A Sister's Dilemma Read online

  THE SISTER’S DILEMMA

  GILL SANDERSON

  After years spent wandering, Nurse Kate Wilde returns home for a few short days to attend her twin sister’s wedding. But after suffering an accident, Kate, decides to stay longer. There’s a tempting distraction in the form of Dr Steve Russell, a handsome and troubled doctor who once loved Kate’s sister, but who wants nothing to do with a long-term commitment …

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  The cream Mercedes pulled up outside the departure hall of McCarran International airport, Las Vegas. Kate Wilde took a silver-paper-covered box from beside her and she and her American friend Lucy McTurk scrambled out of the back doors.

  The driver walked around to fetch Kate's luggage. He dumped it disapprovingly at her feet. 'I'll park the car and then see you inside,' he said. 'Why don't you go inside where it's cool?' The two girls watched him carefully drive away.

  'Is this really all that you're taking?' Lucy asked, looking amazed at Kate's battered blue rucksack. 'Have you got enough clothes here? I take double that just for a weekend.'

  'There's enough here for a fortnight,' Kate said happily. 'You know I always travel light. That bag has got all I need, all the essentials. It's carried me through three continents over the past five years. Besides, there's a wonderful new dress waiting for me at home.'

  At home. It seemed an odd phrase to use; she didn't really have a home. She shrugged, and dismissed the thought.

  Then she lifted the front of her baggy white T-shirt to reveal a money belt tight around her neat waist. 'I've got my bag strapped here with everything really important in it.' Including the little blue-wrapped packet, she remembered. She was not letting that out of her sight.

  Lucy surveyed her friend affectionately: a slim, dark-haired figure, clad in T-shirt, jeans, disreputable espadrilles, and with a tracksuit top hung over her shoulders. She didn't look like an intercontinental traveller.

  'Let's get into the shade,' she said.

  It was about ninety degrees, typical for noon at this time of year in Las Vegas. The sun burned down with a dry desert heat. Kate picked up her rucksack, and the two crossed to the automatically opening doors and the instant chill of the air-cooled terminal building. Kate felt the usual little shock that came with entering any building in Las Vegas: the movement from heat to cold.

  'We've got time for a soda before you fly,' Lucy said. 'And we can have a quick girlish word now about John Bellis out there, before he comes back. What are you going to do about him, Kate? He's nuts about you.'

  Kate sighed. 'I like him; we've dated a couple of times. He's going to be a good surgeon one day. He's helped me a lot with my application for training, and I'm grateful. But he'll never be more than a friend to me. I've tried to tell him that without hurting him, but he just doesn't seem to want to know.'

  'That's the trouble with surgeons; they get too focused and can only hold one thought at a time. So there's no chance for John at all?'

  'I wish he'd realise that,' Kate said glumly. 'But I do like him and I don't want to hurt him.'

  Fortunately there was no queue at check-in. She handed in her ticket, went through the usual questions of 'Have you packed your bag yourself?' and so on, and checked in her rucksack and her silver package.

  Then she took her boarding card. There was an hour before the plane departed. She went to find John and Lucy in the lounge.

  They were sitting by the window. John fetched her a cola and Kate looked across the busy airport. It was a view she never tired of.

  She could see the end of Las Vegas Boulevard—'The Strip'. There was the pyramid and Sphinx of Luxor, the green glass of MGM, the multicolour of Camelot. Close behind them was the dark line of the mountains where she had hiked so often. She could just see the Red Rock Canyon Conservation area, with Turtlehead Peak just in view.

  The friends she wrote to at home didn't really understand why she had stayed so long in Las Vegas. She was an outdoor girl; what was she doing in that neon city? They didn't understand that she stayed for the walking, not the gambling. The Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Lake Mead—all were within a couple of hours' drive. Las Vegas was the best centre she knew for walking.

  'I still don't see why you have to fly to England right now,' John said abruptly. 'Important decisions are being made about your future. You should be here to argue your case.'

  Kate sighed. 'John, I'm going to England for the wedding of my twin sister. She's the only relation I have in the world, the person I love the most—even if I don't see her all that often. Of course I've got to go to England. If it was your sister getting married, wouldn't you go to her wedding—no matter what it cost you?'

  The moment she asked the question she realised it was the wrong one. For John, work was everything.

  'I'd go—just for the day,' he said.

  'Well I'm going to be Jo's bridesmaid, and I want to get there well before the ceremony. And I'm really looking forward to it.'

  'Every girl wants to be a bridesmaid at least once,' Lucy put in. Then she added mischievously, 'And that way you get to grab the bride's bouquet. It means you get married next.'

  Kate gritted her teeth when she saw how pleased John looked at this idea.

  'The real reason I'm sorry to be going is that my application for training's coming up,' she said. 'John, I'm grateful for what you're doing for me.'

  Although Kate was only at the hospital as a temporary nurse she knew she had a good reputation in the Emergency Room—what, in Britain, would be called the Accident and Emergency Department. The hospital had offered her the chance to train on a new course it was running for International Emergency Response nurses. These would be part of a team that was ready to fly to any part of the world where there was a disaster: flood, earthquake, fire, volcano eruption. It sounded like the ideal job for her—it involved travel and nursing. But there were plenty of applications, and she might lose her chance of getting on the course if she wasn't around. Still...

  'I think you'd be good for the job,' John said soberly. 'I'm sure the offer will still be open in a fortnight.'

  Kate finished her cool drink. 'Time I went to the Departure lounge,' she said, 'Lucy, John, it was good of you to bring me.'

  There was an affectionate hug from Lucy, and an embrace from John that he tried to make into something more than it was. Gently, she disengaged herself from him. Then she walked quickly to the lounge entrance, showed her boarding pass and was allowed inside. A quick wave to her two friends and she was on her own.

  Kate sat down by the window again; there was a better view here. For three-quarters of an hour she could watch the planes come and go. McCarran was a busy airport, with planes landing practically every minute.

  She felt the excitement that always came when she was about to travel.

  There was the crackle of a loudspeaker; her flight was being called. She bought a couple of bottles of water then walked towards her gate. By now she knew how to tackle the long-haul flights.

  Her flight would take about ten hours. It would set off in the afternoon, but, since it lost hours and wouldn't arrive in England until the following morning, it was in effect overnight. But she knew how to cope.

  On board the plane there was a scuffle for locker space, the usual announcements and smiles of the stewards. Then the long taxi to the beginning of the runway, the howl of the raced engines and the bumpy acceleration. Finally the easy le
ap into the air. She loved it!

  Kate had a window seat and she peered at the badlands below, where she had walked, and the lake where she had so often bathed. After an hour or so the first meal was served. Then it was time to put on her tracksuit top and pull the hood firmly over her face. She pushed in earplugs and went to sleep. For the rest of the flight she would eat nothing and drink nothing but water. Alcohol might be fun, but the pressure difference made it stronger and she would pay the price when she landed.

  This way she would arrive reasonably fresh. Kate was going home.

  Dr Steve Russell stood and shivered on the observation deck of Manchester airport. It might soon be the May Bank Holiday, but at this time in the morning it was chilly. However, sometimes he felt that too much of his time was spent in surgeries, wards and bedrooms, so he liked to get in the open air when he had the chance.

  The plane holding the person he was to meet had landed, and was taxiing slowly across the tarmac. There was no need yet to go down; reclaiming baggage, Customs and Immigration would take another half-hour.

  He didn't want to mix with the throngs downstairs. For a while he was happy with his own company. It gave him a chance to think—even though some of his thoughts weren't exactly happy. Being best man for his cousin Harry was harder work than he had realised.

  'You brought us together; it's only right that you should see us married,' Harry had said cheerfully, taking things for granted, as he always did.

  At first Steve had thought that all he would have to do was pass over a ring and toast the bridesmaids. But there was so much to do! And Harry had seen that Steve did his share.

  Now he had been asked to pick up Kate, Jo's twin sister. Jo had intended to do it, but an early-morning meeting with her dressmaker had made things difficult—so Steve had volunteered.

  He'd never met Kate. He wasn't really sure he wanted to. Jo had said that he'd have no difficulty in recognising her; the two of them were almost identical.

  Jo was marrying his cousin and his friend Harry Russell. Steve had come to accept that, and to look as if he was happy about it—he had had to. But meeting a twin sister—who looked like Jo, apparently sounded like her, had a similar character—it was going to be hard. It was going to hurt.

  He shivered again. A light rain had started to fall. Perhaps he would go downstairs; there was time for a quick coffee. The presence of other people might stop him thinking about himself.

  It was supposed to be early summer in Manchester. But it was grey and raining, and compared to Las Vegas it was decidedly cool. Kate shivered, glad of her tracksuit top.

  Jo had said she would meet her. But as the crowd spilled out into the reception area there was no sign of her sister. All around her people were being greeted, kissed, and hugged. But there was no one for her.

  'You're Kate Wilde; you just must be. Kate, you're as gorgeous as your sister.' Well, that was quite a nice greeting, really. Kate looked at the man who had spoken to her, very ready to approve of him. It wasn't hard.

  At first she'd thought it was Harry Russell, the man about to become her brother-in-law. Jo had sent her a couple of photographs of him. But then she realised that, although there was a resemblance, this wasn't him.

  Both men were tall, muscular, and dark-haired. But this man, casually dressed in red checked shirt and cord trousers, didn't have Harry's rather excessive good looks.

  He wasn't smiling either. If anything he looked rather solemn. His eyes were dark grey, and for a moment Kate thought she could read a touch of fugitive pain there. But then why should he be sad? She was imagining things.

  'I'm Kate Wilde, and I rather like being called gorgeous. But who're you?'

  The man leaned forward and slipped the rucksack from her shoulder. It was heavier than it looked but he handled it with ease. 'I'm Steve Russell. I'm going to be best man a week today. Jo sends her apologies, but she had an urgent meeting with her dressmaker and so I volunteered to pick you up. Getting married is far harder work than I had realised, Kate. The things you have to remember!'

  'So you're not married yourself?' she asked boldly.

  'Not married, no prospect of getting married, no great urge to get married either.' He smiled at her cheerfully.’ 'But I am looking forward to next Saturday's festivities.'

  When he smiled his face changed. It became alive. It said that this man was your friend. She just had to smile back.

  'Are all the wedding arrangements finished, then?’

  'More or less, I think. Your sister is a brilliant organiser. She ought to be a hospital administrator or something high-powered like that.'

  'She always was that way. We might look alike, but we have totally different characters. She's the home builder, the careful planner. I'm the careless one.'

  'Totally different?' he mused. 'I wonder. Anyway, d'you want to stop here for anything or shall we go straight to see your sister?'

  She looked around the busy concourse. 'This feels like coming home,' Kate said. 'Let's go. Just one thing. Everyone else is being kissed as a welcome back. I'm so happy to be here, so...'

  She leaned forward, took Steve's forearms in her hands and kissed him. It was just a quick kiss, the merest brush of her lips on his. It was meant to be friendly, brotherly, even. But she felt the swell of the muscles in his arms, and her breasts touched his chest.

  'That's not much of a kiss,' he said. He dropped her rucksack, wrapped both arms round her and pulled her close. His lips found hers. He kissed her gently, as she had kissed him. But then his kiss became different; it was passionate, demanding. At first she was shocked—but then she thought she liked being held so tightly, kissed with such ardour. Suddenly he released her. His face was troubled. 'Perhaps I shouldn't have done that,' he said.

  She didn't know how to reply to that. 'Perhaps you shouldn't,' she mumbled after a while. 'But I wasn't objecting. Shall we go now?'

  Wordlessly, he picked up her rucksack and led her out of the terminal.

  By unspoken, joint consent they didn't refer to the brief flare of emotion both had felt when he'd kissed her. It had been a sudden, unexpected thing. They would both forget it.

  They talked casually as he drove. He had a large blue estate car, the back seat littered with assorted medical pamphlets. He told her that he was a GP with a practice in the town, that he'd known Harry for years and Jo quite a while. He was interested when she told him that she worked in an Emergency Room in Las Vegas.

  'I'm going to spend some time in the local hospital A and E Department,' he said. 'GPs can work on the wards, and hospital doctors have some time seeing what a GP's job is like. Both sides get to understand the other's problems. I'm down to spend a few sessions in A and E quite soon.'

  'Sounds a good idea,' Kate said. Her eyes closed and she forced them open again. She had to stay awake for the rest of the day. 'I still feel you're driving on the wrong side of the road,' she said.

  He laughed. 'You'll get used to it.' After that they said little.

  They moved from the M62 to the M6 and then turned off left. It was an hour's drive to the little town of Kirkhelen, and they approached it across the Lancashire Plain. The town stood on a hill, and after a while Kate could see the church on the top of the hill, where Jo would get married.

  As they approached Kate felt a bewildering set of emotions. They passed the site where she'd used to camp with the Girl Guides, the river where they'd used to paddle. The two of them had been brought up here; Jo had spent all her life here. But the moment Kate had qualified, she had gone away. She was a wanderer; she had no feelings for home. But now there was the vague feeling that she might be missing something. Would she go wandering again? She was jet-lagged, she decided. Long-distance travel could affect your mind as well as your body. This mood would soon pass.

  They were almost at the town now. In the distance Kate could see the Greenfield site that held the Milner General Hospital. On the right was a small estate of newly built houses. Steve turned into it.

&
nbsp; 'We're early,' he said, glancing at his watch. 'Kate, been good to meet you. I'm sure we'll see a lot more of each other in the next few days.'

  'You're not coming in?' she asked. She felt she'd like to see more of him—perhaps a lot more.

  'Can't, I'm afraid. Harry and I are going walking in the Lakes for the rest of the day; he's been promising himself this last walk for a while now. Anyway, you'll have so much to say to your sister.'

  'You're right. Steve, thanks for picking me up.'

  He glanced at her. 'It was a pleasure,' he said. 'I enjoyed meeting you.'

  She wondered if the casual, polite words carried a hidden meaning. Then she decided she was imagining things.

  They pulled up outside a pretty detached house. It was obviously very new but someone had been working in the front garden, putting in rows of bedding plants. The front door opened, and there was the figure she knew so well.

  'Kate! You've come home.' Kate jumped out of the car and ran to meet her sister.

  Always, always, when she had been away, there was that strange feeling when she first saw her sister. That was her face, and her body—but somehow different.

  The clothes she didn't recognise. Then there was a feeling of wonder. Why did she spend so much time away from the one person she knew best in all the world, the person who had been through so much with her? And this had been their longest period apart.

  She ran over, hugged and kissed her sister. 'My older sister! Jo you look wonderful! Getting married must be good for you.'

  'Oh, it is, Kate. You should try it.'

  Kate held her sister at arm's length, looked at her critically. Jo was the older sister—by five minutes. And now there was a bloom about her, an aura of happiness.

  But to the trained eye there were signs of fatigue, slight bags under her eyes, and little lines by her mouth.

  'Jo, you've been doing too much, haven't you? Not enough sleep.'

  'Well, I'm still working, of course, and organising a wedding takes for ever! There have been times when we've wished we had eloped. But it's nearly all done now. Come on, let's go inside. Steve, thanks for picking up my sister.'