‘A favour?’ she repeated numbly, struggling to get her head round the idea.
‘Mmm. I won’t get a wink of sleep if I’m worrying about you falling down those wretched stairs.’ He smiled at her, a smile of such tenderness that her heart immediately melted. Could he have looked at her that way if he didn’t genuinely care? she wondered giddily. The thought was so mind-blowing that it was hard to concentrate when he continued.
‘You can have the bedroom in the annexe. It’s en suite so there’s no stairs to negotiate if you need to use the loo during the night. There’s even a little fold-down seat in the shower which should make life easier for you, shouldn’t it?’
‘I…er…I suppose so,’ Rachel murmured, hoping to gain herself a little time. She groaned because even if she’d had a couple of hours to decide, it wouldn’t have made the decision any easier. It wasn’t the safety factor she was worried about, or at least not where it concerned her knee. It was the thought of spending the night under Matt’s roof that was giving her hot and cold chills. That was far more dangerous.
‘It’s the ideal place for you to stay while your knee heals. You’ll be able to potter about and not do yourself any more damage.’ He leant over and squeezed her hand. ‘Say you’ll stay, Rachel, even if it’s only for tonight. Please. Just for me.’
‘There’s clean sheets on the bed and fresh towels in the bathroom. Heather often invited one of her friends to stay over so the place is always ready for guests.’
Matt stepped aside so that Rachel could see into the small but functional bathroom. Everywhere gleamed brightly, the black and white tiles sparkling in the light, and she nodded, battening down the urge to laugh. Matt was acting like a hotelier, pointing out the room’s good points, and she was acting like a guest. How ridiculous was that?
She went back into the bedroom, taking stock of the quilted throw on the king-sized bed, the comfy chair positioned next to the dressing table. It was an attractive room and she knew she would be comfortable sleeping there, but was she mad to have agreed? Surely she was making a difficult situation worse by sleeping in Matt’s home even if she wasn’t actually sleeping with him.
Heat rushed up her cheeks and she busied herself with removing her coat to hide her embarrassment. Matt must have seen her struggling because he immediately stepped forward to help. He slid the coat off her shoulders and it was all she could do to hide her shiver when she felt his hand brush against the side of her neck. Even though it was only the briefest of contacts she felt it register in every cell of her body like a surge of electricity. She heard Matt draw in a ragged breath and glanced round in surprise, wondering if he had felt it too, but he was already moving away.
‘How about a cup of tea?’ he suggested, hanging her coat in the wardrobe.
‘That would be lovely. Thank you.’
Rachel waited until he had left then sank down on the bed. She must stop wondering if Matt felt the same way as she did or this night would turn into a disaster. Unbuttoning her jacket, she laid it on the quilt then smoothed down the front of her blouse. It was warm in the house and what with that plus her own inner thermostat going haywire, it felt as though she was burning up. Somehow, she had to remain calm no matter what happened.
Once again her temperature spiked as a whole raft of possibilities flooded her mind. They ranged from the innocuous—Matt giving her a goodnight peck on the cheek—to the preposterous—a night of unbridled passion—and she moaned. What a time for her imagination to run riot!
‘Tea’s ready,’ Matt shouted, and she struggled to her feet. Tea and some undemanding conversation were just what she needed to calm her nerves.
She made her way along the hall and found Matt coming out of the kitchen, carrying a tray. He smiled as he nodded towards the sitting room.
‘We may as well drink it in here. It’s more comfortable.’
He led the way, placing the tray on a table before going over to the window to draw the curtains. He’d already lit the fire and the logs were starting to spit as they caught light. Rachel sat down in one of the squashy armchairs, sighing with pleasure as she looked around the room.
‘This is such a lovely room, Matt. It always feels so welcoming.’
‘I’ve always loved it,’ he agreed, passing her one of the cups before sitting down on the sofa. ‘I suppose that’s the main reason why I haven’t redecorated it for years. I like it just the way it is, although I’m going to have to buy a new sofa at some point. There’s more sag than bounce in these cushions, I’m afraid.’
Rachel laughed at his wry expression. ‘It looks fine to me, but there again my own sofa isn’t exactly in its first flush of youth.’
‘Obviously a woman after my own heart. You like to get full value out of your furniture too.’
He returned her smile, mercifully missing the start she gave. Of course she wasn’t after his heart, she told herself sternly. That was ridiculous. She took a sip of her tea then looked up when the phone suddenly rang. Matt frowned as he got up to answer it.
‘I wonder who that can be at this time of the night.’
Rachel watched as he crossed the room and picked up the receiver. He had his back to her and she found herself studying the strong, straight line of his spine. Everything about him was solid and dependable, she thought, both inside and out. He possessed the rare gift of making people feel that no matter what mishap befell them, he would help them sort it out. It was one of his major strengths as a GP and it was also one of the things that appealed to her most. Matt was someone she could turn to in a crisis and he would never let her down. She had never thought that about any man before.
‘No, please don’t apologise. I quite understand why you’re worried, Mrs Morris. Leave it with me. I should be there in about ten minutes’ time.’
Rachel frowned when she heard what he had said. ‘What’s happened?’
‘That was Mrs Morris from Prescott Lane on the phone. One of her boys is running a temperature and he also has a strange rash on his legs.’
‘Has she phoned the on-call service?’ Rachel asked.
‘Yes, over an hour ago, apparently, but nobody’s turned up yet and that’s why she phoned me.’ Matt’s tone was grim. ‘There’s been two cases of meningitis in the area recently so I appreciate why she’s so worried. We can’t afford to take any chances that this might be another one.’
‘Certainly not,’ Rachel agreed. ‘Are you going over there now?’
‘Yes. I know the on-call service should cover it but that isn’t the point. The boy needs to be seen sooner rather than later.’ He headed to the door then paused and glanced back. ‘I don’t know how long I’ll be so don’t wait up for me, Rachel. I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘Of course. Be careful, though, Matt. The roads are very icy tonight. You don’t want to have an accident.’
‘Don’t worry, I shall be extremely careful. We can’t afford to have two of us hobbling around the surgery, can we?’
He smiled at her and just for a second his face was unguarded. Rachel’s breath caught but before she could react, he swung round and a moment later she heard the front door slam. She struggled to her feet and made it to the window in time to watch him drive away. Resting her forehead against the glass, she tried to recall the expression on his face. Had she imagined it, seen what she had wanted to see? She wasn’t sure, but for a moment there’d seemed to be such hunger in his eyes as he had looked at her, such need, that just thinking about it made her shiver.
She sighed as she stared out at the darkness. Even if Matt did feel something for her there was no reason to believe that he would do anything about it.
‘The good news is that I’m ninety-nine percent certain that Robbie doesn’t have meningitis.’
Matt sympathised when he heard the boy’s parents gasp in relief. As a parent himself, he understood how worried they must have been. He smiled at them, trying not to think about all the other worrying issues he had to contend with at the momen
t.
‘Whilst Robbie undoubtedly has a fever and a rash, there’s nothing else that points towards it being meningitis. There’s no neck stiffness, no sign of photophobia—that’s an aversion to light—no headache or sickness.’
He pressed a glass tumbler against the blotches on the boy’s legs, blanking out all thoughts of what had happened before he’d left the house. The desire he’d felt for Rachel had almost overwhelmed him. If he hadn’t made such a rapid exit he would have had the devil of a job to contain it. The thought was enough to make his heart race.
‘As you can see, the rash disappears when you press the glass against it. That doesn’t happen with the meningitis rash.’
‘So you think it’s some sort of a virus?’ Robbie’s father queried.
‘It could be.’ Matt turned to the boy, his gut instinct telling him to probe a bit more deeply. ‘Is there anything else that you haven’t mentioned, Robbie? Something that’s happened which you haven’t told your mum and dad about?’
Robbie bit his lip, looking so sheepish that Matt knew he was right. He sat down on the edge of the bed and said firmly, ‘Nobody is going to tell you off if you’ve done something silly, son. We just want to find out what’s making you feel so ill.’
‘It was the rat,’ Robbie muttered, glancing warily at his parents.
‘A pet rat?’ Matt said, shaking his head. Mrs Morris opened her mouth to speak. He didn’t want any interruptions now that Robbie had got this far.
‘No, just a rat down by the river. Me and my friends were playing there the other day and we found this rats’ nest, you see. We weren’t going to hurt them,’ Robbie said quickly. ‘We just wanted to have a look at them. We got a stick and poked around a bit, but then one of them bit me on the ankle. Just here. See.’
‘That looks nasty,’ Matt said as the boy rolled down his sock and showed him his ankle. The area surrounding the bite was badly inflamed, pointing towards it being infected. ‘It would definitely explain why the lymph nodes in your groin are swollen. The infection has spread throughout your body. No wonder you’ve been feeling so poorly.’
‘But rats carry the plague, don’t they, Doctor?’ Mrs Morris put in fearfully. ‘I saw a programme on the television a few months ago and they said that the plague started because the country was overrun with rats!’
‘Usually it’s the fleas off the rats that bite people and pass on the plague,’ Matt explained patiently. ‘Thankfully, we don’t have that problem in this country any more, although there are other diseases that rats can carry. That’s why anyone who’s bitten by a rat should always seek medical attention as soon as possible.’ He glanced at the boy. ‘Robbie is probably suffering from rat-bite fever and the good news is that we can clear it up with antibiotics. However, no more poking about in rats’ nests, young man. Steer well clear in future.’
‘I will.’
Robbie lay down, looking very sorry for himself. Matt wrote out a script for penicillin once he’d made sure the boy wasn’t allergic to it. He handed it to the parents along with a couple of sachets of the medicine which he happened to have in his case. At least Robbie wouldn’t need to wait until the morning when the prescription was filled before he started on the medication.
‘Thank you, Dr Thompson,’ Mrs Morris said gratefully. ‘And thank you for coming out as well. We’re really grateful, aren’t we, love?’
‘We are indeed,’ her husband agreed.
‘I’m only sorry that you had to wait so long,’ Matt told them as they saw him out. ‘I don’t know what went wrong tonight but I’ll get onto our on-call service and make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
‘Should I phone them and let them know we don’t need a doctor to call now?’ Mr Morris queried.
Matt shook his head. ‘There’s no need. I’ll do it.’
He went out to his car and put through a call to the on-call service. He explained that there was no longer any need for a doctor to visit the family then asked why there had been such a delay sending someone out. He sighed when he was briskly informed that it was due to a combination of the number of calls they had received and staff shortages. He hated to think that their patients might not be getting the service they deserved.
He drove home, making good time until he reached the outskirts of the town where a heavy layer of frost on the tarmac made him slow down. As he had told Rachel earlier, the practice couldn’t afford to have two of them injured. Thinking about Rachel immediately set loose a whole host of emotions. The temptation to go and see her when he got in was very strong, but he had to resist it. He simply couldn’t trust himself to be around her at the moment and not do something silly, although maybe it would be all right if he just made sure that she had everything she needed. It would take only a moment and he could retire to his bed, duty done.
Matt grimaced as he drew up outside the front door. He knew that he was merely looking for an excuse to see her, but admitting it wasn’t enough to deter him. He went straight to the annexe, pausing outside the door while he mustered his composure. The last thing he wanted was to make Rachel feel that he was coming onto her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
RACHEL was about to switch off the bedside lamp when she heard Matt’s car turning into the drive. She hesitated, undecided what to do. Although he had told her not to wait up, she was tempted to go and see how he had got on. She sighed when she heard the front door open. Interested though she may be in their patients’ welfare, it wasn’t the real reason she wanted to see him, was it?
She reached for the switch but before she could turn off the lamp, there was a knock on the door. Rachel froze. Although a moment ago she had been longing to see him, the thought of seeing him now was suddenly giving her hot and cold chills. How could she hope to carry on a conversation when she was in this frame of mind?
‘Rachel, are you awake?’ His voice carried softly through the door and she knew that she had to answer. Matt must have seen that her light was on as he drove up and it would look very strange if she didn’t reply.
‘Yes, I’m awake,’ she croaked, groaning when she realised how strained her voice sounded. Matt would soon realise there was something wrong if she carried on like this. ‘Come in,’ she called firmly.
‘I spotted your light was still on,’ he explained as he came into the room. ‘I thought I’d better check that you have everything you need.’
‘Yes, thank you.’ Rachel returned his smile, hoping he couldn’t tell how on edge she felt. This was a whole new territory for her because she’d never entertained him in her bedroom before.
Nerves assailed her once more but fortunately he didn’t appear to notice her discomfort. Walking over to the window, he drew the curtains tightly together. ‘We may as well keep out any draughts. It’s bitterly cold out tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if the temperature drops below freezing point.’
‘It’s been heading that way for the past few days,’ she agreed, although the state of the weather was the least of her problems. All night long she had kept returning to that moment before Matt had left but she still hadn’t decided if she’d been right to think that he had wanted her and the uncertainty of not knowing was the worse thing of all. If she knew how he felt then she might know what to do about it.
The thought made her heart lurch and she hurried on. ‘So how did you get on? Was it another case of meningitis?’
‘No, I’m glad to say.’ He came over to the bed. ‘It turns out that young Robbie managed to get himself bitten by a rat and has rat bite fever. A course of antibiotics will soon sort it out.’
‘Well, that’s good news. I’m sure his parents must be relieved.’
‘Oh, they are. I’m only sorry they had to wait so long for a doctor to turn up and set their minds at rest.’
‘Did you phone the on-call service to find out why there’d been a delay?’
‘I did. Sheer number of calls, apparently, plus they have a couple of their staff off sick.’
‘That wret
ched bug, no doubt,’ she said ruefully, and he nodded.
‘I expect so, although it’s not really good enough, is it? Patients shouldn’t have to wait so long for help to arrive. I was always uneasy about employing an on-call service before we signed up to it and this proves I was right to have my doubts.’
‘But we’ve never had a problem before,’ she protested.
‘Maybe not, but that’s no excuse. Our patients deserve a reliable service every single day of the year and it’s up to me to make sure they receive it.’
‘That’s ridiculous, Matt! It’s not your fault that they happen to be short-staffed when it’s a particularly busy night.’ Rachel could tell that he wasn’t convinced and leant forward, determined to make him see sense. ‘You can’t blame yourself for what happened tonight.’
‘No, but I intend to keep a closer eye on what’s happening from now on.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s only by the grace of God that it wasn’t another case of meningitis we were dealing with.’
He turned away but she caught hold of his hand. ‘Just because there was a glitch tonight, it doesn’t mean it will happen again,’ she countered, trying to ignore the tingles that were spreading up her arm. Matt’s hand felt so big and warm that she was loath to release it even though she knew that she should. ‘They’re a reliable firm and you have to trust them to get on with the job.’
‘Yes, ma’am!’ Matt said smartly. He eased his hand out from hers, making a great production of flexing his fingers, and Rachel laughed.
‘If you’re trying to make me feel bad about crushing your hand, forget it. There’s no way that I hurt you. I mean, look at the size of your hand compared to mine.’
Rachel laid her hand, palm up, on the quilt, feeling her heart jolt when Matt laid his on top of it. His hand was so much larger than hers that it completely engulfed it. She could feel the roughness of his palm against the smoothness of hers, the strength of his fingers, and shuddered. It had been a long time since a man had touched her like this, a long time since she had wanted this kind of contact either.
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