Best Friend to Perfect Bride (Contemporary Medical Romance)

by Jennifer Taylor

  His head reeled as question after question assailed him. He realised that he needed to find out the answers before he drove himself mad, and leapt to his feet. There was no sign of Bella when he reached the deck so he set off at a run, expecting to catch up with her in the lane, but there was no sign of her there either. His heart began to thump as he wondered where she had gone. It was only when he caught a glimpse of the bus disappearing around the bend that he had the answer to that question at least. As for all the others, well, he would need to speak to her. She was the only one who knew the truth.

  Mac made his way to where he had parked his motorbike. He started the engine, feeling his stomach churning with dread as all his old fears of rejection surged to the forefront. Maybe he did need answers but he could only pray that he was strong enough to hear them.

  * * *

  ‘Four-year-old in cubicle three—Oscar Starling. Mum thinks he’s swallowed some detergent. Who wants it? You or Mac?’

  ‘I’ll take it.’

  Bella grabbed the child’s notes, turning away when she saw Trish look at her in surprise. There was no way that she intended to explain why she was so eager to take the case. Mac had been trying to get her on her own all morning long, but she had no intention of talking to him. That was why she hadn’t answered the door when he had turned up at her apartment yesterday after she’d got back from the boat. What was there to say, after all? That she had no intention of going back to Tim? Why should he believe her when she had such difficulty expressing her true feelings?

  Bella pushed back the curtain, preferring to focus on her patient’s needs rather than her own problems. There was a little boy sitting on the examination couch and he smiled when she went in.

  ‘I’ve got a new tractor,’ he told her importantly, holding up a bright green toy tractor for her to admire.

  ‘You lucky boy. It’s beautiful.’ Bella took the toy off him and ran it across the couch, making appropriate tractor noises. She handed it back then turned to his mother and smiled. ‘Hello, I’m Dr English. I believe Oscar may have swallowed some detergent—is that right?’

  ‘Yes.’ Louise Starling sighed. ‘He was playing in the kitchen with his tractor. He never normally goes in the cupboard where I keep the detergent but he did today. I’d gone upstairs and when I came down, he had the box on the floor. I use those liquid capsules and one of them was broken open. The liquid in them is bright blue and I could see that Oscar’s lips were stained blue as well.’

  ‘I see.’ Bella turned to the little boy. ‘Did you swallow a lot of mummy’s detergent, Oscar?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, ’cos it tasted funny.’ He zoomed the tractor across the couch and grinned at her. ‘I spat it out on the floor.’

  ‘Good boy.’

  Bella ruffled his hair, thinking how adorable he was. It must be wonderful to have such a bright and happy child. The thought naturally reminded her of her own situation and she swallowed her sigh. There was little chance of her ever having a child when she ended up driving away every man she met. She tried to put the thought out of her mind as she asked Louise Starling if she had brought any of the capsules with her.

  ‘I brought the box.’ Louise handed Bella the box of detergent capsules. She grimaced. ‘I saw something on TV about taking the container with you if your child swallows something he shouldn’t. I remember thinking that it would never happen to Oscar as I’m so careful, but it just goes to show, doesn’t it?’

  ‘You mustn’t blame yourself,’ Bella said sympathetically. ‘Even the most careful parents can’t always predict what their children are going to do. Right, I’ll go and phone the National Poisons Information Service and see what they advise. However, I don’t think that you need to worry too much. From what Oscar has told us, he didn’t ingest very much of the detergent.’

  Bella went to the desk and called the NPIS helpline. They kept a list of household products on file and were able to advise her on the best course of treatment. Fortunately, these particular capsules weren’t highly toxic and, because so little of the detergent had been ingested, they agreed that Oscar wasn’t in any immediate danger. Bella went back and broke the good news to the little boy’s mother then set about treating him, which involved getting him to drink a large tumbler of water. He was as good as gold and drank it all without a murmur, making her smile.

  ‘You are a good boy, Oscar. I want you to drink another glass of water when Mummy takes you home—will you do that for me?’

  Oscar nodded, more interested in his tractor than in what was happening. Bella laughed as she lifted him off the couch. ‘Come with me and I’ll see if I can find you a sticker for being such a good boy.’

  He happily held her hand as she led the way from the cubicle. They kept a pile of stickers behind the desk so Bella sorted through them until she found one with a tractor on it. Crouching down, she stuck it onto the child’s T-shirt. ‘There you go. It says, “I’m a star patient!”—which you are.’

  Bella smiled as Oscar excitedly showed the sticker to his mother. She told Louise to bring him back if she was at all worried then sat down to write up the child’s notes after they left. It was almost lunchtime and, once she had finished her notes, she would go to the canteen and make herself eat something. She hadn’t been able to force down anything except a cup of coffee that morning and she couldn’t keep going on that alone. If she was to do her job properly then she needed to look after herself. After all, if she was never going to have that family she had longed for then she would need to focus on her career.

  It seemed like a poor substitute even though she loved her job but Bella knew that she had to be realistic. Oh, maybe she did have dreams and maybe it was hard to relinquish them, especially the dreams she’d had about her and Mac and the golden future they would enjoy together, but the longer she clung to her dreams, the more painful it would be. She and Mac had had their chance and it hadn’t worked out. The sooner she accepted that, the better.

  * * *

  By the time lunchtime rolled around, Mac was finding it difficult to contain his frustration. Bella had evaded his every attempt to speak to her. Oh, he had tried—tried umpteen times, in fact—but she had managed to avoid him. It was fast reaching the point where the rest of the team were bound to notice that something was going on, but hard luck. It wasn’t his doing; it was Bella’s. And if people started gossiping about them then she only had herself to blame!

  Mac grimaced, aware that he was being very unfair. He had started this by making those accusations. He had spent a sleepless night, thinking about what had happened, and by the time morning arrived he knew that he had been wrong to jump to such hasty conclusions. Bella would never have tried to use him that way—it simply wasn’t in her nature. He had allowed his fear of getting hurt to skew his judgement and he owed her an apology, but the big question was: would she accept it? From the way she had behaved towards him that morning, he very much doubted it.

  His spirits were at an all-time low as he saw his patient out and returned to the desk. He paused when he spotted Bella sitting at the computer. There was nobody else around so maybe this was the moment he’d been waiting for. The thought of losing her if she went back to Tim was bad enough, but it would be so much worse if they parted on such bad terms. He needed to make his apologies and at least try to salvage something from the situation even if it was all too little. He took a couple of hurried strides then stopped when the emergency telephone rang. It felt as though he was being torn in two. Part of him desperately wanted to ignore the phone and speak to Bella, while another part urged him to respond to the summons.

  In the end duty won. Mac snatched up the receiver, listening intently while the operator relayed the details. There’d been an accident at a level crossing on the outskirts of town. A train had hit a car that had stalled on the track and a number of people had been seriously injured, including
several children. Mac confirmed that they would send a team and hung up then pressed the call button to summon the rest of the staff. Once everyone had gathered around the desk, he explained what had happened and what they would do.

  ‘Bella, Laura and I will attend the accident as we’ve all done the major incident training course. That leaves Helen, Trish and Bailey to cover here.’ He turned to Janet. ‘Can you phone Adam and ask him to come in?’ he asked, referring to their consultant, Adam Danvers. ‘He was at a finance meeting this morning but it should be over by now so it shouldn’t be a problem.’

  Once everything was organised, Mac led the way to the room where they kept all their equipment. After they had donned weatherproof suits, they each collected a backpack containing everything they might need, from basic dressings to surgical instruments. It was impossible to foretell what they would have to deal with and they needed to be prepared. A rapid response car was waiting when they exited the building. Bella didn’t look at him as she climbed into the back and beckoned to Laura to sit beside her.

  Mac’s mouth compressed as he slid into the passenger seat. He had missed his chance to try and sort things out with her and, if she had anything to do with it, he wouldn’t get another opportunity either. Maybe he should think about cutting short his contract and signing on for the next aid mission? He had planned on staying in England for a while, but it would be better than having to work with Bella if she and Tim got back together. To see her day in and day out, knowing that she didn’t love him but someone else, would be unbearably painful. Quite frankly, he doubted if he could handle it.

  He closed his eyes as they set off with lights flashing and siren blaring, trying to blot out the thought of the dark and lonely future that lay ahead of him. Without Bella in his life, it felt as though he had very little to look forward to.

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT WASN’T THE FIRST major incident that Bella had attended but it had to be the most serious. The train was a high-speed express and many of its carriages had been derailed. The fire and rescue crews were working their way along the track, searching for any injured passengers, and by the time they arrived there were over a hundred people gathered at the side of the railway line. It was more than a little daunting to be faced with so many people who needed help, but Mac took it in his stride.

  ‘We need to find out where the children are. It may seem hard-hearted to ignore the adults but there are other teams of medics who can deal with them. Our brief is to concentrate on the kids first and foremost.’

  Bella nodded, feeling her initial panic subside in the face of his calmness. ‘So what do you want us to do?’ she asked, her heart lifting when he smiled at her. She battened it down, knowing how easy it would be to allow herself to think that it meant something. Mac had proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that he didn’t really love her and she must never forget that.

  ‘I’ll have a word with the officer in charge. Incident control said that there were two children who’d been seriously injured, although there may be others. However, we’ll start with them.’

  ‘Fine. Laura and I will go and check on that group over there,’ Bella replied dully, confining her thoughts to what was happening. There was no point thinking about how much she loved him when it wouldn’t make any difference. Mac may have thought that he loved her; however, the way he’d reacted yesterday proved it wasn’t true. If he had loved her, as he’d claimed, then he would have known that she would never go back to Tim!

  Her heart felt like lead as she and Laura made their way over to a group of teenagers huddled beside the track. There were three boys and two girls in the party and they all looked deeply shocked. One of the boys had a large gash on his forehead so Bella cleaned it up and applied butterfly stitches to hold the edges together. He would need to go to hospital and have a scan to check that he hadn’t suffered a head injury. The rest of the group had suffered only minor cuts and bruises so she told them to wait there until they were told they could go home. They all had mobile phones and they’d called their parents so she guessed it wouldn’t be long before they were collected.

  As for the aftermath of what they had witnessed, that was something no one could predict. Some would put it behind them and get on with their lives, while others might be permanently affected. It all depended on the type of person they were. Take her, for instance. She had spent her life distancing herself from other people so it was doubly ironic that now she had finally got in touch with her emotions, it was to have them thrown back in her face. It was a sobering thought but thankfully she didn’t have time to dwell on it as Mac came over just then and drew her aside.

  ‘The injured children are still on the train. The crew who found them decided it was too risky to try and move them.’

  ‘Sounds bad,’ Bella said quietly, her heart sinking. ‘Do you know which carriage they’re in?’

  ‘One of the crew’s going to take us to them.’ Mac looked at her. ‘Are you OK about this, Bella? I know how upsetting this kind of situation can be, so say if it’s too much for you.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she snapped, determined that she wasn’t going to let her newly discovered emotions get the better of her. Mac didn’t love her. If she said it often enough then maybe she would believe it and not keep reading too much into everything he said.

  ‘Fair enough.’

  He shrugged but she saw the hurt in his eyes and had to bite her tongue to stop herself saying something. He didn’t need her reassurances. He didn’t need anything at all from her. The thought stayed with her as they followed one of the fire crew along the track. They came to the first two carriages, the ones directly behind the engine, and Bella grimaced. The carriages were lying on their side, in a mangled mess halfway down the embankment, and it was hard to believe that anyone sitting in either of them had survived.

  ‘You’re going to need to be extremely careful,’ the fireman warned them. ‘There’s a lot of broken glass and metal in there. We’ve tried to stabilise the carriages as best we can to stop them sliding any further down the embankment but if we tell you to get out then no arguing—just do it. One of the kids is in the first carriage and the other is in the second, but you’ll need to make your way inside through here. A couple of our guys are waiting with them.’

  Bella nodded, saving her breath as she set about levering herself up into the carriage. It was a long way and there were very few footholds so it wasn’t easy.

  ‘Here. Put your foot in my hands and I’ll give you a boost up.’

  Mac made a cup with his hands and after a moment’s hesitation Bella placed her foot in it. He boosted her up until she could grab hold of the fireman’s hand. He hauled her the rest of the way, waiting until Mac joined them before he led them inside. It was strangely disorientating to walk along what was actually the side wall of the carriage, scrambling over seats and tables that had sheared away from their housings. Bella was glad when they reached the first casualty, a young girl, roughly ten years of age.

  ‘You stay with her and I’ll check out the other child,’ Mac told her as they paused. His eyes darkened. ‘Just mind what you’re doing, Bella. It’s only too easy to have an accident yourself in this kind of situation.’

  Bella nodded, unable to speak when her throat felt as dry as a bone. She crouched down and began examining the girl, focusing all her attention on what she was doing. It would be a mistake to read anything into the way Mac had looked at her, she reminded herself sternly. Her heart began to thump because there was no way that she could stop herself. Despite what had happened, she wanted Mac to be concerned about her.

  She took a deep breath but the truth had to be faced. She wanted him to feel all sorts of things when he looked at her, and especially love.

  * * *

  Mac did his best but the boy’s injuries were just too severe. He died a short time later and now all that was left to do was
to inform his parents. They had been injured as well and had already been ferried to hospital.

  His heart was heavy as he made his way back through the train. Breaking bad news to relatives was always hard and even worse when it concerned a child. He couldn’t imagine how people coped with such a tragedy; he knew he’d find it impossibly difficult. If he had a child then he would love it with every fibre of his being, and it was such a poignant thought in the circumstances. Bella was the only woman he had ever wanted to have a child with and it was never going to happen.

  It was hard to hide how devastated the thought made him feel as he stopped beside her. She looked up and he had to bite back the words that were clamouring to get out. It wasn’t fair to put her under any pressure, to make her feel guilty because she loved Tim and not him. People couldn’t choose who they fell in love with, although even if he could have done he would have still chosen Bella. Right from the first moment they had met, he had known in his heart that she was the only woman for him.

  It was hard to contain his emotions at that thought but somehow he managed to get them under control. ‘Have you nearly finished here?’

  ‘Yes. She’s stable and ready to be moved. How about the other child?’

  Mac shook his head, feeling tears welling behind his eyelids. He was at emotional overload and it would take very little to make him break down. ‘He didn’t make it.’

  ‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ Reaching up, she touched his hand, just the lightest, briefest of contacts, but he felt the touch like a brand burning into his skin.

  He turned away, terrified that he would do something crazy. He mustn’t beg her to stay with him, mustn’t try to coerce her. She had to want him as much as he wanted her, otherwise there was no point. She would only end up by leaving him and he couldn’t bear the thought of that happening... Although could it be any worse than what was happening right now? Could he feel any more devastated than he did at this very moment, knowing that he had lost her?