The London Doctor Page 9

  ‘I didn’t know it was being sorted out just yet,’ Hannah said. The news had a dampening effect on her, but it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Of course he would want to stay in London…he thrived on city life, and he was more than ready for a consultant position. She hadn’t ever really believed that he might eventually go back to the Chilterns to work, had she?

  ‘I think this is just a preliminary stage, but the result is probably cut and dried. We all know that they’d have to be mad not to give it to Adam. He’s a terrific doctor, he’s good with the patients and when he’s in charge everything runs smoothly.’

  There was no denying that. The news had left her feeling strangely subdued, though, and added to his curt, challenging attitude towards her today, she was less than happy about the way things were going.

  She went back to her patient and talked to Sarah about the infusion and the test results. Perhaps it was best not to think about what the future had in store. Her emotions were in a state of flux, and they were especially chaotic where Adam was concerned.

  Some time later, her shift ended and she headed back to her flat, stopping off on the way to pick up Ellie from her childminder. As she had hoped, one of Abby’s friends had agreed to help out.

  Ellie was not in a happy mood. ‘Why isn’t Mummy fetching me?’ she wanted to know.

  ‘Because she’s still very poorly,’ Hannah told her gently. ‘I explained it all to you, didn’t I? She has to stay in hospital for a while.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘So that the doctors can try to make her well again. I’m sure you’ll be able to go and see her just as soon as she’s feeling a bit better.’

  Abby’s condition was still giving cause for concern. The virus had caused swelling around her brain, and the medical team was doing everything that they possibly could for her. Hannah could only hope that she would recover without suffering any additional complications.

  ‘We’ll make pancakes when we get home,’ Hannah told Ellie. ‘You like those, don’t you?’

  ‘With syrup?’ Ellie queried.

  ‘Yes, with syrup,’ Hannah agreed. ‘Dean’s home from hospital, and he’s going to come and have supper with us, so we’d better make quite a few, hadn’t we?’

  Ellie nodded vigorously. ‘Yum…mmm…’ she said. Then she asked, ‘Is his leg better?’

  ‘Yes, I think so, but it’s still a bit stiff, so he has to be careful how he gets about, and he’s using an elbow crutch to help him along.’

  Dean was hobbling about the place when they arrived home, and he came and joined them in Hannah’s flat, helping her with the preparations for supper.

  ‘How have you coped on your own all day?’ Hannah asked, as they tucked into vegetable risotto. Ellie fed her doll with a plastic spoon and chatted to her throughout the meal, taking no notice of the adults at the table. ‘Have you been able to get around all right?’

  ‘It hasn’t been too bad.’ He grimaced. ‘I’ll be glad when I’m back to normal, though. I want to get on with my life and go back to work.’

  ‘That’s understandable.’ Hannah finished off her first course and then put plates under the grill to warm. She spooned pancake mix into a hot pan and set it on the cooker to heat up once more. ‘I heard that your parents were on their way over. Abby left them a message when you were taken into hospital, and I found their reply when I checked her answering-machine. They’ve been out of the country, but they should be here to see you tomorrow.’

  Dean made a crooked smile. ‘Really? I’d better clean the place up, then, or Mum will think I’m living in squalor and will want to be hauling me off back home. Do they know I’m out of hospital?’

  ‘Yes, I phoned them.’ She frowned. ‘I wish it was as easy to get in touch with Abby’s parents. I’ve spoken to the Salvation Army and they’re going to see if they can find out where they are. They’ve never even met Ellie, but surely they’ll want to come and see Abby if they know that she’s ill?’

  ‘Let’s hope so.’

  Between them, Dean and Ellie demolished the pile of pancakes that she made, and Hannah started to clear away the crockery. ‘Will you watch Ellie for me while I wash up?’ she asked Dean, and he nodded.

  A few minutes later, as she was drying up and putting everything away, the doorbell rang, and Dean went to see who was there.

  ‘Hello, Ellie,’ she heard Adam say, and then he added, presumably to Dean, ‘Is Hannah around?’

  Dean pointed towards the kitchen, and Hannah came out into the main room. ‘Adam,’ she said, looking at him in surprise. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Is everything all right?’ And then, her tone anxious, she went on, ‘Nothing’s happened to Abby, has it?’

  He shook his head. ‘No…as far as I know, she’s still much as she was before.’ He looked at her guardedly, his glance moving over her, taking in the light cotton top that she was wearing and gliding down over her snugly fitting blue jeans. ‘I came about the shower. I suppose you’re still having trouble with it?’

  ‘Oh, I see…’ She blinked. ‘Yes, it’s still not working.’ She couldn’t get her head around the fact that he was here at all. He was dressed in casual clothes, dark chinos and a matching top, and he looked incredibly good, so striking that her heart skipped a beat and she floundered for a moment or two. ‘I’ve been managing by taking a shower at work or in Abby’s flat,’ she said.

  ‘I had a word with someone who knows about these things,’ he said. ‘I thought, as Ellie’s staying with you, you might need to get it fixed fairly quickly. Do you know where your mains tap is? Is it all right if I take a look?’

  ‘Help yourself,’ she said, still out of synch with what was going on, but waving him in the direction of the kitchen. ‘It’s in the kitchen cupboard, under the drainer.’

  He took off his jacket and draped it over a chair, before going into the kitchen. A minute or so later, he went into the bathroom and examined the shower.

  ‘That seems to be working all right now,’ he said, after a while, drying his hands on a towel and coming back into the sitting room.

  She stared at him, open-mouthed. ‘It was as easy as that?’ she asked. ‘How did you do that?’

  ‘The mains pressure was too low, and the safety cutout pressure valve in the shower stops it from working. Hopefully, you won’t have any problems from now on.’

  She smiled at him. ‘That’s wonderful…Thank you. I had no idea it was so simple. I feel like such a fool.’

  ‘You weren’t to know.’ He turned to Dean. ‘How are you? You look better than you did last time I saw you.’

  Hannah listened as they talked for a while, but her mind was stuck on the fact that Adam was there at all. A warm bubble of happiness rose inside her, until she remembered that, of course, he hadn’t done any of this for her, had he? He said it was Ellie he had been thinking about. Disappointment washed through her and she had to make a conscious effort to tune back in to what was going on.

  The doorbell rang again, and she frowned. Her small flat was seeing more visitors this evening than it had in all the time she’d been staying here. Going over to the door and pulling it open, she was startled to see Ryan waiting outside in the hallway.

  ‘Ryan, this is lovely…I had no idea that you might be coming to see me.’ Her face lit up in a smile, but at the same time she became aware of Adam stiffening. Uncertain how to handle things, she said, ‘Ryan, I’m not sure if you know Dean. He lives in the flat across the hall…And you remember Ellie, don’t you? Her mother’s in hospital just now, so she’s staying with me.’ Briefly, she explained what had happened to Abby.

  Ryan frowned, and Hannah went on, ‘And Adam’s only just arrived. He fixed my shower for me. I’ve been lost without it.’

  Ryan acknowledged Dean and Ellie, and then glanced towards Adam. He said nothing, and Adam nodded in Ryan’s direction. Hannah immediately felt awkward. What could she do to smooth things out between these two men?

  ‘I’ve just made pan
cakes,’ she said, ‘and there are a couple left. Perhaps you and Adam might like to finish them off? They should still be warm from the grill.’ She wasn’t at all sure what her foster-brother was doing there. Had he come to stay again? How was she going to be able to ask him about his problems with his tutor with Adam and Dean in the room?

  ‘I’ll have something to eat, thanks, but I didn’t plan on stopping for long,’ Ryan said. ‘I just thought I’d drop by on the off chance that you would be at home. I’ve come from my friend’s house, and I want to travel back to college tonight. I have to sit an exam tomorrow afternoon and I still have some studying to do.’ He hesitated. ‘I might just pop in and see Abby if she’s in the hospital, though, as I’m in the area. She was good to me and I don’t like to think of her being alone and ill.’

  ‘I’m sure she’ll appreciate that. I don’t know how responsive she’ll be, though. She’s on medication to bring down the inflammation around her brain, but it may not have calmed things down enough yet. I think she’ll be glad to know that you stopped by, though.’

  Ellie stared at Ryan. ‘I seen you before,’ she said. ‘You was talking to my mummy. Mummy said you was in trouble.’ She screwed up her face, as though she was trying to remember. ‘She said you might have nowhere to live.’

  Ryan almost choked on his pancake, and Hannah saw that Adam was frowning. Even so, he had the presence of mind to thump Ryan on the back to clear the obstruction from his throat, and Ryan recovered slowly, his eyes watering slightly. He still didn’t acknowledge Adam.

  ‘Is you all right?’ Ellie watched what was going on, her eyes wide and fascinated.

  ‘Yes, Ellie, I’m fine, thank you,’ Ryan told her.

  ‘Shall we go and look in your toy box, Ellie, and see what we can find?’Adam asked, taking her by the hand and leading her to a corner of the room. Perhaps he had decided to be diplomatic and pretend he hadn’t taken any notice of what had been said.

  ‘Why was he coughing?’ Ellie asked. Hannah didn’t hear Adam’s reply, but she watched as he persuaded her to show him the contents of her toy box.

  ‘I think it’s time that I went back to my own flat,’ Dean decided. ‘I need to start cleaning up if my parents are coming to visit tomorrow.’

  Hannah saw him out and then took Ryan to one side. ‘Is it true, Ryan?’ she asked in a low voice. She guessed that he wouldn’t want Adam to hear what they were saying. ‘Are you going to lose your accommodation? Haven’t you been able to sort things out with your landlord? You know that you can stay here for a while if you want, if you’re in trouble of any kind.’

  ‘I haven’t been thrown out yet. I’m still trying to get the money together to pay off the debts, and I missed out on a month’s rent, that’s all. The landlord’s getting on my case, but I can’t really blame him.’ His tone was subdued and he turned away from where Ellie and Adam were checking out the animals in a Noah’s Ark.

  ‘I’ll write you out a cheque,’ she said softly. ‘Let’s get this sorted out once and for all.’

  This time, he didn’t refuse, and after he’d told her the amount, she wrote out a cheque and handed it to him. ‘Is there anything else on your mind?’ she asked, remembering what her mother had said earlier. ‘Are you worried about the exams or your coursework?’

  ‘No, not really. I had a bit of an argument with one of the tutors because I wanted some extra time to finish off a piece of work. He wouldn’t give me any leeway, but I’m not too worried about the exams.’

  ‘Have you managed to sort things out with your tutor?’

  He grimaced. ‘Not yet. He’s a bit of a stuffed shirt, but I’ll deal with it. I was only asking for a couple of days’ grace. No one else has given us projects to finish this close to the exams and that’s what I told him.’

  ‘You’ll tell me if there’s anything else bothering you, won’t you?’

  ‘Of course.’ He put an arm around her and smiled at her. ‘You shouldn’t worry. You’re my best girl and I don’t want you upset.’

  Some time later, when he was ready to leave, she saw him out into the hallway. ‘Good luck with the exams,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks.’ He frowned. ‘About the money…I’ll pay you back just as soon as I can, I promise. It might take me a couple of months, though.’

  ‘That’s all right. Forget it. Just make sure you get it all sorted out.’

  She watched him go and then went back inside the flat. Ellie was sitting in a chair with Adam, looking at the pictures in a book, and her eyelids were drooping.

  ‘I should get her to bed,’ Hannah said quietly. ‘Thanks for watching over her.’

  ‘She’s a sweet child. It must be difficult for you, having to take care of her when you’re not used to small children.’ He frowned, looking unusually bewildered. ‘They seem to have so much energy, and they ask so many questions…and every one seems to end with “why?”.’

  Hannah laughed. ‘That’s true enough. I’ve never worked out what the proper answer is to that one. Everything I say just leads to another “why?” and we sort of spiral downwards from there.’

  Adam gently lifted Ellie from his lap and handed her over to Hannah. The child hardly stirred, and Hannah swiftly set about getting her ready for bed.

  ‘It’s been a long day for her,’ she murmured, when she had at last settled her under the duvet. ‘I expect she’ll sleep like a log for the rest of the night.’

  She put the screen in place and came back to the main part of the sitting room, glancing at Adam. ‘Is your brother ready for his new addition to the family? He doesn’t have any other children, does he?’

  ‘No, this will be his first. I think he has everything in hand. He and his wife have just moved into a bigger house in Buckinghamshire and he’s spending all his spare time getting the nursery ready for the baby.’

  ‘It must be so lovely to be able to do that. Whenever Mum had a baby to look after, we had to shift everything about to make room. It was always chaos in our house. There were lots of rooms, but there never seemed to be enough space.’

  He made a twisted smile. ‘Perhaps there were just so many children about that you had trouble finding space to be yourself.’

  ‘That’s true.’ She thought back over the chaos with affection. ‘I wouldn’t have liked to be without any of them, though.’

  ‘No. I can see that you’re still very attached to Ryan. He’s more than a brother figure to you, isn’t he? You’re very close to one another. You worry about him and feel the need to look out for him.’

  She lifted a brow. ‘Is there something wrong with that?’

  ‘Not at all…but I can’t help thinking that he’s all of twenty-five, twenty-six now, and I’m a little concerned that you should be placed in a position where you feel the need to bail him out with money for rent.’

  Hannah winced. So he had seen and heard what was going on after all. ‘I had hoped to be discreet about that,’ she murmured. ‘I suppose this place is just too small for anyone to have secrets.’

  ‘Would you rather I pretended that I didn’t know what was going on?’ His expression was shuttered. ‘What would be the point? I know that things are difficult for him right now, and that you want to help him. I just wonder if he might need to adjust his own attitude a little. After all, he mentioned that he was having trouble with his tutor, and I doubt that he’ll be able to resolve anything if he’s easily provoked, or if he allows his quick temper to get the better of him, as he did when he was younger.’

  Her lips made an odd shape. ‘Perhaps his tutor could do with a little more sensitivity in his approach. He should understand when a student is having problems and make an effort to ease back on the pressure he’s bringing to bear on a situation.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Adam moved restlessly. ‘You can’t keep on protecting him for ever. There comes a time when everyone has to stand on their own two feet and deal with the consequences of their actions.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have expected you to unders
tand,’ Hannah said, her tone abrupt. ‘Why would you? You and your family have always had everything going for you. You have wealth to smooth over any monetary problems and the back-up of a strong support network within your own family if ever there is trouble from outside.’

  She pulled in a quick breath. ‘You’ve never had to wonder where your parents might be, or whether you’ll ever see them again, and you’ve never been moved from one place to another like an unwanted parcel. That’s how it was for Ryan. Don’t talk to me about standing on your own two feet. You’ve never had to stand alone and wonder where you were supposed to be or where you might finish up.’ She glared at him.

  ‘No, I haven’t. You’re right about that.’

  He hesitated, and then started to walk towards the door. She frowned, following his progress, still heated from her defence of her brother. He turned at the door and said, ‘I should go. Thanks for the food.’

  He left the flat and was out of the building before she had time to come to her senses. When it dawned on her that he had actually gone, she felt waves of guilt wash over her.

  What had she done? Why had she turned on him that way? He didn’t deserve that after the way he had come to help her, did he?

  Now she had alienated him, and she felt awful about that. How was she going to be able to mend her fences with him?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘WHY is your patient still here?’ Adam frowned, flicking through the file with a hint of impatience. ‘I thought you were making arrangements to admit him.’

  ‘I’m still waiting for a bed to become available,’ Hannah answered.

  ‘Perhaps you should find somewhere else for him to stay while he’s waiting. We need the treatment room.’

  ‘I’m reluctant to move him just yet,’ she said. She didn’t want to go against Adam’s orders, but instinct told her that all wasn’t well with the man she was treating.

  ‘What’s the problem? Apart from the fact that you don’t have all the test results back yet? He was brought in because of a high fever and pain in the right upper quadrant, wasn’t he?’ He checked her notes and added, ‘You’ve managed to bring down his temperature, and you’re giving him supportive treatment. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be wheeled into a waiting area.’