A Consultant's Special Care. Joanna Neil

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      The mother followed Jordan and said in a low voice, ‘Will he be cured? I mean, will there be any after-effects, any permanent damage to his joints?’

      ‘There shouldn’t be. It may take a few weeks for him to be fully well, but he should be fine before too long. He’ll need to rest in the meantime.’

      Looking a little more reassured, the woman went back to her son.

      Away from the cubicle, Abby bit her lip. ‘I’ve never come across that before. Can you be certain that’s what it is?’

      He gave a crooked smile, one that added a roguish attractiveness to his features. ‘You’re a city girl,’ he said bluntly. ‘You’re not likely to be familiar with it. In any case, the tests will take away any element of guesswork. Lyme disease is known mostly in the US, but it’s also a problem in Europe and part of our own southern heathlands. You were right to admit him. He’ll need support over the next few days, especially if his heart is involved, but he should make a full recovery.’

      ‘I’m glad. He looks so ill and wretched just now, poor boy.’

      He slanted her a narrowed glance. ‘If you’re not sure about anything, just ask.’ His tone was brisk. ‘You can’t be expected to know everything, and it doesn’t reflect badly on you if you ask for a second opinion.’

      ‘I’ll remember that.’

      ‘I hope you will.’

      He moved away then, to attend to another patient, and she was left thinking that perhaps he wasn’t as bad as her first impression of him had led her to believe. He could be acerbic at times, but at least he hadn’t had a go at her in front of the patients.

      There was no time to dwell on things, though. More patients needed her attention and she made an effort to pull her mind back to her work. Whatever she did, she was going to be watched, but maybe in time he would realise that she was a capable doctor and he would learn to trust her.

      The day wore on, and at mid-afternoon, when she was thinking she could do with a break and a cup of coffee, Sarah, the nurse who had been working with her said, ‘There’s a phone call for you, Abby.’ She laid the receiver down on the desk and walked over to where Abby was signing off some charts.

      Abby frowned. ‘Who is it?’ She couldn’t think of anyone who would be ringing her up at work. Her mother hardly ever called during working hours, not wanting to interrupt her in case she was busy.

      Sarah gave a grimace. ‘I don’t know, he didn’t say. He just said he wanted to talk to Dr Abby Curtis.’ She lowered her voice and confided, ‘I wouldn’t mind getting his number, though. He sounded wonderful. His voice is really deep and sexy.’ Her blue eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘If you don’t want him, just pass him my way, would you? I’m footloose and fancy-free.’

      Abby chuckled. ‘Well, I will, if it’s my brother. I can certainly pass him on to you…but I have to warn you, you might have to wait a while to meet up with him. He’s in South America right now, and he’s not due back for several months.’

      Sarah pulled a rueful face. ‘Isn’t that just my luck?’ she said, turning away to find Jordan waiting for her.

      He must have heard their conversation, but his expression revealed no hint of his thoughts. ‘Would you suture a gashed hand for me in cubicle four?’ he asked.

      Sarah nodded. ‘Will do.’

      Jordan went to follow up on a patient of his own, and Abby walked over to the phone on the other side of the room.

      In fact, she didn’t think Daniel would be ringing her at the hospital. If he wanted to get in touch, he would be far more likely to use a cheaper method of communication, like e-mail or fax, with perhaps a more private call home once a month.

      The phone was housed in a Plexiglas booth, which provided a modicum of privacy. Abby picked up the receiver and said, ‘Hello.’

      There was no answer, just a silence, and she repeated, ‘Hello, this is Abby Curtis. Who is it…who wants to speak to me?’ Again there was silence, and after a moment the phone cut to the dialling tone.

      Abby frowned. That was odd. She waited a moment, still holding the receiver and wondering what had happened. Perhaps the caller had been inadvertently cut off and would ring back. She replaced the receiver and waited, but nothing happened.

      The more she thought about it, the more she wondered who the mystery caller could have been. She didn’t know that many men who had deep, sexy voices, and the only one to spring to mind was the last person she would have expected to hear from.

      Surely Richard couldn’t have tracked her down? How could he have found out where she was? Unless someone had unwittingly told him…

      Quickly, she dialled her mother’s number and asked the question that was burning into her mind.

      ‘Do you think there’s any way that he could have found out where I am? You haven’t said anything to him, have you? He hasn’t phoned you?’

      Her mother was calm and unruffled. ‘You know I wouldn’t have told him anything, Abby. I know how important it is to you that you get away from him. I always suspected that there was something strange about him, and I didn’t want him anywhere near you once I got to know him better. I thought his obsession with you was unnatural.’

      ‘I’m sorry. I was just afraid that you might have let something slip, without meaning to.’

      ‘I didn’t. I can’t think how he could have found you so soon—and, anyway, you don’t know for sure that it was him, do you? The caller could have realised that he had made a mistake and that it was a different Abby Curtis he was looking for—someone older perhaps, and that’s why he rang off without speaking. He was probably embarrassed. Or it might have been that the nurse heard him wrong and he had asked for someone with a similar-sounding name.’

      Abby might have known her mother would react like that. She was a sensible woman, whose reasoning was nearly always straightforward.

      ‘You’re probably right. I expect I’m making a fuss about nothing.’ Abby talked to her mother for a minute or two longer, then said goodbye and hung up.

      Her mood was pensive, though. Was she simply imagining things? No matter how Abby tried to brush it off, the thought niggled that the caller might have been Richard. Given that she had told him she didn’t want anything more to do with him, he might well have been messing about, playing silly games with her.

      It was a sad state of affairs, because their relationship had been good to begin with, she recalled. Richard had been sexy, appealing, persuasive, and she had found herself falling for him over the weeks that had passed.

      It had only been later that she had realised there was another side to him, a part of his nature that needed to be in control, to take over, to have everything his way. That was when she had tried to break off the relationship, but her retreat had only made him more possessive, more argumentative, and when the split had finally come it had been fraught with tension. It had been worrying when he had accused her of seeing other men, falsely as it happened, and he had become steadily СКАЧАТЬ