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  Her heels clipped on the pavement as the familiar building came into view.

  Outside were a couple of protestors holding placards with various messages to save the hospital from closure.

  They might just as well go home, Victoria thought sadly. From the way her father had spoken there would be a formal announcement soon.

  She thought of little Penny’s comment about feeling safe there, and that was exactly how Victoria felt as she stepped into the hospital.

  There was a feeling that wrapped around her like a blanket, one of being taken care of. There was a sense of security when you were within these walls, Victoria thought as she walked into A&E and saw Karen.

  ‘You’re one lucky woman,’ Karen said as she made her way over to her. ‘Penny found your earring in the blanket. It’s locked in the safe in Reception.’

  ‘Thank you so much.’ Victoria smiled.

  Dominic wasn’t here.

  She could just tell.

  And, Victoria conceded, she was disappointed. She knew that she looked good, and deep down she had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Dominic might revise his suggestion and take her for a drink.

  But then what?

  She didn’t want a relationship. That was the simple truth, and the real reason why she always called things off.

  Victoria didn’t trust anyone and certainly she didn’t want to get involved with a colleague who she would have to run into day after day.

  They walked into Reception and Karen took out the keys and went into the safe, then handed Victoria the slim envelope that contained the earring. As Victoria put it on, Karen started chatting with the receptionist.

  ‘See you!’ Victoria called, and went to walk off but then she halted.

  She checked that Karen and the receptionist were still talking and realised she could go behind the screen unnoticed.

  It was something she had always done as a child and something she still occasionally did, though she always made sure that no one saw her.

  Up the steps she went.

  Remembering being little, and the hours that she had had to kill.

  Growing up, Paddington’s had been more of a home than the house where Victoria had lived and she could not stand the thought of it being sold.

  She looked out to the night. The moon was huge and she could see the dark shadows of Regent’s Park in the distance. There were taxis and buses below and she could see the protestors who, despite a shower of rain, still stood waving their placards.

  They didn’t want to lose their hospital.

  That’s what it was.

  Theirs.

  It was a place that belonged to the people, and now it was about to be sold off and possibly razed to the ground.

  Victoria was tough.

  She didn’t get involved with the patients; she had made the decision when she started her training to be kind but professional.

  But this place, this space, moved her.

  The walls held so much history and the air itself tasted of hope. It seemed wrong, simply wrong, that it might go.

  There was so much comfort here.

  She thought of Penny and how un-scared she was to come to Paddington’s.

  Victoria had felt the same.

  ‘I shan’t be long,’ her father would say.

  Her mother had left when Victoria was almost one year old and her father had had little choice sometimes but to bring her into work. He would plonk her in a sitting room and one of the staff would always take time to get her a drink or sandwich.

  Of course, then their break would end and she would be left alone.

  Often Victoria would wander.

  Sometimes she would sit in an old quadrangle and read. Other times she would play in the stairwells.

  But here was the place she loved most and she had whiled away many hours in this lovely unused room.

  Here Victoria would dance or sing or simply imagine.

  And maybe she was doing that now, because the door creaked open and she heard his deep voice.

  ‘Excuse me.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  DOMINIC HAD BEEN about to make his way home after visiting his patients on the wards but, not ready to face it yet, he had decided to spend some time in a place that was starting to become familiar.

  He had never expected to see Victoria, yet here she was. Despite the heels and coat and that her hair was down, and despite that he could only see her back and that it was dark, still he recognised her.

  But it seemed clear, not just from the location, but from the way her hand rested against the window, and Victoria’s pensive stance, that she wanted to be alone.

  ‘Excuse me,’ Dominic said, and she turned at the sound of his voice. ‘I didn’t think anyone was up here.’

  ‘It’s fine.’ Victoria gave him a thin smile.

  ‘I’ll leave you,’ he offered, but Victoria shook her head.

  ‘You don’t have to do that.’

  He walked across the wooden floor and came and joined her at the window.

  He was still in scrubs and she could see that he was tired.

  ‘I thought only I knew about this place,’ Victoria said. ‘It would seem not.’

  ‘I don’t think many people know about it,’ he said. ‘At least, I’ve never seen anyone up here and it looks pretty undisturbed.’

  ‘How did you find it?’

  Dominic didn’t answer.

  They stood in mutual silence, staring ahead, though not really taking in the view of London at night.

  Unlike the thick modern glass in the main hospital, here the windows were thin and there were a couple of cracked ones. The shower had turned to rain and the air was cold but it was incredibly peaceful.

  ‘Where did you work before here?’ Victoria asked him.

  ‘Edinburgh.’

  ‘So you’re used to wonderful views.’

  He thought of the city he loved built around the castle, and of Arthur’s Seat rising above the city, and he nodded and then turned his head and looked at something just as beautiful, though he could see that she was sad.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, and Victoria was about to nod and say she was fine but changed her mind and gave a small shrug.

  ‘I’m just a bit flat.’

  She offered no more than that.

  ‘Has a patient upset you?’

  She frowned at the very suggestion and turned to look at him.

  ‘Penny?’ he checked, because he had found out this evening that the little girl had wormed her way into a lot of the staff’s hearts here at Paddington’s. But Victoria shook her head.

  ‘I don’t get upset over patients and certainly not over a routine transfer. If I did, then I’d really be in the wrong job!’

  ‘And I doubt it was me that upset you,’ he said, and she gave a little laugh.

  ‘No, you I can handle.’

  And then Victoria was glad that it was dark because she had started to blush at her own innuendo, even though she hadn’t meant it in that way. And so, to swiftly move on from that, she offered more information as to her mood. ‘If you must know it’s this place that I’m upset about. I can’t believe it might be knocked down or turned into apartments. I was practically raised here.’

  ‘You were sick as a child?’

  ‘No! My father worked here in A&E and he used to bring me in with him. Sometimes I’d sneak up here.’ She didn’t add just how often it had happened. How her childhood had been spent being half-watched by whatever nurse, domestic, secretary, receptionist or whoever was available.

  And she certainly didn’t mention her mother.

  Victoria did all she could never to think, let alone discuss, the woman who had simply upped and walke
d away.

  ‘My father now works at Riverside—Professor Christie.’

  She turned and saw the raise of his eyes.

  It wasn’t an impressed raise.

  Dominic had spoken to him on occasion and knew that Professor Christie wasn’t the most pleasant of people.

  ‘He’s crabby too,’ Victoria said.

  And Dominic decided to make one thing very clear. ‘At the risk of causing offence, I might be crabby, Victoria, but I’m not cold to the bone.’

  Dominic did not cause offence. It was, in fact, rather a relief to hear it voiced as, given her father’s status, people tended to praise him rather than criticise, and that had been terribly confusing to a younger Victoria.

  It still confused her even now.

  She had stood at the award ceremony yesterday hearing all the marvellous things being said about him. Afterwards, at the reception, more praise had been heaped.

  The emperor had really had on no clothes, though there was not a person brave enough to voice it.

  Until now.

  ‘Well,’ Victoria said, ‘I saw him yesterday and he seems to think the merge is going to go ahead.’

  Dominic nodded; he had heard the same. ‘It’s a shame.’

  ‘It’s more than a shame,’ Victoria said, and for the first time he heard the sound of her voice when upset—even when they had argued she had remained calm. ‘This place is more than just a facility,’ Victoria insisted. ‘Families feel safe when they know their children are here. It can’t just close.’

  ‘Do something about it, then.’

  ‘Me?’

  She looked down at the protestors and wondered if she should join them. But in her heart, Victoria knew it wasn’t enough and that more needed to be done.

  ‘If you care so much,’ Dominic said, ‘then fight for what matters to you.’

  It did matter to her, Victoria thought.

  Paddington’s really mattered.

  And it was nice to be up here and not alone with her thoughts, but rather to be sharing them with him.

  ‘How did you find this room?’ Victoria asked again.

  He still hadn’t told her, and now when he did it came as a surprise.

  ‘I saw you sneak behind the shelves a couple of months ago and I wondered where you’d gone. When I got a chance I went and had a look for myself.’

  ‘You can’t have seen me.’ Victoria shook her head at the impossibility of his explanation. ‘I always make sure that no one does. Anyway, I’d have known if you were around...’ And she halted, because that was admitting that any time she was at this hospital she was aware of where he was.

  ‘I was in the waiting room talking to a parent,’ he said. ‘I saw you through the glass...’

  ‘I guess I stand out in those green overalls.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s the green overalls, Victoria.’

  She gave a soft laugh.

  She was dressed in black now after all.

  Yet he was confirming that he noticed her too.

  ‘Did you see me come up tonight?’ Victoria asked.

  ‘No. I just wanted some space. I thought you were finished for the night.’

  ‘I am. I was supposed to be going out,’ Victoria said, explaining the reason for heels and things. ‘But I cancelled.’

  And now he thought he knew the real reason she was sad.

  ‘Have you just broken up with someone?’

  ‘I don’t think you can really call it a break-up if you cancel a second date.’

  No, she wasn’t sad about that; Dominic could tell from her dismissive shrug. It would seem it really was just the building.

  ‘Well,’ he said. ‘I’m sure he’s very disappointed.’

  And then he went to retract that because it came out wrong, as if he was alluding to how stunning she looked.

  ‘What I meant was that—’

  He stopped; whatever way he said it would sound like flirting, and he was avoiding all that.

  ‘I think I’ve done us both a favour,’ Victoria said. ‘He didn’t seem to understand the concept of shift work. So,’ she asked, ‘if it wasn’t me, then what brought you up here?’ She wanted to know more about those difficult days he had alluded to.

  ‘I’m in the middle of something right now...’ Dominic said. ‘Well, not in the middle—I’ve taken myself out of the equation. I’m staying back from getting involved with anyone.’

  ‘Good,’ Victoria said, ‘because I don’t like to get involved with anyone at work.’

  Yet here they were and the tension that had been in the annexe wrapped and slivered around them.

  ‘Are you married?’ she asked.

  It was a very specific question and the answer was important to Victoria, because the cold air had turned warm.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Seeing someone?’

  ‘Of course not,’ Dominic said, or he would not be doing this—and his hand moved to her cheek. ‘You got your earring back.’

  ‘They were a gift from my father.’

  ‘That’s nice,’ Dominic said.

  ‘Not really, it was just a duty gift when I turned eighteen. Had he bothered to get to know me, then he’d have known that I don’t like diamonds.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I don’t believe in fairytales and I don’t believe in for ever.’

  There was, to Victoria’s mind, no such thing.

  She held her breath as his fingers came to her cheek and lightly brushed the lobe as he examined the stone.

  If it were anyone else she would have pushed his hand away.

  Anyone else.

  Yet she provoked.

  ‘It was the other earring that I lost.’

  And he turned her face and his hands went to the other.

  This was foolish, both knew.

  Neither wanted to get close to someone they had to work alongside but the attraction between them was intense.

  Both knew the reason for their rows and terse exchanges; it was physical attraction at its most raw.

  ‘Victoria, I’m in no position to get involved with anyone.’

  They were standing looking at each other and his hands were on her cheeks and his fingers were warm on her ears. There was a thrum between them and she knew he was telling her they would go nowhere.

  ‘That’s okay.’

  And that was okay.

  ‘If you don’t like diamonds, then what do you like?’ he asked. His mouth was so close to hers and though it was cold she could feel the heat in the space between them.

  ‘This.’

  Their mouths met and she felt the warm, light pressure and it felt blissful. That musky, soapy scent of him had been imprinted and, this close, it made her dizzy. His tongue sliding in made her move closer and the fingers of one hand reached into her hair as the other hand slid around her waist.

  It was almost like setting up to dance, as if the teacher had come in and said, Place your hands here.

  But not.

  Because then she hadn’t felt a tremble, no matter how warm the palm.

  They kissed softly at first as his hand bunched in her hair; he explored with his tongue and it met with hers and he tasted all that had been missing.

  Passion coiled them tight; his palm took the weight of her head and pressed her in at the same time.

  The pent-up rows and the terse exchanges had been many and could not be dispersed with a single kiss.

  It was a deep slow kiss and it birthed impatience in both. He held her head very steady and kissed her hard, and the scratch of his unshaven jaw and the probe of his tongue was sublime. But then, unlike with most men, she tasted resistance.

  There was resistance, becaus
e Dominic knew very well where they were leading. ‘I don’t have anything with me,’ he said.

  And she wanted to feel him unleashed.

  ‘I do.’

  And when most would kiss harder, instead Dominic made her burn with his stealth. He stepped back and moved her coat down her shoulders and did not drop it to the dusty floor. Instead he placed it on the window ledge and she went for her purse that was there.

  He came up behind her as she rifled through her purse, praying that the condom was still there and trying to find it. One hand wrapped around her and rested on her stomach as his other hand slid up between her inner thighs to the damp in the middle. His fingers stroked her and she closed her eyes to the bliss.

  ‘Here.’ She had never been so pleased to find a condom as he peeled her knickers down and she straightened up and stepped out of them.

  Still he stood behind her and he lifted her hair and kissed her low on her neck. His hand pressed into her stomach and she could feel him hard against her bottom. Victoria was shaking a little, wanting to turn to him, yet wanting to linger in this bliss.

  ‘Come away from the window,’ he said, and took her over to a wall in the shadows and he kissed her hard against it. His hands held her hips and now Victoria felt the delicious hardness of him against her stomach. She stretched up onto tiptoe and he moved his hips down so he met her heat.

  It was nice, so nice, to be so raw and open with him.

  He caressed her breast through the fabric and, since he could feel no zipper on her dress, with a moan of want he just slid his hand inside and it was the most thorough and deliberate grope of her life. Meanwhile, Victoria was doing the same to him; she was trying to hold on to the condom as she freed him from his scrubs and underwear.

  Finally, she held him in her palm, and her hand was soft on skin that was so very firm to her touch.

  ‘I want this dress off...’ Dominic gasped, but it was impossible because they could not move their mouths for more than a second from each other.

  They wanted nakedness and hours to explore, but their bodies would only give them minutes.

  He took the condom and began sheathing himself, while she was pulling up her dress, and when he was done, he lifted her thigh and placed her leg around his hip.