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She pulled an uncertain face. ‘I know it’s a long shot. But I have seen it before, and my gut is just telling me to check.’
Alan glanced back down the corridor. The door at the end was swinging from where Joshua had just disappeared. ‘You do know that any test like that—I mean one that’s completely unusual for our lab—has to be signed off by the Head of Department?’
Clara’s heart sank. Her fingers crumpled the form a little. ‘Please tell me you’re joking.’
He shook his head and pulled the slightly bent form from her fingers. ‘I’m not so sure that now’s a good time to go chasing after Josh,’ he said carefully.
‘Me neither.’
Alan gave a slow nod. ‘Okay, so let’s just say that on this occasion I’ll sign it off for you. I’ll be interested to see what comes back. Let’s just call it professional curiosity.’
Clara heaved a huge sigh of relief. She hadn’t realised any unusual requests had to go through the Head of Department. It made sense. Sometimes inexperienced doctors could order a whole host of expensive tests that might not be necessary. This was the NHS. They had to be careful of costs and she understood that.
She knew that Alan signing off on this test might cause friction between him and Joshua at a later date. She held the form close to her chest. ‘Thanks, Alan, I appreciate this.’
He held up his finger as he moved away. ‘It’s a one-time-only deal.’ He looked back over to the swinging door again. It was clear he’d sensed the friction between her and Joshua. She’d need to think about that. It wouldn’t do for other areas to think that staff in Paediatrics didn’t really get on. ‘Just until you get settled in,’ said Alan as he gave her a nod and disappeared behind a set of cubicle curtains.
Clara sighed and looked at her forms again. Please don’t let this be a wild goose chase, she prayed.
* * *
Joshua was trying so hard not to explode. Yes, he was a control freak. Yes, he always had been. And no, that didn’t always work well for a Head of Department.
But he also tried to mentor his staff. He wasn’t the type of doctor to leave a colleague without support, or in a situation they couldn’t handle.
But somehow he knew Clara Connolly wasn’t that type of doctor. He’d been asking around. Paediatric circles were surprisingly small. Everything he’d heard about her in the last week had been reassuringly, but annoyingly, good. He couldn’t quite understand why this attractive woman seemed to irritate him.
Just her jaunty, slightly lopsided ponytail seemed to annoy him.
When he’d known she’d been called down to A&E he’d hung around the ward, wanting to check up on the assessment notes she’d written. It wasn’t intrusive exactly—just a way of reassuring himself that he could trust her skills. But neither the patient nor the notes had appeared. And eventually he’d run out of patience and gone down to the A&E department. He might have been just a little snappy with her, but her response had been equally snappy and not one he would expect from a new start doctor.
He’d had to bite his tongue. Georgie’s voice had echoed in his ears as he stormed back up the stairs to Paediatrics. Would he have checked on her? Of course not.
How would he feel if he’d been in Clara’s position and someone had checked up on him?
But, ultimately, all paediatric patients who were admitted were his responsibility. He had a right to ask questions. To check up on his staff.
He waited an hour. Then another hour. His fingers were itching to check the electronic record, but he stopped himself.
‘Any word from Dr Connolly?’ he asked.
Ron looked up from the computer. ‘Just to get her a tuna sandwich from the canteen when I’m going. She’s caught up in A&E.’
She’d been there for more than two hours. This was getting ridiculous.
No. He wasn’t going to wait a minute longer.
When he reached A&E five minutes later he could see how busy it was. Alan Turner was walking out of Resus and pulling off a pair of gloves. He fell into step alongside.
‘Josh, twice in one day? I didn’t realise we’d paged you.’ He was smiling, but Josh could tell from the words and tone that he knew exactly what was going on. He gave Josh a tiny nod. ‘Your new colleague—I like her. She’s smart—I would never have picked up on that case.’
Josh’s footsteps faltered. Both men knew exactly what he was thinking. He bit his lip then asked the question. ‘What case?’
Alan gave him a knowing smile. ‘Rat-bite fever.’ He shook his head. ‘What a call.’ He walked into the nearby treatment room and started washing his hands. Josh couldn’t help but follow him. Rat-bite fever? He’d never even heard of it.
‘I had to look it up’ Alan smiled. ‘But the diagnosis has just been confirmed.’ He pulled a bit of a face. ‘Oh, apologies, I signed off on the test for her.’ He waved one wet hand. ‘You weren’t around.’ He paused for a second and then added carefully, ‘I told her not to bother you.’
He was lying; Josh knew he was lying. He liked Alan. He respected Alan. But he wasn’t about to stand by and let the Head of another department conspire with a new member of his staff—at least that was what it felt like.
He kept his voice steady. ‘I’d appreciate if you didn’t do that again, Alan.’
The implication was clear and as Alan grabbed some paper towels to dry his hands he gave a conciliatory nod. ‘Sure.’
It was a truce. Alan had successfully let Joshua know that his staff member had performed well, while equally trying to keep him in check.
The annoyance that had been flooding through Josh’s veins had diverted slightly, but not disappeared completely. He would have expected Clara to give him a call and update him, particularly around an unusual case. But he couldn’t help but be impressed that his new doctor had diagnosed a condition he’d never even heard of.
He pulled out his phone, ready to look it up, just as Clara walked out of the nearby room, a wide smile across her face.
‘Oh, Joshua,’ she said. ‘I was just about to call you.’ She waved back towards the side room. ‘I know you like to treat children on the assessment unit, but I’ve just started Jessica on some IV antibiotics. She’s got streptobacillary rat-bite fever. I’m worried about septicaemia.’
He lifted the chart from her hands and scanned it before picking up a nearby tablet and pulling Jessica’s file. Clara’s cheeks flushed and she pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. ‘My notes. I’m a bit old-fashioned. Haven’t put everything on the electronic record yet—just her obs and what I’ve prescribed. It seemed more importan
t to get the antibiotics started once I had the diagnosis.’
The words prickled down his spine. ‘How did you manage to run a test like this without my sign off?’ It didn’t matter that he knew the answer to this question; he wanted to see what kind of excuse she gave.
As she moved he caught a waft of something. He had no idea what kind of perfume she was wearing, but it was like a shockwave to his system. It reminded him of a garden after a rainstorm—sweet, sensual and enticing. It was delicious.
He blinked and breathed in, letting the scent permeate his body. For a second all he could focus on was the smell. He’d never had a reaction like this before to a perfume. Every female colleague that he worked with wore a different scent. All were indistinguishable. But this? This was entirely different. He looked up. Clara was talking. He could see those signature red lips moving. But for a few seconds he couldn’t concentrate.
The noise in the busy A&E faded to a dull hum. There was a roaring in his ears, as if parts of his brain were awakening after they’d been snoozing for the last few years. His eyes focused on Clara’s eyes. He could see a tiny flare of panic in them. Her voice started to permeate. ‘So, I know it wasn’t the usual turn of events, but this case, it wasn’t usual either. I knew time was of the essence and the lab test takes a few hours. It seemed imperative to rule it out as soon as possible. As I was with her, the petechial rash changed—it became more pronounced around the bite wound. She started to experience rigors and a headache and joint pains.’ She licked her lips and stopped talking for a second, pausing to catch her breath.
The roaring in his head hadn’t stopped. His eyes couldn’t move from hers. There was something about them. Not the colour. Not the mascara on her dark lashes. Something in the depths of them.
He had to stop this.
He held up one hand. ‘Dr Connolly. Let’s draw a line under this. Don’t do it again. If you want to run specialist—and very expensive—tests, run it past me first. NHS is public money. I like to keep a check on things. As Head of Department that’s my right.’ He took a breath, ‘If, however, I’m not here, then I’m fine with you running it past, for example, Alan. But only if I’m not at work.’
