‘I’m sure that’s correct, Dr Munroe. However, to set your mind at rest, it’s a question I would ask any potential employee. Male or female.’
His tone was as hard as flint and Ellie realised with a sinking heart that she had completely blotted her copybook now. No way was he going to offer her the job after this. Pushing back her chair, she stood up, wanting to bring the interview to a conclusion before she did something unforgivable. She hadn’t cried, not even when she had found her fiancé in bed with one of their colleagues that day. She had held onto her composure throughout it all, right through the apologies and the ever more elaborate excuses. She hadn’t even lost it when Michael had tried to blame her for his behaviour yet, for some reason, at that moment she could have stood there and wept.
‘I apologise. I should never have said that. It was completely out of order. Thank you for seeing me, Dr Saunders. I hope you find someone suitable to fill the post.’ Ellie swung round and headed towards the door. She knew it was directly behind her but she couldn’t seem to see where she was going. She blundered into a filing cabinet and winced when the metal dug painfully into her hip. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she find her way out?
‘Here. Come and sit down.’
A large and surprisingly comforting hand closed around her arm as she found herself being led back to the chair. Ellie dropped down onto the seat because she really didn’t have a choice. Tears were streaming down her face now, blinding her to everything else; she could only sit there while Daniel Saunders went to the sink and filled a glass with cold water.
‘Drink this.’ He crouched down beside her, so close that she could smell the clean fragrance of shampoo that clung to his hair. Holding the glass to her lips, he urged her to take a sip. A few drops of water trickled down her chin but before she could find a tissue, he wiped them away with his fingertips. ‘Better?’
Ellie nodded, not trusting herself to speak. At any other time she would have been mortified by her loss of control but, oddly, she felt nothing. Daniel Saunders straightened up and put the glass on the desk then regarded her with eyes that held only compassion. He obviously wasn’t the type to pass judgement, she thought, and found the idea strangely comforting.
‘I apologise if I upset you, Eleanor. It wasn’t my intention.’
His deep voice rolled softly over her name, affording it a surprisingly pleasing inflection. She had never really liked her name, had always thought it was too formal and old-fashioned. However, it sounded different when he said it, softer, gentler, far more appealing. She bit her lip, aware that she was allowing herself to be sidetracked. What did it matter how he said her name? The only thing that mattered was that she had made a fool of herself.
Pushing back the chair, she stood up, wanting to get away as quickly as possible. Maybe she had been pinning her hopes on getting this job but there would be other jobs in other parts of the country or abroad. Maybe she had promised her parents that she would stay in the UK until she had thought things through properly, but if she moved overseas, to Australia or New Zealand for instance, there would be no risk of her having to see Michael ever again...
‘Right, it’s time I gave you the conducted tour. We were lucky enough to secure funding to improve the facilities here so you may be surprised by what we offer our patients.’ Daniel Saunders stepped around her and opened the door. His eyebrows rose when Ellie failed to move. ‘Whenever you’re ready, Eleanor.’
‘Oh! But I thought...’ Ellie tailed off, unsure what was happening. Why on earth was he offering to show her around when there was no chance of her being offered the job?
‘You thought that you’d blown it?’ Daniel Saunders laughed softly. ‘On the contrary, Eleanor, it seems to me that you’re exactly the sort of person I want working here.’
‘I am? But why? I mean, I made a complete and utter mess of my interview, didn’t I? And if that wasn’t enough, I compounded my mistakes by breaking down and crying.’ She shook her head. ‘If I were in your shoes, Dr Saunders, I wouldn’t hire me for all the tea in China!’
‘It’s Daniel. If we’re going to be working together then I can’t see any point in us standing on ceremony.’ His blue eyes were filled with certainty when they met hers and Ellie felt a surge of warmth flow through her and start to melt the ice that had enveloped her these past terrible months. It was all she could do to concentrate as he continued in the same quietly assured tone.
‘As for hiring you, from where I’m standing you seem like the ideal choice. I don’t want someone working here who can’t relate to our patients, someone who fails to understand that the problems life throws at them can and do impact on their health. I also don’t want someone who’s afraid to show her feelings either. So will you take the job, Eleanor? Please?’
‘BASICALLY, WHAT I’D like you to do, Beth, is help her settle in. Every practice has its own way of doing things and I think it would help if Eleanor was shown the ropes rather than simply being thrown in at the deep end.’
Daniel leant back in his chair, wondering if his partner had any idea how important it was to him that Eleanor wasn’t put under any pressure. Even though he couldn’t understand why he felt this way, he knew that he wanted to make the move to The Larches as stress-free as possible for her. Maybe she had appeared supremely confident at the start of her interview but it had soon become clear that it wasn’t the case. There was a vulnerability about Eleanor Munroe that had aroused all his protective instincts.
‘Of course.’ Beth Andrews smiled at him. ‘It will be a big change for her, working here. Just basics, like the fact that we’re almost an hour’s drive from the nearest hospital, will be a challenge for her. We’re far more hands-on when it comes to our patients than a lot of practices.’
‘Exactly.’ Daniel breathed a little easier when Beth gave no sign that she considered his request strange. Maybe it wasn’t either, he mused. After all, if Eleanor was unable to do the job she had been hired for then it would impact on him. The last thing he wanted was to have to put in more hours at the surgery when Nathan was in his final year at sixth form college.
When Camille had died four years ago, his son had gone completely off the rails. He had dropped out of school and fallen in with a bad crowd too. Daniel had been afraid that Nathan would never get his act together but, after a lot of heartache, he’d come through. However, if Nathan was to achieve the grades he needed for university, he had to stay focused, and to do that he needed to be there to support him. Little wonder that he had been so worried about his new locum, was it? The thought reassured him, helped to settle his mind. If he was honest he had felt more than a little concerned that Eleanor Munroe had occupied his thoughts so much lately. He had lost count of the times she had popped into his head and it was good to know why it had been happening.
‘Thanks, Beth.’ Daniel smiled as he pushed back his chair and stood up. ‘I really appreciate it.’
‘No problem.’
Beth grimaced as she levered herself up off the chair. She was eight months pregnant and Daniel guessed that she was finding it difficult to get around. He remembered how tired Camille had been when she had been expecting Nathan and she had stopped work well before this stage. However, as a soon-to-be single mother, Beth didn’t have the luxury of leaving work early. She had opted instead to continue working and take the bulk of her maternity leave after her baby was born. Nevertheless, Daniel made a note to ask Marie, their head receptionist, to redirect as many of Beth’s patients as possible to him. He didn’t want Beth pushing herself too hard during her final week, neither did he want Eleanor being placed under too much pressure. It would be better if he took up the slack for now.
Once