Page 71 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

Fliss let the letter drop onto Ottilie’s desk. ‘What’s this?’

Ottilie looked up to see Fliss looking visibly upset. She’d never seen her like that in all the time she’d been working with her.

‘Why?’ Fliss demanded.

‘Um…’ Ottilie was thrown by Fliss’s tone. ‘I didn’t think…well, I haven’t even worked my trial period yet and…’

‘You don’t like the job?’

‘I love the job, but I didn’t think my resignation would be a problem.’

‘Of course it’s a problem, but that isn’t the issue. If you love the job, then what?’

‘I want to go home.’

‘I thought Thimblebury was home. I thought you liked it here.’

‘I do.’

‘Then I don’t understand. You like the job, you like the place. So what’s going on?’

‘Nothing. It’s just…’ Ottilie floundered.

‘So all that stuff you said when you first arrived about wanting a new start and being determined to make this one work was…’

‘I meant it and I tried, but I just don’t think it’s working out.’

Fliss paused, and Ottilie could see her resetting her emotions. ‘Is this to do with the floods?’

‘A bit.’

‘So you’re going to let a freak storm drive you away?’

‘It’s not like that.’

‘Then explain it please. I don’t want to lose you, Ottilie, so if you explain it to me, perhaps I can help.’

‘You’ll get another nurse soon?—’

‘I don’t want another nurse. We work well together, don’t we? Brilliantly, in fact. I’d say so – wouldn’t you?’

‘I’ve hoped so, yes.’

‘Then why would I want a new nurse? There has to be more than what you’re telling me, because this’ – she flung a hand at the letter – ‘makes no sense.’

‘I can’t stay, even if I want to, that’s all.’

‘Can’t or won’t?’

‘Can’t. I want to; I really do.’

Fliss studied her for a moment. She glanced at the letter and then back at Ottilie with something like betrayal in her eyes. Ottilie had never imagined this would bother her boss as much as it seemed to.

‘I’m not going to accept this without a better reason than anything you’ve given me so far. And let me tell you people round here will be devastated. They won’t forgive you. They’ve just come round to you being a replacement for Gwen. You’ve worked so hard towards that; I can’t believe you’d throw it all away.’

‘I know.’

Everything Fliss was saying made sense – it was how Ottilie felt too. But this was the way things had to be. She couldn’t saddle herself with the kind of debt fixing Wordsworth Cottage would create so the only option she could see was to accept the kind offer of moving in with her aunt in Manchester until she found a cheaper place. There were towns in Cheshire that were far more affordable, some with big hospitals desperate for nurses, and though the prospect didn’t thrill her, a move to one of those seemed like the most sensible solution. It would leave her debt-free and enable her to swallow the losses she was bound to suffer from the sale of an imperfect house here.

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