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‘I’m doing a thorough stock check. I’ll know exactly how much we have of everything, and have the old stock ready for disposal in a couple of days.’
‘I want to see all the stock before you destroy anything. And your stock check, please.’ Jaye didn’t look up at her.
‘All right.’ Perhaps she should go now. But it felt as if there was nothing but unfinished business here. ‘Is there anything else?’
For a moment his eyes softened. She saw the man she’d opened her heart to over that turbulent four days.
‘Yes.’
Megan nodded, waiting for him to elaborate. Then the Jaye she knew seemed to snap back out of focus, retreating into cool professionalism. The man who had seemed to understand everything now appeared intent on understanding nothing.
‘Ranjini and Dr Narayan ran this place for a long time together, almost since it started. They made a reality of our original vision, that it would be a calm and quiet place of healing.’
He said the words almost as if he’d never said them before. Almost as if they’d never met before.
‘Yes. I know.’
‘When Dr Narayan retired, and we replaced him with Dr Clarke...well, you knew that there were some teething problems before you came here.’
Teething problems. That was one way of putting it. ‘Dr Clarke had a very confrontational approach. A lot of the staff are unhappy and claim they’ve been treated unfairly. I know that Ranjini’s mentioned this to you.’
‘Yes, she has. She tells me that since Dr Clarke left, two weeks ago, you and she have been working very hard. You’ve been cleaning the wards and filling in for absentee nurses, and now I hear that you’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the stockroom as well.’
‘Yes...’ Megan could feel that Jaye was working around to some kind of point. ‘The staff shortage...’
‘Yes, I understand that. What I don’t understand is why I didn’t hear about this from you. This isn’t the job you were employed to do, and I suspect that neither of us are particularly happy about that. I’m certainly not.’
Something thudded in Megan’s chest. Perhaps it was her heart, reacting to the blow that Jaye’s ice-cold words had dealt.
‘I...’ She felt her ears burn. ‘I...had some initial concerns, which I spoke with John Ferris about. The first two weeks that I was here I was trying to get the measure of the place, both organisationally and in terms of the personalities involved.’
‘And afterwards?’
‘John’s been away sick for the last two weeks.’
‘Yes, I know. I’ve been filling in for him in London.’ Jaye leaned back in his chair, swiping his hand across the top of his head. ‘You’ve clearly been unhappy here, and things are falling apart. I’ll ask again. Why didn’t you tell me?’
Was he really that obtuse? Or was he just making this more difficult for her, because he knew that he could? Suddenly Megan didn’t care that he was her boss, or that it was in his power to send her home if he felt like it. He couldn’t treat her like this.
‘Why do you think, Jaye?’
Chapter Seven
‘WHY DO YOU THINK?’
That was the one question that Jaye didn’t want to answer. He didn’t want to say that he’d wondered whether Megan even remembered their kiss, when he’d been able to think about little else.
‘It’s not a matter of what I think. It’s a matter of why you didn’t report back to me.’
The little tilt of her chin told him that she was done with agreeing with him, and was going to meet him head on. A little thrill of respect fluttered in Jaye’s chest.
‘Let’s not beat about the bush, Jaye. We overstepped the mark, and...there was an inappropriate encounter...’
Inappropriate encounter? He’d called it a lot of things in his own mind, but never that.
‘And we let it be.’ The thought that Megan hadn’t let it be, any more than he had, made Jaye’s heart beat a little faster.
‘That’s just what I was doing. Letting it be. Ranjini was keeping you up to date, and there was no reason for me to call you and say it all over again, particularly when we were so busy.’
