A Consultant Beyond Compare

by Joanna Neil

  At this point Nathan decided to intervene. He was frowning. ‘As I understand it, the girls were apprehended before they left the store. In which case, no theft occurred. You could only accuse them of stealing if they had actually gone outside.’

  ‘But she might have intended to steal it.’

  Nathan shrugged. ‘You would have to prove that. I doubt if your store’s reputation would be served well if it came out in court that you had kept an injured girl here without allowing her treatment. Neither would it enhance your image if it was bandied about that you allow children to be interrogated without a parent or guardian present.’

  The manager made an odd coughing sound as he tried to clear his throat. ‘We have lots of problems with youngsters, and they seem to think they can run rings round us. We have to be vigilant, and sometimes we have to be tough.’

  ‘Maybe so, but I think you’ve overstepped the mark this time,’ Alex said, his eyes taking on a cool glitter. ‘I believe we’re done here.’ He glanced at Nathan, raising a brow in query.

  Nathan nodded confirmation and Alex’s jaw hardened as he returned his gaze to the manager. ‘Perhaps you should consider fitting an electronic warning system if you want to cut down on the amount of theft you’re experiencing.’

  He held open the door for the others to pass through, and together they walked out of the store.

  ‘Thanks for that Alex,’ Katie said, letting out a sigh of relief when they were back in the fresh air. ‘It was wonderful how you handled things. You knew exactly what to do and say.’

  She turned to Nathan. ‘As for you, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders when you arrived and underlined the legal situation. I’m so thankful that you came.’

  Nathan gave her a hug and pressed his cheek to hers. ‘Any time, Katie. You know I would to do anything for you and Jessica.’

  Katie smiled up at him. ‘You’re a treasure. I’m sure Jessica feels the same way.’

  ‘I do,’ Jessica said eagerly. ‘I was so scared in there. I didn’t know whether you would be able to get away from work, but I’m so glad that you did.’

  Katie watched the two of them as they chatted. Nathan was a good neighbour to her and she knew that she was lucky to have him around. She glanced up at Alex, a smile still hovering on her lips.

  His expression was strangely brooding, though, as he studied Nathan, and she couldn’t quite make out what he was thinking. Her smile faded. Was he put out because Nathan had turned up?

  She frowned. It wasn’t like him to be petty. Alex had handled things with competent ease, and she felt sure that, faced with Alex’s opposition, the manager would have dropped any action he might have been considering. It was just that Nathan had the law at his fingertips and he had managed to add his argument and helped to put a swift end to the proceedings. Why would any of that be a problem for Alex?

  Katie said carefully, ‘Do you remember me telling you about Nathan? He lives next door to us and he helped me out quite a lot when I first moved into the cottage. There were all sorts of things that didn’t work properly—the plumbing, the electrical system and so on—and he showed me how to fix them.’

  ‘Yes, I remember. You have breakfast together quite often, you said.’ He sent Nathan an assessing look. ‘As things turned out, it’s fortunate for you that he’s a good lawyer, too.’

  Nathan lightly squeezed Jessica’s shoulder, and then turned back to Katie. ‘I managed to find a space in the car park just around the corner. It isn’t always easy to find a parking place in town, is it? Are you in your car or do you need a lift back? I wasn’t sure whether you would have caught a taxi to bring you here.’

  ‘Alex brought me,’ Katie murmured. ‘We parked in the same place, so it looks as though we’re all headed in the same direction. Perhaps we’ll see you back at the cottage? I’ll put the kettle on.’

  ‘It’s a deal,’ Nathan answered.

  He was in a jovial mood as he slid behind the wheel of his sports car a short time later. ‘See you back home in a few minutes.’

  Jessica watched him zoom away as she climbed into Alex’s car. ‘Talk about burning rubber,’ she said. ‘Cool car, though.’

  Katie smiled. ‘Fasten your seat belt,’ she murmured. ‘I hope you realise how lucky you are, having Alex and Nathan come to your rescue.’

  ‘Yeah, I do. I still don’t know why that lady didn’t believe us, though.’ Her face grew solemn. ‘Do you think Jade will be all right?’

  Katie nodded. ‘Yes, I’m sure she will. They’ll give her painkillers at the hospital and make sure that her ankle is comfortable. Like Alex, I’m pretty sure it’s not a break.’

  Alex started at the engine and drove out of the car park. He wasn’t saying anything, just listening to the exchange between Katie and Jessica, and Katie couldn’t help wondering if there was something on his mind.

  ‘Will you stay and have some tea with us when we get home?’ she asked. ‘I prepared Cornish pasties and a fruit salad before work this morning. It would be good if you could come in and share them with us.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Alex said. ‘There are things I have to do. Some other time perhaps?’ He scanned her features briefly before turning his attention back to the road. He still had that brooding quality about him, as though he was trying to work something out in his mind.

  ‘OK.’ Katie was subdued. Something wasn’t quite right, but she couldn’t work out what it was.

  CHAPTER NINE

  KATIE opened her front door to Alex bright and early the next day.

  ‘I’m a bit before time,’ he greeted her, ‘but I wasn’t sure whether we needed to drop Jessica off somewhere before we head for the hospital.’

  ‘Oh, that’s all right.’ Katie drank in his lightly bronzed features. He was as smartly turned out as ever, wearing a grey suit, the jacket unbuttoned to reveal a blue linen shirt underneath. He appeared to be more relaxed this morning and she was glad of that. ‘I’ve arranged for her to spend the day with my neighbour. After everything that’s gone on lately I need to know that she’s being looked after.’ She waved him inside the cottage. ‘Come in. There’s some coffee in the pot.’

  Alex hesitated. ‘She’s spending the day with your neighbour?’ he echoed.

  Katie came to a halt in the narrow hallway. ‘She lives just a few houses away,’ she explained, ‘and she has a daughter who is just a little younger than Jessica. They get on well together.’ She gave Alex a long look. ‘Did you think I meant Nathan?’

  A guarded look came into his eyes. ‘That had occurred to me. I don’t want to intrude on your breakfast with him.’

  ‘You won’t do that. He’s already gone off to work. Not that it would have mattered.’ She ushered Alex along the hallway. ‘Jessica’s still in the process of getting herself ready. She’s been at it for half an hour, would you believe? I can’t imagine that I used to take that long when I was her age.’

  Alex laughed. ‘Neither can I. You’re beautiful enough without needing any extra help.’

  Katie’s eyes widened. ‘Compliments this early in the morning? That can’t be bad.’ He was certainly in a better mood today. Whatever had caused him to be so deep in thought yesterday had obviously dissolved overnight.

  She showed him into the kitchen and started to pour coffee. ‘Sit down,’ she told him. ‘I’ll just finish clearing away these breakfast dishes. I seem to have been at sixes and sevens ever since last night. There’s been one thing after another going on, what with visits from Sophie and Jade’s parents…and then my mother phoned. I don’t seem to have had a minute to myself.’

  ‘How is Jade? If they hadn’t all dashed off, I would have taken her to the hospital myself.’

  ‘Yes, I told them that we would have been happy to do that, but I think they were anxious to make their escape. She’s fine. Colin examined her and came to the same conclusion as you—that it was a bad sprain. She’ll have to rest up for a while and put ice packs on the ankle.’


  He gave her a querying look. ‘I’m assuming that the parents have no worries about what happened. They believe that the girls were telling the truth.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ She frowned, staring at him. ‘Do you have any doubts?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, I think it was as the girls said. They forgot all about the necklace and it must have slipped into Jessica’s pocket.’ He swallowed his coffee. ‘How is Jessica this morning? She seems to have been off key quite a bit lately.’

  ‘Well, it didn’t help that my mum and dad called. They were both worried about what was going on. I think they must have realised for the first time in a while that she’s just a child and she needs them to be there for her. So perhaps it wasn’t all bad.’

  Alex put his cup down. ‘Does that mean that she’ll be going home?’

  ‘I don’t think so. Not yet, at any rate. She’s beginning to realise that she misses them, but she still seems to want to be with me, and it looks as though the only way she’ll be content to go home is if I decide to go back there with her.’

  He lifted a dark brow. ‘Is that likely to happen?’

  A cloud came over Katie’s features. ‘I suppose it will depend on how things go when my contract comes to an end. I’ll have to think things through. The thing is, I’ve come to learn that I do need to have my family close by. They might bicker and cause me grief, but they are my flesh and blood when all’s said and done.’

  His eyes darkened. ‘I thought perhaps you were becoming stronger and more independent since you’ve been on your own. When you first came to work at South Lake you were a little uncertain, but you’ve been gaining in confidence ever since then. I don’t know what happened to set you back before you came here, but I think it’s been good for you, working in A and E.’

  Katie finished stacking crockery in the dishwasher and started to wipe down the kitchen surfaces. She hesitated momentarily.

  ‘I was doing a six-month stint in the surgical specialty connected to A and E,’ she said. ‘I thought I was doing OK.’ She might have said more but Jessica came into the kitchen just then and stopped in her tracks when she saw Alex sitting by the kitchen table.

  ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I thought I heard the doorbell. Have you come to take Katie to work?’

  ‘That’s right. She left her car at the hospital yesterday because I thought she might want some company if she was going over to the store.’

  Jessica made a grimace. ‘I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry that I caused so much trouble. I didn’t mean to do it.’ She sent him a quick, diffident look. ‘You stood up for me,’ she said. ‘Thank you for doing that.’

  Alex smiled. ‘You’re welcome.’

  Jessica looked uncertain for a moment, and then mumbled, ‘I’d better go and get my bag if I’m going to Sue’s house for the day. She said that she would take me and Charlotte out to a country park.’

  She spun out of the room and Katie heard her padding about upstairs a few seconds later. She sent Alex a grin. ‘Her whole life is a race against time. I thought working in A and E was frantic, but she makes my head spin sometimes.’

  He laughed and got to his feet, coming around the table to her. ‘Maybe you should slow down a little and take time to enjoy the here and now.’

  She looked at him quizzically. ‘What does that mean?’

  His hands slid around her waist, his palms flattening on her rib cage as he drew her towards him. ‘It means that I really, really want to kiss you. I want to take away the worry of everyday life and kiss you until you have that dreamy look that comes over your face when your head is off in the clouds somewhere. Like this…’

  And he did exactly that, capturing her lips and tantalising her with a kiss that made the world shift beneath her feet and rock on its axis. He moved his hands over her curves so that her body melted beneath his touch and meshed with his, and her limbs became weak and insubstantial. Then his fingers traced a path over the soft swell of her breast, and her senses leapt in a fiery explosion of delicious response. A husky moan sounded in her throat.

  She kissed him in return, her hands gliding over the hard wall of his chest and moving upwards so that her fingers tangled in the silky hair at the back of his head. She wanted him, urgently, desperately, needing the fierce passion of his kiss to go on and on.

  There was a clatter, though, followed by the sound of pounding feet as Jessica headed down the stairs once more, and reluctantly he dragged his lips away from hers.

  Katie’s mind was in a whirl, her thoughts in a far-off place, a mist of feverish desire clouding her gaze.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Alex was studying her through half-closed eyes, his expression faintly amused.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she managed in a breathless whisper. ‘Oh, yes, I’m fine.’

  He moved away from her as Jessica came into the room.

  ‘Are we ready to go now?’ he asked, turning to look at her sister and shielding Katie with his body at the same time. It amazed her that he could be so calm and casual and so very much in control of himself.

  Jessica gave them both an odd look. ‘I’m ready when you are,’ she said, as though she had been waiting for ages.

  At the hospital, Katie worked her way through her list of patients and didn’t see very much of Alex. He was working with Colin, attending to people who had been injured in a car crash, while she was dealing with suspected stroke cases, back injuries and a patient with a virulent chest infection.

  At break-time she went to see how Monica Jenkins was doing after her operation, which had removed the distended blood vessels that had caused her so much trouble.

  The woman was drowsy from the after-effects of surgery and medication, but she appeared to have come through everything without a hitch.

  ‘I’m glad to see that you’re doing so well,’ Katie told her. ‘The nurse tells me that you’re going to stay here for a week or so, but you should soon be back on your feet. Perhaps you’ll be able to have a delayed anniversary party when you’re back at home.’

  Monica smiled. ‘My husband says he’ll take us all out to celebrate. That will be so much easier.’

  ‘That’s probably a good idea.’

  Katie went back to A and E. It was as frantic as ever, and there was still no sign of Alex.

  ‘I think he had to go for a meeting with management,’ Sarah said. ‘I know they are going to make up their minds any time now about who is to head up the new unit. I hope it works out well for him. I know how much he wants that job.’

  ‘I’m sure he would be the best person to run it,’ Katie said. ‘He’s certainly made everything run smoothly here.’

  She hurried out to the ambulance bay where the paramedics were bringing in a young man who was having difficulty breathing. He was in his twenties and appeared to have a problem with his throat. The paramedic explained that the tissues of the throat were swollen and seemed to be compromising his airway.

  ‘We have him on oxygen,’ the paramedic said. ‘He’s feverish, with neck pain and referred ear pain. He has tachycardia, heart rate 110, and he’s showing signs of dehydration. He is finding it difficult to talk, but he said the throat pain came on about four days ago.’

  ‘Thanks. I’ll take a look at him.’ Katie could see that the young man was agitated and in a state of extreme distress. He was struggling for air. She called for Sarah to assist, and together they wheeled him into the treatment room.

  Katie made a quick general examination, looking carefully at his throat. ‘It’s very inflamed,’ she murmured to Sarah, who had come to assist. ‘There appears to be a large abscess, which is probably causing most of his problems. I’m going to have to aspirate it urgently, otherwise he’s not going to be able to breathe at all.’

  Katie explained the situation to the young man. ‘We’ll spray your throat with an anaesthetic and add painkillers so that you shouldn’t be too uncomfortable while we drain the abscess,’ she told him. ‘I’m going to do a blood test and we’ll send a culture from yo
ur throat to the lab so that we know what type of infection we are dealing with. In the meantime, I’ll get you started on antibiotics.’

  Sarah hurried to prepare a trolley for the procedure. ‘Will you be using a 19-gauge needle?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, with a 10 cc syringe, and I’ll need 4 cc of lido-caine with epinephrine. I’ll have to put in an intravenous line for fluids, and he’ll need steroids as well, once I’ve finished, to help combat the inflammation. Would you give Anaesthesiology and Otolaryngology a call in case I need any emergency assistance? I can’t afford to delay starting the procedure.’

  ‘I’ll do that right away.’

  Katie worked carefully to drain the abscess. It was essential not to insert the needle too deeply, otherwise there was a risk of piercing the carotid artery.

  Keeping a steady hand, she completed the aspiration and Sarah collected the culture that was to be taken to the laboratory. Katie quickly filled in the forms.

  ‘You should start to feel better soon, now that the pressure in your throat has been relieved,’ she told her patient.

  He briefly closed his eyes in acknowledgement and mouthed the word, ‘Thanks.’

  Katie turned around, getting ready to leave the treatment room. She saw that Alex was standing in the doorway, and her mouth began to curve into a smile. It faded as soon as she realised that his expression was grim.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I’m afraid so. I need to talk to you,’ he said. ‘In my office.’

  A shiver ran through her as she went over to him. ‘What’s happened? Is it Jessica? Is she all right?’

  ‘She’s fine,’ he said abruptly. He didn’t add anything more but turned to walk in the direction of his office. Katie followed him, her mind buzzing with questions.

  Once inside his office, Alex shut the door.

  Katie stared at him. ‘What’s this all about?’ Had he been told that he wasn’t going to be given the promotion he so desperately wanted?

  ‘Perhaps you should sit down,’ he suggested. Katie remained standing, and he went on, ‘We’ve had a letter from the hospital where you used to work.’