a word having been read and deciding that solitude was all right in small doses he reached for a jacket and going out into the night pointed himself in the direction of The Mallard, and this time there was no Ruby rising hastily from her seat by the fire to make a quick exit.
Having calmed down after her earlier glee at the thought of securing the apartment, Ruby was towelling herself dry in front of a large mirror in the bathroom after her nightly luxurious bath when catching sight of herself she paused in contemplation.
There was nothing wrong with her figure, she thought wistfully, slender curves, smooth skin, and long legs that made up for any raving beauty that was missing elsewhere. But it wasn’t anything that was missing that frequently made her feel sad, just the opposite. It was something she had that she didn’t want, that might one day turn light into darkness.
Don’t let it spoil the pleasure of being back here, she told herself.
Soon it would be spring and everywhere would come alive as it always had before. The lake would be filled with launches and small boats and the fells would be beckoning the climbers and walkers who couldn’t resist them onto their rugged slopes. But best of all there would be the practice and knowing that she was back in the place that had wrapped itself around her and held her close when her world had fallen apart.
When she came out of the apartment the next morning Hugo was about to pull out of the drive and he wound the car window down to ask if she wanted a lift to the surgery.
She flashed him a smile but shook her head, ‘No. I’m fine, thank you, Dr Lawrence. I’m still in a state of delight to be back here and will enjoy the short walk.’
It was true she would, but the main reason she’d refused the lift was because she didn’t want Hugo Lawrence to feel that his reluctant overseeing of her welfare had to continue.
She was up and running, ready for any challenge that came her way in the new life she had chosen for herself, just as long as she could put on hold the interest he had awakened in her from the moment of their meeting.
About to drive off, he said as a parting comment, ‘We’ll have to sort out you taking over the spare car at the surgery that I mentioned. Can’t have you without transport, even though you do enjoy walking everywhere.’
‘Yes, when you’re ready,’ she agreed obediently, and off he went.
Hugo’s face was set in solemn lines as he pulled up on the forecourt of the practice. What was the matter with him, he was thinking, fussing over this young doctor to such a degree? Had the time he’d spent looking after the needs of his sister and her children turned him into a control freak? The void he’d lived in for the last eighteen months was opening up and life was going to be good again, if he would let it.
If Ruby Hollister had turned up smartly dressed and brimming with confidence on Saturday he wouldn’t have given her a second thought, but it was as if she’d appeared in his life for a reason, and of one thing he was sure, it was not going to be as someone to fill the gap.
She could sort herself out in future. He would keep his distance, and no sooner had that determination been born than he remembered the supper party at Libby and Nathan’s that evening.
Unaware of his thought processes, Ruby sought him out before the morning got under way and said, ‘I’m on my own today with instructions to ask any of the three of you if I have any problems, but as I’m sure that you must feel you’ve already seen enough of me and my problems I’ll avoid troubling you further and will consult either Libby or Nathan.’
‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘Whatever you’re happy with, Ruby, and by the way, do you still want to know about the patient with septicaemia?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said promptly. ‘I want to know about everything and everyone in this place.’ And into the silence that followed came the thought, You in particular.
‘Right, then,’ he said briskly. ‘Jeremy Jones is the village postman and I have never seen an infection develop more quickly than the one he’s got. He was sawing up wood for the open fire in his cottage with a rusty saw and it slipped and gashed his leg quite badly.
‘Instead of getting it seen to in a proper manner to prevent any complications, he has been bathing it with all sorts of old remedies, typical of an elderly bachelor who thought he knew best, and didn’t.
‘He called me out last Friday and I put him on antibiotics immediately with instructions to call out the emergency services over the weekend if it worsened before the medication had a chance to kick in and the dreaded red line of septicaemia appeared.
‘Jeremy decided to wait until Monday morning when one of us was available, but before he could get in touch I called to see him on my way here, if you remember, and from then on it was all systems go to get him into hospital. I’m afraid that he might lose the leg through nothing more than his own negligence as he hadn’t taken the medication I’d prescribed.’
‘How could he have been so foolish with all the facilities of the NHS at his disposal?’ she exclaimed.
‘Yes, exactly,’ he agreed, and as the big hand of the surgery clock swung on to half past eight Ruby went into her own small room and picking up a patient’s notes from the top of a small pile on the desk went to find him.
There were a few surprised glances when she appeared in the doorway of the waiting room and as she smiled upon them she wondered how many of them would shy away from consulting a doctor of her obvious youthfulness.
But the spotty teenage youth who got to his feet in answer to his name didn’t care who he was being seen by as long as they could do something to put an end to the misery that a face covered in pimples was causing him.
‘I’ve come about these zits,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I can’t face going anywhere with my skin like this and I don’t know what to do about it.’
Ruby flashed him a friendly smile. ‘Maybe you don’t, Dominic, but I do. You’ve come to the right place. It is acne that you’ve got, the teenage blight.
‘It will have started by blackheads appearing, am I right?’ He nodded sombrely. ‘Then the blackheads became zits, and if those zits aren’t treated they will become cysts that are infected with bacteria made up of dead skin and white blood cells, known as cystic acne, which can leave permanent scars. So we need to sort this out quickly as your problem is moving in that direction.’
He had gone very pale. What he was suffering from was every teenager’s nightmare. The embarrassment of it would be unbearable.
‘I’m going to put you on an antibiotic capsule that is very good for this sort of skin infection. It should attack the bacteria, reduce the inflammation, and prevent it from progressing into what I’ve just described.’
He was smiling for the first time. ‘That’s great! You’ve no idea how much it’s been affecting me.’
‘Yes, well, you’ll have to be patient, you know.’ she told him sympathetically. ‘The problem isn’t going to disappear overnight, but you should soon see an improvement. Come and see me again in a couple of weeks.’
When he’d gone with less of the attitude of the ‘leper’ in his manner Ruby thought that no matter what age group there was always some health problem that could arise. She knew that only too well from what Robbie had to endure and his was
