‘She’s getting married soon and I’m going to be her bridesmaid.’
‘How exciting. I love weddings. Have you decided what to give them for a gift?’
‘No…’ Bella hadn’t thought about that at all. She wasn’t given time to think about it now either because Oliver made a kind of huffing noise and muttered something about having to get back to his ward round.
‘I’ll see you later, Mother. When I get a chance I’ll ring an agency and make some enquiries about private nursing arrangements.’
He nodded at Bella as he left. The matter was ended.
Lady Dorothy left the subject alone for the moment as well, moving on to an animated discussion about potential wedding gifts. Bella’s head was whirling with suggestions by the time she headed for her lunch break. Of course she wanted to give Kate and Connor something special but that was going to be awfully expensive, wasn’t it?
Bella took a few minutes to surf the internet while she had a coffee to end her break. It seemed like a good idea to try to reconnect with her dreams of overseas travel. She looked at the cost of flights and what she might have to pay for even cheap accommodation in a place like London. She reminded herself that she would need to factor in the cost of eating at least occasionally and allow for it taking a bit of time to find a new job. Then she scribbled on a piece of paper, trying to decide how long it would take her to save enough to spread her wings.
The results were depressing. It might take her a lot longer than the six months she’d been counting on given her determination to get out of Kate and Connor’s way by the time they came back from their honeymoon.
She screwed up the piece of paper and threw it into the bin in the nurses’ station. When she went back to Lady Dorothy’s room, it seemed like salt was being rubbed into the wound to find her patient brandishing a very similar-looking piece of paper.
‘There…’ Lady Dorothy was having difficulty keeping hold of the paper but managed to push it towards Bella. ‘That’s how much I’ll pay you to come and be my nurse. I don’t care if it’s not for very long. I’m sure I’ll be much better by the time you want to leave and if I can’t manage by myself, I’ll come up with another plan.’
Bella took the piece of paper, mainly to save Lady Dorothy the embarrassment of having it fall from her stiff fingers. She caught sight of the amount written in wobbly figures on the paper, however, and her jaw dropped.
‘That’s ridiculous,’ she squeaked. ‘You could probably hire three nurses for that much.’
‘I don’t want three nurses,’ Lady Dorothy said firmly. ‘I only want one.You.’
4
‘Mother… Bella said she couldn’t take the position. Stop pestering her.’
‘I’m just trying to understand, Oliver. That can hardly be considered pestering, can it?’
The question became directed at Bella as Lady Dorothy turned her head. Her smile was sweet. There was even a dimple flashing in a soft cheek.
Heavens, but she’d changed in the few days Bella had been nursing the elderly lady.
She couldn’t help smiling back but she said nothing, merely continuing the task of folding and packing Lady Dorothy’s clothes in preparation for her discharge.
Oliver Dawson picked up a book and moved to put it in the suitcase beside Bella.
‘Sweet as they come on the outside,’ he murmured, ‘but you have probably noticed that my mother has a core of reinforced steel.’
Bella caught her bottom lip between her teeth to stop herself laughing aloud as her gaze flew up to meet his. This was a surprise visit and he obviously hadn’t finished his theatre list because he was still wearing scrubs. He even had a red mark on his forehead from recent, and probably lengthy, contact with the elastic edge of a theatre cap. Having Oliver dressed like this was quite enough to put Bella back into a space of feeling very nervous. She would make some idiotic mistake any moment now and have to bear the consequences. A mistake like thinking he was making a joke about his mother?
There was no mistaking the glimmer of humour in those dark eyes, however, and Bella felt suddenly confused. Thrown off balance. It was as much of a surprise as finding the eminent surgeon sitting on a bed and eating disreputable fast food.
‘I’ll bet the campaign has been going on for the last three days, am I right?’
Bella made a choked sound that could have been agreement. She was finding it disturbingly hard to look away from that totally unexpected humour.
‘Just tell me again, dear.’ Lady Dorothy’s voice came from behind them. Her voice had the faintest hint of a plaintive wobble. ‘Time’s running out now.’
Bella turned back to the bed. ‘It wouldn’t be fair to sign on as your private nurse. I’m not going to be in Auckland for much longer.’
‘But where are you going?’
‘Overseas,’ Bella said firmly. ‘I told you all about it yesterday.’
‘Mmm.’ Lady Dorothy was smiling again. ‘But you made it sound like it was just a holiday, not something… urgent.’
