Page 43 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘You need to get your clothes back on and quick.’

‘I’m going to get my undies off first.’

‘No time. You need layers on now.’

Flo’s coordination seemed to have gone out of the window with her body heat, so Ottilie dried her as best she could with her own jacket and then helped her into her skirt and cardigan before putting on her socks and shoes for her. She was still damp, despite Ottilie’s efforts, and her clothes probably weren’t keeping her as warm as they needed to.

‘I’m a silly old woman, aren’t I?’ she asked, as meek now as she’d been defiant half an hour earlier.

Despite the fact that it was hardly dry, Ottilie wrapped her jacket around Flo’s shoulders and gave her a patient smile. ‘Of course not. Perhaps you overestimated what you’re still capable of though.’

‘I just wanted to try it one more time. I wanted to feel young again. You understand, don’t you?’

‘I do.’

‘I just wanted to do what I might never get to do again, I thought it might be the last time I’d ever be up here.’

‘I know – I get it. I don’t want to say I told you so, but it was a bloody daft idea, even if I understand why you wanted to do it.’

Florence gave a weak laugh. ‘Aren’t all the most fun things only fun because they’re daft ideas?’

‘I’m not sure I’d call hypothermia fun.’

‘I haven’t got hypothermia – it’s summer.’

‘You can still get too cold if you dunk yourself in an ice-cold mountain pool, summer or not. Come on…somehow we’ve got to get back to the car.’

They’d taken no more than half a dozen steps when Ottilie realised Flo was in no state to negotiate a steep, rocky, downhill path. It had been hard enough going up, but down was always more treacherous, and that was without the added complication of Flo being frailer. Above them, the blue of the sky was fading as the sun hovered at the horizon. They had maybe an hour at most until it was too dark to see. Flo was shivering, a bit confused, and Ottilie, staring down at their path, was gripped by a mounting panic. They were going to be stuck up here if they didn’t get moving, and yet, she could see that Florence was going to need a lot more assistance than what she could give.

She was wondering who was best to call for help when Flo’s own phone started to ring from inside her handbag.

Florence waved a vague hand. ‘Not now, whoever you are.’

Ottilie could see that she didn’t really want to ignore the call, and that she was probably too weak and disoriented to get it.

‘Let me,’ she said, sitting Flo on a boulder and shoving a hand into her bag.

Flo’s phone was an old analogue brick with buttons. It took Ottilie a second to figure out how to answer it.

‘Hello, Gran. I’m at your place but…where are you?’

Ottilie immediately recognised the voice of Flo’s grandson. ‘Heath? Is that you?’

‘Who’s this?’

‘It’s Ottilie…the nurse. Don’t worry – your gran’s with me. You’re in Thimblebury?’

‘Yes. Where are you?’

‘Um…’ Ottilie scanned the landscape. ‘I don’t actually know, but we’re kind of stuck.’

‘Stuck how?’

‘We’re up a hill somewhere. Your gran wanted to show me a—’ Ottilie suddenly recalled that Heath had brought Flo swimming up here before. ‘The pool! You know it, right? The rock swimming pool with the waterfall?’

‘I know it,’ he said tersely. ‘What the hell are you doing up there?’

‘It’s a long story and I don’t have time at the moment. Your gran’s not well and I can’t get her down. I’m sorry, but could you?—’

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