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Deborah glared at him.
‘They could be like me … calm, placid … good-looking …’
‘Big-headed …’ Deborah added for him.
She waited a few minutes, drawing his attention to the murals on the walls of the new ward, and then said thoughtfully, ‘We don’t even know if I can conceive yet, anyway …’
She felt the responsive jerk of Mark’s arm.
‘We could give it a try, I suppose,’ she added semi-musingly. ‘But …’
‘Deborah …’
She forced herself to look vague and innocent as Mark swung her round to face him, but her own laughter defeated her.
‘Just you wait until I get you home,’ Mark threatened her.
‘I certainly shall,’ Deborah told him mock primly. ‘I don’t want our child to have the embarrassment of being conceived … Mark!’ she protested as he took hold of her and started to kiss her. ‘Mark …’
* * *
‘Have you heard the news about David Howarth?’ Brian asked jovially as he came over to join Richard and Elizabeth. ‘Apparently he’s been head-hunted by one of the international industrial concerns and he’s already handed in his notice … That’s the official version of events; the buzz all round Area is that the Minister was so keen to see him go that they actually paid the head-hunters to find somewhere for him …’
‘Well, the truth probably lies somewhere between the two,’ Richard responded judiciously.
David had ceased to bother him a long time ago … from the date it had become official that the General was to get the new Fast Response Accident Unit, in fact.
Richard was as enthusiastic about the future of the new children’s ward as Blake, but the Accident Unit continued to be his own special project … It had opened officially the previous year, and the results they had achieved so far had far outweighed even Richard’s most optimistic private hopes.
On the strength of their success Richard had been asked for advice and help by several other hospitals wanting to run a similar scheme, and Brian was beginning to become afraid that they could very easily lose their senior surgeon.
The mayor came up to claim Brian’s attention. They had deliberately kept the launch of the new children’s ward very low-key.
‘People won’t want to see the money they have donated being wasted on expensive entertainment for local dignitaries,’ Blake had claimed, and Richard had fully agreed.
As Richard turned away to speak to Blake, Elizabeth watched him affectionately. It was typical of him that he bore David no malice, and typical as well that the issue of his ultimate retirement still remained.
Richard was proud of the results the Fast Response Accident Unit had achieved, and with good reason. Even David had been forced to back down and admit that the money had been well spent and, far from detracting from the service they were able to provide their other patients, had actually improved them.
‘I was thinking, you know,’ Richard told Elizabeth, breaking into her thoughts. ‘Patrick Stowe got in touch with me the other day. He’s thinking of setting up a unit similar to ours at Peterborough. He wants me to go down there and talk things over with him. I was thinking … if I did decide to retire next year it would give me more time to concentrate on that sort of thing. And I can always keep my hand in on the surgical side of things by working at Ian’s practice on a part-time basis …’
‘Mmm …’ Elizabeth agreed. Richard would
be sixty within a couple of years … young enough to build up a part-time secondary career which would give him a sense of purpose and self-worth. She smiled warmly at him. ‘It’s certainly worth thinking about …’
‘I know what you’re thinking, Liz,’ Richard told her quietly. ‘That all I’m doing is delaying the inevitable. But I am trying to come to terms with what lies ahead, to accept …’ He paused, shaking his head. ‘All human beings need their sense of self-worth; for us … for men, that self-worth is by tradition tied in with our work.’
‘But men need to learn what women have always known … that there is pleasure in travelling slowly along life’s byways, enjoying the journey and all its new discoveries, much more than racing through life on a motorway, blind to everything but overtaking the driver in front, oblivious to the misery and danger you’re causing your passengers, their fear of the way you’re controlling and risking their lives.’
‘It is beginning to happen,’ Richard told her. ‘Look at the way Blake’s reorganised the shifts in the new ward; his insistence on crèche facilities for both male and female staff … the way he himself scheduled his work to fit round his family, not the other way round. Look around you and see how men’s attitudes have changed towards their children, how much more physically affectionate they are with them, how much more involved in their lives …
‘We might not be wholly converted to your byways of life yet, but at least we’re beginning to accept that we have to allow you your turn at the wheel and your choice of journey …’
‘You, allow us …?’ Elizabeth shook her head and laughed. ‘Yes, you’re right,’ she agreed softly. ‘It is happening …’ She paused and then added, ‘If you do decide to retire next year, I might start working part-time myself,’ she told him.
‘But you’re in the early stages of getting your career off the ground,’ Richard protested.
‘My career can still progress, but at a pace of my choosing,’ Elizabeth told him.
