left it until the morning, he wouldn’t have made it and Violet would have a broken heart. Don’t do yourself down, love.’ He paused. ‘Or should I call you Your Highness from now on?’
She strove for lightness. ‘Melinda will do just fine.’
‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then, love.’
‘See you tomorrow, George. And thank you.’ She cut the connection, replaced the phone, took an apple from her fruitbowl and headed down into the practice.
Cassidy perked up as soon as he saw her. ‘’Ow do, m’dear?’
‘Pretty rubbish, actually,’ she told him.
The parrot swore a blue streak, and she smiled wryly. ‘Saves me doing it, I suppose. But I was meant to be teaching you something nice.’ She made a kissing noise. ‘Ti amo, tesoro.’
The bird responded with something pithy.
She cut him a piece of apple with a scalpel and fed it to him. ‘Ti amo, tesoro.’
This time there was no response at all.
She checked that he had enough water, scratched his poll just the way he liked it—and clearly he’d picked how to purr like a cat since he’d been in the surgery—then walked out of the room. As she turned off the light, she heard a very quiet kissing sound. ‘Ti amo, tesoro,’ Cassidy informed her.
Something Dragan would never say to her again.
And somehow she had to learn to live with it.
Kate walked through the door of the practice a moment after Dragan the following morning. She looked hot and bothered, although she didn’t appear to be out of breath; he had a feeling that her high colour was due to anger rather than rushing. ‘What’s up, Kate?’ he asked.
Kate pulled a face. ‘Nick and that wretched clippy-clop woman.’
‘Clippy-clop?’ Dragan asked, mystified.
‘The one who thinks it’s practical to wear high-heeled mules in a Cornish seaside village.’ Her scowl deepened. ‘Horrible woman. She dresses at least fifteen years too young, too. Nick must be going through the male menopause to think it makes him look young, having her on his arm. Maybe she looks young from a distance—but up close you can see she’s trowelled on her make-up to cover up the lines.’
Nick had never, ever heard Kate make a bitchy remark about anyone; their former practice manager, who’d recently done a refresher course and returned to the practice as a midwife, was always calm and unflappable and friendly. He stared at her in surprise. ‘What did she do?’
‘Oh, nothing. Just made some stupid remark about Jem’s name, and I shouldn’t let her get to me.’ She flapped a hand. ‘I was just taking Jem to meet Mum in the café—it’s the school holidays and she’s looking after him while I’m here this morning—when we bumped into them outside the post office. She couldn’t have got much closer to Nick if she’d stripped off the little she was wearing.’
Kate wasn’t normally that vehement or judgemental; then again, she was very protective of her son. Which didn’t surprise Dragan that much, as she was a single parent and Jem was all she had. ‘Natasha’s staying in the holiday cottage next to me,’ he remarked.
Kate rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, don’t tell me you think she’s gorgeous, too.’
‘No,’ Dragan said mildly.
‘Good. At least one of the men around here has some common sense, then.’
‘Don’t be too hard on Nick. He has his faults but he has a good heart.’
Kate pulled a face. ‘Well, at the moment he’s acting like an idiot.’
There was much more to this than met the eye, Dragan was sure, but he didn’t push it. He hated people interfering in his life, so he’d give Kate the space she clearly needed.
Kate grimaced again. ‘Hazel, I’m sorry I’m late. Give me three minutes and I’ll be ready.’ She patted Dragan’s arm. ‘Sorry for being grouchy. Are you all right? Those photographers must be making your life hell.’
He shrugged. ‘I’ll survive.’
‘Well, if you need to escape, you know where I am.’
He smiled ruefully. ‘And then the headlines will no doubt claim I’m cheating on Melinda with you. Thanks for the support, Kate, and I really appreciate the offer—but I’m not going to put you or Jem through that.’
‘With any luck they’ll find someone else to bother soon.’
‘With any luck,’ he agreed. But he knew it was going to run for a bit longer yet—and either way he was going to come out of this badly. Either the papers would denounce him as the love rat who’d dumped the princess, or they’d denounce him as the loser who wasn’t good enough for the princess and she’d dumped him.
He managed to get through the morning’s calls, deflecting all speculation and questions with a smile and bringing the conversations right back to his patients’ health worries, but in the afternoon he was called out to Mrs Harris, a neighbour of the Chamberlains.
‘I was cycling home from my friend’s when I saw her milk was still out on the front doorstep. So I went round the back and found her,’ Tina explained. ‘She’s fallen and she says her leg hurts.’
‘Don’t move her,’ Dragan said. ‘But get a blanket and put it over her to help keep her warm. I’m on my way.’ Mrs Harris was one of his patients, and he knew she had osteoporosis. The chances were she’d cracked at least one bone and she’d need X-rays and hospital treatment. St Piran Hospital was a half-hour drive away; although he could drive her there himself, given her condition it would risk making her injuries worse, and she’d find the ambulance much more comfortable. He rang through to the ambulance station and explained the situation, agreeing to call them from her house if her injuries weren’t as severe as he expected.
But the examination confirmed his worst fears. ‘You’ve broken your hip,’ he said gently. ‘I’m going to give you some pain relief now, but you need to be treated in St Piran.’ And, given her osteoporosis, fixing the fracture could turn out to be a real problem. Not that he was going to worry her about this now. ‘An ambulance is on its way.’
‘Hospital? But I can’t! What’ll happen to Smoky?’
The cat—which was almost as elderly as Mrs Harris—was sitting in her basket. She lifted her head on hearing her name and miaowed softly.
‘We could take her in and look after her until you’re home again,’ Tina suggested.
‘That’s sweet of you, love, but she’s terrified of dogs. No, I’ll have to stay with her.’
‘You need to go to hospital, Mrs Harris,’ Dragan said gently. ‘You need specialist treatment, something I can’t do for you here.’
‘I can’t leave Smoky,’ Mrs Harris said stubbornly.
‘Leave this with me,’
