‘You’re welcome,’ he said huskily. ‘Good luck. I hope everything works out for you.’
He took a deep breath as he crossed the road, feeling the cold air biting deep into his lungs. For the past eighteen months he had been merely marking time, but now that period was over. Even though he might not be able to follow his heart, at least he could make amends for what he had done.
The thought made him feel better than he’d done for a long time, and he realised that it was all thanks to that woman, too. If she could find the courage to reassess her life, he could find the courage to make these changes.
London: March
‘We’ve been really short-staffed since Christmas. At one point we were working double shifts and it was no joke, I can tell you. If our departmental head hadn’t put his foot down, we’d have had to keep on doing them, too. He raised a real stink about it and that’s why we were given permission to hire agency staff.’ The ward sister laughed as she opened the staffroom door. ‘It’s not a good idea to get on the wrong side of him!’
‘Thanks for the warning.’
Heather Thompson smiled as she looked around the room. As hospital staffrooms went, this one wasn’t too bad. At least the chairs looked as though the springs weren’t all broken and there was actually a rug on the regulation blue composite floor. Compared to some of the hospitals where she’d worked in the last few months, this was quite luxurious, in fact.
‘It’s not too bad, is it?’ The sister must have noticed her taking stock. ‘It’s not exactly the Ritz, but it’s not the absolute pits either. We have our consultant to thank for that too. He insisted on them refurbishing the place when he took over last year, said it wasn’t right that staff had to put up with such appalling conditions when they were expected to work twenty-four seven.’
‘Really? I am impressed.’ Heather hung her coat in an empty locker. ‘Most consultants couldn’t care less about the staff, in my experience.’
‘Oh, he’s a real treasure, believe me.’ The other woman sighed. ‘It’s just a shame that he’s leaving—’
She broke off when an alarm sounded. Heather recognised the sound immediately and was already on her way to the door before the ward sister could tell her to follow her. Staff were appearing from all over the place, responding to the call. There were half a dozen people gathered by the time they entered the ward, and each and every one seemed to know what was expected of them.
Heather followed the convoy to the child’s bed, her heart aching when she saw how young he was. He couldn’t have been more than eight years old and he was desperately ill. One of the nurses had already started CPR, another had fetched the crash trolley, while a third was frantically working the controls on the bed to lower it into a horizontal position. It was obvious they had the situation covered so she turned to the boy’s parents.
‘Let’s leave the team to do their job,’ she said, urging the couple towards the door.
‘But I want to stay!’ the mother shrieked. ‘Charlie needs me—I can’t leave him!’
Heather grasped hold of the woman’s arm when she tried to force her way back through the group to get to her son. The last thing the staff needed at the moment was a hysterical parent hampering their efforts to resuscitate the child.
‘Charlie needs their help more than anything else,’ she said firmly, trying to lead her away.
‘Let me go!’
Heather gasped when the woman swung round and struck her across the face. She staggered back, but quickly recovered. Taking a firmer grip on the woman’s arm, she ushered her out of the ward, thanking her stars that the boy’s father followed them without a murmur. She wouldn’t have rated her chances if he’d clobbered her as well!
There was a family room next to the office and she took the parents in there. She managed to persuade them to sit down then got them both a cup of tea from the machine in the corner and sat down opposite them.
‘I know how worried you are but the staff are doing everything they can to help Charlie.’ She pressed a cup of tea into the woman’s hand. ‘Try a sip of this. It will help.’
The woman obediently drank a little of the tea. All the fight seemed to have drained out of her now as she sat huddled on the edge of the sofa. ‘I thought he was getting better. The doctor said he was, didn’t he, Darren?’
‘Yes.’ The father ran a trembling hand over his face. Heather’s heart went out to him when she saw that he was crying.
‘I only started working here tonight so I don’t know what’s wrong with your son,’ she explained quietly. ‘But I do know that everything possible is being done to help him.’
‘One of the nurses said that he’d had a heart attack,’ the father told her. He shook his head. ‘I know he’s been having pains in his chest but I didn’t think kids could have heart attacks. I mean, it’s something old people have, not eight-year-olds like our Charlie.’
‘It’s unusual, but it does happen,’ Heather said gently. ‘The main thing is that Charlie was already in hospital when it happened. That will certainly go in his favour.’
‘So you think he’ll be all right, do you?’ the mother said desperately.
‘Let’s hope so.’
Heather was too experienced to make promises she might not be able to keep. It was impossible to foretell what the outcome would be and all she could do was reassure the parents while they waited for news. It was almost half an hour before the door opened and she stood up when the parents leapt to their feet. Just for a moment she stared at the man who had entered the room, wondering where she had seen him, before all of a sudden it came rushing back and she gasped.
It was the man she had spoken to the day before her wedding! What on earth was he doing here?
CHAPTER TWO
ARCHIE could feel the shock waves reverberating around his body when he saw the woman. He’d thought about her many times since that day they had met. Far too often, in fact, her face had sprung to mind and he had found himself wondering what had happened to her. If he’d known her name, he might have tried to find out, but the lack of information had ruled out that possibility. To suddenly see her right here, in the hospital, stunned him and he had to force himself to focus as he turned to Charlie’s parents.
‘Why don’t we sit down?’ he suggested, ushering the couple back into the room. He waited until they had sat down before he turned to the young woman. ‘Thank you, Nurse. I’ll handle things from here on.’
‘Of course, sir.’
She smiled politely as she hurried to the door, but Archie could see the colour in her cheeks and knew that she was as shocked as he was by the unexpected encounter. He could only assume that she was one of the agency nurses, although it seemed strange that fate had brought her here.
‘First of all let me assure you that Charlie is fine,’ he said, quickly dismissing that thought. He didn’t believe in fate. As he knew from experience, a person’s life was dictated by the choices he or she made, not by some unforeseen force of nature. ‘He suffered a myocardial infarction—a heart attack—but he’s stable now and his vital signs are as good as we can hope for at the present time.’
‘Thank heavens!’
Charlie’s mother started crying when she heard that. Archie passed her the box of tissues off the table and waited while she collected herself. He wanted to be sure both parents understood that their son wasn’t in the clear yet.
‘We’ve completed all the tests now and