A Place Called Home. Eleanor Jones

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СКАЧАТЬ here, so it’s lucky I was around when we got the call. We don’t have a resident vet. Now let’s get the poor thing in as quick as we can.”

      Ellie hung back as he gently lifted the fox cub’s cage and headed for the side door of a low stone building. What to do now? She’d just have to call a taxi.

      “Come on, then,” Andy said, looking back at her. “Do you want to see this through or not?”

      “Oh...yes, please,” she mumbled, hurrying to catch up.

      * * *

      THE MAKESHIFT CLINIC was utilitarian, but it had an ad hoc feel, with well-used equipment and mismatched decor.

      Noting Ellie’s scrutiny of the place, Andy shrugged. “Most of the fixtures and fittings are from the clinic where I work. You’ll know it, of course—Low Fell in Little Dale.”

      “What?” Ellie looked at him in surprise. “You mean you’re back home again? But your family moved away.”

      “They may have moved on, but Little Dale will always be home to me...although I seem to spend almost as much time here these days. Anyway, when they renovated a few months ago, they let me pick what I wanted. Some of the equipment’s a bit dated, but the donation was a lifeline for the center. Now, let’s get this little guy onto the table and see what we can do for him.”

      Ellie was mesmerized by the way Andy dealt with the injured cub. After giving it a couple of shots, he set about cleaning and suturing the gaping wound.

      “You know, some vets would have just put it to sleep,” he remarked, finishing off the dressing with a satisfied smile.

      “Well, then, it’s lucky I picked you.” Ellie smiled, but instantly regretted her own words.

      He shot her an amused glance. “Thanks for that. Now I’ll just give him a long-lasting antibiotic shot, and we’ll get him into a cage before he decides to come to. Would you pass me that dog carrier behind you?”

      He placed the fox gently back into the cage, fastening the latch.

      “I think you might get a shock when our little guy recovers consciousness. He may seem cute, but I think we’ll find he can be pretty vicious when he gets all his faculties back. He’ll be scared, too, and that can make animals lash out.”

      “Have you always done work with wild creatures?” Ellie asked, intrigued by Andy’s obvious expertise.

      He shook his head. “Not really, although at Low Fell we do get the occasional case brought in. It wasn’t until I came across this place that I really started working with them. To be honest, it’s become a bit of a passion of mine. Paula, the woman who runs Cravendale, has such high hopes for it. She works so hard to get funding.”

      Ellie nodded. “So it’s a charity?”

      “Paula started it up by herself, using her own money, but she managed to get charity status a couple of years ago, which means she can run fund-raisers and all other activities to get enough money to keep it going. People even pay to adopt pets.”

      “What, you mean take a wild animal home?”

      “No, they just pay a small fee to board and feed an animal, and she sends pictures and letters about how it’s doing. Some people come to visit, too. It can be anything from a hedgehog to a badger or even a snake. When, or if, it recovers and gets released, the money stops, but Paula usually has another animal available for them to take an interest in.”

      “She sounds like quite a businesswoman, this Paula of yours,” Ellie said, wondering about the woman’s relationship with Andy.

      Andy smiled, carefully picking up the cage. “Not really, she just does what she has to do for the animals. She should be here soon, so you’ll probably get to meet her. We’ll just get this guy settled.”

      “Will he stay here for long?” Ellie asked, uncomfortably aware how close she was to her ex as she followed him along a narrow corridor.

      “Probably not,” he said. “We’ll let him recuperate for a while, and when he’s better, someone will take him back to where you found him and set him free.”

      When they reached a long, narrow indoor enclosure obviously converted from an old farm building, Ellie peered into the cage, surprised to see the little fox already groggily trying to stand, its sharp white fangs bared back from pale pink gums.

      “He’s on his feet,” she cried, holding back a sudden rush of tears as relief flooded in. “He really is going to be okay, isn’t he?”

      Andy nodded, putting the cage down in the center of a large pen and opening the door. “Hopefully he’ll be good as new in no time.”

      They watched the terrified fox cub take its first cautious steps out into the open. It turned to stare at them, yellow eyes gleaming with fright and ferocity.

      “It’s hard to tell if he’s angry or scared stiff,” whispered Ellie.

      “There’s not much difference between fear and ferocity in the animal kingdom,” Andy said. “Ferocity is often born through fear. We’d better leave him alone to settle down.”

      Carried away as she’d been by the fox cub’s plight, it wasn’t until they were back outside in the afternoon sunshine that Ellie took full stock of her situation. She was in the middle of nowhere with the ex-boyfriend she professed to hate, with no means of getting home.

      “Well,” she said, her tone curt and distant. “I suppose I need to thank you for your help. Do I owe you anything?”

      Andy raised his hands. “Of course not. It’s a wild creature, and it was my duty to help. It’s what we do here.”

      Warmth flowed through Ellie’s veins. “My fiancé told me it was vermin and that I should leave it to die.”

      Andy sighed. “There are farmers around here who would have said exactly the same thing.”

      “Especially chicken farmers,” Ellie said, smiling.

      “So did he leave you behind?”

      She found herself jumping straight to Matt’s defense. “He had to get back to work.”

      “But he is coming back for you, right?”

      “I’ll probably just get a taxi, at least to the train station. He’ll be tied up until late.”

      “I can drop you off somewhere, if you like,” Andy offered. “Where do you live now, anyway?”

      Every fiber of Ellie’s being recoiled from spending time with Andy. They were over a long time ago, totally finished, and being near him brought out too many painful memories.

      “The outskirts of Manchester,” she told him. “But you don’t need to drive me. If you could just give me the number for a cab...”

      He looked down at her, a familiar twinkle in his soft brown eyes.

      “You’re a city girl now? Well, I would never have imagined that. And with a fiancé СКАЧАТЬ