A Man to be Trusted

by Gill Sanderson

Genres: Contemporary Romance; Medical Romance; Workplace Romance

Synopsis

Sue McCain, newly qualified as a midwife, found her work satisfying. But she carried too much baggage to be completely at ease socially these days. That didn?t matter to the Obs & Gynae Registrar, Dan Webster. He wanted to get to know her, and he clearly wasn?t going to allow himself to befrozen out! He even persuaded her to help with a concert he was organising for the hospital. But it brought her past and her present face to face, and only Dan?s support and love helped her cope ?

Release date: November 29, 2013

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 137

Sample

Chapter One

‘I asked to work nights,’ Sue McCain explained. ‘I don’t have a complicated social life and I’m happy to help out those with families and so on.’ Sister Reeves, the new shift leader, dubiously surveyed the slim figure in front of her. Midwife McCain had only just qualified, and wore a new navy-blue tunic and trousers instead of the whites of the student. No make-up, short black hair, no attempt to make herself stand out. But Sister Reeves knew that Sue’s heart-shaped face and brown eyes had turned many heads at Emmy’s – Emmeline Penistone’s Hospital.

And Sue had paid no attention at all.

‘A young girl like you should be out, enjoying yourself, not having to sleep all day,’ Sister suggested.

‘I’m twenty-five and I enjoy being a midwife. I’ve just qualified, there’s such a lot more I want to learn, and the night shift is the best time for that. Come on, Sister, aren’t you pleased to see a bit of enthusiasm?’ When Sue smiled Sister knew at once why men were attracted to her. Her face seemed to come alive.

‘I always like enthusiasm. And I see you’re on a seven-day rotation. You can get about a bit in the week you have off.’

‘No chance, I need the time to study. I’m happy in my work, Sister. I spent enough time gadding about when I was younger.’

Sister shook her head, mock-mournfully.

‘So did I. It’s terrible when you get old. You know, when you turn twenty-one. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the night shift.’

In fact, Sue already knew most of the midwives grouped waiting for handover. She had done most of her practical training at Emmy’s and had leapt at the chance of a job when it had been offered to her. Emmy’s had a national, if not an international, reputation, and Sue had known it was a good place to start her career. She grabbed herself a plastic cup of coffee from the machine in the corner and said hello to those that she knew.

Quickly she glanced at the whiteboard that indicated the name and condition of every woman in labour. There were only seven patients, six in low-dependency rooms and one in a high-dependency room. Not a lot – it could be a quiet shift. But, then, in Maternity, anything could happen.

She looked at the details of the patient in the high dependency room. Forty weeks pregnant, being looked after by midwife Jo Colls, SROM. Membranes had ruptured spontaneously, five centimetres dilated, diamorphine – an opiate – had been administered once.

She shuddered slightly as she saw the cryptic note ‘G5P2’. It told her that the mother had been pregnant five times, had two living children and one about to be born. Two miscarriages. However, that patient wouldn’t be hers – a more experienced midwife was in charge.

She was allocated Jenny Doyle in Room Five. Sue smiled at Stella Robinson, the midwife in charge so far. Stella had sometimes supervised her while she’d been training. ‘She’s sound,’ Sister Reeves had said. That had been high praise and Sue and Stella had got to be firm friends.

‘Hi, Sue,’ Stella said, yawning. ‘Think you’ve got an easy one tonight. In fact, she’s only just come in – I haven’t finished examining her yet. Brought herself by taxi.’

‘Brought herself in? No partner, no mother, no friend?’ It was very unusual for someone to come in on her own. Although partners or mums could be a problem during labour – the men much more than the women – in general, Sue liked having someone there. It calmed the mother and certainly helped bonding.

‘Nobody with her. Jenny Doyle seems to be a bit of a loner. No wedding ring or sign of a partner. She’s very quiet and self-possessed. She’s a primigravida but doesn’t seem at all worried.’

‘All sorts of women have babies.’ Sue remembered a much-quoted line from one of her tutors. ‘And every birth is different, as well as being the same.’

‘Is she still coming out with that old chestnut? I remember her telling us that twenty years ago. Mind you, she’s right. Now …’ Stella had time for a joke, but handover was a serious business and every midwife was at pains to get things right. She handed Sue a folder. ‘Here’s the early labour record. Like I said, she’s only been with me for ten minutes so I haven’t finished checking her yet. She’s on the monitor. Contractions every three minutes, strong on palpations, looks like she’s doing something.’

‘Looks like she’s doing something’ was midwife-ese, meaning it looked like the baby was coming.

‘Sounds straightforward,’ Sue said. ‘Lead me to her.’ The two set off down the corridor.

‘One other thing,’ Stella said, half-hopefully. ‘A week on Friday we’re having a bit of a farewell bash for Merry Stirling. She’s been a midwife for twelve years, and she’s leaving to have her first baby. She ought to have more sense! Anyway, most of the obs and gynae staff are coming, as well as a lot of the rest of the hospital. We’ve hired the social club, and there’ll be a presentation and a disco. Why don’t you come? Let your hair down a bit?’ Sue could tell by her tone that Stella guessed what Sue’s answer would be.

‘I’m sorry, Stella, it’s just not my sort of thing. I’ll give something if you’re making a collection and I’d like to come to the presentation. But discos just aren’t my style.’ Stella grinned ruefully.

‘Well, I tried,’ she said. ‘I can honestly tell him I tried.’

‘Him?’ Sue winked at her friend. ‘Don’t tell me, let me guess – you’re running errands for young Dr Freddy Sharp.’

‘You’ve discovered my guilty secret! Freddy loves you from a distance, and a distance is what you keep him at. Seriously, Sue, he’s not all that bad. Why don’t you come along with him?’

‘I’ve no time for men friends, I have to think of my career,’ Sue said flippantly. ‘Now, it’s time to work.’ They walked in together. It still gave Sue a little thrill to enter a room where shortly a baby was to be born, to see the apprehensive or joyful mother, the cot waiting with folded blankets, tiny nightgown, and nappy. Around the walls were the suction tube, oxygen mask, air and gas mask, and all the other aids that modern medicine had developed. But most of the time giving birth was something that a woman did herself, and, as a midwife, Sue felt privileged to help her.

‘I’m going now, Jenny,’ Stella said to the heavily breathing figure under the white sheet. ‘But I’m leaving you in the more-than-competent hands of Sue McCain here. I’m sure you’ll have a lovely baby.’

‘Thanks, Stella.’ She gasped in reply. ‘Ow! Nobody told me it would feel like this.’ Sue moved forward as Stella quietly slipped out.

‘Would you like some gas and air to ease the pain a bit, Jenny?’ she asked. ‘We have it here.’ Jenny shook her head, the sweat glistening on her face as she did so. ‘I’m all right,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘At least, for now I’m all right.’

‘Is there anyone we should tell you’re in here?’ Sue asked delicately. ‘Your partner or a family member?’

‘No. I’m an academic, I’m getting older and I wanted a baby but not a partner. The biological father of my child will have nothing to do with it.’

‘It’s your decision,’ Sue said. It wasn’t her place to judge.

She reached for a cloth and gently wiped the hot brow. ‘I’m just going to check the monitor to see that the baby’s heartbeat is OK,’ she said. ‘And I’ll check your contractions, too. Then I’ll do the baseline observations – temperature, pulse, and blood pressure. Just making sure you’re healthy.’ It was always – or nearly always – important to tell the mother what you were doing. After all, she was the one giving birth.

All the observations were fine so far. Next, Sue gently palpated the top of Jenny’s abdomen. The fundus, the top of the womb, was at the right height. Sue moved her hands down and felt for the baby’s head.

She frowned. She could feel all of the head; it was mobile. It wasn’t engaged, not sitting in the arch of the pelvis. Normally, in a primigravida, the head engaged between thirty-six and thirty-eight weeks. This was not serious, but definitely a cause for concern.

‘Your waters haven’t broken yet, have they?’ Sue asked, trying to sound casual.

‘Not yet. I wish they would, I want to get on with this!’

‘I’m afraid you might be quite a while yet. Now, try to relax, I’m slipping out for a minute. If you need help, just press this here.’ She showed Jenny the little plastic buzzer hanging by the side of the bed.

Taking Jenny’s notes, Sue went in search of the shift leader. This was something she had to hand on.

‘Why didn’t the community midwife diagnose this earlier?’ Sister Reeves grumbled, leafing through the notes. ‘Oh, I see. Our Jenny Doyle has been too busy to see her midwife for the past three weeks. She could have saved us all some trouble – and perhaps made things easier for herself.’

‘I’ll go and find Freddy,’ Sue said. Behind her, Sister wrote ‘SHO’ by the side of Jenny Doyle’s name on the whiteboard. He was now in charge.

Sue found Freddy Sharp, the senior house officer, sprawled in the sister’s room, his long legs propped up on the waste-paper basket. He was deep in consideration of the sporting pages of the evening paper.

‘Susan McCain, my favourite midwife,’ he said as she entered. ‘I knew it. You couldn’t resist me any longer and you’ve come along to tell me that you will go with me to Merry Stirling’s ball. Together we can –’

‘We’ve got a problem in room five,’ Sue interrupted. ‘Forty weeks gone, she’s in labour and the head hasn’t engaged.’

Freddy knew when to be serious. He stood and refastened his tie. ‘Ah. Waters broken yet?’

‘Not yet. Things otherwise seem to be going quite smoothly, but …’

‘Let’s go to have a look.’

Sue had to admit that Freddy was developing quite a good bedside manner. He introduced himself to Jenny, chatted for a moment, and explained that there was always a doctor hanging around somewhere, and this evening he was it. Then he looked through Jenny’s notes, checked the monitor, and lastly gently palpated her abdomen himself. He smiled at Jenny and left, beckoning Sue to follow him.

Outside the door he went up further in Sue’s estimation. ‘I think the decision is beyond me,’ he said honestly. ‘I want the senior registrar to look at her.’

‘Are you going to send home for him?’

‘It’s not necessary. I saw him on one of the wards an hour ago. I’ll bleep him.’

‘Who is it?’ Sue asked curiously. ‘The only one I’ve ever had dealings with was Dr Rumney.’ She didn’t say that she had found Dr Rumney a doctor of the old school, firmly convinced that his position was next to that of God, and that nurses, midwives, and junior doctors were there to observe, admire, and say nothing.

‘It’s not Rumney, thank goodness. Dan Webster’s much more approachable – you can learn from him. Now, you sit with Jenny and I’ll see if I can get him.’

‘Just what is going on?’ Jenny asked when Sue re-entered the room. ‘If there’s something wrong then I want to know.’ Sue could tell that Jenny was trying to be in control, trying to deal with any problem in a reasoned manner. But she was having a baby and her body and her emotions were betraying her.

Sue took her hand, and felt the fear in the tightness of the grip. ‘Just a minor problem,’ she said, quietly. ‘To be on the safe side, we’ve sent for the senior man here. We’re probably worrying you and making a lot of fuss over nothing, but since he’s handy we thought we’d have him over.’

‘I’m frightened, Sue.’

‘There’s no need to be. Just try to relax. You’ll feel a lot better when you’ve talked to Dr Webster.’ In fact, everyone felt a lot better when Dan Webster walked in. Sue could tell at once why everyone found him reassuring. He was big. Big shoulders, big arms, a big chest. By comparison, Freddy was skinny. But Dan’s size wasn’t threatening. His face was pleasantly rough-hewn and remarkably attractive. When he smiled you knew that he was your friend, and you wanted to be his friend too.

He winked at Sue, but said nothing to her. Instead, he moved straight to Jenny’s bedside and smiled down at her. ‘I’ve always regretted being a man,’ he told her dolefully, ‘because when I tell a pregnant young lady like you that I know how she feels, she promptly replies, “Oh, no, you don’t.” And, of course, she’s right. But I love helping ladies have babies, and I want to help you.’ Sue could see Jenny relaxing as she listened to this.

She knew it was nonsense but she liked it. ‘I’m Jenny Doyle,’ she said, offering a hand. ‘Actually, I’m Dr Doyle, but not a doctor of medicine.’

‘Fantastic! You’re a doctor of …?’

‘I’m a linguist, I study – Ow!’ Jenny’s face twisted as a contraction, harder than usual, hit her.

‘I think we’ll leave the intellectual discussion till later,’ Dan said. ‘Now, the problem is Jenny, that your baby hasn’t come down far enough – its head isn’t engaged. This is unusual but not too worrying yet. What we’ll do first is fetch a portable scanner and have a look at baby. You just relax, and we’ll fetch the wonder machine from next door.’ The scanner was always on hand. Sue fetched it, and she, Freddy, and Dan clustered round the monitor and watched the squirming black and white lines on the screen.

‘Head’s high, but otherwise everything is fine.’ Dan said with satisfaction. ‘Look Jenny, that’s your baby wriggling.’ He turned the screen and Jenny craned her neck to see. ‘Now, just lie back and relax,’ Dan went on, ‘I’m going to give you another internal and then we’ll have a little confabulation and decide what to do.’ Jenny did relax as Sue held back the sheet and Dan conducted a swift and deft examination. ‘Good, good,’ he said. ‘Four centimetres dilated. Everything doing nicely.’ He indicated. . .