Doctor Knows Best Page 4

  Megan laughed too. “Yes, I suppose I was,” she said. “I don’t suppose he has thought of that.”

  Pushing open the door of the pub they entered into its welcoming warmth, a gratifying change from the sharp cold of the frosty night air. The first sight that met their eyes was a couple of senior registrars they both knew well, seated at the bar on the tall stools. One was a Canadian, an anaesthetist called Johnny Cox, and the other was a surgeon named Martin Taylor. They had both been at the hospital for about three years on their senior registrar rotations, and both were the sort of characters who became well known to everyone. Loved by some, disliked by others, but known to everyone!

  “Hi girls, what a sight to gladden sore eyes.” Johnny’s loud Canadian twang echoed around the half-empty bar. “Here we were, just the two of us, wondering what two handsome fellows like us were going to do on our own and lo and behold, two gorgeous girls like you turn up!”

  Megan laughed. “Flattery will get you nowhere. Why aren’t you in the Mess—that’s your usual haunt, isn’t it?”

  “It’s run out of beer again,” said Martin, heaving a sigh. “Our wretched Mess treasurer keeps forgetting to pay the brewery.”

  “Don’t tell me the brewery doesn’t trust the junior doctors, and won’t deliver until they have been paid,” teased Susan.

  “Too damned right they won’t,” said Johnny ruefully. “But now that you two have turned up, it has made my evening. I don’t care if the Mess has no beer, I like it better here.” He put his arm round Megan and gave her a resounding kiss on the side of her cheek. “What can I buy you to drink?”

  “Stop it, you idiot,” Megan laughed, pushing him away. She knew him too well to be offended. Then she turned to Susan. “We might as well resign ourselves to the fact that we are not going to have a quiet natter by ourselves.”

  “Who cares?” said Susan, climbing up on to the stool beside Martin. “I was feeling like a change this evening anyway. We’ll have a red wine each,” she said to Johnny, answering for Megan as well as herself.

  The four of them decided to move so that they could talk more easily, and changed over to a table in the corner where they sat munching crisps, drinking and exchanging hospital gossip and jokes.

  “I hear the students have roped you into their revue,” said Johnny to Megan. “I can’t wait to see it. A little bird has told me we are going to see quite a lot of you!”

  Megan blushed. “Johnny, how did you know that?” she demanded. “It’s supposed to be a secret.”

  Johnny slung his arm loosely around her shoulders. “If there is one thing I like, it is a woman with a beautiful body,” he crooned into her ear.

  Megan ignored him. He was the hospital gigolo, a different girl every night, quite harmless as long as no one took him seriously. “Johnny, I’ve known you too long to be taken in by you,” she said severely.

  He gave an exaggerated sigh. “You’re a hard woman, Megan,” he replied.

  The conversation continued between the four of them in the same bantering vein for the rest of the evening until the landlord called for time. The two men rose and started to usher the girls out. It was as they were on the point of leaving the warmth of the bar for the cold night air outside that Megan was suddenly aware that Giles Elliot was there. He was sitting at the far end of the bar, slightly in the shadow, but from his position he would have had a full view of the four of them at their table.

  Megan raised her hand, intending a brief friendly salute, but it wavered and died as she encountered his stony, anything but friendly stare.

  “Goodnight…” She tried to say the name Giles, but it stuck in her throat, so she left it at the brief goodnight.

  “Goodnight, Megan,” came his icy reply. “I’m glad to see the rehearsal went well.”

  Before Megan could reply, the others, who hadn’t seen him, or wouldn’t have known who he was if they had, dragged her out into the cold night.

  “Come on,” said Johnny, shivering as he linked arms with the two girls. “Let’s quick-march, it’s damned cold out tonight.”

  Martin caught hold of Megan’s arm on the other side and the four of them marched off together briskly in step down the road, back towards the glow from the complex of lights marking the hospital site.

  Fleetingly Megan looked over her shoulder in time to see Giles Elliott emerge from the Woodpecker. He stood unmoving in the doorway, staring after their retreating figures. Then suddenly she realised what he must be thinking. He must have thought she had lied to him about the rehearsal when she had told him she couldn’t go out to dinner. Suddenly she felt utterly miserable. He must think very badly of me, she thought unhappily. I must make sure I explain to him tomorrow. The icy sarcasm of his voice as he had said, “I’m glad to see the rehearsal went well,” echoed round and round inside her head. Remembering his lonely figure standing in the doorway she wished more and more she had had the chance to explain to him.

  “Hey, Megan,” teased Johnny, “why so silent? Have you seen a ghost?”

  Megan smiled and didn’t answer him. No, it was not a ghost she’d seen but a man who had come so suddenly into her life only a few days ago, and now seemed to be a disturbingly integral part of it.

  Chapter Three

  To Megan’s chagrin she didn’t see Giles Elliott at all the next day. Apparently he had gone to London to some special conference on trauma, and had taken one of the senior house officers with him. Megan found this out because an orthopaedic registrar had come down to the casualty department for the day to help out during the other junior doctor’s absence.

  The fact that she couldn’t explain to Giles Elliott why she had been in the Woodpecker the previous night and not at rehearsal, bothered Megan more than she cared to admit to herself. She felt restless and edgy and it was only with a supreme effort of self-will that she concentrated on her tasks. The mere fact that she found it so difficult to put him out of her mind bothered her too, and eventually she became annoyed with herself. This is ridiculous, she told herself severely. Stop making mountains out of molehills; the man probably hasn’t given you another thought since last night. However, try as she might, Giles Elliott’s face with its stony stare of disapproval kept floating in front of her mind’s eye.

  To make matters worse, at least as far as Megan was concerned, the department was unusually quiet, with no major casualties, no emergency admissions. In fact, by the middle of the afternoon there was absolutely nothing to do. The orthopaedic registrar took the opportunity to do some reading for his final FRCS which was coming up soon and the nurses stood around after they had tidied everything in sight and made sure all the trolleys were fully stocked with everything necessary.

  Megan could have done some more paperwork, something she always hated, but this particular afternoon she just knew she definitely would not be able to concentrate on anything as mundane as that. So, commandeering a couple of pupil nurses, she decided to reorganise the store cupboard.

  Once they had got stuck into the job there was no stopping her. She changed everything around, labelled the shelves, got them dusted and cleaned, and then they set about the task of restacking the shelves.

  The store cupboard was quite large and unfortunately for Megan and the two pupil nurses it had a radiator in it. It had once been intended for use as an office, but due to some oversight on the part of the hospital architect, there was no ventilation or window. The young nurses struggled to turn off the radiator at Megan’s request, but couldn’t manage it. Megan had a try too, but was equally unsuccessful, so they carried on working in the rather hot and stuffy room. The net result of which was that by the time they had finished the task all three of them looked hot and flushed and extremely dusty.

  Megan glanced at her watch as they placed the last box of plaster of Paris bandages on the shelf. It was five o’clock, time for the pupil nurses to go off duty. “OK, you two can go no
w,” she said briskly. “Thanks for all your hard work.”

  “Are you sure everything is done, Sister?” asked one of the girls.

  “Yes, thank you,” replied Megan, standing with her hands on her hips looking about at the reorganised cupboard with satisfaction. “I’ll just write a note and pin it on the door asking the cleaners to give the floor a good wash, and that will be that. So off you go, and thank you.”

  The two girls needed no second bidding, flying off down the corridor, chattering non-stop, towards the female changing rooms.

  Megan felt tired now, but at least she had worked the thoughts of Giles Elliott out of her system. Absentmindedly she ran a hand across her forehead, pushing back the rebellious dark hair that had escaped from beneath her cap during her exertions. In a few moments Juliet Moore would be coming on duty, just time for her to write the note for the cleaners.

  As she closed the door of the store cupboard behind her and stepped into the corridor, Megan suddenly became aware of two piercing blue eyes, with more than a hint of amusement in them, regarding her. She was also palpably aware of her very dishevelled appearance. Half-heartedly she tried to straighten her cap and push her hair back in place, acutely conscious of his blue eyes taking in every detail of her appearance. She felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment and knew she was turning crimson.

  “Have you been having an orgy in the cupboard, Sister? If so, I’m very sorry to have missed it. I should have stayed here instead of going up to London!”

  “I, we…um…” If Megan was flustered before, he had completely unnerved her now, and to make matters worse he took a step nearer. Involuntarily she took a step backwards and ended up leaning against the store cupboard door. Her luminous brown eyes, fringed by their impossibly long lashes, looked panic-stricken as she unexpectedly felt herself falling backwards. The door to the store cupboard had not been fastened properly and the light pressure of her slim young body had been enough to send it flying open and her tumbling backwards. Hitting the floor with a thud that knocked all the air out of her lungs, Megan lay still for a split second.

  “Megan, are you all right?” Giles’ large frame was bending over her, lifting her gently to her feet.

  Still dazed and bewildered, Megan clung to him, vaguely conscious of the comfortingly rough texture of his tweed jacket and the pervading masculine smell of his skin, with its faint, lingering perfume of aftershave. His face was so close to hers it would have been easy to reach up and kiss that strong, determined jawline, and Megan found herself terribly tempted to do just that.

  Common sense prevented her. Instead she said, rather lamely, “I’ve been clearing out the store cupboard.”

  He smiled down at her. “You seem to make a habit of falling over. What part of your anatomy have you damaged this time?”

  Self-consciously Megan tried to push him away.

  “Nothing,” she said firmly. “I’m sorry, it was a stupid thing to do.”

  “Yes, it was rather,” he replied, his blue eyes smiling. He made no effort to release her—if anything, it seemed to Megan that his arms tightened around her a little.

  Her long lashes fluttered down over the becoming curve of her high cheekbones as she lowered her gaze, unable to meet the searching blue of his eyes any longer.

  “I’m all right now,” she muttered quickly. “Thank you very much for picking me up.” It seemed a rather inadequate thing to say but she couldn’t think of anything else. In fact she found it difficult to think at all with his arms around her.

  “Don’t mention it,” came his low reply. “I really quite enjoyed it.”

  “You did?” Megan’s head came up in surprise and simultaneously his dark head came down to meet hers. She was briefly aware that he had kicked the cupboard door shut behind him before his lips came down on hers, blotting out everything. His mouth was hard and demanding, and Megan’s natural instinct was to respond to the urgency of his kiss. A confusing mass of emotions spun like stars in her head.

  Abruptly he let her go, saying, “That is what happens to young women who fall at my feet! You have been warned!”

  Megan looked at him suspiciously. He was laughing at her.

  “My goodness, Sister, you look as if you have never been kissed before,” he said. Now he was laughing out loud.

  “Not in a store cupboard,” replied Megan stiffly, unsure which had unnerved her most, his kiss or his laughter. She tried to muster as much dignity as possible. “Personally I think it’s much too stuffy in here for that type of activity.” She made to go past him, trying to reach the door.

  His hand snaked out in a quick, agile movement, grasping her slender-boned wrist as she tried to reach the door knob. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you,” he said, but his blue eyes were still laughing.

  Vainly Megan tried to wrench her wrist from his grasp, but against the strength of his long, strong fingers her ineffectual struggles made no impact at all.

  “Tell me,” his voice was low, throbbing with a vibrancy that caused Megan’s senses to reel, “where would you suggest for this type of activity?”

  Her cheeks burned a fiery pink with the red-hot flush that swept across them. Damn the man, he was purposely embarrassing her! Indignantly her brown eyes flashed fire.

  “It’s been a long day and I’m tired—and I am not in the mood for jokes.” She tilted her small oval chin defiantly. “If you will please open the door for me…” The tone of her voice was severe and self-composed. Quite the opposite, in fact, of the way she was really feeling.

  He took the hint and courteously released her, opening the door for her at the same time. Megan marched out with as much dignity as she could muster in the circumstances, and went straight to her office without so much as a backward glance. Once in her office, however, she rushed to the small mirror that hung on the wall, standing on tiptoe in order to see into it.

  Quite what she was expecting to see she wasn’t sure. Irrationally she expected a different girl to gaze back at her from the mirror. The fact that she had been briefly, but thoroughly, kissed by Giles Elliott made her feel different. Hesitantly she raised her hand and gently touched her lips, the lips that only a few moments ago had been kissed. He may have been teasing, but Megan knew that somehow, for her at least, their relationship would never be the same again.

  For the umpteenth time since she had met him, she wondered about him. Was he married? Did he have a girlfriend or maybe even a fiancée? She could imagine the sort of girlfriends he would have. Elegantly casual in expensive classic camel coats, with beautiful leather shoes and handbags. Not like herself in the least, having to search around the shops to find fashion that suited the meagre pay of a hospital sister.

  Megan sighed. Put all thoughts of him out of your head, she told herself. He is not going to look at a scruffy little thing like yourself, who has to stand on tiptoe to look in the mirror! His type of girl is tall and svelte, one of those Sloane Ranger types you’re always reading about.

  Her dreaming thoughts were abruptly halted by the arrival of Juliet Moore. “Busy day?” she enquired, looking curiously at Megan’s flushed appearance.

  Self-consciously Megan tried to straighten her cap yet again, and turned away from Juliet to take her cloak off the hanger on the wall. “No, very quiet indeed. If you are thinking that I look a bit…”

  “As if you have been pulled through a hedge backwards, to be specific,” interrupted Juliet, laughing.

  Megan gasped and went over to the mirror again. “Oh, do I look as bad as that? Whatever must Giles think?”

  “Oh,” said Juliet, a note of interest creeping into her voice, “Giles, is it?”

  “He told me to call him Giles,” said Megan defensively, “and the reason I look like this is because I have spent the afternoon reorganising the store cupboard. Thanks to me, you will be able to find anything and everything, no matter how much o
f a hurry you may be in. All the shelves are labelled and everything is in its proper place.”

  Juliet laughed. “No wonder you look so hot and bothered. For a moment I thought you had been having another altercation with Mr. Elliott. I mean Giles,” she added with a twinkle in her eye. She came across to Megan. “Here, let me put your cap straight. For goodness’ sake, you can’t go down the corridor like that, you look as if you’ve been on the bottle!”

  Megan laughed. “Thanks, Juliet, I can’t see in this wretched mirror properly. We’ll have to lower it.”

  “Then I won’t be able to see,” grumbled Juliet good-naturedly. She towered over Megan. “But we’ll lower it—I can always bend at the knees to look at myself.” She gave Megan a friendly slap on the shoulders. “Off you go, you look respectable now.”

  Megan grinned at her. She was a nice, comfortable person, easy to get on with. In some ways it was a pity that they worked different duties and never really had the chance to get to know each other well. Giving Juliet a cheery wave she set off down the corridor. As she passed Giles Elliott’s office she noticed the door was open and that he was on the telephone. It was impossible not to hear what he was saying as she went past for the corridor was quiet and empty and his voice had a deep, carrying note to it.

  “Of course, darling,” he was saying. “I can’t wait to see you either. See you at the weekend then—take care.”

  Megan’s heart plummeted straight into the bottom of her sensible flat black shoes. So he did have a girlfriend, or maybe even a wife after all. Anyway, certainly someone he called darling, and someone he couldn’t wait to see. Her pace quickened—she wanted to get down the corridor and around the corner before he emerged. She managed it and, letting her breath out in a sigh of relief, wrapped her thick cloak tightly around her and stepped out through the automatic sliding doors into the cold night air.