Adam's Daughter

by Jennifer Taylor

  ‘Thank you. It’s good to hear that, especially after the way I behaved last night.’ His tone was rueful. ‘I think I came on a bit strong and I apologise for it.’

  Did that mean he had changed his mind about wanting to take sole responsibility for Hannah? she wondered. However, before she could ask, he turned to leave.

  ‘I’ll send Hilary Dwyer in to see you. See what you can find out, will you? If it is Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome then the mother is going to need immediate treatment. The next stage of the disease is severe memory loss, and it’s irreversible if the patient doesn’t receive prompt treatment.’

  ‘How do you treat it?’ she asked curiously.

  ‘With high doses of intravenous thiamine. The symptoms can be reversed in a couple of hours as long as it’s caught in time. In fact, I’m going to ring for an ambulance and have her admitted to hospital rather than take any chances,’ he announced, making up his mind. ‘It would just be a help if I had some solid facts to back up my diagnosis.’

  ‘Leave it with me,’ she assured him. ‘I’ll do my best.’

  ‘I know you will.’ He gave her another of those wonderfully warm smiles before he left. Beth took a small breath, wondering how a smile could have such an effect on her. A few seconds of Adam Knight’s magic and she could cope with anything!

  Anything? that irritating voice whispered. Did that include all the problems she might have convincing him that Hannah’s life shouldn’t be disrupted?

  She sighed as the feeling of warmth abruptly evaporated. It was going to take more than a smile to help her over that particular hurdle.

  ‘I really don’t know why I need to see you, Nurse. It isn’t me who’s ill, it’s my mother!’

  Beth smiled soothingly at the woman. Hilary Dwyer was a woman in her forties. Although she was neatly dressed, her clothes were extremely old-fashioned for a woman of her age. She had looked very agitated when Eileen had shown her in and had refused to sit down when Beth had offered her a seat.

  ‘It’s your mother we’re concerned about.’ Beth sat down, not wanting to appear to be crowding the woman by remaining standing by the door. ‘Dr Knight wants to help her but he can’t do that unless he finds out what has made her ill.’

  ‘I’ve already told him everything I know! When I got home from the shops this morning, Mother wasn’t well. I don’t know what else I can tell him.’ Hilary turned to the door. ‘Now, if that’s all…’

  ‘Dr Knight thinks that your mother might have Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. It’s a very serious illness and if he’s right she needs immediate treatment.’

  Beth knew that she was taking a chance by being so blunt but she felt that she had no choice. ‘It can be a side-effect of alcohol dependency, although that isn’t the only cause. I understand how difficult it is to speak about something like that but it would help if we were in possession of all the facts. We need to know what we’re dealing with.’

  ‘Why that’s ridiculous!’ Hilary protested, but Beth saw the colour wash up her face and knew that Adam had been right in his suspicions.

  ‘Alcoholism is an illness,’ she explained gently. ‘It isn’t something to be ashamed of.’

  Hilary blinked hard. ‘I’m afraid that there aren’t many people who would agree with you.’

  ‘If you’re worried about people finding out, please, understand that anything you tell me or Dr Knight is strictly confidential,’ Beth said quickly. ‘But if you want to do what’s best for your mother then you must help us.’

  Hilary Dwyer seemed to crumple all of a sudden. Beth got up and put an arm around the woman’s shaking shoulders and helped her to a chair. ‘It’s been a nightmare,’ Hilary admitted between sobs. ‘I’ve tried so hard to take care of Mother but she’s got worse. I don’t know if I can cope much longer!’

  The whole story poured out after that. Beth sighed as she listened to the poor woman’s tale of the struggle she’d had to hide her mother’s drinking problem from their friends and neighbours. If only Hilary had sought help instead of trying to cover up what had been going on, Beth thought. But maybe it was wrong to make a judgement like that. Most people did what they thought was best—as she and Claire had done.

  She tried to put that last thought to the back of her mind as she went to have a word with Adam. He came to the door when she tapped on it and listened intently while she repeated what Hilary had told her.

  ‘So I was right.’ He sighed as he glanced back into the room. Mrs Dwyer was lying on the couch and didn’t seem to be aware of what was going on around her. ‘It’s a shame the daughter didn’t ask for help sooner. It can’t have been easy for her if the situation has been going on for some time.’

  ‘I’m sure it hasn’t been. Is the ambulance on its way?’ Beth asked flatly because she couldn’t rid herself of the thought that she and Claire had made a mistake, even though she had gone along with her sister’s wishes reluctantly.

  ‘It should be here any minute.’ He stopped her when she turned to leave. ‘Are you all right, Beth?’ He suddenly frowned. ‘It’s not Hannah, is it?’

  ‘No, she’s fine,’ she said quickly, hearing the worry in his voice. ‘I phoned the hospital this morning and she had a good night’s sleep.’

  ‘Thank heavens for that.’ He sighed heavily. ‘I can’t believe that this time yesterday I didn’t even know Hannah existed. Now I find that I can’t get her out of my mind.’

  He looked round when Eileen appeared to tell him that the ambulance had arrived. Beth quickly excused herself and went to tell Hilary Dwyer that her mother was about to be taken to hospital. However, Adam’s words preyed on her mind for the rest of the morning. For some reason she hadn’t thought any further than what would happen if she managed to find him. That had been her only concern, convincing him that he should be tested to see if he was a suitable donor.

  Now she had to accept that Adam was going to be part of Hannah’s life and, by default, part of hers, too. It gave her an odd feeling to know that their futures were going to be linked from now on.

  Surgery came to an end at last and Beth hurried up so that she could go to the hospital in her lunch-break. Eileen was in the office when she took the notes through for filing and she couldn’t help noticing that the older woman appeared to be upset.

  ‘Are you all right, Eileen?’ she asked, dropping the folders into the filing tray.

  ‘Fine,’ Eileen replied quickly. However, Beth could tell that she was anything but fine.

  ‘You don’t look it. Has one of the patients said something to upset you?’ she queried, although Eileen was always so pleasant to the patients that she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to be rude to her.

  ‘No. It wasn’t a patient. It was Dr Andrews, if you really want to know.’ Eileen plucked a tissue from the box on her desk and blew her nose. ‘He was horrible to me just now, told me that I was inefficient because I hadn’t put a lab report into a patient’s file. It only arrived in the second post, and the patient had already been in to see him by then, but he wouldn’t listen when I tried to explain.’

  Beth frowned because it didn’t sound the sort of thing Chris would normally do. She’d always found him very easy to work with and couldn’t understand why he had taken Eileen to task without letting her explain what had happened.

  ‘Do you want me to have a word with him?’ she offered, but Eileen shook her head.

  ‘No, it’s all right. I appreciate it, but there’s no point making a mountain out of a molehill, is there?’

  She gave Beth a resigned smile as she went to fetch her coat then paused by the door. ‘Oh, before I forget, Adam asked me to tell you that he is doing the home visits today.’

  ‘Oh, right. Thanks.’ Beth smiled at the older woman even though she couldn’t help wondering why Adam had bothered to pass on the message.

  She sighed. Of course he’d wanted her to know that he wouldn’t be going with her to visit Hannah at lunchtime. She had to get used to the idea that h
e would want to spend as much time as possible with the little girl. Funnily enough, the thought that he would, perforce, need to spend a lot of time with her as well wasn’t unpleasant.

  Hannah was having her lunch when Beth arrived at the ward so she decided not to interrupt her. She went to the office instead to see if she could arrange to speak to Charles Guest, the consultant in charge of Hannah’s treatment. Rose was on duty again that day and she grinned when Beth tapped on the door.

  ‘You’re a dark horse, Bethany Campbell. You didn’t even hint that there was a new man in your life. Not that I blame you. If I had a gorgeous hunk like Adam Knight at my beck and call, I certainly wouldn’t give anyone the chance to muscle in!’

  Beth sighed as she perched on the edge of the desk. ‘Your trouble is that you need to get out more. You should get yourself a life instead of living in that little fantasy world of yours.’

  ‘Oh, I agree!’ Rose replied cheerfully, not at all abashed. ‘I’m only waiting for the right man to come along and whisk me off into the sunset. Anyway, enough about me. I want to hear all about the gorgeous, sexy Adam. You don’t get many guys who are willing to give up their time to visit a sick child so he’s either a saint or completely smitten with you.’

  ‘Wrong!’ Beth declared, trying to stem the tide of warmth that flowed through her veins at the thought of Adam being smitten with her.

  She determinedly rid herself of such foolish notions, realising that she may as well tell Rose the truth. Rose was bound to find out who Adam was once it became common knowledge that he was being tested as a possible donor for Hannah.

  ‘Adam Knight is Hannah’s father. He’s agreed to be tested to see if he can donate bone marrow to her.’

  ‘Oh, wow! Really? Why that’s just great.’ Rose jumped up and came round the desk to hug her. ‘You must be so relieved, Beth.’

  ‘Ye-es.’ She shrugged when Rose stared at her in surprise. ‘Of course I’m pleased that there’s a possibility that he might be suitable as a donor. But I’m not sure if I did the right thing by contacting him.’

  ‘Why ever not?’ Rose demanded.

  ‘Oh, because I promised Claire that I would never tell him about Hannah,’ she explained, knowing that it was only part of the reason. The fact that Adam seemed to have such a strange effect on her wasn’t something she intended to discuss with anyone, not even Rose, whom she counted as her best friend.

  ‘I don’t suppose that Claire ever imagined anything like this would happen when she made you promise,’ Rose assured her after Beth had finished telling her the whole story. ‘She would have wanted you to do everything you could to help Hannah.’

  ‘I suppose so. But Adam said that he wants to be part of Hannah’s life from now on—’

  ‘Well, that’s no bad thing,’ Rose cut in briskly. ‘At least you’ll have someone to share the responsibility with. I know you love Hannah but it will make your life a whole lot easier. I mean, look at what happened between you and Ian. Would you two have split up if you’d not had all the worry of looking after Hannah to contend with?’

  The phone rang at that point so Rose excused herself. Beth mouthed that she would be back later and went into the ward. Rose meant well but she didn’t know the full story behind her decision to leave Ian.

  She was halfway down the ward when it struck her that it no longer hurt to think about her broken engagement. It felt like something that had happened in the distant past and was no longer of any real consequence. She tried to pinpoint when everything had changed and felt her heart quicken as she realised that it had been when Adam had shown her once and for all the type of man Ian Patterson was.

  Her heart gave another little jolt. Funny how everything that happened seemed to lead her right back to Adam.

  Adam was already at the hospital when Beth went back to see Hannah that night after evening surgery. She’d been delayed by a patient who had arrived late then had needed a longer appointment than she’d anticipated. Adam had already left by the time she’d finished, although Chris had been still in his room.

  Beth frowned as she recalled the conversation she’d had with Chris. He’d seemed extremely tense as they’d exchanged a few words about how busy the surgery had been. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something wrong with him.

  A burst of laughter greeted her as she entered the ward. Beth frowned when she saw a group of children clustered around Hannah’s bed. There were a number of parents standing on the fringes of the crowd and they were all smiling as well. However, it wasn’t until she got closer that she saw what was causing all the amusement.

  Adam was holding an impromptu puppet show. He had drawn a face on the side of his clenched fist with some of Hannah’s crayons and draped his handkerchief over his hand to form a kind of headdress for the puppet. He was chattering away in a high-pitched voice which had reduced the children to fits of laughter.

  Beth found herself smiling as well as she watched him play out a little scene that involved all of the children who were crowded around the bed. They were all enthralled by ‘Nursie’, the hand puppet, and eagerly responded to her questions about whether they had green spots on their tongues. It was a delightful bit of nonsense and she couldn’t help thinking how much better they all looked for having such fun.

  Adam suddenly spotted her and grinned wickedly. ‘Aha, it’s Aunty Beth,’ he declared in his puppet voice. ‘I wonder if she’s got green spots on her tongue. Stick out your tongue, Aunty Beth, so that we can see.’

  Beth chuckled as she poked out her tongue at him, seeing the laughter in his eyes as she complied with his instructions. It was obvious that he was enjoying himself as much as the children were and she couldn’t help thinking how rare it was for an adult not to worry about making a fool of himself. Adam was comfortable with his role in life. He didn’t see any need to try to impress other people yet, perversely, he did so. She only had to look at the smiling faces of the parents to realise that and her heart swelled with something which felt very much like pride.

  The puppet show continued for a few more minutes before Adam announced that Nursie had to go to another ward to find the people with green spots on their tongues. There was a chorus of groans from the children but they soon cheered up when he promised that the puppet would return at a later date.

  Rose started chivvying everyone back to their beds and winked at Beth as she was passing. ‘Gorgeous, sexy, caring and fun. You lucky devil!’

  Beth opened her mouth to protest but Rose had already moved away.

  ‘I hope the staff didn’t mind,’ Adam said softly, drawing her attention back to him. She felt her heart perform that strange little manoeuvre again, a kind of backwards flip which was a medical impossibility but completely feasible as far as she was concerned.

  He was wearing a soft blue chambray shirt that night and the colour was the perfect foil for his deep blue eyes. Beth couldn’t help thinking how handsome he looked as he stood by the bed, smiling at her. He’d left the top two buttons of the shirt unfastened and through the gap she caught a glimpse of tanned skin and crisp black hair before she dragged her eyes away, aware that her heart was performing somersaults like a circus acrobat.

  ‘I thought it would amuse Hannah while we were waiting for you to arrive,’ he explained when she looked blankly at him. ‘I never meant to cause such havoc.’

  Well, havoc was one word to describe the effect he seemed to have had on her at least! Beth thought as he went away to fetch another chair. Her eyes followed him as he made his way down the ward and she frowned.

  Why had her heart been acting so strangely just now?

  Why did she feel so confused?

  How could she explain the strange effect Adam Knight seemed to have on her?

  ‘Are you cross, Aunty Beth?’

  Hannah’s worried little voice broke through her musings and she turned to smile at the little girl. ‘No, of course not, poppet. Why did you think that?’

  Hannah sigh
ed. ‘’Cos you were frowning and you never, ever frown. Uncle Ian used to frown all the time and that’s why I didn’t like him.’ She turned and looked over to where Adam was speaking to one of the nurses. ‘I like Adam, though.’

  And so could I, Beth thought as she hugged the little girl. I could like him a lot. And maybe that’s at the root of all my problems. I certainly hadn’t expected to feel like this about Adam Knight!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘YOU WILL come back tomorrow, Adam? Promise?’

  Beth sighed when she heard the pleading note in Hannah’s voice. They had spent far more time at the hospital that night than she had planned on doing. Most of the other parents had left but Hannah had kept demanding that they stay a bit longer. It was obvious that the child had really taken to Adam and Beth couldn’t help wondering whether that was a good thing. Admittedly, he seemed anxious to do all he could for the little girl, but would his interest last?

  She groaned as she realised how perverse that thought was. Only that morning she had been worrying herself to death in case he was planning to take Hannah away from her. Now she was equally concerned that he might disappear from the child’s life. It was proving impossible to find a balance where Adam was concerned!

  ‘Cross my heart and hope to die,’ Adam replied solemnly, making a cross over his heart. He whipped out his handkerchief and draped it over his hand. ‘And Nursie promises she’ll come back as well so long as you go to sleep now,’ he added in a piping falsetto.

  Hannah giggled. ‘I like Nursie. Can she give me a kiss?’

  ‘She’d be delighted to.’ Adam bent and made extravagantly loud kissing noises as he touched the child’s cheek.

  ‘Now make Nursie give Aunty Beth a kiss,’ Hannah ordered.

  ‘Certainly.’ Adam turned and ‘kissed’ Beth’s cheek with his hand, once again making appropriate noises.

  Beth shook her head, amused despite herself by his craziness. ‘You’re mad. Do you know that?’

  ‘I shall take that as a compliment,’ he observed loftily. ‘Because I’m sure that’s how it was meant.’