MAX wasn’t planning on going to the Christmas party, even though he had bought a ticket months ago. After his last disastrous date, he had given up on the idea of socialising for the moment. However, as the day wore on, the prospect of spending the evening on his own held even less appeal. He knew what would happen. He would spend the time thinking about Lucy and it wouldn’t help one little bit. The Christmas party could turn out to be the better option.
He went home to shower and change then drove back to the hospital. The party was being held in the staff canteen and there was quite a crowd in there when he arrived. He got himself a drink from the makeshift bar and went to find the others, stopping en route to speak to various people he knew. Everyone was in high spirits and he only wished he felt as cheerful as they did. However, he was suddenly very conscious of the fact that this would be the last Christmas he spent in Dalverston and the thought weighed heavily on him. It was hard to appear his usual happy-go-lucky self when he joined the staff from the maternity unit.
‘We didn’t know you were coming, Max!’ Anita Walsh exclaimed. ‘You should have said and then we could have picked you up in the minibus to save you driving.’
‘I wasn’t sure if I could make it,’ he hedged, not wanting to explain why it had been a last-minute decision. He held up his glass, wanting to deflect any more awkward questions. ‘OK, guys, I’d like to propose a toast. To everyone who works on the maternity unit. May we all enjoy the fruits of other people’s labours!’
Everyone laughed as they clinked glasses. Max was relieved that he had managed to divert attention away from himself. There were several former members of staff there that night and he decided to have word with them. If he kept circulating, hopefully no one would notice that he wasn’t his usual ebullient self.
He was just heading over to speak to Maria, who had retired recently, when he saw Lucy crossing the canteen and his heart seemed to leap right up into his throat. He’d had no idea that she would be there that night. Tickets had sold out months ago, long before she had moved to Dalverston. Now the shock of seeing her so unexpectedly turned his limbs to stone. He could only stand and stare as she drew closer.
Lucy felt shock scud through her when she spotted Max. She’d never dreamt that he would be there that night and wasn’t sure what she should do. She paused, wondering if she should beat a hasty retreat, but just at that moment Cathy spotted her.
‘There you are!’ Cathy exclaimed as she came hurrying over to her. ‘I thought you must have changed your mind and decided not to come after all.’
‘I…um…I’m sorry I’m late but the bus didn’t turn up so I had to find a taxi.’
‘I should have asked you if you wanted to come in the minibus,’ Cathy said apologetically. ‘I never gave it a thought. Sorry.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Lucy said quickly. She shot a glance at Max and felt herself colour when she realised that he was watching her. Her heart seemed to be beating at double its normal speed when she turned to Cathy again. ‘I’m here now and that’s the main thing.’
‘Of course it is.’ Cathy grinned as she led her over to the rest of their group and raised her glass aloft. ‘OK, folks, now it’s my turn to propose a toast. Here’s to a fun-filled night!’
Everyone cheered as they raised their glasses. Lucy joined in but she was so conscious of Max that it was hard to act naturally. She shot another glance in his direction and was relieved to see that he was talking to a glamorous older woman and no longer looking at her. She made her way to the far side of the group, wondering how soon she could leave without it causing comment. Being around Max was the last thing she needed at the present time.
Someone put some music on and people started to dance. When Cathy urged everyone to join in, Lucy went willingly. With a bit of luck she’d be able to slip away while they were occupied. Max was dancing with the other woman now, laughing as he guided her around the floor in a stately waltz. They passed Lucy and she blushed when he caught her staring and winked at her.
The first track ended and another one began. It was a popular tune and more people came onto the floor. Lucy doubted if anyone would notice her leaving in all the crush so started to edge towards the door, only to stop when Adam Sanders came over and asked her to dance. There was no way she could refuse without it appearing rude, so she followed him back to the floor. Max was dancing with Cathy now. Lucy could hear her laughing at something he was saying but looked the other way in case he thought she was watching him again. One dance led to a second before she was able to excuse herself, ignoring Adam’s obvious disappointment. She sighed as she made her way towards the exit. Adam was very nice but she just wasn’t interested in him.
‘Will you dance with me, Lucy?’
All of a sudden Max appeared at her side and she stopped dead. ‘Dance with you,’ she repeated numbly.
‘Uhuh.’ He placed his hand on his heart and grinned at her. ‘I promise on my honour that I’ll do my very best not to trample all over your toes.’
Lucy’s mouth quirked before she could stop it. ‘That doesn’t sound very encouraging. Just how bad a dancer are you?’
‘You’ll have to judge for yourself.’ He smiled as he held out his hand. ‘Come on, Lucy. Take pity on me. If you won’t dance with me then I’ll be left standing here like a wallflower!’
‘I don’t think so. I imagine you could find yourself another partner easily enough.’
‘Maybe. But it’s you I want to dance with, so won’t you say yes? Please?’
Lucy felt her stomach muscles clench when she saw the expression in his eyes. She knew she should refuse but it was impossible when he looked at her so beseechingly. She placed her hand in his and let him lead her back to the floor. There was a fast number playing this time and everyone was having a wonderful time. Max laughed as he swung her round to face him.
‘I hope you’re ready for this.’
‘Bring it on,’ she assured him, and he chuckled.
‘Well, you only have yourself to blame.’
He spun her round, twisting her this way and that until she was breathless. Despite what he had said, he was an excellent dancer and she glowered at him when the music came to an end.
‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the way you dance!’
‘That’s all down to you.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’ve raised my game to keep up with my partner.’
‘I don’t think so!’ she scoffed. ‘If you ask me, insinuating that you’re a rubbish dancer is just a line. I expect a lot of women fall for it, don’t they, Max?’
‘If it helped to persuade you to dance with me, that’s all that matters,’ he said quietly.
Lucy felt heat flash through her veins when he pulled her into his arms. The music had changed to a slow tune now and when the lights were dimmed, she closed her eyes, giving herself up to the seductive rhythm. She could feel his lips nuzzling her hair and sighed, enjoying the feeling of closeness and the fact that it made her feel special to be held like this, desired.
‘I could dance with you like this for ever, Lucy.’
Lucy frowned when she heard the grating note in his voice. Bearing in mind what he had said about not wanting a long-term relationship, it seemed very strange. Opening her eyes, she tipped back her head and looked at him. ‘I thought you avoided commitment?’
‘I do. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t have feelings.’
He drew her to him so that she could feel his arousal pressing against her. Lucy swallowed when she felt her nipples immediately peak in response. She was wearing a black silk dress that night and she knew that Max could tell she was aroused too.
He drew her even closer, his fingers splaying across the base of her spine as they swayed together in time to the music. Lucy could feel the tension growing with each second that passed and shivered. It was obvious that Max wanted her and it made her wonder why he’d been so keen to call a halt when he had. Surely it would have made more sense if he’d tried to persuade her to have an affair with him?
She was still trying to puzzle it out when the music stopped and the lights came up. She stepped out of his arms, feeling light-headed and giddy as the thoughts whizzed around her head. Leaving aside Max’s motives, what would she have said if he had tried to talk her into having an affair? It was easy to claim that she would have refused but was that really true? Although she knew that Max was the last person she should get involved with, there was no point pretending that she didn’t want him. But was it purely lust she felt, or something more? She wished she knew because maybe then she would know what to do about it.
Max could barely think thanks to the flood of emotions that filled his mind as well as his body. He had never felt this strongly about any woman and the thought scared him half to death. He knew that he needed to get a grip on himself but it was proving harder than he’d expected to do that.
‘Come on, you two, get a move on. The buffet’s being served and all the food will be gone if we don’t get there pronto.’
Max jumped when Cathy tapped him on the shoulder. He summoned a smile, but it was hard to disguise how worried he felt. ‘I’m not hungry, thanks. I think I’ll pass.’
‘All the more for the rest of us,’ Cathy quipped. ‘What about you, Lucy?’
‘I’ll get something in a minute, thanks.’
Lucy smiled at the other woman but Max could tell the effort it cost her and his heart seemed to scrunch up inside him. Lucy was obviously finding it as difficult as he was to deal with this situation, and that was even more worrying. He turned to her as Cathy moved away to badger someone else.
‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine, thank you.’
When he heard the wobble in her voice, Max was hard pressed not to haul her back into his arms and to hell with the consequences, only he knew that he couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair to her or to himself to let this situation develop any further. Lucy deserved so much more than he could ever give her. She deserved a man who could give her children, and he wasn’t that man. He couldn’t bear to think that one day she could come to hate him, couldn’t stand the thought that his shortcomings as a man would come back to haunt him once again.
The pain he felt was so sharp, so intense, that he could barely stand it. He knew that he had to leave before he ended up making a fool of himself. When Amanda came over to speak to them, he quietly excused himself. Most people were queuing up for the buffet and nobody noticed him leaving, so he was able to make his escape without it causing a fuss.
He sighed as he left the hospital and headed over to his car. So much for hoping the party would take his mind off Lucy! All it had done was to make him see how impossible the situation was. The sooner he left Dalverston the better. Lucy could get on with her life and he could get on with his.
Lucy had the following two days off and spent them catching up with any jobs that needed doing. Although her flat was tiny, she spent a long time making sure everywhere was clean and tidy. She knew that she was keeping busy for the sake of it but it was the only way she could cope with what had happened between her and Max.
The fact that he had left the party without saying goodbye to her had hurt. There had seemed to be a real connection between them that night, yet he had walked away without a word. She couldn’t help feeling let down even though she knew it was foolish. Max didn’t do commitment and she didn’t want him to, so why did she feel so upset?
By the time she went into work on Christmas Eve, Lucy felt more confused than ever. It didn’t help that the unit was almost deserted when she arrived. With no new admissions that day, most of the staff had been sent home early. Even the wards were eerily quiet as the majority of patients had been discharged.
‘It’s like the Marie Celeste in here,’ she observed when she went into the office for the handover.
‘Don’t knock it!’ Tina Marshall, one of their part-time staff who was working that night, admonished her. ‘I, for one, will be perfectly happy if it stays like this. I’ve got three children who are bouncing off the walls with excitement, waiting for Father Christmas to arrive. I doubt if I’ll get any sleep when I get home in the morning, so the quieter it is tonight, the happier I’ll be.’
‘Thank heavens my lot are past that stage,’ Amanda declared. She quickly updated them about the remaining patients in the wards and then stood up. ‘That’s it, then. Diane’s gone to the canteen for her break, but she should be back soon. Oh, and the staff choir will be doing their rounds at some point, singing Christmas carols. You’ll never guess who’s playing Father Christmas this year.’
‘Why? Who is it?’ Lucy demanded, but Amanda just grinned.
‘Wait and see!’
No amount of pleading would make her tell them so in the end they gave up. Lucy went to the desk after Amanda had left. There was a stack of notes belonging to the patients who had been discharged that day that needed filing so she took them into the office and set to work. It didn’t take her very long to finish the job and she was just wondering what she should do next when she heard voices in the corridor.
She hurried to the door and gasped when she saw a group of people gathered around the desk. They were dressed in an assortment of costumes ranging from elves and fairies to sheep. Father Christmas cut a fine figure in his flowing red robes, although she had no idea who was beneath the bushy white beard until he spoke.
‘Ho, ho, ho. A merry Christmas to you, young lady,’ Max said in an exaggeratedly deep voice that made her want to giggle.
‘And a merry Christmas to you, too, Santa,’ she replied, almost choking on her laughter.
‘We’ve come to spread a little Christmas cheer,’ he informed her. He handed her a song sheet. ‘Everyone’s welcome to join in, elves, fairies, staff and patients.’
‘Thank you.’
Lucy smiled as she took the sheet from him and he smiled back. Just for a second his eyes held hers and she felt her heart leap when she saw the awareness they held. She was immediately transported back to when he had held her in his arms at the Christmas party. There had been a connection between them that night, just as there was a connection between them now. Maybe it wasn’t what either of them wanted but there was no point trying to deny it.
It was all very unsettling. When the choir began to sing the first carol, Lucy found it hard to concentrate. However, the familiar strains of ‘Away in a Manger’ soon had her singing along. They went into the wards where Max handed out fluffy white teddy bears to all the babies. He had a word with each of the mums and she couldn’t help noticing how they all responded to him. It wasn’t just the fact that Max was a very attractive man but that he obviously cared about people, and they responded to that. Once again she found herself thinking how at odds his attitude was to the way he lived his life.
They left the wards and made their way to the special care baby unit where Max placed a teddy on every incubator. When the choir began to sing ‘Silent Night’, Lucy wasn’t the only one with tears in her eyes. There was something incredibly moving about hearing the beautiful old carol sung in a place where the most vulnerable babies were cared for.
‘That was really lovely,’ she said sincerely as they left SCBU.
‘It always leaves a lump in my throat,’ Max admitted as he followed her along the corridor.
‘Me too. So where are you off to next?’ she asked, pausing when they came to the stairs.
‘There’s just Women’s Surgical left to do and that’s it. I can hang up my robe and beard. I must say that I won’t be sorry to part with the latter. It’s incredibly hot and itchy!’
Lucy laughed when he began to scratch his chin. ‘Good job you won’t have to wear it for very much longer. Do you usually play Father Christmas?’
‘No, this is a first for me. Sam Kearney was supposed to be doing it this year but he got held up in Resus. He phoned me to ask if I’d take over for him and I couldn’t think of a way to refuse.’
‘Well, I’m sure everyone appreciated your efforts.’
‘Let’s hope so.’ He gave her a quick smile then went to catch up with the rest of the party.
Lucy went back to the office, wishing that she could have thought of something to keep him there a bit longer. She sighed because it was dangerous to think like that. She needed to stay away from Max instead of concocting reasons to be with him. She found the laundry list and went to put away the fresh supplies that had been delivered. Tina helped her and they had just finished when the phone rang.
‘I’ll get it,’ Lucy said, hurrying to the desk. ‘Maternity. Lucy Harris speaking.’
It was Helen Roberts’s husband, phoning to tell them that Helen had gone into labour. He sounded frantic with worry and Lucy understood why when he explained that he had phoned for an ambulance only to be told that it could be some time before one reached them. Apparently, there’d been a serious accident on the motor-way and every available ambulance had been deployed there. With his leg still in a cast, Martin was unable to drive Helen to the hospital himself.
‘Is there anyone else who could drive her here?’ Lucy asked.
‘No, nobody. Mum and Dad are away on a cruise and they won’t be back for another week,’ Martin told her anxiously.
‘How about a neighbour, perhaps?’
‘Jack Walsh is our nearest neighbour—he lives about ten miles away,’ Martin informed her. ‘I know it doesn’t sound very far, but we’ve had a lot of snow in the past few days and the roads are virtually impassable in places. It could take an hour or more for Jack to get here.’
‘That’s probably as long as it would take an ambulance to get to you,’ Lucy said, trying not to show how concerned she felt. She knew how dangerous it would be for Helen to give birth without the necessary precautions being taken. Poor glycaemic control during labour and birth could affect the baby, causing respiratory distress and hypoglycaemia amongst other things. Helen would need either insulin injections or intravenous dextrose plus insulin to keep her stable. She realised that she needed to discuss the situation with someone else.
‘I need to speak to one of the doctors about this, Martin, so I’m going to have to phone you back.’
‘You won’t be long, will you? We really need help here asap.’
‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ she assured him. She hung up then contacted the switchboard and asked them to page Diane, quickly explaining what had happened as soon as the registrar phoned her back.
‘I don’t know what to suggest,’ Diane admitted worriedly. ‘Obviously, the situation is extremely urgent but without an ambulance to ferry Helen here, I don’t know what we can do. I’ll give Max a call and see what he says.’
Lucy hung up, checking her watch to see how much time had elapsed. Although the conversation had taken only a few minutes, every second counted. When the phone rang, she snatched up the receiver. ‘What did Max say?’
There was a tiny pause before Max’s voice came down the line. ‘Diane just told me what’s happened. I’ve spoken to Ambulance Control and they’re trying to organise an ambulance, but it could take some time to get one out to the farm.’
‘What about the neighbouring authorities?’ she suggested, trying to still the thunderous beating of her heart, but hearing his voice so unexpectedly had thrown her off balance. ‘Can they help?’
‘Apparently they’ve already deployed any spare ambulances to the RTA. Ambulance Control will have to try further afield, possibly Lancaster or Penrith.’
‘But they’re miles away from here!’
‘I know. I’m not happy about it either, but it’s the best they can do in the circumstances. In the meantime, I’m going to drive up to the farm myself. I was on my way home when Diane phoned me but it won’t take me long to get back to the unit and collect what I need.’
He paused and Lucy realised that she was holding her breath as she waited for him to continue. ‘The thing is that I need someone to go with me. I’ve had a word with Carol Jackson, the nursing manager, and she’s agreed to find cover. A couple of the community midwives are on standby and I’m sure one of them will come in if it’s necessary. So will you come with me, Lucy? Please.’