‘Delphi, I’m a doctor, not a vet. Horses and humans are different. Aren’t you going to call one of the vets?’
‘Couldn’t you ask Matt to have a look? On a casual basis, I mean?’ she adds. ‘He’d do it for you as a favour, wouldn’t he? He seems rather keen on you.’
‘He probably would, but Dark Star isn’t my horse, Delphi.’ I’m hoping not to encourage her pursuit of a free consultation because I know that’s what she’s after. Anyway, until I’ve spoken to Matt I’m not sure whether I have a relationship with him or not.
‘He could check Willow over at the same time. She was galloping about earlier in the wind. I nearly brought her in because I thought she was going to do herself an injury. I wish I had now.’
‘I’ll go and get her,’ I decide. I trot Willow up in the yard and Delphi pronounces her sound. She has years of experience, but she isn’t a vet, and she’s worried me with all this talk of Willow belting up and down in the field, and I decide I’ll give Matt a call anyway.
This time I get straight through to him.
‘Matt, I was wondering if you could come up to the yard and have a look at a couple of horses.’
‘Willow?’
‘Yes, and one of Delphi’s, the big brown horse, Dark Star.’ There’s a moment’s hesitation. ‘We’ll share the call-out fee between us, if that’s all right with you.’
‘Forget the bill, girlfriend.’
‘I don’t want to take advantage,’ I say flatly.
‘You can take advantage of me any time,’ he chuckles, apparently oblivious to the tone of my voice. ‘Are you at the yard right now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Ask a silly question … I should have guessed. I’ll be on my way then. I can come to you en route to a partners’ meeting at the pub. I shouldn’t be more than ten or fifteen minutes. You can thank me later,’ he says and I cut the call, feeling confused. I wish I could tell whether his tone was genuine or whether he’s just putting it on. I’m dreading the conversation we’re going to have, but for the sake of my sanity I have to be sure this time.
When he arrives, bringing his car onto the yard and parking it right outside Willow’s stable, he opens the door and a small tan and white Jack Russell terrier comes flying out.
Matt whistles her to heel when he gets out after her. She stays with him for two seconds before she’s off again, racing across the yard to the feed room.
‘She’s looking for rats. She’s a great ratter.’ Matt moves up close to me and makes to reach for my hand. The terrier comes flying back and interrupts with a flurry of barking. I step back, crossing my arms.
‘Get down!’ Matt says. ‘Off.’
This time she listens and sits down on his foot, gazing up at us, her head cocked to one side, her lips drawn back to reveal her teeth.
‘I think she’s saying “paws off the master”,’ Matt says, grinning.
‘Can you tell her to go away? She’s making me nervous.’
‘She’s jealous. Bobster, hop it.’ She moves a few paces away before immediately returning, her eyes fixed on mine.
Don’t stare back, I tell myself. I don’t know why I know that. I must have read it somewhere in an article about how to avoid dog attacks.
‘Are you and the Bobster in a long-term relationship?’
‘We haven’t been together for very long. She was a client’s dog and she kept jumping in my car and coming home with me. I didn’t realise she was there the first time, which was really awkward because I was accused of dog-napping.’ He smiles at the memory. ‘When she did it the fourth or fifth time, she ended up staying. Her previous owner felt rejected.’
‘It’s a strange way to pick a dog.’
‘I didn’t pick her though. She picked me.’
‘Why’s she so possessive?’
‘Because she loves me. I’m flattered. If she didn’t feel so strongly, she wouldn’t care.’
Like me, I think ruefully, and I’m ready to open my mouth and ask him about what’s going on between him and Mel when Delphi interrupts, hoofing across the yard in heavy boots.
‘Okay, vet to the rescue. Tell me what’s happened.’
‘Does it need a stitch?’ she asks.
‘He hasn’t had a chance to look yet, Delphi,’ I say, scolding her because Matt is doing us a favour, dropping in at short notice. I go into the stable and lead Dark Star outside to make the most of the light.
‘This could do with a single suture here on the knee, but otherwise it’s good news,’ Matt says. ‘There’s no damage to the joint itself.’
‘Pity,’ Delphi says. ‘I was hoping to try for loss of use with the insurance company.’
‘You aren’t fond of this one, are you?’
‘He’s trouble. Will he be scarred?’
‘It will hardly be noticeable. I’m going to sedate him again. It won’t take long, then I’ll have a look at Willow.’
Matt injects Dark Star with sedative into the vein in his neck, then puts on blue, latex-free gloves to cleanse the wound and close it with a single stitch.
Delphi offers to trot Willow up for us. The horse is anxious, throwing her head in the air, which makes it more difficult to assess her paces. I note how Matt is frowning, standing there with one arm across his chest, resting his chin on the other hand. She looks sound to me, but I’m not sure he feels the same.
‘What do you think?’ I say apprehensively.
‘Can we lunge her in the school for a few minutes?’
‘Of course,’ Delphi says, and we pick up a lunge-line and whip on the way.
‘I think she’s okay,’ Matt says to reassure me, ‘but I just want to be sure. She’s a rather special patient because she belongs to my girlfriend.’
‘Are you two … How marvellous.’ I can see Delphi’s thinking how convenient it will be and how she can install Matt as yard vet.
I believe she might be disappointed very shortly, although no one will feel more let down than me.
‘I always thought I’d marry a vet,’ Delphi says wistfully.
Who said anything about marriage? I want to say, but I’m too embarrassed.
‘Did you have a particular vet in mind?’ Matt asks.
‘Alexander Fox-Gifford. I adored him. I still do, and I’d have taken him like a shot, but he didn’t feel the same. I was always good old Delphi, she’s a brick, someone to confide in.’
‘I thought you’d fallen out with him,’ Matt says.
‘With his father. Oh, Matt, don’t worry. I’m not planning on changing practices. He’s married now with a young family.’
‘There’ll be other men, other vets,’ Matt says brightly.
‘It’s too late for me now.’ Delphi glances down at her filthy nails. ‘The horses are my family.’
I open the gate to the outdoor school and move a coloured pole and a couple of blocks out of the way so Delphi can put Willow on a circle at walk and trot in both directions.
‘What do you think?’ I ask Matt again, but he doesn’t answer. He seems lost in thought, so I leave him alone.
‘Pull her up now, Delphi. That’s enough.’ He moves in and runs his hands down Willow’s foreleg, picks it up and examines each part, prodding and squeezing the joints and tendons. ‘When you thought she was sore after the one-day event, which leg did you think it was, Nicci?’
‘That one, the off fore.’
‘I can’t see anything obvious, but I’ll just do a flexion test on the concrete before we put her back.’
By the end of his investigation, Matt advises me he can find nothing wrong, but there is something niggling him, that she might be a little uneven on the right rein in trot. At the first sign of anything, I’m to let him know immediately.
‘You bet I will.’
‘That horse is the most important creature in Nicci’s life,’ Delphi observes when we return Willow to her stable and check on Dark Star, who is sleeping off the effects of the sedative. ‘You’re going to find it hard to comp
ete with Willow for her attention.’
Matt looks across at me and smiles, but I can’t smile back.
‘Are you all right, Nicci?’ he asks once Delphi has gone.
I shake my head.
‘I got your message, but I haven’t had a spare minute—’
‘I have a question for you,’ I interrupt. ‘Why would Mel tell my nurse that she’s going out with you when I was under the impression that you’re going out with me?’
‘I’ve told you, we were an item for a while, but we finished ages ago.’ Matt frowns. ‘I’ve been honest with you, Nicci. I can’t see there’s a problem.’
‘Well, there is because she told Claire this today.’ I watch his face, fighting to control the tremors of anger, disappointment and distress that shudder through my body.
‘What the …’ Matt swears. ‘Either she’s lying, or your nurse got the wrong end of the stick.’
‘Claire wouldn’t get something like that wrong.’
‘Okay, so it’s Mel.’
‘Why would she do such a thing?’
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’
‘To you, maybe,’ I say sharply.
‘She’s still in love with me.’ A smile crosses his lips. ‘Or she hates me so much she wants to wreck my relationship with you.’ Matt takes a couple of steps towards me. ‘Mel’s completely mad – that’s one of the reasons I couldn’t stay with her. She’s just too much.’ He lowers his voice to a husky whisper. ‘Please, Nicci, don’t let my ex-girlfriend poison what we have.’
A pulse begins to beat inside my head, a throb of hope, because I do believe him and although what we have so far really isn’t very much, I sense that it’s a solid enough foundation on which to build.
‘I’m sorry I doubted you,’ I say, reaching for his hand.
‘That’s all right.’ He squeezes my fingers. ‘I’d have jumped to the same conclusion if I’d been in your position. I’ll speak to her at work.’
‘Will she listen though?’
‘I think she’ll see sense. She’ll probably be really embarrassed.’ Matt leans in and kisses my cheek. ‘Are you still all right for tomorrow?’
‘I am now,’ I say, more cheerfully.
‘I’ll see you sometime after one,’ he says, releasing my hand. ‘How are your visitors? Are they staying for much longer?’
‘At the moment it feels like they’re here on holiday, but I can’t help thinking from what my sister’s told me that they could be around for a while.’
‘Oh well, you can always come to my place if you need to escape. You’re more than welcome. Any time.’
Any time. Those words, more than anything, reassure me that there is nothing going on between Matt and his ex. He wouldn’t invite me over if he thought I was going to find Mel there.
Back at my house Cheska is cooking dinner. Having recovered my appetite after my conversation with Matt, I’m so hungry I could eat anything, so I’m happy to sit down with fish fingers, oven chips and lashings of tomato ketchup.
‘I hope you don’t mind,’ Cheska says, ‘I borrowed a few pound coins from the pot.’
‘That’s fine.’ I keep my change in a pot by the phone in the hall. ‘Help yourself to anything you want.’ I mean it. I want her and the children to feel welcome because I’ve realised over the past few days that they need some stability in their lives while Cheska and Alan decide whether or not they can make amends. She’s still in contact with him by text at least, making me think that all is not lost between them. Sage and Gabriel are happy here, even if they’re causing havoc in the house – last night I found one of the wardrobes emptied of clothes because they were looking for the way in to Narnia.
I don’t want them to move on in a hurry and risk losing contact with them again, not just for my sake and theirs, but for Mum’s too, which is why I tackle Cheska again once the children are in bed asleep.
‘I told you, I don’t want to have anything to do with her,’ Cheska says.
‘She’ll find out by herself,’ I say. ‘The next time she’s in Talyton, someone will ask her how you and the children are, and then how will you feel?’
‘The same as I do now.’
‘I wish you’d just speak to her,’ I say sadly as I watch her pour herself a glass of wine as if she’s dismissing the subject. ‘Where’s the harm in that?’ My sister doesn’t respond. I think she’s scared that if she sees her she’ll break down, and she’s too proud or too stubborn to acknowledge there has been wrong on both sides.
‘I’m going for a shower,’ I say, but on my way I call Mum.
‘Where are you?’ I ask when I finally get through to her. ‘I tried you at home and there was no reply.’
‘I’m out and about with Robert, actually,’ she says. ‘I didn’t realise I had to keep you in the loop once he’d been vetted and passed sound, so to speak. I thought we were beyond that.’
‘You seem pretty serious about Robert. You’re seeing rather a lot of him. Is he the one?’
‘Nicci, you young people are so idealistic. I’m not looking for a soulmate, just someone nice and without too many bad habits. I don’t want to be lonely any more.’
‘You can be lonely when you’re with someone – that’s what you used to say about you and Dad.’
‘It was a long time ago and that’s enough about me. How are you, darling?’
‘I’m in a state of shock. Cheska has turned up.’ I was going to add ‘on my doorstep’, but ‘in my house’ would be more accurate. ‘With Sage and Gabriel.’
‘Oh!’ My mother utters a cry, much like the baby I gave an injection to today. ‘How are they? No, don’t tell me now. I’ll be straight round. Robert! Don’t put the pony away.’
‘No, Mum, you’re not to come round. I don’t want a scene.’ But it’s too late, Mum has already put the phone down. I decide not to shower after all, and within ten minutes, the clip-clop of hooves, moving at a spanking trot, announces my mother’s arrival. Robert must have driven like a demon. The hooves fall silent. The doorbell rings.
‘Nicci, let me in. Where are my grandchildren?’
‘Please, not in front of the neighbours,’ I say, letting her into the hallway, but no further. ‘For goodness sake, I asked you not to come.’
‘I thought I’d never see them again.’ She looks past me. ‘Cheska!’
I turn to find my sister in the kitchen doorway, her arms folded and her face a thundercloud of anger, bitterness and regret.
‘I should have known you’d invite her round.’
‘I didn’t. I let her know you were safe—’
‘That’s right. Wave a red rag at a bull, why don’t you? You can never rely on family.’ Cheska turns and slams the kitchen door, the sound reverberating through the house.
‘The children are in bed!’ I exclaim. ‘Mum, I’m sorry, but you have to let me handle this.’
‘She’ll never come round,’ she sobs. ‘She hates me.’
‘Give it time. You know what Cheska’s like – rush in and you’ll spook her like a horse. You will see your grandchildren.’
‘I wish I could believe you, Nicci.’
‘Have faith.’ I give her a hug, thinking everything might have been different if she’d had faith in Cheska in the past, trusting my sister’s judgement about what was best for her, rather than imposing her own views.
I lead her back outside where Robert, standing at the pony’s head, comforts her.
‘There, there, my lover,’ he says. ‘Come along with me.’
I watch them leave in the trap, amazed that Frances hasn’t turned up to see what’s going on, and that the children are still asleep. I check on my sister, who has taken herself off to bed, and call Mum later to make sure she’s all right.
I’m so tired of being the grown-up, responsible sister all the time. I wish I could kick over the traces just for once, but I can’t. It isn’t me.
Chapter Nine
Love Me, Love My Dog
WITH
MATT, IT isn’t a case of out of sight, out of mind, because firstly, I can’t stop thinking about him and secondly, he’s constantly reminding me by phone call and text that he’s keen to see me.
‘N E time after 1pm, don’t 4get Mattxx’
‘As if x’, I text back.
On the day of our date, with butterflies dancing in my stomach, I park on the driveway in front of the brick and tile building that is part way through its transformation from a pair of semi-derelict farm-workers’ cottages to one house, as evidenced by the presence of two separate front doors, one red and one green, that open onto a path that borders a single lawn. The grass has been mown, but the flowerbeds are overgrown with a mixture of shrubs, roses and pink mallows.
When I get out of the car, Matt comes marching up with the Bobster at his heels giving me a bark and a growl.
‘Hey, that’s enough,’ Matt says sternly.
‘She really doesn’t like me,’ I say, feeling a little threatened. ‘She’s snarling. I can see her teeth.’
‘She’s smiling,’ Matt insists.
‘I don’t believe you. She’s sucked you in completely. Love me, love my dog.’
‘She’s a great dog.’ He reaches for my hand, pulls me round and kisses me on the lips, and I’m buzzing with joy and happiness and anticipation. He’s amazing.
‘Thanks for the invite.’ Much as I enjoy their company, I need a break from my sister and her children. It’s been a shock to my system, having been used to living alone and pleasing myself. ‘If I talk in a funny voice today, Matt, it’s because I’ve overdosed on children’s TV – Peppa Pig, Postman Pat and endless repeats of Bob the Builder.’
‘You can talk however you like. Welcome to my humble abode.’ Matt grins as he guides me to the rear of the house, his hand on the small of my back while the Bobster runs back and forth barking. ‘Do come in.’
I follow him through the open door into the kitchen where there is a dish of strawberries and a jug of clotted cream on the oak table and a kettle whistling on the range. I look around at the beams that run across the high ceiling, the rustic dresser and the colourful plates arranged on it. There are postcards on the walls, sent from all over the world.
Vets in Love Page 13
