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Dr Gregson decided it was time to intervene. ‘With regard to the post you’re applying for here, you should understand that our work isn’t just centred on the hospital. We often travel to the islands to visit patients in emergency situations. In those circumstances, we use the ambulance boat to reach them.’
‘Oh, I see.’ She swallowed carefully. She’d said she’d be able to cope with the demands of the job, but going by boat wasn’t something she had bargained for. And yet it should have been fairly obvious to her that travelling between the islands was a necessity. Perhaps she’d simply tried not to think about it.
The trouble was, ever since she was a child she’d been plagued by seasickness—how could she possibly tell them that? If she owned up, there was absolutely no way she’d get the job.
‘Does that bother you?’ Tyler was watching her, a small frown indenting his brow. ‘You seem distracted somehow.’
She tried what she hoped was a convincing smile. ‘No, not at all. I’d be quite all right with that.’
Dr Gregson appeared satisfied. ‘Well, then, Dr Reynolds, my colleagues and I have one more person to interview before we get together to talk things through. We should be able to let you know our decision before the end of the morning, though. In the meantime, perhaps you’d like to look around our hospital—Janine, my secretary, will be happy to give you the grand tour. You might want to spend some time in the minor injuries unit to see how we do things there, and then familiarise yourself with the A and E department.’
She nodded. ‘Yes, thank you. I would. That’s a good idea.’ At least she could stay around until they were ready to announce their decision.
His secretary showed her around the different areas of the hospital, pointing out the new cardiovascular wing and the obstetrics department. They made light conversation along the way, but Saskia felt weighed down inside with defeat. In her imaginings things would have gone very differently.
‘We have a few inpatient beds here,’ Janine told her, ‘but we’re probably not at all like the hospitals you’ve been used to. Everything here is on a much smaller scale.’
Saskia nodded. ‘I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen so far. It’s all exceptionally clean and efficient-looking.’
Finally, they arrived at the A and E department. There were a couple of resuscitation rooms, several treatment bays and an area where doctors could go to type up their notes or access computers.
‘I love the way this small area has been set apart for the younger patients,’ Saskia commented. ‘That mural must help to take their minds off their troubles, for a start.’
Janine smiled. ‘It’s great, isn’t it? Dr Beckett commissioned it from a relative of one of his patients. The children love trying to find the chicks hiding in the farmyard. And, of course, the ceiling mural helps distract them when they have to lie down.’
‘Yes, I imagine it does.’ It had been made to look like a vivid blue sky, with cotton-wool clouds, a mixed assembly of birds and colourful box kites to keep the children amused.
If only she could be so easily distracted. She sighed inwardly, thinking about the members of the interview panel who were most likely deciding her fate at that very moment. Her stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch.
A nurse came over to them as they walked towards the nurses’ station. ‘Janine, I’ve been paging Dr Beckett—do you know if he’s in the hospital today? I haven’t seen him all morning and we’ve had a patient come in with an injury to his wrist. We need him to come and take a look at it.’
‘He’s definitely here. He’s been doing interviews since first thing, but they should be finished by now. I expect he’ll be along in a minute or two.’
‘Okay, thanks.’
Janine glanced at Saskia. ‘You might want to be in on this—see how we do things here.’
‘Are you sure?’ Saskia frowned. ‘I don’t want to get in the way.’
Janine shook her head. ‘I’m sure it won’t be a problem. We’re all very friendly and informal around here.’
‘You have a patient for me?’ Dr Beckett strode into the A and E unit, his manner brisk and ready for action. Saskia stiffened. Had the interview panel finished their discussion and come to a conclusion?
‘He’s in here,’ the triage nurse told him, pointing out one of the treatment rooms. ‘We’ve done X-rays and given him painkillers.’ She handed him the patient’s file.
‘Thanks.’ He glanced at the notes in the file, and then went over to the computer and studied the films. Frowning, he said, ‘I’ll need someone to assist. Who’s free?’
The nurse shook her head. ‘No one right now. I’m needed in several places at once, and as for the rest—we’re busy with an influx of patients just now. There was a minor explosion at a building site and we’ve had a number of casualties...something to do with a propane gas cylinder. Nothing dreadfully serious regarding casualties, thankfully, but some quite nasty burns.’
He inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘Okay, I suppose I’ll just have to wait until you can spare someone.’
Saskia said quickly, ‘I could help, if you want.’
He glanced at her. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course. If there’s anything at all I can do...’ She frowned. ‘I understand this man has a broken wrist. Was that something to do with the explosion?’
He shook his head. ‘Totally different, apparently. He came off his motorcycle while taking a bend too sharply.’
‘Oh, dear.’
They went into the treatment room, where they found a young man in his early twenties nursing a badly deformed wrist.
‘Well, Mason,’ Tyler said, pulling up a chair and carefully examining the man’s injury, ‘I could have told you even without looking at the X-rays that you’ve broken your wrist.’ He glanced at Saskia. ‘Have you seen this kind of fracture before?’
She nodded. ‘It’s a Smith’s fracture,’ she murmured, ‘and that’s a typical garden-spade deformity.’ She looked at Mason. ‘I expect you fell awkwardly off your bike and landed on the back of your hand. I suppose you can count yourself lucky you don’t have any other injuries—apart from cuts and grazes, that is.’
The young man gave her a rueful smile. ‘I guess I can. Though this feels bad enough.’
‘I’m sure it does.’
‘We’ll get you sorted out in no time,’ Tyler said. ‘I’ll give you a local anaesthetic and a sedative, and then we’ll realign the bones for you and get you fixed up with a splint.’ He looked at Saskia. ‘I’ll need you to hold his elbow steady while I reduce the fracture—are you okay with that?’
‘Yes, of course.’
A few minutes later, when their patient’s wrist had been fully anaesthetised, they worked together to manipulate the bones back into position. ‘Okay,’ Tyler said, checking the shape of the wrist and testing the pulses there. ‘That seems to have done the trick. We’ll get that splinted up and then do further X-rays to make sure everything’s as it should be.’
Mason was clearly relieved some time later when the procedure was finished and had been pronounced a success.
‘Okay, we’ll see you back here in a couple of days to check how things are going,’ Tyler told him. ‘And in the meantime I’ll write up a prescription for some painkillers for you to take home with you.’
‘Thanks.’
At Tyler’s signal, a nurse came to take Mason along to the nurses’ station so that she could go through the discharge process with him and give him his medication.
Tyler turned to Saskia. ‘Thanks for your help with that. I’m sure he was relieved to get it over and done with.’ His glance moved over her fleetingly. ‘You’ve been very patient. You must be anxious to know the result of your interview?’
She nodded. ‘Has it been decided?’
He shook his head. ‘Not yet. I gave the others my input before I left the meeting, so I expect they’ll let us know shortly. Shall we go along to my office while we wait? I expect you could do with a cup of coffee.’
‘That would be good, thanks,’ she said, although all she really wanted to do now was get out of there and start working out what she was going to do for the best. She didn’t hold out much hope for a successful outcome.
His office was everything she might have expected. It was a beautifully turned out room with satisfying neutral colours in soft greys and blues and an overall sense of calm. A good deal of light came in through deep, wide windows that looked out onto a paved terrace beyond, where stone planters were filled with bright chrysanthemums, adding a splash of colour.
The furniture was made of pale golden beechwood. A desk with a pigeonholed upstand stood to one side of the room, and against another wall neat cupboards were interspersed with glass-fronted bookcases. There were even a couple of plants, billowy ferns that provided a pleasing touch of green.
‘Please, sit down,’ he said, waving her towards a chair. He switched on the filter machine, and soon the delicious aroma of coffee filled the room.
‘I’m sorry if I seemed a bit hard on you this morning,’ he said, placing a cup on the desk beside her. ‘I know it must have been difficult for you.’
She took a sip of the hot liquid. ‘I had the feeling you weren’t at all keen on having me as part of your team,’ she murmured, ‘though I don’t really know what you have against me.’
‘It’s not that I don’t want you,’ he demurred. He went to stand with his back to the window. ‘I have one or two reservations, that’s all. I have the feeling that you’re inclined to be impulsive—which is not a bad thing at all unless it intrudes on your work, but it wouldn’t do to be making impulsive decisions in A and E.’
‘Unless they were based on instinctive knowledge, maybe.’
He shrugged. ‘Possibly. The other thing is that I can’t help feeling you’re holding something back. I’m not sure yet what that might be.’
He studied her once more, but she didn’t offer any explanation. Instead, she lowered her head and swallowed her coffee as though it was a lifesaver.
He appeared to be deep in thought for a while, but then he said, ‘I suppose the biggest hurdle for me was that I had a particular type of candidate in mind—someone who was on the ball, alert and ready to face up to the challenges of the job.’
He smiled, gentle humour reflected in his eyes and in the curve of his mouth. ‘But instead you came along—and from what I saw back at the house you strike me as being...distracted, disorganised and probably stressed out with the strain of looking after your family. Medicine’s a difficult profession, even for the hardiest of people, and I can’t help feeling that this is probably not the best time for you to be taking on a responsible position.’
Dismayed, she stared at him. ‘You can’t judge me on one meeting. You must realise that you came to the house at a particularly difficult time.’
‘Yes...but that one time made a big impression on me.’ He made a wry face. ‘The problem is I’m finding it difficult to be detached when it comes to making this decision. Try as I may to keep a clear mind, the fact is whenever I look at you, in my mind’s eye I keep seeing a beautiful, half-naked young woman surrounded by chaos. It’s kind of hard to shake off that image.’
Her cheeks flushed with hot colour. ‘I... You caught me unawares. I wasn’t ready to receive visitors.’
He chuckled. ‘No, I realised that, and I should have left right away, but I must admit, the temptation to stay was just too great.’
She sucked in a sharp breath. ‘Tyler, I need this job.’
He nodded. ‘I know,’ he said, becoming serious once more. ‘And the truth is we need a woman on the team to balance things up. I might be a bit concerned that you’re not exactly what I had in mind, but I suppose, since we would be working together initially, I’d be able to keep an eye on you.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Are you saying that you voted in my favour?’
‘I am, albeit with reservations.’ The phone rang just then and he came over to the desk to half sit, half lean on the edge as he reached for the receiver. She was conscious of him being close to her, the fabric of his trousers stretched taut against his thigh, and she felt a sudden, unbidden, rush of heat race through her veins. ‘Okay, thanks,’ he said to whoever was on the other end of the line. ‘Will do.’
He replaced the receiver and looked at her. ‘That was Dr Gregson. He said to tell you the job’s yours if you want it.’
She gave a small gasp. ‘Really? Oh, I do. Definitely, I do.’
His mouth curved, giving his features an irresistible sex appeal. ‘Good. That’s settled, then.’ His expression sobered. ‘Though there is one proviso I should add.’
‘And that is...?’ She frowned, on edge all over again.
‘We feel there should be a three-month trial period to give us all time to decide whether we think things will work out. It’ll be a mutual arrangement. After all, you may decide you don’t care for the way we do things here, and once your brother and his wife are out of hospital, you may want to go back to the mainland.’
She mulled it over. Right now, she couldn’t see that happening, because she would always want to be close to her family, but it was true she had friends back in Cornwall, people she would miss.
‘I can see how a three-month trial might work both ways.’ She was troubled, though. This result was a positive one for the time being, but it wasn’t quite what she’d hoped for, not with this inevitable sense of insecurity hanging over her. Tyler was the one who would have pushed for that condition, she was sure. How could she convince him that she wouldn’t let him down?
She said carefully, ‘Look, I know you have your doubts about me, but I’m sure I can show you that I’m as sensible and methodical as you or anyone else.’
She thought about it for a moment or two and then added hastily, ‘In fact, why don’t you come over for supper one evening...Saturday, perhaps? Then I can show you that I don’t always live surrounded by chaos and upheaval. You’ll see, I can be every bit as efficient and on the ball as you are.’
‘You don’t have to do that—’
‘I know. I want to.’
He inclined his head a fraction. ‘Then, yes, thank you. I’d like that—that is, provided I’m not called out to any sudden emergencies.’ He frowned. ‘I believe I’m on call over the weekend. I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble unnecessarily.’
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