Page 20 of New Dreams for the Village Nurse
‘You won’t, Ann. He’ll be able to tell us better, but I’d say you’re going to need some antibiotics and a bit of bed rest.’
‘I can’t stay in bed – I have too much to do on the farm, and Darryl?—’
‘Don’t worry about any of that. We’ll get you some help. You need rest or you’ll end up being out of action for a lot longer.’ Ottilie gave her a reassuring smile. ‘I’m going to make a phone call downstairs, make Darryl some toast and then I’ll be right back up, OK?’
Ann gave a weak nod, and Ottilie left her to phone the surgery, thankful that she’d been here to catch this before it got a lot worse.
After a long conversation with Simon, the cover GP, Ottilie had tried to persuade Ann to let her call an ambulance to take her to hospital, but Ann wouldn’t hear of it. Ottilie wasn’t entirely convinced she needed one either, but as Simon was busy in clinic and wouldn’t be able to make a house call for a few hours, he’d decided it would be the safest option. In the end, Ottilie had been forced to leave Ann, with some very detailed instructions for her and Darryl if things should take a turn for the worse – though how much of it had gone in with either of them was anyone’s guess – and a promise that the doctor would be up as soon as his morning clinic was done.
At lunch, Ottilie drove Simon up to Hilltop. It seemed easier than trying to direct him around an area he was new to, and she knew Darryl would feel less stressed to see a familiar face alongside one he didn’t know.
‘These aren’t roads designed for healthy suspension,’ Simon said, grimacing as they jolted over a pothole.
‘I hate to break it to you, but there’s a possibility that any minute now my wheels will start spinning and we’ll have to abandon the car and walk the rest of the way to the farm too.’
‘Yeah, I forgot how much I hated the countryside.’
Ottilie laughed lightly. ‘You can’t mean that. Surely nobody could hate the countryside.’ She threw him a sideways glance before turning back to the road. He wore a wry smile.
‘No, I don’t suppose so,’ he said. ‘At least when the sun is shining and it’s all green and lovely you can’t. But in the winter.’
‘It’s spring.’
‘Is it? I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t said.’
Ottilie laughed again.
‘How long have you lived here?’ he asked.
‘Not quite a year.’
‘So you came for this job, or did you want to move here anyway?’
‘The job mainly, but I did want a move out of Manchester. I saw this advertised and it looked like the perfect fit.’
‘And is it?’
‘Yes. I’m happy here and I love the work. How about you? Is Liverpool home? You don’t have much of an accent.’
‘I was born in Essex but, a bit like you, moved up to Liverpool for my first GP post. I met my wife there. She was studying there.’
Ottilie carefully noted the suddenly melancholic tone of his voice. What did that mean? They were no longer together? Or something sadder, more like her own situation? She wonderedwhether to ask, but then the wheels of her car started to slip, and she decided to pull over before she got well and truly stuck, unable to move up or down.
‘That’s it, I’m afraid. We’re going to have to walk the rest of the way.’
‘You need a tractor,’ he said, getting out of the car.
‘I definitely need to invest in a sturdier car,’ Ottilie replied. ‘An old jeep or something. But it’s a lot of money and I manage well enough for now.’
They began to walk. It was steep and she noticed Simon was soon a bit breathless. Simon looked far from unfit – in fact, he had a good physique from what Ottilie could see – but these hills could defeat even the hardiest sportsman if you weren’t used to them. Ottilie had grown used to going up and down to Hilltop over the past few months and found it challenging but not quite as strenuous as she had in the beginning.
‘Who looked at this hill and thought “I really want to build a house up there”?’ he panted.
Ottilie turned to him with a smile. ‘I know what you mean. But I suppose if you can build anywhere around here, you might as well have the views. I mean’ – she turned and swept a hand across the vista – ‘look at that. You can’t say that’s not amazing.’
Simon turned to look. Sunlight and shadow were racing across patchwork greens of fields, sectioned up with darker strips of hedgerows and stone walls, hillsides dotted with houses and trees, the lines of valley floors struck across them. They stretched out as far as the horizon.
‘What’s that water?’ he asked, pointing to a glittering basin.
