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      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘I DON’T know how you can face coming here straight after putting in a full day’s work at the hospital.’ Matt Berenger glanced briefly at Jade before removing the filter from his coffee cup and putting it to one side. He began to spoon sugar into the hot liquid. ‘I need a break before I can even think about starting on anything else.’

      ‘Put it down to sheer necessity,’ Jade answered with a rueful smile. ‘I need to keep my student loan down to the minimum.’ She sent a fleeting glance around the room. All the customers appeared to be content for the moment and it seemed no one needed her attention, so there was probably no harm in spending a moment or two swapping news with Matt.

      She rested her empty tray on her hip, and briefly tugged at the skirt of her waitress uniform with her free hand. ‘This outfit drives me mad,’ she muttered through her teeth. ‘It’s totally the wrong size for me and it’s forever riding up.’

      Matt studied her, his dark head tilted to one side. ‘Looks okay to me.’

      Jade made a wry face. Did he know anything at all about the way women’s clothes should fit?

      He tested the coffee for heat and then took a sip. ‘So how was your first day in Paediatrics?’

      ‘It was okay, I suppose.’ She frowned. ‘There’s so much to remember, where everything’s kept, for a start—lab forms, equipment, linen—and then there are all the new people you meet. The consultant, the registrar, the rest of the team, and nurses,—and that’s without even mentioning the patients …’ Her green eyes closed briefly. ‘To see those young children looking so poorly just breaks my heart.’

      She pulled in a quick breath. ‘But at least there was someone there who was nearer to my level—he’s a year ahead of me, though, like you—he’s a pre-registration doctor, doing his year-one foundation course. I think perhaps he’s a few years older than me, so maybe he was involved in something else before he set out to study medicine.’ She frowned. ‘In fact, you probably know him, if he’s in the same year group as you. Ben Langley? Does that ring a bell?’

      ‘Ben.’ Matt nodded, his mouth curving. ‘Oh yes. We’ve been together on quite a few placements, and in lectures, of course. He’s okay—I like him. And I think you’ll find he’s extremely popular with all the females for miles around.’ He swallowed more coffee. ‘He seems to know his way around the hospital system, and he’s very amenable. I’m sure if you ask him, he’ll help you out with anything you need to know.’

      ‘Yes, I guess so. I did turn to him a couple of times, since he looked as though he had the situation in hand, but I didn’t want to do it too often for fear of looking as though I was completely hopeless.’ She gave a small sigh. ‘It’s just that everyone seems to know so much more than me. They’re all so confident, so capable, whereas I was wandering around feeling lost most of the time. Did you feel that way when you were in your fifth year? I’d expected to find things a bit easier by now.’

      ‘We all go through it.’ Matt smiled. ‘Anyway, as far as I can see, you’ve been doing really well. Just think, this time next year you’ll be in the same position as me, a foundation-year doctor.’

      She gave a soft sigh, trying to imagine it. ‘I can’t wait.’

      ‘Oh, so you can’t wait, eh?’ a sharp voice snarled in her ear, making her jump. ‘But you think the customers can? Alors! You should be waiting tables, n’est ce pas? Let us have no more of this chit-chat. Allez!’

      ‘Uh … Oh—I’m sorry.’ Jade straightened up and shot a look at her boss, Jacques. He was an excitable man in his middle years, slightly overweight, with brown hair that was all over the place from his habit of running a hand through it. He was given to short bursts of irritability, and she guessed that came from the responsibility that went along with running a café bar in the middle of London. Today was a bad day, because the air-conditioning had broken down and the temperature in the kitchen was almost too much to bear.

      She gave Matt an apologetic smile. ‘I should get on,’ she murmured. ‘I’ll see you later, back at the house, and perhaps you can tell me all about how you got on in A and E.’

      ‘Will do.’ Matt drank his coffee, tilting back his head and draining every last drop. ‘I’d better head off, anyway. I don’t suppose Lucy will have given a thought to getting anything in for supper. Her head’s in the clouds these days.’

      Jade leapt to her friend’s defence. ‘It’s not her fault, you know. She has

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