Page 65 of New Dreams for the Village Nurse
‘Listen, I’ll let you go,’ she said. ‘Chloe’s waiting for me to bring back coffee. I’ll speak to you later, if that’s all right.’
‘Absolutely. I’ll call on my way home if you’re up to a visit.’
‘Well, we certainly didn’t get much of one last night, but perhaps give it a day or so, just to make sure Mackenzie’s back on top form. If he’s still a bit grumbly I’d rather concentrate on him.’
‘Oh God, yes. Of course – I never thought. Text me when it’s a good time.’
‘I will. Speak soon.’
Ottilie bid her goodbye and then ended the call. She tapped a thumb on her mobile thoughtfully, her gaze trained on that beam of sunlight slicing across the room. She wondered whether to call Fliss and fill her in on what had happened, but she suspected Simon would have done that already. And perhaps itwould wait – she was seeing Fliss in a couple of hours at the surgery anyway.
There was no way she was going to get back to sleep and probably very little point for the good the extra hour would do, and so Ottilie got up and decided to make the most of her spare hour before work by going up to Hilltop Farm a little earlier and spending a bit of time with Ann and Darryl. She hadn’t been able to do that for a while, and it would be good to see how Ann was doing – not only as a patient, but as a friend who had a lot on her plate and could use the support.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘Good morning.’ Ottilie looked up from her diary as Fliss peered around the door of her office.
‘Fliss! Morning.’
The GP sidled in rather sheepishly and closed the door behind her. ‘I hear there was some drama last night.’
‘Oh, you mean Mackenzie? Yes. We had to take him to the hospital. He’s all right, though. Had the all-clear and they’re going to be bringing him home. Stacey says he’s much brighter.’
‘You tried to get hold of me.’
‘Oh, yes.’ Ottilie tried to make light of it, even though she had initially planned to confront Fliss about the fact she’d been unavailable when she was meant to be around for emergencies. She could see that Fliss felt guilty about it and she didn’t want to make it worse. Fliss must have had a pretty compelling reason for not being available, after all, but perhaps she didn’t want to be forced to share that either.
‘I can only apologise. Whenever I’m on call I sit for hours and hours next to my phone and nobody phones. The one time someone actually needs me and…’
‘Honestly, it all worked out. Luckily Simon was around and he advised me to take Mackenzie straight to the emergency department.’
‘Lucky for us all.’
‘Fliss, you’ve got no reason to feel bad. You’ve spent years single-handedly supporting the health needs of this community, no matter what else was going on in your life. I haven’t been here all that long, but I can see what that means to everyone. You have things going on in your own life now, and everyone can see that too, and everyone understands.’
‘I’m a doctor.’
‘You’re also a person. I don’t need to know and I don’t want to pry, but is everything all right at home? I know you’ve had the thing with Charles…’
‘It was Charles I was tending to. He’s all right, before you ask, nothing to worry about, but we needed a good long talk about our future and so I put my phone to one side. Of course that would be the one time someone needed me. I won’t be making that mistake again.’
Ottilie frowned. ‘I thought you’d already sorted out your future. You’re still planning to stay on here, aren’t you? I thought you and Simon were going to run the surgery together.’
‘That’s still the plan, but we have other things to think about, things we haven’t yet decided on.’
‘Like what?’
‘Where do I even start?’ Fliss gave a wan smile. Ottilie shook her head.
‘I suppose there must be tons.’
Fliss nodded. ‘You could say that. Mostly legal and administrative tangles, nothing for you to worry about.’
‘I’ll let you get on. See you in the kitchen for lunch as usual?’
‘Lavender has made lasagne, so I don’t need asking twice about that.’
With a last nod of acknowledgement and perhaps gratitude, Fliss left her and closed the door softly. Ottilie went back to her diary, but her mind wasn’t on the week’s appointments as fully as it ought to have been. She’d told Fliss she didn’t need to know, but she couldn’t help but wonder whether she ought to be worried about whatever Fliss’s discussion with Charles had entailed.
