Kitabı oku: «Carrying The Single Dad's Baby»

CHAPTER ONE

EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT.

The letters stood out, white on a blue background. Just the same as they had in the last hospital where Beatrice had worked.

Except at Muswell Hill Memorial Hospital she would be getting a fresh start. This was a new place, where nobody knew about her past, so nobody could pity her. Not for her divorce, not for the baby, not for the way her life had totally imploded four years ago.

They’d all see her for who she was now. Beatrice Lindford, the new emergency consultant. Beatrice who was cool, calm and perfectly controlled. Who led her team from the front. And who’d baked brownies the night before to say hello to her new department.

She took a deep breath, pushed open the swing doors with her free hand, and walked into the reception area.

Michael Harcourt, the head of the department, was waiting for her.

‘Beatrice, lovely that you made it. Come and meet the team.’ He looked quizzically at her. ‘What’s in the boxes?’

‘Home-made brownies. Just my way of saying hello to everyone.’

‘You didn’t have to bring anything,’ he said with a smile, ‘but they’ll go down very well in the staff kitchen. Now, let me find someone to show you round... Ah, Josh.’ He called over one of the younger doctors. ‘Josh, I think you’re rostered in Resus with Beatrice, our new consultant, this morning. I’d like you to show her round before it all gets hectic.’

Was it her imagination, or was Josh looking at her slightly oddly?

‘Beatrice, this is Josh, one of our juniors. He’s a good lad, but don’t ever let him drive you anywhere—unless you don’t mind risking ending up with a tension pneumothorax, eh, Josh?’ Chuckling, Michael walked away.

Josh groaned. ‘Please don’t take too much notice of what the boss just said. My pneumothorax was months ago, and it was only because I wasn’t used to go-karting on ice and I took the corner too fast.’

‘Go-karting on ice?’ Beatrice raised an eyebrow. That sounded like the definition of insanity, to her.

‘Sam—he’s one of the registrars and you’ll meet him shortly—thought it would be a good team-building exercise,’ Josh explained. ‘And it was. It was great fun. Except I, um, crashed. And nobody’s ever going to let me forget it. Ever.’ He groaned again. ‘Even in the Christmas secret Santa last year, I got a modified model motorcycle.’

She smiled. ‘Oh, dear. So Sam’s a bit of a daredevil?’

Josh smiled back. ‘He used to be. He’s changed a bit, now he’s a dad.’

Babies.

Of course people in the department would have babies and small children. The same as they would anywhere she worked.

She wasn’t going to let it throw her. This was about her job, not her personal life.

‘Can we start with the staff kitchen so I can drop these off?’ She indicated the plastic boxes she was carrying.

‘Sure.’ He looked interested. ‘What’s in them?’

‘Brownies.’ The recipe they used at Beresford Castle that had actually got a write-up in one of the Sunday supplements, and made all the tourists come back for more. ‘I hope I made enough for everyone working in the department today.’

‘You made them yourself?’

‘Last night.’ With a bit of help from her niece and nephews.

‘That’s a lot of work. And it’s really nice of you.’

‘Just my way of saying hello to my new team,’ she said with a smile. ‘And I was planning on buying everyone a drink tonight after my shift, if you can maybe recommend somewhere. I’ve only just moved here, so I don’t really know the area yet.’

‘The Red Lion, just round the corner, is fairly popular,’ he said.

‘The Red Lion it is, then,’ she said.

Once they’d dropped the boxes of brownies in the staff kitchen, with a note she’d written earlier propped against them inviting the team to help themselves, Josh showed her round the department and introduced her to the team.

Everyone seemed friendly enough, but when a doctor strode out of cubicles, clearly ready to see his next patient, Josh suddenly looked awkward. ‘Um, and this is Daniel Capaldi, one of the registrars. Daniel, this is Beatrice Lindford, our new...’ His voice trailed off.

Why was Josh suddenly acting like a cat on a hot tin roof? Beatrice wondered. What was it about Daniel Capaldi that had made the junior doctor so nervous?

Quite apart from the fact that Daniel looked as if he could’ve graced the pages of a high-end glossy fashion magazine; she didn’t think she’d ever met anyone so good-looking in her entire life. He was tall enough for her to have to look up to him, with dark hair brushed back from his forehead—the type of hair that would curl when it was wet—dark eyes, the longest eyelashes she’d ever seen on a man, and a mouth with an incredibly sensual curve.

He was breathtakingly beautiful.

Maybe he was the type who knew just how good-looking he was, and was used to women falling at his feet. Well, she didn’t care what her colleagues looked like. She just wanted them to be good at their jobs, communicate properly and work with her as a team to give their patients the best care possible. She wasn’t interested in anything else. Not any more.

‘Beatrice Lindford, the newest member of the team,’ she said coolly, and held out her hand to shake his.

What she hadn’t expected was the tingle all the way down her spine when Daniel took her hand and shook it firmly. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d reacted so strongly to anyone.

Not good.

Really not good.

Because she didn’t want to get involved with anyone. Ever again.

* * *

Beatrice Lindford. The new consultant. The one who’d just been appointed to the job everyone had thought had Daniel’s name on it. A job that part of Daniel had wanted; but part of him hadn’t, because he knew he couldn’t give the department what it needed from him in that role at the same time as being a good single parent to Iain.

If things had been different with Jenny, he wouldn’t have hesitated to apply for the job.

But it was pointless dwelling on might-have-beens. The situation was as it was. Jenny was remarried now—to someone else. He had custody of Iain. And his son would always, always come first.

Beatrice wasn’t what Daniel had expected. She was tall, maybe four inches shorter than his own six foot two. Almost white-blonde hair that she wore tied back with a scarf at the nape of her neck. The bluest eyes he’d ever seen—the colour of the sky on a late summer evening. And an incredibly posh accent, which made her his polar opposite: clearly she came from a privileged background, whereas Daniel was the son of a teenage mum who’d been brought up mainly by his grandparents until his mother was able to cope with being a parent. They were worlds apart.

But the bit that really threw him was when he shook her hand. That handshake was meant to be businesslike, maybe even slightly on the cool side. Instead, it felt as if every single nerve ending in his body had just woken up. He’d never been so physically aware of anyone before.

Absolutely not.

Even if Beatrice Lindford was single, and even if she was interested in him, he wasn’t in the market for a relationship. Iain was his world, and that was the way it was going to stay.

And he wanted a bit of distance between himself and Beatrice until he could get himself perfectly back under control and treat her just like any other member of the department, instead of behaving like a teenager who’d just felt the heady pull of sexual attraction for the first time in his life.

‘Welcome to the department, Ms Lindford,’ he said, giving her a cool nod. ‘Josh, shouldn’t you be in Resus?’

‘As should I,’ Beatrice said, narrowing her eyes slightly at him. ‘Michael Harcourt asked Josh to show me round and introduce me to everyone, and he’s been kind enough to do just that.’

He liked the fact that she’d stood up for the junior doctor. But he didn’t want to like Beatrice Lindford. He wanted to keep his distance from her, at least until he could get this unwanted attraction under control. ‘Indeed,’ he said.

‘There are brownies in the staff kitchen,’ she said. ‘Do help yourself.’

There was a touch of haughtiness to her voice. She sounded for all the world as if she’d just taken over their department. Which, he supposed, she sort of had, being their new consultant. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

‘And I’m buying drinks at the Red Lion after my shift,’ she said.

Drinks he definitely wouldn’t be going to. ‘Noted.’

‘I guess Josh and I had better get back to Resus.’

Daniel knew he hadn’t been particularly friendly to his new colleague, and he felt slightly guilty about that. But his response to her had flustered him, and right now there was no room in his life for anything other than his son. ‘Uh-huh,’ he said, and turned away.

* * *

Daniel hadn’t been openly hostile, but there had definitely been something there. Beatrice couldn’t understand what the problem was. They’d never met each other before or even knew of each other by reputation. Or was Daniel just offhand like that with everyone, and that was why Josh had looked so awkward before he’d introduced them?

Not that she wanted to put the younger doctor in a difficult position by asking him outright. It wouldn’t be fair. Instead, she encouraged him to chatter on their way back to Resus. And then she didn’t have time to think about Daniel Capaldi when the paramedics brought in a patient. Dev, the lead paramedic, did the handover.

‘Mrs Jane Burroughes, aged sixty-seven, otherwise healthy until today when she slipped in the garden and banged her head on the rockery. She remembers blacking out but she was conscious when we arrived. We put a neck brace on and we think she’s fractured her cheekbone and her arm. I’m not happy about her eye, either,’ Dev said.

From the amount of blood on Jane Burroughes’s cheek, it was entirely possible she’d damaged her eye and they’d need to bring in a specialist.

‘Pain relief?’ Beatrice asked.

‘She refused it,’ Dev said. ‘I haven’t put a line in.’

‘Thank you,’ she said.

She introduced herself and Josh to Mrs Burroughes. ‘We’d like to make you a bit more comfortable while we check you over. I know you refused pain relief in the ambulance, but can I give you some pain relief now?’

‘I don’t like the way it makes me feel, woozy and sick,’ Mrs Burroughes said. ‘When I had my wisdom teeth out and they put stuff in my arm, I felt drunk for two days afterwards.’

‘I could give you some paracetamol?’ Beatrice suggested. ‘That won’t make you feel woozy, and it’ll take the edge off the pain. It won’t be as effective as a stronger painkiller, but you’ll feel a little bit more comfortable.’

Finally Mrs Burroughes agreed to have paracetamol.

‘We’ll need to do a CT scan of her neck,’ Beatrice said to Josh, ‘and call the ophthalmology team for their view on Mrs Burroughes’s eye.’

Thankfully the CT scan showed no problems with Mrs Burroughes’s neck, so they were able to remove the neck brace; the ophthalmology team was able to confirm that the laceration was fixable and Mrs Burroughes wasn’t going to lose her sight. Finally the X-ray showed that the break in Mrs Burroughes’s arm was clean and could be treated with a cast rather than surgery.

Beatrice had just finished treating her patient and arranged a handover to the ward when Sam Price came in.

‘Beatrice, it’s lunchtime,’ he said, ‘and Hayley—my wife, who’s coming back to work here part time next month—suggested meeting us in the canteen. Josh, are you coming with us?’

The younger doctor blushed. ‘I...um...’

Sam raised an eyebrow. ‘Got a date?’

Josh nodded, and Sam patted his shoulder. ‘Just be yourself and don’t worry. She’ll adore you.’

Sam took Beatrice to the canteen. ‘So how was your first morning?’ he asked.

‘Fine.’ Apart from Daniel Capaldi. Not that she was going to let herself think about him. ‘Josh is a sweetie.’

‘He’s a nice lad. Though I feel a bit guilty because—well, I assume you must’ve heard about the staff day out I organised?’ Sam asked.

‘Go-karting on ice, you mean?’

‘It’s great fun,’ he said with a grin. ‘But I’m a reformed character now. No bungee-jumping, no go-karting on ice and no abseiling—well, unless it’s for work.’

‘Abseiling at work?’ Beatrice couldn’t help laughing. ‘I’m not sure that’s part of the average Emergency Department’s duties.’

He laughed back. ‘It can be, if it’s a MERIT team job, but don’t tell Haze because she worries.’

‘Got you.’

Hayley Price was waiting for them at the entrance to the canteen. Sam greeted her with a kiss. ‘Beatrice, this is Hayley; Hayley, Beatrice.’ He smiled. ‘And this gorgeous little bundle is Darcie.’ He scooped the baby out of the lightweight pram, and the baby cooed at him and pulled his hair.

‘Lovely to meet you, Beatrice, and welcome to Muswell Hill Memorial Hospital,’ Hayley said. ‘So how has your first day in the department been?’

‘Great. Everyone’s been lovely.’ Almost everyone. She wasn’t going to make a fuss.

‘They’re a good bunch,’ Hayley said.

‘She’s a good one, too,’ Sam said. ‘Our kitchen’s full of the best brownies I’ve ever tasted. Did you spend all last night baking them, Beatrice?’

She smiled. ‘No, and I had a bit of help. Make sure you grab one for Hayley.’

By the time they’d bought their lunch and settled at a table, still chatting, Beatrice was feeling very much part of the team.

‘So you’re coming back part time next month?’ she asked Hayley.

Hayley nodded. ‘Much as I love my daughter, I miss work. Part time seemed like a good compromise.’

‘I agree,’ Beatrice said.

‘If you’d like a cuddle with Darcie, better get it in now because the whole department will swoop on her when we walk in,’ Sam said.

A cuddle with the baby.

Beatrice thought of her own baby, the stillborn daughter she’d held for a few brief minutes. What if that car hadn’t crashed into her? What if she hadn’t had the abruption, and Taylor had been born around her due date, alive?

But now wasn’t the time or place to think about it. None of that was Sam’s or Hayley’s fault. She forced herself to smile brightly and scooped the baby from Sam’s arms. ‘She’s gorgeous.’

‘You’re good with babies,’ Hayley said when Darcie promptly yawned and fell asleep.

Again, Beatrice shut the door in her head. ‘It comes from having three nephews and a niece. The youngest one’s four now.’ And how hard it had been to hold him. ‘But I’m an old hand at getting them to go to sleep.’

‘I’ll remember that and get you to teach me some tricks when Madam here starts teething,’ Hayley said. ‘Right. So, tell us all about you. Where did you train, where were you before here, do you have a partner and children...?’

‘Haze, give the poor woman a chance to breathe!’ Sam admonished, though he was smiling and looked as if he wanted to know the answers, too.

‘It’s fine. I trained at the Hampstead Free and I worked there until I came here,’ Beatrice said with a smile. The next bit was more tricky. Telling the whole truth would mean that her new colleagues would pity her as much as they had at the Hampstead Free, and she really didn’t want that. Better to keep it simple and stick to the bare bones. The facts, and no explanations. ‘No partner, no children.’ To make sure nobody would try any well-meaning matchmaking, she added, ‘And I’m concentrating very happily on my career.’ And now it was time to change the subject. ‘Can I ask you something confidential? I know I probably could’ve asked Josh, but I didn’t want to put him in an awkward position.’

‘Sure. Ask away,’ Hayley said.

‘It’s about Daniel Capaldi,’ Beatrice said.

Sam and Hayley exchanged a glance, looking slightly uneasy.

‘I knew there was something. What am I missing?’ Beatrice asked.

‘Daniel’s a nice guy,’ Sam said carefully.

What he wasn’t saying was obvious. Beatrice wasn’t afraid to put it into words. ‘But?’

Hayley blew out a breath. ‘There isn’t a tactful way to say it, but I get the impression you’re a straight-talker so I know you won’t take this the wrong way. Everyone thought his name was on the consultant’s job.’

‘So I’ve got his job and he resents me for it.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Sam said.

‘But probably. Anyone would feel that way, in his shoes.’ Beatrice bit her lip. ‘OK. Thanks for the warning. I’ll be careful what I say to him. I don’t want to rub it in and make him feel bad.’

‘At the end of the day, the management team chose you,’ Hayley said. ‘He’ll get over it.’

At least now Beatrice understood why Daniel had been a little snippy with her and less welcoming than other members of the team. She’d be careful with him—not patronising, but not throwing her weight around, either.

After Hayley scooped the sleeping baby out of Beatrice’s arms and transferred her to the pram, Beatrice enjoyed having lunch with them. Muswell Hill was a good place. She had the strongest feeling that she was going to be happy here.

‘It’s not just about work, though,’ Hayley said. ‘There’s the regular pub quiz between us, Maternity and Paediatrics. How’s your general knowledge?’

Beatrice thought of her brothers. ‘A bit obscure.’

‘Good. You’re on the team,’ Sam said. ‘There’s a team ten-pin bowling night in a couple of weeks—everything’s on the noticeboard in the staff kitchen, if you want to sign up. Oh, and we’re having a football morning in the park on Saturday. It’s not a serious thing, really just the chance for everyone to kick a ball around, but we do a pot-luck picnic thing afterwards. And, after trying your brownies this morning...’

Beatrice smiled. ‘Hint taken. OK. I don’t mind kicking a ball about. And I’ll make some more brownies.’

‘Excellent. I think you’re going to fit right in,’ Sam said with a smile.

‘Josh said the Red Lion’s the place to go, so I’m buying drinks after my shift today,’ Beatrice said. ‘If you can both make it, it’d be lovely to see you.’

‘That’s nice of you,’ Hayley said. ‘Thanks. We’ll be there.’

* * *

Back in the staff kitchen, as Sam had predicted, everyone wanted to cuddle baby Darcie. And people Beatrice hadn’t yet met patted her on the shoulder, welcomed her to the department, and thanked her for the brownies.

Daniel Capaldi was conspicuously absent; and Beatrice noticed that he didn’t come to the Red Lion with the rest of the team after their shift. She could understand that. If you were really disappointed at not getting a promotion everyone thought you’d earned, it would be hard to celebrate someone else getting the post instead.

But there was a strong chance she and Daniel would have to work together in the future, and she needed to be sure that they could do that and put the needs of their patients before any professional rivalry. As the more senior of them, it was up to her to sort it out.

There were two ways she could deal with this. She could either pretend it wasn’t happening and wait for Daniel to stop resenting her; or she could tackle the problem head on and come to some kind of understanding with him. She’d grown up with their family motto, tenacitas per aspera—strength through adversity—so the second option was the one the rest of the Lindfords would choose.

Tackling him head on it was.

The next day, she was in Cubicles and Daniel was in Resus. Just as Sam had done, the previous day, she slipped into Resus at lunchtime. Daniel was on his own, to her relief, and it looked as if he was writing up notes. ‘Dr Capaldi. Just the man I wanted to see,’ she said.

He gave her a cool look. ‘Something I can help you with, Ms Lindford?’

‘Yes. I’m buying you lunch.’

‘Thank you, but that’s not necessary.’

He was trying to fob her off? Well, she wasn’t put off that easily. ‘I rather think it is. You and I need a chat.’

‘Hardly.’

‘Definitely,’ she said. ‘I’m not pulling rank, but I think there’s a problem and we need to sort it out rather than let it grow out of proportion.’

‘There isn’t a problem,’ he said.

‘Then have lunch with me.’

He looked reluctant.

‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to put arsenic in your coffee,’ she said. ‘Apart from anything else, I don’t have the licence to get hold of that grade of poison.’

He didn’t even crack a smile.

Taking him by the shoulders and shaking him until his teeth rattled wouldn’t achieve anything other than a temporary relief from frustration. She folded her arms to help her resist the temptation. ‘I could offer you a pair of boxing gloves, if that would make you feel better. Though I should probably make you aware that I could take you in the gym.’

He blinked. ‘You box?’

‘I box,’ she confirmed. Her personal trainer had suggested it, and boxing had been one of the things that had got her on the slow road back from rock bottom. ‘I might be a galumphing five foot ten, but I’m very light on my feet. I can do the whole Muhammed Ali thing. So. Your choice. Boxing gloves or lunch?’

‘Lunch. Because I’d never hit a woman.’

‘I wouldn’t have any qualms about hitting you in the ring,’ she said.

Was that a fleeting and grudging glimpse of respect she saw in his face?

‘But I think coffee night be more civilised,’ she said.

He didn’t make polite conversation on the way to the canteen, but neither did she. And although Daniel protested when she insisted on paying for his sandwiches, Beatrice gave him the look she reserved for patients who were drunk and obnoxious on a Saturday night and he backed off.

‘Thank you for lunch,’ he muttered when they sat down.

At least he had manners. Even if he wouldn’t look her in the eye. And that was going to change, too. She’d make him smile at her if it killed her.

‘Let’s put our cards on the table. I understand why you don’t like me. I got the job that everyone thought had your name written all over it. Of course you resent me.’

‘Not true,’ he said.

She scoffed. ‘You were the only person who didn’t take a brownie yesterday.’

‘Because I don’t like chocolate.’

That hadn’t occurred to her. But she hadn’t finished with her evidence. ‘And you didn’t come to my welcome drink after your shift.’

‘And you think that was because I’m sulking?’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Everyone else thought my name was on that job. That’s the only bit you got right.’

She frowned. ‘So what’s your take on it?’

‘Not that it’s anybody’s business, but I didn’t actually apply for the job.’

She stared at him. ‘You didn’t?’

‘I didn’t,’ he confirmed. ‘Because I can’t give the department what it needs, right now. I’m a single dad, and my son’s needs come before the job. Always.’

She blew out a breath. ‘Fair enough. I didn’t know that.’

‘Well, you do now.’

‘Then I apologise for jumping to conclusions.’

* * *

Daniel hadn’t expected her to react quite like that. He’d expected her to go haughty on him, as she had the previous day.

And he hadn’t exactly been fair to her. He could’ve told her that he wasn’t going to her welcome drinks, and why. Instead, he’d chickened out and just avoided her.

He needed to put that right. ‘And I’m sorry for letting you think I resent you for taking my job.’

‘OK. So we’re saying now that the problem between us isn’t a problem.’

Oh, there was a problem, all right. His libido was practically sitting up and begging. But he was just going to have to ignore it. ‘There isn’t a problem,’ he lied. ‘Welcome to Muswell Hill.’

‘Thank you.’

‘And you didn’t have to buy me lunch.’

‘Call it in lieu of the drink you didn’t have last night,’ she said.

He inclined his head. ‘Then thank you.’ Polite, he could do.

‘So how old is your son?’ she asked.

‘Four.’ Was it his imagination, or did she just flinch?

Imagination, maybe, because then she smiled. ‘It’s a lovely age. My youngest nephew is four.’

She had a killer smile. If Daniel hadn’t known it was anatomically impossible, he would’ve said that his heart had just done a backflip. But, for Iain’s sake, he couldn’t act on the attraction he felt towards Beatrice Lindford. It wouldn’t be fair to bring someone else into the little boy’s life—someone who might not stick around. Someone who was, to all intents and purposes, his boss. It would be too complicated. Inappropriate. ‘Uh-huh,’ he said, not sure quite what to say to her. How to stop this from tipping over into personal stuff he didn’t want to share. Such as why he was a single dad.

‘Stating the obvious, but from your accent it sounds as if you’re from Scotland.’

‘Glasgow,’ he confirmed.

‘With an Italian surname?’

‘My great-grandparents were Italian.’ He paused. ‘And you’re posh.’

‘Yes. But I’m a girl and I’m the youngest, so I got to choose what I wanted to do.’

Meaning that her brother—or brothers—had been expected to go into the family business? But asking her would be too personal; and it would also mean she could ask him personal stuff that he didn’t want to answer. He backed off. ‘So you trained as a doctor.’

‘Here in London. What about you? Glasgow or here?’

‘Here,’ he said. And please don’t let her ask about his son.

‘So what made you pick emergency medicine?’ she asked.

Relief flooded through him. He could talk about work and why he did what he did. It wasn’t quite so personal, so it was easier to deal with. ‘I like the fact that we make a real difference, that we can save people.’ He paused. ‘You?’

‘Pretty much the same. Though we can’t save everyone.’

Again, there was an odd look on her face—as if she was talking about something personal. But he wasn’t going to ask. It was none of his business. Instead, he said, ‘We do our best. That’s all any of us can do. Strive to do our best.’

‘True.’

He finished his coffee. ‘Thank you for lunch. And for the chat.’