Czytaj książkę: «A Consultant Beyond Compare»

CHAPTER ONE

THE ring tone from Katie’s mobile phone sounded, growing louder and more insistent with each passing second. She frowned, flipping open the phone and peering down at the screen in front of her.

What now? Was it totally impossible for her to have five minutes of peace and quiet to enable her to think things through, without someone desperately seeking her attention or needing her to do something for them right away?

Then again, the whole day had been a disaster from start to finish, hadn’t it, so why should anything change now? From the moment she had arrived for work at the rehab centre that morning, things had been going steadily downhill.

First there had been the discovery that one of the workmen on site had drilled through a water pipe, and as if that wasn’t enough to put the seal on the day, shortly afterwards one of the builders doing the renovations had taken a nasty tumble from the main roof.

It was bad enough that the poor man had broken his fall on a lower sloping timber roof and then crashed through it into the patients’ sun lounge, but it could have been far worse. It was only just short of a miracle that no one had been sitting in there at the time.

‘Well, at least we’ve managed to find alternative places for all of our stroke patients,’ Mandy, Katie’s boss, said, coming out into the garden in search of her.

Katie had found herself a calm nook by the arbour, where she could sit on a bench and take in the fresh, clean air. The warmth of the summer sun filtered through the branches of the trees, caressing her arms, making her feel a little less stressed.

‘They don’t seem to have been too badly affected by all the upheaval and I’ve made sure that they’ll be able to go on with their rehabilitation in their new situations.’ Mandy heaved a sigh. ‘None of this bodes well for us, though. With the patients’ sun lounge in a shambles and a hole drilled through the water pipe, it looks as though we’ll have to close down until the renovations are complete. Of course, they’re going to take much longer now.’

‘Yes, I thought that might be the result.’ Feeling a little more in control of herself now, Katie straightened up and brushed back the long sweep of her chestnut hair with her fingers. ‘Has there been any news on the builder?’

‘Apparently he’s in Theatre now, having his leg reset. The doctor confirmed your diagnosis—he had suffered a heart attack, but they think it was a mild one and with proper care he should be all right, given time.’

Mandy gave Katie a long look. ‘I was amazed at how you leapt into action. I’m sure you saved his life. I can’t think what you’re doing working in rehab when you have those skills at your fingertips. You should be in a hospital emergency department, where your talents would be recognised.’

The thought of that sent a minor chill along Katie’s spine. She had made up her mind that she would never again work in A and E, and it had been some months since she had properly used her medical skills. From the moment she had come across the injured man, though, her actions had been triggered as if by remote control. She hadn’t given it a second thought. It was as though she had been an automaton, going through a series of well-rehearsed actions without giving them any conscious attention.

In a way, the man was fortunate, because after he’d fallen through the broken timbers, he had somehow managed to land on a wicker sofa. Any other kind of landing might have resulted in him not being around any longer to tell the tale.

Katie had rushed over to him, picking her way through the debris of wood and broken glass, and had immediately started to attend to his injuries, while Mandy had phoned for the ambulance. All Katie’s A and E skills had come back to her in that moment as she’d applied pressure to his wounds to stem the bleeding. It had only been afterwards that she had broken out into a cold sweat.

Mandy frowned as the phone continued to ring. ‘Aren’t you going to get that?’

‘Yes, I suppose I must.’ Katie pressed a button and the noise stopped instantly. For a moment or two she sat and simply absorbed the silence, a sense of relief washing over her.

‘I’m glad he’s not in too bad a way.’ It had been fairly obvious to her from the outset that the builder must have had some kind of heart attack, and she had concentrated all her efforts on doing what she could to stabilise his condition until the ambulance had arrived. It had only been after she had seen him safely handed over to the care of the paramedics that she had been able to take full stock of what had happened, and shortly after that shock had begun to set in.

Her whole body had been racked by tremors and she had made her way outside to this bench where she felt that at least for a while she would be safe from prying eyes.

Mandy nodded. ‘Me, too. I just wanted to let you know that all the arrangements are in place. We’re officially closed down for the foreseeable future.’

‘I’m sorry. I know how much effort you’ve put into the centre.’

Mandy nodded. ‘I’ll go and make a pot of tea.’ A faint smile crossed her mouth. ‘When in doubt, go and put the kettle on. At least there was some water left in it when the supply was cut off. I’ll leave you to take your call in peace,’ she added when Katie’s mobile started ringing yet again.

‘Thanks.’ Katie lifted the phone to her ear as she watched her go.

A man was saying urgently, ‘Hello? Hello…?’ A note of impatience threaded his words. ‘Are you there? Is that Miss Sorenson…Katie Sorenson?’

Katie frowned at the unfamiliar male voice. She didn’t recognise the number that showed up on her display screen, and if this was someone who was about to try to sell her something, he would very soon find himself listening to a disconnection tone.

‘Yes, I’m Katie Sorenson.’

‘Ah, at last…that’s good.’ The man paused, giving her time to contemplate the deep, beautifully modulated quality of his voice. He sounded as though he was youngish, in his thirties maybe, but she still didn’t have any idea who he might be.

‘Is it?’ she murmured, at a loss. ‘Perhaps you could enlighten me? Do I know you?’

‘No, I don’t believe so, but I think perhaps we should meet. I’m at a café near the railway station in Windermere and I have your sister here with me—she tells me her name is Jessica, and that she’s thirteen years old. Is that right?’

‘My sister?’ Katie’s blue eyes widened in shock. ‘You can’t be serious? What is she doing in Windermere?’ She checked his phone number on her mobile’s screen once more, and a shiver ran through her as she tried to work out what exactly was happening. Something was definitely wrong. What was Jessica doing some ten miles away, sitting in a café with a strange man?

Then she pulled herself together. Surely she was letting her imagination run away with her? Anyone who was trying to abduct Jessica would hardly take the trouble to phone her, would he? Even so, she said with a hint of suspicion in her tone, ‘How is it that you’re with my sister?’

She caught the wry inflection in his voice as he answered that. ‘I’ve just come across her, trying to hitch a lift at the roadside, and I have a strong feeling that she isn’t going to be safe, left to her own devices. She said that she was trying to get home to you, but she was lost. If that’s the case, and you are who you say you are, I would very much prefer to hand her over to you in person.’

Katie pulled in a deep breath. ‘I don’t believe this is happening. Is this a joke?’

‘Far from it, I’m afraid.’ There was a note of censure in his voice as he added, ‘I can’t imagine why you would allow a 13-year-old to wander about on her own so far from home, but she assures me that you are the one who is supposed to be looking after her.’ He was silent for a moment, as though he was leaving time for his comments to sink in.

Katie frowned. Why would Jessica have told him that? Her sister lived with their parents, a hundred or so miles away from the Lake District, in a town near the mouth of the Humber. What on earth was going on?

The man was speaking once more, his tone a little brisk now. ‘I’d come over to you, but I really don’t think that would be appropriate. I’m a stranger to your sister and I don’t want my actions to be misconstrued, so I’d appreciate it if you would come and fetch her.’

Katie’s mouth firmed. ‘Let me speak to her, please.’ She still had to be convinced that this wasn’t some kind of elaborate prank.

There was a momentary pause, and then Jessica’s voice sounded in her ear. ‘Katie, please, don’t be cross with me. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I got a bit lost, that’s all.’

Katie pulled in a sharp breath. ‘More than a bit, I’d say. What are you doing this far from home, and what are you doing with a strange man?’

Jessica made a faint gulping sound. ‘He asked me for your number and said he would get in touch with you. I didn’t have any credit left on my phone, you see, and then the battery went flat and I’d used up all my money, and anyway I’d already tried to reach you on your home phone and you weren’t there.’

‘No, that’s because I’m at work. That still doesn’t tell me what you’re doing out at Windermere.’

‘No, I…I know it doesn’t…but I promise I’ll explain everything when I see you.’ Jessica’s voice trailed off awkwardly, and Katie guessed she hadn’t told this man the full truth of the situation. ‘Will you come and fetch me?’

‘Yes, of course I will. Let me speak to this man.’

Jessica handed the phone back to her rescuer, and Katie forced herself to take a slow, calming breath. ‘Perhaps you could tell me exactly where you are and I’ll come over to you,’ she said briskly.

He gave her directions, and added on a cool note, ‘I hope you’ll drop everything and come straight away. I was on my way to a meeting and I’d still like to be able to get there some time before it ends if it’s at all possible.’

He didn’t sound as though he had very much faith in her, and Katie stifled a sharp response. ‘I’m sorry about your meeting,’ she told him in a strained tone. ‘I have a twenty-minute or so drive ahead of me, but I’ll be there as soon as possible.’

Clearly the man had a busy schedule. So had she, up until now, but from what Mandy had been saying that had all come to an abrupt end. There was little doubt that she was going to be out of work from today.

In the staff kitchen, Mandy had already poured the tea, but Katie hurriedly swallowed it down and went to find her bag. ‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘An emergency just cropped up and I need to go and pick up my young sister.’

‘Your sister?’ Mandy raised a brow. ‘I didn’t know you had any family around here.’

Katie’s expression was rueful. ‘Neither did I.’ She glanced across the table at her friend. ‘Will you be all right here?’

Mandy nodded. ‘We’ve done about as much as we can with the clearing-up operations, so I’ll probably just send the rest of the staff home.’ She made a wry face. ‘I don’t think there’ll be much point in any of us coming in for the next few months. I’m sorry.’

‘I know.’ Katie touched her shoulder in a gesture of sympathy. ‘I’ll give you a call later on,’ she murmured.

Mandy nodded, and Katie hurried out to her car.

Her mind was racing as she drove towards Windermere. What on earth was Jessica doing out here? The shock of this news, coming on top of everything else that had happened today had left her feeling thoroughly churned up inside. She had hoped to put all this kind of stress behind her, but now she was going through the same kind of anxiety she had experienced back in Humberside in those last months when her contract at the hospital had come to an end. Her emotions were all over the place.

Caught up in traffic a few minutes later, Katie had time to reflect on all that had gone wrong at her former hospital post. Everyone had expected that her position as Senior House Officer in A and E would be made permanent, but after what had happened in the operating theatre there were some who believed she had made a mistake, putting her patient’s life at risk, and from then onwards her career progress had been in question.

It hadn’t helped that her consultant had been unapproachable and stiff-lipped. ‘The patient might have bled to death,’ he said.

‘But he didn’t. At least I managed to stem the bleeding.’ She frowned as the nightmare situation came back to haunt her. ‘The man was in a bad way when I first saw him, and I tried to get in touch with you before he went to Theatre. I needed back-up, but your answering service said you weren’t available.’ As a junior doctor, she ought to have been able to call on her consultant for guidance.

He had turned on her. ‘I hope you’re not going to use that as an excuse,’ he’d said tersely. ‘I should be able to rely on the competence of the members of my team. If you’re not up to the job, I think you should start to look for another post.’

It was a devastating blow to her hopes and dreams but, worse than that, what had happened in Theatre had thoroughly shaken her up. The patient had been critically ill to begin with, and the massive bleed into his lungs could have killed him.

The nurse who had been assisting took her to one side. ‘These things happen,’ Helen told her. ‘It wasn’t your fault. It’s well known that there are sometimes complications with the type of catheter you were using, and when the worst happened you did everything you could to pull the man through. You saved him.’

‘But his recovery is going to take much longer than it should,’ Katie whispered, still shaken in the aftermath of events.

Her boss hadn’t been in Theatre with her when the patient’s pulmonary artery had been punctured, and when the patient’s family had asked about the man’s condition he had brushed their concerns to one side, telling them that he had suffered an unexpected bleed. Of course, questions had followed after that.

‘You should pray that they don’t sue,’ he had told her.

Whatever the eventual outcome, it was clear to Katie that he wouldn’t be supportive of her. He would watch his own back and by making sure that her contract wasn’t renewed he could rest easy.

And now she was out of work once again. It was distressing, to say the least, because she had come to the Lake District in the hope of putting all that upset behind her once and for all.

It had taken her a while to get over the upheaval of having to change her job, she had tried her hand at various kinds of work back home before settling on this post further afield.

The change of scene would do her good, she had hoped, and it would give her the boost she needed to help her to get back into the swing of things. Now that dream, too, had come to an end, and she was left with yet another problem to contend with.

The miles swept by as she drove towards Windermere, and soon she could see the vast stretch of the lake spread out before her. There were boats dotted about on the water that sparkled in the sunlight, and all around were hills and valleys swathed in green, with pretty villages of stone and slate houses nestled against the backdrop of trees.

It was a beautiful, tranquil setting, and she ought to be glad that she was here and able to appreciate its peacefulness, but as she headed towards the railway station and parked her car, she was hardly aware of that.

She walked over to the café the man had mentioned. Tables and chairs had been set up outside on a terraced area in front of the building so that customers could enjoy the summer sunshine. A few people were relaxing there, sipping coffee or cold drinks, and as she scanned their faces, she discovered that her sister was amongst them.

Jessica was sitting tensely upright next to a man who was wearing a crisp blue shirt and immaculate dark-coloured trousers. His discarded jacket was placed casually over the back of his seat.

Although he was partially turned away from her, Katie could see that his hair was black and close cut in an attractive fashion, so that it framed his features and outlined the angular lines of his face.

Just then Jessica looked up and saw Katie approaching the café. She stood up and started towards her, moving awkwardly as though she wasn’t quite sure what her reception would be.

‘Katie…Katie, oh, I’m so glad you came.’ She hesitated. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to fetch you out of work, but everything went wrong and I was lost and I didn’t know what to do.’

‘It’s all right.’ Katie put her arms around her sister and ran a soothing hand over the girl’s silky brown curls. ‘I’ve found you now. We’ll sort everything out.’

Jessica’s body slumped with relief as some of the tension left her. She clung to Katie for a few moments longer, and then eased back, her expression taking on a strained appearance.

She said softly, ‘I knew your address, and I was trying to come over to your house, but this man stopped me and made me wait with him here. I’d have been all right, honest, but he wouldn’t let me carry on.’ She lowered her voice and whispered confidentially, ‘He thinks you and I had an argument and that I was running away. I daren’t tell him what really happened. I thought he might put me on a train and send me back home.’

Katie nodded. ‘Yes, I can see why you kept quiet, but he was right to stop you, you know. You might have ended up in a terrible state. You’re lucky that he turned out to be one of the good guys.’ She frowned. ‘We must go and let him know that you’re safe now.’

Jessica chewed at her lower lip. Reluctantly, she allowed Katie to lead her back to the table where she had been sitting, and for the first time Katie managed to take a proper look at her sister’s saviour.

He stood up, unfurling his long body with a supple grace that added to the immediate impression of lithe vitality. He took her breath away. He was tall and fit-looking, flat-stomached, with broad shoulders and a lean physique that she guessed was honed to perfection.

He was staring at her in return, a look of startled surprise coming into his grey-blue eyes. ‘Do I know you?’ he asked. ‘You look somehow familiar.’ And once again that deeply satisfying voice shimmered over her consciousness. It made her feel warm all over, and quickened her pulse so that she had to quell a sudden surge of nervous tension.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ she murmured. But then again, there was something about him that struck a chord with her too, and she looked at him again, more closely this time. Did she know him from somewhere?

She dismissed the thought. ‘I must thank you for taking care of my sister,’ she said softly. ‘I’m really very grateful to you. I can’t imagine what she was thinking.’

‘It appeared to me that she was desperate to get away,’ he said, his gaze drifting over her. ‘I can’t begin to understand what must have gone on in order for her to feel that way, and yet from the way you greeted one another it seems that she’s either changed her mind or learned a lesson. I hope you’ll be able to resolve things between you.’

‘Yes, well, let’s hope so. She’s very young, and life can be confusing for teenagers at the best of times, can’t it? I don’t know about you, but my childhood was no bed of roses, and I expect we’ve all gone through difficult phases at some time or other in our lives.’

He nodded, and gave her a thoughtful look. ‘I suppose that’s true enough.’ He studied her features for a moment or two, and then added, ‘Do you think you’ll have any difficulty sorting out whatever it was that went wrong between you? Perhaps I could act as an intermediary and help you to find a way to work things out?’

Katie wavered for a moment or two. ‘That really won’t be necessary. I’m sure we’ll manage to find a solution to whatever has gone wrong.’ It wasn’t a lie, and why should she burden this stranger with the intricacies of her home life? He had stepped in and helped out, and she was grateful to him for that, but it didn’t mean that he was entitled to hear her life story. ‘Anyway, didn’t you say that you had a meeting to go to?’

He glanced at his watch. ‘I doubt there would be any point in attempting to get there now.’ His gaze settled on her. ‘Perhaps you were delayed in setting out?’

A guilty flush ran over her cheeks. ‘I hit some traffic on the way. I’m not quite sure what happened, but there was a tailback and I had to find another route, otherwise I would have been here quicker.’

He nodded. ‘I dare say it couldn’t be helped.’ He glanced at Jessica. ‘How do you feel about going home with your sister? Are you going to be all right or do you want me to stay around for a while to help you out?’

Jessica had the grace to look shamefaced. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.’

He was reaching for his jacket as she spoke, and now he started to shrug into it. ‘It’s no problem,’ he said. Then he added on an afterthought, ‘If you feel that you need to talk to anyone any time, you could always ring me. I’ll give you my number.’ Taking a notecase from his inside jacket pocket, he handed Jessica a card. ‘Keep it safe. You can ring me any time. If I’m not on hand right away, I’ll always get back to you.’

Jessica glanced at the card and then slipped it into her pocket. ‘Thank you.’

Katie wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful to him for his concern or affronted by it. This man had taken the trouble to keep her young sister out of danger, but at the same time he seemed to be implying that Katie might be the source of all the trouble in the first place. She sent him a spiky glance, her blue eyes glittering.

‘She’ll be fine with me,’ she murmured, keeping an even tone.

‘Good. I’m glad to hear it.’ He sent her an appraising look. ‘I can’t help thinking, though, that something must have gone very wrong for her to have felt the need to run away in the first place, and she was certainly very reticent in talking about it. Perhaps you’ll be able to talk things through and make a better go of things.’

‘We will,’ Katie answered him stiffly. ‘Thank you again for everything you’ve done. I do appreciate the way you’ve looked after her for me.’

He nodded briefly. ‘I have her number and your address, so I’ll keep in touch,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I’d like to satisfy myself that she’s doing all right.’

Katie’s chin lifted a notch. Was that a warning to her that he was prepared to keep an eye on things? Just how far did he mean to take his good Samaritan responsibilities?

She gave him a humourless smile. ‘Thanks again,’ she said. ‘We won’t impose on your time any longer. I should be starting on my way home before the traffic gets any worse. I’m just hoping that whatever caused the hold-up has been cleared by now.’

‘Me, too. Now that attending my meeting is out of the question, I’ll be heading back in your direction. If what Jessica tells me is correct, it looks as though we both live in the same area, around Ambleside.’

Katie groaned inwardly and tried not to let her emotions show in her face. She might have known that would be the case. With the way her luck was going today, perhaps it was only to be expected. Clearly she was not going to be free of this man for some time to come. Perhaps all she could do would be to forget that he had ever been around. The last thing she needed was more condemnation from men who thought they had the upper hand. She turned away from him.

‘Goodbye, Jessica,’ he said.

Jessica nodded to him and made a muted response before turning to follow Katie to her car.

‘Let’s go,’ Katie said, sliding in behind the wheel of her ancient car and waiting while Jessica strapped herself in. She was anxious to put this whole incident behind her, but as she pulled away from the kerb she was all too aware of the man following behind in a sleek, midnight-blue convertible.