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'No. Although there are those who would jump at the chance were he to ask them.'

'He is top of the league in looks,' Fenella said begrudgingly. 'But when it comes to personality...!'

'Give the man a break,' Ann said laughingly. 'If he was a bit sharp with you maybe you asked for it. You're no pushover yourself.'

'Where does Max Hollister live?' she asked, not taking her mother up on that last comment.

'He lives with his young brother in a converted barn on the outskirts of the village and it is quite something, believe me. Did you know that, as well as being a GP, Max is a police surgeon?'

Oh, she knew all right, Fenella thought. But she wasn't going to admit it to her mother. Ann knew what had happened at the club but she was not aware that the police had called Max Hollister out to her daughter and Fenella intended it to stay that way.

And in the meantime she was going to have to wait until the next day to know if his highness was going to offer her a place in the practice. Much as she wanted to stay near her mother, Fenella didn't know what she was going to say if he did. If he didn't there would be no decision to make. It would be his loss, she thought mutinously.

For the rest
of the day Max put thoughts of Fenella Forbes to one side. Since Simon's accident there had been little time for anything but keeping the practice running efficiently with himself as the only doctor, and it was an exhausting business. But as he drove home in the early evening after a long and tiring day she was uppermost in his mind.

He'd caught her mother's glance on him a couple of times since he and Fenella had parted company in the lunch-hour and had known that Ann was anxious to know what he'd thought of her daughter, but wasn't going to ask.

It was more a case of what
she'd
thought of
him,
he was thinking now. He'd been critical and overbearing. The odds were that she wouldn't take the job if he offered it to her after the way he'd acted.

What was the matter with him? he wondered. Had it been so long since he'd been attracted to a woman that he'd forgotten how to behave? Heaven forbid
that
should be the case, and heaven forbid that he should be attracted to Fenella Forbes!

On the face of it she was nothing like her mother, his pleasant and extremely efficient practice manager. But time would tell if she came to work at the practice, and suddenly he knew that he wanted that. He wanted the golden-haired doctor to be a trainee GP in the practice.

With that thought in mind Max decided that after he'd had his evening meal, he would drive round to where she lived, high on the hillside, and put it to her then, instead of waiting until the following day.

There was no answer when he rang the doorbell of the isolated three-storied house that had once been a weaver's cottage, but he could hear voices and when Max went round to the back he found the two women soaking up the sun in the garden.

'Max!' Ann exclaimed from where she was weeding a bed of bright summer flowers. 'What brings you here?' As if she didn't know.

His glance was on Fenella, stretched out on a sun lounger clad in the briefest of bikinis and with eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

On hearing her mother say his name, she was raising herself up onto one elbow, and Max was thinking that it was typical of his acquaintance with this girl that he should be offering her a position at the practice when she was showing a great deal of smooth golden flesh.

For her part, Fenella was groaning inwardly. It would seem that the critical GP couldn't wait until morning to dash her hopes, and she would feel a lot better hearing what he had to say if she was dressed for it, as she had been earlier in the day.

'I've made a decision about the trainee GP position,' he told them. 'I hope I'm not intruding.'

'No, of course not,' Ann said. 'It's good of you to come round to tell us.'

So far Fenella hadn't spoken. For one thing, she was feeling at a distinct disadvantage in her semi-naked state, and for another her doubts had disappeared and she was realising just how much she wanted the job, in spite of the abrupt manner of the man who would be her employer. But she wasn't going to beg.

Had she lost her tongue or what? Max was thinking. She'd had enough to say at their earlier meeting.

'Do you want the job or not, Fenella?' he asked levelly, wishing she would take off the shades.

'Yes, I do,' she said, finding her voice.

'Then it is yours. How soon can you start?'

'Er.. .tomorrow,' she croaked. 'Or is that too soon?'

'No. It is not too soon. Our day at the practice starts at eight-thirty, but we are usually there about eight. I'll see you then, and some time during the morning we'll discuss all the relevant details with regard to you joining us. Is that all right with you?'

'Yes, that will be fine,' she said coolly, having regained some of her usual aplomb.

'I'll be off, then,' he said briskly, and turned to Ann. 'Sorry to have butted into your evening, Ann. I'm sure that you must feel you see enough of me at the surgery without me turning up after hours.'

'Not at all,' she replied. 'And thank you for taking Fenella into the practice. It will be lovely to have her nearby for a change. It's been lonely without her while she's been at university.'

'Yes, that is how it is with Will and I. It's a bonus when he turns up out of the blue unexpectedly,' he said with a wry smile.

'Why don't you and he come for dinner some time when he's home?' Ann suggested.

Had her mother gone crazy? Fenella thought. She knew she didn't like Max.

His smile was still on view but there was amusement in it now and she knew he had guessed her thoughts. 'That would be very nice,' he said. 'He'll be home in a week or two for the long summer vacation. Will is studying law.'

A week or two would give her time to explain to her mother that she didn't want to socialise with Max Hollister and his brother, Fenella thought. That she had plenty of male friends that she'd studied with who would be round immediately if she gave them the slightest encouragement. But after the incident at the club she was going to give the eligible male of the species a wide berth.

Ann was smiling back at him and telling him easily, 'Come whenever it suits you.' And Fenella thought for a second time that her mother
had
gone crazy. Her liking for the man standing beside them in the flower-filled garden was plain to see and she thought, Surely not! Surely her mother wasn't attracted to him. She was older. Eight, nine years maybe, but glamorous enough to attract the attention of a younger man.

He was about to depart and Fenella didn't get off the sunbed, mainly because there was so much of her on view. So Ann was left to walk with him to the front gate and wave him off.

When her mother came back her first words were, 'I can't understand why you don't like Max. He's the best doctor this place has ever had, from all accounts. Liked and respected by everyone and totally dedicated to his patients.'

Yes, Fenella thought glumly. But she doubted if he'd made any of
their
acquaintances while asleep in a police cell. It was unfair that he'd taken such a jaundiced view of her. She'd been a victim of unpleasant circumstances. But at least he had offered her the position, so maybe his opinion of her had improved since earlier in the day.

Yet no sooner had she managed to see the up side of that problem than there was her mother's obvious affection for the domineering GP to take stock of. It was a ghastly thought that she might one day have to call him 'Daddy'!

'What's the joke?' Ann asked curiously as Fenella laughed hollowly.

'There isn't one,' she replied, having no intention of bringing up such a delicate matter so soon, and with a change of subject asked, 'Do you think your doctor friend is attractive, Mum?'

'Yes, I suppose so,' Ann replied.

'So why isn't he married?'

'I don't know,' was the reply. 'I remember someone mentioning that he'd had a big romantic hiccup some years ago before we came to live in the area, but I don't know the details.'

'Oh,' Fenella murmured, having no wish to think any further about her mother's relationship with Max Hollister. It was enough to cope with that from tomorrow he would be her employer.

But it didn't stop her from wondering what had gone wrong with his love life in the past, as it was surprising to find a man of his looks and standing in the community unattached.

*

He knew what ailed Fenella, Max was thinking as he drove back home. She couldn't cope with what had happened at the police station. Not the fact that she'd been arrested, which had been strictly a matter of self-preservation. Though a risky one at that. But because he'd seen her at her very worst and she'd known nothing about it until she'd walked into his consulting room that morning.

It was what was bothering him, too, but not for the same reason. She was a lovely, wholesome-looking creature, who could so easily have been degraded and humiliated by a couple of evil predators, and even though Fenella had told him her side of the story, he was still appalled by what had happened.

Not that he didn't see violence and depravity all the time in his police work. He did. But there'd been something about
her
vulnerability that had got to him. Yet instead of showing her the sympathy she deserved, he'd been critical and abrasive.

Maybe tomorrow everything would even out between them, he thought as he put his key in the lock. Ann was obviously delighted that he'd agreed to take Fenella into the practice, so perhaps she would keep the peace between them. Later, as he slid between the sheets, the last thought in his mind was of smooth golden flesh beneath a face that hadn't exactly lit up with delight when he'd told her she'd got the position... if she wanted it.

To his satisfaction she
had
wanted it and now it was a case of waiting to see if he'd made a mistake.

* * *

With a student loan to pay off Fenella hadn't got transport and the next morning as they prepared to go to the surgery, Ann said, 'My car is standing around all day while I'm working so use it if you need to drive anywhere. Though I imagine Max will take you with him on the house calls for the first few weeks.'

Fenella pulled a face.

'Whatever it is that you've got against him, wipe the slate clean when you get to the surgery, Fenella,' she advised. 'Otherwise you will be creating problems that both you and he can do without.'

Ann was eyeing her consideringly. 'You haven't been your usual sunny self since that dreadful business on Friday night. Maybe we should ask Max to check you over. After all, you
were
given a powerful, sleep-inducing drug. And if Max knew the circumstances he would understand why you're being a bit fractious.'

Fenella stifled a groan. Her mother wasn't to know that she'd already been 'checked over' by him once, in a less salubrious place than the village surgery, and did not want a repeat performance.

'I
will
put yesterday to the back of my mind and make a fresh start with Max,' she promised hurriedly. 'If he'll let me.'

'Of course he will,' her mother said confidently, and Fenella thought it was there again, a warmth that meant more than just respect.

When they arrived at the surgery he was there, dressed as the day before in a dark suit with an immaculate shirt and tie. Crazily she wondered if he sent his shirts to the cleaner's or laundered them himself.

'Fenella!' he said when he saw her. 'Welcome to Hillside Practice.'

His hand reached out to shake hers and his clasp was firm and cool, like the man himself. Ann had been waylaid by one of the receptionists so, taking the opportunity, Fenella said in a low voice, 'My mother still doesn't know that you attended to me on Friday night. You aren't going to tell her, are you?'

Max observed her levelly. 'I seem to remember having already made that promise. I'm not in the habit of saying things that I don't mean.'

I'll bet, she thought uncomfortably, aware that she'd started off on the wrong foot
again.

'I think it's time you met the rest of the staff, so that we can get the day under way,' he said in the same even tone, and she nodded meekly.

'Gather round, everyone,' he commanded, and when the practice nurses, receptionists and Brenda, the cleaner, came out from their various rooms he said, 'Fenella is our new member of staff. She is starting today as a trainee GP and I want all of you to give her every assistance while she is settling in.

'She is also Ann's daughter,' he told them, with a smile for the practice manager who was standing at the back of the little gathering, 'and if she helps take the weight off my shoulders as well as her mother does, I will have no complaints.'

It was there again, Fenella thought, the doubting tone that he'd used before regarding herself. Yet if he was dubious about her suitability why had Max offered her the position? Something else had been there in his tone, too, the rapport she'd sensed the night before between Max and her mother. She'd always wanted to be a bridesmaid but not under
those
circumstances!

Fenella sat in with him during the morning surgery. Hunched on the edge of her seat, with hands tightly clasped, she wished she presented a more relaxed picture. But there was something about Max Hollister that made her nervous, and when she was nervous she was inclined to conceal it by sounding over-confident. She prayed that it wouldn't be like that this time.

In the role of silent onlooker she was able to take stock of the man who, unknown to her, had taken charge of her well-being on a night she wasn't ever going to forget. He was tall, and lean with it. His hair a dark thatch, stylishly cut, and beneath it bright hazel eyes and a firm mouth.

'So, will I do?' he asked dryly during a gap between patients.

Aware that she must have been staring, Fenella's cheeks reddened.

'I'm sorry,' she told him. 'I didn't mean to gape. It's just that my life has changed in just a matter of days. This time last week I didn't even know you. I'd heard of you, of course, from my mother, but you were just a name, and now….'