The Consultant's Adopted Son

by Jennifer Taylor

  ‘What are you doing?’ the mother cried in alarm.

  ‘If she’s swallowed one of the caps off those pens it could be blocking her airway and I need to dislodge it.’

  She repeated the manoeuvre, then did it a third time, smiling in relief when the little girl coughed and something shot out of her mouth. Bending down, she picked up a white plastic pen top. ‘Here’s the culprit.’

  She dropped the cap into a dish then unhooked the oxygen mask and gently placed it over the child’s nose and mouth. ‘You’re all right now, poppet,’ she said, stroking the little girl’s hair. ‘Just breathe through this mask for me—that’s a good girl.’

  ‘Everything all right in here?’

  Rose glanced round when she heard Owen’s voice. ‘She’d swallowed the cap off a felt-tipped pen, but it’s out now,’ she explained as calmly as she could. It wasn’t easy when the memory of what he’d said to her was still so fresh in her mind, but she refused to allow their personal differences to interfere with their work.

  ‘Good. I’ll just check her over and make sure she’s all right.’

  Rose moved aside as he approached the bed and waited while he examined Lucy. ‘Everything appears to be fine,’ he concluded, turning to the child’s mother. ‘I’d like to keep her here until she’s calmed down, but you can take her home after that.’

  ‘Thank you so much!’ The woman turned to Rose. ‘I don’t know how to thank you for what you did just now. If you hadn’t been so quick—’ She broke off and shuddered. ‘I’ll never forgive myself for not being more careful.’

  ‘You mustn’t blame yourself,’ Rose assured her. ‘It’s amazing what children manage to swallow or poke down their ears or up their noses.’

  ‘You need eyes in the back of your head when you’re a parent, don’t you?’ The woman managed a wan smile. ‘Do you have any children? If you do, I’m sure you know what I mean.’

  ‘I have a son,’ Rose said quietly. It was instinct that made her look at Owen then, and her breath caught when her gaze meshed with his. Something passed between them, a feeling of connection that she had never expected. For the past eighteen years he had loved and cherished the child she had given birth to and that had forged a bond between them even if it wasn’t what either of them would have chosen to happen.

  All of a sudden her heart began to race as the full impact of that thought sank in. There was a link between her and Owen which could never be broken.

  Owen could feel a pounding in his head but he fought against it. He couldn’t bear to think that Rose had experienced the same feeling of connection, yet he knew that she had. He summoned a smile as he turned to the child’s mother but it was an effort to focus when his life seemed to be falling apart around him.

  ‘You’ll need to give your daughter’s details to our receptionist for our records before you leave.’

  ‘Of course. And thank you again, Doctor.’

  ‘My pleasure.’

  One more smile, then he was free to leave, and he did. He made his way to the office, relieved to find it was empty for once. He needed time to get himself together before he spoke to anyone, time to rid himself of the thought that there might be some sort of a bond between himself and Rose.

  He swore under his breath. The idea was ridiculous. The only thing they had in common was Daniel. They weren’t kindred spirits, former lovers or even proper work colleagues, for that matter. Rose’s advent into his life would be a temporary one if he had his way, their relationship as fleeting as ships that passed in the night. So why did he feel so on edge? Why did he feel as though he was on the verge of something momentous happening? Was it fear of the havoc she could cause for his son? Or fear of the damage she might do to his own life? After all, if she took Daniel away from him what would he have left?

  Owen felt a cold chill envelop him as all his fears suddenly crystallised. He’d told himself that his only concern was for Daniel, but wasn’t he equally concerned about what he would do if he lost the one person who made his life mean anything? Losing Laura had been a devastating blow. He’d only coped because he’d had Daniel to look after. But how would he manage if the boy transferred his affections from him to Rose?

  It could happen very easily, too. After all, he was the one who constantly nagged Daniel to get his college work done, the one who curtailed his fun. It was different for Rose, though. She didn’t have to impose all those boring rules because she wasn’t responsible for looking after Daniel. She could involve herself in all the good things that happened in Daniel’s life and leave him to deal with the rest.

  Even if she didn’t set out to use the situation to her advantage, it was bound to have a negative effect on his relationship with Daniel if his son compared him to Rose and she kept coming out on top. The thought of how empty his life would be if Daniel grew apart from him was more than he could bear. Rose was an even bigger threat than he’d realised, and he had to find a way to minimise the risk she posed to him as well as to Daniel. And the only way he could do that was by getting to know her better. There was a saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, so that was what he must do.

  Rose was glad when it was time to go home. What had happened in the cubicle had shaken her. When Rob asked her if she wanted to go for a drink with the staff after work, she made an excuse. She just wanted to go home and think about what had gone on between her and Owen.

  She left the hospital and hurried to the bus stop, but three buses drove past without stopping, all packed with commuters. She had just settled down to wait for the next one when she saw a car slow down, and her heart leapt in alarm when she realised it was Owen’s car. He pulled up beside the kerb and rolled down the window.

  ‘Hop in and I’ll give you a lift.’

  ‘There’s no need,’ she said quickly, because the last thing she needed was to spend any more time with him.

  ‘I want to talk to you, so please get in.’

  Short of making a scene, Rose couldn’t think what else she could do. Opening the car door, she slid into the seat.

  ‘Fasten your seat belt.’

  Her mouth compressed as she buckled the seat belt across her. If his tone was any indication of his mood they weren’t going to get very far. Did he have to order her about like that?

  She didn’t say a word as they drove away from the hospital, determined that she wasn’t going to break the silence first. If he had something to say then let him get on with it. The traffic was horrendous and they slowed to a crawl when they reached the junction with Euston Road. Owen sighed as he inched the powerful car forward.

  ‘London is going to be gridlocked soon. In another couple of years they’ll have to put a total ban on any cars entering the city.’

  ‘The congestion charge has helped a bit,’ she observed neutrally.

  ‘It did in the beginning, but everything is going back to normal now.’ He glanced at her. ‘Do you drive?’

  ‘Yes, although I don’t have a car. It’s too expensive to keep one on the road so I make do with public transport.’

  ‘I try to use public transport whenever I can but it’s hopeless when I’m on call. And ferrying Daniel about would be a nightmare if I didn’t have a car. Like most parents of a teenager, I act as unpaid chauffeur!’

  ‘What are his hobbies?’ she asked impulsively, unable to resist finding out more about her son. ‘Does he like sport?’

  ‘Basketball is his favourite sport.’ They crawled forward another couple of inches then stopped again. ‘He plays for his college team and he’s quite good, too. However, his main passion is music. He’s into heavy metal with a vengeance!’

  Rose laughed at the rueful note in his voice. ‘You aren’t a fan, I take it?’

  ‘I value my hearing too much.’ He flicked her a smile and she felt a flurry of heat run through her. She had to force herself to concentrate as he continued in the same, surprisingly relaxed manner.

  ‘He also plays guitar—very badly, I mig
ht add. He and his friends have a band…or should that be a group? He’s always telling me that you don’t call it such-and-such a thing nowadays, but I can never remember which one I’m supposed to use.’

  ‘One of the drawbacks of getting older,’ she observed lightly, and he groaned.

  ‘Not you as well! To hear Daniel talk, you’d think I was one step away from the knacker’s yard. I used to think I was quite with it until he became a teenager.’

  ‘The generation gap. I can remember thinking that my parents had no idea what life was all about too.’

  ‘You must have been around Daniel’s age when you had him,’ he said quietly.

  ‘I was a bit younger actually—just seventeen.’

  She bit her lip at the painful tug of memory. She’d been so young and so naïve. If she’d been more worldly-wise, she might never have had Daniel and it was a strange feeling to know that Owen’s life as well as her own could have turned out very differently if she hadn’t had a baby. They might never have met, for starters, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about the idea. Despite everything that had happened, she couldn’t put her hand on her heart and swear that she wished she’d never met him, funnily enough.

  She looked up in surprise when he suddenly steered the car out of the queue of traffic. ‘What are you doing? I live in Camden, so we need to go along here.’

  ‘I know, but we could be stuck here for ages while we wait for this traffic to clear.’ He inched the car around a lorry, then glanced at her. ‘We may as well find somewhere to have a drink until the worst of it has cleared.’

  ‘Why?’ She shrugged when he looked at her in surprise. ‘I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand what you hope to achieve by all this. Offering to drive me home, chatting about Daniel—what’s in it for you, Owen?’

  ‘I thought it might help if I made an effort to get to know you better.’

  ‘For Daniel’s sake, do you mean?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He didn’t say anything else as he concentrated on getting them out of the traffic jam. Rose sank back in her seat, wondering if she was mad to go along with him. Yet what else could she do? She could hardly refuse to talk to him when it would only confirm all his suspicions about her. She had nothing to hide, so if it helped to ease the situation it had to be a good thing. Maybe he would feel better once he was sure that she meant Daniel no harm?

  The thought should have reassured her, but it didn’t. For some reason she couldn’t explain she knew it would be a mistake to get too involved with him. Owen’s only interest in her was as the mother of his son. There was no point hoping that he wanted to get to know her better for any other reason.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘WHAT would you like to drink?’

  Owen waited while Rose sat down. He’d driven them to Hampstead in the end, and had stopped at one of the wine bars overlooking the heath. It was the beginning of April and the evening was unusually warm, so he’d found them a table outside. There were a lot of people about—exercising their dogs or jogging—although the regular evening crowd that frequented the bar hadn’t arrived yet so they had the place to themselves. It was the perfect spot to talk.

  His heart seemed to leap right up into his throat at the thought of spending the next hour learning more about her. He wasn’t sure why the idea alarmed him so much when he’d already decided it was the best thing to do. He fixed a smile into place, determined that he wasn’t going to betray any hint of nervousness. ‘How about a glass of wine?’

  ‘That would be lovely, but could you make it a white wine spritzer, please? I worked through my lunch-break so I’d better water down the alcohol.’

  ‘Would you like something to eat as well?’ he asked, frowning in consternation.

  ‘No, it’s fine. I’ll make myself some supper when I get home. Don’t worry—I won’t let the alcohol go to my head and disgrace myself!’

  ‘I’m sure you won’t,’ he said shortly, disliking the fact that she’d felt it necessary to give him an assurance about her behaviour. As he went inside, he found himself wondering if he really did come across as so overbearing, then wondered again why it mattered. What difference did it make what she thought of him?

  It was impossible to answer that question, so he put it out of his mind while he ordered a white wine spritzer for her and a glass of fresh orange juice for himself. The waitress told him she would bring their drinks to them, so he went back outside and sat down.

  ‘The drinks will be here shortly,’ he explained, settling himself more comfortably on the spindly metal chair.

  ‘Great.’ Rose picked up a cardboard coaster and started to peel away the top layer. ‘Do you come here a lot?’

  ‘To this wine bar, you mean?’ He shrugged when she nodded. ‘It’s the first time I’ve been here. In fact, the last time I came to Hampstead Heath was when Daniel was about twelve. He was going through a craze for flying kites and I used to bring him here because there weren’t any really big open spaces where we lived at the time.’

  ‘Where do you live now?’

  ‘Richmond. We moved there just before Laura found out she had breast cancer.’

  ‘It must have been a very difficult time for you,’ she said quietly.

  ‘It was,’ he said tersely, because they weren’t here to discuss his life. He wanted to find out more about her, so he would be better prepared to deal with any problems that might arise in the future. However, before he could return the conversation to its proper track, she carried on.

  ‘How did Daniel cope with your wife’s illness? It must have hit him very hard.’

  ‘It did.’ He wasn’t sure if he wanted to discuss Daniel’s problems either, but it was difficult to avoid giving her an answer. ‘Laura was really brave from the moment she found the lump in her breast. She insisted that we shouldn’t tell Daniel because she didn’t want him worrying.’

  ‘It must have been very stressful for you, having to keep it from him,’ she said, frowning.

  ‘We felt it was the right thing to do.’

  He glanced up in relief when the waitress arrived with their drinks, not wanting Rose to see that her comment had struck a chord. Although he had respected Laura’s wishes to shield Daniel for as long as possible, he had often wondered if it had made the situation more difficult for him in the end. Daniel had had less time to come to terms with what had been happening so that Laura’s death had had an even bigger impact on him because of that.

  ‘Mmm, delicious.’

  He dragged his mind back to the present, summoning a smile as he picked up his own glass. ‘It’s not too strong?’

  ‘No, it’s fine. Thank you.’ She took another sip of her drink, then put her glass on the table. ‘How long ago did your wife die?’

  ‘It will be two years this summer.’

  ‘So Daniel would have been sixteen?’

  ‘Yes. He was in the middle of his exams and he went to pieces. He failed most of the papers and had to resit them.’

  ‘It was only to be expected, though. I mean, losing his mother must have been devastating for him, so it’s no wonder he made a mess of his exams.’

  ‘If it had been just his exams, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but unfortunately his behaviour also changed. He got in with a bad crowd and started drinking. The crunch came when he rolled into school one day, still drunk.’

  ‘Did you realise what was happening?’

  ‘Yes, but I couldn’t seem to get through to him. I tried everything I could think of—laid down the law, grounded him, stopped his allowance—and it didn’t work. He was spiralling out of control and I was terrified he was going to end up ruining his life if he didn’t get a grip.’

  ‘So what did you do in the end?’

  ‘I arranged for him to see a counsellor. Oh, he didn’t want to go, and we had endless fights about it, but I insisted. Fortunately, it seemed to help, but I’m very aware that he’s still extremely vulnerable.’

  ‘Which is why you
wanted to keep me away from him.’ She picked up her glass, then put it down again, and he could see the urgency in her eyes when she looked at him. ‘I give you my word that I won’t do anything to upset him. I know you’ll find it hard to believe this, but I really care about him, too.’

  ‘But you don’t even know him, so how can you promise not to upset him?’

  It was impossible to hide his scepticism and he saw her flinch. Even though it didn’t give him any pleasure, he felt duty bound to press home his point. ‘You gave him away when he was a baby. You weren’t there when he was growing up so you have no idea how he thinks or feels about anything. He’s a stranger to you, Rose, and despite all your professed good intentions you could do exactly what you claim not to want to do. You could end up ruining his life, and that is something I will not allow you to do.’

  ‘And you could ruin his life if you insist on me not seeing him.’ She stared back at him, equally determined to press home her point, it seemed. ‘Daniel has a right to meet me, and there is nothing you can do to stop it happening.’

  ‘Maybe there is nothing I can do about it. But one thing I can do is promise you that you will regret it if you hurt him. He’s my son, and I shall do whatever it takes to make sure he is safe and happy.’

  ‘Then it appears we agree on something at least.’ Pushing back her chair, she stood up. ‘I’d like to go home now, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Of course.’

  Owen rose as well, feeling like the world’s biggest louse when he saw the tears in her eyes. He’d obviously upset her with his unrelenting attitude, but her feelings weren’t his main concern. It was Daniel who mattered, he reminded himself as he followed her back to the car. And Daniel whose interests he would protect above anyone else’s. However, as he started the car, he could derive no satisfaction from what had happened. He might have convinced Rose that he was deadly serious about protecting Daniel, but it had come at a price. Hurting her, somehow, had hurt him far more.

  Rose felt completely drained as she let herself into her flat after her meeting with Owen. She just didn’t know how to convince him that she would never hurt Daniel, and it was frustrating to find herself cast in the role of villain when she’d done nothing wrong.