Chapter 4
‘Mother… Bella said she couldn’t take the position. Stop pestering her.’
‘I’m just trying to understand, Oliver. That can hardly be considered pestering, can it?’
The question became directed at Bella as Lady Dorothy turned her head. Her smile was sweet. There was even a dimple flashing in a soft cheek.
Heavens, but she’d changed in the few days Bella had been nursing the elderly lady.
She couldn’t help smiling back but she said nothing, merely continuing the task of folding and packing Lady Dorothy’s clothes in preparation for her discharge.
Oliver Dawson picked up a book and moved to put it in the suitcase beside Bella.
‘Sweet as they come on the outside,’ he murmured, ‘but you have probably noticed that my mother has a core of reinforced steel.’
Bella caught her bottom lip between her teeth to stop herself laughing aloud as her gaze flew up to meet his.
This was a surprise visit and he obviously hadn’t finished his theatre list because he was still wearing scrubs.
He even had a red mark on his forehead from recent, and probably lengthy, contact with the elastic edge of a theatre cap.
Having Oliver dressed like this was quite enough to put Bella back into a space of feeling very nervous.
She would make some idiotic mistake any moment now and have to bear the consequences.
A mistake like thinking he was making a joke about his mother?
There was no mistaking the glimmer of humour in those dark eyes, however, and Bella felt suddenly confused. Thrown off balance. It was as much of a surprise as finding the eminent surgeon sitting on a bed and eating disreputable fast food.
‘I’ll bet the campaign has been going on for the last three days, am I right?’
Bella made a choked sound that could have been agreement. She was finding it disturbingly hard to look away from that totally unexpected humour.
‘Just tell me again, dear.’ Lady Dorothy’s voice came from behind them. Her voice had the faintest hint of a plaintive wobble. ‘Time’s running out now.’
Bella turned back to the bed. ‘It wouldn’t be fair to sign on as your private nurse. I’m not going to be in Auckland for much longer.’
‘But where are you going?’
‘Overseas,’ Bella said firmly. ‘I told you all about it yesterday.’
‘Mmm.’ Lady Dorothy was smiling again. ‘But you made it sound like it was just a holiday, not something… urgent.’
Bella tried to see beneath the sweet smile and the sincere interest that had had her talking about herself for days now. Had Oliver been warning her that his mother was still embarked on a campaign to get what she had decided she wanted?
‘It’s my time to travel,’ Bella said.
She tried to keep an apologetic note from her voice, but this was making her feel guilty. She had become enormously fond of Lady Dorothy over the last few days. She’d love to give her exactly what she wanted but it simply wasn’t possible.
‘And it is urgent because if I don’t go now, I never will.’
‘Of course you will, dear. Europe isn’t going to disappear, you know.’
She really didn’t understand. Bella sank onto the chair beside the bed, only too aware of Oliver standing at the end.
‘I had planned to go when I left home,’ Bella told Lady Dorothy. ‘But that was when Nana came to live with us and I couldn’t leave. And then I did my nursing degree and ever since then I’ve been trying to save up enough to go but…’
She didn’t need to go into details in front of Oliver about how bad she was at saving her money, did she? Confess to the impulsiveness that made a new dress or killer pair of shoes an absolute must-have?
‘Anyway, that’s why I came to Auckland. So I could live with Auntie Kate and finally save enough to get away.’
She could see that this argument wasn’t hitting the right note.
She could almost see Lady Dorothy gathering her breath to tell her again that if she became her private nurse, she could save the money she needed in no time.
She’d dropped that subject the other night and had distracted Bella into talking about weddings, but it hadn’t gone away, had it?
Maybe she’d been simply gathering more ammunition so that she could fire it all at the same time.
‘And it’s urgent now,’ Bella continued, ‘because I’m twenty-six. Going on twenty-seven, in fact, and I intend to be married and having my first baby by the time I’m thirty. And I want to spend at least three or four years travelling the world,’ she added with a touch of desperation.
‘Oh, my…’ Lady Dorothy’s eyes were wide. ‘You have a fiancé?’
‘No.’ Bella closed her eyes for a moment, wishing Oliver would go away. ‘Not yet,’ she muttered.
She opened her eyes to see that Lady Dorothy was looking at her son and that she was smiling again.
Oliver also muttered something that sounded remarkably like give me strength…
Good grief… surely Lady Dorothy didn’t think that Oliver would be remotely interested in the fact that she was single? How embarrassing!
‘Quite apart from that,’ Bella said crisply, ‘I’m not qualified. I don’t know about the kind of rehabilitation programme you’re going to need. Occupational therapy and so on.’
‘We can learn together, then,’ Lady Dorothy said calmly. ‘You already know far more than I do, dear. Because of your nana.’
‘There’s physiotherapy, then. Specialist exercises.’
‘We could learn those together, too. And’ – Lady Dorothy’s eyes twinkled – ‘maybe I want to learn line dancing.’
Oliver did more than mutter this time. He actually groaned.
Bella ignored that one. ‘Physios have access to things that you might need. Like hot pools.’
‘We have a hot pool at home, don’t we, Oliver? There’s a spa beside the indoor swimming pool.’
There was an indoor swimming pool? Separate wings of the house? There were probably converted servants’ quarters that would be available as a private apartment, too. Bella’s head was spinning slightly.
It stopped spinning abruptly, thanks to the loud crash directly outside Lady Dorothy’s door.
There was a moment’s shocked silence inside the room and then Oliver took two long strides and flung the door open.
‘What the—’
Bella didn’t let him finish his outraged query about what might be going on because she’d seen the figure on the floor.
‘Oh, my God… Wally.’
Her favourite line-dancing pupil had collapsed and he was lying flat on his back. Bella flew to his side.
‘Wally? Can you hear me?’
There was no response. Automatically, Bella reached for the elderly man’s head, tipping it back to ensure his airway was open.
She bent down to listen for breathing, one hand on his neck to search for a pulse.
She was ready to start CPR instantly if she couldn’t find one.
Her adrenaline level was sky-high. Why on earth was Oliver just standing there?
He wasn’t even calling for extra assistance yet.
‘Let him go, Bella.’ Oliver spoke calmly. ‘Stand back.’
Her jaw dropped. He wanted her to stand back and let her patient die? Why? Because he was old or overweight or deaf or something?
‘No way.’ Bella glared at Oliver. ‘He needs help.’
Even as she spoke, however, Bella could feel something happening beneath her hands. An ominous twitching and jerking. Wally was having a seizure.
Bella knew better than to try and restrain someone who was having a seizure.
There was nothing anyone could do until it stopped, other than try and protect the head from banging into something.
When the uncontrolled movements stopped she would be able to ensure that his airway stayed clear and that he wouldn’t be frightened in that confused period before full consciousness returned.
‘Move that trolley,’ she heard herself order Oliver. ‘I’ll find a towel to go under his head.’
She grabbed one from the rail in Lady Dorothy’s room and was back within seconds.
Wally was still having his seizure. The longer it went on the more serious it was likely to be, and it looked quite bad enough already.
Wally must have bitten his tongue because there was blood-stained foam coming from his mouth.
What if he was in status epilepticus? Oliver was signalling another nurse and calling for a drug trolley.
‘I should have done something this morning,’ Bella groaned. ‘I told Sally I thought he needed a scan or something.’
‘What?’ Oliver was close beside where Bella was crouching now. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘He’s been having headaches and this morning he said his vision was blurry. And now this…’ Bella could feel tears stinging the back of her eyes as she looked up at Oliver. ‘He might have a brain tumour, mightn’t he?’
‘So you’re a neurosurgeon now?’
But the words were not sarcastic. If anything, the look that Oliver gave her was reassuring. And there was something else in his glance. Something that made Bella feel oddly warm. Had he been impressed with the way she had handled this emergency?
‘We’ll have a good look at him, Bella, and find out what’s going on. I take it he doesn’t have a history of seizures?’
Bella shook her head. A nurse had arrived with the drug trolley but it seemed that chemical intervention wasn’t going to be necessary to halt the seizing.
Wally was lying still now. Bella wriggled to where she could control his airway and cushion his head with the towel.
She used a corner of it to wipe the foam from his chin.
Wally groaned.
‘It’s okay,’ Bella told him. ‘You’re safe, Wally.’ She stroked his forehead. ‘We’re looking after you. It’s okay.’
‘Find a stretcher,’ Oliver ordered another staff member. ‘And call CT and see if they can fit in an emergency case.’
Bella almost gasped. Oliver was going to look at Wally right now? Her smile wobbled a little.
‘Thank you so much,’ she whispered. ‘I know he’s getting on but he’s such a sweetheart and I know he’s deaf but he’s still as sharp as a tack.’
Oliver had hold of Wally’s wrist, taking his pulse. ‘You’re really fond of him, aren’t you?’