A COUNTRY PRACTICE

Abigail Gordon

Considering that her first meeting with police surgeon and GP Max Hollister took place when she was in a police cell, Fenella Forbes is pretty certain he’s not going to give her the job as trainee GP in his village practice. But he does - it’s obvious to him that she’s a victim, not an offender.

And it’s not long before Fenella finds herself falling for her charismatic employer. Max, however takes his personal and professional responsibilities very seriously, and seems determined to fight their mutual attraction. Fenella knows she can win his professional respect - but can she also win his love?

CHAPTER ONE

Max Hollister opened one eye to look at the clock and groaned. The phone was ringing at three o'clock in the mornings and he didn't have to make two guesses as to why. Some of Friday night's carousing around the city would have ended up at the police station and his presence would be required for the protection of those who had been brought in for some kind of lawlessness and for the officers who were having to deal with them.

If there was a health problem with someone who had been arrested and they were in no fit state to look after themselves due to alcohol or injury, he or another police surgeon would be sent for, and as he picked up the phone it seemed that tonight it could be his turn.

'What's the problem?' he asked the desk sergeant at the other end, after verifying that it was indeed the police disturbing him at such an hour.

'We brought in two young women who'd been drinking,' he said. 'And before we could do anything, one of them collapsed. We're not sure if it's the drink or something else, but she don't look good.'

'I'll be right there,' Max told him, 'and in the meantime don't leave her unattended for any reason.'

Throwing on a shirt and trousers over the boxer shorts he'd been sleeping in, Max hurried outside. It was quiet out in the stillness of the countryside, with only an owl hooting somewhere nearby to break the silence. Yet just a couple of miles away was the city and noise, lots of it, contrasting sharply with the peace of the village where he and his staff provided medical care for its inhabitants.

His car was in the drive of the converted barn where he lived and within seconds Max was driving off into the night and to whatever awaited him at the police station.

'She's in one of the cells,' the desk sergeant told him when he went striding into its dismal confines. 'I've got a young WPC keeping an eye on her.'

'And where's the other girl?' he asked.

'In the next cell. She's all right. Or will be in the morning, except for a headache. It's blondie that we're not happy about. We weren't originally bringing her in, but she started interfering when we were dealing with her friend, so we ended up fetching her in too, an' the minute we got here she keeled over.'

The policeman was opening the door of the cell, and before he'd even got the key out of the lock Max was beside the still figure of the girl in question. She was lying on her side dressed in jeans and a low-cut T-shirt with a sequined pattern on it. He could see her breasts rising and falling beneath the neckline and thought grimly that at least she was alive. Those he was called out to didn't always survive the abuse they, or someone else, had inflicted on their bodies.

He took a slender, ringless hand in his and checked her pulse. It was a bit erratic, but when he checked her heartbeat it seemed steady enough. As he looked down at her, it seemed more as if she was in a deep sleep rather than having had too much to drink. She didn't smell of alcohol. So if she hadn't been drinking, what had she been up to, he wondered, and why had she got herself arrested?

Overdosing on some sort of substance maybe. Whatever it was, she needed to be in hospital. It was a pity that her friend wasn't in a fit state to tell him what she'd taken, if that was the case.

She was wearing a fine gold chain and he lifted it gently from where it was dragging across the smooth flesh of her throat. Her hair was short and shiny, a blonde mop in a fashionable cut, but it was dishevelled now, due, no doubt, to her scuffles with the police. He couldn't see her eyes. They were closed, with golden lashes sweeping down onto her cheeks, but he imagined they would be blue.

Why didn't these girls take better care of themselves? he thought grimly as he turned to find the desk sergeant, the WPC and an elderly constable hovering behind him. He knew what they were thinking. That they didn't want any of this washing off onto them. The city in the early hours of Saturday morning when the clubs were emptying was a hazardous place to be for public and police alike.

'Ambulance needed without delay,' he told them crisply. 'This one hasn't been drinking. Her condition is due to something else, and I don't know what. I've checked and there are no injuries on her.'

At that moment the girl on the bed groaned and moved restlessly, but she didn't surface from whatever it was that had her in its grip. She mumbled something and as Max bent to catch what it was, he thought she said, 'Drink.' Yet from all appearances she hadn't been drinking, not alcohol anyway.

In view of what was going on outside on the streets, the ambulance wasn't long in coming and as the paramedics examined her Max relayed his findings, adding, 'I don't think she has been drinking alcohol, there is no smell of it, but someone might have spiked whatever she was drinking. I would suggest that she is checked for Rohypnol.'

When they'd gone racing off to A and E at the nearest hospital he examined the other girl to make sure that she was all right and concluded that this one had been drinking. She was sleeping noisily but otherwise showing no problems, and after sharing a mug of tea with the desk sergeant he left, just as a June dawn was breaking.

When Max got home he saw that Will's car was in the drive and wondered what had brought his young brother home unexpectedly. There was no sign of him when he went inside, but proof that he was in residence was lying around in the form of a bin liner full of dirty washing and a mug and a plate that he'd used.

Will was at college, studying law, and turned up at the strangest times, which didn't bother Max unduly as he was always happy to see him, and tonight the thought of him being asleep upstairs was a relief. He'd seen enough of the effects of the city's night life for the time being and if Will had arrived earlier he would most likely have been out there with the rest of them.

* * *

When Fenella Forbes woke up she gazed around her in drowsy dismay. She was in hospital, she thought unbelievingly. Why? What for? And then it all began to come back.

The club that her friend Julie had persuaded her to go to. Julie drinking too much, and the two guys who had latched onto them. When the four of them were leaving Julie had been all over the place and she, Fenella, had started to feel strange. Her legs had felt like jelly, her speech hadn't been coming out right, and she had felt very tired.

She'd seen the two men exchange glances and had gone sick with fear as it had occurred to her that the reason she was feeling so odd could be connected with them. Afraid that she wouldn't be able to fend them off if she began to feel any more peculiar, she'd got herself arrested, with the thought that she would be out of their clutches in the police station. That was the last thing she remembered.

When a doctor came to see her she knew that her fears hadn't been unfounded. Traces of the sleep-inducing drug had been found in her system and as she got dressed to leave the hospital Fenella was telling herself that in future she would drink straight from the bottle and that she'd had a lucky escape. She had her career to think of. It came first in her life. As for the opposite sex, she had yet to meet a man who made her heart beat faster. From now on Julie could go clubbing with someone else.

Putting the night's dramas to the back of his mind, Max took a shower to take away the smell of the police station and then made himself some breakfast before going round to the practice to open up for the Saturday morning surgery.

When he got back he found Will reading the morning paper and tucking into a fry-up at the same time.

He was a tall, gangling, twenty-year-old, with spiked up brown locks and a strange dress sense, and as Max ruffled his hair playfully he asked, 'So where have you sprung from? When I left the house at three o'clock this morning you were nowhere to be seen.'

Will grinned up at him.

'When I was on the point of going to bed at college last night I had a sudden yearning to come home, so I threw some things into a bag and drove through the night. Are you pleased to see me?'

'Of course I am,' Max told him. Looking down at his hands, he went on, 'Even though I have got myself covered in your hair gel.'

They were close, these two, even though there was a big age gap. They'd lost both their parents when Will had been only thirteen, and Max had put his own life on hold to take care of his young brother. That, and a general practice to run in a village within easy reach of the city had been enough to keep him fully occupied.. .and unattached.

'So where were you when I arrived?' Will asked. 'Coping with Friday night fever?'

'Something like that,' Max told him. 'A young woman who I think might have had her drink spiked had been taken to the police station and was completely out of it.'

'How come she was taken there?' Will asked curiously. 'Surely she was the victim rather than the perpetrator.'

'Yes, on the face of it, but from what the police said she seemed intent on getting herself arrested.'

A vision came to mind of how defenceless the girl had looked as he'd eased the gold chain from around her throat. It was difficult to imagine her getting in trouble, but that was not his concern. He'd been there because she'd been just another person he'd had to protect from themselves. Consoling himself with that thought, he went and made himself a coffee.

It was Monday and Max had an appointment. He'd arranged it so that it would fit into the short gap between morning surgery and house calls and had no intention of letting that detract from its importance.

With himself as senior partner, there had been two doctors in the practice until a couple of weeks ago when Simon Wells, his partner, had been involved in a car crash that was going to put him out of action for some time, so Max had decided to do what he'd been considering for some time, take on a trainee GP.

He'd mentioned it to Ann Forbes, the practice manager and she'd been quick to inform him that her daughter, who had recently got a degree in medicine, was on the lookout for such a position and would he consider her?

He'd been taken aback at such a prompt solution offering itself but, not having met the young woman in question, he'd suggested that she call in for a chat with a view to being interviewed for the position, which would give him a get-out if he thought she wasn't suitable. Today she was coming to see him.

Will had gone back after his brief visit and his next appearance would be for the long summer break that would take him into September before he returned to college. It always pleased Max to know that Will enjoyed coming home, as he never pressurised him to do so. If ever he found time to get married, the converted barn where he lived would still be home to his young brother for as long as he wanted it to be.

When he'd seen off his last patient from the morning surgery he rang Ann Forbes and asked if her daughter had arrived.

'Yes,' was the reply. 'She is here with me now.'

'Then will you ask her to come into my consulting room?' he said, and waited.

He was glancing through the morning's mail when he heard the door open and shut in quick succession, and when he looked up his jaw went slack with surprise.

She was still wearing the gold chain. If he hadn't recognised it and the neck from which it hung, the short blonde cut, now without a hair out of place, would have been familiar, and the golden lashes that had swept down from closed eyelids...

'I don't believe it!' he breathed. 'Fenella Forbes? The last time I saw you was in the early hours of Saturday morning in a police cell.'

If Max was surprised, Fenella was dumbfounded at his greeting. What was he on about? she wondered. Had he been arrested on Saturday night, too? The thought of anyone, especially this rather forbidding-looking doctor, seeing her in the state she'd been in was absolutely awful. So far she hadn't spoken and, still without speaking, she turned to go.

'Where are you going?' he barked.

'Where do you think?' she said flatly. 'I can't see you wanting to employ someone arrested for public disturbance. How did you get to see me? Where were you? Not in the next cell, I would think.'

He shook his head.

'The police sent for me. They were concerned about your condition and I was the police surgeon on call at the time. So what was wrong with you? You seem to have made a swift recovery.'

'I'd been given Rohypnol by someone that I'd met in the club.'

'And that made you violent towards the police?' he questioned ironically.

'No. What it did do was make me want to get away before I flaked out, and as my friend Julie was already in trouble with the police, I decided to join in, knowing they couldn't get to me once I'd been arrested.'

'It seems a rather dramatic way of escape,' he remarked dryly.

'I was desperate. My legs were like jelly and I was so drowsy I knew I wouldn't make sense if I tried to tell someone what was happening.'

'Does your mother know about it?'

'Yes, but she doesn't know that you were called out on my behalf. I've only just discovered that myself. You won't tell her, will you?' she pleaded.

'No, I won't tell her,' he promised, and glanced at the clock. 'So, shall we get down to discussing why you are here?'

'You still might want to employ me, then?'

'I might. Yes. But first you have to convince me that you are the right person for the job, along with details of your capabilities and qualifications. I will also require an assurance that you are not in the habit of frequenting the cells at the city police station.'

Fenella's face was scarlet with mortification. 'Of course I'm not! It was Julie who picked up the two men we were with. When it comes to that sort of thing, I can take it or leave it.'

Max wondered what she meant by that but didn't feel compelled to ask, as he had a feeling that he mightn't like the answer.

She was taller than he'd thought and her eyes were blue, he noticed...and time was ticking on. 'So tell me about yourself,' he said levelly. 'Where you studied. What kind of a degree you got. Do you want to specialise? And what makes you prefer general practice to hospital work?'

When she'd answered all his questions except the last one, he nodded. 'I can't find fault with any of that, and now are you going to tell me why you are drawn to general practice.. .in a rural setting? Are you sure it won't be too quiet for you?'

'I can always liven it up if it is,' she said with a smile. 'And my reason for wanting to work here is to treat people that I've got to know, rather than strangers who pass my way briefly.'

Max nodded. 'Your mother hasn't always lived here, has she? She came to me for a job soon after she moved into the village. She'd been a practice manager before and I was only too pleased to take her on, but I don't remember seeing you around the place.'

'That's because I'm never ill and have been away at university for the last six years. I was already studying for my degree when my mother moved here so I've only been around while on vacation and I spent most of that time studying.'

'Mmm, I see,' he said thoughtfully. 'I'm due to start my home visits in a few minutes' time. How about you coming along? It will give you the chance to get the feel of what happens in a country practice.'

He'd noticed that she was dressed for the occasion in a navy suit and white silk shirt, and it had his approval, as a sequined T-shirt wouldn't have looked too good on his rounds.

'Yes, all right,' she agreed after a moment's silence. 'Have you had many applicants?'

Max didn't say either yes or no to that. He merely commented, 'You are the first.'

The truth of it was that she was the only one so far, because of the way her mother had asked him to consider her daughter for the position. If he decided that Fenella was not suitable then he would advertise.

As his car pulled out into the main street of the village Fenella was wishing it wasn't happening. She hadn't intended it to be like this. Her idea had been to appear in front of Dr Max Hollister as a cool, efficient graduate who would be an asset to his practice.

But instead he was seeing her as someone who did foolish things, took risks, and their first meeting had been in a police cell. A meeting that she'd known nothing about until today, and she could tell by his manner that he was not impressed.

All right, he was taking her on his calls with him. She supposed that could be a step in the right direction. But the feeling that she had made a mess of things was strong within her and as if tuning into her thoughts the man beside her said, 'If there is one thing that a doctor is not expected to do it is to take chances, make errors of judgement. I care about my patients and am not prepared to put them at risk with the services of a harum-scarum trainee.'

'I can understand that,' she told him in a small voice, 'but what happened the other night was due to the wrongdoing of others, and if I did a stupid thing by getting myself arrested, as far as I was concerned anything was better than being drugged and then assaulted by two strangers. I would have thought you might understand that.'

He did, Max thought irritably. He saw it only too well, and if he could get his hands on the two predators who had sought to satisfy their sexual urges in such a manner they would think twice before trying it again. He could still see her lying there in a drugged sleep.

But if he was going to take Fenella into the practice, she was going to have to learn that he asked for high efficiency from all his staff and the first time she put a foot wrong he would be wanting to know why.

She was biting into her bottom lip with even white teeth and, sorry for giving her a hard time, he was about to tell her that he did see her point of view when she forestalled him by saying, 'Will you, please, stop the car and let me get out? I can see that it isn't going to work.'

Max sighed impatiently. 'I will decide whether it is going to work or not. So sit back, pull yourself together, and look and learn. We will shortly be stopping at the home of the Copley family, which will bring any knowledge you might have of paediatrics to the fore.'

Fenella was still feeling uncomfortable but now he had her interest, though she didn't like the 'might have'. There was something in his manner that made her feel she'd been tried and found wanting before she'd had the chance to show him that she was no idiot.

'Why, what's the problem?' she asked, trying to sound cool.

'Callum, the youngest of their three boys, is complaining of his neck hurting and sounds to be generally unwell.'

'Are there any epidemics of children's illnesses in the area, such as measles and chickenpox?'

Max shook his head. 'Not that I know of. I haven't had any cases of either recently, but that doesn't say that young Callum isn't the first to go down with something of the sort. They are a nice family, the Copleys. His father works for the National Trust at one of the stately homes nearby and his mother has a job as a school dinner lady.'

'How old is the boy?'

'Coming up to five, I would imagine. He's just started school and I know what you're thinking.'

You don't, she thought. Otherwise you would be letting me out of the car. But not being prepared to aggravate him further, she said meekly, 'That he will be open to all that is going in his first year?'

Max nodded but didn't reply. He was stopping the car in front of a large stone cottage and before they'd had time to ring the bell a harassed-looking young mother was opening the door and saying, 'Oh, I'm so glad to see you, Dr Hollister. Callum isn't at all well. His neck is swollen and tender and he's having trouble chewing his food and swallowing.'

'Lead us to him, then, Sarah,' he said briskly. 'Dr Forbes may be joining the practice so I've brought her along with me.'

Sarah acknowledged the introduction with a worried smile and led the way to where a small boy was lying on a sofa in the living room of the cottage. As Max approached him Fenella realised that he wasn't abrupt with everyone.

His voice was gentle as he examined the child. 'So what's this I hear about you having a sore neck, Callum?' he said. 'Show me where it hurts.'

'There,' the boy said tearfully, touching the parotid glands on either side of his neck.

'And what happened when you had your breakfast?'

'I couldn't chew,' the small patient said with tears still threatening.

'I see,' Max said, and to Fenella's surprise asked the child, 'Will you let Dr Forbes feel your neck, Callum?'

'Hmm,' he said dolefully, 'as long as she doesn't hurt.'

'I'm sure that she won't,' Max told him. 'She has gentle hands, haven't you, Fenella?'

'I wonder how you would know that,' she said in a low voice as she bent over the child.

'So what do you think?' he asked when she'd felt Callum's swollen neck.

'Mumps? The parotid glands are up.'

The boy's mother was listening in dismay and Max asked, 'Did Callum have the mumps, measles and rubella immunisation in his second year?'

She shook her head. 'No, he didn't. He was quite ill when he was immunised for diphtheria and whooping cough and my husband wouldn't let him have any more injections.'

'And what about your two older boys?'

'They had all the jabs without trouble, but Callum is allergic to so many things we didn't want to chance it.'

Max nodded. 'Well, the bad news is that he's got mumps, Sarah, but the good news is that your other two won't catch it. Give Callum plenty of liquids and if his neck is painful, a dose of child's paracetamol formula should help. You'll need to inform his school and keep him away from other children until the swelling has gone completely, and I'll see him again in a few days.'

'I feel so guilty that we didn't have him immunised,' the young mother said distractedly.

'It is a decision that isn't easy to make for any parent who wants what is best for their child,' Max told her consolingly, 'and it is usually only in teenage males and adults that the illness can have adverse effects, so don't worry too much.'

As they took their leave he said to Fenella, 'Well done.'

'What do you mean?'

'Picking up on it being mumps.'

Fenella stared at him. 'It seemed pretty obvious.'

'Yes, well, that is often the time when a doctor makes a mistake, by not looking any further. But in this case we were right.'

For the rest of the home visits Fenella looked, listened, learned and was not asked to give an opinion again, thankfully. When they arrived back at the surgery Max asked, 'So how much did you enjoy doing the rounds with me?'

She could have told him that she might have enjoyed it more with someone else, but he was waiting for an answer, so she said untruthfully, 'Yes, it was good.'

'Come back the same time tomorrow and I'll let you know what I've decided. I have to get this matter settled as I am without my partner due to an accident and will be for some time. If I don't decide to take you on I shall have to advertise, so there is no time to waste.' And with that tie wished her a brisk goodbye and went striding into the practice.

As she stood gazing after him Fenella thought, Don't do me any favours, Dr Hollister. If you offer me the position I'm not sure that I want it. I don't relish the prospect of being made to feel inadequate all the time just because the first glimpse you had of me was in a police cell.

When Ann came home that evening her first words were, 'So how did you get on with Max?'

'Terrible,' Fenella told her, leaving out the circumstances of their previous meeting. 'He's bossy and picky. I can't say that I like him.'

Her mother eyed her in surprise. 'That doesn't sound like him. I know that he doesn't suffer fools gladly, but you are no fool, Fenella. Did you make sure he knew how well you did at university, and how keen you are to be part of the practice that is so dear to his heart?'

Ah, Fenella thought. Therein lies the answer to his attitude. He wants only the best and has his doubts about young clubbers who don't keep their eyes on their drinks.

'What will you do if he offers you the position?' Ann asked.

'I don't know,' she said flatly. 'I want to work at the village practice but not if I'm looked upon with doubt and disfavour.'

Her mother laughed. 'If Max feels that way about you, he won't offer you the job. It's as simple as that.'

'Yes. I suppose you're right,' Fenella agreed. 'I'll wait and see what happens.' Referring to more mundane matters she continued, 'I've made a casserole and a rhubarb tart for dinner. Is that all right?'

'Of course it is,' she was told. 'It is pure joy to come in to food that is ready to eat. While you've been at university I've had the most deplorable meals. It seems too much trouble to cook just for one.' She put her arms around the slender figure of her daughter and said ruefully, 'I did so hope that we would be working together at the surgery, but it is more important for you to be happy in your working life, and if you've got off on the wrong foot with Max, well...'

Fenella's father had died some years previously from a heart attack and the two women had a close, loving bond that made Fenella feel that she didn't want to leave her mother on her own again.

'How old is he?' she asked as they cleared away after the meal.

'Middle thirties,' her mother replied, without asking who she meant.

'Is he married?'

'No. Although there are those who would jump at the chance were he to ask them.'

'He is top of the league in looks,' Fenella said begrudgingly. 'But when it comes to personality...!'

'Give the man a break,' Ann said laughingly. 'If he was a bit sharp with you maybe you asked for it. You're no pushover yourself.'

'Where does Max Hollister live?' she asked, not taking her mother up on that last comment.

'He lives with his young brother in a converted barn on the outskirts of the village and it is quite something, believe me. Did you know that, as well as being a GP, Max is a police surgeon?'

Oh, she knew all right, Fenella thought. But she wasn't going to admit it to her mother. Ann knew what had happened at the club but she was not aware that the police had called Max Hollister out to her daughter and Fenella intended it to stay that way.

And in the meantime she was going to have to wait until the next day to know if his highness was going to offer her a place in the practice. Much as she wanted to stay near her mother, Fenella didn't know what she was going to say if he did. If he didn't there would be no decision to make. It would be his loss, she thought mutinously.

CHAPTER TWO

For the rest of the day Max put thoughts of Fenella Forbes to one side. Since Simon's accident there had been little time for anything but keeping the practice running efficiently with himself as the only doctor, and it was an exhausting business. But as he drove home in the early evening after a long and tiring day she was uppermost in his mind.

He'd caught her mother's glance on him a couple of times since he and Fenella had parted company in the lunch-hour and had known that Ann was anxious to know what he'd thought of her daughter, but wasn't going to ask.

It was more a case of what she'd thought of him, he was thinking now. He'd been critical and overbearing. The odds were that she wouldn't take the job if he offered it to her after the way he'd acted.

What was the matter with him? he wondered. Had it been so long since he'd been attracted to a woman that he'd forgotten how to behave? Heaven forbid that should be the case, and heaven forbid that he should be attracted to Fenella Forbes!

On the face of it she was nothing like her mother, his pleasant and extremely efficient practice manager. But time would tell if she came to work at the practice, and suddenly he knew that he wanted that. He wanted the golden-haired doctor to be a trainee GP in the practice.

With that thought in mind Max decided that after he'd had his evening meal, he would drive round to where she lived, high on the hillside, and put it to her then, instead of waiting until the following day.

There was no answer when he rang the doorbell of the isolated three-storied house that had once been a weaver's cottage, but he could hear voices and when Max went round to the back he found the two women soaking up the sun in the garden.

'Max!' Ann exclaimed from where she was weeding a bed of bright summer flowers. 'What brings you here?' As if she didn't know.

His glance was on Fenella, stretched out on a sun lounger clad in the briefest of bikinis and with eyes hidden behind sunglasses.

On hearing her mother say his name, she was raising herself up onto one elbow, and Max was thinking that it was typical of his acquaintance with this girl that he should be offering her a position at the practice when she was showing a great deal of smooth golden flesh.

For her part, Fenella was groaning inwardly. It would seem that the critical GP couldn't wait until morning to dash her hopes, and she would feel a lot better hearing what he had to say if she was dressed for it, as she had been earlier in the day.

'I've made a decision about the trainee GP position,' he told them. 'I hope I'm not intruding.'

'No, of course not,' Ann said. 'It's good of you to come round to tell us.'

So far Fenella hadn't spoken. For one thing, she was feeling at a distinct disadvantage in her semi-naked state, and for another her doubts had disappeared and she was realising just how much she wanted the job, in spite of the abrupt manner of the man who would be her employer. But she wasn't going to beg.

Had she lost her tongue or what? Max was thinking. She'd had enough to say at their earlier meeting.

'Do you want the job or not, Fenella?' he asked levelly, wishing she would take off the shades.

'Yes, I do,' she said, finding her voice.

'Then it is yours. How soon can you start?'

'Er.. .tomorrow,' she croaked. 'Or is that too soon?'

'No. It is not too soon. Our day at the practice starts at eight-thirty, but we are usually there about eight. I'll see you then, and some time during the morning we'll discuss all the relevant details with regard to you joining us. Is that all right with you?'

'Yes, that will be fine,' she said coolly, having regained some of her usual aplomb.

'I'll be off, then,' he said briskly, and turned to Ann. 'Sorry to have butted into your evening, Ann. I'm sure that you must feel you see enough of me at the surgery without me turning up after hours.'

'Not at all,' she replied. 'And thank you for taking Fenella into the practice. It will be lovely to have her nearby for a change. It's been lonely without her while she's been at university.'

'Yes, that is how it is with Will and I. It's a bonus when he turns up out of the blue unexpectedly,' he said with a wry smile.

'Why don't you and he come for dinner some time when he's home?' Ann suggested.

Had her mother gone crazy? Fenella thought. She knew she didn't like Max.

His smile was still on view but there was amusement in it now and she knew he had guessed her thoughts. 'That would be very nice,' he said. 'He'll be home in a week or two for the long summer vacation. Will is studying law.'

A week or two would give her time to explain to her mother that she didn't want to socialise with Max Hollister and his brother, Fenella thought. That she had plenty of male friends that she'd studied with who would be round immediately if she gave them the slightest encouragement. But after the incident at the club she was going to give the eligible male of the species a wide berth.

Ann was smiling back at him and telling him easily, 'Come whenever it suits you.' And Fenella thought for a second time that her mother had gone crazy. Her liking for the man standing beside them in the flower-filled garden was plain to see and she thought, Surely not! Surely her mother wasn't attracted to him. She was older. Eight, nine years maybe, but glamorous enough to attract the attention of a younger man.

He was about to depart and Fenella didn't get off the sunbed, mainly because there was so much of her on view. So Ann was left to walk with him to the front gate and wave him off.

When her mother came back her first words were, 'I can't understand why you don't like Max. He's the best doctor this place has ever had, from all accounts. Liked and respected by everyone and totally dedicated to his patients.'

Yes, Fenella thought glumly. But she doubted if he'd made any of their acquaintances while asleep in a police cell. It was unfair that he'd taken such a jaundiced view of her. She'd been a victim of unpleasant circumstances. But at least he had offered her the position, so maybe his opinion of her had improved since earlier in the day.

Yet no sooner had she managed to see the up side of that problem than there was her mother's obvious affection for the domineering GP to take stock of. It was a ghastly thought that she might one day have to call him 'Daddy'!

'What's the joke?' Ann asked curiously as Fenella laughed hollowly.

'There isn't one,' she replied, having no intention of bringing up such a delicate matter so soon, and with a change of subject asked, 'Do you think your doctor friend is attractive, Mum?'

'Yes, I suppose so,' Ann replied.

'So why isn't he married?'

'I don't know,' was the reply. 'I remember someone mentioning that he'd had a big romantic hiccup some years ago before we came to live in the area, but I don't know the details.'

'Oh,' Fenella murmured, having no wish to think any further about her mother's relationship with Max Hollister. It was enough to cope with that from tomorrow he would be her employer.

But it didn't stop her from wondering what had gone wrong with his love life in the past, as it was surprising to find a man of his looks and standing in the community unattached.

*

He knew what ailed Fenella, Max was thinking as he drove back home. She couldn't cope with what had happened at the police station. Not the fact that she'd been arrested, which had been strictly a matter of self-preservation. Though a risky one at that. But because he'd seen her at her very worst and she'd known nothing about it until she'd walked into his consulting room that morning.

It was what was bothering him, too, but not for the same reason. She was a lovely, wholesome-looking creature, who could so easily have been degraded and humiliated by a couple of evil predators, and even though Fenella had told him her side of the story, he was still appalled by what had happened.

Not that he didn't see violence and depravity all the time in his police work. He did. But there'd been something about her vulnerability that had got to him. Yet instead of showing her the sympathy she deserved, he'd been critical and abrasive.

Maybe tomorrow everything would even out between them, he thought as he put his key in the lock. Ann was obviously delighted that he'd agreed to take Fenella into the practice, so perhaps she would keep the peace between them. Later, as he slid between the sheets, the last thought in his mind was of smooth golden flesh beneath a face that hadn't exactly lit up with delight when he'd told her she'd got the position... if she wanted it.

To his satisfaction she had wanted it and now it was a case of waiting to see if he'd made a mistake.

* * *

With a student loan to pay off Fenella hadn't got transport and the next morning as they prepared to go to the surgery, Ann said, 'My car is standing around all day while I'm working so use it if you need to drive anywhere. Though I imagine Max will take you with him on the house calls for the first few weeks.'

Fenella pulled a face.

'Whatever it is that you've got against him, wipe the slate clean when you get to the surgery, Fenella,' she advised. 'Otherwise you will be creating problems that both you and he can do without.'

Ann was eyeing her consideringly. 'You haven't been your usual sunny self since that dreadful business on Friday night. Maybe we should ask Max to check you over. After all, you were given a powerful, sleep-inducing drug. And if Max knew the circumstances he would understand why you're being a bit fractious.'

Fenella stifled a groan. Her mother wasn't to know that she'd already been 'checked over' by him once, in a less salubrious place than the village surgery, and did not want a repeat performance.

'I will put yesterday to the back of my mind and make a fresh start with Max,' she promised hurriedly. 'If he'll let me.'

'Of course he will,' her mother said confidently, and Fenella thought it was there again, a warmth that meant more than just respect.

When they arrived at the surgery he was there, dressed as the day before in a dark suit with an immaculate shirt and tie. Crazily she wondered if he sent his shirts to the cleaner's or laundered them himself.

'Fenella!' he said when he saw her. 'Welcome to Hillside Practice.'

His hand reached out to shake hers and his clasp was firm and cool, like the man himself. Ann had been waylaid by one of the receptionists so, taking the opportunity, Fenella said in a low voice, 'My mother still doesn't know that you attended to me on Friday night. You aren't going to tell her, are you?'

Max observed her levelly. 'I seem to remember having already made that promise. I'm not in the habit of saying things that I don't mean.'

I'll bet, she thought uncomfortably, aware that she'd started off on the wrong foot again.

'I think it's time you met the rest of the staff, so that we can get the day under way,' he said in the same even tone, and she nodded meekly.

'Gather round, everyone,' he commanded, and when the practice nurses, receptionists and Brenda, the cleaner, came out from their various rooms he said, 'Fenella is our new member of staff. She is starting today as a trainee GP and I want all of you to give her every assistance while she is settling in.

'She is also Ann's daughter,' he told them, with a smile for the practice manager who was standing at the back of the little gathering, 'and if she helps take the weight off my shoulders as well as her mother does, I will have no complaints.'

It was there again, Fenella thought, the doubting tone that he'd used before regarding herself. Yet if he was dubious about her suitability why had Max offered her the position? Something else had been there in his tone, too, the rapport she'd sensed the night before between Max and her mother. She'd always wanted to be a bridesmaid but not under those circumstances!

Fenella sat in with him during the morning surgery. Hunched on the edge of her seat, with hands tightly clasped, she wished she presented a more relaxed picture. But there was something about Max Hollister that made her nervous, and when she was nervous she was inclined to conceal it by sounding over-confident. She prayed that it wouldn't be like that this time.

In the role of silent onlooker she was able to take stock of the man who, unknown to her, had taken charge of her well-being on a night she wasn't ever going to forget. He was tall, and lean with it. His hair a dark thatch, stylishly cut, and beneath it bright hazel eyes and a firm mouth.

'So, will I do?' he asked dryly during a gap between patients.

Aware that she must have been staring, Fenella's cheeks reddened.

'I'm sorry,' she told him. 'I didn't mean to gape. It's just that my life has changed in just a matter of days. This time last week I didn't even know you. I'd heard of you, of course, from my mother, but you were just a name, and now….'

'I'm everywhere you turn,' he said smoothly, finishing the sentence for her, and before she could reply he was going to the door to call in the next patient.

As those who sought his attention came and went, Fenella saw that the efficiency she'd expected of him was there. He was briskly precise, yet gentle with those who were nervous and afraid of what he might tell them, and in contrast had a no-nonsense approach for the would-be malingerers.

Fenella was beginning to feel ashamed for being so hostile towards him. She was aware that both their attitudes were connected with the circumstances of their meeting and she needed to put it to the back of her mind and concentrate on the chance she'd been given to work with a clever and caring GP.

As was to be expected of any general practice, there had been an assortment of people coming through the doors on that Tuesday morning and, anxious to show that she was keen and able, Fenella had taken note of every aspect of each consultation.

There had been the golfer with a badly swollen ankle who'd fallen into a bunker while playing a round on Sunday afternoon. Max had sent him to A and E to have it X-rayed in case there was a fracture.

He'd been followed by a mother with a child who'd looked as if he might be the second case of mumps to be brought to their notice. He had the same symptoms as Callum Copley.

And so it went on, with a smart, elderly woman called Megan Oliver appearing before them. It seemed that Max had been treating her during the last few weeks for all the symptoms of a severe allergy. But antibiotics and a nebuliser had done nothing to stop the patient's distress in the form of a continually running nose, dry chesty cough and a burning sensation in her throat and chest.

'I'm exhausted,' she wheezed as she settled herself opposite the two doctors. 'I've always been subject to mild hay fever but never like this. I just can't stop coughing. Yet I don't bring anything up off my chest.'

Max nodded.

'Yes, your chest is clear. But something has got you in its grip, Megan. I don't think it's hay fever. It is beginning to look more like asthma. Are you particularly stressed about anything?'

Megan sighed. 'Yes. I suppose I am. New people have moved in next door to me and they are very intrusive. There is music blaring away until all hours. The children are noisy and badly behaved. They broke one of the windows in my garage with their football, though the parents did apologise and had it replaced. But I'm on edge all the time, wondering what they're going to do next. Jack Meadows used to live next door to me and he was a wonderful neighbour, quiet, respectable, kept himself to himself. But when he died the house was sold and this disruptive family moved in.'

Max listened patiently to what she had to say.

'That could have something to do with it. Stress can bring on asthma. I'm going to see if we can sort you out with one big blast of steroids,' he told her. 'A large dose of prednisolone taken over just a few hours and we'll see if it will clear up the problem.'

His patient didn't look too happy about that.

'I thought that it was dangerous to be on steroids and come off them suddenly. My sister was on them once and she had to carry a card round with her in case she was taken ill or had an accident, so that her dosage could be continued. Otherwise she could have died if she was taken off them suddenly.'

'That is the case if the person has been on long-term usage of the drug,' he explained, 'but it can also be given in just one large dose without harmful effects. So we'll see what it will do for you. The prednisolone won't make your neighbours any easier to live with, but it might make you feel less stressed by them.'

Max printed out and signed a prescription for prednisolone and handed it to Megan with a reassuring smile. 'I want to see you again in a week's time. By then the steroids will have taken effect and you should be feeling better. If the football keeps coming over the fence, maybe a gentle reminder that there's a playing field at the end of your road might have some effect.'

When she'd gone, clutching the prescription, Max said, 'That was a prime example of the generation gap, I'm afraid. Megan Oliver's description of her previous neighbour was very accurate. Maybe Jack Meadows was too quiet. Once she has adjusted to having some young ones around the place Megan might begin to see this new family in a different light. The parents accepted their responsibility for the broken window, which was a step in the right direction. No doubt we'll be making their acquaintance sooner or later, though they haven't registered with the practice yet.'

'So you have the monopoly, then?' Fenella asked. 'Is there no other practice in the area?'

'I wouldn't exactly describe it as a monopoly,' he said dryly. 'The public can register with whichever doctor they prefer, providing they will take them on. This is the only practice in the village, but there is another one a couple of miles away.'

It was the first time she'd spoken, Fenella thought, and it seemed that she might have said the wrong thing.. .again.

Of all the people visiting the surgery that morning the one who caught her attention the most was Damien Forrester, the owner of Nostalgics, the antique shop at the other end of the village.

She'd seen the shop when she'd been home on vacation and had occasionally stopped to glance at the window display, but hadn't met its owner until today. He was small, chubby, looked as if he was in his fifties, and was led into Max's consulting room by a guide dog.

As he groped his way to a chair Fenella rose to her feet to assist him, but Max shook his head and waved her back down again as he greeted the blind man.

'Good morning, Damien,' he said, and before he could explain that he had Fenella with him the other man said, 'You're not alone, are you?'

'No, I'm not,' Max had told him. 'I have Dr Forbes with me. She has joined the practice as from today. You don't mind her being in on our consultation, do you?'

'Is she any relation to Ann Forbes who works here?' he asked.

'Yes. She is my mother,' Fenella told him.

'I remember selling Ann a nice piece of Chippendale before I became a useless member of the community,' he said flatly, and it was only then that she realised who he was.

He went on to say in the same tone, 'I would prefer to see you alone, if you don't mind, Dr Hollister.' And at a nod from Max, Fenella left the room.

When he'd gone and she'd returned to her position beside Max, Fenella asked, 'How long has Damien Forrester been blind and how can he run an antique shop without being able to see?'

'He and his wife live above the shop and one night it was burgled by two men,' Max explained. 'Damien received a heavy blow to the head, which damaged the optic nerves and he ended up losing his sight. So now his wife, Alma, runs the shop and poor old Damien gives what help he can, which is not easy, as you can imagine. I've been treating him for depression ever since.'

'And is that what he came for this morning?'

'Yes. Damien has felt very much disadvantaged since he became blind, which is perfectly understandable, and couldn't face a stranger being present during his consultation with me, even though it was only for a repeat prescription.'

When at last the waiting room was empty, Max turned to Fenella. 'So. How has your first morning gone?'

'Fine,' she told him. 'It was interesting and challenging. What comes next?'

He was getting up out of the chair behind the desk and stretching cramped muscles. 'House calls, a quick lunch, then for me a session with Ann to go over the accounts, which will give you time to get to know the rest of the staff and find out how they function. After that we have the late afternoon surgery, by which time you will probably be sagging at the knees.'

He saw her shudder and asked, 'What's wrong?'

'Sorry. It was just the phrase "sagging at the knees." That's how I was on Friday night. I could feel myself drifting off into some sort of limbo and couldn't do anything about it. I've told Julie she can go to those sorts of places on her own in future.'

'But you did, didn't you?'

'What?'

'Do something about it. Which resulted in me being called out at some ungodly hour.'

'Is that why you were so abrupt with me yesterday?'

'No, not at all. I was snappy with you because I can't bear to see young folk at risk, especially when they are of the opposite sex.'

'I'm not exactly a teenager,' she protested. 'I'm twenty- five, going on twenty-six, and can assure you that I won't be wilting before the day is out.'

'Huh! We'll see,' he said with a dry smile. Reaching down his jacket from a hook behind the desk, he beckoned for her to lead the way into Reception, where a list of the calls he had to make was waiting for him on the counter.

'Can I ask you something?' she said as he drove out onto the road that led to the centre of the village.

'Yes, of course, but don't be too sure that you'll get an answer. It depends on what it is.'

'What made you get involved in the police surgeon side of medicine?'

'There were a few reasons,' he told her, concealing his surprise, 'but the main one was that before I decided to go into general practice I had ambitions of becoming a pathologist.'

'And why didn't you?'

'I had a young brother who needed me around, so I decided that at the village practice he would always know where to find me. I wouldn't be far away from the house and when I'd finished here for the day I could have a meal on the table by the time Will had finished his homework.

'Whereas if I'd gone into pathology I might have ended up being hospital based, or freelancing all over the place, which would have done nothing for the sense of security of a kid who'd lost his parents within a short time of each other. Does that satisfy you?'

'Yes,' she told him, and thought illogically that he might not be the most approachable man she'd ever met, but she would like to bet that Max Hollister would never let down those he loved, and would be a good friend to those he took to. So far she couldn't see herself being added to the list.

'I need to call back at my place before we get bogged down with the home visits,' he said, turning off down a leafy lane. 'I left some paperwork behind when I came out this morning and I'm going to need it before the day is out. It won't take long. OK?'

'Er...yes...of course,' she replied, with the feeling that she was hardly in a position to say otherwise. 'My mother says that you live in a converted barn that is quite something.'

He smiled. 'I don't know about that, but it suits me. Maybe you'd like to come in for a quick look round after Ann gave you such a glowing description.'

'Yes, I would,' she said without hesitation. 'I like looking around other people's houses. Ours is quaint, with fantastic views, but it is a bit decrepit.'

When Max had unlocked the front door he beckoned for her to follow him into a large hallway and then stood to one side as she looked around her. The carpet was cream, the walls pale gold, and an old settle made from glowing walnut stood alongside one wall. Above it was an oil painting of a striking moorland scene and further along horse brasses shone.

'Well?' he asked.

'Lovely! If the rest of the house is like this, it must be heaven living here.'

'It's pleasant,' he conceded with a dry smile, 'but a bit big for just the two of us. When my brother's away it is as well that I have so little time to brood.'

He wasn't going to tell his new assistant that a home was the people who lived and loved in it. Not bricks and mortar or tasteful furnishings. She might think he was whingeing.

This place could have been filled with the children he longed for if the woman he'd been going to marry had understood his responsibilities to his young brother. But Sonya hadn't wanted any encumbrances at the start of their marriage and he hadn't been prepared to give way on the matter. So the relationship had foundered and he'd never been attracted to anyone since.

Surely this self-contained, efficient doctor wasn't lonely, Fenella was thinking. It sounded like it, but why? He was the most physically attractive man she'd ever met, so maybe it was his manner that kept her own sex on the sidelines.

'Do you want a lightning tour of the house?' he was asking. Bringing her thoughts back to the moment, she nodded. 'Yes, if you don't think I'm being too nosy.'

'Not at all. I've never had a woman's opinion of my residence before. I think we can allow ourselves a few moments before we sally forth to confront the sick and suffering of the parish.'

Max was opening a door at the end of the hallway and beckoning for her to go through, and as they wandered from room to room Fenella saw that the rest of the house was just as attractive as that first glimpse.

She didn't linger in the master bedroom because she was acutely conscious of the king-sized bed in a central position, and for a crazy moment she wondered what it would be like to share it with the man at her side.

He must have either seen her expression or thought he had read her mind as he said, 'I'm a restless sleeper. I need the space.'

She nodded, feeling less composed than when they'd arrived, and when Max saw that there was no comment forthcoming he said briskly, 'Right. Let's get moving.'

They'd visited the home of another young boy who had all the symptoms of mumps and called at the home of an elderly couple who had come back from holidaying abroad with unpleasant gastric upsets, and now at the end of the list of calls to be made were encountering the most serious case of the day.

An elderly woman opened the door to them and said without preamble, 'It's Ben, Doctor. He can't stand up, he's so dizzy. He's been reeling about like somebody drunk.'

'Where is he, Betty?' he asked.

'Lying on the bedroom floor,' was the answer. 'I tried to lift him onto the bed, but he was too heavy. He was all right when he went to bed last night, but the moment he put his feet on the bedroom floor this morning he lost his balance.'

Max was already halfway up the stairs, with Fenella following close behind, and when they saw Betty's elderly husband prostrate on the floor he said, 'Let's get him onto the bed, Fenella. One of us on each side and when I say lift...lift.'

Ben was moaning softly as they laid him on the bed. 'What's the matter with me?' he croaked. 'I can't even get to the bathroom on my own.'

Max was checking his pulse and heartbeat and having satisfied himself that there was no problem there he asked, 'Have you had any problems lately with your ears, Ben?'

'No,' he mumbled. 'Not a thing.'

'You are on medication for hypertension, aren't you?'

'Aye,' he replied. 'If you mean high blood pressure.'

'I do,' Max told him. 'I'm going to check it as I think we might have a hiccup there. Then I'm going to ask our new doctor at the practice to do the same and give us her opinion.

'All right?' he questioned, turning to Fenella.

'Yes, Dr Hollister,' she agreed, and Max hid a smile as he thought that she'd no need to sound so meek. If Fenella didn't get this right, he would be having doubts about asking her to join the practice.

'So?' he asked when they'd both checked the patient's blood pressure.

'I think that it has taken a sudden dip and gone too low,' she said. 'That low blood pressure has caused the dizziness. Maybe Ben was over-prescribed for a short time and that has caused it.'

Max was smiling. 'I agree,' he told her, and turning back to the patient he said, 'Normally in a situation such as this I would prescribe tablets to take away the problem, but your attack is too serious for that. So I'm going to give you an injection that will bring relief in the shortest time.'

As he prepared the syringe Max turned to Betty, who was hovering at the foot of the bed, and flashed her a reassuring smile. 'This should do the trick,' he told her, 'but it will be a few days before Ben is back to his usual self. An attack of this nature can leave a person feeling weak and somewhat disorientated, but it will clear eventually.'

She breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thank you, Doctor. I've never seen anything like it!'

'No,' he agreed. 'It is an unpleasant experience that leaves the patient quite out of control, yet may never occur again. However, if it should do, send for one of us immediately.'

As the three of them went downstairs Betty said, 'Would you like a cup of tea or a glass of my home-made cordial?'

Yes, she would, Fenella thought, but Max was shaking his head. 'It's nice of you to offer, Betty, but Dr Forbes and I have a busy afternoon ahead of us.'

He'd seen her expression and as they walked back to the car he said whimsically, 'Wilting already, are we?'

When he glanced across at her she was laughing. 'No. I'm just thirsty. I could have murdered a cup of tea.'

'You can make us both one when we get back,' he suggested, and she had to be satisfied with that.

CHAPTER THREE

'Max and I are going to the hospital to see Simon tonight,' Ann said as the two women cleared away after their evening meal. 'He's picking me up at a quarter to seven.'

'You mean Simon Wells, the injured partner?' Fenella questioned, aware of an overtone of embarrassment in her mother's voice.

'Yes,' she replied. 'Either one or both of us visit him whenever we can,' and she went upstairs to change out of her working clothes without prolonging the conversation.

'So tell me about him,' Fenella persisted when she came down again.

'What do you want to know? Simon is fifty years old and recently divorced. The accident occurred when he had been visiting a patient at a farm up on the tops. As he was driving back to the practice a car came round a bend too fast on one of the narrow lanes and crashed into him. The other driver was unhurt, but Simon received multiple injuries and is likely to be in hospital for some time. It happened a fortnight ago, the night before you left university.'

'Does he live here in the village?'

'Yes. He moved into one of the lock-keeper's cottages by the canal when his divorce came through, and now, if you've finished asking questions, I have to be off,' she said with heightened colour. 'Max has just pulled up outside and he won't want to be kept waiting.'

'I think you could be right about that,' Fenella agreed dryly, and watched from the window as they drove off down the hillside.

Fenella had been close to her father and missed him a lot. She knew he wouldn't begrudge her mother some happiness with another man if she so desired, but if she did like Max Hollister, why wasn't she bringing her feelings for him out into the open? Did she think that her daughter wouldn't understand that she could love someone else? They were so close in lots of ways, but not in this, she thought painfully.

It was nine o 'clock when she heard the car pull up outside and the thought crossed her mind that Max was the one most likely to be wilting after a long day at the practice with hospital visiting tagged onto it. But maybe he thought it was worth it if he could have her mother to himself for a while.

When she heard voices in the hallway she groaned. He was coming in. Hadn't he got a home to go to?

'Hi there, Fenella,' he said as he followed her mother into the sitting room and sank down onto an easy chair. 'We meet again.'

'Yes, we do, don't we?' she replied flatly. 'How did you find your partner?'

He flashed one of his rare smiles in her mother's direction and said softly, 'I think Ann can answer that question better than I.'

Her mother was standing just inside the doorway and so far she hadn't spoken. Now, when she did, her voice came over in an uncomfortable sort of mumble.

'I have something to tell you,' she said nervously, and Fenella's heart sank as she thought that she hadn't been wrong in her surmises. Why, of all men in the world, did her mother have to have feelings for Max Hollister? She could be attracted to him herself if she wasn't careful, and after today was looking forward to getting to know him better.. .but not as her mother's new love.

'Max is here to give me moral support,' Ann said. And Fenella thought, Well, he would be, wouldn't he, if they were in love?

'I'm getting married again, Fenella,' she said, talking fast now. 'I hope you'll be happy for me, and won't think that I've forgotten your dad, because I haven't. I never will. We have been good friends for quite some time and in recent months it has turned to love. When Simon comes home he will need someone to look after him and it will be so much better for both of us if we are together. He asked me to marry him tonight and I said yes.'

'You're marrying Simon?' Fenella said incredulously. 'So it's not...' She stopped herself in the nick of time.

The last thing she wanted was for the bright hazel gaze that was fixed on her to register that she'd had him lined up for her mother's new husband. She would die of mortification if he ever found out.

'Aren't you going to congratulate me, Fenella?' her mother asked anxiously. 'I can't go ahead with the wedding without your approval.'

'Of course you have my approval,' Fenella said softly, holding her mother close. 'Dad told you often enough not to stay on your own. Though what he thought I would be doing after he'd gone, I don't know. I've come back here to be with you.'

There were tears in her mother's eyes. 'Yes, I know. But he would want you to live your own life. Would hope that one day his beautiful daughter would find the man of her dreams and be as happy as we were.'

'So when am I going to meet this man?' Fenella asked abruptly, as a lump came up in her throat. 'Has he got any children?'

Her mother shook her head. 'No, Simon hasn't got any children.. .and I'll take you to meet him soon.'

Max had got to his feet. 'I'll be off now that you've told Fenella your good news, Ann. It's been a long day, but a good one in many ways. I've got my new assistant, and you have the chance of happiness with Simon. Go and make yourself a nice cup of tea and Fenella can see me out.'

'Er...yes...of course,' Fenella mumbled as waves of thankfulness washed over her because some divine providence had stopped her from making a complete fool of herself.

'So are you happy about that?' he asked in a low voice as they stood at the gate. 'You seemed a bit odd in there.'

'Dumbstruck would be a better word,' she told him, not meeting his gaze.

'So you are not upset about Ann remarrying?'

'No. My dad will always be my dad, but I will do my best to get on with Simon and take it from there.'

'That is a very generous attitude. I can promise that you will like him.'

'I hope so,' she said on a less positive note. 'Remember how I said this morning about my life changing in the last few days? What my mother has just told me puts everything else in the shade.'

'You'll make a beautiful bridesmaid,' he said whimsically, but she didn't respond. It was too soon after having him in the frame as the bridegroom.

He'd noted her lack of response and was ready to call it a day. 'Till tomorrow,' he said, and as he walked towards the car she nodded.

Max was in a thoughtful mood as he drove home. There had been something strange in Fenella's manner just before Ann had told her she was getting married. She hadn't been surprised, for one thing. Yet her mother had assured him on the way to the hospital that so far Fenella knew nothing about her relationship with Simon.

For a bizarre moment he'd thought that she'd had him labelled for the bridegroom, but he'd dismissed the idea as soon as it had come. Yet why had she looked so traumatized? It had been clear that Fenella didn't mind her mother remarrying, but something had been on her mind and he would like to know what it was.

Yet he had more important things to think about than the fads and fancies of his new assistant, or had he? Having Fenella in his house earlier in the day had left him in a thoughtful mood. It had made him realise how much the place needed a woman's presence.

He was remembering the sound of her light footsteps on the parquet floor in the kitchen and the scent of her perfume in the air as she'd moved from room to room. Surely somewhere in his very busy life there was room for that other thing called love. If he wanted babies there was one vital ingredient missing in his life...a wife. But he'd known that for a long time. Why start thinking about it now?

Life had been hectic enough before Simon's accident, but since then it had been a situation where there weren't enough hours in the day. He dragged himself upstairs at the end of each day in a state of exhaustion. So much for turning the king-sized bed into a marital one!

He wondered what Fenella had thought when she'd seen it. Probably something along the lines that when it came to his personal life it was as empty as his professional life was full. She was young and vibrant and later that night as he lay sleepless for the first time in ages, he could still smell her perfume, as light and tantalising as the girl herself.

There was an upbeat atmosphere the next day at the practice when the staff heard about the engagement of the practice manager to the injured partner. When Fenella was asked for her comments she just smiled and said if her mother was happy then so was she, and that she was looking forward to meeting Simon. But inside she was wishing she'd had more time to get settled into the job before this new turn of events.

'So how are you this morning after your mother's news of last night?' was Max's greeting when she seated herself beside him in readiness for her second day of training. 'Resigned? Rejoicing? Relieved?'

'Yes. I'm resigned,' she told him. 'If it is what my mother wants then it's all right by me. Rejoicing? Not too much as yet. Remember I have still to meet the man in question. I will feel happier when I have. And why you should be expecting me to be relieved, I really don't know.'

She did, of course. There was a sinking feeling inside her. She'd given herself away when her mother had been about to make her announcement. The sardonic gleam in his eye was confirming it.

'Oh, I think that you do know. You had me down for the wicked stepfather, didn't you?'

'No! Yes!' she floundered. 'I'm not one of your villagers, don't forget. I haven't seen much of this place since my mother moved here. I've been away at university most of the time. I only came back to live a couple of weeks ago because I didn't want her to be alone any longer. Though it would seem that I needn't have been concerned on that account.'

He sighed. 'Are you going to get to the point, or what?'

Fenella was sitting bolt upright on the chair, indignation replacing the cringing feeling. Fixing him with a direct blue gaze, she said, 'I am merely trying to explain that I had no knowledge of what had been happening in my long absences. I wasn't to know that the warm looks my mother was bestowing on you came from gratitude rather than attraction.'

She wasn't going to admit that he was right in his surmise. She had been relieved, and Max, sitting beside her, calm and inscrutable, didn't know that it was because she was attracted to him herself.

She met the man who was to be her mother's new husband and liked him. Simon Wells had twinkly blue eyes and curly grey hair, with a neat beard to match, and in spite of still being in a lot of pain and discomfort he had smiled a lot and told her that it was lovely to meet her and that he would take great care of her mother once he was mobile again.

She didn't stay at his bedside long, knowing that the two of them must see every moment they spent together as precious, but she went away with a good feeling after meeting the bridegroom-to-be.

Fenella's pleasure at being part of the village practice was increasing as the days went by. The staff were friendly and supportive, and on discovering that she was her mother's daughter the patients accepted her as if she were one of their own.

There was none of the impersonality of hospital health care and as she faced up to the challenges that each day brought she was content workwise.

Her relationship with the man in charge wasn't progressing quite so well. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she wasn't seeing so much of him. She had her own room now, saw her own patients and did the less complicated house calls on her own. But she was still answerable to Max. She cherished his approval when it was forthcoming, and when it wasn't made haste to ask what she'd done wrong.

'Nothing,' he invariably told her. 'I'm just so busy.'

'So am I not helping enough? I thought I was pulling my weight.'

They were in his consulting room before morning surgery was due to commence and he swung round quickly, took her by the forearms and, looking straight into her eyes, told her, 'You are. Don't ever think otherwise, Fenella. You are going to make a good doctor. It is just that we are so busy and I have so much on my mind. One day I will get around to showing my appreciation.'

She could feel the warmth of his hands on her arms through the soft silk shirt she was wearing. 'What's wrong with now?' she said softly and waited to see what he would do.

He did nothing. The invitation was there in every line of her body but he didn't take her up on it. 'It isn't the right time, Fenella,' he said in a low voice. 'And not just because we are in the surgery. The past has just reared its head and I need to know why.'

He put her away from him gently and went to the door to call in his first patient, which left her with no option but to conceal her embarrassment and do likewise for those who were waiting to take up some of her time.

'Max was very mysterious about something earlier,' she told her mother during the lunch-hour. 'He mentioned the past rearing its head. Has something happened that concerns him?'

'Possibly,' Ann told her. 'I overheard a bit of gossip this morning that might have something to do with what you're asking about. Though I didn't quite get the gist of it.'

'What was it?'

'Someone that he was once involved with way back has returned to the area.'

'And it has to be a woman, I suppose.'

'Yes. It seems he knew nothing about it until he discovered that she'd signed on as a new patient.'

'I see. Maybe that explains it, then,' she said casually, and left it at that, deciding that the first chance she got she would check out any recent new patients.

* * *

Will was home for the summer vacation and Max wasn't sorry. The house came to life when he was around. It might be in the form of loud music and clothes scattered about the place, but he could put up with that.

Yet tonight not even his young brother's cheerful presence could lift him out of the doldrums. Fenella had given him the opportunity to move the attraction that was developing between them a step further and he'd hurt and embarrassed her by refusing.

He must be insane. But he'd had the ground taken from under his feet only hours earlier and was still stunned by it. He hadn't been feeling very chirpy to begin with. The police had called him out twice over recent days. The first time it had been to examine the body of an elderly man pulled out of the canal, and the second to the police station again, where a youth who'd been arrested for assault had been found to have a head injury that the police hadn't been happy about.

In the case of the first victim he had seen nothing suspicious when he'd examined the corpse and had told the officers at the scene that it looked like a straightforward case of suicide. There would have to be an inquest and the odds were that he would be called to testify.

The teenage boy who'd been involved in an affray outside a Chinese take-away had been arrested for assaulting the owner and had shown no signs of injury when he'd been brought in. But a soft squelchy mass on the side of his head had appeared, indicating that he'd either fallen or received a heavy blow to the skull.

'Ambulance required,' he'd told the staff on duty, and had been reminded of the night when he'd said those same words regarding Fenella. He hadn't known at the time that he would be seeing her again soon afterwards and when he had it had seemed as if the fates had given him a bonus.

But those same fates were fickle. He had no sooner got to know her than there had been a blast from the past in his private life. Incredibly, Sonya, the woman he had been going to marry, was back.

The only member of the practice staff who had been employed there seven years ago when she'd called the wedding off just a week before it had been due to take place was Barbara Bradshaw, one of the receptionists. She had asked to have a word with him in private as soon as he'd arrived at the practice that morning and had told him, 'We've had a new patient registering with us, Max, and on realising who she is I felt that I ought to bring it to your notice.'

'Sure. What's the problem?' he asked easily, never dreaming that the past was about to catch up with him.

'The first name is the same,' Barbara told him, 'but the surname is different. Yet I recognised her.'

He observed her in perplexity, wondering where the conversation was leading and thinking at the same time that if this was a bit of gossip he had better things to do.

'So who is it, Barbara,' he asked patiently.

'Sonya. Only her surname isn't Hamilton—it's Milhench.'

Max felt his jaw go slack.

'I'm sorry, Max. I thought that you would want to know that she's back,' Barbara said uncomfortably.

'I do,' he told her flatly, and she went back to her duties.

Max thought sombrely that it was typical of life's peculiarities that after all those years of never looking at another woman, the moment he had found someone who had brought him to life again, Sonya should appear out of the mists of time.

It would seem that she'd also found someone else if what Barbara had said regarding her surname was correct. He bore her no grudges on that account, but he did on others.

Will had been the cause of the wedding being called off. He didn't know and never would if it had anything to do with himself. At just thirteen years old he'd been bewildered and scared because they'd lost their mother six months previously from septicaemia caused by an infected cut, and their father shortly afterwards from a fall off scaffolding.

Max had been fiercely protective of him and had expected that his bride-to-be would have understood that and been just as willing as he to have his young brother living with them when they married.

He had been wrong. As the wedding date had drawn nearer Sonya had begun to complain that she didn't want a difficult, untidy teenager, whose hormones were up and down all the time, living with them, and the relationship had begun to flounder. Until with no giving in on either side she had called off the wedding just days before it had been due to take place.

Max had never regretted his determination to be there for Will. Whether there had been any regrets on Sonya's side he didn't know, and didn't care. What mattered was that Will had turned out to be everything he'd wanted him to be and when eventually he did fly the nest, he, Max, would have no guilt gnawing at him.

He wondered if Sonya had brought with her the man whose name she had taken, or if she had come alone. He wasn't bothered either way, but was interested to know if she'd had any children of her own, as her maternal instincts had not been to the fore when his young brother had needed a mother's love.

'Guess who I saw this afternoon,' Will said as soon as he heard his brother's key in the lock. 'Sonya!'

'Yes, I believe she's back,' Max said tonelessly. 'What did she have to say?'

'Er.. .nothing. She was talking to someone in the newsagent's and didn't recognise me.'

Good, Max thought. The last thing he wanted was for Will to discover that his marriage had been called off because of him. He was surprised that Will had recognised her after all this time.

Sooner or later she would appear at the surgery, no doubt, or their paths would cross in the village, but he would concern himself about that when it happened. And in the meantime there was Fenella, bright, beautiful, anxious to please, yet nobody's doormat.

There were no words to describe how much it would have 'pleased' him to have taken her in his arms and kissed her beautiful mouth that morning in his consulting room, but she'd caught him off guard, still bemused by the news that his ex-fiancée was back on the scene, and he'd known that she'd been hurt and embarrassed by his reaction.

Had he used Sonya's return as an excuse for not taking advantage of the moment? he asked himself. If he had, he was a crazy fool. Sonya meant nothing to him, hadn't for many long years. While Fenella was something else. She brought with her the promise of wonder, of a new beginning, and the first time she'd made a move he'd shot her down in flames.

She was doing fine in the practice. Watching her with the children who came and went was a pleasure. She was gentle with them and patient. Made them laugh even when an injection or something similarly unpleasant was required. Incredibly it seemed as if she was out to charm him too.

When he'd had his evening meal Max knew that until he'd seen her again and explained what was going on in his life, he wasn't going to settle. He'd tried to talk to her a few times during the day and on each occasion she'd made sure she was too busy. But if he went round to the house on the hill she would have to listen to what he had to say. There would be no patients to see or surgery clinics to assist with. If Ann was at the hospital he would have Fenella to himself.

He groaned as he was about to turn into the lane where she lived. Her mother's car was outside, so either Ann hadn't yet gone to the hospital to see Simon, or she wasn't going. His spirits lifted as his practice manager came out of the house at that moment, got into her car and drove off in the opposite direction.

When he rang the doorbell he heard quick footsteps on the tiled floor on the other side of the door. Then it was flung open and before she'd seen who was there Fenella was asking, 'What have you forgotten?'

'Oh!' she said in surprise. 'I thought it was Mum coming back for something.' Her voice cooled. 'What do you want, Max?'

'A word with you.'

She stepped back reluctantly. 'You'd better come in, then.' When he'd settled himself into an easy chair by the fireplace she went to stand by the window, squirming inwardly as she waited to hear what he had to say.

'I'm sorry about this morning, Fenella,' he said, breaking the silence. 'Only minutes before I'd heard that my ex-fiancée is back in the village. The news brought back a very traumatic part of my life that I'd thought I'd forgotten, and with it came a reminder of the hurts that relationships can bring. All of which was not of your making and I'd like to make amends.'

'Such as?'

'I do want us to get to know each other better and for starters I wondered if you are free tomorrow night.'

Her eyes widened. 'Why do you ask?' she enquired coolly, wondering what was coming next. Max had some cheek if he was going to ask her for a date after the morning's embarrassment.

She was about to discover that he wasn't and as she listened to what he had to say she wondered if he was thinking that there was safety in numbers.

'There is a meeting of the Village Community Society tomorrow night. We're entering the competition for the Village in Bloom prize, which is awarded each year. I've been roped in as secretary. The vicar is chairman, and we're always on the lookout for volunteers. How are you fixed?'

'Meaning what?'

'For coming to the meeting and assisting generally.'

'What would I have to do?'

'We intend to attach hanging baskets to the lampposts on the main street, place large tubs of summer blooms outside every shop, floral displays in windowboxes wherever possible, and encourage everyone to brighten up their gardens.'

'It sounds wonderful,' she said reluctantly.

'So you'll come to the meeting tomorrow night, then?'

'Yes, I suppose so. Where are you going to get all the flowers from?'

'Bedding plants from the local nursery mostly, bought from donations dropped into the large glass bottle on the post-office counter. In a few weeks' time the mayor from the nearest town and his deputy will judge each village's display.'

'If we win, we're going to have a party on the village green, and in the evening it's the ball, which is a yearly event. That will take place whether we win or not. So you and your mum will be able to bring your long dresses out for an airing.'

'It's incredible,' she said wonderingly. 'Until a few moments ago I thought that the only thing I had to look forward to was the sack.'

'What are you on about?'

'Well, I did put my foot in it this morning.'

He was smiling. 'Let's just call it a breakdown in communications, shall we? If I've upset you, I'm sorry. I've been feeling low of late, bogged down with callouts from the police for one thing. Deaths and injuries are unpleasant to confront but they're part of the police surgeon's job. Somebody has to make sure there has been no foul play, and I flatter myself that I have a more sympathetic approach than some.'

He was on his feet and crossing the room to be beside her and as their glances met there was a look in his eyes that hadn't been there before. She could smell his aftershave. He reached out for her and as his arms closed around her Fenella thought that this was going to make up for the morning's fiasco.

His kiss was gentle at first, caressing, exploring the soft pliancy of her mouth. Then hunger began to take over. The hunger of a man who had been on a long fast, and as she melted in his arms Fenella knew beyond doubt that this was what she wanted. Max holding her close, taking her heart into his keeping.

He was different to any man she'd ever met. Strong, clever, dedicated to both of the demanding jobs that he had taken on, and amazingly he seemed to want her as much as she wanted him. She prayed that his passion wasn't going to be a fleeting thing, and almost as if she'd wished it upon herself, his arms fell away and he said raggedly, 'I didn't come here for this, Fenella. I came to apologise for this morning, but I have only to see you and I'm on fire.'

'So what's the problem?' she asked softly.

'There are a few.'

'Such as?'

'The fact that you haven't known me long is one. Me being your employer is another, and some time ago I had a bad relationship that caused me a lot of heartache.'

'And you don't want to risk having another?'

He shook his head. 'It isn't that, as I wasn't entirely blameless. But over the years I've come to the conclusion that he who walks alone lives the uncomplicated life.'

'That is crazy and you know it,' she said flatly. 'You are adopting the once bitten twice shy way of life and I would have expected more than that of you.'

He didn't take her up on that. Instead he told her, 'I'm going before your mother comes back and gives me a blast for upsetting her daughter.'

'Mum has enough of her own affairs to think about at the moment,' she told him dispiritedly. 'Simon is due to be discharged next week. She'll be moving into his place to look after him, which leaves me queen of the castle. She has signed the cottage over to me.'

'Great! Except for one thing.'

'What?'

'It's a bit isolated for you to be living alone up here.'

'I might not be. Someone told my mother that many years ago two old ladies lived here. They worked in one of the mills in the area, and in what little free time they had in those days they smoked clay pipes, one at each side of the fire, and that sometimes you can smell the tobacco smoke.'

'Are you sure that it isn't just the chimney that needs sweeping?'

She ignored the jest and went on to tell him, 'We can't all live in up-market converted barns a stone's throw from the village. Not when we're ex-students with a loan to pay off.'

'Ah, yes. I gave you the tour, didn't I, when you first started working at the practice? I could smell your perfume for hours afterwards.'

'I'm sorry about that.'

'You needn't be. It was delightful.'

'As delightful as kissing me senseless on a summer night and then wishing you hadn't?'

He touched her cheek gently but she jerked her head away. 'We have all the time in the world, Fenella,' he told her. 'Remember that.'

CHAPTER FOUR

When Fenella arrived at the church hall the following evening, her glance went over those present and registered that there was no sign of Max's commanding presence.

Those who had the interests of the village at heart were chatting in small groups around the room, waiting for the meeting to start, and she hesitated on the threshold.

'Would you be Fenella?' a voice said from nearby, and when she looked up she found a tall youth with short dark hair and a strong resemblance to the missing Max observing her.

'Yes. I am,' she told him. 'And you have to be Will Hollister.'

'That's me, ma'am,' he said with a grin. 'I have a message from big brother.'

Her spirits sank. Max wasn't coming for some reason, she thought, and, sure enough, Will said, 'He had a phone call from the police just as we were leaving the house. He was coming here and I was on my way to the pub, so he asked me to make a detour to let you know that he mightn't be able to make it.'

'Oh, dear. Well, thanks for letting me know.'

'Why don't you come to the pub with me instead?' Will suggested, looking around him. 'These things drag on for hours.' The grin was there again. 'Max hasn't mentioned what a looker you are. I'd have introduced myself sooner if I'd known.'

'Listen, sonny,' she said laughingly. 'Don't get too fresh, or the next time you have to come to the surgery I might prescribe castor oil or an injection with a big needle.'

'It could be worth it,' he parried, and strolled off to the place where they were more interested in what was in their glasses than what was going on at the village hall.

So much for that, Fenella thought dismally as she found a seat and waited for the meeting to start. She and Max had met up that morning at the practice and with the happenings of the night before uppermost in their minds had exchanged guarded greetings. Any other conversation had been about the practice and its patients.

'Could you come in on my next consultation?' Fenella had asked him in the middle of the morning.

'Yes, of course,' he'd replied immediately. 'What's the problem?'

'I'm not sure. A Mrs Taverner has been passed on to us by the hospital. She has an infection in her leg that won't clear up. Apparently she broke her ankle some time ago and when they were cutting off the cast after the fracture had healed they caught her leg with the scissors and she's developed an MRSA-type infection.

'She's been going to the hospital for dressings, but now they've suggested she comes here to have it seen to as she is elderly and we are so much nearer. She has made an appointment for the leg to be seen by one of us before the nurses do anything with it and I don't feel qualified enough to handle it on my own.'

Max had frowned.

'I'm not surprised. It will be a mistake on the part of the receptionists to have passed Mrs Taverner on to you. I know her well, but this is the first I've heard about the infection. Yet I suppose it's understandable if they've been treating her at the hospital. It would seem from the sound of it that the scissors hadn't been properly sterilised, which is not acceptable. But unfortunately, due to human error, those sorts of things do happen. Where is she now?'

'Waiting for me to call her.'

'Then do it and we'll see what's what.'

Jane Taverner was a sprightly seventy-year-old and seemingly not too concerned about the sore place on her leg.

'I've been having it dressed at the hospital for twelve months now,' she told them, 'and, though it gets no worse, neither does it get any better. They've suggested a skin graft. How long I'll have to wait for that I don't know.'

'Does it hurt?' Max asked as he examined the area of inflamed skin with the weeping sore in the centre of it.

She shook her head. 'No. I would be happier if it did. It's as if that part of my leg is dead.'

She was fishing in her handbag and produced a sealed envelope.

'They gave me this to pass on to you. It's the details of the treatment.'

'Fine,' he said reassuringly when he'd read the letter. 'We'll hand you over to the nurses, but if it should get worse between appointments you must come to the surgery immediately to have it looked at. Do you understand, Mrs Taverner?'

'Yes, Doctor, I understand.' She twinkled back at him. 'But I've had it that long I've stopped worrying about it. What's a bit of bandage as long as they don't have to take my leg off?'

'Yes, indeed. What is a bit of bandage?' he'd agreed as he'd helped her to her feet.

When she'd gone he exclaimed, 'What did you think of that? The leg? Her light-hearted attitude? The hospital passing her on to us when they are to blame from the sound of it!'

'I suppose the fact that it hasn't got any worse is reassuring,' she said, just as amazed as he.

'I suppose you could say that, but in future any appointments regarding Mrs Taverner's leg must be dealt with by me. Or maybe we could team up on it. I don't want you having the responsibility for that.'

The meeting had commenced with the vicar explaining Dr Hollister's absence, and once that had been done the discussions began.

But after only a matter of minutes a woman sitting near the front of the hall rose to her feet and strolled out. She was of medium height, auburn-haired, and dressed in expensive casual clothes, and Fenella thought whimsically that she was either disappointed that the dashing doctor was not going to be joining them or she'd forgotten to turn the oven off. Having no idea how close she was in her first surmise, she tuned into what was being said and dismissed the woman from her mind.

There was much enthusiasm amongst those present, coming from their love of the place and their pride in it. Someone suggested that to accelerate the idea of a village in bloom they should have a flower queen, to be crowned on the green on the afternoon of the ball.

The idea was quickly taken up and it was arranged that notices would be put up to inform girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen that they could enter a competition to be the village's first queen of the flowers.

At the end of the meeting there was still no sign of Max and, loth to call it a day, Fenella went to the village's most popular pub, The Moorhen. She'd been one of the last to leave the hall and had told the caretaker, who had been clearing up, where Dr Hollister would be able to find her if he came back within the hour.

When she entered The Moorhen's cosy interior she saw that Will and some of his friends were seated at a table near the bar and he came over when he saw her.

'So Max hasn't turned up, then?' he said.

'Er.. .no,' she told him.

'Can I get you a drink, Fenella?'

She smiled. 'It is I who should be buying you one,' she told him. 'It isn't so long ago that I was a hard-up student myself.' As he opened his mouth to protest, she said, 'An orange juice would be very nice, thank you.'

'Would you like to join us?' he asked after he'd ordered the drink.

Did she want to sit with a gang of youths with spiked- up hair and voices not long broken? she was thinking, but she liked this young brother of Max's and wouldn't want to damage his street cred, so she said, 'Yes, if your friends don't mind.'

* * *

A couple out walking had found the body of a middle-aged woman in the woods on the hillside behind the village and Max's presence had been required. She was lying face down in thick mud that was the aftermath of heavy rain and appeared to have only been there for a short time as rigor mortis was only just beginning to set in.

Max groaned when the call came through and asked Will to let Fenella know that he'd been called out. He'd been looking forward to seeing her again, away from the surgery, and had been going to invite her back to his place for coffee after the meeting, but as a police surgeon he knew only too well how soon the best-laid plans could be disrupted.

'Do you recognise her at all?' the police sergeant in charge asked as Max knelt beside the body, which lay face down in the mud. 'I expect you would know if she came from round these parts, you being the local GP.'

'At first glance, I would say she's a stranger, but I can't see her face properly,' Max told him. 'I don't want to move her until the scene of crime boys get here.' He pointed to the back of her head. 'Something has gouged into the base of her skull with a great deal of force. The attack came from behind so she would have stood little chance of defending herself, and landing in the mud won't have helped. She would have had difficulty breathing if she was still alive. There has been a lot of heavy rain recently, as I am discovering to my cost.' He glanced down wryly on to his shoes and the bottoms of his jeans.

'Would the blow, or blows, be severe enough to kill her?' the policeman asked.

'Yes. I would think so. Some folks' skulls are thinner than others,' Max replied. 'How long before the scene of crime people get here once you've reported my findings?'

'Hard to say,' he was told. 'Depends who is available. Why? Are you in a hurry?'

Max shook his head. 'Not so much that I'm going to leave the scene until I'm satisfied that I haven't missed anything. Did she have any personal belongings with her to help with identification?'

'We haven't found anything so far but my men are going over the area. I have a feeling that she might be a traveller. There's a gypsy site not far from here.'

It was a quarter to eleven when Max got back to the village and found the caretaker locking up after the meeting.

'The young lady doctor said to tell you that she'll be in The Moorhen,' the sprightly pensioner told him. After a quick word of thanks Max made his way to where the lights of the public house beckoned.

His spirits were lifting. At least he would have a short time with Fenella, he thought. Maybe the evening wasn't entirely spoilt and he quickened his steps, but as he passed the open window of The Moorhen he halted.

Fenella wasn't alone. She was with Will and his crowd and from the looks of it having the time of her life, laughing with them and singing to the jukebox.

So much for him thinking she would be waiting for him in solitary disappointment, he thought wearily. It was quite clear he hadn't been missed. He'd had a tiring and depressing evening and had been looking forward to making up for it when he found her. But it looked as if she was enjoying herself too much to be concerned about his absence. Turning swiftly, he went back to his car and drove home.

Only seconds after he'd departed Fenella got to her feet with the feeling that if she had to listen to any more loud music, or fob off one more youthful admirer, she would go crazy.

When she'd asked where all their girlfriends were there'd been some lame excuses and she'd accepted that for tonight she was the only woman. They were a nice lot of lads, well mannered, well behaved, and she knew they wouldn't step out of turn, but she could only endure their company for so long.

She wanted to be with Max, in spite of his doubts regarding their relationship. Wanted to get to know him better, find out what made him tick, what his likes and dislikes were, his hopes and fears. Everything about him was of importance to her. But it was not to be and as she bade Will and his friends goodnight it occurred to her that she had no transport home.

Her mother had given her a lift to the meeting and she'd been expecting that Max would be there to drive her back to the cottage when it was over, but as it hadn't worked out like that she had a choice of ringing Ann to ask her to come and pick her up, get a taxi or walk back on her own.

After a moment's thought she decided that the walk would be pleasant after an evening spent inside and set off with a purposeful stride.

When Will arrived home some time later Max was in the shower, and when he came out his brother said, 'I've been in the pub with Fenella. She's great!'

'Yes, she is,' he agreed dryly. 'What time did she leave?'

'Elevenish. Why?'

'Did her mother come for her? Or did she get a taxi?'

'I don't think she did either,' Will told him. 'She set off in the direction of the hill road.'

Max was out of the shower room like a rocket. 'You mean she was walking home along that lonely road in the dark?'

'There is a full moon,' Will said awkwardly.

'Full moon be blowed!' he cried. 'Someone may have been murdered up on the hillside tonight.'

He should have gone into The Moorhen instead of driving off in stupid pride, he was thinking. Then he would have been there to take her home. If anything happened to Fenella it would be his fault and his alone. He was the one who'd persuaded her to go to the meeting.

The first time he rang the weaver's cottage on the road that led to the moors there was no answer and Max's anxiety increased. Where was she for heaven's sake? he wondered grimly. He would get the car out and go and look for her, he decided, if she still hadn't arrived home in the next few minutes.

As Fenella walked home along the quiet road in the moonlight she wondered what Max was doing. She admired the zeal with which he carried out his police surgeon's duties even more than most people would, as she'd been at the receiving end of it herself. But it had been a disappointing evening and she hoped that whatever he had been called out to it hadn't been too dreadful.

When she got in the answering-machine was flashing, and there was a message to say that her mother would be late. After visiting Simon in hospital she'd gone round to his house to make preparations for his homecoming and would ring her when she was on her way home.

Fenella was in the kitchen, filling the kettle to make a drink, when the phone rang. When she picked it up she was expecting it to be her mother ringing as promised, but instead the voice speaking in her ear belonged to Max. Without any form of greeting he was enquiring urgently, 'Where have you been?'

'What do you mean?' she asked, taken aback. 'You know where I've been. I went to the meeting and you weren't there. Afterwards I waited in The Moorhen for a while and then gave up and came home.'

'I'm not talking about what you did earlier. You've walked home on your own, haven't you?'

'Er...yes.'

'Are you crazy? Why didn't you get your mother to come for you?'

'She's been out all evening and isn't back yet.'

'You could have got a taxi.'

'What is all this about?' she cried. 'I'm quite old enough to look after myself. I carry an alarm in my bag.'

'It doesn't alter the fact that you walked home alone along a lonely road at past midnight.'

'I'm sorry if I've caused you any anxiety,' she said stiffly, 'but since when have I been answerable to you regarding my movements? I toe the line at the practice, but you don't own me, Max. And now, if it's all right with you, I'm going to bed!' And before he could chastise her further she put the phone down.

It rang again immediately.

'Are all the doors and windows locked?' he wanted to know.

'Er...yes. I think so.'

'Go and make sure.'

'All right,' she told him wearily, and when she reported that they were it was his turn to ring off.

He would have been concerned about anyone on the lonely hill road in the dark after what he'd been called out to earlier, Max thought when he'd replaced the receiver, but the possibility of Fenella being in danger had brought him out in a cold sweat of fear.

Will had been listening to what he'd had to say and when Max came off the phone he said, 'Fenella wouldn't know there'd been a suspected murder.'

'Exactly,' Max said grimly.

'So why didn't you tell her?'

Why indeed? he thought. He'd been so relieved to hear her voice his sanity had deserted him. And then she'd told him tartly, 'You don't own me.' He wished he did. Not own her, but he'd wished that she belonged to him. He wanted to protect her, cherish her, make love to her.

With the feeling that he'd let the tenderness that she aroused in him cause him to make a fool of himself, he left Will watching a late night film and went to bed.

Fenella didn't go straight upstairs. She was too rattled by Max's phone call to sleep. When her mother arrived home she was sitting by the kitchen window, gazing mutely out into the night.

'I wasn't expecting you to still be up,' Ann said, moving swiftly across the room to close the curtains. 'I've locked the front door. Are all the other doors and windows locked?'

'Yes,' Fenella told her flatly. 'But why all the fuss? Why is everyone suddenly so security-conscious? I've just had Max on the phone reading me the Riot Act because I walked home alone.'

'I think I know why,' Ann told her. 'The police stopped me as I was driving up the hill. They have a murder on their hands and are looking for the person responsible. They're checking all vehicles in the area.'

'So that was it!' she exclaimed. 'Why didn't he tell me?'

'Am I to take it that you hadn't spent the evening together? That he was called out to this incident in the woods?'

'Right first time,' Fenella told her dolefully.

'I'm afraid that Max is Max,' her mother said gently. 'He cares about people. That would be why he was so uptight when he knew you'd walked home.'

'Yes. I suppose you're right,' Fenella said, and wondered why she'd thought that to him she was special. It was as her mother had just said. He cared about people, no matter who they were.

The three of them arrived at the surgery at the same time the next morning. After Ann had tactfully left Fenella and Max together, Fenella said, 'I'm sorry about last night, Max. I was ungrateful and stroppy. My only excuse is that it had been a disappointing evening.'

His glance was cool and inscrutable as he said blandly, 'You seemed happy enough with Will and his mates in The Moorhen.'

He watched her face stretch and an angry tide of colour stain her cheeks. 'You saw me and yet you never came to join me!' she choked. 'Oh, yes, I was having a lovely time with those lads. They are great guys but, having listened to the music until my ears were bursting and fending off their light-hearted advances for over an hour, I would have been delighted to see that you were back. In future, don't jump to conclusions about me. You might be wrong.'

Observing the angry set of her shoulders as she whizzed across the forecourt of the surgery and into the building, Max knew that he'd been jealous of Will and his friends. Or maybe peeved would be a better word, because they'd spent most of the evening with Fenella, while he'd been grubbing around in the mud.

But would he have done differently in any other circumstances? No, he wouldn't. He was employed to look after the helpless whether they be alive or dead, and that poor woman they'd found in the wood had been long past helping herself. Fenella would have understood that if he'd explained, instead of making his pointed comment about her being with Will and his friends.

If Max had seen her in the pub it was understandable that she'd appeared to be enjoying herself, Fenella was thinking. She hadn't wanted those she had been with to know that she had merely been killing time until the main act appeared. Max could at least have put in an appearance. The whole evening had been a fiasco, and his angry phone call had been the last straw.

By the time she'd finished seeing her patients he had gone on his home visits and she was about to do the same when the woman who'd walked out of the meeting the night before appeared in Reception.

'Is Max around?' she asked without any formalities.

'I'm afraid that Dr Hollister has just gone out on his calls,' she told her. 'Do you have an appointment?'

'I don't need an appointment,' she was told. 'Just tell him that Sonya called and that I'll be in touch.' And on that note she went.'

Fenella was beginning to see the light. When her mother had told her that someone from Max's past had come back to live in the village and registered with the practice, she'd checked to see who had signed on with them. There had only been one person in recent weeks, Sonya Milhench, and that had to be her.

She'd left the meeting the night before when it had been announced that he wouldn't be there and that, along with her attitude today, was proof enough, and it was doing nothing to brighten up an already dreary day.

To reach the little stone cottage of elderly Alice Crabtree, who had asked for a visit that morning, Fenella knew she would have to pass the Old Manor House, the address given by Sonya Milhench when she'd joined the practice.

When the residence that was set in spacious grounds came into view, she stopped the car and observed it keenly. There was scaffolding up against the walls and builders' vans parked nearby, indicating that renovations were in progress. It would be the finest house in the neighbourhood once they were completed.

For an awful moment she had a vision of Max living in this place with the smart, auburn-haired woman. He would fit in a treat, she thought. He had the style and presence for the role of lord of the manor.

She could see it in years to come. Him swanning around the village in plus-fours and a soft felt hat with dogs at his heels, and she herself an old maid, running the practice on her own and going home each night to her knitting. Because she was beginning to realise that if she couldn't have Max Hollister there would never be any other man she wanted.

Alice Crabtree was often called Alice Crabby as she was a crotchety old woman, and today she was no different. Her first words when she opened the door to her were, 'Where's the organ-grinder? I didn't ask for the monkey.'

'Yes, I'm sure that it must be disappointing to find a trainee doctor on your doorstep, Mrs Crabtree,' Fenella said coolly. 'But when Dr Hollister sorts out the calls each morning, he passes on to me those that he thinks will give me the experience I need, along with the ones that do not sound life-threatening. If you would rather I didn't treat you, feel free to say so, and I'll be on my way.'

There was the glimmer of a smile on the creased old face. 'You might be needing the experience,' she said, 'but you're not short on impudence. You'd better come in.'

Fenella breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't think Max would be too pleased if he'd heard what she'd just said to Alice Crabtree, but if nobody ever stood up to the old battleaxe, she was always going to think she could ride roughshod over those she met.

'So what's the problem, Mrs Crabtree?' she asked in a milder tone once she was inside the cottage.

It seemed as if the brief mellowing on Alice's part was over as she snapped, 'The same as it always is. You wouldn't need to ask if you'd read my notes.'

'I have read your notes,' Fenella told her. 'But until I got here I wasn't to know if you'd asked for a visit for some other reason.'

'No. It's the same old thing,' she said with sudden weariness. 'With loneliness and poverty added on for good measure.'

'So it's your rheumatism that is bothering you again?' Fenella said, now feeling sorry for Alice.

'Yes. It cripples me. The pain never goes away. That's why I'm so short-tempered, and don't ask me if I take painkillers. I do.'

'Has Dr Hollister ever suggested you seeing a rheumatologist?' she asked gently.

'Aye, he has.'

'And?'

'I've kept putting it off. I'm afraid of hospitals and those clinic places.'

'Have you a relative or friend who could go with you?'

'No,' was the morose answer.

'Would you go if I went with you?'

'What?' Alice exclaimed. 'I would have thought you'd have something better to do with your time than fussing round an old woman like me.'

'I wouldn't be fussing,' Fenella told her patiently. 'I would be merely helping a patient.'

'I don't want an ambulance pulling up at my door,' Alice said, 'or folks will be saying I'm getting what I deserve.'

If it hadn't been so sad Fenella might have been amused.

'I can borrow my mother's car. We won't need an ambulance,' she told her.

Still not to be persuaded, Alice said, 'He won't like it. Dr Hollister won't like you being missing from the practice.'

'Don't worry. I'll sort that out. Are you going to let me make you an appointment, Mrs Crabtree?'

'You're a persuasive young woman. I'll grant you that. Aye, go on, make me the appointment. I can't end up feeling any worse than I do now.'

'Good!' Fenella enthused. 'I'll check your heart and your blood pressure while I'm here. When I get back to the surgery I'll make the appointment and will ring to let you know when it is.'

'Would you like a cup of tea while you're here?' Alice asked abruptly, moving towards a spotless kitchen.

Remembering what she'd said about being lonely, Fenella told her, 'I'd love one.'

When she returned to the practice Max was back, and when she'd written up her notes from the morning's visits Fenella went into his room.

'Yes?' he said coolly when she appeared. 'What can I do for you?'

'It's what I can do for you,' she told him, unfazed by his manner.

'Oh?'

'I have two things to report.'

'What? That you've got a date with one of Will's friends, and that you're leaving the practice because I'm such a misery to work for?'

As she opened her mouth to protest she saw that he was laughing.

'Just testing,' he said. 'And hoping I'm wrong.'

'You are,' she assured him as her world righted itself. 'So are we friends again?'

'Yes. If you want us to be.'

'I do,' she said simply.

'I'm glad to hear it. I'm sorry for being so over the top last night. It was just that—'

'I know,' she interrupted. 'There'd been a murder.'

'Yes, it would appear so, and now what is it that you have to tell me?'

'What would you say if I told you that Alice Crabtree has agreed to see a rheumatologist?'

She watched his eyes widen. 'I would say that I don't believe it.'

'You have to. I have persuaded her to let me make an appointment.'

'Brilliant!' he crowed. 'How did you do it?'

'I'm afraid that's where the catch comes in. I've said I'll take her, stay with her and bring her back. I've made the offer without getting your permission. I hope you don't mind.'

'Mind? Of course I don't. I'd like to know what you said to the old crab to make her agree.'

'She's just a sad and lonely old woman, Max. Her manner is a cover for pain, loneliness and poverty. The last of which I will look into if she'll let me. There must be benefits that she's not getting and I might be able to put her right about them.'

'Can I tell you something?' he said softly, and when she didn't reply he continued, 'You are the best thing that has ever happened to the practice, Fenella.' And to me, he was tempted to add, but they'd only just come round from the previous night's hiccup so maybe it was least said, soonest mended.

'And what is the other thing you have to tell me?' he asked with the good feeling still there.

'There was a woman at last night's meeting,' she said sombrely, and the tone of her voice told him that the telling of the good news was over. 'When the vicar announced that you wouldn't be there, she got up and walked out.'

'This morning she came here, shortly after you'd left on your rounds. She asked for you and when I told her you were out, she said to tell you that Sonya had been and she would be in touch.'

'I see,' he said soberly, and that was all.

'Who is she, Max?'

He sighed. 'She is the woman I was going to marry seven years ago, shortly after Will and I lost our parents. There was an important matter that we couldn't agree on and Sonya called the wedding off just days before it was due to take place. Then she took a flight to America where, as far as I know, she has been ever since. Can we leave it at that, Fenella?'

'Yes, of course,' she said hurriedly as the morning's earlier gloom returned.

Once back in her own room she slumped down behind the desk and thought about what Max had just told her. Did he still have feelings for this woman? she wondered. What could it have been that had caused their engagement to end? He was the most honourable man she'd ever met, but she imagined he could be implacable in certain circumstances.

So Sonya had made a move, Max thought with a grim smile. He'd wondered how long it would be. It seemed that she'd sought him out twice and he'd been absent both times. But she was a woman of determination. She wouldn't be put off for long and when eventually they did meet he might find out why she'd come back.

Maybe she'd decided that as Will would now be grown up, he, Max, wouldn't be so concerned about his welfare and they could take up where they had left off. But there was the strange name that she'd registered under. Who and where was Mr Milhench, if he wasn't with her?

Hopefully she had sought him out just to say hello. If that was the case, he would send up a prayer of thankfulness, but past experience had shown him that Sonya never did anything without a reason.

CHAPTER FIVE

They were both late finishing that evening as there'd been an urgent request for a visit just as they'd been about to leave. When one of the receptionists had passed on the message Max had said, 'Tell them we're on our way.' He turned to Fenella. 'I want you with me on this one. How much cancer have you seen?'

'Some. Not a lot.'

'The guy we're going to visit has got it bad, stomach cancer. It's just a matter of time. He's a strong fellow and a fighter, but it has a vicious hold on him. His wife has phoned to say that he is very swollen and in a lot of pain. It sounds as if it could be fluid. Whatever it is, there is no way I'm going to leave John Oakes in that state until morning. I wouldn't be able to sleep easy.'

Fenella nodded. He was the best, she thought. They didn't come any more caring. If she didn't make a good GP after working with Max then she never would.

When they arrived, the patient was sitting in an easy chair beside a window that overlooked the distant peaks and when he saw them he said, 'Hello, there, Max. Have you come to sort out my bellyache?'

'Hopefully, yes,' Max replied. 'You don't need to get undressed, John. Just lift up your shirt and ease your pants down while I feel around for a while. And then, if you don't mind, I'm going to ask my assistant, Dr Forbes, to examine you.'

Their patient must have been a big man at one time, Fenella thought, but now the flesh hung on him and his hair had gone, but his eyes were bright and the smile he had for her made her want to weep.

His wife was hovering and as Fenella gently felt his swollen stomach he said teasingly, 'I'd have asked you to send for the doctor before, Mary, if I'd known what a lovely assistant he had.'

'Get away with you,' she said with a tearful smile, and turned to Fenella. 'What is he like!'

'I'm going to ring the hospital and have you admitted,' Max told him. 'You're full of fluid. Once it's been drained off you'll feel much better. You should only be in a couple of days and if you give me a ring when you're home again, we'll be round to see you.'

Max took out his mobile phone and went out to the hall to make a call. He returned with a smile. 'The ambulance is on its way. I've also managed to get hold of your oncologist. He's going to start the draining process as soon as you get there.'

'Thanks, Max, and to Dr Forbes,' the sick man said. 'I might be looking a bit slimmer the next time you see me.'

They'd gone in Max's car as Ann had needed hers to get home, and when they left the Oakes residence he said sombrely, 'John will be slimmer when he comes home, but it will only be until the next time he fills up with fluid. I would so much like to make his life easier, but the only thing I can do is what I've just done, provide him with some temporary relief.'

Fenella put her hand over his where it was resting on the steering-wheel and gave it a squeeze. 'It was better than nothing, Max.'

'Yes, I suppose so. If I had to make a guess, I would say that John has got about a month. Did you think that fluid was the problem?'

'I wasn't sure as I haven't been involved with a terminally ill cancer patient before. It was a humbling experience.'

He nodded. 'Yes, indeed. John knows that he's dying and so does his wife. He's coping with it one day at a time as best he can, and in my book it's called courage. And now as I've kept you late, can I take you somewhere to eat? Or will Ann have a meal ready for you?'

'No. I didn't know how long I'd be so I told her not to bother. Mum will be on her way to see Simon by now.'

'Right, and Will has gone off somewhere with his friends. So what about The Falcon Hotel? It will be coming into view any second.'

'Mmm. Anywhere will do. I'm starving.'

The hotel had just started serving evening meals and they had no trouble finding a table.

'I wish I looked a bit smarter,' Fenella said as she looked around the elegant room. 'I've had these clothes on all day.'

Max smiled. 'You look fine. You always do. Just as long as you don't wear the sequinned T-shirt.'

She was studying the menu and looked up at him in surprise. 'How do you know I own something like that?'

'You were wearing it that night in the police station...and the gold chain. It was pulling across your throat and I loosened it.'

'You are amazing,' she said softly. 'I just wish I'd known you were there. Does anyone look out for you in the same way that you care for others? The scales don't seem very evenly balanced.'

'We have to take what life hands out to us, Fenella. Will and I had loving parents. They died. He was only young and I was all he had. I took on the role of father and brother. It never occurred to me to do otherwise. My relationship with Sonya foundered. It probably would have done in any case. So there you are. And if you're asking if I'm ever going to ask anyone to share my bed, I don't know. But if I ever do, the person in question will have my ring on her finger first.'

Fenella could feel her colour rising. Max had read her mind. She would have to be more subtle in future. Or else come right out with it.

They lingered over the meal, sometimes chatting, sometimes silent, and every time Fenella looked at Max she couldn't believe that in the early days of their acquaintance she hadn't liked him.

There were tired lines around his eyes and a fine sprinkling of silver in the dark thatch of his hair, but it didn't stop her from being aware of his strength, his vitality and the sexuality that made her wilt when he touched her. She was in love with him, she realised. Totally. Committedly. Did he feel the same about her?

They were the only people left in the dining room and Max got to his feet reluctantly. 'I think we'd better make a move before they throw us out.' She nodded, also not wanting their time together to end.

Outside, on the forecourt of the hotel, they observed each other over the top of his car and as their glances locked Max saw the message in her eyes.

'Don't look at me like that, Fenella.'

'I don't know what you mean.'

'Yes, you do,' he said firmly. 'We've got to work together, don't forget.'

'What has that got to do with anything? You're making excuses.'

'Maybe I am, but one of us has to hold onto our sanity.'

She went round to his side of the car and kissed him gently on the lips. 'That can be you, then,' she said softly. 'I'm going to carry on falling in love with you.'

'Fenella, will you, please, get into the car?' he commanded. 'It's been a lovely evening. Don't spoil it.'

'Spoil it! 'she exclaimed. 'Is that how you see my feelings for you?'

Without any further persuasion she slid into the passenger seat and gazed fixedly ahead.

Observing her set profile, he said patiently, 'I didn't mean it like that. My life is so bound up in the affairs of others I never seem to come up for air. I keep telling myself that I must do something about it, but each day is so full of things I can't put off.

'It was great to be able to idle a few hours away with you, but until Simon comes back that is how it's going to be. You have been heaven-sent, but the workload is still heavy.'

She sighed. 'Yes, I do know that. I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. You bring light into my life.'

The house was looming up and her mother's car was outside, which meant that their time together was at an end.

As she was opening the car door, Max said, 'I'll see you tomorrow, Dr Forbes...and thanks for a very pleasant evening.'

'The pleasure was all mine, Dr Hollister,' she told him gravely, and thought that could be the case.

As Fenella lay sleepless beneath the eaves, Max was climbing the stairs to where his solitary bed awaited, and when he thought about what he'd said to Fenella regarding sharing it, it seemed extremely supercilious now.

He hadn't meant it to be. He'd just wanted her to know that he didn't go in for casual romps and had ended up making himself sound like some sort of prude.

Yet it was how he felt and, though he hadn't put it into so many words, it was her that he'd had in mind. He'd been attracted to her from the moment she'd appeared before him to be interviewed for the job, and nothing had changed, except that his need of her was increasing all the time and instead of giving in to it he was fending her off. Using pressure of work as the excuse.

He must be insane, he thought as he stripped off and flung himself on top of the bedcovers, unaware that inside an old house on the hillside Fenella was just as restless and frustrated as he was.

The next morning at the practice neither gave any indication of their sleepless yearnings. They greeted each other coolly and for the rest of the day concentrated on the job.

Inside the surgery it was warm and airless because of the high temperature outside, and when Fenella had a brief moment to spare she stood looking out of the window at the rugged skyline.

'I wouldn't mind being up there at this moment. What do you say?' Max's voice said from behind her.

She turned slowly to face him and nodded. 'A breath of fresh air would be great,' she agreed. 'I might take a walk over the tops tonight.'

'Good idea,' he said, and left it at that.

That evening, when her mother had gone to visit Simon, who was to be discharged the next day, Fenella wandered restlessly around the house. There were lots of things she could be doing, but they were the mundane things of life, like tidying up, washing, ironing, weeding the garden, but with Max so much on her mind they had no appeal.

When his car pulled up in front of the cottage she couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was as if she'd willed him to appear. When she opened the door to him she told him jubilantly, 'I was wishing so hard that you would come. You must have picked up on my thoughts.'

'Well, something was pulling at me to come here,' he said easily, as she stepped back to let him in, 'but I didn't know you had special powers.' He was looking around him. 'Where's Ann? At the hospital?'

'Yes. It's Mum's last night visiting Simon there...and her last night living here. It will seem strange without her. I can see that you will be telling me to lock the doors then.'

'You bet,' he promised, and broke the silence that followed with, 'So have you got your walking shoes handy?'

'My walking shoes?'

'Yes. You said you'd like a walk along the tops, didn't you? And as it's still early evening, why don't we do that, and on our way back have supper at Battersby's Farm Restaurant? Beryl Battersby is the brain behind it and her husband, Ed, sees to the farming side of the business.'

'That sounds lovely,' Fenella told him, eyes sparkling at the suggestion. She would have Max to herself for a few hours, she thought happily, with sick patients and local crime put to one side for a while.

She looked down at the clothes that she'd been wearing all day at the practice. 'I need to change into something more suitable. Do you mind waiting a few moments?'

'No, not at all,' he assured her. He was dressed in casual clothes himself—trim-fitting jeans and a smart cotton shirt, with sensible shoes on his feet.

As she dashed upstairs with fast-beating heart, Fenella was telling herself that Max wouldn't be there if he didn't want to be with her.

'Will I do?' she asked when she came back down, dressed in jeans that were a tighter fit than his, and a cotton top that was bereft of sequins but was still showing a fair amount of smooth golden flesh.

She was entrancing, he thought. Fenella was beautiful but completely without guile. She was seeking his approval, rather than fishing for compliments.

'You most certainly will "do,"' he told her. Removing his gaze from the fast rise and fall of her breasts inside the cotton top, he took her hand and led her outside.

As they strolled along towards the hilltops, still holding hands, Max said, 'The police don't seem to be any nearer to finding out who killed that poor woman. But the pathologist will be examining the body far more thoroughly than I was able to do under the conditions that were present. There were some black hairs caught in her grasp that I presume will have gone for DNA testing.'

'Has she been identified?'

'Yes. She was with the travellers. A group of caravans arrived in one of the fields a few days ago. They appear each year, stay for a while, then move on. They're decent enough folk. We never have any trouble with them. This will have brought them great grief as they are a close-knit community. The woman's husband claims that she had gone into the woods, gathering plant specimens.'

They walked along in sombre silence for a few moments and then, wanting to lighten the atmosphere, Fenella said, 'Alice's cottage is just along the road. Shall we pay her a visit?' He rolled his eyes heavenwards. 'She's so lonely, Max.'

'All right,' he agreed. 'Never let it be said that we don't give our patients the full treatment.'

When she opened the door to them, Alice's greeting was typical. 'Two of you! What have you come for? I'm not poorly.'

'We know that, Alice,' Fenella told her, hiding a smile. 'Dr Hollister and I are out for a walk over the tops and I suggested that we call to see you.'

Alice almost managed a smile of her own, but not quite.

'So had I better put the kettle on?'

As Max began to shake his head Fenella forestalled him by saying brightly, 'A cup of tea would be lovely, Alice. Especially in one of your beautiful china cups.'

'I made a cake this morning. Would you like a piece?'

'We'd love one, wouldn't we, Max?'

'Absolutely,' he said. Leaving himself open to a long dialogue about her ailments, he added, ,'How are you, Alice?'

But this was a woman of few words. 'As good as I'm ever likely to be, I reckon,' she replied, and started making the tea.

'You'll have to see what the rheumatologist says. He should be able to help you.'

She nodded and looked in Fenella's direction. 'I have this young woman to thank for that. You've got yourself a top-notcher there. She has a way with her.'

'Yes, I know that,' he said smoothly, and took the cup and saucer from Alice's outstretched hand.

'Have they found out who killed that woman in the woods yet?' Alice wanted to know as they sat eating cake and drinking tea.

'Not yet,' Max told her. 'It could have been someone who is miles away by now. I hope you are keeping all your doors and windows locked.'

'What, and die from lack of fresh air? No way. But I'm being sensible. I wouldn't have opened the door to you folks if I hadn't seen you coming up the path. So you're off for a walk across the moors, then? I would have thought you saw enough of each other down there in the surgery.'

'We do,' Max told her. 'Tonight is a one-off. You aren't the only one who needs fresh air, Alice.' He was getting to his feet. 'Thanks for the tea and the delicious cake.'

'You're welcome, Dr Hollister and you, Fenella...any time. I don't get many visitors. That's why I'm not so good at the social graces.'

Fenella gave her a squeeze. 'A piece of your cake is more acceptable than polite chit-chat any day.'

'Yes, well, mind how you go, and keep away from those woods,' was the reply, and off they went, with Alice watching them from the open doorway until they were out of sight.

'That wasn't too bad, now, was it?' Fenella said as they continued upwards.

Max laughed. 'I don't know what you've done to Alice but you've got her eating out of your hand.'

'I like her. Behind her sour exterior beats a heart of gold.'

He was still amused. 'I'll take your word for it.'

'I noticed that you agreed with her that we see enough of each other at the surgery, without spending our free time together. Did you mean it?'

'Yes and no.'

'And what is that supposed to mean? Bear in mind you were the one who suggested we eat at The Falcon last night, and you were the one who suggested a walk over the moors tonight.'

Max was serious now.

'Agreed. And I'm the one who ought to have some sense when it comes to you, but for some reason I haven't.'

A large stone building had appeared on the skyline and, without giving her chance to reply, he said, 'That's Battersby's Farm Restaurant. We'll be passing it in a matter of minutes. I suggest that we go in and reserve a table for supper if that is all right with you.'

'Perfectly,' she told him serenely, and then her expression changed.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

They were passing a large field where cows were grazing peacefully. To one side of them, big, black and mean-looking, was a bull.

Fenella shuddered. 'I wouldn't like to meet that creature on a dark night. Or in the daylight, for that matter.'

'Who would?' Max agreed. 'This lot are Ed Battersby's herd of Friesian cattle, and he's always getting into trouble for letting Saracen, the big bull over there with the mean- looking horns, stray from the field.'

Fenella had come to a halt and he observed her questioningly.

'The bull,' she said slowly. 'You don't think that...'

'What?'

'It's a long shot, but it's quite possible that the bull could have come up from behind and butted the woman who was killed. That the injury to the back of her head was from its horns.'

Max regarded her for a few seconds, thinking intently. 'Of course,' he breathed. 'Why didn't I think of that before. Come on, Fenella. We need to find Ed Battersby.'

They found the farmer beside the barn, getting ready to' call it a day. As Max approached, with Fenella apprehensive beside him, he flashed them an uneasy smile.

'Hello, there, Max,' he said with false chirpiness. 'What brings you here?'

'That bull of yours, Saracen,' he said levelly.

'Aye. What about him?'

'Has he been on the loose lately?'

'Naw.'

'Are you sure?' Max persisted.

'Why are you askin' ?' the farmer questioned, not meeting his gaze.

'I'm asking because a woman has been killed in the woods on the edge of this field. That's why I'm asking, Ed,' he told him tightly. 'The back of her head was in a terrible state, all gouged in and bleeding. And as we were passing your field it occurred to Dr Forbes that the killer might have four legs instead of two. The injuries I saw could have been made by the horns of a bull just as easily as from a weapon carried by a human.'

The farmer was shaking his head. 'Weren't nothin' to do with my bull,' he blustered.

'Fine,' Max told him. 'But while you're denying it, just bear this thought in mind. The police will be doing DNA tests on hairs that were caught up in the victim's hand, and if they prove to be animal instead of human, you'll be in big trouble.'

'I can't afford to lose my bull,' Ed said desperately. 'I would go bust without him.'

'Maybe so, but you are the only one who knows if he was loose yesterday. That poor woman couldn't afford to lose her life, yet she did. If you do know something about what happened, it is better to go to the police now.'

'Beryl will never forgive me,' he wailed. 'She's always telling me to get rid of Saracen and buy a less mean animal, but...'

'I'll give you twenty-four hours to go to the police,' Max told him grimly. 'After that I shall be contacting them myself.' And taking Fenella by the hand again, he led her away from the barn and out onto the road once more.

'I've lost my appetite,' she said weakly as they approached the farmhouse. 'Let's forget supper, Max. Do you really think that animal could be responsible for the woman's death? Wouldn't you have seen hoof prints at the scene?'

'I might have done if the ground had been just marshy, but there'd been heavy rain for a few hours and everywhere around and beneath her was just thick mud.'

'I thought that this was going to be a lovely evening,' she said disconsolately, 'but instead we've become involved in something horrible.'

'Police surgeon work is horrible,' Max said grimly. 'And you are a star. I can see you joining the ranks one day. The head injuries could have been made by the horns of a bull, and the long black hairs from around the jowls of the bull. If you are right, the one good thing to come out of it will be knowing that we haven't got a maniac lurking around the village. A mean bull, yes, but not a human murderer.'

They were walking past the car park of the farm restaurant and another blow to Fenella's hopes for the evening was about to fall.

'Max!' a voice called, and when they looked across, the auburn-haired Sonya was getting out of a sleek, open-topped sports car.

He sighed. 'I knew it had to come sooner or later, but not now.'

She was coming towards them, hands outstretched, a smile on her face, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he wasn't alone.

'Hello, Max,' she said in a soft, purring sort of voice. 'It's been a long time.' And flung her arms around him.

'Yes, it has, Sonya,' he said gravely.

Fenella expected that he would move out of her hold but he didn't. He patted her shoulder instead. Surely Max wasn't going to take the woman who dumped him under his wing, along with half the population, she thought frustratedly.

Sonya loosened her grip at last and he said, 'May I introduce Fenella—Dr Forbes?'

'I've seen you twice already, haven't I?' Sonya said. 'At the meeting the other night and this morning at the practice.'

'Yes, you have,' Fenella told her, with a feeling that she was in the way. 'I'm sure that you would both like to share your reunion in private, so I'll leave you to it.' Turning, she began to walk back the way they had come.

She'd had high hopes of their walk across the moors, but other aspects of Max's life had taken precedence over it. The police surgeon business for one thing, even though she'd been the one to make the suggestion, and now the appearance of Sonya.

Was she being ridiculous? she wondered. Probably, but it didn't stop her from feeling on the outside, a stranger looking in. Whatever Max's attitude towards the woman who had once held a special place in his life, the fact remained that Sonya had known him a lot longer than she had. The woman who had just flung herself into his arms would know everything about him, while she, Fenella, knew so little. She hadn't been in Max's life for very long and so shouldn't be upset at feeling like the onlooker, but the fact remained that she did.

On arriving back at the cottage, Fenella went straight to bed even though it was still daylight outside, and after gazing morosely up at the ceiling for what seemed an eternity fell into a sluggish sleep in which big black bulls were snorting at her bedroom door one moment, and the next they became Sonya, dashing across the car park at the Battersbys' place with arms outstretched.

She didn't hear her mother come in. The next thing Fenella knew was the cockerel at a farm lower down the hill crowing at daybreak, and the first light filtering through the window.

When her mother came down to breakfast she said, 'Max phoned just after I got in last night, wanting to talk to you, but you were asleep, so he said not to disturb you. What is it with you and him, Fenella? Are you in love with him?'

'Yes,' she admitted, 'for what good it's doing me.'

Ann was observing her anxiously as Fenella told her what had happened with Sonya. 'This is my last morning here, Fenella. I won't be able to settle in at Simon's place if I know that you are alone and unhappy.'

'I won't be unhappy, I promise,' Fenella told her, having no wish to put the blight on Simon's homecoming. 'I've got a job I love, a mother who is the best, and maybe one day I'll meet a man whose life doesn't veer off in as many directions as Max Hollister's.'

It had taken Max all his time not to groan out loud when Fenella had turned and gone back down the hill. He didn't blame her for being fed up, but he hadn't been able to thrust Sonya away from him after such a long absence.

He had long ago accepted her decision to call off the wedding, knowing that if she hadn't, he would have. He'd seen his responsibility towards Will as something he hadn't been able to ignore, and when she hadn't been ready to offer her support the end had been in sight.

It had hurt at the time, hurt a lot, losing his fiancée so soon after his parents. But Sonya had revealed that she possessed an inner core of selfishness, and as time had passed, with the practice to run and Will to care for, he'd had no lasting regrets.

But now, unbelievably, after seven years she was back and he had discovered as they'd talked over a drink in the bar of the farm restaurant that she was looking for a shoulder to cry on and would be happy to use his.

It seemed that while in the United States she'd married a wealthy American by the name of Blake Milhench and had set up home in Florida with him, but was now divorced and lonely.

'So you didn't have any children with him?' he'd questioned, and she'd shaken her head.

'If you remember, I'm not exactly the motherly type. Which reminds me. I saw your brother the other day. He's a lot like you but lacks the charisma.'

'Will is twenty years old, Sonya,' he'd told her dryly.

He'd got to his feet. 'Any chance of a lift? I've left my car at Fenella's place and don't want to disturb her.'

'Yes, sure,' she'd said reluctantly, loth to end the reunion. 'When am I going to see you again? I'm so lonely in that big house. The work on it will be finished by the end of the week, so I might start doing some entertaining. Will you come if I do?'

'It will depend how busy I am,' he'd said flatly. 'And now can we get going? I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.'

'With the blonde girl to assist you, no doubt.'

'Fenella is a trainee GP and a great help in the practice.'

'Where did you find her?'

'Her mother is the practice manager. She is shortly to marry my partner.'

'Who—the girl or the mother?'

'Her mother,' he'd said firmly, with the thought of Fenella marrying anyone but him not bearable.

* * *

And now it was the following morning and he was waiting for Fenella to arrive at the surgery. He wanted to make it up to her for the previous night's happenings but hadn't decided how.

He was first there and within minutes the phone rang. It was the police to tell him that Ed Battersby had been to the station and admitted that his bull had been loose on the afternoon of the woman's death.

'We're looking into it, needless to say,' he was told. 'Some of our men have gone to the farm to examine the bull, but we think that we'll have to wait for the DNA results on the hairs before we can press charges—that is, if it turns out that you're right.

'The heavy rain that afternoon has been the stumbling block in our investigation, as not only would it have obliterated any hoof prints but it would have washed away any human tissue on the animal's horns. The lads at the station have suggested that your Dr Forbes apply for a job in CID,' the officer at the other end of the line said laughingly before he rang off.

Brenda, the cleaner, was the next to arrive and she told him excitedly, 'My granddaughter, Chelsea, is going to enter for the flower queen competition.'

When he explained that he knew nothing about it, she filled him in on the details and Max thought that someone at the meeting had come up with a really good idea.

When the door opened again it was Ann, and Max observed her in surprise.

'What are you doing here?' he asked. 'You're supposed to be on leave as from today.'

'Yes. I know,' she said hurriedly. 'I just want a quick word before Fenella arrives.'

'So she's not with you?'

'No. She wasn't ready when I came out and said that as it's a nice morning she would walk down.'

'So what is on your mind?'

'I came to ask you to be careful with her feelings. You're a very attractive man, Max. She is young, impetuous, has a mind of her own, but isn't very experienced when it comes to the opposite sex. I don't want her to get hurt. She's told me about last night and until she did I hadn't realised just how much she is attracted to you.'

'I would have thought that you knew me better than to think I would do anything to hurt Fenella,' Max said coolly.

'I do,' Ann said. 'You are an honourable man, but she is quite capable of hurting herself. She has only been working here at the practice for a short time and needs to get settled in properly before anything else.'

'Listen, Ann, we need to get one thing straight,' he told her.

'And what is that?'

'I am not made of iron and Fenella is an entrancing creature, but I will bear your comments in mind.'

There were voices outside and footsteps on the flagged forecourt of the surgery. 'I'm going,' Ann said quickly. 'I'll use the back door. I don't want her to know that we've been discussing her.'

Fenella wasn't amongst the staff they'd heard outside. She was the last to arrive, leaving no time to talk as by then the waiting room was full, but he did manage to ask, 'Are you all right?'

And was told, 'Yes. Why shouldn't I be?'

CHAPTER SIX

When morning surgery was over Fenella waylaid Max and pointed out that neither of them had transport, a fact that he was well aware of. His car was at her house from the night before, and her mother's car, which she used for her house calls, would be at Simon's place from now on.

'My mother said her car would be available later in the day but she wasn't sure when,' Fenella told him. 'How did you get home last night without yours?'

'How do you think? Sonya did the honours.'

'But of course. What are old friends for?'

'There is no need for sarcasm,' he told her reprovingly. 'I could have picked mine up at your place on my way down from Battersby's Farm, but I didn't think that would go down too well after the kind of evening it had turned out to be. And you know, part of it was your fault, Fenella. If you hadn't been so clever we would have carried on with our walk. But once you'd put the idea about the bull into my head I couldn't just shelve it. If it was that animal that killed the woman, it could kill again. And by the way, they think at the police station that you should apply for a job in CID.'

That brought a smile. 'I'd rather solve health problems than crime.'

'Ed did go to the police after all. They were on the phone first thing to let me know and are definitely considering the idea. They've spoken to the pathologist and he is going to check for animal saliva in the victim's head injuries. If the DNA tests on the hairs are found to have come from the bull, it will be case solved.

'As for Sonya appearing like she did, I had no idea she would be around that place, but when it turned out that she was I couldn't just walk away.'

Her expression had softened. 'No, you couldn't. Why not come to the cottage tonight and I'll make us a meal to make up for it?'

'I can't,' he told her stiffly. 'I've promised to go to the Old Hall to see the improvements that Sonya has had done. She's desperate for company. I don't think anyone has stepped over the threshold since she moved in. Then I want to call round to see how Simon has coped with his first day back home.'

So she hadn't been wrong in thinking that she was on the outside of his life looking in, Fenella thought as he waited to see what she had to say.

'Sure,' she said easily. 'First things first.'

He was called away by one of the practice nurses at that moment so didn't get the chance to reply, and when he came back it seemed that there were more important things on his mind than the uncertainties of his assistant.

'I've ordered a taxi to take us to your house so that I can pick up my car,' he told her. 'So that's my transport settled. With regard to yours I think it's time you had a car of your own, so we're going to sort that out next. You can't keep relying on your mother.'

'So what are you going to do? Hire one?'

Max shook his head. 'No. I'm going to buy one. It will belong to the practice, but it will be for doctors' use only.'

'What kind?' she asked as the day began to improve.

'I don't know until we get to the showroom. Something not too big, not too small, I suppose.'

'Can I choose the colour?'

'Yes, as long as it isn't white, bright red or black. White and red are frivolous colours for a doctor, and black could have the patients thinking that the undertaker has turned up early.'

Fenella smiled at his reasoning, eyes dancing at the thought of what lay ahead, and when a taxi pulled up on the surgery forecourt she was outside in a flash.

'Do you want to come in for a coffee?' she asked when they arrived at the cottage to pick up his car.

'I don't think so,' Max told her, remembering what Ann had said earlier. 'We're going to be running late all day by the time we've fixed you up with a car.'

In truth he was wishing that they had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do but spend the afternoon giving in to the attraction they had for each other.

When he stopped his car at the traffic lights in the centre of the village, Will came loping alongside.

'Hi, Fenella,' he said, adding to Max, 'Where are you off to?'

'We're going to buy a car for Fenella to use at the practice.'

'I'll come with you,' he said immediately, and as the lights changed he opened the door and slid into the back seat.

Max sighed. 'Haven't you anything better to do?'

'What could be better than helping choose a new car?'

'Doing some of the work you brought with you from university, for one thing.'

'Oh, that,' he said airily. 'I can do it any time.' And turning to Fenella, 'How are you, Sherlock?'

'What do you mean—Sherlock?'

'It's all over the village that you've solved the mystery of the woman in the bushes. You are amazing. Isn't she, Max?' he said admiringly.

'Yes, she is,' he agreed as the colour rose in her cheeks.

He pulled up beside the kerb. 'Nothing has been solved yet, so give it a low profile for the time being,' he told his brother. 'Now, get out, Will, and don't forget it's your turn to make the meal tonight.'

As he reluctantly unfolded himself out of the back seat, Will said, 'Would you like to join us, Fenella? I make a good curry.'

'I don't think so,' she told him gently. 'Maybe another time.'

If she was ever invited to Max's home she wanted the invitation to come from him, not as a sideways sort of thing, and in any case if she'd said yes, he would be hurrying off to Sonya's once he had eaten and she would be left with Will, who was a likable tease but was never going to make her heart beat faster, like it did when Max was around.

After the car showroom had completed its quickest sale of the day and Max had phoned his insurers, the two doctors prepared to make their separate ways back to the practice, with Max driving his own car and Fenella behind the wheel of a smart, dark green, metallic number.

'Take care,' he told her. ' It takes a while to get used to a new car. We're about to welcome home from hospital one member of the practice. I don't want you to be the next one taking up a bed there.'

'Oh, so it's not the car you're concerned about?' she questioned lightly.

'A car is a car. It can soon be replaced,' he replied, and she saw a glint in the keen gaze that had her so mesmerised. 'But a doctor short at the practice is a catastrophe. With that thought in mind, we have calls to make and we're well into the afternoon. So let's go back to the surgery, pick up the lists and get mobile.'

So a doctor missing at the surgery was of more importance than her having an accident, Fenella thought glumly as she settled herself behind the wheel of the new car. It would certainly seem that she was still on the outside.

When she arrived home that evening, the cottage seemed empty and unwelcoming without her mother's presence. She was used to them bustling around preparing the evening meal together while chatting about the day's events at the surgery.

It was something she was going to have to get used to, she told herself, and instead of cooking made a sandwich to save time. Max wasn't the only one who intended visiting Simon that night. For one thing, she wanted to see if her mother needed any assistance. Ann coped well with stress and wasn't short of vitality, but until she and Simon had settled into a routine it could be difficult for both patient and carer.

She intended going soon. For one thing, they would both be tired after the stresses of the day and would want an early night, and for another Max had said he was going to see Simon, too, but it would be after he'd visited Sonya. So remembering how he'd agreed with Alice that they saw enough of each other at the surgery, with a bit of luck they wouldn't meet up.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see him again so soon— she did. But until she was more confident about his feelings for her, she was going to cool it. Stop being the eager beaver. That afternoon at the car showroom he'd said that she must take care driving the new vehicle as he didn't want any more doctors incarcerated in hospital.

She had hoped that his concern might have been more for her personal safety than disruption of the practice, but maybe it had been his way of saying she mustn't presume too much. So she wasn't going to presume anything and would see how that went down.

After she'd been to see her mother and Simon she intended to call on Alice to see if she was getting all the benefits she was entitled to and was hoping that she would co-operate. She'd made the arrangement the previous week and had thought when they'd called on her unexpectedly that they might have discussed it then, but from what she knew of Alice some persuasion might be needed as she wasn't the type to want to discuss her private affairs.

Her appointment with the rheumatologist was for late afternoon one day in the following week. Which would leave herself free for morning surgery and home visits. The only time she would be missing would be for the late surgery, and Max had said he would willingly cope without her if they could get Alice to the rheumatologist.

Fenella approached the old lock-keeper's cottage where Simon lived from the back. There was no parking space at the front as it was built on a level with the canal tow-path.

When her mother came to the back door in answer to her knock, she eyed the new car in surprise and exclaimed, 'What is that I see there, gleaming in dark green splendour? I wondered why you didn't come round to borrow my car. Where has it come from?'

'Max bought it,' Fenella told her, giving her a hug. 'It's for the practice really, but I will be the main user. But I'm not here to talk about that. I've come to see Simon and to ask if there is anything I can do.'

'He's in the sitting room, feeling quite exhausted but delighted to be home. Come in and you'll see for yourself.'

'Hello, Fenella,' Simon said when she appeared. And with his voice lifting, 'Now I'm home, we're going to start making wedding plans, aren't we, Ann? There were times when I never thought I'd see this day, Fenella, but your mother gave me something to live for, and as soon as I am really on my feet again we're going to set the date.'

'You'll be my bridesmaid, won't you, Fenella?' Ann begged.

With eyes sparkling she replied, 'Of course I will. Anything for a new outfit.'

'And I'm going to ask Max to be best man,' Simon said.

Before Fenella could digest that item of information, someone else knocked on the back door, and when her mother went to open it Max was there.

'Fenella,' he said without surprise. 'I guessed you were here when I saw the car.' He turned to Simon. 'So how's it going, Simon?'

'I'm tired,' he replied, 'but it's wonderful to be home, Max. We've just been telling Fenella that we are going to set a date for the wedding as soon as I'm fit enough to walk down the aisle. Will you do me the honour of being my best man?'

'Yes, if you want me to,' he said immediately. 'I'd be delighted.'

'And my daughter is going to be my bridesmaid,' Ann told him.

'Great!' he said, with what Fenella thought was overdone enthusiasm. 'I'll bet you never expected when you joined our rural community that one day you would be bridesmaid to your mother and Simon.'

Here we go again, she thought as the colour rose in her cheeks. A reminder that he knows I had him down for the bridegroom...

At that moment they heard frenzied shouting coming from outside by the canal, and Simon said, 'Better have a look what's going on, Max. There's been a couple of young lads fishing out there. I've been watching them from the window.'

Before he'd finished speaking Max was disappearing through the front door and onto the tow-path, with Fenella close behind but not close enough to stop him from jumping into the black waters of the canal, where one of the young anglers was thrashing about.

'Keep still,' she called to the boy as she gathered her wits. 'The doctor's coming to get you.'

'I can't move my legs,' he shrieked. 'They're trapped in the weeds.'

Ann had appeared beside Fenella, dumbstruck at the scene that was unfolding in front of them. 'Ring for an ambulance,' Fenella gasped as she threw off her shoes and stepped out of the long skirt she was wearing. 'Max is going to need help to get the boy free, or he might end up getting entangled himself.'

'I've got you, laddie,' Max told the lad as he reached his side and grasped a waving arm. 'Now keep still while I get a stronger grip on you, then I'm going to try and drag you up out of the weeds.'

He could feel them wrapping around his own legs and thought that it mightn't be all that easy.

'I'll take his other arm,' a voice said from nearby, and he turned to see Fenella's blonde head bobbing around beside him.

'What on earth are you doing here?' he snapped.

'Save your breath and pull,' she gasped, vowing that if she didn't drown she would have something to say to him.

He obeyed, and as she did likewise, he and the boy surged free from the weeds. Then, supporting him, one on each side, they headed for the bank where his friend was standing mute with shock.

When they'd heaved him up to safety, Max turned to Fenella, who was hanging on to the canal bank, wet and bedraggled. 'Up you go, and don't ever do that to me again!'

'What was I supposed to do?' she cried seconds later when they were safely out of the water. 'Let you drown? I could tell by the way you had to struggle when we began to pull that you were caught up in the weeds yourself. So what would you have done?'

'Got us out without another life being put at risk.'

As she pulled on her skirt again she was shivering. The thought of a hot bath was tempting, but first they had a young patient to see to.

'The ambulance is on its way,' her mother said as she hurried out with an armful of blankets and wrapped the tearful boy in one of them.

Max nodded. 'He needs to be checked over and his tetanus status looked into, as well as given antibiotics. They'll probably keep him in overnight.' He put his arm around the boy's shoulders. 'You're one of the Copley boys, aren't you? The brother of Callum, who had mumps.'

'Yes,' he said with a tearful sniffle.

'So how did you come to fall in?'

'We were messing about and I lost my balance.'

'Never mind, you're out now,' Max told him consolingly. 'We've rung your parents. If they don't get here before the ambulance they'll meet up with you at the hospital.' He glanced at Fenella. 'I think you'd better go to A and E yourself, just to be on the safe side.'

'And what about you?' she asked snappily, with the memory clear of how he'd greeted her when she'd joined him in the water. 'I suppose you are immune to a minor thing like bacteria.'

'I'll take precautions back at the surgery.'

'Then so will I.'

The ambulance had arrived at the back of the house. They'd heard its sirens on the night air and now it was here. Paramedics were hurrying round to where they were and with the two doctors hovering they gave the boy a quick examination and then took him swiftly to where the ambulance was waiting.

'Come inside, both of you, and have a hot bath,' Ann said when it had gone, 'or you'll be getting pneumonia:'

'No,' Max told her. 'We're both covered in sludge from the waist down. We'll go and clean up at my place after I've picked up something to prevent tetanus from the surgery. Simon and yourself have enough to cope with at the moment, without us bringing part of the canal into the house. But one thing is sure,' he said whimsically, 'we won't be going home in the new car!'

They'd been to the surgery and were now driving to Max's place. When Fenella said that she would prefer to go home to get cleaned up, he shook his head.

'You can go home as soon as you like afterwards,' he told her, 'but first I'm going to inject you against tetanus, and when you've got rid of the dirt I want to examine you to make sure you have no open cuts or scratches that could get infected.'

'I'm quite capable of doing that myself,' she said, thinking that this was not how she'd wanted her second visit to his home to be.

'I promise I won't take advantage of you,' he said teasingly, and because she was miserable, cold and dirty, she burst into tears.

They were pulling up in front of his property and when he'd switched off the engine Max said, 'I'm sorry, Fenella. That wasn't funny. But I do want to make sure you won't have picked up any infection.' He touched her cheek gently.

'The last thing I expected, or wanted, was for you to follow me into the canal. I was horrified when you bobbed up beside me.'

'I don't see why,' she sniffled. 'If you hadn't been around, I would have gone in for the boy the same as you did.'

'But that's just it. I was around.'

She was getting out of the car with the blanket that Ann had found for her trailing behind like a train.

'Just give me the injection and point me to the bathroom,' she told him wearily, 'then I'll be off. I'd told Alice Crabtree I would go round tonight but I'm afraid it will have to wait until tomorrow. And weren't you supposed to be keeping Sonya company?'

'Yes. There's still time for that. She won't be going to bed as early as Alice.'

'I thought you were going to her place before you went to see Simon.'

'Yes, I was, and then I thought, no doubt like you did, that he might be too exhausted to see visitors later on.'

He was taking one of the syringes out of its sterile package and wiping clean the place where he was going to inject. 'Now hold out your arm. Then you can do the same for me.'

As he gave her the injection Max said sombrely, 'If circumstances had been different, that boy might have drowned and I would have been called out to examine a body. So I think it should be prayers of thanks all round.'

'Are you trying to say that as gratitude is the order of the day, and I don't dispute that, I should forget that you treated me as if I was some sort of idiot when I jumped in to help you? There wasn't much gratitude around at that moment.'

'So you think I should have been all smiles, do you, and said, "Hello, there, Fenella. Nice of you to drop in."? I was scared stiff that you might end up in difficulties too with all that weed below the water. Then I would have had two of you to deal with.'

When she'd wept he wanted to hold her close, sludge or not, and kiss away her tears, but at the front of his mind all the time was the conversation he'd had with her mother. It had been one of the reasons why he'd refused when she'd asked him in for a coffee that morning, and why he'd spoken as if the practice was more important than her safety when they had discussed her driving the new car.

Because he was a reasonable man, he understood Ann's concerns for her daughter and would hold back for a time, but it wasn't going to be easy with Fenella around all the time, enchanting him, beguiling him.. and misunderstanding him.

They washed off the grime at the same time but in different places. Max used the en suite to his bedroom, while Fenella made use of the main bathroom.

There was no sign of Will around the place, for which she was thankful as he would almost certainly view what had happened in a humorous light, especially if he'd been around when they'd arrived wrapped in blankets.

Max was in the kitchen, making a hot drink, when she appeared scrubbed and clean, dressed in a robe that he'd left out for her, which was much too big.

His first words were, 'We're going to have to find you something to wear while I drive you home. Would you consider a pair of Will's jeans and a cotton sweater? My gear will be much too big for you.'

She was feeling better now, as if washing away the smelly mess from the canal had washed away her annoyance at the same time, and when he placed a steaming brew in her hand she was smiling.

'I don't mind wearing Will's clothes as long as they're clean,' she told him, and he laughed.

'I get your drift. He and his mates are a sweaty lot. But have no fear, whatever I come up with will be fresh as the morning dew.'

While she was drinking the hot beverage he disappeared upstairs and when he came down again the clothes he brought with him were eminently presentable.

'These are new, haven't been worn,' he assured her.

'Fine. I'll go and put them on. May I use one of the bedrooms?'

'Yes, of course. Use mine.'

The room was as it had been before, tasteful and appealing, with solid fitted furniture, elegant drapes and huge windows looking out over fields that lay green and peaceful beneath the towering peaks. In the centre was the king- sized bed that had once cropped up in conversation.

She stood for a moment, clutching the borrowed clothes as she gazed around her. Max was out of her league, she thought dolefully. She could no more see him bringing a wet-behind-the-ears junior doctor to live in this place than Alice Crabtree greeting her with a smile.

When she reappeared he tried to keep a straight face. The clothes fitted well enough, but they were men's clothes and there was nothing of the ladette about Fenella. She was curvy, golden...and gutsy, with the vision starkly clear of her appearing beside him in the murky waters of the canal.

At that moment he wished he hadn't been so compliant when Ann had been to see him, but he'd understood her anxiety. Knew how he would feel if the boot was on the other foot and Will fell in love with someone more mature and sophisticated than himself.

For Fenella, who had no knowledge of her mother's early morning visit to the surgery, it was time to go, change into some of her own clothes and wind down. It was the second eventful evening she and Max had been involved in and it was enough. She wanted to get to know him better, but it wasn't working out like that with the affairs of others at the forefront all the time.

'I'm ready,' she said flatly.

'What about cuts and scratches?' he wanted to know. 'Have you checked?'

'Yes, one of my legs is rather gory-looking but they are all surface cuts. It's probably because I took my long skirt off.'

'Take the jeans off and let me see,' he ordered, and she stared at him.

'These are all I've got on.'

'And I'm a doctor, for heaven's sake. If you don't want to take them off, roll the legs up.'

When she'd done that he examined her leg with gentle fingers and Fenella wondered if he knew how much his touch aroused her. Maybe he did, as he was saying briskly, 'I think that some antiseptic cream, along with the injection, should do the trick. I've brought some with me from the surgery as well as the syringes, so do you want to smooth it on yourself or shall I do it?'

'I'll do it,' she said hastily, before she made a fool of herself.

'Right, and then I'll drive you home. In the morning I'll pick you up early and take you to Simon's place to pick up your car. We seem to be spending all our time collecting our vehicles from where we've left them, don't we?'

She wasn't going to invite him in this time, Fenella decided as he drove up the hillside. She'd already done it once earlier in the day and he'd refused. There was no way she wanted another polite refusal.

Would Fenella invite him in? Max wondered. And if she did, was he going to accept the invitation? He was sorely tempted. But all she had to say when she got out of the car was, 'Goodnight, Max. I'll see you tomorrow.' The next thing her key was in the lock and with a quick wave she was shutting the door behind her.

So much for that, he thought wryly as he drove away. Maybe he wasn't in as much demand as he'd thought.

Before Fenella went to bed she rang Alice to apologise for not turning up and was greeted with a sour, 'Think nothing of it. I'm used to folk letting me down.'

'It was unavoidable, Alice,' she said patiently. 'Dr Hollister and I have been in the canal, rescuing a young boy who'd fallen in, and we were pretty grubby when we'd finished, which meant having an injection to prevent tetanus and a shower to get rid of the grime. I've only just got home and felt that it was too late to call on you. I'll come round to see you tomorrow night instead, if that's all right.'

'Yes, that will be all right,' was the stiff reply. 'And what about the boy? Whose child was he?'

'It was one of the Copley boys. He's gone to Accident and Emergency to be checked over, but he seemed all right.'

'And you? Are you all right?'

'Yes. I'm fine. Just very tired, that's all,' she told her, and wondered if Alice was asking out of concern or curiosity.

'Then you'd best get to bed, hadn't you? Or you'll be needing a doctor yourself,' she said, and Fenella decided that it had to be concern for her well-being that was behind Alice's comments.

'Goodnight, Alice,' she said softly, 'and thanks for bothering about me. When I call on you tomorrow I hope you won't be offended when you know why I've come.'

'I probably will be,' was the uncompromising reply. 'But we'll have to wait and see, won't we?' And that was that.

When Max called for her the next morning he said immediately, 'No after-effects, I hope?'

'No. I'm fine,' she told him. 'And you? I once heard of a man who lost all his hair after he'd fallen into a canal somewhere.'

'So I've got that to look forward to, have I?' he said in mock horror. 'Thanks a bunch. Perhaps I'd better say that I'm all right so far.

'I rang the Copleys last night, but there was no reply, so I took it that they were still at the hospital. However, I managed to get hold of the boy's mother this morning and she said that they'd kept him in overnight, as I thought they would, but he'll be coming home later in the day. So all's well that ends well.'

Fenella nodded. The boy had been the first concern in her mind when she'd woken up and now she was going to voice the second.

'So how was Sonya when you called?'

'OK,' he said easily. 'A bit frazzled around the edges, but happy to see a familiar face. I think she got a kick out of showing me round the old hall, but I can't see her wanting to be rattling around that place on her own for long.'

'So what is she going to do now that she's back?'

He shrugged. 'I don't know. Get involved in village life maybe. Or find a job. Though I don't think she needs the money. It would appear that she came out of the divorce with a good settlement.. .and a lot of regrets.'

'Are you glad that she's come back?'

'I'm neither glad nor sorry,' he said as the lock-keeper's cottage came into view. 'I've moved on, Fenella.'

He would have liked to have said more, a lot more, but hoped that for the time being that would put her mind at rest.

'Do you mind if I pop in for a moment?' she asked when he stopped the car. 'Just to make sure that list night's episode didn't upset my mum and Simon too much. They could have done without it on his first day home.'

'Sure,' he said easily. 'Now that you've got transport, I'll leave you to make your own way back. But don't be too long. We have a full day ahead of us. Thank goodness it's the weekend tomorrow.'

'Mmm. Thank goodness indeed,' she said flatly, as it stretched ahead emptily.

Until the incident in the club Fenella would have been out on the town with Julie. But both of them had given the nightspots a wide berth since then, and her friend was dating some man she'd met at the supermarket checkout. Julie had also given up drinking after the humiliation of her parents being called to the police station to collect her. All of which left Fenella at a loose end when Friday and Saturday nights came along.

She found her mother and Simon having a leisurely breakfast, and after they'd enquired about young Copley and she in turn had made sure the previous night's trauma hadn't affected either of them, Fenella set off for the practice, where she discovered the mumps epidemic was now in full spate and any child who hadn't received the MMR vaccination was being invited to come to the surgery and have it.

Max was on the phone, arranging an appointment for one of his patients, when she was ready to start her rounds, so she left him to it and went out to her car. As she was about to lower herself into the driving seat there was a screech of brakes and when she looked up a car had braked sharply on the main street of the village and a motorcyclist was lying in the road.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Fenella was out of the car in a flash, dragging her doctor's bag off the back seat and running towards the road. The motorcycle, which was lying in the gutter, was a flashy, trendy machine and a slim, boyish figure was lying unconscious in the road.

The car driver was bending over him crying hysterically, 'It wasn't my fault. He came out right in front of me.'

'I'm a doctor,' she told him urgently. 'Will you move to one side, please?'

At that moment Max came rushing out of the surgery and when he reached her side he asked, 'Is he breathing?'

'Yes,' she told him, 'and it's a she.'

'Right.' He was checking her heartbeat and pulse and as Fenella observed him anxiously he nodded. 'She's still with us. We can leave her helmet on, but watch her breathing. And she's hurt her arm.'

Blood was seeping steadily through the padded sleeve of the young woman's jacket and Fenella said anxiously, 'Is the ambulance on its way?'

Max nodded. 'The receptionist has phoned the emergency services and in the meantime we have to cut the jacket off to get to the arm. We need to try and stop the blood loss, otherwise she could bleed to death.'

He was calm, extremely so, totally in charge of the situation, while Fenella was sick with apprehension. They couldn't let this girl die. It looked as if she'd ridden into the path of the car sideways on and her arm had taken the brunt of the impact.

As they cut away the jacket with a huge pair of scissors from the practice, Fenella gave a gasp of horror. The arm was almost severed and at that moment the rise and fall of the girl's chest stopped.

'Let's get the helmet off. We're going to have to resuscitate her,' Max said. 'You apply a tourniquet to stem the blood flow, and I'll do the mouth-to-mouth.'

'OK,' she croaked, as they quickly removed the helmet.

Fenella applied the tourniquet and eventually saw the girl's chest start to rise and fall again as Max gave mouth-to-mouth. Thankfully, at that moment the ambulance arrived.

'The arm is almost off,' Max told the paramedic in charge. 'We've got her breathing again and applied a tourniquet.'

'We'll transfuse on our way to A and E,' he was told, 'and radio ahead for them to be ready and waiting.'

Fenella had gone to speak to the motorist, who looked on the point of collapse himself. 'Come into the surgery and we'll make you a cup of tea,' she told him. 'Are you hurt in any way?'

He was a balding, middle-aged man in his fifties, and he shook his head. 'My chest hurts from when I was flung against the steering-wheel, but that's all at the moment. It isn't myself I'm worried about. It's that poor girl. I thought it was a lad but it's not, is it?'

'No, it isn't,' she said gently, and took his arm, but he didn't budge. He was watching the ambulance drive away with sirens blaring and lights flashing.

'She's going to die, isn't she? She stopped breathing.'

'Yes, but we did get her breathing again, so she has a chance. Just as long as they get some blood into her,' Max told him as he came to join them.

'Are you from around here?' Fenella asked to try and keep him calm.

He shook his head. 'No. I'm from down south. I was on my way to pick my wife up. She's been staying at her sister's in the next village.' But he was not to be sidetracked. 'Do you know who the girl on the bike is?'

As Max was about to reply, a police car pulled up beside them and he told those inside, 'This gentlemen is in a very distressed state. We're about to take him into the surgery. Would you like to interview him there?'

It was over. At least it was for the two doctors and the motorist, but far from over for the young victim. The man had got back into his car and driven off after the police had taken a statement from him and checked his documents.

'If I don't get back behind the wheel now, I never will,' he'd told them, and they'd understood his feelings.

The crowd that had gathered had dispersed and now there were the house calls to catch up on.

'So,' Max said, observing Fenella's chalk-white face, 'was that the first serious accident you've been involved with?'

'Yes, and I was in a panic. I felt useless, Max. I've been trained for that sort of thing, but I was scared stiff that I would do something wrong. Do you think she'll pull through? She is so young and so badly hurt.'

'Whether our young motorcyclist recovers relies on the skills of the team in A and E and her own resilience, I'm afraid. As to you being useless, of course you weren't. You did what you were told.' He was smiling. 'We are a team, you and I, Fenella, and now, like it or not, we still have work to do.

'There will be folks up and down the hillside who are thinking we've forgotten them. The police have gone to tell the girl's parents about the accident and by now I imagine they'll be on their way to A and E.

'I don't know them, but one of those looking on recognised her. She's the daughter of people who have just moved into the neighbourhood. The motorcycle was a gift for her birthday last Saturday. Did you see the learner plates?'

Fenella shook her head. 'No. I didn't. I was afraid to take my eyes off her in case we lost her.'

'That might still happen, so be prepared. We'll check With the hospital when we get back, and if she's still with us we can go to see her when she's allowed visitors.'

'You read my mind.'

'Not always,' he countered, 'but we do have our moments, don't we?'

Max had said they were a team. She was presuming that he'd meant medically and supposed she should be satisfied with that, but she wasn't.

When Alice opened the door to Fenella early that evening she said dourly, 'Come in. Nobody's crossed the doorstep since the last time you were here.' She continued without pausing for breath, 'What have you come to see me about? They haven't cancelled my appointment, have they?'

Fenella shook her head. 'No, certainly not. I've come to see if you are getting all the benefits you're entitled to, Alice. I don't want to pry, but lots of elderly folk are not receiving what is due to them because they are uninformed.'

She watched Alice's narrow shoulders stiffen inside the cross-over pinny she was wearing and knew she was going to have to tread carefully.

'I'm all right, thank you,' the old lady said with unconvincing harshness. 'I've never asked for charity in my life and I'm not going to start now.'

'We're not talking about charity,' Fenella told her gently. 'Does anyone come this far with meals on wheels?'

'No. And if they did, I wouldn't want 'em. I'm a good cook when I've got something to put in the oven.'

'Exactly. I'm going to leave you some leaflets that will tell you what benefits you can apply for, and if you need any help with filling in the forms, give me a ring.'

'So you don't want to know my affairs?' Alice said, softening slightly.

'No. Not if you don't want to discuss them, but, please, read the leaflets I've brought.'

'Aye, I'll read them,' she said reluctantly, 'and before you rush off, how's the daft lad who fell in the canal?'

'All right, as far as I know. There has been another worrying accident since then.'

'And what was that?'

'A girl on a new motorcycle drove into the path of a car and is seriously injured. Dr Hollister and I were the first on the scene.'

'You two are like Batman and Robin,' Alice said, and when Fenella began to laugh she laughed, too, amazed that she'd cracked a joke.

When their amusement had subsided Alice asked, 'Are you going to stay for a cup of tea?'

Fenella hesitated. She was tired. It had been a stressful day, but Alice had said that no one had been since her last visit, and a few minutes of her time could mean a lot to the proud elderly woman.

'Yes, all right,' she said with a smile. 'A quick cuppa would be lovely.'

As she was leaving Alice's place a little later, Max's car pulled up outside. He got out and with a wave to the old lady waited for Fenella to draw near.

'Have you got news of the girl?' she asked anxiously.

He nodded. 'Yes, and her name is Caroline by the way. Caroline Stephens. She is alive and at this moment having her arm operated on. It will be microsurgery and she'll be in Theatre for some time.'

Fenella let out a sigh of relief. 'At least she's alive.'

He nodded sombrely. 'Yes, for the present.'

'Supposing they find that microsurgery won't work?'

'Then they'll have to amputate. Her family are with her so I don't think we should intrude. But maybe tomorrow we could get in touch to see how she is and tell them what happened as far as we know. I could take you after we've finished at the surgery.'

'Yes, I'd like to do that.'

'We seem fated to be together, don't we?' he said wryly. 'Do you think some imp of mischief is pulling our strings?'

'I don't need anyone or anything to do that, Max. I think you know how I feel about you. But I'm blessed if I know how you feel about me. You change from moment to moment.'

'Maybe it's because you've come into my life like a whirlwind and whirlwinds are known to blow themselves out.'

'I'd have thought I was the gentle breeze type.'

He was laughing. 'You know better than that.'

Alice had gone inside but she was watching them from the window. Remembering their conversation earlier, Fenella told him, 'She thinks we are like Batman and Robin.'

The laughter was still there as he told her, 'I'm not into capes, or hoods, for that matter.' He was getting back into his car. 'I'm off, Fenella. Sleep tight and don't forget to lock all doors and windows, as we still don't know if Saracen was the culprit.'

When they went to the hospital the following evening the two doctors discovered that Caroline's arm had been saved. Time would tell how much use she would have of it, but at least they hadn't needed to amputate.

Her parents and young brother were at her bedside in Intensive Care and she told them weakly, 'These are the two doctors who saved my life. The nurses told me what they did.'

'There are no words to describe our gratitude,' Caroline's father said gruffly. 'We would have got in touch, but up to now we've spent every minute with Caroline.' His eyes were moist. 'We should never have let her persuade us to buy her a motorcycle.' He looked down at the girl in the bed. 'I blame myself for this.'

Her mother was holding Caroline's good hand and she shook her head. 'Don't, Harry. We have to look forward now and get our girl back to health and strength. At least we've still got her.'

Max and Fenella stayed for a little longer and then, leaving the family still around the bed, left the hospital in sober mood.

'What do you say we go for a coffee?' Max suggested as they passed the hospital restaurant.

Fenella nodded. 'Yes, if you like.' With a subdued smile she added, 'We always seem to be eating when we're together.'

'A cup of coffee is hardly eating.'

'No. You're right. It's perhaps as well that it isn't, as a banquet fit for a king wouldn't tempt me at this moment after seeing that devastated family.'

Max took her hand in his and said gently, 'A doctor's life is full of these kinds of things. Dealing with accidents, terminal illnesses and the stress of telling those affected what ails them. It is an exhausting kind of life and an upsetting one, but it also has its rewards, Fenella. To help in someone's recovery, to be able to take away someone's pain. Power and humility walk side by side in it.'

She'd been listening with bent head and a tear fell onto the hand holding hers.

'Don't cry, Fenella,' he told her. 'Just be glad that you're doing the work that you've trained for. From the looks of it, Caroline is going to get better and she's still got her arm. She may not be able to use it fully in the future, but at least it's there. If ever we have any children I'll make damn sure they know how to drive any means of transport that we provide them with.'

She was looking up. Lips parted, eyes bright.

'Did you say "we"?'

He smiled. 'I was speaking metaphorically.'

'Oh. I see.'

'I don't think you do,' he told her, with her mother in mind.

In the weeks that followed there was little time for the two doctors to concern themselves with their own affairs. Their duties at the practice kept them fully occupied during the day and in the evenings they were involved in village matters. The judging day for the Village in Bloom award was fast approaching and the whole place was ablaze with colour.

'Will it do, do you think?' Max asked as the last hanging basket was hung from the last lamppost on the night before the judging and the abundance of flower-filled tubs had been watered for the last time. There had been a lot of people helping but it was to Fenella that he'd addressed the question.

'Yes,' she told him. 'It will definitely do. What time are the mayor and his fellow judges arriving?'

'Twelve o'clock tomorrow.'

'And how long before we know the result?'

'Later in the day, I'm told.'

'And if we win?'

'Then it will be time to finalise the party and crown the flower queen.'

'Alice has volunteered to make the queen's dress,' Fenella had told him the day after her elderly patient had been to see the rheumatologist.

'Really?' Max had questioned doubtfully. 'Are you sure she's up for that?'

'Have no worries,' she'd told him. 'Alice sews like a dream, and since she saw the rheumatologist she's been a different person. She's lost her fear of hospitals and didn't bat an eyelid when he suggested a bone scan.

'Her financial position is better, too. When she finally brought herself to read the leaflets I left with her, she discovered a few things that she wasn't claiming for and between us we've sorted it out.'

In the midst of all the anticipation the results of the DNA testing on the woman's body and the hairs she'd been clutching had come through, and the news had spread around the village like wildfire that Ed Battersby's bull, Saracen, was the culprit.

He was in big trouble for letting it get loose and not reporting the matter when the body had been found. Ed had been told that the animal would have to be put down, and Beryl, who was furious at his negligence, had agreed wholeheartedly.

But in the early evening of the day when the judges had been to look round the village, that awful incident had been put to one side as those who had worked to make the place even more attractive than it was already awaited the verdict in the village hall.

At the same time in a side room a group of teenage girls were also waiting for a result, this time as to who was going to be crowned queen of the flowers.

They were appearing before a small panel of local people made up of Max, the vicar's wife, the landlord of The Moorhen and the newly rejuvenated Alice.

Fenella was keeping the anxious contestants company while the decision was being made, and it was turning out to be a nail-biting time. But at last they were ready to announce who was to be the village's first flower queen.

At the same moment the postmistress came hurrying into the hall and cried triumphantly that she'd just had a phone call to say they had won the Village in Bloom competition.

It was August and the nights were slowly starting to draw in. Soon darkness would lie over the village and blot out the shadows of the overhanging peaks, but in The Moorhen there was light and laughter as the villagers celebrated the honour that had been bestowed upon them.

It was unheard of for Alice to be down in the village at night, but on this occasion she'd joined them on the strength of a promise from Fenella to see her safely home.

Sonya was monopolising Max, which was taking the edge off Fenella's pleasure at the good news, but when she got up to take Alice home she felt his gaze on her and the next moment he was by her side.

'Where are you off to?' he asked in a low voice.

'I'm taking Alice home,' she said stiffly. 'Why?'

'I haven't had a chance to talk to you since the result came through.'

'And what am I supposed to do about that?'

'Come back when you've dropped Alice off. I'll be here waiting for you.'

'All right,' she agreed, 'but what about Sonya?'

'She's going soon as she has to pack. She's off to America in the morning to see her ex-in-laws.'

'And is she going to manage to get to the airport without you?'

'I would think so,' he said smoothly. He took note of Alice hovering behind her. 'I think Alice is getting fidgety.'

Max was watching the door. He wanted to savour the moment when Fenella came walking through it. They'd both worked hard on the Village in Bloom project and she was the one he wanted to be with while they celebrated.

A swish of short skirts and she was there, his beautiful assistant. He could feel his arms aching to hold her, his loins quickening. In that moment he couldn't bear the thought of her leaving him to go to her house on the hill and he said casually. 'How about staying at my house tonight, Fenella? It would save you having to drive back up the hillside in the dark.'

It was a weak excuse and he expected her to see it as such, but to his surprise she said, 'Where would I sleep?'

'I can either change the sheets on my bed, or you can have the spare room.'

'The spare room will do,' she said immediately, adding after a sudden thought, 'Is Will going to be around?'

'No, he's gone away for a few days to a music festival down south somewhere. Why?'

'No reason.'

'If you think he fancies you, you're probably right. Though he told me the other day that he thinks you're too old for him.'

'What? The cheek of him. Though I suppose he could be right in one way. I've been to university, got my degree and am now out in the wide world earning my crust, while he is still cushioned within the halls of learning.'

'If he's too young for you, what am I? Too old?'

'No, of course not,' she was quick to protest.

'It's what your mother thinks. She says that you and I should keep it strictly business. That you're too inexperienced to be involved with someone like me.'

She was angry. 'When was this? When did my mother warn you off?'

She knew the answer without having to ask. It would have been after she'd told her mother that she was in love with the man sitting beside her. Sure enough, he said, 'It was on the morning after our aborted attempt at a walk over the moors. The same day that Simon was due out of hospital and she was starting her week's leave from the practice.' There was a question in the dark glance holding hers. 'Why? Is there any significance?'

'Oh, yes,' she said wryly. 'I think my mum forgets I've just spent six years at university and that all human life is there. Yet I came out of it unscathed, and now I'm doing a job that I love under the eagle eye of a man who is above all others and I don't want to be coddled! I can't sleep at night for the ache inside me, but none of this matters if you don't feel the same as I do, Max.'

'Come here,' he said softly, holding out his arms. She moved towards him. 'The first time I saw you I was gripped by your helplessness. I never expected to see you again once I'd fulfilled my function as police surgeon, but almost as if it was meant you came breezing into the practice that Monday morning and I couldn't believe my eyes.'

With his chin resting on the soft bob of her hair he went on, 'Ever since then I haven't been able to get you out of my mind, partly because you are everywhere I turn, but mainly because you've brought light into my life, Fenella. But I have to respect your mother's wishes.'

She was moving out of his arms...fast.

'You mean you agree with her. That I'm too immature for you.'

'I didn't say that.'

'Yes, you did! Or as good as. Forget the offer of a bed for the night, Max. I'll be fine in my own house. Even though no one seems to think I'm fit to look after myself.' And before he'd taken in what she was saying Fenella was striding through the same door that he'd watched so eagerly before, and by the time he'd paid the bill and caught up 'with her she was in her car and ready to leave.

He was tempted to bang on the window until she opened it, but had a feeling that it would be a fruitless exercise. So he went to his own vehicle and followed at a distance as she drove home.

As Fenella flung off her clothes she was not aware that Max was out there, watching over her until daylight came creeping over the moors. And if she had known, she wouldn't have cared. She would have seen it as merely another instance of her being seen as a liability.

When he'd taken her in his arms and told her how much she was in his thoughts, she'd melted with joy, but the moment she'd discovered that the two people she loved best in the world thought her unworldly and immature, the bubble had burst.

She'd thought in those first few moments after she'd arrived back at The Moorhen that the two of them spending the night together in the same house might bring them closer to making a commitment, but it had been a vain hope, and now she had decided angrily that if Max wanted a sophisticated woman of the world, he was going to get one.

The following week she would be in the city for the day and would do some shopping. She was entered on a course run by the Department of Post-Graduate Medicine at her university, which provided prospective GPs with extra training, along with the hands-on approach of working in a practice. It would be an ideal opportunity to do something about a new image.

As soon as it was light Max prepared to leave the lane where the cottage was situated. Making as little noise as possible, he drove slowly out onto the steep road that led to the village and headed for home.

The last thing he wanted was for Fenella to know he'd been out there all night. She would think he was crazy, or else that he was stalking her, and he'd no wish to make matters worse.

He had ached to take her home and make love to her in the bedroom that was incomplete without her presence, but unfortunately he was a man of his word, and where that had never troubled him before, it was doing so now.

Chelsea Bullock, the granddaughter of Brenda, had been chosen as the flower queen, and the next morning at the surgery Fenella's coolness towards the man who had his finger on the pulse went unobserved among the general chatter.

The mumps epidemic was easing off due to the vaccinations that had been given and those who had succumbed were well on the way to recovery, but the hay-fever sufferers were still appearing in the waiting room as the pollen count was high, even though autumn was about to replace summer.

It was the day for the diabetes clinic, which the nurses dealt with, and since she'd joined the practice Fenella had sat in to look and learn as feet were examined carefully and urine tested for sugar, amongst other precautions.

Since arriving that morning, she and Max had exchanged a brief greeting and that had been it, but she knew it couldn't last. Their lives were too involved during working hours for any sort of non-communication.

When the clinic was over Megan Oliver walked into her consulting room with a small boy holding tightly onto her hand, and Fenella's eyes widened.

Megan had noted her surprise and smiled as she and the child seated themselves opposite her. 'This is Christopher,' she said. 'He lives next door to me. His mother works mornings, so I said I would bring him to avoid her having to take time off, as they need the money.'

Fenella nodded and, turning to the boy, asked gently, 'So what is the matter with you, Christopher?'

He looked down at the carpet and didn't answer.

'His brother has pushed a bead down his ear and we can't get it out,' Megan explained.

'Right. We'd better have a look, then, hadn't we?' Fenella said. She produced an otoscope and told the child, who was cringing away, 'This won't hurt, Christopher. I'm just going to look into your ear to see where the bead is, and then I'm going to ask Dr Hollister to come and do the same.'

It was visible but well down the ear canal and would have to be removed by fine forceps. Fenella knew that Max wouldn't want her to attempt it, as she'd never tackled anything of the kind before, and a perforated eardrum wouldn't go down well with either the patient, his parents or her boss.

'Can you spare a moment?' she asked when he had a gap between patients.

'Of course,' he said levelly, getting to his feet. 'What's the problem?'

'Megan Oliver has brought in one of her neighbour's children with a bead in his ear. It is well down and I think it will need forceps.'

'So Megan has made friends with her disruptive neighbours, it would seem. That is good.. .for all of them,' he said.

The bead was quickly removed and now the boy was smiling. So was his elderly companion as she told them, 'The prednisolone did the trick. I've stopped sniffling and sneezing.' She took the child's hand in hers again. 'On top of that, I've got to know Christopher and his family. I feel as if I've been given a new lease of life.' And off she went with a spring to her step.

As they watched her go Max said, 'It's good to see a satisfied patient, just the same as it is to have satisfied staff.'

'If you're referring to me, don't,' she said coolly. 'I'm perfectly happy in the job, and as for my private life... watch this space.'

She was going to have it out with her mother at the first opportunity. Was going to ask her why she'd done what she had—making her look as if she was still being wet-nursed for one thing, and damaging her confidence in herself for another.

She was in love with Max and nothing anyone said was going to change that, but she had her pride and he would have to get down on his hands and knees before she revealed her feelings again.

When she got in that evening she rang Ann and asked, 'Can I come round? I need to talk to you.'

'Yes, of course,' she replied. 'Come and eat with us.'

Fenella shook her head. 'No, I'll come over later. I need to go to the supermarket first to do some food shopping.'

CHAPTER EIGHT

'I know why you're here,' Ann said when later she arrived at Simon's house. 'Max told me this morning that you know about me asking him to keep his distance from you.'

'So you've been discussing me again,' Fenella flared. 'I am not a child. I told you I loved him and you went and put the blight on it. How could you?'

'I agree. You are not a child. You're a very attractive woman who could have any man she wants, so why rush things with Max? You haven't been at the practice all that long. Not only am I afraid that he might hurt you, he is a great friend of Simon and myself and the boot could so easily be on the other foot. You could break his heart.'

'Have I ever said or done anything in my life that I didn't mean?' Fenella said angrily.

'Er...no.'

'Well, then, why can't you trust me in this?'

'It's not trust we're talking about, it's concern.'

'Did I interfere when you sprang it on me that you were in love with Simon?'

'No, but we are—'

'Mature adults? Is that what you were going to say?'

'Yes, something like that.'

'And I'm not. How do you think I looked after myself at university? Not by being a naive nincompoop, I can tell you. But I have taken note of the fact that to Max and you I'm just a gullible post-graduate who needs to be kept on the straight and narrow.'

'This is the first time we've ever quarrelled,' Ann said flatly.

'It's the first time I've ever been in love,' Fenella countered. 'And it has all been spoilt.' After a brief farewell to Simon, who had listened to the sharp exchange of words in mute dismay, Fenella went home to face an empty evening.

'You were wrong to warn Max off,' Simon told Ann after Fenella had gone. 'I know you did it from the best of motives but it would have been better to let them find their own way. He deserves some happiness and that feisty young daughter of yours could be the one he's been waiting for. Fenella doesn't seem to have any doubts about it. If I had a daughter like her, I would be only too pleased to have her marry a man like Max.'

Dismayed at the way her best intentions were being misunderstood, Ann said wearily, 'Easy enough to say when you haven't got a daughter.'

As he observed her anxiously, she managed a smile. 'Don't worry,' she told him. 'Fenella and I care too much about each other to be at odds for long.'

When Fenella went to college the following day she did the shopping she'd promised herself in the lunch-hour, but instead of having her hair dyed black, as she'd been intending doing as a gesture of defiance, she bought a black wig, along with a smart black cocktail dress, high-heeled silver shoes with matching jewellery, and a supply of heavier make-up than she usually wore.

When she tried on the ensemble that evening, the effect was what she'd wanted it to be. She looked svelte and sophisticated, and hoped that soon the opportunity to introduce her new look would present itself.

It was the night before the celebration party on the village green, when the flower queen was to be crowned, followed by the ball in the evening.

Fenella was looking forward to the party, but would not be attending the ball as she hadn't got a partner. She'd got the dress, the shoes, the bag, the inclination, but not the man, she thought dolefully as she cleared away after her evening meal.

There had been much talk at the practice about the two events but no one knew whether Max intended going to the ball. One of the receptionists had been selling tickets and she announced that he'd bought two, but there had been no information forthcoming as to who he would be taking with him if he went.

Since she'd learnt of her mother's interference, Fenella hadn't seen Max out of working hours and was not expecting it to be any different over the coming weekend. Until she answered a ring on her doorbell and found him standing there.

'What do you want?' she asked, without any form of greeting and he observed her judgementally.

'How about asking me in for starters?' he said with a smoothness that didn't match his expression.

'Yes, of course. Do come in,' she invited stiffly.

'Are you going to the ball?' he asked, with an abruptness that matched hers as they stood in the hallway facing each other.

'No,' she told him, feeling like Cinderella. 'Are you?'

'Not unless you are.'

'What do you mean?'

He sighed. 'What do you think I mean? At the risk of bringing the temperature down even further, I've got a couple of tickets, so would you like to be my partner?'

Would she! But not prepared to give in easily, she said, 'You've left it a bit late, haven't you? Asking me the night before. What's wrong? Isn't Sonya available?'

'Sonya is still in America, and I wouldn't be asking her even if she wasn't. So are you going to give me an answer or not?'

She nodded. 'Yes, I am. I'd like to go very much. Thank you for asking,' she said primly, and he laughed.

'What's happened to the woman of the world image that I've been told to expect?' The laughter dwindled as he observed her expression. 'I believe you quarrelled with your mother and I'm really sorry about that. I shouldn't have told you that she'd been to see me.'

'Oh, yes, you should!' she snapped. 'You have no idea how humiliating it felt to know that she didn't think me capable of knowing my own mind. But have no worries about my mum and me, Max. We made it up the following day, and by the way she told me today that she and Simon have fixed the date of the wedding. I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to get hold of you at this moment.'

'When is it to be?'

'In a month's time.'

'I see. That's good, as it means that Simon is becoming more mobile. I also have news to impart. It is about Will.'

'What?'

'He's dating Chelsea Bullock, the flower queen. I hope you're not upset.'

She smiled for the first time since he'd arrived. 'Of course I'm not upset. It is a relief.'

'It might be for you, but think of me with Brenda hinting all the time that one day we might be related. But I have to go. I've promised to help erect the marquee that we're using for both the crowning of the queen and the ball. Will I be seeing you in the afternoon as well as the evening tomorrow?'

'Yes. I'm looking forward to both. Until you came I wasn't expecting to go to the ball, but life changes from one minute to the next, doesn't it?'

'It does indeed,' he agreed, and thought that his life had brightened up significantly since Fenella had agreed to go to the ball with him. He was no ditherer, and would have done something about Fenella and himself before if Ann hadn't butted in.

His hand was on the doorhandle. He was ready to depart and she didn't want him to go. But neither was she going to ask him to stay. He'd just said he had work to do on the marquee, but as if Max read her thoughts he said, 'What is it? What are you thinking?'

'I'm thinking that I hope you recognise me when you see me tomorrow night.'

'That sounds ominous,' he commented as amusement glinted in the dark eyes looking into hers. 'So what kind of a corsage shall I bring?'

'Er...white. White flowers,' she told him on impulse. 'It doesn't matter what kind.' She hoped that the amount of black she would be wearing would tone down any liquorice all-sorts effect.

'Fine. White flowers it is,' he agreed, 'and now I really must go. I'll see you at the crowning tomorrow afternoon and we can arrange then what time I'm going to pick you up in the evening.'

Fenella nodded. She accepted that he couldn't stay, but tomorrow they would make up for it. They were back on line. Max hadn't exactly gone down on his knees, but he'd come especially to ask her to go to the ball with him. Told her that if she wasn't going, he wasn't, and it had made her feel special. An emotion that had been lacking in her life of late.

The vicar's wife was to crown the flower queen on a raised platform in the centre of the village green, and in the dream of a dress that Alice had made out of palest pink brocade, Chelsea was preening herself in the village hall with Will Hollister beside her as she waited for the ceremony to begin. Her attendants were scattered around, awaiting their own lesser, but to them no less exciting, moment of glory.

As Fenella watched Alice's expression she felt tears prick. There was happiness and pride there, and she thought that this was a changed woman who bore no resemblance to the old tartar who'd opened the door to her that day and told her snappily that it was the organ-grinder she'd asked to see, not the monkey.

Her rheumatism wasn't all that much better, but the strict diet she'd been put on by the hospital was giving some degree of relief, and even though the bone scan had shown signs of osteoporosis, she was still much happier.

The brass band was assembling in front of the platform and Fenella could see Max chatting to the vicar. They were smiling at something the bustling middle-aged cleric had said, and when Max came to sit beside her she said, 'I love this place.' Two young children came past, skipping excitedly in front of their parents. 'It's perfect for bringing up children.'

He didn't reply, just observed her thoughtfully, and Fenella felt her face grow warm. Don't try to put the cart before the horse, she told herself hastily. You're dealing with a man who knows his own mind and just because he's asked you to the ball tonight it doesn't mean that he is going to propose.

The band began to play. The vicar's wife was in position on the flower-strewn platform and as silence fell on those seated on the village green the young flower queen and her attendants appeared.

In their long dresses, all in soft summer colours, and carrying bright posies, they provided the final burst of colour to an already vivid background as they walked slowly towards the platform.

Fenella could see her mother and Simon seated across from them with his crutches propped up against the chair and she thought that the next big local event would be their wedding. She was looking forward to it in one way, but not in another.

Max and herself would be participating and she knew that all the time she would be wondering if their roles would ever be reversed. Whether one day Simon would be Max's best man and Julie, or one of her other friends from university, would follow her down the aisle to where Max was waiting.

The crowning ceremony was over and the band was leading the queen and her retinue on a parade around the village, with some of those who had been at the ceremony now crowding the pavements. While inside the big marquee, the ones who had refreshments on their minds were being served afternoon tea.

For the two doctors it was time to roll up their sleeves and attack the washing-up. Caught up in the atmosphere of goodwill that prevailed amongst the helpers, Fenella told herself that this was a day when nothing was going to go wrong.

When she opened the door to Max that evening he exclaimed, 'Good grief! You look like the woman in the Addams family. What was her name, Morticia? I can't believe that you've dyed your beautiful hair.'

'I haven't,' she told him as she stepped back to let him in. 'And when you've quite finished making disparaging remarks, perhaps I can explain that this is the new me.'

His glance went over her slowly, taking in the smart black dress, silver shoes and jewellery. 'The rest of the "new you" is quite something,' he admitted. 'I can't find fault with it. Though you look good in whatever you wear. But what is it that you are trying to convince me of, Fenella? I have no questions regarding you. I've seen you perform at the practice and you have the makings of a first-class GP.'

'What you are seeing has nothing to do with the practice,' she said steadily. 'It is about us, you and me. I've always felt at a disadvantage with you because of the way we met. It was a meeting that was as far away from romance as it possibly could be. It was sordid and embarrassing. I still shudder when I think about it.'

'Yes, I know,' he said quietly, 'but what has it got to do with now?'

'It has made me feel like a lesser mortal, and my mother's fussing didn't help at all, especially as you went along with it.'

Max nodded. 'OK, but I would prefer to continue this discussion that has blown up out of nowhere without you wearing the wig, if you don't mind.'

'All right,' Fenella agreed, and took it off, revealing her own blonde mop lying flat and unappealing against her scalp. 'I hope you realise I'll have to blow-dry my hair before we go if I'm not wearing the wig.'

'Anything as long as you get rid of it,' he said with feeling. 'And getting back to what we were saying, yes, I did go along with your mother's wishes. What else could I do? Tell her to get lost? That I was attracted to you and was going to do as I pleased?'

'So you are attracted to me?'

'I was until I saw you in the wig,' he said laughingly.

'Now you're making fun of me.'

'I'm sorry. I couldn't help it.'

'You haven't answered the question.'

'Of course I'm attracted to you, Fenella!'

'Then kiss me.'

'No. If I do I am lost. I'm your employer, supposed to be a responsible person.'

'You're making excuses.'

'Maybe I am. So are you going to get your hair sorted and then we can get mobile?'

I wonder why I felt that this was a day when nothing was going to go wrong, she thought dolefully as the hairdryer blew her flattened locks back into their usual style. I should have known better.

As they drove down into the village Fenella was thinking that she was a fool. Why hadn't she told Max that she wasn't going after what he'd said? But it was clear that he hadn't seen the occasion as a romantic meeting. He'd seen her as merely someone to go with.

And why didn't she stop to think before she spoke? Knowing the average male, she'd like to bet that there weren't many women who were refused when they asked to be kissed.. .unless the men thought they were downright ugly.

In the seat beside her Max was tuning into her thoughts and telling himself that he must be crazy. No sooner had he decided that he wasn't going to hang back any longer where Fenella was concerned than he was hedging, when every inch of him ached for her.

Asking her to go to the ball with him had been the first step of his new resolve, but he hadn't expected a heart-to- heart the moment he stepped over her threshold. He was so afraid of taking advantage of her vulnerability and her position in the practice that he was losing sight of what it was all about, him being in love with her and her being in love with him.

There was a lay-by ahead and when they reached it he stopped the car.

'What's wrong?' she asked listlessly.

'Nothing that can't be put right,' he said softly. 'Would you mind getting out for a moment?'

'If you insist,' she told him in the same depressed tone.

He took her hand and led her to where a stile led to fields. When they'd climbed over it and were out of sight of the road he took her in his arms and kissed her until her heartbeat was thundering in her ears and her legs were buckling beneath her.

'Will that do?' he asked softly when they drew apart.

'Oh, yes!' she breathed as she looked up at him. 'What made you change your mind?'

He laughed low in his throat. 'I don't know. Maybe I was panicking at the thought that you might meet someone at the ball that you fancied more than me.'

'Do you honestly think that is likely?'

He took her face between his hands and looked deep into her eyes. 'At this moment, no. So come on, Fenella, back over the stile you go before I get really carried away.'

She'd wanted Max to make love to her back there in the field, Fenella thought as they carried on with the interrupted journey. As he'd held her close she'd known that he had been just as aroused as she had, but when it had come to the moment of truth it seemed that the man sitting beside her was not short of self-control and she'd had to be satisfied with that mind-blowing kiss.

Max parked the car in front of the surgery for the lack of anywhere else being available. There were lots of people around, some from the aftermath of the afternoon's crowning ceremony and the party that had followed it. Others were arriving for the ball like themselves, and there were onlookers who were just there to see the floral display that had earned the village the award.

As he held the door for her to get out of the car, he said in a low voice, 'Have you ever slept with anyone, Fenella?'

It was the kind of question that could have been seen as distasteful and intrusive coming from some, but not from him. It was as if he was taking a step nearer to the commitment that she was so ready for. With her heart beating fast, she shook her head.

'No. I haven't.'

He traced the outline of her face with a gentle finger and murmured, 'So I'll be the first.'

'And the last,' she breathed, and knew that she could wait. When Max was ready, he would make her his.

It was a magical evening as she danced the night away in his arms. They held hands when they went in to dinner and toasted each other laughingly with sparkling champagne.

Fenella would have liked it to go on for ever but it was not to be. When a call came through on Max's mobile in the middle of the meal, she saw his face cloud over.

'The police want me to attend a death at a house in the next village,' he told her. 'There are some features of it that need to be examined before they decide if it's foul play.'

'Oh, no!' she cried. 'Can't someone else go?'

'Someone else should be on call,' he said wryly, 'but they tell me that the guy was in a car crash this afternoon and is in A and E at this moment. I'll be as quick as I can, Fenella, and if by any chance I'm not back by the end of the evening, promise me that you'll get a taxi home.'

'Can I go with you?' she asked.

He looked at her with raised brows.

'Why, for heaven's sake? Whatever it is, it will be a depressing experience.'

'It will be a depressing experience if you leave me here on my own.'

'All right, then,' he agreed, 'but don't be surprised if you end up wishing you'd stayed here.'

A tall, commanding figure in dinner jacket and black tie, he took her arm and led her through the throng of dancers into the cool night air.

In a cottage in the next village an old man was seated in a chair by the window, staring into space. A young WPC had just made him a cup of tea and the police officer in charge told Max, 'The old lady has died and her husband is saying that he killed her, but we can't get him to tell us how. The neighbour says she was very ill with Alzheimer's and that he was devoted to her.'

Max nodded. 'OK. I'll examine the body and see what I come up with. This sort of situation is very sad. Where is she?'

The policeman pointed upwards. 'In the bedroom.'

'Fenella is a doctor, too,' he told him, 'and would like to be in on this if you don't mind. She solved a crime for you people the other day and has been bitten by the bug.'

'Not that business about the bull, was it?'

'The same.'

The policeman was smiling. 'That was a fine piece of detective work.'

'Don't tell her that,' Max said, 'or she'll be joining you lot instead of being my right-hand woman at the surgery.'

There were no signs of suffocation, which was the first thing they checked for. No discoloration of the face and neck or blood behind the eyes. The old lady looked peaceful and at rest.

'Who called you out on this?' Max asked the police officer.

'The neighbour,' he was told. 'Apparently she comes in each night to make sure they're all right before she goes to bed. Tonight he took her upstairs, showed her his wife's body and told her he'd killed her. As we knew that you weren't far away, we thought that this was a case for a police surgeon.'

'Where is her medication?' he asked.

'Don't know. We can't find any. When we ask the old man he just shakes his head.'

'I'll have a word with him,' Max told him.

The elderly man was in a state of shock, sitting in silence and twisting his hands together. But when he saw that Max wasn't in uniform he mumbled, 'I did it. I gave her the wrong tablets—mine instead of hers. I wanted her to die. I couldn't stand to see her suffer any longer. So I must have done it on purpose.'

'Show us your tablets,' Fenella said gently, 'and then perhaps we could have a look at your wife's medication.'

They were a popular brand of tablet prescribed for mild blood pressure and were hardly likely to have caused his wife's death. When he produced his wife's medication, which for some reason was stuffed under the cushion that he was sitting on, Max saw that it was a drug used to help memory loss.

'There are no signs of foul play here, just confusion,' Max told the policeman. 'From all appearances, the lady died from natural causes. In view of what her husband is saying, there will have to be a post-mortem, but I would think it will show that her heart just stopped from old age and illness.'

'Do you think he has got Alzheimer's, too?' the officer asked.

'I doubt it. He is probably exhausted and did give her the wrong tablets. That is why he's in such a state, but I doubt they killed her unless he gave her a huge dose, which will show up on the post-mortem. And now, if you don't mind, we'll be on our way.'

'Sure,' the other man replied. 'I can see by both your outfits that your evening has been interrupted. There's a lot going on down the road, I'm told, connected with this Village in Bloom business.'

There was a full moon in the sky when they went outside, and as they stood beneath it Fenella said, 'That was so sad.'

Max nodded. 'It was indeed. And what now? Do you want to go back to the ball?'

'I don't think so. After what we've just seen, I don't feel very festive.'

'So let's go to my place and have a coffee,' he suggested. 'It's been a fantastic day in spite of what is going, on in the house behind us. The flower queen and the party this afternoon, the ball tonight, and Alice smiling all the time. That really was something to see.'

As they drove to Max's house Fenella was thinking that it was here at last, the big invite. It had been on the cards once before when she'd been going to stay the night and had marched off when she'd heard about her mother cautioning Max. But she'd put that to one side for tonight and this time if he asked her to stay, she would.

As Max pulled into the drive his phone rang, and when he answered it his expression changed. 'All right, Mary,' he said. 'We'll be with you in minutes.'

'That was John Oakes's wife,' he told her. 'John is full of fluid again and very poorly. If it isn't too late I'm going to suggest that he goes into a hospice. They are wonderful places and have pain control sorted in a big way.'

It wasn't too late, but the two doctors could see that the sick man's condition was worse, so much so that when Max suggested the hospice both husband and wife agreed immediately.

'John needs better care than I can give him now,' Mary admitted tearfully. Her husband said weakly, 'I'll do whatever you suggest, Max, as long as it takes the burden off Mary.'

'I'll sort it first thing in the morning,' he promised, 'and in the meantime I'll give you a stronger shot of morphine to get you through the night.'

'It never stops, does it?' Fenella said as they drove back to Max's house. 'There is always someone needing our services.'

He nodded. 'You've hit the nail on the head there. It takes a big effort sometimes to step back into the mould when we are enjoying doing our own thing, but I would never want it to be said that I wasn't there when I was needed.

'Normally that call from John's wife should have been made to the emergency doctors who cover the hours when surgeries like ours are shut, but what good would it have done? They wouldn't know the patient, wouldn't have been monitoring his illness like I have, and though they're efficient and would do their best in cases like John's, it is their own GP the patient wants to see.'

It had been a long day with an equal mix of pleasure and pain. While Max made the coffee Fenella snuggled down amongst the cushions on the sofa and tried to keep her eyes open. As the drowsiness increased she kept telling herself that she would be mortified if she fell asleep now that they were alone. She'd longed to be with Max in his converted barn and now that she was there, she was falling asleep and couldn't throw it off.

When Max came in with the coffee she had succumbed. Golden lashes lay on her cheeks, reminding him of that other time, and tenderness filled him. He covered her gently with a blanket and went quietly up to bed, content that Fenella was here, in his house, in his life.

When Fenella awoke in the middle of the night she couldn't think where she was for a moment. Then it all came back and she gave a groan of dismay. She'd fallen asleep while Max had been making the coffee, she thought glumly. What must he have thought of that?

Unwinding herself from amongst the cushions, she tiptoed upstairs. He was asleep, lying on one half of the bed, and the empty space beside him was too tempting to ignore. She eased herself gently into it and curled up close against the hollow of his back, still wearing the black ensemble.

The next thing Fenella knew she was waking up to sunlight and Max was towering over her with a breakfast tray in his hands. 'How's the nocturnal wanderer this morning?' he asked.

'Fine,' she said, rubbing her eyes and wishing he'd stayed in bed so that they could have lain together on awakening.

She wasn't to know that when he'd found her beside him at dawn he'd lain looking at her for ages. The tousled blonde mop, the crumpled black dress...and the mouth that was made for kisses.. .his kisses.

He'd left her side at last and gone downstairs to phone the nearest hospice. It had only been eight o'clock on a Sunday morning, but there'd been someone there, ready to make the arrangements for John Oakes to be admitted.

He'd phoned John's wife and told her, 'It's sorted, Mary. An ambulance is on its way to take John to the hospice.' Then he'd gone to make breakfast for Fenella and himself.

'Ugh!' she groaned when she went into the bathroom before eating. Her mascara was smudged around her face like boot polish, the dress crumpled and tacky-looking. This wasn't how she'd wanted it to be, she thought glumly.

'I look a mess,' she said when she came out.

'Yes, you do,' he agreed whimsically. 'Talk about the morning after the night before.'

With the mention of the night before, the memory of their visit to the Oakes house came back, and on the point of biting into a piece of toast she asked, 'What about John Oakes?'

'Done. By now he'll be on his way to the hospice.'

'I might have known.'

'What?'

'That it would be already sorted.'

When they'd eaten, with Max perched on the side of the bed, he said, 'Feel free to go and have a soak if you want to clear away the aftermath of last night. I can soon find you some of Will's gear to go home in again.'

Fenella managed a smile but it was an effort. She felt totally sick that she'd ended up looking such a mess on such a night.

'No, thanks. I'll sort myself out when I get home as long as you don't mind giving me a lift.'

'Not at all,' he said smoothly.

Max was aware of her mortification and could have told her that she was beautiful to him no matter how she looked, but he thought it might fall on stony ground, so he kept silent.

CHAPTER NINE

Max's first patient of the day on the Monday after the festivities was the vicar, who had hit his thumb instead of a nail when they'd been putting up the marquee and now it was looking nasty.

'I'm not sure whether you haven't broken it,' Max told him. 'How painful is it?'

'It hurts all right!' the robust cleric told him. 'I couldn't sleep with it last night.'

Max nodded. 'I'm afraid that a visit to A and E is required. It needs to be X-rayed to see if the bone is broken and there is some infection there that they'll need to have a look at.'

When he'd gone his wife, Polly, followed him in and Max exclaimed, 'You've just missed your husband.'

She grimaced and seated herself gingerly on the chair opposite. 'That was my intention,' she told him.

'Right. So what's the problem, Polly?'

'I've got a huge splinter in my...er...buttocks,' she said uncomfortably. 'I can't see to get it out, and didn't want to ask Eustace to do it.'

'Of course,' he said with suitable gravity. 'I saw you sitting on the edge of the wooden platform after the ceremony on Saturday. Is that where you got it?'

'Yes. Do you think you can remove it for me?'

'Why don't I send you in to the nurses?' he suggested tactfully. 'They have the facilities for something like that and will cover the affected area with antiseptic cream and a sterile dressing once the splinter is out.'

'Oh, yes!' she said thankfully, as if he'd offered her an escape from a fate worse than death, and off she went to the nurses' room, while Max was left to wonder how many more casualties from Saturday would be appearing.

In the room next to his Fenella was patiently and capably coping with her own share of the sick and suffering. So far she'd avoided having to ask Max anything, but wasn't expecting it to last as there was always something she didn't know, something for which she needed the benefit of his experience.

While she'd been having a long soak in her own tub after he'd taken her home on Sunday, she'd kept thinking about him asking if she'd ever slept with anyone, and what he'd said when she'd told him she hadn't. His voice had been deep and tender, yet he hadn't done anything about it when he'd woken up to find her in his bed.

But there had been something else to remind herself of. Something that he'd said some time ago, to the effect that when he took someone to his bed she would have his ring on her finger. When she'd raised her own hand out of the suds there'd been no sparkle of gems there, no glowing symbol of togetherness, so she supposed that there she had her answer.

It came eventually, a consultation that she wasn't sure how to proceed with. Gaynor, the cheerful, thirty-plus post- woman, had come with a lump in her breast.

Fenella knew that as well as being cancerous it could be a cyst, a benign tumour, calcium or other things that she wasn't qualified to advise on, so she went to find Max.

'Could you spare a moment?' she asked when he looked up from his desk.

He got to his feet. 'Yes. What's the problem?'

'Gaynor, the postwoman, has a lump in her breast and I'm not sure how to proceed.'

'So you want me to examine her?'

'Yes. If you would.'

'Morning, Gaynor,' he said in the relaxed tone that he used for those who might be apprehensive. 'Dr Forbes has asked me to examine you. Is that all right?'

'Yes, of course,' she said immediately. 'I've always had lumpy breasts but the lumps have been benign until now. Yet it's always at the back of my mind that one day they will be malignant.'

Max nodded and as he carried out the examination that Fenella had asked for, she thought that Gaynor hadn't told her that she'd had non-malignant lumps before. She would have appreciated being told about the lumpy breast tissue. In the light of recent events it felt as if someone else was out to treat her like an adolescent.

'There is certainly a lump there,' Max said after he'd told the postwoman to get dressed, 'and we can't take any chances, Gaynor, even though the others have been benign. Dr Forbes will make you an appointment for the necessary tests and when we get the results we'll take it from there.'

'Do you think that carrying a heavy postbag on my shoulder could have anything to do with it?' she asked. 'When I start out on my round it weighs a ton.'

'I don't think so,' he told her. 'The weight of the postbag would be more likely to cause muscle strain, but it might be worth thinking of changing your job to something lighter.'

When she'd gone there was silence between them until Max broke into it by saying casually, 'So have you recovered from Saturday night? The ups and downs of village life?'

There was no mention of finding her beside him when he'd woken up, so she said distantly, 'Yes. I'm fine, thanks.'

She'd had a feeling right from the start that he was always going to be just out of reach, until Saturday night at the ball, when she had seen the future opening out in front of them, enchanted and secure, as they'd laughed and danced inside their own charmed cocoon. But Max's role as police surgeon had been the first thing to break into it, and her falling asleep the moment she had been alone with him had been the second.

If he was aware that there was a chill in the atmosphere, he didn't show it and went on to say, 'The next-door neighbour of the old couple that we went out to on Saturday night has been in for a repeat prescription this morning. She had to see me as it has been some time since she'd been checked over by a doctor.

'Needless to say, I asked her how he was and she said that Social Services have been to see him this morning and they are going to send a carer round each day to see to his needs. Apparently he had refused that kind of help before, but now he's glad to have it as he's so tired. The postmortem findings won't be available yet, but I've asked them to let me know the results when they are, and I'm pretty sure it will be natural causes.'

'I'm glad that Social Services are on the job so soon,' Fenella said gravely. 'That poor old man will have saved them thousands by looking after his wife himself.'

As they were going out to their cars a woman who looked vaguely familiar came towards them. She smiled and stopped in front of them and when she spoke it became clear who she was.

'Caroline is home,' she said. 'She was discharged from hospital last week and we are going to have a party next Saturday to celebrate her homecoming. I'm here to invite you both to join us. We owe you a lot.'

'How's the arm?' Max asked.

'She hasn't got full use of it as yet, but we are told that it is too soon to make a judgement as to what the final result will be.'

He turned to Fenella. 'Are we free next Saturday night, Dr Forbes?'

'I am,' she said, with a smile for Caroline's mother.

'And so am I,' he told her. 'We'll be happy to join you on such a special occasion.'

When she'd gone on her way he was smiling. 'That's good news, to know that our young motorcyclist is back in circulation. Though "circulation" in another form could be the problem as she waits to see how functional her arm is going to be.'

Fenella nodded. It had been a ghastly accident. She could still remember how afraid she'd been of doing anything wrong, but with Max beside her she'd coped. Together they had saved a life and it had been something she would never forget.

She was looking forward to the party at Caroline's home, but before Saturday dawned there were happenings less joyful to be faced regarding Alice. She hadn't sent for them, but the farmer who delivered her milk had rung in to say that the previous day's delivery was still on the step.

'I'll go, if that's all right with you,' she said to Max. It was only eight o'clock in the morning so there was time before surgery.

'We'll both go,' he told her. 'There's nothing urgent needing our attention here at the moment.' He knew how fond she was of the old lady and if anything serious was wrong with Alice, he wanted to be there for both their sakes.

When they arrived the curtains were drawn and there were now two pints of milk on the doorstep. Fenella was out of the car in a flash and running up the path before Max had switched off the engine.

They were friends, Alice and herself, she was thinking. If Alice couldn't pick up the phone to ring the surgery she must be very sick.

Knocking on the door and ringing the bell brought no response and Max said, 'Let's go round the back. If I have to, I'll break one of the small windows at the side of her back door so that I can get my hand in to unlock it.'

Their knocking on the back door brought no more signs of Alice than their onslaught on the one at the front, so Max did as he'd said—broke a window and managed to open the door.

As they hurried inside Fenella gave a gasp of dismay.

Alice was lying on the stone floor of the kitchen with her leg twisted awkwardly beneath her and she was blue with cold.

'Get an ambulance out here fast, Fenella,' he said, 'and make sure they have space blankets on board to wrap her in. We need to get some warmth into her with all speed.'

He was taking off his jacket and motioning for her to do the same and when they'd covered Alice's frail form with them he told her, 'Look in the drawers for a towel or something similar to cover her head. That's where the most heat loss comes from. The leg looks as if it might be broken but, worse than that, Alice is suffering from hypothermia. She must have been lying here for hours.'

He was sounding Alice's heart and checking her pulse, and as Fenella watched she was fighting back tears. This could be the end of Alice's independence, she was thinking as she took her cold hand in hers. She wanted to take her in her arms and hold her close, get some heat into her, but she couldn't move her because of the leg.

'Took you long enough!' Alice croaked drowsily through cracked lips. 'There's enough money to bury me in the top drawer of the sideboard.'

'You are not going to die,' Fenella told her. 'I'm not going to let you. We've only just got to know each other.' She dredged up a smile. 'You've got to be around when I get married. You made the flower queen a beautiful dress, and I want you to do the same for me.'

Alice's bleary gaze was resting on Max. There was a question in her eyes and they both knew what it was.

'There's no rush, Alice,' she told her gently. 'I've got to find a bridegroom first.'

If Max was tuning into that comment he didn't show it.

The old lady's eyes were closed now and he bent over her anxiously and said, 'Where is the ambulance, for goodness' sake? She's drifting off into unconsciousness again.'

'I can hear it coming up the hill,' Fenella told him, holding Alice's hand against her cheek, and now she was sobbing openly.

'Don't cry,' he said gently. 'If Alice is meant to stay with us she will, and if it is her time to go.. .she will. But after what you said about a wedding dress, and her being a tough old dear, I somehow think she might be around to plague us for a bit longer...once the paramedics arrive.'

The paramedics had arrived and Alice was wrapped in the foil that would help to bring her body heat up again. Fenella wanted to give her a hot drink but Max shook his head. 'If she gets warm again too quickly it could do her as much harm as her being so cold,' he explained. 'It would be too much of a shock to her system.

'Go with her, Fenella. I know how worried you are about her. We can manage without you at the surgery for once, and while you're gone I'll get someone to repair the window.'

She gazed at him with red-rimmed eyes. 'I can't believe that I didn't like you when I first joined the practice,' she told him with one foot on the step.

'Is that so? And why would that be? But you'll have to tell me about it another time—these guys are waiting.' He closed the door behind her and she went to sit beside Alice.

It went without saying that Alice would be admitted and as Fenella sat beside her bed later, faint colour had come back into Alice's withered cheeks.

'It's a good job you found the old lady when you did,' the doctor in A and E had told her. 'If she'd been lying there much longer, it could have been fatal.'

'We owe it to the milkman,' she'd told him and he'd smiled.

'They come in handy, these daily delivery people. The postman, the newsagent, the milkman, and anyone else with their wits about them are invaluable in cases like this, and with a couple of caring GPs thrown in... If you come back tonight you could see a big improvement in the old lady. We'll be monitoring her all the time and as she gets warmer the drowsiness will disappear.'

When Alice opened her eyes she looked around her warily and said weakly, 'So I didn't die.'

'No, you didn't,' Fenella assured her. 'Are you feeling any warmer?'

She nodded. 'Yes. I'm thawing out at last.'

'Do you remember having your leg X-rayed and it being put in a cast?' Fenella questioned. 'When you fell you fractured your tibia, one of the long bones in your leg.'

'Where's Dr Hollister?' Alice asked, as if a broken tibia was a daily occurrence. 'I thought you were going to marry him.'

Fenella sighed. 'Chance would be a fine thing, but we're not here to talk about me. It is you that matters now, Alice. The doctor here said I could stay with you for a while, but also wants you to get some rest, so I'm going to go soon. But I'll be back tonight. Shall I go to your house and get you some things?'

'Yes, if you must,' she said, 'and see to it that you bring my best nightdresses. I've put them to one side for this sort of thing.'

* * *

When she arrived back at the practice Max was waiting to hear how Alice was and when Fenella said she intended going back that evening he said, 'I'll take you, but I can't pick you up before seven as I've promised to meet Sonya at the airport. She's due back from America today.'

'Hasn't she heard of taxis? Or does she still think you're here to dance to her tune?' she remarked snappily, having had the edge taken off spending some time alone with him.

'I have never danced to Sonya's tune,' he said coolly. 'If I had done we would have been married long ago. And, yes, I would think she has heard of taxis. It was my suggestion that I pick her up. Though why I should have to explain myself, I really don't know.'

He was on edge for some reason. Maybe it was because he didn't want Sonya back in the village again, reminding him of past griefs and butting into the future. Or Fenella thinking that he still had feelings for his ex-fiancée.

It had been a couple of nights ago that Sonya had phoned him from Florida and he'd offered to pick her up at the airport because she'd sounded in such low spirits. At the time he hadn't known that Alice was going to be in hospital and Fenella distraught.

'So am I going to pick you up or not?' he asked.

'No. Visiting will be half over by the time we get there if you can't pick me up until seven, I'll go on my own.'

He nodded. 'You have a point there. And, Fenella, I've already told you that I have no feelings either way for Sonya. She's just someone who has made a mess of things and needs a kind word.' On that note he went into his con- suiting room and shut the door without giving her the chance to say she was sorry.

Alice was looking better when Fenella arrived at the hospital that evening. She'd had some soup and other warm liquids and was looking more like herself, but Fenella was soon made aware that her gloomy side was uppermost.

'I'm not going into care,' she said tartly, without the subject having been discussed.

'I don't remember that being mentioned,' Fenella said.

'Not by you maybe, but a social worker has been hovering over me and I can see it in her eyes. All I need is a pair of crutches.'

'What caused you to fall?' she probed gently.

'My old slippers. I should have bought a new pair long ago. I tripped over my own feet. It wasn't a blackout or anything like that.'

'Why don't we wait and see what Dr Hollister has to say?'

'Where is he tonight?'

'He had something else on that prevented him from coming.'

'Oh, aye? Then who's that talking to the sister, or ward manager as we're supposed to call her.'

He had come after all Fenella was thinking as she looked up. She might have known he would, even though she'd been a pain earlier. It was no use protesting that she was a mature adult when she'd behaved like she had.

'Hi, there,' he said when he reached the bed. 'How are you feeling now?'

'Better,' Alice told him with her usual abruptness. 'Just as long as nobody tries to put me in a home.'

'Then it's up to you to co-operate with the staff here, Alice, and get better quickly. In the meantime, you'll have to see just how easy, or hard, it is for you to get about with the cast on your leg. And remember this, no one can put you into care without your consent.'

They stayed for a little while and then left her to settle down for the night in a happier frame of mind. The light was fading and as they walked to their cars in the dusk Fenella said, 'I'm sorry I was so unreasonable this afternoon, Max. Did Sonya arrive safely?'

'Yes, and there's no need to apologise. I wasn't at my best either. So shall we call it a truce?' He was gazing down on her in the light of a streetlamp. 'Alice is very fortunate to have you looking out for her. You've given her a reason for living, Fenella. Brought her out of her crusty old shell.'

'And I'm just as fortunate to have you in my life,' she told him. 'I just wish you felt the same way about me. Even when you found me in your bed it didn't raise your blood pressure, or anything else for that matter.'

His expression had tightened. 'And how would you know that? You were fast asleep in your crumpled black dress when I woke up.'

'You could have woken me up.'

'I'd rather the choice be mine when I sleep with someone.'

He wasn't going to tell her that he'd lain for ages looking down at her, adoring her, yet not willing to let himself make love to her under those circumstances.

'Ah! So that's it. You think I presume too much. I'll bear that in mind in future.'

'Now you are being ridiculous,' he told her, but it fell on deaf ears. Fenella was in her car, switching on the engine and pulling out of the car park, leaving him to make what he would of that.

In the days that followed the surgery was extra busy. It was coming up to October and the time for flu jabs. Also there was an increase in patients with diabetes, most of them overweight, and Max thought that the number of those who had it was beginning to assume epidemic proportions.

Gaynor had been tested quickly regarding the lump in her breast and once again it was benign. She'd been in to see them and had asked, 'Why do I keep getting these things?'

'It's often an hormonal thing,' Max had told her, with Fenella looking on. 'The problem could disappear once you've gone through menopause.'

When Gaynor had gone Fenella was about to follow her, ready to go back to her own room, but he called her back.

'About the party that Caroline's parents have invited us to on Saturday. Did her mother say any time to be there?' he asked.

'Yes. She said sevenish,' Fenella told him in chilly tones. 'I'll see you there.'

'So we're not going together?. You're still sulking?'

'I...am...not...sulking. It is not a habit of mine. I am just not presuming. ..anything.. .at all.'

'Fine, but I have to say that the mode doesn't suit you. I prefer it when you presume. How's Alice, by the way?' he asked, moving to a safer subject.

'She's been transferred to St George's Hospital for aftercare before being sent home.'

'And the leg?'

'She's mastered the crutches. I knew she would. Alice is a very determined woman. They'll be sending a carer out to her each day when she goes home and the district nurse will keep an eye on her. She'll have to put up with that, which I'm sure she will, just as long as she goes back to her cottage. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get back to those who are waiting to see me.'

'Feel free,' he said coolly, and went to the door to call in his next patient.

Will was back at university and each night when Max opened the door the house seemed empty. It didn't have to be. He had only to say the word and Fenella would be there. Bright and beautiful. Filling the place with her presence. So why wasn't he doing something about it?

He was a romantic, that was why. He wasn't in the market for any hole-in-the-corner sleeping together. It was time he made that clear and what better way than to tell her how he felt? If he could get through the frost barrier on Saturday night he would do just that and hope that she hadn't really given up on him.

Caroline and her family lived in what had once been stables and had been converted into a large detached house down a quiet lane not far from where Fenella lived.

As she dressed for the occasion on Saturday night, part of her was wishing that she hadn't accepted the invitation. She'd visualised Max being by her side at the gathering, which he would have been if she hadn't been so intent on keeping him at a distance.

But she couldn't overcome the feeling that he still saw her in the way that her mother had described her, young, vulnerable, easily led, and though he was attracted to her, he didn't want to get involved in something that he couldn't handle.

She knew he was happy with her performance at the practice, as long as he was there to supervise, and supposed she should be content with that, but she wasn't. She was in love with him. Wanted to live in his beautiful house with him, sleep with him in the bed that he'd told her was not for the uninvited, and give him children.

If he had been ready to put his life on hold for a young brother, what would he be like with a child of his own? she thought wistfully, but, as she'd told Alice, chance would be a fine thing.

It was not a night for the black dress or the wig, she told herself as she opened the wardrobe door. She hadn't got a lot of clothes to choose from, but hanging in front of her was the sequined T-shirt and tight jeans that she'd been wearing on the night he'd been called out to her at the police station. Dare she wear them as a reminder of the bond that had bound them ever since? The gold chain, the final touch, was in the drawer in front of her.

If she wore them, would Max get the message that she needed him as much now as she'd needed him then? No sooner had the idea come into her mind than she was ready to test it, and taking the clothes out of the wardrobe she put them on.

There were a lot of people at the party, a few that she knew and a lot that she didn't, but the atmosphere was warm and welcoming and now, with a drink in her hand, Fenella was talking to Caroline. She hadn't seen any signs of Max so far and was determined that she wasn't going to seek him out. If he wanted to be with her, he could find her.

'How's the arm?' she asked the girl who had almost died outside the surgery.

Caroline was young and shy, overcome by the numbers of those there, and the fact that she was the reason why they'd come.

'It's improving,' she said with rising colour, and slipped off the jacket she was wearing.

There was scarring at the top of her arm and her elbow looked slightly out of line, but she could move her fingers and was managing to hold a glass in her hand.

'I'm really grateful for what you did for me, Dr Forbes,' she said.

She smiled. 'My name's Fenella, and it was Dr Hollister who was in charge when we found you in the road. I was new at the practice and was scared stiff because of my lack of experience, but fortunately in him you had the best.'

'Is he coming tonight?'

'Er...yes...he is, as far as I know. Though I haven't seen him so far.'

At that moment Fenella heard Max's voice. He was standing at the front door, apologising to Caroline's mother for being late. 'I'm a police surgeon as well as a GP,' he was telling her, 'and I was called out on a case.'

'Wow!' someone said in a low voice from behind her, 'Who is that?'

'It's Max Hollister, the local doctor, Genevieve,' was the answer, 'and don't get too excited. Max is very choosy.'

When she turned round Fenella saw two smartly dressed women in their thirties strolling towards where the drinks were. That was the first downbeat moment of the evening. The second was when her glance met Max's across the room as he saw her outfit. She saw his face darken, and the next thing he was coming across to where she stood.

'I don't believe what I'm seeing,' tie said in a low voice. 'I would have thought that you wouldn't ever want to be reminded of the last time you wore those clothes.'

She observed him defiantly. 'Can't you see that there might be a very different reason for me wanting to wear them?'

'No. I can't.' He looked around him. ' I've never seen you look anything but delightful, except for that one time. Do you honestly think I want to be reminded of it?'

So much for that, Fenella thought bleakly as he moved away and unbelievably started chatting to the two women who'd been discussing him.

If she could depart gracefully she would do, she thought miserably, but she hadn't been there long, and Caroline's mother had just invited everyone to help themselves to the appetising buffet that was laid out in the dining room.

After they'd eaten, with Max still in the company of Genevieve and her friend, Caroline's father got up to propose a toast and to her surprise it was to Max and herself.

'To Max Hollister and Fenella Forbes,' he said, 'the doctors from the surgery down the road who saved our daughter's life. Where are you both? Stand up and take a bow.'

In two strides Max was by her side, taking her hand, raising her to her feet, and as they stood side by side she thought that they had such rapport when it came to work, but after that there was nothing. She had expected him to understand why she'd worn the top and the trousers, but instead he'd been furious.

'Smile,' he was saying. 'For goodness' sake, don't let these nice people see that you're not enjoying yourself.'

She did as he'd asked and then fixed him with a glacial blue gaze. 'And whose fault would that be? Yours perhaps?'

CHAPTER TEN

He had been intending to tell Fenella how much she meant to him, Max thought, and what had he done? Flown off the handle the moment he'd seen her in that outfit.

He'd thought that she was being totally flip about the way they'd met in the police station and had wanted to shake her. She knew that he'd remember the sequinned top. He'd mentioned it once and she'd been surprised that it had registered with him. The truth of it was the damn thing would always be part of that dreadful night, and here she was, flaunting it.

'How did you get here?' he asked when the toast was over.

'In my car. I don't drink and drive.'

'I'm aware of that, but I need to talk to you.'

'You already have, and I don't really want to hear any more along those lines. I wore these clothes because I thought it might remind you of how the way we met has forged a bond between us, but it would seem that it was a big mistake.'

It was at that moment that Caroline appeared at his side and, guessing that she was there to thank him and wouldn't be too keen on an audience, Fenella moved away. It was an ideal opportunity to depart while Max was otherwise engaged, she decided.

She went to find the girl's parents and, having thanked them for an enjoyable evening, went out into the night, hoping that Max wouldn't notice that she'd gone. She felt miserable and defeated after the telling-off he'd given her and just wanted to go home and take a good long look at where they were heading, if anywhere.

The weather had changed while she'd been at the party. A boisterous wind buffeted her as she went to the car and in the distance lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.

Visibility was never good on the moors at night, but she knew the way home well enough, or thought she did, until she took a wrong turning and found herself on a narrow lane that wasn't wide enough to turn round in and meant she had to keep on driving until it widened or she came back onto the hill road.

Rain was slashing across the windscreen now and as she peered at the road in front of her, a sheep ran in front of the car, white and bedraggled in the light from the headlamps.

She swerved to avoid it, lost control and went careering down a hillside that she hadn't known was there. It was a terrifying experience, bouncing along in the darkness amongst bushes and boulders with the rain pelting down.

She braked at the same moment as a dry stone wall reared up in front of the car, and as the vehicle came to a shuddering halt she felt the seat belt cutting into her and every bone in her body jarring from the impact.

When Max discovered that Fenella had gone he groaned, and when he went outside and saw the weather it was as if nothing was going to go right on this night. He'd planned to invite Fenella back to his house after the party and make up for all the backward steps their relationship had been taking of late. He had intended to ask her t6 marry him. Something he would have done long ago if it hadn't been for what Ann had said.

He'd spoken to her at the surgery the previous day, told her what he was intending, and she'd smiled.

'I gave in some time ago,' she'd told him. 'If it's you that Fenella wants, and there doesn't seem much doubt about that, I'm happy for you to be together. In recent weeks I've seen how capable and mature she can be and she isn't going to change her mind about you, Max.' She'd kissed him gently on the cheek and told him, 'You have my blessing.'

It had been a weight off his mind, but he'd known that he wasn't there yet. There was Fenella to convince that he loved her and in recent days he'd begun to think that it might not be so easy But it wasn't going to deter him and he drove off in the direction of her cottage.

When he pulled up in front all was in darkness, yet he didn't think she'd gone to bed. For one thing, none of the curtains were drawn and some of the windows were open to the driving rain.

Maybe in defiant mood she'd gone down to The Moorhen, he thought. Or to Simon's house to talk to Ann. But there was no sign of her at the pub and Ann hadn't seen her daughter.

'I upset Fenella,' he told her mother, 'and she left the party early. I really need to speak to her, Ann.'

It was her turn to be concerned now. 'Suppose she's had an accident, Max? The roads can be slippery when it's raining like this, and it's so dark up there on the hill road.'

'I've driven that way myself,' he reminded her, 'and there were no signs of anything like that. I'll go back to the cottage and see if she's turned up while I've been down here.'

'Let me know,' she called as he got back in the car.

The place was still in darkness and his anxiety increased. He had a feeling of foreboding, so much so that he decided to ring the police.

'We'll ask the squad cars to keep a lookout, Doc,' they told him. 'It's a bad night for anybody to be up there.'

As he stood irresolute Max had a sudden idea where Fenella might be. She was in charge of the keys for Alice's house. Maybe she'd gone there for some reason. The old lady was still in hospital but it was possible that she'd remembered something she had to do for Alice and had stopped off on the way home.

It was a vain hope. All was in darkness, bolted and barred. As he stood on the garden path, wondering where to look next Max saw lights in a field some distance away, and with his knowledge of the area he knew that there wasn't a house there. There were no properties around there, just fields, and it wasn't a night for camping out, that was for sure.

He got back in the car and drove towards the place where he'd seen the lights, but now they'd disappeared and he wasn't quite sure which field they'd been in.

For what seemed like a lifetime Fenella sat in the car, too shocked to move. The headlamps were still on, providing a faint circle of light. From what she could see, it looked to be an uncultivated field where she'd ended up, and as there were fields in abundance on the slopes coming down from the peaks she hadn't a clue where she was.

Petrol was dripping from the tank and suddenly came the thought of fire. She had to get out and, switching everything off, she opened the door and staggered away from the car. The rain was still coming down in torrents, hopefully enough to put out a fire should her worst fears be realized. In the meantime, she went to stand shivering under a tree with the flimsy shoes she'd worn for the party squelching on her feet.

If only she'd waited for Max, she thought wretchedly. Where was he? She needed him. She always would. He would be home now, snug in bed, not knowing that she was cold and wet in the dark with no idea where she was, afraid to move in case she fell over another drop or stepped in a bog.

What would he say when he saw the state of the car? It would be another black mark against her. She would never be able to eat lamb again without remembering this night.

The rain eased off at last and a yellow moon had appeared from behind a cloud when Max stopped the car above on the narrow lane. He'd seen the lights somewhere down below here, he thought, but there were no signs of them now.

There was a powerful torch in the boot that he carried in case he was ever lost while out on a call and he went to get it, but when he flashed it around there was still nothing to see, until it picked up a glint of metal beside one of the walls that divided the fields. He threw himself downwards, flattening bracken and gorse on the way.

It was the green metallic car that he'd bought for Fenella, banged up against the wall. He could pick out the number plate in the light of the torch, but when he shone it inside the car it was empty. He felt dread uncurling inside him. Had she been thrown out of the car as it careered along the field, or wandered off in a distressed state? If anything had happened to her, he would never forgive himself as he was to blame for her leaving the party early and on her own.

He was waving the torch around frantically and suddenly she was there in its beam, huddled beneath a tree, soaked to the skin.

'I knew you would come,' she said faintly, and then, as if the relief was too much, she crumpled and he just managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

Max carried her to his car, holding his precious burden carefully as he dodged overhanging branches, sidestepped loose stones and avoided slipping on the wet grass.

When they got there he wrapped her in his jacket and held her until she opened her eyes.

'I ache all over, Max, and I'm so cold,' she said tearfully.

'Yes, I know,' he told her. 'I'm taking you to my place. I feel as if I don't want to let you out of my sight ever again. I've been chasing all over everywhere trying to find you, and it was only by a fluke that I did. I saw lights in a field and then they disappeared so I went to investigate, and, thankfully, there you were.'

'It would be the headlamps that you saw, before I turned everything off and got out of the car in case it caught fire. I'm so sorry that I've wrecked it, Max. I swerved to avoid a sheep in the downpour and went over the edge into the field. I'd taken a wrong turning and didn't know where I was in the pitch dark.'

He stroked her face gently. 'What did I say to you when I bought the car, Fenella? I said that it could soon be replaced, but the person driving it couldn't. So forget about it. It's a miracle that you weren't killed.'

So she was still just anyone, any other person, she thought dismally. Not someone that he couldn't live without. Max had come and found her, but again the thought was there that he would have done it for anybody.

When they got back to Max's house, a hot bath warmed her up and took some of the aches out of her. Now, wrapped in a blanket, she was curled up on the couch in the lounge. He'd checked her over and everything seemed to be in place.

Fenella had spoken to her mother and put her fears at rest and would have been content if it hadn't been for the suspense of wondering where she was going to sleep.

Max had disappeared upstairs and when he came down again he said, 'I've changed the sheets on my bed for you. I'll sleep in Will's room.'

Fenella nodded meekly. There was no fight left in her now. She knew the score.

'But before I tuck you up for the night, there's something I have to tell you, Fenella.'

Here it comes! she thought glumly. It was either going to be the sack or the news that he was back with Sonya.

Max had seen her expression and he said, 'There's no need to look so solemn. I've upset you enough for one night with my comments about your clothes. I hope that what I have to say next might have the opposite effect.'

She didn't speak. Just observed him with wary blue eyes.

'I love you, Fenella, more than life itself,' he said in a low voice. 'Your mother asked me to give you space and I've tried to do that, but I can't do it any longer and I've told her so.'

She'd been lying amongst the cushions with the blanket wrapped tightly around her, but now she sat bolt upright. Max watched her swallow hard, but she still didn't speak, and he went on. 'You've brought light into my life where there wasn't any. I have to thank you for that. You've become a vital part of the practice and I have to thank you for that, but most of all I'm grateful that you're you. So will you marry me?'

Her kissable mouth was trembling. The words were ready to pour forth now but he forestalled her. 'Before you give me an answer, remember that Will is still living here, though I don't think it will be long before he flies the nest. But I would never ask him to go. I'm all he's got. Can you put up with that?'

Fenella was smiling, a beam brighter than the sun. 'I haven't answered your first question yet,' she told him. 'Of course I'll marry you, Max. I can't think of anything I want more. When you said you had something to say to me, I thought you were going to give me the sack because my nuisance rating outweighed my good points.. .and you do know that it's your house I'm after.'

He lifted her off the couch and cradled her in his arms, and as he looked down at her he was laughing. 'So I've got a rival.'

'Mmm,' she murmured as she stroked his face with loving hands.

She could feel the steady beat of his heart through the thin shirt he was wearing and felt her own heartbeat quicken. If Max felt that she had brought light into his life, he was offering her everything she'd ever dreamed of.

She'd known right from the day she'd walked into the surgery and discovered that they had already met under most unusual circumstances that he was different to any man she'd ever met. When it had seemed as if it had been her mother that he had been interested in, she'd been devastated. Because, though she hadn't been prepared to face up to it at the time, she'd wanted him for herself.

'As for Will,' she told him, 'I wouldn't want him to leave. This was his home long before I came on the scene, and what's more I'm fond of him. He's like the young brother I never had.'

'Bless you for that,' he murmured.

'It was a small thing to ask.'

His smile was wry. 'Not everyone would see it that way.'

'Now it's my turn,' she told him. 'I have something to ask you.'

'Go ahead.'

'You said that only those who are invited are welcome to share your bed. So do I have a long-term invite?'

'Of course,' he said whimsically. 'And if you remember, I made another stipulation...that they should be wearing my ring. So what are we going to do about that?'

She looked up and pointed to the brass rings on the curtain rail above them, but he shook his head. 'I think I can do better than that, Fenella. The only gem I could think of that equalled your brightness was a diamond. So if you would like to hold out your finger...' As she watched him, goggle-eyed, he took a jeweller's box off the top of the bookcase beside them and inside, as he'd promised, was a solitaire diamond, sparkling up at them from its velvet pad.

'It's beautiful,' she breathed as he slid the ring onto her finger. 'But, Max, why is it that I'm never dressed right for the occasion?'

'Oh, but you are,' he told her softly as he slid the blanket off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor.

Alice was mobile again and enduring the help of Social Services, which was coming in handy as all Fenella's time was taken up with the making of the wedding dress.

'When you said that you wanted me to make your wedding dress that day you found me on the kitchen floor, I never thought I'd live to do it,' Alice had told her. 'My mind was more on shrouds than bridal gowns. It will be the happiest day of my life when I see you in it.'

To Fenella's amazement, Sonya offered them her home for the reception. 'That is very generous of her!' Fenella exclaimed when Max told her. 'There was a time when I thought she'd come back to take up where she'd left off.'

'It might have been like that at first,' he said, 'but she told me that she only needed to see the way I looked at you to know that a second time round was not on the cards.'

It was going to be a Christmas wedding, with white fur round the hem of her dress, a matching muff decorated with snowdrops and a frosted coronet holding her veil in place.

But before it was their turn, she and Max had to fulfil their functions on Ann and Simon's big day and, as she observed their happiness, Fenella knew that when she walked down the aisle to stand beside the man who had brought law, order and love into her life, she would be marrying her heart's desire.