Sheltered by Her Top-Notch Boss Page 9

  ‘It’s so much better,’ Angela said, sounding exhausted. ‘It’s such a relief not to feel that pressure and that awful pain.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ Ellie was thankful that everything had gone without complication. Angela wasn’t out of the woods yet, though. The infection that had caused the build-up of fluid was still active, and the antibiotics needed time to work. In Grace Holt’s case, the infection had proved overwhelming, and she had died of a sudden heart attack.

  Ellie left the woman in the care of a nurse and walked back to the main desk to check her list of patients.

  ‘I think you deserve a break,’ James said, getting into step alongside her. ‘You haven’t stopped since first thing this morning. Let’s go and get some lunch.’

  ‘Okay. That sounds like a good idea.’ Perhaps she ought not to spend time with him, but it was hard for her to put up any resistance. Whenever she was near him she found herself wanting to prolong that contact.

  They went to the restaurant, where they filled their trays with a selection of food from the chilled cabinets.

  ‘It’s warm today,’ James said. ‘Shall we go and sit outside?’

  ‘Perfect.’ She chose a bench table close by a spreading old beech tree. Its trunk was wide and its branches were thick and long, and sunlight filtered through the leaves. There were tables dotted around at intervals on the grass, but they were all deserted, and she guessed this was because it was well past the usual time for lunch.

  James smiled at her as he started on his chicken salad. ‘You did well back there. How do you feel?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ She’d been holding her breath for so long, it seemed, and now that she could breathe freely again she was still cautious, anxious in case anything went wrong.

  ‘You did everything right,’ he said. ‘Just as you did last time. Relax.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll try.’ She tasted the grated cheese on her plate and washed it down with a chilled fruit juice.

  The sun was warm on her bare arms, and gradually, as they talked, her spirits began to lift.

  ‘What’s happening with your neighbour?’ James asked. ‘Didn’t you tell me she’s had her baby?’

  ‘That’s right. Lewis did a Caesarean a couple of days ago. She had a little girl.’ She smiled. ‘She’s a beautiful little thing, all soft, downy skin and curly brown hair. They’ll be discharging Lily from hospital later today, provided her blood pressure is stable. I think Lewis plans to keep her there most of the day, just to be certain she’s all right. Anyway, I said I would look after Jayden while her husband goes to fetch them from the hospital. I think they’re planning on stopping by her sister’s house to show her the baby.’

  ‘Aren’t the grandparents around to look after Jayden?’

  ‘Not today, unfortunately. His grandfather has gone down with some kind of stomach bug and they’re steering clear so as not to infect anybody.’

  ‘That’s bad luck.’ He looked at her curiously. ‘You don’t seem to mind looking after him.’

  ‘No, I don’t, although it can be a bit tiring, because four-year-olds don’t have an off button and they just never seem to stop.’ She chuckled. ‘He’s very easy to entertain, though.’ She mused on that for a while. ‘I think we might do some baking this evening. He likes doing that, and I expect Lily and her husband will enjoy eating the cakes afterwards.’

  ‘I’m sure they will.’ His dark gaze wandered over her. ‘Have you ever thought about having a family of your own?’

  She pondered on that for a while. ‘Yes, I have.’ She returned his glance fleetingly. Until now, she’d never met a man she would want as the father of her children, but James was different from anyone she’d ever met. He was extra-special, and she could definitely see him in that role. A small ripple of awareness ran through her, and she had to pull herself together and answer his question properly as he was looking at her expectantly.

  ‘As far as my mother is concerned, I don’t have a great example of parenting to work from but that just makes me want to make up for it with my own family. I definitely want to have children at some point.’

  Her gaze met his once more. ‘What about you? I expect your father hopes you’ll have a son one day to continue the line.’ Her mouth curved. ‘How do you feel about that?’

  He gave a soft laugh. ‘Oh, yes, there is that. But putting my father’s wishes to one side, I’d like a family of my own one day.’

  He pushed his plate away and started on his dessert, a cream-topped strawberry trifle. His expression became serious. ‘Have you thought any more about visiting your mother? From the way you reacted to my father in the beginning, I sense there’s a lot of pent-up emotion stemming from your teenage years. Perhaps it would do you both the world of good to talk things through.’

  She shook her head. ‘Perhaps, some time in the future, I might seek her out. The way I feel at the moment, though, is that she chose to leave and for any reconciliation to be meaningful she should be the one to make the first move.’ A small tremor of unease ran through her. Was she being fair to her mother in thinking this way? Hadn’t her mother had problems to overcome, too?

  He nodded. ‘I suppose I can see the logic behind that.’

  They talked for a while longer but then their pagers began to bleep simultaneously, a warning of another emergency patient coming in.

  ‘Hey-ho,’ James said. ‘Off we go again.’

  Ellie looked after her patients through the course of the day, and just before her shift was due to end she went to check on Angela. The drainage tube and bag were filling up, showing signs that the infection was still raging, but she wasn’t as breathless as she had been earlier, and though her heart rate and blood pressure were still giving cause for concern, her condition was relatively stable for now.

  Ellie went home and picked up Jayden from her neighbour’s house, but she didn’t stop to chat for long because Lewis had said he was going to drop by later on and she needed to get organised. She wasn’t expecting Lily to be home for a few hours yet.

  ‘So what do you think of your new sister?’ she asked Jayden when they were home.

  He wriggled his shoulders. ‘She’s all right, I suppose. She doesn’t do anything, though, except sleep and yawn, and sometimes she cries.’

  Ellie nodded. ‘Babies do quite a lot of that,’ she said. ‘It’s their way of letting us know they need something.’

  She changed out of her work clothes into jeans and a top, and after they had eaten she showed him the cookery book and let him choose what they were going to make.

  ‘Cupcakes,’ he said, his eyes growing round as he looked at the pictures. ‘Those with the pink stuff on top.’

  ‘Hmm. Pink for a girl. That seems about right.’

  Just over an hour later she set the cakes out on a tiered cake stand and they inspected the finished results. ‘They look pretty good, don’t they?’

  Jayden nodded. ‘Can I have one now?’

  ‘Of course you can. I think you’ve earned it after all that work.’

  The doorbell rang and she went to greet Lewis. Jayden came with her to see who was there, and looked disappointed for a second or two when he realised it wasn’t his mother. He held onto Ellie’s jeans and she put an arm around his shoulders, recognising that he was shy of strangers.

  ‘Lewis,’ she said, ‘I wasn’t sure if you would remember. It’s good to see you.’

  ‘And you.’ He gently touched her arm and while she appreciated the tender gesture of affection she felt a momentary quiver of unease. Could James have been right when he’d said Lewis wanted more than friendship from her? Surely not?

  ‘I wouldn’t forget,’ he said. ‘Sophie invited my wife to some sort of women’s fashion evening, so I told her I’d come to see you and drop off that list of names you wanted for the TV series.’

>   ‘Oh, you have it with you? That’s great,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’ She shook off her worries about him. Lewis had never given her any reason for concern.

  He smiled at Jayden. ‘Hello, young man. I don’t think we’ve met before, have we?’

  Jayden shook his head. ‘I’m Jayden,’ he said. ‘Who are you?’

  Lewis chuckled. ‘I’m a friend of Ellie’s,’ he said. ‘I’ve come to talk over a few things with her.’

  ‘Okay.’

  They went into the living room, and Ellie settled Jayden down with some paper and crayons. Once he was busy drawing, Lewis suggested that they sit down and talk about the experts on his list.

  ‘I’ve made a few notes about each one and where they might fit in with your kind of programme,’ he said. ‘For instance, there’s a doctor who knows all about scans and how to interpret the images, and another who could talk about gestational diabetes.’

  ‘That sounds good.’ They went through the list and talked about how the programmes might take form.

  ‘Thanks for this, Lewis,’ she said after a while. ‘It’ll be a great help when we come to set up the series.’

  ‘You’re welcome. I’ll do whatever I can to help out.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I should go. Jessica will be home soon from her fashion thing—’

  ‘All right.’ They stood up and Jayden came over to them, thrusting a piece of paper into Ellie’s hand.

  ‘It’s a car,’ he said. ‘My car—for when I’m big. It goes really fast.’

  She looked down at the drawing. It was a blue streak of a car with a rainbow trail of fumes coming from twin exhaust pipes at the back. She smiled at him. ‘It’s beautiful, Jayden. Is that you in the driver’s seat?’

  He nodded, beaming with satisfaction as he walked with Ellie and Lewis to the front door. Ellie glanced at Lewis. ‘Between us we’ve managed to come up with some great ideas for programmes. I can’t wait to tell my producer about them.’

  ‘He’ll love what you have planned.’

  She opened the door, and as they were saying goodbye they were both distracted by the sound of a car door slamming at the end of the drive.

  Someone shouted, ‘Ellie Saunders? This way, Ellie. Look over here.’

  Startled, Ellie looked to where the sound was coming from and saw a man pointing a camera in her direction. All three of them were caught in the flash that followed. The camera whirred a couple more times before she realised what was happening and she quickly ushered Jayden back inside the house. She was completely taken aback by what had just gone on.

  ‘Who is he? What’s going on?’

  Lewis shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Ellie, but he looks to me as though he might be someone from the press. Perhaps it’s something to do with the TV programme. You’re getting to be quite famous after all, a household name.’

  ‘Oh, heavens. What am I to do?’

  ‘Leave it to me. I’ll see to it that he goes away,’ Lewis told her, his mouth making a grim line. ‘You go back inside the house.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘It’ll be fine. Goodbye, Ellie.’ He strode down the path and the man must have read the dark intent in his features because he dived into his car and revved the engine before screeching away down the road.

  Ellie watched Lewis drive away and then shut the door, leading Jayden back to the kitchen.

  He said happily, ‘That man took a picture of me.’

  ‘He did, sweetheart. He took a picture of all of us.’ She settled him down at the kitchen table and he started eagerly on another picture.

  She was jittery, completely unsettled by the intrusion, and for a while she paced the floor. Would he come back? He had what he wanted, after all.

  She felt dreadful. The episode had upset her, and she couldn’t quite fathom the reason. Perhaps it was fear of the unknown. What was the man intending to do with the photos? What did he want with her?

  The doorbell rang for the second time that evening and she jumped nervously. Had he decided to return after all to cause more trouble?

  Jayden looked at her. ‘Is it the man?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She stood up and made an effort to stay calm for Jayden’s sake. ‘How’s your colouring coming along?’

  He lifted his book to show her. ‘It’s a boat on the water, see? And there’s a frog sitting on a leaf.’

  She nodded and said absently, ‘It’s called a lily pad. And you’ve coloured the picture really well.’

  The doorbell rang again, sending a small shudder through her. She had to face up to it and go to see who was there. There was more than one kind of demon to be faced, she was discovering.

  She was ultra-cautious when she opened the door, and felt a surge of relief when she saw it was James standing there.

  He gave her a searching look. ‘You’re white as a sheet,’ he said. ‘What’s happened? Are you ill?’

  ‘I’m fi—’ she began, and he cut in sharply.

  ‘And don’t tell me you’re fine because I can see quite plainly that you’re not.’

  ‘I’ve had a strange visitor,’ she said, opening the door wider and waving James inside. Seeing him standing there had been like the sun breaking through clouds on a dull day. Somehow, with James around, she immediately felt safe, as though nothing else mattered.

  ‘It was just a photographer,’ she explained. ‘He called my name and started clicking away with his camera. I’ve no idea what he was doing here, but he took several photos of us.’

  ‘Us?’ James echoed.

  ‘Lewis was here.’ She led the way to the kitchen and went to the sink to fill the kettle. It gave her something to do and the mundane task was comforting somehow.

  James frowned. ‘Perhaps it was a good thing he was here with you. It looks as though you’ve had a bit of a shock.’

  She nodded. ‘I can’t think of any reason for him to turn up here. Lewis thinks it could be something to do with the TV series. He says I’m newsworthy now that I’m getting to be a household name.’

  ‘Could be, I suppose.’

  James glanced at Ellie as she busied herself making tea, and she sensed he knew she was staying on the move so as not to give way to her anxieties.

  ‘I came to see if you needed some help with the young lad,’ he said, ‘but it looks as though you have everything under control.’

  She nodded. ‘We’ve had a busy time, haven’t we, Jayden? I can’t remember how many cakes we made.’

  ‘Lots,’ he said, then crinkled his brow. ‘This many.’ He held up his hands, his fingers spread wide. ‘But I had two of them.’ He bent two fingers downwards.

  ‘I think we should offer some to James, don’t you?’

  Jayden frowned, looking first at the cake stand and then at James. ‘Yeah, okay,’ he said after a while. He watched anxiously as James picked out a pink-topped cupcake covered in edible silver balls, but looked relieved when he seemed satisfied with just one.

  Ellie set about making a pot of tea, and when she turned round she saw that James and Jayden were busy picking out the cakes that had the best decoration.

  ‘That can’t be one of yours,’ James said, shaking his head. ‘It’s way too special. You’re only...what is it, four years old? You couldn’t have done that. Could you?’

  ‘I did! I did it!’

  ‘What, all by yourself?’ James put on an incredulous face and Jayden jumped up and down in his seat with delight.

  ‘Yeah, all by myself.’

  ‘Wow!’ James laughed and turned to Ellie. ‘It sounds as though he’s had a great time.’

  ‘I guess he did.’ It was heart-warming to see the way James and the little boy interacted. James clearly had a knack for dealing with young children.

  She picked up Jayden’s discar
ded colouring book and pencils and dropped them into his schoolbag. ‘There are some toys in the box in the sitting room,’ she told the boy. ‘Why don’t you go and choose something to play with?’

  Jayden slid down from his seat at the table and went off to find the box, and Ellie watched as he settled down in a far corner with some construction blocks. Because of the L-shaped design of the house she could still keep an eye on him from the kitchen if she walked over to the worktop.

  She poured tea from the pot into two ceramic mugs and passed one to James. ‘It was thoughtful of you to come and see me,’ she said.

  He swallowed some of the hot liquid. ‘Well, I know you’ve had a difficult day, in more ways than one, so I wondered if you might be glad of a helping hand. Like you said, four-year-olds can be wonderful, but exhausting sometimes.’

  He placed the mug down on the table and moved towards her. ‘You’ve a bit more colour in your cheeks now, at any rate.’ He slid his arms around her waist. ‘I hope that’s down to me and not Lewis.’

  Much as she liked having his arms around her, her brows drew together in a frown at his comment. ‘I thought we’d discussed all that.’

  ‘Did we? I’m not so sure we’re both singing from the same song sheet somehow. Lewis is a married man, but he was here, after all. It seems he can’t keep away.’

  ‘He was here because he brought me some information for my TV series.’ She felt exasperated. ‘I don’t know why I’m bothering to explain things to you.’

  ‘Maybe it’s because you and I both know he could have given you any information you needed at work.’

  ‘But there’s absolutely no reason why he shouldn’t bring it here.’

  ‘No—except he seems to find it hard to keep away. He needs to be protected from himself.’

  She scowled at him. ‘I give up. You’re impossible. I’m pretty sure Lewis can sort out his own marital problems without any help from you.’ She tried to wriggle out of his grasp but he only wound his arms more closely about her.

  ‘But, like I said before, you don’t need Lewis hanging around—you and I could be wonderful together if you would give us half a chance.’ His hands made gentle forays along the length of her spine. ‘You’re like one of those gorgeous cupcakes—perfect in every way, deliciously tempting, and definitely more than I can resist.’