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CHAPTER ONE

THE LITTLE FACE stared back out of theas Freya gave her a nervous wave from the new school Bonnie sucked in a breath and kept the s back as merrily as she could Please be okay

Her thick winter coat was stifling her already Even at this tie was unexpectedly warmer than Scotland She could feel an uncomfortable trickle of sweat run down her spine The teacher ca at Bonnie, ushered Freya away Freya’s red curls had already started to escape from the carefully styled pleat By the time she came home later her hair would be back to its usual fluffy head style She could alhts in her head: over-anxious parent

She wasn’t Not really But travelling down frooods stuffed into four suitcases was hardly ideal Thein was even less pleasant The smell of daht cause a flare-up of Freya’s asthma With Christmas not too far away, she desperately needed to sort out somewhere , plus dropping Freya at a brand-new school thisrattled

The director of e Royal Maternity Unit had been quite insistent on her start date No compromise The ward sister had just taken early maternity leave due to some unexpected problems They needed an experienced member of staff as soon as possible And she hadn’t felt in a position to argue—despite the fact they’d had nowhere to stay The job in Cae was her way out of Scotland And, boy, did she need out

Working at such a prestigious hospital was appealing Everyone knew about the two-hundred-year-old hospital and one night, midway between tears and frustration, she’d applied When they’d ee a telephone interview she’d been surprised And when they’d told her the next day she had the job she’d been stunned Things had moved at a rapid pace ever since References, occupational health for her they wanted her to start straight away

Thankfully, she’d had a syer in Scotland who knew about her circu to allow her to take annual leave and special leave to let her only work teeks’ notice The last teeks had passed in a complete blur

Thishad been hard There had been tears and sniffles from Freya, a normally placid child Bonnie held her breath The schoolremained empty; it was clear the teacher had successfully distracted her

With a sigh of relief she glanced at her watch Yikes First day and she was going to be late She hurried back to the bus stop Getting a car was next on the ‘to do’ list She phoned and left a ood start for her first day on the job But it couldn’t be helped The woht and that her daughter was starting a new school today She still had to hand some paperwork into HR and pick up her uniforms before she could start on the labour ward

For once, she was in luck The bus appeared alht and she could actually see a bit of the beautiful city she’d decided to live in on almost a whim

Well, a whi her husband in bed with her best friend She should still feel angry and hurt But all she really felt was relief As soon as the ink was dry on the divorce papers she’d started job hunting She needed a fresh start and there was so to a historic city like Cae She watched as the Victorian-style shops and Grade II listed buildings whizzed past and allowed herself to s it in daylight et a chance to see round about

The hospital ca based in the heart of the bustling city A little tremor of anticipation went down her spine This was it This here she worked As the bus drew to a halt, clilance around the city of Cae Her city Full of possibilities

This was now home

Jaco

b Layton was more thanunusual for him

He hated disorganisation Hated chaos He prided himself on the fact that his unit ran like clockwork Any midwife or medic not up to the job at this hospital was quickly rooted out and dealt with

It e Royal Maternity Unit the lives of women and babies were on the line every day He was a firm believer that all expectant mothers deserved the best possible care and it was his job to ensure they got it

This , he stood at the nurses’ station with his hands on his hips as his ten of any member of staff None of the whiteboards were up to date—he didn’t even knohich patient was in which room Case notes were spread all over the desk with a whole variety of scribbledthe normally immaculate desk

‘Where is everyone?’ he yelled

The frightened faces of a midwife and junior doctor appeared simultaneously from separate rooms The midwife hurried towards him, her eyes fixed on her shoes The junior doctor walked slowly, obviously hoping theHe should be so lucky

Thehands ‘I think this is the set of notes you wanted I was just doing Mrs Clark’s observations Everything seems fine’

He snatched thes were looking better for Mrs Clark He raised his head, keeping his voice in check ‘Good Tell Mrs Clark I’ll be in to see her shortly’

The s practically did a U-turn in the corridor He didn’t want to be left with Jacob

‘Dr Jenkins’

The young guy’s legs frozecase notes onto the desk one after another ‘Ms Bates needs her bloods done, Mrs Kelly needs her bloods repeated, where is the cardiac consult for Lucy Evans—she’s been here e another ultrasound for Ms Shaw? Get it done, now!’ His voice rose as the anger he was trying to contain started to erupt He hated incompetence These patients were in the besttop-quality care

The doctor’s face paled and he gathered up the notes in his ar down the corridor to the nearest office

He sighed This place—nor a disaster zone

Ever since he’d diagnosed the ward er with pre-eclampsia and sent her home with the instructions not to coone to pot There were four other senior midwives All of theanisational bone in their body

The director of midwifery had promised him that their new employee would be able to help with all this But he’d just read her CV, and was struggling to see why a Scottish co to help a busy city labour ward

But the thing that was really lanced at his watch again First day on a new job—after nine-thirty—and the new start wasn’t here