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CHAPTER ONE

SHE HADN’T CHANGED Tall and slender, her red-gold hair coiled into an elegant knot at the nape of her neck, Bella English looked as beautiful today as she had done the last ti day

‘Mac! I heard you were back Good to see you, mate How are you?’

‘Great, thanks, Lou’

Jarinned at the elderly porter Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bella move away from the desk but he kept his attention firmly focused on the other man After what his old friend Tier to speak to her

‘You’re looking well, Ito the new paediatric A&E unit has done you the power of good You look a good ten years younger than the last time I saw you!’

‘I wish!’ Lou’s grizzled face broke into a wry sery to turn lanced over Mac’s shoulder and gri Catch you later’

‘Yep’

Mac didn’t need to check to see what had caused Lou to beat a hasty retreat He could srance of freesias that Bella alore She had told him once that it was made especially for her and that had fitted perfectly with everything he knew about her Bella was the sort of wo about her was ordinary or commonplace

Mac turned slowly around, taking stock of all the details he had h Bella had always been slender, she was verging on thin now, he realised And even though her complexion was as creareen eyes that hinted at far too uilt that had kept her awake? he wondered a shade bitterly A noisy conscience cla to be heard, even if it was too late in the day? After all, even Bella e to Tim

‘Hello, Mac I heard you were back How are you?’

The greeting was almost identical to Lou’s, but Mac had to admit that it made him want to respond very differently He experienced an uncharacteristic urge to take her by the shoulders and shake her, de She had ruined Tim’s life—didn’t she care? Didn’t she care either that she had broken all those proo to love, honour and cherish the h the cere a lifetime’s devotion, and had believed every word If he was honest, he felt almost as let down as poor Tim must do

The thought shocked him so that it was a mo more than friends—he had made sure of that So why should he feel so disillusioned? He blanked out the thought, knowing it was foolish to dwell on it If he and Bella were to work together for the next few months, he couldn’t allow recent events to stand in the way

‘Fine, thanks Looking forward to working in the new unit’ He glanced around and nodded ‘It looks great, I must say Obviously, no expense has been spared’

‘No Everything is state of the art We’ve been open for almost a month now and I still have to pinch myself when I come into work I can’t believe that we have such marvellous facilities to hand’

She gave a husky laugh and Mac tensed when he felt the tiny hairs all over his body spring to attention He had forgotten about her laugh, forgotten how soft it was, how sexy It had been her laugh that he had noticed first, in fact He had been standing in the lunch queue in the university’s refectory when he had heard a woh and he had turned to see who it was

He ditched that thought as well, not needing any more distractions He knehere his loyalties lay, knew that if he had to take sides then he would be firmly allied to Tim Tim had poured out the whole sorry tale, told him what had happened froh to know that it was rarely all one person’s fault when a e ended, it was obvious that Bella was est mistake had been to love Bella too ht firmed his resolve and he smiled thinly at her

‘Is that what brought you to Dalverston, the chance to work in a wonderful new facility like this? I must confess that I was surprised to learn you had moved out of London’

‘It was one of the reasons, yes’

Bella’s expression sobered and Mac’s heart twisted when he saw the pain in her eyes Maybe Ti too, it seemed The idea affected him far more than it should have done, far more than he wanted it to do It was an effort not to let her see how he felt when she continued