‘Where is your mummy?’ Abby asked thoughtfully. She was concerned, all at once. What was the child doing out here on her own on the shared drive? Luckily, the front gates were shut, and their latches were probably too stiff for the child to manage by herself, but there was always the possibility that she might try to climb over them.
‘She’s not very well.’
‘Isn’t she?’ Abby frowned. ‘What’s wrong with her, do you know?’
Chloe shrugged her shoulders, and Abby glanced over at her neighbour’s house and saw that the front door was open.
‘Did you open the door?’ she asked.
Chloe nodded, pleased with herself. ‘I got a stool and opened it,’ she confided. ‘I’m big now.’
‘Yes, you are, aren’t you? I can see that.’ Taking the child’s hand, she said, ‘Let’s go and see if we can find your mother, shall we?’ Abby led her towards the house, just as Jessica appeared at the door, looking frantic.
‘Oh, there she is. Thank heaven. I was so worried.’
‘It’s all right, Jessica. She’s safe.’ Abby briefly scanned her neighbour’s face and noted the dark shadows beneath her eyes, which emphasised the paleness of her features. Her skin had a faintly sallow appearance, and her dark hair tumbled to her shoulders in straggly waves. ‘Are you OK? Chloe said that you were ill.’
‘I was being sick.’ Jessica pulled a face. ‘Some kind of stomach bug, I expect. I thought Chloe was still asleep, but she must have got out of bed and come downstairs while I was in the bathroom.’ She frowned. ‘I never imagined she could get out of the house by herself.’ She opened the door wider. ‘Come on in.’
Abby went into the house. ‘Perhaps you need to have a bolt fitted,’ she suggested, inspecting the doorframe. ‘I’m surprised that you don’t have one already.’
Jessica grimaced. ‘There was one once.’ She rubbed her stomach, clearly still feeling unwell. ‘It obviously wasn’t a very good one, because it was damaged when my ex-husband came around one night and tried to force his way in. I’ve been meaning to get it fixed, but with going out to work and not feeling too well lately, and one thing and another, I haven’t had the time.’
Abby frowned. It sounded as though Jessica’s ex-husband was a belligerent character. No wonder Jessica looked tired and washed-out if that was the kind of problem she was experiencing on a day-today basis. No one could live with that kind of strain for any length of time without it affecting her health, especially now that Daniel was away. ‘Isn’t that a bit worrying?’ she murmured. ‘No wonder my brother wanted me to keep an eye on you.’
‘Did he say that? Daniel’s a lovely man.’ Jessica gave a faint smile. ‘He’s so thoughtful and kind…nothing at all like Colin, my ex.’ They walked through to the kitchen and she sighed wearily and sank down onto a wooden chair.
‘Is Colin likely to try to do the same thing again?’ Abby asked.
‘He might do, although the police have warned him to stay away. They gave me a panic alarm so that I could contact them any time I needed help. I’ll get the bolt sorted out today. I don’t want Chloe to wander off again.’
‘Are you going to be all right looking after her if you’re not feeling well?’ Even though she was conscious that she ought to be setting out on her journey to work, Abby was worried about leaving her neighbour to cope on her own, and she felt even more responsible as she was her brother’s girlfriend.
‘I’ll manage, thanks.’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘I’ll drop her off at nursery school and go and see the doctor. I shan’t go into work today.’
‘What about your family? Are your parents able to help out?’
Jessica shook her head. ‘We had a big falling out when I married Colin. They didn’t like him and they warned me against marrying him, but I went ahead anyway, and they were angry with me. I haven’t had much contact with them over the last few years. At first I was loyal to Colin, and later I was too proud to admit that they had been right all along. It got more difficult to get in touch as time went on.’
‘I’m sorry.’ That seemed so sad to Abby, to be isolated from your family when they were still around, but there was no time for her to talk about it now, and Jessica was looking poorly again.
Abby said quickly, ‘Look, you don’t look at all well. I’ll have a word with Mrs Matthews next door, shall I? She seems nice and friendly, and she’s on her own. She’ll probably be glad to help out if you’re in a fix.’
Jessica was probably feeling too ill to disagree, because she bent over as though she was in some pain. Abby stayed with her long enough to see that she wasn’t about to collapse, and then hurried away to find her other neighbour.
Mrs Matthews’s eyes widened when Abby explained the situation a minute or so later. In her sixties, she was a widow, and she generally kept herself to herself, although she was friendly whenever Abby spoke to her.
‘Of course I’ll go round there right away and help out. You get yourself off to work, love. They’ll be all right with me. Don’t you worry.’
Relieved that she had resolved the situation in part, Abby got in her car and set off for work. After all these delays, she was certain that she was going to be late, and she was sure that Jordan wouldn’t take kindly to that.
She had half hoped he would be too busy attending to a patient to notice her arrival when she finally hurried into the accident and emergency department, but she was out of luck.
‘So you’re here at last, Dr Curtis,’ he said tersely, subjecting her to a laser-eyed scrutiny. ‘I would have expected you to at least make an effort to be here on time on your first day.’
‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she said. ‘I would have been on time, but my neighbour—’
‘Please, don’t give me any excuses,’ Jordan said crisply. ‘I don’t want to hear them, and I’m sure the patients don’t either. You’ll find the first one waiting for you in cubicle three.’
‘I—I’ll go and deal with it now. Right away.’ She backed away from him, feeling flustered and out of sorts, then turned and headed for the cubicle. He could have at least let her explain.
As the day wore on, she settled uneasily into her role as senior house officer. The summer season was on them and, as well as the usual number of local people who attended A and E because of traffic accidents or work-related injuries, there were many holidaymakers who found themselves in trouble of one sort or another.
Abby did her best to stay calm and clear-thinking, and deal with everything that came her way, and after a while she began to feel that she was coping reasonably well. Then a child was brought in, suffering from flu-like symptoms, with muscle and joint pains.
The boy was ten years old, and complained of a headache. ‘He has a fever,’ the nurse said quietly, and Abby nodded acknowledgement.
She smiled reassuringly at him, and said gently, ‘I just need to examine you, Fraser. Can you tell me where it hurts most?’
‘My knees,’ he said, with a hint of breathlessness. ‘I hurt everywhere, but my knees are the worst. My chest hurts as well.’
‘OK. Let’s take a look at you.’ She ran the stethoscope over his chest and heard a faint irregularity of the heartbeat. ‘We’ll do an ECG,’ she told the nurse in an undertone. ‘There may be some inflammation around the heart that’s causing his breathlessness.’
The boy’s knee joints were swollen, she discovered. Frowning a little, she tried to work out what it was that was causing Fraser’s symptoms. ‘Let’s do blood tests as well to see if there’s an infection.’
Turning to his mother, she said, ‘We’re going to do tests to find