Читать книгу The Scandalous Kolovskys: Knight on the Children's Ward - Carol Marinelli, Carol Marinelli - Страница 20

ELSIE was right—you should never let the sun go down on a row, because as the days moved on life got more complicated. It was cold and lonely up there on her high horse, and next Tuesday Ross flew out to Spain. More importantly, her midway report on her time with the children’s ward was less than impressive, and she was considering the very real good she could do working on the family foundation board.

She wanted his wisdom.

She attempted a smile, even tried to strike up a conversation. She finally resorted to wearing the awful wizard apron that always garnered comment. But Ross didn’t bat an eye.

Because Ross was sulking too.

Yes, he’d messed up, but the fact that she hadn’t let him explain incensed him. His mother, two minutes after Annika had left, had burst into tears, and George had had to give her a brandy.

Then George, who had always been a touch lacking in the emotion department, had started to cry and revealed he was dreading losing his son!

Ross had problems too!

So he ignored her—wished he could stop thinking about her, but ignored her.

Even on Saturday.

Even as she left the ward, still he didn’t look up.

‘Enjoy the ball!’ Caroline called. ‘You can tell us all about it tomorrow.’

‘I will,’ Annika said. ‘See you then.’

He could feel her eyes on the top of his head as he carried on writing his notes.

‘See you, Ross.’

Consultants didn’t need to look up; he just gave her a very clipped response as he continued to write.

‘Yep.’

Annika consoled herself that this was progress.

‘You’re not working this afternoon, are you?’ Dianne frowned as Annika came into the office.

‘No,’ Annika said. ‘I just popped in to check my roster.’

It was a lie and everyone knew it. She wasn’t due for a shift for another week, and anyway she could have rung to check. She had, to her mother’s disgust, worked on the children’s ward this morning, but they had let her go home early. Instead of taking advantage of those extra two hours, and racing to her mother’s to have her hair put up and her make-up applied for the ball, she’d popped in to check her roster.

‘How’s Elsie?’ Annika asked. ‘I rang yesterday and the GP was coming in …’

‘She’s not doing so well, Annika,’ Dianne said. ‘She’s got another UTI, and he thinks she might have had an infarct.’

‘Is she in hospital?’

‘She’s here,’ Dianne said, ‘and we’re making her as comfortable as we can. Why don’t you go in and see her?’

Annika did. Elsie wasn’t particularly confused, but she didn’t recognize Annika out of uniform.

‘Is any family coming?’ Annika asked Dianne.

‘Her daughter’s in Western Australia, and she’s seventy,’ Dianne said. ‘She’s asked that we keep her informed.’

Annika sat with Elsie for a little while longer, but her phone kept going off, which disturbed the old lady, so in the end Annika kissed Elsie goodbye and asked Dianne if she could ring later.

‘Of course,’ Dianne said. ‘She’s your friend.’