The Magic of Christmas
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Sarah Morgan
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CHAPTER ONE
‘YOU’RE going to fall in love with a strong, handsome man, dear. And he’s going to propose to you on Christmas Day.’
‘I hate to disappoint you, but all the men I meet are either sick or injured and there’s no way I’m marrying any of them.’ Lara applied the last of the Steristrips to the woman’s leg and glanced at her patient with laughter in her eyes. ‘Anyway, the last thing I need right now is love.’
‘Everyone needs love.’
‘You sound exactly like my mother,’ Lara murmured, checking the wound one last time. ‘And I’m not disagreeing, I’m just saying that this is a bad time. I’ve resigned from my job and I’m going travelling in January. I’m visiting my brother. He’s been gone for six months and I miss him horribly.’
‘Yes, Australia is a long way.’
‘How do you know that he’s living in Australia?’ Startled, Lara looked up from the wound and her patient gave a placid smile.
‘I’m a psychic, dear. Seeing the future is what I do. I was on my way to do a Christmas party when I slipped. The pavements are very icy today.’ She drew her beaded scarf around her shoulders and studied Lara closely. ‘Your aura is red—the colour of strength and passion.’
‘Well, I have no objection to passion or to meeting a strong handsome man.’ Trying to work out how the woman could possibly know that her brother was living in Australia, Lara reached for a dressing. ‘I could do with a bit of excitement in my life. But no man, however gorgeous, is going to stop me going to Australia.’
‘Not stop, no. But you’ll be cutting your trip short. You won’t want to be without him.’
‘Thea, you have to stop this!’ Lara stared at her patient with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. ‘From the moment the paramedics brought you in, you’ve been predicting everyone’s future. You’ve already shocked Fran on Reception by telling her that she’s going to be pregnant by Christmas.’
‘Why is that shocking?’
‘Because she doesn’t even have a boyfriend! You have to admit that single to pregnant in less than a month is a bit of a leap even for the broad-minded.’ She carefully placed the dressing over the wound and secured it with a light compression bandage. ‘There. That’s done. You can go home.’
And so could she. It was her half-day and there was somewhere she needed to be.
‘I’m not going anywhere until I’ve read your palm. I want to repay your kindness to me. It’s the least I can do. I might be able to give you some clarity.’ The woman reached out and took Lara’s hand in a firm grip. ‘Let me see…’
Amused, Lara gave her hand a little tug. ‘My hand is going to tell you that I’m a single, overworked nurse who doesn’t have time for romance.’
‘Love often arrives when you’re not looking for it,’ Thea murmured, holding Lara’s palm in a firm grip. ‘Oh, my dear girl, you’re so lonely, aren’t you? You work so hard that you don’t have a social life, you’re tired all the time and deep down you dream of having a big, noisy family of your own. You can’t understand why everyone seems to be in a couple, apart from you. You’re asking yourself if you’re too fussy.’
Lara sat for a moment, trying not to be spooked by the accuracy of the woman’s assessment. She gave herself a mental shake. ‘I have bags under my eyes so it’s obvious that I’m tired. I’m a nurse in the busiest emergency department in London, so it’s obvious that I’m going to be working too hard to have a social life. It’s not rocket science. I don’t know how you found out about the ticket to Australia, but plenty of people go there so it was just a lucky guess.’
It had to have been a lucky guess.
Ignoring Lara’s brisk interjection, Thea continued to scrutinise her palm. ‘You’re dreading Christmas because this is the first year that the whole of your family won’t be together and you’re feeling sad about that.’
Lara felt her heart twist and she stood up suddenly and snatched her hand away. ‘Go back to your GP in five days to have the dressing taken off.’
Thea gave a gentle smile. ‘You’re wondering how I know so much about you, aren’t you? You’re telling yourself that I’m just a silly old lady talking mumbo-jumbo.’
‘Thea—’
‘What can I possibly know? But, you see, I do know. I can read the future. Wonderful things are going to happen to you this Christmas. A wonderful man. Four children.’
‘Four children?’Lara shook her head and started to laugh. ‘Well, that’s going to be relaxing.’
‘You have plenty to laugh about.’ Thea stood up and adjusted her coat. ‘Your future is with a strong, handsome man who is sexier than sin. Plenty of women have wanted him but you’re the one he’s going to spend his life with. Women are going to envy you.’
Lara washed her hands, wondering why she found the woman’s words so disturbing when it was all nonsense. ‘And where am I going to meet this gorgeous specimen of manhood?’ Keeping her tone light, she tugged paper towels out of the dispenser with more force than was necessary. ‘Will he be lying under my Christmas tree?’
‘Sometimes you have to look for love and sometimes it just finds you.’ Thea glanced around her with interest. ‘He’s already here, waiting for you around the corner.’
The door to the treatment room flew open and one of the emergency department sisters stuck her head into the room. ‘Lara? I need you in Resus right now. Are you nearly finished here or shall I find someone to take over?’
Resus? So much for her half-day.
Lara dropped the towel in the bin. ‘I’ve finished, Jane.’ She turned to Thea. ‘Do you need to call someone to give you a lift home?’
Thea reached calmly for her bag. ‘I booked a taxi when I woke up this morning. I knew I was going to fall so I thought I might as well arrange my transport home from hospital.’
Thoroughly unsettled, Lara just about managed a smile. ‘Right. Well…’ She cleared her throat. ‘You need to come back in five days to have that wound checked, or go to your GP. Don’t forget to keep that leg up.’
‘And don’t you forget what I said.’ Thea walked slowly towards the door, limping slightly. ‘Mr Right is waiting for you around the corner, in this very department. He’s the path to your happiness. I’ve seen it all in your palm.’
‘I’ll remember,’ Lara waited for Thea to leave the room and then followed Jane into the corridor.
‘What on earth was that about?’ Jane tucked her pen back into her pocket as they hurried towards Resus. ‘What’s supposed to be in your palm? Tell me it’s not MRSA. There shouldn’t be anything in your palm if you’re washing your hands properly.’
‘Apparently my palm holds the answers to my future. My patient was a psychic. She told Jack, the paramedic, that his wife is going to have a boy, even though the ultrasound has already confirmed it’s a girl. She told Fran that she’s going to be pregnant by Christmas, and apparently Mr Right, who just happens to be strong and handsome, is waiting for me around the corner.’ Lara glanced at her watch. ‘Unfortunately for my empty stomach, my future didn’t seem to include lunch and at the moment I’d swap a lifetime with Mr Right-around-the-corner for a decent meal.’
‘You’re going to meet Mr Right?’ Jane’s face brightened and Lara threw her an incredulous look.
‘Oh, yes, of course I am. After all, the emergency department is such a perfect setting for romance, don’t you think? I’ve always had a thing for violent drunks.’
Jane shrugged. ‘You can joke, but what is life without hope?’
‘I think it’s called reality. Oh, and apparently I’m going to have four children.’
‘Four?’
‘I know.’ Lara smiled and shook her head. ‘It’s enough to make a girl faint, isn’t it? The thought alone is enough to have me booking a spa day.’
Another ED sister hurried up to Jane, in search of the keys to the drug cupboard, and Jane unpinned them from her uniform, still talking to Lara. ‘Why are you so sceptical? Given that you’re off to Australia, this would be a very bad time for you to meet a man.’ She handed the keys to her colleague. ‘So it’s inevitable that you’re going to meet one. That’s the way life works.’
‘You’re a jaded cynic. And it doesn’t matter if I do meet a man because it usually takes me less than one date to spot all the reasons why we’d be totally miserable together.’
They walked quickly down the corridor together, weaving through patients who were making their way around the hospital.
‘You’re far too picky.’ Jane glanced at her. ‘What was wrong with that registrar from Paeds? I liked him.’
‘Too earnest. After a hard day working in the ED, I don’t want an exhausting date.’
‘So how about the physio with glasses? He adored you and he was really fit.’
‘He wanted me to meet his mother.’
‘That’s a good thing!’
‘Not after one date.’ Lara suppressed a yawn. ‘And he had a really wet mouth. I can’t have a long-term relationship with someone with a wet mouth.’
‘Lara.’Jane’s tone was exasperated. ‘You’ll never meet anyone if you don’t lower your standards.’
‘But that’s just it,’ Lara said softly, pausing for a moment. ‘When I eventually get married, I want it to be because I’m really in love, not because I’m desperate. My parents have just celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary and they’re still crazy about each other. That’s what I want. And I’m not going to get that if I settle for someone who irritates me.’
‘But you don’t give a man a chance! If you only date someone once or twice, how can you be sure that they’re not “the one”?’
‘Because if they’re driving me crackers after twenty minutes then it’s a fair assumption that we’re not going to make twenty years,’ Lara said dryly. ‘The truth is I’d rather be happily single than unhappily married. Anyway, enough of my loveless life. What’s happening in Resus?’
‘Young woman with chest pains and shortness of breath. And, if Mr Right is waiting round the corner, I don’t think it’s a match made in heaven because he certainly isn’t strong or handsome. Last time I looked he was twenty-two stone, covered in tattoos and completely stoned. I’ve already called Security.’
‘You see what I mean? I always attract the good ones. It’s the reason I’m single.’ Lara pushed open the doors of Resus and stopped dead, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes settled on the doctor on the other side of the room.
Christian Blake.
He was standing by the trolley, his head angled slightly as he listened to the patient talk. His hair was glossy dark, his eyes a deep blue and his body strong and powerful. He wore the same regulation scrub suit that everyone wore in the ED, but on him the usually unflattering garment looked as though it had been designed specifically to display his superior masculine attributes.
Lara allowed herself the luxury of a brief glance at his athletic physique and then she looked away.
He was the senior consultant. A colleague.
And he was also—
‘Why does he have to be married?’ Jane muttered in an undertone, and Lara gave an exaggerated sigh of regret.
‘Because the world is a cruel, hard place,’ she muttered back. ‘And, anyway, it doesn’t make any difference in my case, because men like him always trample over me as they rush to embrace the tall, blonde stick with the perfect hair who just happens to be standing behind me. And, if by some strange chance he did happen to notice me, it would take me less than a minute to start finding his faults because that’s what I do.’ With a fatalistic shrug she let the door swing shut behind her and walked into the room.
A strong, handsome man who is sexier than sin.
For some reason, the psychic’s words played on her mind and Lara’s heart performed a series of strange rhythms. Well, they certainly didn’t come any sexier than Christian. Ever since he’d taken up his post as senior consultant in the ED two months earlier, all the women in the hospital had been hoping and dreaming.
Except her.
She was about to embark on the trip of a lifetime.
Even if Christian hadn’t been married, she wouldn’t have been interested. But that didn’t stop her admiring him.
‘If you’re looking for perfection, I think you’ve just found it,’ Jane murmured, and Lara frowned at her as she slid past her into the room.
‘He’s married. If I want pain, I’ll just go ahead and remove my heart with a blunt scalpel and have done with it.’ She walked briskly across the resuscitation room. ‘Good afternoon, Dr Blake.’
He looked up, his gaze cool and assessing. ‘Lara, this is Ellen Bates.’ He spoke with characteristic brevity, delivering the necessary facts and nothing more. ‘She’s thirty-two years of age and complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath.’
He never showed the slightest flicker of emotion, Lara mused as she smiled at the patient and reached for a blood-pressure cuff. He gave nothing away. He’d been working in the emergency department for two months and during that time he’d shown no inclination to socialise with the staff or reveal intimate facts about himself. On one occasion his daughter had phoned the department, and that had been how they’d discovered that he was married with children. Apart from that one incident, nothing. He worked. He went home—no doubt, to his beautiful wife. Because Lara had absolutely no doubt that a man this impossibly handsome would have an equally impossibly beautiful wife.
The patient’s eyes were fixed on Christian’s face. ‘I was at the office Christmas lunch and then all of a sudden I started to feel terrible. Typical. The first time for ages I actually get to eat lunch and I’m ill. Usually I’m too busy working to bother.’
‘Has anything like this ever happened before?’
‘I do get palpitations occasionally,’ Ellen murmured, her face screwed up as she rubbed the flat of her hand against her chest. ‘But I’ve always assumed they’re caused by the amount of coffee and diet cola I consume. I’m a lawyer. I spend whole days in boring meetings and caffeine is the only thing that keeps me conscious.’
Lara quickly attached her to the machine and checked her observations. Seeing that Ellen’s pulse was two hundred, she glanced at Christian and he nodded to indicate that he’d seen the reading.
‘I want to get a line in and take some bloods.’
Knowing that they needed to check the patient’s blood oxygen level, Lara swiftly attached the necessary probe to Ellen’s finger and then picked up the IV tray. ‘Is there anyone you’d like me to call, Ellen?’
‘No one.’ Ellen didn’t look in her direction. Her eyes were occupied with studying the dark stubble that shaded Christian’s hard, angular jaw.
‘Can we check her sats, please, Lara?’ Christian slid the venflon into the vein and released the tourniquet.
‘Just doing it now.’ Lara adjusted the probe and watched the machine. ‘Sats are ninety-eight per cent.’
‘Good. These can go to the lab.’ He dropped the blood bottles onto the tray. ‘I’ll do the forms in a minute.’
Lara handed him some tape so that he could secure the venflon, her eyes still watching the pulse and blood-pressure readings. ‘She’s still tachycardic.’
Christian’s gaze followed hers and he moved the IV tray, reached for his stethoscope and hooked it into his ears.
‘I’m just going to listen to your chest, Ellen.’
Ellen lowered her eyelashes in an unmistakably flirtatious gesture. ‘Anytime. I suppose the one good thing about all this is having you leaning over me. I thought doctors as good-looking and sexy as you only appeared on television. Are you real or have they flown you in from Hollywood to perk up everyone’s Christmas?’
In the process of labelling blood bottles, Lara winced slightly at the patient’s less than subtle approach and glanced towards Christian, anticipating a cool putdown.
But he chose not to respond to the comment. He was probably used to female adulation, Lara thought to herself as she dropped the bottles into the bag and handed them to another nurse to take to the lab. He was so impossibly attractive he had to have been fending off desperately hopeful women all of his adult life.
She pulled the ECG machine closer to the trolley and tried to ignore the fact that Ellen was still flirting with Christian.
‘Do you play poker?’ Her voice was husky. ‘I bet you do. You have one of those faces that gives nothing away. Inscrutable. You must win millions. Oh, dear.’ She closed her eyes. ‘I feel horribly, horribly dizzy. And sadly I don’t think it’s anything to do with the fact that a gorgeous man is listening to my chest.’
Wondering whether she’d even noticed anyone other than Christian, Lara ripped open some pads. ‘I just need to attach these to your chest, Ellen, so that we can get a reading of your heart rate.’
Ellen didn’t look at her.
‘Pulse is two hundred and twenty,’ Lara said, her eyes flickering to the monitor as she swiftly and competently attached the electrodes to the patient. ‘Do you want me to call the cardiologists?’
Christian looped the stethoscope back around his neck and gave a swift nod. ‘Please.’
Ellen clutched his arm, her outward appearance of calm slipping. ‘Am I having a heart attack?’
‘We need to perform some tests before we make a diagnosis, but I don’t think you’re having a heart attack, Ellen.’ His gaze flickered to Lara just as she switched on the machine. ‘Are you ready to do a trace?’
‘Coming right up.’
Ellen gave a whimper and shifted on the trolley. ‘I feel all sweaty and clammy. Oh, God, something awful is happening, isn’t it? I knew I’d been working too hard lately.’
‘Try not to panic,’ Lara murmured, but Ellen didn’t even look in her direction. It was clear that all her hope for the future was fixed on Christian, who was studying the ECG machine. It purred softly as it produced a trace and he watched for a moment, his eyes narrowed. ‘Her ECG is showing regular narrow complex tachycardia with retrograde P waves.’
Interested, Lara leaned forward to take a closer look. ‘Mmm. There’s a shortened PR interval and a delta wave.’
Christian glanced at her in astonishment. ‘Yes,’ he murmured, ‘there is.’
‘So…’ Why was he staring at her? ‘Do you want to try adenosine or go straight for cardioversion?’ She knew that some doctors were reluctant to give adenosine in the emergency setting.
He was still staring. ‘We’ll give her 6 milligrams of adenosine by rapid IV push and see if we can get her back into sinus rhythm.’ He paused and she nodded to indicate that she understood that there was always the chance that the patient might develop a life-threatening arrhythmia.
‘So we’ll just have this within grabbing distance,’ she said quietly, moving the defibrillator next to the trolley.
Then she prepared the drug and handed it to Christian, who checked it and inserted the syringe into the venflon.
‘What’s happening?’ Ellen moaned, rubbing her hand over her chest. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Ellen, the conduction system of your heart isn’t working properly and your heart is being overstimulated. That’s why you’re feeling the way you are. The drug I’m giving you should prevent some of the electrical impulses getting through and slow the heart.’ Christian depressed the syringe to push the drug into the vein then dropped the empty syringe onto the tray next to him.
‘I’ll do you a rhythm strip,’ Lara said, programming the ECG machine and then standing to one side so that he could see the printout.
Ellen gave a sigh. ‘I’m feeling a bit better. But my face feels really hot.’
‘That’s a side effect of the drug we just gave you. Nothing to worry about.’ Christian’s gaze flickered to the monitor. ‘I’m going to refer you to the cardiologists, Ellen. They’ll want to do some more tests.’
‘Do you know what’s wrong?’
He looped the stethoscope back around his neck. ‘The electric currents that control your heart aren’t working properly. Put simply, they’re taking a short cut.’
‘I’m a lawyer. I don’t need the simple version.’
Christian studied her for a moment. ‘All right. Do you know anything about normal conduction pathways in the heart?’
‘No, but I’m a fast learner.’
Christian pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of his pocket and swiftly drew a diagram. ‘In the normal heart, electrical impulses start in the sinoatrial node in the right atrium—the atria are the chambers at the top of your heart—’ his pen flew over the page to illustrate his point ‘—and pass through the atrioventricular node to the ventricles in the bottom of your heart. The atrioventricular node limits the electrical activity that passes through to the ventricles and acts as a break on the heart rate. That’s what happens in the normal heart.’
Ellen looked at the drawing and gave a hollow laugh. ‘And that’s not me, right?’
‘Sometimes there’s an extra electrical pathway that bypasses the normal process and conducts electricity at a higher rate—there’s no filter, if you like. The result is that the heart can beat very quickly and that causes the symptoms you felt today.’
Lara studied the ECG again. ‘If she has an accessory pathway, why does the QRS complex look normal?’
‘Because ventricular depolarisation can occur through the normal pathway. It’s a combination of pre-excitation and normal conduction.’
‘You’ve lost me.’ Ellen sighed. ‘So how did I get this extra pathway? Was I born with it?’
‘Yes, it’s congenital. Some people have more than one. Basically it happens when the atria and the ventricles fail to separate completely.’
‘But why hasn’t it been picked up before?’
‘Because the majority of the time the normal pathway is used.’
‘And can it be fixed?’
‘Extremely successfully.’ Christian folded the ECG strip and attached it to the notes. ‘We’ll refer you to the cardiologists and they’ll carry out electrophysiological studies—basically, looking at the conduction of your heart.’
Ellen frowned. ‘And then?’
‘If they think you’re an appropriate candidate, then they may do something called radiofrequency ablation—to put it simply, they destroy the extra electrical pathway by sending an electric current through it.’
‘Sounds scary.’
‘Actually, it’s a very successful procedure. It takes a few hours and requires an overnight stay in hospital, but no more than that.’
Ellen gave a wan smile. ‘I’m not allowed time off in my job. Even sleeping is banned.’
‘Sounds familiar,’ Lara murmured, watching as Christian scribbled on the notes. Over the past two months, she’d developed enormous respect for him. No matter what the situation, he never lost his cool. He was focused and skilled and didn’t let emotion cloud his judgement.
Lara studied him for a moment, wondering whether he was even aware of Ellen’s advances.
As if to test the theory, the woman gave him a smile that was pure invitation. ‘If I’m in hospital, will you visit me? I never get to meet anyone except boring lawyers in my job. I bet you only ever meet boring nurses.’
‘That’s me,’ Lara said lightly, slipping the tourniquet back into her pocket. ‘Boring nurse.’
Ellen turned her head and looked at her, as if only now noticing that there was someone else in the room with Christian. Her eyes widened as she stared at Lara. ‘Boring maybe, but beautiful,’ she muttered with a faint smile. ‘How do you manage to look so good in that shapeless blue thing? I dress in designer wear from head to foot and I don’t manage to look as good as you. Who does your hair? It’s fabulous.’
‘My hair?’ Taken aback by the question, it took Lara a moment to answer. ‘No one. Most of the time I don’t even do it. I mean, I wake up with it looking like this. That’s when my job allows me the luxury of sleep, which isn’t often.’
Ellen gave a wry smile. ‘Your job sounds a lot like mine. Except that I don’t look a fraction as beautiful as you even after eleven undisturbed hours of sleep. Someone must do your colour. Those blonde streaks are gorgeous. So natural.’
‘That’s because they are natural,’ Lara muttered, wondering why she was discussing her hair with a patient. In the circumstances it seemed utterly bizarre. Any moment now they’d be talking about shoes. Bracing herself for a sharp comment from Christian about her lack of professionalism, her eyes slid in his direction and she found him studying her with a curiously intent look in his eyes.
As if it was the first time he’d seen her.
Awareness shimmered between them, as powerful as it was unexpected, and then he turned back to his patient, leaving Lara to cope with a frantically pumping heart and shaky knees.
It would have been hard to guess who, out of the two of them, was more shocked.
She didn’t gaze at married men.
And even if he wasn’t married, she still wouldn’t be interested. She had no interest in a relationship at this point in her life.
Ellen was concentrating her attention on Christian again. ‘So is that it, then? I see a cardiologist now?’
‘That’s right.’ His voice suddenly clipped, Christian picked up her chart and started to move away from the trolley, but she caught his arm.
‘Let me give you my number. If you’re at a loose end over Christmas, you can call me. I hate the festive season.You and I could console each other.’
Give the man a bodyguard, Lara thought wearily as Christian carefully extricated himself from Ellen’s grip.
‘I have your number on the notes in the event that the hospital needs to contact you about something,’ he said smoothly, and Ellen’s laugh was resigned.
‘You’re giving me the brush-off, but I suppose that was inevitable. Are you married? Well, of course you’re married, the truly gorgeous ones always are. Oh, well, my loss, handsome.’
Christian stilled and Lara held her breath, wondering if he was going to finally lose his cool and say something cutting. Or perhaps he’d produce a picture of his stunning wife and Ellen would spend the rest of Christmas feeling nauseated with jealousy. And it would be no more than she deserved for being so pushy. Just because the guy looked like a sex god, it didn’t mean he had to be harassed.
But Christian said nothing. In fact, the only suggestion that he’d even heard the question was the faint flicker of a muscle in his jaw. He lowered his head, scribbled something onto the chart and placed it with the rest of the notes. ‘The cardiologist is on his way down,’ he said evenly, as if he hadn’t just been propositioned by a patient. ‘He’s an excellent doctor and he’ll be more than happy to answer all the questions you have about your condition. Staff Nurse King? Nice job.’ He studied her for a moment longer than was necessary. ‘It’s your half-day, isn’t it? You should have gone home an hour ago.’
How did he know it was her half-day?
Astonished, Lara watched as he strode out of the room with a firm, confident stride.
He was Christian, the consultant. Christian, the doctor.
He never allowed the smallest glimpse of Christian, the man.
Which was probably why she hadn’t bothered looking for flaws.
