Page 53 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘She looks well enough to me, but I’m not sure she’s so convinced.’

Ottilie recalled the very first conversation she’d had with Heath, over the phone, him in a state of panic because of something Flo had told him about her health. It was encouraging to see him care so much about his gran. It made her stop and re-evaluate. Whenever she decided he was an impatient, annoying man who found it convenient to forget about his old gran living in an obscure village in the Lake District, that fact alone showed those assumptions were wrong. She supposed that what everyone said about his failed marriage and what he himself had just told her about bad days must be true and must certainly have some bearing on his behaviour. While it didn’t justify it, perhaps she could cut him some slack.

‘I think,’ she began slowly, ‘that ageing can be scary. The most robust, most resilient of us can be unnerved by age. Things don’t work quite as well as they used to, you’re not as strong, you wobble, you get tired and ill more easily, your confidence gets knocked. I don’t really know your gran, I have no idea what she was like in years gone by, but I can guess that she was someone who took no prisoners. It’s easy to forget for us, who haven’t yet got to that stage in our lives, that your body starting to fail you is frightening. And for someone like Flo, realising that, increasingly, you have to rely on others is even more so.’

‘You sound like someone who’s seen a lot of it.’

‘I’ve been nursing for a long time – I’ve seen plenty.’

He didn’t reply, and evidence of his lack of small talk was clear as they fell to silence, the only sounds their footsteps and the nocturnal landscape beyond the village. They walked like this for a few minutes, until he finally spoke again.

‘She’s lucky.’

‘Your gran?’

‘Yes. She’s lucky that you’ve come here.’

‘Oh…’ Ottilie waved away the compliment. ‘They had Gwen, and apparently she was brilliant.’

‘I’m sure she was, but my gran never needed Gwen like she seems to need you, so I can’t say either way. I don’t think Gwen would have driven her halfway across the county for hospital appointments and then taken her for tea and Kendal mint cake and then followed her up a hill so she could take a look at one of her favourite places.’

Ottilie smiled. It seemed Flo had recounted their afternoon in quite a lot of detail.

‘I just wanted you to know that I do appreciate what you do for her. I know what I’ve done or said might not have given that impression, but I do.’

‘It’s no problem.’

‘She’s not loaded you know,’ he said after another pause.

Ottilie looked sharply at him. ‘I didn’t think for a minute she was.’

‘Well, I just wanted to clear that up. Because it might look as if she is – owning outright a house in the Lake District and having Grandad’s pension.’

Ottilie stopped dead on the path and stared him down, her face burning. ‘Do you think I’m after her money?’

‘No, I…’

‘I’m fine from here,’ she said coldly. ‘You can go.’

‘I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that; it’s just I’ve had experience of?—’

‘I don’t care what your experience is! How dare you accuse me of only caring because I think there’s money in it!’

‘That’s not what I said!’

‘That’s exactly what you said! Goodnight, Heath. Thanks for the escort, but I can manage from here.’

‘Ottilie, I’m sorry!’

‘Go away!’

Ottilie turned and marched towards her house. At least it was within sight. She was so furious, so hurt, so humiliated by his accusation that she couldn’t even turn to see whether he was following. Was that really how it looked? Did everyone think that? Did people think she was after Flo’s money? She couldn’t bear the thought, and as she pushed her key into the front door, angry tears burned in her eyes. Much as it went against everything she was, relations with everyone in the village would have to be strictly professional from now on, and that applied to Florence most of all.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

‘You look awful.’

Lavender gave a look of sympathy as Ottilie walked into the reception area of the surgery to start her shift.

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