Hired: GP and Wife / The Playboy Doctor's Surprise Proposal (8 page)

It was obvious they’d both had a terrible shock. Atholl looked grim. ‘Come in now, Kate, and, Sarah—sit you down, both of you. We’ll put the kettle on and you must tell us what happened over a cup of tea.’

His voice was kind and compassionate, but Terry could see the steely anger behind his words. How could anyone steal from these two vulnerable little women who had worked hard all their lives? They all went into the house and the two doctors stared in silent dismay at the overturned chairs, the contents of a small desk thrown over the floor, a cup and saucer that had been knocked off a table and lay smashed on the tiled fireplace.

‘We…we couldn’t bear to sit in the house,’ said Kate. ‘That’s why we were in the garden.’

‘I’m ringing the police,’ declared Atholl. ‘I want them to come and see this before we tidy it up—there may be fingerprints. But first I want you both to sit on the sofa…’

‘And I’ll get some nice hot tea,’ suggested Terry.

‘Ah, I’d better introduce you,’ said Atholl, drawing Terry forward. ‘This is my new colleague in the practice, Dr Terry Younger. I thought it would be nice if you could meet her and she meet you—I’m sorry it wasn’t in happier circumstances.’

Both old ladies smiled tremulously at her. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Doctor,’ quavered Kate. ‘It’ll be nice for Dr Atholl to have some help, won’t it, Sarah, while old Dr Euan recovers?’

While Atholl rang the police on his mobile, Terry served the shocked sisters with sweet tea which they sipped gratefully, the warm liquid and the mere fact of being looked after, helping them to relax.

‘Do you know what’s been taken?’ she asked gently.

‘Just a few wee bits of jewellery that belonged to our mother—we don’t think it’s worth much.’ Kate dabbed her eyes and sighed. ‘Of course, it meant a lot to us.’ Then her expression changed and she drew herself up to her full small height on the sofa and looked belligerently up at Terry. ‘If they catch whoever did this I’ll give them a piece of my mind—that I will!’

Terry smiled at the feisty little woman. It was good that she was feeling angry and not too broken by the nasty episode. The more she and her sister could talk about it, the better they would feel, and if not come to terms with the situation at least learn to live with it.

‘That’s right, Kate, you must feel absolutely furious about all of this, but when the police have come we’ll tidy it up and make sure everything’s secure.’

Atholl came back into the room—his tall figure in the small space seemed a reassuring presence in the wreckage of their little parlour. Something about his stature and calm manner made things seem more normal, safer, despite the abnormality of the situation. The old ladies looked up at him hopefully, as if he could put their broken world back in order.

‘The police are on their way now,’ he informed them. He sat down by the old ladies and took Sarah’s hand. She seemed the more shocked of the two, gazing sadly ahead of her. ‘Now, Sarah, don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this.’

Sarah focussed on him and said in a bewildered way. ‘I don’t know who could have done it—there’s no one around here who would dream of it. Our next-door neighbours and the farmers nearby are friends that we’ve known for many years and no one else comes up here.’

It was a good point. They were in a remote part of the island and only locals would know that two vulnerable old ladies lived in the cottage. Apart from a few walkers, nobody generally strayed this far up the hill.

She plucked nervously at her collar. ‘I…I don’t feel safe here any more. Suppose they come back?’

Atholl patted her hand. ‘Now, I’ve had a good idea—how would you like Shona to stay with you for a few nights? She wouldn’t let anyone harm you, and perhaps you’d feel safer if she was around?’

For the first time Sarah looked a little brighter. ‘Would Shona not mind coming here?’

Atholl laughed. ‘She’d love it—doesn’t she always get biscuits here which I never allow her at home? She’s in the car now—I’ll bring her in and she can have tea with us!’

It was obvious that Shona acted as a huge tonic to Kate and Sarah, for they became quite animated and insisted on going into the little kitchen and bringing out a whole box of biscuits.

‘Shona was actually born in this cottage,’ Atholl explained quietly to Terry as Shona bounded in, wagging her tail delightedly at the prospect of being spoilt, going over to the old ladies and pushing her nose onto their laps. ‘She was one of a litter that Kate and Sarah’s old dog had four years ago. Sadly Polly died not long after that, but Shona looks remarkably like her.’

‘It’s a wonderful idea.’ Terry smiled. ‘They’ve really cheered up and it’s given them something else to think about.’

Both doctors watched in amusement as the sisters fussed over Shona and found Polly’s old basket for her to sleep in. But Terry noted how badly the old ladies walked and the difficulty they had getting up from their chairs.

‘They look very unsteady,’ she murmured to Atholl. ‘What are the chances of them slipping in the bathroom—or anywhere else, for that matter?’

Atholl nodded, and while they waited for the police to arrive he broached the subject gently of someone coming in daily to give them a hand. They both shook their heads vehemently, protesting that they could look after each other.

‘We don’t need or want anyone fussing over us every day—we’re fine as we are,’ said Kate stoutly.

‘Why don’t you at least consider wearing an alarm disc round your neck?’ suggested Terry. ‘You are very isolated here and if you’re in trouble of any kind—from falling to being worried about prowlers—you press the disc and that goes through to a central monitoring system that will send help if they can’t get hold of you over the monitor in the house.’

‘Ah, but we could easily press it by mistake, and we’d be very embarrassed,’ protested Kate.

‘No problem. You just tell the person who contacts you a few moments after the disc has been pressed that it was done in error, and no one will come. Several of my patients in London had it, and on at least two occasions it saved their lives. No one disturbs you unless you need help.’

Both sisters looked at each other questioningly, seeking the other’s approval before agreeing to anything.

‘It really would be a good idea, you know,’ persuaded Atholl gently. ‘It would stop all of us worrying—and, of course, Sue would still come and see you on a regular basis to check your general health.’

‘Well, perhaps,’ said Sarah slowly. ‘Now we’ve had this nasty business it could be reassuring to know that we can call on someone easily—if we weren’t near the phone and we needed help urgently, that is. Would you be able to organise that?’

‘Of course,’ said Atholl, shooting a relieved glance at Terry. ‘I think it would be a wise move.’

After the police had been and gone, Atholl and Terry quickly put the scattered things back into place. Kate showed them an old photograph she had of her mother wearing a piece of the jewellery that had been stolen—a pretty little Victorian necklace.

‘I don’t suppose we’ll ever see it again—but at least we’re both OK, and that’s all that matters,’ she said. ‘And we’d like to thank you doctors for all your help, wouldn’t we, Sarah?’

‘No trouble at all,’ said Atholl. ‘Now, I’ll go and get Shona’s lead from the car, and an old bone she likes to play with.’

He went out and Sarah put a restraining hand on Terry’s arm, holding her back for a second. ‘It’s good to see young Dr Atholl has some reliable help now—he’s been through such a bad time with that Dr Grahame.’ She put a hand to her mouth guiltily. ‘Oh, dear, perhaps I shouldn’t be saying that—but maybe you’ll be just the girl to cheer him up!’ Her eyes twinkled and she turned to her sister. ‘He needs a bit of fun in his life, doesn’t he, Kate?’

Kate nodded gravely. ‘Aye, he’s a good man who’s had a rough time. We’d all love to see him settled happily. We’ve known him since he was a little boy and used to come for the holidays with his uncle.’

‘I suppose he feels almost like one of your family,’ remarked Terry, longing to know just what the story was about this Dr Grahame and how she’d affected Atholl’s life so much. To ask him outright would seem too intrusive, she reflected, but surely she could find out from Bunty? She determined to do that when the moment seemed right.

‘It’s a very odd thing about that burglary,’ Atholl said as they drove back to The Sycamores. ‘There really aren’t many people walking or even living near the Mackie sisters. A few campers in the middle of summer perhaps, but I know there’s no one at the site at the moment.’ His jaw tightened. ‘I just hope they pick up whoever’s burgled those old ladies.’

‘They’re very fond of you,’ said Terry. ‘They said they’d known you for many years.’

‘That’s true—I remember them plying me with sweeties when I went with my uncle on a visit sometimes. In a place like this there’s often a long-standing relationship with your GP.’

They were back at The Sycamores and Terry got out of the car. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then. I know you’re off to see your uncle again now and I’ll be in bed by the time you get back. I hope he’s doing well.’

He smiled at her and said quietly, ‘Thanks…and thank you again for your help today.’

There was sudden self-consciousness between them, as if they had both remembered at the same second that intimate interlude a day or two ago in the back of the Land Rover. Their eyes locked and in Terry’s mind she felt again the soft touch of his lips on hers, the thudding of his heart when she’d leant against him, the scratch of late-day stubble on his chin. It might have meant nothing to him, she thought wryly as she ran up the steps of the surgery, but it had been a moment of bliss that she wouldn’t forget in a hurry.

She bit her lip and looked back at him for a second before she opened the surgery door. How stupid she was being—surely the last few months had taught her that men were not to be trusted. Max had destroyed her happy life, and it would surely never be the same again.

Atholl watched as she disappeared, looking deliciously feminine in her neat skirt and pale blue silk blouse. She probably thought he’d been a chancy character trying it on with her the other day, although she’d been decent enough to make light of it. He sighed. The moment that he’d kissed her should never have happened, but a sudden impulse that had driven him on to throw caution to the winds—and now he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Atholl revved up the engine, turning the car round in a tight circle in the drive, and started out towards the ferry, trying to make sense of his mixed emotions. He parked the car in the car park, and sat for a minute staring out at the sparkling sea. For some time now he’d been treading on eggshells where women had been concerned—he’d been bruised and humiliated by one woman and he was damned if he was going to take the chance of any other female doing the same to him.

An image of Terry’s sweet face came into his mind and he sighed. She had lit more than a little spark of attraction in him—but she was essentially a city girl like Zara and she was only going to be here for a short time. No good thinking they could form any permanent relationship—it would just be a rerun of the scenario with Zara.

He got out of the car and looked towards the little ferry sailing across the sound and shrugged. He would look forward to spending a whole day with Terry when they went to help at the outward bound course. She would be a pleasant companion and it would be fun to show her the beautiful countryside, without getting too involved. And perhaps he’d find out more about this beautiful woman with the background she kept so close to her chest.

T
HE
Sunday they were scheduled to go to the outward bound centre dawned bright and clear. Atholl banged loudly on Terry’s bedroom door.

‘Time to get up,’ he called. He got a muffled grunt in response, so he banged again. ‘Come on, Terry, no time to lose!’

Still no response, so he opened the door and peered round. ‘Wake up!’ he bellowed. ‘The weather forecast’s good for this morning but dicey later on, so we need to get a move on or the abseiling might be off.’

Terry stirred slightly then relaxed again, lying curled up on her side with one hand supporting her head, long lashes sweeping the curve of her flushed cheek. There was something so vulnerable about her, her lips slightly parted as if just waiting to be kissed. Atholl felt a moment’s shame as he looked at her. He shouldn’t be here in this room without her knowledge—it was as if he were taking advantage of her somehow—but he did have to wake her, didn’t he? He was holding a mug of tea in one hand and with the other he reached down and tickled her nose.

She stirred again and brushed his hand away. She’d just been enjoying a wonderful dream where she and Atholl had been swimming in one of the little coves on the island. The sea was rather rough and the waves kept tossing her into his arms as they were swept towards the shore. His body was wet and slippery against hers and he held her tight to him so that she wouldn’t be submerged by the next wave. She could feel every muscle in his taut body, his legs firm against hers, bracing her against the swell of the sea. He was laughing down at her, white teeth in a tanned face…then suddenly a little feather landed on her nose and started to tickle it. Impatiently she tried to brush it away, longing to get to the next stage of her dream, but it continued to irritate her.

She opened her eyes in exasperation and sat up suddenly in bed, looking slightly bewildered when Atholl’s familiar face only a foot away from her swam into view. She clutched the sheets against her when she realised that she was no longer dreaming but the subject of her dream was looking down at her!

‘What the…? What’s happened? What are you doing here?’

Atholl’s gaze took in her flushed cheeks, dishevelled hair and a flash of soft creamy breasts as she tried to maintain her modesty, and felt his heartbeat accelerate as if a button had been pressed. What wouldn’t he give to tear off his clothes and leap into the warm bed with her and to hell with going over for the day with the outward bound group! He was beginning to realise that having Terry living in the same house as him could be one big temptation.

‘Wake up, sleepyhead,’ he said huskily. ‘Sorry to disturb you, but we ought to get going if we’re to get to the outward bound group before they set off.’

Terry’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, I’d forgotten all about that. I was so exhausted after the past few days…’

He grinned. ‘Exhausted? It’s just a normal everyday story of country doctors, reviving someone with a heart attack in a rainstorm, helping two old ladies who’d been burgled….’

She laughed. ‘So I’m beginning to realise! But I’d been dreaming, you see.’

‘Not a nightmare, I hope?’

A warm flush suffused Terry’s cheeks as she recalled just what the subject of her dream had been. ‘No,’ she murmured. ‘Definitely not a nightmare.’

He stood looking at her with twinkling eyes as if he could read her mind and was amused by it. She waited for a moment, slightly embarrassed, expecting him to leave.

‘I’ll be down soon,’ she hinted. ‘It won’t take me long.’

‘Sorry—didn’t mean to intrude. I thought you’d like a cup of tea, or rather a mug,’ he added with a grin. ‘I don’t do cups!’

He held out a mug and she leant forward to take it, but in trying not to let the sheet fall down and expose the skimpy baby doll she wore in bed, she fumbled it and the mug clattered to the floor, spilling the tea over the sheets.

‘Oh, no! What am I like?’

She bent over the bed to retrieve the mug at the same time as Atholl bent down to pick it up. Their heads almost collided and they both froze in mid-action, their faces inches apart.

‘Sorry!’ they exclaimed in unison, then stopped and gazed at each other, a crackle of attraction between them springing into life like a current between magnets.

How close they were. Terry could see the black flecks in his blue sexy eyes, the black lashes fringing them, and smell the just-washed soapy clean, male smell of him. It was almost as if her dream was continuing. All her senses screamed out to lean towards him and feel once more those firm sexy lips on hers, his hand caressing her body. Somewhere in the back of her mind a hundred warning thoughts whirred round. Was she going to embarrass them both as she had done last time? He’d no doubt think she was up for sex at any opportunity! Even more to the point, once they’d started kissing in such a setting as this bedroom, for God’s sake, where would it end?

‘There’s still some tea left in the mug,’ Atholl said gruffly. ‘Why don’t you drink it now?’

Terry pushed herself back properly into the bed and pulled the sheet up to her chin. ‘Er…I’ll have it in a minute, thank you,’ she said breathlessly, aware that he was looking down at her, an unreadable expression in his blue eyes.

He put the mug on the bedside table carefully and sat down on the bed, taking out a handkerchief to mop up some of the spilt liquid on the sheets and over her arms.

‘The tea didn’t scald you, did it?’ he asked.

‘No…not at all.’

Terry’s voice came out in a husky little croak, her pulse speeding up slightly at his proximity and the thought that if she wanted to she could throw off her sheet and pull him alongside her with no trouble at all! She couldn’t help but give a nervous giggle at the thought, turning it unsuccessfully into a cough.

He smiled at her. ‘Right. Well, I’d better go and get breakfast started,’ he said, not moving, his gaze travelling slowly over her face.

Terry licked her lips nervously, aware of his close proximity to her, half hoping he’d move and yet longing for him not to.

‘You…you’ve still got quite a scar from the accident,’ she said at last, to break the tension between them. Her hand went out to touch the cut he’d sustained on his chin trying to get Maisie out of the car on the day Terry had arrived.

‘And you’ve got a piece of hair across your eye,’ he murmured, leaning over her and removing a wisp of hair from her forehead. His hand stayed on her cheek for a moment, then strayed across to her ear before he took it back. She froze for a second, a mixture of excited anticipation and apprehension flickering through her body.

‘Funny how long we seem to have known each other,’ he murmured.

Terry’s voice caught in her throat. ‘Only a few weeks actually…’

He smiled. ‘True, but I want to know more about you. Was losing your father the only thing that brought you to Scuola? You’ve only given me sketchy details…’

His piercing blue eyes looked intently into hers as if he could decipher just what had happened to make her leave London. He watched her eyes slide away from his and he was sure that she was withholding something. Suddenly he was determined to find out more, to crack the mysterious code that was Terry’s past.

She answered pugnaciously, ‘I told you before—I wanted a change. My father’s death precipitated that. I don’t need to elaborate. Anyway, is it relevant to our situation?’

Terry turned her face away from that searching look, determined not to divulge any more, but he took her chin in his hand and gently turned it back so that she had to face him.

‘I’ve got to know what makes you tick,’ he said gently. ‘Don’t you see that if we’re to work well together we have to be friends? Friends usually know each other’s backgrounds, don’t they? I’m making a shrewd guess here, Terry. I’ve a feeling that it was a broken love affair that first made you think of leaving London, before your father died.’

He watched the stricken look in her eyes and felt he’d hit on something like the truth. Terry was silent. She couldn’t tell him everything, but she felt that perhaps he did deserve to know a little about her background.

‘That was part of it,’ she admitted at last. ‘The truth is, I fell for my ex, Max, because I thought he was everything I wanted—charming, charismatic, good fun, good looks…’ She gave a mirthless laugh. ‘And he could give a girl a good time!’

‘Sounds as if he ticked a lot of boxes,’ remarked Atholl drily, his clear eyes never leaving her.

‘Oh, yes, on the surface it looked good.’ A bitter tone entered her voice. ‘Underneath he was a devious and selfish opportunist, and he did things that had, well, wideranging consequences. It taught me the lesson never to let my heart rule my head. That’s basically it, Atholl. It was enough to make me want to leave the area.’

There was no need for her to go into any more details. The rest of her story was one she couldn’t divulge—that had to remain a secret. Then, as if pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she said lightly, ‘Let’s stop talking about me—what about you? What happened between you and my attractive predecessor, Dr Grahame, I keep hearing about?’

A startled expression crossed Atholl’s face, as if he hadn’t anticipated Terry asking him such a blunt question. He stood up and walked over to the window, looking out at the fields beyond and bunching his fists tensely in his pockets, before turning back to her with a wry grin.

‘Tit for tat, eh? It seems we’ve had similar experiences—although in my case much of the blame was mine. But it’s a long story, rather boring really.’

Boring? Not to Terry, fascinated and intrigued to know more about the background of this sexy, good-looking man.

‘Please go on,’ she said. ‘I…I’d be really interested to know what happened.’

He shrugged. ‘To put it briefly, Zara was a liar—she strung me along. She deceived me, and deception is an act of betrayal in my eyes.’ His eyes became flint hard. ‘And God help anyone who tries to deceive me again.’

Terry felt a shiver of worry go through her. How would he react if he knew that she wasn’t the person he thought she was? That she was a sham, someone built on a tissue of lies, a woman whose background had had to be obliterated?

‘Wh-what did she lie about?’

He gave a mirthless laugh. ‘I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you. I was so incredibly naive—idiotic actually.’

Terry sat up, hugging her arms around her. ‘Why shouldn’t I believe you? Come on—tell me what she did.’

Atholl sighed and suddenly looked a little older and tireder. ‘We met at medical school. She was very attractive, one of those girls who seemed to have everything—good looks, good fun, full of confidence.’

Terry felt a sudden surge of jealousy over this paragon of attraction. ‘You fell for each other, then?’

‘I should’ve known better. She and I came from completely different backgrounds. Her family were wealthy, rubbed shoulders with privileged people. I was from the Glasgow Gorbals and that was a very different world.’

‘But you were just as good as she was—why should that make any difference?’

‘Because we saw things differently. I was used to scraping together every penny I could—Zara didn’t have those worries. But then when we started working as junior doctors there wasn’t much time to spend money anyway, and the differences between us weren’t so noticeable.’

‘And so…what happened then?’

Atholl sat on the windowsill, leaning back against the window, a remote expression on his face. ‘We became engaged.’

‘So you loved her,’ stated Terry rather flatly. Somehow it seemed that there was a lot hanging on this question.

There was a short silence and Terry watched his face turn to one of bitterness. ‘I thought I did,’ he said at last. ‘She was attractive, the centre of attention. I suppose I was flattered when she made it plain she fancied me.’

‘And were you happy?’

He shrugged. ‘Life was fun when we could manage time off together. Zara loved nightclubs, partying, shopping…it was a hectic social whirl and I didn’t realise that actually deep down I didn’t terribly like doing those things. But she was a city girl through and through. I know now that we were totally incompatible.’

‘But you had come from a city too,’ pointed out Terry. ‘Surely there must have been some understanding between you?’

He nodded. ‘Possibly—but then my uncle began having health problems and offered me a job on Scuola, a place I loved from coming here as a child. It was going to be a temporary arrangement so Zara was happy to come here and join the practice for a while. But Uncle Euan decided to cut back on his hours even more and it became plain that he would never come back full time.’

‘So you wanted to stay and Zara didn’t?’ suggested Terry.

‘She began to hate it here. We’d set a date for the wedding—just a small affair, although, of course, it was of great interest to everyone on Scuola—local GP in love match sort of thing,’ he said drily. ‘Zara was quite pleased to be married here in the pretty little church down the road. A television company was doing a film about the area and our wedding was going to be featured in it—that appealed to her.’

‘So…so you got married then?’

Atholl shook his head and his voice was unemotional, detached. ‘Two days before the wedding I came back to the flat we were sharing rather earlier than usual. I found Zara in bed with one of her brother’s friends—a guest at the wedding.’

Terry stared at him in horror. ‘You found her…just before the wedding day?’

‘Thank God it wasn’t after the wedding,’ Atholl remarked lightly. ‘She made a fool of me, deceived me, and it hurt. I won’t pretend it didn’t, even if I’d realised deep down that we weren’t meant for each other. I won’t make that mistake again.’

Terry was silent for a moment, then she said softly, ‘Wow, what an awful story, Atholl. I reckon you had a lucky escape, then.’

No wonder Atholl was so happy to be single! She looked at his dark, sexy eyes and the hard-boned structure of his good-looking face. It was no surprise that Isobel was nervous that he was prey to any female who joined the practice—she didn’t want him to run the risk of being hurt again.

Terry looked away, a little chill of worry flickering through her mind. What he would say if he knew her whole story? Then she reasoned that she hadn’t deceived him all that much about herself—just a few little white lies. And at least she’d told him about Max—or at least some of the story about Max.