CHAPTER THREE

      ‘ELISE EDWARDS,’ Luke said when the two doctors surfaced at the end of the morning.

      ‘What about her?’ Megan asked. ‘I spoke to her earlier. She’s been going through a rough patch healthwise. I hope it wasn’t anything too serious.’

      ‘It all depends on how one views that kind of thing at her age.’

      ‘I’m not with you.’

      ‘The lady is pregnant, Megan.’

      Megan’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’

      ‘Yes. And, needless to say, she is somewhat stunned.’

      ‘I can imagine,’ she said, shaking her head in amazement. ‘How old is she?’

      ‘Forty-six,’ said Luke. ‘She’s done a test from the chemist and it has shown positive, but she just couldn’t believe it, and came to the surgery for proof positive.’

      ‘What actually was her reaction?’

      ‘A mixture of things. Dismay, trepidation, embarrassment, and maybe just a tinge of excitement.’

      ‘No mention of termination, then.’

      ‘Not at this stage, though I believe she already has teenage girls.’

      Megan nodded. ‘Yes. Sophie and Claudia. Their reaction to the news could be interesting. When this kind of thing happens in families where there are older children, they are sometimes horrified. They see nothing wrong in it in anyone else, but not Mum and Dad. I wonder what Elise will do? She has rheumatoid arthritis, but it is under control, so that shouldn’t cause any problems in its present state. She’s also recently had a scare with a lump that proved to be benign, and she runs a business. The baker’s just down the street. She might decide to sell up with a new baby on the way.’

      ‘What does her husband do?’ asked Luke.

      ‘He’s one of the gamekeepers at Lord Marriott’s place up on the tops. Keeps poachers off his land. Officiates when his lordship wants a shoot. That sort of thing. Soon his employer and his friends will be out shooting the grouse on the twelfth of August and Jim Edwards will be in charge of that.

      ‘My nearest neighbour, old Jonas Bottomley, makes a few pounds for himself when that takes place by working as a beater. The rest of the time he spends making moonshine.’

      ‘And I thought that the countryside was a quiet, law-abiding place,’ Luke said in mock horror. ‘What next?’

      ‘Next are the house calls, I’m afraid. Are you ready?’

      ‘Sure am,’ he said easily, with no intention of telling her that he’d just had a phone call from the headmistress at Oliver’s school to ask if he would make sure his nephew understood that he couldn’t use his mobile phone in class.

      ‘We are trying to be as lenient as possible with those two boys under the circumstances,’ she’d said. ‘But Oliver does take advantage of it sometimes. I am phoning you as he tells me that his mother has gone away and won’t be back for some weeks.’

      ‘Yes, phone me by all means if there is any problem at all with either Oliver or Owen,’ he’d told her ‘They are going through a difficult time, but I don’t intend to let them misbehave if I can help it.’

      * * *

      When he got in that evening Rebekah Wainright was there, and to Luke’s relief she turned out to be a much gentler soul than her friend Izzy Chambers. She was tall, slim and extremely neat, he noted. Probably in her late sixties and looking good for her years. She’d made a meal, cottage pie with an apple tart to follow, and he could have kissed her.

      ‘I need to know what you are expecting of me, Dr Anderson,’ she told him. ‘Just make me a list, and I’ll do my best to follow it. I didn’t know whether you would want me to cook for you tonight, but I took the chance and will do so each time I’m here, but only if you want me to.’

      ‘I most certainly do,’ he told her. ‘Where do you live, Mrs Wainright? I hope it isn’t too far away for you. I’ll be here to run you home in the evenings but I won’t be around when you start in the middle of the day.’

      ‘No problem,’ she told him. ‘I’m only just down the road. And before I go, what about those two lads? Is it all right to feed them when they get in from school? They were starving today so I gave them a glass of milk and some fruit to keep them going until you came home.’

      ‘That is perfectly all right. Teenage boys have permanently empty stomachs when they’re shooting up into adolescence.’

      * * *

      When she’d gone the three of them tucked into the food, and once their appetites were appeased Owen said, ‘Can we go to Manchester on Saturday, Uncle Luke?’

      ‘Er, yes, if you want,’ he told him. ‘What did you want to do there?’

      ‘Bowling. And the cinema.’

      ‘Fine, but you do realise I’ll be going with you. I’m not letting you out on your own in the city. What about you, Oliver? Do you want to go?’

      ‘Yeah,’ Oliver said, his excited expression reminding Luke of the mothing excursion. ‘But don’t bring Dr Marshall this time, will you? It’s boys only.’

      ‘Sure, no problem,’ Luke agreed, then said in a brisker tone, ‘And now who has homework to do?’

      There was silence.

      ‘Come on, both of you, no slacking. If you don’t do your homework we don’t go bowling. And by the way, Oliver, as well as it being against the school rules, it is extremely rude to use your mobile in class. Don’t do it.’

      When they were settled, one at each side of the kitchen table, doing their homework, Luke went to ring Megan to report on Rebekah Wainright’s first half-day at Woodcote House.

      She might not be interested, he thought, but it would be a chance to hear her voice again, and to let her see that his domestic life was in control.

      It had been good, their second day together in the practice. At least that was his opinion. But he’d started off on the wrong foot with Megan. It didn’t follow that she’d felt the same.

      * * *

      Sighing, Megan flopped down on the sofa. She’d felt miserable when she and Luke had separated at the end of the day, and told herself it had to stop. If all she had in her life was the practice, it wasn’t so for him. He had a grieving family to help get through some of the worst months of their lives, plus a business that he knew nothing about to oversee, and the position of village doctor to hold down.

      She really couldn’t see how she could fit into his scheme of things, even if he wanted her to, and the information,