Her Boss and Protector. Joanna Neil

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СКАЧАТЬ soon as you’re both dressed, I want you to go downstairs and get your breakfast. I put some cereal out in your bowls but then I found out that there’s not enough milk, so you’ll have to leave those and eat the toast I’ve made for you instead.’ She hadn’t realised that Connor had been busy filling up the kitten’s saucer at regular intervals, and it was too late now to go and get fresh milk.

      ‘Can we keep the kitten?’ Rebeccah asked, picking it up as it escaped Connor’s clutches.

      ‘I don’t know.’ Jade made a face. ‘I know how much you both like him, but we don’t know where he’s come from. We’ll keep him for now, to make sure that he’s safe, but I’ll have to put some notices out to see if someone’s looking for him. He might belong to another family.’

      Rebeccah wasn’t deterred. ‘But if no one comes for him, he might get to stay with us for always,’ she said, smiling happily.

      ‘Perhaps, but don’t get your hopes up too much. His real family might be missing him.’ She glanced at Rebeccah, who was nearly dressed. ‘You’re doing very well,’ she said. ‘I want to go and have a quick shower—I’ll be five minutes, that’s all. Will you take Connor downstairs and make sure he gets his breakfast? I should be down before you’ve finished.’

      Rebeccah nodded, looking older and wiser than her tender years. ‘Mummy always asks me to help get Connor ready. He’s not very good, you know. He takes ages to get his clothes on because he always stops to play with his toys.’

      Jade made a wry smile. ‘I’d noticed that.’ She made sure that the children had finished getting dressed, and then went to the bathroom. Ideally, she wanted to sit down with the children and have breakfast with them, but things were running away from her this morning. Instead, she took the quickest shower she’d ever had and then hurried downstairs. To her relief, she found that the children were sitting at the kitchen table, munching away at their toast and also at their breakfast cereal.

      ‘Are you fetching us from school today?’ Connor asked. He looked up at her, his mouth smeared with a creamy white covering of milk, and Jade frowned, wondering where that had come from.

      ‘No, your mummy’s friend, Libby, is going to meet you when school finishes, and she said that she’ll look after you until I come home from work. You’ll be able to play with her children, won’t you? I expect you’ll like that.’

      They both nodded. ‘We sometimes go to Libby’s for tea.’ Rebeccah’s expression became serious. ‘When will Mummy and Nanna be coming home?’

      ‘I’m not sure,’ Jade told her. ‘I talked to the doctor on the telephone a little while ago, and he said that he’s doing everything he can to make them feel better. I’m going to see them at the hospital today, and I’ll let you know how they are when I come home. I’ll give them a kiss from both of you, shall I?’

      ‘Yes,’ Rebeccah said, and Connor began blowing kisses across his palm. Jade watched the children for a moment then glanced at their breakfast bowls. Their cereal was already half-eaten, and that struck her as odd. Scanning the table, she saw that there was a white jug in the centre, filled to the brim with milk.

      ‘Where did that come from?’ she asked. ‘There wasn’t any milk left in the fridge.’ Her brows met in a furrowed line. Come to that, she didn’t even recognise the jug.

      ‘We got it from the man next door,’ Connor told her.

      Jade stared at him. ‘I don’t understand. Are you saying that you went round and asked him for a jug of milk?’

      ‘Yes, we both did.’

      She blinked, trying to take that in. Surely they hadn’t? ‘How could that be? I thought you were afraid of him. How did you pluck up the courage to do that?’

      ‘I wanted my breakfast,’ Connor said in a matter-of-fact tone, as though he was amazed that she still didn’t get the full picture. ‘I didn’t want toast. I always have wheaty flakes for my breakfast, so I took my bowl round and asked him to put some milk on them.’

      Jade felt a wave of heat rise up inside her and flood her cheeks. Was it possible for her to be humiliated any more? Could the floor open and swallow her up?

      ‘I think he felt sorry for us,’ Rebeccah piped up, ‘because he went and fetched a jug and filled it up for us. He said, “Are you two getting enough to eat?” and Connor said, “Well, sometimes we don’t get no tea if Mummy’s too busy.” And the man said, “Oh dear,” and I said, “But we might have a take-away instead.”’

      Jade closed her eyes and groaned inwardly, the wave turning to a tide of embarrassment that surged through her. What must her neighbour have thought when these two little waifs and strays had appeared on his doorstep, holding out their cereal bowls and pleading for sustenance? It didn’t bear thinking about. If he believed she was their mother he probably had her marked down as a serious candidate for neglect of her responsibilities, given their previous encounter.

      There was no time to remedy the situation right now, though. ‘I think you should leave it to me to sort out the milk situation next time,’ she said. Jade braced herself. ‘Now, we need to get a move on. We have to leave here in a few minutes, so I want you to hurry up and finish your breakfast and then we must get in the car and set off for school.’

      Thankfully, she didn’t run into her new neighbour as they left the house. She wasn’t ready to face him, and she certainly hadn’t the wherewithal for a confrontation with him just now. There were enough butterflies in her stomach already at the thought of starting work in A and E. It was one of the most demanding specialties and, being relatively inexperienced in emergency work, she would need all the help she could get.

      As it was, things turned out quite differently to what she was expecting when she arrived at the hospital. Instead of a gentle easing in and a helping hand from one of the nurses to show her where everything was, she found herself being plunged straight into chaos.

      ‘I don’t have time to talk now,’ the triage nurse said, pushing a hand through her chestnut-coloured hair. ‘We’re run off our feet. There was an accident at one of the factories in town, and we’ve multiple casualties to deal with. Dr Franklin is co-ordinating everything, and you’ll just have to pitch in as best you can. There’s a man being brought in by ambulance—a suspected heart attack. He should be here in about ten minutes. Perhaps you can take the lead with that one.’

      ‘Yes, of course.’ Jade hoped that she was up to it. Glancing around, she asked, ‘Where is the consultant…Mr Ramsay? I haven’t seen him around anywhere.’

      ‘No—you won’t be seeing him.’ The nurse frowned. ‘He was taken ill—but you wouldn’t have heard about that, would you? He was away on holiday for a few days and went down with some sort of food poisoning. It’s affected his kidneys, and now he’s being treated in the renal unit. For a while it was touch and go as to whether he would pull through.’

      Jade was shocked. ‘I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I hope he’ll be all right.’

      ‘So do I. We all think the world of him. As it is, he’s going to be laid up for some time, from the sound of things. That is bad enough, from his point of view, but it’s left us all in a state of upheaval here.’ The nurse managed an apologetic smile. ‘Look, I have to go. I’m supposed to be helping out with a multiple fracture. I’m Katie, by the way. If you need any help, just yell.’

      Jade СКАЧАТЬ