‘Er, yes, of course.’
‘You hesitate. Are you sure?’
‘Yes, I’m sure.’ She couldn’t let her personal feelings stand in the way of her training, even though she wondered how she would cope in the future, working alongside Casey, if their relationship came to an end.
‘We’ll take the bike,’ he said shortly. ‘I’ll meet you outside in five minutes.’
She flew up to her flat and changed into warm trousers and a thick sweater. Pulling on a padded jacket and gloves, she hurried down to the courtyard where she found Casey already astride the bike with its engine running. The spare crash helmet was on the pillion seat ready for her and within seconds she had put it on, secured it and had mounted the bike behind him. Then they were away and instinctively Adele wrapped her arms around Casey’s waist, holding him tight as they sped to the police station. She could feel the warmth of his body through his jacket and beneath her the deep throbbing of the engine. It felt good to be there, good to be alive and good to be Casey’s woman, and it was with a sudden painful pang that she remembered this could be about to come to end, for while the motorbike journeys might well continue, she might soon no longer be Casey’s woman.
At the police station a harassed-looking Alan was on duty and briefly outlined the problem as he escorted them to an interview room. It appeared that a woman had been caught shoplifting by a store detective and the police had been called. The woman had been brought to the station where she had been charged, but during the bail process she had been taken ill.
‘She looks pretty groggy,’ said Alan.
‘What age is she?’ asked Casey.
‘Sixty-five,’ Alan replied.
‘Does she have anyone with her?’ asked Adele.
‘Yes, her son has arrived but he seems more concerned with the shame and embarrassment of his mother having been arrested for shoplifting than over the fact that there might be something wrong with her.’ As he finished outlining the details, Alan pushed open the door, allowing Casey and Adele to precede him into the interview room.
A grey-haired woman was seated in a chair with a red blanket around her shoulders. She looked pale and dazed and the right side of her face looked as if it had dropped, giving her a curiously lopsided appearance. A police-woman was crouched on one side of her and a man of around forty, dressed in an immaculate pinstriped suit, was pacing around the room. As the door opened he stopped pacing and spun round.
‘Are you the doctor?’ he demanded.
‘Yes. The name’s Casey and this is my assistant, Dr Brooks.’
‘This is my mother,’ the man went on. ‘There must have been some dreadful mistake. They’re saying she was caught shoplifting but that’s impossible—she wouldn’t do anything like that. The last thing she would want is to bring shame on the family—on me, in my position.’
‘And what is your position, Mr…Mr…?’ asked Adele as Casey crouched down in front of the woman in the chair.
‘Lauder. Robert Lauder. I’m chairman of the local council. I also have my own firm of accountants. I tell you, all this is simply ludicrous.’
Casey spoke quietly to the woman in the chair. ‘Mrs Lauder, can you tell me what happened?’
The woman stared at him but when she attempted to speak her words sounded garbled.
‘Good Lord!’ Robert Lauder, who had been staring down at his mother, now ran one hand over his head in distraction. ‘You haven’t been drinking again, have you, Mother? Heaven help us!’ He rolled his eyes then turned to Adele. ‘She’s always been a bit partial to the sherry bottle, but I didn’t think she’d get into this state. On the other hand, I suppose it might account for her actions in the store. I mean…if she was drunk…’
By this time Casey had checked Mrs Lauder’s pulse and shone his torch into her eyes.
‘Is that it, Doctor? Is she drunk?’ demanded Robert. He sounded hopeful now, as if it had just occurred to him that this possibility could be by far the lesser of two evils.
‘I just want to check your mother’s blood pressure,’ replied Casey. Adele recognised the cool note in his voice and knew he didn’t think much of the man’s attitude. As Casey took a sphygmomanometer from his bag, she helped him to expose the patient’s arm and secure the cuff. As he checked the pressure she looked up at the patient’s son once more.
‘Does your mother live alone?’ she asked.
‘Yes, since my father died—that was two years ago.’ Robert spoke as if that should have been a sufficient length of time for his mother to be over her bereavement. ‘So…’ He looked at Casey who had removed the cuff and straightened up. ‘Am I right? Too much sherry?’
‘No, Mr Lauder,’ Casey replied. ‘Your mother has suffered a stroke.’
‘A stroke!’ Robert looked astounded.
‘Yes, it has affected her right side and she’s suffered some paralysis and loss of speech. I want to get her admitted to hospital right away.’ He turned to Alan who was still standing by the door. ‘Can you arrange an ambulance, please, Sergeant?’
‘Of course, Doctor,’ Alan replied.
‘He’s a bit of a monster, the son,’ said Adele as they stood on the forecourt and watched the ambulance draw away, bearing Robert Lauder and his mother.
‘We mustn’t judge him too harshly,’ said Casey as he put on his crash helmet and passed Adele hers. ‘All he could see was his life becoming complicated.’
‘But she’s his mother!’ protested Adele.
‘I know, and on the face of it his treatment of her did seem pretty uncaring, but we don’t know all the facts, Adele, and ours is not to reason why.’
In silence Adele mounted the bike, but as they drew away from the station inside she was still seething.
They had travelled for several miles before she realised that they were nowhere near Woolverton House. She leaned forward. ‘Where are we going?’ she shouted. When Casey didn’t answer she thought her words must have been whipped away by the speed at which they were travelling, but a few moment later he pulled into what seemed to be a lay-by and switched off the engine.
Looking around, Adele saw they were on a fairly deserted road high above the town. By now it was late afternoon and the sun was sinking fast in the glorious blush of a mackerel sky while below them smoke from several fires drifted upwards in long thin columns.
Casey indicated for her to dismount. Doing the same himself, he took her hand and said, ‘I want to show you something.’
Mystified, she allowed him to lead her through a gap in the hedge and into a field. Below them against the dramatic skyline were the ruins of the once magnificent Stourborne Abbey, to their left lay the town, slumbering in the last of the day’s sunlight, and beyond the sweep of the distant hills.
‘That,’ said Casey as he slipped his arm around her, ‘is one magnificent view, do you not agree?’
‘Yes,’ Adele agreed, ‘it is.’
‘I’ve always wanted to live somewhere with such a view,’ Casey went on.
‘It would be marvellous.’ Adele nodded, wondering why Casey had brought her here.
‘Actually,’ he said after a moment, ‘some of this land up here is about to be developed and I’m thinking of putting a deposit on one of the plots. But if I’m to do so I need to move fast—I imagine they’ll be snapped up immediately.’
‘Yes, I imagine they would.’ This didn’t come as any great surprise—Adele had known that Casey was only staying in his flat at Woolverton House until he found a new property.
‘The thing is, Adele…’ his arm tightened around her. ‘I don’t want to do so unless I’m sure that it’s what you would want as well.’
‘Me?’ Slowly she half turned to him, for a moment unable to take in what he was saying.
‘Yes.’ Suddenly his voice sounded husky. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to rush you over this. I know we said we’d take things slowly but this opportunity has come up…’ He trailed off.
‘You mean you want to have a hous
e built up here and you want me to move in with you?’ She could hardly believe what she was hearing. This sounded nothing like the Casey who wouldn’t allow himself to commit to anyone.
‘What I would really like is for us to be married,’ he said softly. Turning to face her, he looked down into her eyes. ‘There…I’ve said it and I really am rushing you now, I know, so maybe if you’d prefer it we could live together first…’
‘No, oh, no!’
‘No?’ His face fell.
‘Oh, what I mean is yes.’ She stared up at him as a wave of pure happiness washed over her. ‘Oh, Casey, of course I’ll marry you.’
‘You will?’ He looked astounded and delighted at the same time. ‘I thought it was far too soon but I have to say I was getting fed up with keeping it quiet from everyone.’
‘What about Edward, and you being my trainer and everything?’
‘I shouldn’t think there will be any objection. Fiancée has a much more respectable, if old-fashioned ring to it than live-in lover. And when your training is over I imagine the others will finally see the need for another partner—always supposing that’s what you want, of course,’ he added hastily.
‘I may want to concentrate on police work.’
‘Whatever.’ He shrugged.
‘Or have lots of babies.’
‘Wonderful.’ His arm tightened around her. ‘Even better. And I don’t think we need have any fears about Edward. I’m sure he will be delighted. Celia, too,’ he added with a chuckle.
‘Celia?’ Adele looked up at him quickly. She had planned to confront him over what Celia had told her but now she wondered whether it was necessary. Celia’s fear had been that he would be incapable of committing to her, but surely there was no greater commitment than a proposal of marriage?
‘Celia has been wanting me to settle down again for years. But I kept telling her you can only settle down with the right person.’ He paused and lightly touched her cheek. ‘After I lost Trisha I despaired of ever finding that right person again. I tried dating one or two but I think it must have been too soon after Trisha…and then…and then you walked into my life, Adele, and I knew instantly. The moment I met you, I knew you were the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.’
‘Am I like Trisha at all?’ She spoke lightly but her heart was thumping as she waited for his reply.
Casey frowned. ‘A bit, I suppose,’ he said at last, ‘in some ways, but in others not at all. You are you, Adele, and it’s you who I want for my wife.’ Lowering his head, his lips covered hers in a kiss both tender and full of passion. Her earlier fears melted away, leaving her in no doubt about his intentions or the depth of his love.
‘There is just one question,’ she said as at last she drew away from him.
‘Oh?’ he murmured. ‘And what’s that?’
‘While this house is being built, while I’m your fiancée, can we be live-in lovers?’
‘Oh,’ he said, his arms tightening around her, ‘I’m sure that can be arranged.’
‘Well, that’s all right, then.’ She gave a little sigh of pure contentment and, lifting her arms, wound them around his neck. ‘Because I’m not sure I could wait for as long as it takes to build a house.’
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5724-8
POLICE DOCTOR
First North American Publication 2003
Copyright © 2002 by Laura MacDonald
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