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admired and well-regarded physicians, Dr Annabel Stuart.'
    Annabel, enormously startled by the unexpected generosity of his introduction and the applause his words provoked, managed a weak smile on her way to change places with him at the lectern. 'You didn't have to go overboard,' she murmured, waiting for the applause to die.
    'Live up to it,' he commanded softly, before leaving her to her speech.
    Annabel had no fears about public speaking. She was accustomed to teaching as her years of medical training and her job here at St Peter's involved lecturing to both junior doctors and medical students. But knowing Luke was there, knowing he'd be critically appraising her every word and movement, it made her nervous where normally she'd have been briskly confident, and for once she had to work hard at her presentation.
    'When I was a doctor in training we treated peptic ulcers with either acid-reducing medication or complicated surgery,' she began, shakily at first but more strongly once her fascination for the topic came to dominate her anxiety about Luke's presence. 'These days, since the discovery that most ulcers are caused by an infection, the vast majority of sufferers are treated with antibiotics. Could it be that in ten years from now we'll be treating coronary artery diseases the same way?'
    The topic was fascinating. Recent studies had led to interest in the possible dramatic role that bacteria, including the same organism implicated in causing stomach ulcers, might play in the development of coronary vessel disease or hardening of the arteries. If the results were confirmed in more thorough, extensive studies, there had to be a possibility that future treatment of heart disease might involve antibiotics rather than the powerful drugs and invasive surgery they used now.
    'Although obviously these are very early days,' she reminded her audience as she drew her talk to a close. 'But I think you'll agree that the potential, if this work is proved, is awe-inspiring.'
    She smiled her thanks at the round of applause which concluded her speech, then stood back, flushing slightly at the brief, approving look Luke sent her before he came forward to field what looked like dozens of questions from the floor.
    'I'm going to take shameless advantage of my role as convenor to slip in one question of my own, Annabel,' he said mildly. 'I'm concerned that if this research is proved it might mean we cardiologists have no job to come to.' The observation provoked a murmur of amusement from the audience. 'Will the patients of the future with heart disease simply pick up a prescription from a GP, without ever needing further referral?'
    'You may be right about our jobs disappearing.' Conscious both of their audience and her body's nervously heated reaction as she was forced to move closer to him to reach the microphone, Annabel lifted her shoulders, taking care not to look at him directly lest he saw how he was flustering her. 'But I don't expect many cardiologists will object to retiring a few years earlier than we might otherwise if it's for the greater good of humanity.'
    The question-and-answer session continued up until the end of the hour when Luke smoothly thanked her for her talk and drew the lecture to a close.
    'I have another session in Outpatients now,' Annabel told him as they drew away from the lectern. 'It's my fortnightly specialist cardiomyopathy clinic so you might find it interesting.' The diagnosis, treatment and understanding of diseases of the heart muscle was one of her own—as well as Luke's—special areas of interest and expertise. True, she hadn't welcomed his assistance that morning but after his professionalism this past hour she found herself in a more peaceable state of mind. 'You're welcome to join me if you're interested.'
    'What's this, Annie?' Her ex-husband's very green eyes narrowed at her. 'This morning spitting and now smiling? You are a contrary girl. Or have you decided to call a truce?'
    'We don't