He had to stop this now. Thea didn’t seem to have any understanding of the gravity of the task ahead of them, and if she thought he was here to act as apprentice handyman it was time to disillusion her. ‘Isn’t there someone else who can do this? We both have more important issues to deal with.’
She looked up at him for a moment. Her eyes were the same, dark and thoughtful, eyes that you could lose yourself in. That he had lost himself in once, on a very regular basis. Right now a spark of fire, or maybe just a trick of the light, turned brown to gold.
‘I could walk upstairs, find a requisition form, and wait two days for someone from Maintenance to come and fix it. And if you were going to turn up unannounced, you could at least have read the notice on the door …’ She got to her feet and turned away from him again.
Annoyance gripped at his chest. Thea had never just walked away from him like that before, and it surprised Lucas that it was no easier to take now than it would have been seven years ago. The impulse to spin her round, take her off balance and kiss her rose from his heart to his head, and his head dismissed it out of hand.
The roaring in his ears began to subside and professionalism took over. This was just another situation that he had to get on top of, and he had never failed to win hearts and minds when he needed to. Lucas put his briefcase down at his feet and knocked gently on the open door. She took her time in turning to face him, but when she did a touch of humour was tugging at her mouth.
‘Dr Lucas West. I’m looking for the head of the TB response team.’
‘Dr Thea Coleman. You’ve come to the right place.’
They didn’t shake hands. It was probably best not to touch her just yet.
‘You look well, Thea.’ It was a pleasantry rather than a compliment. She seemed paler than he remembered her, and grey didn’t suit her as well as the vibrant colours she used to wear. Lucas pressed on. ‘Do you have some time to talk?’
She nodded. ‘Of course. Why don’t we go for coffee?’
He smiled at her. Thea had always been able to make him smile, even now. ‘That sounds good.’
One word had sounded at the back of her head, forming a long scream of disbelief. No-o-o.
It had taken every ounce of Thea’s self-control not to run from the room. Lucas had taught her how to love and had then left her. Seven years, several oceans, and a lot of water under the bridge later, here he was. His dark hair a little shorter, and definitely tidier. Wearing a suit, of all things.
A cold detachment, as if she’d taken a step back from the world and was no longer a part of it, came to her rescue. Someone else had taken the door handle from him and answered him back, while the real Thea had been shivering in a corner, screaming that this could not be happening.
‘How have you been?’ He followed her through the canteen and into the garden beyond, putting his coffee down on the bench between them.
‘Fine. You?’
He nodded. ‘Fine.’
That seemed to cover their personal lives for the past seven years. If he’d followed even a few of the dreams that he’d shared with her over the two years they’d been together, it was unlikely that his professional life had been as uneventful.
‘You have experience of dealing with TB abroad?’
Something tightened his face into a mask. ‘I didn’t go abroad. Things happened …’
He seemed disinclined to say what things could possibly have got in the way of what he’d considered his destiny. ‘I worked at a TB clinic in the UK for a while and now I consult. Better hours …’
He stopped short as Thea choked on her coffee. The Lucas she’d known hadn’t owned a suit and had cared nothing for regular hours.
‘Are you okay?’
He looked as if he was about to thump her on the back. ‘Yes, fine …’ Thea waved him away. ‘Where was the TB clinic?’
‘South London.’ He seemed to recognise the awkwardness of the admission and changed the subject quickly. ‘You’ve been working here since you qualified?’
‘No, three years.’ The other four were none of his business. Thea could practically feel herself retreating again behind the protective shell that she had learned to cloak herself with in the hard weeks before her return from Bangladesh. The Lucas that she’d known had been charming and unconventional, an idealist and totally committed to his goals. There was nothing of that man here.
She stared hard at a clump of daisies in the grass at her feet, fighting for control. ‘I’ll let you have the case notes for the patient we have here at the hospital. You might like to see him.’
He nodded, as if he understood that Thea had nothing more of a personal nature left to say. ‘Yes, that would be good. You’re thinking of working out of the room on the ground floor?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s not very well signposted, and it’s a way away from the department. We may have to review that location at our first team meeting tomorrow morning. Can you come up with some alternatives, or should I speak with your head of department about that?’
Like hell he would. ‘You can speak to me. I’m the liaison officer.’
He gave a small nod. ‘In that case, I’d like to see some alternatives. Preferably in the department and with easy, well-signposted access. It looks as if we may be testing a large number of contacts, and I don’t want people having to wander around the way I did.’
‘I chose the clinic on the ground floor because it has its own separate external entrance, which is a hundred metres from the bus stop in the hospital grounds.’
‘But if you come in at the main gates—’
‘No one does, unless they’re driving. The back gates are five minutes from the school. The department’s senior secretary is preparing a map that we can append to all the appointment letters, and she’ll get some temporary signage as soon as we agree on wording.’
‘And access to the department?’
This must be new territory for Lucas. Seven years ago, Thea had usually been the one to back down, in the face of two years’ seniority in their studies and Lucas’s seductive charm. Things were different now.
‘There’s a stairway between us and the department. We have easy access to the X-ray department, and there’s a counselling suite next door, which I can annex for our use if we need it.’
‘You seem to have all the answers.’
Not by a very long way. But she knew her own hospital better than he did at least. ‘It’s agreed, then?’
A smile twitched at the side of his mouth, and Thea ignored it. ‘Yes. Agreed.’
Day Two
THE MEETING CONVENED at eight o’clock the next morning, with Lucas sitting at the head of the table as if he owned it. He was indisputably at the helm, guiding them through the long agenda with the minimum of fuss. When Lucas put his mind to something, Thea had never seen him fail.
‘My office.’ Michael gathered up his papers from the desk, murmuring the words as he walked behind Thea towards the door, and she followed him out of the room. Her professionalism had slipped just once that morning. Lucas had made a joke and she’d responded a little too quickly and with a bit too much bite. It wouldn’t happen again but Michael didn’t miss much.
‘Any