Joanna Neil - His Summer Bride

‘Okay.’ He gave a soft, ragged sigh and moved to lay his forehead gently against hers. ‘But I can’t help thinking that you’d do better to throw caution to the wind. Life isn’t easy. It’s full of what-ifs and might-have-beens, and if you thought hard about all of them you might never experience the good side of things. I know you’ve been hurt, but sometimes you have to get back into the fray if you’re to have another chance of happiness. Sometimes you simply have to go with your instinct and trust in people.’

Slowly, he released her, and then stood with his hands to either side of him on the guard rail, so that she finally began to breathe a little easier.

He straightened. ‘I’ll walk you back to the courtyard.’ He gave a crooked smile. ‘You’ll be safe there.’

KATIE placed the consultant’s letter back in her tray and tried to steer her thoughts towards work. ‘Good news there, at least,’ she told Carla, the desk clerk, indicating the sheet of headed notepaper. ‘My young patient who was rushed to hospital from here a few weeks ago is back home and on the mend.’

‘The child with kidney problems? I remember his mother was so upset.’ Carla gave a relieved smile. ‘It’s good to know he’s pulled through all right. I’ve been worrying about him… about the poor boy with the head injury, too.’

Katie nodded. ‘Me, too. Last I heard, they were thinking about moving him from the intensive care unit. I was hoping I might find time to ring and check up on him some time today, but the time has simply rushed by.’ She frowned, straightening up and easing the slight ache in her back. Earlier today she had rung her father to find out how he was doing, but things weren’t good, and that was playing on her mind. His nurse, Steve, was worried about his condition.

She dragged her mind back to work. ‘Do I have any more patients to see this afternoon? There’s nothing on my list and the waiting room’s empty.’

Carla glanced at her screen once more. ‘No, but there was a message from Dr Bellini. He said Matthew Goren was coming in to hospital as an outpatient today. He thought you might like to be in on the consultation with him. His appointment’s scheduled for four o’clock—that gives you a quarter of an hour to get over there.’

‘Right… thanks, Carla. I’d better run.’

She hurried over to the emergency department. She wasn’t at all sure how she was going to cope with seeing Nick again—his scorching kisses had seared a memory into her brain that would last for all time. It made her feel hot and bothered even now, just thinking about it. And she had also been mulling over his words of advice… ‘Sometimes you have to go with your instinct and trust in people.’ Could she do that? Was she ready to put the past behind her and accept that she might be able to find happiness in his arms?

She went along the corridor in search of his room.

‘Katie, I’m glad you could make it.’ Nick’s voice was deep and warm, smooth like honey drizzled over caramelised pears. He gave her a quick smile and invited her into his office. ‘I thought you might like to be in on this one. The lab results are back, and this is the last appointment of the day so there will be time to break the news to the boy and his mother without having to rush things.’

‘Break the news—it’s what we thought, then?’

He nodded. ‘Gaucher’s disease. Fortunately, even though it’s rare, there are treatments for it, so it isn’t as bad as it might have been some years ago. And Matt has the mildest form of the disease, so that’s another point in his favour.’

He accessed the boy’s notes on his computer, and they both took time to sift through the various test results and read the letter from the consultant. When the clerk paged them a few minutes later, they were both ready to receive mother and son with smiles of greeting.

‘I know you’re anxious to hear the results of the tests,’ Nick told them after he had made some general enquiries about the boy’s state of health. ‘As you know, I was concerned because Matt’s spleen appeared to be enlarged and because he’s been having pain in his joints. We discovered there was also some slight enlargement of the liver.’

Mrs Goren nodded. ‘You took some blood for testing, and he had an MRI scan.’

‘That’s right.’ Nick brought up the film of the scan on his computer monitor and turned to Katie. ‘Do you want to explain the results?’ he asked.

Katie nodded, and looked at the boy. He was a thin child, slightly underweight, with cropped brown hair that gave him an elfin look. He was looking at her now with large eyes and a faintly worried expression.

‘What we discovered,’ she said, ‘was that you have a fatty substance in your liver and spleen. It shouldn’t be there, and so we needed to find out what was going on inside you that would have caused it.’

Matt nodded, but looked puzzled and, picking up on that Katie said quickly, ‘I want you to feel free to ask me questions at any time, Matt. If there’s anything you don’t understand, or anything you’d like to say, just go ahead.’

He frowned. ‘Have you found out what caused it? Is it something I’ve done? The boys at school tease me.’

Katie gave him a sympathetic smile. ‘No, it’s nothing that you’ve done, and I’m sorry that you’re being teased. Perhaps when you explain to the boys what’s wrong, they’ll understand a bit better and stop making fun of you.’

She glanced at his mother. ‘Matt has a condition called Gaucher’s disease. Basically, it means that he was born without an enzyme that breaks down a substance called glucocerebroside.’ She turned to Matt. ‘Because you don’t have this enzyme in your body, the fatty substance isn’t broken down and has to find somewhere to go. Unfortunately, when it finds a home in places like your liver, your spleen or even your bones, for example, it stops those parts of you from working properly. That’s why you’ve been having pain in your thigh, and it’s the reason for you being tired all the while.’

‘You’re saying he was born with it?’ His mother was frowning. ‘Does that mean it’s a hereditary disease?’

Mrs Goren’s gaze flew in alarm from Katie to Nick, and Nick answered quietly, ‘That’s right. You and your husband may not suffer from the disease, but it’s possible that either one or both of you may be a carrier. It can go back through generations, although there may not be anyone in the family that you know of directly who has the disease.’

All at once Mrs Goren looked close to tears and Katie hurried on to say, ‘The good news is that we do have treatment for it.’ She smiled at Matt. ‘There’s something called enzyme replacement therapy, which helps to break down this fatty substance and should soon start to improve things for you.’

Matt’s brow cleared, and his mother dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and did her best to pull herself together. She looked at Nick. ‘Can we start him on this treatment straight away?’

He responded cautiously. ‘I can arrange an appointment for him at the hospital. The answer isn’t as simple as taking a tablet, I’m afraid, but what happens is that Matt will be given an infusion—it takes about an hour to administer, and the treatment is given once a fortnight. He’ll need to stay with the treatment for life, until such time as science comes up with a better answer. It’s a rare disease. Of course, he’ll be carefully monitored on a regular basis, so that we can check how he’s responding.’

Katie was silent, watching as mother and son tried to absorb what he had just told them. Nick waited, too, before gently asking if they had any questions for him. He was unfailingly patient and kind, and her respect for him grew. In fact, every time she saw him at work, she marvelled at his caring, conscientious manner.