Leigh laughed. ‘Well, they aren’t that bad.’

  ‘So it was you who started that rumour,’ Karen commented dryly.

  ‘Don’t be like that, Karen,’ Leigh chuckled. ‘They have a lot of people to provide for. Hey, guess what! I’m on reception this afternoon for Sir Charles. Isn’t it fantastic!’

  ‘Lovely. But I’ve heard he can be quite short-tempered, so I should watch yourself,’ Karen warned.

  ‘I shouldn’t think he’ll even speak to me. He’s an important man.’

  ‘Mmm, you have a point there. Do you realise it’s only a few days to Christmas? Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? I know I haven’t.’

  ‘I think I have, but I’ll probably find I’ve forgotten someone—I usually do. I love Christmas, but all the shopping beforehand wears me out.’ Leigh glanced down at her fob-watch as it rested on her chest. ‘I’d better get back now. See you at five if you aren’t at tea-break.’ Not all the pre-nurses were allowed to go to the same tea-break.

  Sir Charles was already inside the clinic-room by the time Leigh seated herself behind the reception desk, but the first patient wasn’t due for another fifteen minutes, which gave her time to check that all the correct notes were there. There would be trouble if they weren’t.

  She checked down the list of names, stopping short when she saw the name half way down the page. She couldn’t believe it! This just couldn’t be happening to her! Piers Sinclair! His name was listed here and she just couldn’t believe it. She stared fixedly at the list for several long minutes. Perhaps it wasn’t him. That was it, it couldn’t be the Piers Sinclair she knew. Her face paled and she felt physically sick. Of course it was him. It wasn’t exactly a common name.

  It was two weeks since her last meeting with Piers Sinclair, and consequent argument with Gavin. She had seen Gavin at college and at several parties given by mutual friends of them both, but the two of them had ignored each other wherever possible. And now she had to face his father again! But perhaps he wouldn’t recognise her. A nurse’s uniform was much different from the casual trousers and tops he was accustomed to seeing her in, and with her hair pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck she looked completely different.

  As the first patients began to arrive Leigh tried to put all thoughts of Piers Sinclair out of her mind, and in part she succeeded. She had always liked meeting people and most of the patients stood and chatted to her for a few moments before going in for their consultation.

  Leigh felt her heart sink and her hands began to shake as she saw Piers Sinclair walking down the corridor towards her desk, his long easy stride and arrogant bearing drawing attention to his long lithe body. Leigh could see all the other nurses turning to stare after this tall man, their faces blushing prettily under the force of such unaffected physical magnetism.

  Leigh herself put her head down, seemingly engrossed in the list before her. She sensed him standing in front of her before he actually spoke, conscious of the smell of aftershave that she always connected with him. She had never smelt anything remotely like it before, and imagined he probably had it especially made for him. It was a tangy musculine aroma and somehow suited this man perfectly.

  ‘Excuse me, Nurse,’ addressing her bent head. ‘I have an appointment with Sir Charles Wainwright,’ he informed her casually.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Leigh mumbled, still staring down at the list before her. She knew that only her white starch cap and dark sheen of hair were visible to him and hoped he wouldn’t be able to recognise her on so little. ‘What name is it?’ she enquired politely.

  ‘Piers Sinclair. My appointment is for three-thirty, I believe.’

  Leigh ran her finger down the list in pretence of searching for his name. ‘Yes, Mr Sinclair, I have your name here. Would you like to take a seat, you shouldn’t have long to wait.’ Still she didn’t look up.

  ‘Thank you. Have I met you somewhere before?’ He bent down to lift her chin, staring with amazement into Leigh’s startled apprehensive violet eyes. His eyes narrowed. ‘You!’ he said hardly, his mouth twisting bitterly.

  Leigh gathered her scattered wits together, forcing a casual smile on to her stiff lips. She hadn’t expected him to confront her like this. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Sinclair. Don’t you have a more original approach than that? Haven’t we met somewhere before!’ she scoffed, showing much more calm than she actually felt. Piers Sinclair always seemed to make her very nervous. Today he was dressed in a casual dark roll-necked sweater beneath his sheepskin jacket and a pair of dark trousers that clung to his muscular thighs.

  ‘But it happens to be true, doesn’t it? And it wasn’t an approach. Young girls dressed up to play at nursing aren’t usually the type of girl I want to approach. And you’re no exception. All that starch and flat shoes! Not very attractive, is it?’

  ‘It isn’t meant to be,’ she returned tartly. ‘Now would you mind sitting down in the waiting room for a few minutes. It isn’t quite three-thirty yet.’

  ‘I realise that. But I want to talk to you anyway. Would you mind telling me what sort of rubbish you’ve been feeding Gavin? He seems to be under the misapprehension that you’re my current girl-friend.’

  ‘Heaven forbid!’

  ‘Exactly. Would you mind explaining how he gained that impression?’

  ‘What your son chooses to believe has nothing to do with me, Mr Sinclair. I can hardly be to blame for the way his mind works.’

  Piers Sinclair stepped forward, grasping her wrist tightly between his thumb and fingers. ‘Now listen to me, young lady, I—’

  ‘Nurse Stanton, could you—Oh!’ The young staff nurse stopped in her tracks, taking in the picture of this tall distinguished man holding on so tightly to a struggling Leigh. She looked at him enquiringly. ‘Are you Mr Sinclair?’ she asked politely.

  Piers let go of Leigh’s arm, straightening his jacket before smiling charmingly at the staff nurse. ‘Yes, I’m Piers Sinclair,’ he told her smoothly. ‘You’ll have to excuse us, Leigh is an old—friend of mine.’

  Leigh blushed under the speculative gaze of the other girl, knowing full well the disbelieving thoughts that must be passing through her mind. And well they might, after the insinuating way Piers Sinclair had made that comment!

  ‘Yes, well … We’re ready for you now, Mr Sinclair.’ Staff Ingram walked back into the clinic room, his medical notes in her hand.

  ‘I’ll talk to you later,’ Piers Sinclair told Leigh darkly.

  ‘I think not,’ she said calmly. ‘I have nothing to say to you.’

  ‘Perhaps not, but I have plenty to say to you,’ he told her grimly.

  Leigh glared crossly at the closed door. Who did he think he was, talking to her like that? She wished with all her heart she had never had anything to do with this family.

  Fifteen minutes later Piers Sinclair came back out of the room, the warm smile on his face disappearing as he looked at her. ‘Now for that chat. Can we go somewhere and talk?’

  ‘Certainly not. I’m on duty, and have no wish to talk to you anyway. I have better things to do with my time.’

  ‘So do I, believe me, so do I. But I still insist on talking to you.’

  Leigh smiled tightly. ‘You can insist all you please, Mr Sinclair, but I don’t have to do as you ask. I happen to be at my work, and unable to leave here at your beck and call. You may be a private patient, but I—’

  ‘Nurse Stanton!’ Unnoticed by either of them the staff nurse had left the clinic and was now standing behind them. Her words were obviously a stern reprimand. ‘That’s no way to be talking to a patient, even if he is a friend of yours. Apologise at once.’

  ‘Yes, Staff.’ Leigh meekly lowered her head, aware that in the eyes of Staff Ingram she had committed a great sin. Pre-nurses were employed to observe and help out, not argue with important patients. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Sinclair.’ The flash of anger in her eyes did not match her apologetic tone, even less so after his curt nod of acknowledgment.

  Staff Ingram nodded her satisfaction. ‘Very well, Nurse Stanton. You may go to your tea break now.’

  ‘Thank you, Staff.’ Leigh held her head high, walking past the two of them with a soft firm tread. She had always liked Staff Ingram, and thought that liking returned, and now that—that man had made it seem as if she was rude to the patients, which she wasn’t. Well, not usually, but Piers Sinclair was the exception.

  She became aware of Piers Sinclair walking beside her and she glared up at him. ‘What do you want?’ she asked crossly.

  ‘That talk I just mentioned.’ He took hold of her arm as they walked down the corridor. ‘I have my car outside.’

  ‘So?’ she turned on him angrily. ‘Look, Mr Sinclair, that tea-break Staff just mentioned consists of fifteen minutes during which I intend to get myself a well-earned cup of tea in the staff canteen. Now will you please let go of my arm!’

  ‘If you don’t mind my saying so, your work didn’t look particularly strenuous to me,’ he derided, his tall good looks attracting many admiring glances, glances of which he seemed totally unaware.

  Leigh shook off his restraining hand. ‘But I do mind.’ She smiled at Karen as her friend came towards them down the corridor, both of them intent on going into the canteen. ‘Excuse me,’ she said curtly to the man at her side, ignoring his sign of protest and entering the staff canteen before he could stop her. Even he didn’t feel like braving the many stares of other nurses, and Leigh heaved a sigh of relief as he made no move to follow her.

  ‘What was all that about?’ asked a curious Karen, handing a cup of tea to her friend before leading the way over to a window table. At this time of day the canteen was full of hospital staff who were on or off duty, but nevertheless they managed to get a table to themselves. How long they would keep that privacy they didn’t know.

  ‘Don’t ask,’ sighed Leigh. ‘That man seems to be haunting me lately. Three weeks ago I didn’t even, know he existed! I wish I still didn’t.’

  ‘How did you meet him this time?’

  Leigh didn’t answer her straight away, her attention fixed on the car park outside the window. Piers Sinclair was getting into the green Ferrari in preparation to leave, his face a cold angry mask. She heaved a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he wouldn’t be waiting for her when she got out of here.

  ‘He’s one of Sir Charles’ patients,’ she said glumly. ‘And Gavin has been telling him some malicious tale about my claiming to be his father’s latest girl-friend. Can you imagine!’ she said in disgust.

  Karen chuckled at her friend’s look. ‘Well, I for one wouldn’t mind. He’s a real man! He sends shivers down my spine every time I look at him.’

  ‘Mine too, but not the same kind. You’re welcome to him, the only thing he does to me is set my nerves on edge. And he always turns up when I least expect him, not that I do ever expect to see him anyway.’ Leigh looked regretfully at her fob-watch. ‘I suppose it’s time to go back. Are you ready to leave?’

  Leigh had been seated back at her desk for about five minutes when Staff Nurse Ingram came out of the clinic room, her young pretty face serious and reproachful. Leigh looked up, the ready smile fading slowly from her face under that disapproving look. ‘Is there anything wrong, Staff?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘You must know there is. Whether Mr Sinclair was a personal friend of yours or not doesn’t alter the fact that you were very rude to him, and in front of other patients who were in the waiting room. I have decided to overlook such behaviour this time and not report you to Sister. But I hope that in future any personal arguments you may have will not take place in the hospital, and especially not during my clinic.’

  ‘Yes, Staff,’ Leigh said softly, quietly seething inside. Piers Sinclair had caused her nothing but trouble since the first day she had met him, and she hoped she never saw him again.

  ‘Do you feel like going to the cinema this evening?’ Karen asked Leigh on the way home. ‘Keith and a Couple of others are going and I told Keith we would probably go too.’

  Leigh shook her head, her long dark tresses like a black curtain down her back. ‘Not this evening, thanks, Karen. I don’t think I’d be very good company.’

  Karen smiled at her sympathetically. ‘You aren’t still worrying about that incident this afternoon, are you? Staff has probably completely forgotten it by now—I saw her going off duty quite happily with her boy-friend. I’m sure she won’t hold a little thing like that against you.’

  ‘No, I’m sure you’re right. It’s just that … well, that man was responsible for the whole thing and he just walked off as if nothing had happened. He’s so calm about it all!’

  Karen chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t say he walked off calmly. By the look on his face I don’t think anyone has ever dismissed him in that manner in his life before.’

  Leigh giggled delightedly. ‘Well, if that’s so, I’m glad I did. Unbearable, bossy man! It’s time someone stood up to him. Gavin lets him walk all over him, and I wouldn’t exactly say he’s weak.’ She became thoughtful. ‘It’s strange really, Gavin admires his father tremendously, and yet in a way he’s also in awe of him. And what’s even stranger, to me at least, is that he’s actually proud of his father’s success with women. I’d disown Dad if he started acting like that!’

  ‘Now come on, Leigh, you don’t really know how he behaves. Oh, I know I told you that story but you know what the newspapers are like, everything tends to become exaggerated.’ Karen laughed suddenly. ‘And I can’t ever see your father becoming the local flirt. He isn’t the type.’

  ‘You’re right, he isn’t,’ Leigh grinned, trying to picture her father in the role they had just described, and failing miserably. Her father loved his wife and children too much to ever be interested in other women.

  Karen sighed with relief as she saw the relaxed expression on Leigh’s face. It seemed to her that Leigh was taking her dislike of Piers Sinclair just a little too seriously, stopping her from being her usual cheerful self and making everything the poor man did seem totally out of perspective. For herself Karen had thought him absolutely fascinating, and could only feel surprised at Leigh’s total dislike of him.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t feel like coming out? The others will be disappinted if you don’t, and I’m sure it would cheer you up.’

  Leigh shook her head, her smile more relaxed. ‘No, but you go ahead. I’m really not in the mood for a film.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure we could go somewhere else if you would prefer it.’

  ‘I’d rather not.’ Leigh glanced at her watch. ‘And if you’re going you’d better hurry up and get ready. Keith will be here in a moment. I’ll make you a snack while you change.’

  Karen grinned gratefully, throwing her warm winter coat over one of their worn armchairs. ‘Thanks, Leigh, you’re a pal. I won’t be long.’

  ‘Okay.’ Leigh hurried into the kitchen. It didn’t take long to prepare the sandwich and mug of coffee which was all Karen would have time for, moving about the kitchen with a sureness that had become mainly habitual. It was strange really, but much as she loved the flat and the independence it gave her, her parents’ house still counted as home to her, in a way she supposed it always would.

  Until she married, of course. But that was a long way off. Oh yes, a very long way off. A nursing career and marriage didn’t generally mix, and she had every intention of finishing her training. And any man who tried to prevent her doing so surely wasn’t worth loving. She stopped what she was doing for a moment, deep in thought. The subject had never arisen before, but surely if she loved someone enough and they really didn’t want her to carry on nursing, then wouldn’t she be being selfish by refusing? Wouldn’t she? It was worth thinking about, an aspect that had never occurred to her before.

  Leigh brought herself up with a start. What on earth was she thinking about marriage for? She hadn’t yet met anyone she was remotely serious about, and the prospect of her doing so in the near future seemed very slight. She picked up the plate of sandwiches and mug of coffee and carried them through to the lounge, tucking her levi-clad legs beneath her as she settled into a chair to wait for Karen to emerge from the bedroom.

  When her friend finally emerged she was dressed in close-fitting purple corduroys and a black fitted blouse, a perfect foil for her blonde bubbly curls. ‘You look nice,’ smiled Leigh. ‘Is all this for Keith?’

  ‘Not especially.’ Karen applied a coral lipstick to her normally pale mouth, her sparkling green eyes needing no adornment. ‘You keep asking me that.’

  ‘Just fishing.’

  ‘Well, don’t, it embarrasses me.’

  Leigh grinned. ‘Sorry. Well, don’t forget to invite him to dinner tomorrow, although I must say I don’t really fancy playing referee between him and Christopher all evening. I just want you to remember that it was your idea to invite both of them on the same evening—I had nothing to do with it.’

  Karen grinned impishly. ‘We could hardly entertain Christopher on his own. He would have been bored to tears within minutes.’

  ‘Thanks very much,’ Leigh said dryly. ‘But you must know what I mean. Keith and Chris will be falling over each other to please you, and I suppose I’ll have to be the one who has to sort them out.’

  ‘Oh, what it is to be popular!’ laughed Karen, her eyes twinkling mischievously. ‘You know very well that Keith is only a friend.’

  ‘And Chris?’

  ‘Chris is … well, Chris is your brother.’ She blushed, turning away from Leigh’s searching gaze.

  ‘I know who he is, I just meant what does he mean to you.’

  ‘He … He doesn’t mean anything to me. I hardly know him, we’ve only met a couple of times.’

  ‘Mmm, if you say so.’ Leigh took the hint and didn’t pursue the subject any further. She knew that Karen and Chris always got on very well when they met, but perhaps she was seeing more into the situation than was actually there, after all, they were both still very young. Nevertheless, she still thought there would be trouble tomorrow. Christopher was coming up for the day and so Leigh had invited him to stay the night so that he would be able to travel home in the morning, Christmas Eve morning. Leigh had suggested he wait until the evening and travel back with her, but this had come a poor second to playing football. Leigh was, unfortunately, working until five o’clock on Christmas Eve and only hoped the traffic wouldn’t be too bad on the way home.