Brought Together by Baby

Praise for
Margaret McDonagh:

‘The romance takes a sensual turn that
will have readers longing for the couple’s
much deserved happily-ever-after.’
—
RT Book Reviews
on
VIRGIN MIDWIFE, PLAYBOY DOCTOR

This is Louisa George’s first book
for Harlequin
^®
Medical
^™
Romance
.
Look out for more from her, coming soon!

Dear Reader

Welcome to Strathlochan and the tenth of my loosely linked Scottish stories—my fourteenth Harlequin® Medical
^™
Romance. Unfortunately, this book has taken many more months to come to fruition than expected, due to a prolonged spell of illness which prevented me from writing. After the heroic efforts of the real-life doctors, nurses and support staff at my local cottage hospital—to whom I send my heartfelt thanks—I’ve been able to return to my fictional heroes and heroines at last.

With two of her closest friends, Gina and Ruth, settled with their respective partners, it is Holly’s turn to find love. She’s waited a long time for her happy ending. So has Gus. They had something special, and lost it before their love had a chance to blossom, but sometimes life rights past wrongs and grants second chances. Fate intervenes to bring Gus and Holly back together, uniting them in a common cause. Can the hurt, resentment, betrayals and misunderstandings of the past be resolved? And will Gus and Holly finally enjoy the happiness they both deserve?

There are more Strathlochan stories waiting in the wings, and I hope I’m well enough to bring them to you without such a long wait in between. Whether you’ve visited the folk in Strathlochan before, or this is your first time, I hope you will enjoy Gus and Holly’s emotional journey and come to love them as much as I do. I also hope you will return to Strathlochan again in future. I’m looking forward to introducing you to Rafael and Georgia in the next story. For now, though, the stage belongs to Gus and Holly…

Love

Margaret

www.margaretmcdonagh.com

Brought Together by Baby

Margaret McDonagh

With special thanks to:

Dr Nick Edwards, author of
In Stitches
,
for help with my research

John and Jennifer,
for all your help and kindness

Fiona, Craig, Jackie, Lesley, Irene, Fiona, Janet,
Gwen, Caroline, Christina, Maggie, Pam,
Wolfie, Anne, Richard and Fiona,
for being there for me

Jo—editor
extraordinaire
—
for your support, patience and encouragement

All the staff at the local sanatorium,
aka The Madhouse!
Words are insufficient to thank you for
everything you’ve done for me,
in so many ways,
and for all your kindness and care.

CHAPTER ONE

‘Y
OU
won’t believe this, Gus, but the air ambulance is on its way in.’

Dr Gus Buchanan glanced up from the notes he was writing as Carolyn, the nurse assigned to assist him, returned to the treatment cubicle after seeing out their most recent patient.
‘Again?’

‘Again,’ Carolyn confirmed, her tone and wide-eyed expression echoing his own incredulity.

The warm and sunny June day should have been unremarkable, but he was eight hours into his shift and Strathlochan Hospital’s A&E department had been bedlam for every minute of it. The chaos showed no sign of abating: every treatment cubicle was in use, the emergency phone continued to ring non-stop, and now the air ambulance, which had already responded to a record number of calls since early morning, was back in action once more.

Gus snapped the file closed and pocketed his pen. ‘What the hell is going on today?’

‘Heaven knows. It’s the craziest shift I’ve had in the five years I’ve been here,’ his colleague informed him, shaking her head. ‘How many patients have we treated and sent home?’

‘I’ve lost count.’

‘Me, too. And the Minors waiting area is
still
full to bursting. They’re at breaking point in Resus, too, and have already
called in off-duty staff to help. If it carries on like this I wouldn’t be surprised if they had to call for more.’ As she talked Carolyn busied herself clearing up the debris he’d left after stitching a pensioner’s nasty leg wound. ‘The helicopter must be attending something especially serious, Gus, because Kathleen all but threw the emergency phone at Laura in Reception before rushing off to alert Robert Mowbray. I’ve never seen her that upset before.’

Nor had he. Gus frowned. The fact that Kathleen O’Leary, the unflappable department manager, was acting so out of character highlighted the unusualness of the day, but it was hearing how overstretched his colleagues were that increased his frustration. He’d spent the day stuck in Minors rather than being in the thick of the action as part of a Resus team. All the doctors rotated round the A&E department and, whilst he generally enjoyed taking his turn in Minors—where he had more time and saw a wider variety of patients—it was the adrenalin rush of emergency medicine that called to him, testing his skills and giving him the buzz on which many trauma doctors thrived.

As Carolyn washed her hands and applied antibacterial gel to them before setting about restocking the dressing trolley, Gus slid off the high stool he’d perched on to write the notes and stood up. ‘While you prep things here, I’ll find out what’s next on our agenda.’

‘OK, Gus.’

He didn’t admit it aloud, but he was secretly hoping that Robert Mowbray, the head consultant on duty, would notice him and reassign him to help out in Resus, despite the queues in Minors.

‘Thanks, Carolyn. Grab yourself a cup of tea when you’re done.’

His suggestion earned him a rueful smile. ‘The chance
would be a fine thing! No one has stopped all day, yourself included, and I can’t see any sign of that changing.’

‘Not if the patients keep coming at the same rate,’ he agreed, masking his fatigue, knowing it was shared by all his colleagues.

Caroline sent him a quick grin. ‘One of the registrars has dubbed today Wild Wednesday.’

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into Tempestuous Thursday and Frantic Friday, too,’ Gus countered, returning her smile.

‘Don’t even joke about it!’

Carolyn’s chuckle followed him as he left the cubicle and negotiated his way along the busy corridor. She was a pleasant and competent young woman to work with, Gus reflected. All the nurses were. Apart from department vamp Olivia Barr, whose professional standards left much to be desired and whom he avoided whenever possible. But neither Carolyn nor any of the other nurses was as naturally skilled or as instinctively on the same wavelength with him as Holly had been.

His step faltered.

Holly…

For a moment the breath caught in his throat as everything within him tightened and his mood darkened. Holly was the nurse with whom he had become so close following his arrival in Strathlochan the previous August. Now even thinking about her was forbidden and upsetting—although that didn’t stop his mind lingering on her far more often than he cared to admit. Holly had burrowed into his psyche and, try as he might, he hadn’t been able to banish her.

Things between Holly and himself had turned sour suddenly and in so many ways that it had been both a relief and a wrench when she had transferred to the Children’s Ward at the beginning of the year. He’d refused to acknowledge or
unravel his own complex responses to her leaving. But there was no doubt that A&E had lost one of its finest nurses…or that his colleagues held
him
responsible for that loss.

A distinct chill had lingered in the atmosphere after Holly’s departure. Support and sympathy had lain squarely with her, while he had universally been dubbed the villain of the piece. The truth? It
was
his fault. And no one knew that more than him. Although it didn’t absolve Holly of blame for her own part in things, no one felt more guilty, more angry or more riddled with self-disgust and regret than he did, and no one could think less of him than he thought of himself.

He’d been a loner all his life. It had never bothered him. Indeed, he felt most comfortable behind the barrier he put between himself and the rest of the world. Only when he’d been plunged back into the self-inflicted spell of isolation after the events with Holly had he fully realised how much of a difference she had made, how much she had changed him, and how much colour she had brought to the greyness of his world.

Through Holly he’d had a taste of acceptance and friendship and belonging the like of which he had never experienced before. Until, following her rejection of him—which had hit hard when he’d been at his lowest ebb—he’d thrown it all away in a moment of weakness. Through his own stupidity he’d lost any chance of reconciliation, of persuading Holly to change her mind about taking their relationship to the next level and, as a result, his hope for a promising future with Holly had been shattered.

Yes, Holly had played a part. She’d hurt and disappointed him. And finding out that she’d kept things from him, that he hadn’t known her as well as he’d thought, had dented his trust in her. But blaming her didn’t excuse his own reaction,
and feelings of guilt and self-disgust continued to torment him.

Since Holly’s transfer from A&E he’d kept his head down and worked hard, more grateful than he’d expected to be when, as the days and weeks passed, he had slowly won back the professional acceptance and co-operation of his colleagues. What they thought of him personally was less clear. He only knew that self-respect remained a long way away.

Since the chasm had opened up between them he’d been careful to keep his distance, and once Holly had moved to the Children’s Ward he’d gone out of his way to avoid running into her around the hospital. He hadn’t caught even the briefest glimpse of her for weeks. Unfortunately out of sight had not rendered her out of mind. Holly continued to haunt him, which not only irritated him no end but added to the disappointment, confusion and hurt he still felt at the slightest thought of her.

And, above all, the pressing weight of guilt.

He had no business whatsoever thinking about Holly. Not any more. Not since the night when her public rejection of him had sparked off the chain of events that had rollercoastered out of his control, culminating on the day in December when his mistakes had come home to roost.

The day of his hastily arranged civil marriage.

The day Holly had become his sister-in-law…and Julia his wife.

Gus bit down the derisive, humourless laugh that rose inside him. He used the term
‘wife’
in the loosest sense of the word. Not that anyone had a clue about the true state of his six-and-a-half-month marriage. Which was just the way he wanted it. Apart from the man who had been his mentor throughout his troubled teenage years—a man whose premature death four years previously had left a big and painful
hole—there was only one person in whom he had truly felt able to confide anything about himself and his life.

Holly.

And now she was the one person he could never talk to again—especially about his sham of a marriage to her sister Julia, and the loneliness he felt within it. The situation was entirely his own fault, and no matter how difficult things were all he could do was make the best of them. Because within the next few weeks the dynamics would change again and he would have a new role. A role he had never planned on or wanted and which brought with it a whole new range of frightening emotions and responsibilities: fatherhood.

As he approached the main desk the charged atmosphere and tension within the A&E department became even more evident. Robert Mowbray was talking intently on the emergency phone, while Kathleen was busy keeping up with the instructions Robert fired at her.

‘What’s happening, Laura?’ Gus asked, handing the young clerk the patient file on which he had just signed off. To his surprise, the normally bubbly and talkative girl shook her head and avoided meeting his gaze. ‘Are you OK?’