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Consultant Care
by
SHARON WIRDNAM

CHAPTER ONE

"Goo-goo-goo!"

Nicolette lifted baby Tom out of the bath-tub and onto a warm, fluffy
towel, where he wriggled about appreciatively as she began to dry him.
"Goo-goo-goo!"  she cooed at him again in a sing-song voice, her
experienced hands rubbing the small, fragrant body.  Babies just out of
the bath smelt almost good enough to eat, she decided, not for the
first time!  "Who's an absolutely gorgeous boy, then?"  she murmured.
"And who knows it, too?"

The baby gurgled back, seemingly unaware that a week ago he had been
hanging on to life by a slender thread.

Nursing was no like no other job in the world, Nicolette decided with
satisfaction as she pulled the plug out of the bath and the water began
to gurgle away.  You could start on a brand-new ward, in a brand-new
hospital, and after a busy, busy morning you would automatically feel
as though you'd been there since the year dot.

Amazing!

And very convenient, too, since the ward sister she was supposed to
have been on duty with had broken her leg while out mountain climbing,
and wouldn't be back for at least six weeks.  Which meant, to all
intents and purposes, that Nicolette and her opposite-number staff
nurse would be in charge of the ward.  Talk about being thrown in at
the deep end!

"Yes," Nicolette murmured as she tickled Tom's belly button.  "You are
definitely the most scrumptious baby!"

"Do you make a habit of talking to yourself, Staff Nurse?"  came an
amused voice from behind her.

Nicolette turned round without ceasing the patting movements of her
hands to see Jane Jones, one of the student nurses, standing at the
bathroom door, grinning from ear to ear.  Jane was a first-year
student, just coming to the end of her stint on the busy paediatric
ward, and she had been of invaluable help to Nicolette on her first
morning at Southbury Hospital.

"But I'm not talking to myself," corrected Nicolette,
mock-reprimandingly.  "I'm talking to young Tom.  Did they never teach
you in nursing school that babies and children should be talked to
constantly?"

"They sure did," said Jane, moving across the tiled bathroom floor to
crouch down beside Nicolette.  She watched the staff nurse making
tickling little circles all over the baby's tummy and noted the child's
enthusiastic response.  "Hard to believe he was so ill, isn't it?"

Nicolette deftly snapped a nappy on and began to roll a blue Babygro
over one little foot.  "Well, I didn't see him, of course, but if his
notes were anything to go by then yes, he's lucky to be alive.  Did you
nurse him when he first came in?"

Jane shook her head.  "No, not at first.  He was a bit too poorly for
any of us students to look after.  Intensive Care was full, so they
sent one of their nurses down here to special him.  Sister usually
likes caring for the really sick ones herself, if the ward's quiet
enough, but since she "Broke her leg," finished Nicolette with an
expressive flash of humour in her blue eyes.  "Yes, I know."  She
pulled the Babygro up the child's emaciated torso; he was still
painfully thin.  "How come he nearly died before he was admitted to
hospital-do you know why he didn't come in sooner?"

Nurse Jones nodded glumly.  "It was the usual sorry story, I'm afraid.
His father abandoned the family, leaving Tom's mother to go out to
work."  She grimaced' As she's under qualified the only work she could
get was in a bar, so she left Tom in the charge of his older sister."
She paused dramatically.  "Only trouble is that she isn't much
older-she's only nine herself, and didn't realise how ill he was."

Nicolette nodded.  "Or how rapidly a baby's condition can deteriorate,
no doubt."  Poor little mite, she thought.  As Nurse Jones had said, it
was the old, old story, and not for the first time she found herself
wondering what kind of chance this child would have in life.  She
glanced at the student nurse, who was crouched beside her with an
enquiring look on her face, and smiled.  "So-did you come here just to
keep me company?  Because if you did..  you can start cleaning out that
bath right now!  Or have you come to inform me that there's an acute
admission on its way up from Accident and Emergency?"

"Neither.  But there has just been a phone call."

"Not Pharmacy again?"  Nicolette clicked her tongue absently as she
pulled a funny face at the baby.

"Not this time," grinned Nurse Jones, thinking that Staff Nurse
Nicolette Kennedy was going to breathe a lot of life into this
place-and not before time!

"Dr.  Le Saux is on his way up.  He wants to have a quick look at one
of the patients.  So I thought I'd better warn you," she finished, in
the kind of tone that Nicolette might have associated with the three
minute warning if she'd evcr been unlucky enough to hear it.

"And Dr.  Le Saux is the consultant?"  guessed Nicolette slowly.

"That's right," said-Jane in an even gloomier voice that even after
only one morning together Nicolette could tell was over-succinct.
"Haven't you met him?"

Nicolette shook her glossy black curls as she sat back on her heels and
watched Thomas happily kicking his legs.  "No, I haven't.  He was away
overseeing some research proposal when I was interviewed for the job."
She cocked her head to one side.  "Unusual name; is he French?"

Jane shook her head.  "Apparently it's an old Jersey name.  Distinctive
and unique-just like our dear doctor!"

Dr.  Le Saux sounded nothing if not formidable, thought Nicolette with
some amusement.  "What time did he say he would be here?"

"In about half an hour."

Nicolette picked the unprotesting baby up and cradled him against her
shoulder, unable to ignore the non-verbal messages she was getting from
her junior any longer.  "And is he so very awful that you think I
should be warned against him?"

Nurse Jones opened her mouth with undeniable eagerness, then seemed to
think better of it, and shut it again.  "It doesn't matter."

"Fine," smiled Nicolette diplomatically, and rose to her feet in one
easy, fluid movement.  If any of her family had been watching they
would have been amazed.  Sometimes she could be the world's clumsiest
person-in fact, her family were always teasing her about having two
left feet.  But when she was in charge of a baby or a child she seemed
to develop an unerring grace.  It was as though children brought out
the very best in her, and perhaps it was this quality which had always
made her attain the most glowing reports from all the paediatric wards
on which she had worked.

Though lately she had to admit to feeling a touch wistful.  Broody,
almost; wondering what it might be like to care for a baby of her own,
instead of always looking after someone else's.

And you can knock that idea on the head immediately , Nicolette, she
told herself sternly.  The creation of babies took two people, and she
was old-fashioned enough to believe in love and marriage.  And there
were certainly no suitable candidates for either love or marriage in
the offing at present!

Nurse Jones got to her feet as well, already feeling an odd sort of
loyalty to this new staff nurse with the dark, curly hair and the
remarkably bright blue eyes.  "Er, Staff?"

Nicolette turned around, the baby still cradled against her shoulder.
"Yes, Nurse Jones?"

"About Dr.  Le Saux..."

"Mmm?"

Nurse Jones bit at her bottom lip.  "Well, I wouldn't want to be
indiscreet," she began falteringly.

"And I'm not asking you to be," Nicolette told her firmly.  "The last
thing I'm after is gossip.  But it's just that, as Sister isn't here to
give me any guidelines, I'd appreciate any help you can give me about
the consultant's particular likes and dislikes.  He might not have any,
of course, but then he would be uniquein my experience of consultants!"
She grinned at the junior.

Nurse Jones dimpled back.  "I know exactly what you mean!"

"Well, then-any tips at all, and I'd be truly grateful ," said
Nicolette.

Nurse Jones began to doubtfully eye the wayward strand of black hair
which was threatening to escape from Nicolette's chignon.  "Er-it's
just that Dr.  Le Saux likes order."

"Order?"  Nicolette echoed in surprise as she tried unsuccessfully to
tuck the errant curl behind her ear.  Obviously one tried to keep a
hospital ward as orderly as possible, but, in Nicolette's experience,
doing so with any degree of efficiency on a children's ward was doomed
to failure.  Children and order, like electricity and water, simply did
not mix!

Nurse Jones nodded.  "I'm afraid so."

"What kind of order?"

"Oh, you know, a tidy ward.  A quiet war dIt sounded as though this
list might go on and on and Nicolette gave a strangled kind of smile.
"On second thoughts, say no more!  Dr.  Le Saux can tell me all his
likes and dislikes himself."  But if he thinks I'll be straightening
sheets when I should be cuddling babies, he's got another think coming,
she thought with a determined tilt of her square chin.  She handed the
baby over to Nurse Jones, who, even after one morning, she could tell
loved small children just about as much as she did.  "Would you like to
give Thomas a feed for me?"

"Oh, could I?"  asked Nurse Jones gratefully, then screwed her nose up
as she noticed that the bath still hadn't been cleaned.  "You're going
to leave cleaning the bath, then?"

"Leave it?  Leave it?  Certainly not, Nurse Jones!  Are you trying to
encourage cross-infection on the ward?"  squeaked Nicolette
indignantly, but then her full mouth softened with irrepressible humour
as she saw the younger girl's startled face.  "I'll do it myself, you
ninny," she chided gently.

"You?"  The student nurse's eyebrows disappeared into her fringe.

"Sure.  Just because I'm qualified doesn't mean I can't do a bit of the
donkey work now and again.  Besides, you're leaving here soon, aren't
you?  And there won't be much chance to feed babies on the pychiatric
ward."

Nurse Jones grimaced.  "Please don't remind me!"

"Oh, you'll love it," prophesied Nicolette cheerfully'I did."

"Just not as much as paediatrics?"  guessed Nurse Jones.

"That's right.  But then for me nothing was ever as much fun as
paediatrics.  Now, shoo!  Take that baby before I change my mind," and
Nicolette laughed as she picked up the cloth and started to sing
tunelessly as she began to wipe the bath out.

Life was good.

Very good, she sighed contentedly.

After doing her nurse training in one of London's biggest teaching
hospitals she had done the additional studying required to become a
registered paediatric nurse.  And after all that hard work had decided
that she needed a break!

So she had taken a year off to travel around Australia and had had an
absolute ball of a time, exploring the country's beautiful wide, open
reaches and enthusiastically entering into fhe sporty lifestyle which
the Australians seemed to take for granted.  When the year was up she
had found that she had changed her mind about returning to London and
her training hospital.  The thought of crowded metropolitan life in
comparison to the great outdoors had made her feel positively
claustrophobic.  So she had applied for the post of staff nurse here at
pioneering Southbury Hospital, set in the glorious south of England.
And although Southbury itself was a big naval port, with a thriving
city centre, Nicolette couldn't dispel her image of it as a sun-baked,
sleepy haven-a little like a lazy cat sleeping in front of a banked
fire!

She didn't hear footsteps; she was too busy belting out a number from
the year's hit musical and attacking the side of the bath with her
usual enthusiastic vigour.  She didn't even hear a voice, and surely
someone wouldn't have just come and stood at the bathroom door without
saying anything?

Consequently she didn't know how long it took for her to register that
there was someone else in the bathroom with her.

She saw a leg.  Correction: two legs swung into her line of vision. Or,
rather, it was the feet connected to the legs that she noticed first,
because the feet were wearing the kind of shoes which Nicolette had
never seen before, and she knew instinctively that the soft black
leather was handmade, that it was very definitely not English, and,
furthermore, that the shoes had cost a fortune.  They were also
polished and bright and extraordinarily clean.  Now who on earth had
the time to keep their shoes that clean?  she thought fleetingly as her
bright blue gaze travelled upwards.

Nice trousers, too, she thought absently.  Grey and immaculate.  Worn
casually loose.  Nicolette blinked.

And not doing much... Correction: not doing anything to disguise thighs
so strapping and so muscular and so... This man could be an Olympic
sprinting champion, she decided, keen to see whether the top half of
the mystery intruder would match the bottom half, when a cold, clear
and crisply incisive voice cut into her thoughts like a tape-measure
into the hips of an unnsuccessful dieter.

"When you've quite finished," the voice said repressively.

Nicolette sat back on her heels and found herself looking into the most
spectacular pair of eyes she had ever seen.  She swallowed.

Beautiful brown eyes.

She swallowed again.  Brown was far too ordinary a word to use in
conjunction with eyes which reminded her of velvety chocolate, and of
treacle..  of all things dark and sweet and mysteriously delicious. And
when she looked more closely they weren't a uniform colour at all,
because there were flecks of other colours hidden in their depths.  An
arresting green-as fresh and as verdant as a spring day-and gold, too,
precious and gleaming and... and... "Er..  hello," she managed.

His mouth, which also happened to be the embodiment of perfection,
twisted into a grim, hard line as his eyes flicked disparagingly over
her dripping hands.  "Staff Nurse," he growled dangerously, "would you
mind telling me what you think you're doing?"

Nicolette should have interpreted the dangerous glint in those
magnificent eyes, but she foolishly attempted to chivvy him out of a
blatantly foul temper.  "Well, I'm not writing out my tickets for the
National Lottery, am I?"  she joked.

He didn't move a muscle of his face in an answering smile.  Instead he
surveyed her with a cold, unblinking scrutiny as though she were
something which had just been dragged in by the cat.  "Are you or are
you not supposed to be in charge of the ward?"  he demanded curtly.

The implication being, she supposed, that she'd left work on the ward
undone, which she knew darned well she hadn't!  Nicolette's soft
features rearranged themselves into a mutinous expression.  "I am!" she
fired back with equal curtness, her good humour evaporating
completely.

Just let him dare criticise her-just let him!

Not seeming at all perturbed by her expression, he proceeded to do just
that.  "And is this how it is deemed proper Oh , what a pompous word!
-for a staff nurse to run the ward?"

"What am I doing that's so wrong-Doctor?"  enquired Nicolette sweetly.
"At least, I'm assuming that you're a doctor and not a pharmacist or a
dietician or one of the many other members of the hospital staff who
wear white coats.  And the reason I don't know your status is because
you haven't..."  she toyed with saying "haven't had the courtesy', but
resisted the temptation "..  haven't introduced yourself," she finished
primly.

The implied criticism went over him like water off a duck's back.  "Of
course I'm a doctor," he snapped back.  "Since when have you known
pharmacists and dieticians to carry stethoscopes around in their
pockets?"  His finger jabbed at the stethoscope which was dangling
clearly from the pocket of his white coat.  "And as to what you're
doing wrong-why, you're cleaning the bath out, for heavens sake!"

"Haven't you ever heard of cross-infection?"  she retorted hotly, not
flinching from the look of incredulity which had hardened the eyes she
had once foolishly thought magnificent.

"What?"  he demanded, as though she'd just started speaking to him in a
foreign language.

"Baths have to be cleaned every time they're used," she shot back.  "Or
didn't you know that?"

"Of course I know that," he bit out impatiently.  "But isn't there a
junior who could be doing it for you, while you're doing what you're
supposed to be doing, namely, looking after the ward?"

Nicolette had many theories of her own about how nursing could be
improved, and the mystery doctor had inadvertently hit on one of her
number-one bete noires.  She took a deep breath as she forced herself
to control her temper.  Heavens, she couldn't remember being so mad in
years!  "I do not ascribe to the theory," she began haughtily, "that
the students should be lumbered with all the menial tasks around the
ward.  If we make them play skivvy the whole time then they aren't
exactly going to learn a whole lot, are they, Doctor?"

His eyes narrowed.  "Why bother asking me, Staff?  You seem about to
give me a little lecture.  Pray continue."

Patronising so-and-so!  "With pleasure!"  she responded tartly. "Giving
juniors nothing but menial chores plays havoc with their
self-esteem."

"Self-esteem?"  he echoed incredulously, as though he hadn't heard her
correctly.

"Yes, Doctor-self-esteem!  Nurses need it too, you know.  And
constantly assigning them to clean baths and empty bedpans, etcetera,
etcetera, etcetera, isn't going to make them feel like an indispensable
member of the nursing team, is it?"  she finished, her defiant tone
disguised by her need to draw in a deep breath.  "Especially if they
see the staff nurse swanning around the place like a queen bee, afraid
to dirty her apron or have any kind of hands-on contact with the
patients.  Now that kind of attitude doesn't earn the kind of respect I
like to receive from my junior nurses!"

"Whereas you think that scrubbing out the bath and singing loudly like
a fishwife does, I suppose?"  he suggested sarcastically.

She gave him her most beatific smile.  "Yes, Doctor," she replied
sweetly.  "I do."

His eyes were thoughtful as he stared down at her from a very great,
very disapproving height and it only then occurred to her that she had
conducted the entire conversation with him whilst sitting on the floor,
and that her long black-stockinged legs were all splayed out in the
most inelegant position!  She hastily clamped her knees together and
his frown increased still further.

"I am waiting to do a ward-round," he told her in a shiveringly soft
voice.  "So would you mind getting up?"

"Not at all," Nicolette answered formally.

Two things happened simultaneously.

The first was that Nicolette automatically did as he asked, and rose
awkwardly to her feet.

The second was that she was so overcome, whether by his presence or
their heated little contretemps, that she failed to see the small
puddle of water on the tiled floor, which she must have slopped there
when she was cleaning the bath.  And, given the two catalysts of a
slippery surface and her own innate clumsiness, the inevitable
happened.

Nicolette slipped, her legs and arms flying with all the lack of
co-ordination of a newly born foal, and she would have fallen
completely and hit her head on the side of the bath, to boot, had not
the tall man beside her lunged out instinctively to save her.

Nicolette was a tall girl, and certainly not fat, but she was healthy
and well covered, and her rescuer was obviously unprepared for the
soft, warm weight that landed in his arms, because somehow she toppled
him too, and the two of them slid in synchrony down the side of the
bath, like two drunks at the end of a long party.

"What the hell-?"  he snarled in angry disbelief.

Nicolette tried to brace herself, but it was difficult.  Her nose was
just inches away from his name-badge; which had been hidden by most of
his lapel, and which proclaimed his name as Dr.  L Le Saux.

Of course.

Of course it was him!  It would have to be, wouldn't it?  I mean,
thought Nicolette with acid humour, if you were going to present
yourself to the ward consultant, to a man who loved order, then how
better to go about it than to rugby tackle him to the floor with all
the grace of a dying duck?

But there was another reason, too, for her inability to catch her
breath, or even to move, that was nothing to do with Nicolette's
embarrassment and everything to do with the man himself.

Because somehow, in the course of steadying her and saving her from
possible concussion, he had firmly put one hand around her waist, and
was still holding on to her, with all the assurance of a man who had
had a lot of experience of holding on to women.

Although, she thought, looking at those craggy features , that didn't
surprise her one bit!  And, close to, the eyes were even more
devastating than she had originally thought.

"Would you mind," he enunciated in the most tightly controlled voice
she had ever heard, "getting your foot out of my trousers?"

Nicolette blinked and glanced down.  Oh, heavens!  She could see just
what he meant: the elegant grey trousers had a turn-up, or a cuff, as
some people called it.  The top Italian designers that season had
deemed such cuffs essential for every well-dressed man.  Even she had
read about that in the newspapers!

And her hefty black nurse's shoe, with its extremely heavy-duty sole,
had somehow lodged itself there, wedged inside it as securely as a
sailor in a hammock.

With her customary enthusiasm Nicolette yanked her foot out, but the
movement was accompanied by a distinct tearing sound and her eyes
swivelled downwards in horror to discover that in the process of
removing her foot she had ripped his gorgeous trousers!

"Thank you," he said, in a chilly voice just dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, no!"  exclaimed Nicolette as she scrambled to her feet and
automatically held her hand out to help him up as she would to a
patient.

He studiously ignored the outstretched hand, managing to lever his
long-legged frame up from the bathroom floor until he was beside her
once more and towering over her again.  Only this time there wasn't
just that look of poorly concealed irritation on his face, there was
downright anger there, too, but that didn't deter Nicolette from trying
to make amends.

"Oh, your poor trousers!"  she exclaimed in horror.  "You must let me
offer to repair them."

There was a long, tense silence while he studied her face
disbelievingly, and then he said, "I doubt whether you could afford
to."

Well!  It was one thing to wear clothes that obviously cost a king's
ransom to buy, but quite another to then rub your wealth in someone
else's face!  Nicolette stiffened and drew her shoulders back proudly.
"I meant,"

she said deliberately, "that I could sew them for you."

If she had suggested single-handedly flying a light aircraft across the
Atlantic with him as the only passenger he could not have looked more
horrified, or more appalled.

"If you think," he said deliberately, speaking each word with distaste,
as though he were being forced to swallow a particularly nasty dose of
medicine, "that I would allow you anywhere near my trousers.  It was
just very unfortunate that Nurse Jones chose that particular moment to
walk back into the bathroom , to find them face to face and glowering
at each other.  And it was unfortunate, too, that, from the look of
profound and abject consternation on her face, she had completely
misinterpreted the meaning of his words.  "Oh, I'm s-so s-sorry!"  she
stuttered, and, turning scarlet, she went straight back out again as if
the hounds of hell were snapping at her heels.

The awkward silence which fell as they watched the student nurse go
stretched and stretched until it was almost unbearable.

Nicolette looked helplessly up into his eyes.

"I would now like to do my ward-round," he told her icily.  "If you
could find it in yourself to grant me the pleasure-' this word was
enunciated with devastating contempt "-of accompanying me?"  And he
stalked out without another word.

Nicolette was always one to look on the bright side, and yes, OK,
perhaps it wasn't the most auspicious of beginnings, but that didn't
mean that they wouldn't be able to get on in the future, did it?

She gulped, trying and failing to imagine a close, friendly working
relationship developing with such an unbearable man.

She turned and went to follow him out, but as she did she caught a
glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror and flinched.

She looked so unprofessional!

Her uniform was very casual, which didn't exactly help.  She wore a
simple short-sleeved dress, with a kind of tabard that covered most of
it.  This was a sleeveless white overall, brightly decorated with
cartoon characters and which was unique to Southbury's paediatric
wards.  Designed specifically to make young patients feel at home, at
present it was only adding fuel to Nicolette's conviction that she
didn't look fit to be in charge of the ward!

Her cheeks were as pink and as shiny as if she'd spent the morning out
gathering hay, and her blue eyes were bright-two chips of dazzling
sapphire in her square face.  Puzzlingly, she looked so alive and so
vibrant that it almost shocked her, but it was the state of her hair
that most caught her attention.

Difficult to control at the best of times, the frizzy black curls had
clearly been affected by the steam, the fall and the subsequent
collision because it now looked as though a swarm of ebony snakes was
protruding from her head.

There were tendrils threatening to escape everywhere , and, worse
still, some which already had escaped and were lying on her cheeks and
coiling down the back of her long neck.

It would be hopeless, she knew, to try to mend the damage; her hair
needed completely redoing.  And she couldn't, she just couldn't leave
Dr.  Le Saux waiting for her while she went off and did her hair.  Just
imagine what he would think of her then!

So she automatically smoothed her hands down the sides of her blue
cotton dress, unconsciously moulding the curving lines of her hips as
she did so, and set off with a heavy heart to do a ward round with Dr.
L Le Saux.

CHAPTER TWO

NIcoLETTE spotted that the curtains had been drawn round one of the
beds and that Dr.  Le Saux's white coat was just disappearing behind
it, reminding her a little of the white rabbit in Alice in
Wonderland!

The paediatric ward was not of the old-fashioned "Nightingale' design
that Nicolette was used to, with two long stark lines of beds on either
side, although perhaps the 'orderly' Dr.  Le Saux might have preferred
that, she thought wickedly.  Instead, as was the modern way of nursing,
the ward was divided into four-bedded cubicles, with the nurses'
station in the centre but close enough to be able to observe the four
side-rooms, where the very sick or infectious patients were looked
after.

Nicolette moved the curtains aside and stepped in.

Dr.  Le Saux was bending over a child aged about nine, a child who was
staring up at him with big, trusting eyes.  The tall doctor
straightened up when Nicolette walked in, and the corner of his mouth
moved very slightly upwards in a derisive little curve, indicating that
his mood remained as prickly as before.

"So here you are," he observed.  "At last," he added unreasonably.

My, but he was irascible!  Did his wife nag him, or what?  Nicolette
found herself staring into eyes which had suddenly taken on a brooding,
stormy quality.  It would take a strong woman to nag Dr.  Le Saux, she
she lived in a time where hospital traditions were no decided!  His
name badge, so embarrassingly close longer as starchy as they had used
to be.  Indeed, the earlier, now winked at her like a diamond.  "Dr.  L
Le use of Christian names was positively encouraged Saux', it said, and
she wondered idly what the "L' might these days.  stand for.  Lucifer,
most probably, she thought, biting Simon responded to the warm grin.
"That's pretty," back a grin with difficulty.  "Yes.  Here I am," she
he said.  "An' you're pretty, too!  Isn't she pretty, said airily.
Doctor?"

She turned to face the little boy on the bed who had Nicolette was too
busy trying to stop herself from been admitted earlier that week.  She
had said a quick blushing to take much notice of the fact that the
stern "good morning' after report when she had briefly gone faced Dr.
Le Saux had not encouraged the use of his round the ward to try to
acquaint herself with the Christian name!  patients, but that had been
all she had had time for.  His face went even sterner as he managed to
ignore None the less, Nicolette knew the boy's name; she had Simon's
question by saying smoothly, "Perhaps you'd arrived half an hour early
and had memorised every like to give me a brief run-through of Simon's
history, single patient's name.  Staff Nurse?  I am assuming, of
course, that you man The little boy who lay in the bed was pale and
thin, aged to find the time to read it up?"  with a pinched little
face.  "Hi, Simon," said Nicolette.  She had, thank heavens!  Nicolette
gave Simon's

"Hi," said Simon, giving her the wary little once-over hand a quick
squeeze, pleased as punch when he that children always seemed to give
when they met squeezed hers back.  "He has cystic fibrosis."  someone
who would be involved with their care during Dr.  Le Saux nodded.  "And
what can you tell me their stay in hospital.  "How d'you know my name?"
about the disease?"

Nicolette tapped the side of her nose, rolled her At least medical
staff could now speak frankly in eyes, then giggled.  "Magic.  I'm a
mind-reader!"  front of their young charges-which was a relief,

At the sight of her open grin, the slightly suspicious thought
Nicolette as she gave Simon a dazzling smile.  look on Simon's face
evaporated.  "You saw it in the Research had long since shown that
honesty was the Kardex?"  he guessed.  best policy when dealing with
children and that "pro "Right first time!"  tecting' them by concealing
the nature of their illness

"And what's your name?"  he asked her.  often led to their constructing
frightening fantasies that

She looked down at the small boy understandingly.  were far worse than
the truth.  He could read on her badge what her surname was; he "It's
an inherited condition, affecting many tissues, wanted to know what her
real name was, her Christian particularly those with endocrine glands,"
she summarname'Nicolette."  She smiled broadly, thankful that ised
fluently.

"And how would you describe the endocrine glands, very simply, to a
junior nurse?"  he probed.

Nicolette decided that she would have to award him ten out of ten for
persistence, but just about resisted pulling a face at him because she
had to concede that he had a point.  Some senior nurses did waffle on
without knowing how to explain a subject adequately yet succinctly
None-the-less, the last time she had been asked directly about the
endocrine glands had been during her last set of examination papers!

She creased her brows together in concentration.  "They are a series of
small glands, situated in various parts of the body, which form
secretions known as hormones," she told him.

He nodded.  "Good.  So tell me how cystic fibrosis presents?"  he
queried immediately.

Nicolette could see that she was going to have to spend every evening
with her nose in a textbook if she was to continue working on Dr.  Le
Saux's ward!  "The majority of patients present with diarrhoea and
failure to thrive, due to malabsorption or recurrent persistent chest
infection.  Or both.  The diagnosis is made by-,

"I'm the one asking the questions, Staff," he growled impatiently.

"Certainly, Doctor," she answered politely, but her eyes flashed a
spark of defiance at the way he had just arrogantly butted in like
that.  Talking to her as though she were fresh off her first ward,
instead of a highly qualified nurse with five years of exacting
training behind her!  She caught Simon looking up and watching her, a
broad grin on his pale face.

"Don't take any notice of him, Nurse," he told her, almost cheerfully.
"He's always growling.  He has tohe 's a lion man!"

"That's enough, Simon!"  said Dr.  Le Saux warningly.

Teasing his doctor seemed to have given Simon a definite rise in
spirits.  "That's what he's called, too lion man!  Suits him, doesn't
it?"

Nicolette raised her thick black brows above clear blue eyes and looked
with frank curiosity at Dr.  Le Saux.  Lion man?  "Oh?"  she queried in
a faint, soft voice.

"My name is Leander," he told her reluctantly in that deep, deep voice
which sounded exactly like rich, runny honey spilling slowly over
gravel.

"That's rather..  unusual," said Nicolette lamely, the curiosity
remaining in her blue eyes.

He frowned, then sighed, as if recognising that some kind of
explanation was in order.  "It's Greek for "lion man"-as Simon has so
accurately pointed out."

Leander!  Nicolette blinked.  Of all the remarkable names for a man...
"But weren't you teased about it at school?"  she blur tad out before
she could stop herself.

He looked taken aback, as though the question had surprised him, and
Nicolette suspected that he would not have chosen to answer it, had not
Simon butted in eagerly.

"Did they, Doctor?"

The tall man's eyes rested thoughtfully on the young boy, and he nodded
slowly, as though he had guessed Simon's true reasons for asking.
"Yes," he said slowly.  "They did try to tease me.  But they didn't
succeed."

"Because you're big, and tough," hazarded Simon gloomily.  "And could
knock them down with a punch."

But Dr.  Le Saux shook his head.  "No, Simon," he responded quietly.
"If you resort to physical violence then you're putting yourself on the
same level as the cowards who are bullying you-and believe me, that's
all that they are, nothing but pathetic cowards."

"Then..  how did you get them to leave you alone?"  asked Simon
diffidently, and Nicolette's heart turned over in sympathy for the
young lad, for it was transparently obvious that he must have been the
butt of bullying himself.

"By ignoring them," Dr.  Le Saux answered sternly.  "Simple, but
effective.  They soon get bored repeating something if they can see
that it isn't upsetting you."

"And if it is upsetting you?"  said Simon falteringly.

"Then you pretend.  Pretend it isn't, and soon they'll stop.  And if
you can practise giving them a pitying little smile like this," and he
curved his mouth into the haughtiest look of pride that Nicolette had
ever seen, "at the same time," he carried on, "then they'll steer well
clear.  Try it," he advised softly.  "It works; I promise you."

Simon nodded slowly, as if a promise from this particular doctor was
something to be cherished.  "I will."

Nicolette found herself watching the tall paediatrician covertly,
thinking about the man, and about the name.  And whoever had chosen it
had been spot on because yes, the name suited him.  Really suited
him.

He had impressively broad shoulders, which suggested strength, and the
lean musculature of his long limbs marked him out as hunter, protector
and provider And here, standing beside the window, where the sunlight
streamed in on them, she could see that his hair was not merely very
thick and dark, as she had thought when she had first seen him, but
that it also had the most astonishing dark red lights dancing in its
depths, and, although it was neatly trimmed, its very thickness and
intriguing hint of unruliness were not dissimilar to the texture of a
lion's mane... She came out of her fanciful daydream to find him
staring at her, a look of faint question in his eyes, and Nicolette
realised that she must have been standing there ogling him!  Oh, dear!
She hastily cleared her throat.  "Er-any more questions you wanted to
ask me?"

"I was going to ask you about the outlook," he told her softly.

For a moment her brain was complete mush.  "The outlook?"  she echoed
stupidly.

"Of cystic fibrosis," he explained crisply.

Of course.  Thank heavens to have something concrete to focus her
attention on, other than the magnificent lion-like qualities of the man
who stood in front of her!  Nicolette didn't falter.  "The long-term
survival has improved considerably in recent years, and there are now a
great many adult CF patients who are leading fulfilled lives.  In the
meantime the adults of tomorrow can take glqeat comfort from knowing
that a vast amount of research is being done into the disease" And she
gave Simon's hand another tiny squeeze.

"That's what I keep telling Simon," said Dr.  Le Saux quietly.  "But
you take a lot of convincing, don't you, my lad?"

Nicolette's eyes were shining as she looked down at the patient. "Well,
I've said it, too-and I wasn't primed to, was I?  How many more people
would you like to repeat it to you, Simon, before you believe it?"

Simon's eyes were serious beyond their years, but his voice didn't have
a trace of self-pity in it.  "I knoq.v that what you say is true," he
said.  "An' I've always believed Dr.  Le Saux.  He's looked after me
since I was a baby.  In fact, Mum and Dad moved down to this part of
the world so that he could look after me, didn'i we, Doc?"

Nicolette blinked in surprise as she stared at the consultant.  She
could never have imagined the tall, imposing doctor looking vaguely
disquieted, but he did now.  He was, she realised with a surprised
glee, embarrassed at Simon's obvious hero-worship and glowing
testimony!  Strange, that.  She would never have had him down as being
modest!

"Is that so?"  Nicolette asked softly.

The dark head with the red lights in it was shaken impatiently as he
appeared to contradict Simon's words.  "The sea air acts as a tonic,"
he shrugged self deprecatingly , adding as he saw the quirk of
amusement which curved the corners of Nicolette's mouth, "And yes, that
may be avery old-fashioned idea, Staff Nurse, but I happen to believe
it's true."

"But so do I!"  agreed Nicolette, feeling almost shocked.  She could
never have imagined agreeing with anything said by the stern-faced man
she'd grappled with in the bathroom!

"Don't take any notice of him," said Simon again.

"It's not just the sea air-he does research into CF here, too.  '

Nicolette looked into eyes whose green flecks had intensified, giving
him the enigmatic appearance of a cat.  "Do you?"

"Yes," he said, giving her a resigned look.  "On a very small scale, of
course."

"Rubbish!  He's a world authority," put in Simon cheerfully, ignoring
the blatantly warning expression on Dr.  Le Saux's face.

Curiouser and curiouser!  Nicolette made a mental note to take herself
off to the reference library when she finished duty to read something
he had written.

"Researching into any particular aspect of cystic fibrosis , Dr.  Le
Saux?"  she asked politely, but it was difficult to keep the admiration
out of her voice.  Research, she knew, was not done for any of the
kudos that surrounded the status of doctor.  It didn't earn you money,
and it ate away at all your time.  People who researched tended to do
it because of their thirst for knowledge; and for results that would
hopefully bring about improvements to a patient's life.  Nicolette had
always held researchers in the highest esteem.

He shrugged his broad shoulders restlessly.  "I'm searching for the
cure," he said starkly, finishing on an altogether different note. "But
there again, isn't everyone?"

For Simon's sake, Leander managed to disguise the note of cynicism that
was threatening to creep into his voice but it took a huge effort as
usual, especially with that young, rather beautiful nurse staring up at
him like that with those amazing shining blue eyes, and all because
he'd mentioned his foolish little bit of research.  What did she think
he could do by sitting up night after long damned night, studying
tissue samples?  Rid the world of this illness?  And, even if he could,
nothing would change, not really.  Because then he would go on to try
to find a cure for the next disease, and the next, until his own time
had run out.  God help us to rid the world of all illnesses, Leander
thought bitterly, but especially those which affected young children...
But Nicolette heard the faint underlying note of cynicism , heard and
understood it, and her tender heart couldn't help warming to him,
arrogance or no arrogance' That absolutely wonderful" she breathed
sincerely, not really caring if she sounded a bit over the top in her
praise.  "I think that research must be the most worthwhile thing in
the world any person can do."

But he knitted his dark brows together, as though she had just called
him names.  "Thanks for the recommendation ," he said, with crisp
sarcasm.  "But we can't really afford the time to stand around chatting
we both have work to do, do we not?"

He didn't see the eyes-to-heaven expression which Simon gave, but
Nicolette did, and it took every effort of will for her not to giggle.
Let him be grumpy if he wanted-if the man was a researcher then she'd
forgive him an awful lot!  "Yes, Doctor," she answered demurely.

He frowned suspiciously, as if sensing the shared joke between
Nicolette and Simon.  "Then would you mind lifting up Simon's pyjama
jacket," he ordered shortly, "so that I can examine his chest?"

Nicolette did as he asked, while he warmed the stethoscope up on the
palms of his strong, capable hands.  Then she watched him
dispassionately while he started to examine Simon, wondering what his
practical skills as a doctor were like.

She should have guessed, of course.  He was good, she had to admit.
Very, very good indeed.

Paediatricians, who looked exclusively after children -from tiny babies
to young adults-needed skills above and beyond the normal skills of
other doctors.  They had to be infinitely patient, and precise.  They
needed to be flexible and able to cope with the unexpected without
blinking-which was why Nicolette had been surprised when told that Dr.
Le Saux demanded order.  They also needed the utmost manual dexterity
and a steady, steady hand.  But the skill they needed above all else
was that of communication -not something she would have automatically
put at the top of his list of qualities!  Children were famous for
clamming up when questioned about their illness, and it took a special
kind of adult to coax information out of them.

Extraordinary, then, that this man, who on first impressions Nicolette
would have ventured had a real problem with communication, should have
this little boy eating out of his hand.

There was silence while he listened to the chest sounds, punctuated
only by his brief instructions to Simon to breathe deeply.  And when he
raised his dark head there was something approaching a smile on his
hard face.

"Good," he pronounced.  "The chest sounds clear.  Looks like all trace
of that nasty Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection has gone."  His eyes
narrowed in Nicolette's direction as he mentioned the rather virulent
strain of bacteria to which cystic fibrosis sufferers were particularly
susceptible.  "Have we had any sputum results back, Staff?"

Nicolette nodded, heartily glad that since her early days as a staff
nurse she had got into the habit of reading and memo rising all the
patients' results that came back.  And earlier she had tackled the pile
on the desk that had included Simon's.  "The result of the third
specimen came back this morning.  With the all-clear.  '

"Excellent."  Dr.  Le Saux smiled.  "Like to go home, Simon?"

The boy's face lit up.  "Oh, can I?"

The paediatrican threw his hands up in mockastonishment'But I thought
you liked being here," he teased gently.

"I do-it's just that home is "I know, Simon," interrupted Dr.  Le Saux
in the gentlest of voices.  "Home is better.  How's that stick insect
of yours?"

"It's had a baby," said Simon proudly.

"But I thought it was a male?"

"So did Mum!"  grimaced Simon.

Nicolette giggled, and both of them looked at her, and both joined in
with her laughter, and there was something so... so... startling about
the transformation which came over the stern doctor's face when he
actually allowed himself to laugh that Nicolette felt suddenly
breathless and it took a huge effort to keep her mind on the job and
not on that disarming smile of his.  "So w-when would you like Simon
discharged,

Dr.  Le Saux?"  she stumbled.

"How about tomorrow morning?"

Simon raised an irresistibly appealing face up to the doctor.  "How
about today?"

Dr.  Le Saux turned a cool, questioning gaze towards

Nicolette.  "Is that possible, Staff?"

"That depends on whether Simon's mother can be contacted, but I'm sure
it can be arranged.  But we'll need to get in touch with Pharmacy soon
if we're to get Simon's drugs to take home with him."

He nodded.  "I'll go and write them up now," he said briefly, and swung
the curtain back.

Nicolette rang Simon's delighted mother from the phone on the central
nursing station.

"Discharged, you say?"

"That's right," said Nicolette happily.

"But that's marvellous-we thought he'd be in at least over the
weekend!"  "He's responded to the drug regime far better than we
anticipated," Nicolette told her.

"Dr.  Le Saux tried something new," confided Mrs.

Lomas.  "He said he thought it might pay dividends."

She gave a sigh.  "That man is an absolute saint!"  ;

"So I believe," agreed Nicolette drily, with a shameless disregard for
her own feelings on the subject!  ; "I'll be right up to collect
Simon," Mrs.  Lomas promised eagerly.  "I can be there in about fifteen
' minutes, Staff.  '

"Now hold on a minute!"  laughed Nicolette.  "It'll probably take us a
couple of hours to get everything arranged.  Why don't you ring the
ward before you come up?  He can have his tea first-say, about three
thirty ?"

"OK, Staff Nurse, three-thirty it is," said Mrs.  Lomas happily, then
lowered her voice.  "And tell me, have you any idea what I could buy
Dr.  Le Saux as a thank you present?  He must be fed up with chocolates
and whisky, but we always like to get him a little something.  We're so
grateful to him."

What about a one-way ticket to Australia?  thought Nicolette with grim
humour.  "I'm sure he doesn't expect anything, Mrs.  Lomas.  I think
he'd like you to spend the money on Simon!"  She said goodbye, and put
the phone down.

Nicolette assumed that the saint-like Dr.  Le Saux had gone into the
doctors' office to write up Simon's prescription, but she was wrong,
for she found him in Sister's office, sitting at one end of the large
desk, his dark head glinting deep red lights, bent over the pharmacy
form he was completing.

Leander looked up as she entered, and frowned.  Lord, but she was a
distracting vision, was the unbidden thought which flew into his mind.
She really shouldn't be allowed to walk around like that, he decided a
touch ruefully.  All that clean, healthy skin and shiny eyes and
hair-she looked as if she should be starring in an orange-juice
commercial!  He ruthlessly killed the thought stone-dead and levelled
his gaze at her critically.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," he said irritably, as though they'd been in
the middle of a conversation.  "Can't you do something with your
hair?"

Nicolette thought that she must have misheard him.  "I beg your
pardon?"  she queried faintly.

"Your hair," he scowled.  "Do something with it, for pity's sake.  It
looks awful!"  How easily the lie slipped off his tongue.

Awful?  thought Nicolette indignantly.  It was untidy, true.  Extremely
untidy.  But awful?  She conveniently chose to ignore the fact that if
it had been anyone else but Leander le Saux suggesting that she "do
something with it' she probably would have laughed and agreed with
them.  As it was, since it had come from a man she scarcely knew, who
had already been ruder to her in less than an hour than she could
remember anyone being in her whole life before, mad indignation began
to sizzle away inside her, like an egg frying on a hot pavement.

She narrowed her blue eyes.  "How dare you make such personal remarks
to someone you've only just met?"

His frown deepened.  "And how dare you walk around the place looking
like Medusa?"

"Like who?"

"You heard," he snapped unrepentantly.

"Oh!"  She bit her lip in outrage as she pulled the clip out of her
hair, causing it to tumble unfettered to her waist.  She scarcely
noticed that the movement seemed to have arrested him, because she
whirled round to fling at him, "It's a pity I'm not Medusa," she raged
loudly, "because I would have taken great pleasure from turning you
into stone, Dr.  Le Saux!"

He opened his mouth to reply, when a female voice of authority
interrupted them from the open doorway.

"Staff Nurse Kennedy?"  came a high, disbelieving voice, and Nicolette
found herself looking up in horror, into the set features of the senior
specialist nurse manager.

CHAPTER THREE

NccotErrE recognised the stony-faced specialist nurse manager
immediately, struck once again by the fact that she seemed much too
young to hold such a senior position, being probably still under
thirty.  Her name was Miss Dixon and she had sat in on the interview
panel when Nicolette had applied for the job, since she was the senior
nurse overseeing both wards in Southbury's state-of-the-art paediatric
unit.

In looks, she was the absolute antithesis of Nicolette.  Her hair was a
smooth, ash-blonde cap that framed her head and her eyes were cool and
grey and calculating.  Her small, neatly boned body made Nicolette feel
like a strapping great thing in comparison !  She looked, thought
Nicolette, like a woman who had never been late for an appointment in
her life.  And a woman who wouldn't tolerate lateness in others.  At
Nicolette's interview the had been noticeable for her probing style of
questioning, and it had not escaped Nicolette's notice at the time that
her manner had not been exactly what you would describe as friendly.

And her manner now looked positively bristling as she surveyed
Nicolette across the office.  When she spoke her lips barely moved, but
Nicolette could tell that was only because she was so angry.

"Staff Nurse, you look a disgrace," she said tightly.  "Go to the
cloakroom and do something with your hair immediately.  After that,
come back here.  I wish to nurse manager say, in quite a different tone
altogether speak to you!"  from the one she'd used with Nicolette, a
sort of soft,

Nicolette was momentarily stunned into immobility.  smoky whisper, "So
what was the problem this time, She could never remember having been
spoken to so Leander?  Adulation or insubordination?"  summarily, or so
severely-not even as the most junior And, although she shamelessly
strained her ears, of student nurses.  Nicolette just couldn't make out
his first murmured

"Is that understood?"  quizzed the senior nurse.  response, although
Miss Dixon's voice was audible abrasively.  enough.

Nicolette swallowed, feeling about six inches high.  , "But I shall
have to deal with it, you know, Leander."  "Yes, Miss Dixon," she
answered quietly.  And the rather dry reply, "I rather think I'm able

"Then see to it!"  she snapped.  "Now!"  to handle spirited young staff
nurses without your inter It was utterly humiliating.  Unable to meet
Leander vent ion don't you, Rhoda?"  Le Saux's eyes, her cheeks
stinging with mortification "Neverthelessand hurt pride, Nicolette put
her stiff shoulders back But Nicolette didn't hear anything further,
because and said in an even voice, "Very well, Miss Dixon."  she had
sped up the corridor on swift feet and into

"Um-Staff Nurse?"  came Leander's voice as she the nurses' cloakroom to
tame her hair with hands that reached the door.  I were shaking with
emotion as his words sounded in

The effect of that deep, mocking voice on her her head.  already
tightly stretched nerves was like that of leaping "I And the
predominant emotions were rage and indiginto an icy bath after a sauna.
What now?  She found nation and utter disbelief!  "Spirited young staff
nurses', that her answer was unsteady, and despised herself for indeed!
It was the kind of thing men had used to it.  "Y-yes, Doctor?"  say
about women in the Victorian age!  He made her

"You've left your hair-clip on the table.  Here."  'q sound like some
young filly who needed breaking in!

Unwillingly, she turned round to find him holding Ineffectually, she
tugged the comb back through it out, the clip, with its Mickey Mouse
motif, looking curls that surrounded her head like swirls of dark
incongruously feminine-as well as rather childish- smoke.  against the
tanned masculinity of his strong palm.  And what a first impression to
make to the specialist

She took it as gingerly as if it had been an unex- nurse manager, she
thought in despair.  She had never ploded bomb.  "Thank you," she said
gravely, and q, behaved like that in her life.  Never.  To the older
surprised reluctant laughter lurking in the depths of woman, she must
have appeared like one of the very his dark eyes.  q worst type of
nurses-the type who weren't interested

But as she left the office she heard the specialist in the patients or
in the work at all, but were at the hospital with solely one thing in
mind: how to chat up the hunkiest doctors.

Nicolette sighed out loud.  What had she been thinking of, ripping the
clip out of her hair like some pathetic heroine in a B movie?  But that
was not how it had seemed to her at the time.  She hadn't even thought
about what she was doing, or the consequences.  It had been sheer,
blind rage.

Provoked by him!

There was something about Leander Le Saux which had made her react to
his remark about her hair with all the impetuosity of a teenager,
instead of a young woman in her mid-twenties who had travelled all the
way around Australia on her own.  And although she certainly didn't
have a reputation for being an old sobersides-quite the opposite, in
fact-she had enough common sense to realise that displays of pique such
as she had demonstrated today would not do her reputation, personal or
otherwise, any good at all.

So what was it precisely about Leander Le Saux which had caused such an
over-reaction?  she wondered What was it they said-knowledge is power?
If she analysed it then hopefully it would prevent it ocurring again.

Was it his raw, physical attraction, perhaps?

But I don't find him attractive, she told her silent, grim
reflection.

Oh, but you do, you do, you do!  Her knowing eyes mocked her back. More
attractive than any man you've ever set eyes on.  Go on,
Nicolette-admit it.  Admit it!

Pulling a defiant face at her reflection, she grabbed two handfuls of
hair and wound them together into the neatest, tightest top-knot she
could manage.  It still wasn't perfect, but it was certainly an
improvement.  Then she secured it with the hair-clip, still smarting
from the way Miss Dixon had spoken to her.

And yet what defence did she have?  She had been caught out on her
first day, in the most unprofessional of situations, and now she would
have to go out of her way to ensure that Miss Dixon changed her mind
about her.  Because she had no doubt that the specialist nurse manager
thought she was some flighty little bit of nonsense who cared more for
the men in white coats than she did her job!

And I am not, thought Nicolette defiantly as she made her way back up
the corridor.  I really am not.  I'm a dedicated nurse who loves her
work.

She pushed the door of Sister's office open, and quickly glanced
around.  Dr.  Le Saux had gone-thank goodness.  Nicolette was dreading
a carpeting, but was almost certairi that she was about to be subjected
to one.  And to have had him witness it would have been like rubbing
salt into the wound.

The room was empty save for Rhoda Dixon, who was standing beside the
desk, obsessively straightening the corners of a pile of papers so that
they all lined up perfectly.  She glanced up as Nicolette walked in,
her eyes glacially cold as they flicked over her hair.

There was silence for a moment.  Then she said, very grudgingly,
"That's slightly better, I suppose, but not much.  Haven't you ever
thought of having it cut off?"

For one wild moment Nicolette actually thought she was about to be
ordered to cut her hair, and she smiled as she shook her head.  "No,
Miss Dixon."

"Have I said something funny?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "No, you haven't."  She clasped her hands
together in front of her tabard.  "Look-I feel I've got off to a bad
start, and I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have over-reacted like that-I've
never done it before, and I shall certainly do my best to see it
doesn't happen again."  She gave her familiar, wide smile in a genuine
appeal to forget the whole incident.

"Have you quite finished?"  asked the other woman stonily.

Nicolette gave an inward sigh.  So that was to be the way of it.  "Yes,
Miss Dixon."

"Good.  Then sit down, please."

Nicolette glanced at her fob watch.  "But I have two lots of
antibiotics to give in ten minutes' time "And this will only take
five," interrupted Miss Dixon crisply, walking over to the office door
and shutting it firmly.  "Staff Nurse Turner has come on early, and has
kindly agreed to keep an eye on the ward while I have a word with
you."

"Miss Dixon, I do understand Miss

Dixon shook her smooth blonde cap of a head.  "But that's where you're
wrong, I'm afraid, Staff Nurse.  I don't think that you do.  Sit doWn,
please," she repeated, and this time, feeling about five years old,
Nicolette did as she was asked.

The cool grey eyes looked curiously colourless.  "It isn't the first
time it's happened," said the specialist nurse manager inexplicably.
"I'm sorry?"  queried Nicolette, not understanding at all.

Miss Dixon gave an impatient click of her tongue.

"I'm not completely stupid, you know, Staff Nurse!"  Her cool eyes
narrowed.  "I don't deny that Dr.  Le Saux is a very attractive man
"Miss Dixon, please!"  protested Nicolette, but the older woman carried
on unabated.

"And this won't be the first time that one of the nurses has set her
cap at him, but he is also a hardworking and a very serious-minded
doctor, who is engaged in a very important piece of research work, and
the last thing he needs is swooning young women chasing him round the
ward.  I'm afraid that another nurse here on Paediatrics made rather a
fool of herself over Dr.  Le Saux-and unfortunately it got so
embarrassing that she had to leave us."  She glued a forced smile on to
her bow-shaped lips.  "And I have no desire to see the same thing
happen to you, Staff."

Sure she didn't!  Nicolette couldn't believe what she was hearing.  It
was almost laughable-if it wasn't so ludicrous.  She was sorely tempted
to point out to Miss Ice-Cube Dixon that the days in nursing where
senior staff could dictate on the morals and behaviour of those junior
to them were long gone.  Well, she for one would not be bullied.
Nicolette gave the specialist nurse manager a frankly considering
stare.  "And you're basing this little lecture solely on the fact that
when you walked into the office you heard me answering Dr.  Le Saux
back?"  she queried calmly.

"Answering him back?"  cried the older woman in disbelief, her grey
eyes opening up like saucers.  "What I actually heard was you being
outrageously rude to Dr.  Le Saux!"

"He had just been fairly rude to me," observed Nicolette blandly.
Downright rude, in fact, even if you , slightly mad!  She rose to her
feet.  "And now, if you'll discounted the fact that they had only just
met.  excuse me, I'd really like to go and give out those "He is a very
senior doctor!"  retorted Miss Dixon antibiotics before lunchtime."
shrilly, sounding much older than her thirty or so years.  , Nicolette,
checked by Staff Nurse Turner, her oppo "And if he decided to register
a complaint about your site number, gave antibiotic injections, and
then the insubordinate behaviour then I am afraid I would have !  two
of them sat side by side at the central station while no option but to
back him up."  Nicolette gave the report to the staff who were coming
As Nicolette heard Miss Dixon's triumphant words on duty for the
afternoon and evening shift.  She ran she knew that she'd be on to a
losing wicket if she q smoothly arrd efficiently through the report.
attempted to bring this matter to any kind of satis fac- , "That drip
on Danny Rogers, in bed one, is due tory eonclusion.  The nursing
profession still contained through by two, to be replaced by normal
saline.  Oh, women like Rhoda Dixon-although thankfully they and the
surgical team are admitting a fourteen-year-old were rare-believing
that doctors were white-coated q boy with a grumbling appendix later on
this afternoon," gods who could say and do as they liked and nothing (
she told the small group of assembled nurses.  "His GP you could say or
do would convince her otherwise!  is sending him in via Accident and
Emergeney.  I've She's basically saying "hands off', thought Nicolette
rung down to Records for his notes."  She closed the with sudden
insight as the other woman's pale blonde Kardex.  "Oh, and
finally-Simon Lomas is being disbeauty imprinted itself on her vision.
And why was charged after tea."  that?  Did the neat specialist nurse
manager have some "Hurrah!"  chorused the two student nurses, and prior
claim to Leander Le Saux?  And was her warning Nicolette grinned.
simply of a professional nature-or was it more per- "Popular boy, is
he?"  she queried.  son al than that Staff Nurse Turner nodded.  "He
is, actually.  Though "Do I make myself clear, Staff Nurse?"  heaven
only knows why-with all the practical jokes "Oh, yes," answered
Nicolette gravely.  "Abun- he plays on the nurses!"  dantly clear."
"Oh, I'm sure they're able to cope!"  commented Miss Dixon managed the
most watery smile imagin- Nicolette impishly.  "Anyway, I've rung his
mother and able.  "Well, then.  Good.  That seems to have got things
his chart has gone down to Pharmacy for his TTOs."  settled.  And I do
hope that you will be very happy She noticed one of the students
frowning in during your time here at Southbury Hospital."  bemusement.
"That's an abbreviation for "To Take A fat chance of that happening, if
her first morning Out"," she explained.  "And it refers to the
medicines was anything to go by!  "Er-thank you," replied he'll be
taking home from hospital with him.  You know Nicolette dutifully,
feeling as if she were going very ', how much we love our abbreviations
in hospital!"

"Yes, Staff," answered the student.  "I certainly do!"

"Well, I for one shall be glad to see the back of Simon," remarked
Staff Nurse Turner as she took the bunch of ward keys from Nicolette.
"Much as I love the children I'm looking after, I'm never happier than
when I'm discharging them.  Means they're getting better!"  she
explained to the same puzzled-looking student nurse who was just
picking up a sphygmomanometer prior to doing the afternoon blood
pressures.

"Amen to that!"  said Nicolette and the two of them smiled at one
another in perfect accord as they began the tentative exchange of
life-stories which new staff working in close quarters together always
seemed to do.

Staff Nurse Turner was a comfortable-looking woman of about forty,
married with a young family of her own, she explained to Nicolette as
they checked a bag of intravenous infusion together.

"My husband doesn't like me working shifts," she sighed as she signed
her name next to Nicolette's on the chart.  "But we need the money.
Still," and her plump face brightened, he's hoping for promotion next
year, and then I'll just do an odd day here and there on the bank.  See
a bit more of the kids," she grinned.  "A sucker for punishment, I
am!"

The kind of reliable, unambitious type of nurse who was the backbone of
hospitals all over the country, Nicolette decided.  They checked the
normal saline that Danny, one of their post-operative patients, was
receiving intravenously until he was able to take more fluids by mouth.
As they connected up the infusion to the cannula in Danny's arm Staff
Nurse Turner turned to Nicolette and said cheerfully, "My name's Mary,
by the way!"

"Nicolette.  '

"That's pretty.  '

Nicolette smiled, her smile tinged with a touch of sadness as she
remembered her somewhat scatty mother, who had bestowed such exotic
names on all her children, much to their embarrassment at school!

"So how was your first morning on Paddington ward?"  asked Mary.

An unqualified disaster would be a fairly accurate description,
Nicolette thought.  "Don't ask!"  she replied ruefully.

"That bad, eh?"

"Worse!"  said Nicolette, with feeling.

"Busy?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "Not really.  And I could have coped witti
that "What, then?"

Mary Turner was persistent, she would say that for her, but Nicolette
shook her head.  She had already blotted her copybook this morning-she
didn't want to appear a gossip by complaining about the specialist
nurse manager!  Besides, for all she knew, Staff Nurse Turner and Miss
Dixon might be the world's greatest bosom buddies.  Although she
somehow doubted that, she thought as she looked at Staff Nurse Turner's
homely, comfortable face and compared it to Rhoda Dixon's rather fey,
over-made-up prettiness.  "Oh, nothing," she said discreetly.

Staff Nurse Turner gave her a shrewd, searching look.  "Look-you don't
have to say anything, but our last-but-one staff nurse didn't have an
easy ride of it here, either.  In fact, she left after two months."

Nicolette stiffened.  This must have been the nurse Rhoda Dixon had
been referring to during her dressing -down in the office.  Discretion
forgotten, she was unable to conceal her curiosity.  "Oh?,

Staff Nurse Turner pulled a face.  "Poor girl.  She couldn't seem to
put a foot right.  She always seemed to be making mistakes-but
unfortunately she always chose to make them at times when Rhoda Dixon
was around to see them!  Our specialist nurse manager has exacting
standards, especially if the nurse in question happens to..."  She gave
Nicolette a look she didn't even begin to understand, and her voice
tailed off.

"What?"  prompted Nicolette.  "Be pretty," Mary finished obliquely,
with a shrug of her ample shoulders.  "Like you.,

"Me?"  squeaked Nicolette in genuine astonishment.  She wasn't
unattractive, she knew that, but pretty?  Pretty was for small, petite
women with beguiling feminine ways.  Like Rhoda Dixon, for example.
Certainly not her.  Pretty women did not stand at a few inches short of
six feet in their stockinged feet.  Or have strong-boned and square
faces.  Pretty women had sleek hair that obeyed them, not dark curls
that tended towards frizz.  And pretty women had doe-like eyes that
were huge in their faces, not glittering blue chips that were much too
slanting ever to be called beautiful.  "I think you flatter me," she
said ruefully.

"I don't think so" answered Mary softly.  "Justwatch yourself, that's
all."

Nicolette frowned, very curious and yet unwilling to probe any further.
She forced herself to listen to the voice of good sense.  She ought to
just leave things be.  Keep her head down, do her job to the best of
her ability and enjoy living in Southbury, exploring a part of the
world she'd never visited before.  Rhoda Dixon and her machinations;
her possessiveness towards the handsome consultant-these were nothing
to do with her.  Nothing whatsoever.

As if sensing Nicolette's mental retreat, Staff Nurse Turner looked
down at her watch and frowned.  "Good grief!"  she exclaimed.  "You'd
better get cracking if you want some lunch-the canteen will be closed
in fifteen minutes."

And, if there was one thing a healthy nurse could not cope with after a
busy morning, it was the threat of no food!  "Help!"  squealed
Nicolette, melodramatically clutching at her stomach, and hurried off
to the cloakroom , where she removed her colourful tabard, hung it on
the peg, then carefully washed and dried her hands and set off to find
the hospital canteen.

Southbury Hospital was by no means vast, but it was like all new
buildings-confusing!  Nicolette had backtracked several times and was
despairing of ever finding the place or her lunch, when she spotted the
tall, immediately familiar figure of Dr.  Le Saux walking down the long
corridor towards her, a pile of textbooks under his arm.

Nicolette's breath caught in her throat at the vision he made.

The sunlight streaming in from the upper windows along the corridor had
somehow transmuted the dark red lights in his thick hair into tiny
flames, so that it appeared that he was surrounded by a halo of fire.
As he walked he held his head high, with an instinctive pride which
spoke of an innate grace, and again she was reminded of the meaning of
his name.  Lion man.  She felt a strange kind of flutter somewhere deep
in the pit of her stomach, and her heart began to race.

So.  To ask him for directions, or not?

Oh, to hell with it!  Nicolette thought with a touch of impatience and
felt her heart thankfully thud down qr to something approaching its
normal speed.  She needed her lunch and that was all there was to it!

He didn't seem to have noticed her walking towards him; the man seemed
to be in a world of his own, his strange eyes gleaming with an inner
light.  His disregard allowed her to surreptitiously observe the
lean-packed musculature of his body which seemed strangely at odds with
the intense yet far-away expression in those fiercely intelligent eyes.
Either he's plotting a new piece of research, thought Nicolette-or
plotting how to cause another nurse to lose her temper!

Except that the second possibility didn't seem at all likely.  The man
seemed totally oblivious to the admiring stares that were being cast
his way by the nurses and visitors alike who were passing him.  But
that sort of aloof imperviousness only added to those knock-out looks,
Nicolette thought almost wistfully as they came up level.  There was
something far more intriguing about a devastatingly attractive man who
was completely unaware of his attraction than one who knew it and who
strutted and preened like a peacock!

She cleared her throat.  "Er-excuse me, Dr.  Le Saux."

He stopped and blinked, then frowned as he looked down at her.  Well,
she supposed that that was pretty par for the course.

"Oh, it's you!"  he observed shortly.

Nicolette was sure she must have had worse greetings from people, but
frankly she was hard pushed to remember one as curt as that.
Nevertheless, she was absolutely starving.  "I'm lost," she told him,
realising just how tall he was.  In fact, he was the first man she
could ever remember physically being able to look up to.  As an
exceedingly tall girl herself, she had always been acutely sensitive
about height!  "Completely lost," she added disarmingly.

Brown eyes, which had flecks of gold vying with flecks of green for
dominance, glinted disparagingly as he shook his dark head slightly.
"That doesn't surprise me.  Not at all," he put in for good measure.
Then he jabbed a long finger back in the direction from which she'd
come.  "The ward's that way," he said shortly.

"I don't want the ward."

"You don't?"

"No, I want my-' But at this point her stomach i spoke for her.  It
rumbled so loudly and so dramatically that after an initial pause he
actually laughed.

Laughed!  It was the second time she had seen him laugh, and the effect
was so dazzling and so infectious that Nicolette failed to be
embarrassed.

"Lunch?"  he put in with sardonic humour.

"The very thing!"  she grinned back.

Something about her easy grin seemed to disturb him, because it had the
effect of totally and coldly cutting off his own smile so that his
habitual critical gaze rested on her upturned face.

"The canteen's signposted," he told her unhelpfully.  "Over there.  '

And, of course, the sign was so big that it stood out like a beacon,
and Nicolette was about to say so when that hostile glint in his eyes
really registered, and something inside her snapped.  "Oh, forget it!"
she said in a voice that threatened to be wobbly.  "I'd sooner starve
than ask someone as miserable as you for directions.  I've never been
in such an unfriendly hospital as this one.  '

She made to walk off but the hand that wasn't holding the textbooks
stayed her, quite firmly, and his eyes suddenly held an expression of
comprehension.  But not of apology, she noted rather sourly.

"I'm going to the canteen myself," he said.  "I'll take you there.  '

How big of him!  It was one of those times when she felt it would be
downright wrong to back down.  She would rather starve than ask mean
and moody Dr.  Lion Man Le Saux for directions!  "It doesn't matter,"
she answered sulkily.

"Oh, but it does," he contradicted.  "I'm hungry and you obviously are,
too.  The canteen closes in two minutes, and the staff are-shall we
say-somewhat rigid?"  He frowned, but there was definite mischief in
his eyes as he continued, "Yes, I think that's probably the most polite
way to put it.  Rigid.  Even if you'd been out all night
single-handedly rescuing eight hundred people, you wouldn't get so much
as a cup of tea out of them if it's a minute after two o'clock!"

Now it was her turn to laugh, his very wry and understated description
of rule-bound hospital staff sounding horribly familiar!

"How fast can you walk?"  he queried.

"Very fast," she answered, her hunger making her magnanimously decide
to forgive him.

"It's those long legs," he observed on a murmur as he glanced down at
the legs in question, and then glowered as though he was furious with
himself for even noticing them, but Nicolette felt a sudden and
strangely warm glow of satisfaction at that momentary lapse on his
part.

Almost running to keep up with his lengthy stride, she couldn't dispel
that warm little thrill as she registered that he couldn't have been
completely impervious to her if he'd noticed her legs!  This encouraged
her to look down at his legs, and to comment chattily, "I see that
you've changed your trousers."

If she had suddenly grown two heads and her hair become green he could
not have looked more appalled, or more shocked.  He slowed to a
complete halt and Nicolette did the same as he glared down at her.  "I
beg your pardon?"  he queried, tight, repressive frost icing his voice
into the ultimate in censure.

Well, there was absolutely no point in pretending that the incident in
the ward bathroom hadn't happened , when they both knew that it had.
"Your trousers..  the ones I accidentally ripped earlier, you
remember?

When I fell over in the bathroom?"

"I was trying," he replied in a strangled kind of voice, "to forget
that whole, rather unfortunate incident."  And he set off again at his
usual brisk pace.

But Nicolette refused to be fobbed off that easily.

"I meant it when I said that I'd sew them for you, you know," she
panted as she struggled to keep up with him.  "I'm the oldest of six
children, so you can imagine how many rips and darns we had in our
house."

He looked momentarily gob smacked "Six'?"  he echoed faintly on a note
of slight disbelief.  "Good heavens!"

"And consequently I'm not bad at hemming.  Honestly" She gave him a
beseeching little look.

He shuddered, making no attempt to disguise his distaste at the thought
of her tacking up his expensive designer trousers.  "And again," he
said condescendingly , "I must decline your kind offer.  Ah, we're
here."

The note of relief in his voice couldn't have been elearer as they made
the canteen with seconds to spare, and Nicolette became acutely aware
that all conversation had come to a halt when they made their rushed
and flurried entrance together.

Even he seemed to notice it, too, for his eyes narrowed suspiciously as
he glanced round at the busy restaurant, where all heads were now
turned interestedly in their direction.  "Look," he said dismissively,
"I'm just grabbing myself a quick sandwich."

What had he thought she was going to do?  Expect him to buy her lunch
and then plonk herself down next to him?  No way!  Nicolette had had
just about as much as she could stand of his arrogance and his rudeness
and his unfriendliness.  She would doubtless have a more interesting
conversation if she lunched with a hungry cannibal !

She held her dark, curly head very high.  "Oh, don't worry, Dr.  Le
Saux," she told him with as much icy dignity as she could muster.  "I
wouldn't dream of inflicting my company on you and trespassing on your
time at lunch-heaven only knows what that might do to your indigestion.
Thank you so much for showing me the way-I shan't forget it.  And
thanks for your oh, so welcoming attitude on my first day," she
finished with dark sarcasm and, with a final glare, marched off to the
queue, gaining a small amount of comfort from the fact that the man was
staring after her, now looking -she was pleased to see-rather
nonplussed!

She was so cross that she felt like filling up on comfort food,
stuffing her face with the steak pie which was the day's
"special'-available with mash and cabbage and thick gravy, she
noted-and following it up with jam tart and custard.  But she resisted
the urge, because she couldn't stand it if her jeans were too tight!
She resisted, too, the rather crazy alternative of picking one of the
small salads, which didn't look enough to feed a sparrow.  Certainly
not enough to fuel a hungry young woman of five feet nine-especially
when she still had a busy afternoon's work ahead of her.

So she chose a mushroom omelette with spinach and, putting fresh fruit
and cheese and a glass of milk on her tray, she picked her way across
the large diningroom to find herself somewhere to sit, uncomfortably
aware that there wasn't a single friendly face she recognised.

She found an unoccupied table and settled herself down at it, glancing
across the restaurant as she attacked her omelette, to discover that
there was a face she recognished, although it certainly wasn't
friendly.  And that the main-course salads were obviously enough to
feed Rhoda Dixon, who sat nibbling on a piece of cucumber like a
rabbit, while she smiled dotingly into the face of the man who had just
sat down opposite her.

They were only two people on a table that was full, but those two
people imprinted themselves indetibly on her mind.

And Nicolette was horrified by the jealous spear of rage that darted
through her when she saw that the man eating the sandwich and nodding
benignly as Rhoda Dixon chattered away into his ear was indeed none
other than Leander Le Saux.

CHAPTER FOUR

AFrER a lunch that Nicolette had difficulty in appreciating properly,
due to the distracting sight of Rhoda Dixon gazing at Leander Le Saux
with total and adoring preoccupation, Nicolette went back to Paddington
ward, to find that, as so often happened in hospitals, the whole
atmosphere had changed.

From being a busy but fairly run-of-the-mill morning , the afternoon
had brought with it a number of emergencies, and through these
emergencies Nicolette met the rest of Dr.  Le Saux's team.

One post-operative appendicectomy's drip had come out and had to be re
sited But the child was painfully thin and neither the houseman, the
registrar, nor even the senior registrar could get the cannula into the
tiny vein.  Nicolette stood assisting them as they got increasingly
frustrated.  Eventually they all trooped back into the office, where
Dr.  Falconer, the senior registrar, was bleeped away.

"That child's got no veins," complained the houseman to Nicolette as he
watched the senior registrar leave the office.  "And I'm damned if I
can get the wretched thing in."

Julia Summers, the paediatric registrar, cocked her head at Nicolette.
"Me neither.  But these things do happen.  I'll have to ring Leander,"
she said.  "Get him to come down.  '

"But he's the consultant!"  exclaimed Nicolette in surprise She had met
her fair share of consultants, and surely he would be too busy or too
grand to come and do something as basic as putting a drip back in?
"Won't he mind?"

"Not our Leander," said Julia with an affectionate smile.  "He hates
the kids being hurt by needles.  It's one of his rules-if we fail to re
site the drip after three attempts he insists on doing it himself.  I
swear that man could pass a tube down the middle of a piece of cotton
and still have room to spare!"

And unfortunately it was left for Nicolette to assist him.  She
happened to be in the cubicle with the child when he came on to the
ward, carefully dabbing at the little girl's parched lips with a wad of
cotton wool which had been dipped in ice-water.  The little girl made a
small sound of appreciation, and Nicolette smiled.

"Yes, I know," she whispered as she gently stroked one soft, velvety
cheek.  "It tastes good, doesn't it, Annie?  You'll be able to have a
few proper sips in a little while."  And then she looked up to find
that Leander was standing silently in the cubicle, watching her as
closely as if she'd been a specimen underneath his microscope.

Their eyes met and held, the oddest glint and hint of a frown in his,
although his face was oddly expressionless.  "Not you again," he said
in a resigned voice, but Nicolette had decided that she wasn't going to
rise to his cantankerous manner, so she just gave him a huge smile.

"Yes, Dr.  Le Saux!"  she agreed enthusiastically.

"Little old me!  At your service!"

This caused the dark eyebrows to knit together for a fraction of a
second.  "Little?"  he murmured sardonically' Why you're positively
Amazonian, Staff Nurse."

Nicolette swallowed.  Now he was making her height and her strength
sound positively attractive.  Had he meant to?  "Um, would you like to
put Annie's drip in now?"  And she smiled even more widely than she had
done before.

"That is what I'm here for," he barked, his face inexplicably
darkening.  "So if you wouldn't mind assisting me, instead of standing
there doing an impression of a Chesire cat."

Her smile switched off automatically.  "Ha!  Ha!  Very funny," she
said.

"Yes," he remarked thoughtfully.  "I thought so, too."

No, she had been completely wrong in her assessment of him as modest!
She handed him the cannula, and bent down to distract the sleepy child
as he started to prepare the skin before inserting the cannula.

He had the drip're sited within seconds, and Nicolette realised that
his registrar's glowing words of praise had been no exaggeration.  She
had to concede that in a clinical sense he functioned like a dream.
Indeed, the child didn't make a sound as he swiftly scratched her arm
then somehow slid the needle inside the vein before Nicolette even
realised that he had done it.  "How's that, Annie?"  he asked, ruffling
the mop of butter-coloured curls on top of the little girl's head.

"All right, I suppose," mumbled Annie sleepily, still drowsy from her
anaesthetic.

"Won't be for much longer," he reassured her.  "Try not to wave that
arm around too much, will you?"  He more go.  After that you find
someone else to play it turned to Nicolette.  "Splint the arm this
time, would with!"  He handed the teddy back, but this time the you,
Staff, and then perhaps we won't have a baby sat back on her
nappy-padded bottom and just recurrence?"  blinked up at him bemusedly.
Nicolette bristled.  She would not be told how to do And Nicolette felt
like blinking up at him bemusedly, her job properly!  She pointed to
the trolley, which she too.  It was doing something very odd to her
heart had neatly laid up and was waiting outside the cubicle.  again to
see how brilliantly he interacted with children "As you can see, I was
about to just do that anyway, ; and babies.  He was so soft with them;
so very gentle.  Dr.  Le Saux," she told him crisply.  q And this image
of him was awfully difficult to marry His eyes narrowed as he took in
her obvious irri- with that of the rather fierce man she kept
encountertation , and then he nodded.  "Hmm.  So I see.  Very ing. Just
who was the real Leander Le Saux?  The good.  Very good."  And as he
pulled the curtain back growling bear of a man who was supposed to
demand he almost smiled as he said, "Carry on."  order?  In which case
she would have thought he would Encouraged by the nicest thing he had
ever said to q do his nut to see small fluffy toys being catapulted
her, Nicolette stopped him.  "Um-Dr.  Le Saux?"  she ( across the ward!
asked tentatively.  Nicolette thought that Leander would have gone
"What?"  when she took Simon's take-home drugs down to his "Simon Lomas
is about to be discharged- cubicle, but he was still there.  And she
saw Simon, "I know that," he retorted impatiently.  "I was the now
dressed, clinging on to the tall consultant's neck one who ordered it,
remember' like a limpet while his mother had unashamed tears in "It's
just that-well, he'd like to say goodbye to you, her eyes, and
Nicolette was afraid that if she didn't do if that's possible."
something quickly she might start blubbing too, and She saw the
handsome face soften by a fraction, then where would they all be?
before the stern mask came firmly back into place.  "Of So she went
back out and came in again, making a course it's possible.  Thank you,
Staff."  great fuss and noise out of doing so, and by the time They
walked side by side up the ward, and Nicolette she did Leander had
released Simon and was glaring was surprised when he found the time to
bend down at her suspiciously.  and pick up a fluffy pink teddy which a
baby had hurled Ah, she thought with satisfaction, now, that's out of
her cot.  He handed the teddy back to the baby, more like it!  who
promptly hurled it out again.  "Yes, what is it, Staff?"  he asked her
curtly.  "Oh, it's that game' he chuckled, then wagged his "Just
bringing Simon his TTOs," she told him cheer finger admonishinglyqat
the baby.  "I'll give you one fully, holding the pharmacy paper bag
aloft.

After discharging Simon Nicolette had to admit a baby who had been
vomiting for over four days.  Julia, Leander's registrar, had sent him
up from Accident and Emergency, and Nicolette wrapped the
undernourished scrap in a warm blanket and took her straight off to one
of the cubicles, where she was just finishing doing the baby's
observations when she was joined by Leander's houseman, a Dr.  Judd. He
was a tall, gangly-looking man who wore a county-cricket tie and looked
so young that Nicolette was surprised he wasn't still in school! But
that, apparently, she told herself ruefully, was a sign that she was
getting old herself.  And her only twenty-five!

"Hi," he said, giving her a friendly grin and hot ding his hand out.
"Peter Judd-and please call me Peter."

"Nicolette Kennedy," sbe replied as she shook his hand.

"It's your first day, isn't it?  Everything going swimmingly ?"

He was one of those people it was awfully easy to talk to.  "Just
about!"  Nicolette pulled a face as she lowered her voice slightly.
"Don't think I've made a terribly good impression on the boss,
though."

"Really?"  He sounded surprised.  "Oh, Leander's like all
perfectionists-dedicated and driven.  He's all right if you don't cross
him."

Or cause him to lose his balance on slippery bathroom floors! Nicolette
bent her dark head over the cot.  "So what's your management for this
baby going to be, Peter?"  she asked as she withdrew the thermometer
from the child's armpit.  "The temperature's normal," she added as her
eyes quickly scanned the thin line of mercury.

"Leander just wants fluids only and the baby observed.  There has been
a history of projectile vomiting over the last four days.  No diarrhoea
reported, but check her nappy anyway, could you?  The mother is on her
way home from work.  The nanny swears blind that she hasn't been
feeding the baby, but Leander suspects otherwise.  He doesn't think
that there's any kind of abdominal obstruction."

Nicolette nodded.  Another fairly common paediatric story.  Babies
often picked up nasty tummy bugs and the way to cure them was to give
their stomach a complete rest by giving them only clear sweet fluids to
drink, and withholding solid food until the child was better.  Easier
said than done with a starving, furious baby!  Mothers and nannies'
often capitulated and gave in to the baby's demands, thinking that,
Just one biscuit won't hurt.  But one biscuit most definitely could
hurt, and sometimes the only solution was to admit the baby to
hospital, where the nurses could be one hundred per cent sure that the
baby wasn't eating anything.  And if the child was in hospital then
abdominal obstruction could definitely be excluded.

By the time four-fifteen came, and with it the freedom to go off duty,
Nicolette was dead on her feet.

"Is this the same bright-eyed staff nurse I met when I came on duty?"
teased Mary Turner with a smile.  "You look absolutely bushed!"

"And that," said Nicolette, "is the understatement of the year.  I
found myself wishing I had a pair of skates instead of shoes!"  But she
found herself smiling as she said it because, like most devoted nurses,
she thrived on being busy.

"It was frantic this afternoon, wasn't it?"  agreed Mary.  "And of
course, its being your first day, when you're still not sure where
anything or who anyone is, makes it a whole lot worse."

"It isn't only that," said Nicolette as she removed her tabard, which
had tiny finger marks and strawberry jelly smeared all over it.
"Before I started here I was travelling my way around Australia "Sounds
fascinating," said Mary ruefully.  "Wish I'd done something like that
before I had my children."

Nicolette nodded in agreement.  "It was fascinating, and I wouldn't
have missed it for the world-but I wasn't nursing.  I think I'm a bit
out of the swing of things.  Takes a little while to get used to ward
work again.,

Mary looked at her with interest.  "What did you do out in
Australia?"

Nicolette laughed.  "Oh, anything and everything, really, wherever I
could find a job.  I worked in shops.  On stations in the outback.  I
even worked as a cook on a prawn trawler for a while, although the men
just wanted simple food-and plenty of it!  And it was hard work, all of
it, but compared to nursing it was like taking a holiday!"

"You wait until you're a mother!"  smiled Mary.  "Then nursing will
seem like taking a holiday!  What are you planning to do tonight?  Out
on the town, I suppose?"

"You're joking!  A long bath, finish unpacking ... I might take a walk
if I'm feeling energetic..."  Nicolette looked out at the clear,
sparkling blue of the sky and felt her spirits soar "..  as it's such a
glorious day."

"Isn't it?"  agreed Mary.  "Where are you living-at the nurses'
home?"

Nicolette nodded.  "I most certainly am.  It's the nicest nursing home
I've ever seen."

Mary smiled.  "I know.  I lived there, too-before I was married, of
course.  Southbury itself may not be the most exciting city in the
world, but the sea view from my window always seemed to make up for
it."

And ten minutes later, as Nicolette closed the door behind her and
stepped over the threshold of her new home, she felt a warm glow of
satisfaction.

Not that the building itself was up to much-in fact it was pretty
basic, and Nicolette's flat consisted of one large sitting-room with a
small kitchen, bedroom and bathroom tacked on.  But having a bathroom
to herself was a real luxury.  She had grown up having to share with
five other children, and when she had started nursing there had been
communal bathrooms with tights hanging dripping from lines and where it
was impossible to leave nice soaps or bath oils around without their
mysteriously "walking'!

But, as Mary had said, the true beauty of the place was its situation,
close by the sea, with its boast that every one of the flats had either
a sea view or a glimpse of one of Southbury Cathedral's magnificent
spires.

Nicolette peered out of the window to stare fixedly ahead at the water,
which was a deep sapphire glimmer now.  If she strained her ears very
hard she could hear the comforting rhythmic swish as the waves lapped
in the distance.

She had grown up by the sea, in a big, ramshackle old house in a
clifftop village where her father had been vicar.  There had been a
chronic shortage of money and far too many children for her childhood
ever to be described as comfortable.  But it had been the very best of
childhoods in the most old-fashioned sense of the word.

Until her mother had died.

Nicolette had been fourteen when her childhood had abruptly ended, and
she, as the eldest girl, had become a surrogate mother to the five
younger ones.

It had been hard work, looking after them all while still studying hard
at school, so that when Nicolette had started nursing she had adapted
to it far more easily than her peers.  While they had been moaning with
fatigue after a hard day on the wards, their feet relaxing in basins
full of salt-water, Nicolette had been ha ring around London, greedily
drinking in all the city culture that had been denied her in her
hand-to-mouth country upbringing.

During her training she had somehow managed to save up enough money to
see some other cities-Paris, Rome and Venice.  And now that she had
travelled the length and breadth of Australia, too, she had seen more
than she had ever dreamed she might.

Nicolette turned away from the window to survey the plain but neatly
decorated sitting-room with a dreamy smile on her face.  This was to be
her home for the next... who knew how long?  She had no plans for a
fixed stay of any duration at Southbury Hospital.  No more than a year,
anyway-and by then she would be eligible to start looking around for
jobs as Ward Sister.  Just imagine-Nicolette Kennedy having her own
ward to run!  Nicolette smiled.  No-she couldn't imagine it at all!  It
didn't seem ten minutes since she'd walked on to her first ward and not
even known where the sluice was!

She made herself a coffee, sat down at the small desk by the window,
and began to write a letter home.

"Dearest Pa, Ramona, Dickory, Didier, Miranda and Silvester," she
began, and then poured her heart out to her family, using her untidy
scrawl, which gobbled up the pages!

About Leander Le Saux she wrote, "The consultant is very dishy, but
dangerous.  Brilliant, but foul tempered , plus I think he's probably
been bagged by my specialist nurse manager (no comment on her just now,
Dad-I'm hoping things might improve so that I can be charitable about
her!)'

She-was just slipping a book token into the envelope for Dickory's
birthday, with the stern directive, "Don't buy trash!"  when there was
a brisk knock on the door, and she pulled it open to see Jane Jones,
the student nurse who had been such a help to her on the ward that
morning, standing on the doorstep still wearing her uniform.

She gave Nicolette a slightly uncertain grin.  "Hi!"  she said.  "Do
you talk to the juniors when you're off duty?"

"We-I1..."  Nicolette put her head to one side as she pretended to
consider, then smiled back broadly.  "Of course I do!  Come in."

Jane glanced down at her fob-watch, then shook her head.  "I won't
thanks, Nicolette-I have to get ready to go out.  I just wanted to know
if you'd settled in properly.  Or if you needed to borrow anything?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "Not unless you're offering years.  But how
embarrass sing Nicolette cleared her me a million pounds!"  she joked.
"It's very sweet of throat.  "Um, Jane, what you heard in the bathroom
this you-but I've got all the basics I need.  I still haven't morning..
wasn't quite what it might have seemed got my bearings around the
place, though; is there a To Nicolette's profound relief, Jane burst
out laugh shop nearby, or do I have to go into Southbury for ing.  "Oh,
heavens-I know that!  Dr.  Le Saux is the fruit and vegetables?"  last
man to go into a el inch with one of the nurses!"

"There's a general store about three miles away- "He..  is?"  asked
Nicolette slowly, aware of a disthat 's if you don't mind walking."
tinct pang of disappointment, and hated lierself for

"I don't," said Nicolette.  "As a country girl born and asking, "Is he
married, then?q bred, I happen to love walking!  Is it easy to find?"
And hated herself even more for the intense relief

"Couldn't be simpler."  Jane turned round and she felt when Jane
answered cheerfully, "Oh, no.  He's pointed.  "There's a path that
leads to it over there.  It Southbury's most eligible bachelor-although
I don't starts at the end of the nurses' block, by the sign to know for
how much longer.  They say Rhoda Dixon's Physio.  See?"  been in love
with him for years, but I don't know how

Nicolette nodded.  serious it is.  He'snever seen out with women.  He

"And can you also see that big white house in the keeps all his
girlfriends very well hidden, I must say, far distanee?"  but with
looks like that tlqere must be millions-and

Nicolette screwed up her eyes.  "Mmm."  I'm fairly good at sussing
things out."

"Well, you'll eventually pass that on your right and "I'll bet you
are," smiled Nicolette wryly.  the shop is only about a mile and a half
from there."  "Listen," said Jane eagerly.  "One of the reasons I

Nicolette narrowed her bright blue eyes and looked called by was to say
that you're very welcome to come again at the house.  Even from this
distance the building out with me and my fiance tonight-if you're
free."  looked large and elegant and very imposing.  "Does "You're
engaged?"  asked Nicolette in surprise.  The anyone actually live
there?"  she asked.  "It looks girl looked so young!  And heavens,
hadn't she thought terribly grand."  that about the houseman earlier"?
She really must be

Inexplicably, Jane started blushing.  "Er, yes.  They getting old!  do.
And it-er-belongs to-Dr.  Le Saux."  Jane coloured attractively, and
proudly pointed to

It took a moment or two for it to dawn on Nicolette a ring pinned on to
the front of her uniform dress, why Jane was blushing so deeply, but
then she where a tiny diamond solitaire was winking.  "That's
remembered what a compromising situation the right.  I've been engaged
for nearly six months now.  student nurse had discovered her in earlier
that morn- Bobby's a fireman and we're waiting until I qualifying Was
it really only a few hours ago?  It felt like until we get married."
Her finger brushed over the diamond.  "We go to a pub in the city
centre on Wednesday evenings-they have a band-and we could introduce
you to a few people.  Bobby's got a lot of hunky friends in the fire
service!"

Nicolette shook her head emphatically.  "Thanks, Jane, but I won't. I'm
on an early tomorrow, and I still haven't finished unpacking. Maybe
another time, though.  It was sweet of you to ask."

"Don't mention it," said Jane.  "I'll see you on the ward tomorrow.  If
you need anything I'm four doors along at number nineteen.  Bye!"

"Bye!"  Nicolette waved the student nurse off and wandered back inside,
her mind reluctantly focused on one thing, and one thing only.  So. Dr.
Le Saux was never seen out with women, was he?  She wondered why. Like
Jane, she didn't imagine that it was from a shortage of offers. Maybe
he had some stunner hidden away somewhere.  And Rhoda Dixon had been in
love with him for years, had she?  Not that she needed anyone to tell
her that!

She undid her collar, sat on the bed, kicked off her sensible black
nursing shoes, then lay back, her head sinking gratefully into the
softness of the pillow as she closed her eyes... Nicolette awoke with a
start, shocked to find that she had actually fallen asleep on the bed,
and still wearing her uniform dress, too!  What a waste of an
evening!

But a quick glance at her fob-watch showed that it was only just after
five-thirty.  She knew from experience how deeply you could sleep in
half an hour nurses were among the best cat nappers in the world!

A quick shower soon had her feeling revitalised, and she put on a light
summer dress of chalk-blue voile, which emphasised the intense blueness
of her eyes, brushing her hair over and over again until it fell into a
sooty cloud of curls almost to her waist.

She stared long and hard at her reflection, unusually critical for
once, remembering what Mary Turner had said to her earlier. Looks-wise,
Nicolette knew both her strengths and her weaknesses.  She was a fairly
attractive girl, she was aware of that.  Not stunningly beautiful, by
any means, but not ugly, either-and yet her love-life to date had been
remarkably unspectacular

She was twenty-five, and a lot of girls her age, or even younger-look
at Jane Jones-were in the process of settling down.  In fact, some
girls seemed to think of nothing else but settling down.  But not her.
She had never been the type who was eager to go out and find a man. She
loved her job and could never understand the lure of tying yourself
down before you were thirty; perhaps playing surrogate mother from such
an early age had subconsciously put her off domesticity !

So why was it that all of a sudden something had made her start
dwelling on the word "relationship' as if it were the single most
fascinating subject in the world?

No, not just somethcng, she told herself.  You're an intelligent woman,
Nicolette; at least be honest with yourself.  Not something, someone
has made you start thinking about relationships.  And someone has made
you feel so strangely restless today.

Not just someone; a man.

Indeed, a very special man.

A man who could charm children; who could protect and heal them.  A man
with a lion's mane of hair and a proud, autocratic bearing.

A man named Leander Le Saux.

CHAPTER FIVE

ANaRtLv Nicolette turned away from the mirror in her bedroom, intensely
irritated by her train of thoughts.  Why waste time and effort thinking
about Leander Le Saux-a man who had scarcely had the courtesy to be
civil to her on her first day?

She looked out of the window again, feeling oddly jumpy.  As a student
she had had it drummed into her by her nursing tutor that the best way
to relax at the end of a busy day was not with a drink or a cigarette,
but with exercise-lots and lots of it, and preferably in the fresh air!
She would go exploring, and find the shop that Jane had told her about.
And what better way to end her walk than with a large ice cream to
reward herself?

The sun was warm as it beat doWn on her bare head, but an insistent
wind tugged at her hair and sent it billowing behind her in a smoky
cloud as she set off for the shop.

She took a leisurely stroll-except when the white house, which Jane had
told her belonged to Leander, loomed up in front of her, and she found
herself speeding up her pace, though she gave the house a sideways
glance of frank curiosity as she passed by.

It was certainly large, and set back off the path, with a long, very
old-fashioned garden leading up to the oak-panelled door.  Lavender
spilled over on to the grey stone-flagged path, and there were roses
and hollyhocks and scented stocks massing in glorious and riotous
profusion, like colours spilled haphazardly all over an artist's
palette.  Nicolette found herself breathing the scented air in rapt
appreciation.  Who would have guessed that Leander Le Saux had the
garden of a romantic?

And who tended that garden?  she wondered.  Was he out there with a
spade and trowel every weekend, getting those beautifully shaped hands
all covered in mud?  And, if so, when on earth did he find the time to
do the research for which he was apparently worldfamous ?

She found the shop and ate her ice-cream sitting on a bench outside,
but by the time she had finished the insistent breeze had whipped up
into a chill wind, and the sky was a curious yellow-grey colour.

Nicolette shivered.  Blast it!  she thought, wondering why she hadn't
had the foresight to bring a cardigan with her-not much of a testimony
for a country girl!  She glanced upwards.  Still, if she hurried, she
might just make it back to the nurses' home before the inevitable rain
fell.

But her homebound journey wasn't as easy-for a start, the walk was
uphill this time, and her shopping bags were weighing her down.  She
still had well over a mile to go when a tearing crack of lightning
split the sky in two and the heavens opened to allow large, cold drops
of rain to spatter down all over her with ever-increasing force.

The day had changed as if provoked by some malevolent magic, and
suddenly Nicolette found herself within the midst of a violent storm
with torrents of water spewing out of the darkened sky.  Within seconds
she wasn't just wet-she was completely soaked, her thick hair dripping
all the way down her back, her cotton dress reduced to a sodden rag.
But, more than that, it was terrifying.  She didn't like thunder at the
best of times, a childhood fear that no amount of reason could ever
dispel, and here, with the wind howling and the prospect of another two
miles to go, she suddenly felt quite devastatingly alone.

In the distance she could see the white house that belonged to Leander
Le Saux.

If it was anyone else's house she could do the sensible thing-go and
knock on his door and say, "I'm sorry to disturb you, but may I seek
refuge from the storm?"  And if it was anyone else they would no doubt
smile, and answer, "Of course you can."  Perhaps even offer her a cup
of tea!

But not him.  No, definitely not him.  And she wouldn't risk incurring
more of his scorn or his acid tongue.  She would risk pneumonia rather
than do that!

Several times she almost slipped, the conditions were so bad, and she
ended up with cold mud splattered all the way up her bare legs.

The white house grew closer.  Leander must have lit the lamps, for it
looked tantalisingly warm and bright, safe and welcoming.  Nicolette's
teeth started to chatter as she passed by the gate, when she heard a
loud and outraged shout.

"Hey!"

She turned around to find that the front door had been flung open, and
that Leander was standing on the step, a marked look of irritation on
his face, his a curious note in his voice she couldn't for the life of
eyes nothing but dark, glittering splinters in that her interpret. "And
for heaven's sake, take that terriformidable face.  fied expression off
your face.  I'm not some big, bad

Knowing that she must look worse than a drowned ogre with evil designs
on you-you're quite safe here."  rat, Nicolette paused only briefly in
her step to shiver, Nicolette took herself off to the bathroom, wonder
"W-what?"  ing why she found herself feeling mildly irritated rather

"Come here!"  he commanded as though he were an than reassured by that
last bland remark of his.  army officer and she one of his soldiers.
But when she closed the bathroom door behind her

"W-why?"  she managed through chattering teeth.  she could see exactly
what had caused him to stare at

"You're getting wet and cold," he told her with fault- her so hard and
to curse so softly beneath his breath, less logic.  "And it's dry in
here.  Come on."  because her soaking wet dress had become almost com
It was the kind of tone that would not tolerate objec- pletely
transparent.  Not that it was indecent, not tions, though objections
were the last thing on really-she had seen teenagers parading down the
high Nicolette's mind.  She saw a lamp lit behind him in street in far
more revealing garments than those she the spacious hall, and she knew
that it was much too was wearing.  But nothing could disguise the fact
that tempting to resist.  Pushing the gate open, Nicolette the lines of
her white cotton bra and matching pants made her way up the path.  were
clearly visible through the diaphanous material

"Inside," he told her firmly, and gave her the gentlest of her dress.

of shoves.  Shivering with cold and stinging with embarrass "It's
v-very k-kind of you," she stumbled automati- ment, she peeled
everything off and rinsed out her cally through her chattering teeth,
to find that he was sopping underwear before wringing it out and
draping staring at her, transfixed.  it over the radiator to dry.  Then
she stepped into the

"Oh, my goodness," he murmured softly, and then warm, welcoming jets of
the shower for as long as it his face inexplicably darkened and
hardened into harsh took for the heat to seep back into her body, which
angles, and he pointed down the long corridor that led was quite some
time, although she didn't have her off the hall.  "Down there!"  he
instructed, in that way watch on, so she couldn't be sure how long that
was.  he had of tersely barking out commands.  "Third door There was a
huge, fluffy bathrobe hanging on the on the left.  Get into the shower.
Quickly!  I'll leave back of the bathroom door, and she wrapped herself
some dry clothes for you outside- in that, but then felt strangely shy
about looking out "B-but- side the door to see what clothes he had left
for her

"Don't argue with me," he told her curtly in the tone to change into.
of a man who was never argued with, and there was Although it wasn't at
all strange to be shy; not if she really thought about it.  Here she
was in her second embarrassing encounter of the day with him.  And who
in their right mind wouldn't be shy if they found themselves using the
shower in the private home of their new consultant?

There was an insistent banging on the door, startling her, and an
impatient voice began yelling, "Have you drowned in there, or what?"

She decided not to rise to it.  She was, after all, rather foisting
herself on him, so she supposed that this time, at least, he had reason
to be foul-tempered.  She gingerly touched her bra and pants, which
were steaming on the radiator, to discover that they were still much
too wet to be wearable.  "I'll be out in a minute," she called back,
and added in a lower voice, "Have-have you left the clothes there?"

"I told you I would leave you something, and I have," he snapped
back.

"You're, um, not going to stay there, are you?"  Nicoletteasked
tentatively, before she realised the implication of her words.

"Slavering to feast my eyes on your naked body'?"  came the sarcastic
reply.  "Hardly.  There isn't the need.  Your sopping dress left
absolutely nothing to the imagination."

She blushed furiously as she heard his retreating footsteps and a
distant door slam, and then she stuck her head cautiously around the
door, her eyebrows rising in surprise when she saw the neat pile of
garments lying there.

There were clothes all right.  But not the kind of clothes she had been
expecting.  She had thought that he might have left her some of his own
jeans, and one of his smaller sweaters, but these weren't men's
clothes-they were women's clothes!  And clothes of the type that
Nicolette had never seen-let alone worn before.  She snatched them up
and whipped them into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking
it so that she could examine them.

There was a pair of stretch Lyrca leggings in French navy, but the cut
was far different from the kind of chain-store leggings Nicolette was
used to, and she gasped aloud as she read the name of the label.  Even
she had heard of that designer!  What on earth was Dr.  Le Saux doing
with women's designer clothes in his house?

Her pants were still damp, so she simply pulled on the leggings and
they fitted like a glove, flattering her hips and bottom tremendously.
She peeped over her shoulder in the mirror.  Certainly no visible panty
line there, she thought to herself wryly.

There was also a cornflower-blue sweater of the softest wool
imaginable.  It feit as light as a drift of snow, and yet when
Nicolette pulled it over her head it was so warm that it felt as though
she had snuggled into a nest of feathers.

Unfortunately it was just a touch on the small side, made all the more
obvious by Nicolette's lack of a bra.  She quickly raked her fingers
through her damp hair so that it hung down the front of the sweater in
concealment There.  That was better!

The only part of the outfit that didn't seem to go was the pair of
navy-blue socks, which, although obviously not bought in the high
street, were much too big for her feet.  They must be his, she thought,
her cheeks hot as she slid them over her toes.  There seemed something
almost indecent about wearing her consultant's socks-but at least they
were warm!

With a final glance at her appearance, Nicolette opened the bathroom
door and went down the corridor , and although she padded softly in her
stockinged feet, a deep, instantly recognisable voice immediately
called out, "I'm in here!"

She headed off.  in the direction of the imperious command and walked
straight into a book-lined room, where Dr.  Le Saux was seated in a
leather easy chair before a roaring log fire, a glass of whisky in his
hand, his long, long legs stretched out in front of him.  Perfectly at
ease, he neither moved nor greeted her, just regarded her steadily with
a half-amused and somewhat speculative stare.

Robbed of his white coat, he looked impossibly casual and even
terrifyingly approachable in a pair of beautifully cut dark brown
cords, and a soft sweater the colour of the richest, deepest port-wine.
The flames of the fire flickered over his dark head, and intensified
the deep red lights that danced there.  To complete the picture of
domesticity, at his feet lay a golden retriever, who was obviously
extremely well trained, since he had not jumped up but was looking at
Nicolette with alert, intelligent eyes, his bushy tail half-wagging
hopefully

Faced with the reflective question in the eyes of her boss and the
altogether friendlier look in the eyes of the dog, Nicolette opted for
the easier of the two options.

"Oh, but he's gorgeous, Dr.  Le Saux!"  she purred, crouching down and
scratching behind one of the animal's ears with the instinctive lack of
fear of someone who had grown up with dogs.  "What's his name?"

"Leander," came the dry, mocking reply, and she looked up, her gaze
colliding with the spectacular light from his eyes, as he continued,
"Is my name."

Absurdly, she found herself blushing.  "I didn't mean He cut right
across her blustering response with his cool reply.  "In view of the
somewhat... unusual... circumstances, I feel it's slightly ridiculous
for you to continue to call me Dr.  Le Saux in that rather officious
way you have of saying it.  Quite apart from the fact that in a few
short hours you have not only managed to make me slide to the ground
far more efficiently than any of my college rugby combatants, but have
also now connived to get yourself marooned in my house "Connived?"
spluttered Nicolette indignantly.  "Are you suggesting that I
deliberately-?"

"Set off for a walk past my house "And was I trespassing?"  she
interrupted archly.in the most inclement weather," he continued coolly,
as though she hadn't spoken.  "Thereby risking pneumonia and saddling
me with an uninvited houseguest.  Yes, I would count that as a
modern-day equivalent to dropping your handkerchief at my feet
Nicolette had had enough.  Her boss he might be, but they weren't at
work now-quite apart from the fact that her underwear currently drying
on his radiator must surely give her the freedom to speak her mind,
especially since he was showing no qualms about speaking his!

"Listen, you-you pompous, arrogant "Steady on, Staff Nurse," he told
her mockingly.  "You may say something you might regret afterwards."

Never!  She would revel in speaking her mind as frankly as he had
spoken his.  "It wasn't raining when I set out and I don't happen to
have a degree in meteorology !"  she gritted angrily.  "And, quite
honestly, I find it rather pathetic that your ego must be so inflated
that you could misinterpret a perfectly innocent gesture on my part.  I
simply wanted a walk in the fresh air and I needed some fruit and
vegetables-and if you think I'm about to become vitamin-deficient
during my time at Southbury Hospital just because it somehow offends
your sensibilities when I walk past your house then you've got another
think coming!"  She drew a deep breath and marched over to the door
before turning round to face him, her face furious.

"Thank you so much for your hospitality!"  She glared at him.  "And you
won't have to worry about my being your "uninvited houseguest" any
longer.  I'm off-Dr.  Le Saux !  '

There was an unmistakable gleam in his eye as he spoke.  "But you
can't," came the softest contradiction.

Nicolette halted in her tracks.  "Can't?"  she queried haughtily,
though her heart was thundering like crazy as her befuddled mind tried
to make sense of his words.  "You-you aren't threatening to keep me
here against my-?,

"Will?"  he supplied drily, and gave a deep, sexy laugh.  "Now, now,
Nicolette Nicolette started at this first use of her Christian name.
well, how did he manage to make a single word sound so-so darned sexy
and so..  intimate?

"You simply mustn't allow your wildest fantasies to run away with you.
I'm not in the habit of imprisoning young women against their will,
however beautiful they may be."

Nicolette almost fell over at those last words of his, searching his
face suspiciously for a hint of satire, but there was none.  He didn't
really think that she was beautiful, did he?  Her heart, which she had
thought was racing enough before, now raced even more.

"When I said you can't go," he continued smoothly and undaunted by her
widened eyes, "Imeant it literally."

Nicolettestared at him in confusion, not knowing what on earth he
meant, feeling suddenly very young and very foolish as the novelty of
the situation she was in suddenly hit her.  She had never been alone in
a big house with a man like Leander Le Saux before, she realised.  Not
a real man; a big, toweringly confident man with an arrogantly angled
face and intelligent, enigmatic eyes.  The people she had dated were
boys in comparison to Leander Le Saux and none of them had owned more
than a flat, and flats had seemed somehow student-like; younger and
safer, in a way.

And here she was, standing in Leander's house, dressed in clothes that
he had provided, her damp underwear still steaming on his radiator. She
felt hot colour rising in her cheeks.  Had she put herself in a stupid
position and compromised herself?

He gave her a narrow-eyed look of comprehension as he took in the
hectic flush that emphasised the high flaring lines of her cheekbones.
"Look out of the window," he told her, almost gently, and he rose
gracefully from his own chair, depositing his glass of whisky on a
small table before coming to stand beside her.

More as an excuse for something to do than out of genuine curiosity,
Nicolette obeyed.  Anything rather than be subjected to that disturbing
stare of his, although when she moved to the window he followed, so
that he was standing behind her, and Nicolette was acutely aware of the
rhythmic pattern of his breathing; could almost imagine that she could
feel the warmth of his breath on her bare neck.

But when she pulled the heavy crimson velvet curtain back she saw
exactly what he had meant by "can't'.

It was one of those rare and odd summer storms.  The light outside had
gone completely, and the rain was coming down so heavily that it looked
like a solid wall of water directly outside the window.

"The path will be completely impassable for some time," he said, still
in that very different tone of voice that was more like the one he'd
used to Simon on the ward that morning.  Kinder, and more
understanding.

Nicolette turned round to see that he was still standing right behind
her, his eyes narrowing intently as they watched her, completely
unaware that the fire was drying her hair into a soft, dark cloud, or
that the cornflower colour of the sweater made her eyes seem bluer than
ever.  "Then what will I do?"  she asked him.  "I mean, I
can't-can't.."

Her words trailed off in embarrassment but he was obviously a
perceptive man because he interpreted her meaning immediately.  "You'll
have to stay here until it lifts," he said, silencing her wordless
protest with a shake of his dark head.  "Because I'm not prepared to
risk life and limb for the sake of my reputation "Your reputation?" she
retorted indignantly.  "How about my reputation?"

He laughed.  "So you are worried about that?"

Nicolette tossed her head back, which had precisely the wrong effect on
her upper body in the too small jumper, and her snapped reply was
completely forgotten as their eyes locked.

Some unknown tension sparkled and fizzled in the air as tangibly as
electricity buzzing around them, and the world as she knew it suddenly
ceased to exist.  With tiny hairs prickling at the back of her long
neck, Nicolette was unaware of everything but the tall, dark man with
the enigmatic eyes who stood looking down at her, frozen in watchful
stance.

For a moment he looked as perplexed as she, as though he too could feel
the strange tension that surrounded them like a force-field, as though
he too was bemused by what was happening around them, and she saw him
frown before giving a small shake of his fire-dark head, as if he was
subconsciously trying to deny it to himself.

And, in her own way, Nicolette attempted to deny it, too.  In an
instinctively protective movement, she took a faltering step back, away
from him, and she saw the sculpted mouth harden.

But still they stared, reluctant eyes locked in magnetic thrall, as
though neither could bear to drag their eyes away.

The grandfather clock chimed loudly in the backgroand The dog growled
softly by his feet.

"Shut up, Rover," said Leander absently, and with that indulgent
reprimand the atmosphere shattered, like a delicate Christmas-tree
ornament being trampled underfoot, and Nicolette breathed a huge sigh
of relief as her sanity returned.

"Rover?"  she queried incredulously as the dog padded over to her, lay
down and then rolled over on to his back to have his stomach tickled.
"Softie," she purred as she obliged, looking up at Leander with genuine
amusement.  "I can't believe that you called your dog such an
unoriginal name!"

"You'd expect something of devastating originality from a man like me?"
he probed arrogantly.

She pulled a face at him.  "Maybe.  I was told that you do a lot of
research, Dr.  Le Saux!"  was her tart reply.  "Surely you have to have
an original mind for that?"

"Touche," he murmured thoughtfully.  "As a matter of fact, I got him
from the local dogs' home-he was two years old and used to the name
they had given him there.  He'd already had about three different
owners and been badly treated, and I didn't have the heart to change
it.  And anyway," he added defensively, frowning after seeing
Nicolette's eyes soften when he mentioned the dogs' home, "I find it
rather tedious when people seek to display their devastating wit by
saddling their dog with some handle like..."

"Like what?"  Suddenly she was smiling.  Suddenly she felt as though
she were standing in blazing sunshine, and perhaps the reason for that
was that he was smiling, too.

"Like "Westminster"?"  he told her reluctantly.

"Not really?"

"Yes, really.  Belongs to a friend of mine who is now an MP."  He
looked at his watch.  "Now, Nicolette," he said with the brisk,
managerial sort of manner he had used on her arrival.  "Have you eaten
yet?"

She shook her head.  "No.  But I don't want to put you to any "Listen,"
he interrupted impatiently.  "You already have.  Put me to some
considerable trouble, that is-if that's what you were intending to say.
I had planned to do an evening's research after supper "Don't let me
stop you!"

He smiled, almost reluctantly.  "But that's the extraordinary thing,"
he said, half to himself.  "I think you already have.  '

An hour later she was sitting opposite him in the kitchen, perched on a
high stool behind the breakfast bar, while some classical music she
couldn't place swelled up into a glorious symphony, each perfect note
sending Nicolette's spirits soaring.

Perhaps he noticed her dreamy look of concentration , for he suddenly
said, "Know it?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "I don't think f've ever heard it before."

"It's Bach," he told her succinctly.  "And one of my very
favourites."

And Nicolette knew with instinctive certainty that she would never
again hear that particular piece of music without picturing Leander Le
Saux elegantly preparing a delicious supper while outside the elements
howled like ferocious wolves.

In an effort to distract herself from her host's very obvious
attributes, she began to look around.  The kitchen itself was a curious
mixture of old and new, the high ceiling and generous proportions of
the room indicating that the house was definitely not modern, although
the wooden units and gleaming appliances were about as high-tech as you
could get.

He had blue glass objects on the window-sill and a large and
extravagent still-life painting on the white wall above the table,
which he had set for two.  A wooden block holding an impressive array
of gleaming knives proclaimed that Leander Le Saux enjoyed cooking , as
did the exotic fruits and vegetables which were heaped in blue and
white pottery bowls on the central aisle.

He began chopping the ingredients.  He worked quickly and deftly, his
long fingers moving efficiently as the pile of chopped vegetables grew
into a colourful mountain.  She had first noticed his hands on the
ward, at how carefully and gently he had examined Simon Lomas, the
little boy with cystic fibrosis.  She sighed, trying to put away the
memory of the white-coated Leander tending to the little boy who so
obviously adored him.

It was very hard not to idolise paediatricians, she knew that, though
it had never hit her as hard as it had just now.  It was the one area
of medicine where you could be sure that doctors who went in to the
speciality did so for purely altruistic reasons.  Paediatricians were
heroes, really!

Leander glanced up from cooking to find her sitting watching him.  He
seemed suddenly oddly distracted as their eyes met across the kitchen,
and it was moments before he spoke.  Was he, Nicolette wondered
hopefully, finding this whole evening as bizarre and as wonderful as
she was?

"Would you like some wine?"  he queried and then he.  gave a small
smile as his gaze raked over her bare, scrubbed face.  "Or perhaps
you'd prefer something soft?"

No need to make her sound like a child!  thought Nicolette mutinously.
She supposed that she ought to be sensible and opt for a soda, but he
had picked up a bottle of red wine and was opening it anyway.  And it
couldn't hurt, surely, to share some with him?

It did not take very long for Nicolette to realise with a pang just how
much she was enjoying herself, then reminded herself that she was
simply here on sufference -because she had been foolish enough to get
stranded in the rain.  And because this was probably the only evening
she would ever spend with him she threw caution to the wind.  "Wine
would be lovely," she told him rather too enthusiastically as he pulled
the cork from the bottle.

He poured two glasses and handed her one.  Nicolette took it and gulped
at the dark red liquid gratefully.  It was the most delicious wine she
had ever tasted, and she was glad for the small degree of warmth and
comfort which flooded over her after that first mouthful.  Dutch
courage, she thought slightly guiltily, and she hastily put the glass
down on the table qn front of her.

She saw the hint of another smile.  on his face as he observed the
movement out of the corner of his eye, but he made no comment and
Nicolette was perfectly happy to sit there watching him work, a strange
air of calm filling her with an inner serenity, as the music continued
to wash over her senses.

She watched him prepare the most delicious stir-fry, which involved the
innovative use of fresh coconut milk and lemon grass, as well as just
about every vegetable she could imagine-including costly oyster
mushrooms and the Indian vegetable okra, known more commonly as
"ladies' fingers'.

"Where on earth did you get all those exotic ingredients ?"  she asked
him, sipping some more of the delicious wine, and he turned from the
stove, a dark eyebrow raised in laconic query.

"In Southbury," he told her mockingly.  "Where else?  We may be in the
depths of the country, but our tastes are fairly sophisticated.  Or
were you expecting me to cook you meat and two veg?"

Oh, heavens-now it sounded as though she was accusing him of being some
kind of country bumpkin!  "I-I didn't mean "Do you cook?"  he cut
across her stumbled explanation , his eyes gleaming with something
approaching mischief.

"Um-not like that," she told him bluntly, her glance indicating the wok
he was using, with its rainbow array of vegetables.  "My budget has
never really run to it, and I never seem to have the time or the
inclination to cook for just me."  And that made her sound like Little
Orphan Annie.  Much more of that and he would think she was after the
sympathy vote!  "Although I can cook the basics when I have to," she
put in hastily, and smiled.  "This all looks terribly impressive, I
must say!"

"That's OK, Nicolette," he told her drily.  "My ego really doesn't need
that much massaging, you know."

Again she felt her cheeks grow warm, and blamed it on the wine he had
given her, pleased that he now had his back to her and couldn't
possibly have noticed her naive reaction!

Moments later he was placing a steaming plate of delicately spiced and
fragrant vegetables with a mound of saffron-tinted rice in front of
her.

"Thank you," she said, and sniffed the air appreciatively' It smells
wonderful!"

"I aim to please," came the wry rejoinder as he sat down opposite
her.

They ate in silence for a few moments, and then he laid his fork down,
picked up his wine glass, sipped from it, and surveyed her over the top
of the glass with a steady stare.  "So tell me," he said in that deep,
authoritative voice.  "What brought you to Southbury?"

Nicolette finished chewing a slice of mushroom and put her own fork
down.  "Oh, the usual.  The job."

"But you don't know anyone down here?"  he probed.

Nicolette shook her head.  "No, no one."

"So-why choose here?"

She shrugged as her fork chased a basil leaf around the glistening
plate.  "I trained in London, at St.  Jude's "Good hospital," he
commented.  "Didn't you want to stay?"  he queried, before picking up a
baby corn with his long fingers and popping it into his mouth.

Nicolette swallowed.  It was rather distracting to see Leander Le Saux
indulging in finger-food!  With an effort she dragged her mind away
from the vision of his perfect mouth, and babbled on.  "More than
anything else, I wanted to see the world," she told him
enthusiastically, then realised how schoolgirlish that must sound. "I'm
sorry, that sounds..."

But he shook his head.  "Please don't apologise-it's refreshing to hear
such..."  he hesitated for a moment such passion," he finished quietly,
if rather reluctantly' Do continue."

She found herself wondering whether he could be passionate, too.  "I
went to Australia "Whereabouts in Australia?"

She gave him a reprimanding look.  "You have an awful habit of
interrupting, Leander, do you know that?"

Unexpectedly, he grinned at her and that grin gave Nicolette a strong
indication of what he must have looked like when he was a young,
carefree student.  Absolutely devastating!

"So I've been told!"  He shrugged his broad shoulders with a gesture
which would have looked little-boy helpless on any other man.  "I blame
all the patients I've had to interview over the years!"  He sipped at
his wine again.  "You were saying...?"

The wine gleamed moistly on his mouth and Nicolette found that
breathing was becoming increasingly difficult by the second.

"About Australia?"  he prompted, wicked amusement dancing in his eyes,
and Nicolette realised, with a sinking heart, that he was precisely
aware of the kind of effect he was having on her.  But no doubt he had
that kind of effect on every woman he met; she certainly couldn't
imagine any normal, hot-blooded woman being able to withstand that kind
of overwhelming allure!

"I travelled all over the country," she managed at last, rather primly.
"Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth..."  Her voice tailed off.

"But not Darwin?"

She shook her head.  "No, not Darwin.  I ran out of time."  She turned
the full blast of her dazzling blue eyes on him and saw his eyes narrow
almost imperceptibly in response.  So she started talking; or, rather,
she started babbling!  "When I arrived back in London it seemed all too
crowded after the space of Australia," she explained.  "I discovered
that, although I wanted city life, I also wanted to live in the
country, preferably by the sea, which was why Southbury was the ideal
compromise "Did you grow up by the sea?"  he asked suddenly.

Nicolette looked at him in surprise.  "Yes, I did; how did you know
that-or was it a lucky guess?"

He moved his broad, cashmere-covered shoulders in a way which hinted at
the strength beneath.  "I could tell.  There's something very wholesome
about you "Ugh!  You make me sound like a loaf of bread!"

He laughed.  "Oh, no.  Nothing like that.  It's something about your
skin-and your eyes.  You have the look of someone who was brought up on
fresh air and orange juice."

"Milk," she amended automatically, and, seeing the question in his
eyes, continued rather awkwardly, "We couldn't afford orange juice, not
as a rule.  My father was a vicar, with an exceedingly small stipend on
which to feed six children."

He raised his eyebrows.  "Your mother must have had her work cut out,"
he remarked.

Nicolette swallowed, forcing her voice to sound cheerful-because
nothing was worse than putting someone in an awkward spot.  And Leander
couldn't be expected to know.  "My mother died," she told him baldly,
because there was no nice way to say it.  "When I was fourteen.  I was
the oldest.  And so I looked after the others."

But to her surprise, he came out with none of the well-meaning
platitudes which she had heard time and time over.  Oh, there was
compassion in his eyes, yes, but he merely nodded his dark head and
said, very softly, "I see.  They were very lucky, then.  What little
I've seen of your work shows me that you have a rare and natural
affinity with children.  It shows," he added with a smile which would
have melted ice.

It was terribly flattering, Nicolette decided, to have a man like
Leander give you murmured praise like that.  Helplessly she bit her
bottom lip to stop herself from blushing-because she had already
blushed more times in a couple of short hours than she had done since
she was a teenager!  She decided to turn the tables around and find out
something about the enigmatic Dr.  Le Saux.  "Well, that was me; now
what about you?"  she queried coolly.

"Me?"  His face was impassive, but he sounded surprised

"Yes, you!  Tell me where you grew up."  She gave him a guileless
smile, but her blue stare was very direct as she leaned her square chin
on her hands and waited for him to speak.

Clearly he was a man unused to divulging his life story , for he seemed
to consider his words very carefully before he spoke.  "I grew up all
over the place," he told her at last.  "My father was an actor."

"An actor?"  Nicolette found it impossible to keep the incredulity from
her voice.

"Yes.  It surprises most people," he mused.  "Which is why I rarely
broadcast it.  He wasn't a famous actor he was the bread-and-butter
type who spend their lives reaching for the stars but never quite
making it."  He must have seen the faint frown which creased her brow.
"Oh, he earned enough to keep us-just.  But it was a nomadic,
unsettling life, particularly for a child.  Living out of suitcases in
one crummy boarding house after another.  Making friends at school and
then I>aving to leave them."

It made her own childhood sound positively idyllic.  "And your
mother?"

He seemed momentarily lost in his memories.  "Also an actor.  Very
beautiful and highly strung.  She needed constant reassurance that she
was lovely, from whoever was around, and if that didn't happen to be my
father, well..."  His voice hardened with a cynical edge to it.  "The
problem was that my father sought the same reassurance, and two massive
egos in the same household do not make for peaceful living."

"No," said Nicolette thoughtfully.  "I don't suppose that they do." Was
his unsettled childhood responsible for the calm order of this
beautiful house?  she wondered.  It seemed too large and too elegant a
house for a single man to live in quite contentedly.  Was he
overcompensating for the lack of material comfort and security in his
youth?

His eyes narrowed as he observed the sympathy which had softened her
face.  "More wine?"  he queried briskly, and Nicolette felt him
mentally retreat.

She shook her head.  "No, thanks."

He frowned.  "What were we saying?  Oh, yes, about you choosing to come
and live in Southbury."

It was as though that rather personal conversation had never taken
place, and from the rather forbidding look on his face it was obvious
that he wished to forget that it ever had.  "Yes," answered Nicolette,
equally briskly.  "The job was advertised here..  and, well it sounded
just what I was looking for."

"And is it?"  he probed as he poured himself a second glass.

Nicolette paused, and met that dark gaze full on.  "It's much too early
to say," she said carefully.

"You don't sound too sure.,

She wasn't about to start having a go about Rhoda Dixon.  If one woman
criticised another she would be labelled a cat!  And, for all Nicolette
knew, Leander and Rhoda could be on the brink of matrimony although if
he was involved with Rhoda he had certainly been flirting with her all
evening!  But she wasn't about to let him off so lightly, either.  "I'm
not," she told him bluntly.  "I had a very mixed reception today.  You
yourself hardly went out of your way to make me welcome, did you, Dr.
Le Saux?"

"Leander," he corrected sternly.

"Leander," she conceded with a slow smile.

"I'm not in the habit of going into clinches with womeri I hardly
know," he said wryly.  "And you did rip my trousers."

"An accident.  For which I apologised.  Am I forgiven?"

There was a pause and the tension in the air was back with the force of
a body blow.  "Oh, yes," he said softly.  "You're forgiven.  '

The blaze of light from his eyes was so enticing that Nicolette was
afraid that she would give herself away by her trembling hands or by
chewing furiously at her lips if she continued to look at him.  So she
quickly ate the last forkful of rice, and pushed her plate away.  "I've
talked too much," she said.

He stared at her very steadily.  "So have I," he said in an entirely
new voice altogether, and one which Nicolette didn't begin to even try
to analyse, for fear that she would find his habitual irritability!

But the wine had made her bold, and she gave him a look of fearless
challenge.  "Don't you ever get lonely here?"  she asked him, but the
moment the words were out of her mouth she regretted them.

There was a pause.  His voice was wry when he replied.  "I enjoy my own
company," he said carefully.

"Always?"

He gave her a long, considering look.  "Not always, no.  I've enjoyed
this evening with you."  And then he spoilt it all by adding,
"Surprisingly."  He smiled as he delivered his coup de grace.  "But my
research is the single most important thing in my life, Nicolette," he
told her candidly, and she got the distinct feeling that he was
actually warning her off.  "And that rather precludes the normal cosy
domesticity that most people settle for," he continued, still in that
cool, analytical voice.  "Like long-term heavy relationships.  Or
marriage.  '

Nicolette was horrified that he might think she had been fishing.  But
she had been fishing, and she didn't like what she'd learnt.  On the
one hand it appeared that he didn't have anyone serious, while on the
other he had obviously made his mind up never to get married.  What a
waste of a good man!

Not that she wanted him guessing her true thoughts, however-not in a
million years!  In desperation, she ferreted around for something to
say which would be strictly neutral, but it seemed that her
subconscious was on one track, and one track only.  "Whose clothes am I
wearing?"  She glanced down at the the cornflower blue sweater.
"They're beautiful."

He smiled but it wasn't a particularly friendly smile.  It didn't meet
his eyes for one thing, and he gave a little nod of his head, as though
she had said something entirely predictable.  And rather tedious. "They
belong to an ex-girlfriend of mine," he murmured, and her face must
have registered something of her amazement' Shocked Nicolette?" he
mocked.  "Why on earth should you be?  Just because I'm not looking for
any degree of permanance, it doesn't exclude my having women friends,
surely?

Nicolette glared.  He had the most irritating habit of interpreting
what he thought she was feeling, and consequently making her out to be
some sort of wimp!  "I am not," she protested mulishly, "shocked.  I
just wondered..  won't she mind my borrowing them?"

"I doubt it.  She lives in the States now-and she's married to someone
else."

"And did she live here?  With you?"  asked Nicolette before she could
stop herself, then cringed inwardly.  Oh, why did she have to open her
big mouth?  "I'm sorry-I'm just being nosy.  You don't have to answer
that."

"Thanks very much," he drawled softly with surprising sardonic humour.
"I know I don't."  The dark eyes glinted with some kind of unholy
amusement.  "But I will, if you like.  No, she never lived here.  I've
never lived with a woman," he finished, an unmistakably hard note
creeping into his voice.

And that, Nicolette supposed, was that!

She watched him as he rose to his feet and said, after quickly glancing
out of the window, "Coffee?"

"Please," she answered automatically, not surprised, but disappointed
all the same, when he added repressively,

"And then I think I really must take you home.  The rain appears to
have stopped."

When they walked outside into the starry night the rain had indeed
stopped, and the wind had dropped to a gentle sigh.  All that could be
heard in the distance was the muted sound of the swollen sea thrashing
around on the rocks and sand.

The ground was thick and clogged with wet mud, but Leander had made
adequate provision for this by loaning Nicolette a pair of welling tons
which had also belonged to the owner of the leggings and sweater she
wore.  Apparently.  And the woman even had a name, it seemed.  She was
called Annabella.  Nicolette found herself wondering why she had left
half her wardrobe behind.  Unless it was just an excuse to go back one
day?

The moon was a narrow crescent of silver, glittering magically in the
puddles as they walked along the path, and once, when the mud
threatened to suck Nicolette into immobility, Leander actually offered
her his arm.

She took it without hesitation, telling herself that it simply made
good sense, but neither could she deny how good it felt to have him to
lean on.  She couldn't ever remember having met a man like Leander
before.

Not, she forced herself to think, that she could ever expect to have
any more with him than, at best, a good working relationship. Tonight's
companionable dinner had been foisted on him by unfortunate
circumstance; he was obviously just making the best out of a bad
situation.  And even if he hadn't been, she was oldfashioned enough
never to start a relationship with someone who had renounced permanency
from the very start!

With his free hand he carried her bags of shopping as though they were
nothing more than a sack of feathers and for most of the journey he
regaled her with wry little anecdotes from his time as a houseman in
the north of England.  He could be incredibly amusing , Nicolette
thought, and found herself giggling helplessly at his description of
his very first surgical boss, glad again for his supporting arm as they
walked up the slippery path to her new home.

Most of the lights in the adjoining nurses' flats were extinguished by
the time he accompanied her to her door, but then, it was, she realised
with surprise as she glanced down at her wristwatch, almost midnight.

Nicolette fished around in her handbag for her keys, still unused to
the large clump of them she had been given by the housekeeper yesterday
evening.  Now, which one opened the front door?  she wondered, a frown
creasing the skin above her thick, dark eyebrows.

"Allow me."  With an assured air of command, Leander casually took the
keys from her hand, and immediately inserted the correct one, which had
the door open within seconds.

"You've obviously done that before!"  said Nicolette, half joking while
the other half of her seethed with rage at the thought of him taking
any other nurse home and unlocking her door for her!

But one glance at the chilly look on his face made her wish yet again
that she had not said it.

"Never make assumptions, Nicolette," he warned her, his voice
steely-edged.  "Unless they happen to be based on facts.  It's
unworthy, surely, to leap to such banal conclusions?"

His face was a puzzling contradiction of conflicting messages-she could
read the cold censure in his eyes and yet within their dark depths she
could discern the distinct light of desire, a desire which had softened
the full curve of his bottom lip into the most kissable of shapes.

Nicolette drew in a deep, indignant breath.  He might have a kissable
mouth, yes, but he had no right to talk to her in that sternly critical
way; no right at all!

"Have you quite finished?"  she demanded hotly.

"Finished?"  he echoed softly, depositing the two carrier bags just
inside her door, which left both his hands free.  "No.  I haven't even
begun yet."

The words sounded like a sultry promise, and his actions appeared to
carry them out when he reached out to the sides of her face, and lifted
two great handfuls of thick dark hair in his hands, twisting them like
two soft ropes around his palms, inexorably imprisoning her as he
gently pulled her face towards his.

His breath was a warm, sweet whisper away, the narrow slice of moon
reflected in those shadowed, enigmatic eyes, and Nicolette's heart
began thudding loudly in her ears as she waited for him to kiss her.

Oblivious to the world around them, they searched each other's faces.
And all Nicolette's good intentions about not reading anything into the
evening vanished as she found herself caught in the blinding thrall of
his magnificent gaze.

A jigsaw of memories fused.  All the good parts of the day came
flooding back to tempt her; his gentleness with the children, his
hospitality, the beautiful music he had played, the meal he had cooked.
and last, but certainly not least, the acute physical awareness of him
she had experienced in his study.

All of a sudden, Nicolette knew that, far more than wanting his kiss,
she needed his kiss.  Needed to know for certain whether it yielded all
that it promised... "No" he reiterated on a murmur, which none the less
broke into her thoughts as brutally as a nail jagging into a stocking.
"I haven't even begun..."

His voice tailed off and Nicolette's eyes snapped open-indeed, she
hadn't been aware that they had been closed-to surprise a narrow-eyed,
assessing expression on his face, all passion vanished.

"And what is more," he continued softly, "I don't intend to begin."  He
must have read the bewilderment in her eyes, for he nodded his dark
head.  "You want to know why?"

She tried to shake her head, but her hair was still twined around his
hands, and besides, she had been frozen into stillness, struck
motionless by the overwhelming force of his proximity.  He had woven a
spell so powerful that for a few brief moments she had foolishly
imagined what it would be like to fall in love with him... "Not just
because I work with you," he continued quietly.  "Or even because I
suspect that you are the kind of woman I would feel guilty about having
an affair with."  He let go of her hair then and as it tumbled in soft
waves down her breasts she found herself yearning for that imprisoning
contact again.  "No, it's because I suspect," he continued, and his
face was unreadable in the shifting shadows, 'that once I started
kissing you I might never be able to stop.  And I don't like feeling
out of control.  Can, you understand that?"

Of him, yes, she could.  Mutely she nodded her dark head, still too
numb for any feelings to register, bar one of intense
disappointment..

He stood and looked down at her for one long, hard moment, and then he
said, with a grave and simple courtesy that sounded so terribly final,
"Goodnight, Nicolette.  '

Without even giving her a chance to answer him, his face inexplicably
darkened as he turned away abruptly, and with his hands buried deeply
in his pockets he set back off down the path towards his house, without
once looking back.

CHAPTER SIX

WHEN Nicolette woke up in her room in the nurses' home the following
morning she really thought that she might have dreamt the whole affair!
Had she really spent the evening with Leander Le Saux, being cooked for
and waited on and almost kissed by him?  And then, with the naivety of
a schoolgirl, imagined herself to be on the brink of something
emotionally momentous?  A feeling which had most definitely not been
reciprocated , she realised as she recalled with clarity the forbidding
set of his shoulders as he had stridden away.

Forget him, Nicolette, she had told herself sternly as she had
undressed.  He's mean!  He's moody!  He doesn't want commitment!  In a
nutshell-he's trouble!

But, to her everlasting surprise, she had slept far more deeply than
she had expected to.  She had imagined that she might lie awake all
night, tossing and turning and unable to rid herself of the vision of
that darkly handsome and mocking face, those lips tantalising her but
not quite kissing her.

But her youth and natural good health proved her wrong-coupled with the
fact that she was probably worn out after such a busy day on the ward!
Whatever the reason, she failed to hear the alarm clock, and was
alerted from sleep only by the shouts of two nurses outside her flat
who were obviously on their way to the canteen for breakfast before
going on duty.

Consequently Nicolette had to dress in a rush, pausing only to drink
half a cup of coffee before tearing off to the ward.  Which meant that
there would be nothing for her to eat before break-time, she thought as
her stomach rumbled protestingly.

With a final pin she fastened her dark hair on top of her head, tucked
in a wayward strand, and scurried down the ward on her way to the
nurses' station, her eardrums assaulted by the furious wailing of a
toddler.  She didn't want to risk being late, but there was nothing on
earth that could stop her from tending to a distressed child.

"What's the matter, Sarah?"  she queried as she bent down to the
screaming child, who had been admitted two days earlier for
investigations on her inability to thrive.

"Dum-dum!"  yelled the toddler, pointing an angry finger out of the
side of her cot.

Nicolette immediately spotted the discarded comforter , walked over to
it, then bent down and picked up, looking round in vain for another
nurse.  It was like searching for a taxi, she thought-you could never
find one when you wanted one!  Seeing that there was no nurse, she
hurried over to the basin and gave the dummy a thorough wash before
returning it to Sarah.  Then she quickly cuddled the now-contented
child and set off for the nurses' station once more.

"Morning, Staff!"  called Student Nurse Jones after her.

"Morning!"  smiled Nicolette as she headed for the desk, sighing with
relief when she saw she wasn't late.

It was bang on the dot of seven-thirty, and she was all raring to go,
ready to take over from the nurse who had been on night-duty, but her
heart sank into her boots when she spotted who the night nurse was
talking to.

The dreaded paediatric specialist nurse manager in the shape of the
aggressive Rhoda Dixon.  Who Jane Jones had said was in love with
Leander.

And he with her?  He had rejected permanence, yes, but that didn't mean
he couldn't have affairs with attractive women-as he had said himself
and Rhoda was certainly attractive, in looks if not in personality.
And Leander's attitude to relationships was what a lot oq people might
have called sensible-why should he believe in marriage, given the
appalling divorce statistics ?  So was that really why he didn't kiss
me? Nicolette thought fleetingly.  Bacause he has got something going
with Rhoda?

Both women looked up as Nicolette appeared, and Rhoda Dixon's face was
a picture of disapproval as she watched Nicolette approach.

"Good morning," said Nicolette with a slightly breathless
cheerfulness.

"Hi!"  slniled the night nurse.

"Just go and check Baby Jameson's blood pressure again, would you,
Staff?"  asked Miss Dixon with a tight, fixed smile, and the night
nurse sped off to do her bidding.

And that, thought Nicolette as she stood in front of Rhoda Dixon, was
about as transparent an excuse as you could manufacture for the
specialist nurse manager to get her alone, no doubt to administer
another stinging rebuke.  She gave an inward sigh and endured the
woman's sweeping gaze with a polite smile, pleased that her uniform
dress and a span kingly clean tabard were neat and pristine.  And that
she had mercilessly scraped her wild, dark curls into the tightest
top-knot imaginable.  There would be no wayward curls today, of that
she was certain!

"You managed to make it in, then?"  asked Miss Dixon tartly.

"I'm not late," Nicolette pointed out.  "Am I?"

"No," agreed Rhoda Dixon.  "You're not.  But you made it with only
seconds to spare, Staff Nurse."

"I

"And what kind of example do you think it sets," the other woman cut
across her coldly, "if the nurse who is supposed to be in charge
appears for duty running on to the ward like Cinderella at the stroke
of midnight?"

Well, if I'm Cinderella, thought Nicolette mutinously , then I know
which part you would excel in, Miss Dixon!

"You should try getting an early night in," said the older woman
pointedly.  "But then I suppose that fast workers aren't exactly
renowned for early nights."

Nicolette met her eyes.  There was a significant pause.  "And what's
that supposed to mean exactly, Miss Dixon?"  she asked quietly.

Oh, come on!"  answered the other woman scornfully.  "You were seen
being escorted back to your flat by Dr.  Le Saux at almost midnight
last night.  You're surely not going to deny that?"

Seen by whom?  Nicolette wondered acidly, obstinately resisting the
desire to explain why she'd been out late with the consultant.  "I'm
certainly not going to deny it," countered Nicolette.  "And it isn't a
crime, is it?"  she queried blandly, though she added sardonically ,
"Or against hospital policy?"

Miss Dixon bared her teeth in a smile and resembled a small rodent as
she did so.  "No, of course it isn't.  It's Dr.  Le Saux that I feel
sorry for."

"Oh?  And why is that, Miss Dixon?"  enquired Nicolette calmly.

The specialist nurse manager shrugged.  "You couldn't be expected to
know, of course, but Dr.  Le Saux is one of the old-school type of
medics, despite his relative youth-everyone knows that.  He is a
gentleman, and he certainly doesn't date people he scarcely knows.  I
can't believe that he invited you out last night, which leaves me to
deduce that you probably foisted yourself on him."

This was a little too close to the truth for Nicolette to feel
comfortable about denying, and so she let Miss Dixon continue with her
little diatribe.

"And then to get drunk and incapable This was too much!  "I was not,"
retorted Nicolette furiously, "drunk and incapable!"

"Giggling and clutching on to the poor man's arm?"  sneered Miss Dixon.
"How else would you describe it?"

Well, she supposed that was how it might have looked to an outsider. In
reality, she'd drunk only one and a half glasses of the superb wine he
had insisted on opening to accompany the delicious supper he had
produced while the furies of wind and rain had lashed down outside the
window.

For someone as unused to wine as Nicolette was, it had been an
intoxicating evening, but she suspected that it was the sheer potency
of the charm he could exercise when he chose to which had intoxicated
her more than any wine ever invented could!  She had been giggling
simply because he had made her laugh, on more than one occasion, on the
too short-for Nicolette, anyway-walk home.

And as for clutching on to his arm... He had insisted, hadn't he?  And
the path had been dangerously slippery.  And, let's face it, she had
wanted to.  Very much.

But her calm face gave away none of her frantic thoughts to the
specialist nurse manager.  She would not be spied on, nor interrogated.
Nor offer any excuses.

Which was probably why her next words came out in a spill of emotion
which distorted what she really meant by them.  "If you really must
know, Miss Dixon, then yes, I did have an absolutely wonderful evening
with Leander!"  she declared.  "He happens to be a marvellous cook and
he is excellent company, too.  And I shall see exactly whom I want,
when I want and how I want, and I shan't feel pressurised into giving
an account of myself either!"

A look of intense rage crossed the blonde woman's face, and Nicolette
never knew what she would have said had not a tall white-coated figure
strolled into the office and suddenly there was Leander standing by the
desk, his handsome face unreadable.  But he looked, thought Nicolette
suddenly, completely shattered, the dark stubble on his chin indicating
that he hadn't had time to shave that morning, and great dark circles
of exhaustion beneath his eyes.  Surely supper with her hadn't been the
cause of those!

She pinned a small smile to her lips but he didn't return it.  If he
even saw it.  For he didn't even bother looking in her direction. There
was nothing-not a word or a glance or a gesture-absolutely nothing to
indicate that they had enjoyed a very agreeable meal together the
evening before.  Or so she had thought.

Nicolette had never seen a more startling transformation take place on
someone's face than what she now witnessed happening to Rhoda Dixon's.
From her al mast violent look of rage, a beatific smile curved the
specialist nurse manager's neat lips, and she gave Leander a coy little
glance from beneath her thick, heavily mascaraed lashes.  "Well, well,
well-speak of the devil!"  she declared on a strangely husky note.

He shot her a vaguely quizzical smile.  "Mmm?"  he queried absently.
"I said, speak of the devil' Miss Dixon repeated brightly.  "Staff
Nurse was just telling me all about her late and oh, so exciting
night!,

The angled face hardened into a forbidding mask.  "I'm sorry?"  came
the frosty response.

One look at the expression in those gorgeous eyes would have been
enough to halt an invading army in its tracks, and if it had been
Nicolette speaking she would have shut up there and then.

But it seemed tbat Rhoda Dixon chose not to display any such restraint.
"Yes!"  she trilled.  "She was telling me what a wonderful evening she
had with you, and what a splendid cook you are-and how much she's
looking forward to going out with you again.  I must say, Leander, you
are a dark horse-I had no idea with some ward work, as a matter of
fact.  We have that there was romance in the air' several kiddies going
up to theatres this morning, actu It was a deliberately provocative
remark and ally, but I'm afraid that I simply couldn't get a word
Nicolette could tell immediately from the sudden rigid- in edgeways."
She smiled resignedly.  "Staff Nurse ity of his stance that it had
struck home.  It sounded Kennedy here was far too busy boasting about
her date like the tackiest and worst kind of hospital gossip, and with
you Nicolette instinctively knew that a fastidiously arrogant "I was
not," protested Nicolette, unable to take any and reserved man like
Leander would recoil from his more of this blatant distortion of
events, "boasting."  affairs being made public in such a cheap and But
Leander had turned, cutting her down with the misleading way.  cold
gleam of disdain that emanated from his magnifiBut

Rhoda's provocative remark told Nicolette cent eyes.  "No?"  he queried
scornfully.  "Rhoda just something else too, something that gladdened
her heart happened to know, did she?  To guess that we spent in spite
of the dreadful atmosphere which had now the evening together?  Or
perhaps she has been clair descended on the office: that if there was
any involve- voyant all this time and I never knew it.  In that
casement between Rhoda and Leander it existed only in you are the dark
horse, Rhoda!"  the senior nurse manager's imagination.  For a woman
And Rhoda laughed uproariously as though his sarwho was having a
relationship with a man would never donic jibe was the most amusing
joke she had ever have humiliated herself in front of him as Rhoda had
heard.  "Would you like to go around the ward now, just done.  Leander?
We've wasted far too much time gossiping."

Leander's gaze raked contemptuously over Nicolette "Please," he nodded,
then added in a bitter undertone and there was such a look of cold fury
in his eyes that which stung Nicolette to the bone, "Heaven spare me
she almost physically recoiled from it.  He gave her q from nurses with
nothing more on their minds than one last withering glance before
turning back to Rhoda men!"  And he stalked off.  Dixon with a resigned
look on his face.  "I'm sorry you Nicolette became dimly aware that the
night nurse had to be subjected to such tedious tittle-tattle, had
returned, and in a daze she forced herself to pay Rhoda," he murmured
apologetically.  "I'm sure you attention as she took the report from
her.  But it was have far more important things to attend to than
having hard to concentrate on anything other than how to stand around
listening to gossip."  unjustly she had been treated by both Rhoda
and

Rhoda shrugged her dainty shoulders and gave him Leander-and to think
she could have once thought a resigned little look accompanied by the
kind of cute he was the most wonderful man she had ever met!  She smile
that told him she would follow him to the ends _ stabbed her pencil
viciously into her notebook and of the earth.  "Well, I was hoping that
we could get on broke the lead, having to lean over and borrow a
ballpoint pen from one of the night nurses.  Now, concentrate ,
Nicolette, she told herself furiously.  Forget Mr.  Egomaniac and his
loving sidekick!

Automatically, her training took over.  She wrote in her notebook the
names of all the children on the ward making a careful note of who was
especially poorly and who was due to be discharged.

"We had an admission during the night," said the night nurse.  "David
Barnes-a seven-year-old boy with an acute attack of asthma.  Nice
little boy-he was in and out all last winter, but he's been pleasingly
free of attacks since he came under Leander's care.  However , he had a
bad attack at about three o'clock this morning, following an
upper-respiratory-tract infection at the beginning of the week, and his
GP sent him in.  We bleeped Dr.  Le Saux "Dr.  Le Saux?"  queried
Nicolette, thinking that she had misheard, already forgetting that the
man was her newly sworn enemy.  Surely Leander hadn't been called in
for a routine admission?  "Himself?"

The night nurse nodded.  "Of course.  Leander has been doing an
experimental drug trial on him, as well as advising on environmental
changes to try to reduce the number of asthma attacks he's been having,
so he always likes to be contacted if he's admitted-whenever he's
admitted," she amended.  "Haven't you heard yet that our Dr.  Le Saux
is a real-life superman?"  she finished with a smile.

In some aspects of his life perhaps, thought Nicolette grimly as she
recalled the disdainful way he had looked at her and the scornful
things he had said.

The night nurse clearly was not expecting an answer, since she carried
on with the report.  "David has an IVI in situ with.."

As Nicolette's pen flew over her notebook the naturally compassionate
side that was so much apart of her nature couldn't help thinking that
no wonder Leander had looked so tired this morning if he had been
called to the ward at three after dropping her off at midnight.  It was
supposed to be one of the perks of reaching the dizzy heights of
consultant-that you rarely got called out at night.  And being called
out frequently in the night was supposed to add to general stress
levels.  Certainly not advisable on a sustained basis.  And that might
also explain, she mused reluctantly, why he could be so bad-tempered-if
he was absolutely exhausted.

"How is David now?"  she asked the night nurse.

"I checked his observations an hour ago.  They were fairly
satisfactory, but his breathing is still very laboured.  He's very
sleepy.  The attack has taken it out of him."

Nicolette nodded.  "Poor lamb; I'm not surprised.  I'll take a peek at
him after you've finished."

At the end of the report the night nurse stood up.  "Oh, and as you're
new-you haven't forgotten that it's the grand round today, have you?"
she reminded Nicolette brightly.

"No," said Nicolette rather gloomily.  And I'm not likely to forget,
either, she thought.

"So make sure you have everything just so-I've seen Dr.  Le Saux tear
nurses to pieces if things aren't exactly right!  They don't call him
the lion man for nothing!"  laughed the night nurse.

The last thing Nicolette needed on top of everything else was to have
Leander taking her to task again!  "Is there anything he's particularly
fussy about?"  she queried, knowing that every consultant had their own
likes and dislikes about their ward rounds.

The night nurse nodded.  "He likes all the latest results clipped to
the front of the notes.  Oh, and he likes the notes trolley to be
fastidiously tidy."  She gave a huge yawn.  "Rather you than me!  It's
my bedtime that was a long night, that was!"

"Sleep well," said Nicolette automatically.

"Don't worry, I will," smiled the night nurse.  "Only one more night
and I'm off for four days-whoopee!"

Nicolette laughed as she quickly tidied the desk and popped her
notebook in the pocket of her uniform dress.  Her eyes raked over an
untidy pile of results littered on the desk.  I really must sort those
out and pin them to the front of the notes before the grand round, she
reminded herself.

She went in to David Barnes's cubicle to check up on the new admission,
to find Leander already in there, listening to the boy's chest,
assisted by a young woman who was obviously the child's mother.  She
was white faced and anxious and holding on to David's hand
convulsively.  They scarcely noticed Nicolette as she slid quietly in;
Leander had his eyes shut as he listened to the chest sounds and when
he opened them he frowned at her, very briefly.  "Was there anything
you wanted, Staff?"  he asked abruptly, and there was very definite
dislike in his eyes.

Nicolette felt like an intruder as he fixed her with that unfriendly
stare.  "Just checking David's observations she said stiffly as she
glanced down at the chart, which lay slotted at the end of the bed.
Then she leaned over the pale-faced little boy who was clearly having
difficulty breathing.  He looked twitchy, too, but that wasn't unusual
in any child patient; hospitals could be frightening and painful places
if you were little.  And asthmatic patients could be especially
twitchy, although whether this was cause or effect of their particular
illness, it was difficult to say.  As

Nicolette's tutor had once said to her, it must be the scariest thing
in the world, not to be able to breathe properly-and Nicolette had
never forgotten it.

"Hello, David," she said softly, and as she brushed a lock of damp hair
off his forehead she looked up to find that Leanderwas watching her
carefully.  It was hard to be calm under his close scrutiny, but
Nicolette managed to take David's temperature, pulse, respirations and
blood pressure without unsettling the boy.

Afterwards she turned to his mother.  "Mrs.  Barnes?"

The woman nodded.

"I'm Nicolette Kennedy," she said softly.  "I'm new ; here.  I'll come
and see you when Dr.  Le Saux has gone, and you can tell me what
special requirements David usually has when he's here."

Mrs.  Barnes nodded, but at that moment Leander interrupted.  "Could I
have a word, please, Mrs.

Barnes?"  And he gave Nicolette a brief glance.  "You too, please,
Staff."

The three of them filed into the relatives' room, ; where Leander
settled Mrs.  Barnes down in a chair and indicated with his dark eyes
where Nicolette should sit, before perching on the edge of the desk.

"How are things?"  he asked the woman gently, and Nicolette supposed
that she shouldn't have been surprised to hear him sound so
forthcoming, but really, the man was a veritable Jekyll and Hyde!

Mrs.  Barnes sighed.  "I did everything you told me, Doctor-to help
reduce the amount of allergens that might be causing David's asthma.
Took all the unnecessary furniture out of his room.  And there's no
carpet now, or feather pillows.  Oh, and his dad's stopped smoking and
his sister's not using aerosols any more."  Mrs.  Barnes gave a pale
smile.

No wonder she looked tired, Nicolette thought, knowing from experience
that the very necessary changes that needed to be made by a family when
one of its members suffered from asthma could cause huge physical and
emotional upheavals.

"And has that helped?"  Leander probed.

The smile became weary.  "Yes.  Helped a lot."

"Then I wonder what brought on this latest attack?"  he queried
softly.

"Oh, there's no need to wonder!"  Mrs.  Barnes answered bitterly.  "I
can tell you!"

Leander frowned.  "What?"

"A new bloke has moved into flat eight-he's got a cat."

Leander nodded.  "Which aggravates David's asthma.  But your
neighbour's cat shouldn't affect you, surely?"

Nicolette's heart went out to Mrs.  Barnes as she heard the woman's
dispirited answer.  "It does if his cat piddles in our Ricky's pram
every night," she added plaintively.  "We live on the fourth floor."

Leander nodded again.  "Of course.  And the stairs can't help David,
either."

"Not when the lift's nearly always out of order," Mrs.

Barnes agreed.

Leander locked his long fingers together.  "No, I quite understand. How
about if I wrote a letter to the housing department again?  A more
demanding one this time-asking for a priority move to a house of your
own?"

Mrs.  Barnes looked at him as if he had just promised her the universe.
"Oh, could you, Doctor?"

"I not only can," he said pleasantly, in a tone which was at odds with
the grim set of his mouth, "I will."

As Mrs.  Barnes shook his hand fervently and went back to her son,
Nicolette's estimation of Leander Le

Saux grudgingly went right up, and she had almost decided to overlook
his unreasonably barbed remarks to her in the office, when his next
words had her on her guard again.

"May I have a word?"  he ground out abruptly, and crossed the room to
shut the door behind Mrs.

Barnes.

Perhaps he's about to apologise for having been so rude to me earlier,
thought Nicolette, although the unsmiling expression on his face didn't
look exactly promising.  "If it's about last night "It isn't.  Damn
last night!"  he said with soft menace.

"I want it forgotten.  Do you understand?  Forgotten!

Last night was a mistake!  Nothing more!"

There was some unfathomable fury darkening his eyes, his harsh yet
handsome face set in an uncompromising mask.  It was the grim face of a
man who was, she realised, a million light-years away from the amusing
companion she had shared that delicious supper with last night.

Nicolette glowered; she had had about as much as she could take!  Dr.
Le Saux's bad temper was his problem and his alone and he had to be
taught that she would not allow him to use it to make her life a
misery!  If he thought that he could bully her just when he saw fit
then he could think again!

She drew her chin up to face him, unconsciously squaring her shoulders
as if she were about to fight him.  "Make your mind up, Doctor," she
told him with acid emphasis.  "First you categorically tell me that you
don't want to discuss last night-which happens to suit me just fine, by
the way.  And then you proceed to contradict your own words by doing
just that.  So you'll forgive me if I leave you to make your mind up
about which it's to be.  It's all very confusing, and far too early in
the morning for me!"  "Why did you have to make it sound as though we
were the next best thing to Romeo and Juliet?"  he snarlecl.  "The fact
that we had dinner together will be all over the hospital by
lunchtime!"  "Perhaps you should blame Rhoda Dixon for that," retorted
Nicolette angrily.  "She was the one who was so keen to talk about
it!"

"And you were the one who told her!"  he accused.

"I did not tell her anything.,

"You're surely not suggesting that she's lying?"  "l'm not suggesting
anything, Dr.  Le Saux.  It's a statement of fact.q

He frowned, in what looked like genuine perplexity

"But why on earth should she want to do that?"

"How should I know?"  Nicolette answered coolly, and shrugged,
determined not to feed his already massive ego by telling him that it
was because Rhoda had designs on him herself.  Besides, if he really
didn't know that then the man must be very dense indeed!  To Nicolette
it was as clear as the light of day!  "And why are you making such a
big deal out of it?"  she demanded.  "These are the nineties, after
all.  My father isn't about to arrive with a shotgun just because I
spent the evening alone in your company!"

Her sarcasm made him frown even more deeply.  "Well, that's the last
time I ever play the good Samaritan," he snapped.  "Next time I'll
leave you to freeze !  ..

Nicolette lost her temper, something she had not done for as long as
she could remember.  "Oh, don't worry," she stormed.  "I'd rather
freeze!  In fact, I'd rather fetch up with pneumonia than accept any of
your hospitality!  And now, if you wouldn't mind moving away from the
door" she demanded scornfully, "some of us happen to have work to
do!"

His eyes narrowed.  "Not so fast, Staff," he said, and plucked a drug
chart from his pocket and waved it in her field of vision.  "Would you
mind telling me why Katie Rogers in bed five has not been started on
her penicillin course when I expressly asked that it begin on the ten
o'clock round last night?"

Nicolette took the chart from him and quickly scanned it.  "I have no
idea," she said tonelessly.  "I'll look into it."

"Just see that she gets the antibiotic, will you?  Her throat is
infected and that's two doses she's missed now.  '

"I had just about managed to work that out for myself!"  she snapped,
because he seemed to be blaming her for something which had happened
when she hadn't even been on duty!

He frowned.  Then said, rather grudgingly, Nicolette thought, "Right.
Thanks."

"Don't mention it," she replied tightly.  "And now, would you mind
letting me pass?"

It gave her a ridiculous rush of satisfaction to see that exasperated
look cross his face as he stood aside to let her pass, but his
proximity disturbed her profoundly as she was forced to brush against
him.  Was that because the doorway was so narrow?  Surely he hadn't
deliberately impeded her progress?  She felt her breath catch in her
throat as their hips fleetingly made contact and the colour scorched at
her cheeks as she turned and marched briskly down the ward, acutely
aware that a pair of magnificent brown eyes with green and gold flecks
at their depths were burning angry holes in the back of her uniform
dress!

The morning was steadily busy.  There were two children and a baby
going down to theatres who all had to be prepared and checked over.
Nicolette did this herself, with one of the student nurses assisting
her.  There were strict guidelines governing checks made before any
patient had a general anaesthetic.

"But obviously," said Nicolette, "we have to be even more careful when
we're checking over a baby prior to surgery-why is that?"

The student nurse screwed her face up.  "Erbecause they're so young?"

"And why would that affect anything?"  probed

Nicolette patiently.

The girl went scarlet.  "Er..."

"Listen," said Nicolette kindly.  "Let me give you a tip for future
reference, Louise.  If you don't know something then just say so.  You
can't be expected to know everything, certainly not when you're a
student, not even when you're a staff nurse."  She smiled.  "If you
admit to not knowing then you can learn correctly, but I've seen all
kinds of problems which have arisen because nurses have been afraid to
let on that they don't know something.  OK?"  She fixed the student
with another friendly grin.

"OK," nodded the student.  "So-um-why is the check even more important
in a baby?"

"Because babies and toddlers can't speak for themselves , can they?  We
rely on their parents or guardians for information."  She looked down
at the notes of the first patient-a ten-year-old undergoing a routine
tonsillectomy' Let me see-the anaesthetist clerked her in yesterday,
and he's written up her premed for..."  Nicolette glanced down at her
fob-watch "..  ten-fifteen, so we'd better go and draw it up now,
hadn't we?"

They stood together in the clinic-room while they drew up the
combination of drugs the child would have before her operation.

"So tell me the purpose of the premed?"  asked Nicolette crisply as she
flicked tiny air bubbles out of the syringe.

"In babies or in children?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "We know that babies tend to have a drug to
relax them, while older children over thirty kilograms tend to have a
reduced version of what adults are given.  I meant the purpose of the
premed in general."

"Oh, um-its purpose is twofold;' began the student after a moment's
thought.  "It makes the patient drowsy and relaxed before an operation,
which is a good mental state to be in before a GA-general anaesthetic '
, she corrected hastily, pulling a comical face, and Nicolette could
not help smiling.

Had she ever really been this young?  she wondered.  This innocent?  It
was four years since she had qualified , and yet it seemed a lifetime
ago.  "Go on," she said.

"Um-the other purpose is to dry out the natural secretions of the
respiratory tract; this decreases the chances of contracting a chest
infection afterwards."

"Very good," said Nicolette approvingly.  "You've obviously been
studying hard."

The first-year beamed with pleasure.  "Oh, thanks, Staff!"

"Now let's go and give the injection together, and then I really must
sort out the notes before Dr.  Le Saux's grand round."

Fortunately, the ten-year-old girl who was going down to Theatre for a
tonsillectomy had a well-covered bottom and Nicolette was able to jab
the needle in and give the injection without her making a single squeak
of protest.

Afterwards Nicolette spent half an hour in the office, neatly and
thoroughly tacking the lab results to the notes and chasing up several
which had not yet come back.  Consequently, she missed her coffee break
as well as her breakfast, and instead made do with a grabbed mug of tea
while sitting at the desk.  But she wasn't even aware that she hadn't
eaten since Leander's stir-fry of last night, she was so determined
that his first grand round under her charge should go without a
hitch.

She could have done without the visit from one of the senior tutors in
the school of nursing, a Miss Spencer, but she could hardly tell the
woman that she didn't have time to see her!  Miss Spencer wanted to
check what nursing textbooks they kept on the ward and to ask Nicolette
what kind of practical tuition she intended giving to the students.
Then she asked if she could see the clinic-room, and Nicolette was
obliged to show her.

Miss Spencer seemed to take forever writing things down in her small
notebook, and perhaps she sensed Nicolette's slight impatience to get
back to her work, for she smiled at her, her eyes twinkling from behind
her distinctive red spectacles.  "I know you probably think that we
fuss in the school of nursing, Staff Nurse, but it is imperative that
we make these regular checks.  Miss Dixon has insisted that the
paediatric wards should be looked at carefully."

So she had Miss Dixon to thank for this unwelcome intrusion, thought
Nicolette wryly.  She should have guessed!  "And don't forget,"
continued Miss Spencer with such a kind smile that Nicolette could have
forgiven her anything, "that the students of today are the staff nurses
and ward sisters of the future and we owe it to them to provide the
very best training, don't we?"

"Yes, Miss Spencer," agreed Nicolette, inwardly thinking, Please hurry
up!

By the time Miss Spencer left it was almost eleven, and Nicolette
didn't even have time to go back into the office; she could see the
mass of white coats at the ward entrance which heralded Leander and his
medical team and she knew that it was her duty to go and meet him.  It
was the last thing in the world she wanted after last night, made only
worse by their little set-to this morning.  Blast the man!  He was a
complication she could well do without!

"Could you go and fetch the notes trolley," she asked Louise, the
first-year who had helped her with the premeds, "while I go and greet
the doctors?"

"Yes, Staff!"  Louise hurried off into the office to collect the
cumbersome notes trolley, which also held the patients' X-rays, and
Nicolette walked towards the paediaxric team.

They were all there: the houseman, the registrar, the senior registrar
and four medical students who were new to her, but Nicolette could only
see Leander's unwelcoming face.

However, she was determined not to flinch under his unsmiling scrutiny;
instead she merely returned his calm, cool stare, a glacial smile
curving the corners of her own mouth.  "Good morning, Dr.  Le Saux,"
she said politely and very formally.

Nicolette could see a definite spark of irritation in his eyes.  If she
had ignored him it would have been easier for him.  As it was, her
polite greeting forced him to answer in kind, and oh, she could tell
how much he hated doing it.  Good!

"Good morning, Staff Nurse."  It was more growled than spoken but
Nicolette affected unconcern and instead gave him the sweetest smile in
her repertoire.

"Isn't it?"  remarked Nicolette cheerfully.  "The suri is shining and
the sky is blue and the birds are singingI can't cmagine a nicer day!"
And the purpose of such inconsequential babble was to tell Leander Le
Saux that last night and its subsequent repercussions had not bothered
her in the slightest!

"Fascinating as it is to have your meteorological report, Staff Nurse,
I am waiting to do the ward round.  Do we have a notes trolley to
accompany us?"  he asked her with icy sarcasm.

He had simply voiced her thoughts.  Just where was Louise?  wondered
Nicolette.  Surely a first-year should be capable of a simple
responsibility like that?

And then she pulled herself up short.  Of course Louise was capable;
she had worked alongside her admirably all morning-it was simply
Leander and his dog-in-the-manger attitude which was making her get so
het-up.

"Staff Nurse?"  called Louise's voice from the office, some indefinable
note making it unrecognisable, though Nicolette neither had the time
nor the inclination to analyse it just then, not with Leander's dark
eyes fixed accusingly on her.

"Just bring the notes trolley out, will you, please?"  called Nicolette
authoratively.  It had become a matter of pride, and of slight
paranoia, not to go into the office and collect it herself-afraid as
she was that if she left the assembled group of doctors then Leander
might say something very unflattering about her in her absence!  And,
besides, Louise needed to learn that a junior nurse must always carry
out her senior's instructions.

"But..."  She heard the slight note of desperation in Louise's voice,
but she foolishly chose to ignore it.

"Now, please, Louise!"

They heard the familiar shuddering rattle as the antiquated notes
trolley trundled into view and Nicolette was so busy wondering why
Louise should look so white-faced and flustered that at first she
didn't notice that there was anything wrong.

Until she heard Leander's soft and impatient curse, muttered almost
indistinctly beneath his breath, though of all of them Nicolette was
best placed to hear exactly what it was he said.  And it was certainly
not very flattering to her; she distinctly heard the word "incompetent
' !  "What the hell is going on?"  he demanded, in a louder voice that
everyone could hear.

Now it was Nicolette's turn to feel flustered.  She did not happen to
be looking directly at the notes trolley; she was staring up in
confusion at Leander's dark, angry face.  "Is there something.. wrong?"
she asked, bewildered.

He resorted to sarcasm then; bitter, cutting sarcasm in front of his
whole team.  And, even while she suffered as the recipient of his
blistering invective, she vowed that she would never forgive him for
speaking to her in that derogatory fashion.  "Wrong?"  he quizzed.  "Is
something wrong?  You mean apart from the fact that there are no X-rays
on the trolley?  Or that half the notes appear to be missing?  Oh, no,
there's nothing wrong, Staff Nurse!"  He turned to glare down at her.
"How the hell do you expect me to do a ward round without all the
relevant facts at my fingertips?"

She remembered what she had been told about him.  About his reputation
for perfection, his directive that all the results should be up-to-date
and pinned neatly on to the front of the notes.

But she had done all that, before the round had even started!  She had
sat in the office for half an hour and methodically sorted out all the
notes, until they would have satisfied the world's greatest
perfectionist !

But there were no results pinned to the fronts of notes now.  And he
was right-half the notes did appear to be missing.  And where the hell
were all the X-rays?

Distractedly, Nicolette looked from left to right, as if the Good Fairy
was about to appear and wave a wand to make everything all right again.
But nothing happened, just a cold silence from Leander as he glowered
at her while an embarrassed atmosphere fell on the rest of the team and
they stood and studied the floor intently.

"Please wait a minute," cried Nicolette in despair.  "There must be
something wrong!"  And she ran over to the office.

There most certainly was something wrong.  Something terribly wrong.

Nicolette stood at the entrance to the office, to be confronted by the
most extraordinary scene imaginable.

Notes were scattered all over the office, littering the floor like
confetti.  The dull black gleam of X-rays spilled haphazardly over the
desk indicated that they had shared a similar fate.  The room was in
total chaos, and Nicolette stared at the debris in complete bafflement
, a shiver whispering its way down her spine as she heard a deep and
familiar voice say from right behind her, "I think you owe me some sort
of explanation, don't you, Staff Nurse?"

And she turned around to stare helplessly up into the darkly furious
eyes of Leander Le Saux.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NrcoLETrE had mistakenly thought that she had read the ultimate in
condemnation in Leander's eyes on other occasions, like this morning,
when he had believed Rhoda's story that she had been boasting about
their dinner together.  But that was nothing to the anger which
flickered there now.  Nothing.

"Well?"  The single word was fired out like a bullet.

But Nicolette's first thought was for her patients.  In a daze, she
crouched down and began picking up the notes on the floor, piling them
into her arms.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"  he demanded roughly.  A
strong hand caught hold of her shoulder, and she shuddered from the
contact as she looked up at him.

"They're..  waiting," she stumbled automatically.

"Waiting?"

"To do the ward round.  I'd better sort these out.  It won't take a
minute."

"It'll take longer than a minute to "sort these out"!"  he ground out.
"Leave it!  I've sent the team away.  I've postponed the round until
this afternoon, when hopefully there will be a nurse on duty who has
some idea of what she is doing!  Now, are you going to get up and give
me some kind of explanation, or perhaps you don't think that I'm
entitled to one?"

Nicolette got slowly to her feet, like someone who had been hit in the
solar plexus by a violent blow.  Her head felt as though it were
composed entirely of lead, as if her slender neck were too frail to
support it, and it took the most monumental effort to lift her head to
look at him and meet the accusation which blazed from his eyes.  "I
don't know," she said simply, shaking her head from side to side.

"You don't know?"  he repeated incredulously.  "You mean that, as the
nurse in charge of the ward, you have no idea how the notes and X-rays
came to be scattered all over the office floor?"

"That's right," she whispered, because even her normal strong, clear
voice appeared to have deserted her.  "That's what I said, isn't it?"

Her obvious distress apparently cut no ice with him.  "So what do you
think happened, Staff Nurse?"  he thundered on relentlessly.  "Have the
pixies flown in without our knowing and wreaked this havoc?  Did you
leave the window open and some hurricane we've been unaware of up until
now suddenly sweep through the office?  No?  Or-I know!"  And he
clapped the palm of his hand to his forehead in the manner of someone
effecting inspiration.  "Perhaps you were playing a game of snap with
the juniors and you ran out of cards?  Thought that you'd use what you
could salvage from the notes trolley instead?  Mmm?  Is that it?  Mmm?"
His eyes narrowed ominously, and when he spoke again it was in a
dangerous whisper.  "Or is it simpler than that?  Did you deliberately
sabotage the notes in a fit of pique, to cause as much trouble as you
possibly could, because you didn't end up where you wanted to last
night-in my arms?"

She didn't even take in his words for a moment or two; it was the cruel
way he spoke them that slammed at her like another body blow.  How
could he rant on and on at her like that, when it would have been
obvious to anyone that she was deeply upset?

And then she did take in his words, his unbelievably arrogant words,
and two high spots of colour glowed scarlet in her white face.  It was
like kicking a dog when it was down.  And Nicolette had only two
responses to make to him.  She could weep, or she could kick back and
her natural fighting spirit made her opt for the latter.

"You think the world revolves around you?"  she hissed at him.  "That
you are so wonderful that all my actions are governed by my response to
you?"  "You tell me," he suggested insolently.

"Damn you," she mouthed silently.  "Damn, damn, damn you !  '

It was as if her words made something inside him snap.  He moved in
front of her with a single step.  "No!  Damn you!"  he retaliated in a
harsh whisper, and he caught her roughly by the shoulders and levered
her up against the hard-packed length of him, fiercely covering her
mouth with his lips in the most passionate kiss she had ever
experienced.

For one wild moment she lost her head; laced her fingers in the back of
his thick lion's mane of hair and kissed him back as if her life
depended on it.  There was nothing but a fraught silence as their
mouths moistly and hotly explored, then she heard the small, almost
helpless sound of assertion he made in the back of his throat, and that
sound somehow shattered the tense, sensual silence.

Sanity returned unwelcomingly, like a bucket of ice cold water, and she
opened her eyes to the ugly scene of reality.  She was standing locked
in the consultant's arms while chaos surrounded them!

Nicolette tore herself out of his arms, her eyes wide and appalled, her
breathing erratic, her heart thundering like hooves on the gallop, her
skin prickling with some uncanny instinct; that she had just become
whole in Leander's arms.  As though he was the missing piece of the
jigsaw she had been searching for all her life.

His face was pale, his normally full mouth a tight, taut line.  He
looked, briefly, as appalled as she felt, and then his
self-condemnation disappeared as swiftly as a rainbow after a shower.
His eyes were hooded, his voice emotionless.

"Clear it up," he ordered brutally.  "The explanation can wait."

Word was out all over the hospital by lunchtime, and instead of eating
the large lunch she had been looking forward to to compensate for her
missed breakfast Nicolette found herself sitting oppostite Miss
Marsden, the director of nursing, in her large, elegant office, Leander
a quiet, motionless presence as he stood with his back to her, looking
out of the window at where the sunlight glimmered and shimmered off the
leaves in the distant trees.  On the other side of the office, her face
carefully composed into an expression of shocked bewilderment, sat
Rhoda Dixon, her eyes never quite meeting Nicolette's.

"So you're telling me, Staff Nurse," said Miss Marsden in her kindly
yet serious voice, "that you have no idea how this situation came to
occur?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "No, I don't.  Honestly."

"I can't believe," put in Rhoda Dixon with a helpless little shrug,
"that all that disruption was taking place in the office and you claim
not to have heard a thing."

"I was giving out premeds at the time," pointed out Nicolette, only
just managing to keep her temper at bay.  It rankled that in the midst
of all this trouble Miss Dixon was almost gloating.  And that, coupled
with Leander's furious indignation, made the prospect of going back on
the ward not in the least bit appealing.  "I didn't hear anything," she
said, rather wearily.  "Honestly.  '

"I see."  Miss Marsden sighed.  "Well, obviously I have to take your
word for it, Staff.  Heaven only knows what went on."

Rhoda Dixon raised her immaculate fair head.  "And we probably never
will know now, I'm afraid."  She made a little tut-tut ting sound.

"No," agreed Miss Marsden.  "We probably never will."  She turned her
her head slightly to speak to Leander, who still had his back to them,
seemingly transfixed by the landscape outside.

"Did you have any comments you wished to make on the matter, Dr.  Le
Saux"?"

Nicolette was feeling so displaced that she was fully expecting Leander
to declare that she should be sacked immediately, and it came as a
welcome shock to hear his next words.

"I want the whole business forgotten," he declared roughly.
"Completely."

Miss Marsden looked at him in surprise.  "Are you sure, Doctor?"

"Quite sure.  It doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that one of
the children on the ward may have got into the office without anyone
seeing them.  We have hyperactive children, bored children-who's to say
that one or more of them didn't get in there and begin making
mischief?"

Nicolette blinked.  This did not exactly correspond with what he had
said to her on the ward!

Rhoda Dixon raised her eyebrows.  "Do we have any hyperactive children
on the ward just now?  I wasn't aware that we had."

"That isn't the point, Rhoda!"  snapped Leander, and Nicolette saw the
paediatric specialist nurse manager's mouth twist into an ugly line of
anger.

"There's no rieed to talk to me "Anything could have happened," Leander
interrupted brutally, ignoring her words.  "And, as Miss Marsden has so
rightly pointed out, we shall have to take Nicolette's word for it."

Nicolette saw Rhoda Dixon start and frown at this sudden use of her
Christian name and inwardly groaned.  Now why had Leander chosen this
precise moment to do that?  It would only put Rhoda's back up even
more.

"Her references are, without a single exception, absolutely superb," he
continued smoothly.  "The best I have ever seen.  I just want the whole
thing forgotten," he concluded in the tone of a man used to getting his
own way.

There was a brief, awkward silence.

"Very well."  Miss Marsden wrote something down on the file lying open
on her desk and Nicolette didn't need to see her name written on the
top to know that it was her file.  Great stuff-to be hauled up in front
of the director of nursing on her second day!  That must be an all-time
record!

"Very well, Dr.  Le Saux," said Miss Marsden.  "Your comments have been
recorded.  Thank you."  She turned her fine hazel eyes on Nicolette,
both sympathy and reproach plainly written there.  "As Dr.  Le Saux has
requested, the matter will be forgotten.  We must only hope that there
is no recurrence of this incident, or anything resembling it."  Her
face was kindly, but Nicolette heard the subtle admonishment behind her
words.  And knew that it was justified, too.  For, no matter what had
happened in the office today, as the nurse in charge of the ward,
Nicolette should have been aware of the disruption.  And yet her first
duty was to her patients, surely?

"Is that understood, Staff Nurse?"

Nicolette nodded.  "Perfectly understood."

"And is there anything that you wish to say, Rhoda?"  Miss Marsden
asked.

"No," answered Rhoda Dixon tightly.

Miss Marsden smiled at Nicolette.  "Then you'd better go and get some
lunch, my dear," she said gently.  "You look as though you could do
with some!"

"Thank you," said Nicolette, thinking that food was the last thing she
wanted to face.  She felt foolish tears pricking at the backs of her
eyes as she heard the sympathy in the other woman's voice.

She stumbled out of the director of nursing's office, taking a deep,
deep breath to control herself as she looked down at her fob-watch.  It
was twelve-thirty.  I can't go to the canteen for lunch, she thought-I
just can't.  But neither could she face the ward, not for a little
while at least, not until she had calmed down.  In this kind of state
she would be no good to anyone not to patients or to colleagues.

She would go across to the nurses' home, make herself a strong cup of
coffee and drink it, and force herself to eat something.  If she didn't
eat she would feel weak, and if she felt weak then she wouldn't be able
to work to the best of her ability.

Back in her room, she risked a glance in the mirror.  She had left in a
rush that morning, and so had not worn even the small amount of make-up
she occasionally used.  Her cheeks were pale, her blue eyes startlingly
bright in her face, and her hair, predictably, a mess-despite the
restricting top-knot she had put it in that morning.

While the kettle was boiling she brushed and redid the wayward dark
curls, and was just spooning instant coffee into a cup, when there was
a sharp knock on the door.

Nicolette opened it to find Leander standing on the step, his face calm
and impassive, and the sight of him brought memory back-of the things
he'd said to her-and she began to shut the door, but he stopped her by
using the simple expedient of placing his foot inside the jamb.

"No!"  he told her firmly.

The memory of that arrogant kiss in the office fuelled her anger, and
she was tempted to slam the door hard against his beautiful shiny
Italian shoe.

"No!"  he said again, as if he had guessed her thoughts, and when she
met his eyes there was an expression there which was the last thing she
would have expected to see.  His eyes were full of laughter; deep,
irrepressible laughter.  "You don't really want to crush my
metatarsals, do you, Nicolette?"  he murmured.

"No!  I'd like to hit you over the head with a frying pan !"  she
retorted as she walked back into her flat, not caring whether he
followed or not.  "Very, very hard!"

She had been lying to herself when she had convinced herself that she
didn't care whether he followed or not, because when she heard him
close the door softly behind him her heart began racing with a
tremendous kind of excitement.  She turned around to face him, using
every bit of acting ability she possessed to keep her face calm and
impassive.

"I don't remember inviting you in," she told him tartly.

"Don't you?"  he queried.  "You didn't say it," he paused.  "Well..
your eyes did.  Sit down," he said softly.  "Before you fall down."

"I'm about to have a cup of coffee," she answered, her dark head
gesturing towards the kitchen.  "And I'm not making you one."

"You don't have to.  I'll make it," he said soothingly, as if he were
calming a ruffled child, and, when she opened her mouth to argue he
said, quite firmly, "I insist.  It's the least I can do.  Now sit
down."

She was too flabbergasted by his outstanding cheek to have any strength
left for arguing, and so she did as he suggested, sinking down into one
of the easy-chairs, listening to him clattering around in her
kitchen.

He came in presently with two mugs of coffee and a plate of chocolate
biscuits.

"Here."  He handed her a steaming mug and put several biscuits on a
plate beside her.

"I don't want them."

"You need them.  Now eat them up."

She found herself chewing on a milk-chocolate biscuit while part of her
wondered why she was meekly obeying all his instructions.  But the
infuriating thing was that he was right!  Three biscuits later and she
felt a fully signed-up member of the human race again!

He drank his own coffee, absently ate one biscuit, then made them
another mug each, which he set down on the small coffee-table.  "I owe
you an apology," he said, without preamble.  "Darned right you do!"
she snapped.  "You owe me several, in fact-which one did you have in
mind? The one for accusing me of gossiping about our dinner to Rhoda
Dixon? Or for telling me that I deliberately wrecked the office because
I didn't end up in your arms?"  she reminded him with sarcastic
emphasis.

"I shouldn't have said that "Too right, you shouldn't!"

"And I apologise.  Most sincerely.  For all of it."

But she wasn't having that.  Words were easy to say, his accusations
difficult to forget.  Besides, she had a few home truths of her own.
"And what is more you 're a flaming hypocrite, Leander Le Saux!"

"How?"  he challenged darkly.

"Here you are, apologising for having thought those things about me,
and yet you couldn't wait to go running to Miss Marsden with tales of
the whole sorry story, could you?  What were you hoping-that I'd be
sacked on the spot?"

He stared at her with what looked to be genuine confusion.  "Running to
Miss Marsden?"  he repeated slowly.

"That was why she summoned me to her office, wasn't it?  How else would
she know what had happened?"

"I didn't tell her.  I was summoned in at the same time as you.
Honestly, Nicolette-I'm as much in the dark as you are.

Their eyes met and she believed him instantly; it was that simple.
Considering his attitude towards her for most of the time, she
none-the-less had this overwhelming belief-this stupid, stupid
belief-that Leander would never lie to her.  Now, why should that be?

"But if you didn't tell her," Nicolette spoke very slowly, 'who did?"

His dark eyes were unwavering.  He shrugged the big, broad shoulders.
"I can only assume that it must have been Rhoda Dixon.,

But how had Rhoda Dixon known?  puzzled Nicolette.  "I wasn't aware
that she was on the ward at the time it happened" she said.

"Oh, she's always hanging around the unit," he told her.  1nd it was
Rhoda's job to oversee the paediatric wards at Southbury.  And yet..

Was it Nicolette's imagination, or was that a distinct note of
resignation she heard in Leander's voice?  As if Rhoda Dixon was always
turning up like the proverbial bad penny?  Did she get on Leander's
nerves, or was that what they called wishful thinking on her part? "The
paediatric unit here seems to make a habit of being unwelcoming to new
staff nurses," observed Nicolette, only half joking.

He raised his dark eyebrows.  "Meaning?"

Nicolette shrugged.  "Oh, nothing," she prevaricated.

"Tell me," he urged insistently.

"Just that things kept going wrong for the last but -one staff nurse,
and in the end..  she left."

He didn't respond to this, but his eyes were suddenly thoughtful and he
nodded slowly..

"Oh, well," said Nicolette hurriedly.  "The whole thing is best
forgotten.  You've apologised

"Not quite," he interrupted softly, a glitter in his dark eyes.

"Not quite?"  she echoed, muddled.

"What about kissing you in the office the way I did?"  he murmured
softly.  "Shouldn't I apologise for that, too?"

Now why bring that up?  She had deliberately omitted to mention it.
Just as she had deliberately buried the whole disturbing memory of it.
Colour washed a noticeably roseate tint over her high cheekbones, and
he smiled as he watched her, as though she had just flattered him in
some immensely satisfying way.  "Don't glower," he told her as she
responded instinctively to his smile.  "It's very fetching.  Blushing,
I mean," he murmured silkily.

"I hate it!"  she said fervently, wondering if he would be surprised if
she told him that prior to meeting him she hadn't blushed for years and
years!  "Nearly as much as I hate you!"

"But you don't hate me, do you, Nicolette?"  he contradicted softly
with a cool assurance that only he could have got away with.  "Perhaps
it might be simpler if you did.  I kissed you because I was angry," he
continued' And I was angry because since meeting you I can think of
nothing else."

Nicolette blinked with astonishment as she realised that she must have
completely misunderstood him.  " Wha-at?"

He shrugged impatiently, as though they were carrying an unasked-for
burden.  "It's true," he sighed.  "And yes, you don't have to tell me-I
know it's ridiculous.  I realise that we've known each other for
scarcely twenty-four hours, but somehow, in that time, you seem to have
made an enormous kind of..  impact on me," he added ruefully, before
leaning forward, his arms resting on his muscular thighs.  "I don't, as
a rule, date women I work with-I've seen examples of it, and it doesn't
generally work."  His mouth tightened with a reluctant determination.
"But for you I'm willing to make an exception.  I want to see you
again.  Properly Outside work, I mean.  Will you have dinner with me
again tonight, Nicolette?"

For a moment she really could not believe that she had heard him
correctly, but one look at that arrogantly handsome face, with the
confident smile curving those lips which had so thoroughly kissed her,
told her that she was not mistaken.

Oh, she was tempted all right.  Who wouldn't be tempted by a man like
Leander asking them out?  Men like Dr.  Le Saux did not exactly grow on
trees!

But Nicolette felt curiously detached enough to make a decision based
on common sense, on looking after her welfare-rather than giving in to
the soft longing to accept his invitation, which had made her heart
beat so fast.

And her refusal really had nothing to do with the fact that he had been
so rude to her, or even to do with his arrogant assumption that she
would forget his past attitude towards her and say yes immediately.

No, her reluctance to give in to what she knew in her heart of hearts
she really wanted had nothing to do with pride, but everything to do
with acknowledging the fundamental imbalance of their feelings for one
another.

To Leander, an invitation to dinner was doubtless just another
diversion, another potential conquest.  Whilst to Nicolette... Looking
into his dark eyes, she recognised that it would be terribly easy to
fall in love with him.  And wtlo in their right mind would catapult
themselves into a situation which they instintively knew would have no
future?

But her face showed nothing of her feelings, for she was darned if she
was going to enlarge Leander's ego further by letting him guess her
ilZner turmoil!  "I am very tempted," she answered calmly, 'to tell you
that I would not have supp per with you if you were the last man on
earth."

He shot her a warv Ic'ok.  This was clearly not what he had been
expecting by way of an answer!

"But of course," she continued with a sweet smile, "that would be
melodramatic and untrue, wouldn't it, Leander?  Because if you were the
last man on earth then doubtlessly Mother Nature would be prompting me
to ensure the survival of the species.  And so I must be grateful that
you aren't the last man on earth."  Her eyes flashed blue fire at him.
"Which means that I am perfectly at liberty to thank you for your kind
invitation" The faet that her words dripped sarcasm had not escaped
him, for his dark eyes narrowed.  "But," another sweet smile, "I'm
afraid that I must decline."

"WhY?,

The blunt question halted her in her tracks.  "Have you never been
turned down before?"  She queried in amazement.

At least he had the grace to look slightly abashed.  "Well, now you
come to mention it..  no."

The trouble was, she could believe it!  No one in their right mind
would turn down a dinner invitation with this man.  "I just don't want
to," she lied.  "Don't you understand?"

"No, I don't.  You like me "Like you?"  she queried incredulously

"OK," he capitulated.  "You want me.  As much as I want you.  And,
quite apart from desire, I thought that last night, over dinner, we
demonstrated at least the potential for liking one another, didn't
you?"

That was something she didn't want to think about; it was much, much
too dangerous.  "Very well, Leander," she said primly.  "I'll tell you
exactly why I won't go out with you, if you really want to know.  I
don't like your attitude to women.  I don't like the fact that you make
all the rules to begin with "Such as?"

"Such as no permanence "Listen," he put in roughly.  "If it's
commitment you're after "It isn't!"  she said with a fervour she wasn't
sure she believed.  "But neither do I care for your condescending
attitude-that you don't usually date women from work, but you're
willing to make an exception for me.  Big deal!  If that's your idea of
a favour, you can keep it!"

"Have you quite finished?"  he asked after a moment's silence.

"Yes," she answered stifily, wondering whether she had just cut off her
nose to spite her face.

"Then let's go."

"Go?"  She blinked.  "Go where?,

He smiled then.  "Back to the ward.  You are going back to the ward,
aren't you?"

"Yes, but "Don't look so surprised, Nicolette.  You may have turned me
down, but we still have to work together.  So let's start off on the
right foot this time, shall we?  Before the grand round does start," he
said, and his eyes glinted with mischief.  "You can come and help me do
a lumbar puncture on a child who should be arriving-' he glanced down
at the watch on his hair roughened wrist "-any minute now."  And, as if
by magic, his bleep set off an alarming shrilling noise.  "See?"  He
grinned.

She must have still looked bemused, for he raised his eyebrows in
sardonic query.

"Oh, come, come, Nicolette.  I'm man enough to take your rejection; the
experience is supposed to be good for the soul, isn't it?  What did you
expect?  That I would fall to my knees and beg?"  His mouth twisted
into an odd kind of a smile.

She met his dark eyes.  Him?  Beg?  It would be a cold day in hell
before ever that happened!  And, astonishingly , the thought was enough
to make her smile, and the smile momentarily stilled him, an
incomprehensible look of regret crossing his face, and it seemed to
cost him an awful effort to speak.

"Just promise me one thing, will you?"  he said at last, very sombrely,
and Nicolette froze at the serious note running through his voice.

"What?"

"That you keep a close eye on what goes on in the ward, and that if
there is any similar kind of incident to the one which occurred this
morning you will let me know.  Will you do that, Nicolette?"

"Why on earth should there be?"

He shook his head.  "Just promise me, that's all."  His face was so
stern that it brooked no argument.

Nicolette shrugged.  "Sure.  If you want."

"Good.  Now come on," he said, his familiar air of authority back with
a flourish.  "Let's go and sort out this lumbar puncture."

Nicolette rose slowly to her feet and followed him out of the door.

Well, she had done it!  Leander had asked her out and she had admirably
turned him down.  At least now he might recognise that she, unlike
Rhoda Dixon, was no walkover.

So why was she left feeling as though she had been offered a glimpse
through the gates of paradise-but had stupidly turned her back on
them?

CHAPTER EIGHT

"CouLD you ring down to Pharmacy and try to get hold of this
vincristine for Johnny Peterson, please, Nicolette?"  Leander gave her
an absentminded smile as he handed the drug chart over the office desk.
"He's going down for surgery tomorrow morning."

Nicolette took the drug chart from Leander and glanced down at it.  The
vincristine was a powerful anti-cancer drug which was going to be used
for Johnny, a patient on the ward with nephroblastomaa malignant tumour
of the kidney.  He was due to have his kidney removed, and the
vincristine would be administered at the time of surgery.  Johnny was a
mischievous eight-year-old who was impossibly brave, and they were all
rooting for him.

"I'll do it right now."  Nicolette lifted the receiver and began to
dial the number.

"Thanks."  He rose from his chair opposite her and gave a stifled yawn.
"After that, would you mind coming to help me put a central venous line
into Robbie in cubicle three?  He seems to have taken to you-I've
noticed that he tries to kick just about every other nurse he comes
into contact with!"

"Must be the mint humbugs I keep bribing him with," joked Nicolette,
although it took every bit of effort to actually make a joke to
Leander.  And even more of an effort to look as though she found it in
any way amusing.

But what did she expect?  The man had only taken her at her word, after
all.  She had refused to have dinner with him, and he had
graciously-and infuriatingly -retreated.  In a way it would have been
far more satisfactory if he had snarled at her every time they met up,
if he had snapped and sniped at her, or glared at her, or haughtily
ignored her in the corridor.  At least that might have shown he cared
about her!

As it was, he had done none of those things.

Instead, he turned up on the ward when he said he would.  He kept her
well informed.  He listened to her opinions.  Even took her advice.
After the-still unsolved-incident of the notes trolley he had been the
perfect colleague.

And how she resented him for it!  How dared he be so accepting of her
refusal to go out with him?  Because the trouble was that Nicolette
suspeeted that she had made a stupid mistake in turning him down,
simply because she didn't think that he would repeat his request.  He
was much, much too proud.  And she could hardly go up to him and say,
Er-by the way, Leander, I think I've changed my mind!

The only remotely personal contact they had had since then had been
when he had turned up on her doorstep one evening about a fortnight
ago, just tWo days after the ill-fated grand round.  He had carried an
up market plastic bag in his hand, which he had presented to her when
she had opened the door to him.

All kinds of foolish fantasies had rushed into her mind.  Had he bought
her a present to woo her?  "Wh what is it?"  she had asked, trying and
failing to keep the quivering excitment out of her voice.

"Your clothes, of course.  Found on the radiator in my bathroom.  '

Her wretched clothes!  "Th-thanks."

"They're all properly laundered."  He smiled.

Nicolette's eyes widened as she thought of him washing out her
underwear.  "Did-did you...?"  she stumbled, then tailed off in
embarrassed silence.

He laughed at her response.  "Good heavens, no!  My housekeeper found
them and dealt with them."

"But what did she say?"  blurted out Nicolette without thinking,
stopping abruptly when she saw the rather sardonic elevation of his
brows.  "Didn't she think it was rather odd?"

"Mrs.  O'Rourke just works for me," he told her with a curious
half-smile.  "She doesn't offer opinions on my private life or my
morals.  It isn't the first time she has come across an item of
clothing belonging to the opposite sex, and I rather doubt whether it
will be the last.  '

Had he said that deliberately to wind her up?  A black, towering rage
smoked away at her heart.  She forced herself to keep her hands firmly
in the pockets of her jeans for very real fear that she might try to
lash out at him!  "A whole army of them, no doubt," she countered
eoolly, and now she was pleased to see him looking irritated!

"I'[[ just go and find the leggings and sweater I borrowed from
you-would you like to come in while

I get them?"  j "Thanks, but no.  I'll wait here."

Suit yourself!  she thought sulkily as she went into her bedroom and
took her clothes out of the plastic bag he'd brought, her cheeks
positively burning when she took out the cotton bra and pants and
dress-what must his housekeeper have thought?  Well, she would have
thought the obvious, she supposed.  Except that she would have been
wrong.  Because nothing had happened.

More's the pity, she thought, then brought herself up short.  What was
she thinking, for goodness' sake?  That she wished that there had been
intimacy?  On a first date?  Really, Nicolette Kennedy, she scolded
herself as she neatly folded the leggings and sweater and put them into
his bag, what are you thinking of-and you a vicar's daughter, too?  She
went back to the door and handed the bag to him.

In the distance she could see Rhoda Dixon walking towards the
cliff-top, trying not very successfully to ignore the sight of Leander
leaning nonchalantly against Nicolette's door.

"Thanks," he said briefly as he took the package, then, as he turned to
go, he said, "No more trouble on the ward, then?"

Nicolette shook her head.  "Not a thing."

"Good."  He nodded, and turned away.  "Goodbye."

"Goodbye," she had echoed, thinking that the word must have broken more
hearts than any other, and she had stood watching him as he'd set off
for the path to his house... Nicolette put the drug chart down on the
desk and watched Leander out of the corner of her eye as he crossed the
office.  He pulled out a set of notes from the trolley, sat down and,
spreading them out in front of him, began to write in them.

Nicolette tried to concentrate on the Kardex, but it was hard going
when Leander Le Saux seemed to have monopolised every one of her
senses, both on and off duty.  She had- never known anything like it.
When she had gone out with men in the past she had been able to walk
into work and just switch off and stop thinking about them with no
effort whatsoever.  With Leander it was the exact opposite, and the
irony was that she wasn't even going out with him!

He looked up after a couple of minutes.  "Ready to help me put that CVP
line in?"

Of course!  He wanted to insert the delicate cannula that accurately
measured the central venous pressure in the body.  It had completely
gone out of her mind!  Nicolette leapt to her feet.  "Give me two
minutes to lay a trolley up."

The CVP line was tricky to insert, even though the child was sedated,
and it was almost half an hour later that Nicolette and Leander emerged
from the cubicle.  They were instantly alerted by a frantic shout from
the adjoining room, where a baby had been admitted two days previously
for investigation of an irregular heartbeat , or for cardiac arrhythmia
of unknown aetiology, as it was more correctly known.

Both Nicolette and Leander had worked in hospitals long enough to
recognise the genuine cry of an emergency and they both rushed into the
cubicle without hesitation.

A frightened junior nurse hovered over the motionless infant in the
crib.  "It happened just now-while I was doing her obs!  Her heart's
stopped beating!"  And then she drew herself up sharply, aware of
what

But Leander and Nicolette had already worked that she had been about to
say.  out for themselves.  "Because?"  he prompted softly.

"Put the crash call out!"  instructed Nicolette, and She met his eyes
with a challenging look of no sursped over to baby Natalie's side,
where Leander had render.  She was not about to be rude to him on the
already started external cardiac massage.  ward and possibly risk
another carpeting from the

The baby was so tiny that she needed no more than director of nursing!
one of Leander's long fingers gently but rhythmically "Because I'm
awkward, and a cuss to work for?"  He palpating the chest, while
Nicolette blew oxygen very smiled.  softly into the baby's lungs.
Nicolette found herself smiling back.  "Your words,

They worked silently and efficiently until the baby's q Leander, not
mine!  Now, about that cup of tea..  heart started beating, whilst,
almost magically, it "Let me help you make it," he suggested, and
appeared, she immediately pinkened up as she began Nicolette was too
bemused to do anything but shake to breathe spontaneously.  her dark,
curly head and murmur, "OK."

But it wasn't until the crash team had arrived that He was the type of
man who even made tea properly, Nicolette could allow herself a huge
sigh of relief, and though Nicolette supposed that that should not have
she met Leander's shining eyes across the crib.  surprised her.  He
warmed the pot and hunted around

After the baby had been transferred up to Intensive for the Earl Grey
tea he said he was sure that they Care the two of them came out of the
room together, used to have on the ward-and, naturally enough, he
triumphant but exhausted.  was right.  He even charmed the ward
assistant into

"Whew!"  Leander sighed as he pushed an untidy lock producing two china
cups with matching saucers and of dark red hair off his forehead.  "I'm
bushed."  a plate of ginger biscuits.

"Me, too," said Nicolette with feeling.  He carried the tray back to
the office and set it

He shot her a quick look.  "Any chance of your down, and Nicolette was
about to leave him to it, when consultant getting a cup of tea around
here?"  And he stopped her with a mildly enquiring look.  "You are when
she continued to look at him blankly he planning to join me?"
prompted, almost gently, "That's me, Nicolette, "I wasn't, no."
remember?" "Wouldn't you like some tea?"

Now she was really losing her marbles!  "Of course "I'd love some; I
just thought there is!"  she said hastily.  "Most of the consultants on
"Well, don't," he said, mock sternly.  "Thinking pro the wards I've
worked have had tea in the office.  It's duces all kinds of problems.
Sit down, while I pour."  just that I've never offered you any before
because- Tempted, she still prevaricated.  "I'm sure that there's
something I could be doing on the ward "I'm sure there is, too," he
interrupted firmly.  "But everything is being taken care of admirably
by the students; there is nothing pressing that can't wait for a moment
or two.  And you rarely take anywhere near the breaks you're entitled
to.  Here."  And he handed her a steaming cup of tea.

Nicolette took it and sipped the fragrant brew appreciatively.  "How do
you know that-when you're hardly ever here?"

"The other doctors always notice a good nurse.  They tend to pass it
on."

Ridiculously pleased by this recommendation, Nicolette beamed and
accepted a biscuit she didn't really want-more for something to do with
her hands than because she was hungry!

"So how are you settling in?"  he enquired, sipping his own tea and
crossing one long, elegant leg over the other.

"On the ward, you mean?"

"I meant generally."

"Oh, I've joined a squash club in town," she told him airily.  "And
I've been on a tour of Southbury Cathedral.  '

"Beautiful, isn't it?"  he remarked.

"Exquisite," she breathed.  "Especially the stainedglass windows in the
Lady Chapel."

He smiled.  "So that's your bit of culture-what else have you done?"

"Last week I went with Jane, one of the students, to see the new Tom
Cruise film.  Oh, and the following weekend I joined her and a bunch of
her friends-we saw a folk band playing in one of the local pubs."  "I
see."  His face was unreadable.  "Keeping busy, then?"  "Yes."  She
nodded, and concentrated on her tea.  She wasn't about to tell him that
she had been chatted up by Jane's fiance's fireman friends.  And that
some of them had been extremely hunky, and that one in partieular had
been hunky and witty and charming and very, very interested.  And that
everything he had said to her had gone straight in one ear and out of
the other!  Because she had been unable to rid herself of the image of
Leander.  Leander angry.  Leander laughing.  Leander kissing her.  Oh,
yes-especially Leander kissing her.  He put his cup back on the tray
with a clatter and rose to his feet.  "Well, I'd better get going.
Thanks for the tea, Nicky!"  Nicolette started, an alarming feeling of
deja vu stealing over her.  It was like discovering an ancient and
much-loved relic from childhood days in the attic.  "Why did you call
me that?"  she asked him slowly.  He smiled.  "Because it suits you."
But no one had ever called her Nicky, not outside her family.
Suddenly, in addition to the feelings of lust he inspired in her, came
the recognition of something else-warmth, comfort, security,
compatibility, friendship... Oh, what the hell?  she thought defiantly.
Not seeing him didn't seem to be working at all why not just take a
chance, give in to her feelings?  "Leander..."  He turned round and
Nicolette could have sworn that she surprised an intense flash of
desire in his eyes as he looked at her questioningly.  "Mmm?"

Hell, he was handsome!  So unbelievably handsome!  Could he really be
attracted to her, too?  She would offer to cook him dinner, that was
it!  In return for his hospitality on the night of the storm.  About
But he didn't hear what she had intended to say, because who should
materialise at the door at that moment but Rhoda Dixon?  It took about
five seconds for her grey stare to sweep around the office and she took
in the two teacups, the half-eaten plate of biscuits.  She glanced
pointedly at her fob-watch and then at Nicolette.  "Enjoying your
tea-break, Staff?"

Nicolette leapt to her feet, then could have kicked herself for looking
the picture of guilt.  "Miss Dixon," she babbled.  "I was just about to
go out on the ward.  '

"The tea-break was at my instigation, Rhoda," put in Leander smoothly.
"You must blame me."

Nicolette saw Rhoda give a sickeningly sweet smile in reponse to this.
"Nonsense, Leander," she said briskly.  "I know what a stickler for
hard work you are.  The times I've offered to make you tea, and you
always seem to say no!"

Nicolette saw the eagerness written all over her neat, pretty face, saw
too the brief look of diseomfiture that momentarily froze Leander's
chiselled features.  And that one bright, rather desperate sentence
spoke volumes , and she could have wept in embarrassment for the
specialist nurse manager, who was, she now realised, so obviously-and
hopelessly-in love with the boss.

And Nicolette knew with an inborn certainty that Leander harboured not
the slightest romantic feeling for Rhoda.  And she might not like the
woman, but she couldn't bear to see her humiliated.  "I'll go and wash
these up," she said quietly, stacking the cups on the tray.  "And then
I'll go back out on to the ward, Miss Dixon."

She didn't wait for permission to be granted, she just picked up the
tray and fled into the sanctuary of the kitchen.  And that was all she
saw of Leander for the rest of the afternoon.

She bumped into him, literally, a few days later as she was coming back
from Southbury late one afternoon after shopping.  Leander was
obviously taking the short cut past the nurses, home to the path that
led to his house.

He spied her loaded carrier bags.  "They look heavy," he said.  "Let me
help you with them."

Nicolette was strong and fit and very healthy.  Before she had switched
to paediatrics she had been used to lifting heavy patients up and down
the bed, but now she meekly allowed Leander to take every one of the
bags from her.

"Thanks" she murmured, wondering just what it was about him that could
make someone of such strapping stature feel so delicate and weak that
she needed protecting by a big, strong man like him!

He walked with her to her door, waited while she opened it.  then
deposited the four bags inside.

"Thanks," she said again, this time determined to get him to come in
for coffee, when he preempted her with his next words.

"Better run," he observed, glancing down at the immaculate timepiece
that gleamed discreetly on his hair-roughened wrist.  "I have two
papers to review for a journal, plus I'm working on a piece of research
that is very near completion."

The disappointment she felt that he wasn't coming in was immediately
vanquished by the the look of raw enthusiasm that made his handsome
face so vibrant.  Nobody could be disappointed around a look like that!
"Any exciting results"?"

He nodded, his dark eyes lighting up, as though pleased she had asked.
"I think I'm on the brink of something that could be fairly
significant-and that is being very conservative about it."

"Oh, well."  Nicolette forced a smile, wishing that she could busy
around in his kitchen and cook him a meal while he poured over his
research work.  And then they could eat dinner together.  And then..?

"I haven't seen you around," he was saying, and Nicolette forced
herself back into the present.

She blinked at him.  "I'm sorry?"  "You haven't been on the-ward for
the last couple of days," he said with a slight frown.  "Have you?"

So he had noticed!  If there had been a flag-pole near by Nicolette
would have triumphantly hoisted the Union Jack!  "I'm due to go on
night duty," she told him.  "The last couple of days have been my
official sleep nights."

"Oh?"  He frowned again.  "But you were eontracted as permanent day
staff, weren't you?"

Goodness, he had been doing his homework!  "Yes, Leander, I was."

"And it isn't usual for the day staff to do nights, is it?"  he
persisted.

Nicolette shrugged, not really having given it much thought.  Since she
had been caught red-handed having tea with Leander, Rhoda Dixon had
renewed her campaign of constantly finding fault with her.  Frankly, it
was a bore, but Nicolette failed to see what she could do about it.  If
she complained about it no doubt Rhoda would deny it, and it would be
her word against Rhoda's.  And Rhoda had been there for years and
years.  If they believed anyone, they would be bound to believe her.
Besides, at least if she went on night duty it would keep the wretched
woman off her back!

"Miss Dixon asked would I mind doing a week of nights, as they're
short.  I said I wouldn't."  Nicolette hadn't really been given very
much choice, but she wasn't going to go into that.  Besides, it would
definitely be more peaceful to be away from the nursing hierarchy for a
little while!

"And when do you start?"  asked Leander.

"Tonight," answered Nicolette.

He nodded.  "Hope it's quiet."

Five nights into her first spell of night shift at Southbury Hospital,
and Nicolette had begun to wonder whether Leander's words had put a
jinx on the ward!  Because since the first night she had gone on duty
at eight o'clock she had scarcely paused to draw breath !

She was on with one third-year student, a quiet but reliable girl named
Michelle McCormack who was due to take her finals in a month's time.
She seemed very clued up, and Nicolette gave an inward sigh of relief
because nothing was worse than being on at night with someone who was
unsure or, worse, incompetent.

Because at night you were on your own.  All the main departments were
closed.  All the labs lay empty, except for the most skeleton emergency
service.  At night the hospital lay shrouded in darkness and silence as
nurses crept around their quietly sleeping patients.  And that was if
they were lucky!

At least Nicolette had been confident that all her patients were being
properly monitored, since Leander had popped up every single night just
before midnight, meticulously checking up on every one of his patients.
Nicolette didn't dare allow herself to dwell on why he was treating the
ward to such undoubtedly preferential treatment; instead she just
enjoyed his company.

He began to linger for a hot drink when Michelle had gone off for her
break, and there was something wonderfully comforting in having him
there, the two of them sitting at the nurses' station, under the halo
of light from the angle poise quietly and companionably drinking their
cocoa.  Several times Nicolette could have sworn that he was on the
verge of saying something... something... well, personal, but a child
would stir, a drug dose would be needed, and the moment would pass.

On the sixth night, after taking report from Mary Turner, Nicolette
went round the ward to check every patient individually.  Johnny
Peterson, the eight-year old with nephroblastoma, was recovering well
from the removal of his kidney, although the course of drug treatment
he was on made him appear to be much iller than he actually was.  His
hair had completely fallen out and he looked like a little old man, but
he had been assured that his thick brown curls would soon be back in
abundance.

"Hello, Nurse," he said sleepily.

"Hello, Johnny," smiled Nicolette, approaching the bed very carefully,
since it was important to be exceedingly gentle with patients who had
Wilms' tumour.  Before surgery it had been vital to avoid any
manipulation of Johnny's abdomen that could increase the chances of the
tumour producing other, secondary tumours, or metastases, as they were
known.  And after surgery, like now, the nurses were still trained to
avoid abdominal manipulation in case any cancer cells might have
escaped locally from the ezcised tumour.

"Hello, Mrs.  Peterson," Nicolette whispered to his mother, who was
sitting quietly in a darkened corner of the cubicle, knitting.

"Evening, Staff.  '

"Have you had supper?"  asked Nicolette.

Mrs.  Peterson nodded.  "I had Johnny's-he said he felt too sick to eat
any of it."

Nicolette raised her eyebrows.  "That wasn't very much-they really are
childs portions here!  Tell you what-the canteens still open.  Why
don't you nip off and have something-even a cup of tea?  I can keep an
eye on Johnny, and it'll give you a bit of a break."

"Oh, would you, Staff?"  Mrs.  Peterson glanced down at her son. "Would
you mind, Johnny?"

Johnny, who Nicolette personally thought should be awarded a
patient-of-the-year award, shook his bald head and gave his mother a
stoic smile, even though, Nicolette realised as she looked at his
strained face, he must have been in a lot of discomfort.  "Course not,
Mum!"  he said.  "Just so long as you bring me back some chocolate !"

"Can he have chocolate, Staff?"  asked Mrs.  Peterson.

"Let's leave it for a day or two, shall we?"  answered Nicolette.  "We
wouldn't want you to be sick now, Johnny, would we?"

Johnny shook his head with the wise stoicism of the child who had
looked death in the face.  "No, Nurse," he said quietly.

After his mother had gone off to the canteen Nicolette gave him a soft,
questioning look.  "Everything OK?"

He hesitated.  "Am I going to die, Nurse?"  he blurted out.

Nicolette was prepared for the question that children often had less
qualms about voicing than adults.  At eight-unusually old for such a
tumour-Johnny was able to understand the concept of death, and he was a
fiercely intelligent boy, so Nicolette tempered her answer accordingly.
"Well, you know that the overall survival rates for your tumour are the
highest among all childhood cancers, don't you?"

He nodded.

"And that you were diagnosed very early on, which makes your chances
even better?"

He smiled.  "Yes, Staff."

"And that the doctors are terribly, terribly pleased with the way
you're responding to treatment?"  She saw the light of hope that made
his eyes huge in his pale face.  "So I think that puts you in with a
huge, fighting chance," she concluded softly.  "Don't you?"

"Oh, yes, Staff."  He smiled, and his eyelids fluttered down as he
drifted into a contented sleep.

After checking Johnny, Nicolette went off to do the observations on a
Bethany Barstow, a child who had been brought in for observation with
suspected epilepsy following a series of seizures at school that day.
A bright little button of an eleven-year-old, Bethany had voiced fears
to Nicolette about her illness, not about, as perhaps might have been
expected, how it might affect her in the future, but how it was
affecting her now.  "I'm terrified of wetting myself, Staff," she had
told Nicolette the previous evening.  "Or of biting my tongue off.  '

"Extremely unlikely," Nicolette had said.

"And what if people laugh, or make fun of me?"

"Only ignorance makes people behave like that," Nicolette had answered.
"We've got to educate them to understand-you can do that.  Make them
realise that people who suffer from epilepsy-and we still don't know if
you do-are normal people with an illness ; not freaks.  But first we've
got to try to establish some kind of pattern to these seizures you've
been having.  The more we know, the more we can do to help you.,

But the four days Bethany had spent on Paddington having investigations
had been uneventful, turning up no evidence of epilepsy.  Which, as
Leander had apparently pointed out on yesterday's ward round to Mary
Turner, was pretty much par for the course.

"If we discharge her," he had added wryly, 'then she's bound to have
another attack of what sounds very like status epileptic us

Nicolette was to remember Mary's version of Leander's prediction,
since, while she was doing Bethany's temperature, pulse, blood pressure
and respirations , the child had a major motor or grand-mal seizure.

She immediately rang the emergency bell for assistance , and was just
trying to get Bethany on to her side, when she heard the sound of
footsteps and, looking up, saw that it was Leander who came running
into the cubicle, and not Michelle.

There wasn't time to ask why; she was just so relieved to see him.  He
saw straight away what the problem was, and swung into action.

There was nothing but the sound of the curt commands they whispered
across the bed to one another.

"Airway?"

"Here."

"Draw me up some Diazemuls, pronto, will you?"

"I'll have to go and get it."

"Be quick, then."

Nicolette hurried off to the cupboard that housed the restricted drugs,
of which Diazemuls was one.  She softly called out, but there was no
sign of Michelle.  And then she heard the sound of loud vomiting in one
of the cubicles and Michelle's soothing voice comforting the child who
was being sick.  So.  She was obviously not able to come and check the
drug with her.

Nicolette extracted the drug, quickly signed for it, locked up, and
took it down to Leander, along with the syringe, which lay in a
disposable kidney dish.  "Michelle was busy," she told him briefly.
"Can you add your signature to the book afterwards?"

"Sure.  '

Standing side by side, they checked the drug together, then Nicolette
drew it up, flicked the bubbles out of the syringe, and handed it to
him.

"Thanks," he said succinctly as he took the syringe from her.  "Can you
help me get her a bit more on her side?  That's better.  OK,
sweetheart," he murmured to Bethany.  "Let's see if this makes you feel
a little better."  He expertly slid the needle into the vein and began
to inject the drug.  Not too quickly, Nicolette noted, since that could
create a risk of stopping the child's breathing altogether.

The drug had an immediate effect, and Bethany began to calm down.

Leander glanced across the bed at Nicolette.  "You'll have to get
someone to keep an eye on her."

"I know."

"How many of you are there on'i'

"Just the two of us."

He nodded, his mouth twisting slightly as he acknowledged the ward
running on the bare minimum of staff-cover.  "Would you like me to try
and find you a nurse?"

Nicolette looked at him gratefully.  "Would you mind?  I still have
some intra-muscular injections to give out.  Oh, and Leander-will you
sign for that Diazemuls we've just given?"

"Of course.  Then I'll go and phone-make sure you get some help."  And
he went out of the room.

Nicolette busied herself in Bethany's cubicle, com- other's forearm,
but Rhoda Dixon stared down at it for ting the little girl and clearing
away the debris of with dislike, as though some unspeakable animal had
hastily opened phials and wrappers from needle and just crawled up her
arm.  "Take your hand off me!"  syringe.  she spat violently, and
Nicolette let her hand fall in

And it seemed only minutes later that a tall, smiling confusion.
agency staff nurse arrived.  "Hi!"  she announced cheer- Was Miss Dixon
going crazy, or what?  Nicolette fully in a broad Australian accent.
drew her shoulders back.  "Is something the matter,

"You were quick," observed Nicolette, pleased, and Miss Dixon?"  she
asked with a sudden crisp authority the Australian girl rolled her eyes
expressively.  "The to her voice.  "Are you in some kind of trouble?"
great Dr.  Le Saux demanded that you have another "Am I"?"  Rhoda
laughed, but it was a strange, disnurse , et voila!  Here I am-come to
relieve you!  orientated kind of laugh.  "Certainly not!  But I suspect
How is she?"  that you might be, Staff Nurse.  Very serious trouble

"Better," said Nicolette.  "Dr.  Le Saux has just given indeed.  Would
you like to accompany me to the her Diazemuls intravenously.  She just
needs obser- office now?"  vat ion please."  Now what was going on?
Was this another of Rhoda "Sure thing," smiled the Australian.  "Let me
know .  Dixon's furious tantrums about some sin she was sup if posed to
have committed?  "Would you mind telling me

But the door opening had the effect of making her why, Miss Dixon?"
lapse into silence, and the two staff nurses looked up Rhoda Dixon
fixed her with a baleful yet triumphant to see Rhoda Dixon standing
there, looking deathly look.  "I think you would prefer it if I told
you in white and exceedingly grim.  private, Staff.  I doubt that this
is something you would

And..  something else, too, thought Nicolette, like to get around the
hospital, although thai will be, though she couldn't quite put her
finger on what it of course, inevitable.  Come with me."  was.  Her
inouth was a thin, angry line, and the skin Nicolette saw the
Australian nurse looking absoof her face seemed to be stretched over
her features lutely agog, but she waited until she was in the bright so
tightly that it was al must as though she was wearing light of the
office, which made Rhoda look even more some awful cadaverqus mask.
cadaverous, before she said again, "Is something

Something terrible must have happened.  wrong, Miss Dixon?"

Nicolette was first and foremost a nurse.  She might "I think you could
safely say that something is wrong, not like or respect the woman, but
she could not bear yes, Staff Nurse.  In fact, an offence has been
commit to see anyone look so transparently disturbed.  She ted.  An
offence, moreover, which will give rise to stepped forward and placed a
comforting had on the instant dismissal!  Need I say anything more?"

Nicolette stared at her in complete and utter confusion' Yes Please do!
I don't understand what you're talking about," she protested.

"Don't you?"  Rhoda sighed.  "It won't do you any good playing this
little-innocent role, you know.  It's too late for all that."

Nicolette was getting heartily tired of all these riddles.  "What are
you talking about?"

Rhoda gave her a malicious stare.  "You see, Staff Nurse-you have been
discoveredqstealing."

"St-stealing?"  echoed Nicolette in confusion.  "Stealing just what,
for heaven's sake?"

"Stealing drugs, or, to be more specific, controlled drugs.  '

Nicolette shook her head with emphasis.  "But I can explain that, Miss
Dixon.  We had an emergency on the ward-a child in status epileptic us
and I needed to take an ampule of Diazemuls.  I signed for it, but Dr.
Le Saux was with the child, and Nurse McCormack was dealing with
another patient who was vomiting but

Dr.  Le Saux checked it with me and promised he would sign for it
afterwards."

There was an odd gleam in the specialist nurse manager 's eyes. "Please
don't insult my intelligence any further, Staff Nurse!"  she snapped.
"We're not talking about restricted drugs here.  I'm talking about
controlled drugs !  '

Nicolette blinked her long, dark lashes in genuine astonishment.
"Controlled drugs," she repeated slowly.  "But I haven't been near the
controlled drugs.  What on earth do you mean?"

Miss Dixon gave her a vicious look.  "There's no point in going into it
now; you'll only have to repeat it in a minute.  Ah!"  There was the
distant sound of muted male voices.  "Here come the police now!"

CHAPTER NINE

IT wAs all like some dream, thought Nicolette as she surveyed the small
crowd of people gathered in the office on Nightingale ward as the clock
ticked inexorably on towards midnight.  Some ghastly, hideous dream.

Except that it was no dream; it was true.

She was no longer in charge of the ward.  Two nurses had been brought
down from the nursing bank to take over from her.  She knew, without
being told, that not only was she facing suspension, but also being
struck off by the General Nursing Council.

The only thing she didn't know was why!

Oh, she knew what the hospital administrator had told her.  He had been
called in especially to deal with this crisis, and he now stood talking
in a low voice to one of the two policemen Rhoda Dixon had seen fit to
call in.  He had told her that ten vials of diamorphine were missing
from the controlled drug cupboard.  It had not been-as Nicolette had
originally thought in those first few dreadful moments when Rhoda Dixon
had told her that the police were on their way-some mix-up because
Leander had not signed for the Diazemuls that had been given to Bethany
for her status epileptic us

No, indeed.  Someone had stolen enough heroin to raise them a tidy
little sum on the black market.  And,

judging by the accusatory glances being cast at her by her colleagues,
the general consensus of opinion was that the thief was Nicolette.

Nicolette felt dazed, as though she were punch drunk ; the only thing
permeating her consciousness was the fact that Rhoda Dixon was trying
to hide a smile, and from the gleam of pleasure in her eyes she
couldn't have been more exeited if it had been Christmas.

The policeman who was obviously in charge came over to her, the
hospital administrator beside him.  "We're going to have to ask you for
a statement, Staff Nurse Kennedy," he said in his gruff voice, and
Nicolette was honestly afraid that she might be sick when the door was
pushed open, and there stood Leander on the threshold, his face pale,
his features impossibly set, as though someone had sculpted them from
the finest marble.

The policeman with the notebook said immediately, "I'm very sorry,
Doctor, but you can't come in here "I most certainly can," said Leander
stiffly with careless disregard for protocol.

The administrator butted in, the frown on his face indicating that such
behaviour from the brilliant Dr.  Le Saux was not entirely unexpected.
"We are taking a statement," he began firmly, when Leander interupted
yet again.

"Then take one from me!"  he challenged.

"Dr.  Le Saux," said the administrator, trying to be patient, "I don't
think you understand."

"What?"  asked Leander, and suddenly threw Nicolette the warmest, most
piercing look, and oddly enough, despite the terrible situation she was
in, she felt an indescribable calm flooding through her veins.

If anyone eould make it right, she thought, with the faith of a child,
then Leander could.

"What don't I understand?"  Leander asked the administrator in an even
voice.

"Staff Nurse Kennedy has been aecused of stealing a controlled drug."

"By whom?"  rang out Leander's clipped query.

The administrator frowned.  "By the specialist nurse manager, though I
don't see Leander shook his head.  "I know you don't.  Though have
patience and you will.  Why is Staff Nurse Kennedy accused of the
theft?"

It was Rhoda Dixon's turn to butt in, her words falling over themselves
in her eagerness to speak.  "Because the drugs went missing while she
was on duty!  The last dose of diamorphine was given on the late shift
ani1 the number of phials counted by the nurses then tallied with the
number written in the book.  Since coming on duty, Nurse Kennedy is the
only person who has had the keys to the controlled drug cupboard in her
possession and ten phials are missing!  The conclusion is elementary,
my dear Doctor!"

Even in her confusion and misery, Nicolette could tell that it was
entirely the wrong time and place to attempt to crack a joke, noting
that Leander's lip curved disdainfully at Rhoda Dixon's erass attempt
to introduce levity into such a serious situation.  "Not so elementary,
Miss Dixon," contradicted Leander in a hard, icy voice.  "Is it?"  he
added, and there was an underlying note of accusation in the simple
query.

Something in his tone must have warned her, for Rhoda stood
stock-still, staring at him.  The two lines of blusher painted on her
white cheeks stood out like warpaint and a small, tell-tale pulse had
begun to beat rapidly at her temple.  "I don't know what you're talking
about!"  she declared in a high-pitched voice.

"That's because I haven't said anything," he countered , his voice
dangerously soft now.

"Dr.  Le Saux!"  interjected the younger policemen warningly, but the
off icel- who was obviously in charge shook his head to silence him.
"I put it to you, Rhoda," said Leander with ruthless precision,
sounding to all intents and purposes as if he had been trained as a
barrister, "that you stole those drugsA wild, terrified look had
bleached all the colour out of Rhoda Dixon's grey eyes.  "And why would
I do that?"  she said brazenly.

"To discredit a young staff nurse who had done you no harm," he
continued quietly.  "Other than to be the object of my own very great
affection."  He wasn't looking at Nicolette as he spoke, which was
probably a good thing, because if he had been he would have seen her
mouth hanging open most unattractively!  What could he mean?  she
thought fleetingly, before her attention was taken by the scene being
played out in front of her.

"You took the drugs, Rhoda," he continued inexorably' Didn you?"
Rhoda's face became distorted with rage.  "Prove it!"

she screamed, but Leander's razor-sharp words sliced through her
hysteria and silenced it.

"Do I have to?"  he challenged wearily.  "Must we go through the
further ignominy of asking these already overworked policemen to apply
for a search warrant?  Why don't you do the decent thing, Rhoda-and
admit it?"

But Rhoda had collapsed to the floor, weeping copiously , and Nicolette
saw Leander give a swift frown.  He wanted it to be over, she realised.
And over quickly.  He moved across and crouched down beside her.  "Show
them where the drugs are, Rhoda," he urged.  "For your own sake, too.
Show them."

She lifted a tear-stained face to his.  "Do you know, then?"  she
whimpered.

He nodded sombrely.  "I saw you hiding them in your handbag," and he
nodded towards a roomy black leather bag that had been stuffed down
behind the filing cabinet in the corner, so that it was half-hidden.

The policemen stared at the handbag, then at the sobbing woman on the
floor of the office.  "Is this true, Miss Dixon?"

"Give it to me," demanded Rhoda, and one of the policemen extracted the
handbag and silently handed it to her.  With trembling fingers she
dealt with the catch and as the handbag fell open the ten phials of one
of the world's most dangerous drugs tumbled on to the floor.

Rhoda looked up at Leander as though his was the only face she could
see, then flinched from the cold condemnation in his eyes.  "I did it
for you, Leanderfor you!"  she wept.

"Why for me?"  he asked gravely.

"Because I love you!"  she declared.  "I've always loved you!  Were you
blind never to see it?"

Leander closed his eyes briefly; but Nicolette thought that she would
remember the haunted, appalled look which had momentarily darkened his
eyes for as long as she lived.

She looked down at Rhoda dispassionately.  This was a woman who had
tried to ruin her.  She could have wiped away her career, even her
freedom if her wicked scheme had succeeded.  And yet, watching her
shoulders shaking with great, heaving sobs, she felt nothing but an
overwhelming rush of sympathy for her.  How dreadful, thought
Nicolette, to love someone so deeply.

And for them not to have even guessed.

Instinctively she stepped forward, her hand outstretched to help Rhoda
to her feet, but she eaught Leander looking at her, saw the swift shake
of his head, and she let the hand fall uselessly to her side.

The policeman was speaking gently.  "If you'd like to eome with us,
Miss Dixon."

And then the room began emptying, until there was only her, Leander and
the administrator, who began speaking.  "Now, if you'd both like to
come down to my office But

Leander shook his head firmly.  "You are joking?"  he queried
disbelievingly.

The administrator frowned.  "Actually no, Dr.  Le Saux-I was being very
serious."

Leander drew himself up to his full, impressive six feet three inches,
and Nicolette couldn't help feeling the tiniest bit sorry for the
administrator; next to Leander he just looked so terribly weedy!

"Not tonight, Chris," Leandersaid, and, when the administrator opened
his mouth to protest, added placatingly, "First thing in the morning,
in your office-we'll be there.  I give you my word."

Chris gave him a rueful look and shook his head.  "You are a law unto
yourself, aren't you, Leander?"

Leander shrugged his broad shoulders, and smiled.  "I'm afraid so!"  he
agreed shamelessly.  And then, equally shamelessly, he reached for
Nicolette and put a warm and protective arm around her shoulders.
"Come on, sweetheart," he murmured.  "Time for bed, I think."

And Nicolette had to witness the administrator's eyes nearly popping
out of his head!

CHAPTER TEN

As NicoLETTE and Leander left Nightingale ward, his arm still firmly in
place around her shoulders, he simply murmured, "Where do you want to
go-your place, or mine?"

Coming from anyone else, this might have sounded unbelievably
hackneyed, but, with Leander saying it in that deep, sexy voice of his,
it sounded like the most wonderful sentence in the world!
None-the-less, Nicolette decided that if he was going to woo her he
could jolly well work out a few more inspirational lines than that!

She slanted him an enquiring look.  "Original!"  she teased, strangely
un shy in his company, something in his warm glance telling her that
this was new to him, too.  "Do you say that to all the girls?"

"Come here," he growled, and, gathering her in his arms, kissed her
long and mercilessly, in full view of all the night nurses on their way
to the canteen for first break.  "Does that answer your question?"  he
asked, with smoky amusement, when he eventually lifted his head to
stare down at her.

Nicolette was too dazed to answer; she just dreamily nodded her head up
and down like a robot, and allowed him to lead her to her flat at the
nurses' home, her face falling slightly with disappointment when he did
so.

"What's the matter?"  he asked as he took the key from her and unlocked
the door.

Nicolette decided to start as she meant to go on.  And if Leander felt
comfortable enough to speak his mind about his feelings for her then
she would jolly well do the same!  "I wanted to come home with you,"
she objected, and he smiled.

"I know you did.  But you're tired, you need to sleep, and when I take
you to bed I want you awake all night long..."

Her blue eyes widened with pleasure as she heard his unashamedly
evocative promise.  "Oh, Leander..."  she whispered, but he shook his
head.

"I know what you're going to say," he cut in.  "That it's too soon. But
something happened to me the first moment I set eyes on you, Nicky.
What happened was sudden, unforeseen and utterly, utterly devastating.
I tried to fight it."  He shook his dark head as he remembered.  "God,
how I tried to fight it."  He smiled.  "Searching around for things to
dislike about you.  But nothing worked.  I found that I was inventing
the flimsiest excuses for coming up to the ward to see you "I noticed,"
murmured Nicolette with satisfaction as she remembered those shared,
late-night cups of cocoa.

"Despite trying to tell myself that I was getting in deeper and
deeper."  His eyes glittered.  "Beyond the point of no return, in
fact."  He sighed, but it was the soft sigh of pleasure.  "The French
even have an expression for it," he murmured.  "Coup de foudre."

"Love at first sight," she translated, her skin glowing with pleasure
because, if she was truly honest, wasn't that exactly what had happened
to her, too?

"And I know what you're going to say next," he continued
determinedly.

"You-do?"  Goodness me.  This man seemed to know what she was going to
say even before she did!

"Yes, I do.  That we've had no time together, not really, and that I
don't know you properly, or you me."

"Leander..."  she tried again, but he shook his dark red head.

"And of course you would be right "I would?"  A feeling of
disappointment spread over her like a hot rash.

"Mmm.  Conventionally speaking, we probably haven 't had the correct
amount of time deemed suitable for us to declare a commitment-which is
why I am prepared to wait "Wait?"  She gulped nervously.

"Yes, my darling.  Wait."

"Wait for what?"  she asked, fascinated.  "And for how long?"

"For you to admit that you love me too.  And as for how long... however
long it takes, I guess, although I hope," and here his dark eyes
glinted with wicked assurance, "that not too much time will
elapse..."

She reached up and put her long fingers on each strong shoulder.
"Leander Le Saux," she said sternly.  "Listen to me and don't
interrupt!  I love you, too you foolish man!  Coup defoudres aren't
exclusive, you know!  So will you please just shut up and kiss me?"

"I thought you'd never ask," he groaned, and began to do exactly as she
asked so that it was half an hour later before they spoke again, and by
this time they were curled up in each other's arms in one of the
easy-chairs.

She ran a finger down one perfectly sculpted cheek, her eyes
thoughtful.  "What will happen to Rhoda, do you think?"

He shrugged.  "That's up to the disciplinary board, I guess.  She may
be able to plead temporary insanity; who knows?"

Nicolette's eyes were troubled.  "Thank heavens you were lucky enough
to spot her hiding the drugs."

He gave a humourless laugh.  "Luck wasn't in it, my darling.  '

"You mean you spied on her?"

He gave her an indulgent smile.  "That's a slightly over-the-top way of
describing it, but yes, I suppose I did."

"But why?  When did you begin to suspect her?"

He thought about it for a moment.  "Put it this way: I was vaguely
aware that things hadn't been right with Rhoda for some time-since you
had arrived to work here, in fact.  But I was only slightly uneasy,
because there was nothing I could actually put my finger on.  Then you
jogged my memory by reminding me that one of the staff nurses before
you left very abruptly, and it suddenly occurred to me that Rhoda could
have been responsible for that, too."

"Did you go out with her, too?  The other staff nurse, I mean," she
demanded jealously, and he smiled.

"Darling, if I dated every woman who found me attractive I wouldn't
have any time for work-Ouch!"  He gave a small growl midway between
pain and pleasure as Nicolette flexed her nails hard against his silk
shirt.  "What did you do that for?"

She gave him an old-fashioned look.  "You know very well why.  You were
saying...?"

He frowned as he picked up his story.  "When I left you in Bethany's
cubicle tonight, to organise another nurse, I spotted Rhoda lurking
around the ward not wearing her uniform, so I knew she wasn't on duty.
I have to admit that I decided to hide... And watched her extracting
the drugs from the cupboard Nicolette gave a silent whistle.  "But
where did she get the key from-when I had it clipped to my uniform?"

He shrugged.  "Who knows?  That will have to be investigated.  There
must be duplicates, I suppose.  I can only assume that she got hold of
one, maybe even had one cut; who knows?  Anyway, I saw her put the
drugs into her handbag, which she then stuffed down the back of the
filing cabinet before calling the police, and the rest, as they say, is
history."  He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it, his dark eyes
regarding her steadily.  "You do realise that she was probably behind
the wrecked office that day of the grand round?"  "I suppose it's the
only logical answer," said Nicolette slowly.  "Do you have any
proof'?"

He shook his head.  "No.  And I don't think that raking thut up will
benefit anvone.  I think it's probablv best left forgotten.  '

But none of this adequately explained hqhv Rhoda had been so eager to
get rid of her... "Leander," Nicolette said suddcnly.  "Did you
ever-?"

He guessed immediately.  "Go out with Rhoda?"  He sighed.  "Strictly'
speaking, no; at least, not in the way you- mean.  When I starred at
Southbury', Rhoda Was fairly new herself.  She offered to show me the
city; we went to a couple of concerts together, a gallery that kind of
thing."  His eyes were very serious.  "It quickly became evident that
she wanted more, far more, from the friendship than I had ever
intended.  I..."  he shrugged his broad shoulders "..  indicated that I
wanted things to remain purely platonic and Rhoda agreed.  But I
realised that we would be unable to continue seeing one another outside
work.  Other than that there was nothing."  He ran his hand
possessively down the side of her face.  "You must believe me, my
darling."

She nodded, not needing to see the honesty and the conviction that
shone from his dark eyes.  She loved him, and that was enough-to love
was to believe.  "I do," she affirmed softly, feeling almost sorry for
Rhoda as she pictured the older woman struggling to control her
feelings for Leander, when all the time that yearning must have been
eating away inside her... "I guess that Rhoda was comparatively happy
just as long as she didn't see me professing interest towards another
woman," he continued.  "She must have imagined that I was interested in
the earlier staff nurse.  I wasn't.  But only a fool could have failed
to miss how much I eared for you, and Rhoda was no fool."  He smiled.
"Most people thought of me as the perennial bachelor," he said slowly.
"I know that I certainly did.  I was content to have the occasional
relationship that didn't distract me too much from my work "You work
much too hard," she ventured.  "All this coming and going in the middle
of the night can't be good for you, or the patients, not really."

He shot her a look.  "Oh, Lord," he murmured.  "Suddenly

I've found this woman and already she's reorganising my life."  He gave
a delighted laugh.  "And the crazy thing is that I don't mind a bit!"

"So what's so different about me?"  she asked him curiously.

"Why, love, of course."  He smiled.  "I'm in love with you, Nicky," he
said simply, and held her tighter.  "It might sound simplistic to say
it, but I didn't believe in love, or marriage before I met you.  I
didn't want to.  When you grow up with actors fidelity and longevity
aren't exactly the two most popular qualities around!  My ability to
trust and to love were eroded fairly early on in my life.  Both my
parents had affairs, and both were hopeless with money.  Although my
father earned peanuts, just before I was born he inherited enough
capital to keep us all in comfort for the rest of our lives..  '. His
voice faded away as his eyes clouded with memories.

"And what happened?"  prompted Nicolette.  "Oh, he did just what the
old cliche suggested, and frittered it away on wine, women and
song-that was part of the reason why my mother retaliated by going off
and doing her thing.  The principle reason why I went into medicine in
the first place was because I liked the stability of the discipline,
something I'd never had.  And then..."

"Then?"  She smiled, knowing already what his answer would be.

"Oh, then I became hooked."  He grinned.  "And realised that there were
the opportunities to really help people.  And I thought that the people
who would benefit most would be children, and babies."

Their eyes met, and Nicolette's long lashes fluttered to conceal the
sudden warmth in her eyes at the mention of babies.

"I love it when you do that," he admitted.  "And I want you to have my
babies..."

"Oh, Leander," she sighed, and kissed him.  "Darling..."

"Mmm?"

"Time for bed."  And, with great reluctance etching hard lines on his
magnificent face, Leander gently put her away from him, and rose to his
feet, straightening his tie and tucking his errant shirt into his
beautifully cut trousers.

Nicolette blinked up at him.  "Where are you going?"

His hesitation was only momentary.  "Home," he said unwillingly.

"But I though tHe smiled, gently tilting her strong, square face up so
that it faced his.  "That we'd go to bed?"

Highly embarrassed, Nicolette nodded.

"Don't you think I want that, too?"  he whispered.  "VerY, very
badly?"

"Then why?"  she asked, genuinely confused.

"Well, as I've already said, you're tired "Not that tired," she
protested.

"Then there's the small matter of your virginity Blue eyes widened in
amazement.  "How on earth can you know that?"

He reached down to trace the outline of her lips.  "Sometimes I feel I
know every inch of you," he said softly.  "And yet I haven't even
started... Oh, Nicky," he murmured.  "I love you so."

"And I love you."  Her mouth softened.  "When I first met you I knew
you'd be a tough nut to crack, but oh, Leander..  inside you're..."
She had been about to say soft, but one look at the hard, exciting
glitter of desire in his eyes made the word seem terribly
inappropriate.

"I'm what?"  he prompted sikil.

"Everything I ever dreamed of," she told him rather breathlessly. "Only
more..."  She kissed the fingertip that was still attached to her
mouth, and, prompted by an instinct older than time, put her hand up to
release the pin from her hair, as she had done on that very first day
on the ward.

As then, he was transfixed by the dark tumble of curls that fell in a
smoky cloud to her waist, and she could see a muscle working
convulsively in his cheek as his eyes became almost black with
desire.

"How soon can your father marry us?"  he demanded thickly.

"We could ring him in the morning and ask him," she answered sweetly,
the prize almost within her grasp.

"Then so be it!"  he roared, and, picking her up, he carried her off
into the bedroom, and that was when Nicolette knew for sure that she
really was marrying the lion man!