shook the proffered hand. ‘I’m pleased to hear it! Louisa Gray—nice to meet you.’
‘The breakfast meeting has already started,’ explained Mandy. ‘I think they always tell you to come along a little later on your first day. It’s held in the large interview room at the end of the ward. Come with me and I’ll show you.’
‘Thanks,’ said Louisa, following her out of the office and on to the ward, trying to quash the feelings of nervousness which had suddenly arisen. She didn’t really like the thought of trooping in late in front of the whole team.
‘Has Dr Fenton-Taylor arrived yet?’ she enquired.
Mandy turned to her in surprise. ‘Oh, but he’s in America until Christmas—didn’t you know?’
Louisa digested this surprising piece of information. ‘No, I didn’t know.’
‘But don’t worry,’ smiled Mandy. ‘One of the Research Fellows is standing in for him.’
They walked down the highly polished floor of the aisle between the beds and she could see patients watching her curiously. As they passed one elderly woman’s bed she heard her comment to her neighbour.
‘Bit young for a doctor, ain’t she?’
Louisa had to hide a smile and Mandy grinned at her conspiratorially.
‘Don’t worry, they’ll soon get used to you. They keep telling me that I’m too young to be a sister—it’s obviously not just policemen who start to look younger as one gets older!’ They were both laughing as she pushed open a door and Louisa was confronted by the sight of about nine men in white coats, sitting around in easy chairs in a circle and drinking cups of coffee.
‘Good luck,’ whispered Mandy. ‘Gentlemen—this is your new house officer!’
Louisa smiled nervously and looked around, trying to take it all in. As with all large groups of people, it took a moment for her mind to clear enough to look at them as individuals.
Some warning sound was clicking furiously in her mind, and her eyes travelled to the centre of the group, to the man who was obviously in charge of the proceedings. Now getting to his feet, moving his long legs reluctantly, watching her with an expression on his face which was not quite a smile—she found herself staring into the face of Adam Forrester.
‘Dr Gray, I presume?’ he asked and she nodded automatically, still too shocked by his appearance to say anything.
‘I shall be standing in for Dr Fenton-Taylor until he returns from the States. Shall I introduce you to the rest of the team?’ he was saying smoothly, guiding her by the arm until she stood in the centre, with all the uplifted, interested masculine faces greeting her. She hardly took a word in.
‘Basil James is my registrar and Huw Lloyd is our SHO. The other reprobates you see before you are a handful of medical students, who I’m afraid will be astounding you with their appalling lack of knowledge over the next few weeks.’ There were cries of dissent at this. ‘Oh, and by the way—I’m Adam Forrester, Research Fellow.’
The turquoise eyes were hard and cold as they stared at her and her heart sank. Of all the unfair twists of fate. She had been rude and retaliatory to a man who was effectively going to be her boss for the next eight weeks or so. And while she didn’t consider her response to his bad temper to be unjustified, she was far too intelligent to put her career on the line just in order to get her own back verbally. What on earth would he say to Dr Fenton-Taylor—the man on whom she would be relying for a reference? Damn, damn and damn!
Refusing a cup of coffee, she sat down to join in the meeting. She would just have to work like a Trojan. She imagined that the brittle Adam Forrester could be a hard taskmaster—she had better give him no opportunity to criticise her.
He had seated himself in a chair opposite her. ‘We’ve almost finished discussing the patients—the main ward round isn’t until tomorrow afternoon, so you’ve time before that to get to know some of the diagnoses. After we’ve finished here, I’ll show you where our other ward is and you can meet the staff there.’
She nodded and listened while he began talking about a patient who was suffering from the rare condition of Takayasu’s disease. One of the students hadn’t heard of it and asked a question. She watched with interest as he changed the tack of his talk, switching from esoteric deliberation to a simple yet unpatronising explanation which the student appeared to grasp quite easily. It seemed that he knew his stuff.
The dark head had turned in her direction. ‘Perhaps Dr Gray might be able to enlighten you on the aetiology of this syndrome?’
All the heads had swivelled in her direction—talk about being put on the spot! She began to rack her brain for the causes, when suddenly, to her relief, the facts came rushing back to her in the same smooth sequence that she’d learnt them from her textbook. Facts. Reliable, conclusive facts. Thank heavens for facts!
She recounted all that he had asked her fluently and at the end of her talk she saw that she had their total attention—she even thought she had noticed a rather grudging nod from Dr Forrester—but on that she could have been mistaken! At any rate, she had passed her first test with flying colours.
‘Not bad,’ he remarked, getting to his feet. ‘I think that’s all for today, everyone. Let’s go over to Belling now, Dr Gray.’
She followed him up the ward, having to move quickly in an effort to emulate his long-legged stride. As he passed the ward office, Mandy came out with a drug chart for him to sign which he did willingly enough, even muttering an aside which produced a wide grin from the ward sister. Mandy, for one, seemed to find him pleasant enough, Louisa thought.
The lift doors slid open and they stepped inside. It was empty save for them, and she was immediately aware of the enforced silence and lack of eye contact which travelling in a lift always seemed to provoke, but she wanted to clear the air.
‘Did you know that I was going to be working with you?’ she asked, staring up at him.
He shrugged. ‘I knew that I had a new houseman starting, yes, and I knew that it was a woman. Once I’d found out that you were a doctor, I didn’t need the ability of Einstein to work out that you were most probably that person.’
She was furious. ‘But you didn’t think it prudent to tell me that you were my new boss?’ she demanded.
‘Slightly difficult, as you refused to tell me your name!’
He had conveniently forgotten that the reason for that was because he had embarrassed her so hatefully. ‘This is going to make things very difficult, isn’t it?’
He frowned. ‘On the contrary—if you’re moving out and our only contact is through work, then provided you do your job properly, I can anticipate no problems. I have no intention of letting a personality clash jeopardise your future—if that’s what you’re afraid of.’
It took the most monumental effort on her part not to snap back at him, but she forced herself to concentrate on why she was here—not to engage in a bickering match with some egocentric ex-media star, but to work!
She cleared her throat. ‘Would you mind telling me exactly how many medical beds we have?’
He
