Appalled by the strength of her reaction to a man she supposedly disapproved of, she lifted Daisy with shaking hands and wondered whether perhaps it was time she looked for a small flat for herself and Daisy.

Living with Alex was proving to be more unsettling than she could possibly have imagined.

* * *

Work continued to be horribly busy and things weren’t helped by a flu bug that seemed to hit half the staff in the hospital.

‘This can’t be happening. It’s the middle of summer,’ Tina grumbled as she tried to allocate the staff for the morning shift. ‘We shouldn’t have flu. I’ve got two nurses off and the agency is so stretched it can’t provide any cover.’

Jenny wasn’t in a position to offer to work extra shifts because she had to be at home with Daisy, but she knew that some of the nurses were putting in a vast amount of overtime. And so were the doctors.

Alex was working punishing hours and for the next four days he was hardly at home.

She was forced to concede that her first opinion of him had been horribly skewed by the reports she’d read in the press.

It might be true that he avoided commitment like a life-threatening disease, but it was also true that he was an amazingly skilled and dedicated doctor, something the newspapers always failed to comment on.

Even when one of the consultants was on duty, it was still Alex who was called upon to deal with the really difficult cases. And there was no shortage of difficult cases.

As if to confirm that observation, the ambulance hotline rang, disturbing her thoughts, and Tina rushed to pick it up.

As she replaced the phone, Jenny looked at her expectantly. ‘Well?’

‘Thirty-four-year-old woman, thirty-one weeks pregnant coming in.’ Tina was already hurrying towards Resus. ‘She was found at the bottom of the stairs. Give Alex a yell, will you? I’ll bleep the obstetric team.’

By the time Jenny had located Alex, the ambulance had arrived.

‘Her pulse has been very rapid and I can’t find a blood pressure at all,’ the paramedic muttered as they quickly transferred her to the trolley. He gave a quick handover to Alex, outlining the patient’s physical state.

‘Give her high-flow oxygen and I want her tilted to the side. Use a pillow or a wedge, but I don’t want her lying flat because the weight of the baby will press on her major blood vessels.’ Alex talked as he worked, checking the airway and feeling for a pulse again. ‘Get her attached to a monitor and I want two lines in—one in either arm. Everyone remember we’re dealing with two patients here. Move!’

The whole team was aware of the seriousness of the situation and they worked fast to stabilise the woman but her condition deteriorated.

Alex talked clearly and calmly to the patient, even though there was no evidence that she was even aware of them. ‘You’re going to be fine, Jilly. You’re in hospital now and we’re going to sort out this problem and make sure that your baby is OK.’ He glanced at one of the other doctors. ‘Take blood for group and cross-match, urea and electrolytes, and then give her some Haemaccel. She’s bleeding from somewhere and we need to start replacing fluid. Get the rest of her clothes off so that we can assess her properly and call the radiographers so that we can do some X-rays.’