I concentrate hard as the night shift team take us through the current list of patients and their ailments, but a part of my brain is replaying Dr Patel’s words, trying to work out if there’s any way I could have misheard her. Luke has gone? Just like that? Surely it can’t be that simple. I steal a few glances at the new doctor; she appears to be a fairly no-nonsense sort of person on the surface, although I notice the corners of her mouth turning up when she spots me looking at her. I think we’ll probably get on fine. I’m still buzzing with curiosity though. What happened to Luke?

Dr Patel seems to be having one of her cryptic days and is pointedly ignoring my questioning looks every time I see her, which only adds to my frustration. I’m just about to come out with it and ask her directly when she pulls me to one side.

‘I’m not going to get any peace, am I?’ she asks with a sigh.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You. You’ve been staring at me all shift. I can read you like a book, Tilly. You’re desperate to know what happened to Dr Milne.’

‘No, I’m not.’

‘OK. You won’t mind if I don’t tell you then. It’s probably confidential anyway.’

Shit. ‘Well, seeing as you brought him up,’ I begin. ‘I guess it would be useful to know, just so I can deal with any queries that might come my way.’

Dr Patel laughs softly. ‘Oh, you’re very good. Congratulations. OK, I don’t think I’m betraying any confidences if I told you that there was a meeting to review how well Dr Milne had settled into his new role. HR, the senior A & E consultants and Dr Milne agreed, after some discussion, that his, umm, unique talents were probably not best suited to our department. A package was agreed for us to part ways, and we wished him all the best in his future endeavours.’

‘Do you know where he’s gone?’

‘I don’t, although I’m sure we’ll get a request for a reference at some point. That’s going to be a tricky one, which I think I’m going to let HR deal with.’

The question is out of my mouth before I can stop it. ‘You didn’t fire him because of me, did you?’