Page 75 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘I don’t like to say it,’ Victor offered gruffly, ‘but I think you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face.’

Ottilie turned to him. ‘How do you mean?’

‘You like Thimblebury, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you like working with the doctor and Lavender?’

‘Yes.’

‘And we’ve got a fix for your house, so I don’t see the problem. Nobody wants money off you, if that’s what you’re worried about.’

‘No,’ Ottilie said. ‘I didn’t think that…and you’d deserve to be paid for your work – that’s partly the problem. I feel awful having everyone do all that for me for nothing.’

‘It’s not for nothing,’ Victor said. ‘It’s because we all want you to stay.’

Ottilie looked from Corrine’s hopeful face to Victor’s more pragmatic expectation, and then gave in. Why was this even a question? Of course she wanted to stay. She didn’t want to go back to Manchester or some industrial town in Cheshire or Staffordshire where she didn’t know anyone and she’d have to give up the glorious landscape she woke up to every morning.

‘OK,’ she said finally. ‘But you must let me pay you some rent for staying here.’

‘You can try,’ Corrine said with a smile. ‘But you’ll find it back in your purse again if you do. So that’s that. Come on – eat your cake. There’s plenty more where that came from.’

Victor leaped down from the cab of his tractor with far more agility than a man of his age ought to have. Ottilie almost burst out laughing at the sight of it.

‘I didn’t realise you were bringing the heavy artillery,’ she called as she closed the back door of Daffodil Farm behind her and went to join him. Corrine had made them both a packed lunch, which Ottilie had in her bag. She’d moved into their guest room the previous day with enough of her belongings to do the few weeks they’d anticipated she might be there, but had been due on shift at the surgery, and so this was the first opportunity they’d had to start work on her house. Fliss had granted her some annual leave and brought a locum nurse in to enable Ottilie to get stuck in – anything, she’d said pointedly, if it meant not having to recruit another new nurse.

Ottilie had been reluctant to do this, even sceptical about what anyone could achieve on the little money she had spare, but now she was excited. It felt good to be doing something positive and she couldn’t wait to get her hands dirty with the rest of the wonderful people who had volunteered their time. It was like that DIY programme on the TV where an entire community helped to do up someone’s house – a programme that had often reduced Ottilie to tears, and in the past much to Josh’s amusement – only this time she was the unbelievably lucky recipient of all that kindness and goodwill.

‘Tractor will be ideal to do the heavy lifting. No point in having it stood there in the barn if I can’t put it to good use now and then. All right getting up there?’ he added, nodding at the cab.

It was then that she noticed a passenger seat. ‘We’re both going down in the tractor?’

‘Don’t see why not. Better than walking, isn’t it?’

Ottilie started to laugh. ‘I didn’t see this coming when I woke up today. Yes, I should be able to get up there – just about.’

Victor opened the door for her but let her climb up by herself. It took more effort than she’d imagined, and once she was up there it felt as if she was on top of a house.

‘This is the first time I’ve ever been in a tractor,’ she said, grinning as Victor got in beside her. ‘I feel like a kid!’

‘Buckled up?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Right then.’

Victor turned the key and the engine roared into life. Deep and loud, it reverberated through Ottilie’s chest. The child in her was well and truly woken, and it was a welcome distraction from all that awaited at her house as the vehicle started to rattle across the fields, its vast wheels churning up mud at either side.

‘I bet your daughters loved this when they were little!’ Ottilie shouted over the engine.

Victor nodded. ‘When they were small, but they soon got bored of it. Was a time I thought neither of them would take to farming and they might move away.’

‘From the Lakes?’

He nodded again.

Ottilie’s thoughts went to Chloe, who told anyone who would listen how desperate she was to get away from Thimblebury. Photos and dreamy footage of places like this on the television had often prompted conversations between her and Josh about whether it was the sort of place they’d like to bring up children in. It had never been a serious question, merely idle speculation, and starting a family had always been a thing they’d pushed back because their lives were too busy, or they didn’t have enough money, or their careers were at critical junctures. They’d both always said they wanted children, but the time had never seemed right to try.

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