Page 31 of One Last Smile

“I can catch up,” Lucas says. “You should take care of yourself.”

“Well… I suppose I should. I don’t want to risk waking anyone else up with my nightmares.”

The ruse finally works when Eliza says, “I’ll take you with me to work this morning. Horace can drive you back.”

“That would be lovely, actually,” Veronica says. “Then he can drive me to the charity.”

“Oh, really, it’s all right. You don’t need to put yourselves out.”

“Nonsense,” Eliza says. “Besides, you can say hello to Rupert.”

“Rupert…” I say, feigning ignorance.” Oh, right. Dr. Chalmers.”

“Yes. My boss.”

“The lovely Rupert,” Alistair mutters under his breath.

Eliza gives him a glare before turning back to me. “Please. It’s no trouble, Mary.”

I hide the burst of triumph I feel and say reluctantly, “Well… if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Of course not!” Eliza says. “I just said it’s no trouble at all.”

“Besides,” Alistair interjects, “if you have another night like that, we might all need sleeping pills.”

The others look at him with disapproval, and he lifts his hands apologetically. “Just having a laugh.”

I finish my breakfast and then join Eliza. She spends the journey gossiping as though I’m just another girlfriend. I recall her telling me that there are few people her age in the village. I can see that she’s desperate for companionship after Minnie’s disappearance. I do my best to keep up until we arrive at the doctor’s office.

The office is in a quaint little building constructed with the famous golden stone of the Cotswolds. A sign hangs from the front, announcing the offices of Dr. Rupert Chalmers: Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and OB/GYN. An interesting specialty given that there are so few young women here.

We are the first in the office since Eliza is employed as his secretary and receptionist. When we walk in, Rupert fixes a look on Eliza that looks much like the longing I see in Alistair’s eyes. He opens his arms for an embrace, but Eliza greets him with a professional handshake instead and whispers something.

It must be a warning to him to be professional in my presence because he glances at me and reddens slightly. Curiously, I notice a similar blush on Eliza’s cheek. That couldn’t mean what it appears to, could it?

No, she probably tolerates his overtures to a point, but I can’t see the two of them being involved with each other. Dr. Chalmers is a handsome man, but Eliza is young and beautiful like a goddess. She could have her pick of young men if she wanted.

“Good morning!” Dr. Chalmers says, stepping closer and offering me a handshake as well. “I hear you’ve had trouble sleeping.”

“Oh, only a little,” I demur. “It seems I kept the family up last night with a nightmare, unfortunately.”

“Well, that’s no good,” he says. “We’ll get you something to take that can help you sleep like the dead.”

I really wish he had chosen another simile.

“Eliza, would you mind organizing my calendar?” he calls over his shoulder. “I shouldn’t be too long with Miss Mary, and then we can go over the schedule.”

“Of course, Dr. Chalmers.”

Dr. Chalmers smiles at me and says, “Come with me, Mary.”

He leads me into a small office decorated with flowery wallpaper that is horribly tacky but not unappealing. I sit on a vinyl chair, and Dr. Chalmers takes my ID and looks up my medical record.

I think of the hospitalization too late, and my face flames again. All at once, asking about Minnie becomes less important than avoiding a discussion of my own medical history. “It really was nothing,” I assure him. “Only a nightmare.”

“Of course,” he says, “but dreams have a way of invading our reality, don’t they? Let’s see if we can’t do something to make sure that yours stay where they belong.”

He sits across from me and asks, “When did these nightmares start?”

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