Page 53 of Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

Freya planted the walker in front of him and reined in a sigh. Getting cross back at him wasn’t going to help matters, but he’d only been home an hour and he was already trying her patience. She needed to do some plain speaking.

‘Dad, the way you’re carrying on, you’re going to have another fall and then where will you be? Back in hospital, that’s where.’

Slowly and carefully, Vinnie lowered himself into the chair, using the table for support. His face was drawn, his skin grey. He needed food, then he needed to rest. After that, she’d make sure he did his exercises, and if she had time she’d try to find a drill in the shed. Those handrails weren’t going to put themselves up and she was worried about him coping in the bathroom. The raised toilet seat should help, but she’d feel happier if he had something to hold on to instead of the wash-hand basin.

She noticed her dad patting his shirt pocket. ‘If you’re looking for your glasses, you left them in the sitting room,’ she told him.

‘I know. I’m after my tablets.’ He produced a blister pack with a flourish. ‘Got them.’

‘Shall I pour you a glass of water?’

‘Aye, that would be grand.’

‘You should have said you needed to take your painkillers. I would have fetched some for you.’ She felt awful, thinking he’d struggled out to the kitchen to get a drink. She should have anticipated that and made sure he had a jug within easy reach of his chair.

She said, ‘Why don’t you go back to the sitting room? You’ll be more comfortable there, and if your hip hurts too much, you can have your soup later.’

Freya had broken her arm when she was a child, and she hadn’t forgotten the unbearable ache and how sick it had made her feel.

‘I’ll have it now,’ he said.

‘It’s no bother, Dad, I can—’

‘They’re not painkillers. They’re my cholesterol tablets.’

‘Ah, I see.’ The vice chancellor was on medication for high cholesterol, and he was also on tablets for his blood pressure. She wasn’t surprised that Sean Pickles’s blood pressure was raised, since he had a stressful job – or so he kept telling her.

Reassured that her father wasn’t in pain, and that the cholesterol tablets were nothing to be concerned about, Freya turned her attention to the soup once more. ‘Would you like butter with your roll?’ she asked, then had second thoughts. ‘Are you allowed butter if you’ve got high cholesterol?’ Sean was always telling her how he adored cheese but wasn’t allowed to eat it.

‘I’ve not got high cholesterol. My cholesterol is fine.’

‘But you just said—’

‘That’s what the tablets are for, so I can eat like a normal human being and not like a rabbit. Aye, I want butter.’

That told me, she thought, taking the butter dish out of the fridge and putting it on the table a tad more forcibly than she’d intended.

‘Watch you don’t break it,’ Vinnie grumbled.

Giving the soup a final taste, Freya deemed it ready, so she ladled a generous portion into two bowls and took her seat at the table.

They ate in silence, Freya ignoring the tremor in her father’s hand as he lifted the spoon to his mouth. The daft old sod was trying to do too much, too soon. Stubborn, that’s what he was, and proud. He’d never admit that the journey from Broadford this morning had taken it out of him.

Freya reconsidered her plan to put up the handrails today. Having a rest was more important for her father right now, and he didn’t need to be disturbed by drilling. He’d probably refuse to have a nap if she suggested it, so she’d have to use cunning if she wanted to get him to rest.

‘What do you usually do in the afternoon, Dad?’

‘Not much. Watch a bit of TV, potter in the garden if it’s fine, read the paper if it’s not. I fetch one every morning, along with any bits I might need. It gets me out of the house.’

‘Would you like me to fetch you a paper after lunch?’

He huffed. ‘They don’t have many in. They’ll all be sold by now.’

‘We could watch a film?’

Her dad huffed again. ‘I don’t like the modern stuff.’

‘I’ll find an old one,’ she assured him, hoping there’d be something on. ‘Or we could watch a documentary?’

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