Excerpt

by Abigail Gordon

CHAPTER ONE

THE TRAIN WAS already at the platform when Darcey Howard got to the station. As she heaved her case on board she saw at a glance that it was crowded and about to leave at any moment. Tired and harassed after the happenings of the last few days, she felt like weeping.

Under other circumstances she would have booked a seat for the journey, wanting to arrive at her destination cool and collected with an air of quiet competence about her, but instead she was overwrought and going to be standing all the way there from the looks of it as there were no empty seats to be seen at a glance.

Until a man nearby looked up from the laptop on the table in front of him and, on seeing her standing in the doorway of the carriage, moved a pile of paperwork off the seat opposite him. Pointing to it, he lifted her luggage onto the rack provided while she sank down gratefully into the empty space with a whispered word of thanks and her head bent, her gaze fixed unseeingly on the floor beneath her feet.

When he’d seated himself again Daniel Osbourne observed her briefly.

While hoisting her case he’d seen the name of the town that she was heading for and it was the same as where he lived, which was a coincidence, but he had no time to chatter about that sort of thing.

Having been away on a seminar about new treatments in the orthopaedic field he had been making copious notes about what he had seen and heard while there, and having found a seat for the pale-looking person now seated opposite, he was in no mood to talk.

Yet he couldn’t help wondering what was taking her to Seahaven where he lived and worked. Was it its coastal attractiveness, its pleasant town, or like many folk a need for treatment in Oceans House with problems of the body that could make movement an ordeal in one form or another.

He was employed as top surgeon at the place and having been away for two weeks was looking forward to a restful evening with those he loved before going back to his usual work tomorrow.

* * *

It had been Alexander, Darcey Howard’s eighteen-year-old brother, who had wiped out the pleasure of receiving the news that she had been accepted as a ward sister at Oceans House.

There was just the two of them, brother and sister, having been left parentless some years ago, and since then Darcey, as the eldest, had cared for Alex like the mother he had lost, while at the same time studying for a degree in orthopaedics at a nearby medical college and commuting daily from the home that they shared.

On getting her degree in nursing she had worked on the orthopaedic wards of a local hospital with reasonable contentment until seeing a vacancy for a ward sister in the beautiful coastal town of Seahaven, with accommodation available in the apartment complex at the side of the hospital building.

It had meant a move to new surroundings, living in a new environment, and she’d been happy that Alex had shown no reluctance to move there with her as he was only eighteen and keen to follow in her footsteps by studying for a degree similar to her own.

In fact, he’d been quite excited about the move at first until one night he had talked non-stop about two of his friends who were taking a year out after high school, wanting to see the world first, and had invited him to join them, much to Darcey’s dismay.

She had listened painfully to the way that Alexander had put to one side as if they had never existed the long years that she had cared for him lovingly after losing their parents in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday. Darcey had always accepted that one day Alex would want to leave the safe cocoon she had made for him, but not so soon, she’d thought achingly.

At university he would be where she could see him, care for him still from a distance, whereas if he was travelling the world he could be swallowed up for ever, she’d thought, and it had hurt to know how easy it was for Alex to find freedom from life’s burdens as if he had more exciting things to do, when she Darcey had given up so much over the years.

It was the first time since losing their parents that they’d had a disagreement, as Darcey, ten years older than her brother, had always been there for Alex no matter what. Comforting him when he’d cried for his mother, carefully budgeting what money they’d had, making sure Alex had everything he needed.

She had known that one day he would break free from the bonds of her love and been quite happy with the thought, but not now, as what he was planning had thrown her into confusion and deep dismay.

When she’d expressed her hurt at his change of plan, Alexander had been difficult and unapproachable, and their quarrel had made her contemplate turning down her new job. But, hurt by Alex’s attitude, she decided to put herself first for once in her life, and now, tired and dejected, was travelling towards the new life she had chosen for herself in spite of the anxiety that was consuming her on his behalf, while he was involved in last-minute preparations before he and his two companions flew out to lands far away, from where he had promised faithfully to keep in touch.

He had promised to be at the railway station to see her off earlier but hadn’t kept to the arrangement. Hence her late boarding of the train where she would have been standing if it hadn’t been for the man opposite who had now returned to his laptop after his brief but welcome assistance, and seemed to have no wish to be involved further, for which she was thankful. Darcey was glad that the seating arrangement was for just two passengers instead of the usual four, and also the fact that she could hear the refreshments trolley trundling along the carriage.

She was more than ready for a drink and a bite and when the trolley stopped beside them, and in a mad moment she asked him if he would like a coffee or something similar as a token of her gratitude for his assistance on the crowded train.

‘No, thanks just the same,’ he said briskly, taking his glance off the laptop for a moment. ‘Just see to yourself and if I may be allowed to say so you look as if some light refreshment is needed to combat exhaustion.’ With that he turned back to what he’d been doing, leaving her to squirm at the thought of what she must look like.

She knew that her hair, a soft honey gold, looked lifeless, and many sleepless nights had left lines beneath eyes wide and blue. She’d lost weight and felt bony rather than slender, and a quick sideways glance in his direction, tanned and supple-looking with hair dark and waving, and deep hazel eyes, did nothing to raise her spirits.

As the train picked up speed, her thoughts returned to Alexander, and how his travelling companions seemed decent enough, but she still couldn’t help worrying about their safety, being so far away. She would have liked to have been there when their flight left but there had been a change of plan by the three of them, causing a delay that might have meant a late arrival for her new position in hospital care. Feeling that she had endured enough misery over recent days, Darcey had decided to keep to her original arrangements for travelling to Oceans House.

She groaned softly and the man opposite observed her before asking, ‘Are you all right? Not in pain, physical or mental?’

‘No. I’m fine, thanks,’ she said, perking up to avoid any further questioning from a stranger, and turned her thoughts to the apartment that was going to be her home from now on, and some of the excitement that had been there before Alex had decided to branch out on his own came back.

An announcement over the loudspeaker system broke into her thoughts, informing travellers that the main station on the line, and her destination, was the next stop. She rose to her feet at the same time as the stranger who had taken pity on her, and as he reached her case down effortlessly from the rack above and placed it beside her she was hoping that she might be seeing the last of him, as it was clear that he had her listed as a helpless creature, not that she could blame him.

He was closing the laptop and shrugging into an expensive winter jacket, ready for off, and Darcey wondered what he did for a living, and decided that if there was a taxi queue at the station she was going to join it with all speed to avoid further assistance from him.

There was a queue, a long one, but the man from the train didn’t move towards it because someone had come to meet him. He was getting into a smart car parked a few feet away and Darcey saw him lean over and plant a kiss on the cheek of the attractive woman in the driving seat before it pulled away onto the road in the winter afternoon, and she thought wistfully that he looked like someone who had it made from all angles.

* * *

‘So, Cordelia, what has it been like with me away and you landed with the brood at the Young Sailors’ Club?’ Daniel Osbourne was asking quizzically of his sister, who had turned out to chauffeur him home, when he caught a glimpse of the woman who’d piqued his interest on the train and wondered if she would be able to find her way to where she was going if she hadn’t visited the place before.

Yet he thought he’d done quite a bit of fussing during the rail journey, so enough was enough, and, as Cordelia pulled out into the moving traffic homeward bound, he thought the odds were that the woman, whoever she was, would have seen enough of him and neither needed nor wanted any more assistance.

He’d had no doubts about her lowness of spirit from the moment of helping her with her case, and if he hadn’t been so engrossed with the paperwork from the course that he’d just been on he might have done more.

‘The “brood”, as you describe them, have been in trouble,’ Cordelia told him with an affectionate glance at the man beside her. ‘They have missed you, of course, two of them especially who have ended up in Oceans House with fractures and suchlike that A and E passed on because they were too complex for them to treat.

‘But I hope that you’re not going anywhere near the place tonight because we’re having friends round for supper and we want you with us if you’re not too stressed after being away over the last fortnight. We’re letting the children stay up as the moment your name was mentioned the girls were keen to see you. So what do you say?’ she questioned.

His expression was sombre after the news about what the sailing club had been up to and he commented, ‘There are other doctors at Oceans House as well as me who will take good care of the injured miscreants.’ Now he was smiling. ‘And with regard to the invitation to supper I say, yes, of course. I’ve got something for the children in my luggage and if they get tired I’ll tell them a bedtime story. You know how much I love your daughters.’

‘Yes, I do,’ she told him wistfully. ‘I wish you had a family of your own, though.’

‘Don’t fret about me,’ was the reply. ‘At the time when I could have done something about it I was dumb about a lot of things, blinkered by my own concerns, such as getting my degree and providing for us both as Katrina had expensive tastes and a short fuse. She thought herself right in all things and since I divorced her I haven’t seen her—which suits me fine.

‘But you know all about that don’t you, sis?’ he questioned as Cordelia stopped the car outside a block of apartments with sea views, not too far from Oceans House and near to where she lived contentedly with her husband and two small girls who adored their Uncle Daniel.

‘Yes, of course I remember,’ she said gently. ‘Maybe one day you’ll—’

‘Don’t ever be too hopeful about that,’ he said dryly. ‘I’m content to give my time to my patients and when called upon take my place in the lifeboat. Plus getting to know the young teens in the sailing club and helping them learn how to handle the rescue safety boat. But some of them need a firm hand, and with regard to supper I shall look forward to being with you and yours once I’ve showered and changed.’

‘Good,’ Cordelia enthused. ‘I wasn’t sure if a gruelling fortnight away might have wearied you too much.’

‘Not at all,’ he assured her, with the thought unspoken that he’d also had a cheerless return rail journey on a packed train. That brought to mind again the memory of the fellow passenger that he’d taken under his wing, and he ended up with the feeling that he’d been bossy and interfering. Hopefully they wouldn’t meet again.

Spending time with Cordelia and Lawrence’s children was always a pleasure. Aged seven and five years, the two small girls always greeted Daniel with delight and excitement because he never arrived empty-handed, and that evening was no different.

But the memory of his conversation with their mother in the car on the way home from the rail station was lingering, and he asked himself, as he sometimes did, why he had committed himself to living alone when it would be so easy to respond to the interest that women frequently showed in him. But having made one mistake, he would never be in a hurry to make another.

* * *

Darcey had arrived at Oceans House and, having obtained the key to the small apartment allocated to her, was taking stock of the premises that, circumstances permitting, were going to be her home for some time to come.

It contained a bedroom, a shower and a cosy enough sitting room with a through kitchen adjoining. As she took off her jacket and sank down wearily onto the nearest chair the thought was there of how happy she would have been if the original arrangements that she and Alex had made regarding both their futures had stood firm.

There would have been none of the anxiety on her part because before he had developed a yearning to see the world he had been accepted at university, and been offered accommodation in the halls of residence there, which would have meant that they could have seen each other regularly. It was the kind of situation that did happen and usually parents would be involved, but theirs, hers and Alexander’s, were long gone. She knew that if she didn’t calm down, her own future was going to be threatened and then what would she have left?

For a crazy moment the memory of the man in the train came back, with his calm authoritarian manner and casual concern about her well-being. She could imagine him having an attractive wife and family waiting eagerly for his return to an orderly organised life while her own was a shambles, but why concern herself about that when she was never likely to be in his company again?

Her phone rang at that moment and as she fished it out of her hand luggage, Darcey prayed it was Alex. They’d barely been on speaking terms when she’d left and that had hurt the most of all. If he had just turned up at the rail station for a few moments it would have been a move towards peace between them. But there hadn’t been any sign of him and she’d waited until the guard had blown the whistle to announce the train was about to depart before she’d hurriedly boarded the train, and felt like weeping when she’d discovered how little room there had been for last-minute arrivals. But someone had seen her plight and she had been less than grateful for his assistance, which was awful, she thought as the phone continued to ring.

It was not Alex who spoke when she answered. The voice in her ear was that of the overseer of the pleasant small property that she and her younger brother had just vacated, who was phoning to thank her for promptly settling all rent owing to his firm, and wishing her everything that was good for the future.

* * *

With regard to her signing the necessary forms regarding her residence in the hospital property, Darcey had been given all the details of procedure on her arrival there and been informed that the staff restaurant was open until late if she wanted a meal. As she fought back tears at the kind thought from her ex-landlord, hunger was rising. The last time she’d eaten had been from the refreshment trolley on the train, and after food she needed sleep if she was to appear on the wards the next morning with her wits about her, she told herself. But whether sleep would come to her as easily as the food she sought was another matter.

* * *

As Cordelia watched her brother play with her daughters that evening, their conversation of the afternoon came back to trouble her. Was Daniel really so disinterested in a family life of his own? she wondered. A couple of her friends were present and would be there in a flash if he should show interest. Both were recently divorced and ready to try again.

But that was the difference, she thought, he wasn’t. He’d made one mistake along those lines, having married the wrong woman in the petulant Katrina and was not going to make another. Yet watching him with Bethany and Katie, his small nieces, it was clear to see that he would make an excellent father to children of his own given the chance.

He went once the children were in bed and on the point of leaving told his hosts, ‘I won’t be seeing much of you next week. I’m in Theatre most of the time and there are going to be some staff changes due to retirement and pregnancies, so I will be hoping for no high tides.’

* * *

As Darcey was drifting off to sleep the phone call that she’d yearned for came through, with Alexander sounding awkward and apologetic, asking if she was all right, and after assuring him that she was she enquired the same of him, and was told breezily that everything was great and he would phone her again soon.

The brief conversation hadn’t been exactly heart-warming but after he’d gone off the line she was too tired to think any further than at least he’d been in touch, and that tomorrow she would be starting her new life in Seahaven, which meant that she was going to have to improve her appearance after today’s stresses. After that exhaustion claimed her.

She was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of an ambulance somewhere nearby, with sirens breaking into the silence, and for a moment she was confused by the strangeness of her new surroundings, but as she gazed around the place that was to be her home for as long as she was employed at Oceans House it wasn’t hard to work out that the staff accommodation where she was going to be based was the nearest building to Emergency.

* * *

As senior doctor at the place, Daniel Osbourne often did his ward rounds late in the morning depending on how much time he had spent in Theatre first thing, planned or unexpected as the case may be, so it was almost midday when he came into the main children’s ward with a couple of registrars in tow to check on the progress of those he had already treated or were awaiting their turn.

On observing a different ward sister, pristine in a new uniform and immaculately turned out, with golden hair tied back from a face that was familiar from the day before, Daniel pondered if this could really be the tired and listless traveller he had taken under his wing and thought, Surely not!

The woman had been moving from bed to bed when he appeared, giving medication and taking temperatures, while members of her staff dealt with other duties allocated to them with regard to child patient care, but on hearing his voice she became still and turned slowly to meet his gaze.

Darcey had known it was the man from the train by the brisk and authoritative tone, and aware that she would be expected to accompany him on his round she went to stand beside him and introduced herself, praying that in a short space of time, namely the matter of hours that she had been on the ward, she would have remembered correctly the answers to any questions that he might have for her with regard to the young patients there.

But to her surprise what he had to say first referred to herself as he queried, ‘Why didn’t you say that you were coming here to work when we were on the train?’

‘I had no need to, or so I thought,’ she protested faintly. ‘And I was so tired.’

‘But of course you were,’ he agreed crisply. He glanced at the two registrars, who were chatting to a girl on the nearest bed with one of her legs in traction. ‘So, shall we proceed, Sister?’

‘Yes, Mr Osbourne,’ she said meekly, and as his companions wasted no time in joining them she smiled at the girl who’d had their attention and told him, ‘Olivia seems to be resigned to her plight for the moment and I’m told that when some of her school friends appear each day in the late afternoon there is a lot of chatter and news, which helps to get the hours over for her somewhat.’

‘Mmm... I’m sure that it must,’ he murmured, his attention on the young patient and the state of her leg, which was supported by attachments from an overhead frame. Turning to Darcey, he said, ‘The fracture of the tibia occurred during a hockey match and this is the result, the leg immobilised until healing of the bone is achieved. Have you dealt with this kind of thing before?’

‘Yes, a few times,’ she told him, thinking that her appearance of the day before hadn’t been one to instil confidence, but surely it might now. As they moved on to the next bed she went on to say, ‘I have trained and worked in orthopaedics ever since it became my specialist subject at university, and the opportunity to work in a hospital in a beautiful coastal area was too tempting to pass by.’ With a sigh, she added, ‘I wasn’t expecting to be alone in my change of scene but far countries seem to have got in the way of my plans, and, as you saw on the train yesterday, I was at a low ebb.’

‘Mmm, so it appeared,’ he commented, without showing much interest, and moved towards the next bed, followed by Darcey and the two registrars.

It was over. He had done the rounds and was about to depart, and his thoroughness had been no surprise to her, with his keen observations of the slightest thing that had caught his eye, whether it be good or not so good.

Once he had left there was a buzz of conversation amongst the nurses that was centred on Daniel Osbourne and all of it was complimentary so that she was left with no doubt regarding his popularity in spite of his no-nonsense approach.

With regard to herself, Darcey was cringing at the way she’d been so free and easy with her comments that might have given him the impression that it was a failed romance she’d been hinting at when it had been far from that.

When her lunch break came round, instead of making her way to the staff restaurant, Darcey went out into the cold air of the seaside promenade that went past the hospital and stood gazing out to where a choppy blue sea rose and fell in the distance.

As she turned to go back into the warmth of the hospital a smart black car pulled up beside her at the pavement edge and he was there again, the down-to-earth doctor who seemed to be everywhere she turned. Winding the car window down, he asked what she was doing out there in the cold without a jacket.

‘It is the first time I’ve been able to see the sea since I came,’ she told him. ‘When I arrived last night it was dark, and the same this morning when I reported to the ward, and I’ve only been out here a moment.’

Daniel was smiling and she thought that he was different away from his duties at the hospital and looking after lost souls like herself on the train, but he was right, the cold was biting and she was hungry. What did he do about lunch? she thought. Had he already eaten? He was pulling away from the kerb, giving her no time to ask, and she went inside with hunger calling and curiosity taking hold. Where did he live? she wondered, and with who, and was that his day finished?

* * *

It was not, by far. Daniel was about to make a brief visit to the sailing club that he had arranged for teens with time on their hands. He usually put in an appearance in the evening but having been away, and remembering his sister’s comments of the night before, he was keen to see the state of things at the place and what he observed there didn’t please him.

His helper with the running of the club was an old guy called Ely, a retired fisherman who was usually to be found on the premises, but not today it seemed, and the boat that was the magnet that brought young folks to the club was in a state of repair in the harbour.

What had been going on? he pondered. When he called at Ely’s cottage nearby to get up to date with the situation, his wife Bridget told him that her husband was in hospital with a heart problem, where he had been when the boat had been damaged.

‘With you both not around, the would-be sailors were impatient to be out there and they took the boat without permission,’ she told him, ‘and came unstuck on a rocky reef, which meant the lifeboat having to turn out. Two of the lads were injured and are in Oceans House.’ With that cheerful item of news to digest Daniel returned to the hospital to carry on bringing mobility to the immobile in one form or another for the rest of the day, and if Darcey had still questioned his movements after watching him drive away in the lunch hour she would have had her answer on seeing him moving purposefully along the main hospital corridor in the direction of the operating theatre in the early afternoon.

* * *

In the evening that followed, Darcey was restless. There had been no more phone calls from Alexander, no contentment at the end of her first day at Oceans House, nothing to brighten the last hours of it. Just a mediocre night of entertainment on the television screen in the small apartment that was now her home. Her time on the ward had been great, she thought, but what now?

On impulse she reached for the warm winter jacket that she’d travelled in and her knee-high boots and without another thought went out into the dark night where a moon hung over the sea that was less choppy than earlier in the day.

The promenade was well lit with a selection of bars and restaurants to choose from, but Darcey was not entranced at the thought of dining alone in a strange place where she didn’t know anyone, and when she came to the teenage meeting place at the far end of the promenade that, unknown to her, was Daniel Osbourne’s project she paused outside the wooden building and looked around her with interest.

Nearby was the harbour and she saw a roomy boat there in the process of being repaired, and as she looked around her she heard the sound of young voices on the night air. A short distance away was the lifeboat house, shuttered and locked until needed, and as she lingered curiously a deeper voice that was becoming familiar caught her attention as it spoke with authority into what had become silence inside the wooden building and she was rooted to the spot.

When Daniel Osbourne had finished speaking the young members of the organisation came pouring out as the clock on a nearby church tower hit the stroke of ten, and having no desire to be seen hovering outside the place she quickly hurried through the crowd of teenagers as they spread out over the promenade, breathing a sigh of relief when the staff accommodation for Ocean House came into sight. Thank goodness he hadn’t seen her lurking outside while he’d been speaking to the young people.

Daniel thought whimsically that the new sister had had no cause to flee from his presence. She’d been unaware that he had been on foot amongst the kids, and short of sprinting after her in the early dark of an October night had to be satisfied with just quickening his pace. But the apartments had come into view and she’d been inside in a flash with the door locked behind her.

It was just a matter of common courtesy to make sure that a newcomer amongst those he worked with was home safely after wandering alone amongst the night crowds who drank in the bars and ate in the restaurants on the promenade, and with that thought in mind he proceeded to his own residence, which wasn’t far away, where he lived in solitary comfort that was edged with loneliness.

* * *

After her speedy return to base Darcey made a hot drink and pondered on the moments that she’d spent outside the place where Daniel Osbourne and the teenagers had been meeting. He hadn’t sounded pleased about something and had been making it known, she thought. The young folk had seemed chastened when they’d come filing out into the dark night.

‘Young Sailors’ Club’ was what it had said above the door of the wooden building at the end of the promenade and next to it had been the harbour where the boat was being repaired. So was it something to do with that to blame for bringing forth his annoyance?

* * *

Daniel could have told her that it was. He had started the club to keep the kids occupied and off the streets by training them in the complexities of sailing in the rescue safety boat, which was a smaller craft than the lifeboat but just as necessary in moments of danger nearer to the shore. No members were allowed to take it away from its moorings without himself or Ely being there.

But with the old guy hospitalised and Daniel absent, some of the teenagers left to their own devices had taken it out and damaged it against a rocky outcrop. So much so that the lifeboat had been called out to get them all safely back on shore, which, as far as Daniel was concerned, was an even greater annoyance as it could have been avoided if they hadn’t broken the rules.

Two of the young guys had been injured in the mishap and when his sister had informed him on his return that they were in Oceans House with fractures, his annoyance had been normal, but it had peaked when he’d seen the boat.

Hence the stern reprimand to the rest that Darcey must have heard through the open doors of their meeting place, and it hadn’t improved his mood as he’d been bringing the evening to a close when he’d caught a glimpse of her through the open door on the pavement outside, alone in the winter night, which had brought forth his effort to catch her up as she’d hurried back to her own place.

And what now he thought with mild irony as he settled down in front of the fire in the sitting room of the tasteful apartment that had long been his residence.

Tonight would have been another example of him interfering in the life of the new sister on the children’s ward if he’d caught her up. What was the matter with him?

If she’d seen him sprinting along behind her down the promenade she would have thought him insane when he had merely been trying to be helpful, but that was it. From now on he would keep a low profile where she was concerned. His only contact would be at the bedsides of their young patients.