Joanna Neil - The Secret Doctor

He reached for her arm and gave her a cautionary squeeze. ‘Even so…you take care, Lacey. You’re a gentle soul, and you’ve been through the mill lately. You deserve better.’ His breathing became increasingly ragged, and Lacey saw that the heart monitor showed a rising, thundering rhythm.

‘Perhaps you shouldn’t talk any more,’ she told him, getting to her feet. ‘I’m going to give you an injection of something to slow your heart rate down, and then I’ll go and organise the tests. The consultant will come along and see you once we have the results.’

‘Okay.’ Rob closed his eyes momentarily, clearly worn out by sharing those revelations with her.

Lacey went to prepare the injection, and once she had administered it she waited a while to gauge its effect. When Rob’s heart and blood pressure rate began to drop, she felt able to leave him in the care of the nurse.

‘I’ll go and order an echocardiograph,’ she told Emma. ‘I’ve a feeling we might need to implant a device to regulate his heartbeat, so I’ll ask the consultant to come and take a look at him.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘It’s probably too late to bring him here now, but first thing in the morning would be good.’

Emma nodded. ‘I’ll take care of him in the meantime. Any changes and I’ll let you know.’

‘Thanks, Emma.’

Lacey wrote up a form for the technician and made arrangements for Rob to undergo the testing of his heart activity. Only when all those wheels were in motion did she stop and give some thought to what she had learned about her new neighbour.

No wonder Rob had his reservations about Jake. Rob had no time for the ‘idle rich’, as he called them, but Lacey’s curiosity had been piqued.

Was Jake just out for a good time, taking life as he found it, and living it to the hilt?

And why did it bother her so much to think that a man with such charisma might be just an empty shell?

LACEY stretched, trying to ease away the stiffness in her shoulders. Now that her first shift at the hospital had come to an end and she parked her car in the garage, she was left with mixed feelings about the experience. It had been an eventful day, overall, and perhaps not quite what she had expected.

Meeting so many new colleagues had been a good thing. She had even managed to overcome the difficulties of working for a medical service that was different from anything she had known back home…But coming across one of her dearest friends lying ill in a hospital bed had been a huge shock.

That was the worst part of the day, the one that left her troubled and out of sorts, so that by now the muscles in her neck were knotted with tension.

She slid out of the car and went towards the front of the house. Darkness had fallen some time ago, and in the distance she could see that Jake’s house was ablaze with light—it was coming from the windows, the open doors, and even the patio areas were bathed in gold. Soft music floated on the air, a lilting Caribbean rhythm, and it sounded as though the music was live, coming from an authentic steel band. She heard the occasional burst of laughter—obviously his party was in full swing.

She didn’t stop to listen for long, though. More than anything, she needed to unwind, and perhaps the best way to do that would be to soak in a scented bath for a while, and let the warm water soothe her aching body.

She went upstairs, ran the water into the tub and added a silky essence that produced a satisfying blanket of foam.

When she came out of the bathroom some half an hour later, she felt much more refreshed. She had put on soft cotton shorts and teamed them with a loose, button-through shirt that skimmed her hips and floated somewhere around mid-thigh. It wasn’t exactly nightwear, but the material was soft and comfortable and it felt good next to her skin.

The music was still drifting on the night air, and she wandered restlessly about the kitchen. What was going on at Jake’s house—what were his friends like? Was there some woman there who was particularly close to him? She cut that thought off at the root. She didn’t care what Jake was up to…not really…It was just that her restless mind was busy mulling things over.

The night was still warm, and even though she was tired, she knew she wouldn’t sleep. Instead, she poured herself a long glass of iced juice and wandered out to the dock area at the front of the house. It always calmed her to lean on the rail and look down at the water.

A few minutes later, she was disturbed by a soft footfall, the faintest rasp of leather on paving, and a shadow loomed beside her. ‘You look sad,’ Jake murmured, coming to join her at the rail.

‘Oh!’ Lacey jumped. Where had he come from? He had appeared like a phantom out of nowhere. The iced clinked in her glass and she spilled some of the contents over the deck rail. She stared at him open-mouthed. ‘That’s the second time you’ve done that to me,’ she said crossly. ‘You have to stop sneaking up on me that way. One of these days you could give me a heart attack.’

‘Nah—you’re way too young for that,’ he said, giving her an apologetic but altogether insincere smile. ‘I didn’t mean to startle you, though. As to sneaking…I’m pleading not guilty. I saw you out on the dock and decided to pay you a visit. I walked along the path in full view of anyone who cared to look, but you were so deep in thought you obviously didn’t notice me.’ He studied her reaction. ‘Perhaps next time I’ll hum a few lines of, “Hey-ho, here I come again”.’

She tried to glower at him, but his resolute cheerfulness had the better of her, and she grudgingly gave in, her face relaxing a fraction. ‘A warning would be great,’ she agreed, ‘but you really don’t have to sing. I’m not sure I’m ready for that.’

He chuckled. ‘It sounds as though you’re not in the best of moods.’ Sobering, he asked, ‘So how did your day go? Was it tough? We all know the emergency room can be hell on earth at times…and that’s not only as far as the patients are concerned.’

‘That’s true,’ she acknowledged, ‘but it wasn’t like that for me today. Everyone was doing their best to make me feel at home, and that helped to make it a really good experience. It’s just that I discovered what had happened to Rob—the reason why he didn’t come home. He was admitted to hospital earlier today.’

Jake frowned, leaning against the rail beside her. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?’

She told him the story, adding, ‘I spoke to the consultant briefly, and he said that he’ll come and have a look at him tomorrow and review all the tests. Because Rob has had several instances of collapse, he’s thinking of implanting a monitoring device in his chest. It’s very new technology—wireless, so that the consultant knows what’s going on with his heart at any time and can use the information downloaded to his computer system to diagnose what exactly is causing the problem. If the patient starts to show dangerous symptoms the monitoring device will alert him and allow him to start or change treatment accordingly.’

Jake gave her a thoughtful look. ‘It seems that everything possible is being done for him. Doesn’t that make you feel any better?’

‘I suppose it should.’ Her mouth turned down at the corners. ‘It’s just that I’m not used to seeing Rob helpless like that. He’s always been an outdoors kind of man, for ever on the move, wanting to keep busy and get the most out of life.’

Jake draped an arm lightly around her shoulders in a gesture of sympathy. ‘I’m sure he’s in good hands. They have an excellent treatment record at Bay View, and the consultant will do everything that’s necessary to turn his condition around.’