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‘I meant the secret rendezvous stuff.’
‘Oh. Well, that adds a certain frisson. D’you think it’s working?’
‘Probably not. But at least I’ve got a measure of deniability.’ Charlotte slipped the business card into her pocket and closed the journal, passing it back to him. ‘Will you be working tonight?’
‘No. Do you want a lift home?’ He grinned. ‘You could wait for me by the park gates if you like. With a wig and a pair of sunglasses, no one will think it’s you...’
‘I’ll wear a pink carnation in my buttonhole.’
‘Yeah. That would be a nice touch. Match your ears.’
* * *
Her ears weren’t the only things which felt as if they were burning up when Charlotte walked back past the nurses’ station.
‘Not so fast.’
Paula’s murmured words stopped her in her tracks.
‘Sorry?’ She was going to have to brazen it out.
‘So what’s the story, then? You and Edward North?’
‘He was just showing me a paper he’d written. In one of the journals. Something that came up.’
Charlotte pushed her hands into her pockets and curled her fingers around the business card, just to check that it wasn’t about to leap out of her pocket and embarrass her even further.
‘Well, make sure that something comes up more often. After all...’ Allie shrugged ‘...one thing might lead to another.’
‘I don’t have time for anything like that. Isaac’s the only man in my life at the moment.’ It would be as well if she remembered that, too.
‘Spoilsport. Surely you get time for a night off once in a while?’
Paula’s tone was edged with concern. She might tease, but underneath it all she had a good heart.
‘Edward North...he needs someone like you. And he is gorgeous.’
‘And headed this way...’
Charlotte had been deliberately not looking in the direction of Edward’s office and it was Allie who raised the alarm. Edward was striding towards them, and Charlotte caught the quick exchanged glance between Paula and Allie as he passed behind her. A little too close.
‘Charlotte.’
There was something intimate about the way he said her name. Or maybe it was just her imagination. Charlotte didn’t dare to look in Paula’s direction.
‘Mrs Ashe is here a little early with April. If you’re free, then I’ll see them now.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Charlotte reached over for the notes and followed Edward into the plush, comfortable consulting room.
* * *
The seventeen-year-old took a nervous breath as Edward began the careful, precise work of taking the dressings from the side of her face. The previous week he had used skin flaps to revise the scars that a road accident had left, and today April was to see the result. His small nod, and a fleeting glance in Charlotte’s direction, revealed that he was pleased with his work.
‘Does it look horrible?’ April was chewing her lip.
‘No. Mr North’s got to take a careful look, but so far everything’s fine.’
The other nurses sometimes complained that it was pretty much impossible to gauge Edward’s reactions to anything, but today he seemed more transparent than usual.
