AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Elspeth bristled, sitting up a little straighter. ‘Why would anything go wrong?’
‘I’m not saying it will,’ Fraser said. ‘But it’s a long time between scans. I want the baby to be checked more often.’
She shook her head. Here spoke a man with little experience of the NHS and none of pregnancy.
‘Well, with most pregnancies there’s no need to be seen more often,’ she explained, as she would to any patient. ‘Everything is fine.’
‘But in some pregnancies there are problems, and I don’t want us to be one of those pregnancies,’ Fraser pressed on, seemingly unaware that her hackles were rapidly rising. ‘As soon as we’re done here I’m going to get us booked in to the private hospital. I want the best for you both, and waiting two months for another scan can’t be the best.’
‘And you’re basing this on what?’ Elspeth asked, her voice tart, annoyed at his high-handed tone. ‘Your extensive obstetric knowledge?’
Was he really suggesting that she wouldn’t do what was right for their baby? That she would cut corners to save money? She was the one who actually knew what she was talking about when it came to the medical side of things. She wasn’t going to let him have his own way just because he wanted to throw his money and his privilege around.
‘I just don’t see why we wouldn’t pay for extra care for our baby,’ he said, laying down his menu and glaring at her.
Elspeth tried to tamp down her temper before she spoke, but she was finding it more and more difficult. ‘This isn’t a situation that you just throw money at, Fraser. You weigh up the costs and benefits of additional investigations. I don’t see the need for more.’
Fraser took a sip of his drink and shrugged. ‘I don’t see the downside. I’m not going to change my mind.’
‘Really? You surprise me.’ Forget keeping her temper—it wasn’t her fault he was being completely illogical. ‘Well, with my five years of medical school, and seven more of training, I might have picked up something about weighing up the risks and benefits of additional testing in a medical setting. But if you think your gut feeling and your bank balance outweigh that experience—’
He held his hands up. ‘Fine. If you feel so strongly, stay at your hospital—don’t bother with the extra scans. But I’m not going to pretend that I understand. I think you’re making a mistake.’
Too right he didn’t understand. And if he wanted to go private now, when they’d had a textbook visit, with a ten-minute wait in a comfortable room and a friendly sonographer who had chatted as she’d talked them through the scan, what was he going to make of her family’s regular middle-of-the-night trips to the emergency department? Of dealing with underfunded community services and appointments cancelled and moved at the last minute? The sort of things that made up most of the days of her life. And that was when she wasn’t working extra shifts to cover their understaffed and underfunded GP practice...
‘What?’ he asked, and she guessed that some of what she was thinking must be showing on her face.
‘Nothing...’ she hedged. ‘I was just thinking how different we are. How different our lives are. Wondering how this is going to work.’
‘I don’t think we’re that different,’ he countered, leaning forward on his elbows and fixing her with a look.
‘You think this is the sort of place to come for a quick lunch,’ she stated, glancing around her.
He drew his eyebrows together and frowned. ‘I thought you’d like it. I mean, it’s not where I usually come in my walking boots and my waterproof jacket.’
‘Right—Fraser the country boy.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘I’ll choose not to take that as an insult.’
‘It wasn’t.’ She lifted her hands, not sure how to get across what she was thinking. ‘But we’re different. I love this city. You’re clearly uncomfortable here. You’d rather be out at one of your estates—and when I say “estate” we both know I’m not talking about new-build semis,’ she clarified. ‘My life is spent in city hospitals like the one you thought wasn’t good enough today, and you’ve spent the last week looking to acquire—what? A...a stately home?’
‘A castle.’
‘A castle? Right. And you’re buying it from...?’
‘A duke.’
Elspeth nodded—he had just proved her point. Even if her family didn’t present its own challenges, they were too different. Their lives were too different for this ever to be anything other than impossible.
‘A duke is just a person,’ Fraser said, holding her gaze, not letting her look away. ‘No different from anyone else.’
‘Yeah, right. Castles notwithstanding.’
Elspeth watched Fraser as a cloud crossed his face.
‘I’m serious. Titles don’t mean anything,’ he said.
Elspeth stopped and gave him a long look. ‘You’re taking this rather personally.’
