The Taming of Dr. Alex Draycott (15 page)

‘Hmm. How do you feel about that?’

She was quiet for a moment. ‘A bit deflated, really, and anxious because I might be letting people down. But I don’t see any way round the situation. Sarah’s not saying very much, but she’s on the verge of tears a lot of the time, and what she’s not saying is speaking volumes, if you know what I mean.’

‘Yes, I think I do. I can understand why you’ve chosen to stay with them. As to the meeting, it’s a pity I’m not on the committee, or I could stand in for you and state your case. Let me give it some thought, and I’ll see if there’s some way we can get round it.’

‘Thanks, Callum.’ She didn’t think there was anything much he could do, but she was glad of his offer to help. He was without exception caring and thoughtful, ready to step in where he was needed, and she was coming to realise that he was someone she could rely on in her darkest hour.

‘I’m happy to do what I can,’ he said. ‘Is there any news about Ross?’

‘Only that his condition is much the same. At least he isn’t any worse. I haven’t told Beth yet. I didn’t want to worry her, and I’m hoping Sarah won’t say anything when she phones her this afternoon. I’d sooner tell her if and when he appears to be on the mend.’

‘That sounds reasonable enough to me. Keep your chin up. Just remember I’m here for you if you need me.’

‘I will. Thanks.’ She was sad when he cut the call, because she wanted to go on hearing his voice. It filled the empty void and made her feel that she was not alone, just for a few minutes. She wanted to be with him.

In truth though, wasn’t she kidding herself? He was concerned about her and he was offering to help, but what did he really feel about her? Yes, he was caring and sympathetic, and he had shown her that he would be there for her, but how deep did his feelings go? He might be attracted to her, but that might be as far as it went.

And who was she to complain about that? Wasn’t that how she had viewed things, to begin with? Her career meant everything to her, and there had never been much time for anything else. She had been reasonably content. There had been no one who might have persuaded her to set it all aside…until now, until she had met Callum. He had proved himself to be a man apart from all others. He was quiet, strong and steady, and he had tried to show her how to take herself less seriously.

And perhaps his efforts had achieved a result. After all, she had changed over these last few months. Perhaps looking after her brother’s children had shown her a different way of life, had taught her that home and family could take precedence over ambition.

She sighed. Musing on all this wasn’t getting her anywhere. For now, she had to put aside her thoughts about Callum and concentrate on the children. They needed her, and she ought to be keeping them occupied instead of standing here wool-gathering.

‘We need the gardening tools,’ she told them, calling them back into the kitchen a few minutes later. ‘Gardening gloves, forks, trowels and the bag of plant food out of the greenhouse. We’ll need compost, too.’

‘I’ll get the food,’ James said. ‘Sarah can bring the tools.’

‘I’m not carrying all that lot on my own,’ Sarah complained, scowling at her younger brother. ‘You can help.’

‘Nah.’

He threw her a mutinous, cheeky glance and ran off, leaving Sarah to say crossly, ‘He’s always doing that. Daddy says he… Daddy said—’ She broke off, biting her lip to stop it from trembling, and Alex put her arms around her and gave her a hug.

‘I’ll help you with the tools. I’ll talk to James in a little while—just as soon as I manage to catch him,’ she said.

They spent the morning with Jane, planting dahlias in her sunny border, while she sat in a garden chair and offered them cold drinks from an iced jug.

‘You look so much better than you did a while ago,’ Alex told her, coming to sit beside her and take a break for a while. ‘Has your blood pressure settled down yet?’

Jane nodded. ‘Yes, it has. And I’m healing up nicely, too, so I’m beginning to feel as though I’m on the mend at last.’

‘That’s really good news.’ Alex took a long swallow from her glass. ‘That was a bit of a scare you had, back in the hospital, wasn’t it? I know Callum was worried about you.’

‘He’s a good man. He’s always looked out for me, and made sure that I was getting on all right.’ Jane was quiet for a moment or two, and Alex guessed she was thinking about the way he had helped her over the years. ‘I know he has a difficult job to do at the hospital, and sometimes he has a lot on his mind, with all the worries about patients, and so on. He cares about people, you see. And I know he’s concerned about these threats to close the unit down. He said he’d written to the board members, telling them of the risks to patients if services were to be transferred to the city.’

‘Has he?’ Alex was surprised. ‘He didn’t mention that to me.’

‘No, well, I think he feels you have enough to cope with already. He didn’t want you worrying about what he was doing and saying.’

Perhaps he had been put off by her reaction when he’d gone to the press. Alex made a face. It was her own fault that he didn’t confide in her. Just lately she had been edgy and out of sorts, and who could blame him for going it alone?

Still, he’d offered to try to sort something out before the meeting this afternoon. Would he be able to come up with anything? She wanted to put her views to the board, and it would have been much better to do that in person rather than through an email that some members might not even have read.

She took the children back home an hour or so later. ‘Why don’t you go and play in the orchard for a bit while I make lunch?’ she suggested.

‘I want to stay here, with you,’ Sarah said quietly. ‘I don’t want to play. Do you think Daddy is all right?’ Her voice quavered. ‘I heard the nurse say that he might not make it without an operation.’

Alex frowned, and Sarah hurried to add, ‘She didn’t know I was there. She was talking to another nurse.’

Alex studied her thoughtfully. She had been clingy all morning, not wanting to stray far from her side, and that made her realise that it was probably a wise decision she had made to stay home with her. What was it Callum had said? The children needed a relative at a time like this. ‘I’m sorry you heard that,’ she said. ‘It must have been upsetting for you, but the nurse said she would ring me if there was any news about your father—if he had taken a turn for the worse. Even so, I’m going to phone her now, to find out what’s happening. After that, you can talk to your mum, if you like.’

Sarah nodded. James took himself off to the garden to play on the old rope swing, and Alex dialled the hospital number. Best to do it now, and hopefully put Sarah’s mind at ease, along with her own.

‘There’s been no major change,’ the nurse told her, ‘but his blood oxygen level has risen very slightly. Dr Allingham thinks that could be a good sign, but he says Ross has quite a way to go yet.’

‘Thanks.’ Alex relayed the news to Sarah. ‘It means we still have to wait and see, but at least it’s not bad news.’ It was difficult to know how to handle this kind of situation with a young child. She didn’t want to be negative, but at the same time she didn’t want to fill Sarah with false hope. The consequences of that could turn out to be disastrous.

She left Sarah talking to her mother and grandparents a few minutes later, and went into the kitchen to prepare a salad for lunch. Her mobile rang as she was slicing peppers, and she wiped her hands on a towel and went to answer it.

‘Hi, there,’ Callum said, and her heart warmed at the sound of his voice. ‘How are things? Are you managing all right with the children? Are they coping?’

‘James is fine,’ she answered, ‘but Sarah’s finding things difficult. We just rang the hospital to see how Ross was doing and there’s been no real change as yet.’

‘These things take time. At least they’ve made the diagnosis and started to act on it. A good many pulmonary embolisms go undetected until it’s too late.’

‘I know.’

‘And how are you? Are you bearing up?’

‘I’m okay.’ She wasn’t going to tell him how she really felt, her worries about her brother or her fears for the children’s well-being. For the moment, it was enough for her that he had called. His voice was deep and soothing, like a balm to her overwrought senses.

If only he could be here with her right now. Suddenly, she wanted to see him, to be with him. She wanted to have him hold her and reassure her that everything was going to turn out all right. Just being in his arms would have given her the strength to go on.

‘How about you?’ she asked. ‘Your aunt said you were concerned about what was going on at the hospital. She said you’d written to the board.’

‘That’s true. I thought it might help. Actually, I’ve been thinking about the meeting this afternoon, and I’ve a suggestion to put to you. You don’t have to consider it…you might have other plans, or you might want to walk away from it all, given that you’ve so much on your plate right now.’ She could hear the frown in his voice. ‘Though I think you should know that most of the staff appreciate how hard you’ve worked ever since you started the job and they’re all behind you in this.’

‘I’m glad about that. What was it you wanted to ask me?’

‘It occurred to me that you could still take part in the meeting if we set up a video link. I could fix it from the hospital end—it would give me an excuse to be in on the meeting if I have to monitor the link, so I could maybe add my twopenny worth to anyone who cares to listen. And anyway the executives have asked for one or two representatives from non-board members to be present—and you could set up the software and webcam on your laptop from your end.’

She thought about it for a while. Having Callum take part in the meeting was another bonus point. ‘It sounds feasible, but I don’t know how well it would go down with the board if Sarah or James were to come and interrupt every few minutes.’

He chuckled. ‘That’s one of the hazards of working from home, I suppose. You could always bribe them to keep quiet with fizzy pop and cookies. Not very politically correct, but quite effective at times, I’m told.’

‘Yes, you’re probably right.’ She came to a decision after a second or two. ‘I dare say I’ll think of something. Will you let me know when you’ve organised it at your end?’

‘I will.’ There was a smile in his voice. ‘Thanks, Alex. I owe you one.’

‘Let’s just hope it goes well. I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anyone will listen.’

He rang off, and Alex went on with her preparations for lunch, trying to think of ways to keep the children amused while she attended the virtual meeting.

‘How about you look through the DVD collection and choose something to watch while I’m talking to the people at work?’ she suggested, taking the easy way out. ‘I really need you to promise not to interrupt me unless it’s something very important. Do you think you can do that?’

‘Yeah…if we can watch space aliens,’ James announced eagerly.

‘Space aliens are rubbish,’ Sarah told him. ‘We should watch the one about the animals who escape from the farm.’

‘Nah…that’s a girly film. I’m not watching a girly film.’

Alex intervened. ‘You have five minutes to choose something you both agree on,’ she said briskly, ‘or I’ll choose for you.’

Half an hour later, she was seated at her desk in the study, talking to the hospital executives. Callum’s image appeared on her computer monitor, almost centrally on her screen, and it was a huge comfort to her to be able to see him, even if he was not there with her in the flesh.

‘You already know of the many savings we’ve made in the A and E department,’ she said, addressing the board in general. ‘We’ve gone almost as far as we can down that route. Perhaps the time has come to think of the situation from another angle.’

‘Another angle?’ one of the executives challenged her. ‘What are you suggesting?’

‘I think we could look at ways to bring money into the hospital.’

He frowned. ‘And how do you propose to do that?’

‘There are some areas that are underused for one reason or another. I’m suggesting that we could rent out certain wards and theatres to the private sector. There’s also the scanner—it isn’t used from six o’clock in the evening unless there is an emergency—and it seems to me that’s another opportunity for us to earn income from the private sector. Fee-paying patients will benefit from having treatment out of hours, and the hospital will gain by getting a badly needed cash boost.’

‘This is the NHS,’ Dr Langton said dismissively. ‘The principle has always been that it is free for those in need of medical help. NHS treatment and private medicine don’t mix. The two are incompatible.’

Alex nodded. ‘I know some people find the idea of private medicine unpalatable. I’ve always believed in the principle of the NHS, that treatment should be free for everyone who needs it. But the private sector serves a purpose for those who don’t want to wait to see a specialist or be put on a long waiting list for surgery, and in these days of cash-strapped hospitals perhaps this is the time for radical thinking. A good many hospitals have already gone along this route, with great success. With the money earned from the private sector, we could keep the department open and make changes that would benefit other areas of the hospital.’

Callum intervened. ‘I think Alex is right. With extra money we could streamline some of the services we already offer and make them more efficient. We could set up a minor injuries unit to be run by nurses and a doctor—maybe a GP—and we could add a new mini-stroke unit, which would have a preventative role and eventually save patients from progressing to major problems—which in themselves would cause further strain on our limited resources.’

The discussion went on for another hour before Dr Langton drew the meeting to a close.

‘Thank you, everyone,’ he said. ‘Obviously, a lot of points have been made here today, and they will need some consideration. I suggest that the executive board meets again tomorrow to make its final decision.’

Alex gazed at the screen. She had done what she could and now they simply had to wait for the result.