The Doctor's Rescue

‘You do,’ Renee said emphatically.

‘And it solves his problem, too—if I do it, he won’t have to worry about finding a locum who’ll do the hours he needs.’

‘Then go see the practice,’ Renee said. ‘See what you think. If you like them, give it a try. If it doesn’t work out, you can always move on. No one’ll think any less of you.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’

‘Course I am, honey. I’m always right.’ Renee chuckled. ‘Let me know how it goes. And I won’t breathe a word to the boys. Your mom thinks the same as I do. So you tell them when you’re good and ready, OK?’

‘OK.’

‘You take care, now.’

‘You, too. And, Renee?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Thanks.’

‘Any time, honey.’

By the time Mallory had come back down Helvellyn and driven back to Darrowthwaite, it was getting near the end of surgery.

‘I’m sorry, neither of the doctors will be able to see you today,’ the receptionist told her bluntly. ‘Their lists are full.’

Direct. Well, she could cope with that. Mallory smiled and held out her hand. ‘You must be Mrs Prentiss.’

The receptionist frowned. ‘And you are?’

‘Mallory Ryman. I’m not looking for an appointment with one of the GPs, but I would like a quick word with the practice manager, please.’

Mrs Prentiss’s lips pursed as she looked Mallory up and down.

‘I’m not a drug rep either, Mrs Prentiss, if that’s what you’re thinking,’ Mallory said hastily. ‘I was with Dr Cooper at the hospital yesterday.’ Coffee. Will had said something about coffee. ‘Look, I can see you’re busy so I don’t want to hold you up, but he asked me to call in and have a quick chat with Nathan. If I…if I get you a cup of coffee, would you be able to see if Nathan can spare me a couple of minutes, please?’

To her surprise, the receptionist burst out laughing. ‘Will tell you how to soft-soap me, did he?’

‘Er…’ Mallory flushed.

‘Third door on the right,’ Mrs Prentiss said. ‘Nathan’s expecting you. Helvellyn cold, was it?’

‘But good.’ Mallory couldn’t help smiling back. Will had been spot on about the Darrowthwaite grapevine. ‘Thank you.’

Nathan turned out to be tall and thin, with his hair cut short to disguise a thinning patch. ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ he said. ‘Will’s making my life a misery. He’s called me six times today already! Good climb?’

‘Yes, thanks.’

‘I gather Will’s already told you about the practice. So, is there anything you’d like to ask me?’

This was all going way too fast. She hadn’t even said yes yet!

‘Sorry, I’m bulldozing you.’ He smiled at her. ‘Let me show you around.’

The place was perfect. Purpose-built, but from traditional materials and designed to fit in with the buildings around it. Four consulting rooms plus the practice nurse’s room. ‘And this room’s for visiting specialists—we have a weekly phlebotomist, osteopath, chiropodist and physiotherapist,’ Nathan told her. ‘We also have a room for the health visitors and district midwife—they cover three practices between them.’

‘It’s a good set-up,’ Mallory said. Very similar to Charles’s practice.

Just as Nathan was showing her back to his office, the doors of the other doctors’ surgeries opened simultaneously.

‘You must be Mallory. I’m Siobhan Reilly,’ the pretty blonde announced, shaking Mallory’s hand. ‘And this is Tom Fitzgerald.’

Tom, who was small and round and lively, grinned at her. ‘And neither of us makes a habit of diving in front of cars, you’ll be pleased to know.’

‘But that means you’ll have to be the practice hero doctor while Will’s out of action,’ Siobhan informed her. ‘Tom can’t because he’s sleep deprived.’

‘Twins. Teething,’ he explained. ‘And Siobhan can’t because she’s scared of heights.’

‘And you’re a climber,’ Siobhan said. ‘So you’ve drawn the short straw.’

‘Stop bullying the poor girl,’ a voice behind them chided. ‘Take no notice of them, love. I’m Hayley, the practice nurse. And you two can just leave her alone and get back to your patients.’

‘Yes, Aunty Hayley,’ the other doctors chorused, laughing.

Clearly Will had been talking about a shared and much-loved joke when he’d referred to the practice nurse as ‘favourite aunty’.

‘See you later, Mallory,’ Siobhan said, and she and Tom returned to their rooms.

‘Just popped along to say hello,’ Hayley said. ‘And to say thanks for looking after our Will for us.’

‘Pleasure,’ Mallory said.

‘When we heard about the accident, we couldn’t believe it. It just didn’t seem fair, after the last one. But at least he’s all right. Thanks to you.’

‘I didn’t do a lot,’ Mallory said honestly. ‘Just tried to keep him conscious while we waited for the ambulance.’ And what did Hayley mean, ‘after the last one’? Was this the second time Will had been hit by a car?

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Hayley told her with a smile. ‘I’ve got two tetanus jabs waiting, and if I leave them any longer they’ll have scared themselves into going home again.’

After such a welcome, Mallory could only do one thing. Take Renee’s advice. ‘About these questions,’ she said to Nathan.

Nathan nodded. ‘Fire away.’

‘Would you like to see my certificates and CV?’ Then she chuckled. ‘And don’t tell Will. I want to do it myself.’

‘That’s the least he deserves for pestering me!’ Nathan told her.

‘Come and sit down. Good climb?’ Will asked when Mallory put her head round the curtain of his cubicle.

‘Yes, thanks. I brought you some grapes.’ She opened the bag for him, then put the grapes on the table that swung over his bed so he could reach them. ‘Seedless. And I washed them first.’

‘Thanks. Did you go to see Nathan?’

‘Didn’t Nathan tell you?’

‘He didn’t tell me anything,’ Will complained.

She put him out of his misery. ‘Yes. I saw him.’

‘And?’

She handed him an envelope.

‘What’s this?’

‘My references,’ she said simply. ‘You’d better check me out properly if you want me to take this job.’

‘You’ll do it, then?’

She nodded. ‘Until you’re better, but I’d prefer it to be on a trial basis. Give it a week, see if we suit each other.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘Once you’ve checked out my references.’

‘Have you given a copy to Nathan?’

‘Yes. Along with all the necessary papers.’

‘Then he’ll already have it in hand.’ He gave her another of those half-smiles. She’d been expecting the full wattage but, then again, he had just been hit by a car. A half-smile was probably as much as he could manage. ‘Welcome aboard Darrowthwaite Surgery. Now, can you do me another favour?’

‘Such as?’

He dropped his voice to a whisper. ‘Get me out of here! I can’t stand another night of noise and clattering.’

‘Will, you’ve got an internal fixation and an arm in plaster. How are you going to manage at home?’

‘The cottage has a downstairs bathroom and there’s a sofa bed in the living room. I’ll cope.’

‘What do the doctors say?’

‘Is he still on about discharging himself?’ a voice enquired. ‘Honestly, medical staff really are the worst patients. Demand to see their notes, want to know why you’re still doing their obs when they feel perfectly well, and say they’re going home well before they’re actually ready.’ The staff nurse swiftly took Will’s temperature and checked his pulse.

‘Apyrexial, pulse normal, no sign of nausea, no unusual pain, and if you check under the dressing there won’t be any signs of infection. No redness, no heat, no sign of pus.’ Will ticked the list off on the fingers of his uninjured hand. ‘Now, can I go home?’

‘You know what the doctor said,’ the nurse told him gently as she wrote up his chart. ‘Only on condition you have someone to look after you.’

‘You’re in the best place,’ Mallory added.

‘Then I’ll get a taxi and discharge myself,’ Will said.

‘Talk some sense into your boyfriend, will you? Please?’ the nurse teased.

Mallory flushed deeply as the nurse left. She wasn’t Will’s girlfriend—just his locum. But if the nursing staff thought that, no doubt Will’s partners and patients would think she was trying to come on to him…And what would his real girlfriend think?

‘What about your wife—your girlfriend?’ Mallory asked. ‘How does she feel about this?’

‘I’m single,’ Will said, his voice suddenly crisp, ‘and I like it that way.’

Ouch. She’d definitely trodden on sore toes there. It sounded as if he’d recently split up with someone. ‘Your mum?’

Will groaned. ‘Please, no. It was bad enough when I rang her earlier to tell her about the accident. Especially after—’

He stopped abruptly, and Mallory wondered what he’d been going to say.

‘Look, I can manage. Mrs Hammond’ll come in a couple of times a week to do my cleaning. If I ask her nicely, she’ll pop in to give me some food once a day and do the washing and what have you. All I need’s a garden chair or something in the bathroom and I’ll be set up perfectly.’

‘It’s still a risk,’ Mallory said.

‘I really, really can’t stay here much longer. It’s driving me bananas,’ Will said between gritted teeth. ‘Now the other patients know I’m a doctor, they’re telling me all their ills and asking what they should do—it’s worse than being at a party and having everyone demand an opinion on every little niggle!’ His half-smile took the edge off his words, but only just. He paused. ‘I know you said you were planning on being a locum for a while…have you got digs lined up?’

Uh-oh. She had a nasty feeling she knew what was coming. ‘I’m staying at The Limes.’

‘I’ve got a better solution,’ Will said. ‘My spare room. If you stay at the cottage, there’ll be a doctor on the premises if I get into trouble, so they’ll let me out.’

Yeah, right.

He grimaced. ‘Mallory, this wasn’t—isn’t—an attempt to seduce you. Sharing my cottage until I’m fit again doesn’t mean I’m expecting you to share my bed or anything like that.’

Her skin heated again. She hadn’t been thinking along those lines at all. Although now he’d mentioned it…No. He might be drop-dead gorgeous beneath the bruising and the plaster, but she wasn’t going to have an affair with Will Cooper. She was going to be sensible this time round, and make sure her working partnerships stayed that way. Work only. ‘I didn’t think you were.’

‘What, then?’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘You looked incredibly disapproving,’ he said.

‘Not disapproving…Just that I hope you don’t expect me to be, well, domesticated.’

‘Explain.’

‘I don’t do housework,’ she said quietly.

‘You don’t have to. Mrs Hammond does for me,’ he reminded her.

‘I don’t do cooking either.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Dare I ask what you do do?’

‘Cattle-herding and sheep-shearing—I did them both in Australia in my gap year. Mountaineering—I’m a qualified climber. But cooking and cleaning and laundry, no chance.’

‘That’s fine by me. We’ll live on fish and chips and pizza. Just get me out of here.’

She sighed. ‘OK. I’ll ask if you can go home tomorrow.’

‘Today,’ he said. ‘Please, Mallory?’

When he asked so nicely, how could she possibly resist?

‘Tomorrow,’ Mallory reported back a few minutes later.

‘Tomorrow?’ Will echoed in horror.

‘You can go home after the doctors’ rounds, if they’re happy with your condition. And they won’t budge on that. So unless you have any strings you can pull—and pull fast—you’re staying put tonight.’

He shook his head. ‘But I feel better. Really, I do. I promise to do all my physio, to…to…’

‘Will, you were knocked over by a car yesterday morning.’

‘But it wasn’t at high speed. The driver nearly managed an emergency stop.’

‘“Nearly” being the operative word. The car hit you. Be sensible.’

Sensible? He nearly laughed. If only she knew…‘All right. But tomorrow’s as much as I can take. Anyway, I suppose you need some time to settle in yourself. My keys are in the cabinet there—the one with the insulation tape round it’s the front door key.’

‘Insulation tape?’

‘Quickest way to tell the difference between the front and back door keys. They look pretty much the same,’ he explained. ‘I’ll sort out my spare set for you when I get home.’

‘This is a hell of a risk,’ she said. ‘You don’t know me. For all you know, I could be spinning you a line about working as a GP—I could be a thief or even an axe-murderer.’

He lifted his uninjured hand, spreading the palm in the age-old ‘so what?’ gesture. ‘If it means you get me out of here tomorrow, be my guest. Sell the stereo, take the family silver, do what you like. Just get me out of here.’

‘Be serious, Will.’

‘I trust you, Mallory,’ he said. ‘You didn’t have to tell me about what happened with Lindy, but you were honest about it. I knew about it before I offered you the job. And if there was anything else remotely dodgy about you, Nathan would have found out by now and told me.’

‘Do you always make decisions this quickly?’ Mallory asked.

No. He didn’t. He always thought things through before acting, and look what that had got him. Maybe it was crazy, asking a woman he didn’t really know to share his house, but then again maybe it was time he took some risks.

‘Yes.’ Though it wasn’t a complete lie. It was true for now. ‘Keys,’ he reminded her.

She took the bunch of keys from his cupboard.

‘Stay there tonight if you like. Did you tell The Limes how long you were staying?’

Mallory shook her head.

‘Get them to bill me for tonight. And then tomorrow you can pick…’ He stopped. He was rushing ahead of himself, making assumptions. ‘I never thought to ask you. Did you come by car or train? No, scrub that. I don’t even know if you can drive.’

‘I can, and my car’s in the hospital car park right now,’ Mallory told him with a smile.

Will sagged back against his pillows, relieved. ‘Good. Then tomorrow, Dr Ryman, you can rescue me.’

CHAPTER FOUR

MALLORY checked out of The Limes that evening and settled into Will’s cottage. It was small and functional—and it had no feminine touches, so clearly he hadn’t been living with the girl who’d hurt him. There weren’t any photographs to give her a clue either. The only three in evidence were one of a couple she assumed to be Will’s parents, one of a brown and white Border collie, and one of Will with another man. A man who looked so like him—albeit blond—that he had to be Will’s brother. Both of them were smiling. Will’s full-wattage smile was even more breathtaking than she’d guessed it might be.

And then she noticed where they were. At the top of a mountain.

If Will was a climber, why had he made such a fuss about safety? And a keen climber who was about to have an enforced lay-off would surely have made some remark about wishing they could change places. She certainly would have done.

Something didn’t quite add up.

She shook herself—it was none of her business—and familiarised herself with the rest of the cottage. The kitchen-cum-dining room was again basic but functional—there was bread in the bread-bin, cheese and butter and milk in the fridge, a bowl of fruit in the middle of the scrubbed pine table and the wine-rack was half-full. She pulled one or two bottles out to look at the labels. It didn’t look as if Will drank a lot—but what he did drink was good stuff. Very good stuff, she thought. This was a man with definite tastes. Good taste.

His living room was filled with books and CDs—there wasn’t a television, she noted, though the hi-fi system was a seriously expensive make—and his bathroom was spartan but the water was hot and plentiful. He wouldn’t be able to have a bath until his leg had healed a bit more, but he could probably manage a shower. Though he’d need a plastic garden chair to sit on so he didn’t have to balance precariously on one leg. From the little she’d seen of him, she guessed that losing his independence would be the worst thing for Will.

His small garden contained a tiny shed which was just large enough to store a lawnmower and a minimal collection of tools, but held no garden furniture. The garage didn’t yield anything either. Clearly gardening wasn’t one of Will’s interests. Though a trip to the local DIY superstore netted her a sturdy plastic chair that just about fitted in the shower.

She slept well for the first time in weeks, and Will was waiting impatiently for her the next morning, dressed and ready to go. He was actually drumming the fingers of his free hand on the table, she noted with amusement. And someone had clearly given him a shave. Will Cooper scrubbed up very nicely indeed.

Not that she should be thinking about him in that way. Renee was absolutely right. She needed a fresh start where her work wasn’t linked to her personal life. Falling for her new boss would be a complete no-no.

‘I’ve been waiting for ages. I thought you’d never get here,’ Will complained.

‘There’s no point in being here at eight if the rounds don’t finish until eleven,’ she said sweetly. ‘Thank you, Mallory, for coming to pick me up.’

‘Thank you, Mallory,’ he repeated, flushing at her gentle rebuke.

She grinned. ‘Come on, oh grumpy boss. Let’s get you home.’

Then she realised what she’d said. Home. As if it were their home. Hadn’t she already been through why they weren’t and never could be a couple? Hopefully he’d take it as meaning just his home.

She wheeled him out to her car and together they managed to cram him into the passenger seat of her small Renault.

‘I’ll have to get you insured to drive my car,’ Will said as she drove them back to Darrowthwaite.

‘Why?’

‘If we get bad weather and you have to do a house call, you’ll need a four-wheel-drive. The roads round here can get pretty icy,’ he told her.

‘Whatever.’ She wasn’t precious about always using her car. And it would be the sensible thing to do. ‘I’ve got my driving licence with me so you can fax it to the insurance company if you need to.’

‘Good. Sounds as if we’re on the same wavelength.’ He gave her a half-smile that made her feel all shivery inside. She just about managed to force herself to concentrate on the road instead.

When they arrived at his cottage, it took a while to manoeuvre him out of her car. She hadn’t thought to borrow a wheelchair so she had to help him with his crutches. But eventually they made it, and Will groaned in relief as he sank onto the sofa. ‘I could really do with a glass of wine after that. A nice cold Chablis.’

‘Not with co-proxamol,’ she said crisply.

His face mirrored his disgust. ‘That’s the one bad thing about sharing a house with another doctor. You know as much as I do,’ he complained.

‘You can have tea—or tea.’

‘Coffee?’ he tried. ‘Please?’

‘As you’ve asked nicely,’ she deadpanned.

She came back a few minutes later with a tray of coffee and cake.

Will perked up. ‘Proper coffee? I thought you didn’t do cooking?’

‘This isn’t cooking. It’s a necessity,’ she said, depressing the plunger on the cafetière and pouring the hot liquid into two mugs. ‘Milk? Sugar?’

‘Neither, thanks.’

‘That’s easy, then.’

‘Mmm, and that’s nice,’ he said after his first sip. ‘Lucky guess or did someone tell you?’

‘What?’

‘Maple pecan’s my favourite.’

She smiled. ‘Neither. It’s mine.’

He looked at the tray. ‘Gingerbread, too. Better and better. All you have to do now is tell me you like anchovies on pizza and you’ll be the perfect housemate.’

‘I detest anchovies,’ she said feelingly.

‘Win some, lose some.’ He took another sip of coffee. ‘Seriously, Mallory, I appreciate you rescuing me. For the second time.’

‘Just don’t make a habit of it,’ she said lightly.

‘I’ll try.’ He paused. ‘So…what made you choose the New Forest?’

She nearly dropped her coffee. ‘What?’

‘You love mountains. And you can’t get much further from good climbing areas than the New Forest. Why not Wales, or Derbyshire, or Scotland, or here?’

She was silent for a long time. But he was a skilled doctor and she recognised how good he was at using the doctor’s greatest weapon. Patience. In the end, she decided to give in. Tell him. ‘Charles was my dad’s best friend at medical school. He offered me a job in his practice. He thought it’d be better for me to get some experience in another practice rather than going straight to join my dad and brothers. And it seemed like a good idea at the time.’

‘Probably was.’ He looked at her. ‘So what happened to your climbing?’

‘There was a climbing wall at one of the sports centres nearby, and I spent my weekends here or in Derbyshire. I had a couple of weeks in the Rockies one summer.’ She smiled. ‘And I did the Three Peaks challenge—Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdonia. Charles, bless him, let me have the time off without having to use my holiday entitlement, because I was raising money for a local charity.’

‘But?’

She stared into her coffee. ‘I think I would have had to leave anyway. Even without the Lindy situation.’

‘Because you need the mountains.’

That, and because of Geoff. Not that she could tell Will about him. Even the thought of Geoff made her feel guilty. ‘Well. Maybe I’ll climb Everest one day. Though competition’s tough for places on an expedition.’

‘If it’s what you really want, go for it.’

There was a strange, shuttered look on Will’s face—a look she couldn’t interpret. What had she said to upset him? Had the woman who’d broken his heart gone on an expedition and not come back? Had that been the accident Hayley had mentioned—had Will been on the same expedition and felt bad because he’d been the one to come back and his girlfriend hadn’t?

But she couldn’t ask him straight out, not without being nosy or rude, and if his girlfriend had died she didn’t want to rub salt into his wounds.

Mallory took a sip of coffee and changed the subject. ‘Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Monday’s surgery.’

‘It starts at half past eight. There’s a practice meeting on Monday afternoons, too. Then house calls, if that’s OK?’

‘Ye-es. I was just wondering…would you like to sit in on my first surgery? If you feel up to it, of course.’

He frowned. ‘Why? Your details checked out. Actually, I spoke to Charles myself this morning. Before you came to pick me up.’

Her eyes widened. ‘What did he say?’

‘You’re a good doctor but you need to sort your life out.’

Had Charles told him about Geoff? Was this Will’s way of telling her he knew all about it? ‘Sort my life out,’ she echoed nervously.

‘And trust your own judgement.’

‘So he told you about Lindy.’

Will shook his head. ‘I told him what you’d told me. And he said the same thing that I did—it was an honest mistake, it could have happened to anyone and you shouldn’t give up medicine over it.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘He also said he thought you’d be happier up here, and said we should fine you twenty pence for every time you mention the c-word. Or the m-word.’

Mallory relaxed again. So Charles hadn’t mentioned how nearly she’d been his daughter-in-law. Or maybe Charles hadn’t thought she was right for Geoff either, but hadn’t wanted to interfere in his son’s life. ‘They used to do that at the practice, and buy cream cakes for everyone on a Friday with the proceeds,’ she said wryly. ‘And if there wasn’t enough in the kitty, they’d start asking questions where I’d have to answer “climb” or “mountain”!’

‘Noted. I’ll get Marion onto it,’ Will said dryly. She wasn’t sure whether he was joking or not until he added, still straight-faced, ‘And bearing in mind where we are, I’d say it’ll be more like two rounds of cream cakes a week.’

‘Meanie,’ she retorted, smiling back. ‘Seriously, Will, I’d be happier if you sat in. Just so you can see whether I’m good enough to fill in for you.’