Page 31 of New Dreams for the Village Nurse
‘Oh, yes, you did mention her. So that’s good. Does it make you see it all a bit differently?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Ottilie said as she stared into space. Did it? She’d waited to hear that news for so long she didn’t know how she felt about it now. Materially, what difference could it make to her life? It wasn’t going to change anything. But knowing that there was finally some sort of justice for Josh, she couldn’t deny there was a certain satisfaction in that. It was a closure of sorts, but closure only sparked those feelings of guilt again, because closure was halfway to accepting and forgetting as far as she could tell.
Shaking herself, she forced a smile for Heath. ‘I’m suddenly starving.’
‘That’s good. Have whatever you want – my treat.’
‘No, I don’t?—’
‘Don’t argue. I knew you’d make a fuss. Let me do this please. I’ve been pretty useless to you for most of today, so let me do this much.’
‘You’ve been brilliant, not useless!’
‘I’ve felt useless.’
‘You’re here and that was all I needed from you. Thank you for coming.’
‘Ottilie, I live in Manchester. It was hardly a trek for me to be here!’
‘You know that’s not what I mean,’ she said with a smile.
Heath reached across the table for her hand. ‘It might not be the right time to say this, I realise, but I don’t think I can keep it in any longer.’
Ottilie held back a frown.
‘In fact,’ he said, ‘I’m sure you already know it.’
‘Do I?’
He nodded. ‘But I want to say it, just for the record, so there’s no doubt, because I haven’t been brave enough to say it before. Ottilie, I lo?—’
‘Heath!’
They both looked up at the sight of a woman marching towards their table. She was blonde and curvy, with the sort of polished glamour that would make someone take a second look on the street. Heath yanked his hand from Ottilie’s as if he’d been burned. She looked sharply at him, but his eyes were wide, fixed on the newcomer.
‘Bloody hell!’ the woman cackled. ‘Fancy seeing you here!’ She looked at Ottilie, and then her sardonic gaze went back to Heath. ‘I take it this is your new model. I might have known you wouldn’t stay single for long.’
Heath cleared his throat, suddenly seeming to find his voice. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked with such frost in his voice that Ottilie turned to him in surprise. She’d never heard that from him before, not even when they’d been at loggerheads over Flo when they’d first met. No, it wasn’t just coldness; it was clear contempt.
‘I fancied an Italian,’ the woman said. ‘It’s a free country, isn’t it?’
‘Alone?’
‘Why? Are you still mad at Dwight?’
‘I’ve got no feelings for your new boyfriend either way. I’m only making conversation.’
‘As a matter of fact, he’s parking the Merc.’
‘Right.’
The woman looked from him to Ottilie and then back to him. ‘So you’re not going to introduce me?’
‘No.’
She ignored him and turned to Ottilie with a saccharine smile. ‘I’m Mila. Heath’s wife.’
‘Ex,’ he corrected her.
