Kitabı oku: «A Family Of Their Own»

A Family of Their Own
Jennifer Taylor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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CONTENTS

Cover

Dear Reader

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

LEANNE RUSSELL had given up a lot to come to London. As she stood in the crowded railway carriage and thought about the decisions she had made, she sighed.

She’d had a good job, a lovely flat and she had been on the verge of getting engaged, but she had given it all up without a qualm. She knew that her friends back home in Australia thought she was mad, but they didn’t understand.

Discovering that she had been adopted as a baby had shaken the very foundations of her world so that it felt as though she no longer knew who she was any more. She had tried to explain how important it was that she find out the truth about her past, but nobody had understood that, not even Michael—

Especially not Michael! she amended swiftly.

Leanne’s generous mouth tightened as she thought about the row she’d had with her fiancé, Michael Freeman, shortly before she had left for England. She had hoped that he, at least, would support her decision, but she’d been wrong.

Michael had been furious when she had told him about her plans to go to England. At first she had thought that he’d been concerned about her making the trip on her own, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. The only thing that Michael had been worried about had been the fact that the plans he’d made to announce their engagement at the staff Christmas party would have to be changed.

He’d refused to listen when she had tried to explain how important the trip was to her. As he had coldly pointed out, he didn’t see why he should be inconvenienced because she was setting out on some wild goose chase. In the end, he had cut short the discussion and given her an ultimatum: either stay at home or forget their engagement.

If anything had been guaranteed to prove what a mistake she had made by agreeing to marry him, that had been it. If she was honest, she had already started having doubts about whether Michael was the man she wanted to spend her life with, and the ultimatum had been the last straw. Michael’s needs had come first and foremost, and always would. Everyone else’s—hers included—had come way down his list of priorities.

The train drew into the station with a hissing of brakes and Leanne snapped out of her reverie. A mechanical voice was announcing that this stop was St Stephen’s and to change here for Waterloo and Embankment. She felt her heart give a nervous little jolt as she alighted from the carriage. The first day in her new job was about to begin.

It had been pure good luck that she had happened to find the advertisement on the internet asking for experienced nurses to work at HealthFirst, a medical centre operating out of one of London’s busiest railway stations. The jobs were being handled by an Australian recruitment agency, so she had arranged an interview at their office in Sydney.

She had met all HealthFirst’s requirements so the agency had emailed her application to London and received a reply, setting up a time when they could telephone and speak to her in person. Five days later she’d signed a three-month contract and faxed it back to their office.

The wonders of modern technology, she thought wryly as she took the escalator up to the station’s main concourse. The only problem being that it was a little daunting to be starting a new job without having met any of the people she would be working with.

Would they accept her? she found herself wondering as she stepped off the moving stairway. She had always made friends easily in the past but that had been before she’d found out that she wasn’t the person she’d thought herself to be. She wasn’t really Leanne Russell at all. That had been the name her adoptive parents had given her. Until she found out the truth about herself, she couldn’t be certain of anything any more.

Leanne put that unsettling thought to the back of her mind as she crossed the busy concourse. It was a little before eight and the morning rush-hour was under way. She could see the neon sign for HealthFirst glowing above the heads of the commuters. The clinic was on the mezzanine level so she ran up the stairs then paused before opening the door.

She had dressed with extra care that morning, wanting to make a good impression. Although she had been told that a uniform would be provided, it had seemed important that she looked neat and tidy and the black trouser suit and crisp white shirt had seemed the perfect choice.

She was quite tall, a little over five feet nine, with a trim but curvaceous figure, and tailored clothes suited her best. Low-heeled black pumps added a little more to her height and matched the workmanlike leather bag swinging from her shoulder.

She had pinned her collar-length, dark red hair into a French pleat and been sparing with her make-up, relying on a touch of foundation to conceal the sprinkling of freckles that covered her small, straight nose and just a lick of black mascara to emphasise her slate-grey eyes.

Lipstick was something she’d never worn since Michael had told her that it made her mouth look far too big, but just for a moment she found herself wishing that she had worn some that day. It would have helped to bolster her courage if she had been wearing full war-paint, as her mother had always called it.

Thinking about the woman who had brought her up still caused her a lot of pain so she quickly pushed open the door and went inside. There was an attractive blonde woman behind the desk and she looked up with a polite smile.

‘Good morning. How may I help you?’

‘I’m Leanne Russell, the new practice nurse. I was told to report to Dr Slater,’ she explained.

‘Oh, hi, there! It’s good to meet you, Leanne.’ The woman smiled more warmly at her this time. ‘I’m Melanie Pickering, another of the nurses here, although my contract runs out in…oh, seventy-one hours and six minutes precisely.’

Leanne laughed. ‘Not that you’re counting off the minutes, of course. Is it really that bad, working here?’

‘No way! It’s been great and I’ve really enjoyed it, but it’s time to move on.’

Melanie grinned as she got up from behind the desk. ‘I’m off to the Philippines next week and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got itchy feet, I’m afraid, so I never stay too long in any one place. Mind you, most of the people who work here are exactly the same. Nick was only saying yesterday that it’s like the United Nations in here.’

‘Nick?’ Leanne prompted, following Melanie down a wide corridor.

The clinic was very modern from what she could see, with lots of chrome and glass and discreetly positioned lighting. They passed an elegantly furnished waiting area and she smiled at a man who was sitting on one of the comfortable chairs, drinking a cup of coffee.

She knew from the literature that had been sent to her that patients attending the clinic paid to see a doctor or a nurse according to a set scale of charges. HealthFirst offered a walk-in service so that people didn’t need to make an appointment before they arrived.

‘Nick Slater. He’s in charge for the next four months while the clinic’s director is taking an extended holiday.’

‘Another short-term contract,’ Leanne observed. They had reached the end of the corridor and Melanie paused outside a door that was standing slightly ajar.

‘Most people who work here are employed on a short-term basis. It’s one of the main attractions of the job. As for Nick, well, his feet are even itchier than mine! If you’ve got a couple of hours to spare, ask him to list all the countries he’s visited—’ She broke off and grimaced when the phone in Reception rang. ‘Starting early today from the sound of it. I’ll have to leave you and Nick to introduce yourselves. Don’t bother knocking. Just go straight in. He’s on his own.’

‘Thanks,’ Leanne murmured as Melanie hurried away. She squared her shoulders then went to open the door when all of a sudden she heard voices coming from inside the room. She paused, realising that Melanie must have been mistaken about Nick Slater being on his own. She would hate to barge in if he had a patient with him…

‘Leanne Russell. Aged twenty-four, from Sydney, Australia. Glowing references—highly professional, committed to her work, a credit to her profession, etcetera, etcetera. It all sounds rather too good to be true.’

‘Then it probably is.’

Nick Slater tipped back his big leather armchair and placed his booted feet on the edge of the desk. His hazel-green eyes were wry as he looked at the other man. ‘If something sounds too good to be true then it usually is in my experience.’

Dennis McNally laughed. ‘You’re such a cynic, Nick. She could be the real thing, a genuine, bona fide angel.’

‘I’ll believe that when I see her wings.’ Nick chuckled when Dennis groaned. ‘Sorry! Bad joke. Anyway, what else do we know about Miss Russell?’

Dennis frowned as he skimmed through the application form. ‘Not a lot. She comes from Sydney, as I said, and trained at the Royal Free. She had just been appointed junior sister on the tropical diseases ward—’ He broke off when Nick sighed. ‘What?’

‘Think about it. If you’d just been given a promotion, would you up and leave?’ Nick shrugged as he tilted further back in his chair. ‘Sounds to me as though Miss Russell might have had another reason for leaving sunny Sydney rather than a simple desire to spend the winter sightseeing in London. Could it have been man trouble, by any chance? That’s just what we need. Someone who’s going to spend all her time nursing a broken heart instead of the patients.’

‘Come on, Nick,’ Dennis protested. ‘You don’t have any idea why she decided to leave Aus. She might have had a sudden urge to see a bit more of the world. In which case she’ll fit in perfectly around here.’

‘She might,’ Nick replied, not attempting to hide his scepticism. They were under a lot of pressure at HealthFirst and the last thing they needed was a member of the team who didn’t pull her weight.

‘Well, there’s an easy way to test out your theory,’ Dennis said cheerfully. ‘If Leanne Russell is indeed suffering from a broken heart then she won’t be interested in going out on a date, will she? Ask her out and see what kind of a reaction you get.’

‘Thanks but, no, thanks.’ Nick smiled thinly. ‘I’m not in the market for a relationship, especially not with someone who might be on the rebound. The last thing I need is some clinging woman cluttering up my life.’

‘Scared she’ll turn you down?’ Dennis taunted. ‘What a blow to the old ego that would be. The great Nick Slater actually getting turned down for a date. That would be a first!’

‘There’s a first time for everything,’ he replied, refusing to rise to the bait, although Dennis’s comments had touched a nerve. Was he earning himself a reputation as being a bit of a Lothario, perhaps?

He hoped not. Just because he was careful about avoiding commitment, it didn’t mean that he played fast and loose. He was always completely open about his intentions whenever he invited a woman out, made sure that she understood there wasn’t any future for the relationship. He had made the decision to remain single after his brother Matt had died, and there was no way that he would risk hurting anyone’s feelings by not making his position clear. He had thought that he’d been handling things extremely well, but maybe he had given his colleagues a completely different impression.

He was still pondering on it when he realised that Dennis was speaking. He frowned. ‘What did you say?’

‘I said I’ll bet you a tenner that you can’t get Leanne Russell to go out with you,’ Dennis repeated obligingly. He grinned when Nick shook his head. ‘What are you afraid of? Scared the old Slater charm might not work this time?’

‘Of course not,’ Nick began, intending to tell Dennis that he had no intention of accepting such a ridiculous challenge—only he never got the chance to finish what he was saying. He felt a frisson run through him when a cool female voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

‘I’d save your money if I were you, Dr Slater.’

Nick looked towards the door and it felt as though he had been punched hard in the solar plexus when he got his first glimpse of the woman who was standing there. In a fascinated sweep his eyes drank in every detail from the glorious, wet-fox red of her hair to the black leather pumps on her narrow feet.

His mind seemed to be awash with impressions all of a sudden, like how smooth her tanned skin looked, how soft her grey eyes seemed to be, how slender her body was under the tailored black suit so that it was a second or two before he realised that she was waiting for him to answer.

It took every scrap of self-possession he could summon to swing his feet from the desk, walk to the door and offer her his hand when he was acutely aware of the predicament he was in. Frankly, it was unforgivable to have been caught discussing her like that.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Russell,’ he said as evenly as he could in the circumstances. ‘Welcome to HealthFirst.’

‘Thank you.’ She placed her hand in his and he barely managed to suppress a shiver when she treated him to a chilly smile.

‘However, I think it might be best if I clarify the situation before we go any further. I am neither suffering from a broken heart nor am I looking for a relationship. So if you were thinking of accepting that bet, Dr Slater, I would advise you to change your mind. I would hate you to lose any of your hard-earned cash on my acount.’

Nick knew there must be something he could say to defuse the situation. Usually he was adept at finding the perfect phrase to smooth over the most difficult moment, but the ability seemed to have deserted him all of a sudden.

He took a deep breath as Leanne Russell removed her hand from his because it had just occurred to him why he was having such problems that day. He was disappointed because she had stated that she wasn’t interested in having a relationship with anyone.

For a man who had spent his whole adult life avoiding any risk of commitment it came as a shock to have to admit it. At that moment he wished that he were anywhere in the world rather than right there in London, facing the biggest test he had ever had to face. Leanne Russell had the power to turn his life upside down if he let her. It was the fact that he couldn’t be sure of stopping her that really scared him.

Leanne took a deep breath as she walked into the room, but her heart was hammering. Maybe she could have attributed it to anger because she had been furious when she’d overheard the conversation, but it would be wrong to lie to herself.

The reason her heart was hammering was because she had been holding Nick Slater’s hand. Even now she could feel the imprint of his fingers on her skin and had to make a conscious effort not to check her hand for any visible sign. What on earth was the matter with her? Why should she feel like this after what she had overheard him saying?

‘It’s nice to meet you, Leanne. I’m Dennis McNally, head of the admin staff here at the clinic.’

She jumped when the fair-haired man standing by the desk spoke to her. It was an effort to respond when her mind was whirling, but not for the life of her would she let Nick Slater guess how unsettled she felt.

‘Mr McNally,’ she replied coolly. He had been the other participant in that conversation and she had no intention of letting him think that he could get away with it. Far better to put an end to any more speculation straight away.

‘I hope that you have taken note of what I told Dr Slater, especially the last part of it. I am not in the market for a relationship.’

She heard Nick Slater suck in a deep breath when she emphasised that last word and glanced at him. Just for a second their eyes met and held while she felt the oddest sensation run through her. It was as though all the strength had suddenly ebbed from her body. She could feel her arms and legs growing weak, feel her vision starting to blur…

She blinked and the room shot back into focus. Nick Slater had already turned away and she watched as he went to his desk and sat down. He picked up a pen and lined it up with infinite precision along the top edge of his leather-backed blotter.

Leanne bit her lip because she knew with a sudden flash of insight that he was trying to buy himself some time before he had to look at her again. Why? Because he had experienced that same sensation of weakness which had seized her when their eyes had met? It seemed crazy even to think such a thing, yet she knew it was true. And her racing heart raced all the faster.

‘I owe you an apology, Miss Russell. Obviously, you weren’t meant to overhear what Dennis and I were saying just now, but that is no excuse. It was extremely remiss of us to have been speculating about you that way.’

Nick Slater’s deep voice cut through the silence and made her start nervously. Leanne raised startled eyes to his face then quickly looked away because she didn’t want to risk making eye contact with him again.

‘So long as you both understand that I would take an extremely dim view of you repeating what you said to anyone else, I think we can let the matter drop,’ she said, striving for calmness.

‘You have my word on it, Miss Russell. Thank you for being so understanding.’

He turned to Dennis McNally and she breathed a sigh of relief at no longer being the object of his interest. ‘If you could let me have those figures, Dennis, I can work them into my report. I need to get it faxed to the office this afternoon, so I would appreciate it if you could get straight onto it.’

It was a dismissal and Dennis wasn’t slow to see it as such. ‘No problem. I’ll let you have them before lunch. Nice to meet you, Miss Russell, and, as Nick said, sorry and all that.’

Leanne inclined her head, although she didn’t say anything as he hurriedly left the room. She was far too busy worrying about being alone with Nick Slater to think about anything else. It stunned her that she should be so aware of him because it had never happened before, not even when she had met Michael.

That thought was less than comforting so it was a relief when Nick briskly stood up and walked to the door. ‘I’ll give you a quick tour of the place first. I’m afraid that you’re getting thrown in at the deep end because we are short-staffed at the moment.’

‘Show me any medical facility that isn’t short of staff,’ she said lightly, following him into the corridor.

She took a steadying breath as he locked his office door. If she focused solely on the job and stopped her mind from running off at tangents, it would help tremendously.

‘You’re obviously a realist. Good. The last nurse we hired only lasted a week. She had got it into her head that life would be easier working in a place where the patients didn’t have their treatment provided by the NHS, with all its attendant problems.’

He gave a deep laugh and Leanne held herself rigid when she felt a spasm shoot through her again. ‘Unfortunately, it has just the opposite effect. Because people pay for their treatment they expect a much better service. Woe betide you if you don’t come up to their expectations!’

‘It’s only natural, I suppose.’

She cleared her throat when she heard how husky her voice had sounded. She had to stop this, she told herself sternly. Had to stop reacting to everything Nick Slater said or did. He was just someone she would be working with for the next three months so maybe she should slot him into that category right away.

‘People expect value for money,’ she continued in a more normal tone. ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re buying a new car, groceries from the supermarket or medical care, they expect the very best for their hard-earned money.’

‘Exactly. And that’s what we aim to give them when they come to HealthFirst,’ Nick assured her. ‘Our aim is to provide a comprehensive, value-for-money service to all our patients.’

‘Do you deal mainly with minor ailments?’ she asked curiously.

‘Not at all. We provide the full range of services that any general practitioner would offer. If we see a patient and decide that he needs a hospital referral—we arrange it. We also offer a complete range of diagnostic tests—blood, urine, cholesterol, electrocardiograph, and so on. And we refer any which are beyond our scope to a specialist provider.’

‘Are the people you treat usually holidaymakers?’ she said, a little surprised by the extent of the services on offer at the clinic.

‘No, again.’ He paused and she steeled herself when she realised that he was looking at her. She knew that she couldn’t keep avoiding making eye contact with him, but it was difficult to make herself turn and face him.

It was a relief when she felt nothing but the tiniest tremor as their eyes met, and that could easily be attributed to first-day nerves. Maybe that also helped to explain what had happened before? she mused. After all, it wasn’t as though Nick Slater was the best-looking man she had ever seen, was he? She made herself take stock, bit by bit, hoping that it would help to work this glitch out of her system if she saw him simply as the person he was.

His hair was dark brown and cut very short because she guessed that it had a tendency to curl if he let it grow. His eyes were hazel rather than the pure green she had first thought them to be, heavily lashed with thick, straight, black lashes. His nose had a definite crook in it, as though it might have been broken on more than one occasion, possibly playing some kind of sport. He definitely had an athlete’s physique with those broad shoulders and that well-muscled chest, the trim waist and narrow hips…

Leanne paused when she realised that she’d allowed herself to be sidetracked and had skipped a bit. Her gaze backtracked while she took note of a mobile mouth that naturally curved up at the corners, a strong chin with just the hint of a dimple in it, a pair of well-shaped ears.

All in all, Nick Slater was a nice-looking man in his thirties, not exactly heart-throb material but verging on it, she decided. She could understand a woman being attracted to him and it was a comfort to realise that. But was it really enough to help explain how she had reacted to him?

She tried to tell herself that it was possible—probable even if it was added to the understandable nervousness of starting a new job—but she wasn’t convinced. The way she had responded to Nick Slater wasn’t going to be explained away that easily.

Nick cleared his throat purely and simply because he wasn’t sure what else to do. Leanne was staring at him and it made him feel very odd to be on the receiving end of such an intent scrutiny. ‘Over half of the people whom we see at HealthFirst are UK citizens.’

He coughed again, wondering what was wrong with his vocal cords. His voice had the quavery cadence of a teenage boy. In fact, now that he thought about it, he felt rather like he had done as a teenager when he’d developed a crush on the school’s gym mistress…

This time his cough was genuine and he saw Leanne look at him in concern. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Fine.’ He managed to suck some air into his lungs but it was an effort to act as though there was nothing wrong. How in the name of all that was holy had he developed a crush on Leanne Russell in the space of ten minutes?

‘Just a tickle in my throat. What was I saying…? Oh, yes, most of the patients we treat here are business people who can’t get to see their own GPs because the surgeries’ hours don’t correspond with their busy schedules. They appreciate the fact that they can call into the clinic and be seen virtually straight away.’

‘And they are prepared to pay for this service?’ she queried, frowning.

‘Yes.’ Nick shrugged, striving for a nonchalance he wished he felt. Of course he hadn’t developed a crush on Leanne—the idea was ridiculous. But, try as he may, he couldn’t dismiss it.

‘You know the old saying that time is money? Well, it applies in this instance. People don’t have the time to hang around a GP’s surgery when they should be at work. We aim never to have any patient wait longer than fifteen minutes even during our busiest periods, which are the morning and evening rush hours. And most are seen well before then.’

‘You must have a big staff working here with targets like that?’

‘We have thirty people employed here at the present time and we are currently advertising five more vacancies.’ He smiled when he saw her surprise then found himself wondering if she realised how expressive her face was. Everything she thought showed. He’d noticed that before when she’d been staring at him…

He shut off the rest of that thought. To recall the bewilderment he had seen in Leanne’s expressive grey eyes certainly wouldn’t help. Maybe she was having trouble understanding this awareness they both seemed to feel, but letting himself get hung up on the idea would cause even more problems.

‘We’re open from eight in the morning to eight at night, seven days a week,’ he explained, steadfastly confining his thoughts to work. ‘That’s a lot of hours to cover, especially when a number of the staff working here are only employed on a part-time basis.’

‘Like me. I decided that full-time work would be too constricting which is why I opted to do twenty-five hours a week when I accepted the job. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough free time if I did more than that.’

Nick frowned because he wasn’t sure what she had meant. ‘Enough time to go sightseeing, you mean?’

‘No. I didn’t come to London to go sightseeing. I…well, I had another reason for coming.’

She didn’t elaborate, leaving him with the distinct impression that she didn’t want him to question her further. All of a sudden that conversation he’d had with Dennis came flooding back, but with a new twist.

Had Leanne come to London on her own, as they had assumed, or was she here with someone else, maybe her boyfriend? She had said that she wasn’t suffering from a broken heart or looking for a relationship so it seemed to fit. And maybe she had chosen to work part time so that she could spend more time with him.

Nick took a deep breath. He knew that he really should stop all this speculating. Leanne’s reasons for coming to London had nothing whatsoever to do with him. His only concern was making sure that she did her job properly, yet he knew in his heart how difficult it was going to be to stick to that. The thought of Leanne and some unknown man spending their time together made him feel all knotted up inside. Although he hated to admit it, he knew why.