Page 73 of The Village Cafe in the Loire

This was her chance, if she wanted it. To exaggerate her stress and get a few extra days under her belt. But Becky was hard-wired to ace any test she was set. ‘Oh. It’s fine,’ she said.

‘That’s good.’ Her doctor made a note. ‘And how did you spend your medical leave?’

‘I actually went to France,’ Becky said, smiling genuinely for the first time as she pictured Vaudrelle. ‘I have an aunt who lives in the country.’ She elected not to tell the doctor that her aunt had been presumed dead a few weeks ago, but was actually very much alive. It probably wouldn’t look too good on the notes.

‘Great! And you certainly look rested. Must have been lovely to see your aunt too, I expect.’

‘Yes. It was.’

‘You know,’ the doctor said, ‘I thought about moving to France myself once. Doing something different.’

‘You did?’

‘Yes. Years ago, now.’

‘And what stopped you?’ Becky asked curiously.

The doctor threw her hands up. ‘Ah, the usual. Work. Life,’ she said. ‘Nice fantasy though.’

‘Yeah, definitely.’ Although was it a fantasy? For Maud it had just been her life. And France wasn’t a problem-free utopia. Being there, living there, had its own challenges. It was just a different choice, surely?

The questions continued – her physical symptoms, how she’d been spending her time. How she was getting on with her mother. When Becky mentioned Amber, she scribbled furiously in her pad for a minute before asking whether Amber’s situation had caused additional stress.

At last, it was over.

‘Is there anything else?’ the doctor asked finally. ‘Anything you want to share?’

It was now or never. ‘Actually…’ she said, sitting forward. ‘Although of course I’m keen to get back, I wondered whether you thought it would be a good idea to have a few more days to get things together.’

‘I’m sorry, I don’t follow?’

‘I’ve got some loose ends to tie up and…’

The doctor sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘As far as this interview goes, you’re cleared for work. Anything else you’ll have to agree in house, I’m afraid.’

‘OK.’

‘I expect you’re itching to get back to your normal life.’

‘Yes. Definitely.’ Although would it be her normal life? The world had moved on while she’d been in France; the life she was returning to wasn’t the same as the one she’d left.

‘All OK?’ the doctor asked.

‘Yes. Just thinking about it all.’

‘Right.’ The doctor began tapping on her computer. ‘Well, I’ll just pop this information in…’

The café swam into her mind. Pascal serving coffee. Maud in her care home. It seemed odd, sitting here, that that world existed still; would exist even if she weren’t part of it.

‘So… anything else?’ The doctor gave her watch a surreptitious glance.

Becky stood abruptly; embarrassed. ‘No, that’s great. Brilliant!’ she blurted. Her mouth ached as she forced it into a smile. ‘Thank you.’

She hadn’t spoken properly to Pascal since arriving home. They’d exchanged text messages, but she’d deliberately missed his calls, writing instead to explain why: ‘Sorry, was at thehospital, everything OK?’ or ‘On the train – did you call?’ But now there was nothing for it but to confront things.

She took the bus home; preferring suddenly the natural light it afforded her over the gloom of the Tube and, sitting on a relatively uncrowded top deck, she pulled out her phone and finally rang his number.

‘Becky!’ The happiness was evident in his tone. ‘You called!’

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