A Man To Tame - Rachel Lindsay (Roberta Leigh) (12 page)

Kate had known it was not going to
be easy, but she was unprepared to find it did not get going at all, and when
five evening surgeries plus a weekend’ one brought only four women and three
children, she was moved to despair.

‘You'd think the women would want
to come and see me,' she burst out to Mrs Pugh as she was having lunch on
Sunday afternoon. 'It isn't as if there are any other women doctors in
Llanduff. I'm the only one.'

‘Maybe that's why folks are
nervous. They aren't as sophisticated here as they are in London,' Mrs Pugh
said. 'And women doctors tend to be regarded as a cut above social workers but
interfering busybodies nonetheless.’

'Interfering
busybodies!' Kate expostulated.

‘Well, the sort of person who'll
take it on herself to interfere in your private life.'

'I wouldn't dream of doing such a
thing!'

'I know that,' Mrs Pugh smiled. 'But
it's a question of getting the fact across to everyone else.'

How do you suggest I do that?' Kate
asked bitterly, Tut an advert in the local paper saying all illnesses treated,
no questions asked!'

There are ways and means of getting
things known.’

‘You mustn't do any touting for me,’
Kate said quickly. The Medical Council could get me struck off. I'll just have
to bide my time. If things don't improve ‘I’ll concentrate on the factory and
find myself a hobby as well. Taking care of the men won't occupy me full-time.'

'Not unless they all get ill together!'

‘I
can do without another outbreak of food poisoning,' Kate
said immediately and, imagining Mrs Pugh sprinkling cascara on the canteen food, gave her housekeeper a grin.

But as she left the house and went
for a walk, her humour gave way to despondency. The boredom she was beginning
to feel was both a bad sign and a good one: bad because it made her
dissatisfied and good because it meant her health was improving. In a couple of
months she would be completely well, and it was then that she would find so
much free time intolerable. It was all very well to talk of finding herself a hobby, but medicine was the only thing she cared
about and, as such, she had no inclination to occupy herself with anything
else.

She came to the end of the road and
stopped, then decided to go for a long walk and set off up the winding hill,
from the top of which she would have an excellent :
view of the countryside. It might be an idea to use her free time to specialise
in one particular branch of medicine. She could get books sent down from London
and pursue a reading course that would enable her to get higher qualifications.
When she returned to the group practice, any additional knowledge she brought
with her would be welcome.

Pleased that she had found a way of
occupying her enforced leisure, she slowed her pace and started to enjoy the
scenery. She had branched off down a side lane without being aware of it and
found herself on a road she had not traversed before. It was only wide enough
for one car and tall hedgerows grew on either side of-her, broken only by an occasional
wooden gate that led into a field. Some few hundred yards in the distance the
lane forked in two directions and, hoping the left one would bring her back on
to familiar territory, she went towards it. To her surprise it was not another
road but led to an enchanting-looking cottage nestling in a wild tangle of
greenery. As her eyes roamed the bushes and the profusion of flowers she saw it
was a carefully planned wilderness; a garden artlessly contrived
to
look
a& if it had not been contrived at all. It was the
word artless that made her pause for thought. Was this where Felicity Davis
lived? It did not seem to fit the girl, who she felt would be more at home in
an elegant flat in Mayfair, but Dermot had said she had one of the loveliest
cottages in the district and this one certainly fitted that description.

Unwilling to stand here gawping in
case she was seen, she cut across the soft ground to the footpath that wound
round the back of the cottage and would, she knew, lead her to the road she
wanted to reach. It was only as she rounded the side of the cottage that she
saw the silver grey Porsche parked in a timber barn. The doors of the barn were
open and though no attempt had been made to hide the car, Kate instinctively felt
it had been parked here in order not to be seen by prying eyes. Instantly she
envisaged two dark glossy black heads close together and blue
eyes
gazing into warm brown ones. Her body tingled and she quickened her pace, eager
to put the cottage behind her. But the thought of the man and the woman in it
remained with her almost as if she were a Peeping Tom.

That's what comes of living in a
small town,' she thought crossly. ‘I’ll soon start making everyone else's
business my own! What do I care if Joshua Howard wants to hide the fact that
he's spending his time with Felicity Davis?' Yet the fact that he had parked
his car out of sight dismayed her, for she had always considered him a man who
did what he liked without caring what other people thought. Perhaps his
discretion was on Felicity's account? She dismissed this thought at once, for
though she barely knew the girl she could not see her wishing to hide her
liaison with a man of such importance that his business activities were
regularly featured in the national press.

The footpath she was on snaked its
way across a field of waving com and she was almost lost amidst a yellow-green
sea. More green than yellow, she decided, which was an apt colour that befitted
her jealousy. The word brought her up short. She had no reason to be jealous of
Felicity Davis. True, the girl lived in an idyllic cottage and had the looks
which Kate had always admired, but was this sufficient for her to feel such
unusual dislike? Heavy-lidded brown eyes hovered in front of
her own and a wide, thin-lipped mouth curved in a mocking smile that
dissolved into the darkening Hue sky. It was not the cottage or Felicity's
looks that she envied but her attraction for Joshua Howard.

‘No!' she said aloud. ‘No, it can't
be true.'

But it was true, and many things
she had not understood about herself in recent weeks began to clarify.
She
knew
when her dislike of Joshua Howard had changed to awareness, but when had
awareness become a more significant longing? Equally important, why had it
happened? He represented so much that she abhorred, not the least being his attitude
to women. Yet perhaps it was this very attitude which, arousing her anger, had
served to keep him constantly in her mind.

'He can't mean anything significant
to me,' she thought desperately. 'I only want him to notice me because I think
it's the best way of annoying him.' She shook her head. No, that was a lie. She
wanted him to be as aware of her as she was of him. She had been blind _ not to
have seen danger in the way she had constantly tried to prove her capability to
him. She had believed she had wanted to do so merely to make him eat his words
but she knew it was much more than this. She didn't only want him to see her as
a good doctor but as a woman he could love. She gave a dry laugh. Joshua Howard
would never love someone like her. A marmot, he had called her once, a
sharp-tongued little marmot. At no stretch of the imagination could one
consider that a compliment or a declaration of desire. It was who made him feel
that sort of emotion, not a small fair-haired young woman whose profession he
regarded as a bull a red rag.

Once more she continued to walk. If
only she had never come this route tonight! Had she not seen the cottage and
the Porsche she might still be in ignorance of her feelings. Yet those feelings
would eventually have come to the fore, and might have done so at a time when
she would not have had the opportunity of hiding them. The thought that she
might have realised Joshua Howard's attraction for her while she had actually
been with him filled her with horror. He must never know how she felt, for it
would, without question, give him the biggest laugh of his life.

It was no surprise to Kate to find
she did not sleep well that night, and though in the past months she had grown
used to sleeplessness, on this occasion It left her
short-tempered and less than her normal sympathetic self to her patients.

I’m glad to find you're human,
Doctor,' one of the ,men said to her after she had
edgily answered a query arid’ then apologised for her brevity. ‘You've been too
perfect up to now. The men call you Angel-face.'

Kate gaped at him. ‘What a name!'

'It's on account of your hair,' he
said. 'It curls round your head and the fact that you've been so gentle and easy-going.'

'No sharp-tongued marmot here,' she
thought, and instantly dismissed it. 'Maybe I should make a habit of being
bad-tempered,' she grinned. 'It might bring me some more patients.'

‘They'll all be coming to you in
time,' the man assured her. 'But even when Dr Morris was here, a lot of them
went to their own doctors in Llanduff.'

'It seems a shame not to utilise
the doctor here,' she said, 'especially when Mr Howard is paying so heavily for
it.’

'He gets it back in output,’ the
man said. ‘But I’ll grant you he's a good employer.'

‘Have you worked here long?' she
asked. 'Since I was a boy, and I'm nearly fifty now. I
began under Mr Howard's father. Old Josh we called him. This one used to be
called the Young Josh. Some of us still do it—though never to his face!'

'I can appreciate why,’ Kate smiled
back, and was still amused as she recounted the story to Nurse Evans.

‘Do you want me for evening surgery
tonight?' the Woman asked.

There'll only be my hand to hold!'
Kate said bitterly. ‘I’ll give it another fortnight, then
I'll close up and start studying instead.'

'I go to a dressmaking class two
evenings a week,’ the nurse confided.

That's not for me. I'm hopeless
with a needle. I'd never have made a surgeon.'

Nurse Evans laughed and started to
file the patients' cards that were in her hand. Kate stood up and stretched. It
was lunchtime and she was dismayed at the prospect of having to face Joshua.
Darn it, now she was thinking of him by his first name; it just showed how
treacherous her thoughts were. Before she knew it she would be calling him by
his name too. The very idea made her grow hot with embarrassment and she pulled
off her jacket Because the weather was warm she wore a
silk dress. Sleeveless and figure-fitting, its filmy yellow material made her
look like a fresh primrose.

I’m going to lunch,’ she said'
aloud, and resolutely made her way to the directors dining room. Dermot came
forward to greet her. She had deliberately not seen much of him in the last few
weeks, afraid that he was becoming serious over her. But today she smiled at
him with unusual warmth, knowing she was using him as a shield yet unable to
stop herself. A quick glance round the room
had told her Joshua Howard was not present, but every fiber of her being
was anticipating his arrival.

'Long time no see,’
Dermot handed her a orange juice, knowing she did not drink alcohol during the day
when she was working. 'Still too busy to see me in the
evening?’

'I really have been busy,’ she
lied, ‘but I'm freer now that I've got things organized.’

'How about dinner
tonight?'

‘That would be lovely.’

‘I’ll call for you at eight,’ They
stared at each other and smiled, though Kate's mouth trembled as she saw the
door open and the powerful figure of a man come through it.

There aren't many directors here.'
Kate focused on Dermot as if he were the most important person in the room.

They're in London for a seminar. Mr
Howard was supposed to go too, but he opted out at the last minute. It was
unusual for him not to go. He normally loves these shindigs.’

'Perhaps he's settling down at
last.'

'It isn't that sort of shindig,’
Dermot grinned, It’s strictly business.’

‘Then perhaps he's decided that all
work and no play is no good either!'

‘With Mr Howard it’s all work and
all play! He's the only man I know who has twenty-five hours in a day!

Kate would have liked to ask Dermot
what he meant, but before she could do so luncheon was served and she found
herself being placed beside Joshua Howard.

'You're looking pale today, Dr
Gibson; not working too hard, I hope?'

'Not working enough,’ she replied.

‘His hand tightened on the stem of
his wine glass. ‘Are
you
tendering your resignation?'

This was the last thing she had had
in mind, but hearing the question she �debated whether it might not be the
best thing to do, for she would have no peace of mind as long as she remained
close to the man who had destroyed it. But to leave-now would be to concede him
victory, and this was something she had no intention of doing.

'Certainly not,’ she said
spiritedly. I’m going to remain here until my contract expires at Christmas.'

'And will you then rush back to
London without any regrets for the peace of the Welsh countryside?'

‘I am a Londoner born and bred, Mr
Howard.'

'Does that mean you couldn't be
happy anywhere else?'

'I didn't say that.'

'It's what you implied.' His glance
was oblique. Would you be happy to live in Llanduff permanently, for instance?'

'Is your question hypothetical,'
she asked dryly, 'or are you offering me the position here on a permanent
basis?'

He half opened his mouth and then
clamped it shut. Compressed, the lips looked thin, though she knew that when he
was relaxed they were well curved and sensuous. Quickly she moved her eyes away
from them and concentrated on the firm jaw and powerful throat. He wore an
impeccably cut suit and she knew that the width of the shoulders owed nothing
to padding. There was not an ounce of superfluous fat on him anywhere and she
wondered if he did physical exercise to keep fit or whether he watched his
diet.