‘I don’t know about that. Ross isn’t big on following his instincts. He’s always very much in control—knows exactly what he wants from life and goes for it.’ She shook her head when she realised how that may have sounded. ‘That wasn’t meant as a criticism. Ross is just very single-minded and doesn’t allow anything to stand in his way. It’s one of the things I’ve always admired about him, in fact.’
‘Do you think he’ll find it hard to accept that you changed your mind about marrying him?’
‘I suppose the truthful answer is that I don’t know. I can’t see him falling apart, though, if that’s what you mean. It just isn’t in his nature.’ She sighed. ‘My father will have a harder time accepting what’s happened. He was terribly upset, blamed himself for pushing me and Ross together. He wouldn’t listen when I tried to explain that it was my fault, not his.’
Tears welled in her eyes and Archie reached across the table and squeezed her hand. ‘I’m sure your father will get over it in time, Heather.’
‘I hope so.’
Fortunately, their breakfast arrived just then. Heather had opted for scrambled eggs on toast but Archie had ordered the full works—bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread—and he tucked in with relish.
‘Hungry?’ Heather said drolly, scooping up a forkful of buttery eggs.
‘Ravenous.’ He popped a chunk of sausage into his mouth, chewed and swallowed, then smiled at her. ‘The only thing left in the fridge last night was a lump of cheese and a tomato so supper wasn’t exactly a cordon bleu experience.’
‘Don’t tell me that you’re one of those men who can’t tell a frying pan from a Frisbee,’ she accused him, picking up a triangle of toast.
‘The frying pan’s the one with the handle, isn’t it?’ he replied with a wicked little chuckle.
Heather felt her heart give the oddest little leap and hastily averted her eyes from his laughing face. For some reason she felt all jittery inside and she couldn’t understand it. She bit off a corner of toast then stole a glance at him, feeling shock ripple along her veins when she realised all of a sudden how good-looking he was. She hadn’t paid much attention to how Archie looked before, mainly because she’d had other things on her mind, but suddenly she was seeing him as a man, and a very attractive one, too.
Facts tumbled over themselves as her brain rushed to log them. He was tall, over six feet, and well built, too, with a muscular chest and broad shoulders. His face was craggy rather than conventionally handsome, his features very masculine with those strong, uncompromising lines. His eyes were gorgeous, a clear deep green framed by dark brown lashes. His hair was the same rich brown colour, thick and glossy as it fell across his forehead. A mouth that had a tendency to curl upwards at the slightest excuse completed the picture. All things considered, Archie Carew was a man whom any woman would be happy to be seen with, and she was no exception.
Heather took a quick little breath as that thought wriggled its way into her head. She was happy to be there with Archie, very happy indeed.
Archie wasn’t sure what Heather was thinking as she stared at him across the table. He cleared his throat, uncomfortable at finding himself on the end of such an intent scrutiny, and saw her jump. There was a touch of colour in her cheeks as she applied herself to her breakfast that intrigued him, although he wasn’t going to make the mistake of asking her what was wrong. He didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable.
The need he felt to protect her surprised him. Although he tried to make allowances for other people’s feelings, he didn’t usually tiptoe around them. If he wanted an answer, he asked the question, but it was different with Heather. She was so vulnerable at the moment and he was very aware how easy it would be to hurt her, and that was something he wanted to avoid.
He followed her lead and concentrated on his meal, mopping the last eggy bits off his plate with a chunk of bread speared on the end of his fork. Placing his cutlery neatly on his plate, he sat back and sighed. ‘That was delicious.’
‘It was. Thank you.’
Heather popped the last morsel of toast into her mouth then licked her lips. Archie felt his stomach muscles clench as he watched the tip of her tongue slide seductively around her mouth. He wasn’t normally given to fantasies of a sexual nature, but he was having the devil of a job to stop himself fantasising now. Imagining how it would feel if his tongue did that to her lips was giving him hot and cold chills!
Thankfully, Heather seemed oblivious to his dilemma. She wiped her fingers on a paper napkin and smiled at him. ‘I’ll definitely come here again. I’ve not had time to find any decent places to eat since I moved to London. Most of the restaurants are far too pricey for my budget.’
‘How long have you been here?’ Archie asked, determined to get himself back on the straight and narrow.
‘Almost three months.’
‘That long?’ His brows rose steeply. ‘You must have come down here straight after I saw you.’
‘That’s right. I needed to get away so I caught the train that very night.’
‘I see. Did you live in Dalverston or was that just where you were getting married?’ he asked, curious to find out more about her.
‘I lived there. I was born there, in fact.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘My dad’s the local GP and he has a practice in the town. It started out as a one-man operation but it’s expanded in recent years. There are five doctors working there now, including Ross and his mother, Rachel.’
Archie whistled. ‘A real family affair from the sound of it. What about you? Did you work at the practice too?’
‘No, at the local hospital, Dalverston General. I was a staff nurse on the paediatric ward.’ Her face clouded. ‘It was a wrench to leave but I thought it was the best thing to do in the circumstances. I didn’t want people continually asking me why Ross and I hadn’t got married so I decided to move to London where nobody knew me.’
‘They say a change is as good as a rest,’ Archie observed, deliberately lightening the mood because he couldn’t bear to see her looking so unhappy.
‘So they do.’ She summoned a smile. ‘How about you? You’re not from London, are you?’
‘No. I grew up in Scotland, although I spent a fair bit of time at boarding school in England.’
‘Is that why you moved here to work?’
‘Not really. It just happened that a post came up in London and I ended up here.’
‘Would you like to go back to Scotland one day?’ she asked, obviously interested.
‘I’m going back there at the end of this month, actually.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. My older brother, Duncan, was killed last year in a car crash and I’m going home to take over the running of the family estate.’
‘You mean that you’re taking a job in Scotland so you can oversee the running of the estate,’ she queried, but Archie shook his head.
‘No. I mean that I’m giving up medicine.’ He could feel his heart sink at the thought and hurried on. He knew what he had to do, and why. It was his penance for causing the death of two people he had loved.
‘The estate is far too big for me to run it on a part-time basis. Something had to give and in the end it was my job.’ He glanced at his watch, checked the date and shrugged. ‘I’m working out my notice at the moment, but in a few weeks I shall be on my way.’
‘Is it what you really want?’ She leant forward and he could see the doubt in her eyes. ‘Giving up your career is a huge step to take, surely?’
‘It’s what I have to do,’ he said quietly. ‘There are several hundred people working on the estate and I’m responsible for their welfare.’
‘But couldn’t you hire someone to do the job for you, some sort of manager who would deal with the everyday affairs?’
‘I’ve tried that. I hired a factor to run the estate after Duncan died but it hasn’t worked out. There’s been a lot of problems and the business has suffered. Duncan devoted his life to making sure the es
tate was successful when he took it over after our father died. It isn’t fair to his memory or to the people who rely on the estate for their livelihood if I let it go to rack and ruin.’
‘It must have been very hard for you, though. Losing your brother would have been difficult enough, but to have to give up your career as well…’ She trailed off and Archie sighed.
‘It has been hard. I put off making the decision for months. It was only when I went up there a few months ago and saw for myself what had been happening that I realised I had to do something.’
‘Was that where you’d been before you arrived in Dalverston?’
‘Yes. I was driving down from Scotland and decided to break my journey and spend the night there.’
‘And ended up helping me.’ She reached across the table and touched his hand. ‘Thank you. The kindness you showed me that day helped me enormously.’
‘I’m glad.’
Archie picked up his cup for the simple reason that if he didn’t move his hand out of the way, he would be tempted to cling to her, and that was the last thing he should do. He finished his coffee and asked the waitress for the bill. Heather thanked him politely for buying her breakfast, although her face was unusually grave as she looked at him.
‘The agency has asked me to work at the hospital for a few weeks—is that all right with you? I can tell them I’ve changed my mind if you think it will create a problem.’
Archie shook his head, trying to disguise his relief at the thought that he would see her again. ‘Of course it isn’t a problem, Heather. I’m more than happy to work with you.’
‘That’s all right, then.’ She gave him a quick smile as she stood up. ‘Thank you again for breakfast and everything else. I hope that things work out for you in the future.’
‘You, too,’ he said with a smile that felt as though it had been dredged up from his boots. Heather may be willing to work with him, but she’d made it clear that she wouldn’t be seeking him out for any more cosy little chats across the breakfast table.
It was no more than he could have expected, yet he couldn’t deny that he felt decidedly out of sorts as they left the café. Heather bid him a hasty goodbye when she spotted her bus coming along the street and he didn’t try to detain her. There was no point. They’d done the whole ‘thanks for your help, you’re welcome’ routine, so now they could carry on and work together, untroubled by what had gone on before.
Archie knew he should be pleased that they’d sorted everything out. After all, he wasn’t looking for another relationship. He’d learned his lesson from what had happened with Stephanie. Sometimes it felt as though he was jinxed. Everyone he had ever loved had died and he was terrified of it happening again. He didn’t think he could bear to let himself get close to someone else and lose that person, too. It was far better to accept that he and Heather would never be anything more than colleagues.
Heather found it difficult to sleep after she returned home to the small basement flat she rented in Putney. Sleeping during the day was always difficult, and especially in the city where there was so much noise. However, it was less the sound of the traffic than her own thoughts that was causing a problem that day. After a couple of hours spent tossing and turning, she got up and made herself a cup of tea. She took it into the sitting room and sat down on the lumpy old sofa, thinking back over everything that had happened that morning.
She had really enjoyed talking to Archie. It had been the longest conversation she’d had since she’d arrived in London, in fact. However, it wasn’t loneliness that had made the experience seem like such a highlight, but Archie himself. There was something about him that she responded to.
She smiled as she recalled the way he had stood up and declared himself a coffee addict. He had a wonderfully droll sense of humour and didn’t seem to feel that he had to stand on his dignity despite his position. She’d worked with a lot of consultants and some of them had been extremely pompous, but not Archie.
The fact that he was brilliant at his job was another thing she admired about him. He obviously cared deeply about the children he treated, and was willing to go the extra mile to help them. It made his decision to give up his career all the more shocking.
Heather frowned. She had a feeling there was more to his decision than he had admitted. Although she appreciated why he was concerned about the future of the estate, giving up his career seemed such a drastic step to take. It was almost as though he felt under pressure to step into his brother’s shoes and she couldn’t help wondering why. Had something happened that had made Archie feel he was obligated to take on the job?
It was impossible to work out what could have caused Archie to feel that way and in the end she gave up. She decided to go to the supermarket to save her having to go at the weekend. She had agreed to work permanent nights for the next few weeks because the agency had offered her extra money and she needed every penny. Although her father had refused to accept the cheque she had offered him as recompense for the cost of her cancelled wedding, she had no intention of touching the money herself.
It wasn’t fair that her father should have to bear the financial loss as well as the emotional upset so she would manage on what she earned. If it wasn’t enough for her to live in London, she would move somewhere else. It wasn’t as though there was anything to keep her in the city. All her friends lived in Dalverston and she’d not had time to make any new ones, apart from Archie, and he was leaving at the end of the month.
Heather bit her lip when she felt a twinge of disappointment run through her. She knew it was silly, but she was going to miss Archie. Even in the short time she’d known him, he seemed to have carved out a niche for himself in her life.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE week wore on, the usual mix of high drama and the mundane. The paediatric unit was a busy place to work and Archie found himself staying on most evenings way after the time he should have finished. He didn’t mind, though. It gave him a chance to see Heather, and that more than made up for the extra time he spent at work.
It appeared that Heather had been hired to work nights for the whole of the time she was due to cover at the hospital. Archie was surprised when he found that out because the agency staff usually chose their shifts to suit themselves. He mentioned it to Wendy on Thursday afternoon and she nodded.
‘I thought it was unusual, too, but Heather told me the agency couldn’t find anyone else to cover. Night shifts are never popular and a lot of nurses won’t work them if they don’t have to do so.’
‘I’m surprised that Heather was willing to do three full weeks of nights,’ Archie observed.
‘She said she needed the money. The agency pays extra for night work and that was the incentive, apparently.’
Wendy changed the subject and started to tell him about a child who’d been admitted that morning with an incisional hernia. Archie forced himself to concentrate while they discussed the case, but as soon as Wendy finished, his mind returned to Heather and the reason why she was short of money. Living in London was extremely costly and a nurse’s salary wouldn’t go very far. However, he hated to think that she might be struggling financially and decided to have a word with her as soon as he got the chance.
The opportunity arose not long after she came on duty that evening. The child with the hernia, a seven-year-old boy called Kojo Arutee, had been creating a fuss ever since he’d been admitted. Archie knew that the staff had been struggling to keep Kojo under control all afternoon, and once the boy realised there were different nurses on duty, his behaviour rapidly deteriorated. Archie was checking another child’s obs when he heard a crash and, looking round, discovered that Kojo had overturned a trolley of drinks. Heather was in the process of trying to clear everything up as well as stop Kojo from causing any more damage.
Archie strode straight over to them and bent down so that he and Kojo were on eye level. ‘This has to stop, Kojo. I’m not letting you run riot in here and disturb all the other children.�
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Kojo didn’t say a word as he picked up a cup of milk and emptied it onto the floor. Archie shook his head. ‘No. If you can’t behave properly then you can’t stay here. Is that what you want, to have to go home with that horrible bulge still sticking out of your tummy?’
The little boy considered that then shook his head. Archie turned to Heather. ‘If Kojo says he’s sorry and helps you clear up, can he stay and have his operation?’
‘Yes, so long as he promises to be a good boy from now on,’ Heather said with a smile that made Archie’s heart leap in his chest.
He battened it down into its rightful place as he turned to the little boy, hoping that Heather couldn’t tell the effect she’d had on him. ‘It’s up to you, Kojo. What are you going to do?’
‘Be a good boy,’ the child recited solemnly.
‘Good.’ Archie ruffled his wiry black curls. ‘Now, how about picking up all those spoons and taking them into the kitchen so they can be washed?’
Kojo immediately bent down and gathered up the teaspoons. He trotted off down the ward and disappeared into the kitchen with them. Heather laughed.
‘I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself. How did you know he’d respond to your threats to send him home?’
‘A lucky guess.’ Archie smiled when she pulled a face. ‘No, honestly, it was. I’m only glad it did the trick. We can do without that kind of distraction.’
‘We certainly can.’
She bent down to right the trolley, nodding her thanks when he helped her set it back on its wheels. Fortunately, they used plastic beakers in the ward so there was no broken glass to clear up, just the spilled milk and the juice. Heather manoeuvred the trolley out of the way.
‘I’ll just mop this up then everything will be as good as new,’ she told him, heading off down the ward.
Archie followed her, wondering if this was the right moment to mention her finances. He didn’t want it to appear as though he was interfering but he hated to think that she might be having trouble paying her bills.
Marrying the Runaway Bride Page 4