“I sympathize, but what’ll happen to them in the meantime?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m working on it.”
The corner of the waiting room where she’d previously left the children was empty. “I wonder where they went,” she remarked, before she heard a plaintive voice drifting around the corner where the snack machines stood.
She followed the sound and saw little Cara pressing a finger to the soda machine’s clear glass window. “Can we have that, Timmy? I’m really thirsty.”
“I’ll take you to the water fountain,” her brother answered.
“I’m hungry, too. That looks good.” Cara pointed to something in the snack machine.
“I only have a dollar,” he told her. “You have to pick something you can share with Molly.”
Immediately, Gina tugged Ruark out of sight. “I’m taking them to lunch.”
He nodded. “I had a feeling you would.”
“Do you still want to join me?”
He looked surprised. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“They’re children. They can be messy, not to mention difficult.”
His mouth twitched. “I think I can handle the stress.”
Gina marched toward the trio who were debating the merits of potato chips against candies. “Hi, guys.”
Tim hoisted his little sister to one hip. “How’s Mom?”
“She’s going to be fine,” Gina told him. “But there are a few things we need to talk about. Why don’t you come with me where we won’t be interrupted? This is Dr Ruark Thomas, by the way.”
Ruark said his hellos and shook Tim’s hand and smiled at the two girls before Gina led them to a small room used for private discussions with patients’ family members.
“Your mom is very sick,” she said, noting how Cara sat on Tim’s lap with her thumb in her mouth while Molly sat nearby, hugging an oversized bag to her chest. A scruffy brown teddy bear and a doll peeked out of the top.
“How sick?”
“She’s going to need surgery. Right away.”
“Is that why she fainted?”
“Yes. You see, we all have hemoglobin in our blood which carries the oxygen around our body. If our hemoglobin levels are low, we don’t get enough oxygen circulating and we can pass out. Your mom’s hemoglobin level is at four and it should be over twelve.” She didn’t mention that their mother’s hemoglobin was well past the critical stage, or that if she’d waited any longer before seeking treatment, she could easily have died.
“Why is her hemoglobin so low?” he asked.
“Because she’s been bleeding. Now she needs surgery to fix the problem.”
“And then she’ll be fine?”
“She should be.”
Tim met her gaze, then Ruark’s. His green eyes reflected an age far beyond his tender years. “Does she have cancer?”
“We won’t know for certain until the lab runs all their tests,” Gina said gently. “But let’s not worry about that yet, OK?”
“Is she gonna die?” Molly asked.
“Some people who come to the hospital die,” Gina explained carefully, “but a lot of people don’t. They come here so we can help them get better, which is what we’re going to do for your mother.” She stroked the girl’s hair. “OK?”
Molly nodded.
Gina rose. “The important thing right now is for you three to have lunch.”
Molly’s and Cara’s eyes brightened. Tim frowned. “We’re not hungry.”
Gina suspected he was too proud to admit to the single dollar in his pocket. “Then you can keep us company while we eat. And if you should change your mind, it’ll be my treat.” He hesitated and she sweetened the pot. “By the time we’re finished, your mom should be ready for visitors and I’ll take you to her. But if you’d rather sit in the waiting room until we get back…”
Molly made a noise as she pulled on Tim’s pocket to gain his attention. The silent plea she sent her brother was obvious.
He chewed on his bottom lip before he mumbled, “OK. We’ll go.”
Ruark hadn’t seen Gina interact with children before, but from the way she treated adults, he’d expected her to be a natural with little people, too. And he was right. She handled these three like a nanny he’d once had: kind but firm enough to keep him out of mischief.
“If I hang on to the girls,” she said in a voice meant for his ears only, “can you carry the food?”
After hearing her sound like his old Gina when she could still be treating him like the enemy, he would have agreed to anything. “No problem.”
The girls’ eyes widened at the variety spread out before them. Ruark wondered how they’d ever decide what they wanted before their lunch-hour ended, but Gina steered them toward the more kid-friendly choices.
Cara asked for a hot dog, green beans, chocolate pudding, and a side dish of olives. Molly chose macaroni and cheese, red and green gelatin squares, and fish sticks, while Tim gravitated toward the roast beef special.
Gina tossed a tuna salad sandwich on the tray for herself, along with several apples, cartons of both white and chocolate milk, and cookies. “What’ll you have?” she asked. “I’m buying.”
He grinned. “In that case, toss one of those chicken salad sandwiches on the tray, will you?”
After handing her lunch ticket to the cashier, she herded their group to a table. In less time than Ruark thought possible, the Roy children were wolfing down their meals as if they hadn’t eaten in days. They’d certainly not enjoyed a spread like this before.
“How’s the food?” he asked.
“’Licious,” Cara replied as she poked a green olive on each finger and ate them one at a time.
“It’s really good,” Tim said as he all but licked his plate clean.
As they ate, Ruark listened as Gina chatted with their guests. In the space of thirty minutes he’d learned which schools the kids attended, what grade and which teachers they would have in the fall, their favorite subjects, how they’d spent their summer so far, and that Tim had been hired as a paper carrier three weeks ago.
Gina asked about Cara’s teddy bear—his name was Buster—and Molly’s doll—named Pollyanna after a book she’d read. She’d managed to draw Tim out of his shell long enough to learn his bicycle had a flat tire, and had also coaxed out important family information.
“Your mother told me your grandparents went out of town,” she began.
“Grandpa took Grandma to visit her sister in Arizona,” Tim answered. “They go every year.”
“Grandma says this will probably be the last time, though,” Molly added, “on account of Aunt Tilly has a bad heart.”
“That’s too bad,” Gina commiserated, “but it’s always nice to see people you haven’t seen for a long time. Did they drive or fly?”
Tim grinned. “They drove. Grandpa said if man was supposed to fly, God would have given him wings.”
The woman was wasted as a physician, Ruark decided. She should be part of a terrorist interrogation team. She could extract information without the other person knowing it.
By the end of the meal the little girls were aglow with happiness and Tim…well, the best thing Ruark could say was that Tim watched her with the same awe a normal teenage boy experienced when an attractive older woman paid him attention. His gaze followed Gina’s every move and whenever she asked him a question, he would blush profusely, then stammer an answer.
Gina had three new members in her fan club, and Ruark didn’t blame them a bit. Whenever he saw her, he felt as pleased, awed, and amazed as Tim did, because she was his.
It became far too easy to imagine her sitting at his dining room table surrounded by their children as she cut meat, rescued drinks from tipping over, and wheedled the day’s stories out of them while making each feel important.
She was quite a woman, he thought proudly as he eyed the wide gold band he’d placed on her finger. As ridiculous as it sounded—he would never admit this to anyone—he’d be
forever grateful for the furor Aunt Margret’s journal had caused. All the commotion had brought Gina into his life. Doing his duty had never been this satisfying.
“What’s next on the schedule?” he asked as he and Tim loaded the dirty dishes onto the cafeteria trays.
“We’ll pick up a few snacks for the afternoon and then head upstairs to visit their mother. How does that sound?” she asked as she tucked the apples into Molly’s bag, next to Buster and Polyanna.
“Thanks,” Tim said, “but we won’t need snacks, will we, kids? We’ll be fine until dinnertime.”
Cara frowned and Molly’s smile disappeared, but they both dutifully nodded.
“If you aren’t hungry, say, around three o’clock, then you can save the treats for tomorrow,” Gina said, undaunted by his refusal.
“But you’ve already spent a lot…” Tim began.
“Friends like to do things for their friends,” Gina answered firmly. “A few bags of pretzels or licorice aren’t going to break my bank account. Someday, when you’re grown up and have a successful career, you can do the same for someone else.”
“But—”
“It’s settled,” Gina said, looking as determined as she sounded. “I want to do it, and that’s that.”
Ruark clapped his hand on Tim’s shoulder. “It’s easier to give in than to argue with a woman, especially this one,” he told him. “She doesn’t give up.”
“I do not argue,” she said loftily. “I merely point out the obvious.”
Ruark exchanged a wink with Tim. “See what I mean?”
The boy’s mouth relaxed into a soft smile. “OK, but only for the girls.”
As Gina led her group to the vending machines outside the cafeteria, like a female Pied Piper, Ruark watched her purchase plenty for all three. Before long, Molly’s bag was stuffed full of goodies and they trooped to the elevator that would carry them to the surgical floor.
“I’ll be back in the ER as soon as I deliver them upstairs,” Gina said to him. “I won’t be long.”
“OK.” After saying his goodbyes to the children, he took the stairs and headed for his office. It hadn’t been the lunch he’d planned, but it hadn’t been a waste of time either. He’d seen how unselfishly she gave of herself, just like the other women in his family did. The only difference was that they’d been raised to consider the needs of others as part of their royal responsibilities while Gina did so instinctively and from her heart.
Suddenly something indefinable stirred in his chest. If he were fifteen years younger and less familiar with the games women played, he might be tempted to call it love, but he wasn’t as gullible as he’d once been. He’d given up believing he’d ever experience love for himself, so that couldn’t be what he was feeling.
As he considered all the things he knew and liked about her, he finally had his answer.
It was pure and utter contentment.
CHAPTER NINE
“I’M NOT going home with you tonight, Ruark,” Gina announced after the shift change.
He glanced up from sliding folders into his briefcase. “Excuse me? You’re not coming home?”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t coming home. I said I wasn’t going home. At least not yet,” she explained. “The social worker who’d planned to deliver the Roy children to their neighbor’s house had to leave for a family emergency, so I volunteered. I’m taking my car so Hugh and Joachim will need to go with you.”
After bowing to Ruark’s insistence on security, their daily travel arrangements had involved Hugh accompanying Gina to work in her car with Ruark following several hours later with Joachim. At the end of the day she rode with Ruark and the two bodyguards followed.
Today, however, she’d changed the plans.
“OK,” he said. “We’ll follow you.”
“No!” She was horrified. “I’m not taking an entire entourage to their home. I’m quite capable of finding my way. I managed to drive from point A to point B without a bodyguard all these years.”
“Life is different now. There are risks.”
“Yes, but—”
“I’ll drive you, as always,” he said firmly. “We’ll both take the children home. And you won’t know Hugh and Joachim are there.”
“I didn’t realize that being a princess was synonymous with being a prisoner,” she accused.
“It isn’t,” he insisted. “But did it ever occur to you there may be factions in Avelogne and Marestonia who aren’t happy about our marriage and the peace it brings? There might actually be people who want the two nations at each other’s throats, and are looking for ways to undermine what we’ve done. Harming you comes to mind.”
Her anger and irritation deflated. “I never imagined such a thing,” she admitted.
“I’m not trying to scare you,” he said, “but everyone doesn’t think as we do. Some thrive on creating unrest, which is why I have to insist on appropriate security measures even though we’re relatively safe living so far away. There will come a time when we won’t need to be as vigilant, but it isn’t today.”
“You should have explained this before now,” she retorted, disappointed he hadn’t but finally understanding why he’d insisted on Hugh accompanying her to work each morning. She’d thought it had all been part of the pamper-the-princess routine, but she’d obviously been wrong.
“I should have,” he agreed, “but you had enough adjustments to make and I didn’t want to take away your peace of mind and frighten you to the point where you’re looking over your shoulder all the time.”
“I appreciate what you were trying to do, but it would have been easier if I’d known this from the beginning,” she chided.
“I’m afraid I’m not in the habit of explaining myself,” he said ruefully.
“Then you’ll have to get in the habit where I’m concerned,” she warned.
He smiled. “I see that. In the meantime, as far as matters of security are concerned, I’m asking you to be cautious. Don’t place yourself at undue risk by venturing alone into unfamiliar territory or places where there are a lot of strangers.”
Once again, she found herself accepting a situation she didn’t particularly like. After freely roaming around on her own for years, being curtailed, even if for a good reason, was a difficult pill to swallow. “I won’t,” she promised reluctantly.
“Good.” He closed his briefcase. “While you get the children, I’ll tell Hugh and Joachim of our detour. Do you have the address?”
She gave it to him, hoping he wasn’t familiar enough with the city to realize the Roy family lived in a rough part of town. If he did, he probably wouldn’t allow her within five miles of the place.
“I won’t be long,” she promised, before she hurried upstairs. After allowing the children a final glimpse of their sleeping mother, who’d sailed through her surgery, she ushered them out to the parking lot where Ruark was waiting.
“Is everyone ready?” he asked as he opened the back door of his car and lifted Cara inside.
“Yes,” the little girl chirped. “I been awful quiet so Mama could sleep. Dr Rock, is she supposed to sleep for a long time?”
Gina thought her mispronunciation cute and from Ruark’s smile, he was amused as well. “She is,” he assured her. “But when you see her tomorrow, she’ll be awake.”
“Good.”
Gina watched Ruark buckle the two girls into the safety seats they’d borrowed from the Pediatrics Department, and as soon as Tim squeezed in beside them, they were off.
“Should we stop for dinner?” Ruark asked her in a low voice.
“The neighbor, Mrs Klimus, said she’d have dinner ready.” She pointed to the next intersection. “Turn right.”
While Cara and Molly chattered away in the backseat, Gina noticed Ruark’s expression harden as they drove farther into the poor neighborhood. She also didn’t miss how often he glanced into the rear-view mirror, as if checking on Hugh and Joachim’s whereabouts.
At long last
Molly cried out, “There’s our street!”
Ruark made a final turn into a road that sported more potholes than flat places, then stopped in front of a weathered pink duplex bearing the number Gina had memorized. “We’re here,” he said cheerfully, although he cast a glance at Gina that promised retribution.
In the blink of an eye the children scampered out of the car and rushed up the cracked and uneven sidewalk.
Ruark grabbed Gina’s elbow. “Do not, I repeat, do not, wander off,” he ground out in a voice meant for her ears only.
“I won’t.” Although she wanted to explain that she hadn’t realized this part of town had deteriorated to this extent, he plainly wasn’t in the mood to listen.
Mrs Klimus, who lived on the other side of the duplex, opened the door and welcomed them in with a wide smile on her wrinkled face. She was a portly woman in her sixties and her home, although shabby, was spotless, with the aroma of something tasty drifting out of the kitchen.
“Oh, you poor, poor dears,” she said as she hugged Molly and Cara. “Well, not to worry. Your mother’s going to be fine.” She glanced at Gina for confirmation.
“Yes, she will be,” Gina answered, pleased the woman was apparently a good friend of the family. She didn’t know what she would have done if they’d delivered them to a house where they weren’t welcomed.
“Perfect.” The woman beamed. “And don’t you worry about these three either. They’re practically my own grandchildren.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Gina said.
“We hate to run,” Ruark said smoothly, “but we have another engagement this evening.”
“Of course, of course. It was delightful meeting you,” Mrs Klimus said as she ushered them to the door. “Come back and visit anytime. My door is always open.”
Outside, Ruark took her arm again. “Ruark, please,” she protested. “I’m quite capable of walking without your help.”
“I know you are, but stay behind me,” he said.
She glanced at him and noticed his expression had turned grim. “What’s wrong?”
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