A DOCTOR TO COME HOME TO
Gill Sanderson
District Nurse Amy Harrison didn’t want a man in her life. She had a husband and it wasn’t a happy experience. Now content with her family and career, a holiday in Majorca turns things on its head when she meets Doctor Adam Ross and his daughter.
Could this be just a holiday romance...
Chapter One
Afterwards, Amy Harrison remembered how she had felt earlier that morning. Not really happy, not really contented, but more or less at peace with the world. She had her friends, she lived in one of the most beautiful and unspoiled districts of Britain, she had the job of district nurse, which she loved. She had her four-year-old daughter Elizabeth. She could cope with her life, deal with its disappointments.
Then Dr Adam Ross had marched back into that life. And things weren’t peaceful any more.
Like on all work days, she had started early. As well as herself there was Elizabeth to bathe and give breakfast to. Then a short drive round to her mother’s to drop Elizabeth off. Amy thought herself lucky that she had found the house she wanted, so close to her mother. She was even luckier still that her mother was a registered childminder.
Elizabeth loved being with her nan and played happily with the other three children that Amy’s mother looked after. The house rang with the noise of children enjoying themselves, it always felt happy. Amy knew that Elizabeth couldn’t be in better hands, and that made her life, well, possible.
It was easy to drive out of the little Derbyshire town of Lissom. It was a gorgeous October day, and soon Amy was driving along a valley, through the mist that rose from the river. Her heart lifted with the beauty of it. This was why she stayed in Derbyshire!
She watched for the narrow entrance, turned into the lane that led up to Top Clough Farm. It was a steep, bumpy, rattling ride, the heather brushed the side of her car and she was glad of the four-wheel drive.
So, it was halfway through October. In a couple of weeks the clocks would go back. It would be time for parties, Halloween, Bonfire Night. Basically, party time for children. She would help her mother organise something for those in her charge. There was also often something organised at the surgery for the staff. She supposed she’d have to go. It would be good to spend time with friends—but she wasn’t one for parties. Not any more.
Ahead, above, was Top Clough Farm, a scattering of grey buildings on the shoulder of a green hill. A hard place to earn a living, but beautiful in its own stark way.
Amy drove into the farmyard, checked the state of the ground and decided it wasn’t yet necessary to put on the Wellington boots she always carried in the back of the car. All right now, but in December...
As she walked across the yard she heard the hum of machinery coming from the barn. She peered in the door. Alan Dunnings was checking the leads to the milking parlour. Amy knew him quite well, having been at school with him.
‘Amy! Good to see you. Come to give Dad a check-up?’
‘Just the usual, thought I’d call in. How has he been?’
Alan came to the door, shaking his head. ‘I’m going to have to tie him down, Amy. The minute I turn my back he starts on something. I was clearing a ditch on the back pasture last week and he was supposed to go on a short walk, like you said. I came back to find him mending a wall in the paddock. Dry-stone walling, Amy! He looked as grey as the limestone he was handling.’
‘I’ll have another word with him,’ Amy promised. ‘He just can’t act this way.’
‘Tell him,’ said Alan.
Alan was supposed to work in partnership with his father, Alf. Alf’s wife Mavis had died two years ago. The two men had got on well together—until Alf had fallen ill. He’d had a heart attack. There had been a sudden desperate rush to hospital followed by emergency treatment. Now Alf was home again—but never again would he work as he had done.
Amy knocked then walked straight into the stone floored kitchen. Alf looked up from the book he was reading then leapt to his feet. ‘Amy! Let me pour you a cup of tea, I’ve just—’
Amy placed a hand on his chest, eased him back into his chair. ‘I’ll pour my own tea,’ she said. ‘I can see the teapot. You sit there and take things easy. What’s this about dry-stone walling? I thought we agreed that you’d take things easy.’
‘I’ve worked all my life. I’m not stopping now.’
‘You’re not stopping; you’re just to do less. How d’you feel?’
‘I’m OK. I...’ He looked at Amy’s stern face and then said, ‘I’ve felt better.’
‘Not surprising. Now, let’s have a look at you.’
Quickly Amy listened to his chest, took the other readings that were standard. Then, carefully, she wrote down the results. Note keeping was all important. Only then did she pour herself a mug of tea and sit opposite Alf.
‘This is serious, Alf. You’re not as good as you were when I called a fortnight ago—you’re going backwards because you won’t rest and wait.’
‘Top Clough has always been a tidy farm. If I see something wrong, I put it right.’
She sighed. This was not something she liked doing, but she had to. She had to get through to him.
‘You’re tough, we know that. The heart attack you had would have killed a lot of men. But what you have to do is take things easy, and in another couple of months you can start on some light work. But if you have another attack like last time—well, you won’t come out of hospital and come straight back up here. You’ll have to spend the rest of your life in some kind of sheltered accommodation down in town. Probably in a wheelchair.’
She saw the panic in his eyes, felt guilty for what she had said. But it was the truth. So she went on, more gently, ‘But it doesn’t have to come to that if you look after yourself. Going to do what I say?’
‘I’ll do what you say.’
‘Good because I want to keep on coming up here. Now, tell me about those sheep I saw in the bottom meadow...’
‘He’ll pay more attention to you than to me,’ Alan said to her fifteen minutes later, as she re-crossed the farmyard. ‘Have you talked sense into him?’
Amy could see the concern in the man’s eyes.’ I’ve tried,’ she said. ‘I’ll not leave it so long before I come again—I’ll try to drop in next week.’
‘We both appreciate that.’ Alan handed her a bottle. ‘Cream,’ he said, ‘fresh this morning. Put it on Elizabeth’s cornflakes.’
‘And on mine. Thanks, Alan, I’ll be seeing you.’
As she bounced back down the track she thought that visiting people like the Dunnings was what made the job worthwhile.
The rest of her morning’s jobs were in the town itself. First she called on Elsie Pennant, who lived in a tiny terrace house on the outskirts of town. Elsie had scalded her leg badly while making her early morning tea. Amy changed the dressing then helped Elsie have a wash. This gave them a chance to catch up on gossip. Amy noticed that Elsie seemed more frail than usual, and perhaps more forgetful. That often happened after a trauma. Amy made a mental note to get in touch with Social Services. Perhaps a preliminary interview was needed.
Then there were two sets of injections to be given, again older people who could not be relied upon to inject themselves. These were over quickly. The next patient was very different.
Travis Kay, a keen and apparently expert climber, had fallen while climbing a local rock-face, Stannage Edge. He had a compound fracture of one leg and very deep lacerations. Travis was not taking kindly to having to stay immobile.
His wife let Amy in, a resigned expression on her face. ‘You try to stop him, I can’t,’ she said. ‘I’m only his wife.’
Amy could hear grunting, gasping noises f
rom the front room, which had been converted into a temporary bedroom. She knocked, peered round the door then blinked. Was she seeing things?
Travis’s bed was in the middle of the room. Above it was a metal construction—it looked home-made but sturdy. From it Travis was hanging, his muscular arms pulling him upwards, his plaster-clad leg stuck out clumsily in front. When he saw Amy he slowly lowered himself onto the bed. ‘Got to keep fit,’ he said. ‘The lads built this for me. A gym for the bedbound.’
Amy grinned. ‘Fall on that leg again and you’ll really be in trouble,’ she said. ‘Travis, can’t you just for once stay still for a few days?’
‘It’s hard,’ Travis said. ‘Amy, I get so bored.’
‘Well, I’ve warned you. Fall badly and you’re in real trouble. Now, let’s have a look at that cast.’
Travis seemed to be getting better. If he fell on that leg he could cause himself a lot of trouble. But he seemed happier now he had something to do, some way of exercising. Amy decided that she wouldn’t be putting forward Travis’s construction as suitable for everyone with a broken leg, but if it made Travis an easier patient it was good.
So, quite a typical morning. She enjoyed it. A mix of people, the feeling that you were helping someone, always something new to talk about. There were far worse jobs than being a district nurse.
At lunchtime she drove back to the Riverside Surgery, to which she was attached. Technically, she didn’t work there, that was the job of the practice nurse. But they all worked together—well.
This afternoon she was going to help out with the flu vaccinations for the older people in the district. There would be a queue of patients waiting to come in, but the job was simple. It was almost like a factory production line—people bared their arms outside, came in, gave their names and less than a minute later were out of the door again. But it was valuable work.
That was this afternoon. Now Amy had chance to get her records straight, have a bite of lunch, perhaps even slip into town to do some shopping.
As she entered the car park she noticed a new car in the doctors’ area—a maroon Range Rover. Vaguely she wondered whose it could be. There had been talk in the practice about getting a locum. Annie Best, their one female doctor, had taken six months off to have her first baby, and things had been very busy without her. It had been hard to find a suitable locum—not a lot of doctors wanted to come to work in a small Derbyshire town.
Amy took her sandwiches and briefcase and let herself in. First, a quick trip to the cloakroom to brush out her short dark hair, rub the mud from her shoes and in general make herself look respectable. Then she frowned at her reflection. Her uniform looked a bit loose on her, a bit baggy. She went into the treatment room and weighed herself—nine pounds under what she thought was her best weight. Wryly, she wondered what she was complaining about. Most women had difficulty keeping weight off, not putting it on. She would try to eat a little more if she remembered.
So far just a normal day. She had enjoyed what she had done but it was a day like so many others. And then things changed.
She was walking across the reception area, looking forward to her sandwiches and tea, and catching up with news, when a young female voice behind her called out.
‘Amy—it’s Amy. Oh, it’s so good to see you!’
Amy stopped. For a minute she just couldn’t place who it was. Certainly she knew the voice. She knew she knew it, but...she turned.
Running towards her, arms outstretched, was a tall, pretty girl, who looked as if she might be sixteen or seventeen—though Amy knew she was only fourteen. She was dressed casually in jeans, sweater and trainers. Her long hair was tied back. And she looked delighted to see Amy. Before Amy could move or say anything, she was enveloped in a great hug.
‘I’ve missed you,’ a voice against her shoulder said rapidly. ‘How I’ve missed you, me and Dad both. It was rotten when you had to leave and we couldn’t even say goodbye. Then we had to go to Canada and we’re here now and I’m so glad we’ve found you, Amy. I need you, I need a friend.’
Amy hugged the girl back. ‘It’s good to see you, too, Johanne,’ she managed to gasp. She felt numb, bewildered, unable to think, her mind grappling with what was happening. Johanne Ross was here. She said she and her dad had missed her. That meant...
Odd facts clicked together in her mind. The practice was short of a locum. She had heard that one who might be suitable was coming for interview. It could be...please, no... Not this, just when she’d got some kind of balance into her life. Please, not this.
Unsteadily, knowing that her voice was wobbling, she said, ‘Is your...? Are you...?’
‘Dad’s got it!’ He was interviewed this morning, they are just doing what they call settling things and he’s going to start practically at once. Amy, I’m so happy to be here with you.’
Johanne stepped back, releasing Amy. ‘Look who’s here—Dad!’
Somehow Amy managed to turn. A very familiar voice said, ‘Hello, Amy.’
That deep voice! She remembered the first time she had heard it, remembered what it did—always did— to her. ‘Hello, Adam,’ she managed to say.
For a moment all feeling, all emotion deserted her. She wasn’t aware of the receptionists’ desk, the familiar surroundings. She couldn’t hear the chatter from the adjoining room or smell the expensive floor polish. All her attention was focused on the man in front of her.
And—for now—she felt detached, as if this was happening to someone else. How could it happen to her? She had intended never to see this man again.
She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time, checked his appearance, itemised everything that she could see, as if to convince herself that it was really him. He was dressed in well-polished black shoes, a perfectly cut dark suit, pure white shirt, and college tie. His hair was as she remembered it, curly, unruly. It provided a touch of something different from the perfectly groomed rest of him. And his face...
Although she had desperately tried not to, she had thought of his face so often. It came to her at night, when she was in that half awake, half asleep state. It came unexpectedly during the day at work, when she was faced with some apparently insoluble problem. Much to her annoyance, his face haunted her.
It wasn’t a handsome face—rugged would be a better word. And if the grey eyes sometimes looked so icy that she felt one glance would freeze—well, that generous mouth always looked forgiving. And she knew it was so kissable.
That thought made her shudder. She had to get control of her emotions, deal with this situation.
Then she remembered the first time they had met, by the pool in Majorca. She remembered how he had affected her—an instant, out of time, when she had felt something that she had never expected to feel again. And that something had grown, so much...
Concentrate! Deal with this!
From somewhere she summoned a polite, a professional voice and said, ‘Adam! I never expected to see you again. What are you doing here?’
She knew she hadn’t fooled him, that he could sense her inner turmoil. But he said, equally formally, ‘I’m part of the team now. I’ve been taken on here as locum for six months. I’m looking forward to working with you, Amy. We worked well together before. Remember? On the beach?’
She could tell that he was thinking far more than he was saying. And how well she did remember before—how could she ever forget it?
Her world had lurched out of kilter when she had first seen Johanne, only now was it coming back to normal. She began to comprehend that he was really, truly here. And he was going to work with her. She stared at him, this time with more caution. The first thing to find out was if he was angry with her. She supposed he was entitled to be. But at the time she had done the only thing she had felt she could, the thing that would be best for both of them.
She said, ‘We did work well together, didn’t we? And I supposed I enjoyed it in one way. We were supposed to be on holiday but doctors and nurses never truly
stop working, do they? But why come here? Why did you want to...? How did you...?’
She became aware of Johanne, listening to this strained conversation and looking from one to the other with an alert eye. He became aware, too. He took keys out of his pocket, gave them to his daughter and said, ‘Nip out to the car, Johanne, and pick up those photographs, I think they’re on the back seat. I’m sure Amy would want to see them.’
‘All right, I’ll go,’ said Johanne, making it obvious that she knew she was being dismissed. ‘But I’ll be right back.’
Adam waited until Johanne closed the door behind her and then came over and took Amy’s shoulders in his hands. He said, ‘I won’t offer to shake hands with you, I think we’re better friends than that.’
She felt her body go rigid as he bent over and kissed her gently on the cheek. That smell of citrus aftershave! There was a rush of memories, feelings, emotions and she wondered if and how she could cope. But she managed it somehow. He released her, stepped back and smiled.
‘Do the...have you told the doctors that we know each other?’ she managed to croak.
He nodded. ‘It was no great secret. I told them that we met casually on holiday and that you got on very well with Johanne. You’d mentioned where you worked and that there might be a vacancy in a few weeks. So when I saw the advert I just applied.’
‘I see. And is that the real reason you’re here?’
‘You know it’s not.’ He looked over her shoulder. ‘Johanne’s coming back. We don’t want to talk in front of her, she’s knowing enough already. Now, we’re staying for a few nights at the Gilmour Arms. I can leave Johanne alone there tonight. Can we get together then? Perhaps I could take you to dinner?’
‘Why do you want to take me to dinner?’ Amy asked. She knew she was playing for time.
His voice took on that slightly harsh note that she had heard on occasion before, and she remembered that he was not a man to take lightly.
‘Amy, we’re going to be together for six months. There are things we just have to sort out. For a start, how we treat each other. I’ve made this happen and I know it could be hard on both of us. We need to talk. So can we have dinner together?’
A Doctor to Come Home to Page 1