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'If you remember, I'm not exactly the motherly type. Which reminds me. I saw your brother the other day. He's a lot like you but lacks the charisma.'

'Will is twenty years old, Sonya,' he'd told her dryly.

He'd got to his feet. 'Any chance of a lift? I've left my car at Fenella's place and don't want to disturb her.'

'Yes, sure,' she'd said reluctantly, loth to end the reunion. 'When am I going to see you again? I'm so lonely in that big house. The work on it will be finished by the end of the week, so I might start doing some entertaining. Will you come if I do?'

'It will depend how busy I am,' he'd said flatly. 'And now can we get going? I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.'

'With the blonde girl to assist you, no doubt.'

'Fenella is a trainee GP and a great help in the practice.'

'Where did you find her?'

'Her mother is the practice manager. She is shortly to marry my partner.'

'Who—the girl or the mother?'

'Her mother,' he'd said firmly, with the thought of Fenella marrying anyone but him not bearable.

* * *

And now it was the following morning and he was waiting for Fenella to arrive at the surgery. He wanted to make it up to her for the previous night's happenings but hadn't decided how.

He was first there and within minutes the phone rang. It was the police to tell him that Ed Battersby had been to the station and admitted that his bull had been loose on the afternoon of the woman's death.

'We're looking into it, needless to say,' he was told. 'Some of our men have gone to the farm to examine the bull, but we think that we'll have to wait for the DNA results on the hairs before we can press charges—that is, if it turns out that you're right.

'The heavy rain that afternoon has been the stumbling block in our investigation, as not only would it have obliterated any hoof prints but it would have washed away any human tissue on the animal's horns. The lads at the station have suggested that your Dr Forbes apply for a job in CID,' the officer at the other end of the line said laughingly before he rang off.

Brenda, the cleaner, was the next to arrive and she told him excitedly, 'My granddaughter, Chelsea, is going to enter for the flower queen competition.'

When he explained that he knew nothing about it, she filled him in on the details and Max thought that someone at the meeting had come up with a really good idea.

When the door opened again it was Ann, and Max observed her in surprise.

'What are you doing here?' he asked. 'You're supposed to be on leave as from today.'

'Yes. I know,' she said hurriedly. 'I just want a quick word before Fenella arrives.'

'So she's not with you?'

'No. She wasn't ready when I came out and said that as it's a nice morning she would walk down.'

'So what is on your mind?'

'I came to ask you to be careful with her feelings. You're a very attractive man, Max. She is young, impetuous, has a mind of her own, but isn't very experienced when it comes to the opposite sex. I don't want her to get hurt. She's told me about last night and until she did I hadn't realised just how much she is attracted to you.'

'I would have thought that you knew me better than to think I would do anything to hurt Fenella,' Max said coolly.

'I do,' Ann said. 'You are an honourable man, but she is quite capable of hurting herself. She has only been working here at the practice for a short time and needs to get settled in properly before anything else.'

'Listen, Ann, we need to get one thing straight,' he told her.

'And what is that?'

'I am not made of iron and Fenella is an entrancing creature, but I will bear your comments in mind.'

There were voices outside and footsteps on the flagged forecourt of the surgery. 'I'm going,' Ann said quickly. 'I'll use the back door. I don't want her to know that we've been discussing her.'

Fenella wasn't amongst the staff they'd heard outside. She was the last to arrive, leaving no time to talk as by then the waiting room was full, but he did manage to ask, 'Are you all right?'

And was told, 'Yes. Why shouldn't I be?'

When morning surgery
was over Fenella waylaid Max and pointed out that neither of them had transport, a fact that he was well aware of. His car was at her house from the night before, and her mother's car, which she used for her house calls, would be at Simon's place from now on.

'My mother said her car would be available later in the day but she wasn't sure when,' Fenella told him. 'How did you get home last night without yours?'

'How do you think? Sonya did the honours.'

'But of course. What are old friends for?'

'There is no need for sarcasm,' he told her reprovingly. 'I could have picked mine up at your place on my way down from Battersby's Farm, but I didn't think that would go down too well after the kind of evening it had turned out to be. And you know, part of it was your fault, Fenella. If you hadn't been so clever we would have carried on with our walk. But once you'd put the idea about the bull into my head I couldn't just shelve it. If it was that animal that killed the woman, it could kill again. And by the way, they think at the police station that you should apply for a job in CID.'

That brought a smile. 'I'd rather solve health problems than crime.'

'Ed did go to the police after all. They were on the phone first thing to let me know and are definitely considering the idea. They've spoken to the pathologist and he is going to check for animal saliva in the victim's head injuries. If the DNA tests on the hairs are found to have come from the bull, it will be case solved.

'As for Sonya appearing like she did, I had no idea she would be around that place, but when it turned out that she was I couldn't just walk away.'

Her expression had softened. 'No, you couldn't. Why not come to the cottage tonight and I'll make us a meal to make up for it?'

'I can't,' he told her stiffly. 'I've promised to go to the Old Hall to see the improvements that Sonya has had done. She's desperate for company. I don't think anyone has stepped over the threshold since she moved in. Then I want to call round to see how Simon has coped with his first day back home.'

So she hadn't been wrong in thinking that she was on the outside of his life looking in, Fenella thought as he waited to see what she had to say.

'Sure,' she said easily. 'First things first.'

He was called away by one of the practice nurses at that moment so didn't get the chance to reply, and when he came back it seemed that there were more important things on his mind than the uncertainties of his assistant.

'I've ordered a taxi to take us to your house so that I can pick up my car,' he told her. 'So that's my transport settled. With regard to yours I think it's time you had a car of your own, so we're going to sort that out next. You can't keep relying on your mother.'

'So what are you going to do? Hire one?'

Max shook his head. 'No. I'm going to buy one. It will belong to the practice, but it will be for doctors' use only.'

'What kind?' she asked as the day began to improve.

'I don't know until we get to the showroom. Something not too big, not too small, I suppose.'

'Can I choose the colour?'

'Yes, as long as it isn't white, bright red or black. White and red are frivolous colours for a doctor, and black could have the patients thinking that the undertaker has turned up early.'

Fenella smiled at his reasoning, eyes dancing at the thought of what lay ahead, and when a taxi pulled up on the surgery forecourt she was outside in a flash.

'Do you want to come in for a coffee?' she asked when they arrived at the cottage to pick up his car.

'I don't think so,' Max told her, remembering what Ann had said earlier. 'We're going to be running late all day by the time we've fixed you up with a car.'

In truth he was wishing that they had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do but spend the afternoon giving in to the attraction they had for each other.

When he stopped his car at the traffic lights in the centre of the village, Will came loping alongside.

'Hi, Fenella,' he said, adding to Max, 'Where are you off to?'

'We're going to buy a car for Fenella to use at the practice.'

'I'll come with you,' he said immediately, and as the lights changed he opened the door and slid into the back seat.

Max sighed. 'Haven't you anything better to do?'

'What could be better than helping choose a new car?'

'Doing some of the work you brought with you from university, for one thing.'

'Oh, that,' he said airily. 'I can do it any time.' And turning to Fenella, 'How are you, Sherlock?'

'What do you mean—Sherlock?'

'It's all over the village that you've solved the mystery of the woman in the bushes. You are amazing. Isn't she, Max?' he said admiringly.

'Yes, she is,' he agreed as the colour rose in her cheeks.

He pulled up beside the kerb. 'Nothing has been solved yet, so give it a low profile for the time being,' he told his brother. 'Now, get out, Will, and don't forget it's your turn to make the meal tonight.'

As he reluctantly unfolded himself out of the back seat, Will said, 'Would you like to join us, Fenella? I make a good curry.'

'I don't think so,' she told him gently. 'Maybe another time.'

If she was ever invited to Max's home she wanted the invitation to come from him, not as a sideways sort of thing, and in any case if she'd said yes, he would be hurrying off to Sonya's once he had eaten and she would be left with Will, who was a likable tease but was never going to make her heart beat faster, like it did when Max was around.

After the car showroom had completed its quickest sale of the day and Max had phoned his insurers, the two doctors prepared to make their separate ways back to the practice, with Max driving his own car and Fenella behind the wheel of a smart, dark green, metallic number.

'Take care,' he told her. ' It takes a while to get used to a new car. We're about to welcome home from hospital one member of the practice. I don't want you to be the next one taking up a bed there.'

'Oh, so it's not the car you're concerned about?' she questioned lightly.

'A car is a car. It can soon be replaced,' he replied, and she saw a glint in the keen gaze that had her so mesmerised. 'But a doctor short at the practice is a catastrophe. With that thought in mind, we have calls to make and we're well into the afternoon. So let's go back to the surgery, pick up the lists and get mobile.'

So a doctor missing at the surgery was of more importance than her having an accident, Fenella thought glumly as she settled herself behind the wheel of the new car. It would certainly seem that she was still on the outside.

When she arrived home that evening, the cottage seemed empty and unwelcoming without her mother's presence. She was used to them bustling around preparing the evening meal together while chatting about the day's events at the surgery.

It was something she was going to have to get used to, she told herself, and instead of cooking made a sandwich to save time. Max wasn't the only one who intended visiting Simon that night. For one thing, she wanted to see if her mother needed any assistance. Ann coped well with stress and wasn't short of vitality, but until she and Simon had settled into a routine it could be difficult for both patient and carer.

She intended going soon. For one thing, they would both be tired after the stresses of the day and would want an early night, and for another Max had said he was going to see Simon, too, but it would be after he'd visited Sonya. So remembering how he'd agreed with Alice that they saw enough of each other at the surgery, with a bit of luck they wouldn't meet up.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see him again so soon— she did. But until she was more confident about his feelings for her, she was going to cool it. Stop being the eager beaver. That afternoon at the car showroom he'd said that she must take care driving the new vehicle as he didn't want any more doctors incarcerated in hospital.

She had hoped that his concern might have been more for her personal safety than disruption of the practice, but maybe it had been his way of saying she mustn't presume too much. So she wasn't going to presume anything and would see how that went down.

After she'd been to see her mother and Simon she intended to call on Alice to see if she was getting all the benefits she was entitled to and was hoping that she would co-operate. She'd made the arrangement the previous week and had thought when they'd called on her unexpectedly that they might have discussed it then, but from what she knew of Alice some persuasion might be needed as she wasn't the type to want to discuss her private affairs.

Her appointment with the rheumatologist was for late afternoon one day in the following week. Which would leave herself free for morning surgery and home visits. The only time she would be missing would be for the late surgery, and Max had said he would willingly cope without her if they could get Alice to the rheumatologist.

Fenella approached the old lock-keeper's cottage where Simon lived from the back. There was no parking space at the front as it was built on a level with the canal tow-path.

When her mother came to the back door in answer to her knock, she eyed the new car in surprise and exclaimed, 'What is that I see there, gleaming in dark green splendour? I wondered why you didn't come round to borrow my car. Where has it come from?'

'Max bought it,' Fenella told her, giving her a hug. 'It's for the practice really, but I will be the main user. But I'm not here to talk about that. I've come to see Simon and to ask if there is anything I can do.'

'He's in the sitting room, feeling quite exhausted but delighted to be home. Come in and you'll see for yourself.'

'Hello, Fenella,' Simon said when she appeared. And with his voice lifting, 'Now I'm home, we're going to start making wedding plans, aren't we, Ann? There were times when I never thought I'd see this day, Fenella, but your mother gave me something to live for, and as soon as I am really on my feet again we're going to set the date.'