One Step At A Time

by Caroline Anderson

  Kate scrambled to her feet. ‘I’ll leave you to cool off and I’ll get us something to eat from the kitchen. Anything you fancy in particular?’

  He shot her a meaningful look. ‘Just not oysters. I’m having enough trouble with my libido.’

  She chuckled. ‘I seem to remember the one time when you had a dozen only half of them worked.’

  His hand shot out and shackled her ankle, and his thumb traced idle circles on the warm skin. ‘That,’ he said softly, ‘was your fault. You ran out of steam.’

  She snorted. ‘You mean you couldn’t be bothered to try again.’

  ‘Six times, Kate,’ he murmured. ‘And every one was spectacular.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be like that now,’ she said repressively. ‘We’re older. We haven’t got the stamina.’

  ‘No, but we’ve got staying power and self-discipline,’ he said with a grin. ‘It would be interesting to see the difference.’

  ‘As a scientific experiment? Dream on.’

  He chuckled. ‘It was worth a try.’

  She pulled her foot away from him. ‘I’m going to get supper. You think about cold showers and being thrashed with nettles.’

  ‘Oooh, kinky.’

  She walked away to the sound of his soft laughter, and the smile on her face refused to die.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THE following day there was a horse show at the stables where Stephie spent most of her free time.

  ‘Why don’t you and Dad come down?’ she suggested as Kate was having breakfast. ‘You could put the wheelchair in your car and drive him down, then push him round.’

  ‘Round a rutted field—yes, right. Sounds wonderful.’

  ‘It’s not rutted! Go on, it’ll be brilliant fun. Please?’

  ‘We might come down for lunch.’

  ‘OK.’

  Stephie knew when to give up. She leapt up, threw her plate in the sink and was gone.

  A moment later Dominic wheeled himself into the kitchen. ‘All safe?’

  She grinned. ‘All safe—well. relatively. She wants me to take you down to the horse show at the stables.’

  Dominic groaned. ‘Damn, I’d forgotten about it. I promised Julie-Anne I’d provide emergency medical cover on call.’

  Kate shrugged. ‘I can do that. Nothing’s going to happen, is it?’

  He snorted. ‘Don’t push your luck. We’ve had quite a few paraplegics in here who’ve had riding accidents.’

  ‘And yet you let Stephie go down there and ride.’

  ‘But she doesn’t have her own horse, so she doesn’t get swept along into ever faster and more competitive areas of the sport. Kirsty’s started eventing, and that’s flat out, wild, highly dangerous stuff—like the Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley. It makes me sick just thinking about it. I’m glad she’s not my daughter.’

  ‘I’m glad I’m not her mother! So, should we go down and tell them we’re covering, or just stay here and be near the phone?’

  He laughed. ‘The phone’s the easy option. The Red Cross are there to provide immediate first aid. We can go if necessary.’

  Kate nodded. She still had that paperwork to sort out, and she wanted Dominic to have a quiet day. There were no procedures booked for the weekend, and although his acupuncture treatment of Karen Lloyd and Susie Elmswell would continue, she suspected that Susie anyway would have better things to think about.

  Richard had arrived the evening before, and they had disappeared into her bed-sitting room and hadn’t been seen since. Kate was so glad she had had that conversation with Susie, because she was finding the treatment very gruelling and she was being so brave. A little R and R with Richard would do them both a power of good.

  While she tackled the paperwork Dominic had a lie-in and then treated Karen Lloyd’s neck muscles. It was obvious that the treatment was beginning to work, because the muscle layers were slowly softening, but the difficulty arose when the muscles relaxed enough to move smoothly, and her neck then felt very vulnerable.

  She would need gentle mobilisation and manipulation to realign the bones, and possibly a collar for some time, to provide support and allow her muscles to relax.

  Dominic found Kate in his office and settled himself on the treatment couch with a sigh while she did the paperwork, and then he talked about Karen and her treatment.

  ‘You’re supposed to be off sick,’ she told him.

  He laughed. ‘Tell it to the fairies. Are we going down to this horse show, then?’

  She smiled. ‘I suppose we should. Are you all right in the car?’

  He grimaced. ‘Have to be, won’t I? We can hardly commandeer the ambulance just for such a short trip.’

  ‘I suppose not. Come on, then, if we must.’

  She changed into jeans and trainers, took Dominic out to the car and helped him manoeuvre himself into it, then collapsed the wheelchair and put it in the back.

  ‘Thank God for hatchbacks,’ she said with a grin.

  He scowled. ‘I used to manage quite happily with a sports car until this fiasco,’ he reminded her.

  ‘So you did. Poor baby.’

  He glowered at her. ‘You never did like it, did you?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, to be honest I never could see what you saw in it.’

  ‘It was a classic,’ he said, indignant. ‘I had it restored.’

  ‘In which case you should get a nice lot of insurance money for it to put towards something decent—with an airbag, for instance.’

  He huffed and shifted his leg, muttering.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said, something with a bit of leg-room.’

  ‘We aren’t all six foot two,’ she told him mildly. ‘Push the seat back.’

  ‘I have.’

  ‘Oh.’ She peered at his long legs, cramped in the footwell. ‘You’re just a great long streak, aren’t you, really?’

  He growled something rude, but cut it off to wave at Richard and Susie, out for a stroll with the wheelchair through the grounds.

  ‘Pull over by them—I want to talk to her.’

  Kate did so, and Dominic wound down the window and stuck his head out. ‘Hi. Everything OK?’

  They grinned like kids and Susie blushed a little. ‘Fine, thanks.’

  ‘I just wondered if you needed another acupuncture treatment. We’re going down to the horse show for a while, but we’ll be back soon. If you do, leave a message for me in Reception, OK?’

  ‘Sure. Thanks.’

  He wound up the window as they drove away, and Kate looked back at them in the rearview mirror. ‘They seem happy.’

  He grunted.

  She shot him a look. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Maybe I’m jealous,’ he muttered.

  She blinked in surprise. ‘Of Richard?’

  ‘Of both of them. Of their weekend together.’

  ‘You been eating oysters again?’ she said lightly.

  ‘It’s more than that, Kate,’ he said with a sigh. ‘It’s having someone to share problems with, to talk over the difficulties of the day. I find it very hard here, being the boss and living on the premises. I have to hold it all together, and there’s no one I can lean on, no one I can ever turn to and say, I don’t know if I’m doing this right. It just makes it very isolated—makes me very isolated.’

  ‘You can talk to me,’ she offered quietly.

  ‘Can I? Are you interested in the clinic? Do you care about the patients?’

  ‘Yes!’ She turned the car into a parking place at the showground and cut the, engine, then turned to him. ‘Yes, Dominic, of course I’m interested! The patients are very important to me. Even after just a week I find I’m involved with their progress in a way I never have been before—which reminds me. How’s Brian Pooley? I take it you saw him this morning.’

  ‘Yes—he’s fine. The stimulator’s working well and he’s up and about now, much more pain free than before. The implant site’s heating well.’

  ‘Good. Now
all we have to do is sort out John Whitelaw’s disastrous marriage and things will be looking good.’

  Dominic snorted. ‘You’ll be lucky. According to Martin the woman has stonewalled him at every turn. She just won’t let him past her guard. I’ve never known him fail before, but with this woman I think he just might.’

  Kate was sad. John was such a decent sort of person, and he was trying so hard. If only her guilt wasn’t in the way, perhaps Andrea could start to deal with the problems ahead of them. Without something to work for, getting back on his feet after a bilateral amputation was a lot to ask of John. He needed his wife’s support, and just now he wasn’t getting it.

  She took the wheelchair out of the boot and unfolded it, then Dominic hopped across to it and she pushed him round the field—as Stephie had promised, not too rutted—until they found her, standing at the ringside.

  ‘Kirsty’s just about to jump Midnight—they’re next,’ she told them. ‘It’s the jump-off against the clock and so far everyone’s knocked something down, so all they have to do is go clear. They’re the last.’

  An elegant dark bay horse the colour of polished mahogany came into the ring, and was greeted with cries of ‘Good luck!’ by the home crowd, followed by an expectant hush.

  Kate could feel Stephie’s excitement, and watched with interest to see how the girl would fare. She had to admit the jumps looked enormous, and she turned to Stephie.

  ‘I hope you don’t ever jump anything this big?’ She whispered.

  ‘Don’t be daft, Mum. I’d fall off. Shh.’

  Midnight went clear, jumping all the huge fences without apparent effort, and came over the last to win, with a huge cheer from the crowd.

  They watched as Kirsty was presented with her red rosette and trophy, then, just as they were cantering round the ring in a lap of honour, someone burst a balloon right beside Midnight.

  He leapt into the air, rearing and twisting, and Kirsty, unseated by the sudden and unexpected turn of events, crashed heavily to the ground and lay motionless.

  ‘Oh, my God,’ Kate muttered, and, ducking under the rope, she ran across the ring and arrived beside the girl just as the Red Cross did.

  ‘I’m a doctor,’ she told them, and swiftly assessed the fallen girl. She was stirring, at least, and breathing well. ‘Kirsty? Kirsty, can you hear me?’

  The girl’s eyes fluttered open. ‘Oh, hell, my arm,’ she muttered, and her eyes filled. ‘Stupid horse—has anyone caught him?’

  ‘Yes—what have you done to yourself?’ a voice asked from behind Kate.

  ‘Oh, hello, Mum,’ Kirsty said crossly. ‘I dunno—my wrist hurts like hell and my fingers feel tingly.’

  ‘What about the rest of you?’ Kate asked.

  ‘I’m fine. How stupid—who made that noise, anyway?’ She struggled to a sitting position and the crowd sighed its collective relief. Behind her, Kate was conscious of Stephie hovering anxiously, worried about her friend.

  ‘Can you get to your feet?’ she asked the girl. ‘I’d like to have a look at that wrist with an X-ray. Is there anyone to look after your horse while we take you up to the hall for some pictures?’

  ‘Don’t worry about the horse; Julie-Anne’s dealing with him.’ Kirsty’s mother looked at Kate. ‘Are you related to Stephie?’

  ‘Yes, I’m her mother. It’s my ex-husband’s clinic. He’s over there, fretting because he’s stuck in a wheelchair and can’t do anything. Let’s go and talk to him.’

  She led Kirsty over to the ropes and helped her under, then explained the situation to Dominic. ‘Can we take her up and X-ray her arm? It might just be a sprain, but her fingers are a bit tingly, she says.’

  ‘Of course. I’m sorry you came to such an undignified end,’ he said with a smile. ‘Well done for winning, by the way.’

  She gave a little laugh. ‘Thanks. God, I can’t believe I came off! He just shied! What an idiot.’

  A small, dark-haired woman came running up just then, her face concerned. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I’m fine. Well—ish,’ she qualified. ‘Where’s Midnight?’

  ‘In his box. Sarah and Hannah are untacking him and settling him down. Don’t you worry about him. Are you going to hospital?’

  ‘We’ll take her up to the hall,’ Dominic told her. ‘If you have any further crises, can you ring us there, Julie-Anne?’

  The woman nodded. ‘Sure. Oh, Kirsty, by the way, well done. That was a really good round. You deserved to win—even if you did fall off, you twit!’

  Kirsty grinned weakly. ‘Thanks,’ she said yet again, but her voice was shaky now. The shock was obviously getting to her, and Kate helped her into the back of the car while Dominic threaded himself into the front again. The wheelchair went in, and then they headed up through the park again, followed by Kirsty’s mother and Debbie, one of the other competitors, who rode often with Kirsty and was concerned about her, and Kirsty’s younger brother on his quad bike.

  Dominic took the X-rays, Kate helped him to develop them and then they looked at them together.

  ‘Nothing. Just a nasty bump and maybe a sprain. Lucky girl.’

  Kirsty was looking a little better now that the shock was wearing off. ‘I’ll strap it up for you,’ Kate told her, ‘and remember R-I-C-E—rest, ice, compression and elevation. Use frozen peas or a cold wrap for ten minutes every hour for the first six, then every two hours or so after that. Rest it, keep it firmly strapped and your hand above the level of your heart. OK?’

  Kirsty’s mother, relieved that there was no serious damage, turned to Dominic. ‘You must let me pay for the X-rays and the treatment.’

  He wave her aside. ‘Nonsense. It happened on the premises. I wouldn’t hear of it.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘But nothing. She’s a friend of Stephie’s. Forget it, please.’

  She gave in and thanked them, then they all went out to where the others were waiting.

  A tall blonde girl in riding gear turned towards them as they came out of the treatment area. ‘Well?’ she said.

  ‘Hi, Debbie. I’m fine—Just a big fraud.’

  ‘What? No fracture? I was planning what to say on your get-well card!’

  Kirsty laughed. ‘You can still send me one.’

  ‘No way! You made me miss my class. If your arm’s not broken, you don’t deserve a card!’

  They swapped grins, and Debbie gave Kirsty a careful hug. ‘I’m glad you’re OK. Well done, by the way. You rode him really well.’

  ‘It was cool, wasn’t it? Did anybody pick up my trophy?’

  ‘I did. It’s a lovely one.’

  ‘Good. I’ve got enough rubbish ones.’

  ‘Go on, brag why don’t you?’ her younger brother chipped in. ‘I think you’re rotten not breaking your arm. I wanted to sign your cast!’

  ‘Well, tough,’ Kirsty said cheerfully. ‘And I’ll brag if I want. I won the Newcomers!’ And she stuck her tongue out in a most unladylike and undignified gesture.

  Kate laughed at the typical teenage response.

  The sparkle was back in Kirsty’s eyes, and her fall was all but forgotten. Kate despaired of her common sense. Did nothing faze this lot? They went off, still talking about Kirsty’s achievement, taking Stephie back down to the stables and leaving Kate and Dominic alone.

  ‘Thank God she’s only in the fan club,’ Kate said fervently, watching her daughter leave.

  ‘I think we’ll keep it that way. Maybe I’ll get her an old banger or a quad bike like theirs, and let her drive it round the park. It’s much safer.’

  Kate rolled her eyes. ‘Why can’t she play with tiddlywinks?’

  ‘Or Jason?’

  ‘Don’t!’

  He grinned at her. ‘How about a nice cold beer out of the fridge, and a quiet lie-down on a blanket in the garden?’

  It sounded wonderful. ‘I’m racing John Whitelaw in the pool at five—don’t let me forget.’

  ‘Are you going to
let him win?’

  She snorted. ‘I don’t think I’ll have a lot of choice. He’s extremely good at it, and very powerful. He won’t have trouble building up his upper body, anyway. He’s got swimmer’s shoulders already.’

  ‘Are you going to be thrashed?’

  She laughed. ‘Very likely. Are you going to come and watch?’

  He thought for a moment, then shook his head. ‘No. Just in case. I’ll let you get on with it.’

  ‘Thanks for the moral support.’

  ‘He won’t have any.’

  Kate shook her head. ‘He won’t, will he? That seems so unfair.’

  ‘We can only do what we can, Kate,’ Dominic said softly. ‘We can’t change the world.’

  ‘We can want to.’

  They shared a smile of understanding, and Kate suddenly felt closer to him than she had for a long, long time.

  Progress?

  She hoped so. They had to make some soon.

  John Whitelaw won the race with ease. Kate, ploughing into the wall a second later, came up laughing and glared at him.

  ‘That’s ridiculous! How much practice have you had?’

  He chuckled. ‘Enough, obviously. I told you I used to be good.’

  She narrowed her eyes. ‘How good?’

  He had the grace to look sheepish. ‘I used to swim for the county. I was in the England under-eighteen squad one year.’

  She humphed. ‘I might have known.’

  His smile faded, and he reached out a hand and put it tentatively on her shoulder. ‘Kate? Thank you for giving me back something I can still do well.’

  Suddenly, without warning, she wanted to cry. ‘Oh, John, there’s lots you can do well.’

  ‘Like what?’

  She shrugged. ‘Anything that doesn’t involve running, I would say. How’s the walking coming on?’

  He hitched himself out onto the lift and rose smoothly out of the water, then slid across to his chair.

  Was he going to answer? Kate pulled herself out onto the side and blotted her face with her towel, and waited.

  ‘Slowly,’ he said at last. ‘Bloody slowly. It’s because it’s both of them. Even getting the legs on and off is a nightmare. The below-knee one’s OK, but the other one—I’ve had to get used to Eddie and Angela rummaging around at the top of my thigh, tucking my stump into the socket and checking the fit—you don’t have a lot of dignity left, do you?’