‘Who, Mike?’ she said. For one wild moment, because she had been thinking about him, she thought her father had meant Dominic.
‘Of course Mike,’ said Tom mildly, adding with a touch of curiosity, ‘Who did you think I meant?’
‘Oh, nothing,’ she said quickly. ‘No one. Of course I love Mike. He’s a dear man and the children, Emma and Stephen—they’re great.’
She didn’t mention Mike’s ex-wife Jan and how difficult she could be, especially over the children’s visits, and finances…always finances, in spite of the fact that Mike had been incredibly generous after the divorce. She didn’t mention how the children, Emma especially, viewed her with suspicion, casting her as some sort of witch or ogre who had been responsible for luring her father away when nothing could have been further from the truth. And neither did she mention that, having believed herself to be in love with Mike, she had found herself doubting it when she had found such fulfilment in the arms of another man. How could she? How could she say any of those things, especially to her father who loved her and only had her welfare and happiness at heart?
‘Don’t worry about me,’ she heard herself say. ‘I’m absolutely fine and when I get back to work and settled down again you and Auntie Marjorie must come up and stay for a weekend, then you can meet the children.’
In a way Claire was pleased to be going back to work. She had sorted things out in her mind now and she needed to throw herself into her work in an effort to finally put her memories to rest.
It was a warm, pleasant summer’s day—she was to remember that afterwards—and she walked from her flat to the Hargreaves Centre rather than take her car. She met Richard Hargreaves, the senior partner, on the steps outside the building and he seemed genuinely pleased to see her.
‘Claire,’ he said, pausing for a moment, ‘nice to see you back. Is all well?’
‘Yes, thank you, Richard,’ she replied, ‘and it’s nice to be back.’
They entered the building together and were forced to push their way through the hordes of patients waiting in Reception, some wanting appointments, others leaving or collecting repeat prescriptions, others requesting home visits, and to Claire it was just like countless other mornings.
Phones were ringing and being answered by the receptionists, only to ring again immediately as the calls were completed. Together with Richard, she made her way down the corridor, past the consulting and treatment rooms to the staffroom.
The room was crowded and as they entered Claire caught a glimpse of Mike who was talking to Susan Bridges, another of the practice partners. Penny was there in conversation with Christopher Abbott, the junior partner, and others; ancillary staff and members of the community team were checking on their work schedules for the day.
‘Claire!’ Mike caught sight of her, left Susan’s side and made his way across the room to her side. ‘Everything all right?’ he asked. He’d phoned her the previous evening when she had arrived back from Portsmouth but they had not yet seen each other.
‘Hello, Mike.’ She smiled. ‘Yes, everything’s fine.’
It was good to be back, she realised, looking around, to be surrounded by her colleagues and her friends and Mike, of course. She was lucky, she knew that.
‘Claire…’ Mike had turned away to speak to someone but he turned back now and took her arm. ‘You haven’t met Ben’s replacement, have you? We’ve been incredibly lucky to get a locum so quickly.’ As he was speaking he moved and a man who had been standing slightly behind him talking to Bridget, another of the partners, turned towards her.
Claire had heard people say that in certain situations their hearts had stood still, and she hadn’t really believed them, had imagined it impossible for one’s heart to stop, but at that moment she was convinced that was exactly what happened. In that one frozen moment it was as if the world tilted slightly on its axis, as if the chatter of her colleagues seemed to recede, as if the edges of her vision blurred and condensed as she found herself gazing at Dominic.
The sight of him was so dear and so very familiar, from the clean-cut lines of his features to his dark eyes and the set of his head, that for the briefest of moments she never even questioned why he was there. She only knew as her heart suffused with sudden, indescribable joy that he was.
Vaguely, as if from a great distance, she was aware that Mike was making introductions.
‘Claire, this is Dominic Hansford. Dominic, Claire Schofield. Claire is one of our practice nurses,’ he explained. ‘In actual fact she will be working with you—taking your clinics as she is the nurse assigned to Ben and to Susan. Claire also takes sessions in our stress-counselling programme.’
‘Is that right? How interesting.’ Dominic inclined his head slightly and if Mike noticed that Claire didn’t extend her hand he didn’t comment on the fact.
‘Dominic has been working abroad with children’s charities,’ Mike went on enthusiastically.
‘Really?’ Claire’s voice sounded to her as if it came from a long way off. ‘So whatever brings him to the Hargreaves Centre?’ she finally managed to add.
‘I am between assignments,’ Dominic replied coolly. ‘I have recently been working in A and E in a hospital in Warwickshire and my boss there is a friend of Richard Hargreaves.’
‘Fortunately for us,’ said Mike with a laugh. ‘We were getting worried, I can tell you. What with Ben having to go off early, there was no time to advertise and carry out the usual interviews. To have someone who comes so highly recommended is an absolute godsend—isn’t that right, Claire?’
‘Yes.’ Somehow she answered, although she was still feeling that she might be in danger of fainting.
‘I’m afraid we’re rather chucking you in at the deep end, old man,’ said Mike ruefully, turning to Dominic, ‘but Claire will soon show you the ropes, won’t you, Claire?’
She didn’t answer, she couldn’t, because she was still in shock and it was only gradually that the questions began to teem into her brain. What was Dominic doing here? Why had he come back into her life when they had agreed that what had happened between them was at an end?
Just for a moment, after the shock at seeing him, when her heart had started beating again, her pulse had begun racing as it sank in that he was actually there beside her, that if she reached out her hand she could touch him.
But then, in no time at all, the impossibility of the situation hit her. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to meet his gaze again and with a murmured excuse slipped away to the changing room. As she changed into the smart, navy-blue sister’s uniform she wore for work she found she was shaking and was forced to get a firm grip on herself. Here she was having spent the last week recovering from all that had happened in Italy, returning to work ready to pick up the pieces of her life again, only to have Dominic stroll back and turn her world upside down.
She couldn’t for one moment imagine what he was thinking of in coming there. He had told her that he was returning abroad and that he had finished at his present job, but before that he was supposed to have been travelling on to Prague after leaving Italy. That, of course, had been his plan before that last fateful night in Rome, which they had spent together, but surely it couldn’t be because of that that he had changed his plans? Claire was sure she had made it perfectly plain that there could be nothing else between them, that she was committed to Mike and that shortly she and Mike would be moving in together. So what was he doing here? she asked herself in desperation. The last thing she wanted was for Mike to find out what had happened in Italy. Come to that, she wouldn’t be too keen on any of the others knowing either. It was pretty obvious that Dominic had not yet told anyone at the centre that they had met before, because if he had Mike would have been certain to have said something, instead of simply introducing them in the way he had, so the thing to do was to make sure it stayed that way. Before that, however, she needed to know why he was there.
Smoothing down her uniform, Claire strode out of the changin
g room and down the corridor to Ben Lewis’s consulting room. She had to sort this out now, once and for all. There was no way she could take a clinic or concentrate on work of any description until she had had this matter out with Dominic.
She barely knocked on the door, just a perfunctory tap, pushing the door open as he replied, bidding her enter. She had been geared up to tackle him, fired up to demand an explanation, but as he looked up at her from behind the desk where he was seated and her eyes met his all such notions flew out of the window and she found herself helplessly gazing at him, transported in that instant back to Rome and that delicious, forbidden interlude they had shared.
‘Hi,’ he said softly at last.
‘Dominic…’ Her voice was husky.
‘I was expecting you. Come in.’ He indicated for her to close the door. ‘Sit down.’
Taking a deep breath in order to steady her nerves, Claire shut the door but ignored his offer of a chair, preferring instead to stand as if looking down at him would gain her some advantage.
‘What are you doing here?’ she managed to say at last, and surprised even herself at how firm her voice sounded. She had been afraid it would come out as a demented squawk.
‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ Dominic replied calmly. ‘I’ve taken the job of locum to replace Ben—’
‘Yes, I know that,’ Claire interrupted him impatiently. ‘What I want to know is why. How did you know about the job?’ she demanded.
‘You told me about it,’ he replied mildly.
She stared at him. ‘I didn’t—’ she began, only to have him interrupt her.
‘Yes, you did. That first time that we met by the Trevi fountain—we went for that drink and you told me all about the Hargreaves Centre and that one of the partners had become so stressed out that he needed to take a sabbatical. You also said the centre would be looking for a locum to replace him.’
Claire frowned. ‘Well, yes, maybe I did, but I didn’t for one moment imagine you might be interested in such a job.’
‘Why not?’ There was a hint of amusement now in those brown eyes.
‘Well, you seemed perfectly happy with what you were doing—with your work abroad and even with the temporary hospital work you were doing.’
‘So are you saying that if you’d known I might have been interested, you wouldn’t have said anything?’ Dominic raised his eyebrows questioningly.
‘No…well, I might have done, but that was then, before…’
‘Before what, Claire?’ he said softly.
‘You know what before,’ she retorted. ‘What happened afterwards changed everything.’
‘It certainly did,’ he replied.
‘So why have you done it? Why are you here?’ There was an edge of something almost bordering on hysteria in her voice.
‘Because I had to.’ The amusement was gone now and the tenderness in his voice threw her a little.
‘But why…?’ she whispered. ‘Why…?’
‘You know why. I couldn’t just leave things the way they were.’
‘But we agreed,’ she protested, ‘you know we did. I told you there could never be anything between us.’
‘I know, but there is something between us—you know it as well as I do.’
‘Yes…but…’
‘You went,’ he said, and there was mild reproach in his voice now. ‘You went without saying goodbye.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I had to, I couldn’t bear…it…’
‘So you do feel something for me?’
‘Of course I do, Dominic,’ she cried, ‘you know I do!’ Distractedly she ran her fingers through her hair. ‘But it doesn’t alter anything. I still have Mike…’
‘Ah, yes, Mike,’ said Dominic.
‘What do you mean?’ Claire stared at him. ‘Why do you say it like that? What’s wrong with Mike?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing,’ he said innocently, shaking his head, ‘there’s nothing at all wrong with Mike. He seems a decent sort of guy…but…’
‘But what?’ said Claire suspiciously.
‘Nothing.’ He shook his head.
‘No, go on,’ she persisted. ‘I want to know. What did you mean?’
‘Just that he wasn’t what I had expected, that’s all.’
‘In what way?’ She was on the defensive now.
‘I don’t know. Nothing really. I suppose I expected him to be younger, that’s all.’ He shrugged.
‘He’s not old,’ Claire protested. ‘He’s only forty-two, for heaven’s sake.’
‘Really?’ Dominic raised his eyebrows. ‘I would have thought he was older—maybe it’s because he looks harassed most of the time.’
‘He has a great deal on his plate,’ said Claire firmly. ‘There’s tremendous pressure here in the practice, especially since Ben went, and then there are his children for whom he feels very responsible…’
‘And his ex-wife,’ said Dominic, nodding.
‘His ex-wife?’ Claire frowned. ‘What’s she got to do with anything?’
‘She was here when I came in last week to meet everyone. She seems a very…determined sort of lady.’
‘Yes, she is,’ Claire was forced to reply. She was silent for a moment. ‘How did you get to be here so soon?’ she asked curiously. ‘What about references and things?’
‘No need for anything like that,’ said Dominic with a shrug. ‘Like Mike said, my boss, Alistair Raeburn, at the hospital where I had been working happens to be a golfing friend of Richard Hargreaves—when you said you worked here it rang a bell and then I remembered I’d heard Alistair talk of Richard. I contacted Alistair, told him I was applying for the locum post here, and when I asked him if I could use his name he agreed. In the end I think Richard Hargreaves was so relieved to get someone it wouldn’t have really mattered who it was—the fact that I had worked for a friend of his was a bonus.’
‘But I thought you were going abroad again,’ Claire protested.
‘I probably will eventually,’ Dominic replied evenly, ‘but my dad isn’t fully recovered yet, my contract at the hospital is finished and quite apart from all that I wanted to see you again.’
‘What happened to Prague…to Austria?’ she asked in ever-growing desperation.
‘They can wait,’ he replied. ‘I’m sure they will still be there when I get around to visiting them.’
She gazed at him helplessly again for a long moment. ‘No one here knows,’ she said at last, ‘about us, about me meeting you in Italy…’
‘I didn’t for one moment imagine anyone did,’ he said quietly. ‘So what did you tell them?’ he asked after a moment.
‘Well, they know all about the earthquake, of course—they also know that I was trapped with others in the monastery, they know that some of the others were badly injured…and…and that there was a doctor in the party…’ She trailed off, uncertain how to continue.
‘But presumably they didn’t know my name?’
‘No,’ she shook her head.
‘I didn’t think they did,’ he said. ‘It certainly didn’t seem to ring any bells when I was introduced to everyone.’
‘Have you told anyone you have just returned from Italy?’ asked Claire sharply.
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘As soon as I realised that you hadn’t mentioned my name to anyone I decided it best if I kept quiet.’
‘Well, I suppose that’s something,’ said Claire with a sudden sense of relief. ‘I want it to stay that way, Dominic,’ she added.
‘As you wish.’ He shrugged.
‘It has to,’ said Claire in sudden desperation. ‘It can’t come out now that we know each other, that we were together in Italy, otherwise everyone will wonder why I didn’t say more about you when I got back and why you didn’t say anything when you first got here.’
‘OK.’ He nodded. ‘We’ll keep quiet about it. As far as anyone else here is concerned, we have only just set eyes on each other and it’ll stay that way for
as long as I remain here.’
‘You intend staying?’ asked Claire in dismay. Somehow she had imagined he would say that now he would move on.
‘Of course. I’ve already signed a six-month contract.’
She stared at him. ‘Six months!’
‘Yes,’ he said. Looking up at her, he added, ‘is that going to be a problem for you, Claire?’
She took a deep breath. ‘Of course not,’ she said firmly at last, ‘just as long as you fully understand the situation.’
‘And what situation is that?’ he asked softly, that hint of amusement back in his voice now.
‘That Mike and I are an item and that what happened between you and me has to be forgotten.’
‘We’ll see,’ he said in the same soft tone then, more briskly and rising to his feet, he added, ‘I guess we’d better get down to some work. I understand this is to be my consulting room and that you are to be my practice nurse so maybe we could start by you showing me where everything is.’
It turned out to be one of the most difficult days of Claire’s life. Even showing Dominic the ropes and where everything was in the surgery was far from easy because with every step she took, every movement she made, she was only too aware of the presence of the man at her side, of all they had shared and of what, briefly, they had meant to each other.
The others, mercifully, and Mike especially seemed totally unaware of any undercurrents between herself and the new locum and the only reference to him came while he was still in morning surgery and Claire briefly met up with Penny in the practice storeroom.
‘I say,’ said Penny, glancing over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being overheard, ‘he’s rather gorgeous, isn’t he?’
‘Who?’ said Claire, deciding on the spur of the moment to play dumb.
‘Well, him, the new locum. Dominic or whatever he calls himself.’
‘Oh, him,’ said Claire vaguely.
‘Don’t you think so?’ said Penny in surprise.
‘Don’t I think what?’ Claire frowned.
‘Well, that he’s gorgeous, of course.’
‘Er, yes, I suppose so.’ Claire shrugged. ‘If you like that sort of thing.’
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