She slept well for the first time in weeks, and Will was waiting impatiently for her the next morning, dressed and ready to go. He was actually drumming the fingers of his free hand on the table, she noted with amusement. And someone had clearly given him a shave. Will Cooper scrubbed up very nicely indeed.
Not that she should be thinking about him in that way. Renee was absolutely right. She needed a fresh start where her work wasn’t linked to her personal life. Falling for her new boss would be a complete no-no.
‘I’ve been waiting for ages. I thought you’d never get here,’ Will complained.
‘There’s no point in being here at eight if the rounds don’t finish until eleven,’ she said sweetly. ‘Thank you, Mallory, for coming to pick me up.’
‘Thank you, Mallory,’ he repeated, flushing at her gentle rebuke.
She grinned. ‘Come on, oh grumpy boss. Let’s get you home.’
Then she realised what she’d said. Home. As if it were their home. Hadn’t she already been through why they weren’t and never could be a couple? Hopefully he’d take it as meaning just his home.
She wheeled him out to her car and together they managed to cram him into the passenger seat of her small Renault.
‘I’ll have to get you insured to drive my car,’ Will said as she drove them back to Darrowthwaite.
‘Why?’
‘If we get bad weather and you have to do a house call, you’ll need a four-wheel-drive. The roads round here can get pretty icy,’ he told her.
‘Whatever.’ She wasn’t precious about always using her car. And it would be the sensible thing to do. ‘I’ve got my driving licence with me so you can fax it to the insurance company if you need to.’
‘Good. Sounds as if we’re on the same wavelength.’ He gave her a half-smile that made her feel all shivery inside. She just about managed to force herself to concentrate on the road instead.
When they arrived at his cottage, it took a while to manoeuvre him out of her car. She hadn’t thought to borrow a wheelchair so she had to help him with his crutches. But eventually they made it, and Will groaned in relief as he sank onto the sofa. ‘I could really do with a glass of wine after that. A nice cold Chablis.’
‘Not with co-proxamol,’ she said crisply.
His face mirrored his disgust. ‘That’s the one bad thing about sharing a house with another doctor. You know as much as I do,’ he complained.
‘You can have tea—or tea.’
‘Coffee?’ he tried. ‘Please?’
‘As you’ve asked nicely,’ she deadpanned.
She came back a few minutes later with a tray of coffee and cake.
Will perked up. ‘Proper coffee? I thought you didn’t do cooking?’
‘This isn’t cooking. It’s a necessity,’ she said, depressing the plunger on the cafetière and pouring the hot liquid into two mugs. ‘Milk? Sugar?’
‘Neither, thanks.’
‘That’s easy, then.’
‘Mmm, and that’s nice,’ he said after his first sip. ‘Lucky guess or did someone tell you?’
‘What?’
‘Maple pecan’s my favourite.’
She smiled. ‘Neither. It’s mine.’
He looked at the tray. ‘Gingerbread, too. Better and better. All you have to do now is tell me you like anchovies on pizza and you’ll be the perfect housemate.’
‘I detest anchovies,’ she said feelingly.
‘Win some, lose some.’ He took another sip of coffee. ‘Seriously, Mallory, I appreciate you rescuing me. For the second time.’
‘Just don’t make a habit of it,’ she said lightly.
‘I’ll try.’ He paused. ‘So…what made you choose the New Forest?’
She nearly dropped her coffee. ‘What?’
‘You love mountains. And you can’t get much further from good climbing areas than the New Forest. Why not Wales, or Derbyshire, or Scotland, or here?’
She was silent for a long time. But he was a skilled doctor and she recognised how good he was at using the doctor’s greatest weapon. Patience. In the end, she decided to give in. Tell him. ‘Charles was my dad’s best friend at medical school. He offered me a job in his practice. He thought it’d be better for me to get some experience in another practice rather than going straight to join my dad and brothers. And it seemed like a good idea at the time.’
‘Probably was.’ He looked at her. ‘So what happened to your climbing?’
‘There was a climbing wall at one of the sports centres nearby, and I spent my weekends here or in Derbyshire. I had a couple of weeks in the Rockies one summer.’ She smiled. ‘And I did the Three Peaks challenge—Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdonia. Charles, bless him, let me have the time off without having to use my holiday entitlement, because I was raising money for a local charity.’
‘But?’
She stared into her coffee. ‘I think I would have had to leave anyway. Even without the Lindy situation.’
‘Because you need the mountains.’
That, and because of Geoff. Not that she could tell Will about him. Even the thought of Geoff made her feel guilty. ‘Well. Maybe I’ll climb Everest one day. Though competition’s tough for places on an expedition.’
‘If it’s what you really want, go for it.’
There was a strange, shuttered look on Will’s face—a look she couldn’t interpret. What had she said to upset him? Had the woman who’d broken his heart gone on an expedition and not come back? Had that been the accident Hayley had mentioned—had Will been on the same expedition and felt bad because he’d been the one to come back and his girlfriend hadn’t?
But she couldn’t ask him straight out, not without being nosy or rude, and if his girlfriend had died she didn’t want to rub salt into his wounds.
Mallory took a sip of coffee and changed the subject. ‘Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Monday’s surgery.’
‘It starts at half past eight. There’s a practice meeting on Monday afternoons, too. Then house calls, if that’s OK?’
‘Ye-es. I was just wondering…would you like to sit in on my first surgery? If you feel up to it, of course.’
He frowned. ‘Why? Your details checked out. Actually, I spoke to Charles myself this morning. Before you came to pick me up.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What did he say?’
‘You’re a good doctor but you need to sort your life out.’
Had Charles told him about Geoff? Was this Will’s way of telling her he knew all about it? ‘Sort my life out,’ she echoed nervously.
‘And trust your own judgement.’
‘So he told you about Lindy.’
Will shook his head. ‘I told him what you’d told me. And he said the same thing that I did—it was an honest mistake, it could have happened to anyone and you shouldn’t give up medicine over it.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘He also said he thought you’d be happier up here, and said we should fine you twenty pence for every time you mention the c-word. Or the m-word.’
Mallory relaxed again. So Charles hadn’t mentioned how nearly she’d been his daughter-in-law. Or