Page 47 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘Do you want one, Ottilie?’ Flo asked. ‘Make Ottilie one too!’ she called after Heath without waiting for Ottilie’s reply. And then she glanced back with a faint smile. ‘You never say no to tea, if memory serves me correctly.’

‘Too right,’ Ottilie said, although tea with a sulky Heath wasn’t her idea of a friendly cuppa. ‘Thank you. I’ll stay for a quick one, then I’ll leave you to your visitor.’

‘Oh, Heath doesn’t mind you being here. It’s someone his own age to talk to after all, instead of having to listen to his old gran go on about her ailments.’

Ottilie narrowed her eyes. ‘I thought you said you don’t have any ailments. And you’re no dull old gran – far from it.’

‘I think I’ll have some biscuits,’ Flo said. ‘I don’t suppose you could go to the kitchen and ask Heath to bring some in when he brings the tea?’

Ottilie wasn’t fooled by Flo’s sudden weak-old-lady act. Something was cooking here. At least it meant Flo was getting back to her old self. Perhaps she hadn’t been as ill as Ottilie had supposed on the hillside. Perhaps she’d known Heath would be at her cottage, and perhaps she’d deliberately engineered the need for a rescue to bring him out to them.

Ottilie dismissed the idea. Surely nobody was that manipulative. And she didn’t want to contemplate the reasons why Flo might do this, but if there was any grain of truth in it, well, Ottilie would have to subtly disabuse her of the possibility of any kind of success. She wouldn’t be pushed towards anyone, and she was quite sure Heath would feel the same.

She got up and went to the kitchen. Heath was standing next to the window, staring out as the kettle boiled beside him. As she spoke, he whipped round, as if she’d startled him from thoughts that had taken him far away. His brown eyes were almost soft, and for a moment Ottilie was thrown by them. There was more kindness in there than she’d ever seen before. So he was capable of looking less than angry – well there was a revelation. But it was gone in an instant and his expression was cold and distrustful again.

‘Your gran wants some biscuits,’ she said. ‘I can take them if you show me which cupboard they’re in.’

‘I’m surprised you don’t already know.’

‘How would I know?’

‘Well, you seem to be making yourself very at home here.’

Ottilie stared at him. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

He seemed to size her up, and she felt herself shrink from it, even though she didn’t want to. ‘Why are you so interested in my gran?’

‘I like her. I’m new here and she’s been nice to me. I’m her nurse…I mean, why do I need a reason? Is there a problem with being interested in your gran?’

‘Depends on why.’

‘I don’t think it’s any of your business.’

‘And yet you seem to be making her very much your business. Why were you out with her today? Don’t have any mates your own age?’

‘I was taking her to the hospital, if you must know. She needed to go for tests and she had nobody to take her.’

‘I would have taken her. Nobody asked me.’

‘Perhaps she didn’t ask because you’re always so busy with that terribly important job you have – whatever it is – she assumed you wouldn’t have time.’

‘I’m a management consultant and I would have had time.’

‘That’s not how Flo saw it.’

‘And so you had to do it? There was nobody else?’

‘Does it matter as long as someone does it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Never mind,’ Ottilie said, her patience on the edge. ‘Forget the tea. I’ll find the biscuits myself and then I’ll get out of your hair.’

She opened and closed a few cupboards while he watched her, silent. She could feel his eyes on her the whole time, and it wasn’t pleasant. Once she’d grabbed a pack of creams, she spun round, unable to contain herself any longer.

‘Whatever it is you clearly think I’m up to, you’re wrong. I don’t know what it was that happened between you and your ex, but perhaps you’d like to bear in mind that not every woman is her.’

His mouth fell open, and at least he had the decency to look slightly ashamed at her words. ‘What did you say?’

---