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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.
Beth turned around to see her solemn-faced consultant.
‘Mine was not so lucky. She didn’t make it.’ He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and took a deep breath. ‘I’ve seen my share of death but it never gets any easier.’
‘It makes you realise how precious life is. You should grab it with both hands,’ Beth said solemnly.
Matthew looked at the woman standing before him. She could be forthright in her opinion, yet still vulnerable and caring. She was getting under his skin very quickly and that was causing him grief. But he didn’t want to care about what she thought or felt. He just didn’t want to care.
‘We have one alive, so let’s act on that,’ he said hurriedly as he climbed into the ambulance. ‘What’s the call here?’
‘At best shock, head abrasions and possible neck injury. At worst, add internal bleeding.’
‘Right, let’s go. I’ll take blood now for a cross-match and we can have her typed in half an hour. Call ahead and let them know I want O-neg ready in case of emergency,’ he directed the paramedics, then reached into his pocket, pulled out his car keys and turned his attention back to Beth. ‘Would you mind taking my car to the hospital?’
‘No, but I haven’t driven a manual shift for a long time,’ she said as she watched him insert the IV line.
‘Like riding a bike,’ he said. ‘But considering what I paid for that little imported job, please don’t forget to change your clothes before you do.’ Beth glanced down at her blood-stained blouse and skirt. It was going to be another day in slacks and a sensible cotton shirt, she mused.
In a wail of sirens the two ambulances took off into the traffic, leaving Beth with a prayer for the woman inside and the keys to a midnight-blue BMW that she hoped was well insured.
CHAPTER THREE
‘YOU DID IT!’ Beth congratulated herself as she pulled the car into the Eastern Memorial car park.
Despite thinking more than once that she had left the entire gearbox on the road during the shift from first to second, Beth managed to drive the expensive vehicle without a single incident. With a sigh of relief, she pulled the key from the ignition and took a deep breath.
Her mind raced back to the embarrassing start to the day. She hoped that Matthew would forget her ridiculous assumption that the flowers were from him. She also hoped the passenger had survived the trip to the hospital. It was touch and go with the woman’s internal injuries but Beth was confident that a doctor as skilled as Matthew would give her the best chance of survival.
He was a complex man and, while respected and revered, he was definitely not loved by his staff. She wasn’t sure why she was so attracted to him. Normally arrogant men left her cold, but there was something about Matthew that made her think that underneath his suit of armour was a different man. She felt in her heart that there was more to Matthew Harrison than met the eye, although that alone was pretty damned good. Her delicious thoughts were abruptly broken by the arrival of a mud-encrusted Range Rover in the parking bay opposite her. The huge grille in her line of vision was filled with splattered insect bodies. Goodbye, daydreams.
But what was she thinking anyway? Dr Harrison was dating a beautiful woman and had made it perfectly clear that morning that he didn’t even want her at the hospital. Well, not her precisely but an exchange resident was definitely not on his wish list. Yet his body language the night before had stirred unexpected feelings in her. She smiled sheepishly at the driver of the Range Rover as she silently cringed at her irrational thoughts. She had never dated anyone like Matthew and doubted she would. She had already seen his standard, and a gorgeous blonde bombshell she definitely was not. Enough with the daydreaming, she thought as she grabbed her bag from the back seat and climbed out of the car.
Perhaps she should put the blame on jet-lag and a long first day at work. She wasn’t herself at all. Both pathetic excuses, Beth Seymour, she chided herself.
The man was irrevocably under her skin, but since he made it painfully clear that he didn’t feel the same way, she had to keep it to herself. He certainly shouldn’t be held responsible for her romantic musing, so Beth decided quickly to curb her imagination by making sure she only saw Dr Harrison within the hospital grounds in future. No more lifts after work. She was far from home and feeling a little vulnerable, and now the poor unsuspecting Matthew Harrison was the focus of her attention. She had to keep everything in perspective. He was her boss. She was there to learn. Nothing more.
Hurriedly she locked the door, and feeling rather pleased that she had brought the car back safely she raced across the parking lot to the hospital entrance. She had changed into sensible beige slacks and a white cotton shirt and put her blood-stained clothes in her laundry tub to soak before she’d left home for the second time that day. As she made her way into A and E, she looked around for Matthew, hopeful of hearing good news about the car-accident victim. They had worked well together during the crisis that morning, and that was something she couldn’t deny. But she mustn’t make more of it than that.
She was still early, so she stopped to chat to Yvette in Reception for about five minutes, getting an update on the previous day’s patients. Then she made a quick call to Paediatrics to check on Tania. She intended to visit her young patient as soon as she had a spare minute, to thank her personally for the beautiful flowers.
With no sign of Dr Harrison on the floor, she walked past his office and saw it was empty. Closing his door, she headed down to the doctors’ lounge to see if he was there. She had to put her handbag in her locker anyway, she told herself. It wasn’t as if she was going out of her way to find him.
‘Morning, Beth,’ came a cheerful voice from across the room.
‘Good morning, Dan. You’re in a very good mood. Any reason?’ Beth asked as she adjusted her white consulting coat and took the hairbrush from her locker, all the while hiding her disappointment that it wasn’t her consultant.
‘Sir Harrison, the Almighty One, was civil to me this morning. It was the first time he’s greeted me with a “Good morning, Dan” in the six months I’ve been here.’
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