‘Alex knows about everything,’ Tina said dryly. ‘He’s a fantastic doctor but the press usually ignore that side of him. And he keeps it very quiet.’

And indeed Alex seemed almost embarrassed by all the fuss. When his skills weren’t needed in Resus he spent most of the day in his office, wrestling with a report on staffing.

It was towards the end of the day that Jenny noticed that he didn’t seem his usual self.

He looked flushed and there were lines of tiredness around his blue eyes.

She handed him some X-rays to check, her expression concerned. ‘Are you all right?’

He stared at the X-ray. ‘I’m fine.’

He didn’t look fine.

He looked terrible and Jenny wondered whether he’d caught the flu bug that was going round.

Hopefully not, because without Alex she had a distinct feeling that the department would fall apart. He gave a great deal of himself to the hospital.

One look at him when they arrived home told her that she was right.

‘I think you’d better go straight to bed,’ she said gently, and he shot her a mocking glance that showed he’d lost none of his faculties.

‘Propositioning me again, Miss Phillips?’

She gave him a placid smile. ‘You’re too ill to be a threat to my virtue, Dr Westerling.’

‘Don’t count on it, Red Riding Hood,’ he said, but his voice rasped and his cheeks were flushed.

‘Do you want supper?’

He shook his head and frowned slightly, lifting a hand to his head as if he were suddenly dizzy.

‘No.’ His jaw hardened and she sensed that for a man as strong and in control as Alex, being ill must be incredibly hard to cope with. ‘I’m fine.’

She wished he’d stop saying that when he was clearly anything but fine!

She watched him drag himself up the stairs towards his room and let out a sigh. He most certainly was not fine but it was obvious that he wasn’t going to reveal anything remotely like weakness to her.

Resolving to check on him later, she walked into the kitchen, made herself a salad and then curled up on one of his sofas with a book.

It was wonderfully peaceful after the hectic pace of the day and she was soon absorbed by the story, pausing only to sip the coffee she’d made herself.

She read until her eyelids started to ache and then closed the book and made her way to bed, checking on Daisy on the way. The baby was fast asleep, curled up in a ball on her tummy.

Jenny used the bathroom, changed into the T-shirt she wore to bed and went to check on Alex.

He was probably fast asleep, but still…

She padded along the landing and gently pushed open his bedroom door, frowning as she saw him sprawled over the bed, still fully clothed.

He was flushed and restless and she could see immediately that he had a high temperature.

Suddenly anxious, she hurried across to him and touched his forehead.