The Taming of Dr Alex Draycott

Jane looked from one to the other, a puzzled expression on her face. ‘So you two have met before this?’ She frowned. ‘Of course, it must be the hospital—it didn’t occur to me. I knew you were in Paediatrics, Alex, and, Callum, you’re in Emergency, but of course you must meet up on occasion.’

‘All the while, Aunt Jane,’ Callum agreed, a look of wonder coming over his face. ‘We work in the same department.’

Alex was still trying to get over the shock. She studied him carefully. ‘So you’re the nephew?’

His head went back. ‘Nephew? Why, who’s been talking about me?’ He looked at Jane, a glimmer of amusement coming into his eyes. ‘It has to be you, doesn’t it? You’ve only told her good things, I hope?’

‘As if I’d do anything else,’ Jane answered cheerfully.

Callum put an arm around her in a gesture of affection. ‘She practically brought me up,’ he told Alex. ‘She’s been like a mother to me.’

Jane patted his hand.

‘Auntie Jane, can we go and play in the garden?’ James asked, coming over to her and beginning to tug on her skirt.

‘Yes, of course.’ Jane’s glance ran over him, and a line indented her brow. ‘Perhaps we’d better get you cleaned up a bit first, though.’

James looked down at the honey trails that streaked his T-shirt. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I can do that.’ He pulled his shirt up to his mouth and began to lick the sticky patches.

Sarah pulled a face. ‘You are so gross,’ she said in disgust.

‘Why?’ James responded, astonished. ‘Am not.’

Callum began to laugh. ‘Was I ever like that?’ he asked his aunt, and she nodded. ‘All the time.’ She turned her attention back to the boy. ‘I’ll get a cloth.’

‘No, don’t do that. I’ll see to everything,’ Alex said, intervening when Jane would have stood up. ‘You stay there and rest. You’ve done enough for one day.’ She helped the children to wash their hands, before sending them outside, and then she began to clear up the mess on the kitchen table.

Jane tried to lend a hand, gathering up spoons and honeycombs, but Alex gently took them from her. ‘You’re already hurting,’ she remonstrated softly. ‘Let me do it.’

Callum frowned, looking at his aunt. ‘What’s this about you hurting? Is it your back again?’

Jane nodded. ‘It’s nothing for you to worry about,’ she said. ‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Hmm. Why don’t you go and sit down in the living room, and I’ll bring you a cup of tea? I’m sure you’ll be much more comfortable in there.’

His aunt smiled. ‘You’re probably right. What a good idea.’ She looked from one to the other. ‘Anyway, I expect you young things have plenty to say to one another.’

She left the room, and a moment later, still frowning, Callum began to help with the clearing up. He placed sticky jars on the drainer, and flicked the switch on the kettle.

‘I still can’t get over seeing you here,’ he said, looking at Alex. ‘It’s a small world, isn’t it?’

‘It certainly seems that way.’

He began to prepare a tray, setting out a cup and saucer, along with a plate of home-made biscuits. He smiled as he peered into the cookie jar. ‘She’s always loved baking,’ he said, helping himself to an oat biscuit. He offered the jar to Alex. ‘She let me help her when I was a child, but I’m not sure my efforts were all that brilliant. They tended to be misshapen, and a bit cracked around the edges.’

‘Much like mine, then,’ Alex said, helping herself to a biscuit, and they both chuckled. She looked at him, trying to imagine him as a child, mixing cookie dough or playing outside in the long garden. ‘You said she was like a mother to you…does that mean you lived here with her?’

He nodded. ‘For a good deal of the time, anyway.’ He looked around. ‘I love this house. It feels like home to me. In fact, I love the whole area.’

‘And your parents? Where were they?’

‘Mostly abroad, either in Africa or South America. I didn’t see a lot of them in my teen years because they were off working on projects to improve the health of the underprivileged children out there. Things are much the same nowadays.’

‘That must have been difficult for you.’ Her grey eyes were sympathetic. She remembered how sad he’d been when he’d first mentioned his parents. ‘You must have missed them.’

‘I suppose so.’ He frowned. ‘But my aunt and uncle made up for it. They gave me a decent home life and showed me what it was like to be part of a loving family. Until then, nothing had ever been stable. My parents were always busy, working all hours, and we moved around constantly. There was no chance of putting down any roots.’

Alex was sad for him. He’d obviously not known what a loving family was like in his earlier years.

‘You were lucky, then, that your aunt was able to take you in.’

‘Yes, I was.’ He poured tea into the cup. ‘I’d better go and check on her, and take her the tea.’

Alex glanced at him and hesitated a second or two before saying, ‘You know she’s having problems with her blood pressure, don’t you?’

He nodded. ‘It was diagnosed some time ago. She’s been prescribed a number of different medications over the past year or so.’

‘Yes, that’s what she said. But it seems to me that whatever her GP’s giving her isn’t working, and I suspect that’s because he hasn’t yet found the root cause of her problem. I’m wondering if she ought to have some tests done at the hospital. She’s suffering from a number of symptoms that need to be investigated…headaches, dizziness, pain in her back.’

A line etched itself into his brow. ‘Her doctor’s been taking care of her for years, though. She trusts him, and it’s no easy thing to get her to go along to see anyone else.’

Alex’s mouth flattened. ‘Even so…I don’t see how she can go on this way. She doesn’t look at all well. Something needs to be done. In fact, I feel really guilty that I took her up on her offer to look after the children. It worries me that I’m putting too much on her.’ She pulled in a deep breath. ‘And I don’t believe she’s coping too well with the house and garden either. The weeds are beginning to overtake the borders, and it’s all much more than she can manage.’

Callum gave Alex a perplexed stare. ‘I mended the fence and tidied up the rockery a couple of weeks ago.’

Alex finished wiping the table with a flourish. ‘I’m sure the stress of keeping up with the maintenance is taking a toll of her. Is there any chance you could arrange a more regular schedule? Find a local gardener who will come along and tidy things up, perhaps?’

He didn’t say a word for a moment or two, but simply studied her as though he was deep in thought.

‘You’re very good at this sort of thing, aren’t you?’ he said at last, a note of wonder in his voice.

‘This sort of thing?’ She frowned. ‘I’m afraid I’m not following you.’

‘Organising people…deciding what needs to be done. I get the strongest feeling that not only am I being audited at work, but now you’re taking stock of how I conduct my personal life as well.’ He turned his blue gaze on her. ‘I’m obviously done for. Maybe I should give in, here and now?’

Alex felt warm colour fill her cheeks. ‘Well, that would be a good idea,’ she said, giving a self-conscious laugh. ‘That would make things easier all round, wouldn’t it?’

He gave a wry smile. ‘You’ll find I don’t surrender that easily.’

CHAPTER THREE

‘I’M ALL done disturbing you, angel,’ Callum murmured as the two-year-old girl fretted and tossed restlessly on the bed. ‘No more horrible needles and stethoscopes and all that palaver.’ He adjusted the medication drip, and then drew an ink line around the perimeter of the reddened area on the infant’s leg. ‘Let’s hope that rash starts to shrink very soon,’ he commented to the nurse who was assisting him. ‘We’ll make arrangements to admit her.’

He gave his attention back to the child. ‘I think you’ll be feeling a lot better before too long. I’m going to come back later to take a look at you, and I hope I’ll find that nasty red area is beginning to disappear.’ He carefully adjusted the bedcovers around the child, and gently brushed away the flaxen curls that massed around her hot cheeks. ‘Just you go to sleep and let the medicine do its work. We’ll have you right as rain in no time at all.’

Alex stood in the doorway of the treatment room, following his movements as he briefly checked the monitors. She had slipped into the room quietly, not wanting to disturb him, so he hadn’t realised she was there, and for a moment or two she was able to watch him at work, undisturbed. It gave her a fascinating glimpse of the man behind the professional mask, and though she felt guilty at not announcing her presence, the compulsion to feast her gaze on him somehow overcame everything else.

He might well be a constant source of frustration to her where her budget schedule was concerned, but there was no doubting his commitment to the patients in his care. And even though paediatrics wasn’t his specialty, she could see he had a sure instinct for dealing with children. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen him tending to a youngster in A and E. It was clear that he had a genuine concern for his young charges, and the tenderness that she saw in him as he leaned over the cot brought an unexpected lump to her throat.