he thought as he filled the kettle at a well-used stainless-steel sink.
It was sad that she’d lost her husband so young. Even more sad had been the youngster crying for the dad he wasn’t ever going to see again.
As he soaped himself under the shower it occurred to him that it was the first time in days he’d thought about anyone but himself.
It had taken the frantic young mother and the injured child to make him take a good look at himself, and he wasn’t too chuffed at what he was seeing.
You need to snap out of it, he told himself. It’s over and done with. You came out of it with your reputation untarnished, so what’s the problem?
It didn’t make him feel any less angry, though, and future working partners of the opposite sex would be kept at a wary arm’s length…even if they were leggy, blonde and appealing.
He’d never had trouble with women before. They were attracted to him for some reason and he’d had some pretty interesting relationships.
Yet they’d never lasted. There’d never been anyone that he’d wanted to make a commitment to. Of all things, he didn’t like to be pursued and that was how it had been with Eve Richards.
It still made his skin crawl when he thought about what she’d done, even though it had come to light that there’d been extenuating circumstances.
He’d decided to move as far away as he could get from her, and when she’d found out Eve had complained that she’d been sexually harassed by him.
If he hadn’t been so devastated it might have been amusing, as she had been the one guilty of that. From the moment she’d been assigned to him as an ambulance technician she had been like an infatuated limpet. Touching him whenever the opportunity arose. Buying him gifts. Inviting him out to lunch. And in the end blatantly asking him to sleep with her.
If she’d been the last woman on earth he wouldn’t have wanted to do that. She was reasonably attractive in a sloppy sort of way, but definitely not his type, and in the end he had asked for her to be partnered with another woman.
The station officer had been sympathetic, but new rotas and staff shortages had meant that the move had been a long time coming and in the end Kane had decided that the only thing to do had been to remove himself from her orbit.
There was a hysterical scene when she knew he was going and the next thing was the complaint against him. It was his word against hers and he knew with a sinking feeling that a woman was often believed in that sort of situation.
But where the station officer had been slow in the first instance, he moved quickly when the complaint was made and had the authorities delve into Eve Richards’s records.
They discovered that she’d been treated for a severe mental disorder in the past and it had been overlooked when she’d applied to join the ambulance service.
It made him feel less angry with Eve but furious with those responsible for him having to endure such harassment, even more so because their patients could have been put at risk by her unstable behaviour.
For weeks he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Whether he would be suspended. Whether the position in the north that he’d accepted would be lost if he couldn’t take it up on the date specified.
A date for a disciplinary hearing was set and it was very near to the time when he was due to move to Cheshire to start the new job. He was summoned to attend and did so, angry at the kind of limbo he found himself in.
However, the medical evidence regarding Eve’s state of mind was so conclusive that before he knew it he was cleared of the charge.
The relief was exquisite, and though those in authority tried to persuade him to stay he was adamant that he was leaving.
And now here he was. In a dingy flat which was all he could find at such short notice.
He wondered if he would have been so aware of its shortcomings if he hadn’t been to Selina’s cottage in the delightful Pennine village. Maybe he ought to move in that direction when he started house-hunting…just as long as no one was going to get any wrong ideas.
With mother and child still on the edge of his consciousness, he popped in to see the boy on Saturday night when his shift was over.
It was done on impulse. He’d gone to buy an evening paper and had ended up buying comics and sweets at the same time, and as the hospital was only a few minutes’ walk from the flat he went round there with them.
There was no slender blonde beside the bed and he didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry. Josh told him that his mum had just left after being there all day, and that he was going home next morning.
‘Good for you,’ Kane said with one of his rare smiles. ‘I’ll bet your cousins are looking forward to seeing you again.’
‘Those girls? The twins?’ Josh said with boyish scorn. ‘All they think about are their dolls.’
‘And what is it with you?’ Kane asked, hiding a smile. ‘Footballs? Like the one you went on to the road for?’
Bright blue eyes refused to meet his.
‘I know. I was stupid. I won’t do it again.’
‘I should think not. Watch what you’re doing in future.’
As he got up to go Josh surprised him by saying, ‘When will I see you again?’
He hesitated. This visit was just a one-off because the lad was in hospital and because he lived but a stone’s throw away.
‘I’m not sure,’ he told him, ruffling the boy’s fair locks. ‘It depends on what your mother has to say.’ And he went on his way, thinking that it might be quite a lot, with words like ‘presumptuous’ featuring prominently.
* * *
As Selina walked Josh across the village green to her brother’s house early on Tuesday morning she was wondering if she’d done the right thing by agreeing that he could go to school.
He was getting around all right on crutches and in every other way was back to his normal self, but her confidence had been badly shaken by the accident and on Monday morning she’d been to see the headmaster.
It had transpired that the blame lay equally between Josh and the school. On his part because he’d unfastened the gate to get the ball, and on their part because the fastener on the gate hadn’t been completely childproof. There had also only been one playground supervisor on duty instead of two.
‘We admit that we are partly to blame, Mrs Sanderson,’ the headmaster had said, ‘but Joshua knew that he wasn’t allowed to leave the school yard and…well…we both know what happened. He got carried away in the excitement of the moment and all he could think of was to retrieve the football.’
‘What about the motorist?’ she’d asked and the head had smiled.
‘He was an elderly man passing through and, luckily for Joshua, a very cautious driver.’
She’d shuddered.
‘Yes,
