Midwives On-Call. Alison Roberts

trailed off as Alessi approached the table but then he stood and shook Alessi’s hand.

      ‘Good to see that you finally made it,’ Charles said. ‘I thought I’d clearly outlined how important tonight was.’

      ‘You did.’ Alessi pushed out a smile but didn’t elaborate or explain the reason for his lateness. He looked like heaven in a tux, but he’d clearly rushed. His hair was damp and he hadn’t shaved, which somehow he got away with. There was a teeny stand-off between the two men and Isla found herself holding her breath, though why she didn’t know.

      Alessi took a seat beside her and the fragrance of him, the scent of him, the warmth of him was the reason Isla turned. Greeting the guest, manners, polite conversation had nothing to do with the turn of her head.

      ‘How was today?’

      ‘I’ve had better,’ Alessi responded. ‘I’m pretty wrecked. I don’t want to talk about it here.’ He wasn’t in the mood for conversation. It had been a hell of a day and it had depleted him, and he didn’t need Isla’s coolness, neither did he need Charles’s sniping.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ Isla said, and he glanced over and those two words and their gentle delivery helped.

      ‘It was peaceful.’ Alessi conceded more information. ‘I’m glad that I stayed.’ He couldn’t think about it right now so he looked more closely at Isla, who was a very nice distraction from dark thoughts, and the night seemed a little brighter.

      ‘You look amazing.’

      ‘Thanks.’ Isla smiled. ‘So do you.’

      They shared a look for a moment too long. She could have, had there been no one else present, simply reached over and kissed him. It was there, it just was, and Alessi knew it, too, and he confirmed it with words.

      ‘You have to say sorry first.’

      Isla just laughed. There was a thrill in her spine and all the nerves of today, of yesteryear just blew away. It should be just them but the entrée was being placed in front of her.

      ‘I’m going to have to disappear,’ Alessi said, ‘and write my speech. I didn’t get a chance today.’

      ‘I’ve already written it,’ Isla said, and handed him a piece of paper. ‘Just lose the first part.’

      ‘The first part?’

      ‘“Dr Manos regrets that he’s unable to be here tonight.”’

      ‘Dr Manos is suddenly very glad that he is.’ Alessi smiled. It was a genuine smile and one that had seemed a long way off when he had left the hospital. Had it not been for this commitment, tonight would have been spent alone. Alessi took each death very personally and had long since found out that a night on the town or casual sex did nothing to fill up the black hole he climbed into when a little life was lost.

      His grief was still there yet her smile did not dismiss it and neither did his.

      Isla could hear her father asking a question, breaking the spell, dragging them back to the table, to the ball, to the world.

      Dinner was long, the speeches even longer, and Alessi noted that Isla chatted easily with the guests at the table during dinner and listened attentively to the speeches.

      She really was enjoying herself. Alessi shared her humour. His foot pressed into her calf on one occasion, not suggestively, more to share an unseen smile when one of the recipient’s speeches went on and on and on.

      Then it was Alessi’s turn to take to the stage. Charles gave a rather long-winded introduction about the work he had done in the year that Alessi had been at the Victoria and how pleased they were to have such talent on board.

      Isla watched as Alessi went up to the stage, the speech she had written in his hand, and he took a moment to arrange the microphone. Absolutely she could see why it was her father wanted a more visible profile for Alessi because, even before he had spoken, he held the room.

      She watched him glance down at his speech and, yes, he omitted the first part where Isla had explained that, regretfully, he couldn’t be there.

      He thanked everyone present and then Isla froze as Alessi hesitated and she realised she had omitted to mention a small joke she had written—I’d especially like to thank the extraordinary Isla Delamere for her amazing work on the MMU. It would have been funny had she read it out. Instead, Alessi’s face broke into a smile and he met her gaze.

      She could feel her father’s impatience at the small lull in proceedings, she could feel her own lips stretching into a smile as Alessi omitted her joke and then moved on.

      ‘“I am very proud to receive this award,”’ Alessi said, reading from Isla’s notes. ‘“But more than that, I am incredibly grateful to work alongside skilled colleagues at such a well-equipped hospital. It helps when you can say, in all honesty, to parents that everything possible is being done or was done. It makes impossible decisions and difficult days somewhat easier to be reconciled to.”’

      It was the truth, Alessi thought.

      That Archie had been given every chance had been a huge source of comfort to Donna. That the facilities were top class, that there had been a private area for the family to take their necessary time with empathetic staff discreetly present had made his passing more bearable.

      He wrapped up the speech and then added a line of his own, or rather he didn’t completely omit Isla’s.

      ‘I would especially like to thank Isla Delamere for being here tonight and for her amazing work on the MMU.’

      Ouch!

      Isla was blushing as Alessi returned to his seat.

      ‘Thank you,’ Alessi said. Her words had hit home. Yes, he might loathe this side of things but he was starting to accept that it might be necessary. No, he wouldn’t be appearing on morning television, as Charles had in mind for him, but he would make more effort, Alessi decided. That was the reason he stood around talking, being polite and accepting congratulations, while others headed off to dance. That was the reason he didn’t make his excuses and head home.

      Isla watched in mild surprise as her student Flick danced with Tristan, a cardiac surgeon. She could almost feel the sparks coming from them, or was it just that Alessi was standing close?

      ‘Well done,’ Isla said, when finally the crowd gathered around him had dispersed enough for them to have a conversation.

      ‘Thanks,’ Alessi said.

      ‘Not too painful?’ Isla checked.

      ‘No. Your speech was perfect. I really am very grateful for such a well-run hospital. I just don’t like the fact that your father seems to want me to be the poster boy for the NICU.’

      ‘What was that?’ Charles came over and Alessi didn’t even flinch.

      ‘I was just telling Isla how well run and well equipped the hospital is.’

      ‘Because of nights such as this one,’ Charles said. ‘You cut it very fine getting here.’

      ‘I already explained that, Dad,’ Isla said, but Alessi didn’t need Isla to speak for him and told Charles exactly how difficult it had been to get there, albeit a little late.

      ‘I certified a patient dead at eight minutes past six,’ Alessi responded coolly, and Isla frowned at the tension between the two men. ‘As I said to you at lunch, please don’t rely on me to be your front person. I’ll do what I can on the social side of things but my job is to keep up the stats while yours is to bring in the funds.’

      Isla swallowed. There were few people who spoke to Charles Delamere like that and got away with it, but it was what her father said next that truly confused her.

      ‘You could have at least shaved before you got here.’

      ‘Dad!’ Isla was shocked that her father