The Doctor's Surprise Bride. Fiona McArthurЧитать онлайн книгу.

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘ARE you OK?’ Dr Jack Dancer, Medical Director—in fact, only doctor at Bellbrook Hospital—tilted his head. He tried to bring together this city woman’s list of qualifications and experience—then reconcile it with her youth and the tiny package she came in. Actually, Eliza May looked like a garden fairy with attitude. Her shoulders were tense, her head tilted and she glowered fiercely at him through slitted eyes.

      This woman looked ten years too young to qualify for half of her résumé and, with Mary going, the hospital needed every skill this city woman was supposed to have.

      He’d thought his cousin’s agency recommendation extraordinarily glowing and he wondered what fanciful planet his cousin had been on when she’d recommended this woman.

      ‘I’m fine.’ Her voice was not loud but contained an element of self-confidence that made him look at her again. She straightened and the movement added a desperately needed few centimetres to her height. Now he could see her eyes.

      Jack felt a ripple shimmer down his back and his breath stuck somewhere behind suddenly sensitive ribs.

      Good grief. Her eyes were amazing—vibrant green, alluring eyes that dared him to step out of line and taste the consequences. Even the jagged gold circles around her pupils seemed to glow and shimmer and draw him in. He couldn’t look away.

      Jack forced his diaphragm back into action, and dragged his gaze lower to accelerate past memorable lips and a determined little chin, but knew he was in trouble when he skimmed too low and had to bounce his attention out of her tightly restrained cleavage. What on earth had got into him?

      ‘Lead on, Dr Dancer.’ Now she was decisive and he felt the earth shift again under his feet. No fluttery fairy here. He quietened his reservations—and his libido. Energy vibrated and the new Eliza May held such promise for Bellbrook Hospital that he would never risk jeopardising her suitability with unwanted attention.

      Perish the thought.

      Whatever shock wave had belted him was past now and he wouldn’t think like that again.

      Realistically they had no one else, and apparently she was multi-skilled and dynamic, though a bit of a chameleon. Still, they all required diversity when Bellbrook bestowed some of those moments of unusual interest and everything went haywire.

      He had a full waiting room in his surgery at the side of the hospital and his sister-in-law, Mary, had been due to start maternity leave a month ago. His cousin had said Eliza was reliable.

      ‘Right, then.’ He didn’t look at her again. ‘As soon as we find our matron, she’ll show you around. I won’t see you until later when I do my evening round at the hospital.’

      ‘Good,’ Eliza said quietly, but with emphasis, and Jack blinked. Did she mean good she didn’t have to see him till later, or good that the departing matron would show her around?

      Strangely, both explanations piqued him and he glanced down at her as they made their way to the front of the hospital. This new matron came up to his shoulder yet her smaller legs didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping up with him.

      Her hair shone with red glints as they passed under a light and her fringe swung across her face as she turned her head to look up at him. She floated beside him on invisible wings and matched his speed.

      ‘Where’s the fire?’ She lifted one finely arched brow as she dared him, and he couldn’t help smiling at her.

      ‘Touché,’ he said and slowed. ‘I forgot your legs were smaller than mine.’

      ‘Thought you might have,’ was all she said, and he realised she jangled his nerves and wasn’t overawed by him at all. Well, that was good. Wasn’t it?

      Jack was pleased to see Mary up ahead.

      Matron Mary McGuiness was round-faced and round-bodied, though, of course, most of her abdomen belonged to the baby inside her. Mary was the hospital. The staff, and Jack, had a problem imagining anyone else in her position. He hoped Eliza May could do half as good a job in the time she was here.

      After the introductions Jack was eager to get away. Most of his eagerness had to do with his waiting patients and a backlog of paperwork, but a percentage had to do with a sudden need to ring his cousin and find out a few more facts about Bellbrook’s new Acting Matron. Something about Eliza bothered him.

      In fact, several things about her bothered him in a way he hadn’t been bothered for years.

      He turned to Mary. ‘I’ll leave Eliza with you, but after showing her around I want you signed off, and with your feet up. Doctor’s orders, Mary!’ He nodded at Eliza. ‘Good luck. You can phone my office if you’re worried about anything.’

      Eliza smiled blandly. Not if she could help it,