She nodded in agreement, and lowered herself into a chair to take the weight off her aching feet. 'Are you going to have him transferred to Pietersburg?' she asked, taking a sip of her hot tea.
Roland observed her speculatively over the rim of his cup and shook his greying head. 'Why risk having the patient transferred when we have an eminent specialist languishing in our own district?'
Julia's heart skipped a nervous beat, and her hands were trembling to the extent that she almost spilled her tea. 'You can't possibly be referring to Nathan?'
'I am,' Roland nodded, capturing her startled glance. 'He'll be here at five this afternoon to take a look at the X-rays before we go to the hospital.'
'You mean he agreed?' she asked stupidly.
'Without hesitation.' Roland observed her closely from behind his gold-rimmed spectacles. 'Did you expect him to refuse?'
'I… no… I wasn't sure,' she faltered helplessly.
'I'm convinced that if anyone can help Tommy Durandt, then it will be Nathan Corbett.' Roland drank his tea quickly and he was smiling faintly when he leaned across his desk to place his empty cup on the tray. 'Perhaps I should explain that Nathan has featured quite frequently in the medical journals during these past two years, and he has built up quite a reputation for himself as a miracle-worker.'
This did not surprise her. She had always known that Nathan was destined for great heights in his profession, and now she knew that he had succeeded.
'You won't need me here after five this afternoon, will you? she asked with a desperate need to be out of the way before Nathan arrived, but Roland swiftly dashed her hopes.
'I would appreciate it if you would stay long enough to make us a cup of coffee when Nathan arrives.'
'Very well,' she agreed dully, discarding the cup of tea she had barely touched, and taking the tray with her when she rose to her feet.
'Julia.' He stopped her before she could reach the door, and she glanced at him over her shoulder. 'Young Tommy deserves the best.'
'Yes, of course he does,' she agreed without hesitation, but she was shaking inwardly when she closed the consulting-room door behind her and carried the tray into the small kitchen.
Julia was not sure how she had managed to get through the remainder of that afternoon without a serious mishap occurring. Her thoughts had been centred on Nathan, and her nervousness had increased as the afternoon progressed. She dreaded having to face him again after she had been forced to endure his rudeness and his insults at their last meeting.
Her palms felt clammy, and her insides were coiled into tight, painful knots when the hands of the electric clock on the wall shifted closer to five o'clock. She prayed that Nathan would be late, or that Roland would change his mind about wanting her to stay, but the minute hand of the clock had barely shifted on to the twelve when Nathan walked into the waiting-room.
A pulse was beating erratically at the base of her throat, and the fan on the filing-cabinet seemed to be whirring loudly enough to make her head ache. Her subconscious mind registered the proud, arrogant tilt of his dark head, and the width of his shoulders beneath the beige, lightweight jacket. His white shirt was unbuttoned at the throat, giving her a tantalising glimpse of the dark hair curling against his tanned chest, but she pulled herself together sharply when she raised her eyes to encounter his cool blue gaze.
'Dr de Necker is expecting you,' she said stiffly, her legs shaking uncontrollably beneath her when she stepped out behind her desk. 'If you'll come this way, please.'
'I have called at your cottage several times these past two weeks,' he said, barring her way with a few long strides. 'Were you out, or were you pretending not to be home?'
Her nerves jolted in surprise and resentment, but she somehow succeeded in remaining outwardly cool and calm. 'I can't imagine why you wanted to see me, and neither can I think of anything we might have had to say to each other.'
'I can think of quite a few things we have to say to each other, but it will have to keep for the moment.' His smile was mocking when he stepped aside to let her pass. 'Lead on.'
Julia knocked on Roland's door and opened it with-out waiting for a reply. 'Mr Corbett is here to see you, Dr de Necker.'
'Ah, yes.' Roland smiled and rose from his chair to walk round his desk when Julia stood aside for Nathan to enter. 'I'm very glad to meet you at last, Mr Corbett.'
Julia slipped out while the two men shook hands, and she was shaking so badly that she had difficulty in making the coffee which Roland had requested earlier that afternoon.
Damn Nathan for having the ability to make her feel on edge and unsure of herself! If only she could acquire some of that icy indifference he displayed towards her. Oh, God, if only she did not have to care so much!
Roland and Nathan were studying the new set of X-rays on the scanner when Julia entered the consulting-room with their coffee, and they were discussing their findings in lowered voices when she placed the tray on Roland's desk. They appeared to be oblivious of her presence, and she was retreating quietly when Roland said, 'Thank you, Julia. You may go home now.'
Nathan's head snapped round, and his narrowed gaze collided with hers. There was something intensely disturbing in his piercing appraisal of her, and she murmured a hasty 'goodnight' as she left the consulting-room, collected her things, and went home.
Warren had invited Julia to have dinner with him that evening. He was a marvellous conversationalist, but her mind wandered constantly, and she had difficulty in concentrating on what he was saying.
What had Nathan decided? Would he operate on Tommy Durandt, or had he discovered that there was nothing worth while he could do for the young man? Why had he looked at her so strangely when she had taken the coffee into the consulting-room? How was she supposed to interpret that disturbing expression in his eyes, and… dammit . . . why did she have this uneasy feeling about it?
'I'm glad you were free to have dinner with me this evening.' Warren succeeded in capturing her wayward thoughts while he and Julia were eating their dessert. 'My sister is going to be married next week Saturday, and my mother has asked me to help with the arrangements.'
'When do you have to leave?'
'I'm motoring down to Durban in the morning.' His hand reached for hers across the table, and the flame of the candle between them danced in his dark, smiling eyes. 'Will you miss me while I'm gone?'
'I imagine I shall,' she admitted, smiling back at him, and his fingers tightened about hers.
'I wish you could come with me. I know my mother would adore you.'
Julia's thoughts took an irrevocable swing towards Nathan. His parents had died long before she had met him, but he had a married sister living in Zimbabwe with whom he had corresponded regularly.
'Excuse me, sir,' Joseph intruded apologetically. 'There is a telephone call for Sister Henderson.'
Julia looked up with a start, and a coldness filtered into her veins. Who would have taken the trouble to seek her out at the Mopani restaurant… and why?
'Sister Henderson will take the call in my office,' Warren was saying, rising to his feet with Julia.
'Yes, sir,' Joseph nodded, leaving hastily to have the call transferred to Warren's office.
'This way, Julia.' Warren's expression was curious, but he did not question her when he took her arm to usher her across the restaurant and into a small, private office. He gestured towards the telephone on his desk, and smiled into her apologetic eyes as he turned towards the door. 'I'll wait for you at our table.'
She murmured her thanks and waited until he had closed the door behind him before she lifted the receiver. 'Julia Henderson speaking.'
'Forgive me for intruding on your dinner engagement, Julia, but I need to speak to you rather urgently.'
Her heart lurched anxiously in her breast at the sound of Roland's voice. 'What's wrong?' she croaked nervously. 'What has happened?'
'This isn't something I want to discuss on the telephone,' Roland answered her abruptly.
'If Warren wouldn't mind dropping you off here at my place, then I'll see to it that you get home safely.'
'I'll be there as quick as I can,' she said, seeking refuge behind a professional attitude, but her hand was trembling when she replaced the receiver on its cradle.
'What's the matter?' Warren questioned her gravely when she arrived at their table to collect her wrap and her evening purse.
'I don't know,' she answered him truthfully. 'Dr de Necker wants to discuss something with me at his home. He says it's urgent, and that he'll see me home later.'
'I'll take you at once,' Warren offered without hesitation.
'I'm sorry our evening has been cut short,' she apologised when they were driving away from the restaurant in his Mercedes, and his hand found hers briefly in the darkness.
'There will be other evenings.'
Julia did not answer him. She was too perturbed about this summons from Roland. She wondered briefly if this had something to do with Tommy Durandt, but she could not imagine what Roland would want to discuss with her which was of such extreme urgency that she had to be called away from her dinner-date with Warren.
'Don't get out,' she said, her hand reaching for the door catch when he had parked his car in the street outside the de Necker home. 'Thanks for a perfect meal, and I wish you a safe trip in the morning.'
'I'll call you from Durban.'
'I'd like that,' she smiled, accepting his kiss on her cheek before she got out of the car and closed the door.
Warren waited until she had pushed open the wrought-iron gate and was walking up the curved concrete path towards the front door of the house before he drove away, but Julia was only vaguely aware of his departure. Her heart was beating heavily against her ribs when she walked quickly up the steps on to the well lit porch with its potted ferns, and she despised herself for the tremor she noticed in her hand when she rang the doorbell.
The door opened a few seconds later and Elizabeth smiled welcomingly as she drew Julia inside. 'Roland is waiting for you in his study, and he said I was to send you in the moment you arrived.'
Julia knew her way about the house, and she nodded without speaking. Her mouth felt as dry as dust when she crossed the carpeted entrance hall at a brisk pace, and her uneasiness had intensified until it felt as if her insides had been clamped in a vice. She paused in the dimly lit passage to wipe her clammy hands on the wide skirt of her peach-coloured evening dress, and she braced herself mentally before she tapped lightly on the study's panelled door and opened it.
Roland was seated on the corner of his desk, but Julia's nervous glance was drawn as if by a magnet towards the man who was rising from one of the leather armchairs, and for one terrible moment she was tempted to turn and run.
'Thank you for coming so promptly, Julia,' Roland was saying, and Julia dragged her eyes away from the odd intensity of Nathan's penetrating glance to see Roland waving her towards a vacant armchair.
'You said it was urgent.' There was a nervous catch in her voice, and she sat down quickly before her trembling legs decided to cave in beneath her.
'And so it is.' Roland gestured towards the fresh tray of coffee on his desk. 'Would you like a cup?'
'No, thank you.' Out of the corner of her eye she could see Nathan lowering himself into the armchair he had vacated on her arrival, but she did not shift her gaze from Roland. 'Does this have something to do with Tommy Durandt?' she asked bluntly.
'Yes, it does,' Roland confirmed her suspicions. 'Shall I tell her, Nathan, or will you?'
'I'll tell her.'
'Tell me what?' she demanded frantically as Nathan rose from his chair, and she had no option but to look at him when he followed Roland's example and seated himself on the corner of the desk nearest to her.
'There is a slight chance that Tommy Durandt might walk again, but it will require a major operation which I have agreed to perform. The theatre is available at five o'clock tomorrow afternoon, and I want you there to assist me with the operation.'
'You can't be serious!' Julia's incredulous glance darted to Roland and back to Nathan as a terrible suspicion manifested itself in her mind. 'If you have agreed to operate on condition that I will assist you in the theatre, then I think it's despicable of you!'
'It's not a condition, it's a request,' Nathan corrected her tersely, and there was anger in the cool blue glance that held hers.
'I doubt that the matron will grant you request when there are fully qualified theatre sisters at the hospital who would assist you admirably,' she tried to reason with him.
'It has all been arranged with the hospital superintendent, and matron has agreed to it.'
'I don't suppose she was left with a choice, and you had no right to arrange something like this without first consulting me,' Julia protested, trying to control her rising anger.
'I'm asking you now.' Nathan's challenging glance held hers relentlessly. 'Will you assist me?'
The atmosphere in the study was tense and strained, and Julia had the most frightening feeling that the walls were closing in on her to restrict her breathing. She got up jerkily, and the skirt of her silk dress rustled in the silence as she walked towards the open window to draw the cool night air into her tortured lungs.
'The last time I worked in a theatre was five years ago.' She turned to face the two men in the room, and shook her head, 'I'm sorry, but I couldn't possibly agree to this.'
'I need someone in the theatre with me who is familiar with the way I work.' Nathan rose from the desk to walk towards her, and it seemed as if, mentally and physically, she was being driven into a corner. 'This is a very dangerous and delicate operation, Julia, and a fumbling theatre sister is something I shan't tolerate.'
'What makes you think that I shan't fumble?' she demanded, nervous anxiety making her voice rise a pitch higher. 'For God's sake, Nathan, I'm as rusty as hell!'
His mouth twitched with the suggestion of a smile, 'I don't believe you are.'
'Roland?' Julia shot a pleading glance at her employer, but she received no assistance from him.
'Elizabeth has agreed to help out in the consulting-rooms tomorrow afternoon,' he enlightened her calmly.
Julia felt trapped, and she disliked the feeling intensely. Why was Nathan doing this to her? Why? Was this yet another way in which he could hurt and humiliate her?
She passed a shaky hand over her eyes before she raised them to meet Nathan's challenging glance, 'It seems as if I'm left with no choice but to agree.'
His sensuous mouth curved in a triumphant smile. 'Thank you, Julia.'
'Don't thank me yet!' she snapped, striding towards the desk to escape his disturbing nearness. 'I think I could do with that cup of coffee I refused earlier.'
There was a hint of an apology in Roland's weary eyes when their glances met, but Julia was not in a forgiving mood. She was happy for the patient's sake that it was Nathan who would perform the operation, but she was petrified at the thought that she would have to assist Nathan in the theatre. Damn him for doing this to her! Five years was a long time, and she was not at all sure that she would cope. Her hand was trembling when she poured herself a cup of coffee, and she gulped it down black and without sugar. It did not steady her nerves, but it hit her stomach in the right place with a comforting warmth when everything else inside her felt as cold as ice.
'I'll give you a lift home,' Nathan offered, putting on his jacket, and she hesitated nervously before she collected her wrap and her purse and said goodnight to Roland.
Julia did not see Elizabeth before she left the house, but it was perhaps just as well. She was not in a fit state to have a normal conversation with anyone, and she was also too infuriated to appreciate the luxurious interior of Nathan's Ferrari.
The drive to her cottage took less than ten minutes, but Julia maintained a stony silence despite Nathan's vague attempts at making conversation, and she was leaping out of the car the moment he parked it outside her cottage.
'Thanks for the li
ft,' she said, slamming the door behind her with unnecessary vigor, but Nathan caught up to her before she could undo the catch on the garden gate.
'I'm coming in with you,' he said, taking her arm in a firm grip and propelling her along the path to the front door.
'No, you are not coming in with me!'
'You can't stop me.'
Her purse was taken from her before she could do anything to prevent it, and she was shaking with helpless rage while Nathan snapped open the fragile catch to search for her key.
'How dare you!' she cried, clenching her hands at her sides to suppress the desire to strike him.
'Stop this melodrama!' he ordered sharply, unlocking the door and switching on the passage light before he took her arm once again to propel her inside. 'All I want to do is talk to you, and there is absolutely no reason for you to behave like a petrified virgin in fear of being raped.'
A slap in the face could not have been more sobering, and she calmed down considerably. 'I'm tired, Nathan, and it's late.'
'It's ten thirty,' he said abruptly, glancing at the gold watch strapped to his lean wrist. 'I doubt that you would have complained had Warren Chandler kept you out this late.'
She stiffened at that hint of mockery in his voice. 'I happen to enjoy Warren's company.'
'Meaning you don't enjoy mine?'
'Correct!' she snapped, walking into the lounge and switching on the reading-lamp beside her favourite armchair.
'I owe you an apology, Julia,' he said unexpectedly, following her into the lounge. 'My behaviour was inexcusably rude the other evening when Damian brought you to Honeywell, and Damian was right about one thing… I do regret it.'
She closed her eyes to halt the sudden rush of tears. His apology had stripped her of her defensive anger, and the tension was easing out of her body to leave her infinitely tired.
'Forget it,' she said, not trusting her voice above a whisper, and his hands were warm against her shoulders when he turned her to face him, but she dared not look at him.
'Does this mean that I'm forgiven?'
'Yes, you're forgiven.'
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