‘Well, Khan, you might have temporarily got your own way over using the new theatre suite but I’m the head of the orthopaedic department,’ Reg was saying, obviously well into a carefully prepared speech. ‘And I’m telling you that you can’t expect to hog any more time in the other theatre rosters. The rest of the surgeons have patients to fit in…patients who have been waiting for the extra operating capacity to come on line, only to have you take it away.’
‘Of course I realise that the timetables will have to be altered, Mr Smythe,’ Razak began patiently, and Lily had no doubt that he would eventually have found some way to calm the man down but there wasn’t time for a lengthy round of hospital politics.
‘Excuse me,’ she interrupted, her hurried strides taking her to their side in a matter of seconds. ‘There’s an urgent phone call for you, Mr Khan. I left the phone off the hook in the anteroom. The caller said his name was Karim and that he’s your brother. He was most insistent—’ She didn’t get any further before Razak was making his hasty apologies to Mr Smythe.
‘I am so sorry, sir, but my father has been unwell and if this is my brother calling then I must take the call. If we could speak later?’ He barely paused long enough for Reg’s grudging nod before he strode away, leaving Lily alone with their department head.
She could almost feel sorry for the man. He’d obviously pumped himself up for the confrontation and was now left without a legitimate target on which to vent his spleen…although the malevolent expression in his eyes told her that he’d very much like to let fly at her.
‘Tell Khan that I’ll be in the staffroom,’ he snapped, and stomped off down the corridor.
Lily was left wondering which way to go. She hardly wanted to follow the department head into the staffroom. By now he was probably regaling anyone who would listen with his grievances. But she could hardly return towards the operating theatres either, or it would look as if she was intent on eavesdropping on Razak’s conversation with his brother.
Even as she hovered indecisively, the senior administrator with whom she’d had her meeting came striding along the corridor towards her.
‘Do you know where I can find Mr Khan?’ he demanded, and the deep pleat between his eyebrows filled her with a sense of foreboding.
‘He’s just taking a phone call,’ Lily said. ‘Do you want me to—?’ She didn’t get any further as the door swung open and Razak strode into view, visibly upset.
‘Ah, Mr Khan,’ the administrator began immediately, obviously wanting to get his unpleasant task over as soon as possible. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. The contractor has just told me there’s going to be a week’s delay before the new theatre suite is ready for final inspection, and until then no operations can be scheduled…so your experiment will have to be delayed.’
‘Mr Wardle, I can’t tell you how delighted I am to hear that!’ Razak exclaimed with an instant lightening of his expression, rendering the man completely speechless. ‘I have just had a phone call to tell me that my father has collapsed and is in hospital. For my own peace of mind I need to visit him but I didn’t see how this could be managed with completion so imminent. Now I can ask for everything to be delayed with a clear conscience. Yes?’
Lily’s thoughts were in turmoil as she stood by silently, an unintentional witness to each announcement.
The news that the completion of the theatre suite was being delayed was annoying because they’d already begun to schedule staff, supplies and patients. It would be time-consuming to reorganise everything, to say nothing of the disappointment of the people who would now have another week or two of waiting and worrying before their suffering could be eased.
She empathised with Razak’s need to visit his father. If it were hers, she would want to be there to see with her own eyes that he was recovering. It was pure serendipity that the disappointing delay would give Razak time to make his journey home, and the fact that her heart felt suddenly hollow at the thought that it could be a week before she saw him again was her own problem.
‘When do you want to go? How long will you need to be away? Who will take over the care of your patients while you are away?’ Ian demanded, the quick-fire list of questions showing the speed of his logical analysis of a situation that made him such an able administrator.
‘My brother assures me that my father is out of surgery and is in as stable a condition as possible at present, but he is not a young man. Therefore, I would like to leave as soon as I can reschedule everything I have booked for the next week. I will brief Geoff Hargrave to take over the continuing care of our cases in my absence.’
That was a blow to Lily’s ego—that her opposite number in Razak’s firm was going to be given complete responsibility. But, then, he’d already been working here for six months and she’d arrived such a short time ago. She could hardly have expected anything else, no matter how well she and Razak had begun to work together.
‘I would hope not to need to be away for more than three or four days, but for safety’s sake…’ He paused for a moment, as though making mental calculations, ‘I would suggest that I sign myself out for exactly a week, then, if I arrive back sooner, I will be able to make myself available for any emergency admissions or I can use the time for administration in the run-up to the implementation of the new system.’
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ Ian offered, the furrows in his forehead gradually smoothing out as his concerns were addressed so logically.
‘I don’t think so,’ Razak said with a frown of his own. ‘I must go and have a word with Mr Smythe in a moment to give him the bad news that the new theatre suite’s completion has been delayed. At least I can also give him the good news that, as my list will be cancelled for a week, he is welcome to make use of my hours. Other than that…Oh, yes! There is something you could do. Could you authorise Dr Langley to be released from her hospital duties for a week?’
‘Me? What…?’ Up till that moment she might as well have been invisible for all the notice the two of them had taken of her. Suddenly she was the focus of both pairs of eyes.
‘The two of us have been working together on a number of the logistical problems involved with the dual theatre system,’ Razak continued swiftly, cutting into any objections she might have made. ‘Also, while the changes were in the planning stages, I had a number of long meetings with Geoff so he already knows exactly what the new system will involve. There has been no such time with Dr Langley because she arrived so recently.’
‘But…’ She must be missing something here. What difference would it make if she had to take a week off work if he was going to be out of the country?
‘Also,’ Razak continued in a more confidential tone, clearly unwilling for his next comments to be overheard by anyone outside their small group. ‘There is the matter of Mr Smythe’s antipathy towards female surgeons and the fact that if she were left to his tender mercies in my absence, she would be quite likely to spend the whole week twiddling her thumbs, shuffling papers and making tea.’
Ian gave a swiftly stifled snort of laughter in response to Razak’s accurate assessment of the possibility then agreed readily to his request.
Lily was stunned by the speed of events as she watched the administrator hurry away from them, back to his own domain.
‘So, Jazz, you are not angry with me?’ Razak asked, with the first hint of uncertainty she’d ever seen in him.
Was she angry with him? Hardly, when she had no idea exactly what he had just let her in for.
‘Should I be?’ she countered. ‘You asked for me to be released from my hospital duties but I’ve no idea what I will be doing. Acting as some sort of liaison while you’re away? That’s hardly—’
‘Ah, no, Jazz. I see you have completely misunderstood. You will be coming with me while I visit my country.’
Lily hoped she wasn’t standing there with her mouth open because she definitely felt as if she was gaping with surprise.
He wanted her to go with him? To travel with him to his country while he visited his father?
Those dark eyes were as intent as ever and once more she had the uncanny feeling that he could read every one of her thoughts.
‘And did you think to ask if I have a passport before you organised my life?’ she challenged softly, nearly chuckling aloud when he looked almost crestfallen. She’d been quite depressed at the thought of all the wheel-spinning she would have to do in the week he was away. This would be far more exciting, to say nothing of the fact that she would be spending so much time with him.
‘I didn’t think of that,’ he admitted, pulling a wry face. ‘I just had the sudden thought that if you were to come with me, not only would we be able to double-check all the arrangements for the new system and get to know each other better but I would also be able to show you the new facility where I’ll be working when I come to the end of my contract here.’
Lily forced herself to ignore the pang of regret that he’d be leaving all too soon and concentrated instead on making the most of the time she would spend with him in the meantime.
‘So, how long do you think it will take to do all the rescheduling and to brief Geoff about the present case load? Will I have time to go home and grab my toothbrush before we go to the airport?’
Watching the smile spread across his face as her words registered was almost like watching the sun come up.
‘Certainly, we will have time to collect your toothbrush. And don’t forget to collect your passport at the same time.’
The door swung open behind them and one of the nurses stuck her head out into the corridor.
‘Are you ready to begin scrubbing?’ she asked. ‘Tim says your next patient’s all checked, sedated and positioned and ready for the knife as soon as you like.’
‘In that case, tell him we’re on our way,’ Razak advised crisply. ‘We just need to scrub and we’ll join him.’ He turned to lead the way towards the small tiled anteroom with the stainless-steel sinks, glancing briefly over his shoulder to ask, ‘So, Jazz, are you ready for the next one?’
‘Which one is it first? The keyhole arthroscopy to remove the joint mouse or the torn cruciate ligament?’ she asked, trying to sound businesslike as she followed his long-legged stride, hoping that her voice didn’t give away just how euphoric she was feeling at the prospect of their trip together. If she was going to be able to keep her mind on the task ahead she was going to have to find a way to ignore the feeling of warmth that spread through her each time he called her Jazz in that husky voice. It would be far too easy to imagine that same voice speaking to her in just that way in far more intimate surroundings, and this was no time for impossible daydreams.
And, anyway, she reminded herself sternly as she rinsed the soap off her hands, careful as ever to make certain that the water drained from fingertip to elbow, she still had a long hard hill to climb before she reached her goal. She had no time to even think about sexy consultants with voices that sent a shiver of arousal right through her body.
Lily was delighted when Razak stepped back during the first operation, allowing her to lead as she probed the patient’s knee for the chip of bone that periodically slid between the surfaces of the joint and prevented him from ‘locking’ the knee to stand and walk.
She was well aware that the view she had down the microscope was being shown simultaneously on a monitor so that Razak could follow what she was seeing and doing. All the time she was expecting him to speak up and offer appropriate advice and criticism, the way her previous mentor had, but when he remained completely silent she found it surprisingly easy to concentrate on what she was doing in spite of the fact that he was standing so close. There was actually a strange sense of security to know that he was there, rather than a feeling of threat that some hypercritical surgeons projected.
Although the second patient’s symptoms were similar to the first, the cause was a little more complicated, with a torn section of the cruciate ligament causing the pain and disability. It took several minutes of fiddly snipping and meticulous retrieval of all the extraneous tissue before she was able to withdraw, ready to close her incisions.
‘Jazz, I could not have done those procedures any better myself,’ Razak announced to the room at large, and Lily’s heart felt as if it turned a complete somersault in her chest at his praise. ‘If you are quite happy to finish in here, I will go to my office and start on my phone calls.’
Lily murmured her agreement but as the doors swung closed behind him, out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the nurses nudge the other and lean close enough to whisper something that had the two of them staring in her direction.
So, the gossip was beginning.
Well, what had she expected? she mused as she positioned the second set of sutures. There had been an understandable groan of disappointment when Razak had entered the theatre after his conversation with the hospital administrator and broken the news about the delay in the completion of the new theatre suite. There had been an audible gasp of shock from several of the theatre staff when he’d followed that with the announcement that Lily would be accompanying him when he flew home to visit his father in hospital.
For a moment she thought about saying something but quickly realised that there was nothing she could say that would stop people from thinking what they wanted. How could they fail to be excited by the juicy titbit that the orthopaedic department’s newest surgeon was going away for a week with its sexiest consultant?
She sighed silently and bit her tongue as she left to strip out of her disposables, glad she could appreciate the irony that the one person who had never done anything gossip-worthy had hit the jackpot without even trying. Thank goodness the whole department knew that the man wasn’t married. At least she wouldn’t be branded as a home-wrecker.
CHAPTER SIX
‘JUST a minute, Khan!’ Reg called across the room as Razak scooped the pile of letters out of his pigeonhole and turned to leave the room again. He muttered something uncomplimentary about the man’s ancestry under his breath, grateful that it was in a dialect that few would understand even in his own country, and turned back to face Reg.
He’d hoped that Ian might have had time to tell the department head about the recent developments and was trying to find a polite way to tell Reg that he really didn’t have the time, energy or inclination for another lengthy round of recriminations, but Reg beat him to it.
‘Before you go sloping off for the day, there are a few things we need to get straight as soon as possible with those new theatres coming into action in the next few days. I’m going to be far too busy to talk in the morning and tomorrow afternoon I’ve got a full session of private patients, so—’
‘I’m sorry, sir. I thought Mr Eardle might have told you,’ Razak interrupted, politeness itself. ‘My father has been taken ill and I will be travelling out to see him in the hospital. So I will not be free for a conversation tomorrow either.’
‘But…what about the new theatre suite?’ Reg demanded, scandalised. ‘You must be here to start work when it’s commissioned. The hospital is arranging for one of the Royals to do some sort of opening ceremony and it would look pretty stupid to do it without the surgeon ready to—’
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Razak interrupted again, fighting a grin. The whole department had heard little else than the fact that Reg would, of course, be the one to escort their exalted guest on the day. Razak had completely forgotten that the date and all the arrangements would now have to be changed, and with the full diaries that most of the members of the royal family maintained, it was unlikely that they would be able to accommodate the hospital. Poor Reg would not be happy to have his moment in the limelight spoiled. ‘The completion date has been extended by a week due to unforeseen circumstances. I will definitely be back in time for the new opening ceremony.’
‘What? Why wasn’t I told?’ he demanded, instantly incensed at the slight on his seniority.
‘P
ossibly because you were busy in Theatre when the contractor told the hospital administrators?’ Razak suggested. ‘There will probably be a memo about it in your pigeonhole.’
‘But…’ For several seconds Reg’s mouth worked without a sound coming out of it, as if he had no idea which tack to take. Unfortunately that state of affairs didn’t last. ‘I still have to decide about the allocation of hours in Theatre,’ he declared pompously. ‘We all have patients on our waiting lists, and we need to know when they can be called for admission.’
‘Well, I’ve notified Administration that I’ll be out of Theatre for the next week, so you’re welcome to appropriate my hours as you see fit,’ Razak offered, unsurprised to see the gleam in the head of department’s eyes that told him he was thinking about the number of private patients he would be able to squeeze in. ‘As for the new suite, initially I will be working one day a week for a five-hour stretch, using the two theatres simultaneously. Of course, the higher number of operations will mean that my consultation hours will be correspondingly greater, as will my follow-ups, so decisions about adding any extra theatre sessions will come later.’
‘So you—’
‘Of course,’ Razak continued hurriedly, conscious that he had far too much to do before he needed to leave for the airport to stand there, debating. ‘That does mean that I won’t be taking up any time at all in the existing theatres unless I’m called on for an emergency outside my usual shifts, so you can allocate those hours as you please.’
He could almost hear the man doing the mathematics in his head. Razak was proposing an allocation of ten hours of theatre time divided between the two new theatres simultaneously. The other surgeons were each allocated three operating sessions per week, each session lasting for three and a half hours.
Sheikh Surgeon, Surprise Bride Page 8
