Country Doctor, Spring Bride. Abigail Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ to overlook deep hazel eyes and hair as dark as ebony curling neatly above his ears, yet he was alone and seemingly un-attached.

      Surely he must have someone, somewhere who cared for him. A wife or a partner, a mother, or a sister. Or was the house he was having built by the river just for himself?

      One thing was sure. She wasn’t going to ask him. She’d already floored him twice in one day by her determination to give away the wedding dress and almost in the same breath asking him about the vacancy at the practice. It was more than likely that he thought she wasn’t exactly broken-hearted if she was job-hunting two days after her arrival and disposing of the dress that must have meant a lot to her at the same time.

      She kept her tears for when she was alone in the dark hours of the night. The feeling of not being wanted hurt so much that she had to push it to the back of her mind when she was with Daniel in case she made a fool of herself. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel that she was looking for a shoulder to cry on.

      Getting up off the sofa, she began to walk slowly upstairs, having given up on seeing him again before morning, but as she reached the landing the door of his bedroom opened and he was framed there, dressed in a thick sweater and jeans with a sheepskin jacket over the top.

      ‘Hi,’ he said warily. ‘You aren’t going to bed, are you?’

      ‘Yes,’ she told him flatly. ‘There doesn’t seem much else to do.’

      ‘It’s only half past nine.’

      ‘So?’

      She looked pale and lost and he weakened, saying, ‘I’m going down to the pub for an hour. Do you want to come?’

      He couldn’t believe he’d said it when the words were out. This wasn’t keeping Kate at a distance. Her expression had brightened but she was hesitating.

      ‘That would be nice,’ she said, ‘but I hope that everyone doesn’t start asking questions about why I’ve come back to live. I presume my mother will have told some people that I’m engaged and they’ll be curious because it wasn’t someone local, but I don’t want to suddenly be the focus of attention.’ Kate sighed. ‘It hurt a lot to have my trust betrayed. The fact that I won’t be wearing the wedding dress or honeymooning abroad is disappointing, but delightful as those things are, they’re just the trappings of a wedding. It’s knowing that the person you’re marrying can be trusted to love and cherish you that matters. With Craig that was never going to happen, so I suppose I should consider myself to have had a lucky escape, but it doesn’t make the pain go away.’

      ‘I can believe that,’ Daniel said gravely, finding himself wishing that he knew her well enough to offer comfort. ‘But, Kate, you will have to face the people around here some time, so why not get it over and done with?’

      She smiled for the first time since they’d met on the landing. ‘Yes. Why not? At least I’ll have you for moral support.’

      ‘You will indeed,’ he promised, and thought that it was a long time since he’d felt so protective over anyone, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted it to be like that.

      A diversion was called for and, remembering little Billy Giles, he asked her, ‘Have you ever seen or treated anyone with Sydenham’s chorea, rheumatism of the central nervous system?’

      She frowned thoughtfully. ‘I know what it is, but I’ve never treated anyone with it. Although I do believe I once saw someone whose life had been blighted by it.’

      ‘So go and get your coat and make sure that you wrap up warm. It isn’t long since you were ill, so don’t take any chances, and you can tell me about it while we’re walking to the pub.’

      Kate nodded and went into her room to quickly get ready while Daniel waited downstairs. Then they stepped out of the house and began the pleasant walk towards the pub.

      ‘So why are you asking about Sydenham’s chorea?’ Kate asked immediately. ‘You haven’t got a patient with it, have you?’

      ‘I might have, and it’s very much on my mind. A young boy who from the sound of it has had a severe throat infection, came to see me this morning with his mother. He was making uncontrollable neck movements all the time and I suspect that it is the jolly old St Vitus’ dance as it used to be called way back.’

      ‘What makes you think so? The twitching of the neck?’

      ‘Yes, that, and also what happened when I tested him in the same way that a neurologist once did on a patient that I’d sent to him with the same kind of problem.’

      ‘What sort of test?’ she asked, and he thought at that moment she wasn’t his landlady’s daughter or the jilted bride, she was the doctor first and foremost, tuned in, keen to know. Miriam could take a lesson from Kate.

      ‘When the boy stretched his hands out in front of him palms down, his fingers curled backwards. I’ve tried it with my hands, and if you try it with yours you’ll find that it is almost impossible to make them do that. So simple, but so illuminating, though I never found out what it actually revealed. But it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.’

      ‘That’s interesting,’ she commented. ‘That someone could be diagnosed in such a way.’

      ‘I know, but that is how it was then. They may have other ways of making a diagnosis now. So tell me about this person that you saw.’

      ‘It was a man in a big department store. His whole body was on the go all the time, making exhausting sweeping movements. Some people were laughing at him, but I just felt so sorry for him I could have wept. I thought at the time that it might have been Sydenham’s chorea, but had no way of knowing if it was, short of asking him, and he was having enough to cope with without that. It comes from a streptococcal throat infection, doesn’t it, and poor living conditions?’

      ‘Yes, and Billy Giles lives in a damp old house. They are a big family and I don’t somehow think they live off the fat of the land, even though the father works on a farm. Immediate and prolonged bed rest is essential to prevent the damage to the nervous system progressing, so I bundled him off home to bed and have arranged for a home visit from a neurologist tomorrow.’

      ‘I’ll be very interested to know what happens,’ she said. ‘Would it be possible for me to see Billy, so that if ever I do come up against it I will be better informed than I am now?’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ he said immediately. ‘I’ll be visiting him regularly once it is sorted and I’ll take you with me if you like.’

      He was weakening, Daniel was thinking. He knew it. But her kind of enthusiasm was what he was looking for in the practice. Miriam was a good doctor, but he’d never found her prepared to go the extra mile.

      ‘Maybe you could come down for an interview,’ he said as the pub came into sight, and as her expression brightened he thought that Kate was going to be renewing her acquaintance with the villagers inside The Poacher’s Rest with a bit more sparkle than when they’d left the house.

      ‘Hello, there, Daniel,’ Michael Grimshaw, the landlord, said when they appeared, and, on seeing who was with him, ‘Kate! Nice to see you. Are you just visiting, or back for good?’

      Before she had the chance to answer someone called from across the room, ‘So when’s the wedding, Kate? We’re СКАЧАТЬ