Summer With Love: The Spanish Consultant

Katy looked at the tiny body on the trolley and, despite Jago’s warnings about becoming emotional, she felt a lump in her throat.

The little girl was so tiny and helpless. No wonder the mother was hysterical. She would have been hysterical if it had been her child who was lying there injured.

They had to save the child. They just couldn’t let her die.

A niggling suspicion entered her head and she opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again.

‘What?’ Jago’s tone was sharp. ‘You were going to say something.’

Katy hesitated. ‘I was wondering whether it could be her spleen,’ she said quietly, ‘but there’s no clinical reason to imagine that it could be. Just a gut feeling.’

‘Never dismiss gut feelings.’ Jago looked at her and then returned his attention to the child, his expression thoughtful. ‘It would explain the degree of shock in the absence of visible injury.’

Annie returned, having interviewed the mother in more depth, and she gave a full report to Jago who had examined the X-rays and now had his eyes fixed on the abdominal ultrasound.

‘She’s bleeding into her abdomen,’ he muttered, and Carl, one of the other junior doctors, looked at him questioningly.

‘But her abdominal wall is barely bruised.’

‘That isn’t a reliable sign in children.’ Jago didn’t look up. ‘She’s showing signs of abdominal injury. I think Katy is probably right. It’s her spleen.’

Carl rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. ‘So we need to get her to Theatre urgently?’

‘Not necessarily.’ Jago shook his head. ‘We tend to avoid surgery and adopt a conservative approach where possible. The spleen is the most commonly injured organ following blunt trauma to the abdomen, then the liver and kidneys.’

‘If it is her spleen, will they try leaving it to heal by itself?’ Katy frowned, racking her brains to recall the detail of something she’d seen in a medical journal. ‘Didn’t I read something recently that suggested that removing the spleen can result in significant long-term health problems?’

‘That’s right.’ Jago nodded. ‘It’s very unusual to remove the spleen these days.’

Charlotte checked the child’s vital signs again. ‘I think she’s improving. That fluid is helping.’

At that moment the doors opened and the surgical team swarmed into Resus.

They conferred with Jago, checked the abdominal ultrasound and examined the child carefully.

‘I think you’re right,’ the consultant said finally, glancing at Jago with a slight smile. ‘I’d say she has a small tear in her spleen.’

Jago glanced at Katy and a slight smile touched his firm mouth. ‘It was Dr Westerling’s diagnosis,’ he said softly, and the consultant gave her an approving nod.

‘In that case, well done to you, Dr Westerling. We’ll get a CT scan and take it from there. If her signs continue to improve, we’ll manage it conservatively. Are the parents with her?’

‘The mother’s in the relatives’ room,’ Jago said, ripping off his gloves and dropping them in the bin. ‘I’m going to speak to her now. Katy, you can come with me as this seems to have turned into your case.’

Warmed by his approval, Katy blushed slightly. Despite his encouraging comments, she was well aware that it was he who had saved the child.

‘Do you think she’s going to live?’ Katy quickened her stride to keep pace with him as he strode out of Resus and made for the relatives’ room. She’d never been assigned the task of talking to relatives before, and was relieved that he was there to do it with her.

Jago pulled a face. ‘Because children are so small, a fall like that can cause multisystem injury. You have to assume that they have multiple injuries until proved otherwise. If it’s just a small tear to her spleen, she should recover fully.’

‘You were so calm.’

He cast her a wry smile that was thoroughly unexpected. ‘Not that calm.’ He paused for a moment, his dark eyes resting on her face. ‘I have feelings, too, you know.’

She looked at him, breathless, wondering whether he was just referring to Molly.

‘But you don’t show them.’

He lifted a broad shoulder in a shrug. ‘How would that help the child? The patient needs me to be detached and efficient. Emotion clouds judgement, Katy. Remember that.’

He gave a twisted smile and suddenly she knew what he was thinking.

That emotion had clouded his judgement eleven years ago when he’d seen those photographs.

And in a way, wasn’t it the same for her?

She knew that loving Jago was a quick road to heartache but she just couldn’t help herself. He was drop-dead gorgeous and seeing him save a child’s life with such impressive skill and supreme coolness made her want to surrender to him on the spot.

She studied him helplessly.

Everything about him was just so masculine. From his straight, aristocratic nose and perfect bone structure to the blue-black stubble beginning to show on his hard jaw, he was one hundred per cent red-blooded male and she realised with a sinking heart that she’d never stopped loving him.

Realising that they’d reached the relatives’ room, she jerked her eyes away from his sinfully sexy mouth and tried to concentrate.

‘Don’t you usually take a nurse with you to do the gentle, caring bit?’

He dealt her a sizzling smile that cranked her pulse rate up still higher. ‘Why do you think I’ve brought you along?’

Without waiting for her reply, he pushed open the door with his shoulder and extended a hand to the woman sitting slumped in one of the armchairs.

‘Mrs Churchman? I’m Mr Rodriguez, one of the A and E consultants. This is Dr Westerling. We looked after Molly in the resuscitation room.’

Katy closed the door behind them and went to sit beside the mother, concerned that she looked so distraught. Annie had told them that she hadn’t even wanted to see her daughter in the resuscitation room.

‘I’ve killed her. I know I’ve killed her.’

She started to sob hysterically and Katy glanced at Jago, expecting to see him tense and uncomfortable in the face of such hysterics. Instead, he frowned in concern and hunkered down next to the sobbing woman, taking her hand in his.

‘You haven’t killed her, Mrs Churchman.’ His voice was warm and firm. ‘She had a bad fall and she is suffering from some internal injuries but she is doing very well at the moment. We’ve transferred her to the children’s surgical ward for some more tests and observation.’

The young mother looked at him, her chest jerking as she tried to hold back the sobs. ‘She climbed out of the window.’

Jago nodded. ‘So I understand.’

‘I didn’t even know she could reach the window,’ Mrs Churchman whispered, horror in her voice as she related the tale. ‘She pulled up a chair and climbed onto the window-sill. I was changing her bed at the time and I’d only nipped out for a moment to fetch a clean sheet. I must have been out of the room for less than thirty seconds, no more.’

She gave another sob and Katy reached for a box of tissues. ‘Being a parent is the most difficult, responsible job in the world,’ she said quietly. ‘What Molly needs now is not for you to feel guilty but for you to be there for her. She needs her mother.’

Mrs Churchman blew her nose and nodded. ‘You’re right, I know you’re right. But seeing her lying there as if she was dead just upset me so much.’

Jago frowned. ‘She isn’t dead, Mrs Churchman.’ He went on to outline Molly’s injuries and treatment in a cool, factual way and eventually the young mother seemed to gain some measure of control.

‘Can I see her now?’

Katy nodded. ‘When you’re ready, one of the nurses will take you to the children’s ward and you’ll be able to stay with her. Is there anyone you’d like us to call to be with you?’

Mrs Churchman shook her head and reached for her bag. ‘No. Her father is away on business and I don’t want to worry my parents with it. I’ll be fine now.’

Looking at her pale face, Katy wasn’t so sure and she made a mental note to check on her later.

Leaving Mrs Churchman to gather her belongings together, they left the room and Katy arranged for a nurse to escort her to the ward.

‘I’m glad you were there,’ Jago said dryly as they walked back towards the main area of the A and E department. ‘Dealing with hysterical females is not my strong point.’

She smiled at him. ‘I thought you were brilliant.’

‘Well, thank you,’ Jago drawled softly, pausing as one of the other casualty officers waylaid him to ask his opinion on an X-ray.

Jago took the film in question and pushed it into the nearest light-box, his gaze fixed on the X-ray in front of him. ‘There’s a hairline fracture on the anterior view.’

The doctor muttered his thanks, looked slightly embarrassed that he hadn’t spotted it himself and then hurried off to manage the patient accordingly.

Katy staring at Jago with a mixture of admiration and frustration. ‘You never miss anything, do you? Has anyone ever told you that you set impossibly high standards?’

‘This is an A and E department,’ Jago reminded her with a careless lift of his broad shoulders. ‘How can standards ever be too high? If we get it wrong, people die. And in this wonderful age of litigation, if we were even remotely to blame, we’re sued.’

They walked on down the corridor and Katy bit her lip, knowing that there was some truth in what he said.

People were much quicker to apportion blame these days.

‘Well, I for one am glad you have high standards. You were great with Molly,’ she said softly, and he glanced towards her.

‘So were you,’ he said equally softly, a wry smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. ‘You’re a good doctor, Katy. You have good instincts.’

She looked at him and found her gaze trapped by his. The tension pulsed between them and she took a step backwards, stunned by the intensity of the attraction.

Breathing hard she tried to pull herself together.

He hadn’t trusted her.

She had to keep reminding herself of that fact. ‘I hope Molly will be all right.’

The faint amusement in his dark eyes indicated that he was well aware of her internal struggle. ‘She was lucky,’ he said smoothly. ‘That mother should have had locks on the upstairs windows.’ With a last lingering look at her mouth he turned away from her and walked back towards the main area of the A and E department, obviously expecting her to follow. ‘She was totally negligent.’

Katy was taken aback by his sharp comment. ‘Children move so fast—’

‘And it is a mother’s job to be one step ahead of them,’ he shot back, his expression disapproving. ‘A two-year-old girl should not be falling out of windows, no matter how hot the weather.’

‘Accidents happen,’ Katy reminded him gently. ‘People make mistakes. You’re very judgmental.’

‘And you’re very forgiving, querida,’ he observed, stopping dead in his tracks, his dark lashes hiding his expression from her, ‘except, it would seem, when I’m the culprit.’

Heat rushed to her face and she bit her lip, flustered by the hint of a smile pulling at the corners of his firm mouth.

‘Jago—’

‘Tell me, Katy.’ He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. ‘How long are you going to keep up this pretence?’

She licked dry lips and then immediately wished she hadn’t as his dark eyes lasered in on the gesture with visible hunger. ‘What pretence?’

‘The pretence that there’s nothing between us.’ With obvious reluctance his eyes lifted to hers, holding her captive. ‘What does a guy have to do to get you to forgive? Send flowers? Beg?’

Her body slowly heated up under his gaze, sexual excitement burning low in her stomach. Why did being close to Jago always have this effect on her?

‘I—I forgive you,’ she stammered, backing away slightly from his powerful presence. ‘But it doesn’t mean I want a relationship. We’re too different, Jago. We want different things.’

He gave a smile that was pure predatory male. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘That’s just sex!’ She said the words without thinking and then looked round in embarrassment, realising that any of the staff could have been within earshot. Fortunately they weren’t. ‘You left me, Jago. You left me without a backward glance. Give me one instance that proves that you cared about me and not just the sex.’

‘I kept the photographs,’ he reminded her simply, a smile of satisfaction appearing in direct response to her shocked expression. ‘Think about that, querida.’

With that he touched her on the cheek and walked away, leaving her staring after him.

He’d almost told her about the ring.

Jago stared at a conference programme, bombarded by totally alien emotions. He sensed that whatever he said at the moment, it wouldn’t be enough. Katy was incurably romantic. As a child she’d played with dolls and dreamed of princes. And none of those dreams had included a prince who left her when the going got tough. It was going to take some very fancy footwork on his part to convince her that he loved her.

He’d always loved her.

And eleven years before she’d been madly in love with him, and he’d killed that love with his lack of trust.

Somehow he had to win that love back.

But how?

Despite her passionate response to his kiss and the fact that her whole body reacted when he walked into the same room as her, Katy wasn’t showing any signs of wishing to renew their relationship.

Remembering the way she’d clutched the flowers that morning, his fingers tightened on the programme.

She’d been delighted with them. And she clearly hadn’t broken off her engagement to Freddie.

With a muttered curse he ran a hand over the back of his neck, acknowledging with unusual insight that it was going to take more than an exotic bunch of flowers to redeem himself in Katy’s eyes.

Thanks to a major overreaction on his part over the photographs, she was now completely convinced that he didn’t possess a sensitive side.

With a groan of frustration he tossed the programme onto the desk and applied his brain to the intellectual challenge of how to convince Katy he was as caring as the next guy.

He was absolutely sure about one thing—their relationship was never going to progress unless he got her away from the hospital and away from Freddie.

With a complete lack of vanity he recognised the fact that she was marrying Freddie because she was afraid of the feelings she had for him.

Katy was soft-hearted and loving and he’d hurt her badly. She didn’t want to be hurt again and he’d seriously underestimated her strength of will. Once he’d apologised for having misjudged her, he’d stood back and waited for her to fall back into his arms.

But instead she’d walked away and now he found himself in the unique position of having to chase after a woman he wanted.

He looked at the conference programme again and an idea suddenly formed in his mind.

He was due to present a paper at a major medical conference in Seville at the end of the week and he’d arranged to visit his family afterwards.

He had space for one other doctor.

‘Have you heard there’s a place for a doctor to go to the conference in Seville at the end of the week? Apparently Harry was due to go but had to drop out at the last minute.’ Several of the casualty officers were gathered around the noticeboard in the staffroom when Katy walked in and pushed her bag in the locker. Her mind was still on the confrontation she’d had with her parents the night before.

Her mother had been hysterical at the news that the wedding was off and her father had refused to accept that she was no longer marrying Freddie.

All in all it had been an extremely unpleasant evening.

Her colleagues were still looking at the noticeboard and chatting. ‘Mr Rodriguez is presenting a paper and he’s allowed to take someone with him. If you want to go you have to sign your name and then they’re going to put the names in a hat.’

‘Very scientific.’

Only half listening to the conversation, Katy checked that her hair was neatly tied back and walked onto the unit without signing her name. She was struggling to cope with Jago in the impersonal atmosphere of the A and E department without subjecting herself to the intimacy of a foreign trip.

As far as she was concerned, one of the others was more than welcome to go.

The waiting room was crowded with people and Katy didn’t have time to give the trip another thought until one of her colleagues approached her at lunchtime with a rueful smile.

‘Well, you’re the lucky one.’

Katy stared at him blankly. ‘I am?’

‘Your name was pulled out of the hat. You’re going to Seville with the boss.’

Katy put her sandwich down untouched. ‘That’s not possible.’

She hadn’t even put her name on the board.

‘Finding it hard to believe your luck?’ The other doctor grinned at her. ‘You shouldn’t feel guilty. It was all done fair and square. I was the one who pulled your name out of the hat.’

But her name shouldn’t have been in the hat.

Totally appalled by the prospect of attending the conference with Jago, Katy got to her feet and knocked the chair over.

‘Hey, steady on.’ Her colleague looked at her in amusement. ‘I know you’re excited but you don’t want to injure yourself before you go.’

She didn’t wait to hear the rest of what he had to say. She needed to see Jago.

He was in his office, working on the computer, and she marched in without knocking.

‘How did my name get in that hat, Jago?’

She glared at him angrily, her irritation increasing at his total lack of reaction.

‘What hat?’

‘Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.’ Suddenly aware that they could be overheard, she closed the door firmly and stalked across to his desk. ‘I understand my name has been pulled out of the hat to go with you to Seville.’

‘Has it?’ His voice was a low drawl and he didn’t lift his eyes from the spreadsheet he was working on. ‘Don’t complain. That place was very much in demand.’

‘But not by me.’ Frustration bubbled up inside her. ‘You’re not listening to me!’

Finally he looked at her, his gaze cool. If he was playing games then there was certainly no sign of it.

She took a deep breath and tried again. ‘I didn’t put my name on that list. I don’t want to go with you to Seville.’

One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘It’s a first-class meeting with some excellent speakers,’ he said calmly. ‘You’ll find it very informative and useful.’

‘I’m sure the meeting will be great. This isn’t about the meeting.’

‘So what’s bothering you?’

He was bothering her. And he knew it.

She licked her lips. ‘Jago, I can’t go with you.’

He sprawled back in his chair, his expression mocking. ‘Am I that dangerous?’

Yes.

He gave a slow smile. ‘It doesn’t say much for your relationship with Freddie if you can’t trust yourself to be alone with me,’ he observed softly, and she coloured slightly, uncomfortable with the fact that she hadn’t corrected his assumption that her wedding was still going ahead.

Why hadn’t she?

Because she’d hoped that his belief that she was still engaged would encourage him to back off.

But she could see from the look in his eyes that he had no intention of backing off. He wanted her and he was going after her with all the ruthless determination that was so much a part of his character.

‘Let yourself go, Katy,’ he advised. ‘Be yourself. Stop trying to be what your parents want you to be.’

Wasn’t that what Libby and Alex were always saying?

‘I am myself,’ she said finally, her mouth dry and her heart pumping hard at the mere thought of being alone on foreign soil with Jago.

‘Then, in that case, there isn’t a problem, is there?’ With a cool smile he reached across his desk and handed her a file. ‘The flights and accommodation are all arranged and the programme is in there—you might like to look at it. I’m presenting on the first day but it runs for four days in total.’

Four days in Jago’s company?

Her mind numb, she took the file, still wondering how her name had come to be added to the list. Jago hadn’t admitted that he’d been responsible but he hadn’t exactly denied it either. And the question was academic now. She could hardly refuse to go without drawing attention to herself. The other doctors saw it as a fantastic opportunity to catch up on the latest developments in the field of emergency medicine and if it had just been about the conference she would have been excited, too.

But it wasn’t about the conference.

It was about being alone with Jago. Jago, who wanted nothing more than to resume their physical relationship—something that would lead to yet more heartbreak.

Would she have the willpower to resist him?

CHAPTER EIGHT

EXACTLY three days later Katy found herself standing on the balcony of a hotel in the Spanish city of Seville.

The heat of the summer sun, even so late in the afternoon, was almost unbearable and she retreated into the welcome cool of her suite.

Stepping away from the balcony, she stared in awe at the room again, wondering how she could possibly have been booked into anything so sumptuous.

This was the first time she’d attended a medical conference in her career, but she’d assumed that relatively junior doctors like herself usually had to make do with pretty humble accommodation.

But there was nothing humble about her room. It reflected the Moorish influence on the city, with a décor so opulent that it made her feel as though she should be dressed in seven veils and prepared for a harem.

As she reached for her suitcase, there was a knock on the door and one of the hotel staff delivered her a letter.

Surprised, she tore it open and immediately recognised the bold, black scrawl.

‘Be ready at 7. Jago.’

Her fingers tightened on the note and her heart rate sped into the distance. It was typical of Jago to arrogantly assume she’d be willing to spend an evening with him. And equally typical for him not to disclose what he had in mind.

The conference didn’t officially start until tomorrow, but she knew that there was a welcoming dinner for the delegates.

He must be planning to escort her to that.

Suddenly she had butterflies in her stomach. She shouldn’t go with him. She really, really shouldn’t …

But she’d been planning to attend the dinner anyway and it would certainly be more relaxing to be with someone she knew, she reasoned. And they’d be surrounded by other delegates. What could possibly happen?

Helplessly acknowledging just how much she wanted to spend an evening with Jago, she gave a sigh.

Why not?

Just one evening and she’d make sure that she slept in her own room at the end of the night.

Not wanting to dwell on her decision for too long, she glanced at her watch.

If he was collecting her at seven then she had less than two hours to find something suitable to wear and get ready for the evening, and she hadn’t even had time to unpack yet.

She opened her case and gave a gasp of surprise.

Instead of the businesslike dresses and co-ordinates that she’d packed in blacks and other muted colours, the case contained what appeared to be an entire summer wardrobe in vibrant, eye-catching colours and designs.

At first she thought that there’d been a mix up with her luggage but then she saw the note attached to the inside of the case.

‘Time to stop locking yourself away. Enjoy. Love, Libby and Alex.’