Paddington Children's Hospital Complete Collection. Kate Hardy

       CHAPTER SIX

      DOMINIC KNEW.

      Or, at least, he was starting to!

      He was trying very hard not to believe she might be pregnant by him, and was very determined that history would not repeat itself, and he would not be made a fool of twice.

      The press conference went well. Dominic said that it had been a multifaceted effort. Victoria got in her little plug about the potential closure by pointing out that the most urgent cases had needed the proximity of Paddington’s to have the best chance for a positive outcome and then they all went their separate ways.

      The department was terribly busy and there was soot everywhere and the smell of smoke in the air. As well as injured children, there were staff and firefighters too but, by evening, the department was clearing and they were taken off bypass, which they had been placed on so that they could deal with the sudden influx of patients.

      Dominic had been working since seven that morning, and after twelve eventful hours he should perhaps be heading for home.

      Instead Dominic showered and changed into black jeans and a shirt and walked over to the Frog and Peach pub where the Save Paddington’s meeting was being held tonight.

      On arriving, he soon found out that the meeting had been abandoned due to the Westbourne Grove crisis and would be held in a couple of days in a lecture theatre at the hospital.

      Tonight, there was too much energy for sensible conversation.

      The major incident meant that the staff all needed to unwind and debrief and so it was a very noisy pub that he found himself in.

      There was Victoria.

      She was wearing the jeans and rust-coloured top that he had seen her wearing at the Imaging Department, and he saw she was chatting with Rosie, one of the paediatric nurses.

      And... Victoria was drinking soda water.

      Not that that meant anything.

      He had no idea if Victoria would normally be having a drink.

      The fact was, he knew nothing about her except what had taken place that night.

      ‘Hi, Dominic, how was your holiday?’ Rosie asked as he came over.

      ‘Fine,’ Dominic said.

      ‘Where did you go?’

      ‘Scotland.’

      ‘Visiting family?’ Rosie asked.

      Dominic gave a small nod. It was easier to do that than admit that while he had hoped to go and visit his family and let bygones be bygones, he hadn’t felt ready.

      Dominic didn’t even want to attempt another relationship until he had dealt with the rather large items of baggage left over from the previous one. But the thought of asking Victoria out had spurred him on at least to try and so he had headed for home, but in the end he hadn’t been able to see it through.

      It wasn’t that he was being stubborn, more that he was honest and could not simply walk in as if nothing had happened until he had dealt with it in his head.

      Dominic wanted a real relationship with his brother and nephew—and yes, Lorna too—and he would not be pushed, for the sake of family peace, into a false one.

      So, while he had hoped to visit family and the new baby, the hurt was still there. So he had stayed in a hotel and taken some time to drive around the land that he loved, and in that time he had done a whole lot of thinking.

      A lot of his thinking had been about her.

      Victoria.

      And now she met his eyes.

      ‘We decided not to hold the meeting tonight,’ she started to explain. ‘We’re going to—’

      ‘I already heard,’ Dominic said, and when Rosie drifted off to join another conversation, it was just them.

      ‘Do you want to get something to eat?’ he offered.

      ‘I’ve already had something. Do you?’

      ‘No.’

      No, he did not want to try and find them a table in a crowded pub. Already Robyn was making her way over, no doubt to discuss how the interviews with the press had gone.

      ‘Come on,’ Dominic said to Victoria, because there was no chance of having an uninterrupted conversation here in the pub.

      They stepped out into the street but that wasn’t the ideal location either.

      ‘We could go to mine,’ Victoria offered, but Dominic shook his head.

      Given what had happened with Lorna he did not want to get closer to Victoria in the least. He did not want to see where she lived and sit and have a cosy chat. ‘There’s no need for that,’ Dominic said. ‘We can say everything we need to here.’

      Victoria frowned. ‘Are you sure?’

      ‘Quite sure.’

      So she went ahead and told him in her usual succinct way. ‘I’m eight weeks pregnant.’

      And what had taken place between them was six weeks ago, but she guessed, given his qualifications, that she didn’t have to tell him that they added on two weeks.

      Or maybe she did, because he was giving her a somewhat quizzical look, and so she clarified things in order that there could be no doubt.

      ‘It’s yours.’

      Dominic said nothing.

      What was there to say?

      He hadn’t even thought to have that discussion with Lorna.

      Dominic had trusted his girlfriend completely and look how that had turned out.

      How the hell could he even come close to believing someone with whom he’d had sex with on impulse, who carried condoms and who, by her own revelation that night, had just finished with someone else.

      No, he would not be fooled twice.

      ‘I’ve got to reschedule my ultrasound,’ Victoria said. ‘I wasn’t sure if you might want to be present.’

      He gave a snort as he recalled the last time he’d been at an ultrasound and all that had transpired then—listening as the doctor gave the dates and asking her to repeat them, then trying to catch Lorna’s eyes as she turned away.

      And Victoria saw the look he gave and interpreted it correctly. ‘I don’t need you to hold my hand, Dominic. I meant, I accept it might be hard to believe it is yours but the ultrasound will confirm the dates for you.’

      ‘No, it won’t—you say that you’re eight weeks pregnant. Well, that means they can only give parameters between five to seven days...’

      ‘Thanks for that.’ Victoria sneered at the implication.

      ‘We used protection,’ Dominic pointed out.

      ‘I’m not about to try and convince you,’ Victoria said. ‘I know it’s yours but I accept that you might not believe that it is,’ she said. ‘Whatever way, I felt that you had a right to know and now you do.’

      Dominic just stood there, for once unsure what to say. She was as factual and direct as always, but he had been let down so badly before that there was no way he would be letting down his guard again.

      He would be keeping his distance until he was certain.

      ‘When the baby is born, arrange for a DNA and, if it’s confirmed as mine, then we’ll speak about things.’

      ‘That’s it?’ Victoria checked.

      ‘What else do you want?’

      ‘With that attitude