Page 52 of Lost in Love
Chapter 15
Katherine topped up the vase on the centre table of the hall. The flowers Rebecca brought her from London were always so fresh. She claimed they were from the Covent Garden flower market, but Katherine knew that was wholesale only. No doubt they were from a gentleman friend who worked there or a client.
“Are you off?” Katherine watched as Rebecca descended the stairs with her suitcase.
“Afraid so.”
“And the verdict?”
“I like her. She seems completely devoted to her father, which is a good sign, and there’s something about her...”
Letters appeared through the letterbox and dropped onto the mat. Katherine picked them up.
“She’s feisty,” Rebecca concluded. “She won’t take any of your crap.”
Katherine swatted Rebecca with the letters and sifted through them. One caught her attention, and she scrabbled to open it. Her face dropped as she read it.
“What is it?” Rebecca asked.
“Shit,” was the only reply Katherine could muster.
“Kat?”
Katherine sat on the bottom of the stairs. Her knees had weakened, and she didn’t trust them to hold her up.
Rebecca approached her, and Katherine passed her the letter.
“The General Medical Council? What do they want?” Rebecca’s eyes whizzed over the contents of the letter.
Katherine dropped her head into her hands.
“But Anna’s not your patient. What’s their problem with you having a relationship?”
“Patients, family, they’re much the same thing to the GMC, and I have actually seen her as a patient.”
“And you knew this right… before you…”
Katherine nodded. She had no excuse. It had been drilled into her since medical school:You must not use your professional position to pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship with a patient or someone close to them.
“Why do it then?”
“It was so gradual. I just wanted to help her, to help them. I didn’t realise I was falling in love. It wasn’t part of the plan, and by the time I knew I was, it was too late; there was no going back. I just had to hope no one would care.”
“You tried to build a relationship on a wing and a prayer, knowing it could all crash down?” Rebecca shook her head. “That poor girl, you don’t deserve her.”
“I know.”
“Shit, Kat. Why did you let me encourage you? I thought it was just patients you couldn’t have relationships with.” Rebecca ferreted in her handbag for her phone and put it to her ear. “Adrian, it’s Rebecca Harvey. I have a favour to ask.”
Katherine watched Rebecca as she paced the hallway explaining the situation to whoever Adrian was. She eventually hung up and marched to the kitchen.
“Right, that’s my friend Adrian, who specialises in this medical grey area sort of thing. He says to send him a copy of the letter right away, and he’ll come back with your options. Once you decide, he’ll send the response from his office.”
Rebecca placed the letter on the kitchen island in a ray of sun and took photographs of it on her phone, tapping furiously at it before placing it down on the marble work surface.
“Now what?” Katherine asked sheepishly.
Rebecca looked at her watch. “We wait.”
