The Italian Doctor

by Jennifer Taylor

  His innocent expression made her laugh. ‘You’re a wicked man, Luke Fabrizzi!’ She sobered abruptly. ‘But you are sure that this will work out all right at the end of the day?’

  ‘Positive. We’re saving our sanity and that can’t be a bad thing!’ He looped a casual arm around her shoulders. ‘Right, Act Two is about to commence so smile, darling, your audience is waiting!’

  Maggie laughed as he propelled her outside. She felt a lot more at ease now that they’d cleared the air. As Luke had said, they weren’t hurting anyone but helping themselves, and that couldn’t be a bad thing.

  They rejoined the others and the afternoon flew past. She always enjoyed spending time with her family and she really enjoyed it that day. However, she knew that her pleasure had been heightened by having Luke there. His presence added an extra sparkle to the day even though she wasn’t sure why that should be.

  ‘You can cancel the appointments. I’ve already made arrangements for Lauren to be treated privately. Such a wonderful man, too. He was the physiotherapist for one of the leading ballet companies before he retired. I’m sure he’ll know exactly the kind of treatment Lauren needs. There is no way that I’m prepared to leave her future in the hands of someone who hasn’t the faintest idea what they are dealing with!’

  Maggie sighed. It was Monday afternoon and Lauren Atkins was being discharged that day. Her mother, Gloria, had arrived to take her home and Maggie had stopped by the bed to explain about the course of physiotherapy that had been arranged for Lauren. There was a list of jobs that needed her attention but she felt so sorry for Lauren when she saw the panic on her face that she knew she had to try and help.

  ‘I don’t want a private physiotherapist, Mum! I like the one here. She knows what she’s doing, really she does!’ Lauren implored.

  ‘Don’t be silly, darling. This man is a specialist, not your usual run-of-the-mill NHS physio.’ Gloria’s pencilled brows lowered ominously. ‘Anyway, everything is arranged now so there’s no point in you arguing.’

  Maggie saw the beseeching look that Lauren cast at her. She knew what the real problem was, of course. Lauren had arranged to meet David Garner when she came for physio. If she was treated privately at home then that wouldn’t be possible. Maybe she was wrong to interfere but she wanted to help the young couple any way that she could.

  ‘All the physiotherapy staff here are very highly trained, Mrs Atkins. They are used to dealing with a wide variety of problems, too. I’m sure that Lauren would make an excellent recovery under their care.’

  ‘That’s your opinion, Nurse, and you’d be bound to say that, wouldn’t you? You’re hardly going to admit that NHS care leaves a lot to be desired, even though everyone knows what the situation is.’ Gloria refused to be swayed. ‘Underfunding leads to poor services and second-rate staff. The more highly qualified prefer to work in the private sector. It’s a simple fact of life.’

  ‘Oh, dear, that does sound like a very bleak view, Mrs Atkins. I must say that I’ve seen very little evidence of it either.’

  Luke’s cool tones made them all look round. Maggie felt a rush of heat invade her when he treated her to a smile that was totally at odds with the chill in his voice. It was the first time she’d seen him that day and she found herself drinking in every detail of his appearance before she forced herself to remember where they were.

  ‘I can say quite honestly that I’m impressed by the high standards at Dalverston General. The care that patients receive here is equal to any the private sector could offer and in many cases it’s far better. Did you know that Dalverston has a higher percentage of consultants to patients than any other hospital in the country, for instance?’

  ‘I…um, well, no, but—’

  He didn’t give Gloria time to finish. ‘And are you also aware that Dalverston General has an active training policy for its staff to make sure that their skills are constantly updated? That goes for the physiotherapy staff as well.’

  ‘See? I told you, Mum. I’ll get just as good treatment here as I would by going privately.’ Lauren took a deep breath. ‘I want to come here to the hospital. It’s my ankle and it’s up to me to decide what I want to do!’

  Mrs Atkins looked as though she’d swallowed something nasty. It was obvious that she couldn’t believe her daughter had spoken to her like that. Maggie managed to contain her smile for the short time it took for Lauren to say her goodbyes, but as soon as the pair had left the ward she laughed in amazement.

  ‘I never thought Lauren would stand up for herself like that!’

  Luke grinned. ‘Ah, but she’s never had such a good reason to do so before, has she?’

  ‘You mean David?’ She smiled ruefully when he nodded. ‘Talk about the power of love. It certainly seems to have had a galvanising effect in this instance.’

  ‘Let’s hope that Lauren has got into the habit of standing up for herself by the time the magic fades, then.’ He glanced along the ward. ‘I wanted a word with Alan Cole, the guy with the comminuted fracture of the left tibia. He should have arrived from Casualty by now. I’ve just seen his X-rays and he’s going to need external fixation to hold it all together. I thought I’d have a word with him and explain what’s going to happen. A lot of people find the idea of having a limb pinned to a metal frame pretty scary.’

  ‘He arrived a few minutes ago,’ Maggie informed him, leading the way to the man’s bed. Angela had just finished settling in the patient after the transfer to the ward so she left her to assist him.

  It would be good practice for her, Maggie assured herself as she went to the office, but she knew in her heart that was an excuse. That comment of Luke’s about the magic wearing off had touched a chord, even though she knew it was silly to let it affect her.

  She knew how he felt about love and that it was something he had no time for. Nonetheless, the thought that Luke would never allow himself to fall in love again was still a painful one. Nobody should turn their back on love because of one unfortunate experience. It made her wonder if there was anything she could do to make him see that, although she didn’t delve too deeply into the reason why she should care so much what he did with his life. She and Luke were friends so it was natural that she should be concerned about him. That seemed a good enough explanation…for now.

  Alan Cole arrived back from Theatre shortly before Maggie was due to go off duty. She had a word with him, knowing from experience how disorientated most patients felt after an anaesthetic.

  ‘Nice to have you back,’ she said cheerily, nodding her thanks to the two porters who had brought him up from the recovery room.

  ‘I wish I could say that it was nice to be here.’ Alan managed a crooked grin. He was a pleasant-looking man in his late thirties with prematurely thinning, sandy hair. ‘To think that four hours ago I was on my way to the airport and now look where I am!’

  She smiled sympathetically. ‘Not quite what you had planned, eh?’ She glanced through his notes. ‘An RTA, was it? A road traffic accident,’ she explained when she saw that he hadn’t understood the jargon.

  ‘That’s right. I was driving along, minding my own business and thinking about the flight I had to catch, and wham! This thundering great lorry ran into the back of my car.’ He sighed. ‘I was all hyped up about the flight, too. I’ve hardly had a wink of sleep for the past week, worrying about the plane crashing!’

  ‘And then you go and get hit by a lorry?’ Maggie couldn’t help laughing. ‘It does seem a bit unfair.’

  ‘It does. But what’s worrying me most is that my girlfriend has no idea what’s happened. She was meeting me at the airport in New York. She’s probably on her way there now and I don’t know how I’m going to get a message to her to let her know what’s happened.’

  ‘I’ll make sure that she’s told,’ she assured him. ‘Give me the details and I’ll have someone get a message to her at the airport.’

  She jotted down the woman’s name as Alan reeled it off then left him to res
t. It was obviously a big weight off his mind, knowing that someone was going to contact his girlfriend, and she was glad to have been able to help.

  She went to the office and put through a call to the social worker, who immediately agreed to sort everything out. It was gone five o’clock by then but there was still no sign of the night sister coming on duty so she settled down to some paperwork. She had just got started when the phone rang with a message from Fiona Watts, the chief nursing officer, to inform her that the night sister had been taken ill. As the staff nurse was on holiday as well, Fiona wanted to know if Maggie would mind hanging on until a replacement could be found.

  She agreed without hesitation, although there was little else she could have done. It was the height of the holiday season so she suspected that it might take some time to find someone to take over the shift. She left the office and told the rest of the staff what had happened, smiling when they commiserated with her.

  ‘I don’t mind,’ she assured them. ‘I wasn’t doing anything special tonight so it’s not as though my plans have been ruined.’

  ‘Luke busy tonight, then, is he?’ Ruth Dean asked pertly.

  Maggie flushed. She hadn’t realised just how fast the rumours about her and Luke were spreading if the night staff had heard them. ‘I don’t know what he’s got planned. Right, I’ll run through the report with you while everything is quiet. There have been a couple of new admissions.’

  It was a relief to change the subject back to work rather than her personal life. She would have been lying if she’d claimed that she didn’t feel uncomfortable at the thought of everyone talking about her and Luke. It brought it home to her once again how awkward it was going to be when the time came for him to return to Boston. Still, that was a long way off yet so there was no point worrying about it.

  She sighed as she went back to the office to fetch the keys to the drugs trolley. She had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be easy to follow her own sensible advice where Luke was concerned.

  Reinforcements arrived shortly after six. Maggie thankfully handed over responsibility for the ward then went to fetch her jacket. The weather had changed that day and there was a light drizzle falling when she left the hospital. The hills surrounding the town were shrouded in a heavy layer of mist and the air was decidedly chilly.

  Turning up the collar of her jacket, she hurried down the drive, hoping that she wouldn’t have to wait long for a bus. What she wanted most at that moment was to go home, make herself a cup of tea and spend the next couple of hours doing nothing more taxing than watching television.

  ‘Maggie…over here!’

  She looked round when she heard a familiar voice calling her. Luke was standing by his car and he waved when she looked his way. He pulled a wry face when she hurried over to him.

  ‘I was beginning to think I’d had a nasty accident and become invisible. I was standing here, waving like a lunatic, and you took absolutely no notice!’

  ‘I didn’t see you,’ she explained, feeling her pulse begin to race. It bothered her that he should have this effect on her all the time because she didn’t understand why it happened. However, it really wasn’t the time to worry about it, she decided. Not when they were both getting soaked to the skin.

  ‘So I gathered. You’ll have to tell me what you were thinking about, but let’s get out of the rain first.’ He opened the car door and she gratefully slid into the seat.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said once he’d joined her. ‘It’s a foul night, isn’t it? Have you seen the mist?’

  ‘I have. It’s kind of put paid to my plans for the evening.’ He started the engine and deftly backed the car out of the parking space.

  ‘Why? What were you planning on doing?’ she asked as he exited the car park and headed towards the centre of the town.

  ‘I was planning on looking at a couple of apartments this evening. The agent sent me details of two that sound promising so I thought I’d better make an effort. But I’m not sure if I feel like traipsing around on a night like this.’

  ‘Faint heart never found decent living accommodation,’ she declared with a grin.

  ‘Well, I can’t dispute that! Frankly, if I don’t get out of that hotel soon I’ll go crazy. I’ve reached the point where I need some space that I can call my own.’ He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. ‘OK, you’ve shamed me into sticking to my plans but on one condition, mind.’

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘That you come with me.’ He treated her to a plaintive smile. ‘Say you’ll take pity on me, Maggie. I’m a stranger in a strange land and I desperately need someone to tell me if I’m doing the right thing. I don’t want to end up living someplace where I’m going to dread going home at night!’

  ‘Oh, poor you! It’s such a responsibility, choosing where to live, isn’t it? I mean, it isn’t as though you make important decisions all the time in your line of work.’

  He chuckled. ‘Mmm, I can see that my helpless act didn’t work as well as I’d hoped it would. And I thought I’d managed to inject just the right note of pathos into my voice as well, but obviously you can see right through me. That being the case, I shall have to take a more direct approach.’

  He stopped the car at the side of the road and turned to her. ‘Will you come with me to look at the apartments, Maggie? I’d really appreciate your opinion.’

  She took a quick breath but it didn’t do much to stem the rush of pleasure she felt. Luke valued her opinion and it felt good to know that, it felt very good indeed.

  ‘I’d love to come,’ she agreed, before common sense got the better of her. If she gave herself time to think then she knew that she would come up with a dozen reasons not to accompany him, and that wasn’t what she wanted, funnily enough.

  ‘It won’t mean you having to change your plans for the evening, will it?’

  He sounded concerned, although there was no reason for him to be. Maggie knew that she would have happily swapped the most glittering occasion for the chance to go with him.

  She frowned as that thought sank in. She enjoyed being with Luke and she couldn’t deny it. He had become a very important part of her life in a remarkably short space of time. If he needed her help then she would give it willingly, and there was no point feigning a reluctance she didn’t feel.

  ‘I hadn’t any plans, apart from spending the evening in front of the television,’ she stated firmly, as much for her own benefit as his.

  ‘Great! Then let’s get going.’

  He set off again, turning left when they reached the monument in the centre of the town. Maggie settled back in her seat and watched the road sliding past the car. She didn’t allow herself to think any further than what was happening at that moment. It seemed wiser to stick to the present than to worry about the future. It was certainly far less complicated, doing that!

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  NEITHER of the two flats they saw that night was suitable. The first was situated in a very run-down area on the edge of town. Maggie took one look at the shops with their boarded-up windows that lined the street and told Luke that she didn’t think it was worth going inside to view the place.

  He accepted her advice without question and drove them to the second address on his list, but that wasn’t much better. Although the area was pleasant enough, she knew as soon as they were ushered inside that the flat wouldn’t appeal to him. One of a block that had been built in the seventies, it had the characteristic lack of charm that a lot of property from that era was blighted by.

  Luke sighed as they left the building. ‘I can’t see myself living there. I know I’m only going to need the place for a few months but I don’t think I could bear being so hemmed in. The rooms were minute and the ceilings were so low that I kept wanting to duck.’

  ‘I know what you mean.’ Maggie quickly climbed into the car. Although the rain had stopped, the mist had started to filter down into the town now and the streets were shrouded by an eerie grey pall. ‘I wante
d to do the same and I’m a good six inches shorter than you are.’

  She sighed as she fastened her seat belt. ‘Not very promising, is it? I mean, that’s two flats we’ve seen and neither of them were any good.’

  ‘Maybe I’m being too choosy,’ he suggested as he started the engine. ‘But I know the kind of place where I’d like to live. It’s just finding it that’s going to be difficult…unless you’d like a lodger? Your flat would be ideal. I just love it.’

  ‘Oh, I…um…’ She was at a loss to know what to say. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to notice her confusion as he pulled out of the car park.

  ‘But I expect that, like me, you enjoy having your own space so we can rule out that idea. I’ll just have to keep looking until I find somewhere suitable.’

  It was a relief when he turned his attention to the road and didn’t pursue the subject. It hadn’t been a serious suggestion anyway, she assured herself. However, it was harder to dismiss the idea than it should have been. She found herself toying with the idea of having him as a flatmate. It could be rather nice, having Luke to come home to…

  ‘It’s getting thicker, isn’t it?’

  She started when he spoke, pressing a hand to her breast to quieten her heart in case he heard the noise it was making. What on earth had come over her, thinking such crazy things?

  ‘The fog—it seems to be getting thicker,’ he explained, mistaking her silence for lack of comprehension.

  ‘It seems to be,’ she agreed hurriedly, peering out of the window, although it was impossible to see very much. It was as though they were cocooned in a grey blanket of cloud which had blotted out all signs of life.

  Luke slowed the car to a crawl, muttering something un-complimentary when they narrowly missed hitting a car that had been parked by the kerb. Fortunately, there was very little traffic on the roads and the few vehicles they did see were travelling as slowly as they were. Nevertheless, it was a relief when they drew up outside her flat.