The Nurse's Christmas Wish (The Cornish Consultants)

‘That’s all right, then.’

Observing the interaction between them, Louisa gave a soft smile of satisfaction. Unless she was mistaken, Mac Sullivan was allowing himself to develop an emotional connection. His icy remoteness was slipping.

He instructed the paramedics to take her into Resus and issued a set of instructions to the team who gathered. ‘This is Vera. She has a suspected fractured femur.’ He turned to the radiologist. ‘I want an AP pelvis and lateral hip X-ray of the right side to start with. Let’s get a line in and send some blood for U and Es, FBC, glucose and cross-match. She had analgesia at the scene but she’s still in pain so I want to give her some more. Louisa...’ He glanced up. ‘Can you arrange an ECG? Just a precaution.’

Everyone set to work and Josh strolled in. ‘How’s it going? Alice is in the waiting room. Needless to say, she’s worried.’

‘Everything’s in hand,’ Mac murmured, checking the ECG carefully and giving a nod. ‘That’s fine. Has someone bleeped the orthopods?’

‘I did it,’ Louisa said, hurrying over to Josh. ‘I’ll go and talk to Alice. She must be worried sick.’

* * *

Mac stared at the X-rays through narrowed eyes, aware that Louisa’s gaze was fixed expectantly on his face. And he was struggling to concentrate. He felt the brush of her arm against his and caught the worried expression on her face as she waited for his verdict.

‘Well?’ Her tone was urgent. ‘What are you looking for?’

He dragged his eyes away from her soft mouth with difficulty and concentrated on the films in front of him.

‘Disruption of the trabeculae, inferior or superior cortices and abnormality of the pelvic contours.’ He lifted a finger and trailed it down the line of the bone to illustrate his point. ‘If you look here, you can see that the trabecu

lae are angulated but the inferior cortex is intact. There’s no significant displacement. It’s classified as a Garden 1 fracture.’

Why was he noticing her?

He made a point of never noticing women.

Especially not women like Louisa. She was lonely and the only relationship she wanted involved diamonds. And he was no good at that sort of relationship.

He turned as the orthopaedic registrar walked up behind him. ‘Ken.’ He gave a brief nod, grateful for the interruption. ‘Got a patient for you.’

The orthopaedic reg stared at the X-rays. ‘So you have.’

Louisa bit her lip. ‘Will she be in hospital over Christmas?’

All she thought about was the personal, Mac mused, casting a curious glance in her direction. To her a patient wasn’t just an injury to be put right but a whole person with problems. He’d never met anyone quite like her.

‘Afraid so.’ Ken tugged the X-rays out of the light box and gave a rueful smile. ‘But don’t worry about it. The orthopaedic ward is the next best thing to Christmas in Lapland.’

‘You mean you’re economising on heating?’ Louisa lifted an eyebrow and he grinned.

‘No, I don’t mean that. But our ward sister got a little carried away with the decorations this year and the place looks like Santa’s grotto.’

Louisa gave a delighted smile. ‘That’s excellent.’

Mac rolled his eyes and handed over the notes. ‘Don’t give her ideas. At the moment my department still looks suitably clinical and I’d like it to stay that way. Vera’s all yours, Ken. Look after her.’

* * *

They dropped Alice home, checked that she had food and that she was all right and then drove back to the house.

Glancing at Mac’s tense profile, Louisa bit her lip. ‘Are you angry with me?’

‘Why? For inviting her to spend Christmas with us? Or because the entire village now thinks you’re living with me? You’ve invaded my privacy, taken over my house, introduced a mad dog to my life and given out my home number to patients. Why would I be angry with you?’

She face fell. She’d ruined his evening. ‘I didn’t mean to interfere.’

‘Yes, you did. It’s what you do best.’ There was a gleam in his dark eyes. ‘And you did the right thing, giving the number to Alice. I’m glad she called. I wouldn’t have wanted Vera to be lying there waiting for the paramedics to show up. At least we were able to make her more comfortable.’