Heart Surgeon, Prince...Husband!
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Kate Hardy
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CHAPTER ONE
‘LUCIANO BIANCHI, the new heart surgeon, is starting today,’ Sanjay, the head of the cardiac unit, told Kelly. ‘Can I ask you to look after him for me this morning—take him round the department, show him where the canteen is and introduce him to everyone? I’d do it myself, but I’ve got meetings with suits.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘All day.’
‘Oh, the joy of budgets,’ Kelly said, sympathising with her boss. ‘Of course I’ll show him around.’
‘Wonderful. Thank you.’ Sanjay patted her arm.
Rumours had already flown around the hospital. Luciano Bianchi wasn’t just a cardiothoracic surgeon; he was a prince. His father was the King of Bordimiglia, a small Mediterranean country on the border between Italy and France. Apparently he’d trained in London and worked for some years at the Royal Hampstead Free Hospital; now one of the surgeons here was retiring, Luc was moving to Muswell Hill Memorial Hospital.
Everyone had looked him up on the Internet, of course; it was hard to reconcile the idea of an upper-class playboy who didn’t take life too seriously with a man who’d spent years training to be a heart surgeon. So who was Luciano Bianchi—and would he be part of the team or would he be a royal pain in the backside?
From the photographs, he was definitely nice-looking enough to make all the women in the department sigh and speculate why he hadn’t been snapped up years ago. Tall, with dark hair and dark eyes, Luciano looked more like a model for a high-end fragrance ad than a surgeon. But he didn’t seem to date that much—or, at least, there weren’t loads of paparazzi pictures of him with a princess or the daughter of some wealthy industrialist on his arm, on their way to some high society party or movie premiere. It looked as if he put his job before his position in society, which boded well for life at the hospital.
Kelly wasn’t one for gossip, but one rumour that had caught her attention involved his work. He was allegedly going to set up a trial for a new surgical procedure to help patients suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy—a condition where the muscular wall of the heart thickened and made the heart stiff, making it harder to pump blood around the body.
It was too late for a trial to help Simon; but it wasn’t too late to help his younger brother Jake or Jake’s daughter Summer.
Kelly would never forgive herself for the fact that she hadn’t picked up on her late husband’s heart condition. How could a trained cardiologist have missed something that massive? Since then, she knew she’d become a workaholic—but she was determined that nobody’s symptoms would go unrecognised on her watch. She didn’t want other families to have to go through what her family had been through. And getting Jake and Summer onto the trial might help to blunt the edges of her guilt. If she explained the situation to Luciano Bianchi, then maybe she could persuade him to at least consider Jake and Summer as candidates for his trial.
She kept an eye on the reception area from the office where she was catching up with paperwork, and twenty minutes later Luciano Bianchi walked through the doors. She pushed her chair back and went out into the reception area to greet him. ‘Mr Bianchi?’
He turned to look at her. ‘Yes.’
Oh, help. Maybe she should have called him ‘Your Highness’. But he was here in his capacity as a surgeon, not as a prince, so she’d used the convention that surgeons were called ‘Mr’ rather than ‘Dr’. She summoned up her best smile. ‘I’m Kelly Phillips, one of the cardiologists,’ she introduced herself. ‘Sanjay is stuck in meetings all day, so he’s given me a reprieve from paperwork to show you round and introduce you to everyone. And, if you don’t have any other plans, to take you to the canteen for lunch.’
Luc was used to people judging him first as a prince and secondly as a doctor, but maybe at last his reputation at work was starting to take precedence, because Kelly Phillips was definitely treating him as a surgeon and a colleague. He really liked the fact that she’d called him ‘Mr Bianchi’ rather than ‘Prince Luciano’. And, OK, there was an unobtrusive bodyguard with him, because of who he was, but his security detail was discreet. Luc didn’t want to be treated any differently from the other staff on the team. He was here to save lives, just like they were. A doctor first and a prince second: and he thought he could serve his country far better with his medical skills than by doing the job he’d been born to do but his older sister would do so much better.
‘Thank you. That would be good,’ he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. ‘Nice to meet you, Kelly. I’m Luc.’
‘Nice to meet you, too, Luc. Welcome to the department.’
She shook his hand, and it felt as if he’d been galvanised. He really hadn’t expected to react so strongly to her, with his skin actually tingling at the contact with hers.
Then he shook himself.
Even if she wasn’t already involved with someone, Luc had no intention of letting his relationship with Kelly Phillips become anything other than professional. Until the situation with his father was resolved, it wouldn’t be fair to start dating anyone. He’d already learned the hard way that women who dated the prince didn’t want to date the doctor, and vice versa. The two sides of his life sat uneasily together, and all his relationships seemed to fall through the fault line.
‘Thanks for the warm welcome,’ he said.
‘It’s a Muswell Hill Memorial Hospital tradition. First stop, staff kitchen,’ she said. ‘Though I’m afraid it’s instant coffee and a kettle, here, rather than a posh coffee machine.’
Uh-oh. It sounded as if she was starting to see the prince rather than the surgeon. ‘Which makes it much easier to add cold water so you can drink the lot down in one,’ he said with a smile. ‘Between the operating theatre, seeing my patients and drowning in paperwork, I’ll take my caffeine any way I can get it. Instant’s fine.’
She looked relieved at the reminder that he was just like any other doctor. ‘And there’s a treat shelf. Patients and their families are always bringing in biscuits or cake for us.’
‘And then they wince and apologise for buying something so unhealthy, given that half of our patients have been given dietary advice to cut back on sugar and fat?’ Luc asked with a smile.
‘I suppose it’s like taking a big tin of chocolates to a gym at Christmas,’ she said with a grin. ‘Though we’re just as grateful for the goodies as the personal trainers are.’
Because sometimes, after a rough shift, when you’d tried everything and it still wasn’t enough to save your patient, cake and a team hug were the only things that could help stop you falling into a black hole. However much professional detachment you had, losing a patient was always grim. ‘Yes,’ he said softly.
‘I assume you’ve already been given your computer login?’ she asked. ‘If not, I’ll ask Mandy to chase it up for you. She’s officially Sanjay’s secretary, but she keeps an eye out for the rest of us. She knows everyone and everything, so she’s the fount of all knowledge, and we keep her in flowers because she keeps us all sane.’
‘I’ll remember that,’ he said. ‘Yes, thanks, I’ve got my login, my staff ID and my lanyard.’
‘Pick up your locker key from Mandy, and you’re good to go.’ She smiled at him again. And he was going to have to ignore the way his pulse rate kicked up a notch when she smiled.
The more he heard, the more he liked the sound of his new department. And all his new colleagues turned out to be as warm and friendly as Kelly, instantly accepting him as one of them rather than being slightly suspicious of Prince Luciano’s motives For working in a hospital rather than a palace.
‘I think we’re both due in clinic now,’ Kelly said when she’d finished introducing him to everyone, ‘but I’ll meet you back here in Reception at one for lunch. Patients permitting.’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Thank you for showing me round.’
That handshake had thrown her.
Ever since Simon’s death, Kelly had kept all her relationships strictly platonic, and she hadn’t so much as looked at another man; she barely joined in with conversations in the staff kitchen about the latest gorgeous movie star. It was partly because she wasn’t ready to move on; and partly because the whole idea of starting over again with someone, falling deeply in love with them and then risking losing them, was too much for her.
The sensible side of her knew that what had happened with Simon was rare—a life-threatening genetic condition that usually showed symptoms, but in his case it hadn’t. The chances of dating another man with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were small; the chances of dating another man with HCM who had absolutely no symptoms of chest pain, light-headedness or breathlessness were even smaller. So minuscule as to be absolutely unlikely.
But.
She could still remember the numbness and shock she’d felt when she’d taken that phone call, two years before. The way her life had imploded, as if in slow motion; she could see it happening but could do nothing to stop it. The sheer disbelief that her husband—the man who cycled to work every day, did a five-kilometre run every Sunday morning and loved playing ball with their nephews in the park—had collapsed and just died. They hadn’t even had the chance to say goodbye; and it was her big regret that they’d waited to start trying for a family. Simon was a brilliant uncle and he would’ve been a great dad. He’d just never had the chance.
For the last six months, Kelly had been fending off well-intentioned matchmaking by her family and friends, urging her to go out on a date and have fun, because Simon wouldn’t have wanted her to be on her own for the rest of her life; he would have wanted her to be loved. She knew that; just as, if she’d been the one to die, she would have wanted Simon to find someone to share his life with and love him as much as she had.
But she just wasn’t ready to move on. She couldn’t forgive herself for not picking up on his HCM. She was a cardiologist; she’d treated quite a few people with Simon’s condition and she knew all the symptoms. There must have been something she’d missed. Something she should have spotted. She’d let the love of her life down in the worst possible way. And she wasn’t going to let any of her patients down.
She blew out a breath. And it was ridiculous to let Luciano Bianchi throw her. Absolutely nothing could happen between them. OK, so he seemed to be dedicated to his career; but even though he didn’t have the lifestyle of a ruler-to-be, that was exactly what he was. The heir to the kingdom of Bordimiglia. No way would he be allowed to get involved with anyone who didn’t have a single drop of blue blood in her veins. He’d end up marrying a princess for dynastic reasons. His relationship with her was strictly business. And that little throb of awareness when his skin had touched hers—well, she was just going to ignore it.
She managed to focus on her patients for that morning’s clinic; and Luc’s clinic clearly ran on time as he was waiting for her in the reception area at one o’clock.
‘Hi. How was your first morning?’ she asked brightly.
‘Fine, thanks. We have a good team,’ he said with a smile.
A smile that shouldn’t have made her feel as if her heart had just done a backflip. She pulled herself back under control. Just.
‘How was your morning?’ he asked.
‘Good, thanks,’ she said. ‘It was mainly follow-up appointments today, and it’s always lovely to see your patients gaining in confidence, once they’ve had time to come to terms with their diagnosis and started to make the lifestyle changes that will help them.’
‘I know what you mean.’ He smiled. ‘We held a yearly party for the heart transplant and bypass patients at the Royal Hampstead Free. It was great to see them all dancing and making the most of the time they didn’t think they would get with their families.’
‘That’s such a nice idea,’ she said. ‘Maybe Sanjay will let us set up something like that here.’ She walked with him to the canteen. ‘It’s your first day, so this is my shout—and don’t argue, because it’s a departmental tradition.’
‘As long as I get to take the next new recruit under my wing and pay that forward,’ he said.
‘Deal.’ She grinned. ‘I think you’re going to fit right into the team, Luc.’
He nodded, looking hopeful.
‘The food is all pretty good here, and the coffee is decent,’ she added.
They’d just sat down to eat their sandwiches when Kelly’s phone pinged to signal an incoming text.
‘Sorry to be rude,’ she said, ‘but do you mind if I check my messages? It’s probably my sister Susie—she’s due her twenty-week antenatal scan today.’
‘And you should have been meeting her for lunch instead of babysitting me?’ Luc asked.
She smiled. ‘No, she’s being seen in a different hospital. Even if we’d arranged to meet halfway, I would only have had time to say hello and give her a hug before I had to rush back here for clinic.’
‘Then go ahead and read your message,’ he said. ‘You’re not being rude. If it was one of my sisters in that situation, I’d want to know how the scan went, too.’
‘It’s probably just a round robin telling everyone it’s fine, or she would have phoned instead of messaging me,’ Kelly said. But she checked her phone anyway, then grinned. ‘Yup. All’s well, and she and Nick decided not to find out whether it’s a boy or girl.’
‘Is it her first baby?’
‘Her third—she already has twin boys.’
‘Twins run in your family, then?’ he asked.
She shook her head. ‘On Nick’s side—her husband. Oscar and Jacob have just turned five, and I think she’s hoping for a girl this time so she gets to do ballet as well as football. Do you mind if I just send her a quick reply?’
‘Of course not.’
She tapped in Great news, love you. X—and then her phone pinged to signal another message from Susie. Kelly didn’t bother reading beyond the first line because she knew exactly what her sister had in mind.
‘Answer that as well, if you need to,’ he said.
‘It can wait.’ Kelly grimaced. ‘I love my sister dearly, but I swear since she’s been pregnant...’
‘Older sister bossing you about?’ he guessed.
‘Trying to.’ She sighed. ‘Actually, you might as well hear it from me, than from someone else in the department who means well. My husband died two years ago, at the age of thirty. He was cycling to work when he had a cardiac arrest. The paramedics couldn’t save him, and the coroner’s report said he had HCM. It was a complete shock because he’d had no symptoms whatsoever.’
‘But, as a cardiologist, you think you must’ve missed something?’ Luc guessed.
Kelly swallowed hard. ‘I’ve been over and over it in my head, trying to see what I missed, and he really didn’t have any symptoms. His dad died young from a heart attack, but his dad had a high-stress job, plus he smoked and drank too much; everyone assumed his heart attack was because of all that and they didn’t bother doing a post-mortem. I guess because of what happened to his dad, Simon was more aware of heart health than the average person, even before he met me. He didn’t smoke, he drank in moderation, he ate sensibly, he cycled to work and exercised regularly. He did everything right.’
Yet still he’d died. And how she missed him. Why, why, why hadn’t she joined the dots together and made him go for that all-important check-up that would’ve spotted his unusual heart rhythm? Why hadn’t she made the connection about his father? Why hadn’t she thought there might be more to his father’s heart attack than his lifestyle?
‘My sister, my mum and my friends have all decided that I’ve been on my own for long enough and they’re forever trying to fix me up with a suitable potential partner,’ she continued. ‘That’s why Susie’s asking me to go over to dinner tonight. She says it’s so she can show me the scan pictures, but I know she’ll also have invited someone that she thinks is perfect for me.’
‘And you’re not ready?’
‘I’m not ready,’ she confirmed. ‘I know they all mean well, but it drives me crazy and I can’t seem to get them to back off. I loved Simon and I know he wouldn’t have wanted me to be alone, but...’ She sighed. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to dump all that on you. What I was really going to ask was if the rumours are true about you running a trial for HCM patients, and if so whether you were looking for people to join the trial?’
‘Because you have a patient who might be suitable?’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Not my patient, but I do know two people. Simon’s younger brother Jake, and his daughter Summer—she’s four. After Simon’s PM, I nagged Jake to get tested just in case there was a faulty gene involved, and unfortunately I was right. Which also makes me think they inherited the condition from their dad—except obviously there aren’t any medical records to back that up.’
‘And Summer has inherited the gene too?’ Luc guessed.
‘Yes. With a family history that spans at least two generations—and I’m pretty sure if you went back there would be more—they’ll be good candidates. And you’ll get a spread of age and gender.’
Even though Kelly was clearly devastated by her husband’s loss, she was still thinking about his family and trying to help them, putting their needs before her own, Luc thought. He could certainly talk to their current medical practitioner and see if they would be suitable candidates for his trial.
But something else Kelly had said struck a chord with him. Maybe, just maybe, they could help each other out. He’d had a crazy scheme percolating in the back of his head for a while now, but he hadn’t found the right person to help him. Maybe Kelly was the one; she was in a similar kind of position, so she might just understand his problem.
He was normally a good judge of character and he liked what he’d seen of Kelly Phillips so far; her colleagues had spoken highly of her, too. So maybe it was time to take a risk—after he’d had the chance to check out her background and got to know her a little more, because he wasn’t reckless or stupid enough to ask her right at this very second. ‘If you can ask their family doctor to contact me, we’ll go through all the prelims and see if they fit the criteria,’ he said.
‘Thank you. I really appreciate that,’ she said.
‘It’s not a promise that it will definitely happen, but it’s a promise that I’ll do my best to help,’ he said.
‘That’s fair.’ She smiled at him. ‘So did you train at the Royal Hampstead Free?’
‘Yes, and I loved working with the team there. But then this opportunity came up, so I applied for the role,’ he said. ‘How about you?’
‘I trained here,’ she said, ‘and cardiology was my favourite rotation. I love the area, too, so I stayed. What made you become a cardiac surgeon?’ she asked, sounding curious. Then she grimaced. ‘Sorry. Ignore me; that was a bit rude and pushy. You really don’t have to answer.’
‘It goes with the territory. Given who my family is, most people expect me to be part of the family business rather than being a medic.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s what probably would have happened—but my best friend, Giacomo, died when we were fifteen.’ He winced slightly as he looked at her.
‘From a heart condition?’ she guessed.
He nodded. ‘I’m sorry if this opens any scars, but yes—the same one as your husband.’
‘HCM.’ Three little letters that had blown her world apart.
‘It wasn’t genetic, in Giacomo’s case. His family doctor thought the chest pains were just teenage anxiety because Giacomo was worrying about his exams.’
She blinked. ‘Chest pains in a teenager and the doctor didn’t send him for tests?’
‘No. Knowing what I do now, I wish he had. His condition would’ve shown up on the ECG, and then medication or an ICD might’ve saved him. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.’ He shrugged. ‘Giacomo was playing football at school with me at lunchtime when he collapsed and died. The teachers tried to give him CPR but they couldn’t get his heart started again.’
She reached across the table and squeezed his hand for a moment, conveying her sympathy. ‘I’m sorry. That must’ve been hard for you.’
‘It was. He was the brother I never had.’ And it had shocked him profoundly to come face to face with his own mortality at the age of fifteen. Giacomo had been the first person he’d ever known to die, and the fact it had happened in front of him had affected him deeply. Not wanting to feel that way again, he’d put up a slight emotional wall between himself and everyone he loved. ‘I’m reasonably close to both my sisters,’ he added, ‘but we don’t talk in quite the same way, with Eleonora being two years older than I am and Giulia being five years younger.’
‘So you wanted to save other families going through what your best friend’s family went through?’
Just what he suspected she was trying to do, too. He nodded. ‘Becoming a doctor pretty much helped me to come to terms with losing him. And I like my job—bringing people back from the brink and giving them a second chance to make the most of life.’
‘Me, too,’ she said.
When they’d finished lunch, they headed back to the cardiac ward together.
‘Thank you for lunch,’ Luc said.
‘Pleasure. I might see you later today—if not, see you tomorrow and have a good afternoon,’ Kelly said.
‘You, too,’ he replied with a smile.
And how bad was it that he was really looking forward to seeing her?
