Beth quickly helped her out of her underwear after it had eased then placed a sterile drape over her legs. Adam was at the sink, scrubbing his hands, and he looked round with a grin.
‘Maybe the baby decided he wanted to be at his big brother’s party tomorrow,’ he suggested.
Elaine managed a smile. ‘You could be right. I only hope I’m home in time for it.’
‘Well, I don’t think you’re going to be hanging around here for very long.’ Adam had taken a pair of gloves out of the box on the counter and he went to the couch and quickly examined her. ‘This baby is definitely on his way and there’s no stopping him now!’
Everyone laughed, which helped ease a little of the tension. Beth found a chair for Elaine’s husband, Brian, and got him settled at the head of the couch. He still looked rather pale and she could see that he was shaking.
‘I wasn’t with Elaine when the other two were born,’ he admitted. ‘I didn’t think I’d be able to cope.’
‘It’s up to you if you want to stay,’ Beth assured him, ‘although I’m sure your wife would be glad of your support.’
Brian Graham took hold of his wife’s hand and squared his shoulders as another contraction began. ‘They always say there’s a first time for everything, don’t they?’ He winced as Elaine gripped his fingers. ‘And a last!’
Beth laughed softly as she went to join Adam. It was some time since she had assisted at a birth and she couldn’t help feeling a little thrill of excitement at the thought of helping this new baby into the world. Adam was monitoring the baby’s heartbeat so she waited for him to finish, feeling her heart sink when she saw the concern on his face.
He drew her away from the couch so that the parents couldn’t overhear what he was saying. ‘The baby’s heartbeat is way too fast. It seems to be in distress. How long is that ambulance going to be?’
‘At least twenty minutes. Do you have any idea what could be wrong with it?’
‘It’s just a guess but it could be that the cord is wrapped around its neck and cutting off its oxygen supply,’ he told her, moving back to the couch. He waited until Elaine’s next contraction had passed before gently examining her again.
‘I’m sure that’s what it is,’ he said, sotto voce, before turning to the young mother. ‘Elaine, I need you to stop pushing for me. Next time you feel a contraction pant but don’t push. Understand?’
‘Is there something wrong?’ she asked at once, her voice rising in panic.
‘I think the umbilical cord might be wrapped around the baby’s neck. I need to check but I don’t want you pushing because it will just draw the cord even tighter. Everything is going to be fine once I get it sorted out,’ he assured her.
He tried to slide his finger around the baby’s neck then shook his head. ‘It is the cord but I can’t get at it. There just isn’t enough room.’
‘Let me try,’ Beth offered. ‘My hands are smaller than yours.’
Adam stepped aside as she quickly bent down. Tears were streaming down Elaine’s face now and Brian had gone a dreadful colour. Beth bit her lip as she gently worked her the tip of her index finger under the constricting cord wrapped around the baby’s neck and, with infinite care, managed to ease it over its head.
‘Well done!’ Adam said, giving her a hug before turning to Elaine. ‘Right, all systems go now. Let’s get that little fellow out of there.’
It really was all systems go after that. Five minutes later the baby made its appearance into the world. Beth chuckled when it gave a lusty scream as she wiped its face.
‘Sounds as though your new daughter is pleased to be out in the big wide world at last.’
‘A girl?’ Brian gulped. ‘But there hasn’t been a girl in our family for years!’
‘Well, you’ve got one now.’ Adam lifted the squalling infant and handed her to her mother. ‘Congratulations, both of you, on a beautiful daughter.’
There was something in his voice when he said that which brought Beth’s eyes winging to his face, and she felt her heart ache when she saw the sadness in his eyes. Was he thinking about Hannah’s birth and all that he had missed?
It was painful to realise it, equally painful to imagine how things might have turned out. If Claire had told him about their child then maybe he wouldn’t have gone to work overseas, but would that have really mattered to him if he’d had Claire and Hannah to love and care for? Maybe he and Claire would have decided to stay together after all, and they might have had more children by this time.
Beth sighed. Ifs, ands and buts didn’t paint a true picture but she couldn’t ignore the fact that all that could have happened. It made her wonder all of a sudden why Adam had kissed her. Because it had felt right at the time? Or because she had reminded him of Claire until he had been abruptly brought to his senses by that knock on the door?
She went to find a clean towel to wrap the baby in, pausing as she looked at Adam standing by the couch. Maybe he saw her as a substitute for her sister, but that didn’t explain why she had kissed him. He certainly wasn’t a substitute for Ian! Why, she had never felt like that when Ian had kissed her…
Her heart rolled over.
She had never felt like that when Ian or anyone else had kissed her.
What could it mean?
CHAPTER SIX
BY THE time the ambulance arrived, Adam had given the baby a thorough check-up and phoned the staff at the maternity unit to let them know what had happened. Although the baby had scored a definite nine at the five-minute Apgar test, he had wanted to be sure that they were fully aware of what had happened during her birth.
Beth finished tidying up Elaine Graham for the journey to the hospital and helped her change into one of the nightgowns Elaine had packed in her overnight case. At least it helped to take her mind off all the crazy thoughts that kept running through her head.
‘There. I’m sure you must feel better now,’ she said with a smile, determinedly concentrating on what she was doing.
‘I do.’ Elaine sighed as she looked at her daughter. ‘She’s perfect, isn’t she? Every tiny finger and toe. I love my boys to bits but I’ve always longed for a daughter. I just never thought I’d be that lucky.’
‘You must be thrilled,’ Beth said softly, smiling as she watched the baby yawning.
‘I think stunned is more the word I’d use,’ Brian put in wryly. ‘I still can’t get over the fact that first of all she’s a girl and that she arrived so quickly! Thank heavens I saw the lights on upstairs otherwise I don’t know what might have happened.’
‘Well, everything turned out all right in the end,’ Adam said lightly as he came to join them. ‘I’ve spoken to the sister on duty at the maternity unit and she knows what has happened. I’ve also written everything down in this report just to make sure that there’s no confusion.’
He handed Brian an envelope then smiled at Elaine. ‘However, I don’t for one minute imagine that there are going to be any problems.’
‘It’s only thanks to you two,’ Elaine said gratefully. ‘Megan could have died if you hadn’t managed to sort everything out.’
‘Don’t think about that.’ Adam patted her hand when he heard the tremulous note in her voice. ‘She’s perfectly fine, I promise, and Megan is a lovely name for her.’
He ran a gentle finger over the baby’s downy cheek. Once again Beth saw an expression of sadness cross his face before he moved aside so that the ambulance crew could transfer Elaine to a trolley. She sighed as she followed the procession out of the building and stood on the pavement to wave them off. There was no escaping the fact that Adam must bitterly regret having missed so much of his own daughter’s early life.
‘That’s it, then. Rather an exciting end to the day, wouldn’t you say?’ Adam turned to her as the ambulance drove away and she summoned a smile.
‘It was. I didn’t think working in general practice could be so exciting.’
He laughed deeply as he relocked the surgery doors then fo
llowed her back up to the flat. ‘Neither did I!’
He glanced at his watch and whistled. ‘I hadn’t realised it was so late. I’d better be on my way and let you get to bed. I’ll just carry that table back inside for you before I go.’
‘Let me get those plates first,’ she said, hurrying ahead of him. She stacked the dirty dishes and empty food containers onto a tray then moved out of the way so that he could carry the table back inside. He took it back into the sitting room and looked around.
‘You’ve made it very cosy in here, Beth. It’s years since I came up to the flat. Jonathan and Mary lived here at one time until she persuaded him to move out of Winton. I think she found it a bit difficult living over the shop, so to speak. It’s been used by the odd locum since then, but I can’t remember the place ever looking this welcoming.’
‘I wanted to make it nice for when Hannah comes home,’ she explained, glancing around in satisfaction.
She hadn’t been able to afford to redecorate from scratch so she’d concentrated on making everywhere look fresh and bright by painting the walls. She’d chosen a soft peach for the sitting room, which worked well with the dark green carpet that had been laid throughout the flat. A neutral cream throw concealed the rather shabby upholstery on the old sofa, whilst bold peach and turquoise cushions added splashes of vibrant colour.
‘I take it that you didn’t bring much of your own furniture with you when you moved in?’ Adam asked, turning to her.
‘I didn’t have any,’ she admitted. She saw his surprise and sighed. ‘I got rid of my furniture when Ian and I moved into the house we’d bought. Ian said that my things didn’t go with the place.’
‘Did he indeed?’ He sounded annoyed. ‘And didn’t you have any say about how the house should be decorated?’
She shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable because it had struck her how often she had gone along with what Ian had wanted because it had been easier than causing an argument. ‘Ian had very strong views on how he wanted the place to look.’
‘Ian appears to have strong views on a lot of things,’ he observed so drily that she laughed.
Had he done that deliberately? she wondered as she followed him out to the patio. Deliberately tried to take the edge off her embarrassment? She sensed it was so yet she couldn’t understand how he had guessed how uncomfortable she’d been feeling.
‘Before I forget, how would you like to go to a party on Saturday night?’
She blinked in surprise. ‘A party?’
‘Uh-huh. It’s being thrown in my honour, too.’ His grin was engaging. ‘I hope you’re impressed?’
‘I…um…’
He chuckled wickedly when she floundered. ‘I think I’ve just had my answer! Serves me right, too. Anyway, James and Lillian are throwing a party on Saturday to welcome me home, and I wondered if you’d come along as my partner?’
‘James Dickinson, you mean?’ She felt a flurry dance along her nerves as she thought about spending another evening with Adam. Would it be wise to get any more deeply involved in the circumstances, though? She couldn’t afford to forget all those ifs, ands, not to mention buts, that she had thought about earlier.
‘The very same. Your ex-boss and Patterson’s current one.’ He suddenly frowned. ‘I’ve no idea if James has invited Patterson along. I would imagine that he’s asked some of the staff from St Jude’s, though. Would it be a problem for you if he had asked him?’
She shook her head emphatically. ‘Not at all.’
‘Great! So that means that you’ll come.’ He seemed to take her acceptance as a foregone conclusion now that minor problem had been ironed out. ‘I can’t tell you how relieved I am.’
‘Relieved?’ she echoed, frantically trying to come up with an excuse that didn’t sound like one.
‘Yes. Lillian is a real darling but she seems to think that her main role in life is to find me a good woman to settle down with. I cringe when I think of all the poor females she’s trotted out over the years for my inspection. However, I shall be spared all that if I can tell her that I’m bringing someone,’ he explained in a tone of great relief.
Beth felt her heart sink like a stone and pinned a smile to her mouth to compensate for it. There was no way on earth that she was going to let him see how much it had hurt to know that he had asked her purely as a diversion from Lillian Dickinson’s matchmaking tactics!
‘I wouldn’t like to think of you suffering unnecessarily, plus I owe you a favour for squelching Ian the other night. What time does it start?’
‘I’ll pick you up at eight, if that’s all right with you?’ His smile was pleasant so Beth couldn’t understand why she had the impression that he wasn’t pleased about something.
She sighed as he bade her a rather abrupt goodnight. She didn’t know him all that well so it was foolish to go imagining things like that. He was probably tired after the busy day they’d had, on edge because of Hannah, worried about his uncle and concerned about Chris Andrews. All in all, he had a lot to contend with at the moment and she should bear that in mind.
She went inside then stood staring through the window at the patio, remembering what had happened out there earlier that evening. Adam had kissed her and made her feel things she had never felt before. It was going to be hard to forget that but she had to try. Hannah was the one who mattered in this situation. If it hadn’t been for Hannah, she would never have met Adam.
She shivered. Maybe it was silly but she simply couldn’t imagine going through her life without ever having known him.
The atmosphere in the surgery the following morning was dreadful. By mid-morning Beth was feeling totally wrung out. Chris had torn another strip off Eileen because he’d had the wrong patient’s notes on his desk for a consultation. He had refused to listen to the receptionist’s explanation that the patients themselves had caused the confusion by going in to see him out of turn.
It had ended up with Eileen in tears in the ladies loo, swearing that she wasn’t going to stay there and be spoken to like that, and Beth doing her best to calm her down. Two cups of coffee and a lot of TLC later and Eileen was back behind her desk. However, Beth knew that the situation couldn’t continue like that. It was hard enough to run the busy practice when everyone was working in harmony but it would be impossible if they were all squabbling.
She had just seen a patient out when she spotted Adam coming back from the office, so she waylaid him. ‘We’re going to have to do something about Chris soon,’ she told him without any preamble. She quickly explained what had happened and heard him sigh.
‘I thought I detected a certain frost in the air when I went to collect this,’ he said, glancing at the test results that had arrived by the second post. ‘Eileen certainly wasn’t her usual bubbly self.’
‘Chris was really rude to her,’ she told him worriedly. She glanced round when she heard footsteps announcing the arrival of her next patient.
‘Leave it with me. I’ll have a word with him after surgery finishes. It will mean that I won’t be able to go to the hospital to visit Hannah so will you explain to her that I’ll see her tonight?’
‘Of course. I thought you were going for the blood test this afternoon, though?’
‘I am, but I won’t have the time to pop in to see Hannah then because I need to be back here for the chest clinic.’
He didn’t say anything more because her patient had arrived. Beth showed the woman into her room, thinking to herself that Adam had taken a lot on his shoulders when he’d come back to Winton. Of course, he couldn’t have known about Hannah when he’d agreed to help, but that had only added to his worries. Did he regret finding out that he had a daughter? Or was his only regret that he hadn’t found out about her sooner and thus been able to spend time with both Hannah and Claire?
Beth sighed as she closed the door. Why did one question always lead to another and never to any answers?
The patient, Joan Goodwin, was a retired headmistress, who had suff
ered for a number of years with varicose veins. The situation had grown so bad that Dr Wright had referred her to a specialist, who had recommended that the affected veins should be stripped.
It had been a relatively simple procedure which had involved tying off and cutting the greater saphenous vein and its branches through an incision in the groin then withdrawing the redundant veins via a small incision in the ankle. Joan’s legs had needed to remain bandaged for several weeks after the operation, so arrangements had been made for her to visit the surgery to have the bandages changed.
‘So how have you been since the operation?’ Beth asked, deftly removing the old bandages and popping them into a medical waste sack.
‘Miles better,’ Joan replied immediately. ‘I was so fed up with my legs constantly aching, not to mention the fact that my feet kept swelling all the time. There is only so much time you can spend with your feet up before it drives you completely crazy!’
Beth smiled sympathetically as she began rebandaging Joan’s left leg. ‘I can imagine how tiresome it must have been.’
‘It was. I joined a ramblers’ group when I retired—there’s nothing better than being out in the open country after years spent breathing in chalk dust. But for the past six months I’ve not been able to join them because of the problems with my veins.’ Joan smiled happily. ‘I’m really looking forward to the summer now. We have a number of interesting walks planned, and I’ll be able to go along.’
‘That’s great. Right, that’s all finished. You should be fine until your hospital appointment, but be sure to phone the surgery if you have any problems, won’t you?’ she told her, standing up.
‘I shall. By the way, was that Dr Wright’s nephew I saw just now as I was coming in?’ Joan asked as she picked up her handbag.
‘That’s right. Dr Knight has very kindly agreed to step into the breach while his uncle is in hospital.’
‘Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?’ Joan Goodwin laughed. ‘Such a fine young man. I’ve known him for years, you see. He used to spend a lot of time here when he was younger and he was always the same—kind and considerate. His uncle told me about Adam’s work and I have to take off my hat to him. You wouldn’t get many young men with Adam’s talent willing to do the kind of work he does.’
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