The Consultant's Italian Knight

by Maggie Kingsley

  Really well, he decided, as he reached for his cup of coffee and his glance fell on the phone. He’d put Jason and Richard on a round-the-clock rotation watch of Kate’s flat and they’d confirmed she was staying home as he’d ordered, so there was no need for him to speak to her. No need at all, especially when the one time he had phoned her she’d subjected him to an earful then put the phone down on him.

  Yup, everything was just great. Kate might be furious, but at least she was safe, and as for him not seeing her or talking to her…It meant he could get on with his work, get his own life back together again, instead of wasting time babysitting a cranky consultant.

  Except…

  Dio, but he missed her. Missed her ready laugh and her flashing grey eyes, but he had to stop missing her. Relationships didn’t work, not for him. Even on his wedding day he’d known he was making a mistake. Known he should have stopped it, but he’d gone ahead, and been forced to watch the love in Sue’s eyes gradually being replaced by hurt and bitterness during their short marriage, and Kate deserved better than that. She deserved a man who could commit, a man who would be there for her, not a man who hadn’t been whole for a very long time.

  ‘Is that last night’s dinner, or today’s lunch?’ Ralph Evanton asked, as he came into the office carrying a sheaf of folders and caught sight of the remains of some chicken madras congealing in a styrofoam container on the edge of Mario’s desk.

  ‘Can’t remember,’ Mario replied. ‘And if you’ve come in here simply to bitch at me,’ he continued as his detective sergeant shook his head at him, ‘you can turn right around and walk out again.’

  ‘Proper little ray of sunshine these days, aren’t you?’

  ‘Ralph…’

  ‘OK—OK.’ His detective sergeant grinned. ‘Di Angelis, Faranelli and Mackay are still going about their daily lives as though they haven’t got a care in the world.’

  ‘And Hamilton’s cutter?’ Mario said, staring unseeing at his computer screen. ‘Has he talked yet?’

  ‘Not a squeak. My guess is he’s more frightened of the big boys than he is of us sending him down for a long stretch.’

  ‘Which means Kate is still our only witness.’ Mario sighed. ‘And if this ever gets to court—which I have to say I’m seriously beginning to doubt—the defence will make mincemeat of her evidence. They’ll say she can’t possibly remember names given to her while she was trying to save a dying man’s life, and that will be that. Case dismissed.’

  ‘But somebody took a shot at her,’ Ralph declared. ‘Surely that must count for something?’

  ‘Not when the bullet could have been fired by anyone,’ Mario replied. ‘It’s not looking good, Ralph, not good at all. In fact, the only thing I’m happy about is knowing Kate is safe at home.’

  ‘Um…You might want to rethink that one,’ Ralph observed uncomfortably, and Mario swung round fast in his seat.

  ‘Dio mio, if she’s gone back to work against my express orders—’

  ‘She hasn’t gone back to work,’ Ralph interrupted, ‘but Jason and Richard…They’ve both requested transfers. Actually what they said was you can assign them to the schools’ drug programme for the duration for all they care, but they just can’t watch over her any more. If she’s not attempting to sneak past them, she’s chewing their ears off for keeping her under surveillance.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Look, Jason and Richard have done their best,’ Ralph exclaimed as he watched his boss unhook his leather jacket from the back of his chair. ‘It isn’t their fault.’

  ‘I know it isn’t,’ Mario replied grimly. ‘It’s Kate. The only language that blasted woman understands is if you give it to her with both barrels.’

  ‘OK, I’ll go round to her place, have a word with her,’ Ralph said, and Mario shook his head.

  ‘I’ll go. She’ll just run rings round you.’ He yanked opened the office door only to suddenly realise his detective sergeant was staring at him with a particularly annoying expression on his face. ‘What?’ he demanded. ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Ralph replied. ‘Nothing at all.’

  Mario stood in the centre of Kate’s living room, his face livid with anger.

  ‘Do you have any idea how much trouble you are causing by your refusal to obey one single, simple order?’ he demanded, and Kate gazed back at him, as bright and shining as the mid-August sunshine and completely unrepentant.

  ‘Mario, I’m going nuts cooped up in here.’

  ‘Would anybody notice?’ he exclaimed.

  ‘Oh, very clever,’ she said. ‘If I watch any more daytime soaps I’ll be certified as brain dead.’

  ‘Better certified as brain dead than actually dead,’ he threw back at her, trying hard not to notice that she looked just as gorgeous as he’d imagined she would with her hair lying loose on her shoulders. ‘Kate, you are in danger. D-A-N-G-E-R.’

  ‘You don’t know that for sure,’ she protested. ‘In fact, the more I’ve thought about it, the more rational it seems to me that you were the target.’

  ‘Kate—’

  ‘Think about it, Mario. You’re a drugs squad cop, I’m a doctor. I might irritate some people—’

  ‘Put me at the top of that list.’

  ‘But how realistic is it that somebody would want to kill me?’

  ‘Continue to badger my men the way you’ve been doing, and I’ll kill you!’ he exclaimed. ‘Kate, I had to take Jason and Richard off other important cases to protect you, and how have you repaid them? By constantly trying to sneak past them to get back to the unit and when they try to stop you, you chew them out in the street—using language, I might add, that would make a docker blush—and all because you’re a little bored.’

  ‘I’m not a little bored, Mario,’ she said. ‘I’m wall-climbing, head-banging bored. Nothing has happened to me—’

  ‘Only because you’ve stayed indoors.’ His forehead pleated as he caught sight of a pile of oddly shaped parcels heaped at the side of her sofa. ‘What’s all this?’

  ‘You told me to surf eBay, so I did. I’ve bought three lamps, four pairs of shoes, two sweaters and a coat. If I stay home much longer I’ll be bankrupt.’

  And he was going to have some very severe words with Jason and Richard, Mario decided grimly, as he stared down at the packages. Any one of those parcels could contain explosives, and yet neither Jason nor Richard had examined them before allowing them to be delivered.

  ‘Kate, listen to me. I…’

  He stopped abruptly. She’d uncurled herself from the sofa and stood up and, Dio, but the jeans she was wearing were hip-hugging. Extremely hip-hugging, and the way her blue sweater was clinging to her breasts…

  ‘…if it was you?’ she said, and he shook his head to clear it.

  ‘If it was me what?’ he asked.

  ‘I said, would you stay home, if it was you?’ she demanded, and he gritted his teeth impatiently.

  ‘Being threatened by these sorts of low life scum is an occupational hazard for me,’ he replied. ‘It’s part of my job, but you’re a woman. You’re…’

  He came to a halt as a martial glint appeared in her eyes. It had been the wrong thing to say, and he’d known it the minute the words were out of his mouth.

  ‘Kate—’

  ‘So li’l ol’ me can’t cope, is that what you’re saying?’ she said dangerously. ‘Li’l ol’ me has to be shut away in solitary confinement because I can’t hack it. Well, let me tell you this, mister, I’m going back to work this afternoon, and you’ll have to clap me in irons to stop me.’

  ‘And you think that can’t be arranged?’ he declared, every bit as angry now as she was, and for a moment he thought she was going to argue with him, then her lips twisted slightly.

  ‘Mario, I know you think I’m stupid. I know you’re just trying to protect me, but I have to go back to work. You’ve been a doctor. You know what it’s like. There’s never enough staff, never enough pairs of hands, and you’ve seen
how grossly understaffed my department is. People need me, and I can’t let them down, I simply can’t.’

  ‘I appreciate that, Kate, I do, but don’t you understand that this isn’t a game?’ he protested. ‘This isn’t a film where people pretend to get shot then get up and go home at the end of the filming. You could die.’

  ‘I know.’ She nodded. ‘But the thing is, it really wouldn’t matter if I did, would it?’

  ‘In nome di Dio, Kate—’

  ‘I’m not angling for sympathy here,’ she said quickly, as he gazed at her, appalled, ‘but let’s look at the facts. I’m not married, I don’t have any children, or brothers and sisters, my parents are both dead, so it’s not as though…’ She smiled a little crookedly. ‘It’s not as though I’d be leaving anyone bereft if anything happened to me. The only person I have to worry about is myself and, for me, the risk is worth taking.’

  But it’s not worth taking for me, he thought, as his eyes met hers. If anything should happen to her…If he never saw her laugh again, or smelt her perfume, or saw her chew her lip when she was thinking…But he couldn’t tell her that, hated admitting it even to himself.

  ‘OK,’ he said slowly, ‘if you must go back to work, then I’ll let you. But,’ he continued as her large grey eyes lit up with clear delight, ‘there are conditions. You have to let me come back and work in your department—’

  ‘Not a problem.’

  ‘—and you have to let me move in with you.’

  ‘I have to what?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘You heard me. Kate, you have as much sense when it comes to your own safety as a toddler wielding a blowtorch, so I want to be there when you’re at work, and here when you get home so you don’t open the door and invite every conman and low life villain there is into your house.’

  Not to mention a whole load of parcels that could contain anything, he thought, his eyes sliding to the stack in the corner.

  ‘But you can’t move in—there’s no room,’ she declared. ‘This is a one-bedroomed flat.’

  ‘You have a couch.’

  She did, but Kate wasn’t at all sure that she wanted him sleeping on it. Dammit, she was all too aware of how attracted to him she was, and to have him living with her…What if she did something stupid? What if she threw herself at him, and he knocked her back? What if she threw herself at him, and he didn’t knock her back, and she lived to regret it for the rest of her life?

  ‘That’s the deal, Kate,’ Mario continued, watching her. ‘Take it, or leave it because it’s non-negotiable.’

  Oh, hell. She had to go back to work—simply had to—but…

  She took a deep breath. OK, all right. She could do this. She was thirty-four years old—thirty-five in a fortnight—she could manage it. She’d be at work all day, and when she came home she could bring paperwork with her, immerse herself in that, have lots of baths, very early nights…

  ‘OK, it’s a deal,’ she said in a rush. ‘Give me fifteen minutes to get changed, and then I’ll be ready.’

  ‘For what?’ he said, puzzled, as she made for the sitting room door.

  ‘Going back to work, of course,’ she replied.

  ‘Now?’ he exclaimed. ‘Kate, it’s six o’clock—’

  ‘Which means I’ve only missed two hours of the evening shift,’ she said, and as she disappeared into her bedroom, she didn’t see him raise his eyes heavenwards and mutter something unprintable under his breath.

  ‘So, how are you feeling?’ Terri asked, her eyes fixed on Kate sympathetically. ‘I mean, really feeling?’

  ‘Fine, thank you,’ Kate replied, wondering what on earth Mario had told everyone as she slipped on her white coat.

  ‘That flu bug is really debilitating, isn’t it?’ Terri declared, unwittingly coming to her rescue. ‘And I have to say I think you still look a bit peaky.’

  Probably because I haven’t seen daylight for a week, Kate thought, wondering what else Mario might have told the staff in A and E and wishing he’d remembered to fill her in.

  Not that she’d actually given him any time to fill her in, she thought with a wry inward chuckle, as she saw him deep in conversation with Colin. She’d virtually pushed him out of her flat, and he’d grumbled all the way here.

  ‘How have things been in the unit this past week?’ she asked, deliberately changing the subject. ‘Did Paul hold the fort OK?’

  ‘Hold the fort?’ Terri echoed. ‘Kate, he’s being running the place like a boot camp. Do this, do that. Poor Colin was telling me only last night that he was thinking of throwing in the towel.’

  ‘That bad?’ Kate observed, and Terri made an expressive slicing motion across her own throat.

  ‘And then some. Of course, it didn’t help that we were so terribly short-staffed—no criticism of you meant,’ the sister added, ‘but what with Mario going down with the same bug as you—’

  ‘He did?’

  ‘A really bad dose, apparently.’ Terri nodded. ‘Which reminds me,’ she continued, leaning forward, her eyes gleaming, ‘we never did finish our conversation about him.’

  And I really don’t want to finish it now, Kate thought, wondering if she could possibly fake a suddenly remembered, urgent meeting, but she didn’t have to.

  ‘Excuse me, ladies,’ a deep male voice interrupted, and Kate turned to see an absolutely enormous strange man pushing an empty wheelchair down the treatment room.

  ‘Who’s that?’ she asked when the man had passed, and Terri rolled her eyes.

  ‘Our new porter.’

  ‘Our new…What happened to Bill?’ Kate protested. ‘If Men’s Surgical have poached him from us—’

  ‘No, they haven’t poached him. Bill phoned in the day after you went off sick to say he’d got an unexpected windfall so he was off to New Zealand to see his granddaughter.’

  ‘Oh. Right. Terrific. For him I mean,’ Kate murmured. Damnation, she’d only been gone a week and suddenly the unit didn’t feel like it was hers any more. ‘So, what’s he called—this new porter?’

  ‘The incredible hulk.’

  Kate let out a spurt of laughter. ‘No, seriously, what’s his name?’

  ‘George Luciano.’

  The incredible hulk suited him better, Kate decided, but never would she have said so.

  ‘One thing’s for sure,’ she said instead as she watched George manoeuvre his wheelchair between the cubicles as though it weighed no more than a feather. ‘He’s certainly going to put the fear of God into our Saturday night drunks.’

  ‘I don’t know about the drunks, but he definitely gives me the creeps,’ Terri declared.

  Me, too, Kate thought, feeling a prickle of unease when the new porter stopped at the bottom of the treatment room and turned to stare back at her. Not staring in a ‘Wow, but that woman’s gorgeous’ sort of a way, or a ‘Yikes, but that woman really should lose some weight’ kind of way, but simply staring.

  Hadn’t there been a man called ‘Lucky’ Luciano who had been one of the most notorious of the old time Mafia bosses in America in the early years of the twentieth century? Maybe George was a descendant. Maybe he was a hit man sent by the Mafia to get her.

  And maybe she should just pull herself together, she told herself irritably. George Luciano was probably nothing more than a very large man who was interested in everything that happened in an A and E unit. A lot of new porters were, and she probably wouldn’t even have noticed him—well, not much at any rate—if Mario hadn’t encouraged her to see danger lurking at every corner.

  ‘Ah, Kate, good to see you back again,’ Paul Simpson declared, striding towards her with an expression that suggested he felt it was anything but. ‘I’ve been keeping everything ticking over for you, keeping detailed spreadsheets of every patient we’ve seen, so if you would care to check them…?’

  He had to be kidding. If he thought she wanted to spend her first evening back in the unit gazing at spreadsheets then he don’t know her. Which he didn’t.

&nbs
p; ‘I’m afraid that much as I’d like to go through the spreadsheets with you, Paul,’ she said sweetly, ‘duty calls.’

  ‘Duty?’ he repeated, clearly puzzled, and she gestured towards Mario who was coming towards them accompanied by a young woman carrying a toddler.

  ‘Patients, Paul,’ she declared. ‘Remember them?’

  And before Paul could mention the zillion memos he’d had to deal with from Admin, or the problems he’d had with the laundry inventory, she strode quickly towards the young mother with a smile.

  ‘Mrs Judy Lowell,’ Mario explained. ‘Her hand slipped when she was cutting some bread, and she’s sustained rather a nasty cut to her thumb.’

  ‘I feel so stupid! ‘Mrs Lowell exclaimed as Kate ushered her into cubicle 4. ‘Jack was getting into everything as usual, and I was watching him because he will put things in his mouth, and the next thing I knew the knife hit my hand, and there was blood everywhere, and Jack was screaming, so I thought I’d better come down here right away.’

  ‘Very wise,’ Kate observed, as she gently unwrapped the bloodstained tea towel that the young mother had wrapped round her hand. ‘Oh, ouch, but that is a nasty one,’ she added as she reached for the antiseptic cleaner. ‘So, Jack’s rather lively, is he?’

  ‘You can say that again,’ Judy Lowell replied ruefully. ‘He’s only three, but ever since he started to walk I’ve needed eyes at the back of my head.’

  Kate laughed as she looked down at the little boy who gazed back at her with huge, angelic brown eyes.

  ‘And there was me thinking he looked as though butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.’

  ‘Don’t you believe it, Doctor!’ Judy Lowell exclaimed. ‘I swear I’ve aged twenty years since I had him. Have you kids yourself?’ she added, glancing from Kate to Mario. ‘Either of you?’

  ‘No, we don’t,’ Kate said quickly, remembering what had happened the last time anyone—OK, so it was her—had asked Mario whether he had children. ‘I’m afraid this is definitely going to need stitches,’ she continued. ‘Four—maybe even five. Nurse Volante…’