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Zoe frowned. ‘You said he was OK. What makes you think he’s a louse?’
‘Because he’s married.’ Judith fiddled with her glass. ‘Why else would he smell of baby sick?’
‘Because you work in the maternity unit perhaps?’ Holly asked. ‘You’re jumping to conclusions, Jude.’
‘You should have brought him to lunch with you.’ Zoe grinned. ‘I’d have asked him for you.’
Judith rolled her eyes. ‘I know you would, Hurricane Zoe! Anyway, he said he had things to do.’
‘Which doesn’t have anything to do with being married. You can be single and have things to do,’ Holly pointed out.
‘Jude, if he’s nice and you like him—go for it,’ Zoe said.
‘You’re barely back from honeymoon and you’ve still got your rosy glasses on,’ Judith said, patting her hand. ‘It’s so not going to happen.’ Zoe and Holly had been her best friends for years. They knew the score where Judith and men were concerned: it just didn’t work. Judith had spent her time at med school studying rather than socialising—gaining a reputation as an ice maiden in the meantime. Which meant the nice men had been scared off, and the only ones who approached her now saw her as a challenge to be conquered and then boasted about.
So nowadays Judith settled for friendship. And as for the awareness that had prickled down her spine when Kieran had shaken her hand…well, she’d just have to learn to ignore it. Because nothing was going to happen between them.
Was it?
CHAPTER TWO (#uba938989-ee7d-59e0-b661-d31b7dad8fe1)
BY FRIDAY, Kieran felt as if he’d been working at London City General all his life. Everyone on the ward was friendly, Bella was the kind of boss who trusted you to get on with your job and see her if you had a problem, and even Tess seemed to be settling a little more at home—at least, she hadn’t cried as much as usual that morning before he’d left, and he’d managed to get to work on time ever since Monday.
The only sticking point was Judith Powell.
Because he couldn’t get her out of his head. Her smile, her voice, the vanilla scent of her perfume: they filled his senses. The back of his neck started to tingle the moment she walked into a room.
He knew from hearing the midwives teasing her about being married to her job that she was single. Which meant she wasn’t really off limits. Except…she was the daughter of his former boss. She was his colleague at work. There was Tess to consider. So, although he was tempted, it would be way, way too complicated if he started seeing Judith—even if she wanted to start seeing him, which was by no means a definite.
But sometimes when they were having a case conference he caught her eye. And the flicker of a smile that said, maybe. Or was that just his imagination? Was it just that the pull was so strong for him, he wanted it to be the same for her? That same urge to reach out and touch. Taste. Kiss.
‘Just the man I wanted to see,’ Margot said, breaking into his thoughts. ‘You’re going to buy a ticket for our fundraiser, aren’t you?’
‘Fundraiser?’
‘Jude’s Wednesday night music club.’
He frowned. ‘Jude? Our Jude?’
Margot nodded. ‘Oh, come on. Don’t say you haven’t heard about Jude’s singing. She’s…’ She stopped, and grinned. ‘Well, you can buy a ticket and hear for yourself.’
‘Jude sings?’ he queried.
‘Yes. And we get a third of the profits.’
So who got the other two-thirds? The question must have been written all over his face because Margot added hastily, ‘Paeds gets a third and ED gets a third, too. It’s a joint fundraiser with them. Jude does it every month.’
‘Right.’
‘Even if you don’t come, you can still buy a ticket. It’s for a good cause.’
How could he resist the idea of seeing Judith Powell outside the hospital? ‘Sure. When is it?’
‘Next Wednesday, at the hospital social club. There’s food as well. Zoe Hutton in Paeds makes the best cheese straws in London, and her brownies are to die for.’
Social club. Maybe, just maybe…A lightbulb flicked on in the back of his head. ‘Is it limited to just staff?’
‘No, you can bring a friend. Or a partner.’ Margot gave him a curious look.
Kieran didn’t particularly want to explain about Tess—if he did persuade her to come, the last thing she needed was to think that people were gossiping about her. But maybe a night out would do his baby sister good. Teach her that although she’d loved Aidan desperately and he’d let her down in the worst way, there was still a world outside. A world with people who’d be kinder than her ex. His next-door neighbour, Rosemary, would look after Charlie for them—she’d been keeping half an eye on Tess for him while he was at work.
Though if it meant glamming up, Tess would probably run a mile. He’d have enough of a job persuading her to put on some lipstick. Since Aidan had dumped her, Tess hadn’t seen the point in a lot of things. ‘How dressy is it?’
‘Comfortable. Smart casual,’ Margot said.
He might be able to persuade her, then. ‘Put me down for two tickets,’ he said with a smile.
‘So you’re bringing your partner?’ Margot asked.
He chuckled. ‘Honestly. Midwives must be the nosiest bunch going!’
‘Well, if you will be secretive,’ she teased back.
His smile faded. He wasn’t secretive. Just protecting his little sister. ‘Yeah, well,’ he said, and paid up.
Later that morning, Judith rapped on the door of Kieran’s office. ‘Got a minute?’
‘Sure.’ More than a minute, where she was concerned.
But this was a professional question. It deserved a professional answer. ‘What’s up?’
‘I’ve just had a mum admitted—Pippa Harrowven. She’s thirty-five weeks. She rang her midwife because she wasn’t feeling well, and the midwife sent her straight here. I’ve examined her and I’m not happy. Her temperature’s up, her heart rate’s up and so is the baby’s. She’s feeling sick but not actually vomiting, she says it hurts to pee and when I examined her there was some muscle guarding—I think it’s more than just cystitis.’
‘Has anyone done an MSU?’
A mid-stream urine sample could tell them if Pippa had an infection and what had caused it. ‘Yes—I’ve sent it to the lab for culture and sensitivity tests. Her urine’s cloudy, but when Daisy tested it, it wasn’t acid, so it’s not E. coli.’
‘Are you thinking acute pyelonephritis?’ Kieran asked.
She nodded. ‘I was. Except it’s not E. coli, so that rules it out.’
‘Not necessarily. I know E. coli accounts for eight-five per cent of cases, but it could be three or four other organisms, including Klebsiella and Proteus,’ he reminded her. ‘Any other symptoms?’
‘She’s complaining of pain and tenderness around the loins, and it seems to be following the path of the ureters. She said it started last night and it’s just got a lot worse.’
Kieran nodded. ‘It sounds very like acute pyelonephritis.’
‘I’ve asked Daisy to do her obs, and keep an eye on her temperature and pulse. But if it is pyelonephritis, we’re talking possible problems with growth and preterm labour, aren’t we?’
‘Yes.’ Kieran couldn’t figure it out. Judith had reached a diagnosis, and from what she’d told him it sounded like the correct one. So why was she still so unsure? She was the daughter of an obstetric professor. She must have grown up hearing obstetric terms bandied about the house—so surely she should be too confident, if anything.
Unless she’d once been overconfident and had made the kind of mistake that made you question every action for a very, very long time afterwards. And Bella had said that Judith didn’t want to work with her father. Kieran had worked with Ben for years and found him very fair. There was definitely more here than met the eye, and it intrigued him. ‘Want me to come and have a look?’
Her brow smoothed with relief. ‘Please.’
‘Sure.’ He followed her into the ward and Judith introduced him to Pippa.
‘I’m just going to examine you, Pippa, if that’s all right?’ He paused for the young mother-to-be’s agreement. ‘OK. Tell me if it hurts.’ Gently, he palpated her abdomen. As he moved along the path of the ureters, Pippa flinched.
‘It hurts. And I need to pee again. Except I probably won’t be able to—I couldn’t last time, and I haven’t had anything to drink since then. And…’ She turned her head and a stream of vomit splashed over Kieran’s shoes and trousers.
‘Oh, no, I’m so sorry,’ she said miserably.
‘You’re not feeling well. There’s no need to be sorry.’ He nodded to Daisy to fetch a cloth and water, then mopped Pippa’s face. ‘I’ve had worse over me.’
‘But—’
‘But nothing.’ He smiled at her. ‘We’ll have you feeling better soon, though I’m afraid you’ll be on bed rest for a while. As soon as the lab results come back, we’ll know which antibiotics to give you.’
‘But aren’t antibiotics dangerous for the baby?’
‘We’re going to keep a very close eye on you both,’ Kieran promised. ‘Jude thinks you’ve got something called pyelonephritis, and I think she’s right. It’s an infection of the kidney and the tubes that carry urine away from the kidneys, so we’ll need to give you antibiotics to stop it. I can also give you something to bring your temperature down, and we’ll put you on a drip to make sure you don’t get dehydrated.’
‘We can give you a heat pad for your back, to help with the pain,’ Judith added. ‘And Daisy’s going to keep an eye on your temperature and your pulse rate.’
‘You said bed rest. How long will I be in?’
‘A week or so,’ Kieran said.
‘But I can’t be! I—I’ve got a pile of work to do. I’m a freelance artist. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid and I’ll probably lose my client, and…’ Pippa’s lower lip trembled.
‘Is there someone we can call for you?’ Kieran asked. ‘And maybe your partner can explain to your client.’
Pippa shook her head. ‘He left me when we found out I was pregnant. He doesn’t want a baby to complicate things. But I couldn’t bring myself to have a termination. And…’ She shook her head, choked by tears.
‘How about your mum?’ Judith asked gently. ‘Or a good friend?’
‘My mum’s in Lincolnshire. I can’t drag her all the way up to London.’ Pippa wiped her hand across her eyes. ‘There’s my best friend. Except she’s busy and—’
‘If my best friend was in hospital, pregnant and ill and scared, I’d be there for her,’ Judith cut in. ‘It wouldn’t matter how busy I was.’
‘Sorry, I’m not usually this pathetic,’ Pippa said.
‘Hey. You’re not feeling well, and your hormones are all over the place,’ Kieran told her. ‘So you’re not being pathetic at all.’
‘How did I get it?’ Pippa asked.
‘You’re more likely to get it in pregnancy because urine moves more slowly from the kidney to the bladder, due to hormone changes. As your uterus gets bigger, it puts more pressure on your ureters—they’re the tubes that connect your kidneys to your bladder. And that means it’s easier for germs to grow.’
‘So it’s not something I did?’
‘No,’ Kieran reassured her.
‘Is the baby going to be all right?’
Judith nodded. ‘There’s a risk you might go into labour early, but you’re thirty-five weeks now, so your baby’s got a good chance.’
‘But you need to tell us if you feel any tightening around your uterus or stomach cramps or a low ache in your back,’ Kieran added. ‘We’ll test another urine sample forty-eight hours after we start giving you the antibiotics, and you need to have a sample tested every time you see your midwife. It might come back, so you’ll need to take antibiotics for about six weeks after you have the baby, and your GP should book you in for a check six weeks after that so we can make sure you’re not going to have any more problems.’
‘A week.’ Pippa shook her head. ‘I can’t stay in bed for a week. I really can’t.’
‘Up to you,’ Kieran said. ‘But if we don’t treat you and you end up with sepsis—that’s infection in your blood—you’ll be here for a lot longer.’ If she survived. Not that he was going to frighten her by telling her that now. He’d wait until the infection cleared.
‘I’ll call your friend,’ Judith said. She squeezed Pippa’s hand. ‘You’ll be fine. I promise.’
When the test results came back, Kieran called Judith into his office. ‘Well spotted,’ he said, passing the results to her.
She read them swiftly. ‘Klebsiella. You were right.’
‘No, you were right. You said it wasn’t E. coli. So we can start her on IV antibiotics. I’d like Daisy to do her obs at least four-hourly.’
‘Sure. I’ll go and see her.’
As she reached the door, Kieran said softly, ‘Hey.’
Judith paused and looked round. ‘What?’
‘Don’t doubt yourself. You’re doing a great job.’
‘I…’ Colour washed into her face, and she muttered something he couldn’t catch before she left his office.
Stop wishing, Kieran thought. She’s not yours, she’s not going to be yours. You just work together. Leave it at that.
Except his heart most definitely wasn’t listening.
The following Wednesday night, Tess looked dubiously at her brother. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to leave Charlie.’
‘It’s only for a couple of hours. He’ll be absolutely fine. He likes Rosemary, she used to be a childminder before she retired so she knows everything there is to know about babies, and I’ll keep my mobile phone switched on so she can get us if she needs us.’
‘I thought you weren’t allowed to use mobiles in hospitals?’
‘It’s in the hospital social club. Different building,’ Kieran explained. ‘Come on, Tess. It’ll be fun.’
The doorbell rang, and he saw the panic in Tess’s eyes. He sighed inwardly. ‘Look, if you really don’t want to come, I understand. But it’d be nice for us to go out and let our hair down. Just for a couple of hours. We don’t have to stay late.’
‘I won’t know anyone.’
‘You’ll know me.’ He wrinkled his nose at her. ‘Anyway, it’d be a waste of good lippy if you stay in now.’ Lipstick that he’d bought her on the way home from work, hoping it would tempt her into making an effort with her appearance.
