Heatherdale's Shy Nurse (Mills & Boon Medical)

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘So what’s the story?’ her friend asked. ‘Who is she, Leonie?’

  ‘I truthfully don’t know. I called in at his apartment late this afternoon for a quick word and found her installed there, or so it seemed, and she volunteered the information that Callum was unavailable and sent me on my way. I imagine she is someone he met while he was over there.’

  ‘Well, that’s a blow,’ her staunch protector said. ‘There was I beginning to imagine you with a houseful of little Callums and Leonies.’

  ‘I think not,’ Leonie told her, smiling weakly. They chatted for a few more minutes then Julie had to go. In spite of her teasing she understood more than anyone how much Leonie was afraid of putting her trust in another relationship, no matter who the man might be, because Julie had been there for her when her life had fallen apart.

  * * *

  Leonie stayed in all day on Sunday, not wanting to venture into the town or down by the river in case she bumped into Callum and his American friend.

  As it happened, she needn’t have kept out of sight. Callum had taken Candace to Manchester, which was somewhere she had always wanted to visit, and then, after dining together once more, deposited her safely at her hotel before she could manoeuvre any more time with him.

  She had been evasive when he’d asked again how long she intended to stay in Heatherdale, but made it perfectly clear that she was going to spend as much time as possible with him.

  He’d groaned inwardly at the prospect as she had already been in touch with the powers that be with regard to her visiting the hospital and had been warmly welcomed.

  Why no one had thought to mention her approaching visit to him he didn’t know, as he might have vetoed it if he’d known, having seen more than enough of her already. But to the hierarchy there was no problem whatsoever in having a well-known doctor from America amongst them in the role of orthopaedic consultant.

  * * *

  Callum had arranged to pick Candace up at the hotel on his way to the hospital on Monday morning and sighed inwardly. He could imagine the expressions of the staff on the unit when the glamorous doctor turned up.

  He was late arriving on the wards with her as he’d had to introduce her to some of the admin folk and then one or two high-flyers had collared them, who had yearnings to do what he’d done regarding his six months in America and, after meeting his companion, were even more keen to transfer over there.

  But at last they arrived at the unit and the first person to observe them was Leonie, holding a baby that was howling so lustily his introductions of Candace to the staff were almost inaudible. But he did manage to hear the American doctor say when the two women were introduced, ‘But, honey, we’ve already met, haven’t we?’

  ‘Er, yes,’ Leonie replied in the silence that had fallen as the little one’s cries became a whimper.

  ‘When did you meet?’ he wanted to know.

  ‘It was shortly after I arrived,’ Candace cooed. ‘You called at Callum’s apartment, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ Leonie replied, as she gently placed the baby back into the cot. She wanted to run away and hide. The first blight of the day had been Callum’s announcement that the newcomer was going to be with them for a while, and the second, even worse, was the declaration from the stranger that the two of them had met when she had visited Callum’s apartment.

  Callum had regained his poise. He was silently livid that Leonie should have been embarrassed in such a manner, and turning to the American doctor said smoothly, ‘Now that introductions are over, maybe you would like to accompany Sister and myself on the ward rounds?’

  As the unit returned to normal he asked Leonie to take over the tour and said, ‘My ward sister always has the full details of every child’s illness available if I require them. Without her I would be lost.’

  * * *

  Leonie couldn’t help but be impressed by the American doctor. Callum seemed to be too as he listened to what Dr Kelsey had to say and in turn came up with his opinions, but Leonie felt that there was a tightness about him, an underlying irritation, and when the two doctors were called to Theatre in the middle of the afternoon the conversation amongst the nursing staff was mainly as to whether he was going to make the glamorous American wife number two.

  It was plain to see that Dr Kelsey had designs on him and Leonie thought achingly that this woman would never be the sort of trusting fool that she’d been.

  When Callum came back from what had been a short spell in Theatre, leaving Candace chatting to the staff down there, he said to Leonie in a low voice, ‘I’ll come over to your place early this evening if that’s all right? We need to clear something up.’ Desperate to explain the reason for her earlier visit to his apartment, she nodded.

  Under other circumstances she would not have wanted him to know she’d been there, as on discovering that he had someone already filling the gap in his life, from the looks of it, she would have let her urge to apologise for being so offhanded every time he wanted to be helpful be forgotten.

  Having seen the woman who had opened the door to her, it had become embarrassingly clear that it was just the kind of man he was that made him take an interest in her empty life away from the hospital and seek her out sometimes. It had nothing to do with any feelings he might have for her personally. But after that same woman had announced to all and sundry that she’d been to his apartment she needed to explain why.

  * * *

  Callum had suggested calling at Leonie’s at seven o’clock as Candace would want him to dine with her again and she liked to eat about eight. He was beginning to wonder how he could see less of her without causing offence, but at the moment he was concerned about two things, the first being that Leonie had been to his apartment and he hadn’t known. The very fact of it was worrying because she was so reluctant to have anything to do with him, and the second was to reduce, if possible, the embarrassment she had been caused by Candace announcing the fact in front of their colleagues.

  * * *

  When Leonie opened the door to him she was amazed at the pleasure it gave her to have him in her home, even though it would be briefly.

  ‘Was it true? That you came to the apartment?’ he asked immediately.

  She nodded.

  ‘Why, Leonie? What did you come for when you don’t like to be near me other than on the job?’

  ‘That was why I came,’ she said in a low voice. ‘It was to apologise for being so difficult when you are so kind to me. Something happened to me once that changed my life and has made me afraid of getting to know anyone too well.’

  ‘I see,’ he said softly as light began to dawn. ‘Are you going to tell me what it was, so that I understand?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. I can’t. Only Julie knows that and she understands why I’m not able to discuss it.’

  He was observing her gravely. ‘Fair enough, if that is how you feel. But if ever the time comes when you are ready to share the problem, just let me know, will you? Promise?’

  She nodded and he persisted. ‘Say it, Leonie.’

  ‘Yes, I promise to tell you if ever I am ready to share my problem.’

  He smiled. ‘I’m pleased. I’d better go for now. I’m taking Candace to dinner where I’ll have to listen to what she thinks of our wonderful hospital. It goes without saying that she won’t think it is as good as hers.’ He winked good-humouredly. ‘See you tomorrow, Leonie.’

  In the silence that followed Leonie wished she was able to talk about her past, but they were only just getting to know each other. Their attraction was a frail thing that could be blown away like the petals of a spring flower in a restless breeze if she burdened him with her troubles.

  Yet she was happier, having cleared the air between them a little, and when she awoke the next morning to a day that was full of the promise of the time of year with no petals scattering she was content for just having been able to talk to him freely for a little while.

  * * *

  When
the two of them arrived separately at the hospital later that morning they discovered that a ten-year-old girl had been admitted during the night. She’d fallen down a flight of stairs, injuring her back, when she’d gone to get a drink.

  A scan had shown heavy bruising of the spine but no specific bone damage, and the night staff had handed her over to Callum, expecting that he was going to allow her to be discharged with painkillers to relieve the injury, along with advice to her parents to let her rest until the soreness and trauma of the fall had disappeared.

  That might have been the case if the child hadn’t gone into a convulsive kind of coma as she was about to go home. Callum sent an urgent message to Ryan to join him from Neuro.

  Between the two of them they decided that there might be a possible injury to the girl’s brain that had been missed. Or perhaps the skull had been fractured? But wouldn’t that have showed up on the initial X-rays? Another scan was organised.

  The results were surprising. No injuries in the cranium area were found, to the relief of the parents, and by the time their young daughter was returned to the ward she was coming out of what appeared to be an epileptic seizure. It was not good, but it was less worrying than what had been the first concern of the two doctors.

  ‘Was it the fall that triggered it off?’ her father asked distractedly.

  ‘We can’t say at this moment,’ Callum told him. ‘We need to do further tests so we’re not going to discharge your daughter just yet. The period of unconsciousness could be from the shock of the fall, especially if your child was in darkness when it happened, or a one-off epileptic seizure that she has now come out of safely.’

  For once the American doctor had no comment to offer, but Leonie, who was attending to the needs of other young patients along with the rest of her staff, saw that Candace appeared to be listening thoughtfully to what the two men were saying and nodding in agreement.

  Or maybe she had gone off track because Ryan had brought his handsome womanising assistant, Julian Tindall, with him. Julian was never one to miss an opportunity to flirt and was already making eye contact with Dr Kelsey.

  ‘Wow!’ he remarked to one of the nurses in a low voice. ‘If the female staff are all like that over there, I’m going to ask for a transfer!’

  The two doctors from Neurology had arranged for the young girl to be transferred to their part of the hospital and as a porter came to collect her, with her parents following, Ryan suggested that Candace might like to see their unit, and after a quick word with Callum she joined them on their way back, well aware of Julian Tindall’s interest and enjoying it thoroughly.

  When Leonie and Callum had finished their ward rounds in the middle of the morning he called her into the office.

  ‘How are you today, Sister?’

  ‘Fine, thank you,’ she replied, and waited to hear what was coming next.

  ‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘While we have a brief moment together, I have a couple of questions for you.’

  He watched her tense and was quick to explain, ‘When is the next disco at the centre?’

  She smiled. ‘I don’t know when the next disco is but I can find out, and when I do can I tell them that you’re volunteering?’

  ‘Yes. But only if you aren’t going to spend the whole time in the kitchen again.’

  ‘OK. It’s a deal,’ she told him, with the smile still in place.

  He laughed. ‘I’m not sure if I can cope with such enthusiasm.’

  ‘But what about your other commitments?’ she questioned.

  ‘If you mean Candace, I think that lover boy Julian might be about to do me a favour. There was a lot of sexual chemistry around those two earlier.’

  ‘What else did you want to ask?’ she enquired warily, concealing her surprise on hearing that the American doctor was not on Callum’s list of favourite people.

  ‘As well as being a disc jockey, I am available as a native guide for anyone not having witnessed the full beauty of Heatherdale and its surroundings. Would you like me to give you the tour some time?’

  He’d seen her expression when he’d mentioned Julian and his overpowering sexuality and wondered how Leonie would react if he was to comment that the neurologist and Candace would make a good match, and that showing her around the countryside would be strictly an exercise in country life as far as he was concerned if that was what she was thinking, but he kept silent, not sure if it was true.

  Nothing had changed with regard to his desire for a solitary life, but it wasn’t ever going to bring him the children that Shelley had denied him, was it? Did he want to spend the rest of his life as a loner?

  ‘How about this coming Saturday?’ he prompted. ‘The forecast is good for the rest of the week so you should be seeing Heatherdale and the surrounding countryside in all its glory.’

  ‘Yes,’ she agreed, much to his surprise. ‘I would like that. But only if you’ll let me bring a picnic in return.’

  ‘Fine,’ he agreed. ‘We could always grab dinner afterwards.’

  ‘Er, yes, maybe,’ she said, with her smile fading

  Unwilling to press her further and scare her off again, he didn’t push it, just pleased that she had agreed to the walk and picnic.

  * * *

  Callum was in Theatre for the rest of the day, surrounded by medical students as he operated on a small girl with a hip problem that was going to result in her wearing callipers for a short time.

  That was followed by surgery on a difficult leg fracture that a young boy had received on the school football pitch.

  He’d caught a glimpse of Candace in the hospital gardens with Julian in the lunch hour and noted that the hospital Romeo was a fast worker, but, then, so was Candace. She’d obviously abandoned the idea of pursuing any relationship with himself, thank goodness. She was far too like Shelley.

  It was a mellow spring evening and he took a stroll along the riverbank to get a breath of fresh air at the end of his working day. As his glance went to the yurts on the other side he wished that it was only a small iron bridge that separated them instead of both their pasts. Hers seemed to hold something that had hurt so badly that she was wary of all men, or was it just with him that she was on her guard? He wished he knew.

  Candace had caught him up at the end of the day and announced she had plans for the evening and he’d tried not to smile. If it had been Leonie that Tindall was bestowing his charms upon he would have been concerned, but the other woman would be a match for Julian any time.

  He halted, having seen a glimpse of Leonie on her bike. His spirits rose, but fell again. She was cycling in the opposite direction and he felt as if that was how it was going to be, them travelling along different paths when it came to life outside the hospital. What would it be like on Saturday, he wondered and why wasn’t he sticking to his resolve of no involvements?

  * * *

  It was barely daylight on the morning in question when his phone rang and Callum knew that a call at such an early hour was not going to be good news.

  It wasn’t. When he answered it he was expecting it to be either A and E at the hospital or Leonie’s voice on the line, but it was neither. Her friend Julie was ringing on Leonie’s behalf to inform him that she wouldn’t be able to keep to their arrangements for the day as she didn’t feel up to it. Would he accept her apologies?

  ‘What is wrong with Leonie?’ he enquired. ‘Is she ill? If so, maybe I can help.’

  ‘No, she isn’t ill, ‘Julie told him. ‘She really was looking forward to spending some time with you, Dr. Warrender, but it is the way that things are with her sometimes, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Yes, all right, then,’ he said dryly, with the feeling that whatever the reason Leonie was giving for cancelling their day together it was more a matter of her being wary of him for some reason. Maybe he should just give up with her, it was just that she was such a refreshing change after the Shelley catastrophe.

  * * *

  He wasn’t to know that Leonie�
��s past had caught up with her when she’d arrived home from the hospital on Friday evening, and it had brought back all the hurt of the worst time of her life. So much so that there’d been no way she’d felt able to keep her promise to Callum, who was in every way the opposite of Adrian Crawley.

  Julie had been waiting for her outside the yurt, looking very serious, when she’d got home and alarm bells had rung. ‘What’s wrong?’ she’d asked getting off the bicycle with all speed.

  ‘Let’s go inside first,’ her friend had said, and once the door had closed behind them Julie began.

  ‘You won’t believe who I saw in Manchester this afternoon.’

  ‘Er, who?’ she asked, wondering what all the fuss was about.

  ‘Adrian Crawley.’

  Leonie sank down slowly onto the nearest chair.

  ‘Did he recognise you?’ she croaked.

  ‘Oh, yes, stopped me to chat about old times, and asked after you.’

  ‘You didn’t tell him where I am, did you?’

  ‘Of course not. I loathe that man almost as much as you do because of what he did to you.’

  ‘Was his wife with him?’

  ‘No, they’re divorced. He said she never forgave him for his infidelity with you.’

  ‘Why was he in Manchester, Julie?’ she asked in tones of dread.

  ‘He said he was there on business but wasn’t prepared to say what.’

  ‘Since meeting Callum, I was beginning to feel that I was putting that nightmare behind me, but it seems I was mistaken,’ Leonie had said tearfully. ‘So the less I see of Callum out of working hours in the future, the easier it will be. Julie, I can’t spend the day with him tomorrow.’

  ‘I don’t see why,’ Julie had said. ‘You were lost and lonely when that monster picked you out and left you pregnant without a second thought.

  ‘Enjoy your day with Dr Warrender and forget all about Adrian Crawley.’

  ‘I can’t,’ Leonie had sobbed. ‘Manchester isn’t so far away. I will imagine him lurking behind every bush while I’m with Callum. Please phone him for me in the morning to tell him that I can’t make it,’ she’d begged, and in the end Julie had obliged, though much against her better judgement.