‘At least. Charlotte will be lucky if she gets her daughter back. Talk about a case of collective cluck.’
‘I wonder who she is.’
‘I wonder.’ Amy followed his gaze to the sleeping mother. ‘She looks exhausted.’
‘But she’s not a local?’
‘I’d reckon every single one of our residents managed to get a look at her on the way in and no one recognises her.’
‘Her truck looks like a farm truck.’
‘And that’s what she looks like. A farmer. Her hands…they’re work hands.’ She lifted the girl’s fingers gently from the counterpane. Joss saw and thought that they had matching hands. The stranger’s hands were work-worn but so were Amy’s. Both women knew how to work hard.
‘She’ll tell us soon enough when she wakes.’
‘I’m not sure.’ Amy was still watching the girl’s face. ‘She woke for a little but she seems…she seems almost afraid.’
‘There’s nothing to be afraid of here.’
‘Apart from being cosseted to death. What a place to have a baby. There are no fewer than five sets of bootees and matinee jackets being knitted as we speak.’
‘Fate worse than death.’
‘As you say.’
They left Charlotte sleeping and made their way to Amy’s office. Charlotte was nicely stable and the baby was doing beautifully. There was no reason for him to stay, but Joss made no move to leave.
There wasn’t a good reason for him to leave, Amy figured, remembering where he was going home to. So she might as well make use of the man.
‘How do you feel about checking Rhonda Coutts’s lungs?’
‘Rhonda Coutts?’
‘I think she might be building up to pneumonia. She had a fall last week and spent a few days on her back. She’s up now but she’s coughing and she’s weak. As the Bowra doctor can’t get through…well, would you check her?’
‘Sure.’ Rhonda Coutts’s lungs. Well, well.
He was a surgeon-one of the top in his field. It had been a long time since he’d been called on to advise about the possible pneumonia of an elderly patient with no surgical background.
She sensed his hesitation. ‘Would you feel competent…?’
He bristled. ‘Hey, of course I’m competent.’
‘I only thought…well, with you being a surgeon you might have…’
‘Forgotten?’
‘I’m sorry.’ She gave a rueful smile. ‘Insulting, huh?’
‘No. It’s fine.’ He was still bristling. ‘Lead the way to Mrs Coutts.’
‘I have a real live doctor on tap. For a week, if I’m lucky. What I won’t be able to achieve in a week…’
Kitty, Amy’s secretary, was staring at her as if she was demented as Amy danced in to fetch Mrs Coutts’s medical records. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
But Amy was practically whooping on the spot as she planned ahead. ‘Mr Harris’s ingrown toenails. Ethel Crane’s eczema. Martin Hamilton’s prostate. They can all be seen here. Now.’
Martin’s prostate was the best one. The Bowra doctor was a middle-aged woman and Martin wouldn’t consent to speaking to her about his prostate, much less let her examine him. ‘With a doctor right here, I can solve all these problems in one fell swoop.’
‘But he’s here on holiday,’ Kitty said doubtfully. ‘Do you think he will?’
‘He’s staying at my house.’ Amy’s jubilation faded a little when she thought of that-she’d felt embarrassed to ask him out to the shambles that was her home but the upside was that it put him nicely in her debt. ‘And he’s proud, Kitty. I only have to suggest to the man that he can’t and he will. The man’s a renowned surgeon after all, and he’s a walking ego if ever I saw one, so I don’t see why we can’t use him.’
‘He seems…nice.’ Kitty was still doubtful.
‘He’s a man, isn’t he?’ Amy demanded. ‘Therefore he’s here to be used. And use him I will, for however long I have.’
All the signs were that Mrs Coutts did have pneumonia and as Joss put away his stethoscope she burst into tears.
‘I’m not going to hospital,’ she sobbed. ‘I should never have let you examine me. I’m not leaving here.’
‘You have the odds in your favour,’ Amy said wryly. She sat on the bed and took the elderly lady’s hands in hers. ‘Rhonda, remember the bridge?’
Her sobs arrested as the old lady looked up at Amy-and then burst into tears again.
‘But I’ll die. If I can’t go to hospital…’
Amy gave Joss a rueful grin and hugged the old lady. ‘You know, there is a third choice.’ As Rhonda sobbed on, Amy put her away from her and forced her wrinkled face up so her eyes met her own. ‘Rhonda, look who we’ve got. Our very own doctor, for however long the rain takes to subside. We have a really extensive drug cupboard-all the supplies we need we have right here-and you have your own personal physician.’
Rhonda stared. She hiccuped on a sob, then sniffed and looked up at Joss.
‘He’s as stuck as we are,’ Amy told her, and grinned.
And finally Rhonda smiled.
‘Really?’
‘You’ll look after Rhonda, won’t you, Dr Braden?’ Amy asked submissively, but there was nothing submissive in her twinkle as she looked up at him.
And there was no choice.
‘Yes,’ he said, goaded, but then he looked at the old lady in the bed and thought, Damn, they were all in this together. They were all stuck. And he was sure the X-ray he intended to take would verify she had pneumonia.
‘Of course I will,’ he said in a voice that was much more gentle. ‘How can you doubt it?’
After that he saw Mr Harris’s ingrown toenails, Ethel Crane’s eczema, Martin Hamilton’s prostate and Kitty’s splinter under her thumbnail just for good measure.
‘I’ve been meaning to do something about it for a few days but it’s such a hassle to go to Bowra,’ the secretary told him, blushing as he held her hand and gently examined her inflamed finger. ‘And now Amy says you’re here to be used… I mean she says you don’t mind being doctor…’
Joss caught Amy’s eye-and there was laughter there! She looked like a child caught out in mischief.
She was enchanting, he thought. Enchanting! The more he saw of her the more she had him fascinated.
She was using him for all she was worth.
But even her effrontery had its limits. She helped administer a local anaesthetic to Kitty’s thumb, then watched as he cut a tiny section out of the nail to remove the splinter-he really was an excellent operator, she thought with satisfaction-and then she decided it was time he was dismissed. After all, he’d had a rough day-and she had plans for him in the morning.
‘Maybe it’s time you finished for the day,’ she told him. ‘You’ve been very useful.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘Think nothing of it.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘There’s not much to eat at home but if you don’t want to eat with your parents maybe you could grab yourself something from the general store. They’re open until six so you have half an hour.’
Wow, that sounded exciting. He didn’t think.
‘And you?’
‘I’ll eat here.’ It didn’t cost her to eat at the hospital-but she wasn’t admitting that.
‘Do you need to stay here?’ he demanded. By now he’d met Mary-Amy’s second in charge-and had been impressed. Mary was bustling around with starched efficiency, slightly miffed that she’d missed the day’s excitement. She was delighted with the opportunity to be used as an acute nurse and Amy would have no problem
