The Rebel and the Baby Doctor

His mouth curved, and he turned his attention to Jessica. ‘What’s up, Jess? You don’t look too happy. It’s because you’d rather be down the pub, isn’t it?’

Jessica threw an ice cube at him. ‘At this time of day? Are you mad?’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Well, yes, actually…maybe I would.’ She let out a short laugh. ‘But it wouldn’t do when I’m supposed to go on duty in a couple of hours. Late shift…ugh.’

‘Same here.’ Connor frowned. ‘So what’s with Mr Kirk and his team? I heard what you were saying just now. Is he giving you a hard time?’

‘Not really.’ Jessica was thoughtful for a moment. ‘It’s just that there’s something about his manner that bothers me a bit. I do my best, but he can be a bit aloof sometimes. It’s hard to know what he’s thinking because he has this way of keeping his distance…He’s like it with the patients, too. A sort of I-know-best, paternal kind of attitude that really ought to have died out long ago. Still, he’s rated very highly. I’ve heard he’s a top-rate surgeon and he’s known for getting results and working on new procedures. I expect I’ll learn a lot from him.’

Connor put his feet up on one of the empty chairs, crossing his legs at the ankles. ‘You shouldn’t let him get to you. It doesn’t do for doctors to get above themselves. These days they’re open to scrutiny.’ The fabric of his trousers pulled tautly across his thighs and Phoebe averted her gaze.

She still didn’t know why he was actually living here with them. His parents had a big house that wasn’t too far away from here, and surely it would have been better for him to stay with them?

She said softly, ‘I expect Mr Kirk knows that, but doesn’t much care.’ She sent Connor a quick glance. ‘He’s very confident in his abilities—in fact, in some respects he reminds me of you. You never seem to falter or question what you do. It appears to me that you look over a situation, decide what to do about it and move on…like choosing to come here when you had opportunities waiting for you in London. Better ones than you were offered here, according to Alex.’

His gaze narrowed on her. Did he suspect that she was wishing he were elsewhere? If he did, he made no comment. Instead, he answered cautiously, ‘It’s all a bit subjective, isn’t it? I could have stayed to do a six-month stint in trauma surgery, but this rotation in A and E was more tempting. Besides, I thought it would be pleasant to spend the spring and summer months by the sea in my home county.’

‘I suppose I can see the logic in that.’ She reached for the jug and poured out more juice, adding ice from an insulated pot. ‘What do your parents think about you coming back here to Devon? They must be pleased to have you on their doorstep once more.’

He nodded. ‘My mother was glad to have me close by. My father is busy with the business as usual, but even he manages to take a break at the weekends, so it’s all worked out fairly well.’

‘You didn’t ever think of going to live at home? I would have thought that would be the cheaper option.’

His mouth tilted, and she knew then that he had picked up on her train of thought. ‘Maybe,’ he said, a glitter of amusement starting up in his eyes, ‘but, as I said, I was quite taken with the option of living by the coast, and since Alex and I are related to one another it seemed like a good option to stay here. My parents’ house is further inland…just like your family home. Did you not think of going to stay there?’

She leaned back in her chair. ‘It crossed my mind, but I wanted to be independent. Besides, my sister and her children often stay over at the house, and it would have been a bit of a squeeze if I’d been living there, too. My parents only have a three-bedroomed place, unlike your country mansion.’

He blinked, sending her a wry smile. ‘I wouldn’t exactly call it that. It’s bigger than average, I guess, but mansion? Never.’

‘Anyway,’ Phoebe murmured, ‘our old house doesn’t come anywhere near what you enjoyed, but my mother loves it when the family are around. She likes to fuss over her grandchildren, especially with little Emily being so poorly as a baby. The children bring out all her maternal instincts.’ She swallowed her ice-cold drink. ‘It suits me to visit on a regular basis.’

‘I can imagine. I remember what a lovely atmosphere there was when I first used to visit,’ Connor said, nodding. ‘Your parents made a wonderful, welcoming home and I could see how happy you were as a family…on the instances when I was allowed to call in and see you, that is. Things changed after I grew older. I became the wild boy from over the hill, and they had me down as a bad influence, didn’t they?’ He made a rueful grimace. ‘I can’t say that I blame them.’

Phoebe stared down at the liquid in her glass. She had been resentful of the ban at first. For all he had landed in trouble on a regular basis, Connor had always managed to tug at her heartstrings. Maybe that was why she had gone looking for him that day when he’d gone missing at the end of her fifteenth summer. It had been as though there was an almost telepathic bond between them, and she had sensed that something was seriously wrong.

Jessica’s face lit up with curiosity. ‘You were wild? Oh, I can just imagine it. You still have that look about you as though the devil’s lurking in there somewhere.’ She grinned impishly. ‘I’m intrigued. Tell me more.’

‘Nope. Will not.’ Connor sent her a teasing glance. ‘I shall keep my murky past to myself, and leave you in suspense. All I will say is that Phoebe’s parents were probably right to warn her off me, and Phoebe showed a lot more common sense than you might have expected for a girl of her tender years. She always followed her instincts, and I expect that’s why she and Alex bond together so well. He’s protective of her, and in return she gives him the stability he needs.’

‘Alex—huh…he’s a liability.’ Jessica’s tone was scornful. ‘What he needs is a good shaking.’

‘See—we all have our faults.’ Connor yawned and then stretched, as though preparing for action, his movements supple like a tiger’s, and Phoebe watched, unwillingly drawn to follow the way his long body uncoiled.

‘I have to get ready for work,’ he said. ‘Does anyone want a lift in to the hospital?’

‘Oh, yes, please.’ Jessica straightened, preparing to stand up. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to ask. How could anyone resist a spin in that beautiful car?’

He smiled, and glanced at Phoebe. ‘And you? We all finish work around the same time, don’t we?’

She shook her head. ‘I’ll stick with my runabout, thanks. That way I can come and go as I please.’

‘Independent to the last,’ he murmured. ‘One day, Phoebe, one day…’

She had no idea what he meant by that. ‘Yes, one day I’ll find out what it is I truly want,’ she said, ‘and then the world will be my oyster.’

Things certainly weren’t going the way she wanted right now. At work, she struggled every day to come to terms with working with vulnerable babies, and it was no different when she arrived at the hospital a short time later. In fact, it looked as though things were about to get worse.

‘They’re calling for you over in A and E,’ Katie told her as soon as she walked into the neonatology unit.

Phoebe frowned. ‘What’s the problem, do you know?’

‘A traffic accident, as far as I understand it. A woman gave birth prematurely as a result, and it looks as though the baby is in difficulty. The parents are both injured and being treated right now. I think A and E want you to go and help with the baby and bring her over to Neonatology.’

Phoebe sucked in a quick breath. ‘Okay, tell them I’m on my way.’

Things were not going well when she arrived in the A and E department. The parents had been whisked off to the operating theatre, and the paediatric team working with the baby was concerned about the infant’s frail condition.

‘She’s not breathing,’ the nurse said, her expression anxious. ‘I’ve applied suction, but she’s still not responding.’

Phoebe helped to resuscitate the infant. ‘Her heart rate is very slow,’ she said. Already she was reaching for the bag and mask oxygen equipment. After trying to inflate the baby’s lungs for a short time, she shook her head. ‘There’s little chest movement.’ There was a note of urgency in her voice. ‘I’m going to have to put in a tube to help her to breathe. We need to get her on a ventilator as soon as possible.’

It was some half an hour later, after she had linked the infant to a heart monitor and taped a cannula in place at a vein in her arm so that they could administer medication, that she was ready to take her over to the neonatal unit.

‘Poor little scrap,’ the nurse said. ‘What a way to come into the world.’

Phoebe nodded. It was scary to think that her mother and father were both undergoing operations in attempts to save their lives. ‘Let’s hope the parents make a good recovery. As to this little one, her lungs are still immature, and she needs all the help we can give her.’

She glanced into the next treatment bay as she prepared to set off for the lift that would take her up to Neonatal. Connor was there, attending to a young boy of around eight years old, and for a moment she paused, drawn to watch him in action.

The child was distressed and struggling to breathe, and she guessed that he was suffering from a worrying asthma attack. It looked as though he was in a bad state, but Connor was talking quietly to him all the time, his manner gentle and soothing.

‘This will help you, Charlie,’ he was saying. ‘Just relax and try to breathe in and let the medication seep into your lungs. It will help to open up your air passages and make you feel better.’ His voice was calm and evenly modulated, falling softly on Phoebe’s ears, and she realised that there was an almost hypnotic quality about it.

The boy nodded, and Connor glanced down at his football shirt. ‘It looks as though you support the same team that I do,’ he said. ‘They did all right at their last match, didn’t they? Except for Bex having two left feet and falling over his boots. I don’t know where his head was that day, but it wasn’t with him on the pitch, was it?’

The boy chuckled, and Connor went on, ‘Mind you, he made up for it with the penalty shot. Talk about whacking it in. It hit the back of the net so hard I thought the goalposts were going to tip over.’

Charlie appeared to relax. His breathing was much easier now, and Phoebe could see that he was almost out of danger. Clearly, Charlie was in good hands.

Connor turned and glanced towards her as she started on her way once more. She nodded to him and he gave her the thumbs-up sign.

‘Hi, there, Phoebe,’ he said cheerfully. ‘How about supper in the hospital restaurant later on, since you stood me up the other day? Jessica said she’d try to drop by around seven o’clock, and Alex is hoping he’ll be free by then.’

‘That sounds okay,’ she agreed. It would be good to catch up with Alex and find out if he was coping with Orthopaedics any better. Lately, with their different shift patterns, they had been like ships that passed in the night. ‘I’ll see if I can get away.’ She glanced at the baby in the incubator. There were no signs of respiratory distress, but her heart rate was still slow, and her oxygen saturation could have been better. ‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘This baby’s had a hard time coming into the world, and I need to get her up to the unit as quickly as possible.’

‘I heard about that,’ he murmured. ‘I’ll see you later.’

As she moved away, she heard him say to the boy, ‘Now, there goes one very pretty doctor, don’t you think? She almost makes me wish I was ill so that she could come and pat my brow with a damp cloth.’

The boy giggled.

Phoebe went on her way. The man was incorrigible, but he certainly had a magic touch where the boy was concerned.

She was more than ready for her break when suppertime came around. The baby had been suffering from seizures, and they were all worried for her safety.

‘You go off and get something to eat,’ Katie told her. ‘You’ve been on duty for hours, and it will do nobody any good if you start to wilt. It’s quiet enough around here for the moment.’

Phoebe acknowledged the truth of that, and made her way down to the restaurant on the ground floor. Connor was already in there. He looked as fresh and energetic as if he had only just come on duty, and it was all she could do not to scowl at him. ‘I don’t know how you manage it,’ she said. ‘How do you stay so jaunty and unruffled? It’s as though nothing touches you.’

‘It comes from years of practice.’ He nodded towards the glass doors at the side of the restaurant. ‘Shall we go and sit out there? There aren’t too many people in the courtyard just now. It will be peaceful.’

‘Okay. I’ll come and join you just as soon as I’ve collected my food.’ There was no sign of Jessica or Alex, and it was already after seven o’clock. Perhaps they wouldn’t be able to make it down.

She chose a light cheese salad with crusty bread and a fruit tart to follow. Connor cast a swift glance over her tray as she set it down on the table. ‘It’s no wonder that you never put on any weight,’ he said. ‘You don’t eat enough to keep a sparrow alive.’

She gave him a withering smile. ‘Unlike you. I don’t know where you put it all—and yet you never add an ounce of fat to your waistline, do you? You’re all lean and fit, as though you’ve just come from working out in the gym.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘In fact, I suspect that’s what you do. Otherwise, it’s just not fair.’

He laughed, and stabbed his fork into a substantial cottage pie. His gaze wandered over her, taking in the fullness of her curves beneath the light cotton top she was wearing, and then drifted down over her narrow-fitting skirt to explore the length of her shapely legs. ‘It has to be said, though you’d still look good even with extra padding.’

Her cheeks heated under that appreciative scrutiny. To distract herself from the hectic play of emotions that he evoked in her, she fixed him with an exasperated stare. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? That’s what you do all the time…you lead people astray. It’s what you did when you encouraged your friends to stay out all night on Exmoor, and it’s what you did when you produced those bottles of cider a few weeks after you turned sixteen. You shared them among your friends. No thought for the consequences, just live for the moment.’ She glowered at him. ‘Just try telling Jessica to pile on the pounds, and she’ll give you short shrift.’

He paused, his fork midway between his plate and his mouth. ‘Now, there you have one lady I wouldn’t like to cross.’ He nodded, a brooding expression on his face. ‘When she gets that look in her eyes, I know she means business.’

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