The Taming of Dr Alex Draycott

He laughed. ‘I don’t see fear coming into it. Life’s too short, and I’m having a good time just as I am—being footloose and fancy-free. Why would I want to change things?’

‘Why indeed?’ She smiled wryly. ‘And much the same goes for me. I’m far too busy to even contemplate getting involved with anyone right now. Let the gossipmongers make of it what they will.’

‘And they will, believe me.’ He studied her. ‘Why don’t we fox them all and make a date for dinner—this evening, maybe? You should take time out, let yourself unwind a little.’

Unwind, with him? The thought had a dizzying effect on her. ‘Thanks, but I really can’t do that right now.’ All the same, she conjured up a vision of the two of them together, taking a walk in the moonlight after a romantic meal at a restaurant, and all at once heat began to pool in her abdomen.

She couldn’t let the idea take hold. It was impossible. She wasn’t about to get involved with anyone, especially him, a man who seemed so laid back he made it seem as though she was positively racing through life in contrast. Anyway, she had far too much on her plate. The children relied on her to be there for them, her family life was chaotic, and, besides, he was simply trying to divert her, possibly even disarm her into the bargain, wasn’t he?

His gaze flicked over her. ‘That’s a shame. Maybe some other time, then? I’m sure you’ll feel all the better for a little rest and relaxation.’

She had the idea this was something he wouldn’t give up on easily. ‘I’ll feel a whole lot better when I have your drug expenditure forms laid out on my desk,’ she retorted swiftly. ‘Along with a list of agency staff employed by the department over the last three months.’

She ignored his muffled groan as she made her way to the door. ‘Any time in the next twenty-four hours will be fine.’

She was still debating how best to deal with Callum Brooksby when she made her way home later that day at the end of her shift. He was a thorn in her side, a devious, happy-go-lucky, aggravating man who gave the impression of being as difficult to catch as thistledown. Every time she had him within her sights, he somehow managed to whisk himself away, out of reach.

‘Look what we’ve found,’ Sarah said excitedly, greeting Alex as she went to collect the children from her neighbour’s house later that day. Sarah led the way into the kitchen. ‘Auntie Jane showed us how to collect honey from the beehives in the orchard. We’ve been putting it into jars. It smells of flowers.’

Alex sniffed at the glass pot Sarah thrust under her nose. ‘So it does,’ she said. ‘I expect the bees have been visiting the apple blossom and the bramble bushes. That should make for good fruit later on in the season.’

She looked at Jane, who was standing by the fridge, looking pale and tired. ‘You’ve been busy. Are you sure you should be taking on all this work? I feel bad enough that I’m asking you to watch the children for me.’

‘Oh, I like having them around. Anyway, I volunteered to have them after school, and it’s no trouble to collect a bit of honey.’ Jane smiled. ‘I expect you had no idea what a wealth of treasures you were gaining when you bought the property next door. Of course, I didn’t let the children go near the hives when I collected the honeycombs, but they loved seeing the end result. They were fascinated.’

‘It tastes funny,’ James said, screwing up his nose. ‘Yuk.’

‘I like it,’ Sarah said happily. ‘We had some on pancakes and they were scrumptious.’

‘It sounds as though you had a lot of fun.’ Alex watched the children as they carefully spooned the golden honey into scrupulously clean jars. Jane sat down by the table and let them get on with it for a while.

‘How have you been feeling, Jane?’ Alex asked, giving her a long, thoughtful look. ‘Have you been back to see your doctor?’

‘Not yet.’ Jane shook her head, and at Alex’s small murmur of protestation she added, ‘I know…I keep putting it off, and I shouldn’t, but what’s he going to do for me but give me more tablets? Nothing’s working, so I might as well put up with things as they are.’ As she spoke, she absently rubbed her back. ‘The only that really gets to me is this pain, but I suppose I can take painkillers for that.’ She sighed. ‘But I guess that’s old age creeping up on me.’

‘I don’t think so, Jane. I think it’s something that needs to be investigated.’

She might have said more, but there was a brief tap on the kitchen door just then, and a moment later it opened, as a visitor stepped into the kitchen.

Alex pulled in a sharp breath.

‘Hi, Aunt Jane,’ Callum Brooksby said, going over to Jane and giving her a hug. ‘How’s my favourite aunt?’

‘Oh, it’s so good to see you,’ Jane said, smiling. She looked at him with genuine affection. ‘I was hoping you’d come round.’

He nodded. ‘I know I’ve left it a little bit longer than usual. It’s been a busy time lately, what with work and overseeing the builders at home.’ Then he straightened and looked around, interested in seeing who had come to take tea with her.

His gaze met Alex’s and they both stared at one another in shock.

‘Alex?’

‘Callum?’ She blinked.

Callum frowned, his dark brows drawing together in a straight line. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’

‘I…I bought the house next door,’ she said, stumbling a little over the words, still in shock. ‘That’s how I came to know your aunt—she’s been good to me, looking after the children while I’m at work.’

‘Children?’ His expression became incredulous as he turned his attention to James and Sarah, happily spilling honey over the scrubbed pine table and the assembled jars. ‘Good grief.’ He looked back at Alex. ‘I don’t know you at all, do I?’

Jane looked from one to the other, a puzzled expression on her face. ‘So you two have met before this?’ She frowned. ‘Of course, it must be the hospital—it didn’t occur to me. I knew you were in Paediatrics, Alex, and, Callum, you’re in Emergency, but of course you must meet up on occasion.’

‘All the while, Aunt Jane,’ Callum agreed, a look of wonder coming over his face. ‘We work in the same department.’

Alex was still trying to get over the shock. She studied him carefully. ‘So you’re the nephew?’

His head went back. ‘Nephew? Why, who’s been talking about me?’ He looked at Jane, a glimmer of amusement coming into his eyes. ‘It has to be you, doesn’t it? You’ve only told her good things, I hope?’

‘As if I’d do anything else,’ Jane answered cheerfully.

Callum put an arm around her in a gesture of affection. ‘She practically brought me up,’ he told Alex. ‘She’s been like a mother to me.’

Jane patted his hand.

‘Auntie Jane, can we go and play in the garden?’ James asked, coming over to her and beginning to tug on her skirt.

‘Yes, of course.’ Jane’s glance ran over him, and a line indented her brow. ‘Perhaps we’d better get you cleaned up a bit first, though.’

James looked down at the honey trails that streaked his T-shirt. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I can do that.’ He pulled his shirt up to his mouth and began to lick the sticky patches.

Sarah pulled a face. ‘You are so gross,’ she said in disgust.

‘Why?’ James responded, astonished. ‘Am not.’

Callum began to laugh. ‘Was I ever like that?’ he asked his aunt, and she nodded. ‘All the time.’ She turned her attention back to the boy. ‘I’ll get a cloth.’

‘No, don’t do that. I’ll see to everything,’ Alex said, intervening when Jane would have stood up. ‘You stay there and rest. You’ve done enough for one day.’ She helped the children to wash their hands, before sending them outside, and then she began to clear up the mess on the kitchen table.

Jane tried to lend a hand, gathering up spoons and honeycombs, but Alex gently took them from her. ‘You’re already hurting,’ she remonstrated softly. ‘Let me do it.’

Callum frowned, looking at his aunt. ‘What’s this about you hurting? Is it your back again?’

Jane nodded. ‘It’s nothing for you to worry about,’ she said. ‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Hmm. Why don’t you go and sit down in the living room, and I’ll bring you a cup of tea? I’m sure you’ll be much more comfortable in there.’

His aunt smiled. ‘You’re probably right. What a good idea.’ She looked from one to the other. ‘Anyway, I expect you young things have plenty to say to one another.’

She left the room, and a moment later, still frowning, Callum began to help with the clearing up. He placed sticky jars on the drainer, and flicked the switch on the kettle.

‘I still can’t get over seeing you here,’ he said, looking at Alex. ‘It’s a small world, isn’t it?’

‘It certainly seems that way.’

He began to prepare a tray, setting out a cup and saucer, along with a plate of home-made biscuits. He smiled as he peered into the cookie jar. ‘She’s always loved baking,’ he said, helping himself to an oat biscuit. He offered the jar to Alex. ‘She let me help her when I was a child, but I’m not sure my efforts were all that brilliant. They tended to be misshapen, and a bit cracked around the edges.’

‘Much like mine, then,’ Alex said, helping herself to a biscuit, and they both chuckled. She looked at him, trying to imagine him as a child, mixing cookie dough or playing outside in the long garden. ‘You said she was like a mother to you…does that mean you lived here with her?’

He nodded. ‘For a good deal of the time, anyway.’ He looked around. ‘I love this house. It feels like home to me. In fact, I love the whole area.’

‘And your parents? Where were they?’

‘Mostly abroad, either in Africa or South America. I didn’t see a lot of them in my teen years because they were off working on projects to improve the health of the underprivileged children out there. Things are much the same nowadays.’

‘That must have been difficult for you.’ Her grey eyes were sympathetic. She remembered how sad he’d been when he’d first mentioned his parents. ‘You must have missed them.’

‘I suppose so.’ He frowned. ‘But my aunt and uncle made up for it. They gave me a decent home life and showed me what it was like to be part of a loving family. Until then, nothing had ever been stable. My parents were always busy, working all hours, and we moved around constantly. There was no chance of putting down any roots.’

Alex was sad for him. He’d obviously not known what a loving family was like in his earlier years.

‘You were lucky, then, that your aunt was able to take you in.’

‘Yes, I was.’ He poured tea into the cup. ‘I’d better go and check on her, and take her the tea.’

Alex glanced at him and hesitated a second or two before saying, ‘You know she’s having problems with her blood pressure, don’t you?’

He nodded. ‘It was diagnosed some time ago. She’s been prescribed a number of different medications over the past year or so.’

‘Yes, that’s what she said. But it seems to me that whatever her GP’s giving her isn’t working, and I suspect that’s because he hasn’t yet found the root cause of her problem. I’m wondering if she ought to have some tests done at the hospital. She’s suffering from a number of symptoms that need to be investigated…headaches, dizziness, pain in her back.’

A line etched itself into his brow. ‘Her doctor’s been taking care of her for years, though. She trusts him, and it’s no easy thing to get her to go along to see anyone else.’

Alex’s mouth flattened. ‘Even so…I don’t see how she can go on this way. She doesn’t look at all well. Something needs to be done. In fact, I feel really guilty that I took her up on her offer to look after the children. It worries me that I’m putting too much on her.’ She pulled in a deep breath. ‘And I don’t believe she’s coping too well with the house and garden either. The weeds are beginning to overtake the borders, and it’s all much more than she can manage.’

Callum gave Alex a perplexed stare. ‘I mended the fence and tidied up the rockery a couple of weeks ago.’

Alex finished wiping the table with a flourish. ‘I’m sure the stress of keeping up with the maintenance is taking a toll of her. Is there any chance you could arrange a more regular schedule? Find a local gardener who will come along and tidy things up, perhaps?’

He didn’t say a word for a moment or two, but simply studied her as though he was deep in thought.

‘You’re very good at this sort of thing, aren’t you?’ he said at last, a note of wonder in his voice.

‘This sort of thing?’ She frowned. ‘I’m afraid I’m not following you.’

‘Organising people…deciding what needs to be done. I get the strongest feeling that not only am I being audited at work, but now you’re taking stock of how I conduct my personal life as well.’ He turned his blue gaze on her. ‘I’m obviously done for. Maybe I should give in, here and now?’

Alex felt warm colour fill her cheeks. ‘Well, that would be a good idea,’ she said, giving a self-conscious laugh. ‘That would make things easier all round, wouldn’t it?’

He gave a wry smile. ‘You’ll find I don’t surrender that easily.’

CHAPTER THREE

‘I’M ALL done disturbing you, angel,’ Callum murmured as the two-year-old girl fretted and tossed restlessly on the bed. ‘No more horrible needles and stethoscopes and all that palaver.’ He adjusted the medication drip, and then drew an ink line around the perimeter of the reddened area on the infant’s leg. ‘Let’s hope that rash starts to shrink very soon,’ he commented to the nurse who was assisting him. ‘We’ll make arrangements to admit her.’

He gave his attention back to the child. ‘I think you’ll be feeling a lot better before too long. I’m going to come back later to take a look at you, and I hope I’ll find that nasty red area is beginning to disappear.’ He carefully adjusted the bedcovers around the child, and gently brushed away the flaxen curls that massed around her hot cheeks. ‘Just you go to sleep and let the medicine do its work. We’ll have you right as rain in no time at all.’

Alex stood in the doorway of the treatment room, following his movements as he briefly checked the monitors. She had slipped into the room quietly, not wanting to disturb him, so he hadn’t realised she was there, and for a moment or two she was able to watch him at work, undisturbed. It gave her a fascinating glimpse of the man behind the professional mask, and though she felt guilty at not announcing her presence, the compulsion to feast her gaze on him somehow overcame everything else.

He might well be a constant source of frustration to her where her budget schedule was concerned, but there was no doubting his commitment to the patients in his care. And even though paediatrics wasn’t his specialty, she could see he had a sure instinct for dealing with children. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen him tending to a youngster in A and E. It was clear that he had a genuine concern for his young charges, and the tenderness that she saw in him as he leaned over the cot brought an unexpected lump to her throat.

It made it all the more difficult that she had to confront him right now, but she had a job to do, regardless, and so she stiffened her shoulders and quietly claimed his attention. ‘Might I have a word with you, please, Callum?’ she said.

‘Uh-oh…’ Callum glanced at her, and then moved away from his young patient’s bedside, giving final instructions to the nurse before walking towards the door where Alex waited, chart in hand. ‘I’ve heard you use that tone of voice before…’ he said under his breath, as he went out into the corridor. ‘Quiet but insistent.’ He frowned. ‘It generally means I’m in trouble of some kind.’

‘Not at all,’ Alex murmured, following him and adding sweetly, ‘You’re obviously developing a persecution complex of some sort.’

He nodded, a faint grin tugging at his mouth. ‘True. Funnily enough, it seemed to happen right about the time you joined the department.’

She tilted her head to one side. ‘Guilty conscience, perhaps?’

He shook his head. ‘Not true. I’m innocent as the day…at least, I think I am.’ He glanced at the chart she was carrying. ‘I expect that’s one of mine, or you wouldn’t be here. So what have I done this time?’

‘It isn’t just you,’ Alex said in a sympathetic tone. ‘I’m not singling you out. Please don’t think that. I’m checking everyone’s lab work to see if we can cut down on unnecessary testing…and here, looking at yours, I find you’ve ordered blood cultures, urine samples, swabs, to name just a few, for one small patient. Are you sure all these are really needed? Apart from the cost, we’re laying a great strain on the laboratory facilities.’

He put on a stern face. ‘If I hadn’t needed them, I wouldn’t have ordered them.’

‘For a simple fever?’

‘For a not-so-simple fever. The child was burning up, there was the beginning of a rash, and I suspect an insect bite of some sort that has led to a generalised infection which could lead to septicaemia.’ He studied her. ‘Do you really expect me to treat my patients without the proper diagnostic tools in place?’

‘Of course not.’ She smiled. ‘I’m just checking, that’s all. There’s nothing wrong in making sure everyone keeps efficiency and cost awareness in the forefront of their mind, is there?’

He gave her a sour look. ‘I’d appreciate it if you would take your checks elsewhere. I’m a consultant, remember, like yourself. I didn’t get to this position by not knowing what I’m doing.’

‘And I’m not suggesting otherwise. I see no reason why you should be so uptight about the situation,’ she commented in a soothing tone, trying to placate him. ‘We all want to do our best for our patients, and all I’m saying is that it’s only natural that sometimes we might be a little over-zealous in our efforts.’

‘I was not being over-zealous…I was being thorough. The child needs admission to hospital and treatment with an intravenous antibiotic. And if that doesn’t meet with your approval, then I’m afraid it’s too bad. That’s how it’s going to be.’

She put up a hand as though to ward him off. ‘I’m not stopping you from doing anything. All I’m saying is that we all have to be responsible and think carefully about the tests we order. It’s easy to slip into lax ways when you’re not the one counting the cost. Unfortunately, that’s down to me, and ultimately I have the job of making sure everyone complies with the new, stringent measures.’

He gave her a long look. ‘It never ceases to amaze me how very single-minded you are. Don’t you ever relax and watch the world go by without wanting to leap on its back and wrestle it into shape?’

She gave him a bewildered glance. ‘I’ve a job to do. What do you expect?’

‘I expect you to take a breather every once in a while.’ He checked the gold watch on his wrist, and as he moved she noticed the sprinkling of dark hairs that ran along his bare forearm. His shirtsleeves were rolled back, to show an expanse of skin that was lightly bronzed. His arms were muscular, his wrists strong, giving the impression of overwhelming masculinity, and for a second or two she felt a sudden tide of awareness that surged throughout her body and left her momentarily breathless.

He began to speak again, his voice cutting into her thoughts, and she reluctantly dragged her gaze away. It was strange, these weird sensations of being out of control that had afflicted her of late. She wasn’t used to feeling this way. Perhaps she was overworked, stressed, and the sheer amount of changes that were taking place in her life right now was making her unduly sensitive.

‘It’s getting late,’ he said, ‘and I don’t suppose you’ve had a break since lunchtime. I certainly haven’t. Why don’t we take a few minutes to go and get a cup of coffee—in my office, perhaps?’

She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry,’ she answered abruptly, struggling to get a grip on herself, ‘but I don’t have time. I have to finish this data chart by the end of my shift, and I’m already running late.’

‘We could use the time to go over the budget cuts you had in mind,’ he suggested silkily, a glint coming into his blue eyes. ‘Of course, if you’d rather leave it until another day, that’s fine by me.’ He started to turn away.

Alex was suspicious of his sudden apparent willingness to work with her, but his offer was one she could hardly refuse, was it? ‘Uh…maybe I was a little hasty. I dare say I could spare a few minutes, since you appear to have had a change of heart.’

‘Change of heart? Me? I’ve always been happy to go along with your suggestions.’

She gave him a withering look. ‘Let’s not push it, shall we?’

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