City Doctor, Country Bride

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘What is the lady’s name?’ Matthew asked.

  ‘Mrs Joan Carradine,’ he was told. ‘My husband and I own this place. She often stays here for a week or so. I believe she has friends in the area, but has never said who they are.’

  ‘Have you noticed any problem with her movements?’

  ‘No, none.’

  ‘I’m just going to check you over,’ Matthew told Mrs Carradine gently. ‘There’s no need to be alarmed. I’m going to sound your heart and feel your pulse to see if we can discover what has made you forgetful this morning.’

  ‘All right,’ the lady agreed, ‘but he did it. He pushed me and I banged my head.’

  Henrietta was standing to one side and Matthew flashed her a quick glance. ‘Who pushed you, Mrs Carradine?’ he asked casually, as he felt the woman’s scalp with deft fingers that suddenly became still. His face was serious now. ‘Just take a look at this, Dr Mason. There’s a spongy swelling on the side of the head.’

  ‘Haematoma?’ Henrietta suggested, after she’d felt the enlarged area of the scalp

  ‘Could be,’ he said, with the gravity still there.

  ‘It was him!’ Joan cried. ‘The one who doesn’t like me. He pushed me and I slipped and banged my head on a tree, but there was no blood.’

  The two doctors moved away so Mrs Carradine couldn’t hear them. ‘It sounds as if she’s been attacked,’ Henrietta said in a low voice, ‘but by who?’

  ‘I don’t know, but that can wait for the moment,’ murmured Matthew. ‘If there is a blood clot or something of the sort, it would explain the memory loss, and that could be just the beginning of a series of dangerous issues. We are going to have to call an ambulance. The lady needs to see a neurologist a.s.a.p.’

  He turned to the owner of the guest house. ‘Could you pack a bag for Mrs Carradine while we phone the hospital, please.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Lynda replied. ‘This is awful. It never dawned on me that she might have been hurt. Who could have done this to her?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said grimly. ‘The memory block seems to have cleared a little, but there is still confusion. We need to find out where she goes when she stays here. The people she comes to see will have to know what has happened. Someone must have seen her with them.

  ‘I shall have to notify the police, but in the meantime the most important thing is to get Mrs Carradine into hospital with all speed. The rest of it can wait.’

  As they left the guest house after an ambulance had taken Lynda and the injured woman to Accident and Emergency, Henrietta said, ‘Maybe there is a reason why she doesn’t stay with the people she comes to visit. Perhaps she isn’t all that welcome. Or they might not have the room for her to stay with them.’

  ‘It’s a mystery,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Mrs Carradine could have been imagining it all in her confused state. But there was nothing imaginary about that head wound. If she was pushed, it was with a great deal of force for her to have received such damage to the skull.’

  ‘I thought that it was only around the towns and cities that one found such crime,’ Henrietta commented, ‘but it would appear not.’

  He smiled. ‘We have our villains in the countryside, too, but maybe not so many of them. The police are going to look into this morning’s mystery by calling at Goyt Lodge to examine the injured woman’s belongings to see if they give any clue as to why she visits this area so regularly, and will then go to see her at the hospital, which may not be all that easy if she’s in Theatre.’

  He glanced at her. ‘You were comparing the crime rate in town and country a few moments ago. How does health care in the two compare?’

  ‘It’s very different from what I’m used to. Everything is at a slower pace and I feel, rightly or wrongly, that because there are fewer patients and more time to deal with them, there’s a better standard of care. I dealt with some tough customers in my last job and the workload was tremendous.’

  ‘All I will be asking of you here is a job well done.’

  ‘Yes, I understand that and I will do the job properly, but so far I’m not finding you very easy to get to know.’

  He pulled the car up by the side of the road and when he turned towards her there was a glint in the dark eyes looking into hers.

  ‘I’m sorry about that, but as it’s only twenty-four hours since we met, don’t you think your expectations are a bit high? And if I’m not full of the joys of spring it could be because I’ve only recently returned from hell on earth, and after what I’ve seen in that place, there doesn’t seem an awful lot to smile about.’

  He was right, Henrietta was thinking contritely. Whatever had possessed her to start criticising him? If they’d met under other circumstances she would have had him down as a very presentable member of the opposite sex, in spite of him needing a haircut. Beside Matthew, Miles, the reluctant father, was a non-starter.

  This man had lost a wife that he’d loved dearly. He’d not said much about her, but it had come over very strongly in those few moments outside his house, and facing up to a loss that went as deep as that was enough to make anyone sombre.

  She didn’t know the circumstances of his wife’s death as yet, but sensed that the loneliness that he seemed to have surrounded himself with was his way of coping with the pain.

  It was wrong, of course. He had all the rest of his life before him and should treasure his wife’s memory, but stop brooding and let go. Yet who was she to tell him that? As he’d just pointed out, they’d only known each other a matter of hours.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she told him. ‘I asked for that. I’ve worked for so long in an impersonal atmosphere that I’ve been overestimating the cosiness of village health care.’

  He nodded unsmilingly. ‘If it had been the other way round, John staying and myself moving to pastures new, you might have found what you expected. As it is, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Henrietta. If you decide to stay, you’re lumbered with me.’

  ‘I’m not planning on going anywhere else,’ she told him quickly. ‘Even if you sack me, I can’t leave the village. I have to stay for the children’s sake.’

  One of his rare smiles appeared and as it softened the taut lines of his features she knew that whether her stay at the practice turned out to be long or short, it was a face that she wouldn’t forget in a hurry.

  ‘So there’s your answer,’ he said. ‘You’ll have to put up with me and maybe one day you’ll be glad you came, if only to get away from all those tower blocks. So do we have take-off, Dr Mason.’

  She smiled back and he noticed that she had dimples. ‘Yes, I think so.’

  ‘You only think so?’ he enquired dryly. ‘You strike me as a woman who knows her own mind.’

  ‘Not always, I’m afraid,’ she confessed ruefully.

  He would have liked to ask her what she’d meant by that. What this pale-skinned woman with the striking hazel eyes, nut-brown hair and dimples had got up to before moving to his patch.

  But with a feeling that the atmosphere was in need of lightening, he changed the subject. ‘So, apart from this morning’s fiasco with the homework, how is the child-minding going?’

  ‘Fine’ she said breezily. ‘I love children. I’d like a house full of my own one day. But for the time being Mollie and Keiran are the next best thing.’

  He smiled ‘So you see yourself as an earth mother?’

  ‘No. I was exaggerating. Just two or three will do. And on the subject of children, isn’t our next call on a sick child?’

  ‘Yes. The daughter of the local vet, Roger Martin. He rang to ask for a visit as eight-year-old Amy developed a fever during the night. His wife’s away so he’s coping on his own.’

  Henrietta glanced at him sharply. ‘No headache? Or rash?’

  ‘Not from the sound of the message we received. I presume you’re thinking of meningitis.’

  ‘I was,’ she agreed, ‘but it doesn’t sound like it.’

  ‘Here we are.’ He pulled up ou
tside a pretty stone building with a large forecourt and neatly tended flower-beds. ‘Let’s just hope it’s not anything too serious.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE VET lived above his surgery and the moment he opened the door to them Henrietta sensed a lack of cordiality on her companion’s part and a degree of discomfort in the attitude of the other man.

  ‘Hello, Matthew, thanks for coming,’ he said awkwardly, and pointed to a room across the hallway of the apartment. ‘Amy is tucked up in bed all hot and miserable, wanting her mum.’

  ‘Yes, I can imagine,’ Matthew said dryly, and Roger Martin looked away. It had been an innocent enough remark, but she sensed that it had been received without warmth.

  ‘I’ve brought Dr Mason with me,’ Matthew went on in the same flat tone. ‘She joined the practice yesterday.’

  ‘Why? What’s happened to John?’ the other man wanted to know.

  ‘Family problems. He’s moved down south for a while, so Dr Mason is filling in for him. Shall we take a look at your daughter? What seems to be wrong with her?’

  He was perfectly civil. Henrietta couldn’t fault his manner, but there was no warmth in it until he perched on the side of Amy’s bed. When they’d appeared she’d turned her face to the wall and her father said, ‘Amy has been feverish in the night and very fretful. I’ve checked for any signs of meningitis and there don’t seem to be any, but I’m not prepared to take any chances. That’s why I asked for a visit.’

  ‘Tell me where it hurts, Amy,’ Matthew said gently.

  She rolled over onto her back slowly. A big tear was sliding down her cheek and without speaking she pointed to her throat.

  ‘Does it hurt when you swallow?’ he asked in the same gentle tone, and, still without speaking, she nodded.

  ‘Will you open your mouth wide for me and say “Ah”,’ he asked, and again he received a nod.

  The inside of Amy’s throat was very inflamed, especially around the tonsils, and when he’d finished examining her, Matthew told the vet, ‘Your daughter’s got tonsillitis. Has she had it before?’

  Roger shook his head. ‘No. Or I would have been onto it straight away. She hasn’t complained of her throat hurting, but I knew there had to be a reason for the high temperature.’

  As Matthew brought out a prescription pad, Roger cleared his throat and with a smile for Henrietta said, ‘It’s a surprise to hear about John Lomas. I hope you’ll be happy in our small community.’

  At that moment Matthew’s mobile phone rang and he stepped out of earshot to answer it. ‘I wasn’t expecting Matthew to turn up,’ the vet said awkwardly. ‘I’m afraid we’re not his favourite people. but now I know the situation I’ll ask for you on future occasions.’

  Henrietta was observing him questioningly and he said, ‘It will be easier that way.’

  She had no reply to that. Past conflicts didn’t interest her, and she didn’t want Matthew to find her involved in undercurrents in the practice that were none of her business.

  ‘Give Amy plenty of liquids,’ Matthew told Roger when he came back into the room, ‘and keep her in bed until she shows some improvement. I’m going to prescribe some low-dosage painkillers suitable for a child, to be given until the inflammation dies down.

  ‘I don’t want to prescribe antibiotics at this stage. If it doesn’t clear up with the fluids, I’ll have to have another think. But let’s see how it goes. If it should turn out to be a recurring problem, there may be need for a tonsillectomy, but that would only be suggested if the tonsils were really infected.’

  As they drove away from the vet’s place Matthew said, ‘That was Lynda’s husband on the phone from Goyt Lodge.’

  ‘Is there some news of Mrs Carradine?’

  ‘Not regarding her condition. He said they’ve arrived at A and E and are waiting to see a doctor. It’s to be hoped that the removal of the pressure in the skull will bring back her memory if it is a haematoma. Then she might be able to give a clearer account of what happened. In the meantime, the mystery of who she comes to visit has been solved. It’s her daughter.

  ‘Apparently they meet up each morning in some secluded spot and when she didn’t turn up the daughter went to Goyt Lodge to investigate. It seems that Mrs Carradine and her son-in-law don’t get on, and the police think that he found out that she was in the area and attacked her when she went for a stroll in the evening.’

  ‘And what does he have to say?’

  ‘That he never budged out of the house and his wife is backing him up on that, even though her mother is the victim. So it looks as if it is wait-and-see time, until the patient is well enough to be interviewed.’

  ‘I wonder why I was expecting village life to be quiet and peaceful,’ Henrietta said in amazement. ‘Where are we headed now?’

  ‘To see a young man who is dear to my heart,’ said Matthew. ‘Daniel Robertson fell off scaffolding on a building site some months ago and fractured his spine. The odds are he will never walk again and there’s not much I can do for him, except keep an eye on his pressure points and provide pain relief if he needs it. He’s a grand lad. I’ve never heard him complain, but there must be dark moments when he wonders what the future holds.

  ‘His parents didn’t ask for the call. I automatically go to see him every week. Obviously I’ve missed seeing him while I’ve been in Pakistan, so want to to make up for it with all speed. You might find it hard to believe, but I always come away from seeing him more humble than when I went in.’

  As she watched him chatting with the nineteen-year-old paraplegic, Henrietta was thinking that these two had a special bond. Of courage on the lad’s part, and compassion on the doctor’s.

  When Daniel’s mother went into the kitchen to make them a cup of tea, Matthew followed her, and in his absence Daniel said, ‘I owe a lot to Dr Cazalet. He’s terrific. He’s been there for me all the way ever since I came out of hospital. I’ve missed him while he’s been away.’

  Henrietta smiled. ‘Yes. I’m sure you must have. I’ve only just met him, but I can tell already that he’s different from all the other doctors I’ve met.’

  ‘I’m due to go back in hospital in a couple of weeks for some advanced physio,’ he said. ‘They’re going to try to get me more mobile, but I’m not being too optimistic. My legs are paralysed. I have no movement in them because my spinal cord was broken in the fall.’

  ‘That’s grim,’ she sympathised, and Daniel flashed her a smile.

  ‘It could have been worse. I could have been killed.’

  ‘Yes, you could.’ And she thought that when tragedy struck, the attitude of the person or persons involved came from within. It wasn’t an age-related thing.

  She was silent while walking down the path and settling herself into the passenger seat of the car and Matthew said, ‘What are you thinking?’

  ‘That you have many faces.’

  He laughed low in his throat. ‘Which is preventing you from placing me in any one category? You haven’t seen anything yet, Henrietta.’

  It was her turn to laugh. ‘Now you’re trying to scare me.’

  ‘Would I do that.’

  ‘Yes.’

  He laughed again and what he had to say next was a surprise. ‘I haven’t laughed like that in months. You’ll have to stick around.’

  ‘I have every intention of doing so, as I don’t want to end up on the dole.’

  ‘So that’s the only reason you’re staying?

  ‘That, and the promise of things to come. You’ve just told me that I haven’t seen anything so far.’

  He was stopping the car at the front of the practice and now he was serious. ‘Regarding Amy Martin and the tonsillitis, I would never take the reason for my dark moments out on a child. Your presence helped to lighten the embarrassment of Roger and I being in each other’s company. Their eldest son was indirectly responsible for my wife’s death.’

  ‘Oh, I see,’ she breathed.

  ‘I doubt it, but that’s the
truth of the matter.’

  The children had eaten when Henrietta arrived home that evening. On meeting Kate the previous day Henrietta had said she felt that waiting for her to arrive home at any time between six and half past was too late for them to be having their main meal of the day, after being out so early in the morning.

  Kate had agreed and suggested that she give them their meal at five, and that food for Henrietta be put to one side to be heated up in the microwave, or kept on a low setting in the oven.

  ‘But what about your meal, Kate?’ she’d questioned. ‘You’re going to be home late each evening since Pamela made these new arrangements with you.’

  ‘I don’t mind. As long as the young ones are fed properly,’ Kate had assured her, glancing out of the kitchen window to where Mollie and Keiran were playing at the back of the house. ‘I shall go down to Matthew’s place in the early afternoons and put something in his oven for the two of us. We usually have our evening meal together. So no need to fret, Henrietta.’

  And so on this her second day in the practice and the first day of the new arrangements, Henrietta had arrived at The White House to find that the children had been fed and were outside, letting off steam after the day’s restrictions.

  ‘Any problems?’ she asked Kate, who was ready to leave.

  ‘No,’ Kate said with a smile. ‘Those two are never any trouble. Their mother rang just as they got in from school and had a chat with them. She said she’d ring you later. Your meal is in the oven.’

  Henrietta smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks, Kate.’

  The older woman nodded and, on the point of leaving, asked, ‘How are you getting on with Matthew.’

  ‘I’m not sure what the answer to that is. He’s different to any other man I’ve met, and I sense that he carries a lot of grief around with him.’

  Kate nodded sadly. ‘Aye, that’s for sure. She was a lovely girl, Joanna. Had all her life in front of her, and if the Martin boy had been behaving himself that day she might still be here, but I’m discussing Matthew’s business. It’s for him to tell you if he wants you to know.’