promised you would not try to unsettle my patient. She has made her decision and there is no point in you questioning them now.’
‘Your patient? Georgina is my patient and has been for nineteen weeks since the quads were identified.’
‘Well, she’ll be your former patient unless you promise to cease this interference.’
‘Since when does advice to my patient constitute interference?’ he asked as he headed in the direction of his office.
‘From where I’m standing that’s exactly what it is and I won’t stand for it. So please back off or I’ll be forced to go to Oliver Darrington and ask to have you removed if he wants me to stay.’ Juliet kept up with his fast pace.
‘Is that a threat?’
‘I’m not sure… I guess if you don’t accept your behaviour to be tantamount to undue interference then I really don’t have to acknowledge whether mine is a threat.’
‘I said in front of Georgina that you have the opportunity to save her babies. They chose your procedure. It’s now in your hands. A fact. And as for the team expecting the unexpected, that is my way of saying they are experienced and the Abbiatis have nothing to worry about. My words were designed to bring comfort to the quads’ mother and by the look on her face they did just that. Did she look panicked?’
Juliet considered his words and began to think she might have overreacted again. ‘Well, no.’
‘That’s because I know my patient, I’ve been treating her for almost three months now and I have built a good rapport with her.’ He stopped outside his office.
At that moment, an orderly appeared wheeling a trolley laden with boxes. ‘This is the last of the archived records, Dr Warren. A desk is being brought up from storage along with a chair and a sofa. Oh, and I’ve asked the cleaning crew to freshen up the office next door for the Aussie doctor as you requested and the flowers you ordered will be here first thing tomorrow. I’m sorry the office wasn’t cleaned up this morning when you asked but we’ve been flat out. I wasn’t sure if she’d arrived yet but it will be all done by lunchtime.’
‘I guess your office will be ready for you to move in tomorrow, then, Juliet,’ Charlie said as he left Juliet alone with another onslaught of thoughts.
Each one of them making her feel smaller by the minute. She had once again misjudged Charlie and in the process demanded something he had already planned on providing. Before he graciously asked her out to brunch to give her the good news. Suddenly she thought the ogre’s shoes were more befitting her feet.
Juliet collected Bea without trying to find Charlie and offering to thank him. He had already organised an office for her before she’d made the demand earlier in the day. She felt foolish and thought better than trying to make amends yet again. She had made a habit of offending him that day just as he had of offending her the day before. He had made an effort to be courteous but the orderlies hadn’t been able to deliver. The fact she did not have an office was not his fault.
And the flowers he ordered? What on earth did that mean? After the disastrous start to the day, and the terrible ending, he still wanted to make her feel at home with flowers. This man was more of a riddle by the minute. Just when she thought she had worked him out, he surprised her. Only this time it was a nice surprise and an extremely humbling one for Juliet.
Somehow she would make amends. But exactly how would take some time to figure out.
‘Mummy!’ came the little voice. ‘I have a friend. Her name’s Emma.’ A little girl with flaming red hair and a toothy grin was holding Bea’s hand. ‘We played yesterday. And we played today. She’th such a good drawer. Her mummy’th a doctor too.’
‘Hello, Emma.’
‘Hello,’ the little girl replied in the softest voice.
‘Can Emma come home and play?’
‘That would be lovely one day if her mummy says yes, but just not today, Bea, because we have to find another place to live. Somewhere with a nice bath and your own room.’
Bea studied her mother’s face for a minute. ‘Okay, Mummy,’ she finally said with a smile. ‘Bye Emma. See you tomorrow.’
‘Bye, Bea,’ the little girl replied before she ran back to the toys on the play mat in the centre of the room.
Juliet popped her daughter’s woollen cape over her shoulders and led her to the car they had hired that morning. She was happy that Bea had made a new friend so quickly. She definitely had much better social skills than her mother, Juliet thought.
‘I’ve found two houses that might be nice so we might just pop in and see them. A man with the keys is meeting us at the first one in half an hour. We can’t stay in the hotel because it doesn’t give us much room and the bath just won’t do. It might be nice to have your own room—perhaps one day this week Emma might come over and play.’
‘I hope so,’ Bea said as she looked out of the window at the buildings as they drove down the main street of the town.
Juliet suddenly spotted a quaint tea room. ‘Would you like something to eat?’
‘Yeth, please.’
‘Let’s see if this little restaurant has Devonshire cream tea,’ she said as she checked her rear-vision mirror, then pulled the car over and parked.
‘What’th that, Mummy?’
‘Scones and jam and cream.’
‘Yummy!’
Almost an hour later and quite full on the fluffy scones, homemade raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream, Juliet and Bea arrived at the first house. It was a fully furnished cottage only ten minutes from Teddy’s. She pulled her small sedan into the lane beside the house, unsure of where else to park, and walked briskly around to the front gate. The lettings agent was already there. He looked about sixty years of age with a happy face with a ruddy complexion, strawberry-blond hair and wearing a tweed coat and a scarf.
‘Good afternoon, Dr Turner. I’m Eugene Parry.’
‘Hello, Eugene,’ Juliet said as she approached him with her hand extended. ‘Please call me Juliet.’
‘Certainly, Juliet,’ the man said as he unlocked the front door of the thatched-roof cottage. ‘It’s a lovely little place, this one. Just came back on the market for renting a week ago after the temporary bank manager left. They found a local to fill the role so the other one headed back to London leaving this vacant and you can have it on a monthly basis. No need for a long-term contract.’
Juliet stepped inside and was immediately taken by how cosy the home felt. It was small but very pretty inside.
‘Two bedrooms, as I said, and an eat-in kitchen along with this sitting room,’ Eugene said as they stood in the middle of the carpeted room. It was a little cold but Juliet knew with the flick of a switch the heating would change
