Dr. Campbell's Secret Son (6 page)

‘How long have you two been married?’

‘Fifty years.’ Mary smiled at her husband ‘And it seems like yesterday. When you meet the right one, dear, you hang on to him for all you’re worth. Real love doesn’t come along more than once. I almost lost my Bill during the war. If he hadn’t come back to me, that would have been it. I would never have married anyone else.’

Bill looked over Sarah’s shoulder. ‘Oh, here he is. Your young man.’

Jamie raised a quizzical eyebrow as he entered the room. ‘Whose young man?’

Really, the man had the most annoying habit of arriving at the most inopportune moments! Sarah thought irritably.

‘I can assure you both that while Dr Campbell has plenty of lady friends, I am not among them.’ Now what was she doing? She sounded like something out of a nineteenth-century novel. She could see by the glint in Jamie’s eyes that he was enjoying her discomfort.

‘And what makes you so sure I have plenty of lady friends? One at a time has always been enough for me,’ he replied

‘Too much in some cases,’ Sarah muttered under her breath to him. ‘Anyway,’ she said, moving towards the door, ‘I really must go and see the patients in the department. You both take care of yourselves. Let me know if you need anything.’

Leaving Jamie chatting with the elderly couple, Sarah found her way back to the emergency department. Lizzie greeted her with a smile.

‘How did you find Mr James? And Lucy? I heard that you and Jamie had gone up to see them.’

Sarah brought Lizzie up to date. ‘I’m still a little concerned about Bill. He and his wife seem to think that everything’s absolutely fine and that he’ll be gone home in a few days. I just hope they’re right.’

‘It’s up to the cardiology staff now. We’ve done our bit. Oh, by the way, Housekeeping brought up some theatre greens for you. It’ll save your clothes from getting stained. You know where the changing rooms are.’

‘Thanks, Lizzie. Is there anyone I need to see first?’

‘Just the usual run-of-the-mill twisted ankles and sore throats. Dr Thompson, Keith, is stitching up a young man who had an accident with a tiling cutter and Karen is supervising the medical students at the moment. We have a couple of patients waiting for X-rays and one in the plaster room,’ Lizzie said as she checked the board on which all the patients being seen were logged. ‘That’s it. Between us we have everything under control. The juniors know to call you or Dr Campbell if they have any concerns and before they discharge anyone home.’ She looked at Sarah speculatively. ‘By the way, how do you and Jamie know each other?’

It was a question Sarah had been dreading. ‘We trained together,’ she said evasively. Although she liked and trusted the young nurse in front of her, she wasn’t ready to divulge too much of her private life. Hospitals had always been hotbeds of gossip and the last thing she wanted was for her and Jamie to become the main topic.

‘He’s rather gorgeous, don’t you think? Half the female staff are smitten with him. I could fancy him myself if I wasn’t already in love.’

Good grief, Sarah thought, exasperated, was everyone determined to discuss Jamie with her? It was bad enough that she had to work with him without having him the subject of every conversation.

‘I hadn’t noticed,’ Sarah lied. ‘I’m not interested in men at the moment. Besides, he’s not really my type. Too good-looking and impossibly conceited.’

‘Conceited?’ Lizzie repeated, ‘I don’t think I’d call him conceited. In fact, I’d say he’s got very little idea of the effect he has on women.’

‘I think Jamie Campbell has a very good idea of the effect he has on women,’ Sarah said, a little more sharply than she’d intended. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just go and slip these on.’ Leaving a bemused Lizzie in her wake, Sarah sought the relative sanctuary of the changing room.

The rest of the day was busy with a constant stream of patients requiring second opinions. She and Jamie fell into an easy working rhythm, dividing patients and the supervision of medical staff between them. When they spoke it was to discuss patients and treatment plans. It was late afternoon before Sarah managed to find time to stop for a sandwich. At least she’d have no problem losing a couple of pounds at this rate, she thought ruefully. She found a convenient vending machine and chose the least uninspiring sandwich she could find—chicken salad.

By the time she made her way back to the staffroom most of the other members of her team, including Jamie, had also taken advantage of the lull to grab a bite or a cup of coffee. Lizzie was happily filling everyone in on the details of her wedding, oblivious to the polite, resigned look on the faces around her. Clearly most, if not all, of the staff had heard it all before. She turned to Sarah, pleased to find a fresh pair of ears to regale.

‘The wedding itself is going to be held in the small church in the village I grew up in a few miles out of Glasgow. I’m sorry I can’t have you all there, but the church only holds around forty.’ Jamie shot Sarah an amused look. She caught herself smiling back. ‘The reception will be at a swish hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond.’ She named a place that Sarah knew well. It was a five-star establishment which was a favourite venue for wedding receptions amongst the well to do of the city.

‘I know somebody who had their wedding there. Cost an arm and a leg,’ Karen volunteered. ‘I plan on settling for the registry office for mine. Whenever that might be—seeing as I haven’t even met him yet!’ she added with a self-deprecating chuckle.

‘Well, you only get married once, and…’ Lizzie looked slightly sheepish, ‘I’m an only child and my father is determined to give me a wedding no one will ever forget.’

At the mention of fathers, Sarah felt a pang. She was an only child, too, but it was unlikely that her father would even be at her wedding. Not that she was ever going to get married, she reminded herself. She sneaked a look at Jamie. He was frowning, though whether at the turn the conversation was taking or at some news article in the paper he was reading that annoyed him Sarah couldn’t tell.

Lizzie turned to Sarah. ‘You will come to the reception, Sarah? Everyone else is. It’s on Saturday.’

‘I’d love to come, Lizzie. But I’m not sure. There’s Calum to think about. He’ll have done without me all week. And I need to give my mum a break!’

‘Can’t you get a babysitter? Oh, please, come even if it’s only for an hour or two,’ Lizzie cajoled, determined that no one was to miss out on her big day.

‘I don’t know, Lizzie. I see too little of Calum as it is. I really don’t like being away from him when I’m not working.’

Something in the set of Jamie’s posture told Sarah he was listening in to the conversation.

‘Then bring him,’ Lizzie said as irrepressible as ever. ‘I’m sure there will be plenty of volunteers to look after him. He’s such a beautiful baby.’

Jamie stood, irritably tossing the paper to one side. ‘I don’t think being dragged along to a wedding is the best place for a baby.’

Sarah stared at him, dumbfounded. The rest of the staff looked uncomfortable as if this was a side to their boss they had rarely seen. ‘I think it’s time we all went back to work and let Dr Carruthers have her break,’ Jamie continued, before leaving the room. The others, apart from Lizzie and Sarah, followed him out.

Sarah was furious. He had no right to tell her how to bring up her child. He may be the genetic father, but that didn’t earn him the right to have a say in how Jamie was raised. Lizzie looked a little stricken.

‘I’ll see what I can do, Lizzie,’ she said, ‘but I can’t promise anything.’

‘Look, I’d love to have you there, but if it’s no go then too bad.’

Sarah finished rinsing her cup before smiling at Lizzie. ‘Come on, let’s get back to the fray. Hopefully the patient with the suspected wrist fracture will be back from X-Ray by now.’

* * *

Sarah decided to head off at five-thirty. The department was quiet and if she left now she’d have a couple of hours to spend with Calum before bedtime. If she hurried, she just had time to pop in and see Bill on her way out. She changed out of her theatre greens and was calling out goodbye to the nursing staff when Jamie, his face sombre, called her into the duty room.

‘Can’t it wait, Jamie? I was just about to leave.’

Jamie looked at her, his eyes warm with sympathy.

‘What is it, Jamie? What’s happened?’ she felt her heart begin to thud in her chest.

‘I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news, SJ,’ he said quietly.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘W
HAT
is it? What’s happened?’ Sarah asked.

‘I’m afraid Mr James—Bill—has taken a turn for the worse. The staff had thought he was doing well enough to have transferred him out of Intensive Care and into the cardiology ward, but he arrested shortly afterwards. They managed to resuscitate him, but I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time. They have decided, with the agreement of Mary, that there is no point in taking him back to Intensive Care, and are going to make him comfortable on the ward.’

‘Poor Bill—but I half expected this from the start. His age and the fact that his condition had obviously gone untreated for some time really counted against him. And poor Mary!’ Sarah continued, picking up her coat. ‘I was planning to go up and see them both before I went home. I’ll go up now.’

‘Do you have time? Aren’t you in a rush to get back to Calum? I’m on call tonight. Why don’t you go on home and I’ll phone you if there is any change?’

Sarah felt torn. She wanted to go home. She missed her son, and missed spending time with him, even though she had only been back at work a couple of days.

‘We both know that being a doctor isn’t a nine-to-five job.’ Sarah smiled tiredly. ‘But neither is being a mother,’ she continued with a rueful shake of her head. ‘Now I know what these working mothers mean when they wish for a thirty-hour day.’ She had always known that it would be difficult, balancing her career with being a single parent, but until today she hadn’t realised just how hard it was going to be. Was she always going to feel like this? Torn between her child and her patients, even though Calum would always be her priority. Wearily she got to her feet.

‘I’m going to pop up and see Mary for a few minutes at least. Maybe by the time I head off the rush-hour traffic will have eased and I’ll get home at the same time anyway. And, yes, if you could ring me if there is any change—it doesn’t matter what time—I’d be grateful.’

Jamie looked at her searchingly before replying. ‘Of course. Would you like me to come up with you?’

‘Thank you but no,’ she said formally. ‘I know you’ve got work to finish here. And anyway,’ she added dryly, ‘don’t you have to get ready for your date?’

‘Hell, I’d forgotten.’ Jamie said. Sarah couldn’t help a small pang of pleasure that the voluptuous Nurse Walker could be so easily dismissed from his mind. Serve the vamp right, she thought waspishly.

With a final reminder to Jamie to call her, she made her way to Cardiology where she found Mary sitting in the dim glow of the night-light, holding her husband’s hand. She was talking to him in a soft voice.

‘Hold on a little longer, Bill,’ she was whispering. ‘Jack’s on his way. He won’t be long. Hold on just a little while longer.’

She looked up as Sarah entered the room and managed a wan smile. ‘I was just telling him to wait for Jack,’ she said simply.

Sarah pulled up a chair and sat down next to the old lady. She took her free hand in hers feeling the delicate, almost papery skin under her fingers.

‘Who’s Jack?’ she asked softly.

‘Our son.’ She went on in response to Sarah’s look of surprise. ‘Oh, yes, we have a son. He lives in the Lake District. Sadly he and his father have never hit it off. Bill was in the army and we always had to move around from place to place. We left Jack in boarding school, we thought it was for the best, but he was really unhappy and always blamed his father. It wasn’t fair or right even, but I have two stubborn men. They fell out badly a couple of years ago and neither of them has been prepared to make peace. Each felt it was up to the other. Thankfully, Jack and I have always kept in touch. Occasionally I go and stay with him and his family for a few days. Bill knows and although he has always feigned disinterest, I know he likes to hear about his son and the grandchildren. I keep in touch for both of us. I phoned Jack to let him know about his dad. He’s on his way. He just wants a chance to say sorry and to tell his dad that he loves him.’ Mary turned back to her sick husband. ‘But you know that already, don’t you, Bill?’ Apart from the flutter of eyelids, there was no response from the sick man.

‘I am so sorry.’ Sarah said. ‘I thought we had managed to save him.’

‘Och, don’t you worry, dear—I know it’s not your fault. We both know that. It’s just that Bill’s time has come. If you’ve managed to give him a little longer—just enough to see his son and for Jack to see him one last time—we’ll be forever grateful.’

Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat, at a loss for words.

The two women sat in silence for a few moments.

‘Do you have anyone special in your life?’ Mary asked.

‘A son. Just over six months old,’ Sarah replied.

‘And the father?’ Mary prompted gently.

‘He doesn’t live with us.’ The dark room and the soft light made Sarah feel that she could confide in the woman looking at her with keen interest. ‘He didn’t—doesn’t—want children,’ she said, a slight break in her voice.

‘Fathers are important no matter what anyone says. Every child needs a father in their life, and every father…’ She hesitated, glancing at her husband’s sleeping form. ‘Needs his child.’

Sarah’s lips twisted. Fathers needing their children? Not in her experience.

Before Sarah could formulate a suitable response, Mary looked past her to the doorway. Her faded blue eyes lit up as she saw who was standing there.

‘Jack. My dearest boy, you made it!’

Jack, a man in his early forties, cast an anguished look towards the still form lying in the bed. ‘Is he…?’ He broke off, clearly unable to formulate the words.

‘He’s still alive, Jack. But he hasn’t got long.’