Ellie was out of bed and pulling on the clean clothes she’d left out on a chair for the morning.
More mumbling from Andy—what was wrong with the man?
But her own guilt was more urgent now than whatever was worrying Andy. For weeks she’d been seeing Madeleine for what had seemed like minor and confusing symptoms—aches and pains, tiredness, night cramps.
Ellie had seen her so often without pinning down a diagnosis that thoughts of Munchausen’s syndrome had flashed across her mind, but the symptoms had never seemed serious enough. Not that she knew much about the syndrome.
‘She has been complaining of dizzy spells lately. Where is she?’
‘Apparently, she ran into a tree. Someone saw the accident and phoned the ambulance so she should be at the hospital by now.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Ellie said, and was startled when Andy gave her a hug as he thanked her.
Although after that kiss, mild though it had been…
She followed him out to the car—rarely used as the hospital was only three blocks away—wondering what was going on. Could Andy also feel that they could make their way back together as they’d first begun their courtship?
With touches, shared glances, even a little kiss…
But if Andy was happy to have her company, Madeleine seemed less so.
‘You didn’t have to come,’ she told Ellie as Andy completed the handover from the ambulance personnel.
‘You’re my patient,’ Ellie said, hoping she sounded more sympathetic than she felt. ‘I was worried about you.’
‘Well, I told you I was having dizzy spells and what did you do?’
Quite a few investigations, Ellie would have liked to remind her, but this was hardly the time.
Though Madeleine seemed only a little the worse for wear. A graze on her forehead was the only visible injury.
‘Did your airbag deploy?’ Ellie asked.
‘No, it didn’t!’ her patient snapped. ‘The ambulance people insisted on bringing me here and calling Andy,’ she said, ‘although I’m really perfectly okay.’
‘Best we keep you under observation for the night,’ Andy said. ‘I’ll do a scan of your head to make sure there’s no internal damage, and nurses will check you every two hours. You won’t get much sleep as they have to wake you, as well as check your blood pressure and temperature.’
‘You’ll be here, won’t you?’ Madeleine asked. ‘Just in case anything goes wrong?’
‘I could stay,’ Andy said, and Ellie raised her eyebrows. The woman was playing him—surely he could see that!
She stomped out of the cubicle, then heard Andy leave behind her.
‘There’s no way you need to be up here all night just to hold that woman’s hand,’ Ellie told him.
He looked slightly startled.
‘I’ll do an X-ray and a scan first and take it from there,’ he said.
‘It’s a graze!’ Ellie reminded him. ‘She didn’t hit the tree hard enough for the airbag to deploy.’
‘But there could have been whiplash,’ he said.
‘Believe me, there will be!’ Ellie muttered. ‘That woman comes to see me at least three times a week and I swear she’s the healthiest patient I’ve ever seen.’
Andy looked puzzled.
‘But if you don’t like her, why did you come up to the hospital with me?’
She looked into the dark eyes she knew so well.
‘I don’t dislike her, and anyway, you asked me to,’ she reminded him, which seemed to make him even more puzzled.
‘I’ll walk home,’ she said, desperate to get away from the hospital and Madeleine Courtney, but most desperately needing distance between herself and Andy—distance so she could think…
‘I MIGHT JUST as well have stayed with you at the hospital for all the sleep I got,’ Ellie grumbled as she bumped into Andy in the en suite bathroom next morning.
A freshly showered and shaved Andy. The scent of his familiar aftershave filling her with a sense of longing.
‘I slept like a log in a spare room at the hospital,’ he said cheerfully. ‘The nurses knew to wake me if Madeleine’s condition showed any signs of deterioration, but there was really nothing wrong with her. I saw from her file she’d been seeing you quite often—is there something specific, do you think?’
‘Not that I and a battery of tests can find,’ Ellie muttered, so distracted by her husband’s proximity she could barely think straight.
Had Andy picked up on a terseness in her voice that he said, ‘Well, she’s been very helpful to me with the soccer teams.’
Ellie bit back the comment, I’m sure she has, which she’d have liked to utter, and backed out of the room. Maybe if she took a few deep breaths, the room would be vacant by the time she returned.
And had Andy always worn aftershave to work?
She didn’t think so, given the variety of allergies doctors were likely to encounter in their patients.
Was that jealousy coiled like a serpent in her stomach? And, if it was, did she have any right to be jealous? Whatever she and Andy had, it was hardly a marriage in the real sense of the word.
Not now. Not any more…
But I love him, a voice whispered in her heart, which she instantly dismissed as nonsense.
She was tired. She needed to have a shower, a quick breakfast, and get back to work. She must remember to phone the high school about Chelsea getting in there, probably starting next week as there were only a couple of weeks left in the term…
And she should give their guest some money for paint. The previous night, after some prodding and prompting, Chelsea had admitted she’d like pale green walls, and both Andy and Ellie were happy to go along with that idea.
Ellie would need to buy brushes and rollers, a tin for the rollers, and some plastic spreadsheets.
By the time Ellie was showered and dressed the list she’d been using as a distraction had grown so long she knew it would be easier to take Chelsea to the hardware store in her lunch hour with the car, so they could bring everything back home.
The gods had decided to be kind to her. She reached the
