The London Doctor

by Joanna Neil

  ‘I’m used to it. I’ve had more experience of this sort of thing than you have.’ He studied her closely. ‘Even so, you seem to be generally on edge, not just on the practice, but here, working in A and E. It’s as though you’re out of place here. I’ve sensed it from the beginning, but I suspect there’s more to it than simple apprehension about the job. Is it the city that makes you nervous? You don’t appear to have settled properly since you arrived.’

  She wasn’t going to pretend that things were otherwise. ‘It’s probably a bit of both.’ It was difficult to admit it, but the truth was it worried her that she was out of her depth. She needed to be here, but that helpless feeling coloured everything that she did in A and E and hampered her way of life, and she didn’t know whether she would ever manage to overcome it. Here in the city, she had that same feeling of being overwhelmed that she had suffered as a child.

  She lifted her gaze to him. ‘You wouldn’t have any understanding of that, would you? You fit into city life as though you were made for it, and your whole family is confident that they’ve made their mark. Your father’s achievements go without saying…your brother has his restaurant, and your sister is a high flier in advertising. They all know who they are and what they are about, but it isn’t the same for me. I need to find out who I really am and where I belong.’

  He studied her, his gaze thoughtful. ‘So you’re here to find your natural mother, is that it?’

  Her breath caught in her throat. Of course he was bound to guess what she planned to do. She nodded. ‘I heard that she’d been in London at some point. I put in a call to a missing persons helpline, and I’ve come here to see if I can find any information about her locally.’

  ‘I knew there had to be a reason why you were here in the city.’ He shook his head. ‘I think you’re making a mistake. From what I heard, she abandoned you, and never came back to make things up with you. I doubt it will help to have her fecklessness confirmed all over again. Perhaps you should deal with things the way they are and move on.’

  His blunt manner was hurtful, but she didn’t want him to see the effect his words had on her. Hannah looked at him steadily. ‘I didn’t really expect you to say anything different. Why would you understand? It’s perfectly obvious that we’re from totally different worlds. We don’t see things the same way. I doubt that we ever will.’

  She left him and went to check up on Dean’s progress on the medical ward. If Adam was anxious for her to get back to the practice area, that was too bad. She was due for a break, and she needed to put some distance between herself and her one-time neighbour from back home. It helped to think of Adam that way. It smoothed out the ragged edges of her feelings towards him.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘I’M NOT going to school.’ Ellie glowered at her mother. ‘I want to stay at home and play with my dollies.’ Her mouth set in a mutinous line.

  ‘You have to go to nursery school,’ Abby told her. ‘I have to go to work today, and the teachers will be waiting for you.’

  Hannah heard the exchange as she came out of her flat. As she started downstairs, she saw that her neighbours were standing in the hallway by the front door, and Abby was looking harassed.

  ‘Don’t like my teachers,’ Ellie stormed. ‘They’re horrible.’

  ‘Oh, dear.’ Hannah glanced at the child and then at Abby. ‘It doesn’t sound as though she’s very happy, today, does it?’

  Abby made a face. ‘She isn’t. Her usual teacher was off school yesterday, and Ellie hasn’t taken kindly to her replacement. Apparently she scolded her for snatching a toy from another child, and now Ellie’s digging her heels in. She says the boy took it from her first and there was a scuffle, but the truth is, she doesn’t take to change very well. It unsettles her.’

  ‘I can imagine it would.’ Hannah smiled at Ellie. ‘I thought you liked going to school? You have lots of fun making things, and you love to play with the toys, don’t you?’

  The child didn’t answer, but simply stared her out, and Abby sighed and turned to her daughter. ‘It’s a bright, sunny day today, and they’ll probably let you go outside with the bikes and cars,’ she murmured. ‘You like doing that, don’t you?’

  Ellie thought about it for a moment, but she wasn’t about to give in that easily. She gave a negligent shrug. ‘I want to play with the water trough.’ She scowled, clearly looking for a negative response.

  ‘I expect you’ll be able to do that,’ Abby said, unperturbed. ‘I’ll have a word with your teacher.’ She looked down at Ellie, who was nonplussed all at once and appeared to have run out of arguments for the time being. ‘Now, we really must go.’

  Hannah waved goodbye as they finally set off along the street. She hurried to the underground station, aware that time was running on, and that Adam would not be too pleased if she didn’t arrive on time for the start of her shift.

  She grimaced. It wasn’t easy, working alongside him. As it turned out, he was quite often left in charge while Mr Tremayne was away from the department, and he watched over everything that she did as though he expected her to fall flat on her face at any moment. He was probably right in that. She still hadn’t found her feet yet in emergency work, but it made her uneasy to acknowledge that she was out of her depth.

  The tube was crowded, and she had to stand for part of the journey. It was an uncomfortable way to travel, standing shoulder to shoulder with other commuters. People jostled her and she had to brace herself as the train picked up speed and the noise level increased as it clattered along the lines and hurtled through the tunnel.

  She wondered how Adam travelled to work. Sarah had said that she thought he walked in each morning, and that seemed a reasonable conclusion. Apparently he lived close by and the exercise probably helped to keep him fit.

  ‘Stay away.’ The abrupt comment broke into her thoughts, drawing her attention. It was a disjointed, weird sort of sound, and she saw that it came from a man who was a short distance away, seated diagonally opposite her in the carriage. He was talking to himself. His shoulders were hunched and there was an angry expression on his face.

  A woman stood up and urged her child towards the doors, getting ready for her stop. As she passed by the young man, he started to shout, hurling abuse at her, and she shrank back, looking apprehensive as she pushed the child behind her, trying to shield him from the onslaught.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ the man spat out. ‘Don’t you come near me.’

  Hannah moved instinctively, easing herself along the carriage until she had placed herself between the seated passenger and the child and his mother. At all costs, she wanted to protect that child. Tense with foreboding, she positioned her back against a vertical support rail and watched him, trying to categorise his odd behaviour. He was looking around him in agitation, addressing an unseen individual.

  ‘I’ll do it…I will,’ he muttered, his face clenched with determination. ‘I have a knife, you know. I’ll use it. I will.’

  An older man stood up, and moved to stand beside Hannah. He looked uneasy, guarded, as though he, too, sensed that something untoward might happen, and Hannah said in an undertone, ‘Perhaps we should try to find out if there’s a security guard travelling with us.’

  The man nodded, but didn’t move. Perhaps he was worried about leaving her side. He looked as though he was in his mid-sixties, a frail-looking man, whose breathing was wheezy, and Hannah wondered whether between them they would be able to quell any disturbance from the younger man. She didn’t see any other choice…no one else in the carriage looked as though they were ready to join in. Instead, the passengers were sending him watchful, suspicious looks.

  The unkempt passenger was still seated, but now he drew out a pocketknife, the blade extended, and started to wave it around in the air, the action exuding menace. Hannah sucked in her breath. The mother and child edged closer to the exit doors and Hannah prayed that the train would soon slow down and come into a station. She was keyed
up, her heart hammering with frantic, adrenaline-pumped nervous energy, but she wasn’t at all sure what to do. Adam would have known how to handle this, she was certain, but he wasn’t here, and this was one situation that she had to work out for herself.

  ‘I warned you,’ the man growled, leaping to his feet. He lunged towards Hannah, making a downward, slashing movement in the direction of her shoulder, the blade of the knife flashing silver in the artificial light. Instinctively, she swung away from it, steadying herself against the rail with her foot and a hand. With her free arm she tried to ward off the threat, and at the same time the older man made a grab for her attacker’s sweater.

  Blood rushed to her head and pounded in her ears, making her sway with the motion of the train. She curved her fingers around the support rail and clung on. A moment or two later, when she recovered her senses, she saw the passenger who was in the seat next to the man shoot out of the way in case he was next in line, and someone else had grabbed the knifeman’s arm.

  There was a scuffle, and between them her fellow travellers managed to subdue the would-be assailant and dislodge his grip on the knife. Hannah breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Are you hurt?’ the older man asked, struggling for breath, and Hannah shook her head.

  ‘I don’t think so.’ She looked down at her jacket and saw that the material was sliced through to the thin shoulder pad. ‘I think I must have had a lucky escape,’ she said, a tremor in her voice.

  By now, someone had managed to find the security guard, and as the train braked, pulling into a station, Hannah was thankful to see that the situation was being brought under control. The deranged young man was struggling, but he was held in a firm grip by the passengers.

  ‘I think he ought to see a doctor,’ she pointed out as the man was taken away. Even though he had been violent, she was afraid that he might be treated like a common criminal. ‘He sounds as though he’s delusional, and it could possibly be that he’s suffering from some kind of psychosis like schizophrenia. He might need medication to calm him down.’

  The security man nodded. ‘You’re probably right. We’ll sort it out. Perhaps you ought to hang around for a while and give a statement to the police.’ He indicated his radio transmitter. ‘I’ve arranged for them to meet up with us.’

  The woman and child had gone by the time Hannah left the carriage and walked out onto the platform. Perhaps they’d had a lucky escape. She couldn’t help thinking that she had only just scraped through unscathed herself. There was no sign of the older man who had stepped in to help her.

  She was a few minutes late by the time she finally hurried into the hospital and made her way to the changing room. Still strung out from what had happened just a short time ago, she made an effort to prepare herself for the day ahead. Hanging up her damaged jacket, she prepared to go and check her list of patients.

  Adam frowned as she walked towards the reception desk. ‘You’re late,’ he said.

  She nodded, ‘Yes, I know. I’m sorry.’

  He studied her strained features and said with an edge to his voice, ‘What was the problem…a heavy night? Too much partying?’

  ‘Nothing like that. There was a problem on the tube.’ She thought of the young mother, trying to protect her child, and a sudden surge of recollection swept over her…something her father had once said, about her mother not being capable of looking after a child. She remembered travelling to London with her mother. They had gone to visit her grandmother, but when they’d arrived at the house they had discovered that she had been ill and her mother had been sad.

  ‘Are you still with us?’ Adam roused her from her reverie. He appeared sceptical, but said, ‘Since you’re here at last, could you see to the patient in treatment room three? He has a facial injury that needs stitching.’

  She went to see her patient, and started to carefully examine the gash that disfigured his cheek. Even now, though, her hands were shaking in the aftermath of the incident on the underground. It was beginning to dawn on her that she had come within inches of being knifed, and the realisation brought her out in a cold sweat. She knew that she was in no state to suture this wound. It would need a far steadier hand than hers.

  ‘Excuse me,’ she said to her patient, ‘while I go and have a word with a colleague. You’ll need some stitches in there. It’s a nasty wound, but with any luck you should heal fine and be left with only a faint scar.’

  She went in search of Colin. He looked surprised when she asked him to take over for her, but he didn’t query it, apart from asking, ‘I suppose it’s coming in late that’s thrown you? Perhaps you should go and get a coffee before you make a start. You might feel better after that.’

  Her mouth made a weak smile. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll be all right in a while.’

  Coffee sounded like a good idea, and it might help to soothe her nerves, or at least the caffeine might give her a boost. Perhaps she could slip away without Adam paying her any attention.

  It was easier said than done, though. When she went into the doctors’ lounge, she discovered that Adam was there before her. He was half-turned from her, talking to someone whose face was hidden from her momentarily, but just as she would have backed out of the room, the man moved into her line of sight.

  ‘Your sister was hoping you’d be able to go along to her celebration dinner,’ Monroe Driscoll was saying. ‘Her luck’s changing. She’s brought off a real coup with this advertising account, and she wanted us all to share in her good fortune.’

  ‘I don’t think luck had much to do with it,’ Adam murmured. ‘She worked hard on that presentation and she deserved to secure it.’

  He turned and flicked a frowning glance over Hannah. ‘You can’t have finished with your patient already, can you?’

  ‘Colin is attending to him. He’s much better at suturing facial wounds than I am.’

  His mouth made a straight line. ‘I doubt that. Perhaps you’d better go and get yourself a hot drink. It might make you feel better.’ He looked at her closely, his eyes narrowing momentarily, but then he shifted his gaze back to his father and said, ‘You remember Hannah, don’t you?’ To Hannah, he added, ‘My father’s in London for a business meeting.’

  Monroe stared at her. ‘Good heavens…it is Hannah, isn’t it? I suppose I should have recognised you with that mass of golden curls.’ His mouth indented briefly as he looked her over. ‘I thought you would go to work in the village, perhaps take up a post in the local college or some such. This is the last place I imagined I would find you.’

  ‘I wanted to complete my training here,’ she said. She went over to the coffee machine and poured herself a drink. She didn’t know which was worse, having a narrow escape from being attacked or meeting up with Monroe Driscoll. Her foster-brother would be appalled. Clasping her fingers around the mug at least helped to settle her nerves a little. ‘The emergency department here has a good reputation.’

  ‘Yes, I heard that. It was one of the reasons that made Adam decide to come here, I believe. Of course, he’s been working to obtain extra specialist qualifications, and once he has a consultant’s post, the opportunities will be second to none.’

  Hannah glanced towards Adam. ‘I guessed that was what you were aiming for,’ she murmured. ‘Will you apply for a post here?’

  Adam nodded. ‘I’ve already made the application. That’s partly why I’m standing in for Mr Tremayne a lot of the time. He’s thinking of moving to the South Coast.’

  ‘Is he? I didn’t know that.’ The news wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Surely the consultant wasn’t thinking of moving on in the next few weeks? That would mean that Adam would be in charge all the time until they found a replacement. She took a sip of her coffee and felt the hot liquid warm her through and through, reviving her spirits a little.

  ‘What made you decide to join the medical profession?’ Monroe asked. ‘I have difficulty imagining you coping with the everyday drama of it, let alone getting involved with em
ergency work.’

  Did he, too, think she was hopeless? What was it with these Driscoll men? ‘I’ve wanted to be a doctor ever since Ryan was ill with meningitis,’ she said. She took another swallow from her mug and hoped that it would calm her down. ‘It was a frightening time, and at one stage we even thought he might die, but the doctors managed to pull him through.’

  ‘Ah, yes…Ryan. I remember how worried your mother was at that time.’ He made a grimace. ‘In fact, she always seemed to have more than her share of worries over him, what with his misdemeanours and his scrapes with the wrong side of the law.’

  Hannah stiffened. ‘He had a troubled background and he was feeling his way for a time. What he needed was help, not censure.’

  ‘Perhaps he’s managed to turn things around,’ Adam intervened. ‘I heard that he was looking for work hereabouts.’

  Hannah opened her mouth to reply, but Sarah pushed open the door and said, ‘Hannah, there’s a patient out here with breathing difficulties. I think he needs to be seen right away.’

  ‘I’m on my way.’ Hannah rinsed out her mug, and turned to face Adam’s father once more. ‘I hope your meeting goes well.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Monroe inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘It was good to see you again.’

  Hannah doubted that. For her, it had been a shock, coming across him this way, but perhaps he would soon be gone. It wouldn’t be quite so easy to rid herself of the memory of the way he had treated Ryan.

  She hurried to see her patient. To her surprise, it was the older man from the tube, the man who had grabbed her attacker. The nurse was giving him oxygen through a mask but he was still struggling to get his breath.

  ‘Mr Harry Whittaker,’ she said, glancing briefly at his chart, and then back at the patient. ‘I’m Dr Bennett. I’m so sorry to see that you’re not well. I’ve been wanting to thank you for helping me this morning.’ She glanced at his notes once more. ‘It says here that you suffer from asthma…is that right?’