by Sarah Morgan
‘So you can work side by side with me and not feel anything.’
‘That’s right.’ The lie came easily, but they were wasted words because both of them knew the truth. ‘We want different things.’ It seemed like a good idea to remind them both of that fact.
‘Are you going to marry him?’
Stella opened the door. ‘I don’t know.’ That was true, she reasoned. She didn’t know. ‘And I don’t understand why you would even care.’
‘Are you having sex with him?’
‘For goodness’ sake, Dan!’ With a gasp, she pushed the door closed again, hoping that none of her colleagues had been walking along the corridor at that point. ‘What business is that of yours?’ Her eyes clashed with the burning fire of his and, for a moment, he didn’t reply.
Then he drew in an uneven breath. ‘None,’ he said hoarsely, running his undamaged hand through his hair like a man on the edge. ‘None at all. And if you are—well, I’m fine with it. That’s fine.’
Desperately unsettled, Stella held his gaze, not understanding what was going on in his head. They hadn’t spoken to each other for two years. He was seeing someone else. There was no reason for him to react with anything other than indifference.
Except that their relationship had been so hot and intense that it had left scorch marks on both of them.
‘I’m glad you’re fine with it,’ she said shakily, ‘because who I date is none of your business. Just as who you date is none of mine.’ Deciding that she’d never understand men, Stella left the room before she said something she knew she’d regret.
‘So you’ve never met this person? How do you know he’s nice?’ Alfie was kneeling on a chair in the stable, watching Stella as she tapped away at the computer. One of the kittens was snuggled on his lap.
‘We’ve been writing to each other.’
‘By email?’ Alfie looked knowledgeable. ‘I have my own email address at school.’
‘Really? That’s impressive. I certainly didn’t know how to email when I was ten years old.’ Stella scrolled through her latest message, scanning the contents. ‘He wants to meet me, Alfie. What do you think?’
‘Let’s ask Mary.’ He lifted the tiny kitten. ‘What do we think, Mary?’
‘You called the kitten Mary?’
‘It’s Christmas. The two I’m keeping are Mary and Joseph. They’re the marmalade ones.’ He kissed the kitten on the head and rubbed his cheek over the animal’s fur. ‘It isn’t safe to meet a stranger. My teacher says you should never give anyone your real name or address over the internet.’
‘Your teacher is right. You shouldn’t.’ Stella typed her reply. ‘And I haven’t given any personal details apart from my name. He wants to meet me in a pub.’
Alfie stroked the kitten. ‘What if you meet him and he’s, like, really yucky?’
‘Well.’ Stella didn’t reveal that she’d been wondering that exact thing herself. ‘I hope he won’t be. We’ve already talked about the things we like and don’t like. So we have a feel for whether we’re going to get on.’
‘You mean you tell him you like computer games and he tells you he likes playing with Lego?’
‘Something like that.’ ‘What if he’s lying just so that you’ll be friends with him?’
Stella lifted her hand and ruffled his hair. ‘Smart, aren’t you?’
‘Not really. Harry Trent did that to me,’ Alfie grumbled. ‘He said he loved Lego, so I invited him to my house for a sleepover but when he got here he just wanted to nose around. And he kept asking questions about how much money Dad has. He wasn’t interested in Lego.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Stella said softly. ‘And if this guy is lying to me, I won’t see him again.’
‘Why can’t you just meet someone normally? It’s going to be really weird going out with someone you’ve never met.’
‘Sometimes it’s hard meeting someone “normally”.’ Stella stroked the kitten gently. ‘We lead busy lives and the chances of just bumping into someone you want to spend the rest of your life with are pretty remote.’
‘Why can’t you just be with Uncle Dan? You were going to marry him. Two Christmases ago you sat on my bed and read me that story and you showed me the ring Uncle Dan had given you.’
Remembering how quickly her best Christmas had turned into her worst Christmas, Stella bit her lip. ‘We managed to have fun that Christmas despite everything, didn’t we?’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Alfie shrugged, more adult than child. ‘It was hard at first, when Mum left. Christmas was the final straw for her. She was screaming and yelling like she’d gone mad. At first I thought it was my fault for opening one of my presents early, but Dad told me it was his fault for going to deliver those triplets on Christmas Eve when Mum had dinner on the table.’
‘I remember the triplets. Your dad saved their lives.’
‘I know. He’s cool. But Mum didn’t think so. She hated his job. And she hated Christmas.’ Alfie looked puzzled. ‘I don’t get that, do you? How can anyone hate Christmas? Dad says it stressed her out.’
Finding it hard to feel sympathy for a woman who could leave her children on Christmas Eve, Stella leaned forward and hugged him tightly. ‘Alfie…’ she discovered that she had a huge lump in her throat ‘…this Christmas is going to be the best ever. I promise. And no one is going to be stressed out.’
‘If Dad has to cook a turkey, he’ll be stressed out,’ Alfie predicted, with insight beyond his years. ‘And I’ll probably be stressed out if I have to eat it. Dad is better at delivering triplets than cooking. He needs lessons. He’s going to advertise for someone who wants a kitten. Do you think I could advertise for someone to come and cook Christmas lunch?’
‘You don’t need to advertise. I’ll give him a lesson,’ Stella promised, kissing him on the forehead and then pulling a face. ‘Sorry—are you too old to be kissed?’
‘I don’t mind it,’ Alfie said generously, ‘as long as you don’t do it in front of my friends.’
‘I’ll remember that.’ Stella shut down her computer. ‘Have you made your Christmas list?’
‘Yes. And I’ve posted it up the chimney.’
Stella looked at him, unsure whether he still believed in Father Christmas. ‘And did he pick it up?’
‘It wasn’t there when I looked so, yes, I guess so.’ He picked up the tiny kitten and kissed it. ‘I hope no one wants the kittens. Then we’ll have to keep all of them.’
‘It would be a lot of work for your dad.’
‘I take care of them.’ Alfie tucked the kitten back on his lap. ‘I wish you’d married Uncle Dan.’
Stella thought, Me, too, but managed a smile. ‘Your Uncle Dan isn’t the marrying kind.’
‘I know. He thinks marriage sucks.’
Stella blinked. ‘Are you supposed to use that word?’
‘Probably not, but I know you won’t tell.’ Alfred slid off the chair. ‘If you don’t want to marry Uncle Dan, you could always marry my dad. Then you could cook the turkey. And be my mum. That would be cool.’
‘Being your mum would be cool,’ Stella agreed, closing her laptop. ‘But unfortunately your dad and I don’t love each other. Not in that way. And people who get married should love each other.’
‘You’d have to have sex, and I guess that would be gross.’
Stella gulped. ‘Alfie!’ she floundered, not sure how to respond, but Alfie had already moved on.
‘What’s his name? This guy you’re meeting?’
‘Edward.’
Alfie wrinkled his nose. ‘I don’t like that name.’
‘It’s just a name, Alfie.’
‘Does he drive a cool sports car like Uncle Dan?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘Is he in the mountain rescue team like Dad and Uncle Dan?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘I’m going to be in the mountain rescue team when I’m old enough. I think it’s so great, going out into the mountains
to save people. You get to slide down ropes and sometimes go in a helicopter. I’m going to get muscles like Dad and Uncle Dan.’
Dismissing a disturbing mental image of Daniel’s muscular physique, Stella gave a weak smile. ‘I’m sure you will.’
‘Last winter he went all the way to South America and climbed a mountain no one else has ever climbed. How cool is that?’
‘Pretty cool.’ ‘Does your guy climb?’ Stella took a deep breath. ‘He isn’t my guy and, no, he
doesn’t climb.’ ‘He sounds a lot different from Uncle Dan.’ ‘Yes,’ Stella said breezily. ‘He is.’
She was counting on it.
Chapter Three
THE weather grew colder still and the emergency department was busier than ever.
Which was good, Stella reminded herself as she worked her third double shift with no break, because work took her mind off Daniel.
‘I’ve never had a headache like it,’ the woman moaned, holding her head as Stella checked her blood pressure. ‘It feels as though someone is splitting my skull with an axe. We saw the GP yesterday and he said that we’ve all picked up this virus that’s going around, but today when I woke up I felt so bad I was scared I was having a stroke or something.’
‘The whole family has had the same bug?’
‘My husband John has been really sick, but he had the headache, too. And the kids feel rough. They’re supposed to be doing nativity plays and Christmas parties but they’re too ill to be excited about anything. I left them sleeping this morning. Billy wouldn’t even wake up when I went to tell him I was coming here and he’s usually the first one up in the morning.’
‘He wouldn’t wake up?’ Stella recorded the woman’s blood pressure, but something in the patient’s story made her uneasy. ‘Are you sure? Did you try waking him?’
‘Yes. This bug has totally wiped him out, poor thing.’
Stella looked at her for a moment, a suspicion forming in her mind. ‘And your husband?’
‘He was asleep, too. I wanted him to drive me here,’ Diana muttered, ‘but I couldn’t even rouse him so I had to catch the bus. Still, I suppose he needed the rest after being sick yesterday.’
‘Perhaps.’ Stella glanced at the clock. ‘What time did you leave the house?’
‘An hour ago. Eight o’clock.’
‘Right. Just wait there—I’m going to ask a doctor to take a look at you.’ She hurried out of the cubicle and bumped straight into Daniel.
His fingers closed over her arms, steadying her. ‘What’s the rush? Or have you suddenly realised that there’s only another twelve shopping days until Christmas?’
Stella didn’t laugh, partly because she was too conscious of his hands on her body and partly because she was still distracted by her patient. ‘I have a woman in cubicle 2 complaining of a severe headache.’ She pulled away from him, alarmed that even when she was talking to him as a doctor, she was still aware of him as a man. ‘The whole family is down with a virus.’
‘And?’ His gaze lingered on her face, dropped to her mouth. ‘What are you thinking?’
That she must have been crazy to think she would ever get over Daniel. ‘I’m thinking that it might not be a virus.’ Yanking her mind back to her work, Stella gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘I’m probably overreacting.’
‘I’ve never known you overreact.’ His voice was soft. ‘I have known you see things other people miss.’
Stella was silenced by the praise. Thrown, it took her a moment to focus. ‘She’s had this headache for a while,’ she croaked, looking past him down the corridor rather than at his face. ‘Yesterday her husband and the kids were sick—’
‘They saw their GP?’
‘Yes, and he said virus. Gastroenteritis.’
‘Sounds reasonable. There’s plenty of it going around.’
‘Yes.’ Stella rubbed her fingers over her forehead and sighed. ‘I’m definitely overreacting. If one member of the family has it then it’s perfectly reasonable for the whole family to go down.’
Daniel’s gaze was fixed on her face. ‘Why are you worried?’
‘Because when she left the house this morning she couldn’t wake her kids or her husband. She thought they were just tired, but—’
‘Are you telling me you think it might be carbon monoxide poisoning?’
‘I hope not. I—I’m sure it isn’t,’ Stella stammered, suddenly feeling foolish. ‘If it was just her husband who was tired, I wouldn’t have been worried, but it’s a bit odd not being able to wake a child who is normally bouncing around thinking of Christmas, don’t you think?’
‘How hard did she try?’
‘I don’t know.’ Stella waved her hand. ‘Will you take a look at her? See what you think? If there’s a chance I might be right, we should call the police and the paramedics.’ It occurred to her that she trusted his judgement implicitly. Whatever their differences, she’d never doubted his abilities as a doctor.
Daniel stared at her for a moment, his expression inscrutable. Then he turned and strode into the cubicle. ‘Diane? I’m Daniel Buchannan, one of the consultants here. Tell me about your headache.’ He questioned the woman as he examined her, his eyes sharp and attentive as he listened to the history and took some blood samples. ‘And the other members of you family had nausea, vomiting and headache?’
‘Yes,’ she groaned, closing her eyes. ‘I did wonder if it was something we’d eaten, but the GP said there is a gastric bug going around.’
‘Her sats are fine,’ Stella murmured, looking at the monitor.
‘The saturation level equals the sum of oxyhaemaglobin and carboxyhaemoglobin, so it’s unreliable. It isn’t going to tell us what we want to know,’ Daniel murmured. ‘I want to give her the highest concentration of oxygen possible—use a rebreathing mask. I want to check her COHb levels. And let’s do an ECG. Diane…’ Daniel turned back to the patient ‘…I don’t think this is a virus. I agree with Stella—I think you might have carbon monoxide poisoning.’
The woman looked at him blankly. ‘What?’
‘There’s been quite a lot about it in the papers. It’s a tasteless, odourless gas—it basically lowers the oxygen-carrying capacity of your blood. What sort of heating do you have at home?’
‘We’re in a rented flat,’ Diane gasped. ‘We have a gas fire in the living room. We tend to congregate there to save on heating bills. Do you think—?’
‘I suspect that the fire might be a problem.’
‘Oh, my God—the kids are in the house.’ Panic flaring in her eyes, Diane struggled to sit up. ‘My husband—’
‘We’re going to deal with it, Diane. Right now. Lie down and think about yourself for a moment.’ Her tone soothing, Stella put the oxygen mask on the anxious woman, adjusted the flow to maximum and then looked at Daniel. ‘Do you want me to call the house?’
‘I’ll do it. You do that ECG.’
Stella attached the leads to Diane’s chest and had just switched the machine on when Daniel strode back into the room.
‘Diane, there was no reply from your house,’ he said gently, ‘so I’ve called the fire brigade and the paramedics. It’s just a precaution, but if we’re right, we need to get the rest of your family in here as soon as possible.’
Diane’s eyes were bright with tears. ‘I had no idea! I just left them. I thought they were asleep!’
‘We’re getting someone round there now, Diane,’ Stella said soothingly, but Diane just shook her head. ‘What if it’s too late?’
Daniel’s mobile rang and he answered it swiftly, giving instructions to the paramedics.
‘They’re at the door now and there’s no answer—is there a key anywhere?’
‘Flower pot,’ Diane murmured weakly, and Daniel relayed that message to the emergency services on the scene. Moments later he was nodding and smiling.
‘You’re sure? OK. Yes, I’ll tell her that.’ He dropped the phone into his pocket and smiled at Diane. ‘Your husband is awake, Dia
ne. They’re getting the children out of the house now and they’ll assess them in the ambulance.’
Diane closed her eyes briefly. ‘Are they OK? Please tell me they’re OK.’
‘They’re going to give them oxygen and transfer them straight to us.’
‘Dan? Do you want to look at this ECG?’ Stella stood to one side and Daniel scanned the strip of paper. ‘That looks all right. Nothing there that worries me.’
‘Why did that GP tell me it was a virus?’ Diane fretted, and Daniel slipped the ECG reading into the notes.
‘Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to miss.’
‘You didn’t miss it.’
‘We’re a busy emergency department—we’re more alert to the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning than the average family doctor.’
‘But if you hadn’t thought of it—’
‘You can thank this nurse.’ Daniel’s gaze slid to Stella. ‘She was the one who was suspicious. And rightly so.’ His eyes rested on her face for a moment and she smiled and then turned away, part of her wishing that they didn’t work together so well. Maybe if she didn’t admire him as much as a doctor…
A siren sounded outside the department and Daniel moved towards the door. ‘That will be the rest of your family. I’ll go and see to them and then I’ll come back. Stella, if you need me, shout.’ He strode out of the room, leaving Stella with a very worried Diane.
‘Can I go and see them?’
‘You’re not well enough.’ Stella encouraged her to stay on the trolley. ‘Give Daniel time to assess them, and then I’ll go and find out what is going on.’
But she didn’t need to because Daniel walked into the room less than ten minutes later. ‘I’ve done a preliminary examination and it does seem to be carbon monoxide poisoning, but they’re going to be fine,’ he assured Diane. ‘Your husband is conscious and talking and the boys woke up once they were removed from the house. Your husband has contacted your landlord and the fire department will be dealing with him.’ He checked the blood results. ‘Her COHb levels are high,’ he murmured to Stella. ‘I’m going to talk to the infirmary—I’m wondering whether she would benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy.’