A Consultant Beyond Compare. Joanna Neil

I suppose that could explain a lot.’

      Katie straightened her back. ‘You don’t know anything about me, or my sister,’ she said. ‘How can you presume to judge me when we’ve only just met?’

      He inclined his head a fraction. ‘That’s true,’ he murmured, and his mouth indented in a vestige of a smile. ‘You’re definitely something of an enigma, Katie Sorenson…but I dare say I’ll fathom the puzzle somehow.’

      He moved swiftly away from her and headed towards his car, stopping only to say a quick goodbye to Jessica. Then he slid behind the wheel and sped away in the wake of the ambulance.

      Jessica came over to where Katie was standing. ‘Did I hear him offer you a job?’

      Katie nodded. ‘Yes. He seems to think I could find a place in his A and E department, but I told him I wanted to look around for something else. That’s why I moved here, so that I could put all that behind me and make a fresh start.’

      Jessica nodded. ‘Yes, I know, but you’ll be going to work in another A and E department at some point, won’t you? You have to, surely? You’re a good doctor, and you’re needed out there. Anyway, you weren’t ever going to stay at the rehab centre for very long, were you?’

      Katie started to walk towards her car. ‘Actually I found that it was far more rewarding than I expected. It was certainly less frantic than what I was doing at the hospital, and I wasn’t planning on making a change yet.’

      ‘But you told Alex that you were out of work now.’ Jessica shook her head, so that her glossy brown curls danced in the afternoon sunlight. ‘You can’t give up on being a doctor. It isn’t right. Just because things went wrong for you back home. I don’t care what anybody says, I know you, and I know you couldn’t have done anything wrong. You’re always so careful, so good in everything that you do. Everyone knows that…Mum says that’s why they haven’t put anything bad in your work record.’ She looked at Katie. ‘They haven’t, have they?’

      Katie bent her head a fraction, so that her chestnut curls momentarily fell across her cheek, covering her features. ‘That may be so, but I still don’t feel that I can work in A and E.’ She frowned, her blue eyes clouding. ‘I was getting on all right at the rehab centre. I liked working with the staff there, and it was good to know that I was helping people to get back on their feet after they were incapacitated.’

      Jessica put her arms around her in a fleeting hug. ‘I’m sorry it came to an end. You’ll have to tell me what happened. But even so, it seems all wrong to me that you were working there in the first place. You used to love being in Emergency. You went through all that training, and it was all you ever wanted to do, remember? Now that I’m here, you can go back to it, can’t you? And things will be easier for you because I’ll be here to tidy up and make the meals, and just as soon as I find a job I’ll be able to help out with the finances.’

      Katie smiled. Oh, for youthful innocence. Her sister made it all sound so simple. All she had to do was go after what she wanted and things would turn out fine. It was a lovely thought, and if only that was the way things worked she would be more than happy…but there was more to it than that, wasn’t there?

      Her confidence had been badly shaken, and all her hopes and dreams had crumbled about her. Life would never be quite the same ever again.

      ‘We should head back to my cottage,’ Katie said, pulling open her car door. ‘You can tell me what went wrong at home and why you decided to come all the way out here.’

      Jessica pulled a face as she settled herself in the passenger seat. ‘Do I have to? I’d much rather talk about you and Alex and the job at his hospital.’ She rolled her eyes in a dramatic gesture. ‘When he’s not trying to take charge of me he’s really something, isn’t he? I bet the girls back home would think he was gorgeous.’

      Katie threw her a look from under her lashes. ‘That may be so, but we aren’t going to see him again, so perhaps we should try to forget about him. We’ll concentrate on you from now on.’

      It was a brave attempt at self-protection on Katie’s part—easier to forget about it and move on. Those all-seeing, grey-blue eyes were imprinted on her mind, though, and the promise that glimmered within them would haunt her for some time to come.

      ‘Oh, phooey.’ Jessica rolled her eyes. ‘He’s a dream-boat, and you’re such a spoilsport. How can you not want to talk about him?’

       CHAPTER THREE

      ‘SO, THIS is your place?’ Jessica’s grey eyes widened as she gazed at the L-shaped, stone-built cottage in front of her. ‘I never imagined that you would buy anything like this. It’s lovely, really quaint, and so different from our place back home.’

      Katie nodded, looking up at the gabled roofs that were at angles to one another. ‘I think that’s because it’s so open here—everything around is green and peaceful, and there aren’t that many houses dotted about. You only have to look out of the bedroom window and you can see crags and fells for miles around. Mind you, once we get inside you might feel differently about it. It’s quite poky, and there’s still a lot that I have to do to make the place feel comfortable.’

      Katie started to unlock the front door, but Jessica hung back, lightly touching the silky, pale mauve petals of the wisteria that covered the front wall. ‘This is beautiful,’ she murmured, breathing in the sweet fragrance.

      ‘Yes, you’re right, it is.’ Katie paused to share the moment with her sister. ‘I ought to stop more often and take time to appreciate what I have.’ The truth was, lately all she had thought about was how much work there was to do, and how wild and overgrown the garden had become. She gave a half-smile. Having her sister here with her was already making a difference to her outlook on things.

      ‘Come through to the kitchen and I’ll make us some tea.’ She glanced at Jessica. ‘You’d better put your hold-all down. It looks heavy. You must have brought everything with you bar the kitchen sink.’

      Jessica gave an awkward laugh. ‘I packed as much as I could manage.’ She looked up at Katie, biting down on her lower lip.

      ‘I know it must be awkward for you, with me turning up here like this, out of the blue, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t stay at home, not after the way Dad’s temper took off. He locked me out of the house, and it was all because I was a few minutes late getting in. I went and spent the night round at my friend’s house, but I knew I had to get away. I couldn’t stand it any more, and all I could think of was that you might take me in.’

      Jessica was silent for a moment, deep in thought. ‘You know how he is, and I’m sure that’s why you left home as soon as you could manage it. It was bad enough when you went off to medical school, but at least that was close by and you were able to come home for a few days every week. Then when you started on your house officer jobs at different hospitals, I thought I was going to lose you.’

      Katie gave her sister a hug. ‘Has it been so bad? I’m sorry if you felt that I was leaving you behind. You know I was always there for you, just a short car ride away. I kept in touch and came to see you as often as I could.’

      ‘Yes, and that was good, but now you’ve moved up here to the Lake District, and it isn’t as though you could just drop by every weekend, is it? I just didn’t think I could go on this way any longer. Dad’s always going on at me about something or other. He says I’m scatterbrained and I’ll always be troublesome.’

      ‘Have you tried talking to Mum about how you feel?’

      ‘What would be the point in doing that?’ Jessica made a hopeless gesture with her hands. ‘Mum never listens, and she certainly never takes my side. She just says, “Oh, I can’t cope with the two of you arguing all the time. You’re making my head hurt.” She always seems as though everything’s too