way she moved only added to the temptation. He dismissed those thoughts as well.
Joe had put himself on trial here. When he’d first come to the village he’d deliberately avoided anything that was even remotely connected with his former life, but now there was a need he could fulfil. If he could do this, without getting involved with the medical side of things, that would be a final step towards putting his old life behind him.
He drew up outside the church hall in Leminster. A surgery had been arranged for those who could make it here, and outside the new fallen snow was already churned and flattened by the passing of feet. Inside, the occasion appeared to have turned into an impromptu coffee morning.
From the relaxed smile on her face when Neve walked into the hall, one would never have guessed that she was probably counting faces, wondering whether she was going to be here all day. She walked briskly into the middle of the noisy throng and clapped her hands.
Silence. Joe allowed himself a smile. That was an achievement in itself.
‘Who’s here for me?’ She made it sound like a party, and that she was excited to see that so many people had turned up. Three-quarters of the hands in the room shot up, and she tried again.
‘One hand for each patient, please.’
Most of the hands went back down again, leaving six. She gave a dazzling smile in response and received a low rumble of approbation from the assembled company.
She had a nice way about her. In Joe’s experience, if you wanted to know about a doctor, you looked first at their patients. And if the faces here were anything to go by, Neve was one of the best. Her style might be a little different from his, a little more long-lost-relative and a little less here-comes-the-cavalry, but that was no bad thing. Joe reminded himself that he was here to drive, nothing more.
‘Who’s first?’ Someone pointed to Fred Hawkins, sitting in the corner of the room, and he reached for his walking stick.
‘That’s okay, Fred. Finish your tea, it’ll be a couple of minutes before I get settled.’ She flashed Joe a smile then turned to the church warden, who guided her away into one of the small rooms at the back of the hall.
Although the intention behind holding a surgery here had not been primarily to carry out a fact-finding mission regarding Joe Lamont, it did turn up a lot of information. Fred Hawkins confided that he was a ‘useful enough carpenter’ while Neve was trying to listen to his chest. Lisa Graham chattered about him incessantly as Neve examined a lump on her young son’s leg, and Ann Hawkins, headmistress of the local primary school and the wife of Fred’s second cousin, proffered the information that Joe had built an adventure playground for the school a few months back.
‘He was quite a talking point for a while…’ Ann winced as Neve removed the dressing from her swollen finger to reveal a cut.
‘Do you have any loss of sensation? Here?’ Neve worked gently along the main nerves.
‘No. It’s a real addition for us. The kids love it.’
‘Right. I’m going to put some adhesive stitches onto the cut and I’ll prescribe antibiotics, just to be on the safe side.’
Ann nodded. ‘Thanks. He doesn’t seem to have anyone. Not that some of the younger women haven’t tried. I had to have a word with one of our teaching assistants about staring out of the window all moony-eyed at him when she was supposed to be doing her job.’
Neve hid a grin. It appeared that Joe-itis wasn’t just confined to the teaching assistants. The school’s head teacher had been infected with the epidemic as well, along with what sounded like half the village.
‘So what exactly does he do?’ Neve’s curiosity about Joe had been growing, and she gave in to the inevitable. ‘His job, I mean.’
‘I heard he was ex-army.’ Ann pursed her lips thoughtfully. ‘I don’t know if that’s true. He doesn’t seem to have a job now. Unless of course he’s doing something on the internet in the evenings.’
Professional gambler? She imagined that Joe would have the perfect poker face if he put his mind to it. Writer? Internet entrepreneur? Combination of all three?
‘There were a few rumours going round, but they were just idle talk.’ Ann dismissed any further speculation with a disapproving twitch of her mouth. ‘But, then, people will wonder.’
True enough. The secret to keeping a secret was never to let a soul know that you had one. Neve had never told anyone about her marriage, and so the awkward questions about why it had been such a disaster never occurred to anyone.
‘Hold still, Ann. This will sting a little bit.’
Ann winced as Neve cleaned and disinfected the wound. ‘He wasn’t well, of course, when he first came here. You know his grandmother was born in Leminster? Fred remember her from way back, when he was just a boy. Says she was a pretty little thing.’
Perhaps that was why the village had taken Joe to their hearts. The prodigal son returned. But in Neve’s experience, any respect you got from the close-knit communities around here was generally earned and not just doled out on account of who your grandmother was.
‘Right, then, Ann.’ She handed her the prescription. ‘I want you to take these for a week. Can you get to the chemist today?’
‘Yes, no problem.’ Ann got to her feet. ‘I suppose you’re back on the road again now. You must be busy.’
‘Yes. It’s a lot easier with Joe doing the driving, though.’
‘Mmm. With the weather like this, you need someone to help you.’
By the time Neve had finished, Joe had been persuaded up a ladder to fix Christmas decorations to the high ceiling beams and had helped move the piano to make room for the Christmas tree. It was something of a relief to retrieve his coat and follow her back outside to the car.
‘What’s that you’ve got?’ She nodded at the plastic food container in his hand.
‘Chocolate cake. I said it was a bit early for me, so there are two large pieces here for later.’ He wondered whether she’d greet this latest offer of food with the same prickly indignation she’d shown that morning.
‘Oh, nice. I like chocolate cake.’ She had a particular flair for confounding his expectations, and Joe found himself smiling.
The first real obstacle of the day presented itself a mile down the road, in the shape of a white minibus. It was blocking the road ahead, almost invisible against the drifting snow, only the bright flash of a logo on its side clearly distinguishable.
Joe slowed and stopped. ‘Television crew.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I heard they’ve been filming around Leminster. Community in crisis, that kind of thing.’
Neve was frowning at the vehicle. ‘Looks as if the community’s dealing with the crisis a bit better than they are.’
‘Yeah. Perhaps they can film themselves.’
The sound of a racing engine drifted towards them and the wheels of the minibus
