Hot-Shot Doc, Christmas Bride. Joanna Neil

Jason and his love of drawing, they could be trying out designs for a new mural by now.’

      ‘Oh, heaven forbid! Don’t say that, please. I can feel an ulcer starting already.’

      She laughed, and they hurried away towards the main waiting room in search of the children. Unfortunately they were nowhere to be seen.

      Alison gazed around her in dismay. ‘We’d have seen them if they were heading back to you in the waiting room, wouldn’t we?’

      Tom nodded, an anxious look spreading over his face.

      ‘Can I help in any way?’ Josh came out of the resuscitation room and strode briskly towards them, delivering the words in an equally vigorous, no-nonsense fashion. ‘Are you looking for the children?’

      Alison nodded, her heart sinking rapidly. He didn’t look at all content with the way his day was going, and his questions didn’t have the tiniest note of pleasant enquiry about them. Something was definitely wrong. ‘They came in here to fetch cold drinks,’ she said. ‘Do you know where they are?’

      ‘The last I saw of them they were playing in the courtyard outside the waiting room.’ He looked directly at Tom. ‘There’s still a lot of snow around, and they were trying to slide down the grass verge. Unfortunately Jason slipped on the ice and cut his knee. He’s okay, but I asked one of the nurses to clean it up and put a dressing on it before she brought the pair of them back to you. You’ll find them in Treatment Room Two, over there.’ He waved a hand in the direction of the room, and Tom thanked him and immediately rushed away.

      Alison gave Josh a brief, apologetic look. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s probably my fault the children went exploring. I arranged to meet Tom at the end of my shift, but I was a little late.’

      ‘So I gathered,’ he said. ‘Still, I dare say there’s no harm done. If today’s anything to go by, nothing in this place follows a normal pattern, does it?’

      He walked away from her, heading over to the desk, where he began rifling through lab test results.

      Alison sighed. He was right. This day had been singularly odd—and not just because of the biker invasion, or her car breaking down and Tom and the children coming into the hospital. She had come face to face with her new boss, and she still didn’t have any idea of what kind of man he was. He was full of contradictions, a man of hidden depths. She had no real idea of how she was going to work with him on a day-to-day basis.

      Chapter Three

      ‘YOU look like a sorry bunch of half-frozen characters,’ Josh remarked, as Alison hurried into Reception next day. Katie and the men from the upstairs flat followed close on her heels. ‘Perhaps you should grab a cup of coffee and warm yourselves up before you start work?’

      Alison nodded, blowing on her hands as though to breathe life into them. Josh made an unexpected welcoming committee, though he was definitely a sight for sore eyes. He was every bit as immaculately dressed as he had been the day before, wearing a dark grey suit that drew attention to his broad shoulders and lean, tautly muscled frame.

      He was on great form, poised and ready for work—while she, in contrast, was at a peculiarly low ebb, chilled to the bone from her journey to the hospital, and uncertain as to why Josh had chosen to make his presence felt at this hour. She wasn’t used to having the boss watching over her. His predecessor had usually been found huddled in his office before the shift began, reading through a sheaf of papers.

      ‘I think I’ll do that,’ she murmured. ‘Sam gave us a lift into work this morning, but the heater wasn’t working in his car so we’ve all forgotten what our hands feel like, they’re so numb. Then we ran into a flurry of snow as we walked across the car park.’

      ‘It sounds as though it won’t be long before Tom has another mechanic’s job on his hands,’ Josh murmured. ‘He’s not doing too badly out of his neighbours so far, is he?’

      ‘Much as I get along well with Tom, I won’t be paying out for car repairs any time soon,’ Sam retorted, shrugging out of his soft leather jacket. He was a sturdy, long-limbed young man, with mid-brown hair and blue eyes, and a matter-of-fact manner. ‘Everyone will just have to toughen up. I need to save everything I have for Christmas. I’m planning on going away for the holidays…I have a skiing trip all lined up.’

      ‘Ski slopes?’ Josh’s eyes lit up. ‘That sounds like a good idea.’

      Alison glanced at him briefly. Why would anyone want to go away at Christmas time and leave his family behind? Sam was a different case altogether. He had family overseas, and his skiing holiday was a celebration of their coming together.

      ‘If this weather holds out you might not need to go away to ski,’ Katie put in, heading across the room to the kitchen annexe, where a coffee pot steamed gently on a worktop by the sink. ‘With the snow starting already, it looks as though we could be in for a white Christmas here at home. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?’ A dreamy expression settled on her face. ‘I can just imagine it…A carpet of white over the Pennine Hills, with icicles hanging from the trees and masses of stars in a midnight sky. All the lights of the houses would give out a golden glow…’

      ‘And we could sit inside, all cosy and warm,’ Alison added, rubbing her arms to bring about some heat. ‘With a blazing fire in the hearth. And we’d drink spicy fruit punch and munch on hot mince pies covered with lashings of icing sugar. It would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?’

      ‘I’d sooner go on a pub crawl,’ Taylor put in. ‘Lots of singing and merry-making and people generally having a good time.’

      ‘That’s all a long way off yet,’ Josh said in a laconic tone, pulling mugs down from a shelf. ‘What is the obsession round here with the Christmas season? Snow means blocked roads and skids and lots of yucky snow melt on the verges when the thaw comes. Unless you like it so much you’re planning a mass exodus to the North Pole some time soon? I hope you’re not thinking of leaving me to manage A&E all by myself. I’d need a lot more than Santa and his little elves to help me get through the days.’

      ‘You’re a sad soul,’ Katie said, sending him a pitying glance. ‘What happened? Did you have your fun gland removed at some time?’

      He nodded solemnly. ‘Maybe I did—along with my nonsense nodule. Now, do you think we can push the subject of Christmas to one side and concentrate on limbering up ready for work? The rest of the staff are getting ready to hand over their patients to you. Apparently it’s been a busy night. Several people came in with fractures and other injuries.’

      ‘Well, that’s brought us down to earth with a bump, hasn’t it?’ Alison poured coffee into the mugs and handed them around. She sipped her coffee and watched as Josh morphed smoothly from sympathetic colleague into leadership mode.

      ‘We have three difficult cases to deal with on handover…A patient with an aneurysm that needs careful management, a possible neck fracture, and a patient who suffered a collapsed lung. They’re all under observation at the moment, but I’m assigning responsibility as per the whiteboard. You’ll see there’s a long list of people waiting for treatment, even at this early hour.’

      He turned his attention to Alison, who put down her mug and prepared herself for action. He had that look about him that said he was up and running, and where she was concerned things were about to change…though not necessarily for the better.