seem as if Ben has any qualms about that.’ Matt bit into a crumpet, licking the melted butter off his lips.
‘No. As I was saying …’ Lucy looked pointedly at Jade ‘… I think he’ll fit in here really well. He seems to be quite easygoing and keen to get on with his studies. None of this clattering about of an evening with guitars and fiddling about with amplifiers.’ She sent Matt an accusing stare.
He lifted his shoulders and raised his flattened palms in a dismissive gesture. ‘So I practise my music occasionally—it’s not as though I’m working on it till all hours, every day of the week.’
‘Just as well, or one of these days you might get ready to rock and find your amplifier has been disconnected.’
They scowled at one another, and Jade sighed. She bit into a crumpet. It was hard to imagine Ben sitting with them at the breakfast table. Truth to tell, she was still having trouble coming to terms with the fact that he was actually going to be living there. It didn’t sit right with her somehow, and she couldn’t quite work out what was wrong.
Maybe it was a vague feeling that he was out of her league. He and his friends all seemed so much more confident than she was, and perhaps that was because their backgrounds were very different from hers in the main. Her family had always worked and struggled to get by, whereas Ben’s parents were in business and were comparatively rich, by all accounts. From what Matt had told her, the business was doing extremely well, with offshoots in Europe and Scandinavia.
There was no point dwelling on any of it, though. It was going to happen whether she wanted it or not.
She wiped her fingers on a paper towel and looked at Matt. ‘Are you back in A and E this morning?’
He nodded. ‘In the trauma unit to begin with, and then I’ll be working in the fracture clinic this afternoon.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘In fact, I’d better head off now. I’m due at a meeting to go over the details of yesterday’s cases.’
‘Me, too. I’m supposed to be at the hospital for eight o’clock.’
Matt left the house, and Jade set about clearing the table, carefully stacking the dishes in the sink and filling the washing-up bowl with hot, soapy water. She glanced at Lucy. ‘I get the feeling you’re looking forward to having Ben here with us. He must have made quite an impression on you.’ Lucy didn’t normally react with any great enthusiasm to newcomers—at least, not the male variety. She was too used to fending them off, though perhaps she’d made an exception in Ben’s case.
‘Yeah, he’s all right.’ Lucy grinned. ‘It turned out to be a lucky move all round, you bringing him home with you the other day.’
‘Hmm. Maybe.’
Perhaps there was something in the way she said it that caught Lucy’s attention, because her expression sobered. ‘Do you have some misgivings?’ She threw Jade a cautious glance. ‘It’s just that it seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity after Caroline’s room was left empty.’
Jade smiled. ‘I’m sure things will work out just fine. It all happened so quickly. I only asked him in because he’d helped me and he was thoughtful enough to walk me home afterwards, and the next thing he’s going to be living with us. It takes a bit of getting used to.’
They finished tidying the kitchen and set off to walk to the hospital. The sky was a cloudless blue, and the City looked fresh and sparkling in the morning sunshine. Jade made up her mind to put all her doubts behind her and instead give her concentration to the work ahead. In the weeks coming up to her final exams, things were going to be pretty hectic and she needed to be on the ball the whole time.
‘Good luck in Cardiology,’ she told Lucy as they parted company. Lucy was having a difficult time in her placement, and if yesterday was anything to go by Jade couldn’t expect to fare much better. It looked as though her consultant was given to asking searching questions whenever they met up for patient reviews or ward rounds, and it seemed she would have to get used to thinking on her feet.
The first hour or so of the morning was spent in going over the case notes of patients who had been admitted to the paediatric ward the previous day, followed by a visit to the neonatal unit.
‘How are we going to assess this child?’ Professor Farnham wanted to know as they stopped by a cot. He was in his fifties, tall and dark haired, slimly built, a man whose whole body and manner hinted at ceaseless energy and a thirst for knowledge. ‘What are we looking for?’
Jade drew in a deep breath and checked the baby’s file. The baby was only three days old, a tiny, preterm infant who whimpered softly in his crib. His arms flailed weakly and his mouth quivered as he gave a helpless cry. More than anything, she wanted to pick him up and hold him to her, to feel his warm, soft body in her arms.
Instead, she tried to dredge up all she had learned about neonatal problems. ‘The history shows that he has had several seizures,’ she said. ‘He’s been vomiting and he isn’t feeding well, according to his mother.’ The mother wasn’t around to hear their discussion, thankfully. The nurse had taken her into the office so that she could talk to her about any worries that might be weighing her down.
‘The first course of action would be to take blood tests and check serum chemistries. I’m thinking there might be a problem with the levels of calcium or magnesium in the blood. Then I would do urine tests in case of any renal problems. We should get an ECG as well, to check for any cardiac rhythm abnormalities.’ She hesitated momentarily. ‘The mother has a history of diabetes, so it’s possible there might be some connection between that and the baby’s problems.’
‘Good thinking.’ The professor beamed. ‘I’ll leave you in charge of all that. Depending on the results of the tests, we might need to do some X-rays later. Let me know when the reports come back from the lab.’
‘I will.’
He swept out of the room a minute or so later, and Jade let out a long, slow breath. Was this just a foretaste of her upcoming clinical examination finals? She was going to be a junior doctor soon, so she needed to have these skills at her fingertips.
At least Ben hadn’t been around to witness her being put on the spot once again. Paediatrics was a new specialty for her, and she’d had to do a lot of research over the last few weeks to give her an idea of the kind of things she might be dealing with. Even so, she was a bit worried about putting on a good show.
She gently stroked the baby’s silky hair, and then lightly traced a line over the velvet-soft skin of his tiny hand. He gripped her finger, clinging on to her, his eyes widening and his mouth puckering in eager anticipation. She chuckled, enjoying the moment.
‘You’re a little sweetheart, aren’t you?’ she murmured. ‘I wish I didn’t have to put you through all these tests, but I have to find out what’s wrong with you so that we can put it right. I’ll be really gentle, I promise.’ She gazed at him for a moment or two longer and then carefully withdrew her finger from his grasp. ‘I have to go and find a syringe, and some vials, and some forms for the lab. I’ll be back in a minute.’
When she returned a short while later, she was startled to find Ben standing by the cot. He looked good. He was smartly dressed in dark trousers and a crisp linen shirt with the cuffs rolled back, showing forearms made golden by the sun. His tie was a silk blend, in a subtle blue-grey design that complemented the pale blue of his shirt. He looked every bit the doctor who was in full control of everything around him.
He
