CAROL MARINELLI - 200 Harley Street - Surgeon in a Tux

‘Cinnamon schnapps,’ Leo said. ‘Lethal stuff.’

‘How was Switzerland?’ Ethan asked, putting in the third.

‘Far more romantic than intended, it would seem.’ Leo sighed. ‘I’ll ring her and apologise …’

‘Don’t,’ Lizzie said, and one blue eye peeped open and for the first time she properly met his gaze. ‘False hope.’

‘Okay.’

‘Just leave it,’ Lizzie said. ‘I think she’s got the message.’

‘You think?’ Leo checked.

‘I’m quite sure she’s worked out what a top bastard you are.’

She smiled sweetly as she said it.

‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Lizzie snipped the stich and then made herself say it. ‘Keep arguments away from work.’

‘Leo never argues,’ Ethan said. ‘He ends things long before arguments start.’

‘Well, I don’t want to walk into that again.’ Lizzie knew she had to address it and as she did so he opened the other eye and stared back at Lizzie as she spoke on. ‘I’m not just talking about the scene in Reception, I’m talking about what I walked into before—I could have been a patient.’

‘But you’re not.’

‘Even so.’ Lizzie put down the scissors as Ethan, tongue in cheek as his brother got a scolding, applied a small dressing. ‘It’s not very professional.’

‘I’m extremely professional,’ Leo smarted.

‘I can only go by what I’ve seen.’ Lizzie retorted. ‘Am I being hired to merely smile or am I to be the head nurse of the clinic?’

‘Head nurse,’ Leo said through gritted teeth.

‘Then let there be no repetitions.’ She gave him a smile and then smiled at Ethan. ‘I’ll go and show myself around.’

She walked out, again closing the door behind her, and let out a long slow breath as, on the other side, Leo did the same.

‘You didn’t tell me I was hiring an old-school matron,’ Leo grumbled, picking up the mirror he usually held up for patients and examining the damage to his cheek as he mimicked Lizzie’s voice. ‘“Let there be no repetitions”—I feel like I’m back at school.’

‘God help Lizzie then,’ Ethan said, but then the smile faded from his face as he watched Leo’s gaze briefly drift to the door Lizzie had just walked out of. Ethan watched as, simply on instinct, Leo dragged in the last dregs of the feminine scent lingering in the air and, not for the first time, Ethan wondered if, by seeing she got this job, he had been doing Lizzie a huge disservice.

Yes, the money might be great but if Leo set his cap on her …

Ethan let out a worried breath. He knew better than most the true cost of a broken heart.

LIZZIE DID SHOW herself around and chatted to a couple of the staff, who were very friendly.

‘Welcome to the Hunter Clinic.’ Charlotte, one of the nurses introduced herself. ‘I’m just heading over to Kate’s or I’d show you around.’

‘Kate’s?’ Lizzie checked—she’d heard that name mentioned a few times in conversation.

‘Princess Catherine’s Hospital,’ Charlotte explained and, as she spoke on, Lizzie was fast finding out how little she knew about her new role. ‘Day cases are normally done here but anything other than a twilight sedation is done either at Kate’s or the Lighthouse Hospital.’

‘Do you do a lot at the Lighthouse?’ Lizzie asked, because that was a children’s hospital.

‘Loads.’ Charlotte smiled. ‘Rafael De Luca, one of our paediatric surgeons, has a theatre list there this morning and I’m—’

‘Charlotte!’

She was interrupted by rather gruff but very good-looking man who popped his head out of a treatment room like a handsome bear peering out of a cave, holding his gloved hands up in front of him and asking in a rich Scottish accent if he might have a hand.

‘I’m just on my way out …’

‘I can help.’ Lizzie smiled, glad of the chance to be useful.

‘Lizzie’s the new head nurse,’ Charlotte explained as she dashed off.

‘Hi Lizzie, I’m Iain MacKenzie. I’m removing sutures,’ he explained, ‘but Jessica, the patient, is very distressed. I need a hand to keep her still. She doesn’t want any sedation.’

Jessica was very distressed; she was on an examination table and curled up.

‘Can we do it tomorrow?’ she begged.

‘The sooner they come out the less it will scar,’ Iain explained. ‘It’s not going to hurt, there will just be a little bit of tugging. This is Lizzie …’

‘Hi, Jessica.’ Lizzie smiled. She was about to ask what had happened but Iain shot her a warning look and Lizzie decided otherwise. Instead, she made the woman as comfortable as she could and put a small sterile towel over her face so that she couldn’t see the blade Iain was using to remove the numerous tiny sutures from her neck and behind her ear.

‘You’re doing grand …’ Iain said every now and then, but he was a silent type and was concentrating hard so it was Lizzie who did most of the reassuring as the tiny threads were removed.

‘How does it look?’ Jessica kept asking.

Iain was concentrating and it was Lizzie who spoke for him.

‘It’s very swollen and tender at the moment,’ Lizzie said, ‘but the wounds are …’ She hesitated. How could she describe them as amazing? Yet she had never seen anything so intricately repaired. ‘It’s a marvellous job.’

She looked up and Iain gave a grim smile.

He was a man of few words but his work clearly spoke for itself. As he held up the mirror and Jessica carefully examined the wounds, Lizzie was relieved for the patient that she could see an improvement.

‘It looks so much better but—’

‘Just let it settle and I’ll see you in a couple of days and we’ll start with ointments and massage, but for now I just want the wound left. How are you?’

‘I don’t know,’ Jessica admitted. ‘The thing is …’ She glanced over at Lizzie and when it was clear that she’d prefer privacy Lizzie made her excuses and left.

‘How is she?’ Leo was walking past as Lizzie came out.

‘Sorry?’

He nodded in the direction of his office and Lizzie followed. The corridor was perhaps not the best place to speak. ‘How is Jessica?’ Leo clarified. ‘I was going to suture her when she came in but I knew it was going to take hours and I had a function to attend …’ He watched as Lizzie’s lips tightened a fraction. ‘You’ve been spending far too long listening to my brother about me.’ Leo gave a wry smile. ‘Anyway, Iain is brilliant for that type of injury. I’m just interested to hear how Jessica is.’

‘Her sutures are out,’ Lizzie said. ‘She’s just speaking with Iain. I think she wanted me to leave.’

‘You don’t recognise her, do you?’

‘Should I?’ Lizzie said, and then her eyes widened as she recalled the news last week and realised she’d just been looking after the wife of a celebrity who’d been taken in for questioning after a heated argument with his wife.

‘From her injuries I thought she must have been in a car accident.’ Lizzie closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I thought that working here would be …’ She halted, realising Leo might not be the best person to reveal her thoughts to, but he was already one step ahead.

‘You thought that it was all fake boobs and antiaging?’ Leo finished for her. ‘Domestic violence isn’t just for the working classes.’

‘I know.’ Lizzie’s voice was rattled, cross, but more with herself because, yes, Leo was right, people assumed that if you were rich and beautiful of course those sorts of things didn’t happen and so, when they did, it was somehow more shocking.

‘You’ll know it for certain after a couple of months here,’ Leo said. ‘Right, would you mind stepping outside and then walking in again?’ He saw her confusion. ‘I’d like to start again.’