CHAPTER ONE

      THE taxi had dropped her off outside the surgery. Anna Clemence took a deep breath as it drove away.

      She was on her own now.

      She had made her decision and there was no going back on it. She owed it to Jo to do the very best she could.

      A shadow darkened her grey eyes as she thought about her sister. It was a month since Jo had died yet she still found it hard to believe that she would never see her again. Jo had always been there for her in the past but now she had to stand on her own two feet. There would be no one to turn to in the coming months, no one to offer emotional or financial support. She only had herself to rely on from now on.

      Anna picked up her suitcase then pushed open the surgery door. Dr Adam Knight, the senior partner at the practice, had explained that he couldn’t be there to meet her that morning. However, he had assured her that his colleague, Benedict Cole, was expecting her. Now, as she joined the queue in front of the reception desk, Anna couldn’t help hoping that she wouldn’t have to wait long to see Dr Cole. She had been up since five that morning and she was starting to flag.

      ‘I’m Anna Clemence,’ she began when she reached the desk. However, the middle-aged receptionist didn’t give her time to finish.

      ‘Oh, you must be the new practice nurse! Ben said that you would be arriving this morning. I’ll just give him a buzz to let him know that you’re here.’

      The woman quickly relayed the message then smiled at her. ‘Ben said to tell you that he’ll be free in a few minutes, so why don’t you take your case through to the staffroom and wait in there? It’s been like a madhouse in here this morning. It’s supposed to be emergencies only on Saturdays so I don’t know where they’ve all come from!’

      ‘Thanks.’ Anna smiled back, warmed by the older woman’s friendly manner. ‘I’ll do that.’

      She made her way through the door at the rear of the waiting room and quickly found the staffroom. Putting down her case, she went to the window and looked out but there wasn’t much to see apart from the car park.

      She turned and looked around the room instead, smiling when she saw the mismatched assortment of crockery stacked on the draining board and the extra-large jar of coffee strategically placed next to the kettle. The room was almost a replica of any number of staffrooms at places where she had worked in the past so that she felt instantly at home. Was it a good omen? She hoped so. She needed all the luck she could get at the moment.

      ‘Hi, there. Sorry you’ve had to wait. I don’t know what’s come over everyone today. Saturdays are never usually this busy!’

      Anna looked round as a man appeared. The room was rather dark so that she couldn’t see him clearly at first. She just had an impression of someone tall with fair hair before he switched on the light.

      He had to be at least six feet tall, she decided, taking rapid stock as he came towards her, with a leanly muscular physique which the conservative navy trousers and paler blue shirt he was wearing couldn’t disguise. His hair was a rich sandy-blond colour rather than merely fair, the kind of shade that a woman would pay a small fortune for at the hairdresser’s, she thought inconsequentially.

      With hair that colour she expected his eyes to be blue, so it came as a surprise to see that they were a very dark brown, the same colour as his eyebrows. It was only when she noticed the amusement they held that she realised she had been staring at him and quickly looked away.

      ‘I’m Ben Cole,’ he said, offering her his hand. ‘Adam explained that he couldn’t be here to meet you, I believe?’

      ‘He did.’ Anna fixed a smile to her mouth