Rescued By Dr Rafe. Annie Claydon

directed a bright grin at Toby and the old man’s face softened. ‘Come on, Toby. Give me a break, eh?’

      Toby shrugged and Mimi knelt down in front of him, pulling a pair of gloves from her pocket and carefully rolling Toby’s trouser leg up. Halfway up his calf, a large sore blazed red against the pallor of his skin.

      ‘Have you been wading in flood water?’ Mimi voiced the first question which occurred to Rafe. Flood water frequently carried a high concentration of bacteria, and in the circumstances it was the most likely candidate for turning a small injury into an angry, obviously infected wound like this.

      ‘Mebbe...’ Toby shrugged non-committally.

      ‘I’ll take that as a yes. You’ve been with your grandson up at the farm, have you?’

      ‘The lad needed some help to get all the animals inside. The pasture’s waterlogged.’

      ‘And when was this?’

      ‘Day before yesterday.’

      ‘Okay. This looks as if it hurts.’ Mimi gave Toby no chance to reply, clearly suspecting that he wasn’t about to admit it if it did. ‘I’d like the doctor to take a look at it, and he’ll tell us what needs to be done.’