The Young Doctors Downstairs by Lucilla Andrews

Author:Lucilla Andrews [Andrews, Lucilla]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Maggie Hope, Jean Fullerton, district nurse, nurses, medical romance, Nadine Dorries, 1960s, Donna Douglas, hea, happy ending, doctors, hospital romance, Nightingales series, happy ever after, casualty, nursing
Publisher: Wyndham Books (Medical Romance)
Published: 2018-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

I GET A PROPOSAL

I was so accustomed to shocks at work and, recently, from my friends that I thought myself shock-proof. I was not. I was also very angry.

I said coldly, ‘That won’t be necessary, thanks. I may need an alibi. Not as badly as that.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘It was just an idea. I thought it might help.’

‘Then I suppose I should be grateful. I’m afraid I’m not.’

He watched me curiously. ‘So you’re not! All right. Forget it. Don’t make a Federal case out of it.’

I was trying not to lose my temper. His attitude was no help. ‘Sorry to dwell on the subject. I am just not accustomed to being asked by one of my friends to provide him with a convenient front to keep him clear of the divorce courts.’

‘You’re not accustomed to what?’

I repeated myself. ‘I’ll do quite a lot for you, Jason. I have to after what you did ‒’

‘For God’s sake!’ he interrupted irately. ‘Spare me the corny line about my saving your life.’

‘If you hadn’t saved my life,’ I flung back, ‘do you imagine that after what you’ve just suggested I would have let you stay in this flat five seconds, and be wasting my breath explaining why I can’t go along with your cute little scheme? And I must say from what I’ve seen of her’ ‒ anger made me reckless ‒ ‘I can’t believe Bettina Orme would like the idea any more than I do.’

‘Bettina?’ He took a deep breath. ‘So that’s what you think?’

‘Obviously. I wasn’t born yesterday.’

‘Clearly not, from the amount of corn you quote.’

‘Corn or not, aren’t I right?’

He lit a cigarette, looked at me as if he had never seen me before and did not at all care for what he saw. ‘No. You’re not. No doubt you don’t believe that, but it’s true.’ I said nothing. ‘Do I explain?’

‘If you want to.’

He bowed ironically. ‘You are very kind. But as you seem to have guessed at the set-up between Bettina and myself, you may as well hear me out. You know I’m very fond of her?’ I nodded. ‘And you think that one of these fine days her marriage will bust up because of me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Right. Well, I don’t give a bloody damn whether you believe this or not’ ‒ he was quite as angry as I was ‒ ‘But if there’s one thing in this life that’s certain it is that I’ll never let Bettina divorce her husband to marry me.’

‘Aren’t you overlooking his angle?’

‘His ‒’ He grimaced. ‘You’re thinking of that night she spent downstairs?’

‘Yes. I know she was in Bill Eccles’s room and Paul was there, but ‒’

‘If you want the facts she was in my room. Bill’s room was too deep in suitcases for us to do anything about it, beyond shifting out the unmade bed. That went into my room too. I had a mattress on the floor in Paul’s. There’s a minor detail about that episode that moron Paul left out.

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