Paddington Children's Hospital Complete Collection. Kate Hardy

on a side light.

      He took a seat on the sofa and she sat on a chair as if they were in a waiting room.

      ‘How are your parents?’ she asked.

      ‘Worried, but they feel better now that they’ve seen him. They’re back at mine.’

      ‘How’s the baby?’

      ‘He’s on the cardiac unit and he’s settled for the night. Lorna’s staying with him.’

      ‘Is Jamie back at the hotel?’

      ‘No, he’s staying at mine too.’ He saw her eyes widen a fraction and chose to explain how it had come about. ‘Jamie didn’t know the way to the underground, nor about Oyster cards and things, so I offered to drop him off at the hotel. In the end I said to just check out and to come and stay at mine.’

      ‘Are you two talking, then?’

      ‘A bit,’ he said, and then admitted more. ‘Not really.’

      ‘Then how come he’s staying at yours?’

      ‘Because he’s my brother and his baby is sick, and right now the baby is the priority. The rest will have to wait.’

      His voice was brusque, though he hadn’t meant it to be. ‘Sorry.’

      ‘No, no...’ Victoria said.

      It really had been a difficult day.

      ‘Thomas seems to think he might need surgery.’

      ‘Thomas?’ Victoria checked.

      ‘Thomas Wolfe. He’s a new cardiologist.’

      ‘He’s not new,’ Victoria said, and shook her head.

      ‘Yes, he is. He only just started at Paddington’s the other day.’

      ‘No, he used to work there years ago when I first started. He’s a lovely guy.’

      Dominic didn’t comment; lovely wasn’t how he’d describe any guy, but certainly it was not a word he’d expect to hear to describe Thomas, who he had found rather stand-offish.

      Still, he didn’t dwell on it.

      He took in a breath and closed his eyes. It was the first time he had properly paused since he had looked up and seen Victoria walking towards him with Jamie by her side and Lorna and William on the stretcher.

      ‘Jamie was going to call and ask me to take a look at him this afternoon...’

      ‘I know that.’

      And it was then she knew for certain that she loved him.

      She didn’t even have to ask what his response to that phone call would have been.

      And yes, while she wanted happy reunions and for him to say that his family was fine, she was starting to understand that Dominic did not say what you wanted him to. He spoke the truth.

      Having seen Lorna and Jamie for herself, she was starting to comprehend the magnitude of the betrayal.

      It was a miracle, really, that Dominic had followed her into the underground that night when she had first told him she was pregnant, and that he kept coming back when so many men would have turned away.

      She wanted to ask him about Lorna, how it had felt to see her today after all this time, but she knew that wasn’t needed now.

      ‘Jamie tried to talk about it,’ Dominic admitted. ‘But I told him that for now he has to focus on the baby. I am trying to work on things with my family, Victoria,’ he said. ‘But I need to do it at my own pace, not theirs.’

      ‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But how can you sort it out living so far apart?’

      ‘Because I couldn’t work on it from there. Victoria, families fall out. You yourself said you’ve had words with your father...’

      ‘Your family wants you to be in their lives though.’

      ‘Doesn’t he?’

      ‘He wants me there to attend functions when he’s between wives.’

      ‘What was the row about between you?’

      ‘I told you,’ she said, but she knew she hadn’t properly. ‘I said I could see why my mother left him.’

      ‘And what did he say to that?’

      She shrugged.

      Victoria simply wasn’t ready to go there.

      ‘Do you want a drink?’ she offered.

      ‘I do, but I have to drive.’

      ‘I meant tea.’

      ‘No thanks, then.’

      She stood up to get him a Scotch or whatever she had to hand. ‘Have a drink. I can drive you home.’

      ‘No thanks,’ he said. ‘I need the car in case something happens overnight.’

      She stood still. There were other solutions and both of them mentally explored them. Dominic wanted her to come back to his—he needed her tonight—but his family were all there and so he could not suggest that.

      And though he wanted to stay here a while, both knew where that could lead.

      Would lead.

      He could see her nipples protruding through the dressing gown—life would be far less complicated if they did not so completely turn each other on.

      But no, he could not stay here for the night.

      ‘I really do need to get back home. I just wanted to stop by and tell you what was happening.’

      It was nice that he had stopped by, Victoria thought, for she had been fretting about it all evening. It didn’t really make sense to Victoria—after all, she had been to the hospital to see how the baby was, but she had just felt a bit sick about little William since the moment she had realised that the baby they had been called out to was Dominic’s nephew.

      ‘Will your parents worry if I keep you out late?’ Victoria teased, and he rolled his eyes.

      ‘My mother asked where I was going at this time of the night. They’re driving me crazy already.’

      And she smiled because it was said without malice. He put out his hand and when she took it he pulled her onto his lap.

      ‘How are they driving you crazy?’

      ‘Because in the twenty years that I haven’t lived at home, nothing has changed. They hadn’t had dinner and I suggested that we get a takeaway, as you do. But no, she wanted us all to sit down and have a proper dinner, as she calls it.’

      Victoria found that her smile widened.

      Oh, she loved glimpses of family life.

      ‘Well,’ Dominic continued, ‘I don’t really have the ingredients for a proper dinner in my kitchen, so I said I’d go shopping and of course that meant she had to come with me...’

      And he was smiling now as he told her about the little shopping trip. ‘Do you know how many different types of potatoes there are? Well, I do now. And for all the potatoes in the supermarket they didn’t have the ones she preferred.’

      ‘Of course they didn’t.’

      He let out a soft laugh and then looked to the woman on his lap and Victoria looked back at him.

      She felt his hand around her waist and the warmth of his palm through the fabric. ‘I’m sorry it’s been such a bad day,’ Victoria said.

      ‘It’s not now.’

      The world and its problems were outside and waiting and he would give them all the attention that was needed. But right here, right now, the night felt kinder than the day.

      ‘I