‘I got real.’ He almost spat the words at her and then the consummate professional took over. ‘I will sit in if that’s okay with you.’
‘Of course.’ She turned on her heel and made her way back to Derek’s room to take a breath and oversee the preparations. Anger had no place here, and neither did personal issues between doctors. What mattered was the patient, and that her hand was sure and steady.
A nurse helped Derek into position, leaning forward, and offering encouragement and a hand to hold. Thea concentrated on her job, the precise insertion of a needle into Derek’s back in the spot indicated by the ultrasound scan. Fluid bubbled out from the pleural cavity, draining into a bag.
When it was done, a restrained burst of activity got Derek back comfortably into bed, and the room was cleared of the evidence of the procedure. Thea risked a glance in Lucas’s direction, and he gave her a small nod of approval. She shouldn’t need his acknowledgement, she knew for herself that everything had gone well. Maybe she’d just wanted it.
* * *
They were both treading on eggshells. Outwardly professional and confident but engaged in a private battle that had nothing to do with now and everything to do with their shared past. Lucas quirked his lips downwards. It wasn’t really the shared past that was the problem. It was the things they hadn’t shared, in the long years since he’d left her, that seemed to be the issue.
They were ready to leave the ward when a woman arrived. She looked tired, her dark hair scraped into a lank ponytail at the back of her head. Thea smiled, beckoning Lucas to follow her over.
‘Anna. This is Dr West, he’s working with me on Derek’s case.’
Anna gave Lucas a cursory nod. ‘How is Derek?’
‘He’s looking forward to seeing you. We did a procedure to drain the fluid from around his lungs this morning, and he should be much more comfortable now. Can we have a quick word with you?’
Somehow she managed to intimate that Lucas should follow them into the small area set aside for patients’ families, without actually looking at him. He wondered whether he should offer to fetch coffee and decided against it. As Thea was so keen that this was her hospital, she would be the one to know where the coffee machine was.
‘How’s it going, Anna? Did you get some sleep last night?’ Thea had sat down next to Anna and Lucas found a chair opposite them.
‘A bit. Actually, it’s almost a relief to know what’s wrong with him after all this time. I know it’s going to be difficult, but…’
‘You’ll have plenty of support, for as long as you need it.’ Thea turned her lovely eyes onto him and suddenly everything else melted away. ‘That’s where Dr West comes in.’
Anna turned her expectant gaze onto Lucas. ‘Yes?’
Lucas dragged his attention away from Thea and smiled at Anna. ‘Part of my job is to provide clear information and advice about tuberculosis. If you have any questions, you can ask the doctors here, or you can ask me.’
Anna took the printed card that he proffered, stowing it in her handbag. ‘Derek’s a teacher, you know. And he’s in a theatre group. But the last time he was there was before Christmas, when he painted the scenery for the pantomime. That was before he was ill.’
Anna was beginning to babble, and Lucas leaned forward to catch her attention. ‘It’s okay, Anna. We’ll go through all the people he’s been in contact with later.’
‘It’s just that I’m dreading what’s going to happen when everyone finds out about this.’
‘We realise that you’re in a difficult situation.’ He glanced at Thea, wondering if she felt that reassurance was her territory as well, but she simply nodded in agreement with him.
‘We put a lot of effort into making the community aware of the facts. And one of those facts is that tuberculosis is not easily transmitted from one person to another.’
Anna rolled her eyes, giving him a watery smile. ‘I understand that now. All the same, it feels as if it’s all around me. And my children…’
‘I saw in the notes that you have two children under five. And that they’ve both had their BCG.’
‘That’s right. I can’t help worrying, though. I bleached everything last night.’ Anna shivered, her gaze slewing around the room as if something was following her, waiting its chance to strike.
Giving her a leaflet wasn’t going to do it.
‘I can understand that, but you were probably wasting your time.’ Lucas shrugged. ‘Apart from working off a bit of steam?’
Anna chuckled, her shoulders relaxing slightly. ‘Yeah. I did that all right.’
‘Well, that’s something. Did you open the windows?’
‘No, I…’
Anna didn’t need to explain. Lucas had seen enough people instinctively shutting themselves in their houses, out of nameless fear. ‘Well, that’s what you need to do. Tuberculosis is transmitted aerobically and not via surfaces. Sunshine and fresh air are the best ways to eradicate the infection.’
Anna gave a snort of wry amusement. ‘That’s a nice thought.’
‘It happens to be scientifically true. But you’re quite at liberty to draw any metaphors you like from it.’ Both women were smiling now, and Lucas felt like a showman. One with a serious intent, who nonetheless got a buzz out of delighting his audience.
‘Okay. Now that Dr West has shed a little light on things…’ Thea paused to grimace at her own, truly dreadful, pun. ‘Dr West is going to be asking you about all the people who’ve been in close contact. I explained that to you yesterday.’
Anna nodded. ‘Yes. I want to help.’
Lucas nodded his thanks. ‘Why don’t you go and see Derek now, and I’ll come and find you in an hour? We’ll chat then, over a cup of coffee.’ He could find the machine. And if Thea wanted to join them, he’d get coffee for her as well.
* * *
The doors of the isolation unit clicked closed behind them. Lucas was strolling beside her, his jacket slung over one shoulder. ‘We’re agreed, then. You get to do the real work and leave the bureaucracy to me.’ He was grinning.
‘I didn’t say that.’ Thea attempted a severe look and failed. After all he’d done to assuage Anna’s fears it wasn’t easy to be angry with him.
‘My mistake. I could have sworn that was the general drift of it.’
She gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘Maybe I…’
‘Overreacted?’ He gave her a devastating smile.
‘Probably.’ She’d give him that. Asking him what the hell had happened to him hadn’t been entirely necessary.
‘Then you’ll admit that I haven’t gone over to the dark side.’
‘Don’t push it, Lucas. Anyway, there is no dark side.’ She couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t thought it. And Lucas had always been able to read her like a book.
‘Thank you.’ He gave her a self-satisfied smirk. ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’
CHAPTER THREE
Week Two
THE WEEK HAD flown by in a blur of activity. Lucas had visited the school where Derek Thompson taught, and had collected information from both Anna and Derek. The theatre group had been investigated, but since Derek had been asymptomatic for some months after he’d last seen any of its members, they were deemed to be at no risk of infection.
By the following Monday they had finalised a set of standard letters, along with lists of people to whom each should be sent. And Thea had convinced herself that there would be no more petty arguments between her and Lucas.
She had no reason to take him up on his assurances that he would be there if needed until the Friday evening, almost two weeks after the initial diagnosis of TB had been made. Dialling his mobile number, she wondered what she might hear in the background.
‘Thea. What’s the problem?’
That just about said it all. He knew she wouldn’t call him unless she had to.
‘There’s something I’d like to talk through with you. I’ve had a call from the local paper. I reckoned that was mor
e your area of expertise than mine.’
Thea’s one horrific contact with the press in Bangladesh had taught her to avoid newsmen at all costs. Lucas’s world of measured responses and careful PR was far better equipped to deal with that than she was.
‘Right.’ A note of resignation sounded in his voice. ‘What did they have to say for themselves?’
‘They’ve been contacted by one of the parents at the school. They’re doing a piece and they offered us the chance to comment. And they need our response by tomorrow afternoon, before they go to press.’
He gave a short chuckle. ‘Nice one. Clearly hoping we’ll be uncontactable at the weekend.’
‘They do that sort of thing?’
‘It’s not unknown. I think we’ll be pleased to respond. Do you have a copy of the proposed article?’
‘No.’ Thea supposed she should have thought to ask for one but she’d wanted to get the reporter off the phone as quickly as possible.
‘Okay, give me their number and I’ll call them now. Can we meet up this evening to discuss this?’
‘I’ll wait here for you. How long will you be?’
‘I can’t get there tonight. But I’m only twenty minutes away from you, and Friday night is barbecue night. Come and join us.’
Us. It had crossed Thea’s mind that Lucas might be married, and she’d decided that was none of her concern. All the same, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to play happy families with him.
‘What about tomorrow morning? I don’t want to interrupt your evening.’
‘I’m working anyway. And there’s an old acquaintance I’d like you to meet.’
‘Who?’ He’d married someone she knew? Thea really didn’t want to know now.
‘You’ll see. I’ll text my address. Dinner’s in an hour.’
‘But… Lucas?’ She glared at the phone. He’d rung off.
It would serve him right if she just didn’t turn up. She could text him the reporter’s mobile number and leave him to deal with it. But not turning up might look as if she cared. Her phone beeped, and she looked at the screen.
She couldn’t remember the number, but this was the road his parents had lived in. Large houses set well back from the road behind iron railings. The kind of place that simply screamed money and respectability. Lucas had loved his family but had always claimed he wanted a different way of life.
Numbness settled over her. If he could look her in the eye, when he’d trashed all the values and ideals that had meant so much to him, then he really wasn’t the person she’d once known. If he could pretend that it didn’t matter, he was nothing to her.
She texted back her reply, together with the contact number for the newspaper reporter. Then she grabbed her coat and bag and made for the hospital car park.
* * *
The house was easy to find. It had to be the smallest in the road but it was still imposing enough, and stood next to the house that Thea had been to when she and Lucas had visited his parents. Travelling the world, eh? He hadn’t gone very far.
Even the dividing fence between his house and his parents’ had been taken out, one drive serving both properties now. Thea parked in the space next to Lucas’s car and took a moment to steady herself.
Climbing plants wound around the Victorian-style portico of his front door, and instead of a bell there was a heavy brass knocker in the shape of a dolphin. Almost as soon as she knocked on the door, it opened.
A teenage girl answered. Dark-eyed, with dark hair, she looked suspiciously like Lucas, but none of the sums added up. The girl was definitely a good bit more than seven years old. The thought that Lucas had been even more of a fraud that she’d bargained for floated into Thea’s mind.
‘Thea?’ The girl grinned at her as if she knew her. ‘Come in.’
She stepped into a large hallway and the girl closed the front door behind her. ‘You don’t know who I am, do you? I’m Ava.’
‘Lucas’s niece?’ The last time she’d seen Ava she had been six years old, and they’d played football together in the back garden while Lucas and his brother had argued about medical aid in the developing world.
‘Yes.’ When Ava smiled, she looked even more like Lucas. ‘I suppose I have changed a bit.’
‘It’s so nice to see you, Ava.’ It was such a relief to see her. Unless Lucas had another surprise hostess tucked up his sleeve somewhere. ‘You’re staying with your uncle?’
‘I live here.’ Ava wheeled around with impetuous energy. ‘I’ll show you around.’
‘Thank you. Where’s Lucas?’
‘Out back, lighting the barbecue. I’d stay clear if I were you. I always do.’ Ava danced back towards Thea, leaning in close as if she had a secret to impart. ‘He’s not very good at it.’
‘Which naturally makes him cross.’ Lucas never had liked being outmatched by anything.
‘Yep. He gets over it. When we see smoke signals coming over the horizon, it’ll be safe to come out of hiding.’ Ava opened one of the doors leading from the hallway. ‘Sitting room.’
Thea peered past Ava into the comfortable, bright sitting room. ‘Very nice.’
‘Dining room…’ Ava was on to the next room before Thea had a chance to even cross the threshold of the first.
‘Equally nice.’ Thea grinned at her.
‘Kitchen…’ Another door, which revealed a gleaming kitchen. ‘We won’t go in there.’
‘Very wise. Leave the cooking to Lucas.’
‘Do you remember when we roasted chestnuts in the fire on Bonfire Night?’ Ava didn’t stop for an answer. ‘Would you like to see my room?’
‘I’d love to. If you’d like to show it to me.’ Thea draped her coat over the banisters and put her heavy bag down in the corner. She felt suddenly lighter as she followed Ava up the stairs and into a large, stylishly decorated room.
‘I went on holiday with Gran and Grandpa, and when I got back Lucas had decorated it as a surprise. What do you think?’
‘It’s beautiful. He did all this?’
Ava nodded. ‘Yes. He said that I needed something a bit different now that I’m older. I think it’s turned out pretty well.’
‘It’s very sophisticated. I like the curtains.’ A bold, confident pattern of yellow, purple and green, the shades somehow blending perfectly together.
‘It’s an old fifties print. We went up to town to look at some fabrics. Lucas said it was for the conservatory.’
‘And you fell for it.’ Thea grinned.
‘He’s good with surprises, he never lets on.’
‘No, he doesn’t, does he?’ The time that Lucas had started driving, saying that they were going out for a pub lunch, and hadn’t stopped until they’d reached the ferry for France. When they’d reached dry land again they’d driven all night and watched the sun come up over the bright, glittering waters of the Mediterranean.
That was the old Lucas. The one who would have taken such delight in planning a surprise like this. The one that Thea had told herself was lost for ever.
Ava was gazing down, out of the window, and opened it in response to something below. Lucas’s voice floated upwards, along with a puff of charcoal smoke.
‘Are you listening for the door, Ava?’
‘Yes.’ Ava shut the window again abruptly and Thea suppressed a smile. What was it Lucas used to say? If you want the right answers, you have to ask the right questions.
Maybe she should take that advice too. But if she wanted to know why Ava was living here and not with her parents, she should either wait for Ava to volunteer the information or ask Lucas.
‘That’s a great place to work.’ She pointed to the desk, which sat in deep bay window on the far side of the room.
‘Yeah. I think that was a hint.’ Ava grinned wryly.
‘Exams next year?’ Thea couldn’t remember whether Ava was fourteen or fifteen now.
‘No, two years. I’m choosing my GCSE subjects now.’
She must be fourteen, t
hen. ‘What do you want to do?’
‘History. I’m not sure about the rest, yet. I want to be an archaeologist.’
‘That sounds great.’
‘I’ve already been on a dig—last summer. They didn’t let us do much on our own, but it was pretty cool.’ Ava’s eyes lit up with enthusiasm. ‘Look.’
She grabbed Thea’s hand and led her over to the desk. Inside the alcove, a pinboard was fixed to the wall, covered in photographs. ‘That’s Lucas and me, with my find.’
Lucas had his arm around Ava’s shoulders and they were both pulling faces for the camera. Suddenly, seven years seemed like nothing. His hair looked as if it had been styled by the wind, and he was wearing a rock-band T-shirt that had seen better days. Longing reached into her stomach, gripped hard and then twisted.
‘That’s fabulous.’
‘Isn’t it? It’s Samian ware. That’s high-quality pottery from Italy or France that the Romans used to use.’
Thea dragged her eyes from Lucas’s face and focussed on the piece of broken pottery that Ava was holding up. ‘How interesting.’
‘Yeah. That piece of pottery came from something like that.’ Ava indicated a museum postcard of a glossy red bowl, with moulding around the base, pinned next to the photograph. ‘I saw it in one of the side trenches, where the settlement put all their rubbish, and they let me pick it up after it was photographed. I was the first person to touch it since it got thrown there. Can you imagine that?’
All that Thea could imagine at the moment was Lucas. ‘It must have been an amazing feeling.’ The board was like a memory board. Ava as she remembered her, a six-year-old with her parents. Then, growing up, with Lucas. Something must have happened and Thea dreaded to ask what that might have been.
‘There’s one of you here somewhere.’ Ava scanned the board and pointed to one at the top. Some older photos of Lucas, and in one of them he was sitting outside a tent, his arm around Thea.
‘Ah! I remember that. We were at Glastonbury.’ She’d looked so different then. It wasn’t just the hair or the clothes, she’d looked carefree. Thea wondered if Lucas found her as changed as she did him.
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