what you can write on a patient’s notes, it’s difficult to leave a message on them saying, “Treat with extreme caution. Liable to explode,” or the hospital legal department would go into orbit. I take it you managed to smooth things over?’
‘Well, eventually,’ he said, and she was intrigued to see a wash of colour travel over his cheekbones.
‘What did she do this time?’
‘Oh, she was just her usual outrageous self,’ he said with a self-conscious shrug.
‘You may as well tell me,’ she pointed out, her imagination in full flight. ‘It will only take a single phone call to find someone else willing to spill the beans, and who knows how much bigger the story has grown in the meantime?’
‘Don’t remind me,’ he groaned. ‘I was counting on the fact that you’re not fit to work at the moment so that particular bit of gossip would pass you by.’
‘So?’ she prompted, ignoring the comment about her fitness to work in pursuit of the punchline of the story. Her upcoming return to work was a topic she didn’t intend to discuss with him. ‘Tell me, tell me. What did she do?’
‘It wasn’t so much what she did as what she said,’ he muttered, looking seriously uncomfortable. ‘In front of half the damn department and heaven knows how many patients and relatives she told me she loved my green eyes and invited me into the cubicle to give her a damn good … um … bit of passion.’
Sara burst out laughing. ‘Knowing Alice, I bet she didn’t use such a genteel phrase.’
Those gorgeous green eyes were sparkling now. ‘You’d win that bet,’ he conceded. ‘The trouble is, I’m never going to hear the end of it.’
‘Oh, you will,’ she reassured him. ‘As soon as the next juicy bit of gossip comes up, that little proposition will all be forgotten … by the rest of your colleagues, at least.’
And it was relaxed conversations like that one last night that were making life so difficult for her. It was becoming harder and harder to stop herself from doing or saying something that would reveal her secret … the fact that she was falling deeper and deeper in love with him the longer she shared his flat.
‘Well, enough is enough,’ she said firmly as she pushed herself up onto her one good foot and reached for a single crutch.
She’d been practising getting around over the last couple of days. There had been so many empty hours while she’d waited for Dan to return that she’d worked out for herself how she could manoeuvre without needing a pair of them because her shoulder was still too sore to take the weight, even with elbow crutches.
It wasn’t an elegant way of getting around, more of a stumbling lop-sided lurch, in fact, and definitely required the presence of a nearby wall as a last resort to stop herself losing her balance completely. The one good thing about it was that she’d almost perfected a way of getting around unaided, and that meant she could leave the danger zone of Dan’s spacious flat and take herself back to her own far humbler one.
‘It will probably take me a couple of hours to go up all four flights of stairs,’ she muttered, feeling exhausted just thinking about it. She stuffed her belongings into a carrier bag, resolutely ignoring the fact that the packet of granny knickers hadn’t even been opened, tied the handles to her crutch, then phoned for a taxi. By the time it arrived, she was waiting in the entrance with just a short hop across the pavement left to do.
‘Hang on a minute, love,’ called the cabbie and heaved his considerable bulk out of the driving seat to give her a steadying hand to climb inside. ‘You’re in a right mess, aren’t you?’ he commented soothingly, his eyes meeting hers in the rear-view mirror once he was back in his seat. ‘Finally decided to get away from him before he does any worse? You’ve made the right decision, love. I’ve got no time for men who think it’s OK to knock women about. Need someone to give them a bit of their own medicine.’
‘Oh, good grief, no!’ Sara laughed. ‘It was a car that did this. I nearly got run over the other night.’
‘That’s right, dear. Get a good story ready to tell people so they won’t twig what’s really going on. Most of them will probably believe you, but me?’ he shook his head and drew in a breath through his teeth. ‘I’ve seen too much of the rough end of life and I can tell the difference, but don’t you worry—even if he gets the police out looking for you, I’ll never tell where I take you.’
He straightened up in his seat and put the engine into gear. ‘Right, now, where do you want to go? To one of the refuges?’
‘That’s very kind of you, and I’m so glad that there are people like you who will help battered women, but I’ve been staying with my sister and brother-in-law—’ she didn’t see the harm in stretching the truth a little, just to put the man’s mind at ease ‘—ever since I came out of hospital. If you could drop me off at my flat, that will be great.’ She gave him the address and was certain that he was quite disappointed he wasn’t going to be a brave knight coming to the aid of a maiden in distress.
Except when he drew up outside the multi-storey Victorian building, all his protective instincts seemed to resurrect themselves.
‘I hope you’re on the ground floor, love,’ he said as he lent her a hand again.
‘I wish!’ she joked, and looked right up towards the very top windows. ‘That’s me, all the way up there.’ And then, no matter how much she tried to reassure him that she could manage, he insisted on keeping her company all the way up all four flights, carrying her bag of belongings in case they unbalanced her and steadying her when her poor overworked leg began to tremble with overuse.
Sara was close to collapse when she finally got the key in the lock and swung the door wide, screwing her nose up at the shut-in smell that seemed to gather even in the space of a couple of days. Then she had a battle to make the man accept the proper fare for bringing her home, and when she tried to add a tip to thank him for spending the time to help her all the way up the stairs he drew himself up with an air of injured dignity.
‘I didn’t do that for money, love. I did that because you were someone who needed a helping hand. Now, you take this.’ He handed her a business card. ‘If you need to go anywhere, you ring that number and ask them to send George.’
‘Oh, that’s just perfect,’ she said with a little quiver. ‘Just like St George killing the dragon, you came to the aid of a lady in distress.’
He snorted and went a bit pink. ‘I don’t reckon my missus thinks I’m any sort of saint, but I know what you mean. Now, you take care of yourself.’
He was just about to shut her front door behind him when she remembered what she’d planned to do that evening.
‘Oh, George,’ she called. ‘You don’t go off work before seven, do you? Only I’ll be needing a taxi to get to the hospital for visiting hours.’
‘I told you, love, you need me, I’ll be here,’ he said with a broad grin. ‘Will a quarter to seven be early enough for you?’
‘Perfect. I’ll see you then.’
It was just after seven o’clock when the lift chimed to announce its arrival on Zara’s floor.
This time, thank goodness, she
