Praise for Alison Roberts:
‘Readers will be moved by this incredibly sweet story about a family that is created in the most unexpected way.’
—RT Book Reviews on THE HONOURABLE MAVERICK
‘I had never read anything by Alison Roberts prior to reading TWINS FOR CHRISTMAS, but after reading this enchanting novella I shall certainly add her name to my auto-buy list!’
—Cataromance.com on TWINS FOR CHRISTMAS
‘Ms Roberts produces her usual entertaining blend of medicine and romance in just the right proportion, with a brooding but compelling hero and both leads with secrets to hide.’
—Mills & Boon® website reader review on NURSE, NANNY … BRIDE!
St Piran’s:
The Wedding!
Alison Roberts
Dear Reader
Two years ago I had the pleasure of being part of the St Piran’s Hospital series.
I loved my story about Luke and Anna, and adding to the conflict of the characters Josh and Megan, whose tense relationship ran throughout each of the stories in the St Piran’s series.
When the series finished, it certainly looked as if these two star-crossed lovers could never get a happy ending of their own. Not only was there a wife still in the picture but, shockingly, she was now pregnant! I was honoured to be asked to revisit St Piran’s and find a happy ending for Josh and Megan, but I also thought: Hmm … this will be quite a challenge. Challenge is a good thing, I reminded myself. It takes us out of our comfort zone and makes us stretch our wings and achieve more than we might have thought we could. And isn’t it true that the more you put into something, the more you get out of it?
I really hope you love this story as much as I did in the end.
Happy reading!
With love
Alison
PROLOGUE
‘CODE ONE, DR Phillips.’ The registrar slammed down the phone as he swung his head. ‘Theatre Three.’
Megan’s pager began sounding at precisely the same moment, with the particular sound reserved for an absolute emergency.
The surge of adrenaline made everything else irrelevant. Even signing her resignation. Her ticket to finally escape.
She dropped her pen on top of the paperwork and leapt to her feet.
‘Let’s go.’
A code one was a life-threatening emergency. A life was at stake. More than one life, potentially, if Megan was being summoned. For a paediatrician to be called in with the same paging system used for something like a cardiac arrest meant that a newborn baby could be in need of specialist resuscitation. For it to be happening in Theatre meant the baby was arriving by emergency Caesarean. There were no scheduled Caesareans for the St Piran’s maternity department today so this one must have come in via the emergency department.
The registrar, Matt, was keeping pace with Megan as she ran for the elevator.
‘Suspected uterine rupture,’ he said.
Megan nodded, holding her finger on the button as if that would speed up the arrival of the lift. Then she turned away.
‘Stairs,’ she snapped. ‘It’ll be quicker.’
‘She’ll be bleeding out, won’t she?’ Matt was right behind her. ‘The baby won’t stand much of a chance.’
‘Depends.’ Megan was taking the stairs two at a time. ‘Internal blood loss can sometimes slow down or even stop simply because it’s filled the available space and that puts pressure on ruptured vessels. The real danger comes when you open that space and release the pressure.’ She blew out a hard breath as she pushed open the fire stop door on the theatre suite level. ‘But you’re right. It’s critical for both of them.’
The main corridor in St Piran’s theatre suite was deceptively quiet. The flashing orange light above the door of Theatre Three was a beacon. But so was something else that Megan hadn’t expected to see.
A lone figure, at the end of the corridor, in front of the tall windows. A figure that stopped pacing and was now poised, reminding her of a wild animal sensing danger.
There was no mistaking the intensity of the stare Megan knew was directed at her.
‘Get some scrubs on,’ she ordered Matt as they reached the door to the change rooms. ‘Then go in and make sure we’ve got everything we might need on the resus trolley. Check the incubator. I’ll be right there.’
The figure was moving towards her. It might only be a silhouette because of the background light of the fading day beyond the windows but Megan knew exactly who it was.
Josh O’Hara.
Oh … God …
Why now? When she’d successfully avoided being alone with him for months.
Ever since that final, devastating kiss.
She could have avoided it now, too. Why hadn’t she gone straight into Theatre with her registrar?
Because there was only one reason why Josh would be pacing the corridor like this. Why he wouldn’t be in the Theatre with a case that would have been in his emergency department only minutes ago.
Megan was holding her breath. She’d never seen Josh look this tense. Distraught, even. Not even when he’d come to tell her that he loved her but they had no future.
Or … maybe she had. Once. So long ago now that the memory of his face was only a faint chord in the symphony that nightmare had been.
They’d had more than one turning point in their star-crossed history, she and Josh.
Clearly, this was another one. The third.
Bad things came in threes, didn’t they?
That meant that this had to be the last. Of course it was, because escape was only days away for Megan now. She’d be on the other side of the world very soon. Just not quite soon enough.
Megan sucked in enough air to be able to speak. ‘It’s Rebecca, isn’t it?’
His wife. They might not be living together as man and wife at the moment but they were still married.
A single nod from Josh. God, he looked terrible. He always looked like he could use a shave but right now his face was so pale it looked like he hadn’t been near a razor for a week. And he must have been virtually scrubbing at his hair with his fingers for it to look so dishevelled. The expression in his eyes was worst of all, however. Blue fire that was born of desperation. Guilt. Despair.
And shame, perhaps, for what he had to beg for?
‘The babies …’ The words came out strangled. ‘Please, Megan. Do your best for them. They … they won’t let me in.’
Of course they wouldn’t. He was far too emotionally involved. This was his family in Theatre Three. The whole family. As if it hadn’t been hard enough for Megan that Rebecca was going to give him a child, she had to go one step further and present him with a complete family. Two babies.
And it might be up to her to save the lives of Josh’s children.
The irony would be unbearable if she gave herself even a moment to think of it. Fortunately, she didn’t have a moment to spare.