‘And here I was, under strict instructions from Mattie that that’s exactly the sort of remark I’m not allowed to make.’
He was laughing at her, and she couldn’t blame him. Still, she prickled uncomfortably.
‘I apologise unreservedly, Hayden,’ she began. ‘That really isn’t the—’
‘Hayd,’ he reminded her, and she faltered uncertainly.
‘Seriously, no one really calls me Hayden except my father, and the general if he isn’t happy with me. Although I admit that doesn’t happen often.’
Out of all the questions and responses swirling around her head, it was inconceivable that the one she came out with was, ‘Isn’t that a little arrogant?’
‘No. Just factual.’ He shrugged, but that smile still toyed with his lips.
A mouth that was more sinfully tempting than Bridget could ever have thought possible.
What was happening here?
‘Are you always so...factual?’
‘It depends on the subject, I suppose. But, yes, I try to be. I prefer that to people saying things they don’t really mean.’
‘I prefer that, too,’ she said, before she realised she was even speaking.
‘Yes. I think that’s one of the reasons why my sister has taken to you so well.’
‘Mattie has talked about me?’ Surprise bounced through her. ‘To you?’
His eyes skated over her face, leaving Bridget with the distinct impression that he was able to read altogether too much, just from her face. She tried to smooth out her features into whatever might pass for a passive or neutral expression. But that only seemed to elicit a ghost of a smile from his wickedly tempting mouth.
‘She said you’ve been working for the charity for years. From Chad to South Sudan, in outreach clinics and major foreign aid hospitals alike.’
‘I first met her after the earthquakes in Nepal,’ Bridget heard herself say. ‘I was a nurse for an NGO, and Mattie’s army medical unit had come to help because of the sheer scale of the disaster.’
‘Yeah, I remember her saying you were with the medical charity already on site. You and she dragged all the patients into the street when an aftershock ripped through the hospital building?’
‘In a nutshell,’ Bridget agreed, surprised he knew.
Even now, she could remember the moment with such clarity. The shock had rocked the buildings they’d been using as a temporary medical facility, some of the ceilings had fallen in with the intensity, and even the walls had shown signs of crumbling. If she closed her eyes, Bridget could still hear the shouts and screams in the streets.
She remembered looking for the patients she knew were the most severely injured, just as Mattie had taken charge, quickly and calmly instructing not just her army medics but all the staff. Determining that it was no longer safe to treat them indoors and designating the order that the patients needed to be stretchered outside, even as she sent a recce team to find a safe location and begin to set up large tents and temporary beds.
At that moment she’d seen Mattie as a mentor. A woman who might only be a few years older than she herself was but who was years ahead in terms of her career. A woman whose unique attitude had allowed her to easily adapt from being commanding officer to empathetic doctor—exactly the kind of doctor that Bridget had once hoped that she herself might have become, if things had been different.
If only her father’s suicide following his arrest hadn’t left her already fragile-minded mother a wreck, needing to be taken care of, leaving Bridget no room for studies or a career. Not that anything she’d done had ever been good enough for her mother.
Not until her mother had finally met a new man to fill that obvious void in her life and make her feel complete. And then Bridget had finally been able to start making a life for herself. First as a nurse and then as a volunteer for foreign aid charities in the hope that one day one would sponsor her to finally realise her dream and become a doctor.
If only her life had been different.
But it hadn’t been. Bridget steeled herself as she had so many other times when her mind had threatened to take a little detour down this particular memory lane. What was the point thinking about something she could never change?
‘So now I’m going to be working with another Brigham sibling.’ She managed a laugh, trying to divert her mind. ‘You’re a major in the Royal Engineers?’