Page 101 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

Ottilie’s mood had been melancholy and quiet for the past few days. The anniversary of Josh’s death was close, and although she was glad to have finally moved on from that raw early grief, the old guilt was back, the sense that she ought to be sadder than she was. She still missed him of course, but it almost seemed the goal she’d set herself to start a new life had been achieved with too much success. She was constantly busy, constantly surrounded by friends and neighbours, loved and needed by her community, and moments of introspection, to remember her life with Josh, were fewer and fewer as the weeks and months went by.

As she was collecting her bits, her phone bleeped the arrival of a message.

Don’t forget the party on Saturday!

Magnus. She smiled despite herself. He’d been harping on about the party he was throwing for Geoff’s sixtieth for weeks and reminding everyone almost every day. This was definitely a party for him rather than his husband, and he was much more excited about it. Geoff had been content to let him get on with it.

And thank goodness they both seemed to have given up on their plan to get Ottilie and Heath together. They had perhaps realised their elaborate set-up at the cinema room hadn’t worked and had taken that as a sign that their attempts had been misguided, and that was the last Ottilie had heard of it. Nobody mentioned it, as if everyone involved was a bit embarrassed now that they’d had time to reflect on it, and that suited Ottilie just fine.

As for the birthday party, she’d tried to think of ways to get out of it. Josh would be on her mind and she’d only bring the mood down. But they had another reason to celebrate – Corrine had been given the all-clear by her oncologist, so Magnus and Geoff had turned the party into a joint celebration for her too, and that made it far more difficult to get out of. Corrine and Victor had become something like surrogate parents for her and she knew they’d want to see her there.

But it wasn’t just a party; it was a themed fancy-dress party, and that made it all ten times worse. Magnus had told everyone to dress as a movie character. Perhaps it would be fun to see what everyone chose, but Ottilie didn’t have the time or energy to dream a costume up, let alone put it together.

Putting the phone in her bag, she got out of the car and went to knock on the door of the farmhouse. The old cat skulked away in some disgust at her approach, and as she waited for someone to answer she could hear shouting from inside.

Ann came to the door looking flustered. Ottilie could hear Darryl ranting somewhere in the house.

‘Perhaps you can talk some sense into him,’ Ann said helplessly as she stepped back to let Ottilie in.

‘I can’t promise anything,’ Ottilie said, following her into the kitchen. ‘Is it the usual?’

‘Doesn’t want to do his testing.’

Darryl was standing at the sink, glowering at his mum, but the moment he saw Ottilie following her it cleared and he broke into a smile.

‘Morning, Darryl,’ she said briskly. ‘How are you doing today?’

‘Happy now,’ he said.

Ottilie gestured to a chair and he sat down. ‘So you want to tell me what all the fuss is about?’

‘I don’t like it,’ he said.

‘I know,’ Ottilie replied gently, opening her bag, ‘but sometimes we have to do things we don’t like, even though we don’t like them, because they’re good for us. You want to be well enough to go on that youth group camping trip next week, don’t you?’ Ottilie shot a furtive glance at Ann, who brightened at the mention of the respite week Ottilie had managed to organise for them. Darryl would get a free holiday, and Ann would get some desperately needed rest. It didn’t matter how much love there was, sometimes a break was needed too.

‘I want to go camping,’ Darryl said. ‘There will be trains, won’t there?’

‘Yes, the daytrip with the steam trains. Are you still excited about that?’

He nodded eagerly, and Ottilie mimed him pulling up a shirt sleeve.

‘What are you having for breakfast?’ she asked as she gave an injection with so much stealth it seemed he’d barely noticed she’d done it. ‘Remember the list of good things and bad things I gave you? You’re going to have something from the good list, right? Because if you have anything from the bad list then you might be too ill for the trains.’

He nodded.

‘That’s good then.’ Ottilie reached into her bag and pulled out a large, shiny hardback book. ‘I got you a present. Saw it and thought of you straight away.’

She pushed the book across the table and Darryl’s whole body seemed to glow with delight as he reached for it.

‘A train book!’

Without another word, he opened it up and buried his head in the pages. Ottilie glanced round to see Ann give a tired smile.

‘I think you must be an actual angel,’ she said.

Ottilie laughed. ‘I’m sure there are plenty who would disagree with that. At least he’s sorted for another day. You’ll be all right now?’

‘I think so.’

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