Eve didn’t believe her. Alison had warned her before she’d gone off on her maternity leave that Sophie seemed more interested in her weight loss than the fact she had diabetes, and when she’d tested the girl’s blood-sugar levels this morning they’d been appalling. She didn’t doubt for a second that Sophie had been deliberately skipping doses but warning the girl that she was, quite literally, dicing with death would achieve nothing. To a teenager, death was something that happened to other people, elderly people.
‘I’m going to have a word with Dr Tremayne,’ she declared. ‘I’m sorry, Sophie,’ she continued as the girl let out a hiss of irritation, ‘but your temporary weight gain is clearly worrying you, so I think you should see an endocrinologist who will be able to advise you on your diet.’
And who will also be considerably more experienced than I am in dealing with eating disorders and diabetes, Eve added mentally.
Mrs Banks shot her daughter a that-will-sort-you-out-young-lady look, but, instead of getting to her feet and leaving as Eve had expected, the mother suddenly cleared her throat, her eyes sparkling with keen interest.
‘I happened to meet Audrey Baxter on my way down to the surgery this morning, Nurse, and she said—’
Here it comes, Eve thought grimly. I thought I might have got away with it, but here it comes.
‘She saw you and Tom Cornish on the beach yesterday.’
‘That’s right,’ Eve said with the biggest smile she could muster. ‘Now, as regards Sophie,’ she continued determinedly. ‘Hopefully, she won’t have to wait long to see the endocrinologist, but until she gets an appointment I’d like to see her twice a week from now on to check on her blood-sugar levels.’
That Mrs Banks considered her a singularly disappointing source of information was plain. That she was itching to delve deeper into Tom Cornish’s presence was even plainer but, unlike Audrey Baxter, Mrs Banks clearly possessed some scruples because she got to her feet, albeit reluctantly.
‘We’ll see you on Thursday, then, Nurse,’ she said, then trooped out of Eve’s consulting room, with Sophie trailing belligerently behind her, and Eve sighed wearily as she closed the teenager’s folder.
Well, what did you expect? a little voice whispered in her mind. When Audrey saw you in Tom’s arms she was bound to spread the word, wasn’t she?
Yes, but couldn’t she have kept quiet, just for once? she thought wistfully.
Fat chance in Penhally, Eve.
She could almost hear Tom saying that, and a smile curved her lips for a second then faded.
He’d be on his way to London now, back to the new life he’d made for himself, and their trip down memory lane was over. And that was all it had been, she reminded herself. One sunny October afternoon spent reminiscing about their youth although it had been strange how much Tom had wanted to look back. The Tom she had known had been forever planning, scheming, looking to the future, but this Tom…And he had no need to look back. He had it all right now, in the present.
‘Eve, Mrs Baxter came in for a repeat prescription this morning,’ Nick declared as he stuck his head round her examination-room door, ‘and her BP’s haywire again.’
‘Like Sophie Banks’s blood-sugar levels,’ she replied, and when she told him what she suspected the teenager of doing Nick shook his head.
‘Of all the stupid…What is it with women nowadays that so many of you want to look like stick insects?’
‘I suppose it’s the models we see in magazines and on television,’ Eve observed. ‘They’re all extremely thin.’
‘Idiots, the lot of them,’ Nick declared. ‘I’ll send a letter to the endocrinology department right away, but you’d better keep an eye on her. The last thing we want is her going hypoglycaemic on us. Can you fit Mrs Baxter into your Thursday clinic, to check her BP for me again?’
‘Unfortunately, yes,’ Eve said dryly, and a rare smile appeared on Nick’s lips.
‘I know she can be a nosy old bat at times, but there’s no malice in her.’ The senior partner half withdrew, then paused. ‘Tom gone, has he?’
The question sounded casual, indifferent, but Eve wasn’t deceived.
‘He left this morning,’ she replied. ‘Back to London, or it could have been Switzerland. I didn’t ask.’
‘Right.’ Nick nodded, then seemed to come to a decision. ‘It’s better this way, Eve. It might not seem like it at the moment, but the past is simply that. Something over, done with, and attempting to recapture it can only be a mistake, especially—’ his eyes met hers ‘—in the circumstances.’
He remembered, she thought, staring up at him, dry-mouthed. It had been one consultation all those years ago. Nick had been her GP even then while working in a practice in a town nearby. He must have seen hundreds of patients since, and yet he remembered, and not just remembered, had put two and two together and come up with the right answer. Not the whole answer, not the complete answer, but the right one.
‘Nick…’
‘Practice meeting in ten minutes, OK?’
She dredged up a smile, but when he’d gone she shut her eyes tightly. She should have gone to another doctor. She had, at the beginning. At the beginning she’d gone up to Bude because she hadn’t wanted anyone to know, but then she’d caught an infection, and she’d had to go to Nick. A prescription for antibiotics, had been all she’d asked for, and when he’d examined her he hadn’t said anything so she’d thought he hadn’t realised, but he had. For all these years he’d known, and she couldn’t bear the fact he’d known.
‘Eve, do you have Stephanie Richards’s file?’
Eve looked up with difficulty to see Kate standing in her doorway, and shook her head. ‘Sorry, no, I don’t.’
‘Blast.’ The midwife frowned. ‘She’s been on the phone—panicking again—and I thought I’d drop in on her after the practice meeting, but I wanted to check what her BP was the last time it was taken.’
‘Can’t help you—sorry. Maybe Dragan has the file,’ Eve declared, and Kate tilted her head to one side.
‘You OK?’
Eve didn’t feel OK. She’d tossed and turned last night, her dreams plagued by memories she didn’t want to have, and now to discover Nick knew…
‘I’m fine,’ she managed. ‘And we,’ she added, glancing down at her watch, and picking up her folders, ‘had better get our skates on, or Nick will have our guts for garters for being late.’
He didn’t. In fact, when Kate and Eve arrived in his consulting room, Nick was poring over plans laid out on his desk with Dragan Lovak, Oliver Fawkner, Chloe and Lauren.
‘So, I should be able to move into my new physiotherapy unit by the end of the week?’ Eve heard Lauren declare. ‘Excellent.’
‘Is Dr Devereux having one of the new consulting rooms when he arrives?’ Oliver asked, and, when Nick nodded, the young doctor grinned. ‘Which means Lauren will have the French charmer not only living next door to her, but also working beside her.’
‘He’s rented the Manor House, Oliver,’ Lauren protested. ‘That hardly makes him living “next door” to me.’
‘Maybe you could drop in on him with a pot of soup when he arrives, make him feel welcome,’ he replied slyly, and the physiotherapist shook her head at him.
‘And maybe I won’t.’
‘And maybe we should remember this is a post-practice meeting, and not a dating agency,’ Nick declared, rolling up the plans on his desk.
The consulting room became instantly silent, and Eve saw Oliver roll his eyes at Chloe, while Lauren exchanged a resigned look with Dragan. Only Kate was frowning quite openly at Nick, but he was completely ignoring her, and Eve sighed inwardly. Good doctor though Nick was, he really did need to lighten up. Tom would have handled the situation quite differently. He would have understood that sometimes they all needed to be a bit silly to relieve the stress of their jobs, but Nick either couldn’t—or wouldn’t—see it.
‘OK, let’s get down to business,’ Nick continued. ‘Ev
e, are your influenza inoculation clinics ready to roll next week?’
She nodded. ‘I noticed from Alison’s notes that the practice only had a 67 per cent take up rate last year.’
‘Getting people to come in is proving difficult,’ he conceded, ‘but it is worthwhile particularly for those at high risk, like the elderly and those who suffer from asthma and bronchitis. We can’t afford to ship them all off to drier climates for the winter.’
To places like Switzerland, Eve thought. It had a drier climate, despite the snow it got in winter. Tom had said he had a home overlooking Lake Geneva. She’d never been there—had never been abroad, full stop. She’d always meant to travel, but somehow—
‘How’s her BP?’
Eve felt a hot wash of colour creep over her cheeks. Dragan was gazing at her expectantly, and she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, and it was all Tom’s fault. She had to get him out of her thoughts. He had gone, and he wasn’t ever going to come back, so she had to stop this, and stop it now.
‘I’m sorry,’ she was forced to say, ‘but whose BP are you talking about?’
She felt, rather than saw, Nick stiffen with disapproval, but Dragan merely smiled.
‘My mind is always a bit of a sieve on Monday mornings, too,’ he declared kindly. ‘Lizzie Chamberlain. I saw her coming out of your room, and she looked decidedly stressed.’
‘She is,’ Eve replied, smiling gratefully at him. ‘Her blood pressure is still way too high, but she’s so worried about her mother. I know you all felt Lizzie needed a break, that nursing her mother was making her ill, but she’s got it into her head that by agreeing to her mum temporarily going into the Harbour View Nursing Home she’s abandoned her.’
‘I have to say Mrs Chamberlain isn’t doing nearly as well in there as I’d hoped,’ Dragan admitted. ‘I thought she might see it as a mini-holiday, but the last time I saw her she seemed very lethargic, and not really interested in anything.’
‘It’s a Catch-22 situation,’ Eve observed. ‘Nursing someone with Parkinson’s is exhausting, but if Lizzie’s feeling guilty, as she obviously is…’
‘Would you like me to drop in on Mrs Chamberlain?’ Lauren declared. ‘I’m on home visits today, and I could see her before I call in on Harry Biscombe in Gow Court. It wouldn’t be a bother.’
Both Eve and Dragan nodded their agreement and, to Eve’s relief, Oliver then launched into an account of the patients he’d seen that morning, leaving her with nothing to do but simply appear interested.
And she was interested, she told herself as she constantly found her mind wandering. She loved her work—always had done—so why did she feel all unsettled, and shaken up, like leaves in an autumn gale, or the flakes of snow in a snow globe, tumbling everywhere?
Because Tom came back, her mind whispered, and unconsciously she shook her head. It was over. It had been over a long time ago.
‘No prizes for guessing who he’s phoning.’ Chloe chuckled when they all trooped out of Nick’s consulting room, and Dragan immediately extracted his mobile phone from his pocket.
‘I think it’s sweet the way he keeps checking on Melinda, to see if she’s OK,’ Kate protested.
‘Melinda doesn’t,’ Chloe said as Dragan disappeared into his room. ‘I think the words, “He’s driving me crazy” were the ones she used last week when she came in for her prenatal checkup. In fact, she’s actually started turning off her mobile so she can get some peace and quiet.’
‘No—really?’ Kate laughed. ‘Well, I’m off. I’ll be in Bridge Street, if anyone needs me, reassuring Stephanie Richards—yet again—that her symptoms are perfectly normal, and she’ll have a lovely, healthy baby in a couple of weeks’ time.’
‘And I’ll be home if I’m needed,’ Chloe declared, then shook her head as Oliver’s eyes lit up. ‘Defrosting the fridge, so you can forget any ideas about slipping home for a cup of coffee.’
‘Coffee wasn’t what I had in mind, babe,’ he murmured, and the midwife chuckled, and he laughed and, as they walked away together, Eve felt her heart twist slightly.
The young couple were so much in love. Tom hadn’t been in love with her, she thought sadly as she tightened her grip on the pile of folders she was carrying and started walking towards Reception.
‘Let’s have fun’ was all he’d said that summer, and for him their romance had simply been that, a bit of fun, whereas for her…She had loved him so much, and when he’d left, when he hadn’t phoned, had sent her only those two postcards, she’d felt as though her heart had been ripped out and trampled on.
‘Oh, damn, blast and bloody hell!’ she exclaimed as she rounded the corner and cannoned straight into someone coming the other way, sending the folders she was holding clattering to the floor.
‘Language, Nurse Dwyer, language.’
It couldn’t be, she thought, feeling her heart give an almighty leap, but as she looked up and met a pair of sparkling green eyes she saw that it was.
‘You’re not supposed to be here,’ she blurted out before she could stop herself, and Tom grinned.
‘Decided to stay on for a few more days. Thought I’d let the local garage mend my broken indicator light, make it easier for your physio.’
Pathetic, she thought as she stared up at him, wondering how he could possibly manage to look quite so heart-tinglingly handsome in an old, threadbare blue sweater and a pair of jeans. That was the most pathetic reason for staying on in Penhally she’d ever heard, but she had no intention of calling him on it. Calling him on it might mean he’d give her the real reason, and something told her she was better off not knowing the real reason.
‘I’m afraid Lauren isn’t here,’ she said, getting down on her hands and knees to begin retrieving the files. ‘She’s just gone out on her home visits.’
‘I didn’t want to see Lauren,’ he replied, hunkering down beside her. ‘I wanted to see you.’
‘Me?’ she said faintly.
‘I wondered if you’d like to come out to lunch with me?’
‘Lunch?’ she repeated, and his green eyes twinkled.
‘As in food. A substance which sustains every living thing,’ he said.
‘I know what lunch is,’ she protested. ‘I just…’ Absently, she reached for the last file, just as Tom did, too, and when their hands touched she snatched hers away quickly, all too aware that a disconcerting crackle of heat had raced up her arm. ‘I just…’
‘Is there a problem here?’
Eve glanced over her shoulder to see Nick standing behind her, his expression colder and stonier than she’d ever seen it.
‘No problem,’ she mumbled. ‘Tom…he’s decided to stay on for a few more days.’
‘So I see,’ Nick replied.
‘I was also hoping to entice Eve out to lunch,’ Tom declared. ‘You do allow your staff to have lunch, I presume?’
‘Naturally,’ Nick said, his voice every bit as tight as Tom’s. ‘But it’s my staff’s choice as to who they eat that lunch with.’
And frankly I’d be happier if Eve had lunch with Genghis Khan.
Nick didn’t say those words, he didn’t have to. His whole body language said it for him, and although Eve now knew why the senior partner was being so antagonistic towards Tom, she didn’t need—or want—him protecting her.
‘It’s all right, Nick,’ she said, and for a second she thought the senior partner might actually argue with her, then he nodded and walked abruptly away.
‘What is it with that guy?’ Tom demanded. ‘We haven’t seen one another in years, and yet every time we meet it’s obvious he’d dearly like to stick a knife in me.’
‘Personality clash, maybe?’ Eve suggested evasively. ‘Give me a couple of minutes to offload these with Hazel,’ she continued quickly, indicating the folders in her arms, ‘and to change out of my uniform, and I’ll be right with you.’
And it would be only a few minutes, she thought as she handed the folders to their practice manager.
Any longer, and she dreaded to think what Nick might come back and say.
But it wasn’t Nick who was uppermost in her mind when she went into the ladies’ cloakroom to change out of her uniform and saw how flushed her cheeks were, how bright her eyes. She should have looked angry, horrified, because Tom hadn’t left, but the truth was she looked more alive than she had in years, and she closed her eyes to shut out the image.
What was happening to her? Just two short days ago she’d had a life. OK, so maybe it hadn’t been the world’s most exciting life, but she’d had her patients, and Tassie, and she’d been in control and content, and yet now…
She couldn’t still have feelings for Tom, not after all these years. He’d left her without a second’s thought, and though she’d been heartbroken for a long time she’d eventually picked up the pieces of her life, had dated other men. Dammit, she’d even got engaged once.
But you broke off the engagement, her mind whispered.
Only because I realised it was a mistake, she argued back. That it would be wrong to marry someone, and keep secrets from him. It wasn’t because I still had feelings for Tom.
Oh, really? Her mind laughed, and she gripped the edge of the sink tightly.
Somehow, some way, she had to pull herself together. Somehow, some way, she had to keep her emotions in check, because she couldn’t go down that road again, Nick had been right about that. Recapturing the past would mean resurrecting it, and she couldn’t do that, not ever.
‘Eve, we were just talking about you,’ Dragan said when Eve emerged from the ladies’ cloakroom to find him and Tom laughing about something.
‘Saying something nice, I hope?’ Eve said lightly, and Dragan smiled.
‘Tom was telling me about his home in Lausanne, and I was saying he must take you there some time. It’s a beautiful part of Switzerland.’
‘You know it?’ Eve asked, deliberately sidestepping the suggestion that she would want Tom to take her anywhere.
‘I do, indeed,’ Dragan observed. ‘When I was young, my family and I went there a couple of times for holidays before…Before everything changed.’
Caroline Anderson, Josie Metcalfe, Maggie Kingsley, Margaret McDonagh Page 36
