Dr Mathieson's Daughter

by Maggie Kingsley

  ‘Well, if we’ve all finished admiring little baby Anderson, I suggest we get back to work,’ he declared more brusquely than he’d intended. ‘There are patients waiting to be seen out in Reception, and their wait isn’t going to get any less if we stand around here talking about babies!’

  ‘What in the world’s got into him?’ Floella demanded as Elliot strode away. ‘Good grief, we see enough misery in A and E that it’s nice to have a happy ending for once.’

  Jane couldn’t have agreed with her more as she stared after Elliot with a puzzled frown, but something had obviously got under his skin, and she couldn’t for the life of her think what.

  ‘Jane, before you go, I’d like to ask you something,’ Charlie said as Floella hurried away, still muttering under her breath.

  ‘Fire away,’ she replied, forcing a smile to her lips.

  ‘Barbara and I would like very much to invite you out to dinner with us tonight.’

  ‘To dinner?’ she repeated. ‘Well, that’s very nice of you both, Charlie, and I’ve certainly never been one to look a gift dinner in the mouth…’ Unless it’s being offered by Elliot, of course, she amended, but, then, his invitation hadn’t been a gift, it had been a payment. ‘But why?’

  ‘She said yes, Jane,’ he replied, a broad smile lighting up his face. ‘I asked her to marry me when we were at Brambles, and she said yes.’

  ‘Oh, congratulations!’ she exclaimed. ‘I’m so happy for you. Have you told anyone else yet? We must have a party—’

  ‘I’d rather not if you don’t mind,’ he interrupted. ‘Barbara wants to tell her folks first.’

  ‘I understand.’ Jane nodded. ‘I’m so pleased for you, Charlie, I really am, but what has that got to do with you inviting me to dinner?’

  ‘Well, you suggested the venue—’

  ‘That hardly makes me a matchmaker,’ she protested with a chuckle.

  ‘And you’ve been a very good friend to me since I came to St Stephen’s, which is why Barbara and I would like you to come out to dinner with us tonight, just to say thank you.’

  He meant it, she could see that he did, and it would certainly get her out of the flat. And tonight she didn’t want to be in the flat. Tonight she didn’t want to be anywhere near Elliot Mathieson.

  ‘Then I accept the invitation with pleasure, Charlie.’ She smiled. ‘And thank you very much for asking.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He smiled back. ‘We’ll pick you up at eight.’

  ‘You’d better just sound your horn and I’ll come out,’ she advised. ‘It’s murder finding anywhere to park, and if you keep your engine running, I’ll just run down and jump in.’

  He nodded, then frowned. ‘You don’t have to square it with Elliot first? I know you have this arrangement whereby there’s always one of you home to look after Nicole.’

  ‘No, I don’t have to talk to Elliot,’ she said firmly. ‘He won’t mind at all.’

  And he’d better not, she thought, or she would want to know the reason why.

  Elliot didn’t object but his jaw did drop when she came into the sitting room later that evening, one high heel on, the other still in her hand as she scanned the room, clearly looking for something.

  ‘You’re going out?’ he said faintly.

  ‘Yes, I’m going out,’ she replied, homing in on the mantelpiece and retrieving her hairbrush. ‘I hope you didn’t have anything planned. The invitation was a bit of a last-minute affair—’

  ‘You’re going out like that?’ he interrupted.

  ‘Like what?’ she said, slipping on her other shoe and turning towards him with a slight frown.

  He swallowed convulsively. He’d never seen her dressed before. Not dressed to go out. Not wearing a black velvet dress with a fitted waistline and a bodice that sloped off her creamy shoulders, revealing more than a hint of the deep cleft between her breasts.

  ‘Who?’ His voice had come out in a slightly strangled squeak and he cleared his throat. ‘Who are you going out with?’

  ‘Charlie and—’

  ‘Charlie Gordon?’ he exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in his seat. ‘You’re going out on a date with Charlie Gordon?’

  She could have explained—she supposed she ought to have done—but suddenly she was blowed if she would.

  It was the stunned expression on his face that riled her. The look that suggested he couldn’t quite believe that anybody would actually have asked her out.

  ‘Yes, I’m going out on a date with Charlie Gordon,’ she said bluntly. ‘What about it?’

  ‘But you can’t go out with him!’

  Her eyebrows rose as she slipped her hairbrush into her bag. ‘Oh, but I can, Elliot. Now, I shouldn’t be too late, probably not much after ten—’

  ‘But I’ve rented a video for tonight,’ he protested.

  ‘Then I hope you enjoy it,’ she said calmly. ‘Like I said, I shouldn’t be late. And now I really have to go,’ she added as she heard the sound of a car horn tooting in the street outside.

  ‘Jane, you can’t do this—you shouldn’t,’ Elliot exclaimed, coming after her and catching her by the arm. ‘Charlie…He’s got a girlfriend in Wales or Lancashire—’

  ‘Shrewsbury,’ she interrupted without thinking, but he didn’t pick her up on that, he was far too worried.

  ‘Exactly.’ He nodded. ‘He’s got a girlfriend, but he’s asking you out, too. Don’t be a fool, Jane. A man like that will hurt you for sure.’

  And you wouldn’t? she thought as she stared up at him. Elliot, you would hurt me a hundred times more—you already have—and yet you can’t see it.

  ‘I really don’t see who I go out with is any of your damn business!’ she retorted, pulling free of his arm.

  ‘Janey—’

  ‘And that’s another thing,’ she interrupted. ‘I really, really hate it when you call me that. You always call me that when you’re wanting a favour, when you’re trying to get something out of me, and I don’t like it!’

  ‘I didn’t realise, I didn’t know—’

  ‘Why should you?’ she said. ‘Why should you know anything at all about me, Elliot?’

  And without allowing him to reply, she walked out of the flat and down to the car where Charlie and his fiancée were waiting.

  ‘Everything OK, Jane?’ he asked. ‘No problems about getting away tonight?’

  ‘Why should there be?’ she replied with a brittle smile as she slipped into the back seat. ‘I’m so glad you asked me. I’m really, really looking forward to this.’

  And to her amazement she did enjoy herself. Barbara put her at her ease in a second, the food at the restaurant was superb and if occasionally she found herself thinking about Elliot she quickly trampled on the thought.

  ‘I wish you both every happiness in the world,’ she told the couple when the waiter had cleared away their pudding plates and she insisted he bring them a bottle of champagne with their coffees. ‘I don’t know very much about you, Barbara,’ she continued, smiling across at the small red-headed girl, ‘but if Charlie loves you then you must be a very nice girl, because he’s certainly a very nice man.’

  ‘Hey, any more of that kind of talk and you’ll have me blushing,’ he protested, then lifted his glass of champagne. ‘I’d like to propose a toast.’ Obediently Barbara and Jane lifted their glasses, but to Jane’s surprise Charlie put his hand over hers. ‘’You can’t drink to yourself, love.’

  ‘Me?’ she said in surprise.

  ‘You.’ He nodded. ‘I want to toast the best A and E sister I know, and also the kindest. May she have long life and happiness.’

  ‘Long life and happiness,’ Barbara echoed, and Jane blinked back the tears she could feel welling in her eyes.

  The long life she might be lucky enough to achieve, but the happiness…Somehow she doubted it.

  ‘Thanks for a lovely evening,’ Jane said when Charlie had driven her home after he’d first dropped his fiancée off at his flat. ‘I still don’t think
I deserved it, but thank you anyway.’

  ‘I meant what I said, you know,’ he said with a smile as she opened the car door. ‘I do wish you every happiness.’

  ‘And I think your Barbara’s a very lucky woman.’ She chuckled, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

  ‘Looks like someone’s still up,’ he commented, seeing a dim glow through one of the curtains. ‘Elliot checking you in, do you reckon?’

  ‘Elliot tackling some paperwork, more like,’ she said ruefully.

  And most definitely not wanting to be disturbed, she decided as she let herself into the house.

  Quickly she slipped off her heels and began tiptoeing along the corridor, but she couldn’t have been quiet enough because she’d just passed his study when the door was suddenly thrown open and he stood there, his eyes furious, his face grim.

  ‘Where the hell have you been?’

  Her jaw dropped. ‘Out to dinner with Charlie, of course.’

  ‘Until this hour?’

  She very nearly laughed. He sounded for all the world like an irate father berating his teenage daughter, but he wasn’t her father and she most certainly wasn’t his daughter.

  Deliberately she looked down at her watch then up at him. ‘Good grief, is it eleven o’clock already? I really have been painting the town red, haven’t I?’

  He coloured but his face didn’t relax at all. ‘You said you’d be back by ten.’

  ‘I thought I would be, but I was having such a very nice time—’

  ‘And you couldn’t have phoned to say you’d be late? It never occurred to you that I—we might have been worried, or that Nicole could have been taken ill?’

  ‘What’s happened?’ she demanded, worry surging through her. ‘Nicole—’

  ‘Is perfectly all right, but that’s not the point.’

  ‘Then what is?’ Jane demanded, her confusion giving way to anger. ‘Elliot, this is the first time I’ve been out in the evening since I moved in with you. Nicole wasn’t left on her own—you were here with her—and you have no right to make me feel guilty. Good grief, if I’d wanted to stay out all night I could.’

  ‘And did you?’

  ‘Did I what?’ she asked, bewildered.

  ‘Want to stay out all night?’

  His eyes were fixed on her, cold, hard, and she felt herself reddening. ‘That’s none of your business.’

  ‘It is when I have Nicole’s moral welfare to consider.’

  ‘When you have her…’ Jane took a deep breath and struggled to keep her temper. ‘Elliot, I have been out for one evening. I have returned at what—in anybody’s book—is a perfectly reasonable hour. I do not see how that in any shape or form makes me some kind of moral degenerate.’

  ‘I didn’t say it did,’ he replied, his cheeks almost as red as hers now.

  ‘You didn’t have to, Elliot, and now—if you’ll excuse me—I am going to bed!’

  ‘No, please!’ he exclaimed as she whirled round on her heel. ‘Jane…Jane, I’m sorry. You have every right to go out whenever and with whoever you choose. I…I have no claim on you, no right to dictate anything. I just…It’s just…I can’t help worrying about you.’

  ‘Elliot, I’m all grown up in case you hadn’t noticed,’ she protested.

  ‘I’ve noticed.’

  He was teasing her, of course—she knew he was. But as she looked up at him, fully expecting to see the tell-tale twinkle in his eye, the give-away quirk of his lips, she saw to her amazement that there was none.

  And then she saw something else in his eyes. Something that made her breath catch and shudder in her throat.

  ‘Elliot…’

  ‘Jane…’

  His voice was low and dark and husky. Slowly, as though in a dream, she saw his hand lift and come towards her, felt it cup her cheek, and she couldn’t move. Felt rooted to the spot.

  He was going to kiss her. She knew he was, and she stared up at him, wide-eyed, all too aware that her instincts were urging her to run, but she didn’t want to run.

  Slowly his head came down towards hers. Too slowly, much too slowly, and her hands half rose from her sides to bring him closer, only to fall back instantly as she heard a small voice whisper behind her, ‘Papa?’

  ‘N-Nicole!’ Elliot stammered. ‘What are you doing out of bed? It’s late—’

  ‘I heard voices, people shouting…’

  ‘It was the radio,’ Jane declared quickly. ‘Your father was listening to a play on the radio.’

  ‘I thought it was you, Papa,’ Nicole murmured, tears shining in her eyes. ‘I thought you were arguing, fighting with Jane—’

  ‘Oh, no, sweetheart, never,’ he declared hoarsely, going to her immediately, and lifting her into his arms. ‘Jane and I…We’re the best of friends, you know that.’

  ‘But I thought—’

  ‘You were dreaming, Nicole,’ he insisted, and she buried her face in his shoulder and shook her head.

  ‘I don’t like it when people fight. Mama…She used to fight sometimes with her boyfriends, throwing vases, dishes—’

  ‘Come on, let’s get you back into bed,’ Jane interrupted, reaching for the little girl, only to see her cling even more tenaciously to her father.

  ‘I want Papa to take me to bed,’ she declared. ‘Papa, I want you to do it.’

  Elliot mouthed an apologetic ‘Sorry’ over his daughter’s head, but Jane shook her head in reply.

  It was how it should be. How she’d always hoped it would be. That Elliot and Nicole would finally become father and daughter, and if her throat felt tight, constricted, and she wanted to burst into tears, that was understandable, too.

  Elliot turned to carry his daughter back to her bedroom, then paused. ‘You’ll wait until I get her settled?’

  It would have been so easy to say yes. To wait for him, to let what she knew would happen if she did wait simply happen. And if Nicole hadn’t arrived when she had she would have gone with him willingly, let him make love to her willingly, but the moment was broken, and the cold light of sanity had returned.

  ‘I don’t think that would be a very good idea, do you?’ she replied with a crooked smile that tore at his heart.

  ‘Jane—’

  ‘I’m very tired, Elliot. I really would rather just go to bed.’

  And he knew, too, that the moment was gone, and didn’t argue with her.

  It took almost half an hour to get Nicole settled again, and when he came out of her bedroom Jane’s room was in darkness.

  Wearily he went into the sitting room, poured himself a drink, put a CD on the stereo and sat down and closed his eyes, only to open them again when he realised what music he’d put on.

  Three years ago his sister Annie had given him The World’s Best Love Songs for his birthday and he’d burst out laughing when he’d unwrapped it. He’d stuffed it at the back of his collection, meaning to give it away to the first bring-and-buy sale that came along, and had promptly forgotten about it. And now he’d accidentally put it on.

  But as he listened to the male singer telling of his lost love, of the missed opportunities, and heartbreak, a bitter smile curved his lips. The guy knew what he was talking about, and he did, too, but it wasn’t Donna he was thinking of. Donna, whom he’d loved with all the intensity of a bush fire, a bush fire that perhaps inevitably had been bound to burn out, leaving desolation in its wake.

  It was Jane. Jane, who had somehow managed to creep her way into his heart without him even realising she was doing it. Jane, whom he knew that he’d fallen in love with, just as surely as he knew that she didn’t return his love.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘OK, WHAT have we got in cubicle 4, Flo?’

  ‘Mrs Steel. In London from America on her honeymoon, and she’s experiencing excruciating pain when she urinates. Sounds like a bad case of honeymoon cystitis to me, but I’m not a doctor.’

  Oh, terrific, Elliot thought wearily. That was all he needed today. After tossing and turning a
ll night, trying desperately hard not to think about sex, what had he been landed with? A case of honeymoon cystitis.

  ‘Is Kelly with her?’

  Floella shook her head. ‘Jane.’

  Even better, he groaned. A case of honeymoon cystitis, and Jane for company. The gods must really have decided to have some fun at his expense this morning.

  ‘I understand you’re experiencing pain when you’re passing urine, Mrs Steel?’ he said as he walked into the cubicle and the tall blonde girl lying on the trolley cautiously levered herself upright.

  ‘And it’s not just that it hurts like hell when I go,’ the girl replied. ‘I’m running backwards and forwards to the john practically every half-hour as well.’

  ‘Any other symptoms?’ he asked, quickly taking her pulse. ‘Pain in your back or stomach?’

  ‘And how.’ She grimaced. ‘It feels like someone’s sticking red-hot pokers into me.’

  ‘BP, Sister Halden?’ he asked, turning to Jane.

  ‘Normal,’ she murmured, but she didn’t look at him when she said it.

  She’d been doing her level best not to look at him all morning. OK, so at breakfast she could have argued that she was too harassed, trying to get Nicole ready to go off for the day with Stephanie and her mother to indulge in any kind of small talk, but that still didn’t explain why she’d left for the hospital before he’d even realised she was gone, or why she’d been avoiding him since they’d started their shift.

  He’d made her uncomfortable, he thought sadly. Last night he’d made her angry, and then he’d gone and made her feel uncomfortable, and it had been the last thing he’d wanted. He’d wanted—hoped—she might possibly have fallen in love with him, as he had with her, but she hadn’t, and now she was going to be tiptoeing around him, awkward, embarrassed, and it was going to be hell.

  ‘Do you think it’s something serious?’ Mrs Steel asked, her pale face worried.

  Oh, it was serious, all right, Elliot thought, gazing at Jane’s carefully lowered head. Falling in love was always serious, and it was devastating if the person you loved didn’t love you back.

  ‘I don’t think so, Mrs Steel,’ he replied, dredging up a smile. ‘Could you take a urine sample, Sister Halden, while I take Mrs Steel’s temperature?’