Alex checked that Sarah was safely installed in the back seat with a good space between her and her brother, and then drove towards the school. It was about a mile away from the house, along a winding country lane, and the drive was a pleasant one, though even that was not enough to calm her increasingly stretched nerves.
Had she taken on too much, making the decision to look after her brother’s children? In itself, it shouldn’t have been too difficult, but alongside the new job at Oakdale Hospital, and adding in the fact that she’d had to move to Somerset to be close to where they used to live, the stress was beginning to pile up. Her once calm and orderly life had been turned upside down. Everything was chaotic.
Not that there was much she could do about any of it. The car accident that had injured her brother and his wife had wreaked havoc with all their lives.
‘Bye,’ she said when they arrived at the school. ‘Take care. Be good.’ She kissed the children and hugged them and then watched for a minute or two as they met up with friends and went to stand in line for their teachers.
Then she headed back along the main road to town and her new place of work. The hospital was a few miles inland from the sea, and she drove towards it now, past the soft, rolling hills of the Quantocks, their slopes richly carpeted with heather and occasional dark oases of green woodland.
At the hospital, she parked in her designated place, and then made her way to the A and E department. She pulled in a deep breath, straightened her shoulders and walked into the main reception area. This was a new challenge, a difficult task that she’d been assigned, and she would need to have her wits about her. She was a little apprehensive about what lay in store, but she was determined to make the best effort she could.
Her first impression of the unit was a pleasant one. Everything seemed relatively calm in there. The treatment rooms were occupied, with patients being tended by medical staff, and the whiteboard showed the status of admissions and stage of treatment.
Across the room, a doctor was standing by the desk, chatting to nurses, until, after a moment or two, he noticed Alex and came over to her. He was good looking, long and lean, immaculately dressed in dark trousers and a white, self-striped shirt, finished off with a muted tie in a pale shade of blue.
‘Hi, there,’ he said. ‘Can I help you? I guess you’re not a patient, or you’d have been directed to the waiting room.’ His voice was easy on the ear, deep and well modulated, and there was a warmth about him that made it seem as though he was genuinely interested in her. He had black hair, cut short to frame his angular features, and his eyes were a vivid blue, alert and enquiring.
‘That’s right. Yes, thank you, I’m looking for…’ she checked his name badge ‘.Dr Brooksby.’ She smiled. ‘I believe I’ve found the very man I want.’
He laughed. ‘Well, that’s not something I get to hear every day…but more than welcome, all the same, coming from someone who looks as good as you.’ His glance shimmered over her, taking in the tailored, dove-grey suit she was wearing, with the pencil-slim skirt and the jacket that nipped in at her slender waist. His gaze came to rest on the burnished, silky swathe of her hair, lingering there for a while longer than was absolutely necessary.
‘Anything I can do for you, you only have to say.’ His manner was open and friendly, his blue eyes quizzical, inviting her to offload any worries or problems she might have.
‘That’s very kind of you.’ She let her glance roam fleetingly around the department. ‘I must say, it’s good to come to an A and E unit and find the atmosphere so relaxed and easygoing. That must be quite unusual, or perhaps I’ve come at a particularly quiet time? Either way, I imagine your bosses must be pleased with the way you run things around here.’
‘You’d think so, but actually they’re bringing in new management. And as to being quiet, it only appears that way—we’ve just finished dealing with the aftermath of a road accident, and now we’re taking a breather and making the most of things…before the new manager comes along to sort us out and tell us where we’ve been going wrong.’ His mouth made a rueful slant. ‘Sorry to offload that way. It’s a sore point. He’s supposed to put in an appearance some time today so we’re all on tenterhooks.’
A small ripple of dismay ran through her. This was definitely not going to be an easy ride, judging by his comments. ‘Oh, I see.’ She reflected on what he’d said for a second or two, before venturing, ‘Maybe he’ll find that everything’s perfectly in order?’
‘What a refreshing idea.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘Unfortunately, I very much doubt it. He’s a bean-counter, sent to trim us to the bone. This is the NHS, after all.’ He pressed his well-shaped lips together briefly. ‘Enough of my problems, though. What can I do for you, Miss…?’
‘It’s Dr,’ she answered carefully. ‘Dr Draycott. Alex.’
He stared at her, his mouth dropping open a little until he recovered himself. ‘Alex Draycott?’ he repeated, cautiously.
She nodded. ‘That’s right.’ She studied him. ‘You look as though you’re taken aback by that. Is something wrong?’
Slowly, he shook his head. ‘No, not at all. It’s just that…well…you’re a woman.’
She smiled. ‘That’s very observant of you.’
He was still staring, and she prompted gently, ‘Is that likely to be a problem for you?’
‘Uh…No, of course not. It’s just that, well, Alex is a man’s name, isn’t it? We were expecting a man.’ He frowned, looking at her in a slightly accusatory fashion. ‘And I thought you were maybe a relative concerned about one of our patients.’
‘I’m not.’
‘No, I see that now.’ His frown deepened. ‘So you’re the new doctor/manager who’s come to join the unit?’
She hesitated. ‘Um…bean-counter was how you put it, I think.’ She gave him a wryly amused look, her grey eyes taking in his obvious unease. ‘It’s odd how defensive people become whenever managers arrive on the scene, isn’t it? And it’s totally unnecessary, you know—after all, we’re all in this together, aren’t we, working for the greater good of the hospital? I have a job to do, but it doesn’t have to put us at odds with one another.’
‘Doesn’t it?’ He appeared sceptical. ‘Perhaps you aren’t aware that your reputation has gone before you? We’ve all heard how you wielded the axe at your last hospital. There were job cuts and ward closures.’
She sent him a quick look, her grey eyes troubled. ‘Sometimes, no matter how you try to preserve what’s already in place, it becomes impossible in the end, if budget restrictions are too tight. But in all fairness to me, I did manage to keep the department open, I kept the job losses down to natural wastage, and I put new measures in place so that some patients could be tended to elsewhere.’
‘You didn’t stay around, though, did you, once your job was done?’ His blue gaze was flint sharp. ‘Was that because you found the atmosphere suddenly less friendly?’
The attack was swift and unexpected and Alex felt a knot tighten in her stomach. ‘I left for personal reasons,’ she said, a catch in her voice. ‘It was nothing to do with the job. My circumstances changed, and my contract had come to an end anyway. I chose not to renew it.’ Even the memory of that time, when she had first heard about her brother’s accident, was enough to make the blood drain from her face.
He studied her thoughtfully, and perhaps he realised that he had touched a nerve, because he said softly, ‘I’m sorry. That was uncalled-for on my part. Put it down to tension, if you will. We’re all a little on edge here, uncertain about what the future holds for us and for the department. Of course, you were just doing your job.’
He laid a hand lightly on her elbow. ‘Perhaps I should take you along to the doctors’ lounge and offer you a cup of coffee? It was thoughtless of me not to suggest