Read Online St Matthew's Passion: A Medical Romance by Sam Archer - Free Book Online

the procedure progressed without incident, and Melissa was the first out of the theatre, leaving the enthusiastic junior doctor, an aspiring surgeon himself, to suture closed the last layer of the abdominal wound. She degloved and degowned and went into the female locker room, which was otherwise empty.
    Deborah came in a few minutes later and Melissa rounded on her.
    ‘What exactly is your problem?’
    Deborah stood, hands on hips, squaring off. ‘As I said, it’s not for you to be telling my staff what to do.’
    ‘Oh, come on.’ Melissa felt the anger rising again. ‘I didn’t tell her to do anything. I asked her if she could please replace a piece of equipment. You ask the junior doctors to do things all the time and I don’t get all upset about it. What’s really going on? What’s eating you now?’
    Deborah opened her mouth, then held her breath for a moment before expelling it in a long, slow sigh. ‘I warned you.’
    ‘Warned me what?’
    ‘I told you to watch yourself with Mr Finmore-Gage.’
    ‘What are you talking about?’
    Again a pause. Deborah said, quietly: ‘Two or three weeks ago. Someone saw you get into his car late at night.’
    The words were like individual blows, and for a second Melissa was stunned. ‘Who?’
    ‘Doesn’t matter. Somebody in the car park, who told somebody else. Now everyone knows.’
    ‘Oh, for the love of –’ Melissa was so angry she didn’t know where to look. ‘He was giving me a lift home. It was two in the morning, we’d both been working late, and I’d missed the last Tube. I can’t believe people are reading something into it.’
    ‘Can’t you?’
    Melissa thought about what the nurse had just said. Now everyone knows … Were she and Fin grist to the department’s gossip mill, then? Was every friendly greeting followed by a knowing smirk behind her back?
    Deborah stepped a pace nearer, not close enough to be belligerent. She said, her voice still quiet, ‘You see what happens. People hear things, they spread stories. Authority is compromised, and with it morale suffers. The department suffers, and so in turn do the patients.’
    Melissa pressed her fingertips against her forehead and massaged the skin. ‘I know that, Deborah. I understand. But I’m telling you, there’s nothing to gossip about. He gave me a lift home. That’s all. Nothing happened between us.’
    ‘Whether or not that’s true, it’s beside the point. You should have been more careful. Of course it’s going to be interpreted only one way.’
    ‘It was just a lift home.’ But Melissa knew there was no point in arguing. Deborah’s mind was made up.
    Deflated, Melissa turned to go. Now she’d have to be constantly on her guard, watching her colleagues for signs that they were talking about her. She’d misinterpret innocent comments, would pore over every facial expression. It was no way to work.
    A thought struck her. Well, she could limit the damage. She turned back to Deborah.
    ‘One thing. I don’t want to find out that you’re stoking the fire. Spreading rumours about me or Fin, however grounded in reality you believe them to be.’
    The nurse rolled her eyes, sighed. ‘For heaven’s sake, girl. Haven’t you heard a word I’ve been saying to you? Of course I won’t go aggravating an already difficult situation. Why would I want to make things any worse than they are?’
    Because you’re jealous of me, and you want me gone, or at least neutralised , Melissa thought. She said nothing, instead giving a curt nod and turning on her heel.
    Whatever Deborah’s motivation, Melissa thought as she headed to the wards, normally Melissa would have heeded any warnings that she was putting her reputation in jeopardy. Reputation was essential, along with clinical acumen, in order to get anywhere in the cutthroat medical hierarchy. To be told that she was being gossiped about because of some action of hers, even one that had been misinterpreted, would usually have made her