afraid I wouldn’t be at all happy with that idea.’ She pushed back her chair, making it clear that she didn’t intend to discuss the matter further. However, now that he’d got this far, Lewis wasn’t prepared to let it drop without a fight.
‘If it’s change that worries you then it’s always the first step that’s the most difficult.’ He shrugged when she looked sharply at him. ‘It gets easier after that.’
‘Thank you for that sage advice, Dr Cole. However, I’m the senior partner in this practice and I shall decide how best to run it.’
‘But Lewis has made a legitimate point,’ Harry interjected. ‘Take this morning, for instance. I saw three people who had colds and nothing else wrong with them. It’s a waste of our time to have to deal with things like that when folk would be better off at home in bed.’
‘Thank you for your contribution, Harry, but I think I’ve made my feelings on the matter perfectly clear. The Beeches has been run on an open-house basis ever since it was opened and I can see no reason to change the system at this point in time.’
She marched to the door, pausing to shoot an icy look over her shoulder. Lewis winced when he received the full brunt of her displeasure. ‘I’ll see you in the car park in ten minutes’ time. We have a full list of calls to get through so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t keep me waiting.’
With that she swept out of the door, leaving behind her a small but potent silence, broken when Harry cleared his throat.
‘Ahem! That went down rather well, don’t you think?’
‘Like a lead balloon.’ Lewis downed the rest of his coffee then got up to leave, knowing it would be unwise to keep Helen waiting. It had been her idea to accompany him to any home visits during his first week. She’d offered to introduce him to the patients and make sure that he knew where he was going. However, he couldn’t help wishing that she’d left him to his own devices. The thought of spending an afternoon with her after what had happened was less than appealing.
‘I still think you were right to say what you did.’ Harry gathered up their cups and took them to the sink. ‘Don’t you, Amy?’
‘I do. We need to cut down the amount of work we do otherwise we’re going to sink under the sheer number of patients we’re expected to see each day. I was hoping things might improve when Helen took over, but she’s not changed a thing. She runs this place along exactly the same lines as Ian and his father always did.’
‘Why is she so reluctant to alter the routine?’ Lewis asked curiously.
‘I’m not sure.’ Amy shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s her way of keeping Ian’s memory alive. If she changes things then it might seem that she’s trying to get rid of everything he held dear. But something needs to be done otherwise she’s going to run herself into the ground. Since the twins took off for Australia on their gap year trip before university, Helen has been working harder than ever. I think she’s lonely, although she’d never admit it.’
‘Her children are old enough to go to university?’ he exclaimed in amazement.
‘Oh, they’re not actually her kids, not biologically anyway,’ Amy explained hurriedly. ‘Ian was married before and when his wife died, Helen helped him look after the twins. They were only toddlers at the time and a real handful from what my mum has told me. She used to be the practice nurse before she retired and she was here when it happened. Helen was doing her GP training at the time but she stayed on after Ian’s first wife died and married Ian a couple of years later.’
‘I see. So does Helen have any children of her own, as well as the twins, I mean?’ he asked, wanting to form a clearer picture of the situation because it seemed important for some reason.
‘No. From what Mum has said, I don’t think Ian wanted any more children so he and Helen never had any.’ Amy sighed. ‘I think it was a bit mean of him, actually. I get the impression that she would have loved a baby of her own. She’s wonderful with the little ones—they all adore her.’
Very mean indeed, he thought grimly as he left the staffroom, although he took care not to say so. Helen’s reluctance to make any changes to the way things were done in the surgery was worrying, especially if it was bound up with loyalty to her dead husband. However, what really upset him was the thought of her disappointment at not being allowed to have a child of her own.
It seemed wrong to him that a woman who was as caring and as committed as Helen should be denied the one thing she wanted most of all. It also made him feel incredibly helpless to know there was nothing he could do to help her.
‘THE next case is an interesting one. The patient’s name is Ben Harmon. He’s a farmer and two months ago he had a serious accident while he was ploughing one of his fields.’
Helen withdrew Ben Harmon’s file from her case and handed it to Lewis then started the car. They were onto their fifth call of the day and the anger she’d felt in the surgery still hadn’t abated. She could scarcely believe that he’d had the temerity to tell her how she should run the practice after he’d been there for just one week. Why on earth did he think that he knew more about running the place than she did?
‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did at the surgery. You have every right to be annoyed with me.’
The apology caught her unawares so that the car swerved towards the ditch. Helen’s mouth compressed as she quickly righted it. She hated to feel so vulnerable. Lewis was the new partner in the practice—an incomer, as the people of Summerfield would have called him—and he shouldn’t have this effect on her. She had to nip these foolish feelings in the bud.
‘I’m not annoyed. You’re entitled to voice your opinion, just as I am entitled to veto any ideas I feel aren’t appropriate.’
‘Good.’
‘Good?’ She shot him a wary glance, taking care to keep her attention on the road this time. Fortunately, there was very little traffic about so there’d been no danger of her causing an accident earlier. However, she liked to be in control of everything she did, whether it was driving a car, diagnosing a patient or choosing a lover.
The last thought made her gasp and she bit her lip, hoping that he hadn’t heard the revealing little sound. She had never entertained such a salacious thought in the whole of her life and couldn’t understand why it had occurred to her now. It smacked of desperation and…and sexual frustration, and she could feel herself growing hot at the idea it was that which had prompted it.
The strange thing was that sex had never been that important to her. She’d had very little experience when she’d married Ian and their sex life had been rather disappointing at first until she’d realised that the bells and whistles she’d read about in books only happened in fiction, not real life. Once she had adjusted to the realities of married life, she’d grown to appreciate the feeling of closeness that love-making had engendered, and realised it was worth far more than the wild passion that was the staple of all those romance novels. However, that didn’t explain why it suddenly felt as though she’d been missing something.
‘What do you mean by “good”?’ she demanded, furious with him as well as with herself for getting carried away by such a foolish notion.
