The Spice of Life. Caroline Anderson

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СКАЧАТЬ and he was even wearing a tie—well, nearly. It hung round his neck, the knot well below the open collar of his shirt, and in the vee she could see the cluster of damp curls at the base of his throat. He looked almost respectable—and very, very sexy. He was also in the wrong place again. Kathleen opened her mouth, and a lid drooped over one of those fabulous grey eyes in a wicked wink.

      ‘We meet again,’ he said with a grin.

      ‘Morning,’ Mick greeted him. ‘Good weekend?’

      That Man shrugged. ‘Not bad—bit windy earlier. Good thermals, though.’

      Thermals? As in underwear? Never! Kathleen glanced sharply up at Mick. ‘Do you know him?’

      Mick nodded, and Ben Bradshaw stepped into the yawning void. ‘Have you met Sister Hennessy yet?’ he asked.

      That Man’s full lips twitched. ‘Yes, we have—er—spoken,’ he said, and the smile won and tipped the corners of his lips, bringing an enticing little dimple to one cheek. He held out his hand. ‘Jack Lawrence,’ he said, and if the floor could have opened up and swallowed her she would have been delighted.

      As the fiery blush mounted her cheeks, she shook his hand briefly, desperately hoping for a miracle.

      Holy Mary, she thought, all these years I’ve been a good girl—can’t you do something?

      Apparently not. The floor stubbornly resisted her prayers and imprecations. Jack Lawrence released her hand and turned to Ben.

      ‘So, how’s the rest of the weekend been? Sorry I had to desert you yesterday.’

      ‘Oh, not a problem. There wasn’t anything too drastic.’

      ‘Good. So, Sister Hennessy, how would you like to offer me a cup of coffee so we can get acquainted while these two young men carry on with their duties?’

      Her mind flailed. ‘I—I have somebody to suture——’

      ‘Ben, would you? I think Sister Hennessy and I need to have a chat. We’ll be in my office.’

      And that was the end of that.

      She followed him numbly, still praying for that elusive miracle as they went into the staff rest-room and collected two cups of coffee and then out again, back down the corridor to the consultant’s room—his room.

      On the way her mind ran over their conversation in the car park. One thing in particular sprang to mind. ‘If you knew the first thing about Accident and Emergency—’ Oh, Lord, let me be dreaming …

      He opened the door for her, closed it behind him and indicated the chair, then lounged against the window sill and grinned. ‘Would you like to go first?’

      Oh, sure—and say what? She almost laughed. ‘Not really—I’m still trying to swallow the rest of my feet,’ she confessed ruefully.

      He chuckled, a wickedly delicious little chuckle that sent a shiver down her spine. She set her coffee down before she slopped it all and met his eyes defiantly.

      ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

      He smiled slowly. ‘Such as?’

      ‘Well—I don’t know—anything. “I’m your new boss” would have done nicely. You just stood there and made a complete fool of me—’

      He shook his head. ‘Oh, no, Irish, you did that all by yourself.’

      She blushed again. ‘You could have said something,’ she repeated stubbornly.

      ‘Yes, I could, you’re quite right. It was unkind of me. I apologise.’

      She shot him a keen look, quite sure he was laughing at her, but his face was sober and his eyes were gentle now.

      ‘You didn’t look like a consultant.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘You should have said—’

      ‘I should. You didn’t really give me much chance—’

      ‘Rubbish! You had every opportunity!’

      He shrugged and grinned. ‘I suppose so, but it just seemed like a bit of harmless fun—and you know, Irish, you’re beautiful when you’re angry.’

      She was speechless.

      The phone rang, and he reached out a long arm and hooked it up. ‘Lawrence.’

      He listened for a moment, a slow smile spreading over his face, and then held the phone out to her.

      ‘Security for you—something about a motorbike in the car park …’

      Kathleen supposed there was some comfort to be gained from knowing that nobody had ever died of humiliation. Doubtless in later years she would be glad of that, but for now she was too embarrassed to care.

      It wouldn’t have been so bad, of course, if it had only been him, but there was that second-year nurse whom she had accused of loitering with him in the corridor—that was going to take some fancy footwork to get out of without loss of face. Oh, well, at least she wasn’t Japanese. Good job too, as there wasn’t a handy sword to fall on. She didn’t somehow think a stitch cutter would do the trick quite so well!

      In the end she screwed up her courage, took the girl into her office and apologised. ‘I made a mistake,’ she admitted. ‘I didn’t realise who he was, and with the security problems hospitals have been having recently, you can’t be too careful.’

      The nurse smiled. ‘I didn’t know who he was, either, but he asked me where he could find you, and I told him I didn’t know, and he said “Are you new too?” and then you arrived and …’ She trailed to a halt. ‘He didn’t look—well—like a consultant, did he?’

      Bless her, Kath thought. ‘No, Nurse, he didn’t, but he is.’ She glanced at her name badge. ‘Amy, have you done any work on Surgical?’

      She nodded. ‘I did some time with Sister Lovejoy last year, and I’ve done some orthopaedics.’

      ‘And how did you get on?’

      She nibbled her bottom lip. ‘OK. I had a bit of a problem with Mr Hamilton when he first arrived—I did something rather stupid and he was furious, but the patient was OK and he was great after that. Sister Lovejoy was ever so kind to me over it.’

      Kathleen groaned inwardly. That was all she needed, a nurse who made mistakes.

      ‘Well, Amy, if you aren’t sure about anything, you ask, OK? We can’t afford to make mistakes down here. I think you’d better work with me for the next few days, or if I’m not here, then with one of my staff nurses. Right. Do you know what triage is?’

      ‘Um—is that putting patients in order of priority as they come in so that you don’t leave people to bleed to death because they’re at the end of the queue?’

      Kathleen winced and grinned. ‘Sort of. You’re on the right lines. СКАЧАТЬ