Czytaj książkę: «The Midwife's Special Delivery»

CHAPTER ONE

SO MUCH for fresh rolls!

Pulling on her uniform, Ally cut off a piece of cheese and rammed it into the offending article, furious with herself that despite her stern promises she’d awoken at the crack of dawn and headed straight for the baker’s, furious with herself that she’d made up Rory’s bed and put on some coffee, not to mention five hundred coats of mascara—furious because she’d expected more from herself.

It was midday!

Midday and, even allowing for delays, even allowing for customs and a massive queue at the taxi rank he should have been here hours ago.

Well, what had she expected?

Exactly what Rory had expected, Ally realised.

To walk straight back in to the accommodating, friendly girl he’d so easily said goodbye to.

Well, she wasn’t that girl any more.

Throwing the jug of coffee down the sink didn’t really help, but a full carton of milk and the remains of the sugar did—picturing his face when he went to make his regular, disgustingly strong, disgustingly sweet brew, he could damn well walk to the grocer’s. Ripping the sheets off his freshly made-up bed, Ally shoved them in the washing machine and turned it on the longest, hottest wash the dial could summon, writing a massive note in black text and leaving it on the kitchen bench.

Sheets in the machine

Feel free to use the dryer

Ally

Not that that would stop him, Ally realised—knowing Rory, he’d either crash on the bare mattress or deviate straight to her room!

A mischievous smile played on her lips.

Heading to her bedroom, she rummaged through her knickers drawer, rummaged right to the very bottom where a pair of leopardskin knickers and bra lay—courtesy of a hen night party—still in their Cellophane. No doubt they’d crumble to dust once she opened them, but in an act of defiance Ally ripped open the pack, slung the two triangles that called themselves a bra over the chair in her bedroom and threw the G-string on the floor.

If only she had a packet of condoms to leave by the bed.

Instead, she exchanged her midwifery manual for a steamy romance she’d been meaning to read, sprayed half a bottle of perfume to scent the room, hid all her acne creams, razors and hard-skin removers and closed the door on the temporary brothel she’d created, feeling great, in control, on top of things…

Until she heard the unmistakable purr of a taxi.

Until she heard that deep, throaty voice, laughing and chatting with the driver.

Standing far back enough from her window so that she could see and hopefully be seen, Ally stared as three long years were erased in a single moment.

In an effort to keep going, in an effort to just keep breathing some days, Ally had managed to convince herself that the images that played over and over in her mind didn’t actually match the reality—that if ever Rory Donovan stepped back into her life she’d be hard pushed not to throw her head back and laugh at the thought he’d once affected her so much. Had convinced herself that he wasn’t really that good-looking, that loud, that big…That six feet seven could somehow shrink into normal-sized proportions!

Rory was huge—and that wasn’t just according to Ally. Everyone—everyone—commented on his size, because Rory was a generous touch more than the average tall guy—he literally towered over everyone. He looked more like a rugby player than a doctor—minus the cauliflower ears and broken nose, though, Ally conceded, watching as he pulled his wallet out of his shorts and paid the driver. Rory had a very nice straight nose and a wide, generous, very white-toothed smile. Minus the scruffy hair, too. Ally sighed, watching his dark, neatly cut, very straight hair gleaming in the midday sun. Apart from his height he was also incredibly well built. His massive wide shoulders meant he had to have his suits custom made, huge feet meant his shoes had taken up half the cupboard in the hallway, but somehow in the three years he’d been gone, Ally had forgotten just what an impressive sight he was. She’d even convinced herself that he was fat, that that huge frame would have gone to seed by now, but there he was, literally larger than life and twice as good-looking. A backpack was being unloaded out of the boot now, but so was a suit holder, and despite the shorts and T-shirt there was an air of authority about him she’d never truly noticed before. Rory had clearly done a lot of growing up in the last three years and here he was, about to walk back into her door.

Tanned.

Toned.

And tomorrow he’d be her new boss!

But the fact she’d soon be working alongside him wasn’t what was causing Ally’s heart to trip into overdrive. Neither was it the fact he was looking even more divine that she remembered. It was all she’d forgotten that terrified her most. Forgotten how just the sight of him flamed her senses, forgotten the agony of loving him from a distance, being a friend when she had wanted so much more.

But no matter how she’d tried, there was one thing time could never erase, one memory that, no matter how hard she’d fought it, simply couldn’t be banished from her mind—the fleshy weight of his lips on hers the night they had said goodbye for the last time, the heady, weightless feeling of being held by him, the decadent luxury she had briefly sampled of gazing into those dark green eyes. For one moment in time she had felt like the only woman who mattered but that was followed by the utter devastation the next morning when she had woken up in an empty bed, and realized that the man she’d secretly loved from a distance, the man she’d given her all to just a few hours before, had so easily walked away.

‘Rory!’ Pulling open the front door, she smiled widely as he dragged his bags up the garden path. ‘How are you?’

‘Worn out! They kept us for six hours.’ Dragging his bag into the hallway, he did a double-take. ‘I don’t remember the floorboards.’

‘They were under that disgusting carpet all along—I found them last year and had them polished up.’

‘It looks great. Don’t tell me she’s still here!’ Rory’s eyes were practically on stalks as Sheba came waddling down the hall to see what all the noise was, her pink tongue lolling out of her tired mouth, but her old ears pricked up and her tail was definitely wagging as she clearly recognised a very old friend. ‘Hey, girl.’ Rory dropped down to his knees. ‘Hardly a girl, though. How old is she now?’

‘Fifteen,’ Ally replied, hating the question and all it implied. ‘But she’s going really well.’

Rory didn’t say anything, clearly not convinced by Ally’s falsely cheerful voice. Sheba was literally on her last legs, her massive, overweight body barely able to hold her weight, the once gorgeous brown eyes clouded by cataracts now. And deep down Ally knew that, but it was more than she could bear to admit it to herself, let alone anyone else.

‘Look, I hate to dash off, but I’m on duty at twelve-thirty…’

‘No problem.’ Rory smiled, for the first time looking at her, taking in the navy culottes and white shirt, her long dark curls held back in a navy scrunchy, purple epaulettes on her shoulders.

‘What do they mean?’

‘Associate Charge Nurse.’ Ally gave a tight smile. ‘Which means I really shouldn’t be late.’

‘No worries. I’ll just grab a coffee and something to eat, and then I think I’ll crash.’

‘There are coffee beans in the cupboard, but you’ll have to grind them.’ She gave a tiny wince. ‘And I don’t think I’ve got any milk.’

‘Doesn’t matter.’

‘Or sugar.’ Ally grimaced. ‘And if you want bread, you’re going to have to go to the shop, I’m sorry. I didn’t know I’d have company.’

‘Not a problem.’ Rory smiled. ‘To tell you the truth, all I want to do is stretch out and sleep.’

‘Oh.’ Picking up her keys and placing them in her bag, Ally gave what she hoped was a suitably apologetic smile. ‘I’ve just put some washing on. I put some sheets in for you—they shouldn’t take too long, you’ll just have to whiz them through the dryer.’

‘That’s great, Ally, thanks.’ A tiny wave of guilt licked at her as she watched his tired face force a smile. She attempted to hide her blush. She looked down at her watch—and Rory got the unvoiced message. ‘You’d better get to work, then. We can catch up tonight, and I’ll ring out for take-aways….’

‘I’m out tonight!’ She hadn’t even planned to say it, but the lie slipped out so easily it caught even her by surprise. ‘But there’s some numbers on the fridge if you want to get something to eat…’

‘Anywhere nice?’

‘Sorry?’ Turning at the door, Ally blinked back at him.

‘Tonight—are you going anywhere nice?’

‘Just out.’ Ally shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance, trying so hard just to walk away, but even as she did, a question stilled her.

‘It’s not a problem, is it?’

‘Problem?’ Swinging around for the first time, she managed to actually look at him, her eyes frowning as they met his.

‘Me.’ Rory looked back at her. ‘Being here. If it is, you just have to say. I don’t want to…’ For a second he faltered. ‘I mean, if your boyfriend’s going to be worried by my staying here, you just have to say.’

‘Why would it be a problem, Rory?’ Still she looked at him, even managed a very thin smile. ‘I’ve got an old friend staying for a couple weeks until he finds somewhere else. Why would anyone have a problem with that?’ She turned and walked to her car. Thankfully the door was unlocked and Ally slid inside. Shaking hands pushed the key in the ignition, and she attempted a smart reverse but failed miserably, instead doing bunny hops the whole length of her driveway.

She’d sit in the movies alone if she had to!

Watch the same film twice over if it kept her out till after midnight.

Anything other than letting him glimpse the effect his return was having on her.

‘Let the poor woman rest!’ Rinska moaned, and Ally smothered a smile as the throaty Polish accent sighed into the phone. ‘I’ll be there when I can.’

‘Problem?’ Ally checked.

‘According to this very eager student, Mrs Williams isn’t progressing as she should. He wants me to do another internal to see how far along she is.’

‘But she’s doing well.’ Ally frowned. ‘I was only in there a moment ago.’

‘How did you find her?’ Rinska asked, clearly valuing Ally’s opinion.

‘Nervous, excited—a typical first-time mum. I told Jake—the student—to suggest a deep bath. She’s got ages to go yet.’

‘She’s only one centimetre dilated.’ Rinska rolled her glittery blue-eyeshadowed eyes at Ally. A consultant in Poland, Rinska was now relegated to working as an intern in Australia until her qualifications were approved and, though it must be hellish for Rinska to be such a tiny cog in a big wheel, Ally was delighted to have such a knowledgeable doctor on the shop floor. ‘She’ll still be labouring when we come back tomorrow morning. She’s hoping to do it without analgesia.’ A rather loud moan coming from delivery suite two had both women grimacing a touch—well aware that there was a lot of pain still to come! ‘Well, at least she’s got a chance of making a natural delivery—tomorrow it will be a different story. ‘

‘Tomorrow?’Ally frowned.

‘Mrs Williams is already ten days over her due date—from what I’ve heard, the new registrar that is starting doesn’t believe in letting nature take its course. She’d have been put on a Pitocin drip and strapped to a monitor a couple of days ago if he were already here.’

‘Are you talking about Rory Donovan?’Ally checked. ‘I’ve worked with him—I guess he tended to err on the side of caution but I always thought that he was really good.’

‘He is.’ Rinska shrugged. ‘At least, according to his stats, all his mothers and babies do well—but his Caesarean rate is way higher than mine.’ She gave a tight smile. ‘Or rather, what mine was. He’s a great doctor, I’ve no doubt about that, but I doubt he’d have let Lucy go so overdue—that’s all I’m saying.

‘Do you know him well?’ Rinska asked, taking in Ally’s rather bewildered frown. Ally gave a sort of vague, noncommittal nod, not particularly sure it would be appropriate to tell Rinska that at this very moment he was probably tucked up in her heavily scented bed! ‘We used to share a house.’

Rinska’s glittery eyeshadow stretched just a touch further.

‘With about three others. I bought a house on the beach when I was a student and over the years I’ve had more doctors and nurses as housemates than I can count. Rory was one of them.’

‘You bought a house on the beach when you were a student—how?’ Rinska asked, filling in a patient’s notes in her massive flamboyant scrawl as she happily chatted. ‘I couldn’t afford a beach box, let alone a house.’

‘Believe me; it had nothing to do with making an astute investment. A few of us were looking to rent and all the places were absolute bombs. My grandmother had left me some money, not a fortune but enough for a deposit. I saw this house for sale and fell in love with it—it was a bomb as well.’ Ally grinned. ‘But it was a bomb that was sitting right on the beach, with views to die for! I worked out that if everyone chipped in the rent it would cover the mortgage, and the next thing I knew I was standing at an auction.’

‘It would be worth a fortune now.’

‘Probably.’ Ally shrugged. She had no intention of selling and, anyway, she was far more interested in what Rinska had to say about Rory. ‘So what else have you heard about the new reg?’

‘Just what I told you. He’s more than happy to intervene if nature isn’t progressing as quickly as he’d like it to. I wonder how he’s going to fit in here?’

‘Well, he fitted in fine before.’

‘Ah, but he was an intern then.’ Rinska gave a dry smile. ‘And we all know that an intern isn’t allowed to have a single independent thought. I think you should brace yourself for a whole new doctor.’

‘Well, we’ll soon find out,’Ally answered as casually as she could, scarcely able to believe that in a matter of hours she’d be working alongside Rory again. ‘But he surely knows that Bay View isn’t exactly high-tech or a high-intervention hospital. If he wants that type of thing he should be working in the city, not at some suburban bayside hospital.’

‘Tell him when you see him,’ Rinska said as Ally clicked off her pen and closed the patient folder she was writing in. ‘What time are you due to finish?’

‘In half an hour,’ Ally answered. ‘I’m just going to check on Mrs Williams’s progress and then I might pop in and see Kathy before I give handover.’

‘How is Kathy this evening?’ Rinska asked, and Ally could hear the tense edge to Rinska’s usually confident voice.

‘The same,’ Ally sighed.

‘Still blaming me?’

‘She’s blaming everyone now—from the porter who wheeled her to Theatre, to the nurses, the consultant who came in and, yes, to you.’ Ally gave a sympathetic smile. ‘Rinska, you didn’t do anything wrong.’

‘I know that.’ Rinska gave a tired nod. ‘But try telling that to Kathy. Maybe she’s right,’ Rinska sighed. ‘Maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough, but I was honestly trying not to scare her too much. I thought she understood how serious the situation was.’

‘She didn’t want to understand,’ Ally said wisely, because even if Rinska was highly qualified, she still needed her colleagues’ support.

Kathy Evans was well known to everyone on the maternity ward. She had delivered a healthy baby boy three days earlier but, despite the fact that both mother and baby were doing well, Kathy was bitterly disappointed with how her labour had turned out and was making her feelings known to anyone who cared to listen—and extremely loudly!

Kathy had come in for an attempted VBAC—a vaginal birth after a Caesarean section. When she’d had her first child, the baby had been too large to negotiate the pelvis and an urgent C-section had been performed, much to Kathy’s disappointment. A staunch advocate of natural delivery, she had been disappointed that she hadn’t been able to achieve one and had been determined that her ‘mistake’ wouldn’t be repeated again. Previously it had been considered that ‘once a Caesarean always a Caesarean,’ but over the last few years, when appropriate, women had been offered a trial of labour. Things didn’t always work out as planned and often women still ended up requiring surgery to deliver their baby, but statistics were encouraging and the tide was starting to turn. Kathy had been determined that she would be successful in her quest to have a natural delivery, had done extensive research in her library and on the internet and was convinced that it was more a question of mind over matter than anything else. But even though her second baby was a much smaller one, Kathy’s uterus hadn’t contracted efficiently, and after a prolonged labour with minimal progress Rinska had become concerned by some rather ominous signs in Kathy’s and the baby’s observations and had called in Mr Davies, who had performed an emergency Caesarean section.

‘Rinska, you had no choice but to call in Mr Davies to perform a Caesarean section. And that’s coming from me—one of the strongest supporters in the unit for natural birth and minimal intervention. It would have been considered negligent if you hadn’t intervened when you did. You know that!’

‘I do know that.’ Rinska gave a small tired smile, obviously grateful for her colleague’s support. ‘I just guess I need to keep hearing it. Over and over in my mind I’ve gone through Kathy’s labour and I really cannot think of anything that I could have done differently, except perhaps explain things a little more clearly to her.’

Ally gave a dubious frown. Rinska, despite her heavy accent, despite the fact English wasn’t her first language, always spoke eloquently to the patients, always found the time, even in the most dire of circumstances, to keep her patients informed, and now here she was doubting herself.

Checking that no one was nearby, Rinska spoke in low tones. ‘I think she’s going to make a formal complaint.’

‘Then let her,’ Ally said with a confidence that belied how she really felt—even if Rinska was in the right, a formal complaint and the ensuing investigation was a horrible thing for anyone to go through. ‘Anyone who looks at her charts will know that you had no choice but to call in Mr Davies, and at the end of the day Mr Davies is the one who operated…’

‘I know,’ Rinska sighed. ‘But it’s me she’s really against. She was already in Theatre by the time Mr Davies arrived. She says that I panicked and overreacted, that I dramatised the situation just to get him to come in.’

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘It’s also the last thing I need right now. Ally, please, don’t say anything, but I’m actually applying for a consultant’s position.’

‘Here?’ Ally beamed and Rinska nodded.

‘It’s early days, my paperwork isn’t quite through yet, but hopefully in a few weeks I can start doing the job I’ve trained so hard for. It’s not that I mind being a resident and having to double-check everything with a registrar who knows less than me…’ Rinska gave a low laugh at her own bitter voice. ‘Well, a little, perhaps, but it has helped me to learn about the hospital system from the bottom upwards, which can only be good. But it’s still been a tough year. And now just when there’s an end in sight I’m going to have this complaint to deal with. It’s not going to look good for me.’

‘You’ll be fine,’ Ally said firmly, and she meant it. ‘When does your shift end?’

‘Half an hour ago,’ Rinska said wryly. ‘I might head over to the social club afterwards. Do you want to come?’

Ally was about to shake her head. The hospital social club wasn’t really her scene but the prospect of a drink and a chat with Rinska was rather more inviting than sitting in the movies alone just so that she could avoid Rory, so instead she nodded. ‘Sounds good.’

Lucy Williams gripped Ally’s hand tightly as Ally rested her hand quietly on the young woman’s stomach.

‘They really hurt!’ Lucy gasped. ‘I mean really, and the doctor told me that I’ve got ages to go. Maybe I came in too soon. It’s just they were coming so regularly I thought I should be here, and now I find out that I haven’t progressed at all!’

‘Another one?’Ally checked as she felt Lucy’s uterus tighten beneath her fingers. ‘OK, don’t hold your breath, Lucy. Remember how we taught you to breathe in class…’ Her voice was calm and gentle, encouraging Lucy to take some slow deep breaths, talking her through the pain and waiting until the contraction had abated before offering her some much-needed encouragement.