Page 72 of Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

Her foot tapped again, and her dad elbowed her.

‘Anyone would think you’re the one who’s about to be prodded and poked, not me,’ he grumbled.

She prayed he’d get a good report. Despite being hopeful that her dad was making good progress, Freya didn’t have any measure to compare it to. She didn’t know anyone who’d broken their hip, and Dr Google had so much conflicting advice and information that she didn’t know what to believe.

Just then his name was called and as he struggled carefully to his feet, Freya leapt up to help him.

He shook her off. ‘I can manage.’ It had become something of a refrain, and one that she tended to ignore.

Hovering by his side, she was matching her pace to his as he made his way to the consultation room, when he stopped abruptly.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he demanded.

‘With you,’ she replied, bewildered.

‘There’s no need. I’m perfectly capable of seeing the doctor on my own.’

Hurt, she asked, ‘Don’t you want me to come in with you?’

‘I’ve got to do things for myself. When you go back to London, I won’t have anyone with me.’

‘But that’s a long way off.’

‘Hmm, we’ll see.’

‘And you still can’t walk properly,’ she pointed out.

‘No, but I canhearproperly, so I can listen to what the doctor has to say without you being there. Stay here, I won’t be long.’

Freya remained where she was, feeling rejected. Her dad was taking being independent too far. If he were fit and well, she could have understood his reluctance to have her there, but he wasn’t. Then again, if he had been fit and well, he wouldn’t be here in the first place.

She watched as he went inside, then she returned to her seat, eyeing the door anxiously and wondering how long he would be.

When a nurse came out a moment later and headed in her direction, Freya didn’t take any notice, but when the woman came to a halt in front of her, she snapped to attention.

The nurse said, ‘Your dad says you can go in with him, if you want.’

Freyadidwant. Happy that the miserable old so-and-so had seen sense, she went into the consultation room. If there was anything wrong, or anything more that her dad could be doing, she wanted to hear it first-hand from the doctor, and not second-hand from her father.

‘This is nice,’ Vinnie said, looking around the restaurant. ‘It makesa change to be somewhere different. I thought I’d go mad if I had tostare at those four walls for much longer. I was going stir-crazy.’

‘If you wanted to go out, you should have said,’ Freya replied, before it occurred to her that maybe she should have thought to offer to take him out. He’d been home from hospital for over two weeks, yet he hadn’t left the house once, except for today.

After the consultant said she was pleased with his progress, Freya had suggested that they stop off for a bite to eat on their way home. There was a pub where she’d eaten once, after she’d visited him in Broadford Hospital and hadn’t been able to face cooking. The food was good, the portion sizes were generous, it was on the outskirts of the town, and she felt that they both deserved lunch out to celebrate. Her dad wasn’t out of the woods yet, but the edge of the treeline was in sight and he seemed happier in himself.

So was she. Some of the anxiety and tension she’d been carrying for the past month had eased now that she knew the wound had healed well, and he was regaining some flexibility in the joint. She had to admire her dad’s determination; he did his exercises religiously twice a day, every day, and made sure he got up out of his chair regularly to walk around the house.

‘Did you hear the doctor say that as long as I’m careful, there’s no reason for me not to use the stairs?’ he said.

‘I did.’

‘I’m to ask the physio to show me the best way to go up and down them, the next time she comes. Oh, and did I tell you that it’ll be her last home visit? I’m to go to the hospital for future appointments.’

‘Yes, you did.’

‘You’ll have to ask Mack if he can take my bed back up. I never wanted it in the sitting room in the first place.’

‘I know you didn’t, but it was safer and more practical, with the bathroom being downstairs.’

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