‘I took you to see
RoboCop
.’
‘No, you didn’t.’
‘I did, too,’ he insisted as they began walking again. ‘I remember us kissing in the back row.’
‘Must have been someone else. Come to think of it,’ she added wryly, ‘it undoubtedly
was
someone else considering you were Penhally’s answer to Casanova.’
‘I was not,’ he replied, the grin reappearing on his face.
‘Yes, you were!’ she exclaimed. ‘Even when we were at school, every girl fancied you like mad despite you having the most dreadful reputation.’
‘You didn’t.’
Oh, but I did, I
did
, she thought, but you never noticed me. It was only when you came back from med school that summer that you realised I was alive.
‘That’s the Penhally Bay Surgery,’ she continued, deliberately changing the conversation, and Tom let out a low whistle as his gaze took in the large building to the left of the Serpentine Steps.
‘I remember when the doctor’s surgery was that pokey little place in Morwenna Road,’ he observed.
‘Nick’s made big changes since he took over the practice,’ Eve replied. ‘And he’s making even more, as you can see,’ she added, pointing to the scaffolding at the back of the surgery. ‘In less than a week Lauren will have a state-of-the-art physio
therapy suite, and we’ll have an X-ray room, and even more consulting rooms.’
‘Well, he may have grown into a grumpy old so-and-so,’ Tom said, ‘but at least he wants the best for his patients.’
‘He does,’ Eve said, ‘but you haven’t told me anything about yourself, your work with Deltaron.’
‘Not much to tell,’ he said.
‘There’s bound to be,’ she said, but he wasn’t listening to her. He was already crossing the road, heading for the children’s play park and playing field. ‘Tom, where are you going?’
‘I fancy a swing,’ he shouted back, and though she shook her head she followed him.
‘Big kid,’ she said when she’d caught up with him.
‘You’d better believe it,’ he replied, then frowned slightly as he looked up at the new houses on the hill, then down at the older buildings clustered round the harbour. ‘It’s odd, but it seems so much smaller than I remembered it.’
‘Hicksville. That’s what you used to call Penhally,’ she said. ‘“There’s a whole world out there, Eve, and I want to see it, be a part of it.”’
‘Did I say that?’ he said dryly. ‘Yeah, well, I guess I always was a stupid kid.’
She stared at him for a second, then sat down on the swing next to his.
‘Tom, what’s wr—?’
‘You wanted to know about my work with Deltaron,’ he interrupted. ‘There’s almost fifty of us in the organisation, but normally we’ll send in around fourteen people who are specialists in the sorts of conditions we’re likely to encounter.’
‘What sort of specialists?’ she asked.
‘Let’s say we’re going into an earthquake situation,’ he declared. ‘In that case, we’d want people who are familiar with the construction of buildings, plus experts in flammable and explosive materials, electricians, pilots, plumbers and medics.’
‘And when you go into a disaster area, you’re in charge.’
‘Yup,’ he said. ‘I decide where we start looking for survivors, and I decide when we quit. When there’s no point in looking any more.’
A harshness had crept into his voice, and his eyes…They had become bleak, empty, and desolate.
‘It must be heart-breaking at times,’ she suggested tentatively, and saw his jaw tighten.
‘Bleeding hearts need not apply, that’s for sure.’
‘Tom…’ She put her hand on his arm. ‘Tom, are you OK?’
He stood up abruptly, letting the swing bang back against his calves, and faked a smile.
‘Couldn’t be better,’ he said, ‘and isn’t that your little friend?’
For a second Eve continued to stare at him, then she glanced in the direction of his gaze, and saw Tassie running along the road, her blonde hair flying.
‘She’ll be going home,’ she said. ‘Tom, are you quite sure you’re—?’
‘What’s the connection between you two?’
‘None,’ she said, getting to her feet, and leading the way out of the play park, ‘apart from the fact I’ve taken an interest in her since she was about four years old. Her mother, Amanda…She’s had to bring up five of a family virtually on her own so I help out by looking after Tassie one day a week.’
‘Isn’t there a Mr Lovelace?’
‘He’s in prison at the moment for petty theft. I’m afraid it always is petty theft with him, or selling on stolen goods.’ Eve sighed. ‘The whole family are completely out of control, including Tassie’s twin brother, Terry, but Gary Lovelace is the worst. Seventeen years old, and already a complete and utter waste of space.’
Tom’s eyebrows rose.
‘It’s not like you to write off someone when they’re so young.’
Eve struggled with herself for a moment, then blurted out, ‘Do you remember me telling you Reverend Kenner had a daughter? Well, she’s pregnant, Tom. Rachel is just seventeen years old, and pregnant by Gary Lovelace.’
‘Accidents happen, Eve,’ Tom declared. ‘You know that.’
‘This was no accident,’ she retorted. ‘Rachel told Chloe MacKinnon it wasn’t. Gary deliberately went after Rachel because he thought it would be fun to play around with the minister’s daughter. What kind of boy does that, Tom? He’s no job—no desire to get one—just hangs about with his friends…He—’
‘Sounds exactly like I was at his age,’ Tom interrupted, and Eve shook her head vehemently.
‘You were nothing like Gary.’
‘Hell, Eve, I was
exactly
like Gary,’ Tom protested. ‘God knows what would have become of me if it hadn’t been for Gertie Stanbury.’
‘Our old headmistress?’ Eve exclaimed. ‘What did she have to do with anything?’
‘Do you remember the day when the bicycle sheds burned down at school, and I swore blind I didn’t do it? Well, I did, and Gertie knew I did though she couldn’t prove it. She called me into her office and said, “Cornish, you can either spend the rest of your life destroying things, or you can make something of yourself. Your father—and most of Penhally—have written you off, but you’ve got brains and ability, so are you going to prove your father and Penhally right, or show them they’re wrong?”’
Eve shook her head in amazement. ‘You never told me any of this.’
‘Well, it was hardly my finest hour,’ Tom said wryly. ‘I was furious with Gertie—thought she was an interfering old bat, to be honest—but when I went home that night, and found my father lying dead drunk as usual on the sitting-room floor, I suddenly realised I was going to be him in a few years if I didn’t knuckle down at school, and get some qualifications.’
‘Which is what I want Tassie to do,’ she declared, ‘to get some qualifications. She’s such a bright child, Tom, and Gertrude has been helping her by lending her books—’
‘Gertie Stanbury is still alive?’
‘Very much so.’ Eve nodded. ‘She thinks Tassie is clever enough to win a scholarship to the Lady Joan Mercer’s Boarding School in Devon which would be wonderful because though Amanda wants what’s best for Tassie she’ll never be able to afford to let her stay on at school once she reaches leaving age.’
‘And if she does go to this school?’
Eve smiled.
‘At the moment Tassie wants to become a doctor. Of course, she’ll probably change her mind, but if I can get her into Lady Joan’s, and she studies hard, the world will be her oyster.’
A slight frown appeared on Tom’s forehead.
‘You do realise if you send Tassie off to this private boarding school, she’ll lose her own family?’
‘Of course she won’t.’
‘She will,’ Tom insisted. ‘She’ll have nothing in common with them, could even end up looking down on them, while they’ll simply think she’s got above herself.’
‘You’re saying I’m wrong—I shouldn’t encourage her,’ Eve exclaimed, anger rising in her.
‘I’m saying…’ Tom stopped and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly with his fingers. ‘I’m saying Tassie’s not your daughter, Eve.’
‘I know that.’ Eve flared. ‘I know she isn’t mine, but what’s so wrong about me wanting her to have every opportunity?’
‘Nothing,’ Tom replied gently, ‘just so long as she, and her mother, and you, understand it will come at a price.’
He was wrong, Eve thought furiously as she gazed at him. Tassie wouldn’t lose her family, and when she thought of all the things the girl would gain…
‘I have to go,’ she said, her voice tight as she stepped back from him.
‘Already?’ he protested. ‘But I thought we could have dinner together.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Then what about tomorrow?’ he declared. ‘We could drive up to Newquay—’
‘You’re leaving tomorrow,’ she reminded him, ‘and I have to work.’
‘Couldn’t you ask for a few days off?’ he demanded. ‘Even just one day?’
It was clearly important to him that she said yes, but she had no intention of saying yes. She’d agreed to today but even during the few short hours they’d spent together he’d unsettled her so much, and she’d had enough unsettling.
‘Tom, I can’t,’ she said. ‘I’ve only just started work at the practice so it would hardly look professional if I took time off.’
‘Then this is goodbye,’ he said, making it a statement, not a question, and she stuck out her hand.
‘It’s been nice seeing you again, Tom.’
‘Eve…’
He’d taken her hand in his, his eyes intent, earnest, and he was clearly hoping she would change her mind, but he was too late. Twenty years too late, and she pulled her hand free.
‘Goodbye, Tom,’ she said.
And she walked away from him, and she didn’t look back.
‘S
OPHIE
, tell me this isn’t true?’ Eve declared, gazing in horror at the sullen teenager.
‘Look, I just miscalculated my insulin dose, OK?’ Sophie Banks retorted belligerently. ‘That’s why my blood-sugar levels are all haywire today. I just made a
mistake
.’
‘Mistake, my foot!’ Sophie’s mother exclaimed, her face tight, her eyes angry. ‘I thought it was strange the way she kept rushing off to the bathroom, even wondered if she’d perhaps caught a chill, and then I heard her—bold as brass—on the phone to her friend last night, talking about this internet site she’d found—’
‘You had no right to listen in to my private phone calls,’ Sophie declared, outrage plain in her voice. ‘I don’t listen to yours—’
‘Sophie, I know you weren’t happy when you started putting on weight after your diabetes was diagnosed,’ Eve interrupted quickly, seeing the mother and daughter round on one another, ‘but skipping, or lessening your dosage in order to excrete more urine and stay thin is a recipe for disaster.’
‘None of my clothes fit any more,’ the teenager protested. ‘I look
gross
.’
Or like a perfectly normal fifteen-year-old, Eve thought, but there was no point in saying that.
‘Sophie, your weight gain is purely temporary,’ she said instead. ‘Once we get your blood-sugar levels under control, your weight will return to what it was before.’
‘Yeah, right,’ Sophie muttered under her breath, and Eve sat forward in her seat.
‘This internet site you found,’ she declared. ‘Did it tell you that not only would you lose weight if you manipulated your insulin doses, you could also damage your eyes, and develop hypoglycaemia?’
‘One mistake,’ the girl said mutinously. ‘All I did was make one lousy miscalculation, and now you all think I have a problem. I don’t have a problem.’
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. ‘Eve, 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.