Heatherdale's Shy Nurse (Mills & Boon Medical)

by Abigail Gordon

  * * *

  So much for that, then, Callum thought grimly as he gazed unseeingly out onto what was now a glorious morning. He was going to have to accept that Leonie was too changeable for someone like him.

  Whatever it was that had happened to her in the past it was clear that she still wasn’t over it, and where he would be only too ready to help her to face up to her problems, she was more concerned with keeping him at a distance, and in future that was where he would be, on the edge of her life, as if he wasn’t there already.

  * * *

  By the time Monday morning came Leonie had calmed down, having had the whole of the weekend to realise that if Adrian did ever appear in her life again, so what? She was a stronger person now. She would be able to cope with it because she had Callum as a friend and comforter. Further than that she daren’t think as she was going to have to face him as soon as she arrived at the hospital and apologise in person for cancelling their outing on Saturday.

  But she saw that it wasn’t going to be as soon as she’d expected.

  For one thing Dr Kelsey was very much in evidence and the two of them were already on their way to Theatre when she arrived and didn’t resurface until the early afternoon.

  When they did Callum merely nodded in her direction and did the ward rounds himself without her assistance, which was unheard of. She was getting the message and could not blame him if he was weary of her changeable moods away from the hospital, but at least he couldn’t fault her behaviour on the wards.

  Candace had taken herself off to the neurology unit the moment they’d finished in Theatre, and after doing the ward rounds Callum had gone to the staff restaurant for a late lunch. All was quiet amongst their small patients for a moment so Leonie followed him at speed.

  She caught him up at the entrance to the canteen and cautiously called his name.

  ‘I just want to say sorry about Saturday,’ she told him. ‘I don’t know what you must think of me, blowing hot and cold all the time, but in truth I’d had some unpleasant news connected with my past and would have been very poor company, Callum.’

  ‘Couldn’t you have let me be the judge of that?’ he said in a low voice. ‘I didn’t ask you to spend the day with me because of your entertainment value. I just wanted to show you around Heatherdale and the surrounding countryside, that was all.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ she told him miserably. ‘I can understand you being annoyed.’

  ‘I am not so much annoyed as defeated, Leonie. Anyone would think that I wasn’t to be trusted, but I’ve got the message. I shall leave you safe in your ivory tower in the future.’

  ‘No. Please don’t do that,’ she protested.

  ‘Why not? It’s what you want, isn’t it?’

  ‘No, it isn’t. Look, will you let me make you a meal some time when you aren’t entertaining Dr Kelsey, to make up for standing you up?’

  ‘She is fully occupied with Julian in the neuro unit at the moment,’ he said dryly. ‘You don’t have to make up for Saturday by standing over a hot stove.’

  But she was determined to make up for letting him down so insisted. ‘When would it be convenient for you to come?’

  ‘Whenever,’ he said in a milder tone. ‘It’s up to you.’

  ‘How about this Friday, when we don’t have to get up early the next morning?’

  ‘Yes, if you want,’ was the reply, and Leonie flashed him a smile and went back to her duties.

  Was he crazy? He was being manipulated by the green-eyed goddess who blew hot and cold whenever the mood took her, but he would go to the yurt on Friday night and see what it was like when she was at home and relaxed with her nightmares put to one side.

  * * *

  The week passed slowly after their conversation on Monday. In the evenings Leonie tidied her small garden and when that was done turned her attention to the inside of her equally small residence, as if Callum was coming to inspect the place instead of merely sharing a meal.

  But she was determined that nothing was going to spoil their time together on Friday evening. She’d been stupid to let a mention of Adrian Crawley get to her like it had, but that was the effect that he’d had on her in the days when he’d left her out in the cold, pregnant and alone, and the revulsion had come back with the memory.

  * * *

  ‘I’ll bring a bottle tonight,’ Callum said on Friday morning. ‘What would you like?’

  ‘Anything, I don’t mind,’ she said, smiling up at him.

  Was he getting it right with Leonie at last? She had so many different guises. There was the nurse, cool, confident, and so loving towards the children in their care.

  Then there was the yurt dweller, free and content in her bright little cupcake home. Then there was the sad and shy woman who seemed terrified of making any sort of personal connection.

  It would be no surprise if he arrived to discover that she wasn’t there. Some fool he would look, holding the bottle of wine with one hand and clutching a bouquet of flowers with the other.

  He was wrong regarding his surmises. Yes, he was holding the flowers with one hand and the wine with the other, but the woman who greeted him when he arrived at the yurt was warm and welcoming, smiling her pleasure on seeing him, and that was the tone of the evening. They were friends spending time together as they ate the food she’d cooked and drank the wine he’d brought, and as they watched the sun set over the river that separated their two homes Callum asked, ‘How long have you lived in this place, Leonie?’

  ‘Do you mean the yurt or Heatherdale?’ she questioned.

  ‘Either, both, I suppose. What made you leave the excitement of London for sleepy Heatherdale?’

  ‘I was ready for a change,’ she said evasively, ‘and when I got to know Julie and she was moving back home into these parts I decided to move to where she was going. That was four months ago and I bought this place almost immediately. How long have you lived here?’

  ‘Twelve years. I’d qualified in paediatric orthopaedics and always wanted to work at the hospital here. I got married three years ago and it was a big mistake. We were totally incompatible, and it ended in divorce.’

  ‘Where did you live during that time?’ she asked.

  ‘We had a house at the other side of the town, and when we split we sold it and I bought the apartment, which suffices for my needs more or less.’

  ‘Have you any regrets, Callum?’

  ‘Regarding the marriage or the apartment?’

  ‘The marriage, of course.’

  ‘Not really. I was stupid to marry someone like Shelley. She was a vain social butterfly type. We had no children, which was not my choice, so no kids were hurt by the split. The marriage was a sham.’

  He had trodden carefully with regard to Leonie’s life and lack of a partner of some kind, but because they were being open with each other he made the mistake of asking about her lack of marital status.

  ‘What about you? Have you no longing for a husband and children? You are great with children. I see you all the time with other people’s children and you are so gentle and patient. I imagine that you would be in heaven with a child of your own.’

  She turned away from him and Callum knew that he’d fallen into a pit of his own making, just as they were getting to know each other on an easier footing. Why had he made the conversation so personal when he knew how much Leonie veered away from such things?

  ‘Yes, I would like a family,’ she said eventually, ‘but am wary of those sorts of commitments.’

  ‘I find that hard to believe,’ he persisted. ‘You’re a natural with children,’

  ‘Believe what you like, but it’s the truth.’

  They were seated next to each other on her sofa. Callum got to his feet and stood looking down at her. He held out his hand and when she took it raised her gently to her feet. They were only inches away from each other but the look in her eyes made him feel as if it was a million miles that separated them, and suddenly he’d had enough o
f the tactful approach.

  He reached out for her, swept her into his arms and kissed her, gently at first then with rising passion, until he felt the wetness of tears on her face, and as he looked down on her in dismay she pushed him away.

  ‘Callum, please go. I didn’t ask you here for something like this to happen!’

  ‘No, of course you didn’t,’ he said tightly. ‘It won’t happen again, you have my promise on that.’ He opened the door, stepped out into the night and was gone.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  DARKNESS HAD FALLEN and the moon was waning in the sky above as he drove off without looking back. It was in keeping with their diminishing attraction, as that was waning too after his tactlessness of a few moments ago.

  He didn’t see Leonie at the window, watching him leave, already regretting that the evening had ended on such a sad note. It would be so easy to fall in love with him but if she was still going to let the past rule her life, what chance did the present have.

  She had met Callum too soon, before her hurts had been given the chance to heal. It was the wrong time, wrong place, and what had happened to his vow to stay free of commitments?

  She’d thought him abrupt and bossy when they’d first met, but working with him, occasionally socialising with him, she had become aware of his true worth and the special kind of charisma that was his alone. She’d begun to wish that the past didn’t have such a tight hold on her, but she could never forget the devastation of losing love and her stillborn child.

  She waited at the window until she saw the light go on in the apartment across the river and then went slowly to bed with a heavy heart.

  The weekend loomed ahead like a black abyss. She went shopping in the small town centre on Saturday morning for the lack of anything else to do and found herself searching for a sign of Callum amongst the busy throng, but in vain. And if she had come across him, what then? There would have been little left to say after the revelations of the night before.

  Leonie caught a glimpse of Candace and Julian holding hands in one of the shopping arcades and made a speedy detour. They were the last people she wanted to see.

  She called at Julie’s place on the way home, desperate to talk to someone who understood, but her timing was all wrong, her friend was full of wedding talk.

  About when and where it was to take place, her wedding dress, what the bridesmaids were going to wear, and all the rest of what it took to plan a wedding. Leonie hadn’t the heart to burden the bride-to-be with her problems.

  After a scrappy lunch she went out again because she couldn’t settle inside, and as she was walking through one of the parks that graced the town, Melissa and Ryan were there with the children and called for her to join them.

  Melissa was almost eight months pregnant and the four of them were eagerly awaiting the new arrival into their happy family which was so different from the circumstances of her own pregnancy when there had been the pain of how it had come about to cope with, and the grief of her loss.

  She was about to make a hasty departure when Ryan mentioned Callum.

  ‘What does Callum think about Romeo finding his Juliet? Or rather the whirlwind romance between Candace and Julian?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she told him. ‘He hasn’t actually said, but if I had to make a guess I would say that he is relieved.’

  ‘Good. He deserves better than her. Melissa and I are so happy that we want to see the same thing for him if possible.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Leonie agreed weakly. ‘But it is up to him, isn’t it?’

  As she walked slowly back home the thought was there that it might be up to her rather than him if she could let go of the past that haunted her so much. But how to do that when the birth of a child for Melissa and Ryan was going to be an uncomplicated source of joy, while for her it had been anything but that?

  * * *

  Her neighbours phoned just as she arrived back from her meeting with Ryan and Melissa to say that they were all intending to eat out at the hotel on the riverside. Did she want to join them?

  ‘Yes, I do,’ she told the caller. ‘What time are you meeting?’

  ‘Eight o’clock,’ was the reply. ‘We’ll give you a knock as we go past.’ Leonie had agreed to join them not because she was in party mood, far from it, but because Callum sometimes dined there, and she was aching for the sight of him.

  She’d put on her blue dress, brushed her hair until it shone and applied make-up with extra care, and chose a necklace of milky pearls to complete the effect of the dress, while telling herself all the time that she was crazy, doing this when Callum might not be there, and even if he was would he notice after last evening’s breakdown of communications?

  * * *

  They were twelve in number from the yurts and when they arrived the hotel dining room was half-empty. If Callum had been there she would have seen him immediately, but he wasn’t. As disappointment washed over her Leonie asked a member of the bar staff if Dr Warrender had a table reserved and was told that he usually came on the off chance.

  As she was settling into the empty seat that her friends had kept for her she heard the barman say, ‘Good evening, sir, a lady has just been asking if you were due to dine here this evening.’

  ‘Really?’ she heard him comment. ‘I can’t think who that might be,’ and she watched as he went to sit at a table at the far end of the room.

  He’d seen her, of course he had. Leonie was never out of his thoughts, and like turning the knife she was wearing that pretty blue dress of all things, reminding him of how unmovable she could be sometimes.

  There was a lot of laughter and high spirits coming from her table and she was joining in. So it would seem that their relationship, if it could be described as that, had been put to rest, filed away, without much heartbreak on her part.

  * * *

  This is crazy, she thought. I can’t manage another cackle. A bucket of tears maybe, but I can’t play the part of the merry diner without a care in the world any longer. Callum has seen me, he knows I’m here and isn’t even going to say hello. I can’t bear it!

  Someone at the table next to him was leaning over to chat and while she was out of Callum’s line of vision she told her friends that she had a migraine coming on and would they excuse her? Leaving the hotel, she set off on foot across the bridge.

  The sound of footsteps behind made her swivel round. He was there, observing her grimly.

  ‘Are you so keen to avoid me that you left your meal rather than be near me?’ he asked. ‘You checked with the bartender, didn’t you, hoping I wouldn’t show up, and now you’ve rushed out into the night to get away from me without anyone to make sure you arrive home safely. Well, you’ve got that, whether you like it or not. I’m coming with you right up to your door and no further, so no need to panic.’

  ‘What about your meal?’ she croaked.

  ‘The same as yours. I’ve cancelled it.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘I don’t think you do, Leonie. Outside your working life you live in some sort of a cocoon, shut away from all possible hurts, don’t you?’

  They were almost at her place and when they reached her door she took out her key and placed it in the lock. She couldn’t bear them parting on such a downbeat and hurtful note.

  ‘I asked the bartender if you would be dining there tonight because I needed to see you like I needed to breathe. Not for any other reason, but just to gaze upon you, and it all became too much for me.’

  He observed her incredulously.

  ‘The problem is I need time to adjust.’ She reached out and touched his face with gentle fingers. ‘Thank you for bringing me home, Callum.’

  Sunday was a quiet day with each of them looking forward to Monday morning with increased pleasure, but those sorts of feelings disappeared the moment Leonie arrived at the hospital and found Callum grim-faced. Martha, the youngest daughter of Ryan and Melissa, was being brought to A and E by ambulance, having been involved in
a car accident on her way to school.

  ‘Some joker came out of a side turning and ran straight into their car,’ Callum said. ‘She’s got leg and arm injuries. Thank goodness I’m here to take over when she arrives. Fortunately Rhianna was going by school bus this morning as her class were going to the swimming baths.’

  ‘Who was driving?’ Leonie asked in cold horror.

  ‘Melissa,’ was the reply.

  ‘Oh, no! What about the baby and Melissa herself?’

  ‘Melissa has a chest injury from the steering-wheel, and there’s a fear shock might send her into spontaneous labour. We don’t yet know if she will lose the baby.’

  ‘That must not be allowed to happen,’ Leonie cried, with tears streaming down her face. ‘It was only on Saturday that I was thinking how fortunate someone in her position was to have a loving family around her during her pregnancy, with no worries or heartache. Ryan will be out of his mind.’

  ‘He’s with her now. They are on the way to a Manchester hospital, knowing that I’m here for Martha when she arrives,’ he said, and thought Leonie wasn’t white with shock, she was grey, in a state of horror, which wasn’t surprising, but there had to be something else making her look like that.

  At that moment they heard the screech of the ambulance at the side entrance and he was gone, leaving her to start the day’s duties with a heavy heart.

  When they lifted Martha out of the ambulance she was weeping and frightened until she saw Callum, then she calmed down.

  ‘I’m going to let them take some pictures of your leg and your arm, Martha, and then I’m going to make them stop hurting,’ he told her gently.

  When the paramedics had lifted her out and were ready to wheel her to the X-ray unit he held her hand all the way and tried not to think about what might be happening to Melissa and the baby.

  They met one of the nurses from the unit in the corridor and Callum asked her to send Leonie to him for a moment.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked when she appeared.