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‘Then...?’
‘Give me a minute. I’m processing.’
Okay. Processing didn’t sound so terrible. If Marie could come to any conclusions then he’d like to hear them, because all he’d felt since he’d heard about his father’s will was that he was being dragged back into a life from which he’d previously torn himself. Money and status had soured his parents’ lives, and it already felt like it was slowly squeezing all the joy out of his.
She turned slowly, leaning back against the windowsill and regarding him thoughtfully.
‘So...it’s still Alex, is it?’ Not Your Majesty...?’
‘You don’t need to rub it in, Marie. Who the hell else do you think I know how to be?’
Her face softened and she almost smiled. It was one step towards the warmth that he craved.
‘Sorry.’ She pressed her lips together in thought. ‘Who knows about this?’
‘A few people that I know from school. No one here. But it’s not a secret. I just don’t talk about it.’
She turned to face him, her eyes full of violet fire. ‘Isn’t that what secrets are? Things you keep from your friends?’
‘I never lied.’ He heard himself snap, and took a breath. ‘I want the clinic to be about the work and not about me.’
‘It is about you, though. You built it.’
‘I facilitated it. I want people to talk about the things we do here, and talking about who I am is only going to divert attention away from that.’
Alex decided to leave aside the fact that he really didn’t want to talk about who he was, because that would be a matter of reopening old wounds.
Marie was nodding slowly. It was time to take a risk.
‘If you’re not interested in a job here you can always just walk away.’
She pursed her lips. ‘I never said I wasn’t interested.’
Good. That was a start. He knew she’d seen the possibilities that the clinic offered, and maybe it was a matter of getting her to look at those and not at him. Not at the friend who’d broken the rules and kissed her. The friend who’d never told her about where he came from.
‘This is the deal, then. This clinic is a flagship development, which is funded and run entirely by a trust I’ve set up with part of my inheritance. I don’t want it to be the only one of its kind; it’s intended that what we do here will be a model for future clinics all over the country. In order to achieve that we’ll need to attract extra funding from outside sources.’
‘You always did think big, Alex.’
He saw a flicker of excitement in her eyes. That was exactly the way he wanted to feel.
‘I want you to share that vision with me as my co-director for the whole project. This clinic and future developments as well. You’ll be able to dictate policy and do things on your own terms.’
She stared at him. ‘Me? You want me to do that?’
Marie hadn’t said no yet. He resisted the impulse to laugh and tell her that she could do anything she set her mind to doing. He was offering her the job on purely business grounds and he had to treat this conversation in that light.
‘Your professional experience in A&E and diagnostic wards makes you ideally suited to the work here, where we’re suggesting effective therapies and ways forward for patients. And you’re not afraid of a challenge.’ Alex allowed himself the smallest of smiles. ‘That’s one thing I happen to know about you.’
‘This would be the first time I’ve taken on a management role.’ Marie gave a little frown, obviously annoyed that she’d betrayed a little too much interest. ‘If I decide to take the job, that is.’
‘We already have a practice manager on board. She’s very experienced and can advise on the practical aspects. It’s your vision that matters, and your knowledge of what this community needs.’
‘Is that your way of saying that you don’t understand “poor people” and I do?’
She crooked two fingers to indicate quotation marks. There was a touch of defiance in her tone, and it would be very easy for Alex to say that the thought had never occurred to him.
‘I think you understand some of the issues that people who live in this neighbourhood face. I want to formulate policies that are appropriate and which are going to work. If you want to boil that down to understanding poor people then be my guest.’
