Rescued by Dr. Rafe

by Annie Claydon

  ‘My pleasure. Although I’m not sure it was Mi...Miriam’s.’ Mimi’s full name sounded strange and very cold on his lips, but Rafe had made up his mind to play it safe and use it, since she seemed to object so much to his using her nickname.

  ‘Miriam...?’ Charlie’s face broke into a grin. ‘She is giving you a hard time, isn’t she?’

  ‘Do you blame her?’ Somehow Rafe couldn’t quite leave it at that. ‘There were reasons, Charlie. For my leaving...’

  ‘I dare say there were. That’s between you and Mimi. She told me to mind my own business enough times.’

  A quiver of unexpected warmth jabbed at Rafe’s heart. Mimi could have said whatever she liked about him, and it was only to be expected that she’d bad-mouthed him to Charlie. He hadn’t realised until this moment how much he’d wanted her not to.

  ‘Do me a favour, though...’ Charlie interrupted his reverie.

  ‘Of course.’ Rafe had absolutely no intention of trying to rekindle anything between him and Mimi, and sex for old times’ sake definitely wasn’t on his agenda. He could reassure Charlie on that score, at least.

  ‘I know Mimi’s job has risks attached to it, and I also know she doesn’t tell me about half the scrapes she gets herself into...’

  ‘They’re not scrapes, Charlie, and she doesn’t get herself into them. She’s a trained professional.’ Rafe surprised himself by springing to Mimi’s defence.

  ‘Yeah, I know.’ Charlie ran his hand through his hair. ‘Look after her, will you? You know Mimi. She thinks she’s superwoman sometimes.’

  ‘You have my word on that.’ Rafe held out his hand, wondering if Charlie would take it. He did so without hesitation. He was so like Mimi, in both looks and mannerism, and it felt doubly warming that Charlie seemed ready to forgive.

  ‘It’s good to see you.’ Charlie’s irrepressible grin broke through his reserve. ‘I’ve missed our little talks.’

  Rafe chuckled. Their little talks usually lasted until closing time in the local pub, when Mimi was working a late shift. ‘Me too. We should do it again some time.’

  ‘Yeah. That would be good.’

  * * *

  Things were going okay. Not good, but okay. They were adults and there was no reason in the world why she and Rafe couldn’t play nicely until the situation eased. There was just one thing that needed clearing up.

  ‘I heard what you said to Charlie.’

  ‘Yeah?’ He didn’t turn his gaze from the road ahead but Mimi supposed she shouldn’t expect that. She wouldn’t have done if she’d been driving either.

  ‘It’s quite unnecessary.’

  ‘Which bit of it in particular?’

  ‘About looking after me. There’s no need.’

  Rafe’s shoulders moved in a tight shrug. ‘You want me to go back on my word?’

  ‘Far be it from me to get in the way of any male bonding that you’ve been engaging in, but I’d rather you didn’t involve me in it.’ Mimi shut her mouth tight. That sounded sharper than it should, but when she’d heard Rafe and Charlie’s quiet words she’d felt a little more hurt than she should too.

  ‘I didn’t say it to impress Charlie. It’s what I intend to do.’ The side of his jaw hardened in an obstinate line. She knew that look, and it had frustrated her when she’d been living with him. She didn’t need to put up with it any more.

  ‘I’ve been looking after myself for the last five years, Rafe, and I’ve met all the challenges that life can throw at me. I’m sorry if that tears a hole in your masculinity, but that’s the way things are. I don’t need you to look after me, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go around pretending that I did.’

  She felt a little breathless. Almost free, as if that was something that she’d been waiting for a long time to say. Mimi dismissed the idea. There was nothing...nothing that she’d been waiting to say to Rafe.

  The car suddenly pulled off the road, jerking to a halt. ‘You think this is all about my ego?’

  ‘Well, it’s not about mine...’ The atmosphere was zinging with hurt antagonism.

  ‘Not about you?’ He turned around to face her and she saw her own anger reflected in his face. ‘We all need each other at the moment. If you can’t deal with that then that’s all about you.’

  ‘Stop trying to twist things around, Rafe...’

  ‘I am not twisting anything. And I didn’t promise Charlie that I’d look after you because you’re a woman, or because we used to sleep together.’

  Mimi caught her breath. He’d said the words they’d both been trying not to say. The words that could lead to all kinds of trouble...we used to sleep together. After all the efforts she’d been making not to think about it.

  ‘That’s all ancient history.’

  His lip curled in disbelief, and suddenly he was very close. That scent of his, a little soap, a little sweat. She’d always loved the way that Rafe smelled, and it was just as intoxicating as it had always been.

  ‘We need to get one thing straight. It’s fine with me if you just want to come along for the ride. I happen to think that would be a shame, because I was hoping that I could rely on you.’

  ‘What for?’ The words almost stuck in her throat. Suddenly she couldn’t think of one thing that Rafe would want to rely on her for.

  ‘You know these roads better than I do. You know the best way to get to where we need to go. And you have a lot of experience of working with people outside the hospital, which I don’t have. I could really do with your help.’

  ‘I...I want to help.’ Although they’d worked at the same hospital for over a year, Mimi had never worked with Rafe. She knew he was a fine doctor and had often wished she could have that opportunity.

  ‘Right then. So we’re a team?’

  ‘Yes... That would be good.’

  ‘In that case, I get to look out for you. The same way that I hope you’ll look out for me.’

  Mimi swallowed hard. ‘You want me to look out for you?’

  ‘Why not?’ His sudden grin burned into her soul like a red-hot brand. ‘It’s expensive to train new doctors. You’d be doing the economy a favour.’

  Right now, the economy was the last thing on her mind. She tried to drag her attention away from the curve of his lips.

  ‘Okay then—partners. I’ll look after you and you can look after me.’

  He held out his hand and she took it, almost in a dream. One of those bright, happy dreams that had so often been shattered when she woke and found that Rafe wasn’t sleeping next to her.

  ‘Partners it is, then.’

  Suddenly the dream cracked. Mimi had promised herself not to risk falling for another man and fantasising about Rafe, of all people, was plain crazy.

  She let go of his hand, settling back into her seat. Five years ago she’d been foolish enough to believe that she meant something to him, and now... He’d be gone soon and he wouldn’t look back.

  Perhaps that was the advantage of having a heart that had once been broken. It was stronger now, and well defended. Rafe couldn’t just walk back into her life and steal it.

  * * *

  The shining look on her face, the way her lips were parted slightly, had obliterated everything else. Mimi might be as tough as they came, but when she made love she was the softest, sweetest thing.

  Don’t do this. Don’t even think about it.

  He’d made one promise to Charlie, and another to himself. He wasn’t going to break either of them. Rafe switched on the engine, jamming the car into first gear with more force than was strictly necessary, and started to drive.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THEIR FIRST CALL was to a man with cuts and bruises, from where a dry-stone wall had collapsed onto him. In better circumstances he might well have just turned up in A and
E, but he’d called first and been passed on to the Disaster Control Team, who had told him to stay put and wait for someone to get to him.

  With Rafe there, it was possible to treat him in situ. Not the best use of his skills, but it saved time and resources where they were needed the most. The kitchen table was turned into a temporary treatment area, and Eric’s arm lay supported on a wad of dressing as Rafe carefully injected the local anaesthetic on either side of the wound.

  ‘You’re the doctor’s assistant?’ Eric’s wife came to sit next to Mimi at the other end of the long table.

  ‘No.’ She flipped her gaze towards Rafe to check that he wasn’t grinning and saw that his concentration was wholly on what he was doing. ‘I’m a paramedic. Only my ambulance got washed away in the river.’

  ‘Up by Holme? I heard about that on the local radio news; they’re completely cut off now. No one hurt, I hope.’

  ‘No. Just got a bit wet.’

  A baby started to cry in the other room and the woman hurried out, returning with her child in her arms. ‘We’re sorry to bring you out all this way. Eric was going to go into A and E, but I was worried about him driving and I called first. They said they’d send a doctor to us.’ Her tone was apologetic.

  ‘That’s all right. We’re trying to get as many people as possible treated at home because A and E is pretty stretched at the moment. It’s a lot better this way, all round.’

  ‘Not for you. It looks as if it’s going to be a filthy night again.’ The woman turned the edges of her mouth down in sympathy, and Mimi smiled.

  ‘I’ll be in bed, drinking cocoa and reading a book soon enough.’ Mimi thought she saw a movement from Rafe out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned he was already looking away again.

  ‘Whatever you earn you deserve more...’ Eric broke in, and his wife nodded.

  ‘I tell my boss that all the time.’ Mimi grinned, picking up a soft toy from the table and waggling it in front of the baby. There wasn’t much else for her to do. ‘What do you say to my making a cup of tea?’

  ‘Tea?’ Rafe seemed to hear the magic word. ‘That would be nice, thanks.’

  Mimi swallowed the temptation to tell him that the tea was intended for their patient. Picking the kettle up and finding it empty, she went to fill it up at the sink.

  * * *

  Rafe stood at the end of the path, surveying the small cottage for any signs of life, and Mimi knocked on the door again. No answer.

  ‘I don’t suppose we’ve got the wrong address...?’

  ‘Nope. This is the right one.’ Mimi bent down to shout through the letterbox. ‘Toby. Open the door.’

  Obviously she’d been here before. Or maybe she knew the elderly man who lived here. They’d been summoned by a concerned neighbour, who had noticed that he was limping and had seen an infected sore on his leg.

  ‘Do you think he might not be able to get to the door?’ Rafe suggested, wondering if they were going to have to break in.

  ‘Shouldn’t think so. He’s probably hiding out in the kitchen.’ Mimi walked to the side of the cottage, squeezing through the narrow space between the wall and a waterlogged hedge, and Rafe followed, avoiding the branches that sprung back behind her.

  She clambered over a low wall, walking past a small kitchen garden to the back door. He stopped and waited, reckoning that Mimi probably knew what she was doing. She pressed her face against the glass, rattling the handle.

  ‘Toby, open up.’

  There was a short pause, and Mimi banged on the door again. Then it opened, to reveal an elderly man.

  ‘You might have said it was you...’

  ‘Can we come in, Toby?’

  ‘You’d better. You’ll catch your death out there.’

  Mimi entered and Rafe hung back from the door as Toby eyed him suspiciously.

  ‘This is Dr Chapman.’

  ‘Where’s the other lad?’

  ‘Jack’s up at the top of the hill, in Holme. He’s a bit tied up at the moment.’

  Toby nodded sagely and beckoned Rafe inside. A black and white collie was sleeping by the fire and raised its head to inspect the visitors, then rested it back onto its front paws. The little kitchen was old-fashioned, yet clean and neat as a new pin.

  ‘What can I do for you?’ Toby sat down at the kitchen table, its polished surface dark and pitted from years of use.

  ‘Mrs March called us. She says you’ve got something wrong with your leg.’ Mimi’s tone was firm, but she was smiling.

  ‘It’s nothing.’ The old man’s chin jutted in a show of defiance. His face was like the surface of the table, dark from years spent in the open air, with deep lines at the side of his eyes.

  ‘No, probably not. But the thing is, now I’m here I have to have a look at it. Those are the rules.’

  ‘And him?’ Toby gestured in Rafe’s direction.

  Mimi looked around, a trace of the smile that she’d bestowed on Toby still lingering on her face. After the uneasy truce between them, which seemed to have started to crumble as soon as it was made, it was like a ray of sunshine. ‘Yeah, he’s got to look at it as well.’

  Toby sniffed. ‘One of you not good enough, then.’

  Mimi directed a bright grin at Toby and the old man’s face softened. ‘Come on, Toby. Give me a break, eh?’

  Toby shrugged and Mimi knelt down in front of him, pulling a pair of gloves from her pocket and carefully rolling Toby’s trouser leg up. Halfway up his calf, a large sore blazed red against the pallor of his skin.

  ‘Have you been wading in flood water?’ Mimi voiced the first question which occurred to Rafe. Flood water frequently carried a high concentration of bacteria, and in the circumstances it was the most likely candidate for turning a small injury into an angry, obviously infected wound like this.

  ‘Mebbe...’ Toby shrugged non-committally.

  ‘I’ll take that as a yes. You’ve been with your grandson up at the farm, have you?’

  ‘The lad needed some help to get all the animals inside. The pasture’s waterlogged.’

  ‘And when was this?’

  ‘Day before yesterday.’

  ‘Okay. This looks as if it hurts.’ Mimi gave Toby no chance to reply, clearly suspecting that he wasn’t about to admit it if it did. ‘I’d like the doctor to take a look at it, and he’ll tell us what needs to be done.’

  Toby raised one eyebrow, pursed his lips and regarded Rafe steadily. The effect was something like the assessing stare of his first tutor, back when he was a student. Rafe took his coat off, hanging it on the back of one of the kitchen chairs, and bent to examine the leg.

  ‘Yes, there’s some infection there.’ Rafe stated the obvious and tried not to notice that Mimi was rolling her eyes. ‘I’ll get some antibiotics and we’ll dress the wound...’

  ‘That’s okay. I’ll get them.’ Mimi was on her feet already. ‘I’ll pop in to see Mrs March on the way, and I need to make a phone call.’

  ‘Okay, thanks.’ Rafe supposed that the visit next door and the phone call were going to be about making sure that Toby was looked in on every day. The wound would heal, but not if he didn’t take care of it. She caught up her coat and breezed through to the front door, leaving Rafe and Toby staring at each other.

  ‘Nice girl. Reminds me of my Joan.’ Toby broke the silence.

  ‘This is her?’ Rafe craned over to look at the photograph on the sideboard, and Toby nodded. ‘She’s beautiful.’

  ‘That she was. Right up until the day she died.’ Toby’s eyes lingered for a moment on the image. ‘Had a temper, like your girl.’

  ‘She’s not my girl. We’re just working together.’

  Toby gave a short barked laugh. ‘My Joan and me, we used to argue like cat and dog, but we never let the sun go down
on a quarrel. Five kids to show for it, and twelve grandkids.’

  ‘Sounds like good advice.’ Rafe wondered what Toby would think of letting things simmer for five years.

  ‘It is. You and your girl...’

  ‘She’s not my girl, Toby.’

  ‘Aye. Well, take your eyes off her when she’s not looking, and look her in the face when she is, and then I might believe you.’

  There was no answer to that. Not one that Rafe could think of anyway, and that allowed Toby to warm to his theme.

  ‘Sun’s almost down. Puts you on borrowed time.’

  Rafe had been congratulating himself that, whatever their private differences, neither he nor Mimi had allowed them to bleed into their work and they’d remained entirely professional in front of their patients. But it appeared that he’d been mistaken.

  ‘It’s...complicated.’ Rafe decided that denials weren’t going to work this time. Toby might be elderly, but that was no reason to treat him as if he was stupid.

  ‘No, it’s not. You find a girl you like and, if she likes you, you lead her up the hill to the church.’ Toby folded his arms in a gesture of finality.

  The front door slammed, saving Rafe from the difficult task of working out how to answer that. Mimi’s footsteps sounded in the hall and Toby twisted around in his seat as she appeared in the kitchen doorway.

  ‘Right. I’ve spoken to Mrs March and she’s given me your daughter’s number.’ She waved a piece of paper at Toby and put the dressings down on the table, avoiding Rafe’s gaze when he went to thank her. He wondered if she watched him when he wasn’t looking, and wished he’d thought to ask Toby.

  ‘Are you going to call her, or would you like me to do it?’ Mimi gave Toby her most persuasive smile.

  ‘Since you’ve come all this way, best you do something.’ Toby’s retort was accompanied by a slight gleam in his eye.

  ‘Yeah, right. Because you wouldn’t want me to be bored while the doctor sees to your leg.’ Mimi grinned at him good-humouredly and pulled out her phone, turning her back on Rafe as she dialled the number.