Page 25 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘They know this is who brings them the food,’ he said, chuckling as he rubbed the nose of a black-and-white, dainty-featured girl. ‘All right, Alice,’ he said. ‘Morning, Mabel. Daisy, Jemima, Dorothy, Maggie, Lizzie… Now, now, Bettina, there’s no need to shove… Kitty, you daft thing.’ Victor nudged a biscuit-furred alpaca away as she tried to nibble his sleeve. ‘I don’t keep your treats up there, do I?’

Undoing the gate, he motioned for Ottilie to follow him. She hurried in and closed it behind her, careful not to let anyone make a break for it. She needn’t have worried – they were all more concerned with following Victor to the barn than what she was doing. Victor got a bag from a locked cupboard and opened it up.

‘This is what they’re after. Watch – they’ll go mad in a minute. It’s like catnip to them.’

He gave Ottilie a handful of dried brown pellets then got some out for himself, the alpaca crowding around them, looking about as excited as docile, woolly alpaca could look.

‘There you go,’ he said, holding out his hand.

Ottilie followed his lead and got just as much attention. They didn’t care who was doing the feeding, as long as they got some.

Ottilie laughed. ‘God, I think I’m in love,’ she said, lost in the moment. Right now, there was only the creatures, adorable, friendly, bringing purer joy than she’d felt in a long time. ‘They do go mad for this stuff – what is it?’

‘Nothing as special as you’d think. They love eating is what it is.’

Ottilie’s palm was empty in no time, and then the alpaca looked up at her with huge brown expectant eyes.

‘Can they have more?’ she asked.

‘I expect so. Only a bit, though – have to be careful not to overfeed them. Little and often, and they need to forage for their own or they get bored.’

Victor held out the bag. Two of the alpaca tried to go directly to source but Victor swiped it out of their way.

‘Patience, Gertie, Astrid, you little thieves.’

‘How do you remember who’s who?’ Ottilie asked.

‘You get used to them. They all have different markings, which helps, but they all have their own personality too. Even if the markings didn’t separate them that would. It doesn’t take long to work them all out.’

‘They all seem very much motivated by food.’ Ottilie laughed as Alice licked the last treat from her hand.

‘Aren’t we all?’ Victor said, in a tone that was so weirdly profound that Ottilie had to laugh again.

‘Does Corrine come up here to feed them?’ she asked.

‘Not as much as she’d like to. She’s busy with house stuff.’

‘Ah, old-fashioned, is it? Men in the fields, women in the kitchen?’

Victor grinned. ‘I think the answer might disappoint you. I can cook well enough but she doesn’t let me near the stove. She likes to do it and she’s not so keen on muddy boots, so…’

‘I suppose that’s fair enough. You seem like a pretty good team to me either way.’

‘I wouldn’t survive without her, I know that much.’

He fastened the bag up and locked it away again. They spent a few more minutes petting, but when they realised they were getting no more treats, most of the girls wandered off.

‘Fickle,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ Ottilie agreed with a laugh. ‘How ungrateful.’

‘Well,’ he added briskly, starting towards the gate, ‘no point in waiting around here when they’ve lost interest. Might as well get back for another pot of tea.’

Ottilie’s cheeks were flushed when she and Victor arrived back at the farmhouse. Her smile was so wide it was almost hurting her face, but she couldn’t help it. There was nothing quite like a fresh, sunny day surrounded by the most glorious scenery and the cutest, woolliest, daftest creatures on earth, she decided, to lift a person’s mood so completely they might as well be a different person altogether.

‘I see you took to the girls well enough,’ Corrine said, laughing, as they walked back into the kitchen, bringing the freshness of the hillsides with them.

Already, Ottilie had noticed that the air of the lakes and peaks of her new home seemed to cling to jackets and trousers and weave itself into her hair so that whenever she went from outside to in, she carried it with her.

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