‘Right then. So we’re a team?’
‘Yes... That would be good.’
‘In that case, I get to look out for you. The same way that I hope you’ll look out for me.’
Mimi swallowed hard. ‘You want me to look out for you?’
‘Why not?’ His sudden grin burned into her soul like a red-hot brand. ‘It’s expensive to train new doctors. You’d be doing the economy a favour.’
Right now, the economy was the last thing on her mind. She tried to drag her attention away from the curve of his lips.
‘Okay then—partners. I’ll look after you and you can look after me.’
He held out his hand and she took it, almost in a dream. One of those bright, happy dreams that had so often been shattered when she woke and found that Rafe wasn’t sleeping next to her.
‘Partners it is, then.’
Suddenly the dream cracked. Mimi had promised herself not to risk falling for another man and fantasising about Rafe, of all people, was plain crazy.
She let go of his hand, settling back into her seat. Five years ago she’d been foolish enough to believe that she meant something to him, and now... He’d be gone soon and he wouldn’t look back.
Perhaps that was the advantage of having a heart that had once been broken. It was stronger now, and well defended. Rafe couldn’t just walk back into her life and steal it.
* * *
The shining look on her face, the way her lips were parted slightly, had obliterated everything else. Mimi might be as tough as they came, but when she made love she was the softest, sweetest thing.
Don’t do this. Don’t even think about it.
He’d made one promise to Charlie, and another to himself. He wasn’t going to break either of them. Rafe switched on the engine, jamming the car into first gear with more force than was strictly necessary, and started to drive.
THEIR FIRST CALL was to a man with cuts and bruises, from where a dry-stone wall had collapsed onto him. In better circumstances he might well have just turned up in A and E, but he’d called first and been passed on to the Disaster Control Team, who had told him to stay put and wait for someone to get to him.
With Rafe there, it was possible to treat him in situ. Not the best use of his skills, but it saved time and resources where they were needed the most. The kitchen table was turned into a temporary treatment area, and Eric’s arm lay supported on a wad of dressing as Rafe carefully injected the local anaesthetic on either side of the wound.
‘You’re the doctor’s assistant?’ Eric’s wife came to sit next to Mimi at the other end of the long table.
‘No.’ She flipped her gaze towards Rafe to check that he wasn’t grinning and saw that his concentration was wholly on what he was doing. ‘I’m a paramedic. Only my ambulance got washed away in the river.’
‘Up by Holme? I heard about that on the local radio news; they’re completely cut off now. No one hurt, I hope.’
‘No. Just got a bit wet.’
A baby started to cry in the other room and the woman hurried out, returning with her child in her arms. ‘We’re sorry to bring you out all this way. Eric was going to go into A and E, but I was worried about him driving and I called first. They said they’d send a doctor to us.’ Her tone was apologetic.
‘That’s all right. We’re trying to get as many people as possible treated at home because A and E is pretty stretched at the moment. It’s a lot better this way, all round.’
‘Not for you. It looks as if it’s going to be a filthy night again.’ The woman turned the edges of her mouth down in sympathy, and Mimi smiled.
‘I’ll be in bed, drinking cocoa and reading a book soon enough.’ Mimi thought she saw a movement from Rafe out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned he was already looking away again.
‘Whatever you earn you deserve more...’ Eric broke in, and his wife nodded.
‘I tell my boss that all the time.’ Mimi grinned, picking up a soft toy from the table and waggling it in front of the baby. There wasn’t much else for her to do. ‘What do you say to my making a cup of tea?’
‘Tea?’ Rafe seemed to hear the magic word. ‘That would be nice, thanks.’
Mimi swallowed the temptation to tell him that the tea was intended for their patient. Picking the kettle up and finding it empty, she went to fill it up at the sink.
* * *
Rafe stood at the end of the path, surveying the small cottage for any signs of life, and Mimi knocked on the door again. No answer.
‘I don’t suppose we’ve got the wrong address...?’
‘Nope. This is the right one.’ Mimi bent down to shout through the letterbox. ‘Toby. Open the door.’
Obviously she’d been here before. Or maybe she knew the elderly man who lived here. They’d been summoned by a concerned neighbour, who had noticed that he was limping and had seen an infected sore on his leg.
‘Do you think he might not be able to get to the door?’ Rafe suggested, wondering if they were going to have to break in.
‘Shouldn’t think so. He’s probably hiding out in the kitchen.’ Mimi walked to the side of the cottage, squeezing through the narrow space between the wall and a waterlogged hedge, and Rafe followed, avoiding the branches that sprung back behind her.
She clambered over a low wall, walking past a small kitchen garden to the back door. He stopped and waited, reckoning that Mimi probably knew what she was doing. She pressed her face against the glass, rattling the handle.
‘Toby, open up.’
There was a short pause, and Mimi banged on the door again. Then it opened, to reveal an elderly man.
‘You might have said it was you...’
‘Can we come in, Toby?’
‘You’d better. You’ll catch your death out there.’
Mimi entered and Rafe hung back from the door as Toby eyed him suspiciously.
‘This is Dr Chapman.’
‘Where’s the other lad?’
‘Jack’s up at the top of the hill, in Holme. He’s a bit tied up at the moment.’
Toby nodded sagely and beckoned Rafe inside. A black and white collie was sleeping by the fire and raised its head to inspect the visitors, then rested it back onto its front paws. The little kitchen was old-fashioned, yet clean and neat as a new pin.
‘What can I do for you?’ Toby sat down at the kitchen table, its polished surface dark and pitted from years of use.
‘Mrs March called us. She says you’ve got something wrong with your leg.’ Mimi’s tone was firm, but she was smiling.
‘It’s nothing.’ The old man’s chin jutted in a show of defiance. His face was like the surface of the table, dark from years spent in the open air, with deep lines at the side of his eyes.
‘No, probably not. But the thing is, now I’m here I have to have a look at it. Those are the rules.’
‘And him?’ Toby gestured in Rafe’s direction.
Mimi looked around, a trace of the smile that she’d bestowed on Toby