They hadn’t been dancing since the night they’d first met. And the idea of dancing cheek to cheek again with Theo, to her favourite kind of music…‘I’d love to.’
‘Good.’ He gave her that warm smile. ‘And, Maddie?’
‘Yes?’
‘Take a taxi from your place to mine,’ he said softly. ‘And if you want to bring an overnight bag with you…’
Her heart missed a beat. ‘Is that what you want?’
‘Yes. Though I still can’t make you any promises,’ he warned.
‘Understood.’ Though he was definitely letting her closer. Maybe, just maybe, this was going to work out.
Madison was still on cloud nine when she had her first case of the afternoon.
‘I don’t mind your student being here at all,’ Mrs Reeves said when Madison asked her permission for Nita to sit in on the appointment. ‘I don’t care who I see, if you can make this itching stop!’
‘Where’s the itching?’ Madison asked.
‘My hands, the soles of my feet, my arms and my legs.’ Mrs Reeves started rubbing her arms. ‘Sorry. It’s driving me crazy.’
‘Try not to scratch, or you’ll make it even more sore,’ Madison said gently. ‘You might find pressing your skin helps, or putting something cool against your skin.’
The symptoms were absolutely classic, so she let Nita take the lead, eliciting Mrs Reeves’s medical history, doing a blood-pressure check, palpating the baby and checking for the baby’s heartbeat.
‘It’s keeping me awake,’ Mrs Reeves said. ‘It’s a lot worse at night. I’ve been to see my doctor twice—but he says there isn’t a rash and there’s no obvious reason for it.’
Apart from obstetric cholestasis, Madison thought.
‘Does anyone in your family have eczema, asthma or allergies?’ Nita asked.
Mrs Reeves shook her head.
Nita glanced at Madison. ‘I think I need to do a blood test.’
‘My GP’s already done that, a month ago,’ Mrs Reeves said. ‘It was normal.’
‘Sometimes,’ Madison said, ‘it takes more than one test before we see anything show up in the results. Even if this one’s clear, I’d want to do a test in two weeks’ time if you’re still itching.’
‘So do you know what it is?’
‘It’s called obstetric cholestasis,’ Nita said, her voice becoming more confident at Madison’s nod. ‘It’s a problem of the liver you get during pregnancy—and it’s caused by pregnancy hormones, so the itching will stop after your baby’s born.’
‘Heaven help me if this one’s late,’ Mrs Reeves said in dismay. ‘I’m only thirty-four weeks—I can’t stand the idea of another two months or so of this!’
‘Hopefully it won’t come to that. I’d like to take a blood test,’ Nita said. ‘The oestrogen produced by your body affects the way your liver deals with bile salts, which build up in your blood and cause the itching.’
‘What if the test doesn’t show a thing?’
‘Then we can look at ways of calming the itch for you,’ Nita said. ‘May I take a blood sample?’
Mrs Reeves nodded. ‘I used to be scared of needles. But the amount I’ve had stuck in me during pregnancy…’
‘It does get better,’ Nita reassured her.
When she’d taken the sample under Madison’s supervision, Madison mouthed, ‘Urine sample.’
Nita handed Mrs Reeves a small clear bottle. ‘Can you do me a mid-stream urine sample too, please?’
‘Sure. When will the blood test results be back?’
Nita glanced at Madison.
‘This afternoon,’ Madison said. ‘If you don’t mind waiting around a bit, I can slot you back in at the end of my list today.’
‘If that means you can get the itching to stop, I’d be happy to wait until midnight,’ Mrs Reeves said with feeling.
‘You probably already know that the café’s on the next floor up,’ Madison said. ‘Come back in about three hours, and bring your sample with you.’
‘Will do.’
Roughly halfway through the list, Madison took a five-minute comfort break. And when she came back, she squeezed Nita’s hand. ‘Before we see the rest of our list, I wanted a word. You’re doing really, really well here. But you’ve been a bit quiet since yesterday. Are you worried about anything?’
‘No, I’m fine.’
‘No, you’re not,’ Madison said gently. ‘Would it help to talk?’
‘Not really.’ Nita wrinkled her noise. ‘It’s just that I made a real idiot of myself yesterday.’