to working with Janet Fairfax as sister-in-charge, he was sorry he hadn’t been there when she’d left. She’d been totally reliable, even though she had family commitments that had kept her on the go. Leonie had a lot to live up to.
He gave a grim smile. He had actually thought he wasn’t likely to meet up with her again. So much for forward thinking.
‘Carry on, everyone,’ he said briskly He turned to address Leonie directly.
‘In a moment, Sister, can you spare a few moments to update me about our current patients?’
She was still soothing the fractious infant but nodded her agreement.
‘Then I will see you in my office in ten minutes, Sister...er, I’m afraid I don’t know your surname.’
‘It is Mitchell,’ she said levelly. Returning to her work, she placed the now pacified infant back in his cot and went to speak to parents. They’d been there all night beside their baby, who had been born with a deformation of one of its feet and been operated on the previous day to correct the problem.
All had gone satisfactorily and the relief surgeon who had been filling in for Callum had been pleased with the result of what had been his last task before moving to a Manchester hospital for a spell.
‘We are so relieved that our baby’s feet are now normal,’ the mother said. ‘We were going to wait for Dr Warrender to come back, but the chance came and we couldn’t let it pass by. We have an older child who was born with the same problem and he operated on her, so it would seem that the fault might be genetic.’
‘And if it is, we aren’t having any more,’ the baby’s father said grimly.
When Leonie finished her chat, Callum was at the door of the ward office, waiting for her, and after saying goodbye to the parents she moved towards him and was watched with interest by other staff members.
‘Take a seat, please, Sister,’ he said, pointing to a nearby chair as she closed the office door behind her. He sat down behind his desk. ‘Why on earth didn’t you tell me that you were a nurse employed in my unit when we were involved in the catastrophe up on the moors road?’
‘It was hardly the moment to start giving you my life history,’ she replied. ‘I told you I was a nurse to reassure you that I was capable of assisting you, which I did. I wouldn’t have expected you to want to know anything else at that moment, and in any case there was nothing to stop you from asking me in which area of nursing I was employed. I came to this hospital a couple of months after you went to America when my predecessor left at short notice because of her mother’s health.’
‘Where did you work before?’
‘At a large hospital in London. This position became vacant just as I’d decided that I needed a change And so I made the move up here.’
‘Right,’ he said, getting to his feet. ‘Now that’s cleared up, we’ll do a ward round so I can familiarise myself with our patients.’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said, and led the way to the first bed, where a ten-year-old boy was engrossed in the tablet that he was holding.
‘This is Daniel,’ she said. ‘He ran across the road when the lights were red, was knocked down by a car and has two broken legs. He is due to go home tomorrow on crutches.’
‘So maybe next time he will wait for the green man,’ Callum said as he read the notes that were clipped to the end of the bed. When he’d done that he lifted the bed covers to observe heavy bruising in parts that were not covered by a plaster cast. He turned to Leonie. ‘I shall want to see X-rays of his fractures, and when he is discharged make sure he’s given an early appointment to attend my clinic in Outpatients.’
As they went from bed to bed Leonie described in detail the problems of each young patient and as he listened Callum was aware that Janet Fairfax had been good but she was even better. One thing was very plain to see. Leonie Mitchell was a natural with children, which was more than he had ever been able to say about his ex-wife. Shelley had held no yearnings to bring children into the world, which was something she’d kept quiet about until she’d had his wedding ring on her finger.
It had been the first of many things that they hadn’t agreed on as they’d discovered that sexual chemistry alone wasn’t enough to make a good marriage.
As they moved from bed to bed it was obvious that Leonie knew exactly what upset each child and, equally, what comforted them, and the only thing that was spoiling his return to base was the fact that he hadn’t known that the yurt dweller with the glinting chestnut hair and wide green eyes was a member of his staff. He supposed it should have been a pleasant surprise, but he felt a bit as if he’d been made a fool of.
Their round was interrupted when Callum was paged to attend A and E.
Leonie breathed a sigh of relief as he left the ward, before remembering that she hadn’t asked Callum for an update on the young biker they’d treated. She’d make a point of asking him later that day.
* * *
It was hours before Callum came back to the ward, looking grimly preoccupied. Leonie hoped that it wasn’t anything to do with her appearance in his working life. It seemed that it wasn’t. A child had been badly injured when an ancient stone stump in one of the town’s parks had fallen over onto her.
‘Her name is Carys and she’s seven years old,’ he told the staff. ‘She has a fractured shoulder and two broken arms, which I’ve dealt with. She will shortly be coming up here to be nursed. Needless to say, she is very weepy and traumatised, and being so young doesn’t realise that she missed death by inches. Luckily her father saw the stump toppling and pulled her away, but not fast enough to prevent some injuries.’ He glanced at Leonie. ‘So work your magic on this little girl, please.’
‘Yes, of course,’ she replied. ‘We all will, won’t we?’
On his way back from the operating theatre Callum had thought about his childlessness in a brief moment of sadness, and pondered, as he’d done many times, how Shelley could be so lacking in maternal feelings. Yet he was aware that it was the woman who inherited the pains and problems of pregnancy and giving birth, and for any who were not prepared to go along that road there had to be understanding.
But in the case of his ex-wife it had been more of not wanting to be bothered with what she called the shackles of motherhood. She had wanted parties and expensive clothes, holidays abroad, what to her was the good life, and when the demands of his calling had sometimes come first and he’d had to refuse, she would go with friends or relations, not prepared to be denied her pleasures.
The marriage had lasted three years, with them growing further apart all the time, and when it had ended with a huge fall-out about that very thing, his only feelings had been of relief and a firm intent to steer clear of marriage in the future.
After telling the ward staff about the injured small girl who’d been hit by the falling stump, Callum went into the office and Leonie followed him to ask about the motorcyclist of two days ago.
‘I spoke with his parents last night,’ he informed her. ‘They wanted to thank us for what we did for their son. He has been moved from Intensive Care and is now in a side ward, so it seems as if he is progressing as I thought he would.’
‘How about his mobility
