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A middle-aged woman in a black stuff gown and striped blue apron rose from behind a desk. “Good afternoon, Dr. Blackmore. Dr. Kendrick is with a patient in the back room. Is he expecting you?”
“Mrs. Culp, it’s a pleasure to see you. Dr. Kendrick is not expecting us, and we’ll be happy to wait.”
“Staging an ambush, are we?” Samantha murmured to her friend.
John ignored her. “Mrs. Culp, this is Lady Samantha Penwith. She’s been pestering me for a tour of the clinic, so we thought to pop in and impose upon you.”
Samantha threw him an ironic glance but went along with the fiction. “How do you do, Mrs. Culp? I hope we’re not inconveniencing you.”
The woman bobbed a curtsy. “Not at all, your ladyship. Just one patient in the back, and Dr. Kendrick should be finishing up with him soon.”
“An overnight patient?” John asked.
“Aye. The lad’s father is a drover, from north of Perth. They were delivering a herd to the cattle markets when the lad fell from their cart. Broke his ankle, the poor wee thing.”
John frowned. “Not a compound fracture, I hope.”
A deep voice, colored with the hint of a Highland brogue, came from the rear. “No, clean break, fortunately.”
Dr. Kendrick emerged from the back room, dressed casually in breeches, boots, and a white linen shirt topped by a green vest. He paused to jot something down in a small notebook.
“We just need to avoid a fever,” he murmured to himself. “He’s a bit weedy for my liking.”
“Poor lad,” John said. “Want me to have a look?”
The doctor glanced at John over the top of his silver-rimmed spectacles, as if finally registering his presence. “Blackmore, you have plenty of patients. No need to steal mine.”
John put up his hands. “Just trying to be helpful, old boy.”
“No, you’ll peruse my notes, check my work twice, and then after a period of hemming and hawing, pronounce yourselfmostlysatisfied.”
John snorted. “I must be a complete prat.”
When Braden Kendrick laughed, Samantha’s nerves actually fluttered. Her nerves hadn’t fluttered in quite a long time.
It wasn’t just his laugh that was disconcerting. Up close and in good light, the man was ridiculously attractive, with broad shoulders and a lean, rangy physique. She’d already noted his strong features and thick auburn hair, and now it was the eyes that riveted her. Even the silver-rimmed spectacles couldn’t detract from those eyes, but rather drew attention to the spectacular green of his gaze.
That gaze now shifted to her, narrowing with focused intensity. Samantha felt her face begin to flush, and she wondered if his stare had something to do with a sense that he’d met her before.
Damn and double damn.
Quickly enough, he switched his attention back to John, much to Samantha’s relief.
“My regrets that you’ve caught me off guard. Otherwise I certainly wouldn’t have come out in my shirtsleeves.” Again, he looked over the top of his spectacles at John. “But I suspect you wanted to catch me off guard.”
When he rolled down his sleeves over his muscled forearms, Samantha couldn’t help thinking it rather a shame.
Ninny.
“Spur of the moment decision,” John replied. “Lady Samantha was visiting the college, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to introduce you.”
Kendrick raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
Although Samantha winced at the doctor’s tone, John blithely carried on.
“Dr. Kendrick, allow me to introduce you to Lady Samantha Penwith, head of the Penwith Charitable Foundation. You’ve heard of it, of course.”
“Yes, from you, the president of that foundation board,” Kendrick sardonically replied.
