A Nurse to Trust Page 14

  She slid herself into minuscule pearly pink panties and a bra that just cupped her full breasts, then stepped into her long pink shift dress and drew it up to loop over one shoulder. It had been years since she had bought it to wear to a hospital theme ball. It was a Roman-style gown, and had been eye catching then, she’d been told. Was it right for tonight?

  Cautiously she inspected herself in the old-fashioned pier mirror that was part of the furnishings in the main bedroom. After a minute’s scrutiny she let out her held breath with a sigh of satisfaction. If anything, her fuller breasts made the filmy chiffon even more alluring today.

  She stopped for a moment to breathe in the scent of a posy of sweet peas and rosebuds that she’d placed on the dressing-table between two candles in silver holders.

  ‘This is all for you, Daniel,’ she whispered. ‘I hope you appreciate it, my love.’

  Clare had just finished preparing a simple meal when Daniel arrived. His expression as he looked her up and down told her she’d not wasted her efforts.

  ‘You look good enough to eat,’ he said, with lustful hunger in his eyes. ‘Later on I may nibble you here and there to see if I’m right. But there’s one last piece of business to attend to first. Something we have to know…’

  He rang the hospital to find out how Charlotte was doing.

  ‘Well, she’s had her lumbar puncture,’ said the registrar to whom Daniel spoke. ‘We’re waiting for the results to come back from the lab, but from the severity of the symptoms I’m pretty certain it is bacterial meningitis. But because you got to her quickly and pumped in that dose of antibiotics and brought her temperature down a bit, I thinks she’s in with a very good chance.’

  The news cheered them immensely. Daniel phoned George to report what they had heard.

  ‘Thanks for letting me know, Doc,’ George said. ‘I’ve been worrying about that kid ever since I got home. About the whole family, in fact. They’re working flat out to make a success of that farm. They deserve a bit of good news.’

  ‘They do indeed,’ Dan said.

  When he put down the phone he found Clare looking at him with a joyous expression in her eyes.

  ‘It’s just struck me. Do you realise that if you hadn’t struggled all this time to get the mobile surgery up and running, we wouldn’t have been where we were all kitted out to give medical support? Little Charlotte would probably be dead by now if it wasn’t for you. I think the Fullers would call you a hero if they knew. I know you’ll always be my hero.’

  The night was perfectly still. The candles that Clare had put on the parapet of the pond to illuminate their food burnt straight and steady. It was easy to exchange confidences in low voices.

  ‘You said,’ murmured Clare, ‘that I need a baby. Now I know you want one just as badly.’

  ‘I’ve wanted children for years in a general sort of way,’ Dan said simply. ‘I didn’t realise that it was the last thing on Bee’s agenda. We’d fallen in love and got married without ever talking about it. In fact, we never really talked. Once the chemistry had worn off there was just one big gap between us.’

  ‘This falling-in-love business is pretty hazardous, isn’t it?’ said Clare. ‘I’m still a little frightened about getting it wrong.’

  Dan leaned forward and she could see the light from the candles reflected in his eyes. ‘Promise me, love, if ever you have any doubts, talk to me about them. Don’t, please, don’t hug them to yourself. Hug me, never shut me out.’

  ‘I will if you’ll promise to do the same. Let’s follow the old saying and never go to bed in wrath. That’s what my mother used to say. Always talk things over at the end of the day, even if it takes all night to do it. Then have a kiss and a cuddle and make up.’

  Dan smiled and nodded and kissed her.

  ‘Now, what’s for dessert?’ he said.

  ‘But you’ve had dessert,’ Clare exclaimed, then blushed as she understood. ‘Oh, you mean that sort of dessert…’

  Dan looked her up and down. ‘Now, where shall I begin…?’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE ringing of the telephone woke Clare. She made to turn over to reach for it, but found herself trapped beneath Daniel’s arm. Her heart thumped and somersaulted as memory returned. Daniel’s arm, all muscular and lightly tanned. It was Saturday morning and he’d stayed the night. Her breathing quickened. They’d made love…

  The telephone was still ringing. Despite being off duty, years of professional responsibility told her she must answer it.

  ‘Sorry, my darling, but you’ll have to move,’ she whispered to Dan, trailing kisses across his smooth shoulder. His skin tasted slightly salty. ‘My darling,’ she repeated under what breath she had left. He was her darling at last.

  The telephone continued insistently. It wasn’t going to stop.

  She heaved his arm away. It seemed to weigh a ton, a nice, warm, comforting ton. She turned over to face the phone. ‘It’ll probably be my parents,’ she said softly. ‘They often ring at weekends, just to say hello.’

  He groaned a bit and tried to replace his hand on her breast, fumbling a kiss in her neck as he did so. ‘Mmm, nice,’ he said, and nibbled her ear.

  Clare picked up the receiver. Sure enough, it was her mother.

  ‘Hello, Mum, how are you?’

  ‘Fine, dear. Dad’s already gone down to sort out the cellar. We’ve got a wedding and a reception brunch at eleven, so it’s all hands to the pump. You rang last evening and left a message about coming over on Sunday and bringing a friend. It’ll be lovely to see you. Is the friend special?’

  As always, Mum was on the ball. ‘He…It’s the doctor I work with. Daniel Davis. I may have mentioned him before.’

  ‘Indeed you have.’ Her mother’s voice was dry, and Clare wondered how much she had unconsciously imparted over the weeks.

  Clare added quickly, ‘He fancies himself as something of a wine buff—Ouch!’ Daniel’s teeth bit into the back of her neck.

  ‘What do you mean, fancies himself?’ muttered Daniel sotto voce.

  ‘Clare, are you all right, darling?’ her mother asked. ‘You sound rather odd.’

  Did she detect a thread of amusement or suspicion in her mother’s voice? ‘I’m fine, I just…bumped my elbow. Look, Mum, I must go.’

  ‘So we’ll look forward to seeing you tomorrow, you and Dr Davis.’

  ‘Yes. And good luck with the wedding ceremony and the reception.’

  ‘Thank you, dear.’

  Daniel rolled Clare round to face him as soon as she put down the receiver.

  ‘Good morning, my love,’ he said. His voice was deep and throaty. His hands caressed her full breasts and flat abdomen and the dark crevice between her thighs.

  Clare wriggled and squirmed delightfully in his embrace, failing to squash the little moaning sound of excitement that rose in her throat. He folded her into his arms and eased himself carefully over her. ‘Thank you for last night.’ He showered kisses over her face and neck.

  She laughed up into his hazel eyes. ‘And again this morning,’ she reminded him.

  ‘And again this morning.’ He lowered himself until his body was pressed on hers, and they were touching mouth to mouth, chest to breast and thigh to thigh.

  He was so gentle for a large, solid, muscular man, she thought as he sank into her. But strong and warm and passionate, too.

  ‘I love you,’ she murmured. ‘Last night I felt as if I were being made love to for the first time. I wished it had been the first time.’

  ‘It was magic for me, too. I never thought that loving could be such a complete experience. I thought that I’d known it before, but I hadn’t.’ His arms tightened round her. ‘Now I’m afraid to let you go,’ he whispered, ‘in case…’ His eyes said it all, he was afraid of losing her.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she told him softly.

  ‘What do you know about Glastonbury?’ asked Daniel as they sat in the kitchen an hour later, draining the coffee-po
t. His bare feet were gently massaging hers beneath the table.

  ‘Mmm, that’s lovely,’ Clare said dreamily, as he rubbed one ankle and calf with both feet. ‘Don’t stop, it’s very sexy.’

  ‘You’re very sexy with your hair all tousled and bobbing round your face.’ He pointed through the open doorway to the sun-filled garden. ‘You look a bit like Alice out there. You know, darling, if we have a little girl, we should call her Alice.’

  Clare beamed across at Daniel. ‘Oh, I’d already decided that,’ she said. ‘After all, it was really Alice who brought us together.’

  He got up swiftly and came round the table to stand behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders and slowly slid them down beneath the loose pyjama jacket that she was wearing until he was fondling her breasts.

  ‘This has got to be the least sexy garment on the planet,’ he mumbled, smothering her neck with kisses. ‘So how come you look sexy as hell wearing it?’

  ‘Because you’re insatiable, my darling, and it takes nothing at all to turn you on at any time of the day or night.’ She twisted her head so that she could plant a kiss on his bare arm, and then tilted her head back so that she could look up at him.

  ‘I know. Making up for lost time.’ His voice was muffled as his mouth trailed down her forehead and nose. Then his upside-down lips were on hers and he was kissing her fiercely. His hands were touching her breasts and her nipples were peaking and hardening.

  He nodded toward the door to the stairs. ‘Shall we?’ he said, breathing heavily, his chest heaving.

  Making an enormous effort, Clare wrenched at his hands and ducked away from his mouth.

  ‘My…dearest…darling.’ Her voice trembled and came out in little staccato gasps. ‘We must cool down a bit.’ She smiled tremulously. ‘I feel like you, that we have lots of time to make up. But we’ve years ahead of us to do that. Our love doesn’t just depend on sex, does it?’

  He straightened up. ‘No, thank God. You’re right, love. I’m sorry if I’ve been—’

  She didn’t let him finish. She put her hand over his mouth.

  ‘You haven’t done anything that I didn’t want you to do. I’ve loved every minute of it. Sex with you is a whole world away from anything I have experienced before. I’m crazy about you, Dr Daniel Davis, but I want to keep you focused. If we go back to bed, we probably won’t even make the concert tonight.’

  He grinned ruefully. ‘OK, you’re dead right, dear heart, point taken.’ He tightened the cord of the short towelling robe round his waist. His eyes twinkled. ‘Now, as I said, what do you know about Glastonbury?’

  Clare blinked, although she had noticed before how quickly he could leap from one subject to another.

  ‘What do I know about Glastonbury? Well, only that they have a festival there every year, and I hankered to go when I was younger but couldn’t afford it. By the time that I could I decided that a mud bath and deafening music no longer appealed. Anyway, why are we talking about Glastonbury?’

  ‘Because, my love, that’s our first port of call for the hunt for the perfect engagement ring.’ He took hold of her left hand and examined her ring finger. ‘While I heartily approve of the bareness of the rest of you, this bit has to be decently covered. So let’s do something about it. Do you have any preferences, love? Diamonds…or sapphires to match your eyes?’

  ‘An engagement ring?’ Clare’s heart skipped a beat. ‘I’ve never had an engagement ring before. I wouldn’t have a clue about stones. When I was training, jewellery wasn’t allowed on duty and it’s never bothered me much. Earrings for special occasions, but that’s about all.’

  She looked at him thoughtfully. ‘I rather think I’d like something old-fashioned. An antique in an intricate setting, like some of the rings that I inherited from my godmother. They’re beautiful, and I really must start wearing them when I’m off duty. What I definitely don’t want is a big—or even a small—flashy stone.’

  Daniel straightened up, still holding her slim, long-fingered hand. It looked small, held in his large, square-tipped, competent fingers.

  ‘Right, that’s settled. We go hunting for an engagement ring. One thing we have in abundance in this part of the world are antique shops.’

  It was nearly lunchtime when they found the perfect ring. Not in one of the many antique shops that Glastonbury had to offer, but on a market stall.

  It was a lovely, dawdling sort of day, and Daniel wasn’t in the least daunted by their lack of success so far. He was at his warmest and most loving, holding Clare close to his side as they walked along the narrow streets, jostled by Saturday shoppers and visitors like themselves.

  ‘If we don’t find what we want here,’ he said cheerfully, ‘and since we didn’t stop for breakfast for obvious reasons, having something much better to do…’ he nuzzled the top of her head ‘…we’ll have a pub brunch and go to Tewkesbury. They’ve loads of antique places there and the cathedral’s always worth a visit.’

  ‘But Tewkesbury’s miles away.’

  ‘Takes no time at all with motorways and good A-roads.’

  But they didn’t have to go to Tewkesbury, for at that moment they found it.

  It wasn’t a very big stall, but there was a heap of rings and brooches and bracelets, glittering in the sunshine, in one section.

  ‘Have a rummage,’ offered the young woman behind the stall. She had long, dangly earrings and purple-painted long nails to match the purple eye shadow lavishly applied. ‘They’ve all got price tags. Anything in particular you’re looking for?’

  ‘An engagement ring, or love token ring,’ said Daniel at once, responding to her friendly attitude. ‘My fiancée doesn’t want anything modern, do you, darling?’

  Clare felt her cheeks go pink at his words. His fiancée! It sounded wonderful. She’d never been anyone’s fiancée before. It made her feel cherished and lovingly possessed. She felt young and silly and wanted to blurt out to the woman behind the stall that she was only the second person to know that she and Daniel were engaged.

  Of course she did no such thing, but explained what sort of ring she wanted.

  ‘I don’t want anything modern, but something Victorian or Edwardian perhaps. It doesn’t have to be a huge or precious stone or anything like that. In fact, I’m much more interested in the setting.’

  ‘You don’t have to look no further,’ said the stallholder. ‘Just wait half a mo.’ She ducked down below the stall and came up with a neatly arranged tray of rings on a dark velvet bed. ‘Mind you, these don’t come cheap. They’re the real articles, genuine antiques.’

  ‘Price isn’t important, it’s just got to be right,’ said Daniel, bending eagerly over the tray. ‘Now, this is more like it.’ He picked up a silver filigree ring, a wide band studded with tiny polished stones.

  Clare tried it on, and several others. They were all pretty, but nothing quite appealed. But when they were shown another tray full of rings, they both saw it at once. A silver filigree oval studded with seed pearls surrounding a beautiful deep blue stone.

  ‘That’s a lapis lazuli,’ said the stallholder enthusiastically. ‘Semi-precious stone. Go on, try it on. It’ll look cool on you, same blue as your eyes. It’s absolutely you.’

  She handed the ring to Daniel and fluttered impossibly long lashes at him. ‘Go on,’ she encouraged him, ‘put it on for the lady.’ She placed it on his palm.

  He took it and examined it carefully, holding it up to the light. Then he squinted at the inside. ‘There’s an inscription…It reads, “To my dear love, C.S. from…D.D.”’

  Clare stared at him in astonishment, her eyes wide with surprise. ‘Daniel, I don’t believe it. The odds against that happening must be astronomical.’

  ‘Every so often a million-to-one shot comes up,’ he said solemnly, handing it to her. ‘I said we’d find it—the perfect ring.’

  She read the inscription three times, and each time it read the same. It was incredible. The ring must be at least a hundred,
perhaps a hundred and twenty years old, and all those years ago there had been a C.S. and a D.D. obviously as passionately in love as she and Daniel.

  ‘Your eyes are shining just like the lapis lazuli,’ said Daniel as he slipped the ring on her finger. ‘Like this young woman says, it matches your eyes. A perfect match.’

  The young woman in question looked at Clare curiously. ‘The initials are important, are they?’

  Still looking stunned, Clare nodded. ‘They’re our initials. It must be a billion-to-one chance of this happening. You haven’t heard of anything like this before, have you?’

  The girl shook her head. ‘Never. Must be fate or the stars that brought you here to my stall just when I had that ring in stock.’

  Clare grinned. ‘No,’ she said, ‘it was my fiancé who brought me here.’ To her surprise, the word ‘fiancé’ tripped off her tongue without effort.

  Daniel noticed and he put his arm round her waist and gave her a hug. ‘That sounds good,’ he murmured.

  Miss Purple Eyes didn’t miss a trick either. Young she might have been, but clearly salesmanship was in her blood.

  ‘Then you owe him,’ she said. ‘What about something for this lovely guy of yours? Studs, an ornament—something special for him, too. A love token, something that he can keep to remember the day. I always think it’s a shame men don’t come in for anything when they get engaged.’

  Clare glanced at Daniel, her eyes dancing. ‘I never thought of that,’ she said, and was pretty sure that Miss Purple Eyes hadn’t either until she’d seen the chance of another sale. ‘It’s a good idea. We’ll have a rummage at the other end of the stall.’

  Daniel, his arm still round her waist, squeezed it tightly.

  ‘I don’t need anything to remind me of today,’ he murmured, as they moved away and other customers clustered round the jewellery section.

  ‘But I want to buy you something,’ said Clare. ‘A love token.’