mixture of enthusiasm and confident expectation.
‘I promise I’ll do my best, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and talk to him, shall we?’ Lightly ruffling his fair hair, she held his hand and walked back with him towards her brother.
‘Hello, Matthew,’ she said with a slight frown. ‘What are you doing here? What happened?’
Matthew gave her a quick smile. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, really. It was just one of those stupid accidents. I wanted to have a go at fixing the fence back home, and I was cutting through a fence panel when it happened.’
He lowered his voice, turning his head away slightly so that his son wouldn’t hear. ‘I didn’t realise that Connor was right behind me, and when he said something to me, the saw slipped and cut my hand. I don’t think it’s too bad, but I thought perhaps it might need a stitch or two.’ His mouth made a rueful quirk. ‘Catherine’s out on a shopping trip, so I had to bring Connor with me. I wouldn’t normally want him to be hanging around an emergency room.’
‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after him.’ She inspected Matthew’s injured hand and winced. ‘Come on through to the treatment room, and I’ll take a proper look at it.’
Nick was already at work in the treatment room, and as Laura walked in he emerged from a cubicle where he had been examining a woman with an injured hip.
He spoke quietly to the nurse, asking for various tests to be carried out and calling for a surgical consultation. Then he walked towards Laura and said, ‘Tom’s dealing with a burns patient, and I think he might need someone standing by. Would you be able to do that?’
It was an unusual request, and Laura paused before answering. He hadn’t asked her to assist, just to stand by. ‘How urgent is it?’ she queried. ‘I can help, but this is my brother and his son, Connor. I’d like to attend to them myself, if possible.’
He nodded, glancing at dark-haired Matthew and the boy. ‘OK. I’ll get someone else to work with Tom.’
Laura frowned, sensing that there was something more going on than she was being told. ‘Is there a problem?’
He gave Matthew and Connor a fleeting glance, and then said in a low voice, ‘Probably not. It’s just a feeling. Tom was looking a bit off colour this morning.’
‘This probably won’t take me too long,’ Laura said. ‘Matthew’s had a bit of a disagreement with a saw. From the look of things, that hand will need three or four stitches.’
Connor fidgeted. He was looking around, his eyes screwed up in a frown as he took everything in. The unit was busy this morning. Several of the cubicles were occupied, and there was a smell of antiseptic about the place, which added to the austerity of the atmosphere. Laura had the feeling that her young nephew felt uncomfortable amongst all these strangers, who were all so much larger than him.
Nick must have sensed it, too, because he smiled at Connor and said, ‘Perhaps one of the nurses can find you a colouring book and some pencils, or maybe a jigsaw. Would you like that?’
Connor nodded solemnly, but still clung to Laura’s hand. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was staying firmly by her side.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Nick promised. Looking at Matthew, he studied his features carefully, and then said in a contemplative tone, ‘I can’t say that I can see much of a likeness between you and your sister.’
His blue-grey eyes travelled over Laura, coming to rest on her wild shoulder-length curls with a curiosity that made Laura’s cheeks flush with heat. Her hair was naturally curly, and she had never been able to make it do what she wanted.
‘Then again,’ he murmured, ‘perhaps you’re glad that you don’t have her flame-coloured hair.’
Matthew smiled wryly. ‘That’s true enough. It looks good on Laura, though. People say much the same about Connor and me because he’s fair and I’m dark. He takes after his mother.’
Laura interrupted gently. ‘I really think we should see to your hand now, Matthew, don’t you? It must be very sore. We should at least get you cleaned up.’
Nick moved away to attend to his own patients, and Laura led Matthew to a cubicle, making sure that Connor was seated where he wouldn’t be able to follow proceedings too closely.
After a moment or two a young nurse put her head round the screen and brought the jigsaws and colouring materials Nick had promised. ‘There you are, young man,’ she said lightly. ‘These should keep you occupied for a while.’
‘Thanks, Amy,’ Laura said. At least while Connor was busy she could concentrate better on Matthew’s hand. The gash was quite deep and rough around the edges, but she cleaned it up and injected a local anaesthetic, before suturing the wound.
‘You’ll need to keep it clean,’ she told him. ‘I’m putting a dressing on it, but you might need to pop into the GP’s surgery and get that changed after a day or so. The stitches can come out in about ten days. I’ll do that for you at home, if you like.’
‘Thanks, Laura. I’m glad that you were on duty today. I feel foolish enough about landing myself in this situation as it is. I’d sooner keep it in the family.’
She grinned at him. ‘Perhaps this will teach you to be a bit more wary. I thought it was common knowledge that when you have a four-year-old around you need eyes in the back of your head.’
He laughed. ‘Just wait till you’ve got one of your own.’
Laura gave him a crooked smile. That wasn’t likely to happen any time in the near future, was it? Up to now she hadn’t met anyone that she wanted to spend her life with, and even when she did meet a man who was halfway decent, she always felt that some element was missing.
It probably wasn’t the men who were at fault. She sometimes wondered if there was something within herself that was acting as a barrier to finding happiness and fulfilment. But she didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. She had work to do, and that at least provided her with deep satisfaction.
She saw Matthew and Connor out a few minutes later. ‘Perhaps I’ll see you both at home later?’ she said, waving them goodbye. Catherine’s shopping trips usually went on for longer than an hour or so, which gave Matthew an excuse to come and visit.
Laura went in search of Tom, to find out whether he still needed help.
Nick was attending to Tom’s burns patient, a young man, and Laura wondered where the consultant had gone.
‘We’ll get you transferred to the burns unit within the next hour,’ Nick was saying. ‘For the moment we’ll keep the area moist and make sure that there’s no danger of infection setting in. Just ask the nurse if you need more pain medication.’
He spoke quietly to the nurse, and then turned to Laura. Moving away from the cubicle, he said, ‘I take it that your brother’s gone home?’
‘Yes. It didn’t take long to fix him up.’ She glanced around. ‘Where’s Tom?’
‘He went to have a word with the patient’s relatives. He’d done all that was necessary for his patient, but the family were anxious and needed reassurance.’
‘He
