Free Bachelor Cure by Marion Lennox

niceness—plus, he has more than his fair share of good looks.’ She twinkled. ‘And I need to stay here and look after you but I also need an income. So…’
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜So I might just have chosen myself a partner,’ she said simply. ‘If he’ll have me.’
    â€˜And if he won’t?’
    â€˜Then we’ll just have to think of a way to make him change his mind.’

CHAPTER FOUR
    B Y TWO that afternoon Mike was starting to get anxious that Henry hadn’t woken. When he finished surgery he intended to go back to the hospital, but just as he was leaving the clinic there was an urgent call from Eileen Fraser. Reg Fraser was close to death.
    Reg had terminal lung cancer. He’d been dying for months, cared for by three sisters of whom Eileen, at ninety, was the oldest. The Misses Fraser had taken care of Reg around the clock every since he’d become ill, and he couldn’t have had better care anywhere.
    Now it sounded as if the end was very, very close. Eileen was distraught. No, they didn’t want Reg to be admitted to hospital, not now, but, yes, they needed help. For the first time since he’d become ill, Reg seemed distressed.
    Mike had no choice. He packed his bag and headed for the Fraser farm, and this time he left Strop behind.
    Reg wasn’t distressed. He’d lapsed into a coma and started Cheyne-Stokes breathing. Mike reassured the elderly ladies that all this meant was that Reg was so deeply unconscious his breathing was almost a muscle spasm rather than the effect of a conscious message to the brain. He died half an hour after Mike arrived—a peaceful, settled death that was just how Mike had hoped it would be.
    â€˜Oh, Reg…’ Miss Eileen fluttered forward as herbrother’s breathing finally ceased. The sisters kissed their brother in turn and then fetched the coverlet that, Mike gathered, they’d spent the last six months embroidering for just this occasion.
    He couldn’t leave. He spent the next two hours drinking tea and eating home-made biscuits while the sisters went through every aspect of Reg’s illness with him, step by step. It was an important time for them if they were to come to terms with what had happened, and Mike couldn’t begrudge it to them. The undertaker was booked to call later that evening. There was no hurry. No hurry at all…
    Mike ended up looking through faded family photographs with the sisters commentating. ‘This is Reg on his first pony,’ and ‘This is Reg on his first day at school’ and ‘See how much taller Reg was than our father…’
    By the time he could charitably leave it was five o’clock and evening surgery patients were already queuing. Still he couldn’t return to visit Henry. He made a fast phone call to Bill back at the hospital.
    â€˜Henry’s awake and doing fine,’ Bill told him. ‘Tessa’s finally agreed to have some sleep. I’m going off duty now. If you like, I’ll feed Strop for you before I go so there’s no urgent reason why you should race back to the hospital.’
    No. Mike had to agree—especially since Tessa was now asleep.
    That was stupid, he told himself, but even so it made the hours spent seeing his evening surgery patients pass faster than if he’d thought Tess was sitting by Henry’s side, waiting.
    Was it his imagination, or were there more patients than normal? At eight o’clock Mike finally finished. He came out to find his receptionist replacing the telephone. She sighed as she saw him.
    â€˜For heaven’s sake, Mike, there’re rumours flying all over the valley that there’s a new doctor starting work. I’ve had more than ten patients ring to ask if they can have an appointment with the new doctor. When I say she’s not working here they’re disappointed, but then they can’t admit they don’t really need to see a