Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she checked. Carly. Take second break. Need to meet you in canteen.
She frowned. Was something wrong? By the time she reached the canteen, Chloe and Carly were already sitting at a table waiting for her, coffee steaming from mugs and a plate of scones in front of them. As a community midwife Carly didn’t spend quite so much time in the hospital so Esther was immediately suspicious.
She pulled her chair out warily, looking from one face to the other. ‘What’s going on? Does one of you have something to tell me?’
Chloe tilted her head just a fraction to the side. ‘Why, that’s just what we were about to ask you.’
‘Okay, so what does that mean?’ asked Esther as she pulled one of the coffee cups towards her.
Carly had mischief written all over her face. ‘Should we curtsey?’
Esther leaned her head on one hand. ‘You got me. I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Chloe pulled a face. ‘Don’t forget where I work.’
‘I know exactly where you work.’ Recognition started to dawn. ‘Oh, is this about me being not well?’
Carly drummed her fingers on the table. She obviously wanted to get to the point. ‘More about who looked after you when you weren’t well.’ Cutting right to the chase.
Chloe sliced open one of the scones. ‘Viktor came in this morning and took great delight in telling everyone you were in a lip lock with Harry Beaumont early yesterday morning and it was clear he was dropping you off.’
Esther’s mouth fell open. She put her head on the table. ‘Oh no.’ Viktor. The orderly. Of course.
‘Oh yes,’ said Carly with glee in her voice. ‘Now spill, girl. I want to know all the details.’
Esther stayed quiet for a few moments. These were her friends. At least they’d warned her she was the latest piece of hospital gossip.
She pulled her head back up. ‘I’m the talk of the steamie, aren’t I?’
‘Yep,’ said Chloe, nodding her head. ‘But I want facts, not fiction.’ She grinned as she looked at Esther. ‘So did you, or did you not, spend the night with Harry Beaumont—our resident duke?’
There it was again—the rush of heat to her cheeks when she thought about Harry. It was getting to be normal for her.
She bit her bottom lip and tried to think of how to put this. These guys were her friends, they weren’t going to judge her.
‘I was working in A&E and had a bit of reaction to the antibiotics I was on. I’d been feeling tired for days and finally worked out it was due to an infection. The first set didn’t work, the second set gave me hives and Harry got me some steroids and checked me over.’
Chloe’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Checked you over, did he?’ Her voice was like a cartoon character.
Esther gave her a nudge. ‘Stop it. Because I’d had a reaction they said I could only be discharged if I had supervision. Harry offered to be the supervision. I think he just felt sorry for me, because we’d had a fight a few days before. He took me home that night and I fell asleep in the car. When I woke I was in his town house.’
‘Where’s his town house?’ asked Carly quickly.
‘Belgravia.’
Both of her friends gave a little sigh. ‘Well, he is a duke,’ said Chloe.
‘So, you slept all night, alone?’ asked Carly.
‘Yes.’ Esther nodded determinedly. ‘Alone.’
‘So what about the love fest outside your flat, then?’ Chloe was smothering her scone with jam.
Esther reached up and grabbed a strand of her hair from her ponytail and started twirling it around her finger. ‘Yeah, that.’
‘Yeah, that,’ repeated Carly. ‘Get to the real story, we’re on a time limit here.’
Esther started stalling, wondering how she could tell the story without a whole heap of mixed emotions swirling around in her head. She buttered her scone ever so slowly.
Chloe let out a big sigh. ‘Any time this year, Esther.’
For some reason she couldn’t quite meet any of their inquisitive gazes. It was so much easier to stare at the scone, even though her appetite wasn’t quite what it should be. Normally the Queen Victoria scones lasted around thirty seconds on her plate.
‘Well...’ she started slowly. ‘He made me breakfast that morning.’
‘In bed?’ asked Carly.
Esther shook her head. ‘No, not in bed, in the kitchen. I’d had a shower and asked him for some spare clothes to change into. He took me into his walk-in wardrobe and while we were in there...’
‘While you were in there, what?’ Carly pressed.
Chloe laughed and waved her hand. ‘Sorry, I stopped paying attention once you said the words “walk-in wardrobe.”’
Esther sighed. ‘While he passed me some clothes, our hands touched and, well, it was just like...something.’
‘Something?’ Both girls spoke in unison and leaned forward.
She couldn’t tell them the rest. She couldn’t tell them what he’d revealed. I
t was private. Just like her story about her mum.
‘Yeah, something. You know how it is when you meet someone and then all of a sudden there’s just this feeling and...then he kissed me.’
‘And?’ asked Carly.
‘And I might have kissed him back,’ she admitted.
‘Wait a minute,’ said Chloe. ‘So this guy, who three days ago you texted me and said he was an arrogant git and you hated him, now he’s kissing you and you’re kissing him back?’
When she said it like that it seemed ridiculous, and Esther cringed. ‘Yeah, maybe.’
‘And then he dropped you back home and kissed you all over again outside your flat?’ said Carly.
Esther nodded. She took a bite of her scone in the hope they might stop asking her questions.
Chloe was grinning, giving Carly a conspiratorial nod across the table. ‘Sounds like quite a turnaround.’
‘It does.’ Carly grinned too and folded her arms across her chest. ‘So, like I said, should we start curtseying around you?’
‘Oh, stop it, you two.’ Esther shook her head and gave a wistful sigh. ‘I have no idea what happens next, if anything. He’s just passing through. We didn’t make plans. He didn’t ask for my number. He just said he’d see me at work.’ Her stomach gave a squeeze. Saying those words out loud made her feel as if she’d been entirely led on.
For the first time there was silence at the table.
Eventually Chloe spoke up, her voice artificially bright. ‘Well, that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe he’s waiting to see how you react. Maybe he doesn’t want to come on too strong.’
‘Yeah, that’s it,’ agreed Carly quickly. ‘He’s waiting for your lead.’
‘Or he’s clearly not that interested,’ said Esther flatly.
The people at the table next to them stood up and Esther checked her watch. ‘Gotta go, time’s up.’
Chloe gave her arm a little squeeze. ‘This could be a good thing. You might get to have a little fun.’
Esther picked up her bag and gave her a weak smile. ‘Let’s just wait and see.’ It made her feel a bit stupid. Half the hospital would now know she’d locked lips with Harry Beaumont, as gossip spread quicker in the hospital than an infectious disease.