The Elusive Doctor Read online

  The answer to that was yes, but it was a different member of the team that she had in mind and those sorts of fantasies weren’t going to get her anywhere. Not with Rob’s fiancée on the scene both workwise and socially, and the man himself proving to be much more remote than her fascinating companion of that first day.

  There were half a dozen calls that normally she would be making in Rob’s company, and, determined to show him that she could cope, Nina set off purposefully towards the first on the list.

  The young housewife who opened the door to her looked dreadful. She was flushed and in the middle of a coughing fit. Unable to get her breath, she beckoned for Nina to enter and when the coughing had subsided she croaked, ‘I’m sorry to have called you out, Doctor, but I felt too ill to come to the surgery.’

  Nina was already preparing to sound the woman’s chest and lungs, and when she’d done so she said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You did the sensible thing by calling us out. You’ve got a bad dose of the flu bug that’s going around, and you could have passed it on to others in the waiting room if you’d come to the surgery.

  ‘In fact, your condition is bordering on pneumonia. If the antibiotics I’m going to prescribe haven’t started to clear your lungs by the end of the next couple of days, send for us again. In the meantime, stay put. Plenty of fluids and go back to bed until you feel better.’

  When she got outside Nina took a deep breath. One down, five to go. The woman’s symptoms had been very similar to those of Sara Forrester, the owner of the art gallery, but not quite as severe. Yet they’d been clear enough to convince her that here was another flu victim.

  Her next call was to the post office where the proprietor’s elderly mother was due for a routine visit to check on various ailments associated with age, but before Nina could make her way there a call came through on her mobile to say that the other doctors were still in conference and asking her to go to the hotel, where a guest was complaining of severe chest pains.

  The receptionist at the Royal Venison smiled her relief when she saw her and said, ‘The man is in room twenty-five, Doctor. He went for a walk this morning and seemed fine, but when he went up to his room afterwards he started having chest pains and asked us to call a doctor.’

  ‘Right,’ Nina said, with what she hoped came over as quiet confidence. ‘Show me the way and I’ll have a look at him.’

  During the first few moments of examination it was clear that all the signs of a heart attack were there—severe pain in the centre of the chest, breathing difficulties, the skin cold and clammy. All very worrying for a man who on the face of it was a healthy-looking, though overweight forty-year-old.

  The manager and housekeeper were hovering, and she told them in a low voice, ‘I’m going to ring for an ambulance to take the patient into Coronary Care. I suspect a heart attack. He needs prompt treatment.’

  Reaching for the bedside phone, she dialled the emergency services and was told that an ambulance would be on its way immediately.

  ‘Keep calm,’ she told the man gently. ‘Help is on its way. I’m sending you to hospital. I think that you’ve had a mild heart attack.’

  He nodded and said with a gasping sort of groan, ‘I thought it might be my ticker, and here I am on a walking holiday. Can’t be anything more healthy than that.’

  Nina’s smile was wry. ‘Yes, but what about these?’ she said, pointing to an ashtray full of cigarette stubs and an empty wine bottle.

  The pain seemed to be lessening and his breathing was more even. He even managed a weak smile. ‘You think they’re to blame.’

  ‘Let’s say that they won’t have helped.’

  The manager was looking at his watch. ‘How long do you think the ambulance will be?’ he asked with an anxious glance at the man on the bed.

  He doesn’t want him to die on the premises, Nina thought. Bad for trade. But it’s not food poisoning the fellow’s got.

  Within minutes the manager’s worries were over. The patient was on his way to the main hospital in the area and Nina had accepted the offer of a quick coffee on a terrace beside the strutting peacocks.

  She was making haste to down it. If Rob’s reluctance to stop for refreshments the other day was anything to go by, it would be frowned upon if he found her here.

  But that wasn’t going to happen, was it? The call to the hotel had been an emergency. It wasn’t on her list. Neither was the stop she intended to make at Ethel Platt’s cottage, but she intended calling there nevertheless.

  As she checked the woman’s address Nina saw that it was nearer than the post office, so why not call there first?

  ‘They’ve come at last, have they?’ the sour-faced villager said when she saw Nina on the doorstep.

  ‘No. I’m afraid not, Mrs Platt,’ Nina informed her with her most winning smile. ‘Can I come in for a moment?’

  The woman stepped back reluctantly. ‘Yes, but I don’t see why if you’ve nothing to tell me.’

  As Nina sat down carefully on a horsehair sofa that pricked her legs through the trousers she was wearing, she explained, ‘I asked one of the receptionists to ring the hospital before I left the surgery. They said that it will be a couple of days before we get your results, and I thought I’d better let you know as I don’t like to think that you’re getting stressed because of the waiting.’

  ‘I’m “stressed” all right, if that’s supposed to mean the same as “worried sick”,’ Ethel Platt said shrilly, ‘and it’s not because I’m afraid of dying. It’s what’s going to happen to my cats if I pop off that’s getting to me.’

  ‘Don’t you think you’re being a bit premature?’ Nina suggested. ‘There may be nothing wrong with you—and if there is, it doesn’t follow that it will be that serious.’

  Ethel wasn’t to be consoled. ‘It’ll happen one day, though, won’t it? As long as I know they’ve got good homes to go to, I’ll die happy.’

  ‘How many cats have you got?’ Nina asked warily.

  ‘Four. Tiddles, Topsy, Toby and Titmarsh,’ she said affectionately, and Nina thought that there was no snappiness about Ethel when she was discussing her cats.

  ‘Well, look, Ethel,’ she said with a decisiveness that she knew she was going to regret, ‘if it will make you feel any better, I’ll have two of your cats in the event of anything ever happening to you.’

  Ethel smiled for the first time. ‘That’s very good of you…Doctor. You’ve taken a weight off me mind.’ Her face sobered again. ‘But what about the other two?’

  At that moment there was a ring on the doorbell, and when Ethel went to answer it Nina could hear Rob’s voice outside. Within seconds he came striding into the small sitting room of the cottage and she could see that he wasn’t pleased. But before it had time to register that his expression might have something to do with her, she made matters worse.

  ‘Dr Carslake will have the other two, won’t you?’ she said with a wheedling smile.

  ‘What will I have?’ he asked grimly.

  ‘Mrs Platt is worried about what will happen to her four cats if anything happens to her,’ Nina said, oblivious that she was rushing in where angels feared to tread.

  ‘And?’ he said through gritted teeth.

  ‘I’ve promised that I’ll have two of them should such a sad thing occur.’

  ‘And?’ He didn’t sound any happier.

  ‘I thought that you might be willing to have the other two. It would put her mind at rest.’

  ‘It would indeed,’ the elderly woman said fervently, and when Rob saw the expression on her face he bit back his overwhelming desire to tell Nina Lombard to mind her own business and stop interfering in his affairs.

  He was going to do it. Oh, yes, he was going to do it, but not in front of the worried cat owner.

  ‘I think I could manage that, Ethel,’ he said, forcing himself to sound agreeable, ‘but I’m hoping that the situation won’t arise for many years to come. And if it should, are you sure that you’d be happy fo
r your pussycats to have to live in an upstairs flat?’

  She smiled…for the second time. ‘Maybe by then you’ll be wed and living in a nice house with little ’uns who’ll play with Tiddles, Topsy, Toby and Titmarsh.’

  He swallowed hard. ‘Yes, maybe that will be the case,’ he said stiffly, and indicated that it was time he and Nina were on their way. As they left, Ethel called after them, ‘I’ll have it put in my will that you folks are going to take my babies.’

  ‘Over my dead body!’ Rob snarled when they reached the pavement.

  Nina laughed. ‘It would be over Ethel’s dead body.’

  ‘Very funny! Almost as amusing as the way I’ve been trying to track you down ever since I left the surgery. How dare you take it upon yourself to start detouring when you’re supposed to be looking after the patients?

  ‘Ethel Platt’s name wasn’t down for a visit today, and where the dickens did you get to after you’d made your first call? Have you been to see old Mrs Armley at the post office yet?’

  ‘No, I haven’t,’ she told him defiantly.

  ‘And why is that?’

  No way was she going to tell him that she’d been called to a suspected heart attack while he was in this mood. Maybe Robert Carslake wasn’t so fanciable after all.

  ‘I was going there next.’

  ‘Oh! Well! I suppose I should be thankful for that, then,’ he snapped, still angry. ‘What do you think this is—a merry-go-round? Where you can float off to where the mood takes you? Visit who you think you will…and on top of that lumber me with the possibility of inheriting two moggies?’

  ‘So you don’t like cats?’

  ‘I do, as a matter of fact, but I would prefer to please myself in the matters of pets. Not have some interfering trainee making up my mind for me!’

  ‘Right, well, I’m sorry, then…for everything,’ she told him in a voice that was deceptively docile. ‘For answering the emergency call that the surgery put through to me regarding a suspected heart attack at the hotel. For trying to allay Ethel Platt’s fears and anxiety about her urology tests—just in case you thought I’d called round merely to talk about her pets. And last, but not least, for getting you involved in her last will and testament.’

  Rob’s face was a study by the time she’d finished, and before he could get a word in she said in the same mild manner, ‘Am I not supposed to use my initiative, then?’

  ‘The answer to that is yes, of course you are. And if they’d thought to inform me of the emergency at the hotel before I left the practice I wouldn’t have been roaming the streets like a fool, trying to find you.’

  ‘Maybe the message came through after you’d left.’

  ‘Yes, maybe it did. You’re just too clever for your own good, aren’t you?’ he growled, but the heat had gone out of him, and in the next second it was Nina’s turn to have the wind taken out of her sails.

  ‘I’m sorry I was so narky,’ he said quietly. ‘I’d already had my feathers ruffled before I left the surgery.’

  ‘Who by?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. Let’s finish the rounds, shall we? And, Nina…’

  ‘Yes?’

  There was something in his voice that demanded her full attention. ‘I have no regrets about taking you into the practice, you know. You’re like a breath of fresh air.’

  As her lips parted and the green eyes shone, he spoilt it by saying, ‘I think that’s how we all see you.’

  ‘Except for Dr Baker. She doesn’t see me like that.’

  ‘Ah, yes, Bettine. Maybe it’s a good time to change the subject.’

  They were on the main street, still on the pavement outside Ethel’s house and in full view of passers-by, but she didn’t care. He had just told her in an oblique sort of way that he liked her. Probably not as much as she already liked him, but he wasn’t averse to her, which was something to be going on with. Carried away by the pleasure of the moment, Nina leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

  ‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dr Carslake,’ she said softly as her lips lingered against his stubble. ‘I’m taking it that the breath of fresh air that you’re likening me to is the Stepping Dearsley kind, rather than the carbon monoxide variety?’

  ‘You can bet on that,’ he said with laughter in his voice, ‘and will you please move your mouth before I do something that I know I will regret?’

  The first thing they heard on returning to the surgery were raised voices, and Rob frowned. ‘What’s going on, Vikram?’ he asked Dr Raju.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ he replied. ‘I think maybe that Bettine said something to Gavin that he objected to, and they ended up in a disagreement.’

  ‘I see.’

  Nina noticed that he didn’t take it any further. Didn’t expect his colleague to tell tales. Rob would sort it out in his own way, no doubt, and she knew instinctively that he would be totally fair. But if he’d wanted to confront them together, he was to be disappointed.

  At that moment Bettine flounced out to her car, and before Rob could speak to her she’d gone. When he emerged after confronting Gavin his face was expressionless, and as Nina eyed him questioningly he said abruptly, ‘Gavin tells me that it was just a minor tiff that got out of hand.’

  ‘It didn’t sound like that to me,’ she remarked.

  ‘Save the smart comments, Nina,’ he said with sudden weariness. ‘The waiting room is full and I’m afraid that I’m going to leave you and the others to cope as I have something to attend to. Once I’ve dealt with it I intend to have a quiet weekend to take away the feeling of forever being on a tightrope.’

  He was about to go through the front door of the practice, but he turned on his heel and said with the vestige of a smile, ‘By the way, what were those cats called?’

  ‘Tiddles, Topsy, Toby and Titmarsh.’

  ‘Ugh!’ he groaned. ‘I can see that we’re going to have to keep Ethel Platt in good health.’

  With his face set and grim determination in his stride, Rob was walking up the hillside to the biggest house in the area with one purpose in mind.

  He had to reach an understanding with Bettine. They couldn’t go on as they had been. For one thing he wasn’t in love with her, and for another….

  Shaking his head, he told himself that this other thing that was beginning to fill his waking thoughts was just midsummer madness, nothing more.

  It was crazy that it was his fiancée’s behaviour in the surgery that was proving to be the last straw when there were so many other reasons to call off the engagement, but brawling between partners in the practice wasn’t to be tolerated.

  He’d played it down to Nina, but it had been a full-scale row, from what he could gather, and Gavin hadn’t been to blame.

  When he got to the hall she wasn’t there. Obviously seeking a diversion, she’d gone elsewhere. Tearing himself away from his website for a moment, her young brother, Miles, told him, ‘Bettine has gone riding.’

  ‘And when will she be back?’ Rob asked.

  ‘Don’t know,’ his youthful informant said, his eyes on the screen once more.

  ‘I’ll wait,’ he told the lad, and settled himself in a seat near the window, deciding that nothing was going to deny him the opportunity of clearing the air and his thought processes at one and the same time.

  It was two hours later before he heard the clatter of hoofs on the cobbles outside, and when he looked out Rob saw that Bettine wasn’t alone. Keith Blackmore, the oldest son of the owner of the biggest farm in the area, was riding beside her.

  As he watched, the man dismounted and then went to lift his companion down from her lofty perch. But instead of releasing her once her feet were on the ground, the burly farmer took Bettine into his arms and kissed her.

  It didn’t last long, but it was long enough for Rob to get a few things into perspective. He couldn’t see her reaction as she was obscured by the farmer’s broad back, but she didn’t push him away—far from it—which had to mean something.
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br />   When Keith had gone riding off down the hillside Bettine came into the house with a smug little smile on her face, but the sight of Rob waiting for her in the hall wiped it off.

  ‘Enjoy your ride?’ he asked coldly.

  ‘Er…yes…It was lovely up on the tops. How long have you been here?’

  ‘A couple of hours—and long enough to see that you’re very chummy with Tom Blackmore’s son.’

  She shrugged as if what he was saying was of little importance, and the gesture was her undoing.

  ‘It was just a kiss between friends,’ she said in a tone that was in keeping with the shrug.

  ‘I see. So it was of no importance? That being so, it will be interesting to see just how important what I’ve come to say is.’

  ‘What is it?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s over, Bettine,’ he said quietly. ‘I think that we both know we made a mistake, so let’s call it a day, shall we?’

  She sank onto the nearest chair and with her head bent was gazing at the carpet without speaking.

  ‘If we call off the engagement I’ll look a fool in front of everyone,’ she said at last. ‘They’ll know that you’ve dumped me.’

  ‘And that’s all you care about?’ he cried incredulously. ‘No sorrow about what might have been? Or thoughts of happier times? Just pique because your pride is going to be hurt?

  ‘I’m going,’ he told her. ‘Now you’ll be able to take up where you left off with Keith Blackmore. He’ll inherit the farm one day when the Parkinson’s finally takes his dad, which will make him a much better catch than a GP who has every penny tied up in a country practice.’

  As she started to get to her feet he waved her back down. ‘No need to get up. I’ll see myself out.’

  When he thought about it afterwards there was no regret in him. The relationship had been as dead as the dodo. Had been dead even before he’d met the green-eyed temptress who’d come to work in the practice.

  If Bettine was going to find it difficult to accept that it was over, that was her problem. As far as he was concerned, it was a great weight off his mind, and for the rest of the day he put any thoughts of Nina Lombard firmly to one side.