St Piran's: Italian Surgeon, Forbidden Bride

by Margaret McDonagh

  The admiration in his eyes and praise in his sexy voice had warmed her right through and brought an uncharacteristic sting of tears to her eyes. ‘It’s hardly brain surgery,’ she’d quipped to mask her embarrassment.

  Gio’s husky chuckle of appreciation had tightened the knot of awareness low in her tummy, and a sudden wave of longing had stolen her breath and made her realise how alone she had been these last four years. She enjoyed a friendship with Megan and Brianna, but it didn’t extended beyond work and could never fill the cold and lonely void that had grown inside her since her life had turned upside down.

  ‘Your first day’s been hectic and hasn’t ended in the best of ways, but how have you found St Piran’s?’ Jess had asked, anxious to move the conversation away from herself.

  ‘I would rather not have returned to Theatre for that poor girl tonight,’ he’d admitted, and she had seen the lines of tiredness around his eyes. ‘But I’ve enjoyed today and it’s good to be in near the beginning of a new unit for the hospital. It was one of the reasons I took the job. I was impressed with Gordon Ainsworth, the senior neurological consultant, the state-of-the-art equipment and the plans to increase the neurosurgical services here. Being able to help shape those services and build my own team appealed to me. Of course, many people cannot understand why I would leave London to come here.’

  ‘It’s none of their business, is it? If it’s what you want, that’s all that matters,’ she’d told him, his surprised expression suggesting her matter-of-fact support had been in short supply.

  ‘Thank you.’ His slow, intimate smile had threatened to unravel her completely. ‘St Piran’s offered me new challenges and fresh opportunities, as well as the chance of more rapid career progression.’

  It had made sense to her. ‘Better to be a big fish in a small pond?’

  Again the smile with its devastating effect on her. ‘But it’s much more than that… more than what I might gain for myself.’ He’d leaned forward and folded his arms on the table, a pout of consideration shaping his sexy mouth. ‘I commit a fair bit of time and money to a charitable trust that not only funds research, equipment for hospitals in various countries and support for patients and their families with brain tumours and other neurological conditions. We also bring children in desperate need of specialist treatment to the UK.’

  She hadn’t been surprised to learn of this side to him. She’d seen the kind of doctor he was. Instinct had told her how important the charity work was to him, and she’d suspected there was far more to it than he had told her… reasons why the trust was so close to his heart.

  ‘That’s fantastic. And it must be so rewarding.’

  ‘It is. That St Piran’s is interested and has given permission for me to continue to bring over a number of children each year, donating the hospital facilities free of charge, was a huge factor in my decision to come here.’

  Jess had been fascinated as he’d talked more about the work he’d done with the trust. Her heart had swelled with pride as she’d thought about his selflessness and determination to use his skills to help others.

  ‘He is very handsome, isn’t he?’

  Brianna’s comment impinged on Jess’s consciousness and she blinked, looking up and following her friend’s gaze in time to see Gio carrying a tray across the canteen and sitting at a table with Ben Carter and James Alexander. Her pulse raced at the sight of him and she had to beat back a dart of jealousy at Brianna’s evident appreciation of Gio’s looks.

  The man in question turned his head and met her gaze. For several moments it was as if there was no one else in the canteen?the myriad conversations going on all around her faded to a background hum and everything was a blur but Gio himself. A shiver ran down her spine and a very real sense of fear clutched at her. Less than a week and already this man had breached her defences and become all too important to her.

  What was she going to do? If she allowed the friendship to develop, she knew things would end in heartbreak. Despite knowing that, and despite a desperate need to preserve all she had achieved these last four years, she wasn’t sure she could give Gio up.

  A sudden clatter and burst of laughter from across the room caught the attention of everyone in the canteen and snapped Gio’s gaze away from Jessica. He glanced round in time to see three junior doctors trying to contain the mess from a can of fizzy drink as the liquid spewed from the top in a bubbly fountain, soaking everything and everyone within range.

  ‘The Three Stooges,’ Ben commented wryly.

  James chuckled. ‘Were we ever that young and foolish and confident?’

  ‘Probably!’ Ben allowed.

  Gio tried not to dwell on the past. His memories were mixed, all the happy ones overshadowed by the bad ones and the blackest time of his life. Ben and James, fellow consultants with whom he had struck up an immediate rapport, began detailing the merits of the three rowdy young doctors, but Gio’s attention was inexorably drawn back to Jessica. The now familiar awareness surged through him, tightening his gut and making it difficult to breathe.

  Jessica was sitting with two other women. Megan Phillips, the paediatric registrar with whom he worked frequently. And Brianna Flannigan, a kind and dedicated nursing sister in NICU/PICU, whom he’d met for the first time that morning. On the surface, the three women shared many similarities and yet they were distinctly different. And it was only Jessica who made his pulse race and caused his heart, which he had believed to be in permanent cold storage, to flutter with long-forgotten excitement.

  They had sat in this very canteen and talked for a long time that first night, yet he’d discovered precious little about her. He, on the other hand, had revealed far more than he’d intended.

  Her understanding and support about his move to Cornwall had warmed him. Many people had appreciated his need to leave Italy for New York five years ago. Some had comprehended his decision to leave New York, and the team of the neurosurgeon who had taught him so much, to move to London. But very few had grasped why he had chosen St Piran’s over the other options that had been open to him—options that would have meant more money and working at bigger hospitals.

  Those things hadn’t interested him, which had not surprised Jessica. St Piran’s offered the opportunity of advancing to head of department within a decade, Gordon Ainsworth grooming him to take over when he retired, but it had been the administration’s support of his charity work that had swayed his decision.

  He’d told Jessica about the trust but not why it was so important to him. Not yet. That he was thinking of doing so showed how far she had burrowed under his skin. Even as warning bells rang in his head, suggesting he was getting too close too quickly, he couldn’t stop himself craving her company and wanting to know more about her.

  They’d seen each other often during the week, working together with a couple of new patients and a rapidly improving Cody Rowland. Their friendship grew tighter all the time but Jessica remained nervous. She’d relax for a time then something would cause her to raise her defensive wall again. Her working hours puzzled him, and the extent of her medical knowledge continued to intrigue him.

  The little she had revealed about herself centred around her work at St Piran’s. Listening to her describe her role, and witnessing her way with people?including the use of Charlie, the teddy-bear hand puppet, to interact with frightened children?had left him full of admiration for her devotion and skill.

  ‘Much of my work involves supporting people who face life changes and difficult decisions caused by illness or accident. It’s a huge shock to the system,’ she’d told him and, for a moment her eyes had revealed such intense pain that it had taken his breath away.

  He’d wanted to comfort and hug her, but he’d resisted the instinctive urge, aware of Jessica’s aversion to touching and being touched… one of her mysteries he hoped to unravel. But the incident had left him in little doubt that she’d experienced some similar trauma. As had he, he allowed, with his own dart of inner pain.
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  ‘Patients and relatives often try to be strong for each other,’ Jessica had continued with perceptive insight, ‘when often they need to admit that they’re scared and have a bloody good cry.’ She’d sent him a sweet, sad smile that had ripped at his already shredded heart. ‘I’m merely a vehicle, a sounding board, someone outside their normal lives on whom they can offload all the emotion.’

  What toll did that take on her? Gio wondered with concern. And who was there for her? They were questions to which he still had no answers.

  Without conscious decision or prior arrangement, they’d met each evening in the canteen, lingering over something to eat, discussing work, finding all manner of common interests in books, music and politics, both of them steering clear of anything too personal.

  He’d learned very quickly to tread carefully, watching for the triggers that caused her withdrawal. He liked her, enjoyed her company and was comfortable with her but also alive, aroused and challenged, feeling things he’d not experienced in the five long years since his world had come crashing down around him.

  Taking things slowly was a necessity. For both of them. But every day he became more deeply involved. So much so that having to say goodnight to her and return alone to his rented house was becoming increasingly difficult.

  ‘Oh, to be that young and free from responsibility.’

  Edged with bitterness, the words were voiced by Josh O’Hara and pulled Gio from his reverie. The Irishman took the final empty chair and set his plate down on the table. Gio regarded the other man, wondering what had sparked his reaction.

  ‘Something wrong, Josh?’ Ben asked, a frown on his face.

  ‘Bad day.’ He pushed his food aside untouched. ‘I’ve just had to DOA an eighteen-year-old… I was going to say man, but he was scarcely more than a boy with his whole life ahead of him.’

  Gio sympathised, recalling how he’d felt a few days ago when the young woman had died in Theatre from multiple injuries. ‘What happened?’

  ‘He was an apprentice mechanic at a local garage, driving the work van and following another mechanic who was returning a customer’s car after service,’ Josh explained, emotion in his accented voice as he told the story. ‘Some bozo going home from a liquid lunch at the golf club and driving far too fast ploughed into the van. The boy wasn’t wearing his seat belt, the van had no air-bags, and he went through the windscreen. He had horrible head and facial injuries—apparently he’d been a good-looking boy, not that I could tell—and a broken neck.’

  Gio exchanged glances with Ben and James, both of whom were listening with equal solemnity and empathy. ‘And the drunk driver?’ Ben queried, voicing the question in all their minds.

  ‘Yeah, well, there’s the rub. There’s no justice in this world.’ Josh gave a humourless laugh. ‘The boy’s colleague, who witnessed the crash, is in shock. The drunk driver hasn’t got a scratch on him. The police have arrested him and I hope they throw the book at him, but whatever sentence he gets won’t be enough to make up for that young life, will it?’

  ‘No,’ Gio murmured with feeling.

  As his three companions discussed the case, Gio struggled to contain memories of another injustice and senseless loss of life, one he had been unable to prevent and which had plunged him into the darkest despair he had ever known. A darkness he had believed he would never escape. His gaze returned to Jessica, who, in just a few days, had brought flickerings of light and hope back into his life.

  A shaft of sunshine from the window beside her made the vibrancy of her rich auburn hair gleam like pure flame. Brianna also had auburn hair but hers was a much lighter shade, lacking the coppery chestnut richness of Jessica’s. Megan, whose hair was darker, was the tallest of the three, slender and fragile-looking. Brianna, an inch or two shorter, was lithe and athletic, while Jessica was shorter still and more rounded, her shapely feminine curves so appealing to him. She looked up and, as their gazes clashed once more, she sent him a tiny smile.

  ‘From the Three Stooges to the Three Enigmas,’ Ben remarked, his gaze following Gio’s to Jessica’s table, just as the rowdy young doctors left the canteen.

  Fearing his new friend would detect his interest in Jessica, Gio dragged his gaze away and pretended not to know what Ben meant. ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Brianna, Jess and Megan,’ Ben enlightened him. ‘St Piran’s Three Enigmas.’

  ‘It’s interesting that the three of them gravitated to each other,’ James said, as he looked across at them.

  Ben shrugged. ‘I’m not surprised. They have so much in common. All three are intensely private and have somehow managed to elude the gossip-mongers. And all three have also ignored the attention showered on them by the majority of the single—and some not-so-single?men in the hospital. I don’t think anyone knows anything more about them, or their lives outside work, than they did the day each of them began working here,’ Ben finished.

  ‘How long has Megan been here?’ Josh asked, his apparent nonchalance only surface deep, Gio was sure.

  ‘It must be, what… seven years? Maybe eight,’ Ben pondered, and Gio noticed the set of Josh’s jaw and the way he flinched, as if the time was somehow important.

  Gio glanced over to Jessica’s table again, his gaze resting a moment on Megan. He was just about to smile at her when he realised that she wasn’t looking at him but at Josh. Pale faced and seemingly upset, Megan turned away.

  Across from him Josh looked strained and affected by the silent exchange. There was a story there, Gio realised, but it was none of his business. He had enough to concern him settling into a new job, a new town, and dealing with the sudden and unexpected resurgence of his libido.

  As the four of them prepared to return to their respective departments, their break over, Gio noticed activity at Jessica’s table, too. She was standing up and reaching for her pager, a frown on her face as she read the message.

  He wondered what had happened and who needed her now. Like a schoolboy with his first crush, he hoped he would meet up with Jessica later, craving the moments at the end of the day when he had her to himself, at least for a while.

  She was becoming ever more important to him and he was both scared and excited to discover what was going to happen.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  AS HER pager sounded, Jess rose to her feet, frowning as she read the call for her to attend A and E urgently.

  ‘I have to go,’ she explained as her friends said goodbye. ‘I’ll see you later.’

  Jess squeezed her way between the tables, wishing she was as slender as Megan and Brianna. Before she left the canteen, she couldn’t resist looking back at Gio. Her gaze clashed with his, delaying her, her footsteps slowing as if ruled by an inbuilt reluctance to leave him.

  Gio waved, drawing Ben’s attention as the men stood up from their table. Ben smiled at her, and she blushed, hoping he would think she was including all of them, and not that she had any special interest in Gio, as she sketched a wave in return and hurried out of the canteen.

  As she made her way to A and E, her thoughts remained with Gio. Beyond the dangerous attraction, she enjoyed his company, admired him, professionally and personally, and felt good with him. If she had any sense, she’d guard her heart and keep her distance, but she feared it was already too late. She’d begun to slide down the slippery slope by foolishly convincing herself it was OK to be friends with him… provided they both knew friendship was all it could be.

  She knew Gio was curious and wanted to know more about her, but he’d been circumspect so far and she was grateful. Meeting in the canteen each evening challenged her resolve but his comments on how he hated returning to the empty house he was renting had touched a chord within her. She knew all about the loneliness found between the walls of somewhere that didn’t feel like home. One more of the many things they had in common.

  Arriving in A and E, Jess set thoughts of Gio aside. Ellen, a senior staff nurse in the department, greeted her and outlined the reason for the call. />
  ‘The girl came in very distressed, asking after a young man killed in a road accident,’ the middle-aged woman explained, shaking her head. ‘She’s terribly young, Jess, but she insists she’s the girlfriend. Unfortunately we’re rushed off our feet and as she’s not physically injured or ill, we don’t have time to spend with her, but we didn’t want her to leave in such a state.’

  ‘I understand. Has she been told anything?’ Jess asked, her heart going out to the unknown girl.

  Ellen sighed again. ‘I’m afraid one of the inexperienced clerks told her the boyfriend, a lad named Colin Maddern, had died.’

  ‘Oh, hell.’

  ‘Exactly.’ The nurse’s displeasure matched her own. ‘The girl wants Colin’s things. He had no one but her. And there are photographs of her in his jacket, so she’s genuine. I’ve checked with the police and they don’t need anything, so I’ll arrange to have the jacket and the possessions we salvaged brought to her.’ Ellen nodded in the direction of the closed door to one of the quiet rooms used for relatives. ‘She’s in there. She wants to see him, but…’

  ‘You don’t think it’s a good idea,’ Jess finished for her.

  ‘No, I don’t. The poor boy wasn’t wearing a seat belt and there was no air-bag fitted. He was hit at speed, went through the windscreen and was killed. A broken neck. And his face is a mess.’

  Jess struggled to keep her emotions from showing. ‘And the other driver?’

  ‘Returning home drunk after lunch at the golf club. The police have arrested him. Needless to say he’s not even bruised. Josh had to deal with both of them and he’s furious. It’s so unfair,’ Ellen finished, mirroring Jess’s own sentiments and explaining the grim expression on Josh’s face when he’d arrived in the canteen.

  ‘Do we know the girl’s name?’ Jess queried, jotting a few notes on her pad.

  ‘No. Other than asking for Colin?and his things? she’s not said anything. She broke down after she learnt of his death.’