Reawakened by the Surgeon's Touch (8 page)

‘This way, Dr Slater.'

Jude spun round when he recognised Claire's voice but she had already turned away. He followed her over to where old-fashioned screens had been set up in the corner to form a cubicle. Inside there was an old wooden table—presumably his desk—a couple of equally elderly chairs, plus a battered couch with a trolley beside it holding an ancient sphygmomanometer. Jude's eyes rested on the single piece of equipment. Was this it, then? Was this museum piece the sum total of his diagnostic aids?

He turned to Claire, unable to keep the incredulity out of his voice. ‘You must be joking. You surely don't expect me to diagnose patients with only that to help?'

‘Of course not.' Claire reached over and opened a drawer in the table. She brought out a stethoscope and offered it to him. ‘There's this as well, Dr Slater.'

Jude took the stethoscope off her and stared at it in disbelief. How could he be expected to function with such a pitiful lack of equipment! Opening his mouth, he started to tell her in no uncertain terms what he thought when he suddenly thought better of it. What would she think if he kicked up a fuss when everyone else simply got on with the job? It was obvious that her opinion of him wasn't all that high and it would only make it sink even further. Was that
really
what he wanted, to be scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel in her eyes?

Jude took a deep breath as he walked around the desk and sat down. Maybe it shouldn't have mattered a jot what Claire thought of him but it did. It mattered a great deal, although he refused to go down the road of wondering why. Looking up, he met her eyes, determined to project an aura of confidence even if his stomach did seem to be suffering from a bad case of the collywobbles.

‘If you could show in the first patient, please, Sister. We may as well get started.'

‘Of course, Dr Slater.'

There was grudging approval in her voice and Jude was heartened by it. Maybe he did have his doubts but the fact that Claire approved made him feel much better. He sighed, wondering why she had such an effect on him. It wasn't as though she was going to play a major role in his life, was it? Once he had done his stint here, he wouldn't see her again—their lives were destined to go in completely different directions. For some reason the thought filled him with a deep sense of sadness.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘T
HIS
IS
J
EREMIAH
.
He's ten years old and lives at the convent. As you can see, his leg was broken and healed badly, causing problems when he walks.'

Claire ruffled the little boy's black curls. Of all the children the nuns cared for, Jeremiah was her favourite. His parents had been killed when rebel fighters had attacked his village. Although Jeremiah had survived the attack he had been badly injured. His left leg had been broken in several places and as there had been no medical aid available, it had set badly, leaving him with a severe limp. However, he certainly didn't let it slow him down.

‘Right. Let's take a look at you, Jeremiah. Can you hop up onto the couch or do you need a lift?'

‘I can do it, Mr Doctor.' Jeremiah scrambled onto the couch and sat there beaming happily.

Jude laughed. ‘Well done. So let's have a look at this leg and see if there's anything we can do to make it better for you.'

Claire moved aside as Jude donned a pair of gloves and started to examine the child. She had been rather surprised by how well he had got on with their patients. Even though she knew that he was way out of his comfort zone, he had an easy and relaxed manner that people responded to. Now she watched as Jeremiah happily answered his questions. There was more to Jude Slater than she had thought and it was unnerving to admit it. She had to make a conscious effort not to let him see how alarmed she felt when he turned to her.

‘Can we get X-rays of his leg? I really need to see how the bone has set before I can determine if there's anything we can do.'

‘Of course.' She frowned. ‘Sister Anne brought Jeremiah in along with a couple more children from the orphanage. She will need to stay with them, so is it all right if I take him to X-Ray? I can ask Lola to stand in for me,' she added hurriedly.

‘I can't see why not.' Jude helped the boy off the bed and smiled at him. ‘OK, Jeremiah, you go with Sister Claire and have some pictures taken.'

‘Will you be able to make my leg better, Mr Doctor?' Jeremiah asked eagerly. ‘So I can play football with the other boys?'

‘I don't know.' Jude bent and looked into the child's eyes. ‘All I can do is promise that I shall try my very best, but it could turn out that your leg is just too badly damaged.'

Claire heard genuine regret in his voice and once again was surprised. As she led the child out of the cubicle, she couldn't help thinking that Jude was turning out to be very different from what she had thought. Not only did he have a definite rapport with their patients but he genuinely seemed to care about them too. The thought sent a warm little glow through her as she stopped at the office to ask Lola to cover for her. She did her best to ignore it as she accompanied Jeremiah to Radiography but it proved surprisingly difficult. The fact was that Jude wasn't the self-obsessed individual she had believed him to be and it was worrying to admit it.

Once the X-rays were done, Claire took Jeremiah back to the hall and handed him over to Sister Anne. The X-rays wouldn't be ready until later in the day, so she told the elderly nun that she would arrange for Jeremiah to be seen again later in the week. The rest of the children had been seen by then, so she waved them off and went back to the cubicle. Lola turned and grinned at her when Claire parted the screens.

‘Ah, here's
Sister
Claire back again. Right then, I'll leave you two to carry on.'

Claire flushed when Lola winked at her as she left. It was obvious that Lola knew about the misapprehension Jude was under as to her true status and she couldn't help feeling guilty. She busied herself rounding up their next patient, trying not to think about the trick she was playing on him. She wasn't doing it out of a sense of malice, she assured herself, but purely because it made life simpler. If Jude
was
harbouring any ideas about her then it was far more sensible to nip them in the bud than allow them to develop and create a problem.

It was another couple of hours before they finished. It was the middle of the afternoon by then and the temperature inside the hall was stifling. Claire lifted her hair off her neck as she fanned herself with a spare folder. If she didn't get out of here soon, she might very well melt!

‘Is it always this hot?' Jude stood up, easing his damp T-shirt away from his body.

Claire hurriedly averted her eyes when she realised that the cotton had turned semi-transparent in places. The sight of all those finely honed muscles visible through the damp fabric made her feel very on edge.

‘It's the hottest part of the day,' she replied huskily, then cleared her throat when she saw Jude glance at her. She certainly didn't want him guessing that she had a problem about the way he looked. ‘Of course, it doesn't help that we have to hold the clinic in here. There's very little ventilation in the hall despite its size.'

‘Couldn't we hold the clinic outside?' Jude suggested. He frowned thoughtfully. ‘If we had an awning or something similar then it would make life easier not only for us but for our patients as well. The last thing sick people need is having to wait around in heat like this.'

‘It's an idea,' Claire agreed, wondering why no one else had thought of it. They all complained about the heat when they were rostered to work in the clinic and Jude's suggestion could be the solution they needed.

‘Do we have such a thing as an awning, do you know?' Jude queried, then grinned at her. ‘Or am I hoping for the impossible, like I did before?' He glanced ruefully at the ancient sphygmomanometer and Claire laughed.

‘There's more chance of us finding an awning than any modern diagnostic aids,' she told him with a smile.

‘Then what are we waiting for?' Jude returned her smile, his handsome face alight with amusement, and Claire felt her heart skip a beat.

‘I've no idea,' she replied, trying to inject a matching lightness into her voice, not the easiest thing to do when her heartbeat was all out of sync. ‘If there is anything like that then the only place it can be is in the storeroom round the back. Shall we try there?'

‘We most certainly shall.'

Jude pushed open the screen then stood aside for her to lead the way. Claire was conscious of his gaze on her as they left the building. What was he thinking? she mused as they made their way along the path. Was he wondering what they would find in the storeroom or thinking about something else, her perhaps?

She bit her lip as panic assailed her. She didn't want him thinking about her—it was too dangerous. Thoughts led to actions and that was the very thing she wanted to avoid. Something warned her that if Jude ever made a play for her then she might not be able to resist.

* * *

My heaven, but she was lovely!

As Jude followed the slim figure in front of him, he was struck all over again by her beauty. It wasn't just the way she looked but the way she moved. Oh, there was nothing overtly sexual about it; she certainly didn't go in for the artful hip swinging that some women employed. No, it was her natural grace that he admired, the straight line of her back, the set of her shoulders, the way she held her head...

He groaned as his mind went flying off again along routes it wasn't permitted to take. The most disturbing thing of all was that he had never really noticed how a woman walked before. It was as though when he was with Claire he was aware of things that he had never paid any heed to in the past and it scared him. He was getting in way too deep and it had to stop.

‘Here we are.'

Claire stopped when they came to some outbuildings and Jude made a determined effort to rein in his thoughts. Claire wasn't for him, he reminded himself, needing to keep that thought at the very forefront of his mind. Stepping forward, he tugged at the rusty old padlock that held the doors together.

‘Is there a key for this?' he asked over his shoulder.

‘Probably, although I've no idea where it might be.'

Claire stepped forward, bending so she could examine the lock, and Jude sucked in his breath when her shoulder brushed against his. Even though the contact was the most fleeting imaginable, he could feel waves of heat fanning out from where their flesh had connected. It took every scrap of control he could muster not to let her see the effect it had had on him, too.

‘In that case, it needs drastic action.' Picking up a stout stick, he pushed it between the hasp and the padlock. A couple of sharp twists and the padlock fell away. He grinned as he kicked it aside. ‘Either that lock was completely knackered or I'm stronger than I thought.'

‘Hmm. I wonder which it is,' Claire retorted, dryly.

Jude chuckled. It felt remarkably good to be on the receiving end of her teasing, although if anyone else had made fun of him, it would have been a very different story. Once again it was unsettling to realise how differently he behaved when he was with her. He deliberately drove the thought from his mind as he prised open the door. The storeroom was packed from floor to ceiling, the thick layer of dust that coated everything making it impossible to tell what it contained.

‘Heaven only knows what's in here,' he said, spluttering a little as he pulled at the edge of a rotting cardboard box, releasing a cloud of dust. ‘The whole place will need clearing out before we can see what's what.'

‘There's no way we can sort through this lot on our own,' Claire observed with a grimace. ‘It will need a whole team of people just to unload all this junk.'

‘It will.' Jude huffed out a sigh. ‘That knocks my idea on the head, doesn't it?'

‘Not necessarily.' She moved aside as he backed out of the storeroom.

Jude raised a questioning brow. ‘That sounds as though you have an idea.'

‘I was wondering if Matt could come up with something,' she explained. ‘Suffice to say that he has his contacts and it's just possible that he might be able to lay his hands on an awning or something similar.'

‘Good thinking, Batman!' Jude exclaimed. He grinned at her. ‘Shall we go and ask him? We may as well strike while the iron's hot, so to speak.'

‘He was on duty last night, so he's not in work today,' she reminded him as they headed back to the hospital.

‘Of course. I'll catch him later and see what he says.' He ran his hands over his face to wipe away the perspiration. ‘I can't remember ever feeling this hot before.'

‘It takes a while to acclimatise,' she agreed then paused. Jude had a feeling that she was debating what she'd been going to say and held his breath because it had to be something important if she was having second thoughts.

‘How about a swim to cool you down?' she said finally. She gave a little shrug. ‘There's over an hour left before evening ward rounds, so there's plenty of time and it should help to revive you.'

‘Sounds great to me,' Jude said huskily. Would Claire join him in the water? he wondered, his heart racing at the thought. He cleared his throat, not wanting her to suspect how much the idea appealed to him. ‘Right, which way do we go?'

‘Just down here.'

Once again she took the lead only this time Jude refused to let his mind stray even the tiniest bit off course. He couldn't afford to indulge himself when he needed to behave with the utmost propriety. He took a deep breath as they set off through the trees. Claire was placing her trust in him and he wouldn't let her down.

* * *

Claire floated on her back, enjoying the sensation of the cool water lapping over her body. Sunlight filtered through the trees and she closed her eyes, letting the play of light and shadow flicker across her eyelids. She could hear the sound of splashing coming from the far side of the pool but she kept her eyes tightly closed. By tacit consent they had each chosen a section of the pool to swim in and she had to admit that she had been relieved. She still wasn't sure it had been a good idea to suggest coming here and it would have been so much worse if they had ended up swimming side by side. The thought of Jude's powerful body so close to hers was far too disturbing.

‘This is great!'

Jude's voice carried across to her and Claire reluctantly opened her eyes. He was swimming towards her now, his arms cleaving effortlessly through the water. Sunlight glinted off the droplets of water beading his skin, highlighting the perfectly honed muscles in his arms and shoulders, and she felt her mouth go dry. There was no doubt that the sight of him was having an effect on her.

He laughed when he reached her. ‘I may just survive if I can come here and have a dip from time to time. Thank you so much for suggesting it. It was an excellent idea.'

‘You're welcome.'

Claire bit her lip when she realised how uptight she sounded but it was hard to respond calmly when he was this close to her. She decided that it might be wiser if she got out of the pool and let her feet drift down to the bottom, but the water was deeper than she had thought. She coughed as she sank beneath the surface and swallowed a mouthful of water.

‘Steady!' Jude gripped her arm and drew her safely back to the surface. He looked at her in concern. ‘Are you all right?'

‘Ye-yes.' She coughed again, trying to expel the water from her lungs, and his grip tightened.

‘Don't try to speak. Come on, I'll help you out.' Before Claire realised what was happening, he caught hold of her around the waist and lifted her up onto the bank. Levering himself out of the water, he crouched down beside her. ‘Try to relax. The tenser you are, the more difficult it will be to breathe.'

He put his arm around her, obviously trying to encourage her to follow his instructions, but it was impossible. In the absence of anything else, she had opted to swim in the top half of her scrubs. It was something she had done many times before but all of a sudden she was acutely aware of how the wet cotton was clinging to her skin, outlining the curves of her breasts and hips. It was two years since she had been naked in front of a man and even though she wasn't naked now, it felt as though she was. Unbidden her eyes rose to his and she saw the exact moment when concern changed to something else, an emotion that both scared and excited her. To see such naked desire in Jude's eyes was something she wasn't prepared for. When he bent towards her, she didn't move; she just sat there and waited...