She rolled her eyes when everyone jeered. ‘All right, I suppose we don’t want to go touting for business so I promise I’ll be careful. Back in a sec!’
She hurried out of the staffroom and made her way to the main entrance. There were a lot of visitors leaving and she smiled to herself when she saw the surprise on their faces as she hurried past. She spotted a couple of children staring at her and waggled her fingers at them, and they laughed and waved back. At least she didn’t look too scary to them, Katie thought with a chuckle.
There was quite a crush in the foyer so she found a quiet spot near the coffee-machine from where she could check out everyone who was leaving. Jim was six feet tall so whoever wore the costume would need to be roughly the same height because there was no time to shorten it. It would also help if he was as comfortably rounded as Jim was, too, although she could probably find some padding at a push. Hair colour wasn’t a problem because she’d managed to borrow a curly white wig from one of the patients on the oncology unit, and age also wasn’t an issue because the thick white beard she’d fashioned out of cotton wool would hide a multitude of sins. No, all she needed was a healthy, six-foot-tall male, willing to help, and everything would be fine.
Knowing what she needed and finding it, however, proved to be two entirely separate issues. As the flow of visitors tailed off to a trickle, Katie started getting desperate. She’d not seen a single man who’d fit the bill the whole time she’d been standing there so now what was she going to do? She could hardly go out into the street and accost people…
Could she?
Katie didn’t hesitate as she hurried outside. She didn’t want to have second thoughts about the wisdom of what she was doing because there wasn’t time. There had to be at least one eligible male in the town who could play Santa! She raced across the car park towards the main road then yelped in alarm when a car door suddenly opened directly in front of her. She managed to side-step the obstruction and ground to an ungainly halt as she glared at the hapless driver.
‘Why don’t you look what you’re doing? You could have knocked me over just now!’
‘I’m really sorry but I didn’t see you.’
The voice was deep and tinged with amusement but Katie was in no mood to appreciate the joke. The concert was due to start in less than half an hour’s time and her star performer was missing. She scowled at the man as he climbed unhurriedly out of his car. ‘Then you should be more careful in future.’
‘Oh, I shall. I’ll make a point of checking for lowflying elves every time I park here from now on.’
This time he didn’t attempt to hide his laughter and Katie’s mouth pursed. ‘And so you should. It could have been a child you almost flattened with that door.’
‘It could indeed. Good job it was only an elf. I mean, you’re supposed to be immortal, aren’t you, so no harm would have been done.’ He smiled calmly at her as he took a bag out of the back of the car and locked the door.
Katie glowered back, not sure she enjoyed being the butt of his jokes. Normally she had a very good sense of humour but she was too stressed to appreciate his clever remarks at that moment. ‘Oh, ha, ha, very funny. I’d split my sides laughing if I had the time to spare.’
‘Thank you. I didn’t realise that I could appeal to an elf’s sense of humour as well as everyone else’s. It’s always good to know that you can spread a little happiness as you pass through this life, isn’t it?’
With that he sketched her a wave and headed towards the hospital’s main entrance. Katie glared after him, wishing she had the time to tell him exactly where he could get off…She blinked when it suddenly struck her what she was seeing.
Six feet tall.
Male.
Apparently fit and obviously not in a hurry if the way he was sauntering up the path was anything to go by. He fitted her requirements to a T and she wasn’t about to let him slip through her fingers because he had a particularly irritating sense of humour!
She charged after him and grabbed hold of his arm so that he was forced to stop. ‘What are you doing for the next hour?’
‘Why? Are you thinking of initiating me into your elfin coven?’
‘It’s witches that have covens, not elves!’ she retorted.
‘Are you sure?’ He tipped his head to the side and regarded her thoughtfully. ‘So what do elves have then? A brotherhood? A family? A—?’
‘Oh, for pity’s sake, I don’t know!’ Her fingers gripped his arm as she struggled to regain control of her normally even temper. ‘I’ve no idea what elves do in their private lives. I’m really not interested! I just want to know if you can spare an hour to help give some sick kids a decent Christmas.’
‘What exactly did you have in mind?’ he asked with a marked lack of enthusiasm. However, Katie wasn’t about to let that deter her.
‘I need someone to play Santa at the Christmas carol concert. One of the surgical team was going to do it but he’s stuck in Theatre and can’t get away.’
‘Surely there must be someone else who could take over from him.’
‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you?’ She snorted in disgust. ‘I mean, it’s not asking much, is it? All I need is a man who’s roughly six feet tall so he’ll fit the costume and who’s willing to smile at the kids and do a bit of ho-ho-hoing…’ She stopped and stared at him. ‘You can do all that, can’t you?’
‘Smile at the kids or go ho-ho-ho?’
‘Both,’ she snapped, because she really didn’t appreciate all these wisecracks.
‘I suppose I could manage it at a push. It all depends on the fee, of course.’ He looked consideringly at her. ‘What’s the going rate for playing Santa these days?’
‘You’d expect to be paid!’ she exclaimed in dismay. ‘But it’s for the sake of the children.’
‘No actor worth his salt would work for free,’ he told her seriously. ‘And that includes anyone playing Santa Claus at a Christmas carol concert.’
‘But—’
‘Tell you what, why don’t we leave the subject of payment until later?’ He grinned at her. ‘You can judge me on my performance and then decide what you think I’m worth.’
‘Well, I suppose it will be all right,’ she conceded grudgingly, wondering where she was going to find the money to pay him. The costumes had cost a small fortune and she’d had to dip into her savings to pay for the material…
‘That’s settled, then. Let’s shake on it.’ He held out his hand. ‘My name’s Nick, by the way. Rather appropriate in the circumstances, isn’t it?’
‘I…um…Yes, I suppose it is.’ Katie hastily shrugged aside her concerns about paying his fee because she really didn’t have the time to worry about it right then. She took his hand and quickly shook it. ‘I’m Katie Denning and I’m a midwife on the maternity unit.’
‘Interesting job,’ Nick observed lightly as he released her. ‘So what do you want me to do? Didn’t you mention something about a costume?’
‘Oh, yes, of course.’ Katie glanced at her watch and groaned when she saw how late it was. ‘We’ll have to get a move on, though. We’re due at Women’s Surgical in fifteen minutes.’
She bustled up the path, murmuring her thanks when Nick opened the door for her. She took him straight to the porter’s lodge which had been turned into a makeshift dressing room that day and quickly unhooked the long red robes she’d made from the picture rail. Dalverston General had been built in the Victorian era—one of the many workhouse hospitals