Hired: GP and Wife / The Playboy Doctor's Surprise Proposal (3 page)

He twiddled a pencil in his fingers thoughtfully for a second, then, making a sudden decision, stood up abruptly. ‘I don’t think you’d let anyone down, Terry. After all, I’ve just had evidence of it half an hour ago at the accident by the dockside. If you think you can hack it here, I’ll be pleased to welcome you aboard!’

He held out his hand, his bright blue eyes smiling into hers, and she almost laughed with relief that he sounded quite happy to work with her after all. An extraordinary tremor of excitement and something else she couldn’t quite define crackled through her as they shook hands. The thought of working with Atholl Brodie was promising an unknown, perhaps dangerous but exciting flight into the future.

She took a deep breath and grinned at him. ‘Thank you, Atholl—and I’ll make sure you never have any complaints that I’m not up to the job, even though I’m a woman!’

‘I won’t ever hold that against you, I promise.’ He smiled. ‘Have you any questions to ask me?’

‘Isobel mentioned something about accommodation difficulties, but the agency said there was a small flat that went with the job?’

‘There’s a flat in the building,’ he admitted. ‘But perhaps you noticed the scaffolding on the side of the house? I’m afraid my uncle let the place go a little, to say the least, and there’s a lot of damp and mould. Your flat’s not fit to live in at the moment.’

‘So where do you suggest I sleep?’ asked Terry lightly. ‘Perhaps a bed and breakfast?’

‘Might be difficult over the next few days—there’s a folk festival on this weekend and the place is booked solid. My suggestion is that you come to my place…’ He hesitated a moment. ‘I’m afraid it’s a bit ramshackle and rather basic—we’re in the process of doing it up. To be frank, I didn’t think it would matter if a man was taking the job, but seeing…’

‘I’m a woman?’ finished off Terry wryly. ‘For goodness’ sake, if there’s a bed and a shower somewhere in the building I’ll be perfectly happy.’ She frowned slightly. ‘You said “we” are doing it up. I don’t want to be any bother to your wife…’

‘I was referring to the friend who’s running this outward bound course for boys,’ Atholl said. ‘He’s helping me with a bit of building work and decorating—and the boys are involved too, which keeps them busy.’

‘So do they all live there as well? It must be rather crowded.’

Atholl laughed. ‘Certainly not. I share the house with Shona…she’s a darling and keeps an eye on the place when I’m not there. I don’t know where I’d be without her.’

‘Oh…I see. Are you sure there’ll be room, then, and that Shona won’t mind?’

His eyes danced. ‘Plenty of room, and Shona will be ecstatic, I know.’

Was Shona his girlfriend or some dear old housekeeper? wondered Terry, feeling oddly deflated. Perhaps it was the fact that there would be another person living close to her who would want to know all about her, another person to convince that there was nothing untoward about her coming to Scuola. It would have been nice, she thought wistfully, to have had a place to herself so that she could relax after work and not bother about anyone else or their probing questions into her background. Still, perhaps this arrangement would not last too long.

‘I suggest I take you there now,’ Atholl said. ‘You can have a hot bath and help yourself to whatever you want to eat—at least,’ he corrected himself with a grin, ‘whatever there might be in the fridge. You must be starving.’

‘Won’t Shona mind me rooting around in the kitchen?’

‘Shona will probably join you in whatever you dig out.’ He grinned. ‘We’ll call in at the harbour master’s office for your case—and, don’t worry, we’ll take the Land Rover this time. Even I don’t fancy the thought of balancing a case on the bike.

‘I’m taking Terry to the cottage,’ he told Isobel as they crossed the hall. ‘Forward any calls to me on my mobile. I’ll do all my visits after that.’

Isobel nodded rather dourly. ‘I hope you’ve got some food in.’

Atholl looked at his receptionist rather defiantly. ‘And you’ll be pleased to know that Terry’s going to be joining us in the practice.’

Even though I’m a girl, thought Terry wryly.

Isobel pursed her lips. ‘I hope it works out…’

Terry looked up at him questioningly as they walked out of the house. ‘She sounds very dubious about me working here,’ she remarked.

He shrugged. ‘She a bit of a pessimist where I’m concerned,’ he said enigmatically.

The weather had changed in the time they’d been inside. The dark clouds had been blown away and now an eggshell-blue sky was spreading from the west and lighting up the tops of the hills with pale sunshine. Suddenly the place looked far less forbidding and the hedges and trees that arched across the road as they drove along had a fresh green newly washed quality about them. Atholl pointed out various landmarks and told Terry more about the practice on the journey.

‘You might think that the practice is only big enough for one doctor,’ he remarked. ‘But we look after two islands here—there’s a little ferry that goes over to the smaller island of Hersa. I do a clinic there once a week but, of course, if there’s a real emergency we have a helicopter, which is part of the air sea rescue team.’

‘It sounds very varied. How do you get around on Hersa?’

He laughed. ‘That’s where the motorbike comes in useful. I take it with me on the ferry. There are a lot of patients who live in remote places, not just on Hersa but here as well—it’s useful when they can’t get to see us. And we’re just into the tourist season so the population almost doubles.’

‘What do the tourists do?’

He laughed. ‘Besides fishing, walking, golf and deer stalking? There’s two distilleries to visit and the big hotel has tennis courts and a swimming pool. And then there’s climbing on the mountains you see over there—a very good source of patients,’ he said grimly. ‘It’s amazing the number of naive people who try to get to the top totally without equipment or experience.’

What a contrast to her patch in London, thought Terry. It was almost too much to take in, and she was gradually becoming aware that it wasn’t going to be the sort of quiet country practice she’d imagined.

‘I’ll need to get some transport,’ she said. ‘And I’d rather not borrow your motorbike!’

‘Don’t worry about that—you can use Uncle Euan’s little car. The main thing is to take a map and your mobile—it’s easy to get lost in the hills out there.’

‘It’s all very beautiful.’ Terry peered through the car window at the changing scene in front of them. ‘There must be some wonderful walks—I can’t wait to explore.’

Atholl smiled. ‘There’s so many different walks along the shore and back through the woods and the hills I never tire of them.’ He glanced at her and said in an offhand way, ‘You’d be welcome to come with a small group of us who walk together sometimes if you like.’

Funny how much that suggestion pleased her—she’d been sad for so long that the slightest lifting of her spirits felt almost alien. It was as if a curtain had been drawn apart a little and a small beam of sunlight had filtered through.

‘I’d enjoy that very much,’ she said. ‘Were you born here?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I only came here in the school holidays. I was born and raised in Glasgow.’

‘I believe it’s a lovely city.’

‘I lived in a very deprived area,’ he explained. ‘There’s still a lot of poverty in parts of Glasgow, and my family lived—still do really—in a pretty poor way. Not many advantages to life in the area I was brought up in.’

He’d obviously been glad to leave, thought Terry, whereas she had been so very happy with her life in London until…until it had all crumbled around about her ears and she’d been forced to depart. She sighed and leaned back in her seat, trying to blank out that last vision she’d had of her father as he’d lain dying in her arms and her frantic efforts to save him.

She bit her lip, telling herself firmly that she’d just got to put that episode in her life behind her. All that was finished and done with now.

‘So you won’t go back to live there, then,’ she commented.

He shrugged, a wry smile touching his lips. ‘My family think I should be back with them. They think I’ve let them down—sort of leaving the sinking ship kind of thing and coming to a better area when I could be of much more use where they live.’ He gave a humourless laugh. ‘They imagine I’m hobnobbing with lairds and big landowners—well above my station in life!’

‘That’s ridiculous!’ cried Terry. ‘You’re helping your uncle out—and you’re needed here as well!’

He laughed at her response. ‘Nevertheless, perhaps they have a point. The fact is, though, that I needed to get more experience—have a wider take on life. I’d lived and trained there all my life, and I was longing to spread my wings. And once I’d started working here, I fell in love with the place.’

He changed gear and slowed as they turned a corner and drew up in front of a square stone cottage surrounded by a little copse and protected from the road by a small front garden.

‘Here we are—rough and ready perhaps, but it’s home to me,’ he remarked.

The cottage wasn’t very big, but was most attractive, with a Virginia creeper running rampant over the walls and an untidy rose scrambling round the front door. Terry descended from the Land Rover rather wearily and followed Atholl as he went to the front door and opened it.

He whistled as he went into the little hallway, and there was a joyful bark and a large golden retriever came bounding out of the back regions and flung itself at Atholl.

‘Allow me to introduce you,’ he said. ‘This is Shona—she rules the house, I’m afraid!’

Terry looked up at Atholl and laughed, throwing back her head in amusement. ‘And I thought Shona was your girlfriend…’

The sun was streaming through the open door and fell on her raised face, catching the gold light in her hair and emphasising her large amber eyes sparkling up at him with amusement, her lips slightly parted. Looking down at her, Atholl felt slightly stunned. He’d realised she was attractive when he’d first seen her. Now he was suddenly conscious that she wasn’t just attractive—she was damned beautiful, her eyes like golden sherry set in a sweet heartshaped face. It unsettled him, made him nervous, thinking again of tattling tongues in the village, trying to matchmake. He’d had enough of that, thank you. He wasn’t lonely and he didn’t need a relationship with anyone he worked with—not after the last catastrophe.

He flicked a quick look at Terry’s bent head as she ruffled the dog’s head—the nape of her neck looked slim and vulnerable, her hair curling softly into it. And for a mad moment he imagined bending down and kissing the soft curve of her cheek. He could almost feel the velvety touch of her skin…

He started suddenly, realising that Terry was smiling at him, waiting for him to say something.

‘You’ll find your room upstairs on the right,’ he said gruffly. ‘It’s a bit basic, but you can dump your things there, freshen up and then do what you like here while I do my visits.’

‘Sure,’ Terry said. ‘But if you’d like me to come with you I’m very happy to.’

‘No, that won’t be necessary today. Tomorrow will be soon enough to start work,’ he said tersely. ‘I’ll be off, then. See you later.’

He strode out abruptly and leapt into the Land Rover, revving it up and accelerating out of the little drive with a spurt of pebbles. What the hell was he thinking about, allowing himself to even notice what Terry Younger looked like, let alone visualise himself touching her—and more? How much easier it would have been if the agency had sent a man, or even a much older woman to take the job—anyone but a knockout like Terry Younger.

He pictured her elfin face with those large expressive eyes like liquid gold and the crisp fair hair framing her face. The trouble was, he thought, gripping the steeringwheel tightly, he’d been taken unawares when Terry had come along, imagining that she would be a man. He scowled out at the landscape as he drove along. Just because he’d led a monastic life for the past few months, the last thing he needed was the distraction of sexual attraction with a colleague. Then he smiled grimly to himself. A city girl like her would probably not last long in the remote world of Scuola—after all, it hadn’t taken Zara long to find the place was not to her liking.

Terry stood in the doorway, staring after Atholl with a puzzled frown. He seemed to have suddenly become tense, uneasy about something. Was he perhaps regretting offering her the job? She shrugged. It was too late to back out now, and she’d not give up the job without a fight. She bent down to pat Shona, who looked up at her with trusting brown eyes.

‘I’ll show him, Shona,’ she whispered. ‘He’ll not regret having me in the practice—even if I am a woman.’

A
DOG
barking and the sound of horses’ hooves on the road woke Terry up with a start from a deep sleep. For a moment she panicked, thinking she was back in London, but there was no sound of traffic and no curtains at the window to cut off the light streaming onto her bed. She relaxed back again. Of course, she was in a little cottage on Scuola—about seven hundred miles away from her old home and quite safe. She searched for her watch on the bedside table and squinted at the face with amazed horror. It was nine-thirty—she must have slept for twelve hours.

Gradually the previous day’s events began to unravel through her mind. It had been a day of mixed emotions, leaving her beloved London, meeting Atholl Brodie in the most dramatic of circumstances, then finding out he was the man she was going to be working with.

She lay for a second reflecting on just what kind of a man he was—outspoken, decisive, but probably fair enough in his dealings with people. And, of course, there were his looks…deep blue eyes in a strong good-looking face swam into her mind. She sighed and swung her legs over the bed. Hadn’t she learned that drop-dead gorgeous men had too much confidence, things came too easily to them? She was certainly not about to stray into dangerous emotional territory again—especially in a working relationship. But there was a peculiar little flicker of excitement at the thought of seeing him later.

She padded over to the open window and looked out on a brilliant day, catching her breath at the view. The sun was shining on the distant vista of a blue sea she could see over the fields, and just down by the side of the cottage there was a stream that tumbled and sparkled its way under a little bridge and towards a copse. Through the open window drifted the sweet fresh smells of early spring and the sound of the chattering water.

‘A far cry from London,’ she murmured, peering down to see if Atholl’s car had gone from the front of the cottage. There was no sign of it, so he must have gone to work.

There was a scrabbling noise at the door and Shona trotted in, coming over to nuzzle Terry and then lie on her side in a patch of warm sunlight. Terry had a quick wash and threw on some clothes from her case, which Atholl had placed on the small landing. She squinted into the tiny mirror in the darkest corner of the little room as she flicked a brush through her hair. Her image looked back at her—large eyes framed by wayward short curly fair hair. Funny how a slight change in hair colour and cut could make a face look quite different, she thought. She turned to the dog looking up at her with interest.

‘Right, Shona, let’s see what’s for breakfast, shall we?’

The kitchen was a tiny room with just enough space for a sink, fridge and oven. On the working top was a note. ‘If you feel rested enough to come to the surgery, please take my uncle’s car parked in the layby just down the road. Keys in drawer.’

After a cup of black coffee and a fruitless hunt for anything more sustaining than a stale piece of bread, Terry put on a jacket and made her way to the car.

‘Bye, Shona,’ she called to the dog, who was watching her through the window. ‘If I don’t find my way I may be back soon!’

In fact, it was an easy ten-minute drive to The Sycamores. The worst part was parking the car in between a builder’s lorry and Atholl’s Land Rover in the drive. The house did indeed look rundown, Terry thought, taking a more detailed look at the paintwork on the windows, the battered front door and the small neglected border covered with weeds.

‘I could easily make that look better when the flat’s ready,’ she murmured to herself as she went into the hall.

The waiting room was crowded and there was no one at Reception.

‘The doctor’s running late—you’ll have to wait a wee while,’ said an elderly man helpfully, by the door.

‘I’m here to work, actually.’ Terry smiled, making her way through the room. A battery of eyes watched her go behind the reception counter while she waited for Isobel to materialise. She looked at the disparate crowd of people who gazed curiously back at her. Hopefully soon she would get to know them, and start to feel part of another community.

‘Ah, we wondered when you’d make an appearance!’ said Isobel, coming into the room with an armful of post.

Terry was getting used to Isobel’s forthright manner and pulled a rueful face. ‘Sorry I’m late. I had the best sleep I’ve had in ages, though. Now I’m ready, willing and able…’

Isobel nodded. ‘Aye, well, you had reason to be tired, didn’t you? Atholl told me about the accident you were involved in yesterday—quite a baptism of fire in your new home!’ She pursed her lips. ‘And talking of home, did you find anything for breakfast in that fridge of his?’

‘Not a lot.’ Terry laughed. ‘But I’m fine. Fortunately there was plenty of coffee.’

Isobel made a tutting sound. ‘I’ll get you something soon. No one can work on an empty stomach—any doctor should know that. Now, Atholl says would you use the room at the end of the passage—he’ll be through directly to show you how the programme on the computer works and then I’ll send your first patient through.’

Terry looked around her new surgery. It was quite a large room with an examining couch at one side, a washbasin and two enormous cupboards on the other, and a window with a crooked blind over it at the end. A bookcase filled with weighty medical tomes and magazines was squeezed near the door. Probably it was normally Euan’s room, she surmised. There were a few yellowing photographs on the wall of groups of students, and surely one of Euan himself, a stern white-haired gentleman glaring into the room, looking very like Atholl might do in years to come. She opened a drawer in the desk and smiled when she saw the contents—a lipstick and eyeliner wasn’t anything Uncle Euan would have use for. The last locum must have been a woman!

There was a tap at the door and Atholl entered. He looked much smarter than yesterday in a dark suit and tie, his white shirt emphasising his tanned face. From a purely objective point of view, Terry told herself, he certainly was one eye-catching guy.

Atholl’s eyes flicked over her, completed a quick survey of her navy trouser suit and the pink silk shirt she was wearing under the jacket. She looked delectable, he thought wryly. He’d had time to reflect in the last twelve hours on what a fool he’d been yesterday, rushing off rudely like a madman just because he was frightened of a rerun of the situation he’d had with Zara. It wasn’t Terry’s fault that she was so damned attractive and the poor girl hadn’t had a very welcoming reception. If they were going to work well together it was imperative that he maintain a cordial working relationship with her. From now on he’d try and behave sensibly—but keep his distance.

‘You slept all right, then?’ he asked. ‘You’d gone to bed by the time I got back.’

He sounded more relaxed than he had the day before when he’d roared off after depositing her at the cottage, Terry thought with relief.

‘Yes, I slept like a log. I’m sorry I was so late. I’d no idea it was halfway through the morning when I woke up.’

He shook his head dismissively. ‘It doesn’t matter—you were tired.’ He gave a rueful grin. ‘I’m sorry about the lack of food. Isobel’s just been giving me a hard time about that. I’d no time to shop as I was up at the crack of dawn meeting some man from the local health authority who wants us to provide a room for some alternative medicine clinic.’

Terry gathered from his tone that he was totally against that request. She smiled. ‘You can buy me a sandwich at lunchtime if you like.’

‘I’ll do better than that. I’ve got to take some gear over to the outward bound place before lunch. If you come with me you can meet Pete, his wife and the boys. I’ll bring some food and we’ll have it on the way back. The quicker you get to know the area the better.’

‘Sounds great.’

He bent forward to switch on the computer and said, ‘Before I show you the ropes as far as the software we use is concerned, there’s a reporter here to speak to you.’

Terry looked surprised. ‘Whatever for? What can I have to say to him?’

Atholl smiled. ‘It’s about your sterling work yesterday in the car accident. It’ll make good copy. “New young doctor on Scuola saves baby in car accident.”’

‘It certainly wasn’t just me involved—you were as well. What paper is this?’

‘The
Scuola Recorder
—it’s just a weekly newssheet about local happenings.’

‘I…I don’t know if I really want to be featured,’ Terry said doubtfully.

He shrugged. ‘I know it’s a bit of a bore, but they don’t have much to talk about here and that’s a happy storyline.’

‘I suppose…if people are interested.’

‘I can assure you that a heart-warming article about a new doctor ensures the patients will be very keen to be seen by you! They’re normally a very conservative lot and don’t like change.’

Let’s hope the story won’t spread much further than Scuola, thought Terry. Then shook herself mentally. She’d nothing to fear now, had she? She just had to relax and enjoy her new life.

A few seconds later Atholl ushered in a young gangling lad with red hair and freckles and an eager manner, like a young puppy. He strode towards Terry with his hand held out.

‘Hello, there! Ian Brown,
Scuola Recorder.
I just wanted a few moments of your time to get the lowdown on the accident yesterday. I believe you were the heroine of the hour, rescuing a baby from a car?’

Terry flicked a look of embarrassment at Atholl, who was watching the interview leaning against the wall with his long legs crossed. ‘There was nothing heroic about it—and, of course, Dr Brodie was very much involved.’

‘It was very dangerous, though. The car could have exploded at any second, isn’t that right?’ persisted Ian.

‘Fortunately all was well.’ Terry smiled. ‘There really isn’t much more to tell. The main thing was that Maisie and little Amy weren’t hurt despite the car being badly crushed.’

‘Of course, of course…but could I just get a little background info? Where you come from, why you’re here…you know the sort of thing?’

Terry smiled brightly. ‘Well, I’m from the South of England.’ She kept it vague. ‘I wanted a change of scene away from the city, somewhere more remote, and Scuola is a beautiful place.’

‘So you you’ve never been here before?’

‘No, but it sounded just perfect.’

Ian’s cheery face raised a sceptical eyebrow. ‘Bit of a risk isn’t it? Coming to live here without viewing the place first? Jumping into untested waters, as it were…’

‘I’m sure it will work out,’ said Terry firmly. She didn’t want to answer any more probing questions, because they seemed to bring back with startling clarity the reasons that had forced her to come up to Scotland. She sat down behind her desk. ‘Look, I’m afraid I really must get on now. I’m already late for my first day and I know Dr Brodie’s very busy.’

The young man looked disappointed. ‘Well, at least let me take a photo of you both, perhaps with Dr Brodie welcoming his new colleague to the practice…you know the sort of thing.’

Reluctantly Terry allowed Ian to manoeuvre her beside Atholl, and he took several photos of them shaking hands and looking rather self-consciously towards the mobile phone on which he’d taken the pictures.

‘Good!’ he said with satisfaction. ‘You’re very photogenic, Dr Younger—they seem to get smashing-looking lady doctors here! That Dr Grahame who was here before was one bonny lass!’

Atholl scowled, not remarking on Ian’s observations, and snapped, ‘Have you finished, then?’

Terry flicked a glance at Atholl, noting his abrupt change of mood. It had probably been brought on by the cheeky attitude of the young reporter.

‘Would you like to see the photo?’ enquired Ian, holding up his mobile to her. ‘Look, you have to agree, you make a really handsome couple!’

Atholl’s expression became even more surly. ‘For God’s sake, don’t start making things up now,’ he warned him tersely.

Ian Brown grinned, completely unfazed by Atholl’s irritation. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll send you a copy of the article—it’ll be a lovely human-interest story! “Doctors to the rescue!” Sounds good, doesn’t it?’

Atholl and Terry looked at each other dubiously as Ian gave them a cheery wave and went out of the room.

‘Let’s hope he doesn’t allow his imagination to run away with him,’ growled Atholl drily. ‘Give the folk round here a little information and they’ll have us engaged! It doesn’t take much for them to leap to the wrong conclusion.’

‘Rumours can fly around on practically no evidence,’ agreed Terry. ‘It must be hard to keep one’s private life to oneself in a small community, I imagine.’

‘Too right! My patients can’t wait to marry me off, but I’ve still got my freedom, I’m relieved to say, and I’ve no plans to change that!’

He sounded quite adamant about it, although Terry couldn’t imagine that a man with his looks didn’t have a girlfriend somewhere in the background—or, if that wasn’t the case, several girls ready to pounce on him if he showed willing! Well, his attitude suited her, because she too was glad that she was fancy-free, free of Max and the way he’d dragged her family down, and ready to concentrate on her work and new life.

She sat down at the desk. ‘Now, show me the ins and outs of this system before I see my first patient.’

He sat down beside her and started to explain how things worked.

It had hardly been necessary for young Ian Brown to come and cover the story—every patient Terry had that morning mentioned the accident. News travelled very fast in a small community.

‘I’m Maisie’s auntie, DoreenLovatt,’ said her first patient, a large, rosy-cheeked woman who limped in slowly with a stick and sat down heavily in the chair opposite Terry. ‘Whatever would she have done without you and Dr Brodie?’ she began chattily. ‘I went to see her last night in the hospital, and she’s doing really well, and as for that gorgeous baby…well, it doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?’

Terry could see that this consultation could last quite a while if she allowed Mrs Lovatt to discuss her niece’s accident and quickly interrupted. ‘I’m so glad they’re both OK, Mrs Lovatt. Maisie was terribly brave. Now, how can I help you?’