A Very Special Surgeon

by Laura MacDonald

  ‘How did you know I was here?’ Suddenly she was angry that he should have come here to this private place, the place where she was striving to restore her peace of mind when it had been he who had been responsible for destroying that peace in the first place.

  ‘I went to the house,’ he said. ‘I saw Aunt Bessie and she told me I would find you here.’

  ‘She had no right to tell you that,’ Kate began, still angry, irritated even by his reference to Aunt Bessie—as if he still had the right to call her that. ‘I wanted to be on my own.’

  ‘Kate, please.’ He reached out his hand but she ignored it, turning back to her contemplation of the corn and the bright splashes of scarlet from the poppies that edged a pathway through the centre of the field. ‘Please, tell me what I’m supposed to have done.’

  ‘What you are supposed to have done?’ Incredulously she half turned to him again. ‘Well, if you don’t know…!’ she said in exasperation.

  ‘Kate…’ He spread his hands. ‘I have no idea, really I don’t. The last time we were together everything was wonderful between us and then this afternoon you tell me we are finished. Can you explain why?’

  Kate stared at him. ‘You really think,’ she said slowly, carefully, considering each word, ‘that you and I can carry on seeing each other?’

  ‘I can’t see why not.’ He frowned.

  ‘Well, let’s just consider for a moment. If I was to agree to that,’ said Kate, struggling to remain calm, ‘which I hasten to add that I’m not, but let’s suppose I did and we carried on seeing one another, no doubt secretly this time—’

  ‘Why secretly?’ He looked bewildered now.

  ‘Presumably even you wouldn’t want your wife finding out that you were having an affair behind her back,’ she retorted.

  ‘My wife?’ he protested. ‘I don’t have a wife.’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘Kate!’ He interrupted her, then took a deep breath. ‘Can we start from the beginning, please? Somewhere along the line you have lost me.’

  ‘OK.’ She shrugged.

  ‘So tell me first, please, why did you tell me it was all over between us?’

  ‘Because of Jennifer,’ she replied.

  ‘Jennifer? What’s she got to do with anything?’

  ‘Tom, please.’ Kate held up her hands, the gesture one of helpless despair. ‘This is getting ridiculous. There is simply no way that I can continue having a relationship with you now that you and Jennifer are getting back together again.’

  He stared at her. ‘Me and Jennifer getting—?’

  ‘Yes, Tom,’ Kate interrupted him, ‘and before you say any more I’d just like to say that I understand why you are doing it. I know what it will mean to your children, especially Francesca, and I wouldn’t want to be the one to prevent that from happening. But you have to understand that there can be no more between us. In fact, I’m amazed and annoyed to think that you should even think such a thing could be possible—’

  ‘Whoa! Hold on!’ Reaching out, he took her wrists, imprisoning them. ‘Stop, Kate, please. Right there. Now,’ he said when she stopped her tirade and he had her attention again, ‘where on earth did you get the idea that Jennifer and I were getting back together again?’

  ‘Siobhan told me,’ she said.

  ‘And who told Siobhan?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows.

  ‘Francesca.’

  ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘And did she happen to say where Francesca had got this idea from?’

  ‘Yes.’ Kate frowned. ‘Siobhan told me that Francesca had overheard a conversation between you and Jennifer and that she’d heard her mother say that she thought that now was the right time for you all to get back together again or something like that. But, whatever it was, she heard it, Tom.’

  ‘She may well have heard her mother’s side of that particular conversation,’ said Tom, ‘but she certainly didn’t hear mine.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Kate stared at him, almost oblivious now to the fact that he still had hold of her wrists, so intent was she on hearing what he was saying.

  ‘It was on the phone,’ Tom replied, ‘and Francesca was with her mother.’

  ‘But did Jennifer say those things—that she still loved you and that you should try again?’

  ‘Yes,’ he admitted, ‘she did. But it was at a time when she was extremely upset. Max had just walked out on her—I told you all about that.’

  ‘Yes.’ Kate nodded. ‘Yes, you did.’

  ‘And I also told you that this has happened before?’

  She nodded again.

  ‘Jennifer always seeks me out when things are going wrong,’ said Tom. ‘I’m a sort of safety net for her, if you like—or rather, I have been in the past. This time things were different.’

  ‘Why?’ Her voice was barely more than a whisper as she stared at him.

  ‘Because this time I had you,’ he said simply. ‘When she started making her usual demands and suggestions about us trying again for the sake of the children, and that deep down it was really me she had loved all along, I cut her short and told her that this time things had changed, that I’d met you and fallen in love with you. I also told her that the love I had once felt for her had died a long time ago and it would be pointless to try and resurrect it.’

  ‘What did she say?’ asked Kate faintly.

  ‘She hung up on me,’ he replied. ‘But she’ll get over it, Kate. I know she will. Just as I know that in no time at all she and Max will be back together again.’

  ‘You think so?’ she asked dubiously.

  ‘I’d stake my life on it,’ he said. ‘So you needn’t go feeling guilty in any way, thinking that you are preventing my children from seeing their parents get back together again. It isn’t going to happen, Kate. It never was, not in the past because of Jennifer’s feelings for Max, and not now because of my feelings for you.’

  Kate stared at Tom, almost unable to believe what he was saying, and then slowly it began to dawn on her how she had misjudged him. ‘Oh, Tom,’ she said helplessly, ‘I’m so sorry. I should have trusted you. It’s just that the thing I had dreaded seemed to be happening right under my nose.’

  ‘What had you been dreading?’ he asked, his expression mystified.

  ‘That it was Jennifer you loved all along and that really you were just waiting for her to come back to you.’

  ‘Kate—it was never like that,’ he said softly. ‘I stopped loving Jennifer a long time ago.’

  ‘Oh, Tom,’ she whispered, ‘can you ever forgive me?’

  ‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ he said lightly. ‘I would probably have felt exactly the same if it had been the other way round.’

  ‘It was just that Siobhan said Francesca seemed so sure…And, Tom, she was so excited. Why, even this morning she spoke to Siobhan and said that her mother had told her that you were all going to live together again. Why would she tell Francesca something like that?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe she thought by telling Francesca it would get back to you and destroy the love we have. Jennifer does have a very jealous streak and she wouldn’t be able to cope with our happiness, especially now when she is on her own. Or perhaps she thought she could talk me round,’ he added grimly. ‘But even if she could and we got back together, it would only be until she decided it was all a big mistake. I can see I need to have another word with Jennifer,’ he went on. ‘She must understand she is not to say such things to the children when there is no likelihood of them happening.’

  ‘Poor Francesca,’ said Kate. ‘How must she be feeling now?’

  ‘Leave Francesca to me,’ said Tom. ‘I’ll talk to her and I think you will find she will come round in no time at all. She loves the time we all spend together and I think she would have been pretty upset if all that had come to an end.’

  ‘That’s what Siobhan was worried about,’ said Kate, ‘and about the fact that she might no longer see Joe.’

  ‘Kate.’ Still holding her
hands, he looked down into her eyes. ‘I think we need to be more certain about the future when we talk to the children. Let’s face it, they do tend to like to have everything cut and dried, don’t they?’

  ‘Well, they certainly like to feel secure,’ Kate agreed. ‘I dare say Francesca was feeling insecure because of her mother’s volatile relationship and because she knows you are alone. I know she hates that because she told Siobhan once…’

  ‘Maybe now is the time, then, to tell her that I won’t be alone any longer and that soon she will be part of another, bigger family. What do you think?’

  Kate was aware that her heart had started to thump rather loudly. ‘I think,’ she said, hoping Tom couldn’t hear it, ‘that might certainly help…’

  ‘In that case, my darling Kate, will you marry me?’ Taking her face between his hands, he gazed into her eyes. ‘You don’t need to give me an answer now. This must have come as a bit of a shock to you and it wasn’t at all how I’d planned it—it was meant to be champagne and our special hotel. But, please, at least will you promise me that you will think about it?’

  ‘I don’t need time to think about it,’ she said softly, reaching up and gently kissing the corner of his mouth. ‘I love you, Tom, and knowing you feel the same way about me is enough.’

  ‘You mean…?’ His face flushed with pleasure for a moment, making him appear vulnerable, boyish even, and Kate’s heart went out to him. To think that this man, her boss and Ellie’s rather serious-minded consultant obstetrician, should have such a tender, caring side to him. But, then, hadn’t she always suspected that there was rather more to Tom Fielding than met the eye? With a little sigh of utter happiness she parted her lips for his kiss.

  ‘Well, I thought it all went rather well, didn’t you?’ Tom smiled at Kate across the sun lounge at Kingfishers while from outside the shouts and laughter of the children indicated they were enjoying themselves in the swimming pool. During the last two days he and Kate had set about telling people of their future plans. They had told their children when they’d all been together, then each of them had spent time alone with their own children, then with each other’s children. They had been very careful not to underestimate Joe and Francesca’s feelings for their mother or Siobhan and Connor’s for Liam.

  Predictably it had been Francesca who had been the most wary. ‘Where will we live?’ had been her first question.

  ‘You will continue to live with your mother,’ Tom had replied patiently, ‘but you can come to us at Kingfishers as often as you like.’

  ‘It’ll be great!’ Siobhan had said, her eyes shining.

  ‘Will I be able to swim in the pool?’ Connor had asked.

  ‘Every day if you like,’ Tom had replied.

  ‘If we’re going to live with Tom, what about Aunt Bessie?’

  Suddenly the reality of the situation seemed to hit Siobhan and she voiced the fear that had been uppermost in Kate’s mind ever since Tom had asked her to marry him. Aunt Bessie had been so good to her and to the children since Liam’s death and the last thing in the world she wanted to do was to leave her alone now at Copse End just when she had got used to them all living there. They had even considered Tom moving in there, but that would have posed a problem when Joe and Francesca came to stay because there wasn’t really enough room.

  In the end the problem solved itself. When Tom and Kate went together to tell Aunt Bessie, she proceeded to tell them that she would be offering the upstairs apartment to her friend Dorothy, who had to look for alternative accommodation. ‘So, dears,’ she said, her face beaming, ‘you mustn’t worry about me. I will be just fine. The children can still come to me after school, and Copse End will always be here for you, Kate, just as I said it would. All the two of you have to do is to be happy.’

  Needless to say, Natalie echoed Aunt Bessie’s sentiments when Kate broke the news to her, albeit in a rather more robust way.

  ‘Yes!’ she cried. ‘I knew it. Oh, Kate, that’s brilliant! I’m so, so happy for you!’

  And now, as Kate looked at Tom and her heart suffused with love for him, she couldn’t quite believe that it was happening, that she was being given yet another chance at happiness. But it was happening and the reality was right there as he reached out and took her hand.

  ‘Happy?’ he said.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she replied with a little sigh, ‘so very, very happy. Are you?’ she added anxiously.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘although…’

  ‘Although what?’ She sat up a little straighter and stared at him, concerned now that there might be some other problem they hadn’t considered.

  ‘I would be even happier if you were to come back later this evening,’ he said softly.

  ‘Really, Mr Fielding,’ she said with mock severity, ‘are you suggesting what I think you might be suggesting?’

  ‘I don’t know, Sister Ryan,’ he replied solemnly. ‘I was merely thinking we could perhaps start planning the details of our wedding, that’s all.’

  ‘Oh, well, that’s all right, then,’ said Kate with a low chuckle. ‘For one moment there I thought you might have been suggesting something altogether different.’

  ‘Heavens,’ he replied, squeezing her hand, ‘I don’t know whatever gave you that idea. So…’ He paused and his gaze sought and held hers. ‘What time do you think you could come back?’

  ‘Shall we say nine o’clock?’ she said softly.

  ‘Nine o’clock it is,’ he replied.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5781-1

  A VERY SPECIAL SURGEON

  First North American Publication 2004

  Copyright © 2004 by Laura MacDonald

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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