The practice manager was Anne Faulkner, a quiet woman with accountancy qualifications, who rented the apartment above the surgery.
Connie, the cleaner, was absent. After her labours over the weekend Megan had told her to take the day off.
While the introductions were being made Luke was pleasant and friendly, but he didn’t miss a thing. He’d smiled when he saw the flowers on the window-sill and said, ‘You didn’t have to do that, Megan.’
‘I didn’t,’ she told him. ‘It was Connie, the cleaner. She came in over the weekend to make the place spick and span for you.’
‘Really? That was very thoughtful. Was it her idea?’
‘No, it was mine.’ Connie wasn’t going to get all the praise, she decided. ‘How about I start morning surgery while you wander round and watch us in motion? Maybe you could have a word with Anne, the practice manager, who can answer any questions you might have on the admin side. Then when I’ve finished we could join up for the house calls.’
‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘Whatever you say. And I promise that by tomorrow I will be up to speed.’
‘I’m sure you will,’ she told him, and left him to it.
* * *
When they met up just before midday Megan said, ‘I suggest that we do the visits together for a few days. It will give you the opportunity to find your way around and meet some of the people in the village.’
Megan was driving, and as they headed along quiet roads lined with old stone cottages, their gardens full of colour, she told him about their first patient. ‘Our first stop today is going to be at the home of my aunt, Isabel Chambers. And I feel I must warn you that she has a sharp tongue and doesn’t wrap up her words. She’s in her early seventies and has diabetes. But she’s a strong woman. She’s been on her own since her husband died forty years ago. They never had any children.’
She turned right up a leafy lane. ‘I call to see her every Monday, just to make sure that she’s all right, and that nothing regarding her health is going haywire. It’s the house next to the old water mill on Rabbit Lane. We’ll be there in a moment.’
As they walked up the path that led to the front door of a large stone house Luke saw that it was unlatched and a voice called from inside, ‘Come in. Megan.’ It belonged to a small grey-haired woman sitting facing them in a rocking chair and as bright eyes looked him up and down she said, ‘So you’ve brought the new doctor to see me, Megan.’
‘Yes, I have, Aunt Izzy. This is Luke Anderson. He and I are going to be running the practice from now on.’
‘I see,’ she said, and held out her hand for him to shake. ‘You look all right to me,’ she told him, taking in the height of him, and added to Megan, ‘But I can see you getting a crick in your neck having to keep looking up.’
‘I’m sure we’ll manage,’ she said quickly, dreading what was coming next.
She had cause to. ‘Have you brought a wife and some young ’uns with you?’ she asked Luke, and he shook his head.
‘I’m afraid not,’ he told her. ‘I’ve come to look after some young ’uns but they aren’t mine.’
‘Dr Anderson is related to Sue Standish,’ Megan told her aunt. ‘He’s come to give her some support.’
‘Hmm. I see,’ she said, then turned her sharp eyes on Megan. ‘And who’s going to look after you, lass? I told your mother and father they’d no right leaving you like that.’
Concealing her mortification Megan said, ‘I don’t need minding, Aunt Izzy. I’m twenty-nine years old.’
‘Maybe,’ the old lady said crustily, ‘but you’ve been left with the practice to see to and a stranger to deal with.’
Megan saw Luke turn away to hide a smile and thought, enough is enough. ‘I’ve come to check on your health, Aunt Izzy,’ she said firmly. ‘So let’s see what the diabetes has been up to. I’m going to test your blood pressure, and see what your blood-glucose levels are. And while I’m here I’ll have a quick look at your feet.’
‘All right,’ she agreed, ‘but don’t rush me. Go and take a walk round the garden while I take my shoes off.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Megan told him as they stood among summer’s flowers. ‘Aunt Izzy means nothing by it, but her comments can be misconstrued.’
‘You mean like the one about the stranger who is going to be a millstone around your neck,’ he said quizzically. ‘I promise I won’t be that. I’ll have to see if I can dredge up some charm from somewhere to win her over.’
Megan looked away. Since they’d met up again she was seeing another side to the man who’d shown such scant interest in her Valentine card, and charm was high on the list as far as she was concerned.
When the weekly check-up was over and she’d assured her aunt that all was well, Isabel nodded and turned her attention to Luke.
‘I hope you’re going to fit in here,’ she said dubiously. ‘You look more of a town dweller than a countryman.’
‘I’m going to fit in, Mrs Chambers,’ he told her firmly. ‘Have no doubts about that.’
* * *
As Megan drove to their next call, with Aunt Izzy’s comments ringing in her ears, she felt that a change of subject was required and said, ‘So tell me what young Oliver was up to last night.’
‘I caught him halfway out of his bedroom window at gone midnight, all set to meet his friend Mikey.’
‘Oh, dear!’
‘Yes, indeed,’ he agreed.
‘So what did you do?’
‘Nipped his nocturnal activities in the bud by bringing him back inside and making a deal with him.’
‘What sort of a deal?’
‘I promised I would go mothing with them tonight, as that’s what they were intending doing.’
She was laughing. ‘Ooh! That sounds exciting. Catching moths in a net.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘It’s a better scenario than the kid being out in the fields without supervision at dead of night, don’t you think?’
She nodded, serious now. ‘Yes, of course. Young ones never see danger, do they?’
‘No, they don’t. Can you imagine the state Sue would have been in this morning if she’d found his bed empty? Her nerves are in shreds as it is, and there’s something else.’
His tone was warning her that it wasn’t a minor matter and she said slowly, ‘What is it?’
‘Some friends who live in France have invited her and the boys to stay with them for a few weeks for a change of scene. She’s dead keen to go, but it would mean taking Owen and Oliver out of school and these days parents are in big trouble if they do that.’
‘Surely it wouldn’t be frowned upon in the circumstances.’
‘Maybe not, but the lads don’t want to go, and in any case Sue doesn’t want them missing school.’
She could guess what was coming next. ‘So?’
‘So I’ve told her to go and leave them with me.’
‘And what did she say to that?’
‘Jumped at the chance. It’s just what the poor girl needs. To get away for a while without any worries regarding her children.’
‘So she’s going.’
‘Hmm. She was checking flights when I came out.’
‘Sue