Page 38 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘Greatest Showman?’

‘Yes!’ Geoff yelped, and Florence rolled her eyes.

‘I don’t think I’m going to like that.’

‘Have you ever seen it?’ Geoff demanded.

‘No, but?—’

‘Florence,’ he said sternly. ‘Don’t be a Debbie Downer. If you gave some of this stuff a chance you might find you do like it. You enjoyed Chicago, didn’t you?’

‘Not really,’ Florence said, and Ottilie, who’d been given a glass of red by Magnus, couldn’t help but grin. Every time she’d looked Flo’s way, the old lady had been tapping her toes or fingers like mad.

Perhaps because Geoff was right and she didn’t want to admit it, Florence turned to Ottilie. ‘A little bird tells me you’ve been up and down the village like some sort of Florence Nightingale. Telling everyone to go and see Dr Cheadle for this or that. Can’t you get enough drama at work?’

Ottilie blinked. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of Flo’s statement. Was it praise or criticism? And what Ottilie had done off duty was hardly up and down like Florence Nightingale. More like she’d lent a helping hand to a couple of new neighbours.

‘What’s this?’ Magnus asked.

‘Victor told me that if Ottilie hadn’t sent Corrine straight to Dr Cheadle there might have been trouble,’ Stacey put in.

‘I only asked her to make an appointment as a precaution,’ Ottilie said. ‘It was nothing.’

‘Not what Victor says. He says Dr Cheadle has organised an urgent appointment at the hospital with an oncologist so she must think you’ve seen something bad too. And if it turns out to be cancer and they catch it early, like Dr Cheadle says to him, then you’d have saved Corrine’s life.’

‘It really isn’t like that at all,’ Ottilie said. ‘I was only doing my job.’

‘Ah, but you weren’t doing your job,’ Florence said. ‘Nobody asked you to go and look at Corrine, did they?’

‘Actually, Victor did. It just so happened I hadn’t officially started work yet, but I didn’t see what difference that made.’

‘Exactly!’ Florence said triumphantly.

Ottilie was still confused over whether Flo was in favour of off-duty nursing or not, but she simply shrugged.

‘I’ve got to have a scan at the hospital,’ Florence continued. ‘But it’s pointless sending me letters for scans because I can’t get there. Might as well give the appointment to someone who can go. And it will probably be a waste of time, even if I do go. I shall phone them and tell them so. I can’t be doing with all that fuss.’

‘I think you ought to go,’ Ottilie said.

‘So you do think I’m ill!’

‘No, but I think we ought to rule anything sinister out.’

Ottilie glanced at the assembled neighbours and new friends and wondered if she ought to be having this discussion with them there. There were rules about this sort of thing and she didn’t want to fall foul of them. What little she’d confirmed about Corrine was probably too much.

‘Flo,’ she said, lowering her voice, ‘you really must go for those scans. If you’re stuck for transport, then I’ll take you, like I said I would.’

‘I don’t think so,’ she said flatly.

‘Could you do it for me if not for any other reason?’

‘What do you want to go for?’

‘Well,’ Ottilie began, reaching for a decent excuse, ‘I don’t know the area very well, and I expect I’ll end up going to the hospital for my job every now and then, so you can show me where it is. You’ve been before, right?’

‘Yes,’ Florence said slowly. ‘I do. I’ll have to sleep on it.’

‘You do that,’ Ottilie said and was convinced that Florence wouldn’t be able to resist the offer in the end.

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