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hall with its beautiful staircase, aware from the surprise in his glance that it was the first time he had seen her looking even the least bit attractive. As she waited for him to say something she felt herself reddening.

      ‘Are you aware that Heatherdale Hospital is for children only?’ he asked, breaking into the moment. ‘If you feel that you need some sort of hospital treatment, you will have to go to Manchester.’

      She was smiling. ‘I need the information about the hospital because I would just die for the chance to work there.’

      ‘Doing what?’ he asked, with raised brows.

      ‘I’ve got a degree in paediatrics. When I qualified in the summer I was offered a position at a big Manchester hospital and loved it, but that came to an end when my life fell apart. I had to resign because I intended to leave the area due to my family circumstances.’

      So that was what she’d meant when she’d said she had a job making sick children well again. At the time Ryan had wondered if she was employed by some sort of charity, but it seemed she was much more hands on than that, and incredibly he and Julian needed someone like her. Melissa Redmond might be heaven sent!

      Obviously he’d never seen her in action. The offer he was going to make her at this moment would be a temporary one until he had her measure, and aware that they were still standing in the hall as she had meant it to be just a brief call on her part, he said, ‘Come through to the sitting room, while I make my contribution to this night of surprises.’

      When they were seated with her eyes fixed on him questioningly he said, ‘How would you like to work with me at Heatherdale Children’s Hospital?’

      ‘What?’ she gasped. ‘I don’t understand.’

      ‘I’m the paediatric consultant for the neurology wards there and my assistant and I need another registrar to help with the workload. It would be on probationary terms at first but with the opportunity of permanency for the right person. What do you say? Do you want to give it a try?’

      ‘Of course I do!’ she breathed, her eyes shining. ‘I had no idea that was what you did for a living.’

      ‘I don’t mean to pry, Melissa, but can you tell me something about what brought you to Heatherdale? I need to know if it would have any effect on your work and position at the hospital.’

      She nodded mutely, took a deep breath. ‘My father died six months ago as a result of a road accident when he’d had quite a lot of alcohol. From having a life of luxury and pampering I became penniless because, unbeknown to me, he’d accumulated huge gambling debts over the last couple of years.

      ‘I was engaged to be married at the time and fully expected that my future husband would be there to support me as I dealt with bailiffs and demands for payment from those that my father owed money to, but I was mistaken.

      ‘My fiancé couldn’t break off the engagement fast enough, and once I’d paid all my father’s debts, which meant selling the fabulous house we’d lived in, all I could think of was leaving the area and finding a bolt hole, somewhere to lick my wounds. The only answer to that was my grandmother’s house, which is a far cry from the property I’d lived in before but is mine and isn’t tainted. So there you have it, a sorry story worthy of a reality TV show.’

      ‘Thanks for telling me,’ Ryan said. ‘We all have our nightmares to face at one time or another and you have certainly faced up to yours. Can you come to the hospital some time tomorrow and I’ll show you round and introduce you to people, including Personnel, who will need you to fill out endless forms.’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ she breathed. ‘Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get back into paediatrics. I love working with children and hope to have some of my own one day.’

      He nodded as the memory of Rhianna and Martha’s approval of their breakfast guest resurfaced. The stranger who had come to Heatherdale in the dark of a winter night would make some child a loving mother one day in every sense of the word, he imagined, just as Beth had been to their children.

      ‘What time do you want me to come to the hospital?’ she asked.

      ‘Some time in the afternoon when my clinics are over and I’m not in Theatre, around three—unless you have something else planned at that time?’

      ‘No, I haven’t,’ she told him firmly.

      She’d intended spending the afternoon looking for a washing machine that would fit in with her budget but that could wait, everything could wait. He was offering her the chance to be back where she wanted to be, and if Ryan Ferguson was willing to take a chance on her she was not going to disappoint him.

      Later that night, for the first time in months sleep came like a healing balm.

      A wintry sun was shining overhead as Melissa drove to the famous children’s hospital the next afternoon, and although her mind was full of what lay ahead she couldn’t help but notice the beautiful architecture of some of the buildings she was passing.

      Maybe the market town of Heatherdale wasn’t going to be as dreary as she had expected it to be. Life was beginning to feel worth living again.

      Walking away from her parked car, she looked around her. The hospital was another apparently ageless building, built from the beautiful local stone that seemed to be everywhere she looked. She hoped that its interior would not lack the trappings of the latest in modern medicine for the sake of its young patients.

      There was no cause to be concerned about that. The inside was bright, cheerful and immaculate, with sunshine colours on the walls and lots of pictures of things that children would like.

      As she followed the directions to the neuro wards Melissa’s heart was beating faster. She was on home ground, within reach of being back on the job she loved once again.

      She found Ryan at the bedside of a small girl, who had been brought in by an ambulance with sirens wailing, with what might be meningitis. It was a road he’d been down more times than he could count and it was never any less horrendous to have to tell a family that one of their little ones had succumbed to the dreadful illness.

      There was a fellow doctor standing beside him, but his presence barely registered. Melissa’s glance was fixed on the man who in a short space of time had brought some zest into her life. Not only had Ryan taken her in out of the cold that first night but he was going to be the means of finding her employment in the very place where she wanted to be.

      He glanced up then, saw her standing in the doorway, and sent his assistant over to suggest that she join them as an observer of the emergency. With her adrenaline quickening, she was beside him in a flash.

      ‘It seemed that the child had become very drowsy during the lunch hour. It had been then that her parents had noticed the tell-tale rash and it had become panic stations. While the ambulance had been speeding to the hospital the little girl had lapsed into unconsciousness.’

      Ryan turned to the anxious couple at the other side of the bed and began to explain what would happen to their daughter next—blood tests and a lumbar puncture to test for bacterial meningitis.

      When the parents and their sick little one had been taken with all speed for the tests, Ryan’s colleague asked. ‘So, are you going to introduce me, Ryan?’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘Julian, meet my new neighbour, Melissa Redmond, recently employed in paediatrics in the Manchester area and now about to join us here on a probationary basis with a view to a permanent position. Melissa, this is Julian Tindall.’

      Ryan noticed that she was looking a different person altogether today, dressed in smart clothes and with her hair and make-up perfect. She was quite beautiful in a restrained sort of way.

      As Melissa shook hands with Julian she was aware of him sizing her up and immediately had him pegged as an attractive, dark-eyed flirt.

      ‘So when do you want to start?’ Ryan asked, ‘Tomorrow perhaps?’

      ‘Er,

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