Caroline Anderson, Josie Metcalfe, Maggie Kingsley, Margaret McDonagh

by Brides of Penhally Bay Vol. 03 (li

  ‘I need to get in contact with Human Resources in a hurry,’ Emily said, concentrating so hard on her search that she didn’t consider how that would sound to someone else.

  ‘Oh, Emily! You’re not leaving us already!’ Jenna exclaimed, seeming genuinely upset by the idea. ‘What happened? Is it anything I can sort out for you?’

  ‘No, it’s not for me,’ Emily reassured her, feeling quite heartened that her new colleague was disappointed at the thought of her departure. ‘Zayed…Mr Khalil…asked me to find him a competent secretary.’

  ‘A secretary?’ Jenna’s eyes grew round and a broad grin spread over her face. ‘Whooee! You mean the fashion plate’s been given the boot, without getting her hooks into him? Thank goodness for that. She’s nowhere near good enough for him.’

  ‘Not that you’re biased or anything.’ Emma chuckled, glad to know that she wasn’t the only one who would be glad to see the back of the woman. ‘Now, tell me how to find her replacement, quick, or she might have to stay.’

  It was amazing how the mention of Zayed Khalil’s name seemed to smooth everyone’s feathers. All Emily had to do was say that he was the one needing a secretary in a hurry and the woman on the other end of the phone sounded as if she was falling over herself to find him someone competent.

  ‘It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to find a bilingual one at such short notice,’ she warned. ‘Did he want to wait while I track one down or does he need someone straight away?’

  ‘He definitely needs someone today,’Emily stressed, determined that there would be no possibility of a certain person having a chance to talk herself back into the job. ‘The sooner the better, because we’re expecting three new patients to fly into St Mawgan and we’ll have to leave to collect them in under half an hour. If you’ve any idea of the amount of paperwork they’ll be bringing with them—’

  ‘Say no more,’ the woman interrupted decisively. ‘I’ll do my best for him, even if I have to juggle some of the other secretarial staff around.’

  ‘All sorted?’ Jenna asked eagerly, when Emily had put the phone down.

  ‘I hope so. She seemed to want to be helpful. Now all I’ve got to do is find out what I need to do to collect patients from the airport.’

  ‘There should be preliminary files on them, if Madam hasn’t made a complete mess of the system,’ Jenna said with a grimace as she tried to access the information on the computer. ‘Most of them are referred by their own physicians in Xandar, so there’s a whole heap of stuff sent over to persuade Zayed to take them on.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it be better if they were treated in Xandar?’ Emily asked. ‘It would save them the stress and expense of having to travel thousands of miles to a strange country.’

  ‘It would, if they had somewhere suitable to perform the operations and someone of Zayed’s calibre willing to do the procedures,’ Jenna said sombrely. ‘Most of the ones who come over here are the children of the poorer people, the ones who live out in the more remote regions who wouldn’t have the money to pay for the treatment even if they could get to it.’

  ‘But…’ That didn’t make sense. ‘If they’re too poor to get the treatment in their own country, how can they possibly afford to come all the way to Cornwall?’

  ‘They have a wealthy benefactor who pays for them,’ Jenna said simply, then flicked a deliberate glance in the direction of Zayed’s office door.

  ‘Zayed?’ Emily breathed, shocked to discover this whole new layer to the man’s character.

  ‘It’s not generally known,’ Jenna warned. ‘He prefers that people just think he works here, not that he actually funds the unit personally.’

  ‘Wow! A man with deep pockets.’ She couldn’t imagine how much such a set-up must cost.

  ‘Very deep, hence his little gold-digger secretary.’

  ‘That explains a lot, but it doesn’t do anything towards getting ready to collect the new patients,’Emily pointed out.

  ‘Well, just hang on a minute and I’ll have some details printed out for you,’ Jenna promised.

  She was as good as her word, and by the time Zayed emerged from his office again, Emily had three neat files of basic information prepared and waiting.

  ‘Ready?’ he asked as he strode towards her, shrugging his shoulders to settle his suit jacket perfectly into position.

  ‘Ready,’ she agreed, reaching for the files even as her eyes greedily took in the way the width of his shoulders filled out the smooth pale fabric and the way the cut of the suit emphasised his lean waist and long legs.

  There was no way her own summery skirt and top could compare with his elegance but, then, having heard what Jenna had told her about the man, there really was no comparison between the two of them on any level. He was obviously a very wealthy man while she was still paying off the debts she’d amassed during her training. He was sophisticated and had travelled widely while the furthest she’d ever gone had been to London. He was doubtless accustomed to lobster thermidor prepared in a Michelin-starred restaurant while she was far more familiar with fish and chips wrapped in paper and eaten on the beach in Penhally.

  This was no time for a pity party for one, she reminded herself as she followed him, his long strides meaning that she almost had to jog to keep up with him. Anyway, what did it matter that the two of them had nothing in common? There was never any likelihood that there would be anything more than a professional relationship between them, no matter what her hormones wanted.

  ‘You are thinking deep thoughts,’ he commented as he bypassed the waiting ambulances and made for a sleek silver car.

  ‘Aren’t we going in the ambulance?’ She hastily avoided the topic of her thoughts. There was no way she was going to tell him that she’d been thinking about the impossibility that he would ever be interested in her in a personal way.

  ‘There are three ambulances,’ he said with a gesture towards the three long-wheelbase estate cars that had been specially adapted for use as ambulances. ‘Each one has a driver and a paramedic and there is room for the patient to be on a stretcher, in a wheelchair or sitting in an ordinary seat. There is also room for the parents to travel with their child, but there is no room for any extra bodies.’

  ‘So, why do we need to go?’ Emily asked as she made a mental note to find the time to take a closer look at those ambulances. From what she could see, as the three vehicles pulled out in convoy, each interior had been very carefully planned so that the paramedic would still be able to take proper care of his patient even while they were on the move. It would be interesting to find out how well they did the job and whether there were any drawbacks in comparison with the bigger box-on-wheels ambulances.

  Zayed made an impatient sound as the three vehicles disappeared round the corner, not making any attempt to follow them, even though the engine of his car was already quietly purring. ‘I will be there to act as translator and to provide any medical help that the paramedics are not qualified to administer.’

  ‘So, what is my role?’ she asked, wondering what he was waiting for.

  ‘You are here to see how the organisation of these transfers is supposed to work, and to come up with any improvements that you can think of—and to provide protection.’

  ‘Protection?’ She blinked in surprise. ‘From what?’

  He nodded towards something he was watching over his shoulder and she glanced across to see the scowling figure of his ex-secretary making her way towards them with a large wheeled suitcase and a bulging shoulder-bag.

  ‘We are giving Nasima a lift to the airport so that she can make the connection with a flight from Heathrow,’ he said as he released his seat belt. ‘She will be back in Xandar before midnight,’ he added with what sounded suspiciously like relief, then got out of the car to stow her luggage.

  Emily knew the exact second the young woman saw her sitting in the front of Zayed’s car, and if looks could have shot poison, she would have been writhing in her death throes.

  The jour
ney took a little over half an hour and was one of the most uncomfortable journeys Emily had ever taken. Not because of the car or its driver, because both were excellent. No, it was the sullen black cloud sitting in the back seat that cast a pall over the journey, in spite of the fact that their route was taking them through some of the most beautiful Cornish countryside on a perfect golden September day.

  At intervals, Nasima would mutter under her breath, but obviously not quietly enough to disguise what she was saying if Zayed’s stony face was any indication. Finally, he broke his silence, and Emily didn’t need to understand a single word of the quietly spoken tirade to know that he was reading his former secretary the Riot Act.

  It was a very chastened-looking woman who climbed out of the car at the airport and her tear-filled eyes as she gazed up at Zayed and her rapidly moving mouth told Emily that she was making an impassioned plea to be allowed to stay, but to no avail. Zayed silently unloaded her luggage onto a trolley, handed her a piece of paper that looked like an email flight confirmation and gestured towards the door.

  The last Emily saw of Nasima Osman was the hate-filled glare sent her way before she turned and stalked into the building.

  ‘I am sorry about that,’ Zayed said as he settled himself back into the driving seat and started the engine. ‘Her parents are friends of my family. They were concerned for her safety when she said she wanted to work abroad and when they heard I was setting up the unit in Penhally they asked me to…’

  ‘Take her under your wing?’ Emily suggested when he paused.

  ‘Exactly,’ he agreed. ‘Except she was not happy to come somewhere so far away from the bright city lights and she seemed to think…’

  He paused again and Emily was intrigued to see a wash of colour darken the high slash of his cheekbones. She almost chuckled aloud when she realised that he was embarrassed, but decided to spare his blushes.

  ‘She decided that if she couldn’t have the social life she wanted, you were going to be the consolation prize.’

  Did he choke or was that a laugh, swiftly stifled?

  ‘Something like that,’ he admitted, but he seemed inordinately pleased that they’d reached the designated parking area for picking up incoming passengers. ‘Do you want to stay with the car or…?’

  ‘I won’t learn very much about the way you organise things from here,’ she pointed out as she released her seat belt and slid out of the sinfully comfortable leather seat. Once more she found herself trying to keep up with those long legs as he strode towards the plate-glass doors.

  At the last moment he seemed to realise that she wasn’t with him and paused to allow her to catch up.

  ‘I am sorry,’ he said with a rueful grin.

  ‘It’s all right for you people who can leap tall buildings at a single bound, but us mere mortals have to work a little harder at it,’ she grumbled. ‘I’ve always wished I was taller, then I wouldn’t have to work so hard to keep the weight off because it wouldn’t show so much.’

  ‘You do not need to lose any weight!’ he exclaimed. ‘Your body is exactly right for…’ He stopped abruptly, as though he’d only just realised what he was saying.

  This time there was no mistaking the dark colour that flooded his face and Emily almost felt sorry for him. Almost, because she couldn’t help being absurdly delighted that he’d said something so complimentary.

  ‘I am sorry. It is not my place to make personal comments,’ he said formally, and laughter bubbled out of her.

  ‘Oh, please, don’t apologise! That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me. When you’re only five feet six and tend towards…shall we call it chubbiness…the compliments are rather few and far between.’

  ‘Then the men you know are all idiots,’ he growled. ‘A real woman is not a handful of bones covered in skin. She has curves and softness so that when she holds her child…’ He shut his mouth with a snap then muttered something under his breath before saying, ‘I am sorry,’ again and gesturing for her to precede him into the arrivals hall.

  Emily knew that her smile must be stretching from ear to ear but she really didn’t care—in fact, crazy as it sounded for someone of thirty years of age, her feet hardly felt as if they were touching the ground because Zayed had just said that a real woman should have curves and softness and he thought her body was exactly right.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE rest of that week soon disabused Emily of the idea that Zayed had any special interest in her.

  He kept up a brutal pace.

  She knew that he arrived at St Piran’s in the early hours of the morning to deal with the unending office work entailed in the organisation of such a specialist unit, because he was always there before she arrived for her shift. He then continued through a twelve-hour shift of ward rounds, consultations, assessments and operations, and in between all that he still managed to find time to speak to worried parents and play with the children or just give them a comforting cuddle.

  The only time she could be almost certain that he wouldn’t be involved right up to his neck at the hospital was in the early evening, when the sun slid down over the western horizon. Then, unless there had been some sort of emergency on the ward or he’d been called down to consult in A and E, she knew she would probably be able to find him down on the wave-flattened sand on the beach in Penhally.

  It was totally self-deluding, she knew, but that was when she’d come to think of him as hers, and of that time as their special time together, even though he never so much as glanced in her direction.

  It had started the very evening after his back had seized up on him.

  As usual, she’d been to visit Beabea, but as her disease was progressing, she was alert for less and less time as the morphine kicked in. Rather than sit there staring at the visible signs that her beloved grandmother was fading away in front of her eyes, Emily had taken to running from the hospice unit down to the beach.

  She was honest enough to admit to herself that it wasn’t just displacement activity so that she could switch off from what was happening up in that almost silent room. It had rapidly become an essential part of her day to see that tall, tanned figure stride down onto the sand and strip off to begin his self-imposed routine.

  Today was no different.

  She’d actually caught herself clock-watching when it had looked as if she might have to stay late, and her concern wasn’t just that she might not arrive until Beabea was already asleep. But here she was, once more sitting in the shadows among the rocks, with her pulse tripping with crazy excitement at the prospect of seeing the man she’d been working with all day.

  ‘So, this is where you hide,’ said a familiar voice, and she almost leapt out of her skin.

  ‘Zayed!’ she squeaked when he loomed over her, silhouetted against a spectacular peach and lavender sunset, then coloured even more furiously when she realised that once again she’d actually used his given name to his face.

  ‘I saw you looking at your watch earlier today, just after you had been holding Abir, and then you disappeared,’ he complained. ‘I was not certain whether you were on late duty this evening or whether you would be here as my guardian.’

  Emily suddenly realised that she’d never explained the special dispensation she’d been granted by Mr Breyley and felt a sharp pang of concern that her current freedom from on-call duties might not continue.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Khalil, I should have told you about that,’ she started to babble, her brain totally scrambled by the possibility that she might not be able to visit Beabea for days if the arrangement were rescinded. ‘Mr Breyley arranged that I should be allowed to live so far away from St Piran’s so that I would be able to visit my grandmother. That’s why I’m not on the on-call roster at the moment, but when…as soon as…’

  ‘Hush, hush! Calm yourself,’ he soothed in exactly the same way that he calmed their little patients when everything became too much for them. ‘There was obviously some good reason why the arran
gement was made this way, and I have no complaints about the work you do when you are on duty. Now…’ His tone of voice changed completely. ‘Are you just going to watch me or are you going to do some exercise, too?’

  Emily’s emotions were in complete turmoil.

  She didn’t think she would ever be able to talk about her grandmother’s illness and her inevitable loss without choking up, but at the same time the fact that this handsome, charismatic man seemed to be inviting her to keep him company this evening was enough to double her pulse rate in seconds.

  ‘Have you already been running?’ he asked, as if she weren’t standing there with her mouth hanging open and her eyes glued to the expanse of taut male flesh he was uncovering right in front of her.

  ‘Uh, n-not yet,’ she managed to stammer, finally managing to drag her covetous gaze away. She could remember all too clearly just what that skin and those muscles felt like and her fingertips were tingling with the desire to touch them again.

  ‘Well, then, if you go for your run now, you could join me when I am ready for my swim,’ he suggested. ‘You do swim, do you not?’

  Emily rolled her eyes. ‘Beabea never allowed me down to the beach by myself until I could prove that I could swim well enough. Then I completed a lifesaving course so I could be useful if anyone else got into difficulties. The lifeguards can’t be on duty twenty-four hours a day.’

  ‘And that is why you insisted on watching over me when I was breaking all the rules,’ he said with a nod of comprehension, but Emily wasn’t going to tell him that it wasn’t only the fact that he’d gone in to swim on his own that had prompted her to wait for him to emerge that first evening. There was no way she would be admitting that it had also been the prospect of catching another glimpse of that beautifully sculpted body.

  Emily had set off for her first trip to the end of the beach when she wondered whether it would be a good idea to go swimming with Zayed after all.

  Although he’d seemed perfectly friendly so far this evening, she had definitely been aware that he’d created a deliberate distance between the two of them after their last encounter.