Free The Village Nurse's Happy-Ever-After by Abigail Gordon Page B

down when he found out about Marcus, and before you ask if I was upset, the answer is no.’
    â€˜So you’ll let me take you to this Valentine’s Ball, then?’
    â€˜If you intend on going, yes.’ Still rattled by him taking her for granted, she went on, ‘It will be one step better than standing around the edges of the dance floor like a wallflower.’
    Harry was taking in the sarcasm and trying not to smile. He hadn’t intended doing anything of the sort until he’d discovered that she would be there, but now he was totally tuned in to the thought of dancing the night away with her in his arms.
    She went out on the district then, still stunned by his offer to mind Marcus while she went to the ball but glad that Lucy’s offer had come first. For the first time she was now looking forward to it, though she had no intention of letting Harry know that. Instead, like mostwomen with a special occasion in view, she was already debating what to wear.
    Since splitting up with Darren, the only clothes she’d bought had been maternity wear, plus those in the department store on the Saturday when Harry had seen her on the way to the car park. Unless she could find time for another quick trip in to town before the ball, it would have to be one of the smart outfits she’d worn when she’d been married, which belonged to what she thought of as the days of wine and poses.
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    There was a new patient on her list that morning. The surgery had sent her to evaluate what kind of care and assistance was needed by the local plumber, who had just been unexpectedly diagnosed with a form of inoperable stomach cancer that was terminal.
    Expecting to see a very sick man, she was amazed to see him painting the outside of his bungalow on one of the lanes leading from the village’s main street with every appearance of good health. When he assured her that he was fine, she left him to it, knowing that soon he was going to need the special care of a hospice, but for now she was content to leave him to enjoy a task that he might not be able to do for much longer.
    Back at the surgery Harry was too busy to think any further about the strange conversation they’d just had, or the outcome of it. It was one of those mornings when one crisis was following another.
    The first was parents bringing in their seriously unwell five-year-old daughter. The moment he saw the child Harry realised that she was showing signsof meningitis—the light was hurting her eyes, she was running a temperature, had an inflamed throat and, most worrying of all, the red rash of the illness that was one of its most easy to recognise symptoms.
    He was amazed that they hadn’t taken their child straight to hospital, yet was aware that where most parents were swift to panic, others were slow to grasp the seriousness of a situation. Within seconds he was phoning for an ambulance and emphasising the extreme seriousness of the little girl’s condition.
    The response to his call was fast and soon she was on her way to hospital with sirens screeching and paramedics and her stunned parents watching over her.
    As he’d watched them go he had prayed they would get there before the infection took its terrible toll. If the child was treated quickly there would be a chance, but modern medicines and the Almighty would be equally responsible for the outcome.
    The next person to give grave cause for concern was Lorraine Forrest, who controlled the school crossing as lollipop lady. A pleasant thirty-year-old with twin boys in the juniors section, she’d been knocked down outside the surgery while doing her job by a car driver who had collapsed at the wheel. A member of the public had come rushing inside to inform the doctors.
    Harry and Leo were out and running in a flash to find the young mother lying on the crossing with a crowd beginning to gather around her and the local policeman frantically redirecting the