Fairytale on the Children's Ward. Meredith Webber

      

       Emily dropped a kiss on her mother’s cheek. ‘Isn’t it fun having Dad around?’ she whispered, and suddenly Clare’s spring of happiness wasn’t bubbling quite as high.

      She knew it wasn’t jealousy she was feeling, but disappointment of some kind—disappointment that the life she’d been providing for her daughter hadn’t measured up…

      ‘You need my pearls—the ones Gran gave me,’ Emily declared as she inspected her mother for the last time. ‘Wait here.’

      She ran off to her bedroom and returned with the pearls that had been her great-grandmother’s, making her mother sit on the bed so she, Emily, could fasten them.

      ‘There,’ she said, ‘you’re beautiful. Dad will surely want to marry you now.’

      Clare knew the words were nothing more than childish enthusiasm, but once again the joy of the morning dimmed, and despair wormed its way into her heart.

      How could she resist if it became a matter of two against one?

       CHRISTMAS AT JIMMIE’S

      At Jimmie’s Children’s Unit, miracles don’t just

      happen at Christmas time—babies are saved every day!

      But this year there are two children

      with some big wishes for Santa…

      BACHELOR OF THE BABY WARD

      —little Hamish McDowell wants a new mummy…

      FAIRYTALE ON THE CHILDREN’S WARD

      —all Emily Jackson longs for

      is to see her mum and dad reunited…

       Will Hamish and Emilyget the greatest Christmas gifts of all?

      Find out in Meredith Webber’s heartwarming

      linked duet, out this month!

      Fairytale

      on the

      Children’s Ward

      Meredith Webber

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      CONTENTS

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

      Meredith Webber says of herself, ‘Some ten years ago, I read an article which suggested that Mills and Boon were looking for new Medical™ Romance authors. I had one of those “I can do that” moments, and gave it a try. What began as a challenge has become an obsession—though I do temper the “butt on seat” career of writing with dirty but healthy outdoor pursuits, fossicking through the Australian Outback in search of gold or opals. Having had some success in all of these endeavours, I now consider I’ve found the perfect lifestyle.’

      CHAPTER ONE

      OLIVER RANKIN hated being late. He was a man who believed there were no acceptable excuses for it, and condemned the rudeness of it. But he was undoubtedly running late, due mainly to car trouble on his drive from Melbourne to Sydney—trouble that had delayed him twenty-four hours while a part was sent, apparently by camel train, from Melbourne to the Victorian border.

      Then there was Sydney peak-hour traffic—un believable!

      Eventually, however, the latest fellow appointed to Alex Attwood’s paediatric cardiac surgical team pulled into the parking lot at St James Hospital for Children, abandoned his car in a board-members-only parking spot and raced into the building.

      Fortunately he’d spent a month with the team earlier in the year so he knew where to go, but he still only made the meeting with a couple of seconds to spare.

      Relief swamped him!

      Until—

      The world whirled before his eyes. Low blood pressure—all the rushing…

      He dropped into a chair as Alex introduced him to Angus, the new surgeon on the team, and reminded him he’d already met Kate. Then he closed his eyes, and opened them again.

      Carefully.

      The apparition had come right into the room, later than he was.

      A totally beautiful, totally mind-blowing apparition…

      ‘And this is Clare Jackson, our new perfusionist,’ Oliver heard Alex say. ‘I’m more delighted than I can tell you to welcome Clare to our team as she trained in the US at the same hospital as Theo, and the oldies on the team will know how good he was.’

      Oliver battled to sort out the disbelief in his head, to actually accept that the woman who still, from time to time, haunted his dreams was right here in this room.

      Impossible!

      Except it wasn’t! There she was, head tilted towards Alex, so he saw her in profile, and caught the long line of her neck—the neck he’d loved to—

      Clare Jackson?

      He’d had the list of team members’ names for a couple of weeks, but as she’d shown up on that as C. Jackson and most perfusionists he’d worked with had been males, he hadn’t given a thought to the coincidence of surnames.

      Alex was talking, but the words didn’t penetrate Oliver’s brain. Not only was Clare right here in this room, but apparently she was a team member. He’d be working with her.

      She was a perfusionist?

      From actress to lifesaving medical equipment expert in ten short years?

      ‘Clare!’ he’d managed to blurt out when they’d been introduced.

      She’d nodded, lustrous dark hair swirling around her head, brown eyes half hooded, long eyelashes hiding any emotion those eyes might reveal at this unexpected reunion.

      ‘Oliver,’ she’d said, her voice still so familiar a tremor of excitement had shaken his body.

      He tried to concentrate on Alex’s introductions to the rest of the team, but how could he? He snuck a glance at Clare, and was annoyed to see that she seemed totally unfazed by this incredible coincidence.

      * * *

      Clare held her body very still, glad she’d learned how to do this years ago—back when she was a drama student at university, back when she’d first met Oliver.

      Besides, if she held her body very still it might not fall apart, which was what it was threatening to do any moment.

      Her