A Country Affair (7 page)

When he saw her crossing the bar, he put down his knife and fork and stood up. “Kate! You’ve come!” He kissed her cheek.

She kissed him back. “I have.”

They both beamed idiotically, enjoying the sight of each other.

“Here, look, sit down; I’ll move my coat. Will you excuse me if I finish my meal?”

“Of course. Can I get you a drink? What would you like?”

“A coffee first, please. Here, let me . . .” He dug his hand into his pocket and brought out loose change.

Kate said, “This is on me.”

The cappuccinos looked tempting, and Kate spooned some of the froth and the chocolaty bits into her mouth. Looking up, she found Scott watching her and caught a look in his eyes she’d never seen in Adam’s. Kate blushed and, to pass off her embarrassment, picked up a sugar sachet, opened it and let the sugar cascade into her coffee. Then another.

“Hey!”

“I like my cappuccino sweet. It’s one of my things.”

“You’re quite sweet enough.”

“That’s a corny remark if ever there was one.”

“I meant it, though. Thanks for coming out this evening; I’ve had a rotten day.”

“I know. That’s why I came.”

Scott finished his meal and eyed the menu. “One of my things is ice-cream sundaes.”

“And mine.”

He ordered two strawberry sundaes and waited at the counter while the girl made them up. She was laughing so much at his comments that it was a wonder they got their order at all. Kate couldn’t quite put her finger on why it was he had this effect on women, but he did. And on her. He was so lighthearted and such fun that one really couldn’t take him seriously.

They chatted and laughed their way through their desserts, enjoying the thick, cloying strawberry sauce, the nutty bits sprinkled on the rich cream piled right to the very top of the glasses and the fresh strawberries they kept finding even right down at the bottom of the glass.

“I’ve never had such a delicious sundae in all my life.”

Scott winked. “She knows me, you see; she knows what I like.”

“You come here a lot, then?”

“When I’ve worked a ten-hour day and I’ve a night on call to face, believe me, I’m in no mood for cooking when I get home; and a fella needs food if he’s to function well.”

“I wonder how the farmers take you seriously.”

“What do you mean?

“You don’t seem like a responsible person.”

“Where my work is concerned, I am. I know I play the fool and such, but I do know my job.”

“You enjoy being a vet, then?”

“I wouldn’t want to be anything else. Nothing else in the whole wide world.”

She sensed passion and conviction in his voice, loved the light in his eyes and asked him which parts he liked the best.

“A cold winter’s morning with a brilliant, rosy-red dawn just breaking, a warm cowshed, a fight to get a calf born alive, the sight of it slithering out and the joy of it breathing, and the mother, all toil forgotten, bending to lick it.” Scott looked embarrassed. “Sorry for going all poetic, but that’s what I like. Then you wash under the tap in the yard, or if you’re lucky, someone brings a bucket of hot water into the cowshed and when you’re clean, you go into the warm kitchen and have a coffee laced with rum and a comfortable chat about things that really matter; then you go home.” He looked somewhere beyond her shoulder, lost in thought. “More often than not, though, it’s pouring with rain, pitch black and you’re chilled to the marrow; and the wife’s away, so there’s no coffee, but still I love it. And lambing—now, there’s a job and a half. You put your hand in and find two lambs tangled together and the ewe can push neither of them out; and you straighten them up, move a leg here and a head there, and hey presto, two beauties and the mother as proud as punch. Brilliant!”

Wistfully, Kate said, “It must be great.” And before she could stop herself, out poured all her terrible disappointment about missing vet college, something she’d promised herself she would never do.

Scott listened hard to every word she said. When she’d finished, he took hold of her hand, saying, “Look here, if you feel as strongly as that, isn’t it worth having another try? Why stand on the touchline of life? Get in there and on with the game, a bold strike straight for the goal. This isn’t a practice game, you know; you only get the one chance. For someone with your passion for the job, that’s the only thing to do; otherwise, there’ll be a terrible vacuum in your life all your days. What’s holding you back?”

“I don’t know, really.”

He encouraged her to explore her problem. “You must know.”

“Well, it’s the thought of all that studying. I tried so hard to succeed and it all came to nothing. I don’t know if I can face such a defeat all over again. And that’s only the start of it; five solid years of slog ahead.”

“But you’ve only the one grade to improve, not three.”

Kate nodded. “I know.”

“Your ma and pa, what do they want?”

“They’re like you, they want me to try again.”

“Well then, there you are.”

“Adam doesn’t want me to; in fact, he doesn’t want me to work at the practice even.”

“You need to ditch that medieval horror.”

Kate withdrew her hand from his and said indignantly, “Ditch him?”

“He’s smothering you.”

“He isn’t.”

“He is. He’s a nutter.”

“He isn’t.”

“Believe me. He is.”

Kate stood up. “I wish I’d never told you how I felt. I promised myself I wouldn’t tell anyone and I’ve told you, and now look what’s happened; you’re organizing my life for me.”

“So why have you lost your temper? Is it because you know I’m right?”

His mobile phone began to ring. “Damn.” He listened, answered and switched off. “Got to go. Sorry. Should have known not to invite you out when I’m on call. We’ll do this again one night when I’m not.”

“We will?”

Scott took her hand in his and squeezed it. “Don’t be cross, not with me. Just think about what I’ve said. I’m right about trying again and very right about that damned Adam. Good night, sweet one.”

He hurtled out of the bar, blowing a quick kiss to the barmaid who’d made the sundaes for them and calling “Good night” to everyone as he went.

Kate bought herself a vodka and tonic, and sat thinking about Scott. There was nothing more poisonous than living one’s life with regret . . . thinking “if only” all the time. She liked his analogy of the game of life. She’d give it serious thought, but she’d have to be quick or the opening would be gone. It would mean good-bye to Adam, for he wouldn’t tolerate her going to college for five years; in fact, she knew he would actively persuade her not to try. The expression “wouldn’t tolerate” hung about in her mind and she thought,
What am I saying here? “Wouldn’t tolerate.” Is that love?
No, it most certainly wasn’t. If he loved her, Adam would be encouraging her, surely?

Someone opened the door into the other bar and briefly she caught a reflection in the mirror behind the bar of someone standing there and she thought it was Adam. God! Now he was haunting her. Swiftly Kate finished her vodka and left.

Next morning, as though to confirm to her that Scott’s advice was sound, the letter came from the solicitor with the check for ten and a half thousand pounds promised her in Granny Howard’s will.

Chapter
4

“H
ave you a first-class stamp, Mia? I want to get this letter in the mail on the way to work. Before I change my mind.”

Mia passed her the fresh pot of tea. “You’ve definitely decided, then?”

“Yes, I have. The shock of not getting three A’s totally threw me and I realize now I was far too hasty in giving up all hope of being a vet and applying for this job.”

“I thought you liked the job. Don’t you?”

Kate pondered Mia’s question for a moment. “I like this job so very much. I like the people, I like the place, I like the animals, I like keeping the accounts in good order;
but
at the same time, I know I need more fulfillment. I’m not using my brain as I should and I know I would regret all my life not giving it another go.”

Mia patted her hand across the breakfast table. “I’ve been dying for you to do this, but I knew it had to be wholly your decision. Your dad will be thrilled. It’s what he wants for you too.”

“I know. I’m ringing Miss Beaumont tonight to see if she’ll tutor me.”

“I thought that thin little man—I forget his name—taught you chemistry.”

“He did and I never got on with him because he was lazy. That’s why I didn’t get an A. He was useless. Miss Beaumont is brill; we got on really well.”

Mia brushed a strand of loose hair away from Kate’s face. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Mia. I’m not telling anyone what I’ve done. Not till I’ve got a grade A, then if I don’t, they won’t be any the wiser.”

“I think Adam should know.”

Kate put down her slice of toast and studied Mia’s loving face. “He’ll do his best to stop me.”

“He can’t, though, can he, actually stop you? You’re a free agent.”

“He’ll finish with me.”

“Haven’t you already finished with him?” The questioning look on Mia’s face made Kate stare at her.

“Do you know, I think I already have, as you say. He’s so peculiar at the moment. I don’t even like him.”

“I certainly didn’t like him the other night.”

“Truth to tell, you never really have liked him, have you?”

Mia fiddled with the sugar basin, put two spoonfuls into her cup and then, without thinking what she was doing, added another. “It’s that obsession of needing to do the same things at the same time every week. It demonstrates a strange kind of insecurity. Or is he a power freak? He lacks spontaneity. It’s odd in such a young man. I never noticed it at first, or has it gotten worse?”

“Worse.”

“You see, it’s only fair to tell him because if you do get in, it means he must wait another five years and he should know, or if he wants to find someone else, he should know where he is . . . with you.”

Kate stood up to go, having seen the clock. “Sometimes one has moments of blinding insight when one sees so clearly it’s almost frightening.” Mia nodded. “You asking me if I hadn’t already finished with him made me realize that yes, I have. Trouble is, will he finish with me?” Kate shuddered slightly.

“Well, you must be honest; tell him outright, but very kindly. You know.”

“I know. Thank you, Mia, I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

Staring into the distance, Mia answered, “Whatever you do, you mustn’t drift into marriage just because someone is there and there isn’t anyone else on the horizon, and he’s comfortable and suitable. You musn’t fool yourself. You’ve got to marry for love.”

“Did you marry for love?”

Mia looked up at her, smiling. “Oh yes! I married for love.” She reached out, and taking Kate’s hand in hers, pressed it to her cheek.

Kate’s face lit up with amazement. “Not of me?”

Mia nodded.

“I didn’t know. Thank you.” She was silent for a moment, taking in the full implication of Mia’s words and of how she’d taken Mia’s love all these years without giving it a thought, then brought things back to normality with, “See you tonight. I’m split shift today, so I’ll go shopping this afternoon and be home about seven-thirty, with any luck. If you and Dad are going out, don’t worry about me. OK?” Kate bent to kiss Mia’s cheek. “Bye! Let
me
tell Dad.”

B
EARING
in mind Gerry’s warning not to fritter away her granny’s money, Kate decided to spend some of it that very afternoon. She desperately needed new clothes and she also intended treating herself to a nice lunch in the Bite to Eat caf in the shopping precinct to celebrate having taken the big decision.

Most of the dress shops in her spending bracket had autumn sales on, so after a splendid lunch, which she thoroughly enjoyed, she set off to spend, spend, spend.

It was a day for swift decisions, and she made them. A suit, a party dress, some lingerie and a jacket. She came out of Next, turning left to head for her car, intending to put all her bags in the trunk and to return for a pleasant reviving cup of tea in the Food Gallery surrounding the main shopping square. Kate set off at a pace and had gone quite a way when she realized she’d left the jacket she’d just bought in the shop. Without stopping to inspect her bags to make sure, she swung around to return to the shop and bumped headlong into Adam.

“Ooh! Sorry! Adam! What a surprise! What are you doing here?”

Adam appeared as surprised as she was and twice as flustered. Kate asked him if he was not working today. “Having a late lunch.” He looked at her, long and deep, and put out a hand to take her bags. “If you’re leaving, I’ll help you with those to the car.”

“I’ve just bought a jacket in Next and I’ve left it on the counter, so I’m going back to get it.”

“I’ll come with you, then.”

Kate retrieved her jacket and went with Adam to the car park. On the way she debated whether or not to go straight back to the practice, thus avoiding a talk with Adam, but she decided there was no time like now and asked him if he had time for a cup of tea. He glanced at his watch and accepted. “I’ve put in a lot of hours this week. They can’t complain.”

His Adam’s apple was bobbing up and down quite vigorously and she wondered about the stress he must be under with this promotion. “Are you settling in?”

“Settling in?”

“In your new job?”

“Oh yes! Day off, is it?”

She explained about the split shift.

“I see.” He gazed over the balustrade, watching the shoppers walking about below. “Nice spot, this. Come here often?”

“No, just sometimes. I got Granny Howard’s money this week, so since I needed new clothes, I came shopping.”

“Come in handy, that will. Take care of it.”

“Handy for what?”

“Our deposit on a house.”

A terrible feeling of suffocation came over Kate and she had to breathe deeply to rescue herself. Things were much worse than she had thought; he must be losing his marbles.

“There’re some nice starter homes being built the other side of town. I thought we might go and look at them.”

“You might, but I’m not.”

Adam picked up his cup and toasted her with it. “To us. We’ll look somewhere else, then.”

“We won’t. I’m not ready to get married yet. Not for a long long while.” Now was the time to tell him what she’d done this morning on her way to work, but something in his eyes held her back from spilling the beans.

He continued eagerly, as if she’d never spoken, “I’ve just had the most tremendous idea. Mother’s house is not suitable for an up-and-coming man. How about if she sells and we use the money and your granny’s to buy a bigger house, and we all live together? That way, if I work long hours, which one does if one is in a top executive position, you’d always have someone at home for company and to give you a hand with the children. What do you think, eh? Good idea, isn’t it?”

The nightmarish turn his conversation had taken scared Kate to death. Live with his mother! That martinet! That nitpicking, overindulged, idle hypochondriac of a woman! He must be going mad, or else she was. Kate, overcome by her inability to deal with the situation, glanced at her watch. “Look at the time! I’m going to be late.”

“You’ve half an hour yet. What’s the rush?”

“Anyone would think you hadn’t a job to go to. Well, I have and I can’t be late.”

“Think about it, will you, Kate?” He looked pleadingly at her.

“Adam, I’ve told you. I’m not ready to get married yet.”

“But I love you.”

His vulnerability, which she’d successfully ignored these last two or three weeks, struck her anew. She patted his clenched fist, saying, “I know you do and I appreciate how you feel, but I don’t want marriage and babies right now.”

“We’ll go out for a drink tonight and we’ll talk some more. I’ll come around about eight. You’ve no other plans, have you?”

Kate sighed within herself. “All right, then.”

She left him sitting at the table finishing his cup of tea. Looking back at him as she left the caf she paused for a moment, trying to see him as others did. With great clarity of mind she recognized him as a loser: head down, shoulders bowed, clenched fists laid on the table, he seemed . . . Suddenly he looked directly at her and a shiver of fear ran down her spine. It confirmed as nothing else had done that Adam was not for her.

T
HE
clinic that afternoon was busy; it seemed to her that every single animal on their books, both large and small, had decided it was dying on its feet. Kate always found the four-till-seven clinic busy, but this was ridiculous.

At five past four, little Miss Chillingsworth came in with her cat. “I know I haven’t an appointment, Kate dear, but she really is very poorly today.”

“Vomiting again?”

Miss Chillingsworth nodded bleakly. “She can’t keep a thing down. I’ve casseroled some chicken for her, but she can’t even manage that.”

Privately Kate thought Miss Chillingsworth would be all the better for eating the casserole herself, for today she seemed smaller and thinner than ever. “Take a seat, Miss Chillingsworth, and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve no doubt Mr. Murgatroyd will find a space for you.”

Miss Chillingsworth’s face lit up. “Oh, he will when he knows it’s me. He loves my Cherub.” As if to emphasize the fact, Cherub Chillingsworth howled pathetically. “You see, she is in pain.”

Kate broke off to answer the phone and squeezed in yet another client appointment for Valentine Dedic in room three. Catching Graham between clients, Kate asked him if he would fit in Cherub Chillingsworth.

Graham grimaced. “Not again. I swear there’s nothing wrong with Cherub but old age and too much coddling. However, I will see her. Wheel her in after this next client. It’s only a booster—shouldn’t take long.”

Graham weighed Cherub and found she had lost weight—not much but enough to make him think Miss Chillingsworth might be right. “Now see here, Miss Chillingsworth, we’ve done blood tests, found nothing; we’ve kept a close watch and found nothing, and now Cherub has lost weight again.”

“I knew she had; I could tell.” Miss Chillingworth’s eyes flooded with tears.

“I’d like to x-ray her, her stomach and such, but . . .”

“Yes?”

Graham propped himself against the examination table. “But I hesitate to suggest it because it will cost money, you see, and you’ve already spent a lot. How do you feel about it? She’s very old.” He checked the computer screen. “Yes, as I thought, seventeen. That is old to go through an X-ray because she’ll have to have an anesthetic, you see, which won’t be good for her.”

Her bottom lip was trembling, but Miss Chillingsworth did her best not to let her voice shake. Defiantly she said, “She may be old, but she’s . . . lively and still has a good quality of life, you know, when she’s well.”

“I know. Yes, of course.” Gently Graham suggested, “You could always go to the RSPCA. They can do it for nothing.”

Miss Chillingsworth was shocked. “I am not in need of charity, Mr. Murgatroyd, no, certainly not, and whatever Cherub needs, she will get. I’ll find the money.”

“Very well, but even if she has an X-ray, that’s no guarantee we can sort out what ails her. At her age . . .” Graham gravely shook his head.

“I know what you’re trying to tell me, but Cherub and I will go down fighting.”

“Bring her tomorrow. Eight
A.M.
Can you manage that?”

Miss Chillingsworth drew herself up to her full height. “Of course I can.” Picking up Cherub, who looked up at her owner as though she’d understood every word, Miss Chillingsworth went out of the consulting room.

Kate saw her sadness immediately and managed to catch Miss Chillingsworth’s eye. “How’re things with Cherub?”

Miss Chillingsworth put Cherub gently on the reception counter and while Kate stroked the old cat comfortingly she got her answer. “Dear Mr. Murgatroyd, he’s going to x-ray her tomorrow morning. Now, my dear, I want him to know he can do his very best for her without any anxiety about money. So can I put her in her carrying cage and leave her here while I go to the bank to get the money out? I shall feel happier if it’s here waiting and then Mr. Murgatroyd can go ahead with whatever he needs to do.”

“There’s really no need. You can pay tomorrow when you come to collect her. It’s quite in order to do that.”

“No, my dear, I want the money here on the premises and I want you to tell Mr. Murgatroyd it is here waiting and that he won’t have to hold back on anything he needs to do.”

“But . . .”

“No, I insist. I don’t like the idea that he might think I’m too poor to pay and will take short cuts because of it. I shall feel more comfortable if he knows the money’s waiting.”

“But I don’t know how much it will be.”

“I shall bring one hundred pounds and if it’s not enough, I shall bring the balance. If it’s too much, then I know you’ll take good care of it for me and give me back what’s left over.”

“I don’t know if I’m supposed to do this.”

“Well then, it’s just between you, me and Mr. Murgatroyd. Now here’s Cherub. You keep her behind the desk; she doesn’t like all the dogs, you see.” She handed the cage over to Kate, who put it on the floor near her feet.

“Mind how you go, Miss Chillingsworth.”

“I will.”

Lynne Seymour was on duty with Kate that night, but somehow she had managed to disappear at the crucial moment when all hell was let loose. Two dogs had a serious go at getting a cat out of its basket, someone taking a sympathetic peep at their budgerigar let it out by mistake and to cap it all, someone’s dog cocked a leg down the front of the reception desk.