by Joanna Neil
‘Ah...yes, that’s very true. I was nine years old and fell from the roof of an old outbuilding near to the Manor House. One of the gardeners found me unconscious on the ground.’ He frowned. ‘Apparently, my mother was beside herself with worry back then... She stayed with me through two nights, thinking that I might not make it.’
Sophie was concerned for Nate. ‘That must have made a lasting impression on you.’ It must be one of the last major memories he had of his mother. She’d been killed in a car accident a few months later.
‘My accident was the reason I wanted to study medicine. I was so impressed, even at that young age, by the way the doctors and nurses looked after me. I was convinced I had to be able to save lives the same way they saved mine. But my mother’s death coming so soon afterwards—the car accident that killed her—was horrendous. It was such a shock. It had a tremendous impact on me and it’s something I’ve struggled to come to terms with over the years...in order to carry on.’
She nodded, understanding. Sophie was almost four years younger than Nate, but even back then, as a little girl, she’d been aware of Nate’s unhappiness, the way he’d withdrawn into himself. Now, as an adult, she could still feel terrible sadness for that vulnerable little boy.
‘I can’t imagine how any child could handle something like that.’
He made a brief faint smile. ‘As I recall, you were very gentle and caring with me over the next few years. You talked to me and tried to bring me out of myself. I appreciate that, even now.’
‘I’m glad if I was some help.’
She prepared herself as the injured child was wheeled into the side ward. He was deathly pale, breathing oxygen through a tube that had been inserted in his windpipe, and there were tubes and wires connecting him to equipment and monitors used in the transfer.
Immediately, she did a quick but thorough examination. ‘Tracey, will you do fifteen-minute observations, please?—limb movement, pupils, blood pressure, temperature and verbal response and so on. We’ll need to monitor intracranial pressure. A small blood clot might resolve on its own, but if the swelling gets worse he’ll have to go up to Theatre to have it removed, so everyone needs to be looking out for that.’
‘I’ll see to it.’ Tracey started on the first round of observations, noting the results in the patient’s chart.
Sophie and Nate went to talk to the parents. They were sitting in the waiting room with Hannah, still very upset, but they were calm enough to recount the incident.
‘I carried him to the ambulance,’ his father said. ‘He was bleeding from his ear and he was so quiet and limp in my arms. I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen to him.’
Stressed, Josh’s mother clasped her fingers together. ‘We’re still in shock,’ she said.
‘It’s a difficult time for you,’ Sophie agreed. ‘But I promise you we’re doing everything we can to make sure he’s comfortable.’
‘Is he...is he going to be brain damaged?’ The father voiced what both parents must be thinking.
‘I wish I could give you definitive answers,’ Sophie said, ‘but it isn’t possible just now. The healing process takes time but he’s young, and young people have remarkable powers of recovery. We have to be patient and wait and let nature do its work.’
‘Dr Trent is very experienced in looking after children with these types of injuries,’ Nate said, and Sophie absorbed his comment in surprise. Had he checked up on her qualifications? As the new locum consultant, he would probably have access to staff records. Or maybe the head of the unit had told him all about her. ‘We’ll let you know about his progress every step of the way,’ Nate added. ‘You’ll be able to sit with him as soon as we have him settled, and we can arrange overnight accommodation in a room close by if one or both of you want to stay with him.’
‘Thank you...thank you so much.’ Josh’s mother wiped away a tear. ‘He’s so tiny. I can’t believe this is happening.’
They talked for a little while longer, and then Sophie and Nate left them in Hannah’s care. The nurse would take them along to see their son in a few minutes.
Sophie spent the rest of the afternoon making sure that Josh’s condition remained stable and that her other small charges were being looked after. She scanned lab reports and dictated her notes and then handed over to the doctor who was coming on duty to take her place.
‘Are you off home now?’ Nate asked, coming after her and watching her retrieve her bag from her locker. ‘I expect you have plans for the evening?’ He didn’t ask her about Jake, but somehow she guessed that was on his mind. He just wouldn’t believe that Jake was only a friend...
‘Yes, I do, but I have to go and walk Charlie and pick up a few bits from the shops first of all,’ she said. ‘Aren’t you about due to finish your shift too?’
He nodded. ‘I’m just going to stay and tidy up a few loose ends before I go. I’ll walk with you to your car, though, if that’s all right. I could do with a breath of fresh air.’
‘That’s fine.’ They left the hospital together, walking out through the landscaped gardens to the car park beyond. All around them, stretching far into the distance, they could see the beautiful Devon moorland.
Nate took a moment to take it in as they came to stand by her car. ‘I love this county,’ he said, looking around. ‘Whenever I’ve been away, no matter where I am in the world, I always want to come back here.’
‘It’s a wonderful place to live,’ she agreed. ‘I’m certainly glad I came back to the village.’ She glanced at Nate, a small line creasing her brow. ‘Your ancestral home is here, though, isn’t it? How’s that going to work out for you? Will the Manor House be safe, with everything that’s been happening? You haven’t really said anything about how you’re going to be affected by all this.’
‘I think the house at least should be secure,’ he said. ‘My father hasn’t mentioned any problem with it.’
‘But the estate is at risk, isn’t it?’ she persisted. ‘I know you don’t like to think about it, but the stories in the papers aren’t unfounded, are they? Is there any chance that your father will sell up?’
His shoulders moved stiffly. ‘He was approached by a would-be buyer—Peninsula Holdings—some time ago. He was considering their offer, but then he had his heart attack and everything’s been put on hold. He’s handed all the business dealings over to me, and I have to make a decision soon, but I still need to make up my mind on the best course of action.’
Sophie frowned. ‘I’ve heard of that company,’ she said, suddenly uneasy. ‘They’re a business conglomerate, aren’t they—a company that likes to pull down properties and build hotels in their place?’
‘It’s true—they’re a company generally interested in development, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’ll want to knock down the cottages on the estate. They might prefer to keep up the tenancies.’
‘Really?’ She raised a brow at that. ‘From what I’ve heard of their other operations, if they do that they’re quite likely to put up the rents—to a level that people can’t afford.’ Perhaps her father had been right to be worried all along.
‘The rents are quite low, and have been for some time,’ Nate said calmly. ‘There was some talk of offering people the opportunity to buy their properties rather than rent.’
‘My father wouldn’t be able to do that.’ Sophie shook her head, making her honey-gold curls dance. ‘And I’m not sure I’m in a position to do that right now either. I’d need to come up with a substantial deposit, and that won’t be easy at the moment. I’ve been doing what I can to help out Jessica—she needed funds when they bought the house—and now I’m helping my father. He’s having private physio treatment at the moment, and that doesn’t come cheap.’
She frowned. ‘Is this development company going to put me out of a home, along with all the rest? C
an’t you do something to put this right, Nate?’ Her blue eyes pleaded with him. ‘There are too many people who stand to have their lives turned upside down the way things are at the moment.’
‘You don’t have any need to worry, Sophie. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.’
‘No?’ She looked at him uncertainly. ‘What could you do to make this go away?’
He smiled, a compelling, enticing smile that made her insides quiver with excitement and longing. He slipped his hands around her waist and drew her to him. ‘You could always come and live with me at the Manor House. You could have anything you want there. You know I’ve always wanted to keep you close.’
He lightly caressed the curve of her hips and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her into the shelter of his long, hard body.
Her mind fragmented, her willpower crumbling as she felt the heat emanating from him, felt the powerful muscles of his thighs against her legs. ‘I’ve always wanted you, Sophie,’ he whispered.
A pulse throbbed in her temple, and a wave of heat ran through her from head to toe. Her wilful body was saying yes, yes, please to the temptation of being with him, locked in his seductive embrace, but the sensible part of her mind was telling her this was madness. What was she thinking of, letting him coax her this way?
‘I can’t,’ she said huskily. ‘There’s just too much water under the bridge with us, Nate—you know that.’ She closed her eyes briefly at the thought. ‘Plus, my father would have a stroke.’
‘Ah... I wouldn’t want that to happen,’ Nate murmured. ‘But maybe you could bear my offer in mind...for some time in the future, perhaps? There is still something between us; I can feel it...’
She pushed against his chest with the flat of her hand. ‘I think that’s highly unlikely,’ she said.
‘Maybe.’ A smile played around his mouth. ‘But, like you said, I’ve always been an optimist.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘OH, THAT’S GOOD to see. He’s feeding much better now, Mandy.’ Sophie watched in awe as the tiny infant lay in his mother’s arms, suckling hungrily at the bottle of milk formula she was holding. He was wrapped tenderly in a beautiful super-soft Merino wool shawl. Alfie’s eyes were wide open, the deepest blue, and he looked up at his mother with perfect trust.
A lump formed in Sophie’s throat. She worked with babies and children all the time, but would she ever experience that profound joy of holding her own baby close to her heart? It was a difficult question to answer. The father of her baby would have to be the one and only man for her, the love of her life, because after the disasters that had occurred in her family she didn’t want to make the same mistakes they’d made. She wanted a relationship that would stand the test of time...but was that going to be possible?
She closed her eyes briefly. Nate would make a wonderful father... She could see him holding their child in his arms...holding the baby against his bare chest. Unbidden, the image came through in startling clarity, along with a rush of heat that suffused her whole body. Nate was everything she was looking for in a man. He could turn her blood to flame with a single glance and just thinking about him in that way caused a wave of dizziness to engulf her. It could never be...he would never settle, and he wouldn’t choose to spend his life with her, the daughter of a man who had worked for his father, would he? How could she contemplate such a thing? She must be out of her mind, even thinking along those lines!
She’d do far better to concentrate on the job in hand, wouldn’t she? Chiding herself inwardly, she straightened, finished checking up on her tiny charges and with a new, brisk determination left the Neonatal Unit and went to look in on the rest of her young patients on the Children’s Ward. Thankfully, Nate was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t think she could cope with having him around just now.
‘He’s gone up to the Coronary Care Unit to see his father,’ Hannah said when Sophie came across her a little later on. The young nurse frowned, pushing back a stray lock of chestnut-coloured hair. ‘They were aiming to get Lord Branscombe out into the rehabilitation garden this morning but he wasn’t well enough, apparently. He’s been very breathless lately.’
‘I’m sorry to hear it.’ Sophie frowned. ‘Nate must be very worried.’
Hannah nodded. ‘He is.’ She’d obviously been talking to Nate quite a bit lately. That was the way with him—he got on well with everyone, and the nurses especially had taken to him. Did he return their interest? Sophie wasn’t at all happy with the way her thoughts were going—it was quite possible that he would start dating any pretty girl who caught his eye... Wasn’t that warning enough that she should steer clear of accepting Nate as anything other than a colleague? Her stomach churned uneasily.
She left Hannah after a minute or so and went to look through the patients’ files in the wire trolley by the desk, searching for five-year-old Josh’s notes. She and the rest of the team were worried about the little boy’s head injury and she wanted to check up on his medication and observation chart. A further CT scan this morning showed there was a very slow bleed beneath the skull bones and the pressure inside his head was rising.
Looking at the little boy this morning had left her feeling worried. Pale and unmoving, his fair hair tousled against the pillow, he’d seemed incredibly vulnerable and her heart turned over at the sight of him. If the medication didn’t resolve the problem, she would have to do something fairly soon to prevent a dangerous downturn in his condition.
‘Hi there, Sophie.’ Jake walked towards her and greeted her, smiling. ‘I’ve been looking for you.’
Surprised to see him, she gave him a quick answering smile. As a hospital manager, he spent most of his time in his office, so she hadn’t expected him to venture down here. He wasn’t an impulsive man. ‘Hello, Jake. Is everything okay?’
‘Yes, absolutely fine.’ He nodded. ‘On the face of it, I’m down here looking for Tracey. I need to ask her to try out a new batch of disposable syringes—but I was hoping to see you. I wanted to tell you that I won’t be able to come with you to the village fête on Saturday, after all.’
‘Oh, that’s a shame.’
‘It is.’ He looked genuinely downcast. ‘I’m sorry—I was really looking forward to spending the day with you, but I have to go and talk to a couple of people I used to work with in Cornwall. They’ve been trying out a new supplier for things like cannulas and rubber gloves—equipment we use all the time—and they’ve supposedly made a huge saving in their hospital budget. I’m thinking of using the same supplier here, but I want to know how their trial went before I do that. Saturday’s the only day we can all meet up.’
‘That’s all right. Don’t worry about it.’ She made an impish grin. ‘I’ll have Charlie for company. I dare say he’ll drag me through all the mud in the playing field before we get to the enclosure where the dog show’s taking place.’
‘Playing field?’ He lifted a brow. ‘Oh, you don’t know about the change of venue, then?’
‘It’s not going to be at the school?’ She shook her head. ‘No, I haven’t heard anything...but then, I’ve been very busy lately, with one thing and another.’
‘The school had to cry off—the mobile classroom unit is being delivered ahead of time, so the headmaster asked around to see if any other organisation could offer a field. Nate Branscombe stepped in and told the committee they could use the grounds of the Manor if they wanted. There’ll be marquees if the weather turns bad, or the old stable block—it was a better alternative than the village common, by all accounts. Anyway, they’re busy putting up notices all over the village.’
‘Oh, I see.’ That had come as a bit of a shock. She wasn’t sure how she felt about spending the day in the grounds of the Manor. She studied Jake thoughtfully. ‘How do you know all this—you’re not on the committee, are you?’
He shook his head. ‘Nate told Hannah and
she told Tracey... You know how the grapevine works.’
‘Hmm.’ Apparently it didn’t extend as far as Sophie, but in this instance that might be because they were worried about how she’d feel about going to an event at the home of her father’s arch-enemy. They were probably right to have their doubts...but most likely they were waiting to tell her at the last minute.
‘Is it going to be difficult for you?’ Jake had picked up on her thoughts. Certainly, her father would be annoyed if she went there—he was already in a grumpy mood after she’d told him she was working with Nate, but she didn’t see how she could get out of going to the event when she’d been roped in to open the proceedings on behalf of this year’s charity—the Children’s Unit.
‘I think my biggest problem will be telling Dad,’ she told him. ‘He’s already upset because Peninsula Holdings have sent out men to conduct land surveys on the estate—the tenancies could all be at risk—so any dealings I have with the Branscombes are likely to set him off.’
‘Oh, dear.’ Jake put an arm around her and gave her a hug. ‘It’s going to take a while for him to get over this latest blow, isn’t it?’
‘I think so, yes.’ She nodded, comforted by the brief hug, until she looked up and saw with a faint shock that Nate had come into the room and was watching them, his green eyes assessing their clinch with obvious suspicion.
‘Something wrong?’ he asked.
Sophie eased herself away from Jake and braced her shoulders. ‘Nothing I can’t handle,’ she said.
‘That’s always good to hear.’ He studied Jake, his expression taut. ‘Is there something we can do for you, Jake?’
Jake took a step backwards as if he was getting ready to move away. ‘No, no... I’m looking for Tracey—I need her to road-test some equipment I’ve ordered from a new supplier. Trying to save money wherever, you know...’
‘She’s taken a child down to X-ray,’ Nate said curtly. ‘I expect she’ll be on her way back from there by now.’
