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‘Penny?’ Her mind flew to her sister. ‘Did Penny see her when she came in?’

‘She had to work on your mum.’ Lisa explained what had happened as gently as she could. ‘Jed was caught up with the meningococcal child and I didn’t want you finding out that way either—unfortunately, I needed you to be working.’

Jasmine nodded. That much she understood. The last thing she would have needed at that critical time in Resus was a doctor and a nurse breaking down before help had been summoned.

‘And Penny told me to get you out of the way.’ Jasmine looked up. ‘She told me you were her younger sister and that you were not to find out the same way she had … She was amazing,’ Lisa said. ‘Once she got over the initial shock, she just …’ Lisa gave a wide-eyed look of admiration. ‘She worked on your mother the same way she would any patient—she gave her the very best of care. Your mum was in VF and she was defibrillated twice. By the time Mr Dean took over, your mum was back with us.’

‘Oh, God,’ Jasmine moaned and this time when she stood, nothing would have stopped her. It wasn’t to her mother she raced but to next door, where Penny sat slumped in a chair. Jed was holding a drink of water for her. And to think she’d begrudged her sister that embrace. No wonder Jed had been holding her, and Jasmine rushed to do the same.

‘I’m so sorry, Penny.’

She cuddled her sister, who just sat there, clearly still in shock. ‘It must have been a nightmare.’

Penny nodded. ‘I didn’t want you to see her like that.’

She had always been in awe of Penny, always felt slightly less, but she looked at her sister through different eyes, saw the brave, strong woman she was, who had shielded the more sensitive one from their parents’ rows, had always told her things would be okay.

That she’d deal with it.

And she had. Again.

‘It’s my fault,’ Penny grimaced. ‘Yesterday she was ever so quiet and she said she had indigestion. It must have been chest pain.’

‘Penny.’ Jasmine had been thinking the same, but hearing her sister say it made her realise there and then what a pointless route that was. ‘I had indigestion yesterday. We all did. You know what Mum’s Sunday dinners are like.’

‘I know.’

Jasmine looked up at Jed. His face was pale and he gave her a very thin smile. ‘I’m sorry to hear about your mum,’ he said, and then he looked from Jasmine to Penny and then back again. ‘I had no idea.’

‘Well, how could you have?’ Penny said, and then turned to Jasmine. ‘Can you go and see Mum? I can’t face it just yet, but one of us should be there.’

‘Of course.’

‘She’ll be scared,’ Penny warned. ‘Not that she’ll show it.’

‘Come on,’ Jed said. ‘I’ll take you round to her.’

Once they walked out of the door he asked what he had to. ‘Jasmine, why didn’t you say?’

‘She’d made me promise not to.’

‘But even so …’

‘I can’t think about that now, Jed.’

‘Come on.’ He put his arm round her and led her into her mum’s room, and even if it was what he would do with any colleague, even if she no longer wanted him, she was glad to have him there strong and firm beside her as she saw her mum, the strongest, most independent person she knew, with possibly the exception of her elder sister, strapped to machines and looking very small and fragile under a white sheet.

‘Hey, Mum.’

Jasmine took her hand.

‘I’m sorry,’ Louise said, but for once her voice was very weak and thin.

‘It’s hardly your fault. Don’t be daft.’

‘No.’ She was impatient, despite the morphine, desperate to get everything in order before she went to surgery. ‘I haven’t been much support.’

‘Mum!’ Jasmine shook her head. ‘You’ve been wonderful.’

‘No.’ She could see tears in her mum’s eyes. ‘Most grandmothers drop everything to help with their grandchildren.’

‘Mum,’ Jasmine interrupted. ‘You can stop right there. I’m glad you’re not like most mums, I’m glad Penny is the way that she is, because otherwise I’d be living at home even now. I’d be dumping everything onto you and not sorting my own stuff out, which I have,’ Jasmine said firmly, and then wavered. ‘Well, almost.’ She smiled at her mum. ‘And that’s thanks to you. I don’t want a mum who fixes everything. I want a mum who helps me fix myself.’

‘Can I see Simon?’ She felt her mum squeeze her hand. ‘Or will I scare him?’

‘I’ll go now and get him.’ Before she left, Jasmine looked at Jed.

‘I’ll stay.’

And it meant a lot that he was with her.

Oh, she knew Mr Dean was around and Vanessa was watching her mother like a hawk, but it wasn’t just for medical reasons it helped to have Jed there.

She couldn’t think of that now.

The childcare staff were wonderful when Jasmine told them what was going on. ‘Bring him back when you’re ready.’

‘Thanks.’

Jasmine really didn’t know if it would terrify Simon or how he’d react when he saw his nanny, but she knew that the calmer she was the better it would be for Simon. ‘Nanny’s tired,’ Jasmine said as they walked back to the department. ‘She’s having a rest, so we’ll go and give her a kiss.’

He seemed delighted at the prospect.

Especially when he saw Penny standing at the bed. Then he turned and saw Jed there and a smile lit up his face.

‘Jed!’

He said it so clearly, there was absolutely no mistake, and Penny’s eyes were wide for a second as she looked at Jed, who stood, and then back at Penny.

‘I’ll have to put in a complaint,’ Penny said. ‘The hospital grapevine is getting terribly slack.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Jed said, but whatever was going on, whatever questions needed answers, it was all put aside as Simon gave his nanny a kiss and a cuddle. He was amazing, not bothered at all by the tubes and machines, more fascinated by them, if anything, pointing to the cardiac monitor and turning as every drip bleeped. But of course after a few moments he grew restless.

‘We’re going to take your mum up to the catheter lab soon,’ Vanessa said. The cardiac surgeon had spoken to them in more detail and her mum had signed the consent form, and it was all too quick and too soon. Jasmine had just got used to the idea that she was terribly ill and now there was surgery to face.

‘Can I just take Simon back?’

‘Of course.’ And in the few weeks she’d been here, Jasmine found out just how many friends she had made, just how well she was actually doing, thanks to her mum. ‘Tell the crèche that I’ll pick up Simon tonight. He can stay at my place.’

‘You’re sure?’ Jasmine checked. ‘I can ring Ruby.’

‘It’s fine tonight. You’ll probably be needing Ruby a lot over the next few days. Let me help when I can.’

The crèche was marvellous too and told Jasmine that she could put Simon in full time for the next couple of weeks, and somehow, somehow Jasmine knew she was coping with a family emergency and single motherhood and work combined.

And she didn’t want to lose her job, no matter how hard it would be, working alongside Jed.

Except she couldn’t think about it now.

Right now, her heart was with her mum, who was being wheeled out of Emergency, a brusque and efficient Penny beside her, telling the porter to go ahead and hold the lifts, snapping at Vanessa for not securing the IV pole properly, barking at everyone and giving out orders as she did each and every day, while still managing to hold her mum’s hand as she did so.

And her heart wasn’t just with her mum.

It was with her big sister too.

The time sitting in the Theatre waiting room brought them possibly the closest they had ever been.

‘Is that why you were asking about Jed and I?’

They were two hours into waiting for the surgery to finish, an hour of panic, ringing around friends and family, and then an hour of angst-filled silence, and then, because you could only sit on a knife edge for so long, because sometimes you needed distracting, Penny asked the question that was starting to filter into both their minds.

‘For all the good it did me.’ Jasmine smiled. ‘How come we don’t gossip?’

‘I never gossip,’ Penny said. ‘I don’t do the girly thing and …’ Her voice trailed off and she thought for a moment, realising perhaps how impossible for her sister this had been. ‘You could have asked me, Jasmine.’

‘What if I didn’t like the answer?’ Jasmine’s eyes filled with tears and she couldn’t start crying again. She’d shed more tears since her mother had gone to Theatre than she had in a long time.

‘You’re still not asking me.’

Jasmine shook her head, because if the truth were known she was scared to. Not just for what it would do to her but what the truth might mean for her sister.

‘Nothing has ever happened between Jed and I.’

Jasmine felt as if a chest drain had been inserted, or what she imagined it must feel like, because it felt as if for the first time in days, for the first time since Vanessa had inadvertently dropped the bomb, her lungs expanded fully, the shallow breaths of guilt and fear replaced by a deep breath in.

‘Nothing,’ Penny said. ‘Not a single kiss, I promise you.’ And Jasmine could now breathe out. ‘Who said that there was something going on between us?’

‘It’s common knowledge apparently, though I only heard this week. My friend couldn’t believe that I hadn’t notice the tension between you two.’

‘The only tension between us,’ Penny continued, ‘is who might get the promotion.’

‘I thought you were worried about getting it and upsetting Jed.’

Penny just laughed. ‘Worrying about upsetting or upstaging Jed Devlin is the furthest thing from my mind—believe me. Do I look like someone who would step aside from a promotion for a man?’ She actually laughed at the very thought.

‘No,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘But you did say you weren’t sure if you wanted the job …’

‘Right now I’m not even thinking about work, I just want Mum to get well, that’s as far as I can think today. You have nothing to worry about with Jed and I.’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It clearly did.’

But Jasmine shook her head. ‘I’m just glad I haven’t hurt you—Jed and I are finished.’

‘Jasmine!’

But Jasmine was through worrying about Jed. She didn’t have the head space to even think about him right now. ‘Let’s just worry about Mum for now, huh?’

‘How is she?’ Lisa asked when an extremely weary Jasmine made her way down to Emergency the next morning.

‘She’s had a really good night,’ Jasmine said. ‘They’re going to get her out of bed for a little while this morning, can you believe?’

‘They don’t waste any time these days.’ Lisa smiled. ‘How are you?’

‘Tired,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘I’m sorry to mess you around with the roster.’

‘Well, you can hardly help what happened. Have you got time to go through it now—did you want the rest of the week off?’

Jasmine shook her head. ‘I was actually hoping to come in to work tomorrow—Penny’s going to stay with her today and I’ll come back this evening, but I’d rather start back at work as soon as possible. I might need some time off when she comes out, though.’

‘We’ll sort something out,’ Lisa said. ‘We’re very accommodating here, not like the fracture clinic.’ Lisa winked.

‘Sorry about that.’

‘Don’t worry about it for now. We’ll have a chat when you’re up to it.’

‘Actually,’ Jasmine said, ‘do you have time for a chat now?’

She sat in Lisa’s office and, because she’d got a lot of her crying out when she’d told Jed, Jasmine managed to tell Lisa what had happened with her ex-husband without too many tears, and was actually incredibly relieved when she had.

‘You didn’t need to tell me this,’ Lisa said. ‘But I’m very glad that you did. I’d rather hear it from you first and it’s a good lesson to us all about being less careless with patients’ property. I can see why you panicked now. Anyway …’ she smiled, ‘… you can stop worrying about it now.’

Finally she could, and only then did Jasmine fully realise how much it had been eating at her, how much energy she had put towards worrying about it, running from it.

‘Go home to bed,’ Lisa said.

‘I will. But I just need to have a quick word with Vanessa, if that’s okay?’

Vanessa was one burning blush when they met. ‘Simon’s been fantastic. He’s tucked up in the crèche now and I can have him again tonight if you like.’

‘I’ll be fine tonight.’

‘Well, why don’t I pick him when my shift’s finished and bring him home to you?’ Vanessa offered, and as Jasmine thanked her she suddenly cringed. ‘Jasmine, I am so embarrassed.’

‘Why?’

‘All the terrible things I said about Penny. I could just die. I keep going over and over them and then I remember another awful thing I said.’

Jasmine laughed. ‘Believe me, you weren’t the only one, and you told me nothing about Penny that I didn’t already know—Penny too, for that matter. It’s fine, I promise.’

‘Me and my mouth!’ Vanessa grimaced.

‘Forget it.’ Jasmine smiled. ‘Anyway, I’m going to go home to bed, and thank you so much for your help with Simon. I’m just going to pop in and give him a kiss.’

‘Jasmine.’ Just as he had on the first day they had met, Jed called her as she went to head out of the department. ‘Can I have a word?’

‘I’m really tired, Jed.’

‘Five minutes.’

‘Sure.’

‘Somewhere private.’

They settled for one of the interview rooms.

‘How is your mum?’

‘Getting there.’

‘How are you?’

‘A lot better than yesterday,’ Jasmine said. ‘I’m really tired, though.’

‘Of course.’ He took a breath. ‘You should have told me that you and Penny were sisters,’ Jed said.

‘You didn’t exactly give me much chance.’

‘Before that.’

‘I was working up to it. But if we weren’t serious there didn’t seem any point.’ She gave a tight shrug. ‘I told you from the start I was trying to keep work and things separate—you were the same.’ She turned to go. ‘Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.’

‘We need to talk.’

‘No,’ Jasmine said. ‘I don’t think we do.’

‘Nothing happened between Penny and I,’ Jed said. ‘Absolutely nothing. I can see now why you were upset, why you felt you couldn’t ask.’

And now it was, Jasmine realised, time to face things properly, not make an excuse about being tired and scuttle off. ‘It’s actually not about whether or not you slept with Penny.’ Jasmine swallowed. ‘I mean, had you, of course it would have mattered.’ He saw the hurt that burnt in her eyes as she looked up at him.

‘You gave me no chance to explain,’ Jasmine said. ‘I was struggling—really struggling to tell you something, and you just talked over me, just decided I was too much hard work. You didn’t even answer my question. You just threw everything back in my face.’

She would not cry, she would not. ‘It took guts to leave my marriage,’ Jasmine said. ‘But it just took common sense to end things with you. In any relationship there are arguments, Jed.’ She looked right at him as she said it. ‘And from the little I’ve witnessed, you don’t fight fair!’

She saw him open his mouth to argue, but got in first.

‘That’s a no in my book.’

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

HE RANG AND Jasmine didn’t answer.

And she stayed at her mum’s, ringing and answering the phone to various aunts and uncles so even if he went over to her place, she wouldn’t know and more to the point she wasn’t there.

‘Cold tea bags help,’ Penny said when she dropped around that evening and saw her puffy eyes. ‘You don’t want him to see that you’ve been crying.’

‘I could be crying because Mum’s in ICU.’

‘She’s been moved to Coronary Care,’ Penny said, ‘so you don’t have that excuse.’

‘They’ve moved her already?’

‘Yes. Great, isn’t it? And you’ve got the night off from visiting. She was sound asleep when I left her. Still, if you want to go in I can watch Simon.’ She must have seen Jasmine’s blink of surprise. ‘I am capable.’

‘I’m sure you are.’ Jasmine grinned. ‘I might just pop in, if you’re sure.’

‘Of course.’

‘He’s asleep,’ Jasmine said. ‘You won’t have to do anything.’

‘I’m sure I’ll cope if he wakes,’ Penny said. ‘And if you are going to see Mum then you need to put on some make-up.’

It didn’t help much, not that her mum would have noticed. She was, as Penny had said, asleep. Still, Jasmine felt better for seeing her, but that feeling faded about five minutes after visiting when she saw Jed coming out of X-Ray.

‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Hi.’

‘I tried to call,’ Jed said, but Jasmine wasn’t interested in talking.

‘I need to get home.’

‘Run off, then,’ Jed said, and Jasmine halted for a second.

‘Sorry?’

‘You said you had to go.’

She opened her mouth to argue. Had he just accused her of running off? But instead of challenging him, she threw him a very disparaging look, and as she marched off, Jasmine knew she didn’t need cold tea bags on her eyes—she was through crying.

Her mum was right—it was completely hereditary.

The Masters women had terrible taste in men!

Still, even if she would have liked to avoid him it was impossible at work. Everywhere she went she seemed to be landed with him, but she refused to let him get to her, refused to give him the satisfaction that she was running off.

But worse than the department being busy was the times it was quiet and though she had no idea who knew what, she nearly bit on her gums when Lisa gave her a very sweet smile.

‘Could you give Jed a hand, please?’ Lisa said, even though there were five other nurses sitting around. ‘He’s stitching a hand and she won’t stay still on the trolley.’

‘Her name’s Ethel,’ Lisa added. ‘You’ll get to know her soon, she’s one of our regulars.’

‘Sure.’

She painted on a smile and walked into Theatre.

‘Hi, there, Ethel, I’m Jasmine.’

‘Who?’

She was an angry old thing, fuelled on sherry and conspiracy theories, and she made Jasmine laugh.

‘Why would they knock the hospital down?’ Jasmine asked patiently, when Ethel told her the plans were already in and had been approved by the council.

‘Prime real estate,’ Ethel said. ‘Imagine how many townhouses they could put up here.’

‘Have you been talking to my mum?’ Jasmine grinned.

‘All money, isn’t it?’ Ethel grumbled for a while and then spoke about her children, who, from the age of Ethel, must be in their sixties at least. ‘They’re just waiting for me to go,’ Ethel said bitterly. ‘Worried I’m spending their inheritance.’ She peered at Jasmine. ‘Have you got children?’ she asked.

‘None,’ Jasmine happily lied.

‘Husband?’

‘Nope.’

‘Good for you,’ Ethel said. ‘Dating?’

‘Nope.’

‘Quite right, too.’ Ethel said. ‘They’re no good, the lot of them.’ And she ranted for a few minutes about her late husband. ‘They’re all liars and cheats and if they’re not now then they’re just waiting to be. Nasty, the lot of them—except for the lovely doctor here.’

She caught Jed’s eye and they actually managed a slightly wry smile.

‘No, we’re all horrible, Ethel,’ Jed said. ‘You’re quite right not to listen to their sorry excuses.’

And if he’d looked up then he’d have seen Jasmine poke her tongue out.

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