The Registrar's Convenient Wife

She shrugged. ‘No problem.’

Clearly it was, but there was nothing he could do about it right now.

He collected Eliot, walked him to the car and then sat on the bonnet out of Eliot’s earshot while he rang Fran.

‘Hello?’

‘Fran, it’s Eliot.’

‘Oh.’ She sounded flustered, then suddenly snapped into the sullen mode he’d grown used to over the last couple of months. Ever since she’d been seeing this Jon person. ‘Are you going to be late again?’

‘No. Early, in fact. I wondered if you had anything missing?’

‘No.’

His mouth tightened. It must have taken Ryan half an hour to get here. And she still had no idea he was missing? ‘Check your handbag,’ he advised coldly.

‘What?’ She sounded slightly scared. ‘Why?’

‘Just check your handbag, then come back to the phone.’

Thirty seconds later, she was shrieking. ‘My purse has gone!’

‘It’s here. With Ryan.’

‘Ryan? I, um...No, he’s in his room, making models.’

‘He’s sitting in my car, in the hospital car park,’ Eliot corrected her. ‘I think we’ve got some talking to do—don’t you?’

‘Eliot, I’m sorry, it’s just—’

‘Save it.’ She hadn’t even asked if the boy was all right. Hell, hell, hell. How had he managed to get it so wrong when he’d hired Fran? At the time she’d seemed young but sensible and Ryan hadn’t minded her. Maybe he’d just been so desperate to find someone that he’d seen what he’d been looking for rather than what had really been there. ‘Ryan’s already explained. We’re on our way home now.’ If Fran had any sense, her boyfriend would be long gone before Eliot arrived. And he’d check the house over before she left. Get the locks changed tomorrow. And he’d need at least one day off...This was rapidly turning into a nightmare.

He consoled himself—just—with the thought that at least Ryan was OK. He’d found his way across Ludbury without any problems, he wasn’t hurt. He’d sort this mess out, one step at a time.

And then he’d face Claire.

* * *

A personal problem. He could say that again. Claire wasn’t sure whether she was angrier on Eliot’s behalf or with Eliot himself. Angry because Ryan was much too young to have travelled across Ludbury by bus on his own—particularly a journey that involved changing buses. And angry because Eliot hadn’t said a word about his personal circumstances. He’d let everyone assume that he was young, free and single.

To think that she’d nearly fallen for him...

Stick with your career, she told herself firmly. That at least won’t let you down.

All the same, she was smarting again over that near clinch with Eliot, so she was relieved when Tilly called her over to look at one of their newer babies and she could concentrate on work again. ‘Second-born twin, born at thirty-five weeks gestation,’ Tilly said. ‘The symptoms developed about an hour after birth so they’ve sent her up here in case it’s RDS.’ Respiratory distress syndrome was common in premature babies because their lungs hadn’t matured enough yet. ‘Her breathing’s fast, she’s grunting a bit, she’s got nasal flaring and intercostal recession.’

Claire noted the way the baby’s skin sucked in between and under her ribs. ‘She’s, what, two hours old now?’

‘Yes.’

Claire listened to the baby’s lungs. ‘The air entry’s reduced and I can hear creps.’ She did some more checks. ‘Heart rate 125 a minute, low blood pressure.’ They could both see that the baby was lying in the ‘frog’ position, not moving as much as they’d expect from a newborn. ‘OK. We need the usual bloods—haemoglobin, white-blood count, platelets, gases, blood group and cross-match. Check the electrolytes, creatinine and calcium so we’ve got a baseline; blood culture plus deep ear and throat swabs to rule out any infection; and a chest X-ray to check we don’t have any extra problems.’

Gently, she stroked the baby’s cheek. ‘Hang on in there, little one. I know it’s tiring, but we’ll soon help you breathe more easily.’ She looked at Tilly. ‘Is the mum downstairs?’

Tilly nodded. ‘Probably frantic—and panicking in case the other twin has the same problem.’

‘I’ll go down and see her,’ Claire said. She rang down to the maternity unit, then went to see Carla Jennings.

‘I’m Claire Thurman, senior registrar on the neonatal ward,’ she said. ‘I thought you’d like an update on Gillian.’

‘Is she going to be all right?’

‘We hope so. We’re doing some tests at the moment, but I’m fairly sure she has what we call RDS—respiratory distress syndrome. It’s fairly common in premature babies, and second-born twins are more likely than the first-born to get it. All it means is that she’s having problems breathing because her lungs aren’t mature enough. We’re going to keep her warm, give her some oxygen to help her breathe and, depending on the test results, some synthetic surfactant to make her lungs mature.’