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‘Come here,’ Craig said, in a low, roughened tone.
He held out his arms to her, and when she would have hesitated he reached out and drew her into his embrace, holding her close and lowering his head to hers, so that his cheek lightly grazed her face.
‘You’ve been through a hellish day,’ he said. ‘There’s no shame in feeling this way. It’s bound to have an effect on you.’
His fingers threaded through the silk of her hair, gently caressing the nape of her neck, smoothing away all the tension there. It was such a warm and lovely feeling, being held this way, and she found herself wishing that this closeness might go on for ever and ever…or at least for just a little longer.
A low sigh escaped him, and he lightly tasted the sweetness of her lips.
It was barely a whisper of a touch—not even a kiss, really—but Rebecca’s eyes closed, as she savoured the delicious thrill of that moment. Heat flooded her veins, coursing through every part of her body. She was safe, she was complete, and right now there was nothing more she wanted than to be held like this, in his arms.
When Joanna Neil discovered Mills & Boon®, her life-long addiction to reading crystallised into an exciting new career writing Medical™ Romance. Her characters are probably the outcome of her varied lifestyle, which includes working as a clerk, typist, nurse and infant teacher. She enjoys dressmaking and cooking at her Leicestershire home. Her family includes a husband, son and daughter, an exuberant yellow Labrador and two slightly crazed cockatiels. She currently works with a team of tutors at her local education centre, to provide creative writing workshops for people interested in exploring their own writing ambitions.
Recent titles by the same author:
A CONSULTANT BEYOND COMPARE
THE DOCTOR’S LONGED-FOR FAMILY
THE CONSULTANT’S SURPRISE CHILD
EMERGENCY AT RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL
BY
JOANNA NEIL
CHAPTER ONE
‘THIS is all getting out of hand,’ Rebecca murmured. ‘That’s another glass that’s been smashed, and Susie already has a cut on her foot from the vase that was broken earlier.’
She knelt down to gingerly pick up the broken shards of a drinking glass, frowning as she watched a group of young men work their way through the crowded room, bumping into people and furniture as they stumbled on their way to the kitchen where the temporary bar had been set up.
She pushed the silky fall of her chestnut-coloured hair back over her shoulder so that she could concentrate better on what she was doing. Her head was throbbing, possibly something to do with the thundering sound of heavy rock music that reverberated through the ground-floor flat and made the floorboards judder in reaction.
Carefully, she dropped the jagged pieces of glass into a waste-paper basket and then stood up.
‘Who are those people, anyway?’ she asked, directing a troubled glance towards her friend, Angie. ‘Did you invite them to the party?’
Angie gave a negligent shrug. ‘Wasn’t me. I expect they’re medical students who heard about the party and decided to crash it. I wouldn’t worry too much about them. I expect they’ll sober up a bit once they get some food inside them.’
‘Hmm. Maybe.’ Rebecca’s grey eyes were troubled, but Angie wasn’t going to allow her to be concerned for long.
She angled the wine bottle she was holding out over Rebecca’s glass. ‘Have another drink, Becca…You need to chill out… This is your last night here and we mean to see you off in style.’
Rebecca gave a brief smile. Angie meant well, but the last thing Rebecca needed right now was to find herself in the middle of a surprise going-away party when she still had packing to do and last minute problems that had arisen which meant she had to go to work in the morning. As it was, all her travel plans had been thrown into disarray and she had to sort out alternative arrangements in order to transport her belongings to the old cottage up in Scotland.
What she wanted was peace and quiet so that she could wind down after her difficult day at the hospital and a clear head so that she could think for a while, and it didn’t look as though either of those scenarios was going to be available to her any time soon.
‘Perhaps we should turn the music down a little,’ she suggested, ‘before the neighbours start complaining. Did you invite any of them to join us?’
Angie made a face. ‘I thought about it, but I wasn’t sure they would be into the party scene. Next door are getting on a bit, and anyway they’ve been out all day, so I haven’t had a chance to talk to them. I wanted to invite the new tenant from upstairs, but I haven’t seen anything of him either, since he only moved in last night.’ Angie rolled her eyes. ‘Now, there’s someone I’d really, really like to have around. He’s definitely my kind of guy with those dark good looks and devil-may-care eyes that make me go hot all over, just thinking of him.’
Rebecca laughed. ‘You don’t even know the man. He could be a mass murderer for all you know.’
Angie grinned. ‘I don’t care. I’ll take my chances.’
Rebecca made a wry face. She had reservations about the new tenant. Her first impression of him hadn’t been all that great. He had arrived at the house after darkness had fallen yesterday evening, with nothing more than an overnight bag to his name, as far as she could tell. What kind of tenant had no proper luggage?
Struggling to wake up, she had come across him in the early hours of the morning as she’d left for work, putting his key into the lock of the main door of their building. At the time they had simply exchanged brief nods in greeting.
She had sent him nothing more than a hurried glance, but it had been enough for her to take in his rugged frame and the slightly crumpled appearance of his clothes, a linen shirt open at the neck and black trousers that clung to strong legs. There was a hint of dark shadow about his face, as though he had forgotten to shave.
She was used to people coming and going from the top-floor flat. The previous tenants had worked on short-term contracts and had rented the place for about six months before they’d moved on, and she guessed this man would be no different.
Not that she would be staying around to get to know him. After all, this was the last full day she would be spending in the area, and after her one final obligation to the hospital was fulfilled tomorrow, her work there would come to an end.
A bang distracted her just then, followed by a muttered oath, and she turned to see one of the medical students, who had lurched against a bookcase, catching his ribs on the wooden corner of the unit, books tumbling to the floor. She pulled in a deep breath.
‘Perhaps you should go and sit down over there,’ she suggested, indicating a chair with the flick of her head. She tried to steady the young man with her hand while she struggled to prevent the bookcase from falling over with the other.
‘I’ve got it,’ Angie said, coming to help, and between them they managed to gently ease him down into a chair.
Rebecca looked back at the pile of books and stifled a sigh. Even the boisterous children on the paediatric recovery ward at the hospital didn’t cause this much chaos.
Another sound stopped her in her tracks as she began to pick up the fallen items and replace them on the shelves. ‘Did you hear that?’ she asked Angie.
Angie shook her head. ‘Can’t hear anything above this din. I thought you turned the sound down a little while ago.’
‘I did.’ Someone had obviously decided that had been a bad move on her part, though, because now the noise was as loud as ever and she could barely hear herself think. Still, underneath it all she could just about make out a knocking sound. Rebecca frowned, trying to make out where the noise was coming from. ‘Someone’s at the door,’ she murmured.
It was probably one of the neighbours, coming to complain, and she steeled herself to go and pacify whoever it was. She had always got along well with the people next door, but there was a limit to what they could be expected to cope with.
Pulling open the door to the flat, an apology was already forming on her lips, but it faded rapidly as she looked out to see the man from the top-floor flat standing in the hallway.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said awkwardly. ‘I thought it might be someone else.’
He shook his head. ‘Did you? I’ve been banging to get your attention for a while, but I’m glad that it was you who opened the door. I was hoping that I would be able to catch up with you some time today.’
‘Were you?’ Puzzled, Rebecca pulled the door almost closed behind her in an effort to shut out some of the noise. She studied him guardedly. Why would he be trying to catch up with her? She didn’t know him, or anything about him, except what she had managed to glean last night in the few moments when their paths had crossed. ‘You’re not here to complain about the noise, then? I’ve been trying to keep it down.’
‘Have you?’ His mouth made a wry twist. ‘I suppose it all depends how you interpret keeping it down.’
She slowly absorbed the implied criticism and pushed it into the background. ‘You know how it is… People get to drinking and then they want to dance, and before you know it they’re tuned in to the beat and it all gets a bit crazy.’
‘Yes. Anyway, that’s not actually what I’m here about.’
‘Oh…I see.’ She frowned. Why on earth would he be seeking her out? He was a stranger to her. The only thing they had in common was that they both kept late hours.
Perhaps he read her thoughts because he said, ‘I’m Craig, by the way. Craig Braemar.’
‘I’m Rebecca.’ She acknowledged the introduction with a faint inclination of her head. When all was said and done, she didn’t want to appear unfriendly, even if he was there to complain about something else. It wasn’t her way, no matter how distracted she might be. ‘Of course, you could always join us, if you’d like to?’ After all, it could be a better move to pull in the opposition rather than have him create problems for her.
‘Thanks, it’s tempting, but I actually need to grab some more sleep and I want to keep a clear head for the morning. I’m expecting a call.’
‘That’s OK. It was just a thought. I wouldn’t like you to feel that we were leaving you out.’
She studied him surreptitiously. Maybe he’d been out on the town last night and was still recovering. Whatever the circumstances, he was definitely more presentable today than he had appeared to her then, and she had to admit to herself that his voice surprised her, too. There was a vibrant, deep quality to it, and it somehow managed to wrap itself around her senses in a most unexpected way.
Today he was clean-shaven, and the clothes he was wearing were considerably more respectable than those of the night before, a fresh dove-grey cotton shirt beneath a black leather jacket and black denims that followed the line of long, strong-looking legs. His hair was a crisp, midnight black, cut in a short, cropped style, and his jaw was square, as though he brooked no nonsense from anyone. His eyes were a subtle mix of blue and grey, and right now his gaze homed in on her, returning her stare with laser-like precision, making her shift uneasily.
His glance shimmered over her, taking in the feminine curves outlined by the soft fabric of the strapless dress that clung where it touched and ended in a swirl of silk that draped itself around her knees.
His gaze was dark and brooding. She had no idea what he was thinking and for some reason that she couldn’t define, that bothered her. Was he dismissing her as a feckless airhead who went in for wild shindigs and a chaotic lifestyle?
Why should his impression of her rankle, anyway? He was nothing to her, and she didn’t want to acknowledge that he had tweaked her interest in any way. She was off men. They were trouble, big time, and most likely he would prove to be no exception.
Even so, she kept up an appearance of civility. ‘Is there a problem?’ she asked. ‘I know it can’t be easy moving into a new place. If there’s anything I can do to help, you only have to ask.’
‘It’s nothing like that, but thanks all the same.’ His tone was faintly dismissive, and she stiffened, returning his look with a questioning, watchful expression.
‘It’s about a phone message that was left for you just after you went out this morning,’ he said. ‘It was obviously someone who doesn’t know you too well, because she rang the number of the communal phone. It was only by chance that I heard it as I was crossing the lobby.’
Rebecca’s eyes widened a fraction. Who would be calling her here? All her friends and family had her mobile number. Unless something had happened to—
‘It was someone who lives near to your aunt, I believe,’ he murmured. ‘At least, she said she was a neighbour, Margaret, and she told me that your aunt was unwell. Nothing too serious, she thinks, but she’s not quite herself, and she’s been feeling a little dizzy lately. She said she would keep an eye on her over the next week or so, but she wondered if you might manage to get over there to see her some time soon.’
‘Oh, I see.’ Rebecca tried to absorb the information that confirmed her worst fears. Aunt Heather was ill? That was deeply distressing news, all the more so because her aunt had been like a mother to her. She had taken Rebecca and her sister under her wing and given them all the love and care that it had been possible for her to give through a good part of their young lives. It was unthinkable that she should be virtually alone in her island home while her family was so far away.
She glanced up at the man. ‘Well, thank you for letting me know. That’s a message I definitely needed to get.’
He nodded. ‘That’s what I thought. It’s difficult when elderly relatives are left to fend for themselves.’
Was that a hint of censure she detected in his voice? Rebecca drew herself up, a spark of resentment flaring to life in her smoke-grey eyes. What did he know about the way she lived her life? Who was he to stand in judgement of her?
She opened her mouth to say something, but then clamped it shut as he went on, ‘Actually, there was something else—I found a letter addressed to you this morning.’ He reached into his inside jacket pocket and drew out an envelope, holding it out to her. ‘This is you, right—Rebecca McIntyre?’
Rebecca nodded, and he said shortly, ‘I thought so. I heard your flatmate calling out after you, this morning as you left the house. I would have given it to her to pass on to you, but I was having a bit of a lie-in, and after that I was out for some of the day, so I haven’t had the chance to catch up with either of you.’
Her glance flicked over him. Nice that he was able to grab a leisurely day for himself. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been able to do that. Her job was one of constant pressure, with lifesaving decisions to be made about her small patients and long hours when she was on call.
Still, to be fair to him, maybe he was taking a day or so to acclimatise himself to his new surroundings. At any rate, it didn’t sound as though he had anything pressing he needed to attend to right away, no job to keep him occupied.
He gave her a grimace. ‘I don’t know who picked up the letter originally, but it might be that it slipped from a pile on the hall table and somehow became wedged between the table and the wall. I caught a glimpse of the corner of the envelope. The postmark is a few days old, so I hope it wasn’t anything important.’
He handed her the envelope and she stared down at the black, handwritten address and winced. The writing style was familiar enough. She would recognise her sister Alison’s neat lettering anywhere, but why would she write and not phone? There was an overseas postmark, and that could only mean that there had been some kind of setback to her plans and she wasn’t able to come back to the UK as planned.
She released a faint sigh. All her plans for a joyful reunion were falling apart. This day was getting worse with every moment that passed, and on top of that her new neighbour must be thinking that she was careless and irresponsible along with everything else.
‘Thanks again,’ she murmured, sending the man a quick glance. ‘I do appreciate the trouble you’ve taken.’
‘You’re very welcome.’ He frowned. ‘Though I take it from your expression that it’s not likely to be good news in there?’
She gave a reluctant smile. ‘Don’t worry. I won’t shoot the messenger. All in all, it’s been a bad day for me, but things can only get better, can’t they?’
‘Let’s hope so.’ He made as though to move away from her, but in that instant a crashing sound erupted from inside the flat, followed by a loud scream.
He turned around to face her once more, his expression rueful. ‘I think perhaps you might have spoken too soon,’ he murmured.
Rebecca felt her heart sink. ‘Oh, dear. I’d better go and see what’s going on in there. Thanks again for passing on the message.’
She turned away from him and pushed open the door to the flat, standing in the doorway and scanning the room briefly. It was clear at a glance what had happened.
The heavy, glass-fronted display cabinet had fallen over, probably aided by some drunken partygoer stumbling about, and she could see that some of the contents, once beautiful glassware and delicate ornaments, were scattered in fragments about the floor.
Far worse than that, though, a man’s arm was sticking out from underneath the cabinet, and a pool of his blood was slowly seeping across the carpet. People were standing about, some in shock, some confused and most the worse for wear through drink.
‘Help me get the cabinet off him,’ she said in an urgent tone, rushing over to where the man lay and directing her words at her friends. ‘Angie, can you grab one end? Connie, will you go around the other side?’
Angie’s new flatmate hurried to position herself at a point where she could assist. ‘It’s too heavy,’ Connie said. ‘We’re not going to be able to do this on our own.’
‘You girls get ready to pull him out from underneath.’ Craig’s voice cut into their conversation, his tone clipped and decisive, and Rebecca stared up at him in shock. He must have followed her into the room. ‘I’ll ease it up from him. Just watch out for falling glass.’
‘Perhaps we should find something that we can wedge in between him and the glass doors when you lift it?’ Angie’s expression was stricken. ‘He’s already badly cut, from the look of things. Wait just a second while I go and grab something from the kitchen.’
She hurried away and came back just a moment or two later, armed with a couple of large trays. ‘I’ll try to slide these over him as you move him out of the way.’
Rebecca nodded, and glanced at Connie. ‘We need to keep his head and neck as steady as possible while we drag him out from underneath.’ She looked around for more volunteers,and a trio of men came forward. One of them went to help with the cabinet.
‘Are you ready?’ Craig asked. ‘Is everyone in position?’
‘We’re ready.’ Rebecca signalled to the others, and in a team effort they pulled the young man clear of the cabinet while Craig and his helper stood it back on its feet.
‘He’s losing an awful lot of blood,’ Angie said. ‘There are cuts to his arm and wrist. He’ll need to go to hospital.’
Rebecca nodded. ‘There’s a puncture wound to a main blood vessel. Ring for an ambulance while I try to stop the bleeding, will you?’
‘I’ve already called emergency services,’ Craig said. ‘Do you have anything you can use as a pressure pad?’
‘Yes, in the first-aid bag.’ She was already applying pressure to the injured area with her fingers, but now she looked up at Connie. ‘The bag’s in the hallway in the cupboard under the stairs. Would you go and fetch it for me?’
Connie nodded and shot off towards the hallway, while Rebecca and Angie did what they could to reassure the young man.
‘Can you hear me, James?’ Rebecca queried gently, recognizing the young medical student. ‘Do you know what happened to you?’
James mumbled a reply and Rebecca guessed that a combination of alcohol and blood loss was causing him difficulty in responding. She said in a soothing voice, ‘I want you to lie still while I try to control the bleeding. I’m going to raise your arm for a while to slow things down a bit, and then I’m going to bind a pressure pad in place on your arm. We need to get you to hospital so that your cuts can be stitched.’
By the time the paramedics arrived, she had things more or less under control. She made James as comfortable as possible and watched over his transfer to the ambulance, and it was only when the vehicle had moved off along the road that she made her way back inside the building.
She expected to find chaos still reigning, but most of the revellers were winding down and making ready to leave. Angie and Connie were making inroads on the clearing-up, and Craig was seeing to it that the remaining guests found safe transport home.
‘I’ll give you a hand in a minute or two,’ she said to the girls. ‘I just need to freshen up first.’
Rebecca went into the bathroom and rinsed her hands under the tap, then pulled a brush through the long swathe of her hair, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She gave a soft sigh. There were faint shadows beneath her eyes and her skin had a pale, translucent gleam. Would this day ever end? Her aunt was ill, her sister was still overseas, and her own carefully made travel plans had fallen apart when her little patient at the hospital had been too poorly to be transferred by ambulance to his original hospital. So far, it had turned out to be a kind of postscript to all that was going wrong in her life. None of her dreams had come to fruition in this place.
Her boyfriend, who had persuaded her to come here in the first instance, had cheated on her, and the work that she had believed would be so fulfilling, using her skills as a doctor to tend to desperately ill young patients on the paediatric ward, had brought her torment and sadness along with its rewards.
All in all, she would be glad to be away from here, to leave the hectic rush of the city behind her.
She started to exit the bathroom, pulling open the door, but before she made her way back to the living room she took a moment to lean back against the tiled wall, closing her eyes and pulling in a deep, calming breath. Was there any way this day could disintegrate any further?
‘Are you all right?’
Craig’s deep voice cut into her thoughts, eddying around her, coaxing a response, and she quickly opened her eyes. ‘I’m fine,’ she said.
His gaze was watchful. ‘I thought you handled everything that happened back there really well.’ There was a faint inflection in his voice as he added, ‘You seemed to know what you were doing, and because of you your friend James will probably come through this all right.’
She looked at him. ‘You sound as though you’re surprised by that. It’s not so incredible, is it?’ She smiled lightly. ‘I know it must have appeared to you as if things have been wildly out of control around here, but we all have to accept that there are times when everything that can go wrong does go wrong. It’s just been one of those days where you get out of bed and wish you could have stayed under the covers.’
He nodded. His smoke grey glance travelled over her, sliding over the creamy slope of her bare shoulders and moving down to linger on the soft swell of her hips. ‘I can see occasions when that might be an inviting prospect,’ he said in a husky, amused drawl.