‘I’m just delighted she’s finally beginning to care for Fergus,’ Annie said, highly embarrassed by Liz’s praise. ‘He’s such a gorgeous little boy, and I hated the way Sylvia didn’t seem interested in him. I know he gave her a really lousy pregnancy, but he’s so cute—’
‘Hey, you’d better watch out,’ Liz said with a chuckle. ‘That sounds very much like broody talk to me.’
‘No way.’ Annie laughed. ‘Jamie is more than enough for me, thank you very much, and anyway I’d have to find the right man.’
‘I thought you had.’
‘Liz.’
‘Sorry, I know that particular subject’s off limits,’ the sister said ruefully as Annie shook her head, ‘but I still think it’s a crying shame. You and Gideon looked so happy at the Valentine’s Ball.’
They had been happy, Annie remembered, but the ball seemed a long time ago now. So much had happened to them since then, so many harsh words had been exchanged, and now she was lonely, so very lonely.
She missed talking to Gideon. She missed his smiles, the way those smiles seemed to make everything all right with the world. But most of all she missed his friendship. OK, so maybe he hadn’t talked to her much after Nick had arrived, but these last five days—ever since he’d told her she should go out with Nick—he’d become even more distant and remote, and it hurt. It hurt a lot.
‘Whoops, it looks like it’s show-time,’ Liz said, whipping the scattered pile of magazines off the end of one of the new admission’s beds as the door of the ward suddenly swung open and Gideon appeared. ‘And wouldn’t you know it? Mr Henderson’s with him again.’
Of course he was, Annie thought waspishly as Liz hastily explained to their bewildered new admission that she’d get her magazines back after the consultant had left. There was no way Nick would ever have missed his last morning round with them, that she’d known for sure.
Only for today, she thought as she followed Gideon down the ward. I’ve only got to put up with Nick for one more day, and then he’s going to be out of my hair for ever. It sounded good. It sounded marvellous.
‘Any problems I should know about, Dr Hart?’ Gideon asked.
‘Mrs Turner gave birth to a daughter last night, and she wants to discharge herself,’ she replied.
Gideon’s eyebrows snapped together. ‘Doesn’t she understand her suspected pre-eclampsia could have been serious?’
‘I’ve tried explaining it to her, so has Liz, but I’ve a feeling it goes in one ear and out the other.’
‘Right,’ Gideon said grimly. ‘I’ll talk to her.’
He did. By the time he was finished there was nothing Mrs Turner didn’t know about pre-eclampsia, from it being caused by hypertension and increased fluid in the tissues, to the dangers of it developing into full-blown eclampsia which caused seizures that led to the death of both mother and unborn child.
‘But I’ve had my baby now, Mr Caldwell,’ Mrs Turner said complacently, ‘so there’s no danger of me developing it, is there?’
‘No,’ Gideon conceded, ‘but what I’d like to find out is why you developed it in the first place.’
‘Well, I’m afraid I don’t have time to lie about in a hospital bed while you find out,’ Mrs Turner declared. ‘I’ve four children under the age of ten at home, and they need their mother now.’
‘Mrs Turner—’
‘Perhaps one of the nurses could bring me the ward phone so I can tell my husband to come and collect me?’
‘Mrs Turner, if you discharge yourself against my advice, you’ll have to sign a disclaimer, removing all responsibility from us should you become ill,’ Gideon declared, clearly keeping his temper with difficulty.
‘Fine.’ Mrs Turner beamed. ‘Now, when can I have the ward phone?’
Gideon turned on his heel and walked away without a word, and Annie hurried after him.
‘Isn’t there something you can do to stop her?’ she said in an urgent undertone. ‘She’s not in any fit state to go home after just giving birth.’
‘Annie, I can’t chain her to the bed, and if she’s stupid enough to ignore my advice—’
‘Mr Caldwell’s perfectly right, Annie,’ Nick observed as he joined them. ‘Some people just won’t listen to reason. They bury their heads in the sand, ignore advice—’
‘What if the ward phone is busy all day?’ Annie said slowly. ‘What if so many patients suddenly wanted to use it that it isn’t available?’
A slow smile crept across Gideon’s cheeks. ‘It’s sneaky, it’s underhanded—I love it. But won’t she know it isn’t busy?’
‘Not if it disappears into the linen cupboard, she won’t,’ Liz chipped in, overhearing them. ‘Of course, we couldn’t get away with it for more than a day.’
‘Mr Caldwell, this is deeply unethical,’ Nick began. ‘Denying a patient her rights—’
‘Stuff her rights,’ Gideon declared succinctly. ‘Liz, hide the phone. I’ll get onto her husband and see if he can talk some sense into her. If he can’t, well…’ He shook his head. ‘At least we’ll have bought her another day in hospital.’
The rest of Gideon’s morning round passed without incident. He explained to their four new admissions about the surgery he was going to perform on Friday, answering their questions clearly and concisely, and was just about to leave when, to Annie’s embarrassment, Liz told him about Sylvia Renton, and Annie’s part in the girl’s recovery.
‘Well done, Annie,’ Gideon said with clear delight. ‘Excellent. What we need now is to keep the impetus going, but you’ve achieved miracles.’
‘Annie always was one of the most promising junior doctors I had working under me,’ Nick declared, then grinned. ‘No double entendre meant, of course.’
Like hell there wasn’t, Annie thought, feeling her cheeks burn. He just couldn’t let it go, could he? He just couldn’t stop reminding her of the past.
‘If you’d excuse me, Mr Caldwell,’ she said, deliberately turning her back on Nick, ‘I have paperwork to finish.’
‘Not so fast, Annie,’ Nick interrupted. ‘We never did get round to organising that dinner date, did we? So what about tonight, as it’s my last night in Glasgow?’
Gideon’s eyes were on her, waiting, watchful, and reluctantly she turned back to Nick.
He was smiling at her, smiling that particular smile which had always made her heart skip a beat, and as she stared back at him she suddenly realised that David and Gideon were right.
She was scared. Scared to go out with him. Scared to be alone with him. She’d loved him so much. Had built her entire life round him. And then he’d walked away. For months she’d cried herself to sleep. For months she’d walked around, feeling like only half a person, and then, after Jamie was born, she’d rebuilt her life bit by bit, but always that raw spot had remained. That raw spot of unfinished business, of loose ends needing to be tied up.
Well, they were right, it was time to face her past, she told herself. Time to face her fears. She owed it to Gideon, and to Jamie, but more importantly she owed it to herself to see that he no longer had the power to hurt her.
‘Tonight will be just fine,’ she managed to say.
‘It will?’ Nick exclaimed. ‘Oh, terrific.’
She didn’t know about terrific, but she’d do it.
‘You’d better choose the restaurant,’ Nick continued. ‘I don’t know Glasgow at all.’
Somewhere expensive, she thought. Somewhere expensive so that if nothing else it would make a dent in his wallet.
‘Stephano’s,’ she said.
‘Stephano’s it is.’ Nick beamed. ‘I’ll pick you up at around half seven.’
‘Better make it eight,’ she said. ‘That’ll give me time to get home and wash my hair.’
‘Eight it is.’ He nodded, then swore under his breath as his bleeper went off. ‘Sorry, but it looks like Head Office are trying to contact me so I’m afraid I’ll have to cut and run. I’ll see you tonight, Annie.’
Annie didn’t say anything as Nick hurried out of the ward. Neither did Gideon.
‘Happy now?’ she asked, glancing up at him. ‘I’m doing what you wanted me to do, so are you happy now?’
‘Yes,’ he muttered.
He didn’t look happy. In fact, he looked tenser than she’d ever seen him.
‘I need a favour,’ she said. ‘David’s on call tonight so would you babysit Jamie for me?’
His jaw dropped. ‘You want me to babysit for you?’
‘It was your suggestion—this date with Nick—so I think it would be only fair, don’t you?’
‘What time do you want me to come round?’ he said tightly.
‘Seven thirty be all right? That should give you and Jamie time to get comfortable together.’
‘Seven-thirty it is,’ he replied.
‘Gideon…’
He didn’t answer. He didn’t turn round. He just walked away from her without a backward glance.
But he was bang on time at seven-thirty. She wasn’t. She was still wearing her dressing-gown, still drying her hair and still desperately trying to get Jamie to calm down after what had apparently been a fantastic day at the Transport Museum.
‘There weren’t just buses there, Mummy, but cars, and fire-engines, and delivery vans, and—’
‘I know, sweetheart, but Mummy’s in a bit of a hurry tonight—’
‘Would you like me to entertain him while you get ready?’ Gideon suggested as Jamie bounced up and down on the sofa, pretending to be a fire-engine.
‘Would you?’ she said with relief. ‘I’m…I’m a bit harassed tonight.’
And stressed, and panic-stricken, she thought as she shot into her bedroom.
Why had she agreed to this? She should never have agreed to this. It was going to be awful, dreadful. Nick would talk about the past, and she didn’t want to talk about the past, and then she’d have to tell him about Jamie, and what if he wasn’t horrified, as she suspected he was going to be, but actually thrilled to bits? He and Lucy had never had children, so what if he wanted to play an active part in Jamie’s life, and not just in Jamie’s, but in hers too?
‘Stop crossing bridges before you get to them,’ she told herself aloud as she finished drying her hair, then put on her make-up with a shaking hand. ‘Stop panicking before you have to.’
It was easier said than done, she thought as she slipped into her dress. A hell of a lot easier.
‘Is…is that what you’re wearing?’ Gideon said, visibly shaken as she walked into the sitting room.
In truth, she’d thought the dress was awful, too, when David had given it to her last Christmas. He’d called it a little black dress, and while it was certainly black it was also very little. In fact, there wasn’t nearly enough of it. Ending halfway up her thighs, hugging every inch of her body, with only minuscule shoestring straps to prevent it from falling off, she felt like an over-exposed idiot, but there was no way she was going to go to a place like Stephano’s in a checked skirt and sweater.
‘David gave it to me as a present,’ she said defensively.
‘David would.’
‘You don’t like it.’
‘If I were going out with you I’d probably love it, but, no, I can’t say I’m happy at the thought of you wearing that to go out with Nick.’
Was he jealous? She hoped very much that he was, but she didn’t have time to ask. Not when her doorbell was ringing.
‘Wow, but you look sensational, Annie!’ Nick exclaimed as she let him in. ‘In fact, not just sensational, but…’ He came to a halt in the sitting room doorway. ‘Mr Caldwell, I didn’t expect to see you here.’
Gideon smiled. ‘I’m moonlighting. With what the NHS pay me, I have to do babysitting at night to make ends meet.’
Nick gave him a hard stare, then clearly decided to ignore him. ‘Are you ready, Annie?’
‘Who’s that man?’ Jamie frowned, staring at Nick.
‘A friend of Mummy’s, sweetheart. Now, you’re to go to bed when Gideon says. No tantrums, or trying to stay up late, OK?’
She might as well have been talking to the wall. Jamie was already in deep discussion with Gideon about the construction kit David had given him that morning.
‘I’m going, if anybody’s interested,’ she said.
Gideon at least managed a perfunctory wave in her direction, and she didn’t know whether to be angry or amused as she allowed Nick to escort her out of her flat.
‘I didn’t know you had a kid,’ Nick said when they’d reached his hired car.
‘Oh, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,’ she said cryptically, ‘but that’s what this evening’s all about, isn’t it? Catching up on old times, telling each other what we’ve been doing for the last four years.’
They did. Or, to be more accurate, Nick did. Once they’d arrived at the restaurant and had ordered their meal, he told her all about his new job, what a great honour it had been to be selected and how it was undoubtedly going to lead on to bigger and greater things.
He used to do that in the past, she remembered as she sat in silence opposite him. Talk about himself all the time. She’d been fascinated back then. Fascinated and impressed by the people he’d known, the places he’d gone, the places he intended going, but now…
She wondered how Gideon was getting on with Jamie. Unconsciously her lips curved. Heaven knew, her son was no angel, and though he and Gideon had got on well together in the park she wouldn’t put it past him to play up tonight, refuse to go to bed and throw a gigantic tantrum.
‘So what have you been doing for these past four years since you left the Manchester Infirmary?’ Nick eventually asked, when the waiter had brought them their tagliatelle carbonara. ‘I know you have a son, but what else have you been doing?’
‘There’s not actually a lot you can do when you’re a single parent,’ she replied. ‘In fact, this job at the Belfield is the first I’ve had since Jamie was born.’
‘That’s bound to affect your career prospects,’ Nick said. ‘I mean, taking time out is bad enough, but having a kid…Promotion boards tend to regard it as insufficient commitment.’
She nodded, and cleared her throat. ‘When you met Jamie, did he remind you of anybody?’
‘I can’t say I paid much attention to him.’ Nick smiled apologetically. ‘One kid generally looks very much like another to me.’
She gritted her teeth, picked up her handbag and produced a photograph. ‘Look at this—refresh your memory.’
Nick stared down at the photograph, then handed it back. ‘Sorry, but, like I said, one kid looks pretty much like another to me.’
‘He’s your son.’
He stared at her speechlessly for a second, then his lips curved into an uncertain smile. ‘This is a wind-up—right—a joke?’
She shook her head. ‘No wind-up. No joke.’
‘Then how come you never told me about him before?’ he demanded. ‘He must be at least four, if not five, so it’s a bit late in the day for you to try to palm him off as mine, especially as you left the Manchester Infirmary three months after we split up.’
‘After you dumped me, you mean,’ she retorted. ‘I left the Infirmary because I was five months pregnant.’
‘You told me you were on the pill.’
‘And as an obs and gynae consultant, you should know that the pill isn’t a hundred per cent effective.’
‘That kid could be anybody’s,’ Nick said scornfully. ‘You weren’t living with me when we were an item, so he could be anybody’s.’
Contempt welled inside her. Contempt for him, and contempt for herself for ever having fallen in love with him in the first place.
‘You’re a poor excuse for a man, aren’t you?’ she said.
Anger darkened his cheeks, then he delved into his pocket and extracted his wallet.
‘OK, how much?’
‘What?’ she said in confusion.
‘I presume this meal is just a mea
ns of squeezing some cash from me, so how much do you want?’
How could she ever have thought she loved this man? she wondered as she stared at him. How could she have been scared to go out with him? He was nothing. Less than nothing.
‘I wouldn’t take a penny from you, Nick,’ she said, her voice ice-cold. ‘A friend said I should tell you about Jamie, and now that I have I’m going. I’d like to say it’s been nice meeting you again, but it hasn’t.’
Annie rose to her feet, and he put out a hand to stay her.
‘Set your sights on Gideon Caldwell now, have you?’ he sneered. ‘Well, you always did have a thing about consultants, didn’t you?’
‘That’s right.’ She nodded. ‘And that’s why I can’t possibly go without leaving you with something to remember me by.’
And with a smile on her lips, she lifted her plate of tagliatelle carbonara and emptied the contents over his head.
‘Is there something wrong with your food, madam?’ the manager asked with concern when she retrieved her coat from beside his desk.
‘The food was lovely, thank you.’ She smiled. ‘It was the company that was the problem.’
The manager glanced out into the restaurant where Nick was involved in a heated argument with one of the waiters who was trying to remove the tagliatelle from his hair, and his lips quirked. ‘I see. Would madam like me to get her a taxi?’
Why not? she thought. OK, so it would be expensive, but the quicker she got home, the better.
Annie let herself in as quietly as she could, reasoning that Jamie was bound to be in bed, but he wasn’t. Both he and Gideon were fast asleep on the sofa, and a chuckle sprang to her lips. Gideon had clearly had a stressful evening. Toys were strewn around the floor, the TV was on and the construction kit David had given Jamie was still in bits.
Carefully she turned off the television so as not to wake either of them, but years of medicine meant Gideon slept very lightly and his eyes immediately fluttered open.
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