reached out and covered his hand with hers. ‘And now you have Nick hassling you every day. That wasn’t what you’d bargained for, was it?’
He smiled wearily. ‘It’s all part and parcel of the job, I suppose. I need to try to meet Nick halfway because he’s full of good ideas, and basically I’ve always thought that should be encouraged. I think we might lose him otherwise, and much as we rub each other up the wrong way, and as much as his going would make my job easier, it would be a great loss for the hospital, I’m sure. There aren’t many men who have his expertise.’
Laura frowned. ‘Is that a possibility? Is he thinking of leaving?’
‘I know that he wants a post as a consultant. He has all the qualifications necessary and I know that he’s been looking around.’
If Nick went, that would make things easier all round, Laura reflected, but she kept her thoughts to herself. The way things were, the constant arguments with Nick couldn’t be doing her father any good at all. ‘I wish there was something that I could do to make life easier for you. I hate to see you looking so drained.’
He smiled. ‘If I look like that it’s only because I’ve been unwell for a while. Anyway, you do enough to help me already. It’s good to be able to talk things through with you. I know you have a difficult job of your own. I know what it’s like to deal with the cut and thrust of A and E. It isn’t easy.’
‘Which reminds me,’ she said, taking a quick glance at her watch, ‘it’s time I was getting back to work.’ She gave him a quick hug. ‘I’ll see you at home later.’
Back in the department, she checked on Lewis and then made the final arrangements for him to be admitted to a ward. His analgesics were working, and he looked a lot more comfortable.
She dealt with a few minor injuries, and was thankful that no major emergencies cropped up in the moments before her shift finished for the day. She had been on the go for several hours, and she would be glad to get back home.
Her jacket was in the doctors’ lounge, and when she went to retrieve it, she found that Nick was there, helping himself to coffee from the espresso machine.
He was frowning over the rim of his cup.
She glanced at him. ‘You look serious. Is that because of a problem in A and E, or could it be that you didn’t get what you wanted from my father when you went to see him this afternoon?’
‘A and E doesn’t give me too much of a headache. As for your father, at least now we both know where we stand.’
‘I tried to warn you to stay away from him. I don’t think you should be pressurising him right now. He’s been off sick with a nasty virus, and this is his first day back in his office. I’m not convinced that he’s fully well yet and, added to that, he has a backlog of work to get through. The last thing he needs is you harassing him. You need to give him time to get himself sorted.’
‘If he’s not well enough, he shouldn’t be back at work.’
Laura glared at him. ‘And then things really would grind to a halt, wouldn’t they?’ She pressed her lips together. ‘I might have known you’d take that attitude. I don’t think you appreciate just how much he does for this hospital. But, then, you’ve never tried to see things from his point of view, have you? If you did, perhaps you wouldn’t be so hard on him.’
His expression was cool. ‘Do you really think your father needs you to rush to his defence? I know that you came to Wales to be near him, and that you’re living under his roof, but does that mean you have to watch over him every minute of the day like a mother hen?’
Her mouth tightened. ‘That isn’t what I do. I don’t think you can have any idea of normal family life,’ she said, fighting to keep her self-control, ‘or you wouldn’t talk like that.’
‘I believe my family gets along very well together,’ he commented mildly. ‘We live within a reasonable distance of one another and we visit regularly. I was simply saying that the fact that you’ve been away from home for some time and only recently returned to the nest might have made you a little over-protective.’
Her head lifted. ‘Since you brought the matter up, I’ll tell you how it is. I moved back into my old home because it was the sensible thing to do. I needed somewhere to stay, and my father offered me a place. He and I get along well together and I care very much for him. But perhaps you find that too difficult to understand?’
Nick gave a wry smile. ‘I understand it well enough. I just don’t know what could have possessed you to up sticks and come back here when you had a perfectly good job in Lincolnshire. You were doing well at the hospital from what I heard, and you could have gone on to better things. The city had a lot to offer—good accommodation, plenty of nightlife. Why leave all that behind to come and live here in the wilds?’
‘You seem happy enough to stay here,’ she retorted. ‘Why should I be any different?’
‘I was born here. I grew up with the mountains all around, and the sound of the sea in my ears.’
‘Perhaps you don’t realise that I’ve spent most of my life here, too,’ she said tautly. ‘I went away to train as a doctor, to see what life was like in other parts of the country, but deep down I feel that I belong here more than anywhere else. And after my mother died a few years ago that feeling was even stronger. I felt that I needed to be with my father.’
She sent him a stony look. ‘Seeing what he has to put up with, I’m more than glad that I did return. I don’t know why you have to be at loggerheads with him all the time. You shouldn’t be pressurising him this way.’ She pulled in a deep breath. ‘Anyway, you’re not the consultant in charge. Why don’t you leave it to Mr Edwards to make the decisions? It’s not right that you should go over his head. You’ll be able to put your own ideas into place well enough when you’re a consultant yourself.’
‘You know as well as I do that Tom Edwards is near retirement. In the meantime, he’s content to let things meander on in the same old way that they’ve always done. Besides that, it seems to me that he’s not been well for a long time now. He won’t admit it, but it all adds to him not wanting to alter the status quo.’
He had a point, certainly. Laura had noticed that Tom Edwards had been struggling to cope recently. It had been worrying her for some time because she knew that Tom suffered from angina, but he was insistent that he could cope and that he wasn’t a danger to his patients. Up to now he had been managing, keeping his condition under control with medication, but she had a feeling that his attacks were becoming more frequent these days.
‘At least you seem able to recognise frailty in some people,’ she retorted. ‘I was beginning to wonder if that was possible. I wouldn’t put it past you to have his job in your sights already.’
Nick’s expression was drily amused. ‘You wouldn’t be too happy about that, would you?’
‘Not if it meant that you would have the opportunity to hassle my father even more than you do now. I think I would sooner you applied your energies to anything but that.’
‘I’ll do what I can to oblige,’ he murmured, ‘but I’m making no promises, you understand.’
She stared at him. There was a dancing light in his eyes that belied his words, and she sensed that he enjoyed riling her.
