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‘Did you read the article?’

‘Bits of it.’ She grimaced. ‘Someone had left the magazine open on the table in the doctors’ lounge, and I glanced at it in passing.’

He gave a crooked smile. ‘I’m not going to win this argument when I’m up against a biased opinion like yours, am I? Perhaps you should have read the article in full before you made up your mind that I’m the devil incarnate.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ she said. ‘I tend not to think about you at all.’

That remark might have been a good payback for the putdown he had made on his website, but it didn’t have anything near the effect she’d wished for. He simply tilted back his head and laughed.

‘HOW is the article coming along?’ Abby queried, glancing at Matt as he walked up to the reception desk in A and E. He was beautifully turned out, as usual, wearing an immaculate grey suit, with a shirt that was a soft shade of blue. It matched the colour of his eyes, she noted irrelevantly. She watched him take his notepad from his briefcase.

‘I’m getting there,’ he murmured. ‘This last session should see me through to completing it. I already have a wealth of material to write up.’

‘That’s good.’ She frowned, glancing at him through narrowed eyes. Perhaps it would mean that he would soon be gone from under her feet. It was some three weeks since he had arranged to follow her progress through A and E, but at least she had managed to limit his visits to one day a week. She was still uneasy at having him shadow her every move. His presence in the unit put her on edge, though she was hard put to say why.

‘I hope you’ll be sure to let me see the finished article before it goes to print,’ she said on a warning note. Heaven forbid he should take the opportunity to aim a few more swipes at her through his website or, in this case, a Sunday newspaper magazine.

‘I will, of course.’ His mouth made a crooked slant, one that she was beginning to recognise. He knew exactly what she was thinking, and the fact that he had the ability to read her mind so easily was making her increasingly uncomfortable.

She started towards one of the treatment rooms. ‘I’m going to check up on a six-year-old who was brought in here a little earlier. His mother was brought to A and E after a violent domestic incident involving her husband, and the episode seems to have triggered the child’s asthma. He’s in a bad way.’

Matt frowned. ‘Was it simply stress that started the attack, or do you think there could be an underlying infection that’s adding to his troubles?’

‘There may well be an infection of some sort. He’s certainly very chesty. We’re doing tests to check on that, and we have him on antibiotic therapy in the meantime, but I think whatever happened at home tipped him over the edge and sent his lungs into spasm.’

They went into the room together a moment later. The little boy was propped up against pillows, and a nurse was checking the monitors and recording his vital signs on a chart.

Abby went over to him and adjusted the oxygen mask, which had become slightly dislodged. ‘Breathe in through here for me, Ryan, will you? It will help you to feel better. Here, you can hold it, if you like.’

Ryan struggled to pull in a few breaths of oxygen. He was a frail, thin little boy, with fair hair that added to his pallor. He was ashen-faced and very distressed, so that Abby was worried for him.

He gazed up at her. ‘I want my mum…’ he said in a thready voice. He turned his head and tried to look around the room, obviously searching for her, but he was very weak and the effort exhausted him. He sank back against the pillows, a teardrop trickling down his cheek.

Abby wished that she could comfort him. She wanted to reach out and hug him. ‘I’m sure she’ll be here to see you in a little while. We just need to make sure that you’re feeling better so that you’ll be able to talk to her when she comes to sit with you.’

‘My mum’s poorly,’ the boy said heavily, pulling the mask away from his mouth for an instant, and Abby held it for him so that he could still breathe in the oxygen. ‘I wanted to stay with her.’

‘I know you did,’ Abby said. ‘She was hurt, wasn’t she? But someone’s gone over to the grown-ups’ A and E to find out how she is. The nurses are looking after her right now, but as soon as she’s strong enough we’ll see if we can bring her over to you.’

His expression was solemn, as though he was thinking things through. After a moment or two, he said, his voice barely more than a whisper, ‘Daddy hit her in the tummy.’ His face started to crumple. ‘I tried to stop him. I shouted…But he pushed me out of the way…and my mum fell down.’

His breath gave way, and Abby said gently, ‘It must have been very upsetting for you to see that.’

Ryan nodded, a very slight movement of his head, and he started to chew at his bottom lip. Abby glanced up at Matt, and saw that he was frowning, his gaze intent on the boy.

‘Has this sort of thing happened before?’ he asked.

Again, Ryan nodded. Abby said, ‘I know this is hard for you, but you should try not to worry too much. It was very clever of you to ring for the ambulance, and your mother must be very proud of you. You did what you could to help her, and now, because of that, you’re both being looked after. You did very well.’

The boy didn’t look as though he was too sure of that, and Abby guessed that he would go on fretting until he actually saw his mother again. He stared wretchedly into space, and she moved away from the bedside in order to cast a glance over his chart.

Matt was still frowning, and said in an under-tone, ‘Where was the father while the boy was ringing for the ambulance, do you know?’

Abby shook her head. ‘It seems that he left the house, and no one has seen him since. The paramedics spoke to the neighbours and they said this kind of event wasn’t unusual. Apparently he likes to have everything his own way and the couple are always arguing.’

‘Has anyone checked the woman’s medical records to see if there are any other recorded instances of possible abuse?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. I had a word with someone in the department, and they were looking into it. She’s had rib fractures, apparently, and a few unexplained falls.’

Matt’s jaw flexed. ‘He needs to be stopped.’

Abby pressed her lips together. ‘You’re right, of course, but if his wife won’t take a positive stand and bring it out into the open, there’s very little that we can do to help her. She has to find the courage to make the first move.’

The nurse came to the bedside and tucked a teddy bear against the pillow, sitting him next to Ryan and folding the toy into the crook of his arm. ‘I’ve brought a friend to keep you company,’ she told him. ‘Teddy’s not very happy. I think he wants a cuddle.’