Hot-Shot Doc, Christmas Bride / Christmas At Rivercut Manor

by Joanna Neil / Gill Sanderson

  He was a pale-looking youth, around sixteen years of age, she guessed, and even though he was lying on a bed, leaning back against the pillows, she could see that he was tall and lanky, with a shock of dark hair and strangely haunted, unhappy grey eyes. There was a bruise beginning to form around the lower edge of his jaw, as though he had been punched.

  ‘Rees, I’m so sorry you’ve had to wait for such a long time,’ she told him. ‘We’ve been busy looking after some people who were injured in a road traffic accident.’

  ‘That’s all right,’ the youngster said. ‘The nurse let me know what was happening. I didn’t mind waiting.’

  ‘That’s good.’ She smiled at him. ‘There aren’t many people around here who say that.’ She glanced around the empty room. ‘Are your parents waiting for you somewhere?’

  ‘No.’ He looked anxious for a moment, and then started to cough—a deep, chesty cough that racked his whole body for a second or two. ‘Someone who was passing by brought me in. I said I’d be all right, but she insisted on bringing me here. She said she wanted to wait with me, but she had to go to work.’

  ‘Would you like me to get in touch with your parents?’

  ‘No…thanks. They don’t need to know I’m here.’ The words came out abruptly, in a staccato manner, causing Alison to wonder why he was so anxious at the mention of them. She sat down beside his bed and began to carefully inspect his hand. There was a ragged, deep gash across his palm. ‘So how did this happen?’

  ‘I stumbled over some rough ground. I was a bit dizzy and I wasn’t really looking where I was going. I started to fall and put out a hand to protect myself, but there was broken glass on the verge and that’s how I cut myself.’

  She nodded, not quite sure whether or not she believed him. The edges of the wound were deep, as though his hand had been rammed by a broken bottle. According to his notes, the woman who had brought him in had said she’d found him wandering in the street, looking dazed. ‘It looks nasty, doesn’t it? Have you any idea what caused the dizziness?’

  He shrugged. ‘No, not really.’ He coughed again.

  ‘Everything all right in here?’ Josh put his head around the door, and Alison wondered if he had come to check up on her. Perhaps he was looking in on all the A&E staff?

  ‘We’re fine,’ she said.

  Josh nodded, and looked as though he intended to hang around for a while. She would have preferred he didn’t do that. How was Rees going to open up to her with Josh watching over them?

  ‘Your trauma patient is still in recovery,’ she told him. ‘Last I heard, he wasn’t doing too well.’

  ‘I know. I’m going to do an aortogram. I suspect there’s something wrong with the heart vessel.’

  Perhaps he realised that she didn’t want him around. His glance went from her to Rees, and then he nodded towards the boy and said, ‘You’re in good hands.’

  Josh left, and Alison let out a slow, soft breath. She went back to checking Rees’s neurological reflexes.

  ‘Everything seems to be okay on that score,’ she said quietly, ‘although your blood pressure is a bit low. Did you have anything to eat before you went out this morning?’

  He shook his head, and was overcome once more by a bout of chesty coughing that left him exhausted. No wonder he hadn’t complained about being kept waiting. She guessed he was probably glad of the chance to sit and rest somewhere warm and comfortable for a few hours.

  Something about him brought out all her tender instincts, and she wasn’t exactly sure why. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he looked a lot like her brother had at that age. Anyway, she felt there was more to his story than met the eye.

  ‘This is a pretty deep cut,’ she said, examining the wound. ‘I don’t think I can follow the usual procedure and leave it open while we wait to see if there is any infection brewing. It will need several stitches—but I’ll give you an injection of anaesthetic first, of course. We’d better make sure that you have an up-to-date tetanus jab as well.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Did this happen on the way to school?’ she asked conversationally as she set about preparing the anaesthetic.

  ‘No. I left school in the summer.’

  ‘On the way to work, then?’ she murmured.

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t have a job yet. I’ve been trying to find one.’

  It was becoming clear that she wasn’t going to make any headway on that score, so she contented herself with explaining the procedure to him. ‘I’m going to inject anaesthetic into the wound,’ she said softly. ‘I’m afraid it will sting a little to begin with, but then gradually the area should become numb. When it’s completely anaesthetised I’ll start to put in the sutures.’

  He didn’t say anything, but kept up a stoic expression throughout the procedure, and she wondered what might have happened to him in his young life that made him appear so withdrawn and world-weary.

  ‘There—that’s the worst bit over with,’ she said a short time later. ‘We’ll wait a moment longer for it to take effect.’

  She studied his brooding features for a second or two. He had refused to give an address to the desk clerk, and that worried her. What was he trying to hide?

  ‘That’s a nasty bruise to your jaw,’ she murmured.

  ‘It’s nothing,’ he said, his voice gruff.

  It was the kind of response she was beginning to expect. Coupled with the lack of information about his home or his parents, she couldn’t help wondering if he was a runaway. Of course at sixteen he wasn’t legally any concern of the authorities, but it worried her that he was here alone and injured, apparently with no relative for them to contact.

  ‘I’ll make a start on the stitches now,’ she murmured. ‘Can you feel anything when I press here—or there?’

  ‘No, it’s okay.’

  She concentrated on her work for the next few minutes. ‘I’ve noticed that you have a nasty cough,’ she said after a while. ‘When I’ve finished here, I think it would be a good idea if I run the stethoscope over your chest, to see what’s going on in your lungs. I’ll take your temperature as well—if that’s all right with you?’

  He frowned. ‘What will you do if you find out there’s something wrong?’

  ‘It depends on what I find. If there’s an infection you might need to take a course of antibiotics. I can give you a prescription for those, and our pharmacy will dispense them for you.’

  He nodded. ‘All right.’

  She finished suturing his hand and began to clear away the equipment she had used. While she was doing that a commotion started up, somewhere outside the treatment room, and a hum of deep male voices reverberated through the department.

  Rees was looking anxious again, and she told him, ‘That’ll be members of the bikers’ club, come to present the hospital with a cheque from their fund-raising efforts. They’ve done that ever since we treated some of their friends here a few years back. As soon as I’ve examined your chest, I’d better go and make sure they’re being looked after.’

  There were a lot of crackles and signs of infection coming from his lungs, she discovered. ‘It sounds as though you have bronchitis,’ she murmured. ‘I’ll ask the nurse to take you along to X-ray as soon as she’s put a dressing on your hand. That way we’ll know for certain what’s going on in your lungs.’ She studied him closely. ‘I’ll be back to see you in a while, when I have the results. All you need to do is sit back and take it easy. Are you happy to go along with that?’

  He seemed to relax. ‘Yes, that’s okay.’

  She studied his pale, tired features. What had happened to this boy? Had he been living rough on the streets? It was cold outside at this time of year and he only had a thin jacket. He looked clean enough, though, and it was possible he had been staying with a friend. Perhaps she was letting her imagination run away with her?

  Still, her instincts were urging her to do what she could to help him out. ‘I brought some food in with me, to
serve to the people who are here for the ceremony…Would you like something to eat after your X-ray? I’ll see if we can rustle up a cup of tea for you, too, while we’re about it.’

  His face brightened for the first time since she had gone to see him. ‘Yes, please…if that would be all right?’

  ‘Of course it will. I’ll find someone to bring a tray over to you.’

  She hurried away. No doubt Josh was still tending to his patients, and she knew that the specialist registrar was busy in theatre, so unless someone from Management had put in an appearance at the presentation, the bikers were being left to their own devices—and that wouldn’t do at all.

  As things turned out, though, she needn’t have worried. The chief administrator was there in Reception, and all due ceremony was being given to the burly bikers who had turned up en masse. A few bemused patients looked on from the waiting room, curious to know what was going on. And a man from the local newspaper was there, taking photos as the manager accepted a cheque from the leader of the bikers’ group—a huge fellow, clad in leather biker’s gear and sporting a tangle of wild black hair.

  Alison asked one of the ward assistants if she would take a tray of food and a cup of tea to Rees in the treatment room, and then went to watch the proceedings.

  Josh, against all the odds, put in an appearance a short time later, stepping up to the front of Reception in order to address the gathering of people. He began by thanking the bikers for their generous donation, and assured them that it would be put to good use.

  The hospital managers, he said, would be exhilarated to know that a good portion of this money would be available for new diagnostic equipment, and when Christmas came around any children unfortunate enough to be in hospital at that time would surely find to their joy that Santa, after searching their homes in vain, had after all managed to discover their whereabouts. He brought chuckles from the crowd, and Alison couldn’t help thinking that his impromptu speech was better than anything she had imagined it might be.

  Bringing his speech to a close, he smiled, an action that lit up his features in a way that made Alison go unexpectedly weak at the knees. Standing next to her, Katie, her flatmate, said in a low voice, ‘Oh, wow. That man is way too good-looking. How can any of us be expected to work at our best with him around? It’s very difficult to concentrate when you’re running a fever.’

  Alison giggled softly. ‘I’m with you on that one. Of course you could always plead that you need his personal attention…the touch of his cool hand on your brow.’

  ‘Oh, don’t…don’t say that.’ Katie’s green eyes sparkled, and she wafted a hand by her face as though to fan cool air over her hot cheeks. ‘A hand on my brow would hardly do it. Now you have me imagining all sorts of things—long, sensual sponge baths and the like. Oh, my…what am I going to do? I’ll be fit for nothing for the rest of the day, and I have patients waiting to be seen.’

  By now they were both chuckling, and Alison was doing her best to sober up when she became aware of Josh coming towards them.

  ‘Something amusing, ladies?’ he enquired. ‘Anything that you would care to share with me?’

  Katie made a strange gulping sound and covered her mouth with her hand, lowering her head so that the curtain of her chestnut-coloured hair hid her features. Alison aimed a discreet tap of her foot against Katie’s leg to encourage her to restrain herself.

  How on earth was she supposed to answer him? She felt as though she had been well and truly left in the lurch.

  Chapter Two

  ALISON shook her head and made an effort to pull herself together. ‘Take no notice of us,’ she murmured, throwing a bland gaze in Josh’s direction. ‘It’s just that having all these macho-looking bikers about the place has gone to our heads. Far too much testosterone for us to handle.’

  ‘Really?’ Josh’s grey eyes held a quizzical glint. ‘I noticed they seemed very taken with both of you. I overheard some mutterings about the possibility of coming over to ask for a date.’

  Alison’s mouth made a wry slant. ‘Yes, well…Unfortunately for them Katie’s already been down that route, and she decided that tearing along the road at high speed on the back of a bike doesn’t do it for her—not to mention the mess it makes of her hair, being flattened under a crash helmet.’

  Katie had recovered her composure by now, and chose that moment to dig her in the ribs. Alison clamped her lips shut in the vestige of a smile.

  ‘Alison has had first-hand experience of that, too,’ her friend interjected. ‘She seemed to find it quite exciting for a time. For myself, I’ve decided that I’d far sooner feel the wind in my hair from the passenger seat of a convertible.’ She sent him a look that would charm the birds out of the trees.

  Josh grinned. ‘Spoken like a true connoisseur. You look like a girl who was born to the high life.’

  A flush of colour ran along Katie’s cheekbones, adding to the shimmering intensity of her green gaze. Alison observed the interplay between her and Josh with a cautious eye. Were they taken with one another? Or was he simply the kind of man who charmed every woman in sight?

  ‘I thought your speech was perfect,’ Katie murmured. ‘You said everything that needed to be said, and you kept it short, too. I’d almost go as far as to say that you must have done this sort of thing before. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to come up with anything anywhere near as good as that on the spur of the moment.’

  ‘Well, thanks.’ He sent her a mock suspicious look. ‘You aren’t trying to haggle for a rise, are you? Because maybe I should tell you I’m not the one who gives them out.’

  ‘Oh, shame. What a waste.’ Katie frowned. ‘And there I was, hoping that you’d be thoroughly mellow after all the food that Alison brought in…As if that wouldn’t be guaranteed to melt the hardest heart.’

  ‘Yes, I noticed the wonderful spread.’ He cast a glance towards the far side of the room, where the impromptu buffet had been laid out on a couple of trolleys. ‘It all looks very impressive—and most of it home-made, too, from the looks of things.’

  Katie nodded. ‘You should have seen our kitchen last night. There was flour everywhere, and lovely smells coming from the oven.’ She paused, thinking about it. ‘I can’t imagine what came over her. In fact, with all that home baking going on I began to wonder if she was getting broody.’

  ‘No way,’ Alison put in, pretending to be affronted. ‘Anyway, you know perfectly well that I’m off men—ever since Rob led me a merry dance.’ She stopped, suddenly becoming aware that Josh was listening with interest. He didn’t need to know about her unhappy foray into so-called love, did he? ‘Well, anyway, never mind that…Let’s just say it was an experience to take to heart, and one that’s all in the past.’

  She was on her guard now where men were concerned. Rob was history—a sad lesson that she shouldn’t lose her heart to any man with a wandering eye. And maybe that should include steering clear of those like the one not too far away, who managed to ooze charisma as though it was a new aftershave.

  She pulled in a quick breath and started again. ‘As to the baking session—it was all because of the Christmas cake, you see,’ she said, as though that explained everything. ‘I felt I had to make a start on it.’

  ‘In fact, she started the day before,’ Katie put in. ‘I saw her hugging the brandy bottle and wondered what on earth was going on. Of course she said she wasn’t actually thinking of drinking it, but I didn’t really believe her until I found her mixing currants, raisins and sultanas together with candied peel, and adding a generous slosh of brandy every now and again. Apparently you have to let the fruit soak overnight.’

  There was a puzzled look on Josh’s face, and Alison hurried to explain. ‘My gran has this wonderful recipe that she gave to me. Since she’s coming over to my parents’ house for Christmas I thought I would bake her cake and surprise her with it.’

  ‘And you have to start all that several weeks beforehand?’ He was frowning.

&
nbsp; She nodded. ‘So I’m told. I popped the mix in the oven last night, and while I was about it I thought I’d bake a few treats for today. Then Katie started to help, and between us we seem to have been a little bit carried away.’

  ‘I don’t know about that—it’s just as well we made stacks of stuff,’ Katie said. ‘It’s a wonder there was anything left to bring after Taylor and Sam from the flat upstairs caught wind of what was going on. And then Tom’s children from next door came in, wanting to sample everything, and pleading to be allowed to lick the bowl after she’d emptied the cake mix into the baking tin. They ate so much I was surprised they weren’t sick.’

  Alison grinned. ‘It was lovely to see them happy, though, wasn’t it? Things haven’t been so cheerful in their house of late.’

  ‘No, that’s true enough.’ Katie frowned. ‘Imagine having the threat of being turned out of your own house hanging over you. Tom and Martha must be beside themselves with worry.’ She glanced around. ‘Anyway, I’d better get back to work. My lunch break is nearly over, and I still have a list of patients as long as my arm. I’ll go and grab a bite to eat first, though.’

  Alison nodded agreement. ‘Me, too. And then I must go back to my own patients.’ She sighed. ‘There’s no rest for the wicked, is there? Though it has been good to take time out.’

  Josh went with them, glancing around the reception area. People had been busy putting up tinsel garlands over the last couple of days, and there were one or two sparkling bells adorned with red and silver ribbon. He didn’t look impressed, thought Alison. In fact she couldn’t be certain of his reaction…More resigned than anything else, probably.

  He moved on, and soon started making his own inroads on the buffet, sampling a mince pie and adding a fruit turnover to his plate. ‘I need sustenance,’ he said. ‘I have to operate in a while. It looks as though our motor crash victim is going to need a repair to his heart’s main blood vessel.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ Alison sent him a fleeting glance. ‘That’s bad news, isn’t it? For the patient, I mean. Obviously you must have done the aortogram?’