From Single Mum to Lady (12 page)

‘They say heavy spanners are the latest effective weapons,’ said Jandy drily. ‘Apparently they give a nice variety of wounds…’

‘Charming,’ remarked Patrick as he and Jandy started to work steadily on the man, swabbing the cuts and gashes, cleaning wounds with badly torn edges on the shins, calves and thighs, and for a short while forgetting about the tension between them as they concentrated. Patrick was painstaking and thorough, closely inspecting the different types of injuries that had been inflicted on the patient. All the wounds were leaking blood profusely.

‘It doesn’t help that Mr Smith’s probably been at the bottle quite hard,’ he remarked.

‘Is that why he’s bleeding so much?’ asked Jandy.

Patrick nodded grimly. ‘Alcohol certainly makes wounds bleed more freely. Get a sample of blood for cross-matching and set up the clean theatre so that we can do some patching up before he goes to Surgical. He’ll need dextran to tide him over until he gets whole blood.’

Jandy went to the theatre used for small operations to lay out the local anaesthetic, dressings and sutures to temporarily deal with the man’s injuries and Patrick put on a mask before he started to work closely on the patient. Karen came in to help them.

‘I hear this patient’s got a few nasty wounds,’ she said coming into the clean theatre where small operations were performed.

‘I don’t know what the other man’s like, but Mr Smith’s in a shocking state. What were they fighting about?’ murmured Patrick to Karen as he started to close the wounds with the soluble sutures that Jandy handed to him.

Karen sighed, her voice tired after twelve hours of demanding work. ‘Oh, the usual,’ she replied quietly. ‘Mr Smith was apparently having it off with his cousin’s wife—it doesn’t make for happy families, I’m afraid. The other man’s got a superficial facial wound, but he’s OK.’

Patrick looked up and said sympathetically, ‘It’s been a long haul, hasn’t it? Not long to go now and you can tuck yourselves up for a good sleep in your warm beds!’

‘I can’t wait,’ said Karen as she left the room.

Patrick bent his head over the patient with his back to Jandy, and she looked at his dark hair, slightly too long and overlapping his collar. From her angle he looked quite boyish and vulnerable—someone who wouldn’t hurt you intentionally. Perhaps she shouldn’t have rejected his apology. After all, he had admitted how rude he’d been.

‘Another small threaded needle, please, Nurse,’ Patrick said briskly, his voice cutting into her thoughts.

She gave a start and handed him the needle, jerked out of her daydream from contemplating the nape of Patrick’s neck and back to reality. She watched him finish suturing the patient, meticulous as he closed the wound with fine silk. After a while he stood back, stretching and putting his hands on his back, trying to knead the muscles he’d strained bending over the man for nearly an hour. Then he peeled off his latex gloves, flung them into the bin and pulled down his mask.

‘The wound will probably have to be reopened later to get a better finish—make it cosmetically more acceptable,’ he remarked. ‘Anyway, I think we’ve done all we can for Mr Smith now. Tell Max he’s ready to go to Surgical.’

She started to leave the room and Patrick touched her arm, his eyes holding hers for a moment. ‘Look,’ he said urgently. ‘Let me make amends for my rudeness—can’t we have lunch together in the next few days while we’re off? After all,’ he coaxed, ‘I need to get on with my new neighbour…please?’

Jandy teetered on the brink of agreeing to meet him, as a shiver of attraction ran through her at Patrick’s touch. He was the man who had everything, she reflected, good looks, brains and a regard for others, but he came from a background of incredible privilege—an alien world from hers. And however much he protested that class didn’t come into it, she had a feeling his father wouldn’t approve of his son forming an alliance with someone like her.

She looked up into his eyes, and felt herself beginning to melt. Still, Patrick was a big boy now, well able to stand up to his father. Was she ready to start up their fledgling relationship again, something that had never really got off the ground—or was that old demon stopping her, the demon that had always anticipated that something might go wrong ever since Terry had left her?

With a great effort she said briskly, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to use these free days to do up the little cottage. I’m going to be taking stuff over and doing a bit of cleaning. Perhaps in a week or two…’

She allowed herself a bright little smile at him before she went to tell Max to collect the patient. Dammit, thought Patrick as he stared after her. He wasn’t going to let it go. At the very least he had to mend bridges between them. It was sod’s law that he should find Jandy even more desirable now, he pondered wryly.

* * *

It was an Indian summer’s day, the warm sun filling the little front room of the cottage with light. Jandy ran up the stairs and went into the main bedroom armed with sweeping brushes, buckets and cloths, determined to clean the rooms up a bit before starting on the decorating. It all smelled a little musty so she opened a window, letting in the clean fresh air from outside, and swept dead flies and dust from the window sill before gazing out at the view beyond the pretty little garden.

She could see the beautiful mansion, Easterleigh House, where Patrick lived with his father, set on a slight hill through the trees. It looked magnificent from where she was, but very large—extraordinary to think that just three people occupied it! She supposed that the little house she’d leased was the former gatehouse for the estate. She thought she’d rather live in her cosy place than float around in that huge pad. She pulled a bucket towards her and got down on all fours to start scrubbing the floor.

Had she been wrong about refusing to see Patrick? Her thoughts inevitably drifted into thinking about him as she got into the rhythm of swirling the brush in the water and then going backwards and forwards over the wood. Perhaps she should have given him the chance to make amends after all, and she had missed an opportunity to build bridges.

She leant back on her heels for a second then shrugged. No, if he couldn’t reveal these mysterious issues that made him wary of commitment, she’d done the right thing in keeping him at a distance. She went back to cleaning the floor with renewed vigour.

The sound of the front door banging shut made her start. She was quite sure she’d closed it before she’d come upstairs. She held her breath, wondering if it was an intruder, and her heart began to thump uncomfortably as she heard footsteps clumping their way up the stairs.

‘Anyone there?’ called a deep voice from the landing. Then the footsteps clattered on the wooden floor and Patrick appeared in the doorway dressed in faded jeans and an old white shirt, open at the neck. Her breath caught in her throat. He looked gorgeous! The casual look seemed to emphasise his broad shoulders and his tight, lean body. It wasn’t fair, him appearing so suddenly, taking her off guard with no time to control the mixture of excitement and fizzing attraction that bolted through her body, making her stomach feel as if it had just looped the loop.

Jandy drew a deep breath and glared at him. ‘For goodness’ sake,’ she said crossly. ‘You gave me a hell of a fright…What are you doing here?’

‘Sorry.’ He grinned. ‘I came on the off chance you’d be here. I thought you might be hungry. I’ve brought some food with me.’

But she wasn’t going to give in to the leap of delight she’d had when he’d appeared, she told herself stubbornly. She was going to keep a tight rein on her emotions and play it very cool from now on. Caution told her that it would be better not to get too close to him.

‘I’m very busy,’ she said primly. ‘I haven’t time for food…’

‘Of course you have,’ he said firmly. ‘It’s a lovely day—we can eat outside. It might be the last really warm day we have before autumn. If you won’t join me I’ll have to eat alone.’

‘I’ve a lot to do,’ she said, waving her hand vaguely towards the walls.

‘Oh, come on! It will give me a chance to make up for my churlishness the other day. Please…’

He looked at her wistfully, and suddenly Jandy wanted to laugh at the little-boy-lost expression on his face. Perhaps she should accept his olive branch.

She shrugged. ‘It will have to be very quick, then.’

He had laid out a rug under an old apple tree near the house, looking across the newly tilled fields. The sun still had warmth, and there was the slightest of breezes. Jandy sat down and clasped her hands round her knees, looking up at the white fluffy clouds sailing slowly across the sky. Was she a complete idiot, allowing herself to be alone with Patrick once again? She felt a tremor of excitement ripple through her, half hoping, half afraid, of what might happen in the intimate confines of the little garden.

She forced herself to relax and leant back against the apple tree, watching as Patrick opened a picnic basket to reveal a delicious feast. Then he uncorked a wine bottle and poured some sparkling wine into two plastic cups.

‘The best you can get from Delford’s supermarket,’ he said solemnly. He held her eyes with his for a second. ‘Cheers! Here’s to us!’

Jandy sipped the wine rather self-consciously and was silent—she wasn’t going to make the running. Looking across at him, his open shirt revealing a sexy muscled torso with dark hairs bristling through the top, and leaning casually on one elbow on the grass, she was afraid that she was ready to forgive him anything! If only he wasn’t quite so devastating looking, or quite so physically close. If only his blue eyes weren’t quite so beguiling…She lowered her gaze and concentrated on a beetle crawling across the grass. The atmosphere between them was electric.

He rocked back on his heels and looked at her assessingly, as if wondering how she was going to react to what he had to say.

‘You need an explanation for my churlishness the other week,’ he began slowly. ‘As soon as I left you I was desperately sorry I’d hurt you.’ He swirled the wine round in his glass for a second, before smiling ruefully at her. ‘The fact is that when you told me what you’d been through, it made me realise that the last person you need in your life now is someone with problems of their own. You’ve got a measure of stability in your life now with little Abigail. I felt that I should keep at a distance before anything happened to threaten that.’

‘Before what happened?’ she queried impassively.

‘You know what I mean, Jandy. In case we got too…close.’

Jandy stared at him warily, hearing her heart thump uncomfortably in her ears and trying to ignore the sexy aura he exuded so close to her.

‘There was no need to be so rude,’ she said as coolly as she could, while every fibre in her body longed to cuddle up to him, feel his arms around her.

He nodded and picked at the grass by his legs. ‘I know—you’re right. No excuse for it. But my reasons were valid enough.’ He leaned towards her, a piece of dark hair flopping over his forehead, his blue eyes looking into hers. ‘The thing is, Jandy, you know I have another very different life beyond the hospital and it’s hard to reconcile the two.’ He reached over and took her hand in his. ‘But I want us to be friends—good friends. How can we work together if we’re not?’

‘I hope we can be that,’ she said primly, his firm grip making her hand tingle. She felt the flutter of excitement in her tummy as the atmosphere almost pulsated with the tension between them. Her good intentions to play it cool seemed to be dissolving rather quickly.

Jandy attempted to pull her hands away from his, but he didn’t allow that and held them even more firmly. ‘I was frightened we were getting too close too quickly,’ he admitted.

‘For goodness’ sake, we’ve only known each other for a few weeks,’ she said lightly. ‘I don’t think that’s a basis for lifelong devotion anyway.’

He gave a faint smile. ‘The fact is, Jandy, I can’t stop thinking about you—can’t get you out of my head.’ He stroked her cheek gently. ‘You’re always somewhere in my mind…’

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his penetrating blue gaze, wondering if she was hearing him properly, actually admitting that he did indeed feel something for her! He was facing her, so very close. She could see the little bit of stubble on his chin he’d missed while shaving, and the pulse beating in his neck. Excitement crackled through her body like little electric shocks.

She became very still, hardly breathing, as he gently brushed her hair back from her forehead.

‘I think…know…that you weren’t all that averse to me either,’ he murmured.

Jandy averted her gaze, trying not to be seduced by those eyes, to ignore the thousand butterflies fluttering inside her.

She swallowed hard. ‘And yet you want to keep me at a distance. Is this a warning?’

He swirled the wine round in his glass and watched the bubbles rising to the surface. ‘It’s complicated,’ he said at last. ‘You know about some of the things that occupy me outside work—my father’s health and the issues regarding the house.’

‘Yes, I can see that it’s not easy.’

He grinned wryly at her. ‘I guess I realised soon after I met you that there was a definite spark between us—quite a crackle actually.’

A little smile quirked Jandy’s mouth—she would have described it as fireworks herself! She didn’t say anything, but a little thrill of pleasure went through her that Patrick had actually admitted that he felt something for her too.

‘Then I heard how you’d been treated by your boyfriend, and how you’d had to come to terms with his betrayal,’ Patrick continued. ‘Getting involved with someone like me—someone with a lot of baggage in their background—might jeopardise the stability you have now.’

Her brown eyes sparked at him. ‘So what you want is a brief fling, is it? Not to be tied down. Sounds as if you want the best of all worlds,’ she remarked crisply, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

He smiled sheepishly. ‘It sounds like that—but I don’t mean it to. Hell, I want us to be good friends and colleagues.’ He tilted her face to his so that she couldn’t avoid looking into his eyes. ‘Or even more than that,’ he said softly. ‘But I want you to be aware of my situation.’