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So, back to her question. He had to think for a moment what it was. Ah, yes, the many loves of his mother’s life.
‘My mother is about to enter into her fourth marriage. My father isn’t quite so bad. He’s only been married and divorced twice. I doubt he’ll be taking that step again.’ He gave a tight smile. ‘Thank God! It really is hard coming up with a new speech each time.’
‘Her fourth!’
He nodded. ‘She left us when I was fifteen, and I’m now thirty-three, so it’s not quite as bad as it sounds.’ He saw her wide eyes. ‘Well, maybe it is. My mother is high-end drama and she just wasn’t cut out to be the wife of a country GP. She loathed it. And since she broke up with my father—’
He went quiet, for the first time since they had met. And then...
‘Freya?’ he said.
‘Yes?’
‘We’ve missed the film.’
‘Oh!’
She looked around the restaurant and noticed the other diners were thinning out, and then she glanced at her phone. It was coming up for eleven.
‘Do you want dessert or coffee?’ he offered.
‘No, no...’ She shook her head.
He walked her to the Underground station and there, she assumed, they would go their separate ways.
‘I’ll see you home,’ he said, when she told him where it was.
‘It’s only four stops,’ Freya protested—but not too much. She still wasn’t quite used to the Tube, and she did feel a bit nervous at night. It would be nice to have company.
Or rather it would be nice to have his company.
‘We’re here,’ Freya said as they arrived at her flat.
‘Well, I’m sorry you didn’t get to see your film.’
Freya wasn’t sorry.
‘It’s fine,’ she said, toying with whether or not to ask him in and deciding that it would be foolish at best. There was a kiss in the air—she could feel it—and as she looked up at him she wondered how that gorgeous unshaven jaw would feel pressed hard against hers.
‘Well, another time, then,’ Richard said, resisting the urge to kiss her against the wall.
She wanted a friend, he reminded himself. No more than that.
‘Thanks for a nice night. It was good to...’ She gave a shrug. ‘Well, it was nice not to be talking about babies.’
‘All work and no play?’ Richard said.
‘Something like that.’
She took out her key and he watched as she put it into the lock. That was the difference with Freya—she didn’t stand there awaiting his kiss. She didn’t seem to want the complication of them either.
And yet there was want.
It was a sultry summer night that deserved to end in bed, but Richard was behaving himself.
‘Night, Freya.’
‘Night, Richard.’
She walked inside, closed the door behind her and leant against it, taking a long breath in.
Had there been a double-lock she would have turned it. Instead she made do with the security chain.
But only to keep herself in.
There was a kiss waiting on the other side of that door—she was sure of it.
And not just a kiss.
Who was she kidding?
It hadn’t been a kiss in the air out there—it had been sex.
But a fling with Richard Lewis would be foolish at best. Freya didn’t do that type of thing. And it would be a fling—she knew that. He’d as good as told her so himself.
She told herself that she could never regret a sensible decision. That in the morning she would wake up and be delighted that she’d avoided the awkwardness that would have surely followed.
Except in the morning Freya didn’t feel delighted.
She only felt regret.
CHAPTER FOUR (#ufa772c71-6473-5118-bbbe-2fb399325060)
‘HOW WAS THE FILM?’ Stella asked as Freya walked with her from the changing room.
‘Great,’ Freya answered. ‘It’s well worth seeing.’
She was saved from further questioning as the overhead chimes went off, summoning the Trauma Team to Casualty.
She certainly wasn’t about to tell Stella that they’d never actually made it to the cinema, as she knew Stella would just read more into it than there had been.
It was unusually quiet, so Freya took the lull in proceedings as a chance to check stock. She had just pulled out the suction catheters and was ticking the order form when the overhead chimes went off again.
They were a common occurrence in a busy hospital such as this, but the summons that came was one that Freya hadn’t yet heard.
‘Obstetrics Squad to Casualty.’
Freya wasn’t a part of the Obstetrics Squad. She had been told about it during her interview, though. Each Maternity shift, a senior midwife carried a pager and would attend to any obstetric emergency elsewhere in the hospital, along with an obstetrician and anaesthetist.
New staff had to attend at least three off-unit emergencies as an observer, and then Dr Mina had to approve them before they were made a part of that team. But just because she wasn’t part of the team it didn’t mean that there was nothing for Freya to do.
She ran down to the equipment room and opened up the door, and was pulling out the emergency trolley as Stella and Kelly came running from opposite directions.
‘Dr Mina’s already down there,’ Stella informed Kelly, who held the pager for the Obstetrics Squad today. ‘Freya, go and observe.’
Freya nodded. She was nervous about this role, yet keen for the experience.
The chimes were pinging again.
‘Here...’
It was Len the porter, who had caught up and took over the other side of the trolley, allowing Kelly to run on ahead.
There was everything that might be required, including a neonatal cot, even though there would be one in Emergency. The trolley was set up for any eventuality.
As she swept into Casualty, Freya acknowledged that she was nervous but consoled herself that she was just there to observe. Even if she never made the team it would be good experience for when she went back to Cromayr Bay.
When.
There was no time to dwell on that word, though it jolted her.
Richard was at the head of one of the resuscitation beds and only briefly glanced up when she came in.
‘Next bed,’ he said, clearly knowing that she wouldn’t have been down there before. He gestured with his head to a curtained area beside him, from behind which came the sound of equipment and people, and above all that the screams of a woman.
They were terrified screams and the woman sounded in pain.
‘Thanks.’ Freya stepped in and saw there was organised chaos taking place.
Dominic, his registrar, was at the head of the bed and the trauma team were around the woman. So too was Dr Mina, tiny in green scrubs and yet authoritative all the same.
She had a Doppler on the woman’s stomach and there was the sound of a rapid heartbeat.
‘Stay back and observe,’ Kelly said. ‘You’ll be doing this yourself soon.’
There wasn’t actually room for her to do anything but observe.
An older woman dressed in scrubs was talking to the patient. ‘You’re okay, Louise,’ she said in an Irish brogue. ‘We’re taking care of you now...’
Louise had on a hard collar, and from what Freya could make out she had been involved in a high-impact motor vehicle accident. There was blunt trauma to her chest and abdomen as well as a head injury.
And she was twenty-six weeks pregnant.
‘Louise.’ Kelly moved near the head of the bed. ‘Your baby has a strong heartbeat...’
But nothing would calm the woman. Louise Eames was absolutely terrified and perhaps, after her head injury, confused too.
There were also concerns that she had abdominal bleeding.
‘I’m May, the Unit Manager in this madhouse.’ The Irish woman stepped back and spoke to Freya as Kelly took over reassuring the patient. ‘I’m a midwife myself. All looks well but, as you know, pregnant women can mask symptoms. I’m worried that she’s worse than her observations are showing.’
It was nice to be talked through it all. Most of it Freya knew, but she hadn’t actually seen the Obstetrics Squad in action.
‘I’ve told NICU to hold a cot, in case she has to be delivered.’ May said. ‘Here’s Richard now.’
Richard spoke for a moment with Dominic, and then Dominic stepped out—Freya guessed to take over the patient in the next bed.
‘Hello, Louise.’
He spoke as if they had already met, Freya thought. There was just something so reassuring about his voice.
‘I’m Dr Lewis, Consultant Anaesthetist.’
Louise screamed again.
‘No,’ he said. ‘No screaming. Save that oxygen for your baby. Now, I want to have another listen to your chest.’
‘That’s a good girl,’ Kelly said to Louise, who was quietening down—though that wasn’t necessarily a good sign.
‘We’re going to get her round for a CT,’ Dr Mina said. She and Richard discussed sedation, but Louise seemed a lot calmer now.
The CT was swift, and showed a small tear on Louise’s spleen, but everything looked fine with the baby.
‘Louise.’ Dr Mina spoke to her. ‘The hard collar can come off now and you’ll be more comfortable. The baby is doing well, but we’re going to move you now to the Intensive Care Unit, so that we can keep a close eye on both of you.’
‘Will my baby be okay?’ It was all Louise wanted to know.
‘Everything is looking fine for now,’ Dr Mina said. ‘But, Louise, if we need to deliver you, then we will.’
ICU was all ready and waiting, and absolutely the right place for Louise to be.
Freya listened as May gave a detailed hand-over to the Critical Care Nurse. It was scary for Louise to be there, no doubt, but after the noise of Emergency it was certainly a lot calmer here.
‘Thank you,’ Dr Mina said to the midwifery staff as they gathered up their equipment to leave.
Richard didn’t look up as he was already with another patient and completely focussed.
God, what a job he had, Freya thought as they headed out.
‘Poor thing,’ Kelly said, as they made their way back, but then she moved straight on to business. ‘We’ll have to check the trolley as soon as we get back,’ she told Freya. ‘Just in case we’re called again.’
‘I hope we’re not,’ Freya said.
But hope didn’t work.
Just after three the chimes went off again. Freya was taking a baby for Pat when she heard them, and they didn’t even share a glance—instead they focussed on the little life coming into the world.
Working at The Primary was, Freya thought as she came out of the delivery suite, just all so intense.
