Instead of waiting until the traffic lights in the middle of the main street had been green, Sam had scuttled across while they were red when there had been a lull in the traffic and had been knocked down by a car that he hadn’t seen coming.
Under the circumstances he’d got off lightly, with just a broken tibia, but at his age it was not something he was going to gallop away with. Even though the fracture had slowly healed, he was now crippled with arthritis and had lost the misguided confidence that had taken him into the road when he should have stayed on the pavement.
‘So how are the aches and pains today?’ Ross asked the old man.
‘Same as usual,’ Sam grunted. ‘I need some more tablets but your receptionist woman behind the counter said that I had to see either you or Dr West first.’
‘Yes, that is so,’ he confirmed. ‘As you know, we don’t hand out tablets like sweets. We need to know periodically if the patient’s condition has changed and if the medication should be increased or reduced, or maybe changed to something else. So first of all we’ll see how your blood pressure looks, what your heart has to say when I sound it and if your chest is clear. The last time you came in and saw Dr West, you had an infection.’
‘Aye. I did, and I got a telling-off for not looking where I was going. Young Isabel said that she’d noticed that we old ’uns, men in particular, with plenty of time on their hands, are always in a rush and she wanted to know why.’
‘And what was your excuse?’ Ross asked, hiding a smile at the thought of Izzy sorting out this crotchety old soul.
‘With me it was usually that I was in a hurry to get to the pub for opening time, or back to the television, or something like that. That day, Emma, my daughter, had asked me to go to the grocer’s for her before I’d read the morning paper. I don’t like to be disturbed until I’ve read it from back to front, so I was in a rush to get back.’
‘With unfortunate consequences.’
‘Aye. I don’t need reminding. So are you going to examine me or not?’ he asked grumpily, and Ross thought that if the mobility had gone, the impatience hadn’t.
When the family from the Pheasant followed him into the consulting room he thought what a difference there was between the two patients—one an irascible old man who was totally to blame for what now ailed him, and the other an innocent child, the victim of damage at birth.
‘So, what progress have you made?’ he asked as Jake’s mother and father seated themselves opposite and the child squatted down on the floor to play with a toy he’d brought with him.
‘Some,’ his father replied, ‘but things are not moving as fast as we would like.’
Ross nodded.
‘That I can believe, and the reason will be because the implant is still in its trial stages. But take heart from the fact that Jake is being considered for it, even if you have to take him to Russia and pay for it.’
‘We would take him to the ends of the earth if we could make his life easier,’ his mother said. ‘And if we have to pay, we’ll find the money from somewhere. The consultant that you sent us to is doing all he can to help. He’s examined Jake and pronounced him an ideal recipient for the implant, but there seems to be such a lot of red tape to get through first.’
‘Whatever the result,’ his father said, ‘we won’t forget how you brought hope into our lives from just a chance conversation, and the moment we have anything further to tell you we’ll be down here. We’ve been down this road a few times before and been told that nothing could be done, but now, for the first time, we have hope but we’re not going to sit back and wait for ever.’
With her glance on her son, who was absorbed in the toy that he’d brought with him, his mother said, ‘Jake is our only child and we love him dearly. I had a very difficult birth, which was to blame for his deformed jaw, and I’ve felt guilty ever since.’
‘Don’t feel guilty, it’s no one’s fault,’ Ross said gently. ‘The consultant I referred you to is top in his field, and he’ll do all he can to get the health authorities to consider Jake’s case.’
‘We’re due to see him again soon and maybe he’ll have some news for us then,’ Jake’s father informed Ross.
‘I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you,’ Ross told him, ‘and remember, if you do get the go-ahead, ask the hospital to explain every detail of what is going to happen as something as new as this isn’t routine surgery. And don’t forget I’m always here if you want to talk.’
When they’d gone he sat deep in thought before summoning his next patient. Perhaps he should tell Izzy the same thing, that he would always be there if ever she wanted to talk. But after losing his cool earlier when she’d commented on her looks, he had a feeling that a heart to heart was not going to be on her agenda at the present time.
But at least he could discuss practice matters with her and tell her what Jake’s parents had said. As GPs they were always interested in anything new that would help their patients and he knew that she’d been touched by the little boy’s predicament, even though her comments had made him fly off the handle.
As he’d watched Jake playing contentedly with his toy, quite unaware that he was the subject of the discussion, Ross had tried to imagine how he would feel if Jake had been his son, his and Izzy’s. Rather that the parent should suffer than the child any time, he thought, and yet it was the young ones who seemed to cope the best with life’s afflictions.
* * *
The police had arrived. Izzy had seen the squad car outside on the surgery forecourt and wondered what Ross was saying to them. She knew that while still telling the truth he would do his best to play down Brian Derwent’s behaviour of the day before for the sake of the man himself and his wife and children, but in the telling he would also have to consider just how much of a threat the depressed farmer was to those around him.
She was hoping that they wouldn’t want to talk to her without her knowing what Ross had said to them, but as he’d pointed out when they’d discussed it earlier, it would have to be the truth and following on that would be the hospital’s decision regarding the state of Brian Derwent’s mind.
It went without saying that she was going to talk to Jean at the first opportunity, to see if there was anything she could do to help, but it would have to wait until later in the day when she was out on her rounds. In the meantime she was doing her best not to think about how Ross had acted when she’d been commenting on her lack of good looks.
It had been merely a statement of fact, she thought wryly. She hoped she hadn’t made him think she was fishing for compliments, and as he couldn’t tell a lie about her looks he’d decided to compliment her on her figure.
When he opened the communicating door between their two rooms and beckoned her in, Isabel knew that it had been a vain hope that the police wouldn’t want to talk to her.
A young policewoman and an older constable were seated opposite Ross and when she went in they rose to their feet.
‘Just a few questions about the fire at Blackstock Farm, if you don’t mind, Dr West,’ the constable said ponderously. ‘We’ve heard Dr Templeton’s version and now we’d like to hear yours.’
‘There’s not a lot to tell,’ she said smoothly, deciding that she was not going to be intimidated in any way. ‘As Dr Templeton will have told you, we have been concerned about Brian Derwent over the last week or so. He had been having problems with the farm and then his wife mistakenly gave him the impression that she intended leaving him, and that was the last straw.
‘He is inclined to get easily depressed. If he was responsible for the fire, we both think that it came from a mindless moment of despair and feel sure that now he knows that his wife hasn’t stopped loving him and had no intention of leaving him, he will be all right. After all, it was his own property that he damaged and no one was hurt.’
‘Quite so,’ the constable said dryly, ‘but if your colleague here hadn’t risked his life, the consequences could have been disastrous. We shall be sendi
ng in a report to the chief constable.’
Isabel hadn’t looked at Ross while she’d been speaking. She didn’t want the police to think they were concocting a story that they’d agreed on previously, neither did she want to see anything in his expression that would make her falter in what she had to say.
‘It was a brave thing that you did,’ the policewoman told Ross with what Isabel thought was overdone admiration.
He smiled across at her. ‘I was only thankful that I was there. I’d gone to see Brian to ask him to come to the surgery so that I could prescribe some sort of antidepressants.’
‘And what were you doing at Blackstock Farm?’ the constable asked Isabel in the same dry tone.
‘I was driving across the moors, saw the flames in the sky and went to investigate.’
He unbuttoned his top pocket and put away his notebook. “It would seem that it was Brian Derwent’s lucky day. All the GPs of the neighbourhood converging on his property. I live in the centre of the town and getting a doctor out to see you is like getting blood out of a stone. And as for them arriving unasked-for!’ He turned to his companion. ‘Come on, Jackie. We’ve got all the info we need.’ Taking her glance off Ross, the young policewoman followed him out into Reception.
When they’d gone the two doctors observed each other uneasily and Isabel said, ‘I hope I didn’t contradict anything you’d said.’
‘No, you were unflinchingly convincing,’ he said, with the beginning of a smile. ‘And let’s face it, we told no lies. It was just a case of putting our own points of view for the Derwents’ sake, and don’t forget that even though the police are unlikely to prosecute, the farmer won’t be out of trouble. He might get a bill from the fire services, and then there’s the possibility of psychiatric care.’
‘I’m going to call at the farm while I’m out on my rounds,’ she told him. ‘I’m anxious to know what’s going on there and how Jean is coping.’
He didn’t reply, just nodded, and then into the silence said, ‘Are you doing anything special tonight?’
For a moment there was surprise in the violet eyes looking into his and then it was gone as, ignoring a faster beating heart, she asked coolly, ‘Why?’
‘I’d like to take you out for a meal.’
‘Why?’
‘Does there have to be a reason?’
‘Yes, when it concerns us.’
‘All right, then. It will be to say thank you for supporting me during these last weeks while I’ve been settling in,’ he said casually. ‘It can’t have been easy.’
‘It hasn’t,’ she told him with candour, but didn’t elaborate further.
There was no way she was going to tell Ross just how much her world had been turned upside down again when he’d reappeared out of the blue. It might end up in her admitting that she’d never stopped loving him. That she’d discovered that what she’d written off as a schoolgirl crush had been the real thing, strong, true and passionate. If that didn’t put him on the defensive, nothing would.
He was raising a questioning eyebrow. ‘So have we got a date?’
‘Yes,’ she said in the same cool tone. ‘I’d like to dine out. Where are you going to take me?’
He would have loved to have shattered her calm by saying ‘To bed?’, but he’d shirked the issue and told Izzy that the invitation was just a way of saying thanks. So he would have to see what some time together in an atmospheric setting brought, if anything.
‘Sophie tells me there’s a new restaurant up on the hill road that is highly recommended. Shall we try there?’
She shrugged.
‘Yes, whatever. I don’t mind where we go, but don’t make it too early in the evening as I’ll need to shower and change, feed my animals and wash my breakfast pots when I get in.’
He sighed.
‘I can see that you are just bursting to go out with me. Are you sure you don’t have to clean the windows or run over the lawn with the mower before we go?’
In his mind’s eye he could see Sophie’s expression when he’d asked if she could suggest somewhere special for whenever he was ready to move things along between Izzy and himself.
‘Why? Who would you be thinking of taking out?’ she’d asked in her abrupt way. ‘I would hope that it’s Isabel West, but only if you aren’t going to be messing her around this time. Your mother and me would love to see some young ones around the place before we both pass on.’
‘Hey, steady on, Sophie,’ he’d exclaimed laughingly. ‘All I did was ask you where the best eating places were, apart from your delightful tearooms.’
‘Get away with you,’ she’d said with a chuckle. ‘Flattery will get you everywhere. But think about what I’ve said. Isabel won’t be around for ever. One day some fellow will appear and sweep her off her feet.’
‘And why do you think I would have my sights on Izzy?’
‘Maybe it’s because I’ve got eyes in my head,’ she’d told him, and had gone on to say, ‘There’s a place up near the tops that’s very popular. An old barn that somebody has converted into a tasteful restaurant that blends in with the area.’
‘And where exactly is it?’ he’d asked.
‘It’s near the Kissing Stone.’
‘And where and what is that? I don’t remember it from before.’
‘You might have done if you’d been into kissing,’ she’d replied. ‘It’s a big, black rock, smooth as silk, in the middle of the moors. Nobody knows how it came to be there. It’s nothing like the local limestone. The legend has it that lovers who kiss while touching it will be together for ever.’
And now he was taking her advice. Making the first move towards his second takeover in a matter of weeks. The first had been important, had meant a lot to him, but he knew that it was Izzy that he’d really come back for.
During the first years of his self-imposed exile he’d been racked with many emotions, none of them pleasant. Amongst them had been guilt because he hadn’t seen the signs that a young and vulnerable woman had been falling in love with him, and there’d been sadness inside him, too, for the hurt he’d caused her.
He had always been able to attract women but had never found the one that made his heart beat faster—and that had included Paul West’s lonely daughter. And though memories of the trauma from all that time ago had never left him, he hadn’t made any definite plans to come back until he’d got the elderly GP’s letter regarding the practice. It had only been then that he’d known how much he’d wanted to see Izzy again. That he hadn’t laid to rest the ghost of the sobbing girl who had begged him to stay.
When he’d met a composed young doctor who on the surface was nothing like the Izzy West he’d known before, he had realised that the reason why he’d never had any serious relationships over the past seven years had been standing before him, unattached, unperturbed and unaware of what she was doing to his heartstrings.
‘I thought I’d reserve a table at the place that Aunt Sophie recommended,’ he told her, dragging his thoughts back to the present. ‘It is a barn that’s been turned into a restaurant.’
‘Sounds nice,’ she told him. ‘Shall we say eight o’clock?’
‘Will you have finished all your chores by then?’
‘Yes.’
‘Right. Eight o’clock it is and, Izzy…I’m really looking forward to us having some time together.’
Feeling that she’d been playing it cool long enough, she smiled. ‘Me, too,’ she told him softly.
* * *
As Isabel passed the burnt shell of the barn on her way to the farmhouse that afternoon, she shuddered. The memory of Ross opening the door and plunging into the smoke and flames was something she would never forget.
Jean must have come home to a nightmare, she thought, and when the farmer’s wife opened the door in answer to her knock, there wasn’t a vestige of colour in her face. But she was calm, and when she saw who was standing on the doorstep she managed a smile.
‘Isabel,’ she s
aid in a low voice. ‘Do come in. My mother-in-law has gone to pick the children up from school so we won’t be disturbed for a while.’
‘So what’s happening about Brian?’ Isabel asked as she seated herself on a high-backed wooden settle.
‘They’re keeping him in for observation,’ Jean said. ‘He has some facial burns but they are not too serious, thanks to Dr Templeton. It is his mental state that is causing the most concern. I know what he’s like. Brian broods inwardly for a while and then explodes. He doesn’t usually mean anything by it, but this time it was different and I feel that I’m to blame for his irrational behaviour. I should never have let him go on thinking that I was going to leave him, but I’ve been so fed up with his bad temper of late I thought I’d teach him a lesson. If I hadn’t been feeling so ill with pneumonia, my reasoning might have been more rational, but it wasn’t and now we both have to pay the price.
‘Something good has come out of it, though. My mother-in-law is not without money and she’s offered to pay for the rebuilding of the barn and maybe go into partnership with Brian when he is well enough to discuss it, which would take away a lot of the anxiety, money-wise, that he’s been experiencing of late.
‘I’ve been to see him this morning and he can’t believe that he did what he did. But he will when he comes home and sees what’s left of the barn. The police have been to talk to me and have questioned him at the hospital.’
‘They’ve been to the surgery too,’ Isabel told her. ‘Dr Templeton and I played it down as much as we could for all your sakes, but we had to tell the truth.’
Jean shook her head wearily. ‘There are times when I wish we’d never come to this place, but it was what we both wanted and we’re not giving up, especially now that Brian’s mother is willing to help us. She would have offered before if she’d known that money was tight, but that husband of mine is so independent it just isn’t true.’
As she set off back down the winding road that led to the village, Isabel caught sight of Millie walking her dog and she stopped and asked if the retired GP wanted a lift.
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