after a while, when Megan had almost finished, ‘and her heart rate is dropping.’
‘That’s good. I’m ready to start withdrawing the catheter now.’
The procedure came to an end. Megan checked that Sue’s breathing was easier and all her vital signs were showing improvement before she thanked the team for their help and left the operating theatre.
She was keyed up, worried by how close she had come to losing her patient, and she still had to go down to A and E to check whether Theo Benyon had stayed around. Though surely John Edwards would have come away from his meeting by now. Somehow, after the gruelling hour she had just spent, she was less enthusiastic about meeting up with Theo once more. Maybe the intense concentration required by her work had succeeded in bringing her securely down to earth. She would do better to keep out of Theo’s orbit.
Walking along the corridor, she glanced through the glass-panelled door of the doctors’ lounge and saw that her boss and Theo were deep in conversation. That was a great relief. If her boss had Theo in tow, she was off the hook, wasn’t she? There was no need after all for her to stay around and make polite conversation.
‘Ah, there you are, Megan. Come and join us, will you?’ John pulled open the door, stopping her in mid-stride when she would have slipped silently by.
‘I was just going to check up on my patients,’ she murmured, but John was having none of it.
‘I’m certain you’re due for a break,’ he said. ‘I expect the senior house officer will manage perfectly well without you for a while. I’ve told Theo that you’ll take him on a tour of the department—show him how we operate around here. You’ll be able to do that for me, won’t you?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Only I have to go back to my management meeting—matters of the hospital budget, you know. Dire stuff, but it has to be done.’
‘Oh, um…I thought…I was just…’ Conscious that her dismay must be showing and that she was babbling incoherently, Megan made an effort to pull herself together. ‘Yes, of course I can do that.’
Theo gave a wry smile. ‘I really don’t want to put you to any trouble. I know that you’re busy, and I’m sure there are all sorts of other, more important, things that you need to be doing.’
‘Nonsense,’ John cut in firmly. ‘She’ll be only too happy to do it. Megan’s our vascular specialist, you know. She’s a brilliant asset to our A and E department…’ He glanced at Megan. ‘Haven’t you just come from treating a patient for a pulmonary embolism? How did it go?’
Megan nodded. ‘I have. It went well enough, I think. I managed to latch onto the clot with the instrumentation, and once I had it secured I infused it with clot-dissolving medication. When it reached a manageable size I was able to suck it up via the catheter and draw it out of her system. I’m hoping that we have her condition under control now.’
John gave a beaming smile. ‘See, there we have it.’ He threw Theo a quick glance. ‘She’s second to none, and I’m sure she’ll be able to answer any question you care to put to her. I know I’ll be leaving you in good hands.’
With that, her boss said a quick goodbye and headed for the door. ‘Do let me know what you decide about the job,’ he told Theo. ‘We really want to have you on our team.’
Theo’s expression was unreadable, and if John had been hoping for some sign that he had pulled him on board, he must have been sadly disappointed.
The door closed behind her boss, and Megan glanced at Theo. ‘I feel that I should apologise for him,’ she murmured. ‘Around here, we tend to get used to his bombastic ways. He means well, but he does have a way of browbeating people from time to time.’
‘That’s all right. I’m sure he’ll discover soon enough that I can be equally determined when I’ve made up my mind on something,’ he returned.
A perceptive glint shimmered in her eyes. ‘I gather you still don’t want the job?’
‘No. I definitely don’t want the job.’
‘So there wouldn’t be much point in my showing you around the department, then, would there?’
He shook his head. ‘Not really.’
She sent him a thoughtful glance. ‘So why did you stay here and let him talk your ears off? You were all for leaving over an hour ago, weren’t you?’
‘That’s true, but you asked me not to go away, and even though I realise that might have been a ruse to delay me so that your boss could make his pitch, I thought perhaps if I stayed I might at least be able to persuade you to have dinner with me this evening.’
She took a sharp intake of breath. Had he really stayed simply because she’d asked him to? For a dizzying moment her head reeled with the full import of that. Perhaps in some way he was as taken with her as she was intrigued by him. Why else would he be asking her out to dinner?
But then reality descended on her like a dark cloud. The man wasn’t free to ask her out, was he? Did he have no shame?
‘Mr Benyon,’ she said in a tight voice, ‘I don’t quite know how to put this politely, but I have to say that I think it’s in very poor taste for you to be asking me out when your wife is desperately ill in hospital.’
He stared at her for a moment without saying anything at all. His blue gaze skimmed over her, taking in the smoke grey of her eyes and coming to linger on the firm tilt of her chin. Then, very quietly, he said, ‘I take it that’s a no, then?’
‘It certainly is. That’s a…read my lips…definite no.’
‘Hmm.’ He studied her thoughtfully. ‘You know, you’re really very uptight and overwrought for someone so young. It shows in the stiff line of your shoulders and in the way you move, as though you have to make every second count. I can’t help thinking that it might do you a world of good if you could manage to loosen up just a little.’
She blinked, taken aback by his blunt assessment. ‘You’re entitled to your opinion,’ she told him, ‘but the plain fact is I have a job to do, and it’s work that I enjoy, and feel privileged to take on, even if you seem to take the opposite view.’ She frowned. ‘Of course, I understand that your wife’s condition must be playing on your mind to some extent right now, and you have Harry to look after. Perhaps that’s why you don’t feel like considering John’s offer.’
‘I appreciate your concern,’ he murmured, ‘however misplaced it might be. Of course I’m worried about Francie’s condition. What happened to her doesn’t bear thinking about, and it was extremely difficult for me to come to terms with the events that followed. The truth is, though, Francie is my sister, not my wife, and if you weren’t quite so wound up with the job and everything that goes along with it, you might have taken time out to think things through, and then you probably wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions quite so readily.’
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