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As he waited, he recalled how the local people had been wary of him at first. Peter had been their doctor for as long as some of them could remember. But they’d had time to get to know him and now they had his measure, knew him to be competent and briskly kind.
If any of the women patients wondered why such a presentable member of the opposite sex had arrived in their midst with no obvious family ties, they were left to ponder. Daniel was like his landlady. He kept his own counsel in matters close to his heart.
Patients came and went, some only mildly suffering, and others in dire distress. Now Millie from the chemist’s was sitting opposite him. She was fighting breast cancer and needed a mastectomy because it had come back in a more serious form after a long remission.
‘Would I have a better chance if I had them both removed?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Only the oncologist can advise you on that, Millie,’ he told her gently, ‘and remember there is a chance that having the one mastectomy might be sufficient to give you a clean bill of health for a long time, maybe even permanently.’
‘And it might not,’ she reminded him. ‘I’d rather go the whole way now, instead of wishing I had.’
‘Have they given you a date?’ Daniel asked.
‘No. Not yet, but they’ve told me it will be soon. I wanted a word with you first before I approached them about a double mastectomy.’
‘It is a difficult decision for you to make.’
She shook her head. ‘Not really. If it gives me a few more years, it will be worth it.’ She gave a watery smile. ‘At least I won’t feel lopsided.’
‘So what does your husband say, Millie?’
‘All he cares about is that I get better.’
‘So have a word with the oncologist and see what he says.’ Daniel advised patiently.
‘It’s a she,’ Millie explained.
‘Fine. You may find it easier to explain your feelings to another woman.’
As the numbers in the waiting room dwindled and the clock ticked on, Daniel wondered how his patient at Jasmine Cottage was feeling. She was far from well and somewhat disgruntled, but he sensed that her disappointment at finding her mother missing was mostly to blame for her lack of cordiality, as well as discovering that she hadn’t got the house to herself.
But she couldn’t have it both ways. At least he’d been there to look after her when she’d fainted and afterwards. And if she wasn’t happy about him staying at Jasmine Cottage, he would have to keep a low profile while she was there and hope that it wouldn’t be for long.
‘I’m sorry I was delayed earlier,’ he said to Miriam as they were clearing up at the end of the day. ‘Ruth’s daughter arrived home unexpectedly and she wasn’t at all well. She fainted and I couldn’t leave her until I was sure she would be all right.’
‘I see,’ she said distantly. ‘It was just that we were rather busy.’
‘Yes, I know. We need another doctor and I’m going to sort it the first chance I get.’
He didn’t know how at that precise moment, but there were always young graduates keen to go into general practice, or more experienced doctors needing to relocate for family or other personal reasons.
It had been hectic since he’d taken over, but now everything was settling down and with another doctor in the practice he might find time to explore the Cheshire countryside.
One of the best things to happen to him since he’d become part of the rural community had been staying at Ruth Barrington’s. He’d bought a piece of land down by the river and was having a detached house built on it. But it was going to be a matter of months before it was ready, and while that was going on he was happy and grateful to be based at Jasmine Cottage, or at least he had been until today.
It was half past six when he pulled up on the drive and as he let himself in there was no sound coming from anywhere in the house, so it seemed as if Kate might be asleep once more.
He knocked gently on her bedroom door and when there was no reply he pushed it open slowly. The bed was empty and he could hear the shower running in the en suite, so it seemed as if she was feeling better. But what had he advised? He’d told her to stay where she was. If she’d fainted in the shower it could have had serious consequences.
However, it appeared that she hadn’t as at that moment she appeared draped in a towel, with feet bare and hair flat and damp against her head.
When she saw him standing there she clutched the towel more tightly around her and said defensively, ‘I know what you said, but I felt so hot and sticky, and I’m not feeling so bad now. Whatever I’ve picked up must have reached its peak when I fainted.’
He shrugged. ‘If you say so, and as we are both in the same line of business, I’m sure you know what’s best for you, so I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Don’t go,’ she said quickly.
‘Why? I’m hungry. Your mother told me to help myself to whatever I found in the fridge or the freezer. So I’m about to investigate. You can join me if you like, but don’t feel you have to.’
‘Would you just let me get a word in?’ she protested, and he became silent.
‘I want to apologise for my rudeness when you found me asleep in front of the heater, and also to say thanks for looking after me when I fainted. I don’t usually behave in such a manner.’ She sighed. ‘My excuse is that I’ve just had to cancel my wedding. Over the last few weeks I’ve been going through the process of calling it off and it has been a distressing nightmare. But it is done now and I’ve come home to live for the time being.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ he said quietly, and wondered what she would say if he told her he knew the feeling. But there were lots of different reasons for calling weddings off, and he could bet that his wasn’t the same as hers. ‘Was it to take place here in the village?’
She shook her wet blonde head. ‘No. My fiancé wanted us to be married abroad in St Lucia.’
‘So a lot of your friends here would have been disappointed.’
‘Yes. It wasn’t my idea. But I was in love and…’ She tailed off.
‘Quite so,’ he said, and turned to go. The conversation was bringing back painful memories that he could only cope with when he was alone.
‘I’ll put some clothes on and join you shortly, if that’s all right,’ she said hesitantly, with the feeling that she’d said the wrong thing again, but this time she didn’t know what it was.
‘I said it was, didn’t I?’ This time he did go, down the stairs and into the kitchen.
He was putting two plates of fish pie, peas and new potatoes on the table when she appeared hesitantly in the doorway, wearing a pink long-sleeved top and worn blue jeans, her blonde hair now dry. He had been feeling rather guilty about the way he had spoken to her upstairs and, seeing her now, looking so wary, he offered her a smile.
‘Come and sit down,’ he said, hoping he sounded more friendly. ‘Did your mother phone while I was out?’
She relaxed a little, came in and sat down. ‘Yes. Just after you’d gone. She was surprised to know I’m back home and sorry she wasn’t here to greet me. Gran has had a quite severe angina attack and at the moment is in hospital. So Mum won’t be returning until she is sure that all is well with her, and if there is any doubt about it she’s going to bring her here to live. It’s handy, having four big bedrooms.’
‘Yes. Especially when one of them is being occupied by the lodger,’ he commented dryly. ‘Did you tell her that we’ve met?’
‘Er…yes. She seems to think very highly of you and even more so after I told her how you’d looked after me.’
He nodded imperceptibly and for a while they ate in silence, both enjoying the tasty meal. Then Daniel spoke again.
‘So why didn’t you tell me that you’re in medicine too?’
Kate shrugged. ‘At the moment that’s in the past. I was a doctor in A and E at a hospital down south. We both were. Craig, my fiancé, worked there too. But a few weeks ago the unit was transferred to another area where they had their own staff waiting to take over, which left some of us without jobs. I could have moved to another department, I suppose, like he did, but I left as a protest at the closure of a busy A and E centre.’
‘So it would seem that life hasn’t been treating you very well of late.’
‘No. It hasn’t. I wasn’t the one who called off the wedding. He had been the one keen to get married. Then suddenly he didn’t want to be tied down…to me, that was. He’d switched his affections to my flatmate.’
‘I’m sure that you must feel you’re well rid of him.’
She smiled, showing even white teeth, and he thought how it transformed her face. So far she’d been scowling most of the time, but now he was seeing her as someone who would be quite something if she smiled more…in spite of the hairstyle.
‘I didn’t at first. That kind of thing makes one feel so unwanted and unlovable, but I’m getting there.’
‘I’m sure you are,’ he said with a smile of his own, and thought that this girl had some spirit. It was a shame that some low-life had tried to quench it. “Perhaps when you are fully recovered we can drink a toast to your continuing return to good health and a future spent with people who won’t let you down?’
‘Hmm. That would be lovely. So maybe you could tell me what’s happening at the surgery? Peter Swain has gone now, hasn’t he?’
‘Yes. But Miriam remains and I think she disapproves of me.’
‘Why, for goodness’ sake? Though thinking back to when I was there, it didn’t take much for her to start sighing and rolling her eyes.’
He laughed. ‘Nothing has changed, except that I’m in charge now and as new people are moving into the area our list of patients is getting bigger all the time.’
‘Yes, it will be,’ she agreed. Suddenly a wave of tiredness swept over her. Getting to her feet, she said apologetically, ‘I think that maybe I left my bed a bit too soon. I’m not going to faint again,’ she told him as he eyed her in concern. ‘I just suddenly feel very tired.’
‘That will be the after-effects of you having had such a high temperature. Do go back to bed by all means and I’ll look in on you later to make sure you are all right. We can have the wine another time.’
She nodded and got up from the table, pausing in the doorway. ‘I’m sorry I’m being such a drag, Dr Dreyfus,’ she said.
He smiled. ‘The name is Daniel, and none of us can help being ill at some time or another, as we doctors well know, so don’t give it another thought. You’re probably run down after all the stress you’ve been under, and would have thrown the virus off at another time.’
As she went slowly up the stairs, Daniel was again wishing he hadn’t been so brusque with her when he’d come back from the surgery. On closer acquaintance, Kate seemed all right.
Before he settled down for the night himself he went to check on her and found her sleeping peacefully. Her forehead was cool, her pulse regular, and as he moved away from the bed she turned in her sleep and murmured the name of the man she’d been going to marry, which made him wonder if she really had written him out of her life.
When he woke up the next morning he could smell bacon grilling and when he went downstairs Kate was setting the table for breakfast.
‘My turn,’ she told him as toast popped up in the toaster and the kettle came to the boil.
‘So am I to take it that you are feeling better?’ he asked.
‘Mmm. Much. I’m going to start unpacking when we’ve had breakfast and I’m going to put the washing machine on, so if you have anything that needs washing, leave it out.’
‘And what are you going to do after that?’
‘Take a wedding dress to the charity shop in the village.’
‘Surely someone else could do that for you. It’s bound to be painful. I’ll take it for you if you like.’
She was staring at him in amazement, unaware that for him it would not be the first time. But on a previous occasion the dress hadn’t been despatched with such haste and it had been returned to the shop from where it had been bought.
‘I can’t let you do that,’ she protested. ‘Mrs Burgess, who’s in charge of the place, would have it on the grapevine almost before you’d left the shop that you had brought in a wedding dress. What interpretation she and her helpers would put on that, I shudder to think.’
He was laughing. ‘So why don’t we set them a puzzle?’
‘If you’re sure.’
‘Sure I’m sure, but are you sure that you and what’s his-name, Craig, aren’t going to get back together?’
‘That’s not going to happen,’ she said flatly. ‘I’ve learnt my lesson. From this day forward I will only ever marry someone who can’t live without me, and I can’t live without him. And if I never find him I’ll stay single. I think I was in love with love more than I was with Craig.’
‘So where is the dress?’
‘Upstairs in a big box. I’ll go and fetch it.’
He must be insane, Daniel thought wryly after she’d gone to get it. Offering to take her brand-new wedding dress to the second-hand shop. It would be like turning the knife in him again, and what would Ruth think when she came home? That he ought to mind his own business. Or that he should have suggested to Kate that she sell it, being currently unemployed.
Why was he getting involved in her affairs anyway? They’d only met the previous day and hadn’t exactly hit it off to begin with. He had enough to concern himself about without worrying over a jilted bride. Running the practice and keeping an eye on the builders working on his house down by the river, for a start.
But there was something about Kate that was reaching out to him and it wasn’t because she was his type. Far from it. Lucy had been his type, but the after-effects of a brain tumour had taken her from him only days before their wedding, so he did understand how it felt to have one’s future wiped away. In his case it had been the cruel fates that had broken his heart, not a cheating partner.
Kate was back with the box that had the dress in it. Ashen-faced but determined. As he took it from her she said, ‘Thanks for taking it. I seem to have been putting on your good nature from the moment we met, and I know I’m pushing it, but I wonder if I could ask one more favour of you.’
‘It depends what it is.’
‘From what you were saying last night, it appears that you could do with another doctor in the practice. I have worked there before, and I do need a job.’
As soon as the words were out she wished she could take them back. His expression said it all. She was pushing it. Pushy was how she was coming over to him. She could tell.
‘I’ll have to think about it,’ he said levelly. ‘It is something I’ve been considering, but I’m not sure if I’m quite ready to act on it.’ And carrying the big cardboard box in front of him, he went and got into his car and at the bottom of the drive pointed it in the direction of the charity shop.
CHAPTER TWO
WHEN he’d gone, Kate slumped down on to the sofa and gazed bleakly into space. Whatever had possessed her to ask such a thing of him on such short acquaintance? Had she expected him to jump at the chance of employing her when he had no way of knowing how proficient she was?
Having worked in the practice in the past, she had the experience, but Daniel hadn’t seen her in action. It wouldn’t be easy to look him in the eye when they next met. She’d been on the receiving end of his good nature since the moment he’d found her on the carpet in front of the electric heater. He’d even offered to take the wedding dress that she hoped never to see again to the charity shop, and now he must be thinking she was taking advantage.
The day stretched ahead, long and miserable, and she wished her mother was home to offer comfort.
That was a bolt from the blue! Daniel was thinking as he drove towards the main street of the village, Ruth’s daughter asking to be taken into the practice. It had taken him by surprise and he’d fobbed her off, thinking as he did so that Kate wasn’t backward at coming forward. He supposed that her life was in turmoil at present and she was seeing a job at the practice as a means of sorting out one part of it at least.
But when he took someone on it was going to be done properly with an in-depth interview, references and the rest. Not after a cosy little chat with his landlady’s daughter. And if she was the right person for the job, then he would hire her. However, he also knew that the thought of working with Kate had unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.
After he’d lost Lucy he had decided that love and pain walked hand in hand and he couldn’t go through that terrible kind of loss ever again. It was a defeatist attitude. He knew it. But it was why he steered clear of women and relationships. He didn’t want Kate becoming any more entangled in his life than she was already.
The charity shop where Mrs Burgess ruled the roost was looming and, parking outside, he picked up the big cardboard box and went in. When he laid it on the counter and opened the top flaps of the box, there was a flurry of interest amongst staff and early morning customers alike, and someone said, ‘It’s beautiful. Just look at the lover’s knots along the scalloped hemline. Who did it belong to?’
‘An acquaintance,’ he explained, having no desire to depart from the truth.
‘It looks as if it’s never been worn,’ someone else said, and he shrugged noncommitally and wondered if Kate was making a mistake in getting rid of it so fast, though he understood that the dress was a reminder of how her hopes and dreams had been shattered.
Leaving them still admiring it, he drove to the surgery, intending to forget the jilted bride for a while as he concentrated on the needs of his patients.
As he was passing through Reception Jenny collared him, wanting to know how Kate was. ‘Improving,’ he told her. ‘But I’ve told her to stay put and keep warm.’
Later on in the morning Mrs Giles brought her young son in for Daniel to see. The child was jerking his neck uncontrollably and his mother said anxiously, ‘I’ve brought Billy to see you because of his neck.’
Daniel was on his feet and round their side of the desk before she’d finished speaking.
