The Elusive Doctor Read online

  CHAPTER FOUR

  IF HER mentor had promised himself a restful weekend, with surprisingly no mention of the dark-haired Bettine being part of it, Nina found that leisure wasn’t to be her own lot.

  Eloise was taken ill during Friday night and, doctor though she was, Nina was just as distressed as the next person to see someone she loved so poorly.

  The older woman had seemed to be coping reasonably well with the chemotherapy and on her last hospital visit, which had been just before Nina had come back home to live, tests had shown that there was some improvement, but now it seemed to have all gone haywire.

  Unless, Nina thought frantically as she changed the bed sheets for the fourth time and tried to make her stepmother comfortable, there was something else wrong with her.

  The symptoms of the flu that was laying half the village low were there, but Eloise was vomiting violently all the time, and the frantic young doctor had seen patients in the very last stages of cancer in that state.

  Her father was no use. He kept brewing the strong black tea that he swore by and urging, ‘Buck up, old girl. Plenty of fight left in you yet.’

  Dared she ring Rob? Nina asked herself as daylight began to filter through the curtains. Last night he’d sounded as if he was going to opt out for forty-eight hours. How would he react if she were to break into the privacy of his weekend?

  He’s a doctor, for heaven’s sake, she told herself desperately. If Eloise dies and you haven’t sought more experienced help, you’ll never forgive yourself.

  You could ring one of the other doctors, the voice of sweet reason reminded her. But she didn’t want one of them, did she? She wanted Rob to come to Eloise.

  ‘Yes, who is it?’ he said in a voice slurred with sleep when she rang him.

  ‘It’s Nina, Rob.’

  ‘Nina!’ he exploded. ‘For God’s sake! Have you seen the time? Even the birds aren’t up. What the dickens do you want of me at this hour? I would have thought we’d communicated enough during the past week.’

  ‘Rob!’ she protested raggedly. ‘Please, let me get a word in. Eloise is really poorly and I don’t know what I’m dealing with. I can’t tell whether the cancer has escalated or if she’s picked up this dreadful flu bug…or even if there’s something else wrong.’

  There was a moment’s silence and then his voice came through again. This time his quiet decisiveness was there. ‘Give me time to throw on some clothes and I’ll be right with you,’ he said and her legs seemed to turn to jelly with relief.

  But before she could express her gratitude he was saying to someone other than herself, ‘Move over, you lazy creature, while I get out of bed.’

  Her heart sank. So he wasn’t alone. She was dragging him out of bed and it didn’t take much imagination to work out who he was sharing it with.

  ‘Ten minutes, Nina,’ he was saying, and with a grateful word of thanks she slowly replaced the receiver.

  When she heard his step on the stairs Nina took Eloise’s limp hand in hers. ‘Dr Carslake is here, darling,’ she said.

  Her stepmother nodded, too weak to talk, and Nina sent up a silent prayer. Don’t let it be the cancer, she begged of the unseen fates. But if it wasn’t…what was it that was making Eloise so ill?

  Rob’s face was grave when he’d finished examining the sick woman. ‘I’m going to have you admitted to the oncology unit at the hospital, Eloise,’ he said gently. ‘I don’t think it’s the cancer. It’s more likely to be the flu bug that’s going around, but we can’t take any chances. The chemotherapy will have weakened your resistance to infection and, whatever it proves to be that is making you so ill, you’re going to need hospital treatment to get you through this.’

  For once her father had no irritating platitudes to offer, and as they waited for the ambulance to arrive Nina put her arm around his shoulders. At that moment the upright military stance he was so proud of was missing. His was the bowed back of an old and worried man.

  ‘I’ll follow on behind,’ Rob said when Eloise had been carefully stretchered into the vehicle and Nina and her father had climbed in beside her.

  ‘Are you sure?’ his newest member of staff asked in feeble protest. ‘I feel that I’ve already imposed on you enough.’

  The ambulance driver was waiting to close the doors and, without answering her question, Rob said to him, ‘You need to get moving. I’ll be right behind you.’

  It was Saturday afternoon, and the oncology unit had just confirmed that Eloise’s cancer was still stable. It was a bad dose of flu which had made her so ill in her weakened state.

  ‘We’re keeping Mrs Lombard in until her condition improves,’ the consultant told them. ‘It’s going to take time to get her chest and lungs clear and we need to be at hand in case the vomiting starts again, but you can rest easy that the cancer is still behaving itself.’

  As he observed Nina’s white face and took in her father’s unaccustomed docility, he said to Rob, ‘Take these tired people home, Dr Carslake. Mrs Lombard is sleeping. They can come back later.’

  When Nina would have refused, Rob took her arm. ‘Come on, Nina. You’re exhausted. Do as the consultant says.’ Without giving her time to argue, he propelled her out into the corridor.

  On the drive back she said limply, ‘Won’t anyone be wondering where you are? I dragged you out of bed at five o’clock this morning. It’s ages since you left the flat.’

  His eyes were on the road and, without turning his head, he said briefly, ‘Don’t worry about me. Anyone anxious about my whereabouts will have to persist until they find me.’

  Neither of them had actually mentioned a name, yet they both knew who was being discussed. Succumbing to an urge to bring even more gloom into a day that had already had its share, Nina said, ‘At least she knew where you were off to at such an hour. I heard you talking.’

  This time he did take his eyes off the road momentarily. ‘That’s right, you did. You heard me talking to Zacky, my Border terrier, who insists on draping himself across me when I’m in bed.’

  ‘So you weren’t with…’ Her voice trailed away. She was being incredibly nosy and it would serve her right if he told her so.

  ‘Bettine? No, I wasn’t with Bettine,’ he informed her in clipped tones. Neither will I ever be again, he thought grimly, but as yet Nina wasn’t aware that the engagement was over.

  ‘Grateful for your help,’ Peter Lombard mumbled when Rob was about to leave, after taking them home. ‘Above and beyond the call of duty.’

  The two doctors exchanged amused glances and Nina thought gratefully that her father must be rallying if he was back to using army jargon. Better that than the mantle of the geriatric that he’d been wearing ever since Eloise had started to be ill.

  ‘I know I don’t need to ask if you’ll be going back to the hospital later,’ Rob said as she went to the door with him.

  ‘Correct, but I shall insist that Dad stays here. He’s had enough for one day.’

  He nodded in agreement. ‘I’ll take you if you like.’

  It was a tempting offer. His presence and support would be more than welcome, but this man belonged to someone else and Nina was beginning to rely on him too much.

  They hadn’t known each other long, although it didn’t feel like that. Caution was telling her to slow down. But did she want to be cautious?

  She was young, impetuous…and passionate. Certainly not the type to endure the pain and embarrassment of unrequited love, but so far there’d been no sign that the attraction she felt for him was returned.

  ‘Thanks for the offer, but you’ve done enough,’ she told him. ‘The Mini will get me there and I won’t stay long, unless there’s further cause for alarm.’

  Perversely, after refusing his offer, she wanted him to persist, but he didn’t.

  ‘All right, if that’s how you want it,’ he said, ‘but remember that I’m only a short distance away if you need me.’

  ‘I won’t forget,’ she promised, and
as he eased himself into the driving seat and prepared to pull off, Nina wished he would take her back to his quiet flat and hold her close…not so much in passion as in comfort.

  Nina spent what was left of the weekend between the hospital and the house. Rob rang up on Sunday morning to enquire about Eloise, and when she told him that they’d managed to stop the vomiting and that the antibiotics were beginning to take effect he said, ‘So you’re coping?’

  The answer to that was yes and no. She was dealing with any problems as they came along, giving Eloise all the support that she possibly could and taking her father’s idiosyncrasies in her stride, all with commendable calm. Although that was how she would have expected to behave, having fended for herself all the time she’d been at medical school. What wasn’t the same was that she felt miserable, lonely and strangely off balance.

  There wasn’t time to analyse her feelings, which was perhaps as well. Coming to Stepping Dearsley hadn’t been a matter of choice. She’d come because she’d been needed, but every time she had an odd moment to herself Nina thought that it had been a mistake as far as her emotions were concerned.

  The toughie wasn’t as tough as she’d thought. In fact, she was amazed that she could be so vulnerable. Or was it a case of her finding herself hemmed in by a situation that she couldn’t cope with?

  It was the first time she’d ever got herself in a state over a man, and one belonging to someone else at that, but, she consoled herself, it was early days. As she got to know Rob better, the magic might wear off.

  Was there a force at work conspiring to continually bring him into the orbit of his newest member of staff? Rob had asked himself on Saturday evening.

  Having nominated himself as Nina’s trainer, he had to spend time with her in the practice, but the last thing he’d expected had been her phone call in the summer dawn.

  There’d been nothing of the confident young madam about Nina then. Her distress had evoked tenderness in him. She loved the gracious woman who had been the mother figure through her most vulnerable years, and not being able to ease Eloise’s pain and discomfort had driven her to ring him.

  He hadn’t hesitated to go to them, but when the crisis had been sorted out, and he’d returned to the empty flat, Rob had thought bleakly that he had better watch it.

  It had never been a good idea for members of the practice to get romantically involved, although he and Bettine had done so. Mistakenly as it had turned out, and now what was happening?

  A gutsy young female with beautiful green eyes, long legs and a brain had erupted into his life, and what was she? Part of the practice! For how long he didn’t know. Maybe he should encourage her to move on.

  Eloise was home and looking ghastly. She’d been in hospital a week and now, with the flu bug behind her, she had a lot of recuperating to do.

  ‘Why don’t you both have a holiday?’ Nina suggested anxiously. ‘Some sun and sea air is what you need. I think a convalescent home would be the ideal place if we can find one where Dad can stay, too.’

  ‘I’d like that, my dear,’ her stepmother said wistfully. ‘I’ll ask Peter to sort something out. But what about you? Are you sure you won’t be lonely on your own? I’m well aware that you’re used to a much livelier life than this.’

  Nina smiled. ‘Don’t worry about me. You’re the one that matters. I was beside myself when you were so ill.’

  ‘Yes, I know you were,’ Eloise said softly. ‘Rob Carslake told me when he came to see me.’

  ‘When was that?’ she asked in surprise. He’d never mentioned having been to the hospital after that first night.

  ‘He came in a couple of times. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.’

  That makes two of us, Nina thought glumly. Maybe he was afraid that she might have suggested they go together if she’d known. Because ever since those comforting moments when he’d rushed to her side Rob had kept her at arm’s length, and it hurt…a lot.

  Peter and Eloise acted on Nina’s suggestion and went to stay in a convalescent home on the Fylde coast for two weeks, leaving Nina alone in the big white house at the end of the village.

  The days were taken care of, with not a moment to spare, but the nights were a void to be got through and every evening she found herself making her way to the Gun and Target.

  Now, as she skirted the square where the art gallery was, it was with the knowledge that its owner was back home after her stay in hospital.

  And further along the main street, behind lace curtains, Ethel Platt was content to know that there was nothing seriously wrong with her. The blood in her urine was merely an infection that should clear with a course of antibiotics. Nevertheless, she had still added a codicil to her will.

  Gavin was always waiting with drinks at the ready when she got to the busy pub, and even though Nina wasn’t interested in anything other than a chat she had to admit that he was good company.

  ‘How did the antenatal clinic go?’ he asked on the Friday night after her parents had left for the coast.

  ‘Not too bad for a trainee,’ she told him casually.

  The previous Monday’s antenatal clinic, when she should have assisted Bettine for the first time, hadn’t materialised. Rob had told her to give it a miss as he’d known that with Eloise hospitalised Nina would want to spend every possible moment with her, and having the afternoon free had meant extra time together.

  But with her stepmother making a slow recovery, she’d been expected to make up for lost time, and had presented herself to Bettine and the mothers-to-be on Monday afternoon with a cool confidence that she’d hoped wouldn’t falter.

  One of the local midwives had been assisting and the health visitor had been expected some time during the clinic to help with day-to-day problems, healthwise or domestic, in the lives of the women assembled there.

  The clinic had been held in the room normally used by the practice nurses, and when Nina had gone in she’d found that all had been in readiness. A plentiful supply of paper sheets had been on hand and the necessary equipment for an antenatal clinic laid out beside them, with dressing forceps, slides, lubricant and vaginal speculums well to the fore.

  The midwife gave her a welcoming smile and Bettine greeted her amiably enough, but the temperature dropped somewhat when Rob appeared briefly and asked, ‘You all right, Nina? Ready for the fray?’

  She flashed him a version of the confident smile she’d been displaying and said, ‘Yes. Everything’s fine, thanks.’ Wishing it was the truth.

  Everything wasn’t fine. Bearable was a better description. He was still the same pleasant, briskly efficient overseer of her training that he’d been in the beginning, but she sensed that he preferred her in small doses, and because of the structure of the practice it wasn’t always possible to limit their contact.

  That being so, he was adopting an attitude of cool reserve to keep her at bay and, determined not to let him see how much it rankled, she was doing likewise.

  The strange thing was that he was just as aloof with Bettine. There were no displays of affection, and she wondered how solid the engagement was. The other woman’s ringless hand might have answered that question, but it never occurred to Nina to look.

  There were ten mothers-to-be attending the clinic, all in various stages of pregnancy. Not a bad count for a country village, she supposed, and thought mischievously that maybe in rural areas they had more time for the activities that brought about pregnancy.

  She’d noticed that there were quite a few children in the village with hair of a dark reddish gold. They were all from different families and Nina wondered if any of these women would produce a red-haired child.

  Perhaps one of the fathers had wanderlust, she thought in wicked amusement, or maybe it was something in the soil!

  ‘Two of the mothers-to-be are new patients,’ Bettine explained. ‘We’ll see them first.’

  They took one each and, before asking them to undress, went into all details of their medical histories, pa
ying special attention to any previous obstetric experiences.

  It was the second child for the young mother that Nina dealt with and she was apprehensive. ‘I had a long and painful labour the first time and ended up having a Caesarean section,’ she said worriedly. ‘Do you think it will be the same again, Doctor?’

  ‘I can’t say until I’ve examined you,’ Nina told her. ‘If you have a small pelvis that prevents the baby from being born freely, maybe a Caesarean section will be recommended before you get involved in a long labour.’

  ‘Let’s hope so,’ the nervous patient said. ‘We don’t want any more children after this, so not being able to have a natural birth won’t bother me.’

  Nina nodded understandingly and with a reassuring smile asked the woman to go into the cubicle and undress. When she reappeared, wearing an examination robe, the young doctor examined her internally, checking the pelvic organs and the vagina for proof that the woman was pregnant.

  She then did a cervical smear test and followed it by carefully checking the size of the pelvis.

  ‘Your pelvis is small,’ she told the patient. ‘That would have been the cause of your problems last time. We’ll keep a close watch on the size of the baby all through the pregnancy and it’s possible that as you get to the end we’ll have to recommend a Caesarean section. But don’t worry now. Plenty of time before we get to that.’

  Bettine had been hovering, having dispensed with her patient far more quickly, and when the woman left she said, ‘So you have had some experience in antenatal care?’

  ‘Yes,’ Nina replied, and waited for what was to come next, but if she’d been expecting a pat on the back it wasn’t forthcoming.

  For the rest of the women, who were well into their pregnancies, it was a matter of checking blood pressures, taking urine samples and weighing, and for those who were complaining of breathlessness, because of the weight they were carrying, the advice to prop themselves up in bed.

  The health visitor arrived halfway through the clinic and saw each patient in turn. When the last one had gone on her way and Bettine had disappeared without comment, the midwife had said, ‘How’s it gone, Nina?’