feeling that something, or someone, was watching her.
Her imagination racing out of control, Ella cycled faster than she should have done along the path, her shoulders prickling with the sense that someone was following her. Several times she was tempted to stop and look behind her, but instead she kept pedalling until she reached her boat.
Moments later she was safely inside, her bike propped against a tree outside, the doors locked against intruders.
Safe.
Trying to calm her breathing, she closed her eyes for a moment. She was locked in here. Everything was fine.
But still she couldn’t relax.
Ridiculously nervous, she couldn’t shake off the thought that no one else was close by. She had no neighbours. She was alone on a stretch of canal that was only used by dog walkers during the day.
Who used it at night?
Helen was right, she thought nervously, drawing the curtain across the windows so that no one could see inside. This place was too isolated.
Or maybe it was just her hormones that were making her this jumpy.
Irritated with herself, Ella made herself a cup of tea and picked up a pregnancy book. So far she hadn’t even managed to find out what should be happening to her. Perhaps she should start by looking in the index for something on hallucinations and delusions, she thought dryly, embarrassed at how nervous she’d been cycling down that path.
Honestly, what an idiot she was.
And then she heard the distinct crunch of footsteps on the path that ran alongside the boat. It was a slow, heavy sound—a menacing crunch that definitely belonged to a man.
Ella ceased to breathe. The book slipped from her fingers and hot tea sloshed onto her leg.
She’d never known fear like it.
Someone was outside. Someone was standing there in the soft, velvety darkness, watching her.