Читать книгу White Christmas For The Single Mum - Susanne Hampton, Susanne Hampton - Страница 10

CHAPTER TWO

‘DR TURNER, WE’RE about five minutes away from the Royal Cheltenham hospital.’

The voice of the immaculately suited driver made Juliet lift her tired eyes to meet his in the rear-view mirror. They were warm and smiling back at her but with a curiosity that she had been so very accustomed to over the years. She was well aware that she didn’t look her thirty-three years and many apparently found it difficult to believe she was a doctor let alone a surgeon. Her curly brown hair and spattering of freckles along with her petite frame, she realised, didn’t help her quest to be taken seriously. She had no time for make-up except for a natural lip gloss to prevent her lips from cracking, and that too added to her young appearance. It also helped her go under the radar and not gain the attention of the opposite sex and, although it wasn’t her primary motivation, it was a welcome side effect.

But despite the general consensus, she was both a surgeon and a mother and she took both roles incredibly seriously. Her work, she loved with a passion, and her daughter, she loved more than anyone and anything in the world. And more than she had ever dreamed possible.

‘Thank you,’ she responded as she gently turned to stir the little girl fast asleep and leaning against her. Running her fingers down the child’s ruddy cheeks, she softly kissed the top of her head. ‘Wake up, Bea, my precious little sleepyhead.’

The little girl silently protested at being disturbed and nestled in tighter to the warmth of her mother’s woollen overcoat. Her eyelashes flickered but her eyes were far too heavy to open.

‘Well, I hope this part of your marathon travel’s been pleasant,’ the driver commented.

‘Very pleasant, thank you.’

‘So how many hours have you two been travelling to be here this morning?’

‘I think it’s about thirty five hours, but it feels like for ever,’ she replied with a little sigh, thinking back over the logistical nightmare they had survived. ‘We left Perth early yesterday, Australian time, had a layover in Singapore before we headed on to Heathrow, and then the sixty-mile trip to the Cotswolds with you,’ Juliet added as she continued to try and wake her still-drowsy little girl as gently as possible. She wasn’t sure just how coherent she was but didn’t want to appear rude. She had a lot on her mind, including the impending in-utero surgery on the quadruplets within the week. The reason she had been seconded halfway around the world at a minute’s notice.

Keeping all four babies viable was everyone’s focus. And something everyone agreed could not be done with Juliet on the other side of the world. Well, almost everyone agreed. She knew she would have her work cut out convincing the quads’ OBGYN, Dr Charlie Warren. She presumed he would be leaning towards bed rest, high-protein diet and medication for the quads’ mother. It was conservative and Juliet was surprised that he was not encouraging the laser surgery. She’d had no time to research the man but assumed he might be perhaps closer to the driver’s age and had managed previous TTTS cases in that manner. But once he heard her argument for the surgery, surely the traditional English physician would see that her method had clear benefit? Particularly once she stated her case and the supporting statistics. How could he not? With both hospitals agreeing that Juliet was best placed to undertake the procedure, all she needed was the parents’ approval. She was not about to allow Teddy’s overtly conservative OBGYN to question the validity of her surgical intervention. It was an argument she was more than prepared to have. And to win.

But that wasn’t the issue that had weighed most heavily on her mind on the long flights over to the UK. It was her parenting. How responsible was it to drag her daughter with her? she had wondered incessantly. And with less than twenty-four hours’ notice. The poor little girl barely knew what was happening. The only thing that she could really comprehend was a plane trip to see snow.

Up until that point Juliet and Bea’s lives had been so settled and planned. Some might say overly so, and among those were Juliet’s parents. They had openly encouraged her to take Bea with her and together enjoy the opportunity to travel. In her home town, Juliet’s mother looked after Bea three days a week and the other two days Bea was in childcare only five minutes from Juliet’s workplace at the Perth Women’s and Children’s Medical Centre. When the proposition of travelling to the UK had been forced upon her, Juliet’s parents had quickly had to push her out of her comfort zone and into embracing the opportunity. Her mother had immediately brought the suitcases down from the attic and personally delivered them to Juliet’s home and offered to help her pack. Juliet didn’t doubt it would be better for the quads for her to be there but it was not just her any more. She had her daughter to consider in every decision she made.

‘I just hope I’m doing the right thing in dragging Bea to the other side of the world for such a short time,’ Juliet had muttered in the car on the way to the airport at five-thirty in the morning. Her father had been driving, her mother next to Bea in the back seat.

‘That’s just it, honey, it might not be a short time,’ her father reminded her as he pulled up at traffic lights and turned to his daughter. ‘You don’t know when the quads will arrive and it’s best you stay until they do. There could be post-operative or postnatal complications, so it’s better to remain there up to the birth.’

‘I know you’re right, but this whole trip is so rushed, I’ve had no time to prepare mentally. I know it’s too late, but I can’t hide the fact I’m having second thoughts about everything.’

‘It’s an amazing opportunity to consult at Teddy’s and no one can come close to your level of expertise,’ he said with pride colouring his voice as the lights changed and he took off down the highway. ‘It’s part of a teaching hospital, and along with assisting those four babies, not to mention their mother, you can add value to the students’, interns’ and residents’ learning experience. You’re the best in your field, Juliet. And I should know since I’ve operated alongside you more than once. It’s time you took your skills out to the world, not just in research papers and journals and lecture tours, but in person in an operating theatre.’

‘Dad, you’re completely biased.’

‘Nonsense, your father’s right. We’re both proud of you and you need to take that knowledge and expertise where it’s needed most. Those babies and their parents need you,’ her mother argued from the back seat. Her voice was soft but her tone was firm. Gently she kissed the top of her granddaughter’s head. ‘While we’d love to have Bea stay with us if it was for your three-day trip to Auckland, this is not three days. Poor little thing, she would fret terribly without you for any longer than a few days and visiting the UK will be such a wonderful experience for her too. It will be her first white Christmas.’

‘And mine,’ Juliet said, but her tone lacked her mother’s enthusiasm as she drummed her fingers nervously on the leather upholstered seat. There was an uneasiness stirring in the pit of her stomach.

‘Exactly, so stop questioning your decision. It’s made now, you’re both going,’ her father piped up as he took the turnoff to Perth International airport in the dawn light. ‘You’ve been hiding away, Juliet. You’re not the only professional woman who’s going it alone as a single mother. It’s not the eighteen hundreds, and you don’t need a man to help you realise your dreams. You have your career and Bea.’

She was hardly going it alone, in her opinion, with all of the help her parents provided, she thought as she looked out of her window and up into the still-darkened sky. But her father was right, she mused. She didn’t need a man to experience or enjoy life. She and Bea would be just fine on their own. The plane would be up in that same sky in less than two hours, the sun would be up and they would be heading off to the other side of the world. To see four babies...and snow.

Juliet tried to muster a smile for everyone’s sake. Her parents were always forthcoming with their very modern wisdom and they were generally right about everything. The quads needed surgical intervention and Bea needed to be with her mother. And Juliet could hardly stand being away from her daughter for a day, let alone the possibility of three or four weeks. So if Juliet went, then so would Bea.

Initially she wasn’t sure how she would manage but when the information had arrived via email the night before, providing the details of the onsite hospital crèche, it had given Juliet no valid reason not to say yes to everything. Besides which, the tickets had been arranged. There was no turning back. And so it was that, with less than a day’s notice, Juliet and Bea had left their sunburnt homeland behind and were on their way to Teddy’s.

‘It’s a beautiful part of the world,’ the driver announced, bringing Juliet back to the present. ‘I’ve lived here for almost thirty years. Raised my children and now my grandchildren. You’ll be sure to love it too.’

Juliet smiled at the way the man praised his home town. ‘I won’t be here quite that long, but long enough to enjoy the stunning scenery.’ She looked out from the car window across fields blanketed in snow and dotted with trees and bushes in variant shades of green, all dusted by a fresh layer of white drift along the fences. It was so picturesque and a very long way from the long hot summer days of home. Since she could not turn back she had decided that she needed to accept her decision and be excited to share her first white Christmas with Bea. While she knew it had the potential to be a stressful time for her, with the impending surgery she would be performing, she was glad the two of them were together. They were like two musketeers off on an adventure.

Juliet had long accepted there would never be a third musketeer in their lives and that suited her fine. She didn’t need a man in her life. Apart from her father, the rest just brought grief. Even in a new country, a man she had not laid eyes upon, Dr Charlie Warren’s objection to her surgical option was another piece of proof that men caused unnecessary anguish.

And she didn’t need any more of that.

‘So you’re only here for a short visit, then?’

‘I’m consulting at Teddy’s for a few weeks. I agreed because it was a short term. I couldn’t keep my daughter away from her grandparents for too long. They’d miss her terribly.’

‘I can see why. She’s a proper little sweetie,’ the man added, clearly wanting to keep the conversation flowing.

Juliet guessed him to be in his mid-fifties. He looked a little like her father, quite distinguished, greying around his temples with a moustache and fine-rimmed gold glasses. Her father was a chatty man too, even in the operating theatre. Perhaps it was his age that made it easy for her to talk to this man. There was no hidden agenda. Just pleasant conversation.

‘Thank you. She’s my little angel and she’s a real sweetie.’

‘She’s got your curls and pretty eyes. I don’t think her father got much of a look-in there. My granddaughter’s just the same, spitting image of her mother.’

Juliet felt her stomach sink a little, the way it always did at the mention of Bea’s father. The man who had caused more anguish than she had ever thought possible. A man who didn’t want a look-in. He was the one time she had let down her guard and the reason she would never do it again. After the one romantic night they had shared, he had walked away and never looked back. Married the fiancée he had forgotten to mention to Juliet while he was seducing her. And as quickly as he had swept into her life, he was gone. Well before she had discovered she was having his baby. Two months after the night they spent together, Juliet had caught sight of his wedding photo complete with huge bridal party in the society pages of the local newspaper.

She had instantly felt overwhelmingly sad for his new wife.

Heaved twice with morning sickness.

And sworn off men.

For ever.

Juliet paid the driver and asked him to take her bags to the boutique hotel where she was staying for a few nights. The hospital had contracted the car service and, after their conversation, she felt she could trust him to take her belongings, including Beatrice’s pink fairy princess suitcase, and leave them with the hotel concierge. Being over fifty meant he fell in the trustworthy category. Men under forty had no hope in hell of being trusted with anything belonging to Juliet.

Not her suitcases...her medical decisions...or her heart.

* * *

With Juliet holding Bea’s gloved hand tightly, the two of them stepped inside the warmth of the main entrance of the hospital to hear the heart-warming sound of piped Christmas carols. Juliet slipped off her coat and laid it over her arm and then unbuttoned Bea’s as she watched her daughter’s eyes widen at the sight of their surroundings. Teddy’s, as the hospital was affectionately known, was certainly dressed in its Christmas best. Neither Juliet nor Bea had seen such a huge tree and certainly not one as magnificently decorated as the one that filled the glass atrium. It was overflowing with brightly coloured baubles, and tiny lights twinkled from behind the gold tinsel generously covering the branches. Their eyes both scanned around the foyer to see a Santa sleigh and carved wooden reindeers welcoming patrons to the hospital tea room and all the staff appeared as happy as both Juliet and Bea felt at that moment.

‘Ith very beautiful, Mummy.’

‘It is indeed.’

Taking hold again of her tiny daughter’s hand, Juliet approached the information desk and introduced herself and mentioned her appointment with the OBGYN with whom she would be working.

‘I’m sorry, Dr Turner, but Dr Warren hasn’t arrived yet. He was due an hour ago but, to be honest, I haven’t heard anything so I can’t be sure what time we’ll see him.’

Juliet’s expression didn’t mask her surprise. She had flown almost eight thousand miles and had arrived on time and Dr Charlie Warren, whom she assumed to be a resident of the Cotswolds and who therefore had a significantly shorter journey, was the one late for their meeting. She was not impressed and hoped he had a darned good explanation since she and Bea were each in need of a bath and some sleep and had gone without both to meet with him.

‘Is Oliver Darrington available, then?’

‘Mr Darrington’s on surgical roster today so, I’m sorry, he won’t be available until after four-thirty.’

Juliet was trying to think on her feet. And both her feet and her brain were tired. ‘Then while we’re waiting for Dr Warren perhaps I can take my daughter to the crèche.’

‘Of course, that’s on this floor but the other side of the building overlooking the visitor gardens,’ the young woman told her. ‘If you follow the corridor on your left to the end then turn right, you’ll see it.’ Then smiling, she added, ‘And hear it. It’s quite the noisy place with all the little ones.’

Juliet hesitated; she didn’t want to walk away with Bea and have Dr Warren arrive. She checked her mobile phone for messages. Perhaps Dr Warren had been delayed and sent the hospital a message that hadn’t reached Reception but had been relayed to her in a text. It seemed logical and it would give her an indication of how much time she had to settle Bea into the crèche, but after quickly finding her phone she discovered there was no such message.

‘I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘Another unreliable man.’

‘Pardon, Mummy?’

Juliet looked down at the angelic face staring back at her. ‘Nothing, sweetie, Mummy was just mumbling. Everything’s just perfect.’

‘Okay,’ Bea replied as her eyes darted from one festive decoration to the next before she began pulling her mother back in the direction of the main doors.

Juliet knew everything in their lives was not perfect but she would make it as perfect as she could for her daughter. She would devote her life to ensuring that Bea never felt as if she was missing out on anything. Particularly not about the lack of a father in her life. Juliet often felt sad that, while she enjoyed a wonderful relationship with her own father, Bea would never experience that bond. Although, she conceded gratefully, while the special father-daughter relationship would never be a part of her daughter’s life, an unbreakable grandfather-granddaughter relationship had already formed. Juliet’s father and Bea were like two peas in a pod and seeing that closeness brought Juliet joy.

She was drawn back to the current situation, caused again by a man. Bea’s grip was tight and she was clearly on a mission as she tried to pull Juliet along. Juliet tugged back. ‘It’s so cold outside, darling. Let’s stay in here where it’s nice and warm.’

‘But, Mummy, it lookth like the top of my cake.’

‘What looks like the top of your cake, sweetie?’

‘Out there,’ the excited little girl replied as she pointed to the snow-covered ground. The branches of the trees and even the cars that had been parked for a few hours had been blanketed.

Juliet had to agree that it did look like Bea’s fourth birthday cake. Her grandmother had baked a triple-layer strawberry sponge cake with a generous covering of brilliant white icing and decorated with four different fairy tale princesses for her beloved granddaughter. But this was not a cake, it was their reality for the next few weeks, and, despite her reservations and her annoyance with Charlie Warren, it was very pretty. Postcard pretty. And it was the first time either of them had seen snow up close and she couldn’t blame her daughter for wanting to go outside and enjoy it.

‘But I need to stay inside and wait for the doctor. He’ll be here any minute, I hope, and I don’t want to miss him when he arrives because after my meeting with him you and I can go to the hotel and have a nice nap.’

‘Pleeease can I play in the snow?’

Juliet felt the sleeve of her blouse being tugged by two tiny hands, still gloved, and Bea’s eyes were wide with anticipation and excitement. Juliet looked out to the fenced area near the entrance doors. There was a park bench, see-saw and a small slide and the playground was secured with a child safety gate. It was clearly a designated area for children to play on a sunny day but it wasn’t a sunny day. It was freezing cold, overcast and the ground was covered with snow, which she knew was the draw card for Bea but a cause for concern for Juliet. Although she didn’t want to impose a fear of almost everything onto her daughter, she couldn’t help but worry.

After a moment she took a deep breath; she had made her decision. ‘All right, you can play outside but only if we button up your coat again, put on your hat and keep your gloves on...and only for five minutes. And I mean five minutes—you’ll catch a terrible cold if you stay out any longer.’

‘Yeth! Yippee! Thank you, Mummy.’

With trepidation, Juliet buttoned up her daughter’s heavy overcoat, pulled a knitted cap from her bag and popped it over Bea’s mass of honey-blonde curls, pulling it down over her ears, and then slipped on her own coat again before walking the little girl outside into the wintry weather. She was still worried about leaving Bea for even five minutes, but common sense told her it would be safe. It was ten o’clock in the morning not the middle of the night and it was no longer snowing.

Her father’s words rushed back into her head, ‘You can’t keep Bea in bubble wrap. Let her have some fun sometimes or she’ll grow up scared of taking chances. Who knows what she can do in life if she’s allowed to really live it? She might even become a surgeon like her mother...and grandfather.’

Although Juliet loved her work, she wasn’t convinced medicine was the life she wanted for her daughter. Part of her wondered if the lack of a social life due to the years of heavy study load, and then the long shifts at the hospital as an intern, then as a resident didn’t assist Bea’s father to deceive her. She was far from streetwise about men. She’d had friends but never a love interest until she met him and he’d swept her off her feet and into his bed. Making her believe their night together was the beginning of something more. She wanted Bea to be wiser and not naive about the opposite sex.

But that was many years away and this was a playground. But it was still making Juliet very nervous.

She paused at the playground gate and looked down at her daughter, trying unsuccessfully to mask her concern.

‘Mummy, I’ll be good, I promith.’

Juliet realised she was being silly. It was only a children’s playground and one she could see from inside and so too could all of the staff in the hospital foyer and the tea room. Juliet needed to meet with the now quite late Dr Warren. There might be a message from him any minute. She also wanted to meet the quadruplets’ mother as soon as possible to discuss her treatment plan. Bending down and looking Bea in the eyes, she said, ‘Mummy has to talk with the nice lady at the desk inside. I’ll be back in five minutes. You know my rule—don’t talk to strangers.’

Bea nodded. ‘Okay.’

With that Juliet closed the childproof gate with Bea inside the playground wearing an ear-to-ear smile, already making small snowballs with her tiny gloved hands. Juliet tugged again on the gate to check it was closed properly before she headed back inside. She doubted she would leave Bea for five minutes, estimating it would only take two to check again on Dr Warren’s whereabouts and see if there had been an update on his ETA. And she would be watching her the entire time through the large glass windows.

* * *

Charlie Warren pulled into the Royal Cheltenham hospital astride his black motorcycle. Both he and the bike were geared for riding in the harsh winter conditions of the southern English countryside. The sound of the powerful engine reverberated across the grounds as he cruised into the sheltered area of the car park. Charlie climbed from the huge bike that would have dwarfed most men, but, at six feet one, his muscular frame dressed in his leather riding gear stood tall against the bike. He removed his snow-splattered black helmet and heavy riding gloves and ran his still-warm fingers through his short but shaggy blond hair. It was cold riding to work every day, even brutal his colleagues would tell him some days in the middle of winter, but Charlie wouldn’t consider for a moment taking a car. He couldn’t; he didn’t own one. Not any more and not ever again. He hadn’t driven a car of any description in the two years since the crash.

Two years and three days to be exact. The anniversary was only a few days earlier, and, he assumed, was the reason the nightmares had returned. He knew he would never forget the date. It was the day the life he loved had ended.

After that, little brought him joy outside his work.

He had nothing to look forward to each night he rode away from the hospital. So he didn’t stay away from Teddy’s for too long.

* * *

Juliet watched Bea giggling as she climbed carefully up each rung of the tiny ladder on the slide. Her gloved hands gripped on tightly, her tiny feet, snug inside her laced-up leather boots, struggled a little not to slide, but she still smiled a toothy grin at her mother. Juliet loved seeing her daughter so happy and she smiled back but her smile was strained. Worry was building by the minute as she watched her only daughter take each slippery step, but her father’s words resonated in her head, forcing her to stay put. Reminding her not to run to her daughter or call out, Climb back down...it’s dangerous.

No, on this trip she would heed his instructions and let her daughter have a bit of fun after all and the slide was only a few feet tall.

What could possibly go wrong?

Bea looked down at each rung then back to her mother. Juliet could see that Bea thought she was such a big girl and seeing that reinforced that her father did know best. Juliet had to let Bea try new things. She had to unwrap the cotton wool that she had lovingly placed around her daughter...but only just a little.

Juliet gave a little sigh and resigned herself to her four-year-old’s growing independence and her desire to encourage it but her fear at the same time. She wondered how she would cope when she turned sixteen and asked to get her driver’s permit. Mentally she shook herself. That’s twelve years away...you have time to prepare for it.

With any luck Dr Warren would arrive before then, she sniggered to herself.

At that moment, a smiling Bea lifted her right hand and waved at her mother. But Juliet didn’t have time to smile back as she watched in horror as Bea lost her concentration and then her footing. She gasped out loud as her daughter’s tiny hands lost their grip too. Helplessly Juliet watched from inside the building as Bea fell backwards to the ground.