ambulance is on its way,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and meet them and fill in the paramedics on your condition, Mr Wetherby.’
In ten minutes the patient was on his way to St Hilda’s. Susan started crying as he was taken out to the ambulance and turned to the two doctors waiting by her side.
‘He’s very ill, isn’t he?’ she said softly. ‘I’ve known it for some time now—and I think he has, too—but we were both too frightened of the truth to do anything about it. How stupid we’ve been.’
‘No, you haven’t,’ soothed Victoria. ‘Lots of people find it hard to admit they need help. Look,’ she added, ‘let me give you a lift to the hospital—I don’t think you should be driving after a shock like this.’
Susan shook her head and dried her eyes. ‘No, no. I’ll be all right. I’ll go round by my son’s place and he can come with me—he works from home so I know he’ll be there.’
She got in the car and then wound down the window, looking up at Victoria and Connor. ‘Thank you, you’ve both been very kind and I’m so grateful.’ She smiled at them. ‘You know it’s like seeing a young Dr Sorensen and Dr Saunders when I look at the two of you—you’re both so like your parents. They were lovely doctors in the community, and it’s so comforting to know that you’re carrying on now they’ve retired.’
They watched as she drove out of the car park and Victoria murmured, ‘A nice woman… She must have been so worried about her husband. It’s amazing how some people have the capacity to carry on and ignore what’s happening to them. He must have felt terrible for a long time.’ She turned towards Connor and said with an effort at courtesy, ‘Thanks for backing me up there—he’s quite a stubborn old boy.’
‘No question about it—he needs immediate treatment.’
They turned and went back towards the surgery, the autumn sun warm on their backs. Connor stopped for a moment and looked back at the valley in front of the house, the ploughed fields reflecting the shadows of the clouds as they drifted across the sky.
‘It’s a beautiful part of the world,’ he said. ‘I’d forgotten how lovely it was. My father was right about the surgery being in such an idyllic place.’
‘Yes, and it all looks much the same as it did before I left some years ago. The stable block of Mum’s house had just been converted into the medical centre then…’ Almost absently Victoria added, ‘Hard to believe such a lot has happened since.’
He looked at her with raised brows. ‘Such as?’
She gave a short dismissive laugh. ‘Oh, it’s water under the bridge now.’
‘Quite right, Freckles. Look forward.’
She frowned. ‘I’ve told you, don’t call me that.’
‘Sorry…can’t get out of the habit somehow.’ He kicked a stone away from under his foot and glanced at her with a wry smile. ‘Funny that we should end up together in this practice, isn’t it? There was always a bit of rivalry between us in the old days—you probably never dreamt that our paths would cross again.’
‘No,’ agreed Victoria shortly. ‘It certainly wasn’t in my life plan.’
‘We’ll have to learn to work in harness together now.’
‘I suppose so…’
‘Perhaps,’ he added thoughtfully, ‘we could put on an act.’
‘What do you mean, an act?’
He gave a short laugh. ‘It’s obvious, my dear Victoria, that you’re not too keen about working with me.’ He looked at her steadily. ‘Perhaps you’ve good reason… I know I was a brat at school.’
Victoria was startled—he’d actually admitted he’d treated her badly! That was something, she supposed—a kind of apology.
‘It was a long time ago,’ she murmured.
‘What I mean is that if we pretend that we rub along OK, we might actually find we do! After all, we could have quite a nice life here. We each have good homes to live in that our parents have vacated, even if it is short term—it just needs a bit of give and take on both sides, I reckon.’
His clear blue eyes held hers questioningly and Victoria suddenly felt rather flustered, as if a switch had been thrown to register a mixture of excitement and danger. She looked at him in confusion. For so long she’d thought of him with dislike, the memory of that dance assuming more importance than it warranted, she supposed. Now he’d acknowledged that incident, shown that he’d matured, and it seemed silly to hark back to how he’d treated her then. She looked at his strong, intelligent face and firm uncompromising lips and swallowed hard. How extraordinary was that? She was beginning to admit to herself that she found Connor Saunders just as sexy now as she had when she’d been a schoolgirl!
She stepped hastily away from him. She must be going mad or perhaps she was sex starved, but how could Connor Saunders, whom she’d vowed to put out of her mind, kick-start feelings she thought had vanished for ever? He looked at her enquiringly, obviously expecting some reaction to his remarks.
With an effort she collected her thoughts. ‘I’m perfectly willing to work amicably with you, Connor, but it’s got to be a two-way thing. For instance, your remarks this morning weren’t very helpful.’
He held his hands up in submission. ‘OK, so I’ll try not to shoot my mouth off in future—and perhaps in return you can loosen up a bit.’ Then he grinned and put his hand under her chin, lifting her face towards his as he inspected her face. ‘How about it, Freckles? Think you can put on an act?’
She pulled her face away from his hand and said loftily, ‘I shall act in a dignified way, Connor. We’re both mature people—I’m sure we can manage to work together without bickering the whole time.’
‘Hallelujah to that!’ he remarked.
Karen, the practice nurse, ran towards them. ‘Oh, Victoria, you wouldn’t see one last patient this morning, would you? She’s only about ten and has come in by herself—I don’t think she’s even registered with the practice, but she looks really poorly. Connor’s still got another patient so he can’t see her.’
Connor had started to walk back towards the surgery, his feet making a scrunching noise on the path. Victoria watched him go before she went with Karen to see the patient and sighed. Would Connor and she ever be able to get on normally with each other? Having to ‘put on an act’might get rather wearing!
* * *
The young girl looked down at the floor, twisting her hands together.
‘What’s your name?’ Victoria asked her gently.
‘Evie Gelevska,’ was the whispered reply after a long pause. ‘I’m eighteen.’
‘Can you tell me what’s wrong, Evie?’ Victoria probed, while doing a quick visual assessment of the young patient, a thin pale little figure dressed in a ragtag collection of old pullovers with holes in them and a skimpy skirt. There was an unkempt air about her, as if she hadn’t bathed or washed for some time.
Evie
