Читать книгу Red-Hot Desert Docs - Carol Marinelli, Amalie Berlin - Страница 13
ОглавлениеZAHIR WAS TAKING Bella home when the phone call came in.
Rather, he was taking Bella back to her apartment.
They had loosely dated for a few weeks and though he had been upfront from the start—that they would go nowhere—Bella seemed to have completely blanked out that particular conversation.
When she had rung to say she had tickets to the theatre, Zahir had told her that he was considering going home.
‘I could come over and visit.’
For Zahir it was by far the worst suggestion she could have made.
But it wasn’t the rules of his land that made him end things.
He just couldn’t ignore his feelings for Adele any more and he was certain that they were reciprocated. Perhaps it wasn’t such a foolish idea for her to see where he lived.
If he was going to fight for them.
Zahir had never run from a challenge, yet he knew this was perhaps an impossible one.
Now he chose to face it.
Zahir hadn’t rushed from Emergency to take Bella out.
Instead, he had stopped by to visit his mother.
After that he had dropped in at Emergency to hopefully speak with Adele but she was busy making out with a mannequin and making others laugh.
And at the theatre, instead of watching the performance, he had sat in the dark, thinking about Adele and what she had been through.
Who was he to deny her a holiday?
He loved his homeland very much.
Oh, there were problems. Serious ones at that. Yet there was a certain magic to Mamlakat Almas that Adele deserved to experience.
He knew, even if she would be looking after his mother, that she would be beautifully taken care of at the palace. He thought of the golden desert and the lush oases. He thought of steam rising from hot springs and the majesty of the stars at night. How, no matter how many problems you had, the night sky held you in such awe that it reduced them. So much so that sometimes you simply forgot your troubles completely.
Adele could certainly use that.
And as for the two of them?
He didn’t know the answer—just that they could not end without a chance.
He was just about to launch into his it’s not you, it’s me speech with Bella when his phone had rung.
Seeing that it was the hospital, he took the call, hoping that there wasn’t a problem with his mother.
It was Helene and she sounded somewhat breathless.
‘Zahir, there’s been a gang fight in the emergency department and some of the staff were in the middle of it. A couple have been injured, not seriously, though.’
‘Who?’ Even as he asked the question he was executing a U-turn.
‘Phillip. He’s got a few bruises and his glasses are broken. Adele has a black eye and is a bit winded, and Tony, the security guard, was kicked.’
As they approached the hospital Zahir could see blue lights from several police cars and vans outside the ambulance bay.
‘Wait here,’ he said to Bella as he pulled into his reserved spot.
Bella though had no intention of waiting in the car, he soon realised, because as he arrived at the nurses’ station he turned and saw that she had followed him in.
‘It just came from nowhere,’ Janet explained to Zahir as he looked around the chaotic department. ‘We were already busy. I don’t think they intended to hit out at the nursing staff or the doctor. I’m sorry we had to call you in.’
‘You were right to call me in,’ he said. Phillip was in no way fit to see patients and, as well as that, the staff deserved to be treated at times like this by the most senior staff.
He could see that Adele was sitting in a chair with her arms folded over her stomach. Her eye and cheek were swollen and she looked angry.
‘Where’s Phillip?’ Zahir asked.
‘He’s in his office. Tony’s already in a cubicle.’
‘I want Adele and Phillip both in gowns and in cubicles.’
Zahir would do everything to keep this completely professional. As Janet was taking Adele to get changed, Bella chose her moment to speak.
‘How long do you think you’ll be?’ she asked, and Zahir turned impatiently.
‘Why don’t you get a taxi home? I might be a while.’
‘I’m happy to wait in your office.’
Adele heard the brief exchange as she made her way to the cubicle.
Janet had been wrong, it would seem. Bella hadn’t been gone by morning and never had Adele felt more drab in her baggy scrubs and showing the beginnings of a lovely black eye.
She could hear the sounds of the police radios and tried not to think back to the last time she had been in a cubicle, waiting for a doctor to arrive.
As he waited for Phillip and Adele to get changed, the receptionist, as was protocol, brought up Adele’s old Accident and Emergency notes. He flicked through them and tried to be objective. He read about an eighteen-year-old nursing student with minor injuries who had been the driver in a high-impact motor vehicle accident.
Phillip had wanted to admit her to the observation ward but the patient had refused and said she wanted to go and wait near Theatre.
There was a self-discharge form attached to the notes that Adele had signed.
Everything was there, even her muted reaction when Phillip had broken the news that her mother was critically ill, was noted.
It just didn’t seem enough, Zahir thought.
Yes, the notes were detailed but there was a brevity to them, to all patient notes here, that Zahir could not logically explain to his colleagues.
First he checked in on Phillip. He now had spare glasses on but there was a small cut over his eye and a nasty bruise on his back. He checked Phillip’s abdomen. ‘Any tenderness?’ he asked.
‘A bit,’ Phillip admitted.
‘I would like his urine checked for blood,’ he said to Janet, and then spoke with Phillip. ‘I would like you to stay in overnight.’
‘It might be better,’ Phillip agreed. ‘Meredith will get a fright if I come home in the middle of the night.’
Tony, the security guard, was next and he wanted to get back to work but, having examined him, Zahir said that he should go home.
‘Adele.’ He came in to see her with Janet. ‘I’m so sorry that this happened.’
She didn’t respond.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Fantastic!’ Adele knew her sarcastic response was perhaps a bit harsh but what hurt more than the bruise was that, after a year of being ignored, now that she was a patient he was finally being nice to her.
He went through everything and asked if she’d been knocked out.
‘No.’
He went through all the allergies and her medical history and Adele answered him in a monotone.
‘Are you on any medication?’
‘No,’ Adele said. ‘Just the Pill.’
She didn’t add it was the pill of perpetual hope, hope that one day she would be doing what seemingly every other twenty-four-year-old had already done.
It really wasn’t the best of nights.
He picked up the torch and checked her pupils’ responses. He tried not to notice unshed tears, but he could see her pain. Oh, his findings were not evidence based, but he could see that there were years of agony there.
‘I need to look at the back of your eye.’
He picked up ophthalmoscope and Adele stared ahead as he moved in close. She managed not to blink and then thankfully it was over.
She felt as if he had just stared into the murky depths of her soul.
His fingers gently probed the swelling around her eye.
‘It’s a soft-tissue injury,’ Zahir said.
‘I know.’
‘It needs to be iced but you are going to have a black eye. Is it painful?’
‘No.’
It was the truth. It didn’t really hurt, as such. What pained her more was the shock of what had happened and the indignity of Zahir now being kind to her.
‘I need now to look at your stomach,’ Zahir said.
‘I was just winded.’
‘Adele,’ Zahir said, ‘this will probably go to court and my notes need to be thorough. Lie down, please.’
She did so and Janet covered her neatly with the blanket before lifting her gown. He examined her abdomen and she answered the question before he asked it.
‘There’s no tenderness,’ she said as he probed her stomach. And then she gave a wry laugh.
She hadn’t just been talking about her abdomen—there had never been any tenderness from him.
‘Did I miss the joke?’ Zahir asked, and he gave her a smile as he covered her with the blanket.
And maybe because she was hurting so badly she was allowed to be a little bit mean too.
‘I don’t need your small talk and your pleasant bedside manner, Zahir,’ she told him. ‘We don’t get on, let’s just keep it that.’
She glanced to Janet, who gave her a small smile as if to say, You get to say what you want to tonight.
Janet had seen for herself the way that Zahir was with her, though she knew it had nothing to do with them not getting on!
‘I would like you to stay in the observation ward tonight,’ Zahir said.
‘Well, I’d prefer to go home.’
‘Who is there to look out for you?’
Adele thought of Helga and James and closed her eyes as Janet spoke. ‘I’m not putting you in a taxi to go home to those flatmates tonight. I’m not going to be argued with on this, Adele.’
‘Is Phillip going home?’ Adele asked.
‘Phillip is staying here tonight too,’ Zahir answered the question. ‘He doesn’t want to upset his wife by turning up in the middle of the night.’ His mind was made up. ‘You’re staying in and then I’ll sign you off for the rest of the week.’
Adele would far rather have gone home but instead she had to lie there listening to Phillip snoring and Gladys, who was now in the opposite bed, first singing and later talking in her sleep.
And then she too started to snore!
As well as that there was a lot of chatter coming from the staffroom as people went for their breaks.
Yikes, she would be quieter in the future when she took her break, Adele decided.
A light was shining from the desk and Adele asked if the curtain could be pulled around her.
Then, just as she drifted off, it was time for her hourly observations.
And then, a while later, from the other side of the curtain came the balm of Zahir’s voice as he asked the night nurse for an update.
‘How’s Gladys?’
‘Sobering up.’
‘How’s Phillip?’
‘His obs are all fine, he’s sleeping soundly. What happened with Tony?’
‘He was discharged home.’
And then he asked about her.
‘What about Adele?’
‘Her obs are stable, she’s not sleeping very well, though.’
‘Okay.’
Zahir went off to see some more patients.
It was an exceptionally busy night but in between seeing patients he made his it’s not you, it’s me speech to a very put-out Bella.
Normally he would have seen her home, but tonight he could not leave the department and he could not string her along so she had gone home in a taxi.
Now, as the day staff started to trickle in, Zahir made coffee.
And he took one in to Adele.
She was finally asleep, not that anyone took such a thing into consideration in the observation ward!
‘Adele.’
He watched as she woke up and opened both eyes, and he was pleased to see that her eye had not closed over.
‘How are you feeling?’ he enquired.
‘A bit sorry for myself,’ she admitted. ‘And I’m sorry if I was rude to you last night.’
‘I get it.’
‘I doubt it.’ She sat up and saw that he was placing a mug of coffee on her locker.
‘Ooh, I really am getting the royal treatment this morning,’ she said, and then smiled at her own joke and Zahir found that he did too.
‘I’ve discharged you,’ he said. ‘Roger comes on at seven and I shall bring him up to speed with all that happened last night and then I shall drive you home.’
‘I don’t want you to drive me home, Zahir,’ she said.
She didn’t.
All she needed was to get away from him, from the torture of being crazy about someone. He had been horrible to her, rude to her, and while she understood that he might not fancy her she loathed the sudden false niceness.
‘I’m going to call a friend to come and get me,’ Adele said.
‘No, you’re not,’ Zahir refuted. ‘We need to talk.’
‘About?’
‘We shall discuss things in the car.’
He made no secret that he was taking her home. In fact, when Phillip asked Adele how she was getting home, Zahir responded that he would take her himself.
And, really, no one gave it a thought.
Janet had offered her a lift and so had Helene and a couple of other staff too.
Of course her colleagues were concerned.
The mood was sombre and assaults on staff were not good for morale.
‘Here.’ Janet had fetched Adele’s clothes from her locker and brought her a towel and the little overnight pack that Gladys and Phillip would be getting too.
It contained a tiny bar of soap, a minute tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush and a little plastic comb.
Adele freshened up and pulled on the tube skirt and top she had worn yesterday and slipped on shoes.
Zahir was waiting for her at the desk and speaking with Janet.
‘I’m on my holidays!’ Adele smiled. ‘Do you think I’ll pull?’ And it made Janet laugh as she stood there with a huge black eye.
‘Have a wonderful break, Adele,’ Janet said, as Adele walked out in the clothes she had arrived in, trying not to be just a little more disillusioned with the world.
‘Send us a postcard...’
They walked out and Adele winced at the bright morning sunlight.
‘You’re not very good at parking your car,’ Adele commented, because it was over the line and at an angle.
He did not tell her the reason—that on hearing she had been injured he had hit the accelerator and when he had arrived he had practically run in to see how she was.
Instead, he held open the door for her.
Adele got in and a moment later he joined her.
‘We meet again,’ she said.
As he drove past the bus stop Zahir thought of all the times he had driven on, pretending not to have noticed her there.
And so did Adele.
She didn’t understand why he briefly turned and smiled.
She didn’t smile back.
‘Are you sulking?’ he asked.
‘Yes, I’m sulking.’
‘Are you warm enough?’ he asked, because he had the air conditioner on up high.
‘You can stop being nice now,’ she said. ‘I’m not your patient any more.’
‘No, you’re not. Adele, I have spoken with my mother. If you are still interested, she would love you to be her private nurse.’
‘I don’t need you feeling sorry for me, Zahir.’
‘I spoke to her last night, before the incident.’
He had.
Zahir had thought long and hard about it.
He had been avoiding Adele for twelve months now and it had got him precisely nowhere.
He wasn’t used to avoiding anything, yet his feelings for Adele could challenge a lifetime of thinking and centuries of tradition.
Wasn’t he asking his father to do the same?
It was time to face things.
‘On Monday she will fly home to Mamlakat Almas. A car would collect you at six in the morning and you would meet her at the airport...and you would return to England on a commercial flight two weeks later.’
Adele frowned.
‘You don’t have to worry about a uniform or what to wear, everything will be provided.’
She turned and looked at him and for the first time since last night she properly smiled. ‘What does that even mean?’
‘Just bring what you feel you want to. We are very used to having guests in the palace and accommodating them.’
‘Oh.’
‘And if you are worried about something, there will be someone who can advise you. It really will be relaxing and you need that. Especially after last night.’
Excitement started to ooze in, like jam squeezing out a sandwich as you took a bite, but Adele did what she could to rein it in for now as the car pulled up at her flat.
‘I will do some studying up on hysterectomies...’
‘Adele.’ Zahir smiled. And in her direction too! ‘It’s a holiday. My mother will just need a little encouragement to walk, especially on the plane, and some reassurance, but we both know a private nurse is a touch unnecessary. She is, though, a queen. The second week would be yours to completely enjoy.’
‘I want to see the desert,’ Adele admitted.
‘I’m sure it will be arranged.’
There was such energy between them, he knew that she felt it and how confused she must be by his cool treatment of her.
‘You should go in,’ he said, as still they sat outside her flat. ‘Get some rest. You didn’t sleep much last night.’
‘I had Gladys singing and Phillip snoring.’
He said nothing, he was too deep in thought.
It was Adele who broke the silence.
‘Thank you, Zahir. I know you didn’t want me there but I really will take care of her.’
‘I know you will. You will love my country. It really is magical.’
‘I don’t believe in magic,’ Adele said. She had stopped believing in magic and miracles a very long time ago.
She had prayed so hard for her mother’s recovery, and had later downgraded that plea to just the tiniest sign that her mother knew she was near.
Zahir looked at her bruise. ‘You need to ice your eye.’
‘I will.’
‘And use some arnica cream.’
‘Okay.’
For a second there she felt as if he was going to examine it again but though he raised his hand, he changed his mind.
And then, in that moment, she felt his resistance.
He hadn’t been about to examine her.
Experience counted for nothing in this equation, for Adele had none, but she was quite sure then that she had been about to be kissed.
Maybe it was the knock to her head that was causing irrational thoughts.
Lack of sleep.
Too much want.
She needed to go, she knew, because she wanted to reach over and kiss him, and if she was reading things wrong she would never get over the shame.
She opened the car door and then, as she started to get out, she realised that she still had her seat belt on.
There could be no dignified exit, though, when there was a pulse beating between your legs.
She went to undo her belt.
He went to do the same.
For a year he had relied on self-control.
It was dissolving.
Zahir looked into the blue eyes he had wanted to explore since the very first day he had seen her.
She just stared back at him.
And then she remembered Bella, all beautiful and no doubt waiting in his home.
‘How was the theatre?’ she asked in a voice that was oddly high.
‘Terrible,’ Zahir said, though he knew what she meant. ‘Bella and I broke up last night.’
‘Because?’ Adele asked.
‘Because of this.’
Do what is essential, he had heard in the desert.
He had interpreted that as avoiding her, that it was essential to resist her. Now, though, it was essential that they kiss.
For Adele, after such a horrible night, came the sweetest, most unexpected reward.
The feel of his lips on hers.
He kissed her softly and was careful of her sore face.
And as she moaned to the bliss, he slipped in his tongue and she tasted perfection. She discovered all that had been missing and why a kiss had never worked till now.
It had needed to be his.
There was silence in her mind and the sensual soothing of his tongue. Her hand went to the back of his head, and she felt that silk hair on her fingers.
There was utter relief as he kissed her, soon replaced by the yearning for more.
He kissed her deeper and his hand slid from her waist to the stomach he had touched last night.
And now there was tenderness as his hand slipped into her T-shirt and her skin was traced by him.
She knew then the hell he had gone through.
Trying to be friendly and to treat her as a patient.
And she knew now the reason for his seeming disdain.
His hand came up to her small breast and he stroked it through her bra and all this within a kiss.
‘Does that explain things better?’ he asked, as he moved his mouth a fraction away.
It did.
‘Do you understand now why I didn’t stop the car the other night?’
His hand was still on her breast and the ache between them could not be soothed by his soft caress.
‘You should have,’ she said.
‘I would not have been tender then.’
‘That would have been fine,’ she said, and now she got the reward of his smile.
And always he was honest and upfront and explained to women that it could never come to anything.
It would possibly be fairer to say that now.
Yet he could not.
He removed his hand from her breast but hers was still on the back of his head and possibly it would require surgery to remove it, for she wanted to feel his lips again.
‘Adele, this would be very much frowned upon back home.’
‘I’m not going to tell your mum,’ she teased, but now Zahir did not smile.
‘I am returning home with the Queen.’
She swallowed and now she removed her hand and sat there and stared out of the window rather than at him. ‘Because you don’t trust me?’
‘No,’ Zahir said. ‘I was always going to return with her. Do you see why I didn’t want you there?’
She did.
‘Why did you change your mind?’ she asked.
‘Because otherwise it would have been goodbye.’
She didn’t understand.
‘Go in,’ he said.
‘I don’t want to.’
‘Go in,’ he said again. ‘I will see you on Monday.’
‘And?’
He didn’t know.
All Zahir knew was...they had been awoken.
