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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.
Charlotte decided to move into the retail sector, and with her perfect skin and stunning face she found employment with Dior in Harrods. After three weeks, and with enough skin-care purchases to open her own salon, she decided that standing all day was not her cup of tea, so she travelled abroad for two years, all paid for by her generous stepfather. George didn’t question why she needed to travel first class and stay in five-star accommodation in order to ‘find herself.’ It wasn’t worth the argument and days of silence that would follow. Hattie had set Charlotte’s standards very high and George had grown accustomed to covering it all.
Finally, Charlotte returned from Paris and announced she was launching a career as an event planner. Beth felt enormously sorry for any poor brides who used her services for the entire planning process would no doubt centre around Charlotte and the brides would come in a poor second. Beth certainly knew how that felt.
Beth had tolerated Hattie and Charlotte but she was a little tired of hearing about Charlotte’s accomplishments when her own top marks at school and later in medical school seemed to go unnoticed. When Beth graduated, she enjoyed a nice lunch with her father but that was it. There was no family celebration. She knew that Hattie was demanding and her father was trying his best to keep her happy by doing everything he could for his stepdaughter, but it hurt to be ignored.
She wanted a life where she wasn’t last in line for pretty much everything. She didn’t want expensive trips overseas, neither did she expect to be the child favoured by her father, but equal now and then would have been nice. It became unbearable the year after graduation. Charlotte was never happy, Hattie was always complaining and George was always busy trying desperately to appease them both. Beth had endured enough so she applied for a medical exchange to Australia.
In her heart, she knew her father had been proud of her over the years, and although he never said a lot around his new wife he often smiled and gave Beth an encouraging pat on her shoulder. The warm hugs she’d received him when she’d been a small child had disappeared when the ice queen had moved in. Beth had learnt to be her own best friend, and not expect any praise for her efforts, but it made her miss her mother even more.
Tucking the quilt up to her face, she snuggled in the warmth of her bed. She was happy to have a much-needed break from her step-family. Maybe the incorrigible Dr Harrison would be both a challenge and a distraction, she reflected. And maybe, given time, her father might even miss her.
Beth thought back to the timing of Matthew’s apology. When she’d reacted badly to the addict, he could have berated her for allowing her emotions to come into play at work, reminding her of the need to remain detached, but he had chosen not to. Instead, he’d offered compassion and an apology. Beth suspected that hidden within the aloof Dr Harrison was a kind heart. He was obviously complicated, but that didn’t faze Beth. He was also a complex man but so handsome and charismatic. In fact, lying in the warmth of her bed, Beth admitted to herself she was a little infatuated with him.
Then her practical nature reminded her starry-eyed side that it was a little too soon to think about him in a romantic way. She still had a career to get on track and a relationship wasn’t really in her plans. It hadn’t ever been. The endless study hours she had put in to make the grade in medical school had ruined any chance of long-term romance. She had dated a fellow medical student in her second year but with the heavy study load and part-time jobs they’d both had, it had fizzled out after a few months. The times they had slept together had been awkward and the earth had never moved for Beth.
It hadn’t been a heartbreaking decision to end it, as there had been no passion or real love. It had been a friendship that had crossed the line, and in hindsight they’d both admitted they were better as friends.
Beth had returned to her books, focused on being a doctor, and put love on hold. And now here she was, alone in the darkness of her room, entertaining the crazy idea of romance with a man as complicated as Dr Harrison. With his charisma and confidence she doubted there would be anything awkward about his bedside manner.
Beth smiled wickedly at that thought then plumped up her pillow and turned over once again. She drifted off to sleep wondering what punishment awaited Tom for leaving his little sister alone. It definitely wouldn’t be pleasant when his parents finally caught up with him.
Morning came too quickly, bringing with it the shrill sound of the alarm. Wearily Beth climbed from bed, showered and prepared for her second day at the Memorial.
It wasn’t by chance she chose to wear a slim navy skirt and soft wrap blouse of pale blue. She draped a soft cotton cardigan over her shoulders as the weather seemed slightly cooler than yesterday. Beth tried to convince herself that the extra attention to details had nothing to do with a certain A and E consultant. After all, she was very serious about her job and definitely not wanting to flirt.
Up until now she had always had an aversion to unpredictable men and equally she had never experienced any thrill in speed. But during her drive home last night, she’d found herself warming to both. And this morning she was surprised by the excitement she felt at the prospect of seeing Dr Harrison again. It was crazy and she knew it but there was something about the man that gave her butterflies. He had gone out of his way to take her home, and she wondered if there might have been more to it than just being polite. She liked the way he made her feel. He had asked her questions on the drive home and he had listened. She doubted it had been paying lip service, he’d seemed genuinely interested. But he was so handsome and she had seen his date.
As she sat in her sunroom enjoying her breakfast, reason was fighting her romantic thoughts when she suddenly spied the focus of her daydreams. Through the lace-draped window she watched Matthew striding purposefully up the garden path of her maisonette. Even more astonishing was the enormous bouquet of flowers in his arms.
She wiped her mouth with a napkin as her mind ran the gamut of emotions. Control yourself, Beth, she thought folding the napkin with shaking hands. You’re a grown woman, so show some degree of reserve. You have to play hard to get, her pride reminded her, but all the while her heart raced as she thought anxiously about the possibility of Matthew Harrison having feelings for her. She had never thought it was possible to feel this way about a man so soon after meeting him. Beaming, she crossed to open the door just as he knocked.
‘Good morning,’ she greeted him.
‘Lovely morning, isn’t it?’
‘Perfect,’ she replied, trying to keep her eyes from blatantly admiring the gorgeous blooms.
‘These are for you.’
‘They’re beautiful, but you shouldn’t have,’ she said as she took the flowers.
‘I didn’t,’ he said, stepping back with a frown knitting his brow. ‘The parents of the hit-and-run girl sent them to my office for you and I decided to bring them over. There’s really no room for them in A and E,’ he announced casually.
Beth was overcome with embarrassment. She wanted to fall between the cracks of the floorboards. She couldn’t believe what she had said. Quickly she tried to cover her complete and utter humiliation. ‘I meant you shouldn’t have gone out of your way to bring them round. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d better get ready for work.’
Beth couldn’t believe for a split second she had actually thought that the head of A and E would bring her flowers. She had bought into her own daydreams. How stupid could she be? She had only started at the hospital the day before and after one kind gesture of driving her home she’d gone and stupidly thought her boss was interested. Really, Beth, she berated herself, you have just made a complete fool of yourself.
Realising Matthew must have seen through her pitiful cover-up, she turned away. She had to hide the mortification she knew would be written all over her face. She reached for the handle to close the door, but Matthew’s leather-clad foot stopped her.
* * *
To be honest, Matthew didn’t know why he had gone out of his way to deliver the flowers. There would have been somewhere to store them but something about this woman made him want to see her outside work. He hadn’t felt this way in years and now he was close to her he was struggling with his feelings. It was unnerving and he decided quickly that he shouldn’t be there. He couldn’t afford to be there. He was relieved when his head took control over his heart and forced him to be brutal. He had been shut down emotionally for years and he had no intention of ever opening up.
‘Listen, Beth, I think we should get something straight right here and now. I’m still not convinced about this whole exchange programme. If I have anything to do with it, you will be the last. There is nothing personal in this decision but if I had been successful with the board you would not have made it out here. I stopped the exchange programme at the Western Hills Hospital in Sydney a few years back and I intend to do the same here at Eastern.’
Beth opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the not-too-distant noise of screeching brakes, followed by the unmistakable and sickening sound of metal buckling and glass splintering.
‘Looks like we’ve started work early this morning,’ he said, heading down the path and looking in the direction of the accident. ‘We can finish this talk later if I haven’t made myself clear enough.’
Pushing her humiliation aside, Beth hurriedly reached for her keys and locked the front door while Matthew grabbed his mobile phone from the car. Together they ran down to the end of the street to where two cars had collided. It was a mess, with debris strewn all over the intersection and no sign of movement from within the compacted sedans. Beth feared the worst. Even though she had trained in A and E in London, and she had requested the same when she’d transferred, she still hadn’t quite learnt to handle the feeling of dread in her stomach at times like this.
‘I’ll check the silver car. You do the blue,’ he said as he raced to the car wedged between a lamp post and a large eucalyptus gum tree.
Beth looked both ways, and crossed the road to the blue hatchback. She peered inside to find the single occupant lying back against the driver’s seat.
‘What have you got over there, Beth?’ she heard Matthew call out.
‘Single female occupant, unconscious.’
‘Ditto,’ he called back. ‘I’ll call for two ambulances.’
Beth tugged at the driver’s door in vain. In desperation she ran to the passenger side, to find it locked also. She tore off her cardigan and looked around on the ground for something hard. Half a discarded brick from a house under construction lay nearby. Reaching for it, Beth covered the window with the knitted top then smashed the glass. Thankfully it was an older model car with manual door locks so she reached inside carefully and unlocked the door.
The woman, who Beth guessed to be in her early twenties, was unconscious and bleeding profusely from a head wound. There was no time to be lost.
Sweeping away the broken glass from the seat with her cardigan, Beth struggled with the restrictions of her tight skirt as she climbed across to find a pulse. Albeit faint, to her relief it was present and, as far as she could ascertain, regular. Untucking her own blouse, Beth used the hem to put pressure on the gash across the woman’s forehead and continued at intervals to check her vital signs until the sirens of the ambulances became audible.
She wondered what Matthew had met with in the other car. As the paramedics neared the car she reached over and unlocked the driver’s side door and undid the woman’s seat belt.
‘Suspected neck or spinal injures so we need a neck brace in place before the victim can be moved,’ Beth informed the men. One paramedic retrieved a brace from the ambulance while the other released the woman’s feet from the twisted pedals.
‘Head injuries only?’ he asked.
‘As far as I can make out... Hell!’ she cursed as she noticed the woman’s skin become clammy and her pulse begin to race. She felt down to the woman’s abdomen. It was now rigid.
‘What’s wrong?’ the paramedic demanded.
‘Where’s the brace?’ she called out, but it was already on hand. Carefully she slipped it around the victim’s neck. ‘We may not have a lot of time. I suspect internal bleeding.’
Expeditiously the patient was lifted from the mangled vehicle and placed on the raised stretcher. Beth climbed from the car and raced over to the ambulance.
‘I want her on oxygen, and saline IV.’
‘I can travel with her to the Eastern,’ came a low voice from behind them.
