Christmas Under the Northern Lights

by Annie O'Neil

  ‘Shall we get everything you need out of here and into the spare room, Finlay?’

  Audrey was almost grateful to have someone else’s problems to worry about. Almost because this particular problem meant she’d be staying with Cooper for the foreseeable future. If he’d have her.

  She got the impression he was more the lone wolf type than a happy-to-have-a-housemate kind of guy. And also, she’d kind of accidentally imagined him getting undressed and climbing into bed last night, and that was an imaginary picture she hadn’t been able to un-see. In a good way. A too good for words type of way. Which, of course, was strictly forbidden.

  Cooper, who clearly hadn’t thought about her getting undressed, was thinking far more practically. ‘I think we should get everything we need and take it to another building.’

  Audrey scanned the scene again. He was right. It looked as though a wrecking ball had dropped through the ceiling.

  ‘C’mon, you lot.’ Cooper abruptly flew into action. ‘I’m pretty sure I saw some spare boxes back in the storeroom. I’ll call the church. Finlay, can you ring whoever’s on reception today and have them meet us there? We’ll set up in the hall, like you did before when the blood drive folk came over.’

  ‘You remember that?’ Finlay asked.

  ‘Aye,’ Cooper said tightly, his features retracting in a micro-flinch.

  He clearly remembered, but, Audrey amended, he didn’t like being reminded that there was a lot he hadn’t been around for.

  Finlay gave Cooper’s shoulder a pat. ‘Nice thinking, son.’

  Cooper’s jaw relaxed, as if being called ‘son’ and treated as one of the island’s own was a salve to whatever was troubling him.

  She’d not yet had the courage to ask, but she was guessing things with his parents hadn’t been that brilliant. Or maybe it was something with his grandmother...

  ‘Are you happy to help with the packing up?’ Cooper asked, when he noticed her staring at him a bit too intensely.

  ‘Absolutely.’ She held out her hand for a box, hoping he hadn’t noticed her cheeks colouring.

  Staring at Cooper, with all that tangled dark hair, those bright blue eyes, and much more than a hint of a five o’clock shadow, was a bit too easy. A bit too pleasurable.

  Funny, considering she’d thought she’d never get lost in another man’s beauty after— Enough. She needed to draw a line under that entire humiliating chapter. She lost three months of her life and a sizeable chunk of her dignity to that man, so onwards and upwards. It was the only way to move on.

  As they began to pick up and dust off the essential things they needed, Audrey felt herself overcome with an unfamiliar sense of lightness. As if she’d been sprinkled with some sort of fairy dust.

  Something about this disaster was striking her as... Well, not funny, exactly—because it was clearly an expensive problem, and the wrong time of year to have it, and it would definitely mean she’d be spending the rest of her stay at Cooper’s gran’s unless the Bourtree tradesmen were as efficient as Santa’s elves—but she’d thought her entire life had fallen apart four days ago. Now she had been literally shown that all kinds of things could very easily go from bad to worse...and worse seemed survivable. Meaning she had more strength of character than she had given herself credit for.

  She would survive this break-up. And the heartbreak, such as it was. And, more to the point, the shame.

  She might not have shed her last tear, and would very likely never enjoy Christmas again, but that was something she was prepared to live with. Particularly when the clouds had cleared just enough for her to begin to appreciate the little things so much more than she had.

  Like hot chocolate.

  She grinned at the memory.

  Last night, while she’d been in the shower, Cooper had made her a mug of hot chocolate despite the fact she’d said she didn’t want to put him to the trouble. He’d slipped it onto her bedside table with a note and an alarm clock set for this morning.

  It had been a kind gesture. One that had made her feel more welcome than she’d ever imagined feeling here. She’d gone on to sleep like a baby under all those dreamy quilts, and in the morning had woken up feeling cared for and protected in a way she hadn’t felt since her father had died.

  Family. That was what it had felt like. Being cared for by someone who understood the importance of being part of something bigger than yourself.

  ‘You all right, Audrey?’

  She looked up to see Cooper staring at her oddly. Somewhere amid his packing efforts he’d swirled a thick strand of silver tinsel round his neck. It gave him an air of carefree joy, whilst everything else about him was solid, focused male energy.

  That increasingly familiar spray of heat blossomed in her belly as their eyes met and held. She wasn’t about to tell him she was having an epiphany that a mug of hot chocolate could prove that there was still good in the world, so she gave him a neutral smile and carried on working, thinking that maybe—just maybe—she might have a tiny bit of room in her heart for Christmas after all.

  An hour later they’d relocated to the pleasant church hall. It was a large, wood-floored, stone-walled room that could easily be divided into four smaller rooms with the portable partitions the church used for Sunday school and the like. There were also many boxes overflowing with animal costumes marked NATIVITY! DO NOT TOUCH!

  By the time they’d set up, had a thorough run through the patient roster with Dr Anstruther and gone out to start their rounds, the sun still hadn’t risen. But the Christmas lights twinkled away, strung as they were across the High Street and all the way up to the castle ruins, and, of course, so did the enormous Christmas tree. Quite a few lights were appearing in the High Street shops, too, indicating that the island of Bourtree was coming to life.

  Cooper’s phone started ringing just as they climbed into the big medical four-by-four. From what Audrey could glean, a hysterical mother had reached her wits’ end with her teenager, who was refusing to go to school. Again.

  Cooper spoke to her in his reassuringly steady brogue. ‘Right, that’s fine, Helen. We’ll be over just as soon as we’ve made one other call on the way. No, no. It won’t take long. You’ll get to work on time, so stay where you are. Audrey and I—Audrey’s the locum district nurse, remember? Noreen’s off to Australia to see her grandbaby.’

  There was a pause while Cooper listened.

  ‘Yes. She’s exactly the sort of person you’d want to talk with Cayley, okay? Listen. Put the kettle on. Make yourself a cuppa and we’ll be there soon. Audrey and I will help you through, okay?’

  Wow... Rafael had always made Audrey feel insecure about her choice to be a district nurse—to the point where she’d actually changed jobs. Cooper made her feel she was at the top of her game. It was an incredible feeling. Having someone who barely knew her honour the professional choice she’d always known deep in her heart was the right one for her.

  ‘Thanks for that,’ she said, before she could stop herself.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Speaking highly of me. Professionally, I mean.’

  His brows arrowed towards his nose. ‘Why wouldn’t I? You’re great at what you do.’

  ‘It’s just that—’

  She stopped herself. Telling him that she’d allowed her fiancé to belittle her professionally was a bit too raw a confession right now.

  ‘I jumped down your throat yesterday and...well, it’s nice to know you noticed me. Because—I mean—you’re really good at your job, and it means a lot to know that you think I’m good. I mean workwise... Obviously.’ Heat began to creep into her cheeks. ‘I think I’ll just stop talking now.’

  How embarrassing. She might as well have said, I fancy you, but I don’t want to, plus it means more than I can say that you think I’m good at my job.

  His look intensified for a moment, and then,
as if he’d come to a conclusion, he looked away and turned the key in the ignition.

  A few awkward moments later Audrey noticed something. ‘No Santa outfit today?’

  He flashed her one of those enigmatic smiles of his and gave the tinsel around his neck a flick. After he’d pulled the car out onto the main road, he dug in his pocket and pulled out the Santa hat. ‘I thought I’d give Christmas more like just a nod today. Save my cool threads for the proper lead-up.’

  Audrey swallowed back a comment about him changing his tune rather quickly, because the truth was that somewhere beneath that smile of his was a man grieving for his grandmother. A woman he clearly missed with all his heart. To be honest, Audrey was beginning to think the whole costume thing had been more to cheer him up than the patients they were seeing.

  ‘I hope I didn’t put you off,’ Audrey said. ‘I know I was pretty grumpy about the elf costume.’

  She hadn’t meant to be a party pooper... It was just that yesterday she’d been feeling emotionally bruised and vulnerable. Funny how fewer than twenty-four hours on this island had given her some much-needed space to breathe. Space, she was beginning to realise, Rafael had never given her.

  ‘You weren’t grumpy,’ he said amiably, turning the car onto the coastal road that circumnavigated the island. Then, ‘Maybe a little...’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, more heartfelt than before. ‘It really wasn’t anything personal.’ Not personal to him, anyway.

  ‘No bother,’ he said distractedly.

  He pulled the car off onto a small, vaguely familiar lane and after a few minutes Audrey realised they were back at Jimmy Tarbot’s.

  They checked his insulin levels and gave him his injection, and Audrey was in the kitchen, making him a cup of tea before they left, when Cooper popped in, his medical gloves still on, and had a quick nosy in Jimmy’s bin.

  Rather than point out that it looked as if he was taking a page out of her book, she asked, ‘What are you looking for?’

  ‘Evidence,’ he said, jiggling his eyebrows in a TV detective sort of way.

  ‘Of what?’

  ‘The tomato soup and salad he told me he had for his tea last night.’ With a grim expression he lifted out an empty family-sized box of lasagne and an equally empty tub of double chocolate caramel ice cream. ‘Not happy,’ he said, peeling off his gloves and popping them into the disposal bag in his medical kit. ‘He was also asking after my gran’s biscuits.’

  Audrey frowned. ‘Is that a euphemism for something?’

  Cooper cracked a smile and shook his head. ‘No. My gran—Gertie—had this tradition of making endless amounts of biscuits around Christmas time. She’d bring them to folk, especially the ones who were housebound, so suffice it to say Jimmy’s had a fair few through the years. She always made him a special batch—low sugar, or something like that.’ He gave his jaw a scrub. ‘She’d know what to do to get Jimmy out and about. Better than giving him a lecture and rooting about in his bin, anyway.’

  Something squeezed tight in Audrey’s chest. Cooper looked genuinely invested in Jimmy’s welfare. As if he had to pick up where his grandmother had left off and pour kindness into a community that sometimes struggled to stay afloat.

  Cooper abruptly clapped his hands together, then gave Audrey a cheeky grin. ‘I might have an idea.’

  Cooper headed back into the lounge, where Jimmy seemed to reside permanently on the sofa. The duvet stuffed behind it suggested he might even sleep there.

  ‘Hey, Jim!’

  Audrey didn’t actively earwig, but she caught a few things. Something about getting his next injection down at the church. And if Jimmy needed someone to come here and help him to get up and out of the house that’d be fine.

  She turned on the tap to wash her hands and missed the end.

  Cooper came back in and shouldered the medical run-bag. ‘All right?’

  ‘Yes, indeed.’ They left and went to the car. ‘So,’ she asked, ‘are we picking up Jimmy later?’

  Cooper nodded, his eyes on the rear-view mirror as he reversed the car out onto the road. ‘Aye. I think he’s becoming a bit too reclusive for his own good.’

  ‘And you think a trip to the church hall would help?’

  ‘I think knowing the islanders don’t mean any harm by still calling him Big Jim would do him good.’ He shot her a quick smile. ‘And I’ve got an idea.’

  ‘Plan to share?’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head, a mischievous twinkle lighting up his eyes as he said, ‘Not just yet.’

  Audrey laughed. ‘Okay, mystery man. Who’s next?’

  Ten minutes later, as they stood in the hall of their next patient’s home, the light mood they’d been enjoying in the car had evaporated. Cayley, Helen’s thirteen-year-old daughter, was refusing for the third day in a row to go to school, and this time wasn’t even bothering to make up a fake illness. That was the part that had her mother worried.

  It wasn’t the kind of call they’d normally make as part of rounds, but Audrey had seen, when Cooper had taken Helen’s call that morning there had been something about it that had made him say yes instantly.

  ‘I simply don’t know what to do.’ Helen twirled her hair into a swift French twist, though it was still wet from the shower. ‘She won’t get out of bed. Keeps crying and saying she won’t go to school again. Ever. She’s only thirteen! That’s no way to spend a childhood.’

  Cooper gave Audrey a look, then returned his focus to Helen. ‘I’m happy to talk to her, but if it’s a sensitive issue...you know...’ He swallowed uncomfortably.

  Audrey was pretty sure where he was going with this, and found it a little bit adorable that a hardened A&E doctor should have trouble alluding to feminine matters. Maybe it was the fact he’d gone to school with Helen that did it? Who knew? He was a hard one to read, Cooper.

  ‘Maybe she wants to talk about female issues?’ Audrey gently finished for him.

  ‘Which would be a talk much better had with you, Audrey.’

  Cooper gave her a quick nod that managed to speak volumes. He wasn’t feeling uncomfortable about ‘female issues’. He was simply being considerate of his patient, and he was letting her take the lead. This would, after all, be the kind of call she’d be doing on her own in a week’s time, unless the situation warranted two people.

  Which begged the question...what would Cooper be doing? Leaving for Glasgow? That wouldn’t be... Well, she didn’t know what she felt about that, so it was probably best to go back to the ‘live in the here and now’ remit she’d assigned herself.

  She forced herself to tune back into what he was saying.

  ‘Audrey’ll most likely suss it, but if she finds she needs prescriptions, or anything, I’ll be happy to step in.’

  Again, Audrey experienced a warm hit of gratitude. Cooper’s belief in her abilities gave her a morale boost she hadn’t known she needed. Sure, the whole rest of her life was a calamity, but her nursing skill—the one thing she’d always honoured about herself—was being given respect.

  Why had being a district nurse never been good enough for her ex...? Pfft. Another question for another time.

  ‘Will I go in with you?’ the worried mum asked.

  ‘Absolutely,’ Audrey said, but then, after a second, thought it best to ask, ‘Or do you think there’s anything she’d be nervous about saying in front of you?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Helen said. ‘That’s why I’m so worried. Cayley and I have always been close. We’ve never kept secrets from one another.’

  ‘Then let’s go and find out what this is about,’ Audrey said, giving her a reassuring smile.

  Helen put a hand on her arm before they headed up to the bedroom. ‘You should probably know that her father and I are no longer together. Not for a few months now.’

  ‘Okay.’

  Helen
’s grip tightened on Audrey’s arm and her eyes darted towards Cooper. ‘Brian, my ex, was often away on the oil rigs, and suffice it to say he played away as well. I’ve tried to keep the gossip away from Cayley, but it’s a small island, so...’

  She didn’t need to finish the sentence. Audrey had been working in a small hospital when her wedding plans had imploded, and the last thing she’d wanted to do was face the other nurses when news had spread like wildfire that the wedding was off.

  ‘Right you are. Well, let’s go in and have a chat, shall we?’

  * * *

  Keeping the memories at bay was proving difficult, so Cooper did what he imagined Audrey would do. Popped the kettle on.

  He stared out of Helen’s kitchen window. She lived a couple of streets back from Bourtree High Street in a small but cosy terraced house. Two up, two down. A brightly painted front door. A small garden where she could peg out the laundry in the summer and keep a wood pile in the winter.

  For as long as he could remember, Bourtree Castle folk had always liked to say they never needed nowt beyond a home like this to have a nice life. His parents hadn’t been able to hold on even to that. Their bill down at the pub had always kept the dream of a home of their own out of reach. So they’d all crammed into his gran’s house.

  And when they’d hit that sharp bend down at the far end of the island and forgotten to turn the car along with it...well...

  He turned as he heard Cayley’s muted voice through the ceiling, pitching and peaking as she presumably explained why she wouldn’t leave her room. Whatever she was going through, it was hitting her hard.

  Cooper had three mugs of sweet tea ready to go by the time the women came out. Audrey had her arm around Helen’s shoulders, and she gave her a proper, reassuring hug before turning her around to accept the mug Cooper held out for her.

  ‘Everything okay?’ he asked, when no one said anything.

  Audrey and Helen exchanged a quick look. Then through an unspoken agreement Audrey began to explain. ‘The children at school have been picking on her.’

  An acrid taste rose in Cooper’s throat. Kids could be great, but they could also be bloody cruel. ‘What about?’