He was being boorish and ungrateful, he thought. Making matters worse, he said, ‘Maybe I don’t want that, Henrietta. Have you ever thought of that?’
‘Oh! For goodness’ sake!’ she exploded. ‘Stop wallowing in self-pity, Matthew! I wish I’d never mentioned the decorating. You can rest assured it won’t happen again.’
Leaving him to digest that, she went across the road to the baker’s to buy something for her lunch, and wondered why the man working on the garage forecourt kept staring at her.
Why couldn’t he have accepted Henrietta’s offer in the spirit it had been meant? Matthew thought dismally when she’d gone. He knew there had been nothing behind it except a genuine desire to brighten up his house, and he’d thrown it back in her face just as they had been getting to know and like each other. He was crazy.
During the afternoon he rang Kate at The White House and told her that he was going to one of the DIY outlets on the edge of the town and would be late home for his meal.
‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I’ll do something that I don’t need to cook until you arrive.’
Matthew made his purchases, bearing in mind what Henrietta had said about sunshine colours, and dropped the large cans of paint and rolls of wallpaper off at the surgery in the hope that when she saw them the next morning no explanations would be necessary.
It was a vain hope. He’d put the materials he’d bought in the passage outside their two consulting rooms, so that she couldn’t miss seeing them, but there was no comment forthcoming. In the end he went into her room and said, ‘All right, Henrietta. What you see out there is my way of saying sorry. I would be grateful for your help and your forgiveness for my churlishness yesterday.
‘My reluctance to take you up on your offer was nothing personal. It’s just that I feel that those who walk alone are less likely to come unstuck. But when I thought about it afterwards I knew you were right. My house is crying out for a lick of paint so, yes, please, I would welcome your help. Especially as it will mean seeing Mollie and Keiran again. I’ve even bought two small paint-brushes for them.’
She was smiling. ‘They’ll love that, Matthew, and so will I. And when we’ve finished the decorating, maybe new carpets and curtains, do you think?’
He returned her smile. ‘Why not? But let’s get the decorating sorted first.’
She was serious now. ‘I have an apology to make, too. I shouldn’t have said what I did about self-pity. I haven’t known you long and it was extremely presumptuous of me to be making such judgements. I do hope you’ll forgive me.’
He sighed. ‘There’s nothing to forgive. You’re the first person who has ever come out and said what everyone else is probably thinking. If you’d known me any longer, you might have accepted that the way I am is me, when it isn’t at all. I wasn’t always like this.’
‘Have you ever treated yourself for depression?’ she asked carefully.
‘No. I couldn’t be bothered. I’ve treated plenty of other people, though. But enough of that. Do we start the revamp this weekend, or have you other things to do?’
‘No. I haven’t. This weekend will be fine. Will you be able to find some surfaces for Mollie and Keiran to paint?’
‘Sure thing, and I’ll be responsible for lunch.’
Laughter was glinting in her eyes. ‘Are you going to make a Victoria sponge?’
‘I doubt it. It might not be as successful a second time and I wouldn’t want to lose face,’ he told her jokingly. ‘How about crisps, sandwiches and chocolate biscuits, with suitable drinks?’
‘Sounds fine. They’ll love that, and they’ll love seeing you again. Can I come round to view the property before Saturday, so it’s clear in my mind what we will be attempting?’
‘Yes, if you like. But be prepared. That place of mine is clean but claustrophobic and crying out for some tender loving care. You’ll find it very different from your present accommodation.’
‘Possibly I will, but there’s such a thing as a place being too grand. I feel a bit lost in my sister’s house. Something between that and my poky flat would suit me fine. When it gets nearer the time for Pamela and Charles to come back, I’m going to start looking around the village for my dream home.’
‘So you’re intending staying after they come back for the children? You aren’t going back to urban life?’
She was gazing through a nearby window at the peaks rising in the distance and the stone cottages and quaint shops across the way.
‘Not after having a taste of village life. Even if you don’t need me any more when John comes back. I’ll find some way of earning a living so that I can stay here.’
‘And why do you think I wouldn’t want you to be part of the practice permanently?’ he asked. ‘As you said earlier, we haven’t known each other long, but I’ve got your measure, just as unfortunately you seem to have got mine, and I have no complaints. I enjoy working with you.’
‘Even though I’m not prepared to let you vegetate?’
‘It might be because of that.’ He turned to go back into his own room. ‘How about I take you round to my place tomorrow in the lunch-hour?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, that will be fine.’
‘And in the meantime I’d like you to come with me to visit one of our patients who is a delightful elderly lady and is always on at me to employ a lady doctor in the practice.’
‘She soon gets embarrassed, does she?’
‘No, nothing like that. It’s equality of the sexes that she’s concerned about.’
‘Right. I don’t see anything wrong in that.’
‘I didn’t think you would,’ he said dryly. ‘Margot Chilton is an artist. If you stop by the window of the gallery next to the post office you will always see some of her paintings on display, and they are quite something.
‘She’s become very arthritic of late and lives in constant dread of her hands becoming too stiff to paint. Her mobility is already affected and that is why I visit her, instead of Margot having to come to the surgery.
‘Today we aren’t going on a consultation. I’m taking you there so I can introduce you to her so she can see that at last we have a woman doctor in the practice.’
Henrietta smiled across at Matthew from the passenger seat of his car. ‘So you aren’t going to tell her that you had nothing to do with my appointment and that on first acquaintance you weren’t impressed?’
‘Absolutely not!’ he said in mock horror. ‘It might affect my standing with Margot. I would only do that if she didn’t approve of you, and from where I’m sitting that’s not likely to happen.’
‘You’re something else!’ she told him with a twinkle.
He had no comment to make about that. Instead he said, ‘I’ve been wondering why I’ve started to feel different and have come to the conclusion it’s from all the laughing I’ve been doing lately. My face just isn’t used to it and you are to blame for that, Henny.’
‘Am I really? Well, that’s good news,’ she said softly. ‘You are getting better, Dr Cazalet. I can’t guarantee a cure, but some improvement is always welcomed by we GPs.’
They stopped in front of a small detached house with mullioned windows and a garden that was a riot of colour. When Matthew took her round to the back a voice hailed them from out of a gazebo in the centre of the garden.
As they approached Henrietta saw that its occupant was a small but sturdy-looking woman with snow-white hair above an apple-cheeked face that was displaying a broad smile of welcome.
‘Matthew!’ she cried delightedly. ‘You’re back. And who is this you have with you?’ Before he could answer she said, ‘Let me guess. You’ve found yourself a new love at last, and you’ve brought her to meet me.’
Their reactions were completely opposite. A bright red Henrietta was wishing the ground beneath her feet would open up and swallow her, while an expressionless Matthew said smoothly, ‘You’ve got it wrong. Margot. That’s one of the things you’re always urging me to do, but the
re is also another. Have you forgotten?’
Margot was observing him blankly and he went on. ‘A lady doctor, yes? This is Dr Henrietta Mason who has joined the practice. I’ve brought her to meet you.’
‘Oh, dear!’ Margot said apologetically. ‘I have put my foot in it, haven’t I, Dr Mason? Do forgive me both of you.’ She got slowly to her feet and shook Henrietta’s hand with returning confidence. ‘You must both come inside for a coffee and you can tell me all about yourself, my dear.’
‘Are you resident in the village?’ the elderly woman asked when they were seated in a sitting room full of mahogany furniture and chintz drapes.
‘Er…yes, for the moment,’ Henrietta told her. ‘I’m looking after my sister’s children for a few months while she and her husband are away.’
‘And who would that be? I know most of the residents.’
‘Pamela Wainright from The White House.’
‘Ah! Yes. I know the Wainrights. They have two lovely children. Pamela and Charles always invite me when they are having a dinner party.’
She turned to Matthew, who hadn’t spoken since they’d gone into the house, and asked, ‘How was Pakistan, my dear?’
‘Rewarding in a remote sort of way, but not pleasant, Margot.’
‘I prayed for you to come home safely,’ she said, and Henrietta thought if she herself had known him then, she would have done the same.
‘And it must have worked, as here I am,’ he said, forcing a smile.
When they were ready to leave Margot clasped Henrietta’s hand and said, ‘I shall look forward to getting to know you, my dear, and you will forgive my awful faux pas, I hope.’
‘Yes, of course,’ Henrietta told her, avoiding the glance of the man beside her.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘I AM SO sorry about that,’ he said through clenched teeth as they drove off into the summer afternoon. ‘The last thing I’d anticipated was Margot jumping to such crazy conclusions and causing you embarrassment.
‘There’s been a conspiracy going on for some time amongst those who know me to get me married off again. Your sister once invited me to one of her dinner parties with the idea of parading me as an eligible widower, and when I realised I was not pleased, especially as it wasn’t all that long after I’d lost Joanna.’
‘So that’s what you’ve got against Pamela,’ Henrietta breathed. ‘She can be a bit insensitive at times. But Margot meant no harm and I won’t lose any sleep over it, so don’t be upset.’
She had to feel sorry for him. Surely the people who cared about him should respect his feelings regarding his dead wife and let Matthew decide if and when he was going to marry again.
‘So you’re not offended.’
‘Of course I’m not,’ she said quietly. ‘How could I be? None of it was of your doing. Why don’t we just forget it?’
‘If you say so,’ he agreed wryly, and then added, as if reluctant to let the matter drop, ‘You’ll be thinking that being around me is not a happy place to be.’
‘And why should I think that?’
‘Yesterday I threw your offer of help in your face. Today Margot is trying to marry you off to me.’
‘I can think of worse things than that,’ she told him laughingly.
‘Such as?’
‘A herd of cows on my sister’s immaculate lawn.’
He was smiling now and she began to relax until he said, ‘I’ll have to bear that in mind. You feel that being married to me would be a lesser fate than dairy cows under your window. I hope there might be a vote of confidence somewhere in that comment, but I’m not too sure. Are you like that with all animals?’
‘No, of course not,’ she protested quickly, wondering whatever had made her joke about being married to him. ‘I like dogs, cats and horses, but cows are an unknown quantity.’
By the time they got back to the surgery the waiting room was filling up again and as they were about to go to their separate rooms Matthew said, ‘Don’t forget to tell the children about Saturday. Do they have any old clothes to wear?’
‘There will be some somewhere,’ she told him, and felt a rush of pleasure at the thought of what they had planned for the coming Saturday. Mollie and Keiran would love it when they knew they would be painting with real paint.
How was she going to cope when Pamela and Charles came for them? Life would be really empty then. She supposed Pamela was right. It was time she thought about having a family of her own.
But first she had to find herself a husband, and after the disastrous end to her affair with Miles and the hurt it had left behind, she wasn’t feeling too confident on that score.
But after his departure from her life another man had stepped into it. Matthew had caught her imagination from the start. Like her, he was wary of being hurt again, though his pain covered a much wider spectrum. Yet she sensed that there was warm blood in his veins. There was nothing shallow about Matthew Cazalet. He was a man of deep feelings and, she imagined, deep desires.
Douglas Hoyle was the practice manager. A retired accountant, he did the job on a part-time basis, and dealt with most of it at home, but occasionally he asked for a meeting between the two doctors and himself. At the end of the day Matthew said, ‘Douglas wants a meeting. He’s suggested tomorrow after the late surgery, but I’ve told him that you have family commitments and also it would mean Kate having to stay late at your place. Have you any thoughts on the matter?’
‘Not unless you both came to The White House in the evening.’
‘You wouldn’t mind?’
‘No. Not as long as the children were in bed. I don’t like them to be up late during the week as they have to catch the school bus at such an early hour. Do you think that would be a suitable arrangement for Douglas?’
‘I don’t see why not.’
‘And you?’
‘Yes, of course. After I’ve been to help with the milking. This should be my last week. Bill says he’s ready to get back in harness for some of the lighter jobs. So is tomorrow evening all right?’
Henrietta nodded. ‘Yes. Once the children are in bed I either read, or spend some time going over the day’s happenings with regard to my patients.’
She wasn’t going to tell him that he figured largely in her thoughts, too. His dismay at being linked with her in a romantic sort of way earlier that afternoon was something she wasn’t going to forget in a hurry, even though she’d treated it light-heartedly.
‘Some of the consultations are done and forgotten, while others stay so clearly in the mind that I bring the memory home with me and can’t always put it to rest,’ she continued.
Matthew frowned. ‘Such as?’
‘Late this afternoon I had a patient with what could turn out to be a brain tumour. All the symptoms were there—headaches, periodical loss of vision, muscle weakness, to name a few. I’ve referred him to the neurology and oncology departments at the hospital for an urgent appointment and can’t get him out of my mind. He’s in his twenties and hasn’t been married long. They’re expecting their first baby and this has been thrown at them.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘He’s one of your patients. David Lorimer. You were fully booked for the next few days and he didn’t want to wait. He was feeling so ill and traumatised by all the things happening to him that he agreed to see me.’
‘No!’ Matthew groaned. ‘Not Dave Lorimer! He’s a great lad. His father is in charge of the village brass band. Dave plays the drums and Sue, his wife, the cornet. Did he say how long he’d had the symptoms?’
‘They’ve have come on pretty suddenly, and I think he should be seeing you over something as serious as this, Matthew. You know him so much better than I do and he’ll draw comfort from that.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll pop round to see his dad tonight. He lives quite near me. Maybe he can put me in the picture before I talk to Dave.’
‘Supposing he hasn’t told his father?’
‘That is a possibi
lity, of course, and I shall be wary of what I say when I get there. I can always tell Alan I’m thinking of joining the band again.’
‘You were in it?’ asked Henrietta in surprise.
Matthew shrugged. ‘Yes, once.’
‘And are you going to join again?’
‘No. Not really.’
‘Why not?’
‘I’m out of practice, for one thing. I haven’t played since before…’ His voice trailed away. ‘You know what I was going to say, don’t you?’
‘Yes. I do,’ she told him gravely. ‘So what instrument did you play?’
‘Trombone. We have a band concert in the village every year. It took place this time while I was in Pakistan, and you hadn’t yet come to work and live here. For anyone into brass bands, it’s quite an event.’
‘So why don’t you join again? There’s something about a man in a uniform,’ she teased. ‘What colours do they wear?’
He smiled ‘Red and black. They rehearse on Thursday nights in the Scout hut.’
When Henrietta arrived home that evening and Kate heard her telling Mollie and Keiran what was planned for Saturday, she couldn’t believe it. ‘You’ve actually persuaded Matthew to do some decorating?’ she said. ‘That’s wonderful! You must have the magic touch, Henrietta. I’ve tried countless times and he didn’t want to know.’
‘He didn’t agree at first when I asked him,’ she explained, ‘but he must have had a rethink and went to buy the materials last night.’
‘So that’s what he went to the DIY place for.’
‘Yes, it must have been,’ she agreed, and turned to Mollie and Keiran, ‘So what do you think of that, kids? We’re going to make Dr Cazalet’s house really posh.’
‘We think it’s great,’ they chorused, and, with Henrietta following behind, they rushed upstairs to find some old clothes for painting in.
When Henrietta saw the inside of Matthew’s house the next day she wanted to weep. Not because it was as bad as he’d described it. It was far from that, and the decorating, new carpets and curtains would transform it into a pleasant home.
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