The Doctors’ Baby Bond

by Abigail Gordon

  Mavis Catchpole, the seventy-year-old farmer’s wife, had suffered a minor stroke. It was evident the moment Drew saw her. Her speech was jumbled and confused, her eyes unfocused and she was dribbling from the side of her mouth.

  ‘I came in from milking,’ her husband said agitatedly while Drew was examining her, ‘and found her like this.’

  ‘Your wife has had a transient ischaemic attack,’ Drew told him, ‘or in simple terms, a mini-stroke. Her blood pressure is up. We need to get it down immediately. Have you any aspirin in the house?’

  The man nodded.

  ‘Give her two straight away and I will drop off a prescription at the chemist for further medication. I’ll ask them to deliver it so that you don’t need to leave her, and in the meantime another two aspirin in a couple of hours.’

  ‘But she can’t talk.’

  ‘Her speech may come back. At the moment it is hard to tell just how badly affected she is, but it is a minor stroke. She appears to have full use of all her limbs so there is no paralysis present. I’ll be back to see her in a couple of days. In the meantime, keep a close watch on her and if there is any sign of a repeat of today’s happenings send for an ambulance.’

  On his way back to the practice a call came through on his mobile from the Brewster house and he groaned. It was Tania again. She must have gone straight home and was on the phone to him the minute she’d got in. But as he listened to what she had to say, his expression altered.

  ‘I’ve just got in,’ she was explaining, ‘and found Daddy on the floor. He’s barely breathing. I don’t know what to do. How soon can you get here?’

  ‘Have you sent for an ambulance?’ he asked tersely.

  ‘No. Not yet.’

  ‘I’ll be with you in five minutes,’ he promised, and increased his speed.

  Tim Brewster had suffered a cardiac arrest and had stopped breathing altogether by the time he got there. The tell-tale blueness around the mouth, clammy skin and extreme pallor were signs enough.

  ‘How long is it since he stopped breathing?’ Drew asked Tania urgently as he flung himself down beside her father.

  ‘Just before you got here,’ she wailed.

  ‘Right. Get an ambulance, tell them it’s urgent. I’m going to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

  ‘Your father has had a cardiac arrest,’ he told her as he kept on with the CPR. ‘When the ambulance arrives the paramedics will apply defibrillation, then they’ll take him into Coronary Care. Where’s your mother?’

  ‘Out shopping, I think,’ she said weakly.

  ‘Better keep an eye open for her, then. Or she might be next if she sees the ambulance on the drive.’

  He was fond of Tania’s elderly parents. He’d never had any quarrel with them. If they’d been younger they might have been able to handle her, but she rode roughshod over them every time there was an argument and always got her own way in the end.

  But not with him any more. Never again with him.

  Angela Brewster still wasn’t back when the ambulance came for her husband, and when Tania begged Drew to go to hospital with her he didn’t refuse. He couldn’t just leave the pair of them to it. He knew from past experience that Tania was not at her best in hospital surroundings.

  On the way there he phoned Andrina at the practice to tell her that he wouldn’t be back in time for afternoon surgery.

  ‘Why, what’s wrong?’ she asked in the same clipped tone that she’d used earlier.

  ‘Tania’s father has had a major heart attack,’ he told her. ‘I’m going to the hospital with her for moral support. James should be able to manage on his own for once. I know you’ll be anxious to pick Jonathan up as soon as possible after last night’s problem.’

  ‘Shouldn’t her mother be with her?’ she asked, ‘rather than an outsider?’

  He gave a dry laugh. ‘I’m hardly an outsider. Tim and Angela still think of me as their son-in-law…and they’re not the youngest of people by any means.’

  ‘I’ll see you when I see you, then,’ she said dismissively, and replaced the receiver.

  It went with what was already happening in the background, she thought miserably. Drew being there for Tania and her parents. He must have thought her attitude rather churlish, but after the hours he’d spent with his ex-wife the night before and this morning’s discovery of the letter she didn’t want any more reminders of his link with that family.

  What was she going to do about it all? she kept asking herself. If it came to a confrontation with Drew over Jonathan, was she going to stay around and watch him be taken away from her? No way!

  What, then? Move out of the farm and buy somewhere local for herself and the baby. Or go back to Gloucester. Ask for her old job back and do the best she could for the two of them. If the worst came to the worst, she would have to go into hiding, as no way was that woman going to be part of Jonathan’s life.

  Drew was another matter. He really loved him. She had no doubts on that score, but he wouldn’t be around twenty-four hours a day and that was when Jonathan would be at risk.

  She loved them both, the man and the child, and couldn’t understand how Drew could be so underhanded as to plot to take him from her. He’d coaxed her into coming to this place and was now apparently contemplating managing without her. If that was the case, he was in for a big surprise she thought grimly.

  As she was leaving the practice to pick up Jonathan, Marion said, ‘We’ve just heard that Tim Brewster has had a heart attack. Is that where Dr Curtis is?’

  Andrina nodded. ‘Yes. He is at the hospital with them. I’ve spoken to James and he’s taking the late surgery. There aren’t too many appointments and I’ve told him to ring me if he has any problems. It’s fortunate that the flu outbreak is slackening off or it would be a different matter.’

  * * *

  It was six o’clock in the evening when Andrina heard Drew’s car pull up on the drive, and when she opened the door to him it was like meeting a sombre stranger for the first time. There was no warmth in his glance and the feeling that now he was here nothing could be as bad as it seemed dwindled away as she asked, ‘Have you eaten?’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m not hungry.’

  ‘But it must be hours since you had anything.’

  ‘I said I’m not hungry,’ he told her tonelessly. ‘I’ve just been to the Brewsters’ place to pick up my car, then I’m going back to the hospital as I’m worried about Angela. I thought that she was going to be the next one to collapse when she heard about what had happened to Tim. I’ve only stopped by to let you know what’s going on.’

  ‘I see.’ So he’d merely called to put the real ‘outsider’ in the picture. She supposed she should be grateful that it hadn’t been just a phone call. ‘They are fortunate to have you there for them at such a time,’ she said stiltedly.

  ‘Maybe,’ he replied absently, and then added in a more decisive tone, ‘I only know that I have to give them my support.’ He was already turning to go. ‘Don’t wait up. I have my key.’

  When he’d gone and she’d shut out the cold night once more, Andrina went back to her thoughts. She’d never felt more lonely than she did at that moment.

  She went into the study and picked up the solicitor’s letter, which was still where she’d placed it, and read it again. As she did so she justified the action by deciding that as she’d already been guilty of a breach of good manners once, a second time couldn’t make much difference.

  It read the same. Drew had told his solicitor that he was thinking of adopting his nephew and that another party could be involved, and after outlining various legal aspects of the procedure he’d been advised who to get in touch with.

  As she put the letter back where it had been, it was clear from the wording that so far Drew was just making initial enquiries. That no move towards that end had yet been made. But the mere fact that he was considering it was enough. She wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing and then find it was too late to s
take her full claim.

  It was laughable that she’d let herself fall in love with Drew, hoping that he might feel the same about her, when all the time he’d had a different end in view. She was becoming more aware that he had other agendas as well as the arrangement they had here at the farm.

  * * *

  As Drew drove back to the hospital his thoughts were as dismal as Andrina’s, but from a different viewpoint. He was happy to do all he could for Tania’s parents. It was true what he’d said to Andrina. They did still look upon him as their son-in-law, and until the hazel-eyed doctor and Jodie’s child had appeared on the scene he’d had no cause to upset them any more than they’d already been by the divorce.

  But it was all going to have to change once he’d seen them through this. He and Andrina deserved a life of their own and the Brewsters, Tania first and foremost, were going to have to get on with their lives without him.

  Today’s emergency had come out of the blue and he wasn’t going to stand back and let them cope alone, but once Tim was back on his feet and he’d made sure that Angela was coping, that would be it.

  When Andrina had opened the door to him and the warmth of his home had reached out to him, he hadn’t gone inside because he’d known that if he did he wouldn’t want to go out again. He wanted to be with her and Jonathan. He always would. Nothing would change that. But she was uptight about something and if she wasn’t asleep when he got back he would persuade her to tell him what was wrong.

  It was half past eleven when he arrived back at the farm. They’d left Tim in the coronary unit, where he was being carefully monitored, and he’d driven Angela home to where Tania, who’d left them earlier, was prowling around the place like a caged lion.

  ‘I can’t stand those places,’ she’d said fretfully when they’d got back, and he’d thought that typically she was putting herself first again.

  He’d then made sure that her mother took a sedative as she was still in shock from discovering that her husband had suffered a heart attack while she’d been out shopping.

  On leaving, he’d told Tania, ‘Look after your mother. For once think of someone else besides yourself. I’ll come back tomorrow to see how she is and will keep in touch with the hospital regarding your father. Now I’m going home.’

  Although he’d told Andrina not to wait up, he was relieved to see that the light was still on in her bedroom and as he climbed the stairs she came out onto the landing in her nightdress.

  ‘Hello,’ he said wearily. ‘I thought you’d be asleep.’

  ‘Are you joking?’ she exclaimed. ‘How could I go to sleep when you were still with the Brewsters?’

  ‘There was no need for you to be concerned,’ he said tonelessly. ‘Tania’s parents are the ones to be worried about. She takes scant notice of them, but if they weren’t there she would be in a mess.’

  ‘She would still have you,’ she said coolly.

  He didn’t deny it, merely said flatly, ‘That is not the point.’

  ‘I would have thought that it was.’

  He was observing her wearily. ‘You’re still annoyed about something, aren’t you? But let’s wait until the morning, shall we? I’m too bogged down with one thing and another to discuss anything coherently at the moment. I’m going to have a peep at Jonathan and then I’m going to bed.’

  She nodded and without further comment went back into her room and closed the door.

  What a ghastly day it had been, Drew thought as he climbed out of his clothes. He just could not get free of the Brewsters. He’d no sooner made it clear to Tania that he wanted her out of his life permanently than her father’s heart attack was bringing them into close contact again.

  He thanked God for the woman in the room across the landing. He knew where he stood with Andrina. There were no complexities in her nature. She was a wonderful mother to Jonathan, a caring friend to himself and one day he hoped to cement their relationship into something deep and abiding. At the moment something was upsetting her, but once that was ironed out and he could free himself from his duty to the Brewsters, they might be able to get on with their own lives.

  Tired as he was, it hadn’t escaped his noticed out there on the landing that she looked just as beautiful in a sensible cotton nightgown, with her hair tousled and the dark smudges of sleeplessness beneath her eyes, as she had on the night she’d worn the flame silk dress. He’d given her the impression he didn’t like her in it when all the time his lack of approval had stemmed from the fear that he might be walking the same path with her that he’d walked with Tania. Though he’d soon been reminding himself that Andrina would never be like Tania if she lived to be a hundred.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE next morning Drew went into the study as soon as he came downstairs, and as Andrina watched she saw him pick up the letter from on top of the pile and push it beneath paperwork in one of the drawers of the desk.

  ‘You’re too late,’ she said stonily. ‘I’ve read it.’

  He turned to face her with raised brows.

  ‘You’ve read my private correspondence,’ he said in cold amazement.

  ‘The letter was on the floor so I picked it up. The first line caught my eye and, yes, I read on, and as I did a lot of things slotted into place.’

  ‘Such as?’ he demanded in the same tone.

  ‘Your sudden desire for Tania’s company. But let me tell you I will fight you all the way on Jonathan, Drew. I would trust you with him any time, but not her. Not that woman. As far as I’m concerned, she’s bad news. I can’t believe that you could be such a fool as to risk being hurt again.’

  If his manner had been chilly before, now it was like ice forming between them.

  ‘Not bad,’ he said tightly. ‘In the space of a few seconds you’ve made it clear that you see me as deceitful, a breaker of promises and a fool. No doubt there are other criticisms you have of me, but before you launch into them, may I remind you that I once told you I never say anything that I don’t mean and that includes me telling you that I would never come between Jonathan and you? But it would appear you’ve forgotten that. Or else you’ve got me down as a liar as well.

  ‘I take it that when you read my correspondence you understood that I had merely begun to make enquiries about adoption, nothing else.’

  ‘Maybe. What I did understand was that you had started on that track without telling me. That I was the odd one out and Tania, you and Jonathan are to be a cosy little trio.’

  ‘If that is the case, your opinion of me is even lower than I thought,’ he said grimly. ‘You’ll have your answer to that in coming events, or the lack of them. I suggest that you take your accusations and bin them because you’re wrong. In any future dealings we have with each other, I shall bear in mind that we have a no-trust situation, which suits me fine. Just as long as Jonathan doesn’t suffer in the process.’

  He went into the hall and reached for his briefcase and topcoat, and as she stood by, now lost for words, he told her, ‘I’ll skip breakfast. I have a nasty taste in my mouth.’

  * * *

  As he drove to the practice Drew was thinking grimly that he’d made a nice mess of things by leaving the letter on view. His idea had been to present Andrina with a package of promises that was made up of his love for her, his love for Jonathan and the framework, already in motion, for the two of them to adopt Jonathan.

  Maybe he’d had a lucky escape. After all the weeks of closeness they’d shared she still thought he had hidden motives. It hurt…a lot. He knew now that he’d made a mistake wanting it to come as a surprise when he told her about the adoption. It would have been better if he’d included her from the start.

  But what did it matter now? He’d lost the taste for it, had never felt so sickened in his life. Andrina must have been watching him all the time, he thought sombrely, and as far as she was concerned she’d caught him out.

  When she arrived at the practice some time later, having dropped Jonathan off at the nursery, D
rew was already seeing his patients, even though it was barely half past eight. She thought miserably that it had gone, the thing that she’d cherished so much—the companionship and trust that had made their unusual domestic set-up so successful.

  Where did they go from here? she wondered. She hadn’t needed Drew to put her out in the cold, she’d managed to do it very well herself. But the patients in the waiting room were eyeing her expectantly and, going into her room, she rang for the first one.

  It was Michael Rayner’s daughter, come to tell her that her father was already looking better, his yellow pallor beginning to diminish. It was early days, but no sign of rejection as yet.

  When she’d thanked the woman for letting her know and bade her a cheerful goodbye, Andrina felt her spirits lifting. The dark divide that had sprung up between Drew and herself couldn’t be allowed to blight everything. There was hope in Michael Rayner’s life once more, and in their own lives there was still Drew’s unconditional love of Jonathan. If she had fallen from grace, he hadn’t.

  He had been consumed with cold anger at her accusations but he hadn’t offered any explanation. So what was she to think now? She wasn’t going to grovel, that was for sure. If he didn’t come up with reasons for what had been happening, the only conclusion she could come to was that he was going to get back with Tania and was going to adopt Jonathan, riding roughshod over her hopes and dreams.

  ‘I’ve had the most awful indigestion for weeks,’ a sixty-five-year-old woman told her some minutes later, ‘and my stomach is all swollen. I don’t feel ill in myself but I am worried.’

  ‘Have you been seen by either of the other two doctors recently?’ Andrina asked, with her glance on the woman’s swollen abdomen.

  ‘No. This is the first time I’ve come about it.’

  ‘I see,’ she said gravely, knowing that a lot of patients reasoned that if there was no pain, there was no problem. ‘If you’ll remove your lower garments and lie on the couch, I’ll examine you.’

  When she’d finished Andrina said, ‘You can get dressed now.’ When the woman was back in the chair opposite, she told her, ‘It’s possible that you have a problem with your ovaries, either a cyst or a tumour. I’m going to make an immediate appointment for you to see a specialist and we’ll take it from there.’