A Country Affair

by Rebecca Shaw

  “Oh, I am! I drove myself here this morning. My first taste of freedom has quite gone to my head. How is my knight in shining armor feeling this morning?”

  “All the better for seeing you. Give me another kiss.”

  “Mm.”

  “Love you. Love me?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Ah! There’s hope.”

  They became absorbed in their kissing, she on one side of the desk and he on the other. Their elbows leaned on it so they could reach and they didn’t notice that Joy had pushed open the heavy outer door and was standing watching them through the inner glass doors. So this was what they got up to. She had to smile, for she could see the attraction of Scott and of Kate, and it was a pleasure to see their delight in each other. But these were business premises and . . . the phone began ringing. Immediately, Scott started to pull away, but Kate put both hands behind his neck and kept him kissing. When the phone had rung four times and Kate still hadn’t answered it, Joy opened the glass door and said, “Answer that, please, Kate.”

  They broke apart, startled by the sharpness of her tone, but more so because both of them were embarrassed at being discovered.

  “Barleybridge Veterinary Hospital, Kate speaking, how may I help?”

  Joy stalked straight past the two of them and went into her office. She put her coat in her cupboard, placed her bag beneath her desk and went to unlock the back door.

  When she returned to her office, Scott was waiting for her. He was holding up both hands, signifying surrender. “All my fault, Joy. Sorry! Not in working hours and all that.”

  “There’s something heartening about young love.”

  “There is?”

  “Oh yes. Got your list?”

  Scott nodded.

  “Then off you go.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at the surprise on Scott’s face. He’d expected a telling off and hadn’t gotten one. It was none of her business, in truth. What the staff got up to in their spare time was their affair. All the same, she’d have a cautionary word with Kate when the right moment presented itself. Or would she? Maybe not, the girl was no fool. Joy could hear laughter in reception and smiled to herself. He was such a rogue, was Scott. If she’d been younger, she’d have fancied him too, just like Kate. She went to check if the two Sarahs had come in yet and left Scott and Kate to enjoy their romantic moment.

  A draught blew through from the back right around Scott’s legs. It was Rhodri opening the back door, intent on making an early start. He bustled in, rubbing his hands. “It’s cold today. Morning, Scott. Morning, Kate. How’s the old love life, Scott? ’Spect the old cracked ribs have brought a halt to it, eh?”

  Scott feigned surprise. “You’re asking me about my love life? What about yours? After what I saw last night, mate, I should be asking you.”

  Rhodri blushed.

  Kate drew closer. “Go on, then, what did you see?”

  “Outside the Fox and Grapes. About eleven. My God, you should have seen! Talk about the old Welsh charm. These Celts!” Scott pretended to fan himself and then to swoon.

  “Shut up!” Rhodri might have said shut up, but at bottom he looked pleased that at long last his private life was a subject for conversation. “Kate doesn’t want to hear.”

  “She does,” said Kate.

  “Look! There’s a simple explanation. We’d been out. I’d put Harry Ferret in the back in his cage and forgotten to close the second catch, and hey presto, while we were having a drink the little devil escaped, so before Megan and I could drive home I had the little blighter to find. Couldn’t start up with him running loose. So that’s what you saw.”

  Scott simply didn’t believe his explanation. “Well, I’ve heard some cracking excuses for a rough and tumble in the back of a station wagon, but that’s the best yet. Wait till I see Megan. I’ll ask her. She’ll tell me the truth.”

  Kate was laughing so much at the embarrassment in Rhodri’s face she couldn’t answer the phone when it rang, so Scott answered it for her. When he’d finished speaking, Rhodri said, “You’ll do no such thing.”

  Scott now feigned indignation. “I shall. We’ll see if Megan blushes any redder than you’ve done.”

  “I’ve explained what we were doing. Anyway, eventually we found him curled up asleep in the spare wheel. Took us ages.”

  “I bet! When are you going to make an honest woman of her?”

  Rhodri sobered. “Don’t know. I want to get married, but there’s her father.”

  Kate’s eyes opened wide with surprise. “Get married! You’ve known her barely three months.”

  “Get married and then tell him,” Scott advised.

  Rhodri shook his head. “No no, that wouldn’t be right.”

  Kate asked whose life it was, but Rhodri didn’t answer. Scott and Kate winked at each other as he walked away to see if the mail had arrived.

  “Poor blighter!”

  “Did you really see them . . . you know . . . in the back of his car?”

  “Pulling his leg, though they did look suspicious. Must go. He shouldn’t let other people stop him from doing what he wants with his own life. I bet the old dad wants Megan to look after him in his old age; that’s what it’ll be. Selfish old basket. What time do you finish today?”

  “With any luck about seven.”

  “Pick you up.”

  “OK. Where shall we go?”

  “Don’t know, but we’ll eat.”

  “OK.”

  “See you then.”

  KATE spent the afternoon between one o’clock and four shopping in the mall for something special to wear that evening. Adam being finally cleared from her mind seemed to have given shape to her feelings for Scott and she knew now for certain that he meant an awful lot more to her than she had hitherto dared to admit. And it wasn’t just his looks, though they were fantastic in themselves. It was his whole attitude to life that she found exciting. His drive, his humor, his laughter, his mind and the serious side to him, the side that approached his job with such professionalism and feeling.

  She studied her reflection in a shop window and remembered the gentleness of his kisses and the feel of his arms around her. Oh Christ! She sounded like a heroine in a cheap women’s magazine. But it was true; she did like his physical presence and she did wish . . . Cold reason asserted itself. So he goes home to Australia, then what? Because he would, there was no doubt about that, and where would that leave her? Kate brushed aside her contemplative mood and went into the shop to buy something, anything that would give her a lift. As Stephie would say, a bit of retail therapy does wonders for the spirits.

  SHE and Scott had decided to eat in a little Italian restaurant in the shopping mall and were on the point of ordering when Scott’s mobile phone rang. “Excuse me. Hello. Scott Spencer speaking.” Kate watched him listening to his caller, and admired the way his hair grew and studied the look of frustration that crossed his face as he listened. He really was the most beautiful man. She could fall for him in a big way. In fact, if she was honest, she had already done that very thing. He snapped the phone off and pushed it into his pocket.

  “Look, you stay here and eat. I’m going to be some time.”

  “I thought you weren’t on call.”

  “I’m not. Mungo is, but he’s got two calls, both for difficult calvings, and he can’t do them both at once. So I’m going.” He stood up to leave. “Who’d be a vet?”

  “Me for a start. I’ll come. Can I?”

  “If you wish. I’d be glad. But aren’t you hungry?”

  “We can both eat when we’ve finished; they’ll still be open. Is it far?”

  “No. Come on, then.”

  The farm was only a three-mile drive away and as soon as she stepped out onto the flagged yard, she saw it was the exact opposite of Phil Parsons’s. The yard was floodlit and she could see that every barn and stable door, every window frame, was painted an immaculate marine blue. Each window pane shone, and huge terr
a-cotta pots holding ornamental bushes stood between the doors wherever a space could be found. If it hadn’t been for the sound of a horse stamping in the stables, Kate would have imagined that no animal was permitted in this hallowed place.

  “Through here.” Scott led the way under an arch between the stables and immediately they were in another yard with a long cowshed running down the length of one side. Scott shouted, “Hello! Chris!”

  A short, sturdy man appeared from what looked like a small office calling out, “Hi, Scott! Am I glad to see you. I was just ringing again to make sure you were on your way. In here. Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

  “Sorry. This is Kate; got a place at vet college. Wanting some experience. Kate, this is Chris, his lordship’s stockman.”

  “Hi, Kate. Here she is. Been straining for far too long and making no progress at all. I’ve had my hand in to see if I can straighten it out, but she’s straining so hard I thought my hand would be crushed. But for God’s sake, hurry her up before we lose it and her.”

  The heifer was a lovely Guernsey with melting brown eyes full of distress. She was standing on lavish straw bedding and looked as though she had given up on life. Scott went to her head and had a word with her, stroking her, lifting her lips to see the color of her gums. “You should have called me earlier.”

  “You know his lordship’s opinion of vets.”

  “I do. Bucket of water and soap. Warm. Please.”

  Scott stripped to the waist, put on his calving trousers and apron, washed his hands and arms, and tried inserting an arm to sort out the calf.

  “No good. Straining too hard and there’s not much room in there anyway. I’ll give her an epidural.”

  Kate couldn’t help but admire his approach: businesslike and yet so calm and compassionate.

  “But we’ll lose her if you don’t hurry up. Put ropes on it and we’ll pull it out.” Chris was obviously becoming seriously agitated by Scott’s delay in taking positive action.

  “If I give her an epidural, she’ll stop straining. That’ll give me room to sort out the calf and then gently, gently we can pull it out. Otherwise, we’ll tear her and have more problems than we had to begin with. Believe me.”

  Scott calmly injected the heifer at the base of her tail and then stood back to wait. “Kate, go get the ropes for me, will you?”

  Kate sped away through the arch, found the ropes and went hurrying back, desperate not to miss a thing. By the time she got back, the heifer had relaxed and the fearful exhausting straining she’d been doing had ceased.

  “Thanks. Now we’ll see what we can do.”

  “Bloody well get a hurry on, will you? I don’t want to lose this heifer.”

  “Neither do I, Chris. Neither do I.” Scott inserted his arm, and Chris and Kate watched in silence. “One leg tucked back; that’s the problem.” He grunted and pushed and pulled and then said, “There, that’s sorted. Rope? I’ll put it around the feet and then we’ll have the other for its head and in no time . . . That’s it. Look, Kate, we can see both the feet already and its nose. Rope.” He was silent for a minute, struggling to get the rope positioned correctly around the calf’s head. Then very slowly and steadily his pulling began to have an effect and the calf’s face appeared. “Put a finger in its mouth, Kate. See what happens.”

  To Kate’s amazed delight she felt the calf make a kind of half attempt to suck her finger. “Why, it’s trying to suck, and it’s all warm and wet.”

  “Good, then.” He grinned at her pleasure. “We’ve got a goer.”

  Chris grew agitated at what he considered to be too much delay. “For God’s sake, Scott, hurry up or we shan’t have. You’re being too casual. You’ll be asking for afternoon tea next. Get it out.”

  Calmly Scott answered, “All in good time. Now, Kate, hold the head rope and slowly and steadily pull when I say.”

  Kate did.

  Panicking, Chris shouted, “She’s going down!”

  “Push some more straw her way. Quick!”

  The heifer was down and after some more steady pulling, the head was out and the body followed in no time at all. With a sudden sploosh the calf was lying on the straw. All panic forgotten, Chris breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. And it’s a heifer! Isn’t she grand?” He got a handful of the bedding and wiped the calf’s face and nose with it.

  Scott knelt and gave the calf a quick checkup, saying, “Great little thing, she is. She’s a real beauty. Come on, then, mother, take some interest in your calf.” Scott took off the ropes and dragged the calf around to the heifer’s head to encourage her to pay it some attention.

  Kate had to laugh because the mother gave the calf such a look of surprise it was almost comical. Then, very tentatively, as if instinct was overcoming her amazement at what she had produced, the mother gave the calf a lick. It made little noises and was rewarded by being licked more vigorously. Scott stood watching for a moment, and then quickly immersed his hands and arms in the bucket of water and washed himself thoroughly.

  “I’ll just make sure everything’s OK inside.”

  After he’d examined her and decided the heifer was fine, Scott moved the calf a few feet away from her.

  Kate didn’t understand his reasons and protested loudly. “Oh, Scott! Don’t do that. You’ll upset her.”

  “I want her up before I leave.” Believing that the calf was being taken away from her, the mother hastily got to her feet and moved a few steps to bring her close again, nuzzling and licking her offspring as soon as it was within reach.

  Kate was totally overcome. So this was what it was all about. This moment. This birth. This lovely creature born safely because of a man’s skill. She didn’t think she’d seen anything more beautiful in all her life. Such a precious moment, she’d remember it always. She was privileged, that’s what she was, privileged. She paused for a while to watch the delight the cow had in her young.

  By the time she’d had her fill, Scott was hosing down his calving trousers at the tap outside in the yard. She watched him take them off and hang them on a stable-door catch to drip. The bucket of warm water he used for swilling his arms and hands.

  Chris banged him on his bare back. “Thanks for that, Scott. Whiskey to celebrate?”

  Scott nodded his thanks. Kate handed him the towel Chris had provided. He grinned at her. “Great, eh?”

  “Absolutely. I’m dumbstruck. Are all Guernsey calves as beautiful as that one?”

  “Mostly, yes. Brilliant vet his lordship’s got, eh?”

  Kate laughed. “Is the owner really a lord?”

  “Indeed. Tightfisted as hell, he is. Except where his horses are concerned.”

  “I don’t remember anyone being called out to his horses.”

  “Uses an equine practice. Can’t trust them to people like us!”

  “Huh! If he’d seen you in there with that heifer, he would. It was like a miracle. So wonderful.”

  “Such loyalty.” He shrugged on his jacket, put his hand on her shoulder, studied the rapt expression on her face and saluted her with a kiss. “Come and get your whiskey. Is that all right?”

  “Yes.”

  By the time she returned to the passenger seat and Scott was backing out prior to leaving, the whiskey had hit her empty stomach with a bang. The euphoria she’d felt at witnessing the birth, rather than wearing off, was increasing: Kate felt on top of the world; there was nothing she couldn’t achieve. She glanced sideways at Scott and loved everything about him. Now her admiration of his skill with the calving was as nothing compared with her absorption in his physical magnetism. Her headmistress’s homily was ditched as belonging to another age, nothing to do with a new century and the new woman she had become.

  He turned to smile at her while he waited to pull out onto the main road and put a hand on her knee intending to give it a squeeze, but Kate put her hand over his and held it there. When he was ready to move off, he pulled his hand out from under hers reluctantly. Scott didn’t s
peak again until they came to the crossroads where he needed to choose between the mall and food or collecting her car first.

  “Which?”

  “Collect my car? Please. First.”

  “First? Right. Will do.”

  They drove in silence until they reached the practice. After Scott had pulled on the hand brake, he turned to face her and at the same time switched on the internal light. “There, I can see you better now. Your face! You should have seen it. A successful calving never loses its excitement even when you’ve done it a hundred times and more. There’s nothing to compare, is there?”

  Kate shook her head. “Nothing. It was just . . . well . . . just so special. There’s nothing like it in the whole world. One day I shall have skills like yours; I’m determined.”

  “I thought as much.”

  “How on earth do you sort out twin lambs, for heaven’s sakes? All heads and feet and legs and things? How do you know what belongs to which?”

  “Try lambing on a Welsh hill farm at dead of night with a freezing wind and icy sleet with it; believe me, you learn pretty sharpish what’s what.”

  “Have you done that?”

  “Just as a temporary for a few weeks before I went to Devon and then on to here. I worked for a Welsh farmer Dad met when he came over to a conference once. Never again. They deserve every penny they earn, farmers like him. I thought I’d never get warm again.” Scott put an arm around Kate’s shoulders and bent to kiss her. She welcomed him more eagerly than she had ever done, wrapping her arms around his neck, caressing his tongue with hers, pressing him to her, warming to a passion she had not shown before.

  Though taken by surprise, Scott still managed to match passion for passion. His hands were roving over her, undoing buttons, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin, the rise of her neck from her shoulders, the sharp angle of her collarbone, the . . . Perkins barked furiously as he raced from the back door toward the Land Rover. He clamored to get in, leaping up, scraping his claws on the door, racing around and around, furious at finding someone in the car park when at this time of night it was his territory and his alone.