Medic on Approval

by Laura MacDonald

  ‘Yes, it had happened some while before but she was on the floor and poor old Douglas, of course, couldn’t call anyone.’

  ‘Well, what a bit of luck that you went when you did!’ Judith exclaimed.

  ‘Has anyone heard how she is today?’ asked Henry, and they all looked at Aidan.

  With that he had little option but to turn and face them. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘I spoke to the Sister on the medical ward and Milly is as well as can be expected. The next couple of days will, of course, be critical.’

  ‘And Douglas?’ asked Lindsay softly. It was then that his gaze, very briefly, met hers.

  ‘I’ve arranged for Douglas to go to a small nursing home near Rhyl. If Milly recovers sufficiently the staff have agreed to take her as well.’

  ‘Oh, well done,’ said Henry. ‘They could have been separated, with Douglas spending the rest of his days at Rhondda House and Milly somewhere else. Turning to Lindsay, he said, ‘Lindsay, m’dear, do you think you could cope with my late afternoon surgery? I have a meeting later on today—I know it’ll go on and on and I shall need to get back to Megan afterwards.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Lindsay nodded. ‘That is, if it’s all right with Aidan?’

  ‘Did you have any plans for this young lady this afternoon, Aidan?’ Henry turned to Aidan who hastily shook his head. It was only Lindsay who’d witnessed his slight discomfort at the idea that he might have other plans for her, and she was forced to suppress a smile.

  Henry’s afternoon surgery was busy, so busy that Lindsay had little time to think about anything else. Not only was she having to cope with someone else’s patients, she was also having to cope with patients who’d thought they were going to be seeing Dr Llewellyn. Some seemed rather taken aback then decided it really didn’t matter who they saw. One or two were feeling so ill they didn’t care just as long as whoever it was they saw gave them some relief from their pain or discomfort. One woman flatly refused to discuss her problems with Lindsay and stomped out of the surgery, saying she would wait until she could see Dr Llewellyn. However, apart from her, they simply kept coming.

  And then, at last, just when Lindsay thought it was going on for ever, Gwynneth phoned through to say there was only one more patient to be seen.

  ‘Thank you, Gwynneth,’ Lindsay sighed. ‘Who is it? I don’t seem to have any more records.’

  ‘It’s an extra. She’s not on the list. Her name is Hannah Sykes.’

  ‘Is that the Baptist minister’s daughter?’

  ‘Yes,’ Gwynneth replied. ‘I’ll bring her records down.’

  Lindsay barely had time to ease the tension in her aching neck and shoulder muscles before Gwynneth tapped on her door and turned the handle.

  ‘Thanks, Gwynneth.’ Lindsay took the record envelope from her then, as the receptionist would have left, she said, ‘Has Dr Lennox finished his surgery yet?’ She hadn’t seen him that afternoon and feared he would be gone before she’d finished. She felt that somehow she couldn’t leave things the way they were, that something else needed to be said about what had happened the day before.

  ‘No,’ Gwynneth replied. ‘He’s got three more waiting and he’s just been called out on an emergency to Janet Pearce’s mother.’

  ‘I see. Well, send Hannah down to me.’

  Hannah Sykes was fifteen years old but with her studious expression, wire-framed spectacles and long hair she looked older.

  ‘Come in and sit down, Hannah,’ said Lindsay. ‘I’m Dr Henderson—I’m sitting in for Dr Llewellyn today.’

  ‘I thought I would be seeing him,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Would you rather come back when he’s here?’ asked Lindsay. By now she was too weary to argue with anyone who would rather not be there.

  ‘Oh, no,’ said Hannah swiftly. ‘I’d rather see you. Dr Llewellyn’s OK, but he knows me very well, and he’s a friend of my father’s. I don’t think I could talk to him. You see, I think I might be pregnant.’

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ‘PUT those in Dr Llewellyn’s in-tray, please, Bronwen.’ Lindsay leaned across the desk and handed her Hannah Sykes’s records. ‘Oh, and, Bronwen, is Dr Lennox back yet?’

  Bronwen shook her head. ‘No, and there are still three people waiting to see him.’

  ‘In that case, I’ll start seeing them. Send the first one down to my room, please.’

  She was exhausted, particularly after her last patient, and she would have liked nothing better than to crawl upstairs to her flat, but the least she could do was to help Aidan out when he was on an emergency.

  She saw two of the three patients, one of whom was suffering from an acute case of cystitis and the other was experiencing reflux oesophagitis and was in desperate need of an antacid. On following this last patient out to Reception, Lindsay learnt from Bronwen that Aidan was back and was in his room, seeing the last patient. ‘In that case, Bronwen, you and Gwynneth may as well go,’ she said. ‘I’ll drop the catch on the door before I go upstairs then Dr Aidan can see his patient out.’

  For once Bronwen didn’t argue, and after the two women had gone Lindsay trailed thankfully up the stairs to her flat. Earlier it had been her intention to speak to Aidan but that had been four patients and one emergency down the line and she doubted whether either of them would now be up to the sort of personal discussion she’d had in mind.

  It was bliss to kick off her shoes, pour a glass of wine, switch on her CD player and sink down onto the sofa and relax. The day had been hectic enough as it was, but with the added stress of this new awareness between herself and Aidan, which he seemed to be at such pains to ignore, there had been moments when she’d thought she might have been about to explode.

  Lindsay had just leaned her head against the back of the sofa and closed her eyes when there came a knock at her sitting-room door. Her eyes snapped open again as her heart skipped a beat. There was only one person it could be. Only one person who was still in the building. Anyone else would have had to ring through on the intercom outside the building.

  Jumping to her feet, she crossed the room and tugged open the door. Aidan stood there with one arm leaning against the doorframe. He, too, looked exhausted.

  ‘You’ve come to tell me you’ve finished and you’d like me to lock up after you, is that it?’ she asked, trying to read the expression in those blue eyes.

  He shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Actually, I’ve come to thank you for seeing those two patients of mine.’

  ‘That’s all right.’ She shrugged. ‘It was the least I could do.’ She paused, half expecting him to go now that he’d said what he’d come for. But he didn’t. He stayed, looking, she thought, a little sheepish.

  ‘The other thing,’ he said, ‘is that Gwynneth said that you wanted to see me.’

  ‘Er, yes, I did. But that was earlier. It’s late now and you must be tired.’

  ‘It’s OK. I don’t mind. In fact, I wouldn’t say no to a glass of that wine you’re drinking.’

  She looked down surprised to find that the glass was still in her hand. ‘You’d better come in,’ she said, aware as she did so that her pulse had started to race.

  He followed her into the room, pausing as he did so and looking around. ‘This looks different from when I was here,’ he said. ‘A woman’s touch was quite obviously what it needed.’

  Her hand was shaking as she poured his wine and the neck of the bottle chinked against the edge of the glass. ‘I gather you had an emergency,’ she said as she handed him the glass. Suddenly she wanted to delay the moment where they talked about themselves.

  Aidan nodded, and at her indication sat down in the room’s only armchair while Lindsay, in an effort to overcome her nervousness, curled up once more in one corner of the sofa, tucking her legs beneath her.

  ‘It was Audrey Pearce,’ he said after a moment, ‘Janet’s mother. She had a heart attack. Janet called for me but Audrey was in a bad way by the time I got there. I called for an ambulance and I went to the
hospital with them. She suffered another massive heart attack on the way and she died before we even reached the hospital.’

  ‘Oh, no.’ Lindsay shook her head. ‘Poor Janet. How did she take it?’

  ‘She seemed numb. I don’t think it had hit her. She’s cared for her mother for a very long time.’ He paused and took a sip of his wine. ‘Anyway, thanks for holding the fort.’

  ‘I’ve left the two patient’s notes I saw in your in-tray.’

  ‘Thanks. Quite straightforward, were they?’

  ‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘Not like the last one of Henry’s I saw today. That one won’t be quite straightforward, I can guarantee. I’ve left those notes in his in-tray.’

  ‘Oh?’ Aidan looked up quickly. ‘Anything that needs any sort of follow-up tonight?’

  ‘No, nothing like that. It was Hannah Sykes.’

  ‘Peter Sykes’s daughter?’

  ‘Yes. She’s pregnant.’

  ‘Oh, Lord.’ Aidan looked quite stricken. ‘How old is she now?’

  ‘Fifteen.’

  ‘Peter and Beth aren’t going to be too pleased.’

  ‘No. Quite,’ Lindsay agreed.

  ‘Do they know yet?’

  ‘Apparently not. Neither does the father—a boy at her school. Sounds like it was a one-off.’

  ‘I can believe that. I wouldn’t have put Hannah down as promiscuous, not given her background and upbringing.’

  ‘They’re often the worst. Can’t wait to break free, that sort of thing.’

  ‘True,’ Aidan admitted. ‘But I don’t think Peter and Beth have been too restrictive with Hannah or with her brother Paul. This will hit them very hard, especially Peter, in his position.’

  ‘Are they friends of yours?’

  ‘Sort of, though I’d say they were more friends of Henry and Megan. Did Hannah give any indication of what she wanted to do?’

  ‘Not really. I don’t think she’d even thought ahead.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘Well, I confirmed the pregnancy. She’s about four months. I also told her that I would tell Henry for her. She’s going to try and tell her mother, but I’ve told her that if she can’t then I’ll do it for her, or at least be with her when she does so.’ Lindsay hesitated. ‘Did I do right? I’ve not been in this situation before.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Aidan replied. ‘There wasn’t anything else you could have done.’

  ‘I thought I’d leave all the booking forms until we’ve seen her mother.’

  ‘That’s a good idea. I would imagine Hannah has enough to be thinking about for the present.’ He was silent for a moment then he allowed his gaze to meet hers. ‘Lindsay…I know you wanted to see me, and I also wanted to talk to you. I have the feeling it might be about the same thing.’

  ‘Possibly,’ she agreed.

  ‘Well, you go first.’

  She took a deep breath. ‘All I was going to say was that I can’t stand the way it’s been between us today. I feel as if I’m walking on eggshells.’

  ‘Me, too.’ He nodded. ‘I can imagine how you must be feeling after my appalling behaviour, and what I wanted to say was that I’ll quite understand if you don’t wish to remain here. I’ll even go so far as to say that I’m quite prepared to explain the situation to Henry.’

  ‘Aidan…please…’ With a spontaneous gesture Lindsay scrambled to her feet.

  ‘No.’ He, too, stood up. ‘Hear me out—please. I know sexual harassment in a working situation constitutes a grave offence and I can only apologise once again—’

  ‘Sexual harassment? Oh, Aidan, stop, please.’ She stared at him, not knowing whether to laugh or be serious, then, seeing his misery, she lifted her hand and gently touched the tiny scar on his cheek. Helplessness melted the ice blue of his eyes. ‘How can it have been sexual harassment when I responded in the way I did?’ she said softly.

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. All I know is I feel wretched about it and about what you must think of me.’

  ‘And don’t you think there’s a chance I might be feeling bad about what you must be thinking about me?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ He frowned and lifted his own hand to take hold of hers, moving it away from his cheek but not releasing it.

  ‘Well, I thought you must be thinking that I must be some sort of man-eater, the way I reacted, and since then…well, you’ve practically ignored me and I didn’t know what to think.’

  ‘Are you trying to say that I’m forgiven?’ His voice was husky now.

  ‘There’s nothing to forgive, Aidan, really there isn’t. But…’ she paused ‘…there is one thing I should like to know.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Still he held onto her hand. His grip was firm and warm and Lindsay felt as if something deep inside her had started to melt.

  ‘Why did you do it?’

  He stared at her. ‘Well…I…’ he floundered.

  ‘Was it a spur-of-the-moment impulse? Because one moment you were bawling me out, and the next…well!’

  ‘Bawling you out, as you put it, was one of the methods I’d adopted for keeping myself in check,’ he said huskily. As he spoke Lindsay was aware that he’d allowed his gaze to roam from her eyes to her hair then finally to her mouth, where it lingered. ‘Don’t you realise how hard it has been for me, Lindsay? Don’t you have any idea of the way I feel about you?’

  Deep inside her the melting sensation had given way to a deep throb of desire. ‘Tell me,’ she whispered.

  ‘I’m not sure you would want to hear this,’ he replied.

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘I’ve wanted you from the moment I set eyes on you.’ He spoke quietly but precisely, his eyes not leaving her mouth for one moment. ‘At first I tried to deny it by telling myself that you quite simply weren’t my type, that we were like chalk and cheese. You were a city girl. I was the proverbial country boy. You were sleek and sophisticated, everything I wasn’t. I knew you wouldn’t look twice at me so I put up the barricades from the word go.’

  ‘How do you know I wouldn’t have looked twice at you?’ she demanded softly.

  ‘You’d made it perfectly plain you weren’t happy to have me as your trainer. I took that to mean you wouldn’t have been too happy having me play any other role in your life either, so again I thought it best to keep my distance. It was even harder after we’d called our truce and agreed to start again. We quite naturally became friends and I found it even more difficult to keep you at arm’s length. The day you came to Capel Curig with me was like some sort of exquisite torture…’

  ‘So what happened yesterday?’ Lindsay sounded mystified. ‘What had changed?’

  ‘It was you,’ Aidan admitted. ‘My adrenalin was already flowing from splitting those logs and I looked up and there you were. Honestly, I thought I was hallucinating for a moment. You stood there so cool and fresh in that blue skirt and there was me sweating and, well, I wanted you so much, and then you started telling me about Milly. I even pretended I was angry with you just to help me keep my distance and then…then when you got angry…well, that did it. I just lost it…’

  ‘Oh, Aidan…come here.’ Taking her hand from his, she took his face in both her hands and gazed into his eyes.

  ‘Don’t play with me, Lindsay.’ His voice was low now with a dangerous edge to it. ‘Because, I warn you, if you do you could be playing with fire. I know there’s no way you could ever feel the same way about me and accept that. But I do have feelings and there’s only a certain amount I can take.’

  ‘Why do you assume I couldn’t feel the same way about you?’

  ‘You just couldn’t, that’s all. It’s like I said. We’re poles apart—you a town girl with all your talk of London, your parties, your wine bars and trips to the theatre, your holidays in the sun, and me with my dogs, my cottage and the wild Welsh countryside…’

  ‘What if I were to tell you that I also felt something between us almost from the start? That I also denied it, partly b
ecause I was still feeling raw from my last relationship and partly because you were being so objectionable that I had to keep telling myself that I couldn’t possibly even like you, let alone anything else. But then yesterday, when that happened and you started to kiss me, all I knew was that I didn’t want you to stop.’

  ‘Do you really mean that?’ Aidan looked astounded.

  ‘Of course I do.’ Still holding his face between her hands, Lindsay raised herself onto her toes then kissed him gently on his lips. ‘So do you think, Dr Lennox,’ she murmured between kisses, ‘that you could carry on where you left off, please, because I don’t think I can wait much longer?’

  They agreed to try and keep it a secret, just between themselves, at least for a little longer, but it proved to be a bitter-sweet secret for there was a part of Lindsay that longed to shout of her love from the rooftops. Instead, she had to make do with longing glances when they thought no one else was looking, the secret touching of hands or a stolen kiss when they had a rare moment alone.

  ‘I know I shall have to tell Henry,’ said Aidan one morning later in the week when they’d returned from a couple of house calls and were sitting together in his Land Rover outside the surgery, delaying the moment when they would have to go inside. ‘I’m just putting it off.’

  ‘Do you really think his reaction will be that bad?’ asked Lindsay anxiously.

  ‘I think once he gets used to the idea he’ll probably be delighted for the pair of us…’

  ‘Well, then, why not just go for it and get it over with?’

  ‘Because I’m not sure where we stand ethically. I’ve never heard of a trainer and a trainee having a relationship before. Henry may consider it necessary to terminate the arrangement and send you straight back to London. I’m not sure I could cope with that.’

  ‘I can’t see the problem. Husband-and-wife GPs work together all the time.’

  ‘That’s different,’ said Aidan darkly.

  ‘Come on,’ said Lindsay. ‘We’d best go in. If Bronwen cranes her neck much further to try and see what we’re up to, she’ll fall out of that window.’

  Aidan chuckled and, climbing out of the Land Rover, followed Lindsay into the building. ‘Maybe,’ he murmured as he caught her up in the doorway, ‘I should have given you a kiss in full view of staff and patients alike. That would really give them something to talk about.’