Questions Of Trust: A Medical Romance

Chapter One

‘Mrs Edwards? And this must be Jake.’

Chloe glanced up in surprise. She was bent over the receptionist’s desk, filling out the form as neatly as she could in the tiny spaces, resisting the instinct to use shorthand. Her son toddled around her feet, worrying some sort of soft toy he’d found in the corner.

Doctor Carlyle – it could only have been him, as the only other doctor at the practice was Dr Okoro, an older Nigerian man – stood in the open doorway of a consulting room, a grin on his face. He was casually dressed in a pale blue shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms in deference to the April warmth. The inevitable stethoscope was slung across his shoulders.

Chloe straightened and attempted a smile, aware that her face had been creased in harassment and had probably been that way for the last few hours. They’d arrived in town the previous evening, herself and two-year-old Jake, too late to get much done. This morning, though, she’d been up at dawn, doing most of the unpacking before setting off with Jake in tow to do the essentials: a shop, a visit to the local nursery to put Jake’s name down for two mornings a week, and now a trip to the local GP practice to register them both. She was an organised person and liked to get things done as quickly as possible.

‘Yes.’ She reached out a hand. ‘Chloe Edwards.’

‘Tom Carlyle.’ His grip was warm, firm, but not bone-crushing. Involuntarily, Chloe’s journalist’s eye took in the details: he was a few years older than her, but not many, perhaps thirty-three or -four. Tall, not excessively so; six foot, or a shade under. Dark brown, slightly shaggy hair. Eyes that were blue and amused, their expression matching the wryness of his grin. The faintest trace of fine creases at the corners of the eyes suggested he was a man who smiled, even laughed, a lot.

The receptionist, a cheery, blowsy girl with constantly dancing earrings, said: ‘Your eleven-thirty’s cancelled, doc.’

‘In that case,’ said the doctor to Chloe, ‘why don’t you and Jake step in for a moment? It’ll give me a chance to get to know him, so that if I ever do need to see him for anything we won’t be strangers.’

Chloe opened her mouth to protest, to say that they really needed to be off and that she hadn’t expected an impromptu doctor’s appointment for her son, but she thought,
Why not?
Hoisting the little boy on to one arm, she nodded as the doctor stepped aside for her and preceded him into his small, brightly sunlit room.

The doctor followed Jake’s rapt stare around the walls. ‘Not bad, is it?’ Two of the walls were decorated with elaborately colourful murals of cartoon characters. Carlyle smiled again and dropped into his swivel chair, tapping at the computer keyboard before him.

‘New to Pemberham?’ he said.

‘Yes. We arrived just yesterday.’

‘Nice town. Though I’ve been here only six months myself.’

He said it casually. It struck Chloe as an odd remark. Was he trying to empathise with her in some way? It didn’t exactly inspire confidence, suggesting as it did that he was a relative newcomer too and perhaps didn’t know the area or the people as well as he might. She said nothing.

He was right in one respect, though. Pemberham did seem a nice town. Chloe had researched the place extensively over the last year. She was looking for somewhere to move to that wasn’t so tiny that it would feel stifling, but at the same time wasn’t another metropolis like London, which was suffocating in a different way. Pemberham, nestled in the Gloucestershire countryside west of the capital, looked like a chocolate-box painting in all the online pictures, and when she’d visited it with Jake for the first time last summer, she’d been delighted to see that the photos hadn’t exaggerated its charm. They had, if anything, understated its appeal. Set between two hills in a dip too gentle to be called a valley, it was an old market town that had done its best to retain the peacefulness of its original atmosphere in the modern world. Further enquiries had informed Chloe that the schools were good, the accommodation affordable, and the rail links to London excellent. It hadn’t taken her long to decide that this was the place she and Jake would in future call home.

The move had been less traumatic than she’d expected. They had relatively little in the way of material possessions, and relatively few ties in the city. Jake was too small to have made many friends yet. The money would last Chloe for a year, plenty of time for her to find another job; and she’d already had an expression of interest from the local paper in Pemberham. All in all, the relocation of her little family unit had been accomplished with a minimum of fuss so far.

Across the desk the doctor glanced at the registration form Chloe had filled out. ‘Immunisations are up to date.’

‘Of course.’ Obscurely, Chloe felt annoyed. She didn’t need to be patronised.

Get a grip
, she thought, and drew a deep breath, Speaking less sharply, she hoped, Chloe said: ‘How did you know who we were? There, back in reception?’

He raised his eyebrows. He really did have a nice smile, she had to admit. ‘It’s a small town. Whenever somebody new registers at the practice it’s a bit of an event with the reception staff. They spread the word around as if a film star is coming to town.’

Chloe had telephoned a few days earlier to make sure there was room on the practice list for her and Jake to sign up, so as to avoid a potential wasted trip.

Dr Carlyle scanned the rest of the form and made some sort of entry on his computer. ‘Healthy chap, aren’t you?’ he beamed at Jake. On Chloe’s lap, the two-year-old squirmed shyly and buried his face in her shoulder, but peeped round to see if the doctor was still watching him.

Chloe loosened her grip on her son when his squirming threatened to spill him out of her arms. She watched him anxiously, ready to scoop him up again if he started running riot; but instead, he made his way round the desk and held up Wolf, his beloved and well-chewed soft dog toy, for Dr Carlyle to inspect. The doctor peered at it with great interest.

‘And what’s your name?’ he asked.

‘Woof,’ piped up Jake.

Chloe smiled. ‘Wolf.’ Immediately she wondered:
why did I set him right? What does it matter?

‘I’ll bet Wolf likes lollipops.’ Dr Carlyle glanced across at Chloe, his eyes enquiring. For a moment she was tempted to shake her head. Then she thought,
oh, why not
, and nodded.

With a conjuror’s flourish the doctor produced a lollipop, holding it out of the squealing boy’s reach and trying instead to hand it to the toy. In no time Jake was chuckling in that uninhibited, heartfelt way that always seemed to be the preserve of young children alone.

Chloe watched in silence. Jake was normally a cautious, quiet little boy, wary of strangers. In less than five minutes the doctor had won his friendship, his trust.

His, maybe
, she thought.
Not mine.

A tap on the door interrupted the merriment. The dangly-earringed receptionist put her head in.

‘Next patient’s here, doc. Mrs Watts.’

He raised a hand in acknowledgement, turned to Chloe. ‘Nice meeting you both. You’re registered to Dr Okoro and Jake is to me. That all right?’

‘Fine. Thanks.’ Chloe stood. Jake, seeing they were about to leave, began to pout, a tell-tale quiver starting in his lower lip. He clutched Wolf to his chest and lowered his head in a frown of defiance.

‘Whoops,’ said Dr Carlyle. ‘You nearly forgot this.’ He held out the lollipop.

Jake seized it with a whoop. Chloe took the opportunity to grasp his other hand.

‘What do you say?’

‘Thank you,’ the little boy announced solemnly. Dr Carlyle grinned, ruffled his hair.

‘Remember to brush, or I’ll get in trouble with the dentist down the road.’

The tantrum aborted, Jake allowed Chloe to steer him to the door.

‘Thank you, doctor,’ she said.

He smiled. ‘Tom.’

In the car park outside, as she strapped Jake into his seat in the back of her Astra, Chloe thought:
Tom? Isn’t that a bit overfamiliar for a first meeting, especially with a doctor?

He’d been great with Jake, she had to give him that. He was friendly, and she imagined he had a good bedside manner. And, of course, his looks no doubt made him popular with the ladies attending the surgery, who probably made up ailments just so they could consult him.

But he was who he was, and represented what he did, and Chloe couldn’t forget that.

***

‘Oh, no, no, dear. Let me get those.’

The woman had appeared out of nowhere, a short figure with a busy walk and a wild nest of grey hair that looked as if it had resisted all attempts at taming. Deftly she grabbed the bottom of one of the bulging shopping bags Chloe was hauling out of the boot of the Astra an instant before the thin plastic gave way and the contents spilled and smashed on the ground. As it was, only a single can bounced off the pavement.

‘Close shave,’ the woman clucked. Her eyes peered up at Chloe, beady and amused.

‘Thank you.’ Chloe breathed out in relief and got a more secure grip on the remaining bags now that her load was lightened. ‘If you just put it down, I’ll take everything into the house.’

‘Nonsense. You’ve got your wee boy to sort out.’ Her brogue was thick and Scottish.

Chloe had been unloading the shopping from the boot while Jake remained strapped into the kiddie’s seat in the back. She didn’t want him running off into the road while she was otherwise occupied, even though there wasn’t much traffic about. As she released him from the confines of the seat and hefted him, she wondered vaguely how the woman had known she had a small child.

‘I’m Margaret McFarland,’ the small woman said, sticking out her hand. ‘Your neighbour.’

So that was it; she’d seen Chloe and Jake arrive the night before, or perhaps set off on their errands this morning. Chloe shook, introduced herself and Jake. The toddler had reverted to shyness and turned his head away.

Margaret McFarland chuckled. ‘Scary old lady. Never mind. We’ll get on fine, lad.’

Gratefully, Chloe accepted Mrs McFarland’s help in carrying the shopping to the cottage. Despite the less-than-relaxed circumstances she couldn’t help being struck by how picturesque their new home was. Set at the end of a cul de sac lane, it was a perfect little mock-Tudor building with a riot of roses and wisteria around the front door and windows and a border of honeysuckle and daffodils framing the small patch of lawn. The interior was all low beams and country styling, and from the kitchen window the view was one of a pretty patchwork of fields dotted with sheep. It was the kind of idyllic setting that she would once have considered ideal for retiring to. Certainly she wouldn’t have dreamed a few years ago of actually living in such a place yet, and neither would Mark.

But things were different now.

As she loaded the bags on to the kitchen counter she heard Mrs McFarland bustling behind her. She turned and saw the other woman opening cabinet doors until she found what she was looking for: mugs, and a box of teabags.

‘I’ll do that –’ Chloe began, but Mrs McFarland waved her quiet.

‘You’ve had yourself a busy morning. Sit down. Milk, sugar?’

Too tired suddenly to get annoyed at the way the other woman was taking over in her own home, Chloe thanked her and set about putting away some of the perishables she’d bought, then getting a drink and a snack for Jake, who was exploring the still-unfamiliar surroundings of the cottage like an adventurer.

Settling thankfully across the kitchen table from Mrs McFarland, and sipping her tea, Chloe began to get to know the older woman. Margaret – she insisted Chloe call her that, though she reminded Chloe too much of an eccentric old schoolmistress of hers for Chloe to be fully comfortable addressing her by her first name – had lived all her life in Pemberham, and had occupied the cottage next door ever since she’d got married forty years earlier.