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When JOANNA NEIL discovered Mills & Boon®, her lifelong addiction to reading crystallised into an exciting new career writing Mills & Boon® 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.
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
Dear Reader
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
Copyright
Dear Reader,
First love, young love … such an intense, wonderful experience. Is it possible that it can survive the ravages of time and be a ‘for ever’ kind of love?
Well, the answer to that is maybe. Sometimes it needs to change and mature, to grow into something else before young lovers can reach the fulfilment they long for.
Life in general—along with a broken romance and a troublesome background of family secrets—manages to get in the way and mess things up for Caitlin and Brodie when they meet up again in the beautiful surroundings of rural Buckinghamshire.
I hope you enjoy reading about their skirmishes and triumphs as they find one another once more.
With love
Joanna
CHAPTER ONE
‘WHAT WILL YOU DO?’ Molly stood by the desk at the nursing station, riffling through the papers in a wire tray. ‘Will you go to the wedding?’ She sent Caitlin a sympathetic glance. ‘It must be a really difficult situation for you.’
Caitlin nodded. ‘Yes, it is, to be honest. These last few weeks have been a nightmare. It’s all come as a complete shock to me and right now I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with it.’ She pulled a face, pushing back a couple of chestnut curls that had strayed on to her forehead. Her shoulder-length hair was a mass of wild, natural curls but for her work at the hospital she usually kept it pinned back out of the way. ‘I don’t want to go but I don’t see how I can avoid it—when all’s said and done, Jenny’s my cousin. My family—my aunt, especially—will want me to be there for the celebrations. I don’t want to be the cause of any breakdown in family relationships by not going. It will cause a huge upset if I stay away.’
Yet how could she bear to watch her cousin tie the knot with the man who just a short time ago had been the love of her life? She and Matt had even started to talk about getting engaged and then—wham!—Jenny had come along and suddenly everything had changed.
Her usually mobile mouth flattened into a straight line. When she’d opened the envelope first thing this morning back at the flat and taken out the beautifully embossed invitation card, her spirits had fallen to rock-bottom. She’d had a sick feeling that the day was headed from then on into a downward spiral.
Sure enough, just a few minutes later as she had opened the fridge door and taken out a carton of milk, her prediction was reinforced. She’d shaken the empty carton in disbelief. One of her flatmates must have drained the last drops of milk and then put it back on the shelf. She’d stared at it. No coffee before starting work? It was unthinkable!
‘I can see how awkward it is for you.’ Molly sighed, bringing Caitlin’s thoughts back to the present. ‘Families are everything, aren’t they? Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do in order to keep the peace. I just wish you weren’t leaving us. I know how you feel about working alongside Jenny and Matt but we’ll miss you so much.’
‘I’ll miss you too,’ Caitlin said with feeling. Molly was a children’s nurse, brilliant at her job and a good friend, but now, as Caitlin looked around the ward, she felt sadness growing deep inside her. She’d been working at this hospital for several years, specialising as a children’s doctor, making friends and getting to know the inquisitive and endearing children who had come into her care.
It would be such a wrench to put it all behind her, but she knew she had to make a fresh start. She couldn’t bear to stay while Matt was here. He had betrayed her and hurt her deeply. ‘We’ll keep in touch, won’t we?’ she said, putting on a bright face. ‘I won’t be going too far away—Buckinghamshire’s only about an hour’s drive from here.’
Molly nodded. She was a pretty girl with hazel eyes and dark, almost black hair cut in a neat, silky bob. ‘Are you going to live at home? Didn’t you say your mother needed to have someone close by her these days?’
‘Yes, that’s right. Actually, I thought it would be a good chance for me to keep an eye on her now that she’s getting on a bit and beginning to get a few aches and pains. It’s been worrying me for quite a while that I’m so far away.’ She smiled. ‘I think she’s really quite pleased that I’ll be staying with her for a while, just until I can sort out a place of my own.’
She started to look through the patients’ charts that were neatly stacked on the desk. Her whole world was changing. She loved this job; she’d thought long and hard before giving in her notice, but how could she go on working here as long as Matt was going to be married to her cousin? And, worse, Jenny was going to take up a job here too.
She shuddered inwardly. It was still alien to her to think of him as her ex. They’d been together for eighteen months and it had been a terrible jolt to discover that he’d fallen out of love with her and gone off with another woman.
‘I shall have to look for another job, of course, but there are a couple of hospitals in the area. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find something. I hope not, anyway.’ She straightened up and made an effort to pull herself together. No matter how much she was hurting, she knew instinctively that it was important from now on to make plans and try to look on the positive side. She had to get over this and move on. She glanced at Molly. ‘Perhaps we could meet up from time to time—we could go for a coffee together, or a meal, maybe?’
‘Yeah, that’ll be good.’ Molly cheered up and began to glance through the list of young patients who were waiting to be seen. ‘The test results are back on the little boy with the painful knee,’ she pointed out helpfully. ‘From the looks of things it’s an infection.’
‘Hmm.’ Caitlin quickly scanned the laboratory form. ‘It’s what we thought. I’ll arrange for the orthopaedic surgeon to drain the fluid from the joint and we’ll start him on the specific antibiotic right away.’ She wrote out a prescription and handed it to Molly.
‘Thanks. I’ll see to it.’
‘Good.’ Caitlin frowned. ‘I’d like to follow up on him to see how he’s doing, but I expect Matt will take over my patients when I leave here. I’ll miss my little charges.’
Caitlin phoned the surgeon to set things in motion and then went to check up on a four-year-old patient who’d been admitted with breathing problems the previous day. The small child was sleeping, his breathing coming in short gasps, his cheeks chalky-pale against the white of the hospital pillows. He’d been so poorly when he’d been brought in yesterday and she’d been desperately concerned for him. But now, after she had listened to his chest and checked the monitors, she felt reassured.
‘He seems to be doing much better,’ she told his parents, who were sitting by his bedside, waiting anxiously. ‘The intravenous steroids and nebuliser treatments have opened up his airways and made it easier for him to breathe. We’ll keep him on those and on the oxygen for another day or so and you should gradually begin to see a great improvement. The chest X-ray didn’t show anything untoward, so we can assume it was just flare-up of the asthma. I’ll ask the nurse to talk to you to see if we can find ways of avoiding too many of those in the future.’
‘Thank you, doctor.’ They looked relieved, and after talking with them for a little while longer Caitlin left them, taking one last glance at the child before going back to the central desk to see if any more test results had come in.
‘There’s a phone call for you, Caitlin.’ The clerk at the nurses’ station held the receiver aloft as she approached the desk. ‘Sounds urgent.’
‘Okay, thanks.’ Caitlin took the receiver from her and said in an even tone, ‘Hello, this is Dr Braemar. How may I help?’
‘Hi, Caitlin.’ The deep male voice was warm and compelling in a way that was oddly, bone-meltingly familiar. ‘I don’t know if you remember me—it’s been quite a while. I’m Brodie Driscoll. We used to live near one another in Ashley Vale?’
She drew in a quick breath. Brodie Driscoll! How could she possibly forget him? He was the young man who had haunted her teenage dreams and sent hot thrills rocketing through her bloodstream. Just hearing his name had been enough to fire up all her senses. He had been constantly in her thoughts back then—and to be scrupulously honest even now the sound of his voice brought prickles of awareness shooting from the tips of her toes right up to her temples.
Not that she’d ever let on that he had the power to affect her like this—not then and certainly not now! Heaven forbid she should ever fall for the village bad boy, let alone become involved in any way with him. He was a rebel, through and through, trouble with a capital T … But who could resist him? His roguish smile and his easy charm made him utterly irresistible.
‘Oh, I remember,’ she said softly. She couldn’t imagine why he was calling her like this, out of the blue. Not to talk about old times, surely? Her pulse quickened. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea, after all …?
‘That’s good, I’m glad you haven’t forgotten me.’ There was a smile in his voice but his next words brought her out of her wistful reverie and swiftly back to the here and now. ‘I’m sorry to ring you at work, Caitlin, but something’s happened that I think you need to know about.’
‘Oh? That’s okay … what is it?’ She’d no idea how or why he’d tracked her down, but he sounded serious, and all at once she was anxious to hear what he had to say.
‘It’s about your mother. I’m not sure if you know, but I moved into the house next door to hers a couple of weeks ago, so I see her quite often when she’s out and about on the smallholding.’
She hadn’t known that. Her mother was always busy with the animals and the orchard; knowing how friendly she was with everyone it was easy to see how she and Brodie would pass the time of day with one another. Her mouth curved. It was good that she had someone nearby to take an interest in her.
‘What’s happened?’ she asked. ‘Are the animals escaping on to your property?’ Her mother could never resist taking in strays and wounded creatures and nursing them back to health. ‘I know the fence was looking a bit rickety last time I was there. I made a few running repairs, but if there’s a problem I’ll make sure it’s sorted.’
‘No, it isn’t that.’ There was a sombre edge to his tone and Caitlin tensed, suddenly alert. ‘I’m afraid it’s much more serious,’ he said. ‘Your mother has had an accident, Caitlin. She had a fall and I’m pretty sure she’s broken her hip. I called the ambulance a few minutes ago and the paramedics are transferring her into it right now. I’ll go with her to the hospital, but I thought you should know what’s happening.’
Caitlin’s face paled rapidly. ‘I— Yes, of course. I … Thank you, Brodie. I’ll get over there … I need to be with her.’ She frowned. ‘What makes you think she’s broken her hip?’ She added tentatively, ‘Perhaps it’s not quite as serious as that.’
‘That’s what I was hoping, but she can’t move her leg and it’s at an odd angle—it looks as though it’s become shorter than the other one. I’m afraid she’s in a lot of pain.’
‘Oh, dear.’ Those were typical signs of a broken hip. The day was just going rapidly from bad to worse. ‘Will they be taking her to Thame Valley Hospital?’
‘That’s right. She’ll go straight to A&E for assessment.’ He paused as someone at the other end of the line spoke to him. She guessed the paramedic had approached him to say they were ready to leave.
‘I’m sorry, I have to go,’ he said.
‘All right … and thanks again for ringing me, Brodie.’ She hesitated then said quickly, ‘Give her my love, will you, and tell her I’ll be with her as soon as I can?’
‘I will.’ He cut the call and Caitlin stood for a moment, staring into space, trying to absorb what he’d told her.
‘Are you all right?’ Emerging from one of the patients’ bays, the senior registrar came over to the desk and looked her over briefly. ‘You’re as white as a sheet,’ he commented. ‘What’s happened? Is it something to do with one of the patients?’
She shook her head. ‘My mother’s had an accident—a fall. A neighbour’s going with her to the hospital—it sounds as though she’s broken her hip.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said with a frown. ‘I know how worrying that must be for you, especially with her not living close by. You’ll want to go to her.’
‘Yes, I do … But are you sure it’s all right?’ She wanted to jump at the chance to leave but she had patients who needed to be seen.
‘It’s fine. I’ll take over your case load. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Molly will fill me in on some of the details.’
‘Thanks,’ she said, relieved.
She left the hospital a short time later, walking out into warm sunshine. The balmy weather seemed so at odds with what was happening.
She picked up an overnight bag from her flat. The news was dreadful and she was full of apprehension about what she might find when she caught up with her mother. It was a relief at least to know that Brodie was with her. She must be in shock and in terrible pain but it would be a comfort to her to have someone by her side. Caitlin would be eternally grateful to Brodie for the way he had responded to her mother’s predicament.
Guilt and anxiety washed over her. She should have been there; somehow she should have been able to prevent this from happening … She tried as best she could, but it wasn’t always possible for her to get away every week, with shift changes and staff shortages and so on. It was frustrating.
Her heart was thumping heavily as she drove along the familiar route towards her home town. She had the car window wound down so that she could feel the breeze on her face, but even the heat and the beautiful landscape of the Buckinghamshire countryside couldn’t distract her from her anxiety.
How bad was it? Being a doctor sometimes had its disadvantages—she knew all too well how dangerous a hip fracture could be, the complications involved: perhaps a significant amount of internal bleeding and the possibility of disabling consequences.
She gripped the steering wheel more firmly. Think positively, she reminded herself. Her mother was in good hands and she would be there with her in just a short time.
A few minutes later she slid the car into a parking bay at the Thame Valley Hospital and then hurried into the Accident and Emergency department, anxious to find out how her mother was getting on.
‘They’ve been doing some pre-op procedures, X-rays and blood tests and so on,’ the nurse said. ‘And as soon as those are complete the surgeon will want to talk to her. Mr Driscoll thought maybe you might like to have a cup of coffee with him while you’re waiting. He asked me to tell you he’s in the cafeteria.’ She smiled and added good-naturedly, ‘If you leave me your phone number, I’ll give you a ring when it’s all right for you to see your mother.’
‘Okay, thanks, that’ll be great.’ Caitlin wrote down her number on a slip of paper and then hurried away to find Brodie.
He caught her glance as soon as she entered the cafeteria. ‘Hi there,’ he said with a smile, coming to greet her, his blue gaze moving fleetingly over her slender figure. She had discarded the hospital scrubs she’d been wearing and had on slim, styled black jeans topped with a loose, pin-tucked shirt. ‘It’s good to see you, Caitlin.’
‘You too.’ Her voice was husky, her breath coming in short bursts after her rush to get here. That was the excuse she gave herself, but maybe the truth was that it was a shock to see Brodie in the flesh after all these years.
The good-looking, hot-headed youth she remembered of old was gone and in his place stood a man who simply turned her insides to molten lava. This man was strong, ruggedly hewn, his handsome features carved out of … adversity, she guessed, and … success? There was something about him that said he had fought to get where he was now and he wouldn’t be giving any ground.
He was immaculately dressed in dark trousers that moulded his long legs and he wore a crisp linen shirt, the sleeves rolled back to reveal bronzed forearms. His hair was black, cut in a style that added a hint of devilishness to his chiselled good looks. Tall and broad-shouldered, his whole body was supple with lithe energy, his blue eyes drinking her in, his ready smile welcoming and enveloping her with warmth.
‘Come and sit down,’ he said, laying a hand gently on the small of her back and ushering her to a seat by the window. ‘Let me get you a coffee—you must be ready for one after your journey.’ He sent her a quick glance. ‘I expect you’ve been told that your mother is having tests at the moment? The surgeon’s going to see her soon to advise her about what needs to be done.’
She nodded. ‘The nurse told me.’ She sat down, her body stiff with tension. ‘How is my mother?’
‘She’s okay,’ he said cautiously. ‘She’s been conscious all the while, and the paramedics were with her very quickly after her fall, so that’s all in her favour.’
‘I suppose that’s something, anyway.’
‘Yes. The doctor who’s looking after her gave her a pain-relief injection so she’s comfortable at the moment. She’s had an MRI scan to assess the extent of the injury—it’s definitely a fracture of the hip, I’m afraid.’
She winced. ‘Will the surgeon operate today, do you know?’
He nodded. ‘Yes. I was told it will probably be later this afternoon—the sooner the better, in these cases. Luckily she hadn’t had any breakfast to slow things up. You’ll be able to see her before she goes to Theatre.’
‘That’s good.’ She finally relaxed a little and when he saw that she was a bit more settled he left her momentarily to go and get her a coffee.
Caitlin glanced around the cafeteria. It was a large room, with light coming in from a wall made up entirely of windows. The decor was restful, in pastels of green and cream, and there were ferns placed at intervals, providing a touch of the outdoors.
Brodie came back to the table with a loaded tray and handed her a cup of coffee. It was freshly made, piping hot, and it smelled delicious. ‘I thought you might like to try a flapjack,’ he said, putting a plate in front of her. ‘Something to raise your blood sugar a little—you’re very pale.’ He took a small jug and a bowl from the tray and slid them across the table towards her. ‘Help yourself to cream and sugar.’
‘Thanks.’ She studied him thoughtfully. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like having Brodie as a neighbour. ‘How is it that you came to be living next door to my mother?’ she asked.
He sat down opposite her. ‘I’d been staying in a room at the pub,’ he said, ‘while I looked around for something more permanent. Then the place came on the market as a suitable property for renovation. The old gentleman who owned it found the upkeep too much for him when his health failed. He went into a nursing home.’
‘Lucky for you that the opportunity came your way,’ she murmured.
He nodded. ‘It’s a substantial property—an investment project, possibly—and I thought it would be interesting to do up the house and sort out the land that goes along with it.’
‘An investment project?’ It didn’t sound as though he was planning on staying around for too long once the place was renovated. ‘Does it mean you might not be staying around long enough to make it a home?’
He shrugged negligently. ‘I haven’t really made up my mind. For the moment, I’m fed up with living in rented accommodation and wanted something I could renovate.’
‘I see.’ She picked up one of the golden-brown oatcakes and bit into it, savouring the taste. ‘I didn’t get to eat breakfast this morning,’ she explained after a moment or two. ‘Someone emptied the cupboards of cereals and bread.’ She spooned brown-sugar crystals into her cup and sipped tentatively, all her regrets about missing the first coffee of the morning finally beginning to slip away. He watched her curiously.
‘You were right,’ she murmured at last. ‘I needed that.’ She told him about her flatmate drinking the last of the milk. ‘It had to be Mike who was the culprit. Neither of the girls I share with would do something like that. He probably finished off the cornflakes as well.’
Brodie grinned. ‘I guess he’s down for a tongue lashing at some point.’
Her mouth twitched. ‘Definitely, if only so I can vent … not that he’ll take any notice. He never does—why should he when he leads a charmed life?’ She took another sip of coffee. It was reviving and she savoured it for a moment or two before her thoughts shifted to her mother once more. ‘Can you tell me anything about what happened this morning with my mother? I’m guessing you must have been outside with her when she fell.’
He nodded. ‘I was about to head off for a meeting. Your mother usually feeds the hens first thing, and then checks up on the rabbits, and we say hello and chat for a minute or two. Today she seemed a bit preoccupied—she was worried a fox might have been sniffing around in the night—so she didn’t say very much. She started to pull a few weeds out of the rockery and I went to my car. Then I heard a shout and when I looked around she had fallen on to the crazy paving. I think she must have lost her footing on the rocks and stumbled.’
Caitlin winced. ‘I’ve told her to leave the rockery to me. I see to it whenever I’m over here. This is why I worry about leaving her on her own for too long. She’s not so nimble on her feet these days, but she’s always been independent, and if something needs doing she’ll do it.’
‘You can’t be here all the time. You shouldn’t blame yourself.’
She sighed. ‘I do, though. I can’t help it. I love her to bits and I often think I should never have taken the job in Hertford. It seemed like such a good opportunity at the time.’
He nodded agreement. ‘Jane told me you’re a children’s doctor; she’s always singing your praises. She’s very proud of your achievements, you know.’
Caitlin smiled. ‘She’s always been the same. She sees the best in everyone.’
‘Yeah.’ Brodie gave a wry smile. ‘She was the only one who ever saw any good in me. Of course, she’d been friends with my mother since they were at school together, so that must have helped.’
‘Yes, I expect so.’ Sadly, Brodie’s mother had died in a car accident when he was a teenager. That was probably another reason why Jane Braemar had taken him under her wing. Caitlin had lost her father and there had been an immediate bond between her and Brodie because of their shared circumstances. They had each understood what the other had been going through, and in their own way had tried to comfort one another. It had given them a unique closeness, and it had also been good, a source of consolation, that her mother had looked out for Brodie in his darkest times. She’d stood by him all through his unruly, reckless phase.