Adam's Daughter

If Hannah came home, a small voice reminded her chillingly.

Beth’s eyes were sad as she picked up the photograph of her niece from the bedside table. The picture had been taken the previous year and Hannah looked so happy in it. She had been wearing a new dress at the time—bright blue cotton with big yellow daisies printed all over it—and she had looked so adorable with her mass of black curls and sparkling blue eyes.

It was hard to look at the photograph and realise how different the child looked now, but it helped to firm Beth’s resolve. She had been right to contact Adam Knight. She would phone him again as soon as she finished work, only this time she would make sure that he found the time to listen to what she had to say!

Beth left the flat and went down to the surgery. It was barely eight but she wasn’t surprised when she found Christopher Andrews, the junior partner, already at his desk. There had been a bit of a crisis the previous week when the senior partner, Jonathan Wright, had been rushed into hospital for emergency heart bypass surgery. Nobody had suspected that Jonathan had been ill because he had always seemed so full of life.

Beth had grown to admire the older doctor in the few weeks she had been working at the surgery, and had been saddened when he had been taken ill. Now she tapped on Chris’s door to see if he had any news about how Jonathan was faring.

‘What’s the latest on Jonathan?’ she asked when Chris beckoned her into the room. Chris was in his late thirties, unmarried and, according to Eileen Marshall, their receptionist, totally dedicated to his job. However, she couldn’t help noticing how tired he looked that day.

‘As well as can be expected was what I was told this morning when I phoned the hospital.’ Chris sighed as he tossed his spectacles onto the desk and rubbed his eyes. ‘Which could mean anything, couldn’t it?’

‘Hospital-speak for mind your own business,’ Beth teased. ‘I have to confess to using that very same phrase myself when I was on the coronary care unit.’

‘I’d forgotten that you worked there,’ Chris said, frowning. ‘It feels as though you’ve been here for ever, to be honest. You’ve fitted in so well that I can’t believe that you’ve worked here for only a few weeks.’

‘Coming up to a month now,’ she said, smiling at the compliment. ‘I’m almost a fully fledged member of the Winton team. Just two more weeks to go and hopefully I should get my wings!’

‘I think you can forget about being here on a trial basis. Jonathan was saying last week how pleased he is with your work.’ Chris sighed again. ‘I only hope that I won’t let him down. It’s going to be tough keeping on top of this job, especially when Jonathan is such a hard act to follow.’

‘Surely you’re going to need help?’ Beth said, frowning at the thought of Chris trying to cope on his own. The surgery was extremely busy and she couldn’t imagine him keeping up with all the work by himself.

‘I certainly am. I’m not Superman and I don’t mind admitting it! Fortunately, I believe reinforcements are on the way. When I last spoke to Mary, she told me that she had contacted her nephew and that he was flying home. Evidently, he has offered to cover until Jonathan is better.’

‘I didn’t know Jonathan and Mary had a nephew who’s a doctor,’ Beth exclaimed.

‘It’s been a while since he’s been back to England,’ Chris explained. ‘He’s been working for the WHO in Rwanda and before that he was in India, I believe. I met him only briefly when I first came here but we got on extremely well. He’s a nice chap, takes after Jonathan in that he’s totally committed to his work.’

‘He’d have to be if he’s been doing aid work on a long-term basis,’ she observed. ‘It takes a certain type of person to cope with that kind of work.’

‘It certainly does. It will be a big change for him, working here, but I’m delighted to know that I won’t be on my own for very much longer. It’s busy enough here even when we’re fully staffed!’

The words turned out to be prophetic because it was one of the busiest mornings Beth could recall since she had started at the surgery. Although she had enjoyed her job at St Jude’s, the sheer diversity of the work she did at the surgery meant that there was always something new to deal with each day, and that day was no exception.

She smiled to herself as she finished cleaning a particularly bad graze on a four-year-old’s knee. So far that morning she’d supervised a teenager who was learning to inject himself with insulin, treated a nasty ulcer on an octogenarian’s leg and taken copious amounts of blood for various tests. There was never a dull moment in general practice, it seemed!

‘Now, can you be a really brave boy and sit on the couch while I check that there’s no more gravel in your knee?’ she asked, smiling at little Michael Thomas, who had been brought into the surgery by his anxious grandmother after tripping over in the park.

Michael stared solemnly at her, tears still sparkling on his thick blond lashes. He’d been sobbing his heart out when he’d been brought into Beth’s room but he’d quietened down under her gentle ministrations. He gave a hesitant nod and she smiled reassuringly as she lifted him onto the couch.

‘What a brave boy you are!’ She turned to Mrs Thomas, his grandmother. ‘I think I’ve got all the gravel out but I just want to make certain before I put a dressing on Michael’s knee.’

‘That’s why I thought I should bring him here,’ the older lady explained. ‘My eyes aren’t as good as they used to be and I was afraid that I might not see all the little bits of dirt. It’s such a nasty cut, isn’t it? I only took my eyes off him for a second, too.’

‘You can’t watch a child all the time,’ Beth consoled her. ‘At this age they are always getting into mischief.’ She took a big magnifying glass from a drawer and showed it to Michael. ‘I’m going to use this to look through. It will help me see if there’s any more dirt in that cut.’

She held up the magnifying glass so that he could see through it and smiled when he chuckled at the distorted image of her face. He seemed more fascinated than afraid when she carefully examined his knee with the help of the glass.

‘Me see, me see!’ he demanded, leaning forward and threatening to topple off the couch in his eagerness to have a look.

Beth quickly steadied him then held the magnifying glass so that he could get a good view of the cut. ‘Can you see any more gravel in it, Michael?’ she asked, and he shook his head importantly.

‘No. All gone.’

‘Good. That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, sit back while I put a dressing over that poor knee. I’m sure Granny doesn’t want to have to take you home with a sore knee and a sore head if you fall off the couch.’

Mrs Thomas laughed. ‘I certainly don’t! My daughter-in-law won’t trust me to take him out again if I return him home looking like one of the walking wounded!’ She lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Actually, I think Diane was trying to get me out of the way and that’s why she suggested I take Michael to the park. It’s my seventieth birthday soon and I think Diane and Robert, my son, are planning a surprise for me.’

‘We’re having a party, Granny,’ Michael piped up. ‘Only Mummy said that it’s a secret.’

Beth laughed. ‘Not any longer it isn’t!’

Now that she was sure that the cut was clean, she covered it with some antiseptic-impregnated gauze then added a large adhesive dressing printed with cartoon characters.

Michael was entranced by the dressing. Beth chuckled as she followed him out to Reception and watched him leaving the surgery, bent almost double so that he could look at his knee.

‘One more satisfied customer, wouldn’t you agree?’ she said to Eileen behind the desk.

‘I certainly would. If only they were all so easy to please…Well, look who’s here! Where did you spring from, stranger?’

Beth looked round to see who the receptionist was speaking to and felt a frisson run down her spine when she saw the tall, dark haired man who had just entered the surgery. He was handsome enough to have warranted a second or even a third look but it wasn’t that which kept her staring at him. There was just something strangely familiar about him, yet she knew for a fact that they had never met.

‘I arrived late last night—very late, in fact!’ He gave a deep chuckle as the middle-aged receptionist rushed round the desk and gave him a hug. ‘But it was worth it to be on the receiving end of a greeting like that! It’s good to see you Eileen. You’re looking great.’

Beth felt another ripple run through her. Not only did he look familiar, he sounded familiar, too! But where on earth had she heard that voice before?

She reran the mellifluous tones through her head but she couldn’t place them. She was still trying to pin down the elusive memory when the man turned towards her and Beth saw a frown cross his handsome face.

‘I know this must sound crazy but have we met?’ He stared at her then shrugged. ‘You look so familiar but I can’t for the life of me recall where I’ve seen you before.’

‘You’ll have to do better than that!’ Eileen laughed as she linked her arm through his and led him to the desk. ‘You don’t honestly think that Beth is going to fall for that old line? It’s got whiskers on it!’

‘I’m out of practice. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!’

He chuckled softly as he reached Beth, his dark blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled at her. Now that he was standing in front of her she could tell that he must be at least six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a powerful chest tapering down to slim hips and incredibly long legs. He was casually dressed in khaki chinos and a matching shirt, and although the clothes were clean they were very creased.

Beth had a strong impression of a man to whom material possessions meant very little. Everything he was wearing was functional but basic, from his clothes to the inexpensive watch strapped to his broad wrist by means of a plain leather band. Whoever he was, he certainly didn’t feel the need to impress people by his appearance, she decided, surprised by the speed with which she had made such a judgement.

‘OK, then, I’ll try again—but this is for Eileen’s benefit, mind you. I know better than to fall out with the one woman around here who knows how to make a decent cup of coffee.’ He held out his hand and for some reason Beth found herself obediently taking it.

‘Of all the surgeries in all the towns in all the world, I have to run into you here.’ He grinned engagingly at her. ‘Now, if you could just tell me who you are and put me out of my misery I shall be eternally grateful. If we have met before then I apologise for not remembering where and when. Jet lag does tend to liquidise the brain cells, I’m afraid.’

‘I don’t believe that we have met,’ she replied, laughing at his rueful expression. ‘Although I have to confess that I had a feeling that I’d seen you somewhere before when you walked in.’

‘Maybe we met in another life,’ he suggested lightly. However, she wasn’t blind to the frown which had crossed his face while she’d been speaking.

The telephone rang and Eileen regretfully excused herself to answer it. It was obvious that the receptionist was intrigued by what was happening but Beth decided that it might be better to call a halt. She had work to do and that had to come first, pleasant though this interlude had been.