Читать книгу A Consultant Claims His Bride - Maggie Kingsley - Страница 8

‘IT’S not that I’m hurt, or offended, or anything,’ Fiona said, the tightness around her mouth indicating she most certainly was, ‘but to hear your engagement was off from someone like Lawrence Summers…’

Nell gritted her teeth. It had taken just fourteen hours for the blabbermouth consultant to ensure that the rumour had spread right around the hospital. If she hadn’t needed him for a date she would have marched straight down to Men’s Surgical and kicked him smack in the middle of his ego.

‘My engagement isn’t off, Fiona,’ she replied as calmly as she could. Well, it wouldn’t be off if her plan worked, and she was going to do her damnedest to make sure that it did work. ‘Brian and I have simply decided we need a little breathing space, that’s all.’

Disbelief was written all over Fiona’s face, and it had been the same with everyone Nell had met that morning. From the porters in Reception to the clutch of nurses who had all but hijacked her on her way up in the elevator, everyone had looked at her with either a ‘Brian’s a sleaze ball and you’re well out of it’ expression or a barely disguised and infuriatingly smug ‘Well, I knew it would never last’ one.

‘Fiona—’

‘I’m a bit busy at the moment, Nell,’ the secretary interrupted. ‘So, if you’ll excuse me…’

Terrific, just terrific, Nell thought as Fiona stomped into her office and slammed the door. She’d known that she couldn’t keep her broken engagement a secret for ever, but she’d at least hoped for a little longer than forty-eight hours to get her emotions under control, and now Fiona was in a huff because she hadn’t confided in her first.

‘Adam Thornton had to be transferred from Special into Intensive last night,’ Bea said when Nell reached her own office. ‘He developed serious breathing problems just after midnight.’

‘How many breaths a minute?’ Nell asked, pulling on her uniform.

‘More than sixty. I was wondering about transient tachypnoea of the newborn but he’s more than forty-eight hours old now so it’s not likely, is it?’

Nell shook her head. ‘I would have said RSD but, like transient tachypnoea, respiratory disease syndrome usually affects preemies, not full-termers. Pneumonia perhaps, or a blood infection?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Bea said, and Nell shook her head wryly.

‘You’d better not let any of the parents of our babies hear you saying that.’ She clipped her name tag to her collar and slipped a stethoscope into her pocket. ‘How’s Tommy this morning?’

‘His temperature went up a little during the night, but it’s back to normal again this morning, and Katie Kelly had a very good night.’

‘Great,’ Nell said with relief, and Bea nodded, then gazed at her a little uncertainly.

‘I know it’s none of my business but I just want to say how very sorry I was to hear about your engagement. I’m not going to say anything else,’ the ward sister continued as Nell tried to interrupt, ‘except I think he’s a rat for treating you like this.’

Why am I the only one to see that Brian isn’t a rat, that he’d simply got lonely? Nell wondered. OK, Jonah could see it, but one person amongst the four hundred staff at the Belfield was scarcely an overwhelming show of support.

Well, she would show them, she told herself as she strode down the corridor and into Intensive Care. She would make each and every one of them eat their sympathetic words.

‘I hear this little one has a problem,’ she said, as she joined Jonah at Adam Thornton’s incubator.

‘It’s an odd one,’ he replied. ‘All his symptoms point to RDS, the fast and hard breaths, his skin and muscles pulling in each time he takes a breath, but he’s a full-term baby not a preemie.’

‘Could his mother have got her due date wrong?’ Nell suggested. ‘He was quite small at birth, just two and a half kilos, so perhaps he was actually born four to six weeks premature and nobody realised it.’

‘It’s certainly possible,’ Jonah observed, ‘and prematurity would mean he’d have the immature lungs conducive to RDS. Set up a chest X-ray for him, and give him artificial surfactant through his breathing tube. If it is RDS, the sooner we get on top of this the better.’

‘Do his parents know he’s been transferred into Intensive?’

‘They came in last night,’ Jonah said. ‘I told them there’s no immediate cause for concern, but you know what parents are like.’

She did. In fact, she’d lost count of the number of times mothers had cried their eyes out on Jonah’s shoulder.

‘Oh, and it looks like I owe you a fiver,’ Jonah continued. ‘Tommy Moffat’s repeat sample results are back from the lab, and there’s not a sign of an infection or any congenital abnormality.’

‘Does that mean I get to say “I told you so” all day?’ she said, her grey eyes sparkling, and he laughed.

‘Absolutely. I’m never happier than when I’m proved wrong about a less than optimistic prognosis.’

Nell tilted her head and regarded him quizzically. ‘Then why do I get the feeling you’re still not one hundred per cent sure you are wrong?’

Jonah looked as though he was about to deny it, then sighed. ‘Maybe I’m too emotionally involved because Tommy was the first baby to come under my care after Gabriel left on his honeymoon. Maybe I’m overcompensating because as an acting consultant I don’t want anything to go wrong. Maybe—’

‘You’re just a very conscientious specialist registrar,’ Nell finished for him. ‘Bea’s his primary carer, isn’t she? How about if I tell her to flag up if he so much as turns over in his incubator?’

‘I’d feel like I was making a mountain out of an mole hill.’

‘Yes, but would it make you happier?’ she insisted, and when, after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded, she said, ‘Then consider it done.’

‘No bet that your specialist registrar is becoming a control freak with paranoid tendencies?’ he said ruefully, and she laughed.

‘Nah. I’ve picked up a lot of things myself by going with my gut instinct, so who am I to diss yours?’

‘Speaking of gut instinct, I’d better warn you that Liz Fenton is on the loose,’ Jonah said, as he and Nell walked across the unit together towards Katie’s incubator.

‘It’s surely not time to buy tickets for the Christmas party already, is it?’ Nell said, and Jonah shook his head as he retrieved Katie’s clipboard and scanned it quickly.

‘The committee has decided to host an extra fundraising event this year because they made such a loss with the spring car treasure hunt.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ Nell protested. ‘Who, in their right mind, would want to race around Glasgow in the middle of the night in March, looking for clues?’

‘I suppose it would depend on who you were with,’ Jonah said, his eyes dancing, and Nell’s heart clenched slightly.

He was right. The treasure hunt had been the last event she and Brian had taken part in before he’d left for the States, and they’d been so happy then, so very much in love.

And you will be again, her heart whispered, so enough of the moping, enough of the self-pity.

‘What kind of extra event are they putting on?’ she asked, determinedly bright.

‘An amateur talent contest.’

Nell’s mouth fell open. ‘You’re kidding.’

‘Nope. You know, Katie really is doing very well,’ he continued, replacing the clipboard. ‘Her BP’s stable, her heart rate’s good and her breathing is excellent, considering how premature she was at birth. I don’t want to be over-optimistic, but it’s looking good.’

‘And I don’t want to be over-critical,’ Nell declared, ‘but surely if the committee is going to hold a talent contest, one of the essentials is having people with some talent willing to perform.’

‘According to Liz, her husband Sandy plays all the classic symphonies on his harmonica.’

Nell pressed her lips together. ‘That should make for a fun night out.’

‘And Mr Portman is apparently more than willing to perform some magic tricks.’

‘Andrew Portman from Orthopaedics?’ she exclaimed. ‘Jonah, he gets lost between his own department and the canteen.’

‘In that case, I can’t wait for him to perform his vanishing trick.’

For a second she managed to restrain herself, but only for a second.

‘Oh, Jonah,’ she whooped. ‘I’m going to have to buy a ticket for this, if only for the unintentional comedy.’

‘If it will help to make you laugh again, I’ll insist they hold a talent contest every week,’ he said softly, and she shook her head at him.

‘Will you stop worrying about me? I’m fine, apart from the fact that the whole of the Belfield staff seems to know I’m not engaged any more.’

‘I didn’t say anything,’ he said with alarm, and she put her hand on his arm and smiled.

‘I know you didn’t, but it doesn’t really matter who started the rumour because I’ve been thinking about what you said. About it being a bad idea for me to sit about moping at home, so I’ve decided—’

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Bea declared as she joined them, ‘but Rob Kelly’s in your consulting room, Jonah, and he’d like a word.’

An uncharacteristic look of irritation appeared on Jonah’s face.

‘OK, Bea, but don’t think this means you’re off the hook, Nell. I want to know what you’ve decided so no leaving the hospital tonight until you’ve told me, OK?’