He sighed. ‘Is that all you think of? I’ll drop you off at the café for a quick bite if you like before afternoon surgery.’
‘Aren’t you coming?’
Rob shook his head. ‘No. I’ll see you back at the practice. Vikram has a problem with one of his patients and I said we’d have a chat about it this afternoon.’
It was true. He had promised Dr Raju that he would help with the matter that was worrying him, but Rob knew that wasn’t the reason he’d opted out of eating with Nina.
He’d had no qualms about introducing her into the practice and now, before she’d even been employed there a day, he was having second thoughts. Not about her abilities. She’d got the hang of things pretty well so far. It was the effect she was having on him that was bothering him.
He was aware of every movement she made. The way she moistened her lips with a small pink tongue before she said something outrageous. The swaying of her hips inside the straight black skirt as she walked. The swell of her breasts inside her sweater. The candid green pools of her eyes. He could go on for ever.
Was there a man in her life? he wondered. Some guy who was as fond of city life as she was? Just as he himself was engaged to a woman who loved the countryside as much as he did?
Hell! Surely that wasn’t the only reason he’d let himself get entangled with Bettine. Of course it wasn’t! She was attractive, good at her job, fun to be with—some of the time—but of late he’d had doubts as to whether he wanted her to be the mother of his children—or to be his wife for that matter. It was a measure of his unease that he’d just thought of himself as entangled rather than engaged.
One thing was for sure, he’d made a mistake nominating himself to train Nina Lombard. They would be too much in each other’s company, and although he could very easily get to like that, he knew that Bettine wouldn’t.
But to alter the arrangements now would result in questions being asked, and he didn’t want that. It would be better to leave things as they were…while keeping Dr Lombard in her place.
Eloise had cooked the evening meal. She was feeling less nauseous than on previous days and Nina’s face lit up when she saw her dishing out the food.
The moment she heard her stepdaughter’s light step on the kitchen floor tiles she swung round. ‘How did it go?’ she asked immediately.
Nina smiled. ‘Fine. I started off with what must be the village’s most crabby patient, but the rest of them were all right, and I’ve been doing the visits with ravishing Rob.’
Eloise laughed. ‘Don’t let your father hear you talking so flippantly about your superiors. He’ll have you put in the glasshouse…and there’s no telling what Dr Baker would do if she heard you.’
‘Drag him off to the altar, maybe?’
‘I don’t know about that, but most of us in the village think that he’s in no hurry to tie the knot.’
‘How long have they been engaged?’
‘Six months or so.’
Her father came stomping in at that moment, and now it was his turn to ask how her day had gone. Once she had answered a spate of questions that were fired at her like bullets, they sat down to eat.
When the meal was over and they’d cleared away, her father and Eloise went to sit in the garden, leaving Nina to prowl around the house like a caged animal.
It was at this time of day that she missed her town life. Tuning in to her restlessness Eloise suggested, ‘Why not go to the pub for an hour?’
‘The Royal Venison?’
She shook her head.
‘No. Not the hotel. There’s a small public house at the far end of the village. It’s called the Gun and Target. That’s where most of the lively ones congregate in the evenings.’
‘You don’t mind?’ Nina asked, her glance taking in the sick woman’s frailty.
‘Of course not. I’ve got Peter here for company and I’ll be going to bed shortly. The last thing I want is for you to feel that you have to be tied to the house.’
‘Promise that you’ll call me if you’re not well in the night,’ Nina said, hesitating in the doorway.
‘I promise,’ Eloise said, ‘and now be off with you.’
CHAPTER THREE
NINA was surprised to see that the village was quite lively for a week night as she walked slowly along its main street.
There were cars on the forecourt of the hotel and through its long windows she could see people chatting in groups with drinks in their hands at what was obviously some sort of social gathering.
There were strollers along the riverside and a couple of young boys were riding up and down on the tarmac at the side of the surgery on what looked like new BMX bikes.
The floodlights of the art gallery, closed in the absence of its owner, were breaking up the gloom of the small square that stood in the shadow of the hotel, and as a hazy moon patrolled the sky in the summer dusk Stepping Dearsley didn’t seem such a dull place after all.
When the Gun and Target came into sight there was so much activity going on around it that with a lifting of her spirits she thought it would put a bar in the city centre to shame.
Eloise had been right when she’d said that this was where the action was. Canned music blared into the night as an assortment of its patrons lounged outside at tables and chairs on a stone forecourt, and when she glanced through one of the mullioned windows it looked as if there wasn’t a seat to be had.
She was turning away when her glance rested on what was becoming a familiar profile. Rob Carslake was seated at a table in the corner with his fiancée, who was holding forth on some subject or other while he listened with only moderate interest.
So much for an evening in the pub, Nina decided glumly as she turned away. She’d spent the day with him. The last thing he would expect, or want, would be for her to be hovering out of working hours.
About to beat a speedy retreat, she found herself colliding with someone else who was checking up on just how full the place was. As his arm came out to steady her, she thought that it only needed the presence of Dr Raju, and the full contingent of the GPs from the Stepping Dearsley Practice would be there.
‘Nina!’ Gavin Shawcross said as he released her arm. ‘You’re not going already, are you?’
‘Yes, I am. Actually, I’ve only just arrived, but the place is so crowded…and I’ve just spotted Robert Carslake and Bettine Baker inside.’
The fair-haired GP frowned. ‘So?’
‘So I think he’ll have seen enough of me for one day.’
‘That doesn’t apply to me, though, does it? We’ve been introduced and that’s about all.’
A table on the forecourt had just been vacated and, pointing to it, he said, ‘Let me buy you a drink. It’s time we got acquainted.’
She wanted to refuse. The magic of the summer night had gone the moment she’d seen the lovers, but what would she do if she did leave? Go back home to find her dad polishing his medals and Eloise in bed? Or sit out here on her own, not knowing a soul?
He was waiting for an answer and, seating herself, she smiled up at him. ‘Thanks. As you say, we need to get acquainted.’
‘So how did your first day go?’ he asked when he returned to the table with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
She laughed. ‘That’s what everyone wants to know. It went all right, thank you. It was interesting, challenging and…revealing.’
He noticed her hesitation and asked curiously, ‘Revealing? In what way?’
‘In all sorts of ways,’ she said obliquely, having no intention of explaining that the life of a country doctor had proved more stimulating than she’d expected and that, far more important, so had the GP in whose company she’d been.
Rob came into view at that moment with Bettine beside him, her hand possessively on his arm, and Nina tensed. She was supposed to be avoiding him and yet where had she placed herself? In full view of anyone coming or going!
He saw them immediately and his face went blank, but he came over, wit
h his companion reluctantly following.
‘Hello, there. Relaxing after the day’s toil, are we?’ he said with cool pleasantness.
The question was addressed to them both but Nina sensed that it was aimed at her, and before Gavin Shawcross could get a word in she said airily, ‘You’ve got it in one. I was thinking that we’re only short of Dr Raju and we’d have the full monty.’
‘So you knew that we were inside?’ he questioned.
‘Er…yes. I saw you through the window.’
‘And doubtless realised that we wouldn’t want to be disturbed,’ the woman on his arm said sweetly.
‘Yes, that’s correct,’ Nina agreed, ‘and then I bumped into Gavin and here we are.’
‘That being so, we’ll leave you to get acquainted,’ her trainer said with a stretched sort of smile. ‘See you both in the morning.’ And with Bettine fully in favour of a swift departure, they went.
‘What was eating Rob, I wonder?’ Gavin said when they’d gone. ‘He seemed a bit on edge.’
‘I’m sure I don’t know,’ Nina replied as if the matter were of little interest. ‘Why don’t we talk about you instead?’
He was only too willing to oblige, and by the time they’d emptied the wine bottle and the clientele of the Gun and Target were beginning to drift away she was aware that Gavin Shawcross was thirty years old, unmarried and lived in a development of new stone properties in the next village. He was confident and attractive in a bleached sort of way, and she could visualise him having plenty of women friends if the number who’d given him the once-over while they’d been talking was anything to go by.
He might have even created some degree of interest on her own part if she hadn’t already met a far more interesting GP than him.
‘I’ll walk you home,’ he offered. ‘I can pick my car up on the way back.’
She smiled to take the sting from a refusal and used her father as an excuse. ‘No. Thanks just the same. My dad will be on gate duty.’
‘I’m not with you.’
‘He’s ex-army. After eleven-thirty I’m classed as absent without leave,’ she told him laughingly, and, leaving him with mouth agape, she strolled off into the night.
As her first week in the practice progressed Nina continued to take stock of those she was working with. So far she’d had little to do with Dr Raju, but on the few occasions when their paths had crossed, kind eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses had met hers benignly and he’d asked politely in his precise English if she was settling in all right.
Each time he’d received her blithe assurance that she was coping he’d gone on his quiet way and she’d been left to show proof of her own assertions.
Gavin’s approach to the job was in keeping with his character. He dealt with his patients with confidence and speed, and was always first to be free to carry out his own pursuits.
Bettine Baker was a good doctor. She was clever, cool and critical of almost everything and everyone with the exception of Rob, who gave no inkling of what he thought about her attitude.
On the Friday morning after surgery there was a practice meeting in a room adjoining the computer area in the basement. As Rob took his seat at the head of the table Nina thought that, apart from her family, she had spent more time with this man in the past week than with anyone else in her life.
And where under normal circumstances she would have found it restricting, it hadn’t been like that at all, even though he’d been much more aloof after that first memorable day.
In fact, on the second morning, after their meeting outside the Gun and Target the night before, he’d been so cool and impersonal that she’d retreated behind a barrier of her own and it had stayed that way during the days that had followed.
Yet she wouldn’t have wanted to have missed it. It mightn’t have been war-torn Europe where she was functioning, but it was an exceedingly busy practice that was run in a caring and efficient manner, and as each day came there was something new to learn.
The formidable Ethel Platt had been back to ask belligerently if her test results had come through yet, and at the same time had told Nina, ‘I’ll be seeing you from now on. That Dr Baker has no patience.’
But the vote of confidence had faltered somewhat when she’d had to tell Ethel that there had still been no news, and the woman had left the surgery with a scowl dark enough to blot out the sun.
However, that was all in the past and now the staff were assembled to discuss the workings of the practice, with the exception of one receptionist left to hold the fort upstairs.
‘How long before the decorators are finished?’ That was Barbara Walker’s first question. ‘They seem to have been here for ever.’
Rob nodded. ‘Yes, they do, but they aren’t finished yet, Barbara. It’s all complete down here and they’ve done the passage between the consulting rooms upstairs, as you can see, but they’ve all the rest to do yet. Our rooms, the nurses’ quarters, and your place. I’m afraid that the smell of paint will be with us for quite some time.’
His eyes went to the girl with the bright green eyes sitting opposite and he smiled. ‘Our new trainee can vouch for the fact that there’s paint on the premises as some of it came her way on her first visit.’
Nina smiled back and some of the reserve that had been between them during the past few days drained away. As their glances locked, the moment had a promise of its own, but Bettine’s voice broke into it.
‘I’m sure that we have more important things to discuss than a silly accident. Shall we proceed?’
And proceed they did with the coming week’s activities first on the agenda.
With a level look at his fiancée, Rob started off by saying, ‘I think that Nina should assist you with the antenatal clinic on Monday, Bettine. It will lighten the workload and give her an insight into the running of our various clinics.’
Dr Baker shrugged narrow shoulders. ‘Whatever you say, Rob. Just as long as it does lighten the workload.’
Nina eyed her stonily. What did Bettine think she would be doing? Standing there like a dummy? She’d spent some time on a maternity ward in a London hospital and had loved it. If ever she specialised it would be in obstetrics.
Even if Rob had sensed her annoyance, there was no way he was going to take sides and he went on to inform her, ‘Gavin takes the asthma clinic on Thursdays and Vikram deals with the psychiatric clinic, which is a fortnightly affair, but for the time being I think it best not to involve you in them.’
‘As you’re aware, Nina, you’ll be spending one day out of each week on one of the courses run by the Department of Postgraduate Medicine and that, along with assisting in the antenatal clinic and your surgeries and call-outs, won’t leave much time for anything else.’
‘In other words, I won’t be getting into mischief,’ she said, with a smile for Gavin at the other side of the table.
‘Exactly,’ Rob agreed drily, as the other man grinned back at her.
That having been sorted, he went on to general practice matters, and some time later a knock on the door preceded the entrance of a small grey-haired man.
As Nina eyed him curiously, Rob said, ‘Meet John Burton, the practice accountant, Nina, and unless you’re keen to be involved in the financial assessments and cost-benefit analysis for the coming quarter, I think we can let you off the hook.’
She got to her feet obediently, a slender figure, today dressed in beige trousers and a dark green silk blouse that brought out the glints in her russet crop.
‘Shall I do some of your calls while you’re having your meeting?’ she asked rashly, and immediately wished she hadn’t, as the thought of doing home visits on her own was terrifying.
Rob thought for a moment. ‘Yes, why not? Check with Reception that there’s nothing too complicated for you to handle. If you do have any problems, contact me on your mobile.’
‘Yes. I’ll do that.’
‘Then off you go. I’ll probably catch you up somewhere along the way.’
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As she left, the receptionists and nurses followed suit, leaving the four doctors to discuss their finances with the accountant and elderly Margaret Gray, the practice manager, who held sway over the computer room.
When they surfaced at ground-floor level, Michelle Thomas, the youngest of the receptionists, who’d been left in charge, said, ‘You’ve just missed Ethel Platt, Dr Lombard, enquiring about her test results.’
‘Lucky me!’ Nina said laughingly, then added on a more serious note, ‘I take it they’re not back yet?’
The girl shook her head and Nina felt a stirring of anxiety. It was a bit soon for them to have arrived, but Ethel was obviously worried about what they might show. A phone call to the hospital to hurry them along would do no harm, followed by a tactful word from herself.
‘Could you chase them up for me, Michelle?’ she asked.
As she’d made her way back upstairs from the meeting Nina had thought that it was a relief to get away from Bettine’s cold gaze and, even if that hadn’t been the case, she would still have been happy to escape from a session of facts and figures that didn’t concern her.
If she’d intended to stay in this place, with a possible future partnership, it would have been a different matter, but as that wasn’t part of her plans she’d been happy to leave the meeting with all speed.
But as much as she’d been aware that Bettine had been glad to see the back of her and that Rob hadn’t been bursting to have her around at that moment, she’d sensed that Gavin would have rather she’d stayed, though for what she felt sure were reasons unconnected with practice matters.
Ever since that first night when they’d chatted at the pub he’d been coming on to her, waylaying her whenever he got the chance and twice suggesting that they get together again socially.
But she wasn’t interested. Why, she wasn’t quite sure, as he was attractive and articulate in his own way. Dating him would certainly liven up her life and Eloise would be delighted that she’d found some company nearer her own age. But did she want to be embroiled with one of the partners in the practice before she’d hardly had time to get her breath?
The Elusive Doctor Page 4