The Elusive Doctor Read online

  From what she’d seen of Rob, she’d imagined that he would have had similar feelings, but it didn’t appear to be so. Yet he and Bettine were both doctors. For heaven’s sake! If anybody knew about the birds and the bees, they should.

  So shattered had she been at the news that the excellent repair to the staircase had almost gone unnoticed. She’d given it a cursory glance and then rushed past to throw herself dejectedly on to the bed.

  The only bright moment in the evening that followed had been a phone call from Eloise to say that she was feeling much better, which had made Nina’s heart lift.

  She’d told Eloise about the ornaments being broken, and her stepmother had said characteristically, ‘Don’t worry, darling. It’s unfortunate, but I’m pleased to know that you weren’t sitting around moping. With what is going on in my life at the present, a few pieces of coloured glass are the last things I’m going to fret about.’

  Nina had wanted to tell her that if she hadn’t been moping then, she was now, but that was something else Eloise shouldn’t have to worry about—her stepdaughter’s flights of fancy. As that was all her expectations with regard to Rob and herself had been.

  When she reached the city limits the noise of the traffic was deafening, to such an extent that she was amazed. Being in it every day in the past, she’d scarcely noticed it, but in the last few weeks she’d got used to the quieter, more spacious countryside, hadn’t she?

  Was that why the adrenaline wasn’t flowing faster? Or was it the gloom that had settled on her the previous day that was spoiling the pleasure of being back in her natural habitat?

  It might not be London, but it was a big and bustling place, and as Nina looked around for a parking spot she told herself firmly that the sooner she was away from the countryside the better.

  But Eloise came first. She would be prepared to vegetate on a desert island, let alone in a pretty country village, rather than that her stepmother should need her and she wasn’t there.

  They were a pleasant enough crowd on the course. Most of them were of a similar age to herself with a few older graduates amongst them. She was amused to find that the general feeling was of relief to be away for a few hours from the busy practices where they were employed.

  Not for the same reason as herself, though. She could cope with the job. It was her gullibility that was the problem. Letting herself get into a state of frustrated longing over a man. Who was about to father a child. That, in her book, made him as out of reach as the sun in the sky. A diamond ring on the finger was one thing. A foetus in the womb another.

  As she slid into a seat behind one of the desks in the lecture hall she thought with grim humour that maybe Bettine would be one of her patients at the clinic next week, sitting meekly amongst the other mothers-to-be.

  It wasn’t likely, though, was it? That one knew enough to treat herself, although on the face of it she wasn’t all that well informed about contraception, unless getting pregnant had been deliberate. And meek? Not the confident Dr Baker.

  For the rest of the day she worked, looking, listening and learning, with the loose ends of her life temporarily receding.

  When a group of her fellow trainees asked her to join them at one of the city’s café bars in the early evening she accepted without hesitation, telling herself that this was what she was short of—city life.

  It was like it had always been. She was the liveliest one in the party until it was time to say goodbye until the following week and point her red Mini towards rural life once more. It was then that her bounce deserted her.

  The hours had gone quickly and it was close on midnight when she turned into the drive of her parents’ house. When she got out of the car the stillness of the night was all around her and Nina felt tears prick.

  Life and soul of the party she might have been in the crowded bar, but it was in this place that her heart was.

  As she was putting her key in the lock Rob’s voice spoke from nearby, and as she swung round, startled, she saw the outline of him in the shadowed garden.

  He was standing beside a rustic bench, and as she began to walk towards him he said, ‘This seat isn’t the most comfortable thing I’ve ever sat on. I was beginning to think if you didn’t come soon I’d be getting saddle-sore.’

  ‘What are you doing here at this time of night?’ Nina breathed. ‘Not checking up on me again, are you?’

  She saw him shake his head in the dim light. ‘Not exactly. When I was out walking Zacky earlier I saw that the house was in darkness, but I managed to work out for myself that you’d been lured by the city lights and had stayed on. Correct?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said flatly. ‘Except that it all turned out to be something of a damp squib.’

  She was getting accustomed to the gloom and could see his face more clearly now. He looked puzzled. ‘I’m not with you.’

  ‘It was noisy and busy and…I found myself missing this place.’

  Rob laughed. ‘Well! I never thought I’d live to see the day when you had fond thoughts of…What was it you called it—this “rural backwater”?’

  That was before I’d met you, she wanted to cry, but the time for that was past.

  Instead, she said casually, ‘Maybe I’ve changed my mind, but getting back to what I asked you. If you weren’t checking up on me, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your pregnant ex-partner?’

  ‘Er…no,’ he said calmly.

  ‘No?’ she echoed angrily. ‘You have a strange set of values. Surely Bettine’s pregnancy changes everything. The engagement might be off, but the aftermath of it is there.’

  If Nina had expected that to bring forth a positive response, she was disappointed.

  ‘Could I get a word in, please?’ he said equably. When she nodded grimly, he went on, ‘As far as I’m concerned it’s over.’

  ‘What?’ she cried. ‘You’re despicable. You’ve dumped her!’

  ‘I called it off before I knew Bettine was pregnant,’ he reminded her in the same mild tone.

  ‘Pull the other leg,’ she said mockingly.

  ‘I’m not in the habit of lying, Nina,’ he retaliated, and now his voice wasn’t so calm. ‘At the time I was surprised at the way she took the news. She wasn’t upset that I wanted to finish it. Bettine was more put out at the thought of being pitied or made to look a fool. In other words, it was her pride that she was bothered about.’

  ‘Especially with a child inside her,’ Nina said drily. ‘So what are you going to do?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘You can’t just do nothing,’ she protested. ‘You’ve got to face up to your responsibilities.’

  Nina couldn’t believe it was happening. She was telling him what he had to do. Criticising his motives! Lecturing him on how to behave!

  Rob’s face was sombre in the darkness.

  ‘The reason I’m about to do nothing is because I’m not involved. I’m not the father.’

  She was rocking on her feet, holding onto one of the porch supports as if her life depended on it.

  ‘How can you be sure?’ she gasped.

  ‘How do you think? Because I’ve never slept with her. Prude though I might appear to be, I do have values, and if after that confession you still think them to be strange, too bad. It’s clear that my ex-fiancée must have seen them in that light, and she dealt with what she saw as my shortcomings by sleeping with a local farmer.’

  As she goggled at him, speechless, he went on, ‘You remember the first visit I took you on? The old man with Parkinson’s disease? Bettine has been sleeping with his son. He’s the father of her child.’

  ‘Why are you telling me all this?’ Nina asked into the silence that had fallen when he’d finished speaking.

  Hope was leaping inside her, the future a pathway they would walk together.

  ‘I wanted you to know exactly what the situation is. In other words, I want no more loose ends in my life. Bettine’s deceit has left a very nasty taste in my mouth. I’m t
he one who’s been made to look a fool, not her, but, unlike my ex-fiancée, I can take it.

  ‘I came here to tell you that I don’t want you getting any wrong ideas about me after Saturday night. It was a one-off. As I said to you before, I’ve already had a bad relationship with one member of the practice and don’t want another.’

  ‘And as I remarked on that occasion, you’re tarring me with the same brush as Bettine,’ she choked.

  ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’

  ‘No? That’s what it sounded like. Well, you’ve no need to worry about me making a nuisance of myself from now on. The moment I can be sure that it’s all right to leave Eloise I’m off…and, in the meantime, don’t be so quick to diagnose what ails me. I’m not in love with you,’ she lied, ‘so you can relax. A night on the town with people of my own age made me see that.’

  She heard his quick intake of breath but his voice was still calm as he said stiffly, ‘Fair enough. Maybe now we’ll be able to have the sort of relationship that a doctor should have with a trainee.’

  ‘I’m sure that we will,’ she promised sweetly, and before she disgraced herself by bursting into tears Nina turned the key in the lock and catapulted herself into the house.

  The weeks after the midnight revelation passed uneventfully, except for one thing. Bettine Baker changed her name to Blackmore by marrying the father of the child she was carrying.

  Nina heard one of the receptionists say that if it hadn’t been for the hall he mightn’t have been so willing, which made her think that they sounded a well-matched pair.

  Bettine was still working in the practice. If the staff had thought that it might make for awkwardness, Rob and his ex-fiancée being thrown together on the job, his detached, cool politeness whenever they were in each other’s company soon created an atmosphere devoid of rancour or embarrassment.

  What his feelings really were with regard to Bettine no one knew, but it was noticed that he was absorbing himself in the practice even more than usual, was rarely seen out socially and that he looked tired and out of sorts.

  His trainee didn’t look much better, but as she wasn’t of such interest to everyone as the no-longer-engaged senior partner, Nina’s lack of zest went unnoticed by everyone but her stepmother.

  Eloise had come back from her convalescence looking much better. She’d put on a little weight, her hair was growing again in a short boyish pelt and the sun and sea air had turned her pale skin to gold.

  ‘You look lovely!’ Nina had cried thankfully when she saw her.

  As they’d hugged each other in the joy of reunion Eloise had said softly, ‘And what about my girl? How have things been with you? Are you still eating your heart out for the handsome doctor who’s promised to another?’

  ‘Not now he isn’t,’ she’d said flatly. ‘Rob found that his fiancée was pregnant by another man, and that was the end of that.’

  Eloise’s eyes had widened. ‘So he’s free!’

  Nina’s sigh had told her that it wasn’t that simple. ‘He’s keeping his feelings under wraps, but he’s made it quite clear that he’s not in the market for a new model…such as yours truly.’

  ‘So do we treat that as an ultimatum, or do we deduce that the delightful Robert protests too much?’ her stepmother had asked.

  ‘I’d put my money on the ultimatum theory,’ Nina had told her, ‘if his attitude towards me since it all came out into the open is anything to go by. He doesn’t exactly treat me as if I’ve got the plague, but he’s making sure I realize that he’s out of bounds—for the likes of me, anyway.’

  Eloise had known better than to try to comfort her with platitudes. She knew that the stepdaughter she loved was hurting…hurting badly. Nina had never been really in love before and she was finding the experience hard to handle, especially as she and Rob were teamed up at the practice, but it was something that she had to work through herself. No one else could do it for her.

  As Bettine’s pregnancy became more obvious by the day, Rob knew that his attitude was puzzling those around him. They must think him a cold fish to be accepting it so calmly, he thought with grim amusement.

  Only he and the delectable young Nina knew that it had been over for him before Bettine’s duplicity had come to light, and that his only regret was in not having finished with her sooner.

  With regard to Nina, he was aware that her light had gone out and that he was in some degree to blame, but for the moment he wasn’t prepared to do anything about it.

  That night in the garden she’d questioned his integrity, and he’d had to explain the facts. It had been with reluctance as his private life was his own, but there had been no way he’d wanted her to think badly of him.

  And so what had he done? Redeemed himself in one aspect of the messy business and then blighted their friendship by warning her off.

  She’d retaliated by telling him that she didn’t care for him and, although it had been what he’d wanted her to say, it had been a fitting finale to the worst few days of his life.

  He was aware that Gavin was after her, and every time he saw the man hovering around Nina, Rob felt like telling the shallow charmer to lay off.

  But having made it so clear that there wasn’t going to be anything between Nina and himself, there wasn’t a great deal he could do about it, except warn her.

  His mouth twisted at the thought. It wasn’t hard to imagine what sort of a reception that would get. ‘Mind your own business’ and ‘Get out of my space’ were two comments that came to mind.

  If their personal relationship was a ragged sort of thing, not so their work in the practice. She was going to be a good doctor. Clever, confident and keen, he could rarely fault her.

  He often thought wryly that the Bettine business had been good for the practice in that both he and Nina were so work-orientated these days that the other three partners had to run to keep up with them.

  On a cool autumn morning a call came for them to visit the farmhouse that had been the setting for their first visit together on the day Nina had joined the practice.

  As the car pulled out onto the hill road where the farm lay she eyed him warily. ‘Wouldn’t it have been better for one of the others to have taken this call?’

  Rob shook his head. ‘No. Tom Blackmore is my patient. The fact that his son impregnated my eager-beaver fiancée has no bearing on my commitment to his father.’

  His voice was clipped and cold. She wanted to reach out and hold him. Tell him that she was aching for him all the time. But what he’d said that night in the darkened garden had left its mark. No way could she face being cut down to size again.

  There were no freshly baked scones waiting for them today. Mary opened the door to them with a face pinched with anxiety.

  ‘Thank you for coming, Dr Carslake,’ she said, flustered at the sight of the man who had once been engaged to her new daughter-in-law. ‘I hoped that it would be you that came to see Tom, but I suppose we couldn’t blame you if you’d sent one of the others.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Mary,’ he said quietly. ‘Just tell me what the problem is. Is he worse?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes. He seems to be, but I called you out because he had a fall this morning. Tom was shuffling along like he does to the bathroom. Usually I’m there to help him, but he must have taken it into his head to go without me and he tripped over his dressing-gown cord which was trailing along the floor.’

  Rob was already making for the stairs. ‘He’s in bed, I take it?’ he said over his shoulder.

  ‘Yes. I don’t know how I managed to get him there, but I did. He’s banged his head badly and is in a lot of pain with his wrist. It looks out of shape. I think it might be broken.’

  As they went up the stairs, with Rob leading the way, Nina bringing up the rear and the farmer’s wife sandwiched between, the young doctor was wondering where the new bridegroom-cum-father-to-be was.

  For Rob’s sake she hoped he didn’t turn up while they were there. But woul
d it matter if he did? The only comforting thing about the present state of affairs was that the man who was hurrying across to the big double bed with sudden urgency seemed to have no regrets about the disruption of his marriage plans.

  ‘What is it?’ Mary Blackmore cried as Rob bent over the sick man. ‘What’s wrong?’

  By the time she reached Rob’s side she could see for herself, and so could Nina. The farmer’s eyes were gazing sightlessly up at the ceiling. His lips were blue and there was a film of froth on them.

  As Rob felt the pulses in his neck and wrist he shook his head. ‘He’s gone, Mary,’ he said gravely. ‘How long is it since you left him?’

  ‘Twenty minutes at the most,’ she whispered tearfully.

  ‘The fall did it, I imagine,’ he told her as he examined the huge bruise on the dead man’s temple.

  His wife was weeping, great racking sobs, and as Nina held her close and tried to comfort her she surprised them both by saying, ‘There’s grief in me. We’ve been married forty-two years, but there’s relief, too, that he’s been taken. Tom has had no life for the past few years and it could have gone on and on.’

  ‘Where are your sons?’ Rob asked when they went downstairs again. ‘Do they know about the fall?’

  She shook her head. ‘The two youngest are out in the pastures…and, as you know, Keith lives up at the hall now. Although, knowing him, he’ll be engaged in the farm’s business somewhere.’

  Rob’s face was devoid of expression as he said, ‘Perhaps you’d like to phone the hall, Nina. If he’s there ask him to come straight away.’

  She nodded obediently. Of all the families to be involved with in such a manner, it had to be this one, she thought as she picked up the phone.

  Miles answered, and when she asked for Keith she was in luck. ‘Just a sec,’ Bettine’s brother said. ‘I’ll get him for you.’

  There was silence after she’d imparted the sad news and then the farmer’s oldest son barked, ‘I’ll be right over.’ And that was that.

  When she went back into the farmhouse kitchen it was to find that the younger Blackmores had come in for elevenses. The look on their mother’s face and the presence of the two doctors were warning enough of what was to come.