The Emergency Doctor Claims His Wife. Margaret McDonagh

the temptation had been too great for him to resist. Now he had set his cause back even further, making the goal he had come here to achieve harder than ever.

      Smothering a sigh, he glanced up at the clock on the cubicle wall. His shift had officially ended half an hour ago, but he’d never been one to clock off to time. His presence was determined by his patients’ needs. A few doctors and nurses might walk off and hand their patient over to another member of staff coming on duty, but that had never been his way. The nature of accident and emergency medicine involved a rapid turnaround of multiple patients, but within that he believed in giving the best continuity of care possible, and he tried to see each case through to the end.

      Annie had held the same philosophy. He could only hope that hadn’t changed, and that he would still have a chance to catch up with her before she left for home. Seeing her was a necessity—as was pinning her down so they could talk away from the lack of privacy and the pressures of the hospital.

      Returning his attention to Mrs Mooney, grateful that she appeared less distressed, and knowing that was as much due to Holly’s expert care as anything else, Nathan applied some silver sulphadiazine cream to the injured hand before using sterile non-adherent dressings and covering the whole hand with a special glove which was secured around the wrist. That done, he stripped off his surgical gloves and tossed them in the bin.

      After prescribing some analgesia and anti-inflammatory medication for her to take at home for any pain, and a precautionary antibiotic to stem any infection, he left Holly tidying the cubicle and escorted Mrs Mooney out. Her worried daughter waited with the two boisterous boys. Nathan gave them some reassurance, and a few last-minute instructions for her care, then returned to finish up the notes and have a word with Holly before leaving.

      ‘You’ve been great, Holly…thanks for all your help today.’

      Surprise and gratitude were evident in the young woman’s expression. ‘Thank you, Nathan.’

      Her shy smile failed to lift the lingering sadness that shadowed her eyes, and he paused a moment, unsure whether to say anything more. Several times during the day he had sensed tension between Holly and junior doctor Gus Buchanan, and he had wondered what the story was. He hated to see anyone unhappy, but at the same time didn’t feel he had been in the department long enough to intrude—not without knowing more about the dynamics, anyway. Shaking his head, he said goodnight and made his way towards the staffroom. He’d keep an eye on Holly just in case. Being there for other people was the story of his life—something he had long resented when it had been forced upon him, but a trait he was unwilling to break when it came to patients, colleagues and friends. Right now, however, he had enough problems of his own to sort out, and for once he had to put himself first.

      There were several people in the staffroom. Thankfully, the predatory Olivia Barr was not one of them, but then neither was Annie. He’d checked when returning the notes on his final patient and knew she was only minutes ahead of him. A few discreet queries and he discovered she was in the women’s locker room, changing. Feeling nervous and uncomfortable, he loitered in the corridor, pretending to read the messages pinned higgledy-piggledy on the staff noticeboard. Knowing he couldn’t give Annie too much time to think and harden her heart even further against him, he was determined to catch her before she left the hospital.

      As he waited, he thought back to the moment he had first seen Annie. He would never forget it.

      By the time he had negotiated a temporary escape from the ties of home and managed to get to medical school he had found himself a few years older than the other students in his intake. Having always felt alone, never having connected with or been part of a group, he had approached those early days at medical school with a mix of intense apprehension and an unbelievable sense of freedom. At last he had been doing what he