Page 81 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘You know, we’ve been put together and everyone else is pretending to be too busy to sit with us.’

‘Don’t be daft.’

‘I’m not. My gran has got form with this sort of thing and she’s not above recruiting a few willing accomplices.’

‘What sort of thing?’

‘This…’ He nodded discreetly at the gathering, and Ottilie noticed Magnus glance quickly at her, and then Geoff, and then both of them continued their conversation as if they hadn’t been looking at all.

‘They’re all in on it,’ he added.

Ottilie raised her eyebrows at him.

‘Come on,’ he continued, ‘don’t tell me you haven’t seen what’s going on here.’

‘Tinder by stealth,’ she said ruefully, and he laughed.

‘There are two single people, therefore they must belong together. I think my gran might be to blame.’

‘Oh, I totally blame her.’ Ottilie glanced at Stacey, who was talking to Magnus and Geoff, and wondered why Flo had zeroed in on her rather than Stacey to match Heath up to. Granted, Stacey was older, but she looked younger than her years, still very attractive, and was probably in a much better place to start dating again than Ottilie was. She wondered whether Heath found Stacey attractive, and then wondered why she suddenly found herself caring about that.

‘I know she’s only trying to help?—’

‘Is she? Do we seem that desperate?’

‘I think I must do,’ he said. But then his smile faded. ‘She’s had to see too much of what I went through with my ex. I suppose she wants to see me happy – and that’s not a crime, is it?’

‘She’s mentioned your ex, but she’s never really told me anything about what went on.’

He shrugged as he poured some tea from the flask. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start to fill you in. It was messy, and I think that might cover it enough for you to understand?’

‘I won’t ask then.’

‘It’s not that I don’t want you to ask,’ he said quickly, ‘it’s just that I don’t know how to say it without bringing it all back, and I don’t want to ruin a very nice conversation.’

‘We’re having a nice conversation?’

‘Don’t you think so?’

‘If you like talking about skirting boards, then yes.’

He laughed, a rich warm laugh that was new to her. She liked it. She instantly wished she didn’t like it quite so much. Whatever Flo was up to, Ottilie was afraid it was working, and that scared her.

‘It sounds like it was very different for you,’ he said as his laughter faded. ‘I heard some of what happened there. For what it’s worth – probably not much – I’m sorry.’

‘Thanks,’ Ottilie said, the memory of Josh prompting a squirming guilt that she could be thinking of how attractive Heath was when it wasn’t yet twelve months since she’d lost him.

There was an unspoken understanding that this wasn’t the time to go into detail, and so Heath asked no more and Ottilie didn’t offer.

‘Did you always want to be a nurse?’ he asked instead.

She couldn’t help but smile at this. Here she was on solid ground.

‘I can’t remember wanting to do anything else. I’ve heard some people say it’s a calling, and I suppose that’s the best way to describe it for me. I trained with girls who saw it as a job that they’d thought about and decided on for all sorts of reasons – pay and career prospects and stuff – but honestly, I think if I’d had to do it for free, I probably would have done.’ She smiled. ‘In fact, I didn’t get the exams I needed at school to go into training, so I had to go to night classes to try again. It didn’t enter my head to do something I was more suited to – academically, I mean – because I was determined that I was meant to be a nurse. My mum says I used to pretend to nurse my teddies before I even knew what a nurse was.’

‘Not many people can say they’re doing what they always felt they were meant to do. And you like it? It’s what you thought it would be?’

‘I love it. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else and I wouldn’t want to. I feel very much as if I’m doing what I was put on the earth to do. I suppose that sounds corny.’

---