by Sue Peters
'I wonder if Rose has found him?' An hour later, dishevelled and cross, Nan admitted defeat. 'He's simply not here,' she exclaimed, and hoped her relief did not show too obviously.
'I don't know where else to look,' Keir admitted, equally frustrated. 'Have you had any luck, Rose?' he enquired as she joined them in the hall.
'No, sir, I was just coming to see if you had.' She sounded troubled. 'We'll have a job with young Timmy in the morning, unless we can find his pet before he gets up,' she predicted worriedly.
'Do you think Sauce could have . . .?' Nan gulped and did not finish her sentence. The conclusion was too awful to think about.
'No, miss, I locked the dog in the garage myself before I went out,' Rose discounted the worst possibility.
'Give it up for now,' Mary Gray coaxed. 'I've made some coffee and sandwiches, and whether the hamster's found or not I insist we have a reasonably early night,' she yawned unashamedly. 'Come on, Rose, I've made enough for us all.' She shepherded them all into the drawing room. 'Have your supper,' she urged, 'and we'll start afresh in the morning, Timmy's pet will turn up in some unexpected corner, you'll see,' she said confidently.
'You and I will certainly want clear heads tomorrow, Keir.' Oliver Gray joined his partner. 'The Planning Committee's recommendations to the Minister are being sent out, our copies should arrive by the first post.'
'What are they recommending?' Nan had to know. Her fingers clenched tightly round her coffee cup as she waited for the answer.
'Perhaps recommendation is too strong a word, yet,' her uncle answered. 'The report itself merely sets out as impartially as possible all the pros and cons of having a local hospital, or moving it wholesale into Hopminster.'
;But I thought there was going to be a vote?'
'There will be, but not until the Minister comes down to meet the Planning Committee. He has to study the report first, and then he'll listen to the views of the Committee members. It depends on the force with which those are put forward, and whether they are heavily biased for or against keeping the hospital open, what his final decision will be.'
'It's got to be "for",' Nan said fiercely. 'You've already rebuilt part of the hospital.'
'Which shows the other half to even greater disadvantage,' Keir put in drily, and Nan shot him a barbed look. He had no right to interfere. He was a newcomer, he did not even own a house in the locality.
'I'm afraid Lisle will be very upset if the final decision is made to keep the hospital open,' Oliver Gray said thoughtfully. 'He's already said if the voting goes against his own wishes, he'll resign from the Planning Committee.'
And Keir held the casting vote. No wonder Marcia was keen to get his opinion on the proposed tennis courts. She would use all her wiles to get Keir to vote on her father's side. And probably end by trapping him for more than the Planning Committee vote at the same time, thought Nan sourly.
'I'm tired,' she announced. 'I think I'll call it a day.' She was tired of the Planning Committee; tired of Marcia Lisle and her wretched tennis courts; and, she admitted it, at the moment tired of Keir as well. She blamed him unjustly for the state of her own feelings.
'I think it's time we all went to bed,' her uncle agreed. "Oh, there's one thing, Keir, before you go. About that Planning Committee report ...'
Nan did not wait to hear any more. She stacked the supper things, checked that the lights in the other rooms were out, and followed her Aunt and Rose upstairs. Wearily she shut her door behind her and pulled the light cord over her bed, flooding the room with a softly diffused glow. She felt almost too tired to bother to brush her hair. After one or two perfunctory strokes she laid her brush aside, and picked., up the crinoline doll whose wide skirts covered her nightdress laid out on the turned-down sheet. And found herself gazing into a small, furry face with bright, shoe-button eyes, and whiskers that twitched nervously at the sudden invasion of light in what their owner had considered a safe hiding place. Timmy's hamster had found the one unexpected corner to hide in that could cause the most alarm.
'Keir! Help! Keir!'
Without quite knowing how she got there, Nan found herself standing on tiptoes on the seat of the chair in front of her dressing table, her shaking hands clasped together against her mouth, which screamed her panic to the bedtime household. Heavy footsteps thudded on the stairs taking them two at a time, and her door burst open.
'What on earth's the matter?' Keir flung unceremoniously into the room.
'On the bed.' She pointed with a shaking finger, and he stopped in his tracks, stared, and let out a roar of laughter.
'You've found Timmy's hamster,' he congratulated her amusedly. Still chuckling, he walked quietly towards the bed and lifted the little creature from the lacy folds of the nightdress where it had crouched, petrified by Nan's screams, and stayed frozen with fright at the unexpected hurly-burly around it. 'You've frightened the poor little beast half to death,' he chided her, stroking it with gentle fingers, and she choked indignantly.
'I've frightened him?' she exclaimed furiously. 'What about the fright he gave me? No, don't bring him any closer, or I'll scream again,' she threatened, as Keir still moved towards her, cradling the little animal between his palms.
'Don't yell like that again, for goodness' sake,' he backed off hurriedly. 'Here, Oliver, take charge of this, will you?' He handed the hamster over to the older doctor, who had ascended the stairs at a more sedate pace. 'Put him hack in his cage and shut the door on him, and then perhaps we can all get to bed.' He sounded suddenly irritable, and Nan began to feel foolish. She was still standing on the chair seat, and had no intention of quitting it until the hamster was out of the room. It might wriggle free ... She shuddered convulsively.
'Are you all right, Nan?' Her uncle took the hamster from his partner, and stepped towards her solicitously.
'She'll scream if you go a step nearer with Fluffy in your hands.' Keir's grin came back, and Oliver Gray stopped, nonplussed. 'You lock him up safely, and I'll look after Nan.' He shooed the older doctor away on his mission, and advanced on Nan.
'The coast's clear, you can come down now,' he spoke to her firmly. 'Mind how you step.' Sudden alarm raised his voice and he grabbed at her as she stepped incautiously to the edge of the chair seat. It promptly tipped, and launched her into mid-air and unceremoniously into his arms. For a brief second he kept his balance, but her combined weight and the speed of her descent were too much even for Keir's athletic frame. He staggered backwards, clasping her to him. The low divan bed caught him at the back of his knees; and he sat down on it heavily, with Nan a helpless passenger, laid across his lap.
'It's a good job the hamster's gone.' She struggled to a sitting position, and pushed her hair out of her eyes. 'You're sat right where he was, on top of my nightie!' The funny side of it struck her, and she began to giggle.
'Then put it on and get into bed, and maybe we can all get some rest.' With the energy of exasperation Keir lifted her on to the bed beside him, reached under him with his other hand and pulled her lacy garment free, and dumped it into her surprised arms. Stung by her mirth, he jumped to his feet and headed for the door. 'Now go to sleep,' he snapped, as if she were a naughty child refusing to settle down. 'Oh, and another thing—' he turned at the door and swung back on her to where she still sat on the bed, her amusement vanished in the face of his sudden spurt of temper. 'Goodnight!' He leaned down, put his hands hard on her shoulders, and when she looked up, startled, into his face, he kissed her fiercely on her lips. Almost in the same movement he swung away again, strode through her bedroom door, and shut it to firmly behind him,
Keir had spoken to her as if she were a naughty child, but he had not kissed her like one. She sat where she' was, stunned into immobility by his unexpected action. Her one hand cradled the nightgown he had thrust at her, and the fingers of the other caressed her lips that he had bruised with his own, leaving her uncertain whether to laugh or to cry.
'Another time, you be sure and shut th
e cage door.' Rose's stern tones wafted from the kitchen the next morning. 'You gave us all a real fright last night, you did.' Timmy was receiving a well deserved lecture, and Nan remembered he was still on holiday from school.
'I'll take him with me this morning,' she decided. 'I promised to help start the decorations in the church. We can cut the sunflowers and put them in those big earthenware jars they keep in the vestry.' She collected a pair of long-handled garden cutters, and escaped out of doors with the boy with a feeling of relief that she suspected Timmy shared. Mercifully Keir had disappeared with Oliver Gray to study the two copies of the Planning Committee's report that had thudded through the front door by the first post that morning. Mary Gray had even excused their absorbed interest in its closely typed pages over breakfast, and such was its importance to them that Oliver Gray broke his own mealtime rule and read as he ate, Keir following his example, which left Nan free to help the child with his breakfast, and evade any but the most cursory conversation with Keir.
'We'll cut down one sunflower at a time,' she surveyed the row of tall blooms. 'We can lay them one by one in the back of the Land-Rover, that way they shouldn't come to any harm on the journey. We'll probably have to make more than one trip.' She eyed their size with a calculating look.
'You promised I could take my own from home, as well,' Timmy reminded her. Nan had forgotten, and she hastily reassembled her plans for the morning. There would be plenty of sunflowers, and very little time.
'I'll need the Land-Rover as soon as surgery's over, I thought I'd better mention it.' Keir stuck, his head out of the front door, delivered his ultimatum, and with a casual nod disappeared back towards the surgery clutching the sheaf of papers he had left behind in the breakfast room.
'Of all the cheek!' Nan's face flamed. It would not be possible for her to get the sunflowers down to the church, place them where they were wanted, and return to Minster House in time for the close of surgery. Common sense told her Keir had prior claim over the vehicle, but she was not inclined to listen to common sense this morning.
'Here's Mrs Whitworth,' Timmy tugged at her sleeve and pointed as Steve's car nosed into the drive. 'Can I go for a ride?' he asked hopefully.
'I thought you were going to help me with the sunflowers?' With Timmy wanting to go for a ride, and the church to be decorated as well, she would need the Land-Rover more than ever.
'You look as if you've got problems.' Steve slid down from her station wagon, and strolled across with a bright smile.
'I'm trying to think how I can cut a Land-Rover in two.' Nan frowned as she greeted her friend. 'Keir needs it after surgery, and I want it to help start on the decorations in the church. I don't want to get involved in a battle over it, but…'
'The carter from Coton Hill told me you were going to start on the church this morning, when he delivered some straw bales. He was going to take the sheaves up there at the same time,' Steve explained her presence. 'I thought I'd come along and give you a hand. It seems I came in the nick of time,' she smiled. 'We can leave the Land-Rover for Keir, and use the station wagon,' she offered generously.
'Can I go for a ride?' Timmy repeated his plea. 'Now Mrs Whitworth's here, you won't need me to help with the sunflowers,' he coaxed.
'David said to drop him at home for the morning,' Steve ruffled the boy's hair. 'He won't be in the way,' as Nan demurred, 'you know what David's like with children. Besides,' she added, 'I want you to myself for an hour or two. We don't get much time to talk, nowadays.'
'I thought you might be riding as well. Haven't you any pupils today?'
'Not this morning,' Steve said evasively. 'Fetch your hard hat, Timmy,' she sent the boy off. 'He's got dungarees on, so he won't hurt for the morning. That'll keep David happy.' She waved to her husband through the car window as they dropped the child and headed back towards the village with the first load of sunflowers. 'We can lay these in one of the pews and then go back to the Marriotts' cottage for the rest,' she suggested. 'I feel a bit bannerish, carrying them.' She shouldered the tallest sunflower and marched off along the church path with a merry laugh.
'You look blooming yourself, my dear.' The elderly incumbent smiled at her benignly. 'The churchwarden's put the pots out for you, already filled with water,' he said helpfully, and with a kindly inclination of his head he left them to their task.
'He's a dear,' Steve exclaimed impulsively.
'And an observant one,' Nan commented. 'You do look blooming, this morning. Has anything happened?' she asked curiously.
'Something has—something wonderful. Oh, Nan, I feel so happy!' she exclaimed.
'Tell me,' Nan laughed at her enthusiasm. 'Don't keep me in suspense!'
'I told your uncle to tell you,' Steve retorted, 'but he was quite shocked. He said it wasn't his business to discuss his patients, even with his Own family. And I can see he didn't, from the look on your face,' she chuckled.
'You're not . . . oh, Steve!'
'Yes, we're going to have a baby. At least, I am,' she said smugly. 'We're both over the moon about it.' She did a little skip of pure joy. 'That's why I'm not riding. David sent me off to tell you,' she explained. 'He said I was too excited to do any work myself, and I was distracting him. But he's as thrilled as I am.'
'It's wonderful news,' Nan enthused, as delighted as her friend. 'When?'
'About Easter next year. Just think,' Steve laid her sunflowers down on the seat of the front pew. 'By Whitsun we'll be bringing flowers for a christening.'
'Steady on!' Nan laughed. 'You'll be entering junior's name on the choir list next, and you don't even know whether it'll be a boy or a girl,' she teased. 'First things first. Where are you going to have the baby?'
'At home, of course,' Steve said promptly. 'Or if that isn't possible, at the Cottage Hospital,' she amended.
'You may not be able to do that,' Nan reminded her. 'You know what a battle Uncle Oliver's having to keep the hospital open.'
'I want my baby born in Minster,' Steve insisted stubbornly. 'Either at home or in our own hospital. Not in some great, impersonal place in the town, where you're nothing but a number.' Her expression took on stormy lines.
'I'm sure it won't come to that,' Nan placated her. 'Uncle Oliver's fighting hard to keep our own place open.'
'With Keir backing him as well, surely there's no real argument,' Steve protested. 'They're the only two medical men advising the Planning Committee, their word must carry extra weight.'
'I'm not sure which way Keir will vote,' Nan confessed uncomfortably.
'But he's your uncle's partner! He must vote along with Doctor Gray.' Steve stared at her in undisguised surprise.
'That's what I thought, at the beginning,' Nan said unhappily. 'I reckoned we could count on Keir to be loyal, but it hasn't worked out that way. And now Marcia's trying her best to influence him, you know her father wants the hospital moved to the town. He's got an interest in the land it stands on, so he's not likely to miss any opportunity to get Keir on his side,' she said bleakly.
'It's worse than I thought.' Steve drew up at the gate of the vet's cottage. 'Let's go and gather Timmy's sunflowers, and see if we can think of something,' she suggested. 'Can't you influence Keir?' She swung round on Nan, half joking, half serious. 'You're single, about his age, and not bad-looking,'
she teased. 'And you do live in the same house, so you've got an advantage.'
'I'm not a platinum blonde,' Nan said shortly, and to her dismay her voice broke.
'Don't tell me if you don't want to.' Steve's voice was carefully incurious.
I've got to tell someone.' Nan poured out the happenings of the last weeks into Steve's sympathetic ears. 'I didn't mean to burden you, but it's been one thing on top of another,' she finished miserably. 'The hospital; Ma's cottage; Edwina's photograph, and me throwing her name at Marcia like that. And then there's the tennis courts, and last night there was Timmy's hamster. That was funny, really,' she managed a shaky laugh. 'Though Keir didn't seem to
think so. He was furious with me,' she admitted in a small voice. She did not tell Steve he had kissed her.
'The hamster might have been funny, but I don't think the tennis courts are,' Steve exploded. 'Fancy siting them over the badger setts! What's the matter with the old grass court, anyhow? It always served well enough until now.' She and David had enjoyed many a game on it. 'They'll probably have to get planning permission before they can start laying the courts,' she said hopefully.
'Marcia's father is on the Planning Committee,' Nan pointed out.
'Mmm, I see what you mean.' Her friend looked thoughtful. 'If she'd only asked David's advice, he'd soon have scotched the idea.'
'But she asked Keir instead. She wants to catch his vote for her father, so she's trying her best to get round him in every other way.'
'It strikes me she wants to catch Keir himself, as well as his vote,' her friend retorted sharply. 'I'm not surprised about his wife, though,' she admitted. 'I thought there was something odd about his reaction, the day of the car accident.'
'Oh, let's forget about the whole beastly business,' Nan's patience snapped. 'We're spoiling a perfectly lovely day, and your wonderful news, worrying about Marcia and her like.' She dismissed the girl from the Manor from her mind.. 'That's the lot,' she clipped the final sunflower, 'we'd better leave them a few for seed for next year.' She picked up the crop they had gathered. 'I'll carry them myself,' she refused her friend's help, and Steve chuckled amusedly.
'Not you, too,' she laughed. 'David's as bad, he keeps trying to make me stay on the sofa with my feet up.'
'I'm glad we haven't had to carry water to these urns.' Nan placed her flowers carefully in their receptacles. 'They would have taken a lot of filling, they're huge.'
'They're ideal for those long stalks, though. Don't they look nice?' Steve stepped back to view the clusters of yellow and brown faces placed strategically about the church. 'If the sheaves from Coton Hill are leaned against the pots, it'll look as if the sun's smiling on the corn,' she said fancifully.
