Remembering the little girl they'd had in, Ellie nodded. 'If you'd just boiled the kettle, then yes.' She fastened the dressing and scribbled on the lady's card. 'Go back to your GP practice for dressings from now on, but if you're worried you can always ring us again.'
The patients kept coming and by four o'clock she was starting to feel light-headed.
She sank into one of chairs and stared into space, jumping out of her skin when the door opened minutes later and Ben walked in.
Her stomach hit the floor and so did the dressing pack she was holding. Tweezers, gauze and gallipots ended up on the ground.
'Oh, help.' Blushing frantically, she stooped to pick them up, making sure that he couldn't see her face.
She knew that she was hopeless at hiding her feelings.
'Are you all right?'
Although she wasn't looking at him, she heard the concern in his tone and she kept her voice bright.
'Yes, fine.'
There was a brief pause and then he gave a sigh. 'Ellie Harrison, you're a hopeless liar. I thought you always said what was on your mind?'
'It's the new me,' she said lightly, retrieving the bits from the dressing pack and putting them back on the trolley. 'I'm going to try and work harder at hiding my feelings.'
She glanced briefly at his black hair and promptly knocked a box of saline off the shelf with her elbow.
Oh help. Her body was ceasing to function.
'Hiding your feelings?' His tone was amused. 'Ellie, you'd burst if you had to hide your feelings. So are you going to tell me now, or am I going to drag it out of you?'
She fumbled with the box, her cheeks flaming.
Clearly she had to say something.
She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear and gave him a brief smile. Then regretted it. Even that quick look had left her feeling scorched. 'I feel really sad about Freddie.' It was the truth. She did feel really sad about Freddie. 'What sort of life does he have? He's all on his own…'
Ben leaned broad shoulders against the wall, his eyes never leaving her face. 'You're right. It is sad.'
Ellie was silent for a long moment and then she looked up and managed a smile. 'Well, at least he'll be in the warm and be fed for a few days.'
Ben looked at her steadily. 'Thanks to you. Most people would have taken one look at him and not even considered that something might be wrong.'
She blushed, immensely pleased by the unexpected praise. 'It's dangerous to judge by appearances.'
'Absolutely.' Ben gave her a rare smile, clearly recalling their conversation on the first night they'd met. 'You were very kind to him and very quick to spot the problem, I've spoken to Social Services and they're going to make him a priority.'
'Good.'
There was a long pause. 'So now are you going to tell me what's really wrong? When we were treating Freddie you kept looking at me strangely. And now I walk into a room and suddenly you keep dropping things.' He was frowning at her. 'You may talk too much and do reckless things, but you're not usually clumsy. I think you need to take a break. You've skipped all your breaks again today, which is presumably why you're behaving so oddly.'
'No!' She blurted the denial out before she could stop herself, and he lifted a dark brow.
'No, what?'
'No, I'm not hungry. I couldn't eat a thing.'
'You, not able to eat!' There was laughter in his eyes. 'Ellie, are you ill?'
She stared at him, her breathing shallow. 'No.' There was the briefest of pauses. 'It's just that I'm so in love with you that I'm finding it a bit hard to concentrate.'
The laughter died and the hiss of Ben's indrawn breath was clearly audible.