Her mother frowned. ‘Only that it will take a while for her to fully recover. She had pins and a metal plate put into the leg. They’ll make a start on getting her back on her feet as soon as possible, but she’ll be in hospital for up to a fortnight.’
It was more or less what Alison had expected.
‘That brings us almost up to Christmas, doesn’t it?’ Fraser was pacing the floor. ‘Poor Gran.’
‘She looked very frail when they brought her through,’ her grandfather said. ‘And the operation took so long. She was in there for hours.’
Alison nodded. ‘It can take a long while,’ she said. ‘It’s major surgery. It’s the kind of thing Josh does in his private practice. He’ll be able to tell you what’s involved.’ She knew she could trust Josh to explain in layman’s terms, without going into detail about anything that might cause her grandfather to worry, and he didn’t let her down.
After a while the waiting room door opened, and a nurse came into the room. ‘Hello, there. She’s all ready at last,’ she said. ‘Now, who’s going in to see her first?’
It was some time later when Alison finally managed to go and see her grandmother. Fraser and Josh went with her, drawing up seats by the side of the bed.
‘Who’s this young man you’ve brought with you?’ Gran was still drowsy from the anaesthetic, and Alison could see that she was in some pain despite the medication she had been given, but her blue eyes had homed in on Josh straight away.
‘This is Josh,’ Alison told her. ‘We work together at the hospital. He knew how anxious we were to see you, so he drove Fraser and me up here. We were very worried when we heard you’d had a fall.’
‘Well, I should be a whole lot stronger now,’ Gran said. ‘They’ve turned me into a bionic gran now, by all accounts. There was a very nice doctor who operated on me. Said he wanted my phone number—but your grandad saw him off.’ She tried a smile, but her voice was already fading with tiredness.
They chatted for a while, with Fraser telling her about his pharmacy course, omitting any mention of being sent down for fear of upsetting her, and Josh telling her about his own role at the hospital.
‘They want me to do a radio show and read out Christmas messages,’ he said. ‘I thought I might impersonate a few cartoon characters to cheer up the children.’ He gave them a sample of a wacky duck and a world-weary dog delivering advice on how to cook the Christmas dinner, making them chuckle.
‘Stop making me laugh,’ Gran said. ‘You’re making my side hurt.’
‘It sounds as though they’re looking after you anyway, Gran,’ Alison said a little later, stroking her grandmother’s hand. ‘You gave us all quite a scare. We were worried about you.’
‘Ah, well, I gave myself a bit of a fright as well.’ Her eyelids started to droop, prompting Alison to quietly stand up.
‘We’re going to let you rest now, Gran,’ she said. ‘I have to go back home, to get ready for work in the morning, but Mum will phone me and let me know how you are.’
Her grandmother’s eyelids fluttered. ‘You take care, sweetheart.’
Alison dropped a kiss on her cheek, and moved away so that Fraser could say goodbye. Fraser loved his grandmother as much as she did.
It was upsetting to see Gran pale and in pain, and she could only hope that she would be well looked after. A major operation such as she had been through was no simple matter. She would need a lot of physiotherapy, and not the least of her problems would be to gain her confidence again in walking.
As things stood it would be some time before she would be back to her old self. There was certainly no chance that she and Grandad would manage the journey to her parents’ house for Christmas this year.
At the door she paused, letting Josh and Fraser pass her by on their way out into the corridor. She took a final look at her grandmother, lying in the bed.
‘He seems like a good man, Alison,’ her grandmother said, turning to give her a gentle smile. ‘Just take care he doesn’t break your heart like that other one.’
Chapter Seven
SNOW had been falling steadily during the night, laying down a crisp carpet of white over everything. As she drove to work Alison looked out over the sprawling landscape of hills and dales and wondered at the beauty of it all. The branches of the trees were decked with a frosting of ice crystals illuminated by a watery sun, and in the distance the rooftops of a farmhouse and its outbuildings had received a thick blanket of snowflakes that glistened like diamonds.
‘Isn’t it lovely?’ Alison murmured to Katie, sitting beside her in the passenger seat.
She turned the car on to the main road. She was so much more cheerful now that she had heard from her mother that Gran was up and about, using a walking frame to help her get about in the hospital. It had been more than a week since her operation, and with any luck the danger time was past.
‘This is what you were dreaming about not so long ago, isn’t it?’ she said, looking out at the hedgerows and fences glistening with frost. ‘A Christmas card picture? Except that this is daytime and you were thinking of night.’
‘Perhaps I’d been sneaking a tipple from the sherry bottle back then,’ Katie responded in a less than cheerful manner. ‘It doesn’t seem nearly so romantic when you have to get up early to come in to work and the roads are slippery.’
‘You’re right. I’ll grant you that.’ Alison smiled. ‘At least the car heater’s working, after a fashion, which is more than I can say for the one in Sam’s rattlebox.’
Katie laughed. ‘He’s a fanatic, that one. He actually had his skis out this morning, trying them on for size. That man’s a hoot.’
‘Oh, he is,’ Alison agreed. ‘There’s no doubt about it. And when he told me about his exploits on the ski slopes I began to realise why he has such a yen for spy films. I’ll bet as he zooms down the piste at high speed he imagines he’s a secret agent on a mission.’
They both chuckled at that, and just a few minutes later Alison parked her car in the grounds of the hospital. She walked with Katie towards the main doors of the emergency department.
In the ambulance bay the paramedics were checking their equipment in preparation for their next call, and Alison stopped for a while to chat with them—until her fingers began to tingle with the cold.
‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘See you later. Much later, I hope.’ She grinned. ‘Keep safe.’
She hurried to catch up with Katie.
‘I’m glad to see you made it in to A&E,’ Josh remarked, coming across the two of them as they walked towards the doctors’ writing-up area. ‘With this awful weather half the staff are struggling to get in, so it looks as though we’ll have to take up the slack until they get here.’
‘Then again, with any luck most non-hospital people will stay home and stay safe,’ Alison remarked, reaching for a folder from the desk. Her fingers were still numb with cold, but she persevered and flipped open the manila cover. She quickly scanned the patient’s notes and then checked the entries against a sheaf of blood test results, before searching in her pocket for a pen. ‘It looks as though our aneurysm patient came through her operation without suffering any adverse effects,’ she murmured. ‘That’s good to know.’
She attempted to add a comment to a paper in the file, but gave up when her stiff, cold fingers refused to respond. ‘Ah…no. Too cold, too cold,’ she mumbled. ‘You wouldn’t think a walk across the car park would give you frostbite, would you?’
‘That’s because you stopped to talk to the ambulance crew,’ Katie said. ‘You would insist on talking to them about Mrs Flanagan’s son.’
‘Well, they were the ones who brought Charlie into A&E, after all. He could barely breathe when they picked him up, and they just wanted to make sure he was okay. It must be difficult for them, worrying about the patients and not knowing the outcome. At least I was able to tell them he was admitted and now he’s almost back to normal. He’ll be going home in a couple of days.’ She tried again to write, and f
ailed miserably.
‘Here—let me,’ Josh said, taking the pen and the folder from her.
‘But you don’t know what I was going to write,’ she protested. ‘How do you—?’
‘That wasn’t my plan,’ he murmured, setting them down on the desk. ‘Give me your hands.’
Without waiting for her to respond, he began to chafe her hands between his, so that her fingers tingled and her palms heated. After that a response kicked in throughout her whole body. She felt warm all over, and she was sure her cheeks by now must be flooded with pink. There was something strangely compelling about the way he was holding her, his large hands engulfing hers, and somehow in that moment she felt completely secure and cherished, as though by that simple act he had staked a claim on her heart.
She quickly tried to shake off that wayward thought. Why was she even imagining such things? Perhaps the cold had affected her more than she’d realised.
She looked up then and saw that Katie was watching, with an odd expression on her face and a kind of startled awareness freezing her smile, and Alison felt an immediate surge of guilt run through her. Did Katie think that something was going on between them? It wasn’t like that…of course it wasn’t…was it?
She would not hurt her friend for the world, and yet already Katie was backing away, turning on her heel and heading for the observation ward.
‘I’m fine now, thanks,’ Alison mumbled, looking into Josh’s eyes. ‘Really, I’m thoroughly warm.’
‘Hmm.’ He studied her face for a minute or so, and she was mortified because she was sure her cheeks must be burning. ‘I’d have thought you would have learned your lesson last time you had this problem,’ he murmured. ‘We have to do something about it. Winter’s moving on, and we can’t have you suffering from the numb fingers every morning, can we?’
‘I’ll sort it,’ she said. ‘I’ll remember to bring along a pair of gloves, even though I’m travelling in the car.’
‘Hmm. Make sure you do. And get yourself a hot drink before you attempt to start work next time.’ He hesitated for a moment, before finally letting her go. ‘Where did Katie disappear to?’ he asked, frowning as he looked around. ‘I need to talk to her. She wanted to follow up on one of her patients.’
‘I think you’ll find her in the observation ward,’ Alison said. ‘After that she’ll be working in paediatric A&E for the rest of the morning.’ She couldn’t help wondering what Katie was thinking, and how she would react to him seeking her out.
‘Of course—I remember now. And you’re both off this afternoon, aren’t you?’
She nodded, thankful to be on safer ground at last. ‘We should be spending an afternoon in the lecture theatre, but the session was cancelled yesterday. I guess that means we both get the afternoon off.’
‘Lucky you.’
He walked away, and after that she found she was much too busy to dwell on what went on inside people’s heads. Her whole morning was taken up dealing with broken limbs and sprains brought about by falls on icy pavements, reminding her of how badly her gran had been injured. Whoever said winter was a wonderful season? Surely it couldn’t have been her?
By lunchtime she was almost ready to hand over her patients to a colleague, when Katie stopped by the fracture clinic.
‘Hi. Jenny said I’d find you in here,’ she murmured. ‘I just dropped by to say I won’t be needing a lift back to the house this afternoon. I thought I’d do a spot of Christmas shopping while I have the opportunity, and Taylor’s going to pick me up from town at the end of his shift. I know you said you would look after Jason and Rachel this afternoon, otherwise I’d have suggested you come with me.’
‘Okay. Thanks for letting me know.’ Katie’s manner appeared to be as natural as ever, so it was possible she had decided to put the events of the morning to one side. That was something of a relief. ‘Perhaps we could shop together some time next week? I’ve a stack of presents to buy.’
Katie gave a brief smile. ‘Of course. Me too. Today will just see the tip of the iceberg.’ She paused before she turned away. ‘By the way, I thought you’d like to know…I was up on the second floor a short time ago, and I saw that young lad Rees going towards the women’s surgical ward. I suppose he must be visiting someone up there.’
‘That’s interesting.’ Alison frowned. ‘He said he would keep in touch, but I haven’t heard anything from him up to now. I think I might go and see if I can catch up with him. I’d really like to know how he’s getting on at the hostel. I’ve been talking to Jack on the phone, but he says Rees is keeping his cards close to his chest.’
‘You’re way too soft for your own good,’ Katie said, her mouth curving. Now, where had Alison heard that one before? Maybe she and Josh were two of a kind. ‘Anyway,’ Katie added, ‘I’m off to shop till I drop. See you later.’
Alison gave her a light wave, and went back to checking her patient’s X-ray film. ‘That looks fine,’ she said, glancing at the woman. ‘The bones in your wrist are perfectly realigned now. You’ll need to wear the plaster cast on your arm for a few weeks, though.’
‘Do you think it will be off by Christmas?’ The woman was frowning. ‘I just can’t see it going with my little black dress, somehow.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. It might be quite a fetching accessory—especially if you get people to do a few drawings on it.’ Alison smiled. ‘Seriously, though, I think you’ll have to get used to it until the New Year at least.’
‘Ah, well, thanks anyway.’
Alison finished writing up her patient’s prescription for pain medication and scooted off, intent on tracking down Rees.
Josh caught up with her as she was heading for the lift. ‘Are you off now?’ he asked.
She nodded. ‘In a few minutes. I just heard that Rees might be visiting someone up on women’s surgical. I was hoping to catch up with him and say hello. Did you want me for some reason?’
He nodded. ‘I wanted to talk to you about your plans for this afternoon. Katie said you had arranged to babysit?’
She nodded, treating him to a brilliant smile. ‘That’s right. Thanks to you, Tom has a job at the hospital, and they can actually begin to think about doing some Christmas shopping. The building society has granted them a threemonth stay on their mortgage, so things are looking up. I said I’d look after the children when they come out of school, so that they can take advantage of the late-night shopping in town.’
‘That’s more or less what Katie said.’ He hesitated momentarily. ‘It occurred to me that they’ve been a bit down lately, up until their father managed to get his new job, and they’re due for some fun. I think I’ve come up with something to help you keep them amused…if you’re agreeable, that is?’
‘Um…Yes…I’d love to do something for them.’ She frowned. Why was he doing this? Was it that he had formed some kind of bond with the children after looking after their dog? Or was it that he wanted to spend time with her? Either way, she felt a sudden quivering of excitement in her abdomen. ‘What did you have in mind?’
‘I’ll tell you when you come back from seeing Rees,’ he said in an enigmatic way. ‘Meet me in the doctors’ restroom in, say, half an hour?’
‘All right.’ She went on her way, intrigued. What had Josh come up with that was so mysterious?
She shook off the perplexing thought. He was a man—a totally different species. Who could know anything about the inner workings of their minds? She certainly couldn’t claim to be an expert.
She hurried along to Women’s Surgical, wondering whether she was already too late. Might she have missed Rees?
‘I saw a young man go into the end bay a while back,’ the nurse on duty told her, ‘but I think he left a few minutes ago. In fact I’m sure of it. I remember seeing that the dressing on his hand was coming undone. I was going to suggest that I change it for him, but he left before I had the chance.’
‘Oh, that’s a shame.’ Disappointment ran through her. ‘I was hoping I mi
ght be able to talk to him for a while.’
The nurse was sympathetic. ‘I expect he’ll be back here tomorrow. He’s been visiting Mrs Brackley on a fairly regular basis, but we can’t allow anyone to stay with her for more than a short period. She was in a bad way when she first came in here, and she tires easily.’
‘Mrs Brackley?’
‘That’s right. She seems like a pleasant woman, but she hasn’t really been very talkative. We don’t know an awful lot about her, and the boy has been her only visitor so far.’
‘Well, never mind. Perhaps I’ll be able to catch up with him tomorrow.’ Alison gave the nurse a quick smile. ‘Thanks for your help.’
‘You’re welcome.’ The nurse glanced at Alison’s nametag. ‘If I get the chance, I could give you a ring next time he turns up?’
‘Would you? That would be brilliant.’ She wrote her pager number down on a notepad that the nurse handed to her. ‘Thanks—I really appreciate this.’
Alison left the ward and took the lift back down to the ground floor. It was a shame that she had missed Rees, but at least she had moved forward a little. She had discovered that there was someone in his life that he cared about, and that made her feel a bit more cheerful about his situation.
‘Something’s changed. There’s definitely a spring in your step now,’ Josh said, his dark brows lifting as she walked into the restroom. ‘Did you manage to have a chat with the boy?’
She shook her head. ‘I was too late…But I did learn that he’s been visiting someone up there—I’m wondering if it could be his mother…a Mrs Brackley. The nurse didn’t say much—because of confidentiality, I imagine—so I didn’t press her, but apparently the woman is quite ill. Maybe I’ll be able to persuade Rees to tell me more eventually…and then there’s a chance we can begin to help him.’
He studied her thoughtfully. ‘You don’t mean to give up, do you?’ His expression was wry.
‘No. Never. Why would I?’ She sent him an odd look. ‘That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it…? To help one another wherever we can?’ She frowned. ‘Anyway, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about? Something to do with keeping the children amused, you said?’
Hot-Shot Doc, Christmas Bride / Christmas At Rivercut Manor Page 10
