to eat breakfast this morning,’ she explained after a moment or two. ‘Someone emptied the cupboards of cereals and bread.’ She spooned brown-sugar crystals into her cup and sipped tentatively, all her regrets about missing the first coffee of the morning finally beginning to slip away. He watched her curiously.
‘You were right,’ she murmured at last. ‘I needed that.’ She told him about her flatmate drinking the last of the milk. ‘It had to be Mike who was the culprit. Neither of the girls I share with would do something like that. He probably finished off the cornflakes as well.’
Brodie grinned. ‘I guess he’s down for a tongue lashing at some point.’
Her mouth twitched. ‘Definitely, if only so I can vent … not that he’ll take any notice. He never does—why should he when he leads a charmed life?’ She took another sip of coffee. It was reviving and she savoured it for a moment or two before her thoughts shifted to her mother once more. ‘Can you tell me anything about what happened this morning with my mother? I’m guessing you must have been outside with her when she fell.’
He nodded. ‘I was about to head off for a meeting. Your mother usually feeds the hens first thing, and then checks up on the rabbits, and we say hello and chat for a minute or two. Today she seemed a bit preoccupied—she was worried a fox might have been sniffing around in the night—so she didn’t say very much. She started to pull a few weeds out of the rockery and I went to my car. Then I heard a shout and when I looked around she had fallen on to the crazy paving. I think she must have lost her footing on the rocks and stumbled.’
Caitlin winced. ‘I’ve told her to leave the rockery to me. I see to it whenever I’m over here. This is why I worry about leaving her on her own for too long. She’s not so nimble on her feet these days, but she’s always been independent, and if something needs doing she’ll do it.’
‘You can’t be here all the time. You shouldn’t blame yourself.’
She sighed. ‘I do, though. I can’t help it. I love her to bits and I often think I should never have taken the job in Hertford. It seemed like such a good opportunity at the time.’
He nodded agreement. ‘Jane told me you’re a children’s doctor; she’s always singing your praises. She’s very proud of your achievements, you know.’
Caitlin smiled. ‘She’s always been the same. She sees the best in everyone.’
‘Yeah.’ Brodie gave a wry smile. ‘She was the only one who ever saw any good in me. Of course, she’d been friends with my mother since they were at school together, so that must have helped.’
‘Yes, I expect so.’ Sadly, Brodie’s mother had died in a car accident when he was a teenager. That was probably another reason why Jane Braemar had taken him under her wing. Caitlin had lost her father and there had been an immediate bond between her and Brodie because of their shared circumstances. They had each understood what the other had been going through, and in their own way had tried to comfort one another. It had given them a unique closeness, and it had also been good, a source of consolation, that her mother had looked out for Brodie in his darkest times. She’d stood by him all through his unruly, reckless phase.
She hadn’t been able to do anything to stem the tide of hostility that had grown among the locals with Brodie’s exploits, though.
After a whirlwind period of rebellion—of cocky, arrogant defiance, trespass, petty vandalism, and a ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’ way with girls—even Brodie must have realised he’d gone too far and that he’d worn out any vestiges of goodwill people might have felt for a motherless boy. He’d finally used up all his chances. On his eighteenth birthday, his father had kicked him out of the family home and Brodie had had to hunt around for somewhere to live. He’d stayed with various friends, Caitlin recalled, before he’d left the village a year or so later. At the time, she’d been broken-hearted. She’d suddenly realised she didn’t want him to leave.
Her phone trilled, breaking into her thoughts and bringing her sharply back to the present day. ‘My mother’s back on the ward,’ she told Brodie after a second or two. ‘The nurse said she’s a bit drowsy from the pain medication but I can go and see her.’
‘That’s good. It might help to put your mind at rest if you can spend some time with her.’
She nodded. ‘Thanks again for looking after her,’ she said softly, her grey eyes filled with gratitude. ‘I owe you.’
‘You’re welcome any time, Caitlin.’ He stood up with her as she prepared to leave. He reached for her overnight bag. ‘Let me help you with that,’ he said.
‘Thank you.’ She watched him lift the heavy bag effortlessly. In it, she’d packed everything she thought she might need over the next few days, including her hairdryer, laptop, make-up bag and several changes of clothes.
‘Have you thought about what will happen when your mother leaves hospital?’ he asked as they set off for the orthopaedic ward. ‘She’ll need a lot of help with mobility. Perhaps she could go to a convalescent home for a few weeks?’
She shook her head. ‘That won’t be necessary. I’d planned on coming back to live in the village in the next week or so—this has just brought it forward, that’s all.’
He frowned. ‘You’re leaving your job?’
‘Yes. I’ll have to find something else, of course, but I’d made up my mind that it was something I needed to do.’
‘Are you doing this for your mother’s sake or for some other reason?’
‘A bit of both, really.’ He was astute—she should have known that he would suspect an ulterior motive. ‘I have some personal reasons for wanting to leave.’
‘There wasn’t a problem with the job, then?’
‘Heavens, no.’ She looked at him wide-eyed. ‘I love my work. I just hope I can find something as satisfying to do here.’
They approached the lift bay. ‘Hmm. Maybe I could help you out there,’ he said. ‘No promises, but I’ve just taken over as head of the children’s unit here and I’m fairly sure I’ll be able to find you a position.’
She stared at him in disbelief. ‘You’re a doctor?’ Not only that, he was in charge of a unit. How could that be?
He nodded, his mouth quirking. ‘I know that must seem strange, with my background, but thankfully I managed to get my head together before it was too late. I used a legacy from my grandfather to put myself through medical school. I didn’t know anything about it until the lawyers contacted me but as far as I was concerned it came in the nick of time.’
She was stunned. ‘I can’t get used to the idea—you were an unruly, out-of-control teenager. You were always playing truant, going off with some friend or other to spend time in the woods.’ She shook her head. ‘Are you making this up?’
He laughed. ‘No, it’s all true. I took stock of myself one day and realised I was going nowhere fast. For all that I missed out on some of my schooling, I managed to get through the exams without too much bother, so when I made up my mind what I wanted to do it wasn’t too difficult for me to get a place at medical school.’
They stepped inside the lift. ‘What made you decide you wanted to be a doctor?’ She still couldn’t
