young mother looked at him, her chest jerking as she tried to hold back the sobs. ‘She climbed out of the window.’
Jago nodded. ‘So I understand.’
‘I didn’t even know she could reach the window,’ Mrs Churchman whispered, horror in her voice as she related the tale. ‘She pulled up a chair and climbed onto the window-sill. I was changing her bed at the time and I’d only nipped out for a moment to fetch a clean sheet. I must have been out of the room for less than thirty seconds, no more.’
She gave another sob and Katy reached for a box of tissues. ‘Being a parent is the most difficult, responsible job in the world,’ she said quietly. ‘What Molly needs now is not for you to feel guilty but for you to be there for her. She needs her mother.’
Mrs Churchman blew her nose and nodded. ‘You’re right, I know you’re right. But seeing her lying there as if she was dead just upset me so much.’
Jago frowned. ‘She isn’t dead, Mrs Churchman.’ He went on to outline Molly’s injuries and treatment in a cool, factual way and eventually the young mother seemed to gain some measure of control.
‘Can I see her now?’
Katy nodded. ‘When you’re ready, one of the nurses will take you to the children’s ward and you’ll be able to stay with her. Is there anyone you’d like us to call to be with you?’
Mrs Churchman shook her head and reached for her bag. ‘No. Her father is away on business and I don’t want to worry my parents with it. I’ll be fine now.’
Looking at her pale face, Katy wasn’t so sure and she made a mental note to check on her later.
Leaving Mrs Churchman to gather her belongings together, they left the room and Katy arranged for a nurse to escort her to the ward.
‘I’m glad you were there,’ Jago said dryly as they walked back towards the main area of the A and E department. ‘Dealing with hysterical females is not my strong point.’
She smiled at him. ‘I thought you were brilliant.’
‘Well, thank you,’ Jago drawled softly, pausing as one of the other casualty officers waylaid him to ask his opinion on an X-ray.
Jago took the film in question and pushed it into the nearest light-box, his gaze fixed on the X-ray in front of him. ‘There’s a hairline fracture on the anterior view.’
The doctor muttered his thanks, looked slightly embarrassed that he hadn’t spotted it himself and then hurried off to manage the patient accordingly.
Katy staring at Jago with a mixture of admiration and frustration. ‘You never miss anything, do you? Has anyone ever told you that you set impossibly high standards?’
‘This is an A and E department,’ Jago reminded her with a careless lift of his broad shoulders. ‘How can standards ever be too high? If we get it wrong, people die. And in this wonderful age of litigation, if we were even remotely to blame, we’re sued.’
They walked on down the corridor and Katy bit her lip, knowing that there was some truth in what he said.
People were much quicker to apportion blame these days.
‘Well, I for one am glad you have high standards. You were great with Molly,’ she said softly, and he glanced towards her.
‘So were you,’ he said equally softly, a wry smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. ‘You’re a good doctor, Katy. You have good instincts.’
She looked at him and found her gaze trapped by his. The tension pulsed between them and she took a step backwards, stunned by the intensity of the attraction.
Breathing hard she tried to pull herself together.
He hadn’t trusted her.
She had to keep reminding herself of that fact. ‘I hope Molly will be all right.’
The faint amusement in his dark eyes indicated that he was well aware of her internal struggle. ‘She was lucky,’ he said smoothly. ‘That mother should have had locks on the upstairs windows.’ With a last lingering look at her mouth he turned away from her and walked back towards the main area of the A and E department, obviously expecting her to follow. ‘She was totally negligent.’
Katy was taken aback by his sharp comment. ‘Children move so fast—’
‘And it is a mother’s job to be one step ahead of them,’ he shot back, his expression disapproving. ‘A two-year-old girl should not be falling out of windows, no matter how hot the weather.’
‘Accidents happen,’ Katy reminded him gently. ‘People make mistakes. You’re very judgmental.’
‘And you’re very forgiving, querida,’ he observed, stopping dead in his tracks, his dark lashes hiding his expression from her, ‘except, it would seem, when I’m the culprit.’
Heat rushed to her face and she bit her lip, flustered by the hint of a smile pulling at the corners of his firm mouth.
‘Jago—’
‘Tell me, Katy.’ He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. ‘How long are you going to keep up this pretence?’
She licked dry lips and then immediately wished she hadn’t as his dark eyes lasered in on the gesture with visible hunger. ‘What pretence?’
‘The pretence that there’s nothing between us.’ With obvious reluctance his eyes lifted to hers, holding her captive. ‘What does a guy have to do to get you to forgive? Send flowers? Beg?’
Her body slowly heated up under his gaze, sexual excitement burning low in her stomach. Why did being close to Jago always have this effect on her?
‘I—I forgive you,’ she stammered, backing away slightly from his powerful presence. ‘But it doesn’t mean I want a relationship. We’re too different, Jago. We want different things.’
He gave a smile that was pure predatory male. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘That’s just sex!’ She said the words without thinking and then looked round in embarrassment, realising that any of the staff could have been within earshot. Fortunately they weren’t. ‘You left me, Jago. You left me without a backward glance. Give me one instance that proves that you cared about me and not just the sex.’
‘I kept the photographs,’ he reminded her simply, a smile of satisfaction appearing in direct response to her shocked expression. ‘Think about that, querida.’
With that he touched her on the cheek and walked away, leaving her staring after him.
He’d almost told her about the ring.
Jago stared at a conference programme, bombarded by totally alien emotions. He sensed that whatever he said at the moment, it wouldn’t be enough. Katy was incurably romantic. As a child she’d played with dolls and dreamed of princes. And none of those dreams had included a prince who left her when the going got tough. It was going
