Paddington Children's Hospital Complete Collection. Kate Hardy

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      ‘Let’s get started,’ Victoria said. ‘It’s so good to see such an amazing turnout.’

      She paused as someone’s phone rang out and, Dominic noted, Victoria was far from shy—instead of putting the person at ease, she glared.

      ‘Can everyone please silence their phones?’

      ‘It might be kind of important, Victoria,’ someone called out, and Dominic smiled at the smart response, given the people who were in the room.

      ‘Then put it on vibrate,’ Victoria said. ‘We’ve got a lot to get through and if we have pagers and phones going off every two minutes we shan’t get very far.’

      There was a brief pause as a lot of people turned their phones onto silent.

      Dominic’s was already off.

      He had started carrying it at work, though he kept it on silent. He still did not want his personal life intruding. But now, if his parents called, which they quite often did, he would let it go to message, then speak to them during a lull in his day rather than at the end of his shift.

      There still wasn’t much to talk about. They opted to discuss the weather rather than face the unpalatable topic as to what their youngest son had done.

      And, Dominic knew, he had taken out his malaise and mistrust on Victoria.

      That was the real reason he was here tonight; he hoped to speak with her afterwards.

      For now though, he listened to what she had to say.

      Victoria kicked off the meeting. ‘The fire has really helped showcase to people how vital an institution the hospital is.’

      Robyn’s hunch had proven right, and now Victoria and Dominic were the face of the Save Paddington’s campaign.

      The image of them came up on the screen behind Victoria and she tried not to glance over at Dominic.

      He hadn’t been at the other meetings, though she now knew he had been on leave. But even if she was glad of the big show tonight and for any support that could be mustered, there was one exception—Victoria rather wished he would stay away, for Dominic was a distraction that she did not need.

      Then again, that’s what he had done since their night together—distracted her from her life.

      Even before that, she had always found herself looking out for him whenever she and Glen brought a patient into the Castle.

      ‘The travel time is a vital point we should make,’ said Matthew McGrory, a burns specialist. He had been working around the clock with the patients from the school fire and looked as if he had barely slept in days. ‘Due to the sheer volume of casualties there were some patients that were taken to Riverside, but the most severely injured children came here and were treated quickly. That first hour is vital and a lot of that time would have been lost had Paddington’s not been here.’

      ‘Indeed.’ Victoria was up-front and well versed. ‘And we do need to push travel time and the difference it will make to locals. However, patients come from far and wide for treatment at Paddington’s. We need to promote both aspects and we need to start working out how best to do that.’

      It was a call to arms meeting.

      ‘The press is onside at the moment,’ Robyn said, ‘but we need to keep up that momentum.’

      Rebecca, a cardiothoracic surgeon who headed the transplant team, spoke about the real issue with doctors leaving and the problems the cardiology department were facing. ‘We’re only able to recruit on very short-term contracts. Paddington’s has always attracted world-class doctors and we can’t let that change. The campaign needs to showcase the hospital in its best light.’

      Ideas were building and they were starting to run with them; it was decided that the first major event to be held would be a fundraising ball.

      The meeting ran for a couple of hours and Dominic watched and listened.

      He could only admire Victoria.

      From an initial very scattered effort, the drive to save PCH was now starting to come together.

      Certainly, with the fire and its aftermath still prominent in the news, the public were starting to understand the real implications of Paddington’s closing.

      ‘Right,’ Victoria said. ‘I think that gives us enough to be going on with for now. Anyone who wants to carry on the discussion can—I think most of us who are not working will be heading over to the Frog and Peach.’

      Phones went back on and people started heading out. Dominic made his way over to the stage.

      ‘Well done,’ he told her.

      Victoria simply ignored him and packed up her computer and things in silence.

      She had been on days off since the fire and hadn’t seen him since the night she had told him about the baby. She certainly didn’t want to see him now.

      There was no getting out of it though. Dominic waited till everyone was gone and, when finally they were alone, she turned to face him and hear what he had to say.

      ‘I want to apologise for my reaction the other night,’ Dominic said.

      She understood it though.

      Victoria had sat bristling on the Tube but, even as she had let herself into her flat, she had been able to see where he was coming from. Dominic, especially given what he had been through with his ex, had every right to be suspicious as to whether or not the baby was his, Victoria had decided.

      And she was right to hold back, but for reasons of her own that she could not think about right now.

      ‘Dominic,’ Victoria said. ‘I’m pregnant from our one-night stand. Now, I accept, given what happened between us, you might assume that I drop my knickers like that...’ She snapped her fingers. ‘But actually I don’t. I broke up with someone before Christmas and since then...’

      ‘I don’t need your history. Victoria, I’m thirty-eight. I’m sure we’re both going to have had our share of past relationships.’

      And that was perhaps the moment she fully realised just how very different they were.

      Victoria was twenty-nine and as for relationships...

      She hadn’t really had any of note.

      Oh, there had been a couple of boyfriends who had lasted a few months, but she had never lived with anyone and, in truth, had never really been in love.

      ‘Well, you shouldn’t be so sure,’ Victoria responded. ‘I don’t do very well with relationships and so I tend to steer clear of them. As I said, I broke up with someone just before Christmas, and apart from a couple of first dates that went nowhere, there hasn’t been anyone since then.’ No wonder the condom hadn’t been up to much, Victoria thought; it had been in her purse for months. ‘This year, apart from one torrid tryst in a turret, there’s been no one.’ And she smiled at her little tongue twister. ‘I believe you were the said torrid tryst.’

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