Sheltered by Her Top-Notch Boss Page 12

  ‘Was it?’

  ‘I think it must have been.’

  Imagining that she could be with him was just a dream, beautiful while it had lasted, but now she had to try and get back to reality. She didn’t want a brief fling with him. She wanted the one thing he couldn’t give her. Commitment.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘HAVE YOU THOUGHT any more about talking to the press and giving your side of the story?’ James asked as they drove home late that afternoon. ‘You could point out where they had their facts wrong, and explain about the things that happened in your childhood to make you get into trouble.’

  ‘I can’t do that,’ she said. ‘It means I’d have to talk about my parents—about my mother leaving us. I won’t do it. I won’t say bad things about my family to the world at large. They’ll either have to take me as I am and trust in me to be the kind of person they want to believe in, or follow what the papers say about me. There will always be people who think the worst.’

  Wasn’t that what happened whenever James saw her with Lewis? His problem was that he had to learn to trust, and until that happened, their relationship was doomed.

  ‘Anyway, I’d far sooner find out who started these tales and ask why they did it.’ Her brows drew together. ‘Do you think Mel could have been behind them? I can’t think of anyone else who might bear a grudge against me.’

  He gave it some thought. ‘It’s possible, I suppose. She was certainly angry and upset, and she wasn’t satisfied with the result of our initial meeting. But she’d most likely deny it if you asked her and the papers won’t reveal their sources.’

  ‘That’s true.’ She sighed, frustrated by the lack of any possible action. It was upsetting to think that a woman she had known so well throughout her teenage years could have done something so vindictive.

  In a while they pulled up outside the manor house and James parked the car on the drive.

  ‘I’ll take you home in a while,’ he said, ‘but I’m anxious to see if my father’s all right. That last phone call from him earlier this afternoon made me suspect something was wrong. He didn’t sound like his usual self.’

  ‘You’re bound to be worried about him.’ Ellie went with him into the house, marvelling once more at its understated grandeur. Solid oak beams pointed to its historic origins and the spaciousness of the layout added to the feeling of stateliness and old money.

  Lord Birchenall was in the drawing room, talking on the phone, and it was fairly clear that he was annoyed about something.

  ‘There’s no question about me harassing you over the land,’ he said sharply. ‘It was clearly written into the agreement I made with your stepfather a long time ago. The land was to revert to me after a period of ten years. All I’m doing is asking you to honour that agreement.’

  He cut the call a few minutes later, breathing heavily. Ellie could hear the wheezing in his chest, and noticed that his cheeks were drained of colour.

  ‘You promised you would leave me to deal with that,’ James gently admonished his father. ‘There’s no need for you to be getting yourself in a state about it. We’ll let the lawyers deal with the matter.’

  ‘You have enough to do, running the estate,’ Lord Birchenall protested.

  ‘That doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t be getting hot and bothered about these things when I can take the worry from you.’

  Ellie could see that it was all too much for James’s father. He looked feverish and his breathing was getting faster and more laboured. He put a hand to his chest and began to cough, all signs that his lungs were drowning in fluid as a result of his heart problems.

  She caught James’s glance. ‘I’ll go and get my medical bag,’ he said, suddenly on alert. ‘His GTN spray is in the bureau drawer.’

  She went to get the spray and gave it to his father, who had sunk down into a chair. He used the medication, which was supposed to help relieve the pain, and then she took his pulse. It was erratic, and that was worrying.

  ‘James won’t be able to run this place as well as do his job at the hospital,’ Lord Birchenall said, his voice rasping. ‘We need to sort things out...get some system in place...’

  Ellie loosened his collar and said softly, ‘I’m sure James will manage very well. Try to stay calm. We’re here to look after you. You should rest.’

  ‘He needs to marry and settle down. Sophie’s ideal for him, they’re well suited, and she’ll make him a good wife. He needs to ensure his future here.’

  Ellie’s heart contracted at his words. All this talk of James and Sophie played on her worst fears. Was his future all mapped out? Had the time he’d spent with her this weekend been a simple dalliance? But she didn’t have time to dwell on any of that because James’s father was gasping now, and she was desperate to calm him down.

  Lord Birchenall leaned forward, clutching his chest. The spray obviously hadn’t helped him.

  ‘You don’t need to worry about any of that right now,’ she said. ‘Just try to take things easy.’ They needed to get him on oxygen and give him some medication to reduce the amount of fluid on his lungs. ‘We’ll give you something for the pain. It won’t be long now.’

  But before they could do any of that, before James had returned with his medical kit, Lord Birchenall suddenly slumped and slid down in his chair, gradually losing consciousness.

  Ellie couldn’t find a pulse this time, and urgently called out to James for help. Then, after using her mobile to call for an ambulance, she used all her strength to carefully tug his father down on to the floor so that she could give him CPR.

  When James hurried into the room, she was on her knees by his father’s side, doing chest compressions to try to force the blood around his body. ‘His heart stopped,’ she said. ‘Do you have a defibrillator?’

  ‘Yes, right here.’ His voice was taut with concern because he knew as well as she did that once the heart had stopped pumping, blood couldn’t get around the body, and if that happened, the patient would die within a very short time.

  James hurriedly set up the defibrillator, attaching the pads to his father’s chest. All the time Ellie went on with the compressions.

  ‘It’s charged. Stay clear.’

  She stopped the CPR and moved back a little while the machine delivered a shock to the heart. To their dismay, nothing changed, and as the unit detected that it had been unsuccessful it began to charge again. A second shock, more powerful than the first, followed.

  This time a cardiac rhythm showed up on the monitor and James breathed a sigh of relief. He gave his father oxygen through a mask, while Ellie injected their patient with a painkiller and a diuretic that would help to reduce the fluid in his lungs.

  ‘The ambulance should be here any minute now,’ she told Lord Birchenall, and he nodded, dazed and uncertain about what had happened to him but beginning to recover a little.

  The ambulance arrived and the paramedics came to tend to him. ‘Are you coming with your father to the hospital?’ one of them asked James.

  ‘Yes. I’ll throw a few things into a bag for him. They’ll want to keep him in.’

  ‘Okay. You might want to go and do that while we get him on a stretcher and transfer him to the vehicle.’

  ‘I will.’ James turned to Ellie and lightly squeezed her arm. ‘Thank you for what you did. You saved his life.’

  ‘We did it together,’ she said, going with him to the stairs.

  ‘I’m sorry you walked into all this,’ he murmured, ‘and I wish I didn’t have to leave you this way. It wasn’t the way I wanted our two days together to end.’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Her mind was filled with doubts now about that time. She wanted him more than ever, but she couldn’t see any way that would happen. He wasn’t ready for any lasting relationship, unless he was planning to be with Sophie, as his fathe
r had suggested. ‘I just hope your father’s going to be all right.’

  He sighed. ‘So do I. Look, I hate to let you down—I’ll call for a taxi to take you home.’

  ‘No, I’ll see to that. You need to concentrate on your father,’ she told him. ‘Go and pack some essentials. The paramedics will be ready to go any minute.’

  He went upstairs and Ellie dialled the number for a taxi. She was sad for James that this had happened. He loved his father and his mind must be in turmoil.

  When he came back downstairs she quickly searched his face. Her heart went out to him and she laid a comforting hand on his arm, knowing how anxious he was. He reacted warmly, giving her a quick a hug.

  ‘Thanks again for all your help, Ellie,’ he said as they walked back to the drawing room. ‘It’s a worry. These episodes are becoming more and more frequent.’

  ‘I know, but let’s be thankful we were both here with him.’

  His hands lightly circled her arms. ‘You’re a treasure...in lots of ways.’ He gave a half-smile. ‘These last couple of days have been extra-special.’

  ‘Yes, they were.’ Her expression sobered as she saw the taxi draw up outside and the driver hooted his horn. ‘I had a lovely time. Thank you for helping me to get away from everything.’

  ‘Any time you need me, I’ll be there.’ He walked with her to the door and hesitated, obviously reluctant to see her go, but he said quietly, ‘I’ll come and see you tomorrow after work, just to make sure everything’s all right.’

  ‘Okay.’

  She climbed into the taxi and waved goodbye as the vehicle moved away swiftly. She tried not to think about what Lord Birchenall had said, but his words echoed inside her head. He wanted his son to marry the daughter of one of his dearest friends. Was that what James wanted, too?

  Her house was mercifully free of journalists lying in wait for her when she arrived home, and she went inside feeling relieved about that and prepared to get back into her normal routine.

  She sat down at the kitchen table. When she’d switched on her mobile phone for the first time in two days, a number of text messages had started to come in. One was from her father, offering support, and she answered that, pleased that he had contacted her. Another was from her TV producer, asking her to get in touch.

  I can drop by your place on Thursday evening, he wrote. I’ll be in the area then. Will you let me know if that’s okay?

  Her stomach knotted briefly, but she knew this was something she would have to face up to eventually. Bracing herself, she answered him, setting up the meeting for Thursday.

  Still worried by what had happened with the press, Ellie double-checked that she had locked all her doors and windows before she went to bed. If someone disliked her enough to set the newshounds on her, what else might they do?

  But nothing happened during the night, and she woke up and got ready for work as usual in the morning. She was on edge the whole time. What kind of reception would she get at the hospital?

  ‘Ellie, I feel really bad about what happened,’ Lewis said later that morning when he came and found her in Accident and Emergency. ‘How have you been?’

  ‘I’ve been all right.’ She studied his worried expression. ‘What about you and Jessica? It must have been very distressing for you.’

  He nodded, taking her to one side where they could talk more privately. Even so, she was aware of James watching them from a distance as he came out of the resuscitation room. His gaze was dark and contemplative, and she wished she knew what he was thinking. He’d been tied up with an emergency all morning and she hadn’t had a chance to speak to him yet.

  ‘I suppose the only good thing is that it made Jessica and I talk about things more than we have been doing of late,’ Lewis said. ‘We’ve not been getting on all that well these last few months, and I suppose this brought things to a head. We haven’t resolved our problems yet, but at least we’re going some way towards it.’

  ‘I hope you manage to work things out.’

  ‘So do I. Thanks.’

  He went back to his own unit after a few minutes, and Ellie started to read through the notes on her next patient, frowning a little as she saw the test results.

  James came over to her. ‘Are you getting on all right?’ he asked. ‘Are people treating you well?’

  She nodded and gave him a quick smile. ‘They’ve been marvellous, really. Those who saw the papers are angry that they printed the stories. They say it was all sensationalism. But, of course, that’s what seems to sell papers these days.’

  ‘I’m glad you’re all right. If you do have any problems, let me know.’

  ‘I will, but I think I can handle things now. I feel much stronger mentally.’ She had to be strong to face up to losing her TV career. It was something she’d built up over the years and she felt she was reaching out to a lot of people through the medium of television. It would be a wrench to have to let it go.

  She sent him a pensive glance, conscious that he had worries of his own. ‘How is your father? Is he holding up?’

  He hesitated. ‘He seems to be making a recovery of sorts. It’s difficult to predict exactly how he’ll do because, as you know, his heart was already failing, and this latest attack has only made things worse. They’ll be keeping him in the cardiac wing for a few days at least.’

  ‘I suppose that was to be expected. Does he need anything? Can I help in any way, with books or magazines, or anything? Noah has a collection of audio tapes about stately homes that might interest him.’

  ‘I’m sure he’d welcome those, if Noah doesn’t mind him borrowing them.’

  ‘It would be Noah’s way of trying to put things right, perhaps. At some point we have to let go of the past and move on.’

  ‘Thanks. It’s a great idea and it will help to take his mind off things. Sophie’s getting together some books for him, but I’m not sure he’s up to concentrating on the printed word just yet.’

  He glanced at her. ‘You know, he’s really grateful to you for stepping in and keeping his heart going for those vital minutes. He’s been asking about you, and he asked me to thank you for what you did.’

  ‘I appreciate that.’ She was trying not to read anything into his casual mention of Sophie, but an image of the two of them getting together persisted. ‘It’s good that he came through it all right. It was a nasty experience for him.’

  James smiled at her, and then straightened his shoulders, as though trying to shrug off a heavy burden. He glanced down at the file in her hands. ‘Do you have any worries with any of your patients? You looked as though you were troubled when you were looking through those notes.’

  She shook her head. ‘Not really, except it looks as though this lady’s symptoms are similar to my father’s. To be honest, it brought back memories I’d rather forget.’

  He frowned and she explained, ‘It was a bad time for us as a family when he started to become ill, and I didn’t really understand what was happening. We thought he had lost interest in his work. Now, though, when I see these symptoms in other people, I realise what my father was going through.’

  She turned the pages of the patient’s file. ‘This lady, for instance. She often feels faint and can’t summon up any energy. She’s confused sometimes, and any slight infection or viral illness makes her feel much worse. She came here today by ambulance in a state of collapse, so obviously things are pretty bad for her. Her heart rate is very high, she’s breathing rapidly, and she has a fever and joint pain.’

  ‘You think she has Addison’s disease?’

  ‘I do. I’ve run some tests, and I’m going to give her an intravenous injection of hydrocortisone. She’ll need an infusion of saline with dextrose, too. That should help to calm things down for the moment.’

  He went with her towards the treatment room. ‘Do you know
why your father carried on without telling anyone he was ill?’

  She shook her head. ‘I think he believed he was just a bit under the weather and tried to muddle through. He didn’t want to admit to any kind of weakness. It was only after he lost his job and the marriage broke down that the stress became too much for him. He went to the doctor and was treated for various complaints over time—none of them the correct diagnosis. Then, finally, his body couldn’t cope with the demand on his adrenal cortex any longer. That’s when he ended up in hospital and they found the real cause of his illness.’

  ‘He must have been in a bad way...mentally and physically.’

  ‘Yes, he was. But thankfully things are under control now, and he seems to be keeping fairly healthy. He just has to be careful if he gets an infection—then he has to take corticosteroids and perhaps antibiotics.’

  He draped an arm around her shoulders. ‘All I can say is that I’m sorry you had to go through that. If we’d known, we could have done something to help.’

  ‘Do you think your father would have kept him on? I have the feeling he wants things to run smoothly, and he’ll see it happen at any cost.’

  ‘That might have been true at one time, but I think he might have mellowed a bit since then.’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  She went into the treatment room to see her patient, and James said softly, ‘I’ll come and see you this evening after work, as I promised. Just in case the press decide to come back. I may be a little late because I’ll look in on my father first.’

  ‘Um, you might want to change your mind about that—my producer is coming to see me. I think I’m about to get the sack.’ She would have liked him to be with her this evening—just having him there would give her the confidence to face anything, but he would most likely stay away if he knew she wasn’t going to be alone.

  He pulled a face. ‘The tide will turn,’ he said. ‘Things can only get better.’

  She thought about that when she was at home, getting ready for Ben’s visit. She dressed in a pretty pintucked shirt and a pencil-line skirt, on the premise that if she started out looking her best, she would feel brighter about the way things might turn out.