THE small girl looked aggressively up at Cara, her fists doubled up before her like a miniature boxer.
‘Don’t come near me or I’ll hit you!’ she shouted. ‘I won’t let you look in my ear!’
Cara suppressed an urge to smile at the little firebrand, and turned calmly to the child’s mother.
‘Could you try holding Shona’s head again for me while I just peep and see how far the pencil rubber’s gone into her ear canal?’
She spoke in a matter-of-fact voice. It was no use getting irritated with the child, although they’d already stretched the appointment well over five minutes while Shona wept and struggled.
Mrs Brown clutched the child to her as if Cara was going to stab her daughter. ‘The poor wee pet,’ she said mournfully in a hoarse, slow voice. ‘She’s terrified. You aren’t going to hurt her, are you?’
Cara sighed inwardly. Her first morning in the Ballranoch practice had been a full one, dealing with elderly people who had a range of serious complaints to teenagers with bad acne. She didn’t feel like battling with too many awkward patients today, however young they were. And Mrs Brown’s nervousness was communicating itself to her child.
Cara flicked a curious glance at the woman—large, thin-haired with a thick, pallid complexion. There seemed to be no family resemblance at all to her lively little daughter! Something about the mother’s appearance rang a bell at the back of her mind, but it was too elusive to pursue and she turned to the matter in hand. Since she’d had Dan, Cara was even more aware of the terrors that assailed parents when their children were ill, so she was sympathetic to the anxious fears of Mrs Brown—although it was, after all, a very simple procedure.
Perhaps the morning had seemed long because it was her first in a new practice—or perhaps because so much had happened in the two days since the New Year and she felt exhausted. Looking after Dan, going over to see her father in hospital and finally agreeing to help Jake Donahue at the earnest request of her father—they had taken it out of her.
‘For my sake, darling,’ he’d pleaded. ‘There’s no one else prepared to work out here at such short notice, and I’d feel so much better if I knew Jake had help. He’s a good doctor but even he can’t look after everyone.’
She’d allowed herself to be talked into this, she thought wryly. She wanted to do whatever her father said while he was ill, and she’d had enough experience in her inner city London practice to deal confidently with most patients thrown her way. What made her nervous was working in close contact with a complex man whom she’d begun to realise was just a little too attractive for comfort!
For a second her thoughts flashed back to New Year’s Eve and the heady feeling of being held against Jake’s body, his lips on hers. Her head told her there had been nothing in it—he’d kissed her because it had been hogmanay and she’d responded far too willingly Already she knew her heart was beating to a different tune, and she was afraid that the overwhelming attraction she felt for Jake could lead to nothing but danger…
Abruptly she brought herself back to the curly-headed, pugnacious child in front of her.
‘Come on, now, Shona. You’re a brave girl, I’m sure, and this certainly won’t hurt. Just keep very still.’
Shona started bellowing in reply and Mrs Brown sighed heavily. ‘If I hadn’t been so tired I’d have been at the school earlier, then she wouldn’t have passed the time pushing the pencil rubber in her ear.’
Both mother and daughter tensed as Cara looked into the small ear with her otoscope. ‘Ah,’ she said with satisfaction, ‘it’s not gone in very far—I should be able to extract it fairly easily.’
‘But surely she’ll need an anaesthetic,’ objected Mrs Brown fearfully, her dull eyes turning apprehensively to Cara.
‘It isn’t necessary to put Shona through that. It won’t take a second and that’s better than going into hospital for a day, isn’t it?’
Mrs Brown looked doubtfully at her daughter who responded by burying her head in her mother’s shoulder and sobbing.
‘If you’re sure…’ she said, looking with deep suspicion at Cara. ‘I don’t want you to think I’m being rude, but Dr Mackenzie and Dr Donahue have known Shona since she was born—you don’t know her at all. Oh, dear, it’s very worrying.’
‘It’s a very simple procedure. It doesn’t matter really that I haven’t known Shona since birth, you know,’ replied Cara, trying to dampen the impatient tone in her voice.
Mrs Brown started to rock Shona to and fro like a baby. Looking quickly at her watch, Cara realised that this could take a long time to resolve—she didn’t want to probe around in the child’s ear with an agitated parent trying to keep her still. She pushed the switch on the intercom and spoke to Karen, the large and sensible receptionist.
‘I wonder if Dr Donahue or the practice nurse could come through for a second if they’re free?’
A few seconds later Jake strode into the room, quickly taking in the scenario of crying child and white-faced mother. Cara flicked a glance towards him and felt her pulse bound uncomfortably on seeing his tall figure dominate the room and amused blue eyes holding hers for a moment. It brought to mind only too vividly their closeness on New Year’s Eve.
‘Can I help?’ he asked pleasantly.
Mrs Brown’s pallid face cleared instantly. ‘Oh, thank goodness you’re here, Dr Donahue. We’re having a terrible time with poor Shona and, of course, Dr Cara’s completely new to us and doesn’t know her as a patient…’
And therefore I don’t trust her an inch, translated Cara wryly, her heart still fluttering as she watched Jake walk over to Shona.
‘I have every confidence in Dr Cara,’ said Jake firmly. ‘After all, she is Dr Mackenzie’s daughter. Now, what seems to be the problem?’
Cara shot him a grateful glance. ‘Shona’s managed to get a pencil rubber stuck in her ear,’ she said briskly. ‘I can get it out very easily, but I wondered if you could hold Shona’s head—especially as you know her so well,’ she added cunningly.
It took less than ten seconds for Cara to remove the offending object with a pair of tiny toothed forceps. ‘There!’ she said triumphantly, holding up the rubber, ‘That wasn’t too bad, was it?’
‘You were so brave, darling. I’m going to treat you to a large ice cream,’ puffed Mrs Brown as she plodded slowly out of the room. ‘Thank you for coming to help Dr Cara out,’ she said to Jake, then she disappeared down the corridor.
‘Talk about being patronised!’ murmured Jake. ‘I’m afraid little Shona is rather indulged, being the baby of the family after three boys—and treated like crystal!’
Cara raised her eyes. ‘Heaven save me from panicking parents! I’m sorry to have had to drag you in, but I didn’t want to pierce darling Shona’s eardrum while she wriggled. Her mother told me in no uncertain terms that as a new girl I wasn’t up to the job.’
‘Better the devil you know,’ remarked Jake. ‘I’m afraid our patients are notoriously conservative in their views. Of course, you’ll know many of them, having lived here all your life.’
‘I never worked in the practice, though,’ explained Cara. ‘I…I was about to, but when I finished my hospital training in Edinburgh things were difficult, as I told you.’
Jake smiled. ‘Never mind. You’re back now, and I’d just like to say how pleased I am that you’re going to help us out.’
‘On a temporary basis,’ she said quickly. She wasn’t going to commit herself to a long stint with this man—it might just turn out to be a huge mistake!
His bright blue eyes held hers for a fraction longer than necessary, as if he knew just what she was thinking, and he gave one of his sudden unexpected grins. ‘I’m sure we’ll get on fine,’ he murmured. ‘We have lots to discuss, however. Perhaps we could have a sandwich together in my room at lunchtime. I’d like to fill you in with details of the practice and try and answer any questions you have.’
Cara nodded and started to key Shona’s notes into the computer. Suddenly she stopped and looked up at Jake’s disappearing back. The elusive thought she’d had about Mrs Brown clicked into place.
‘Jake,’ she said, stopping him as he walked out of the room. ‘Mrs Brown—Shona’s mother—she obviously comes to you sometimes, so you know her fairly well?’
‘Yes. I don’t think I’ve seen her for some time, though. I noticed she’s put on a bit of weight.’
‘Well, this might sound completely crazy, but I had a patient in London who might have been her twin sister—same look, same hoarse voice. The patient I had suffered from primary hypothyroidism—I just wondered about Mrs Brown. She said she felt tired and she certainly looked unwell.’
Jake nodded thoughtfully. ‘She certainly fills a lot of the criteria—around fifty years old, overweight, female. It’s been some time since I’ve seen her, but she’s definitely changed in appearance. You’re quite right. We should bring her in for some blood tests—serum TSH and T4 test. Lucky her daughter got something stuck in her ear otherwise it might have gone undetected for some time.’ He raised his eyebrows approvingly. ‘Good job her new GP was sufficiently on the ball to recognise the symptoms. I’ll look up her previous notes and get in touch with her.’
Cara felt a slight glow of satisfaction as she brought up the next patient’s notes on her computer. If what she suspected was right and they were able to give her medication, Mrs Brown would feel a different woman very soon. Sometimes, she reflected, being a GP was quite rewarding.
‘This was a good idea, Jake. I haven’t been down here for many years,’ said Cara, looking across the waters of the loch sparkling diamond and blue in the winter sun. Lunchtime had come at last and Jake had steered her firmly out of his room and down the woodland path behind the surgery that led to the loch. It was a cold day, but they both wore thick jackets and the air was astringent and refreshing.
‘I thought it would be good to get some fresh air and have our sandwiches out of doors instead of being stuck in the surgery for the whole day. Karen’s provided a flask of coffee—we may as well make use of the most beautiful surroundings in the world!’
Cara gazed across to the wide sweep of snow-topped mountains and the small island some way offshore in the middle of the loch. ‘That was my island,’ she said softly. ‘When I was young my father used to row me out there and I had a little den made out of trees—my secret place!’
Jake smiled down at her. ‘You’ll be able to take Dan there soon. He’ll like throwing stones in the water, too, I’ll bet.’
‘I wonder if Robbie Tulloch, the old gamekeeper, still lives there?’ Cara screwed her eyes up to look through the trees on the island. ‘He had a dear little cottage on the far side and he used to give me biscuits and milk when I went over.’
‘Oh, yes, Robbie’s still there, but we don’t see him much. He’s a patient of the practice, of course.’
He picked up a stone and tossed it into the water, watching the ripples spread out in circles. ‘This is such a wonderful place for a child,’ he remarked, a note of wistfulness in his voice. ‘Lots of freedom to run about.’
‘Were you brought up in the country?’ asked Cara, sitting down on an old wooden seat under the trees.
He sat down beside her and offered her a sandwich. ‘No, I was a city child—plenty of smog and dirt and not much fun. That’s why I appreciate the wilds of the Highlands so much.’
‘And that’s why you didn’t spread your wings for a while and stayed here?’
Jake’s face was guarded. ‘Something like that. I decided it was best to stay in the area for various reasons. Working for your father seemed to be the right answer.’
His tone didn’t invite further questioning and Cara started to undo the top of the thermos.
‘Coffee?’ she asked briskly, as if she wasn’t interested in his background.
Jake nodded and leant forward in his seat, clasping the hot cup in his hands. ‘Perhaps I ought to tell you something about the way we work here then you’ll get an inkling of what you’ve let yourself in for.’
‘Is it a big practice?’ asked Cara. ‘In London we were a two-handed partnership with about six thousand patients between us.’
Jake shook his head. ‘Not quite that big, but huge in area, as you can imagine. As you know, St Cuthbert’s is the local hospital and it has a good A and E and surgical service, but all neurological cases have to go further afield. Can be tricky if a climber has fallen on the hills and hit his head. By the way,’ he said turning to her, ‘do you have walking boots and good all-weather gear?’
‘Not really. Why—will I need them?’
‘Most certainly,’ Jake said, a rare smile touching his lips. ‘We’re the back-up emergency team if things go wrong—and you’ll be amazed how often that happens!’
Cara was silent for a second. She’d certainly done the odd emergency case in London when doctors had been needed in road traffic accidents, but she hadn’t envisaged herself tramping over the hills and climbing mountains to rescue people!
‘Does it put you off?’ Jake raised his eyebrows humorously at her. ‘I think you’d find it invigorating—and you wouldn’t be on your own!’
Cara gave a slight gulp. That might be part of the problem—being on her own on a windswept mountain with Jake Donahue might be a bit too exciting! ‘I…I don’t know anything about climbing,’ she protested.
‘You’ll be fine,’ he said. But she wasn’t convinced.
‘We do have an arrangement with a practice about twelve miles away to do some late on-call visits, and we have a minor injuries unit at the surgery once a week for patients who can’t get to the hospital easily. There’s an occasional bus that wends its way to Ballranoch from outlying districts.’
Cara nodded. It would be a very different working life to the one she’d led in London where her patients had lived in close proximity to the medical centre and an agency had done late night calls—that was for sure!
Jake stood up and stretched. ‘Ah, well, back to the grindstone. By the way, I looked up Mrs Brown’s notes and the last time she came to see me was about a menstrual disorder, which of course could be an indicator of hypothyroidism, although she had no other symptoms. We tried her with cyclical progesterone and she seemed to improve.’ He smiled at her. ‘Very good detective work if I may say so!’
The wind blew icily down the loch and Cara pulled up the collar of her coat. ‘All in a day’s work,’ she said modestly.
‘How was your father when you last visited?’ Jake asked as he gathered up the lunch things.
‘He’s stable and they’re thinking of doing the bypass in another week if he maintains good progress. I may take Dan in with me soon—it might give Dad a boost to see him.’
‘I’m sure it will.’ He flicked a quick glance at Cara. ‘Had your father never seen him before?’
Cara flung the dregs of her coffee into the undergrowth and sighed. ‘My father never even knew he existed until New Year’s Eve—that’s why he never mentioned him to you.’
‘Then you came back at the right time,’ said Jake quietly. He held out his hand to Cara and pulled her up from her seat. ‘I see you decided to use your maiden name—Mackenzie. What’s your married name?’
‘Toby and I never married—we never got round to it.’
She watched an osprey circle high in the sky over the loch and sighed. She’d wanted to marry, had hoped against hope that Toby would one day commit himself to her, especially when Dan had arrived. She smiled wryly to herself. The baby’s arrival had made Toby even more remote, if anything. And now, she thought bleakly, it was as if she had never known the man, never spent over four years with him…
She was brought back to earth by the sharpness in Jake’s voice. ‘That’s a great pity, isn’t it? No father for Dan. Or is he still around?’
Cara bit her lip. She wanted to tell Jake to mind his own business, to forget the hurt that Toby had caused her—but what good would keeping it dark do?
‘Toby has no interest in his son. In fact, he has so little interest he’s gone to live abroad.’ She looked at Jake defensively. ‘You don’t approve, then—you think I should have married someone like that?’
Jake shrugged. ‘I just think for the child’s sake it’s more secure. I know marriage seems to be going out of fashion but, speaking for myself, there’s no way I’d have a family without being fully committed to the mother of my children. Are you sure you couldn’t have made it up with him—at least kept in touch with him for Dan’s sake?’
Make up with Toby? Cara almost laughed. ‘After what that man did to me and Dan,’ she said grimly, ‘I never want to set eyes on him again.’
Jake shook his head rather sadly as they started to walk up the path, and Cara looked curiously at him. ‘You’ve very conventional views—some people feel just as committed to each other when they aren’t married as those who are. You’ve been living too long in the wilds!’
He raise a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Maybe I’m out of touch, but it seems a shame to have a baby without the father being around.’
A flash of irritation went through Cara—he certainly could be pompous at times! ‘Be real, Jake,’ she snapped crossly. ‘You know accidents do happen. Sometimes human beings get it wrong—we’re not machines!’
There was a hint of scorn in his look. ‘Come on, Cara, surely as a doctor you could have foreseen a little “accident”!’
The cheek of the man! Cara felt her blood pressure starting to rise alarmingly. She stopped walking and stared at him, her eyes sparkling with rage, spitting out her words. ‘How dare you say that? I don’t regard Dan as an accident—he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me!’
She turned abruptly away from Jake, her pulse racing with anger. How could she work with this boorish man who seemed to enjoy insulting her at every turn? He might be one of the most drop-dead-gorgeous men she’d ever seen but it didn’t prevent him from shooting his mouth off!
He touched her shoulder and pulled her round to face him. ‘Don’t take it like that, Cara,’ he said gravely.
‘Look,’ she rejoined hotly, ‘you’re entitled to your own opinions—just keep them to yourself, that’s all!’
His grip tightened on her shoulder. ‘Of course your son is everything to you, it’s just, well, I see a lot of girls left to carry the can when their boyfriends go off. I hate to see someone like you and Dan hurt.’
Those deep blue eyes burnt into her. Jake meant what he’d said and, to be honest, he had a point. Toby had left her to fend for herself with a baby, and it had been hard. She was determined that Dan would never suffer for it, but the sad truth was that he would probably never know his father—and she was happy for it to be that way. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her anger with Jake, but the sting of the truth in what he’d said didn’t make his outspokenness any easier to take.
She looked up at him defiantly. ‘I’d better be quite candid,’ she said brusquely. ‘My father wants me to work with you and I don’t want to upset him at the moment. But if you keep pontificating on the way I run my life, I shan’t be staying!’
He dropped his hands from her shoulders abruptly and raised a sardonic eyebrow. ‘That sounds like a threat,’ he remarked.
‘Well, I feel very strongly about it!’
‘I have no intention of telling you how to live,’ he said stiffly. His voice hardened. ‘All I do know is that in the unlikely event of my meeting the right person and deciding to have a child, I’ll make darned sure I’m married first.’
For a second a most curious feeling of jealousy filled Cara’s heart. The girl Jake ended up with would be a lucky one, she thought. He would take his responsibilities very seriously and would never abandon his wife and children. She gave him an appraising look. He was a mixture, this man—confident, handsome, and yet there was something aloof about him, a touch of the loner in some ways.
She shrugged. ‘You have an idealised view of marriage. It doesn’t always lead to happiness—as I know from my father’s experience.’
Jake looked at her stubbornly. ‘It’s not something to be jumped into, I agree—but where children are concerned, I believe marriage is imperative.’
‘And, as a responsible person, would you like children?’ Cara asked coldly.
‘Perhaps.’ His voice was noncommittal, careful to give nothing away. ‘The time has to be right—and, of course, one’s got to meet the right person.’
Cara raised her eyebrows. ‘And that’s not happened yet?’
Suddenly that stern demeanour relaxed somewhat, and a slight smile touched his lips. ‘There aren’t many single girls around Ballranoch who want an impoverished doctor in their lives!’
The temperature between them seemed to lower a few degrees as he looked down at her with a hint of amusement in his eyes, and Cara felt a treacherous tingle of excitement hit her. She tensed as he brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek.
‘You’d probably be the first to admit that any relationship is a gamble after your experience,’ he said with more gentleness in his tone. ‘But perhaps if you’d married Toby you’d still be together—right?’
Cara moved away from him and opened the door to the surgery. She wasn’t ready to forgive Jake’s outburst concerning Dan just yet.
‘I doubt that very much,’ she said coldly. ‘And as you know nothing about Toby’s relationship with me, I don’t know how you can make that assumption!’
What Toby had done to her—and indirectly to her father—could never be forgiven, but it wasn’t any of Jake’s business. She marched quickly to her room, her feet making any indignant tattoo on the wooden floor.
Only one more patient to see before she could go and collect Dan from his nursery and hear all about his day. Cara stretched luxuriously. That was one very good thing—her lovely son seemed to have taken like a duck to water to the nursery that her father’s daily, Annie Shaw, had recommended to her. Annie had also asked if she could stay in ‘the big house’, as she called it, whilst Gordon was in hospital. She was a young, lively woman who wanted to get away from living at home with her mother for a while, and she was longing to help look after Dan. At least, thought Cara gratefully, her worries about child care for Dan had been alleviated.
She sighed and stared distractedly at the PC screen in front of her. It was her relationship with Jake that worried her. Just how easy was it going to be to work closely with someone who manifestly disapproved that she was a single mother—that somehow she should have ‘known better’? Angrily she pressed the switch that activated the screen in the waiting room telling patients that she was ready to see them. It shouldn’t matter what he thought of her, she told herself—she should just get on with her job. But it did matter. Jake was beginning to get under her skin and she couldn’t forget his cutting comments.
She brought up her next patient’s notes on the screen and tried to put the annoying Dr Donahue out of her mind. Then she leaned forward with more interest and raised her eyebrows—the address of the next patient was the house where the rave had been two afternoons ago!
She was surprised to see that the woman who came in was middle-aged. She’d got the impression that she would be elderly—after all, Megan, her granddaughter, was at least fifteen. Mrs Forbes was smart and well groomed with streaked golden hair, and she was wearing a beautiful camel-coloured cashmere coat. She looked the kind of confident woman who knew what suited her and had her life in order.
Cara’s mind flicked back to Jake’s rather scathing comments about leaving teenagers alone in the house on New Year’s Eve—perhaps he’d had a point. Mrs Forbes certainly wasn’t the doddery, out-of-touch pensioner Cara had imagined, and she wondered if the afternoon of the party was something to do with the woman’s visit.
‘Ah, Mrs Forbes, do sit down,’ she said, indicating the seat in front of her desk. ‘How can I help?’
Mrs Forbes gave a bright smile—too bright perhaps—and clasped her hands tightly in front of her. ‘I…I don’t really know if it’s a problem I should bother you with,’ she began hesitatingly. ‘The fact is…’ Her voice faltered and she put a hand up to her forehead, scrabbling about in her handbag to find a handkerchief which she pressed for a second to her eyes. ‘The fact is, doctor, I’ve been a complete and utter fool!’
Cara waited as the woman stared at her, her lips trembling as if trying to psych herself up to tell Cara what was wrong. At last she blurted out breathlessly, ‘I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I’ve got to unload it somehow. It’s been a terrible few days. I…I’m Dr Donahue’s patient really, but I couldn’t discuss this with him…with someone I know.’
‘Take your time,’ said Cara gently. Wryly she thought that some patients objected to seeing a new doctor in the practice, whilst others positively welcomed it!
Mrs Forbes swallowed and bit her lip. ‘You probably heard of the damage done to our house outside the village when some yobs came and trashed the house…’
‘I did happen to be there. Dr Donahue and I were helping a young diabetic girl in the garden.’
‘Then you’ll know how stupid we were to leave my granddaughter, Megan, and her friend by themselves. I can’t forgive myself, and I can only say that I was so worried about…personal matters that I felt I had to get out for the night. Megan is so good I couldn’t imagine anything awful happening.’
‘What things were you worried about?’
There was a short silence as the woman gathered her resources. She gave a deep breath.
‘I’m afraid I might be pregnant!’
‘How old are you, Mrs Forbes?’ Cara asked gently.
‘I’m nearly fifty. You wouldn’t think it would be possible to get pregnant at my age, would you?’
Cara smiled. ‘If you’re still ovulating, it’s perfectly possible. How many weeks do you think you are?’
‘I don’t know—could be quite a few. I just never dreamed this could happen to me!’ Suddenly Mrs Forbes’s face crumpled and she put her hands over her face as she sobbed her heart out. Cara got out of her chair and put her arm comfortingly on the woman’s shoulder.
‘Come on now, Mrs Forbes, let’s just make sure you are pregnant before you get upset. There are other conditions that have similar symptoms to being pregnant, you know. At your age the menopause is probably starting to kick in.’
Mrs Forbes dried her eyes. ‘But I thought one had hot flushes and other symptoms—I haven’t had anything like that.’
‘Not necessarily.’
‘I haven’t had a period for some time…I was having them fairly regularly up to three months ago.’
‘I take it a baby wouldn’t be welcome, then? Have you mentioned this to your husband?’
The woman gave a mirthless laugh. ‘I certainly haven’t! Anyway, it…it’s not as simple as me just having a baby.’ She sighed. ‘A baby would have been so welcome many years ago—I only had one child and I’d have loved another. No…the trouble is…’ Her voice sank to a whisper. ‘I’ve been seeing someone else. It was just a bit of fun, you know, nothing serious. My husband is a good deal older than I am and hates going out now.’ She twisted the handkerchief round in her hands, and her voice started to rise. ‘I just got tired of sitting around all the time, doing nothing, but it would ruin everything if he found out. I don’t know what would happen to me!’
‘You think he would leave you?’
‘My husband is well thought of in the community—he’s an ex-MP, you know, and he wouldn’t welcome being made a fool of if this were to come out.’
Talk about selfish, thought Cara. No thought of the hurt she’d cause her husband, only what the consequences might be for her if she was found out. She got up briskly. It wasn’t for her to make moral judgements.
‘First of all, let’s establish if you really are pregnant—I take it you haven’t done a pregnancy test? When you’ve given me a specimen of urine I’d like to examine you.’
Margery Forbes looked anxiously at Cara as she put the strip of paper in the specimen a few minutes later. After a few seconds Cara looked up. ‘This result is negative—I think you could be worrying unnecessarily. Let me just examine you—it’s possible to be fairly certain of pregnancy by the state of the cervix.’
After the examination, Cara drew off her protective gloves and threw them in the bin, then washed her hands. ‘I don’t think you have anything to worry about Mrs Forbes—I’m practically sure that you’re not pregnant. Just to make absolutely certain, I’ll take some blood for a test on your hormone levels. It may indicate what I suspect—that you’ve started the menopause.’
‘Thank God!’ said the woman, closing her eyes and lying back on the couch. ‘I felt I was living a nightmare!’
‘This doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant,’ warned Cara as she dried her hands. ‘Until your periods have stopped for a year, you should protect yourself.’
Mrs Forbes got off the couch and smoothed down her immaculate tweed skirt. ‘There won’t be any need,’ she said forcefully. ‘I’ve learnt my lesson, and…well, I shall try and be more sensible.’
A familiar scenario, thought Cara bitterly as Mrs Forbes left the room. A younger woman marries an older man and then gets bored. She knew it only too well, for wasn’t that her father’s sad little story? Mrs Forbes seemed absorbed with herself and on New Year’s Eve she’d put her own needs before that of her granddaughter. It could have ended disastrously with the death of a child.
Cara gave a little shrug of wonder at the secret lives of her patients and switched off her computer. She suddenly realised that she was dying for a restoring cup of tea and, when she’d put Dan to bed, a soak in a hot bath. That was why when there was a knock at the door she was tempted to call out, Go away!
‘Come in,’ she said a trifle wearily.
Jake looked round the door, his face apologetic. ‘I know it’s late and you’re really tired, but I need a big favour. Everyone’s gone home and my car’s finally run out of petrol—I had an unscheduled emergency call out in the hills. Could you just drop me off at the garage on your way to pick up Dan from his nursery, and I’ll get a gallon to keep me going?’
Cara stared coldly at him—she hadn’t forgotten his remarks about ‘accidental’ babies. If he thinks he can just slip back to being Mr Nice Guy, he’s got another think coming, she told herself fiercely.
‘No trouble,’ she said tersely.
As he settled himself into the car, Jake turned to Cara, his strong face made more angular by the shadows of the streetlamps.
‘I’m glad of the chance to see you by yourself,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I want to say something to you—something important. I should have kept my big mouth shut earlier. I must have hurt you very much, and I wouldn’t do that for the world. I…I do sometimes jump into things with both feet, I know.’
‘You’ve noticed, have you?’ Cara’s voice was heavily sarcastic.
‘I’ve been told often enough by my sister,’ he said wryly. ‘I apologise.’
Cara stared at him and put the key in the ignition. ‘And that’s supposed to make everything all right, is it?’
He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him. ‘I hope it helps a little. Look, I want our working relationship to be a success, and I know it can be. Please, allow me to take you out for a meal to try and make up for my crassness. I really want to make amends.’
His voice was low and coaxing, and his arm was slung round the back of her seat, making him far too close for comfort. Suddenly the space in the car seemed to contract and the atmosphere was just a little too intimate. Cara felt Jake’s warm breath on her cheek and she was hardly surprised when his hand turned her head to his so that his dark-flecked eyes held hers.
She swallowed. This was too reminiscent of the other night when they’d kissed so ardently. Even thinking of that made her senses tingle, and an urgent longing came over her to repeat the experience. She shifted nervously away from him in her seat.
‘You don’t have to take me out,’ she said in a tight little voice. ‘Just keep your thoughts to yourself.’
His finger traced a line under her chin. ‘Believe me, I’ll try. As you said, I’ve been too long in the wilds and I’ve forgotten how to behave.’
There was something bleak in that statement, something that spoke of loneliness and isolation—even chances missed. What was it in Jake’s past that had led to his reserved and blunt manner? Cara knew that under that stern exterior lurked a humorous and warm personality—she’d encountered it on New Year’s Eve. There had to be an explanation for the façade he presented. All at once her anger with Jake seemed to dissipate like seeds in the wind.
‘It would be nice to go out for a meal,’ she said lightly as she turned the key in the ignition. ‘But, remember, I’ve got a hearty appetite!’
‘I’ll keep you to that,’ he murmured.
When they reached the garage, Jake got out of the car and watched as Cara drove off, hunching his shoulders against the bitter wind. It always had been a failure of his, to speak first and think afterwards. Perhaps it was the result of a harsh upbringing where people spoke their minds and didn’t wrap things up in glossy words, and the circumstances he found himself in now. The irony was, he reflected sadly, that he seemed hellbent on hurting Cara Mackenzie—the sort of girl he’d been looking for all his life, sparky, humorous and far too beautiful to be let down by wastrels such as Toby.
He dug his hands into his pockets and bunched his fists. It was a pipe dream to wish that he and Cara could get together anyway. It could never happen, not with things as they were at home. There was no way he could make the commitment to Cara that she deserved, and for that reason he had to keep his distance.
‘Forget about it, Jake Donahue,’ he muttered as he turned towards the garage. ‘It’s never going to happen.’