Unlocking the Doctor's Heart

Beth felt her body stiffen. His words cut deeply as she thought back to her friend who’d been three weeks away from graduating when he’d overdosed. ‘It’s a stupid waste of a life and we get to clean up the mess they leave behind.’

Matthew observed his new medical colleague as she stood deep in thought. She obviously had strong views about what she had witnessed and she wasn’t afraid to come out with what she thought. Despite her small stature, she was neither a walkover nor a wallflower. She was forthright and almost commanding. It was a refreshing change.

He also noticed she was pretty, a fresh, natural beauty. He hoped despite her somewhat innocent looks she would be equipped to handle the rigours of A and E. First appearances would lead him to believe she would do just fine but perhaps treating her harshly while she might be suffering from jet lag had not been entirely fair. Despite her almost palpable anger at the situation, she looked truly shaken.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle tap on her shoulder and words she hadn’t expected. ‘Dr Seymour, maybe I was a bit hard on you earlier.’

Beth stared in silence.

‘I’m offering an apology for my previous behaviour. Make the most of it because, believe me, it’s not something I do very often.’

She couldn’t believe her ears—this seemed totally out of character, given everything she had heard about the man and the callous way he had treated her earlier.

‘Look, the truth of the matter is I’ve had a lousy morning. What with one resident off sick and a fourth-year medical student tagging behind me like Casper, I guess I took it out on you.’

‘There’s no need—’ Beth began.

‘No, it’s your first day here, I could have shown some empathy. Let’s face it, you shouldn’t think of me as an absolute son of a—’ He stopped in mid-sentence. For some strange reason, and against his better judgement, he actually cared what Beth thought of him. ‘Well, let’s say you shouldn’t completely despise me, like the rest of them do, until at least your second week here.’

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS ABOUT seven o’clock in the evening when Beth headed for the doctors’ lounge. Vivian, an attractive ashen-haired nurse who had arrived for the afternoon shift, convinced her of the need to take a tea break.

Beth had managed to slip away in the afternoon for half an hour for lunch and that had doubled as time to put her feet up. But that had been almost six hours ago and she could feel the hunger in her stomach starting to stir. The thought of waiting for the lift or walking up three flights of stairs to the staff cafeteria after ten hours on her legs had her slip some coins into the slot of a vending machine and retrieve two chocolate bars for her late supper.

‘You’re not setting a good example to the patients. What happened to the three well-balanced meals a day?’

Beth was stopped in her tracks by the same dogmatic voice that had started her day.

‘You’d be better off with some fruit or at least a protein bar,’ Dr Harrison continued before she had the chance to reply.

Trying hard to keep her heavy legs from collapsing, she turned to him. Then she wished she hadn’t. He stood before her in a dark grey suit and crisp white cotton shirt, which contrasted starkly against his tanned skin and black wavy hair, which he wore slicked back. This further emphasised his softly chiselled features. A red silk tie and highly polished leather shoes completed his outfit.

Beth drew a steadying breath. He looked gorgeous and she felt like nothing on earth. She glanced down at her creased slacks and shapeless consulting coat with iodine splatters and wanted to disappear into an invisible black hole in the tiled floor. She had long since given up on her hair and had just let the curly wisps take on a direction of their own. How unfair was nature to let him bounce back and look so good after a full day’s work? The musky scent of his cologne stirred senses she had thought were asleep.

‘A night on the town?’ she enquired as she tried to stifle a yawn.

‘A celebration of sorts, actually.’

‘Well, I hope you have a nice time,’ she answered softly.

‘I will if my date turns up on time.’

Beth thought better of staying around chatting to the handsome consultant. If he was anything to set standards by, his date would be ravishing, and after the long day she had put in she’d rather not be introduced. She would only feel like the third, and definitely shabby, wheel.

‘Well, if you’ll excuse me,’ she began, ‘I’ll be going. I’ve only got a few minutes’ break and I really need to sit down.’

‘Certainly,’ he said, giving her a sideways glance. ‘You look like you could do with the rest.’

Beth just smiled and headed for the doctors’ lounge. You look like you could do with the rest, she repeated in her mind. Why hadn’t he just said, ‘God, you look awful’ and be done with it?

As she made her way down the corridor, she heard the seductive tone of his voice, then a soft female laugh. Unable to hide her curiosity, Beth turned her head and watched as a tall blonde, wrapped in a strapless red evening gown, slipped her arm through Dr Harrison’s. Beth felt a stab of envy. She wasn’t sure whether it was the woman’s disgustingly expensive designer dress and jewelled shoes or the man with her that really appealed. Then she laughed to herself at how terrible she would look with either after such a long day, and she headed into the lounge for a much-needed half-hour rest.

To her dismay, the vision in the dinner suit filled her mind. Looking that good, she decided, should be a crime. Then she thought back to their meeting that morning, and despite his arrogant attitude Beth couldn’t deny her unexpected and unwanted attraction to her boss. He was handsome and inherently sexy, that was undeniable... But there was something else. She wasn’t sure what intrigued her about the man but as she felt her eyes slowly closing, she shook her weary head and climbed to her feet. Now was not the time to drift off to some pleasant reverie about her picture-perfect boss. The last thing she needed was to be found sleeping on the job.

Beth stretched her aching muscles and made her way back to A and E. She had not quite reached the swing doors when her beeper went off. The sound of hurrying footsteps in the opposite direction signalled an emergency arrival. Beth rushed through the doors and fell in step with the paramedics and the barouche. A nurse hurriedly attached a stand to the drip that one paramedic held.

‘What do we have?’

‘Female, hit and run, ten years of age. Vital signs okay, BP ninety over fifty, suspected fractures both legs. No other signs of injury. We’ve administered pethidine, IV, for pain relief.’

‘Bay five,’ Vivian called.

Beth nodded, then turned her attention back to the paramedic. ‘Parents?’

‘No, she was alone at home. A neighbour saw the accident and called us. Apparently she was looking for her cat and ran onto the road. Her name is Tania Grant.’

Beth smiled down at the young girl. ‘Well, then, Tania, apart from your legs, does it hurt anywhere?’

The child’s eyes glistened with tears as she shook her head.

‘Okay, I don’t want you to worry about anything. I’m going to have a look and make sure there’s nothing else wrong while nurse Vivian tries to contact your parents.’ Beth gloved up while the paramedics parked the barouche in the bay.

‘Now, Tania,’ she began softly, ‘do you know where your parents are tonight?’

‘Yes, they always go to the same place to eat on special occasions.’

‘Do they often leave you alone when they go out at night?’ Beth asked as she reached for her stethoscope.

‘No, never... That’s cold!’ she protested when the metal touched her chest.

‘Sorry, sweetie, but I need to listen to your heart for a minute. While I do, could you tell the nurse where she can contact your parents?’

The tall, ashen-haired nurse reached into her pocket for a notebook and pencil and jotted down the name of the restaurant. ‘I’ll go and call them.’

Satisfied with the child’s vital signs, Beth turned her attention back to the injured legs. ‘Now, Tania, I’m going to need an X-ray of both of your legs to see what damage you have and a couple of other pictures while we’re there. I’d like to wait for Mummy’s and Daddy’s—’

‘He’s my stepdad,’ the girl cut in.

‘Fine, your mummy’s and your stepdad’s permission, but I don’t think they’d mind under the circumstances, so as soon as nurse Vivian gets back, she’ll take you around to the X-ray department and I’ll see you back here in just a little while.’

Tania nodded. Beth smiled as she brushed a stray wisp of blonde fringe from the little girl’s forehead. ‘So you’re not left alone often?’

‘No, this is the first time. My stepbrother, Tom, was supposed to be home with me, but his friend who lives next door called and asked him over to watch videos. I didn’t want to act like a baby and make him stay with me. If Mittens hadn’t sneaked out when Tom left, I wouldn’t be in this trouble.’ She started to cry.

‘Shh,’ Beth said gently. ‘You’re not in trouble, but I suspect Tom might be.’ She reached for Tania’s file, noted her vital signs and wrote a request for X-rays. ‘Vivian shouldn’t be much longer, I’m sure, then you’ll go straight around to Radiology.’

‘But I want my mummy with me.’

‘Well, let’s hope she can make it here in time.’

No sooner had she finished than Vivian walked into the room and over to Tania. She patted the little girl’s hand. ‘Your parents are on their way. They said they’d be here as fast as they could, but the restaurant is in the foothills so it could take twenty minutes.’ Then she turned her attention to Beth. ‘Dr Seymour, her parents gave consent for any diagnostic tests and treatment that you feel are necessary, so I called Radiology and they’re waiting for Tania. Oh, and Dr Huddy told me to let you know your shift is finished. He’ll take over in here.’

‘I’m sorry, Tania, we can’t really wait for Mummy,’ Beth replied as she gently put another pillow under the child’s arm to support the IV. ‘But Vivian will take really good care of you and a lovely doctor called Simon will be treating you when you get back.’

The girl burst into tears. ‘I don’t want to see someone else,’ she sobbed, and tried to tug at her wrist where the intravenous line had been inserted and taped. ‘I want you to take this thing out of my hand. It’s hurting me and I want my mummy.’

Beth encircled the little girl’s hands in her own. ‘I know it’s uncomfortable, sweetie, but the medicine in the bag up there is helping to stop the pain in your legs.’ She wiped the tears from Tania’s cheeks with a tissue. ‘Mummy will be here very soon, and then you’ll feel much better.’

Beth glanced down at her watch. She was almost past exhaustion but she was loath to leave the girl so distraught.

‘How about I take you around for that X-ray, then we can wait together for your parents and you can tell me about Mittens. You know, I had a cat when I was your age but about the worst she did to me was give me a bad scratch. She certainly never put me into hospital!’

Tania gave a little smile and agreed to go with Beth for the X-ray.

It was almost two hours before Beth was able to finally leave the hospital. Tania’s parents had arrived while she’d been in Radiology and Beth thought she had been so long with the little girl, she may as well stay a little longer while the orthopaedic registrar viewed the X-rays and made his decision. Beth admitted to herself that on a level somewhere between incredibly tired and flat-out exhaustion it felt good to be needed. She was making a difference just by being there, and that was a wonderful feeling. It had been such a long time since she had felt that she was important or needed by anyone.

She explained the situation to Mr and Mrs Grant and thought she would leave quietly, until she noticed how worried Tania was about the casts.

Beth remained with the family for the procedure, then accompanied them to the paediatric ward. Finally it was time to go home. Intending to catch a cab in front of the hospital, she grabbed her things and rushed through the front door of A and E—straight into Dr Harrison.

‘Don’t you think you’re carrying dedication to the extreme?’

‘It was a special case,’ Beth answered, ‘but I must go, I’m really past being tired. Damn!’ she moaned as she saw the last cab on the rank pull away. Now she had to call another one and hope there wasn’t a long wait. She opened her purse, searching for her phone. The air was still warm and although Beth hadn’t been outside all day she knew it must have been a hot day to still be this warm so late in the evening.

‘Did I miss something here?’

‘No, but I did. The last cab,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I’ll have to wait for another to be dispatched.’

‘No problem. I’ll take you home,’ Dr Harrison said, taking her arm and heading towards the car park. ‘I could do with a drive to clear my head. The restaurant was a little stuffy.’

‘That’s very kind of you but I couldn’t—’

‘I insist,’ he cut in. ‘It’s the least I can do to show my appreciation for your marathon first day on the job. Besides, there’s really no point arguing, I always win. So where are you staying?’

After a quiet smile, she realised she was too tired to argue so gave him her address. His charm was indisputable and the ease with which he made Beth’s pulse race gave her no reason to doubt he would always win. She looked down at his strong masculine hand holding her arm and the warmth of his skin made her spine tingle. She felt so good, so protected...and so close to exhaustion. Her tired eyes slowly climbed his body, daring to rest for a moment on his chiselled jaw and soft lips. At this close proximity, Beth guessed his body could be as commanding as his mind.

‘Best be on our way,’ he said with a voice more brotherly than seductive. She came down to earth with a crash. Dr Harrison was simply offering friendship to a new arrival in his city. And why would it be any different, she thought. She had seen his beautiful escort earlier in the evening. Still, being friends was more than she had expected from him this morning and it was infinitely better than being adversaries. Besides, she really didn’t need a distraction or any complication and a man like Matthew would never fancy a woman like her, she decided. He would be looking for a worldly, gorgeous model type, definitely not a dishevelled, overtired resident clearly in need of a hot bath and a good sleep.

‘Sounds fine to me,’ she said, as they headed towards a dark-coloured BMW convertible. He opened her car door first and waited for her to get in before walking around to the driver’s side and climbing in. Within minutes, Beth found that Dr Harrison hadn’t bought the car for appearance alone.

After confirming the address of the one-bedroom maisonette the hospital exchange programme had found for Beth only fifteen minutes from the hospital, he took the car out on the main road and put his foot down hard on the accelerator. Beth’s hand gripped the door handle tightly as her eyes found the speedometer. With the warm wind rushing by, she was glad her hair was still tied back in a plait, albeit wispy after almost fifteen hours on the job.

‘Don’t you worry we might be picked up for speeding?’ she managed to say.

‘I’m within the speed limit...maybe it just seems faster because you’re tired,’ he said, using one free hand to loosen his tie and undo the top button of his shirt.

Beth unsuccessfully fought the urge not to stare at his appealing profile as she felt her heart start to pound. Everything in her mind was warning her not to look for trouble. He was so attractive and she felt sure he knew it. Somehow she had to keep her thoughts purely professional but he was making it difficult without a lot of effort.

His broad shoulders were relaxed against the leather seat, tanned skin revealed beneath his open shirt where his tie had been. How she wished the tie was back in place and the buttons were not open. She wondered how in her almost catatonic state she was mesmerised by his sensuality. This was ridiculous. It was like having a crush on a teacher. Totally inappropriate, she berated herself silently.

She mustered her thoughts. ‘I was wondering why you were heading back to the hospital so late at night?’

‘Some paperwork,’ he answered flatly. Matthew had no intention of admitting that going home alone after dropping his sister back at her place was worse than the distraction of undertaking a few hours’ paperwork at one in the morning. A good night’s sleep had eluded him for years. Five years, to be exact.

Five long, lonely years since the accident. The nights would turn into morning with just enough sleep to allow him to function. Anger, resentment and a lot of disappointment had taken his life and turned it into mere existence. He felt robbed of the happiness he had once enjoyed and had thought was to be his forever. He was nothing more than a shell of a man. An angry one at best, and at worst just empty and alone. But tonight this English woman, for some reason that he could not understand, was making him feel a little less angry and a little less empty.

‘So what makes a young woman travel halfway around the world to do exactly what she could do in a London hospital?’

Beth thought better of blurting out her family issues and decided to go the pleasant route. ‘I felt like a break from the cold English winters. Thought I’d swap wellies for sandals for a year or so.’

Matthew smiled. ‘It does get cold here. You might need some socks to accompany your sandals around June and July.’

Beth smiled back at his response. She was very tired but enjoying the banter. Matthew was not just easy on the eye. He was amusing and put her at ease.

‘I heard it doesn’t snow here in Adelaide—is that right?’

‘Yes, and to let you into a little-known secret...’ Matthew looked away from the road and into Beth’s eyes for a split second ‘...I’ve never seen snow.’

Beth was amused by his confession. But it was the nanosecond of his piercing blue eyes staring into hers that took her breath away. She had thought she was about to collapse from exhaustion when suddenly her body had come to life. She swallowed nervously. Matthew was making her feel alive in ways that even fully awake she hadn’t felt before. She had to snap out of it. He was her boss and he was playing cab driver. That’s all, she reminded herself. You are not his type.

‘Really, you’ve never, ever seen snow?’

‘No, never,’ he conceded with a grin. ‘My travel destinations are always the tropics up north. No chance of snow up there and there’s none to speak of in Adelaide except maybe some muddy, icy fluff on the top of Mount Lofty, but you’d need a hunting party with magnifying glasses to find it.’

‘Mount Lofty?’

‘It’s up that way.’ He signalled with his hand to the foothills in the east. ‘In a national park. Scenic enough, but there’s definitely no ski resort up there.’

‘Well, then, I did pack properly,’ she announced. ‘I left the wellies back home.’

Matthew suspected there was more to Beth’s medical exchange than a desire to swap her footwear but since she was obviously close to exhaustion he decided not to ask more questions. He didn’t need to know too much. He had to admit to himself that he found her cute, and feisty and a little mysterious. It was an intriguing package but it was also worrying. Matthew didn’t want to be interested in Beth in any capacity other than as an exchange resident in his care. She would be there for twelve months and then she would be gone. Never to be seen again.

He put his foot down again as the lights changed to green, sending Beth’s head back against the headrest. She was surprised to find they were nearing her street. It wasn’t so much the conversation that had been riveting and had made fifteen minutes seem like five but the distracting speaker.

Beth released her seat belt and reached for the door handle. ‘It’s the next one on the left, number seven.’

‘Do you roll out shoulder first from moving cars, or is it more of a hunched kind of a jump?’ he asked with a smirk. Without waiting for her reply, he continued, ‘Don’t be in such a hurry to get out of the car, Dr Seymour.’

Indignant that she may have betrayed her desire to move away from him rather than the car, Beth was at least grateful the dim streetlights hid the heat she felt in her cheeks. From the corner of her eye she watched his mouth curve in the moonlight.

With impeccable manners, he jumped from the car, whisked around to Beth’s side and opened her door. Quickly she climbed out and crossed the pavement to her gate. She didn’t know what he was thinking and she prayed he didn’t know what was on her mind. And the sooner she put distance between them, the better.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr Seymour,’ he said, as he ran back to his side of the car.

‘Thanks so much for the lift.’ Feeling more relaxed with thirty feet between them, she added as she opened her front door, ‘And please call me Beth when we’re off duty.’

‘You’re welcome, Beth.’ His voice was drowned by the noise of the engine as he took off down the street and into the night.

As Beth lay in bed that night she thought about the extraordinary day she’d had and more particularly the extraordinary Dr Harrison. He was nowhere near as bad as she had expected in some ways, and in other ways he was worse. He was an enigmatic man and working with him was going to be either hell or heaven, she could see it now. But for some strange, unfathomable reason she was looking forward to it. She had always enjoyed a challenge.

Tentatively she reached for the photograph of her family that stood on her bedside table. It had been taken in happy times. She smiled at the image of herself as a toddler, standing with her father, George, and mother, Grace. George, a surgeon, she knew would be impressed by the skill and dedication of a man such as Dr Harrison, and her mother, if she was still alive, would simply succumb to his charm.

She thought of the new additions to her family, those she left behind when she’d accepted her exchange to Australia, or, more accurately, those she had wanted to leave. There was no photograph. How she wished her life had been different.

When she’d been ten, and less than a year after her mother had passed away, her father had remarried and she’d gained a stepmother, Hattie, and a stepsister, Charlotte. Hattie was as warm as a refrigerated sardine and Charlotte, well, that had been an unhealthy competition from day one.

Beth rolled her sleepy eyes as the thought of Charlotte trying her best to pip her at every available opportunity to get George’s attention. Unfortunately, with Hattie’s assistance it had worked. After graduating from high school, Charlotte had decided against university and chosen to become a fitness instructor. Beth remembered the loud conversation that had occurred that night.

‘Fitness instructor?’ her father had questioned Hattie.

‘And what may I ask is wrong with that?’ she’d said with her eyes widening and, in Beth’s opinion, becoming scarier by the minute.

‘Nothing, absolutely nothing,’ he’d replied, wishing he had never opened his mouth, but having done so he continued, ‘It’s a perfectly good career, but she’s never shown an interest before. In fact, Charlotte has never had a gym membership to my knowledge. It seems a little out of the blue and I wonder if it isn’t just a phase?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, George,’ Hattie had retorted. ‘Charlotte has always wanted to be a personal trainer.’

The second storey of their home was immediately filled with every known piece of gym equipment but Charlotte failed to finish the course and dust began to settle on the large, expensive purchases. Pride wouldn’t allow Hattie to admit George was right, so she climbed on the elliptical every second week for ten minutes and now and then lifted a two-pound weight and told everyone how marvellous she felt after her workout.