LITMIR.BIZ

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THREE

      LIZZIE DID SHOW herself around and chatted to a couple of the staff, who were very friendly.

      ‘Welcome to the Hunter Clinic.’ Charlotte, one of the nurses introduced herself. ‘I’m just heading over to Kate’s or I’d show you around.’

      ‘Kate’s?’ Lizzie checked—she’d heard that name mentioned a few times in conversation.

      ‘Princess Catherine’s Hospital,’ Charlotte explained and, as she spoke on, Lizzie was fast finding out how little she knew about her new role. ‘Day cases are normally done here but anything other than a twilight sedation is done either at Kate’s or the Lighthouse Hospital.’

      ‘Do you do a lot at the Lighthouse?’ Lizzie asked, because that was a children’s hospital.

      ‘Loads.’ Charlotte smiled. ‘Rafael De Luca, one of our paediatric surgeons, has a theatre list there this morning and I’m—’

      ‘Charlotte!’

      She was interrupted by rather gruff but very good-looking man who popped his head out of a treatment room like a handsome bear peering out of a cave, holding his gloved hands up in front of him and asking in a rich Scottish accent if he might have a hand.

      ‘I’m just on my way out …’

      ‘I can help.’ Lizzie smiled, glad of the chance to be useful.

      ‘Lizzie’s the new head nurse,’ Charlotte explained as she dashed off.

      ‘Hi Lizzie, I’m Iain MacKenzie. I’m removing sutures,’ he explained, ‘but Jessica, the patient, is very distressed. I need a hand to keep her still. She doesn’t want any sedation.’

      Jessica was very distressed; she was on an examination table and curled up.

      ‘Can we do it tomorrow?’ she begged.

      ‘The sooner they come out the less it will scar,’ Iain explained. ‘It’s not going to hurt, there will just be a little bit of tugging. This is Lizzie …’

      ‘Hi, Jessica.’ Lizzie smiled. She was about to ask what had happened but Iain shot her a warning look and Lizzie decided otherwise. Instead, she made the woman as comfortable as she could and put a small sterile towel over her face so that she couldn’t see the blade Iain was using to remove the numerous tiny sutures from her neck and behind her ear.

      ‘You’re doing grand …’ Iain said every now and then, but he was a silent type and was concentrating hard so it was Lizzie who did most of the reassuring as the tiny threads were removed.

      ‘How does it look?’ Jessica kept asking.

      Iain was concentrating and it was Lizzie who spoke for him.

      ‘It’s very swollen and tender at the moment,’ Lizzie said, ‘but the wounds are …’ She hesitated. How could she describe them as amazing? Yet she had never seen anything so intricately repaired. ‘It’s a marvellous job.’

      She looked up and Iain gave a grim smile.

      He was a man of few words but his work clearly spoke for itself. As he held up the mirror and Jessica carefully examined the wounds, Lizzie was relieved for the patient that she could see an improvement.

      ‘It looks so much better but—’

      ‘Just let it settle and I’ll see you in a couple of days and we’ll start with ointments and massage, but for now I just want the wound left. How are you?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ Jessica admitted. ‘The thing is …’ She glanced over at Lizzie and when it was clear that she’d prefer privacy Lizzie made her excuses and left.

      ‘How is she?’ Leo was walking past as Lizzie came out.

      ‘Sorry?’

      He nodded in the direction of his office and Lizzie followed. The corridor was perhaps not the best place to speak. ‘How is Jessica?’ Leo clarified. ‘I was going to suture her when she came in but I knew it was going to take hours and I had a function to attend …’ He watched as Lizzie’s lips tightened a fraction. ‘You’ve been spending far too long listening to my brother about me.’ Leo gave a wry smile. ‘Anyway, Iain is brilliant for that type of injury. I’m just interested to hear how Jessica is.’

      ‘Her sutures are out,’ Lizzie said. ‘She’s just speaking with Iain. I think she wanted me to leave.’

      ‘You don’t recognise her, do you?’

      ‘Should I?’ Lizzie said, and then her eyes widened as she recalled the news last week and realised she’d just been looking after the wife of a celebrity who’d been taken in for questioning after a heated argument with his wife.

      ‘From her injuries I thought she must have been in a car accident.’ Lizzie closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I thought that working here would be …’ She halted, realising Leo might not be the best person to reveal her thoughts to, but he was already one step ahead.

      ‘You thought that it was all fake boobs and antiaging?’ Leo finished for her. ‘Domestic violence isn’t just for the working classes.’

      ‘I know.’ Lizzie’s voice was rattled, cross, but more with herself because, yes, Leo was right, people assumed that if you were rich and beautiful of course those sorts of things didn’t happen and so, when they did, it was somehow more shocking.

      ‘You’ll know it for certain after a couple of months here,’ Leo said. ‘Right, would you mind stepping outside and then walking in again?’ He saw her confusion. ‘I’d like to start again.’

      ‘It’s really not necessary.’

      ‘It really is,’ Leo said. ‘Go on, knock and this time wait till I call you in.’

      ‘This is ridiculous,’ Lizzie said, walking out and closing the door. She knocked and waited for his summons.

      ‘Come in.’

      But kind of fun, Lizzie decided as she opened the door to his smile.

      ‘You must be the new head nurse.’ Leo stood from his desk, walked over and shook her hand.

      ‘You must be Mr Hunter.’ Lizzie smiled. ‘It’s lovely to meet you … Oh, what on earth happened to your cheek?’

      He smiled, and Lizzie’s stomach did what it had done at the door to the changing room and simply folded over on itself.

      ‘Oh, that,’ Leo said. ‘Just a little tumble, skiing.’

      ‘Ouch.’ Lizzie winced. ‘Poor you!’

      Then Leo was serious. He offered her a seat and moved behind his huge walnut table. It really was a lovely office, which looked out onto Harley Street, and Lizzie had to snap her eyes back to Leo when he spoke as she found herself staring out of the window, unable to believe she was actually here.

      ‘I think you’ll enjoy working here,’ Leo started. ‘I have an amazing team —all the staff I have personally chosen for their excellence. From surgeons to receptionists I have hand-picked each one.’

      ‘Except me.’

      She didn’t mince her words, Leo noted.

      ‘Except you,’ Leo admitted. ‘But, then, I trust my brother’s judgement.’ He didn’t add it had been a condition of Ethan’s that if he was to take the role then Lizzie must be employed. ‘So, what made you want to work at the Hunter Clinic?’

      Lizzie wondered just how honest she should be—she could hardly admit that it was the dazzling salary that had first attracted her. Neither could she say that the chance for an apartment in such a beautiful part of London had been too good to pass up and that the chance to finally get ahead financially had clinched the deal for her.

      ‘It’s a very prestigious

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