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CHAPTER ONE
THE YOUNG MAN had a mop of red-brown hair, blue eyes and an easy, engaging smile. Anna Caulder thought she’d seen everything, but the tattoos on the backs of his hands plumbed the depths of bad taste.
‘This may hurt a little, Callum. Tell me if it gets too much, and we’ll stop.’
‘That’s all right, Miss Caulder.’ Callum gave her a cheery smile. Someone must have told him that, as a surgeon, Anna should be addressed as ‘Miss’ and he was clearly eager to please. ‘This place is pretty cool.’
Unfortunately that wasn’t going to make removing the tattoos any less painful. Anna’s expertise might, but only if Callum could be persuaded to stop looking around at the gleaming worktops and state-of-the-art medical equipment, and keep still.
‘I’m going to need you to take a couple of deep breaths, and relax, Callum.’
‘Okay. Are you going to do both hands?’
‘Just one will be enough for this session, Cal. You’ll need some time to heal afterwards,’ Dr Jamie Campbell-Clarke interrupted. He did that a lot.
‘Are you supposed to be here?’ By Anna’s calculations, today was a Monday, which was one of the three days a week that Jamie Campbell-Clarke spent working in the A&E department of a nearby hospital. Thursdays and Fridays were usually the days when she could expect to see him here, at the London Central Clinic, accompanying one of the teenagers he’d referred from the youth charity he ran in Hastings.
‘I’m only at the hospital for two days this week. So I thought I’d come along and watch you work.’ He sounded positively gleeful at the prospect.
‘And make sure I didn’t bottle out,’ Callum reminded him.
‘Yeah. There was that to it, as well.’
Jamie’s charity aimed to help teenagers like Callum overcome all kinds of disadvantages and make the most of their lives. He was fiercely protective of his young charges, and checked on everything. Which was fine, because he was an excellent doctor, but a trace of professional rivalry sometimes crept into his exchanges with Anna.
‘It would get it over with quicker. To do both hands.’ Callum’s face took on an imploring look.
‘Miss Caulder will do as much as she can...’ Anna turned and shot Jamie a glare and he fell silent, hopefully remembering that this was her consulting room and plastic surgery was her speciality.
‘I know you want to get rid of these tattoos, Callum...’ Anna glanced at the spidery words and the suggestive poses of the stick figures, and looked away quickly ‘...but it needs to be done properly, which is going to take a little more time than it did to get them.’
Callum nodded, staring at the backs of his hands. ‘Yeah, I know. Jamie explained it all... At least they’re black ink, so that’s easier to get rid of, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, that’s right. But I’m sure that Dr Campbell-Clarke explained that new tattoos are a little more difficult, and I gather you’ve only had these for a few months—’
‘Twelve weeks,’ Jamie interjected, and Anna ignored him. Heaven forfend he allowed her to get away with anything as vague as a few months.
Callum gave her a sudden smile. ‘I understand. Thanks, Miss Caulder.’
He might not be thanking her at the end of the session, when his hand was hurting, but Callum didn’t make a sound as she carefully traced the outline of the tattoos on the back of his right hand with the laser. When she’d finished, he gave her another smile, which smacked a little of false bravado.
‘That’s going to give us the best results we can achieve for today.’ Anna decided that Callum needed a little reassurance that the short procedure was actually going to show some benefit. ‘I think when the inflammation goes down, you’ll see a big difference. Would you like the nurse to put a dressing on your other hand as well, just to cover the tattoos there?’
‘Yeah. Thanks. It beats having to keep wearing gloves.’
‘All right then. We’ll give you some replacement dressings and a leaflet on how to care for your hand. That’s really important, to avoid any infection.’
Callum nodded. ‘Thanks, Miss Caulder. Jamie’s already told me about that.’
‘I’m sure he has. I’ll leave it to him to check on your hand and re-dress it as necessary.’ Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jamie lay his hand on his chest, as if surprised that she’d finally found something that she could trust him to do.
Anna ignored the gesture. It was just a game that she and Dr Campbell-Clarke played. Each trying to outdo the other. Watching each other like hawks to make sure that the patients that he brought to her consulting room had the best possible treatment. It was harmless enough, and it took her mind off his eyes...
Moss green. On a woman, they’d be stunningly beautiful, and Jamie’s dark hair and the strong line of his jaw made them seem like dazzling jewels, surrounded by steel and muscle. Under the clear lights of the consulting room they seemed almost luminescent.
But she had a policy of not thinking about his eyes. They were enough to make any woman’s hand shake. Knowing that he was watching her every move and that he’d be quick to correct any mistakes gave her hand the professional, rock-steady quality that any surgeon needed.
He was wearing green today, a dark green flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. That was his style when carrying out the business of his charity, casual clothes and first names. It was a little different from the Dr Campbell-Clarke persona that Anna saw when she visited the large, central London hospital where he worked three days a week, but he had the same self-assurance. The same way of daring anyone to question him, which was perhaps why Anna never hesitated to do just that.
The nurse had dressed Callum’s hands, and he was ready to stand now, a little shaky still from the procedure. Jamie ushered him outside, to where a neat-looking, middle-aged woman was sitting in the waiting room. Callum sat down beside her, and she gave him a brisk nod, but her hand moved to his back in a gesture of comfort.
‘Mary, this is Miss Caulder.’ Jamie introduced the two women quickly. ‘Callum did really well, and Miss Caulder’s very pleased with the results of the procedure.’
Anna could have said that herself. She resisted the urge to push him to one side, and smiled at the other woman. ‘I’ve just done the one hand, and I think that when the inflammation goes down you’ll see an appreciable difference. Callum asked us to dress his left hand as well, to cover it up.’
Mary nodded. ‘Thank you, Miss Caulder.’
‘I’ll see him again in six weeks. I’m hoping we won’t need too many sessions, and we should be able to remove the tattoos completely.’
