exactly the same way I am. ‘Do you?’
‘You need the circulation kept going. I don’t want deep vein thrombosis.’
‘No, I don’t. But neither do I want any other complications.’
Right. They both knew what he was talking about. The fingers ceased their stroking and Lizzie hauled herself away. Phoebe cast her a baleful glare and Lizzie thought, Yeah, I know just how you feel. Deprived.
She hauled herself to her feet and looked down uncertainly at Harry in the moonlight.
‘Do you want a cup of tea?’
‘That’d be great.’
Distance. They were carefully putting distance between them. Building a barricade that was fragile, but it was the best they could do.
‘I’ll go, then.’
‘Right.’
But Lizzie didn’t move. She stood there, staring.
The phone rang. Thankfully-because otherwise she would have stood there all night. She didn’t want to move an inch.
He was engaged to Emily.
She had Edward.
She gave herself a fierce inward shake and went to answer the phone.
CHAPTER FIVE
TROUBLE.
Lizzie could hear a child sobbing in pain as soon as she swung open the dividing door into Emergency. May met her, looking concerned.
‘Aren’t you supposed to be off duty?’ she asked, and the nurse shook her head.
‘One of the other girls has flu. With Emily away we’re tight. I’m working split shift till midnight. And I know Terry.’
‘Terry?’
‘He’s a friend of one of my kids. His parents are farmers. Sensible folk.’ She glanced over to a cubicle where the child was rocking back and forth on the bed with his father trying to hold him down. ‘Um…you should know that they’re a bit puritan. Or very puritan. They won’t even tell me what’s wrong. They want Harry to see the boy- because he’s a man, I gather, and what’s wrong with Terry is a man’s problem.’
‘He’s how old?’
‘Eleven.’
‘Man’s problem. Right.’ Lizzie unconsciously braced herself. Problems like this happened all the time in a big city emergency department. Problems out of left field. Like the biker who refused to be treated unless he could keep his pit bull terrier under his jacket all the time-a bit of a problem when she needed to take X-rays. Or the parent who refused to let go of a baby when the child needed resuscitation.
Problems. She could handle problems.
‘Is Harry awake?’ May asked, and she shook her head.
‘He might be awake but he’s not working tonight. He’s a patient himself.’
‘But-’
‘Come on, May,’ she said, grinning. ‘We can handle this. What’s a mere man’s problem for two competent women?’ She pinned her efficient, doctor-in-charge-of-the-world smile on her face, shrugged on the white coat that May was holding out to her and walked over to the bed.
The parents seemed to unconsciously stiffen. There was no welcome at all.
‘Hi,’ she told them. ‘I’m Dr Lizzie Darling. I’m looking after Dr McKay’s patients while he’s ill. What seems to be the problem?’
They didn’t reply. The man held his son tighter and the woman sank down onto a bedside chair and wept. They both looked away from her. Then the child whimpered in his father’s arms and clutched his groin. He doubled over and his face was bleached white.
‘Where’s Dr McKay?’ the farmer growled, but Lizzie had seen enough. A hurting child wasn’t to be put aside because his parents were worried about which doctor they wanted. She sat on the bed beside the farmer and moved to prise the little boy’s hands away from his groin.
‘Terry, let me see what the matter is. I’m a doctor. I can help.’
‘It’s his… You can’t…’ his mother whispered, but enough was enough.
‘I’m a qualified doctor,’ she told them, her voice stern. ‘I’ve treated hundreds of children in my time in medical practice. There’s nothing here to shock me, and I’m not interfering with Terry’s privacy. Terry, I need to examine you. I can’t stop the pain unless I know what’s wrong.’
His parents looked wildly at each other. Terry whimpered again and started to sob. Lizzie signalled to May. The nurse moved in, took the farmer’s hand and propelled him forward.
‘Let Dr Darling see what’s happening,’ she said. ‘She’s good. Don’t hold her up.’
The farmer moved a whole six inches back.
For heaven’s sake. What was their problem? This wasn’t something like a blood transfusion, Lizzie thought, where religious beliefs might be an issue. It was pure and stupid coyness.
Coyness or not, Terry had been inculcated with his parents’ obsession for decency. The little boy was clutching the front of his pyjama pants and he was looking up at her in pure terror.
‘What is it, Terry?’
‘It hurts,’ he whispered. He threw a scared look at his parents, as if expecting punishment, but his need for help was overriding what he’d been taught. ‘Me…me balls…’
His testicles.
Lizzie nodded. It was what she’d been starting to expect. Terry was the right age for this sort of problem.
But the easy things had to be excluded first. ‘Have you had an infection?’ she asked. ‘Has it been sore down there for a while?’
‘No. Only tonight. After dinner.’ He gave another moan and clutched himself again.
‘I need to see, Terry.’
‘But…you’re a girl.’ Another look at his parents and what he saw there seemed to cement his conviction as to what was right and what was absolutely wrong. He clutched himself even tighter. It was apparent to everyone that his dignity was more important than his need for assistance.
He looked up at her wildly and Lizzie knew if she touched him she’d spark hysteria. Maybe from all of them.
Now what? Lizzie took a deep breath. ‘Look, this is foolish-’
‘Can I help?’
Harry.
She turned and Harry was right behind her, balancing on his crutches in the doorway. What was he doing here? She cast him a glance that was half exasperated, half relieved.
‘We have a bad case of sex discrimination here,’ she told him, and he nodded. He’d been listening for a while, then.
