Summer with the Country Village Vet Read online

  ‘Really?’ He looked amused.

  ‘I love the teaching part, but it’s all the paperwork and extra jobs that are a pain.’

  ‘I know exactly what you mean, if I only had to treat animals my job would be a dream. Although,’ he paused and she took the opportunity to study him a bit more closely. His open-necked polo shirt was tucked into chinos that hugged his muscular thighs, the normal dark shadow skimmed his jaw, but today his eyes seemed to shine. He looked happy, relaxed, which she was pretty sure was a first in her company. ‘If you think you’ve had a tough day, you should have been in my shoes this morning. Never get stuck to a kitten is my advice.’ His eyes were more than shining, there was laughter dancing in them. He was gorgeous, irresistible.

  ‘Stuck?’ The word struggled to emerge from her dry throat, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘Literally.’ He nodded. ‘I use glue to mend minor tears, and wasn’t as careful as I should have been.’

  ‘Really?’ A smile tugged at her insides. ‘You were actually stuck to a kitten?’

  ‘Really. The owner nearly had to take me home as well as the cat.’

  Now that might not be too much of a hardship.

  ‘I daren’t move in case I did more damage than I’d already repaired, and you have no idea how wriggly an indignant kitten can be. Luckily Sal was at hand to rescue me.’ He grinned. ‘Once she’d picked herself up off the floor and stopped laughing. So, beat that.’

  She laughed, she couldn’t help it. ‘I admit defeat, no way can I beat that.’ She paused, ‘Yet. Give me a couple of weeks and it might be a different story, Timothy has already roped me into dancing round the maypole, which I know bugger all about.’ She glanced sideways, but he didn’t react, so she’d leave the whole invading his car park plan for now. It was nice, just chatting to him, and she didn’t want to spoil things.

  ‘Dancing round the maypole?’ He raised an eyebrow and laughed, he was just being so nice and relaxed, showing a side of himself that was suddenly very welcome after the stresses of the day. The first day at a new job was always exhausting, and this was so different to anywhere she’d worked before.

  ‘Well it’s not me that’s doing the actual dancing, it’s the kids I’m expected to get doing it, which sounds a nightmare to me. And that’s only the start of it, I’m only here doing cover, I really didn’t expect…’ She caught his eyes and he twinkled back. He was grinning. Actually grinning, a lovely smile that changed his whole face from handsome to quite devastating. Her knees were all wobbly, and she’d completely lost her train of thought.

  ‘Only doing cover?’ He raised an eyebrow and looked surprisingly wicked, it was the type of intimate look that you swapped on a shared pillow. Oh bugger, she felt her face heat up.

  ‘Okay, okay. Stop laughing at me. We’re in the same boat. Sorry, I promise not to try and persuade you to come in. I think you better give me some lessons on how to avoid getting roped into everything.’

  ‘I’m beginning to think there’s no escape.’

  As they walked, Lucy felt the tensions of the day trickle from her body. It was so nice to have somebody to chat to, somebody who wasn’t part of the school. Okay, he’d lived here once, but he wasn’t a part of the tight knit community. He was like her, on the outside. And he was somebody who didn’t know about her past failures, who wasn’t going to judge. A friend. ‘And I’ve already had three letters from parents complaining about my plans.’

  ‘Plans?’

  ‘Well I’d mentioned at my interview that I thought it would be nice to have the children start off the day with some exercises, it worked really well at my last school. It helped them switch off from the stuff going on at home, and get some of the high spirits out as well.’ She sighed. ‘Word seems to have got around.’ That was the trouble with villages, tell one person something and news spread like wildfire. ‘They’re ganging up on me already. One of them was waiting for me when I arrived this morning!’

  ‘They don’t beat about the bush these farmers.’

  ‘He said it wasn’t the way they did it round here, I mean why? Why can’t they try something new?’

  ‘It’s not the way we do things round here are words you’ll hear a lot.’ He winked. ‘Don’t mind them, they’re friendly enough really, but you know what it’s like in these small communities.’

  ‘Oh I know that alright.’ She glanced up and was surprised to find that as they’d walked and talked they’d got as far as the cobbled square. ‘Sorry, I’m not keeping you, am I?’

  ‘Nope, you’re not keeping me, it was me hassling you. I thought I could show you round a bit, but it sounds like you’ve got a good idea of what’s what without me. So, you have lived in a village like Langtry Meadows before? I thought you were a city girl.’

  ‘I am a city girl. I was young when we left the village.’

  ‘It must be strange for you coming to a little school like this.’ His voice was soft, but she heard every word perfectly. It was as though her whole body was perfectly tuned into him. ‘I couldn’t wait to leave this place and set up a practice somewhere I was really needed.’

  ‘A bit like me.’ She shrugged. ‘Nobody’s an outsider in a city, everybody is struggling, there’s a different new challenge every day. I found that out when I moved up to high school.’

  ‘Not many new challenges in a place like this. Unless you grow up wanting to follow in your dad’s footsteps milking cows and sowing seeds,’ he gave a rueful smile, ‘or taking over your dad’s veterinary practice, then there’s not much to do. I couldn’t wait to escape the monotony.’

  She couldn’t help but smile. ‘Milking cows and sowing seeds!’

  ‘Although I’m sure that’s what Miss Harrington would say life is all about, it’s all about the food and new life. I was young and impulsive though, was sure there was a much bigger, more challenging world out there.’ He was staring across the square, but she was pretty sure it was the past he was seeing, not the present. And all of a sudden she could see her own past. The child on the outside, or in her case the inside of a house – looking out at all the others having fun.

  ‘I wanted to escape the loneliness, not boredom.’ The words were out before she could stop them, and she looked down at her hands, but knew his gaze was on her.

  ‘It’s impossible to be alone in this place.’

  ‘It was possible for me in Stoneyvale.’

  ‘Why?’ His tone was gentle, the single word simple enough. But she’d never really stopped to think, she’d been an only child, her and her mother had not been born there, her father said they weren’t good enough, didn’t belong…

  ‘It was him.’ She started as she realised she’d said the words out loud.

  ‘Sorry?’

  She could see it as clearly as if it was yesterday. ‘My dad. I don’t think he actually wanted me to have any friends.’ She shook her head as though she could shake the unwelcome thought out.

  He’d hugged her close when things had gone wrong, always been on her side. He’d told her she didn’t need anybody else. Not even her mother, who would let her down. She could still remember the look on her mother’s face as she’d watched them. Dad said she was jealous, but even then Lucy had known it had been something else. Then she’d just felt unease, the feeling that something wasn’t right. Now she recognised the wary stillness she’d seen in her mother, she’d been the rabbit frozen in the headlights. The prey about to flee.

  She’d believed most things her father told her, but never that her mum would let her down. They’d been too close, the bond between mother and daughter too strong to break, too many happy memories, too many shared giggles and hugs. Too much love. And that had made him cross.

  ‘Are you okay?’ The bump of Charlie’s shoulder against hers broke into her thoughts.

  ‘Sure, I’m fi—’

  ‘Oh hell.’ She looked at Charlie in surprise as he grabbed her hand. ‘Sorry, I’ve just spotted Maria Grainger and I just can’t face an
y more testicles right now.’

  Lucy blinked, then frowned. ‘Isn’t Mr Grainger the one that has the testicles?’

  ‘Nope.’ He tugged on her. ‘Come on, quick, let’s hide in the church.’

  ‘Where I come from, churches are locked.’

  ‘Not here.’ He pushed the door with one hand, and drew her in behind him. Close behind him, so that when he turned they were nearly nose to nose. ‘Maria owns the alpaca farm up the road and seems to have an endless supply of youngsters that need castrating.’ It was hard to concentrate on his words when he was this close. ‘That’s all I seem to be doing at the moment. You have no idea how disconcerting it is to cut the balls off an animal that’s humming at you.’

  She didn’t. But she did know how disconcerting it was to be pressed against Charlie Davenport, and she was starting to have very ungodly thoughts. Not good in a church.

  He was cute. Oh, what the heck was she thinking about? She’d be heading back to Birmingham soon, and the single life she was quite comfortable with – and he’d be off wherever he was going – he’d made it quite clear that he had no more intention of staying here than she did. It wasn’t real attraction – just a meeting of minds, circumstances, stuff they had in common. The fact that he was so easy to talk to…

  It was her mother she should be talking to though, not Charlie. She’d put it off far too long, hidden behind half-truths and excuses she’d given herself.

  She looked up at Charlie and in the dimly lit church he looked even more solid, reassuring. She couldn’t help herself. She brushed her lips against his dry, firm ones. Then, before he could say anything, before he could push her away or pull her closer, she squeezed past him and ran down the stone steps, across the cobbled square. Home.

  Chapter 6

  ‘You’re really sure it won’t be a problem?’

  Sally smiled at Lucy who had her hair tumbled up into a bun on top of her head, and held in place with a pencil. Teachers always needed a pencil handy she supposed. ‘Of course not, Eric always loved seeing the kiddies practising.’

  ‘But Charlie..?’ She seemed flustered, almost embarrassed about mentioning the vet. In fact, it was almost like she wanted Sally to say no and send them away.

  ‘I won’t tell if you don’t.’ She winked at Lucy, then turned her attention back to the client who was leaning against her counter. Matt Harwood was clutching his small dog, which seemed to diminish even further in size against his very broad chest. ‘Take a seat, Matt. He won’t keep you long.’

  Lucy spotted the dog and stared aghast, she took a hasty step back as though she expected to catch a nasty disease from it. ‘Oh my God, oh the poor thing. Will it be okay, will it recover?’ She glanced up at Matt, who grinned.

  Sally sighed, waiting for him to turn the Harwood charm on. He couldn’t help it, the roguish grin flickered into action, dimples at the corners of his mouth, a fan of wrinkle lines around the blue eyes that all the girls wanted to fall into. Then he topped it by shifting the dog in his arms so that he could flex his very impressive pecs. Lucy’s eyes opened a bit wider, and Sally waited for her to tumble under his spell.

  But she didn’t, she looked horrified. Genuinely shocked.

  Sally was impressed, she had a feeling she could get to like this girl. Call her old-fashioned, but she much preferred the gentler charms of Matt’s older and steadier brother James – who kept his body and his thoughts about the opposite sex under control.

  ‘I bet that itches something rotten,’ Lucy looked at Sally for confirmation, ‘is it some kind of skin disease? Is it contagious?’

  ‘No.’ Sally grinned, and rested her forearms on the counter. ‘Although her owner thinks he is, contagious that is.’

  Lucy raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Lucy, meet Matt Harwood, who thinks it’s his duty to spread himself and his charms liberally through the village.’

  Matt chuckled. ‘That’s a bit harsh, even by your standards, Sal.’

  ‘But true. I thought I told you to sit down and stop hanging round my desk harassing my clients.’

  ‘You’re worse than a teacher.’ He ruffled her hair, and if it had been anybody else she would have glared, but it was impossible to dislike Matt. So she swotted him back. ‘Oh give us a kiss, Sal, I know you want to.’

  ‘Behave. Years of knowing what you get up to has made me immune.’

  ‘Come and sit with me.’ He winked at Lucy as he headed off to plonk himself on one of the far-too-small plastic chairs, the little dog perched on his knee. ‘Away from Miss Bossy, and I’ll tell you about Archie.’

  ‘Well really I…’ Lucy waved an arm in the direction of the car park, where Jill was keeping the kids busy attaching ribbons to the makeshift maypole. But Sally could see she was tempted, she’d taken a step after him.

  ‘Leave her alone Matt, she’s got the children with her,’ she paused, ‘all twelve of them.’

  ‘You’ve got a dozen kids? Really?’ He looked her up and down, his eyes wide. ‘And you’ve got a figure like that still? Wow. High five to that.’

  ‘Matt, stop flirting. She’s the new teacher, covering for Becs, as if you didn’t know!’ She looked at Lucy. ‘It’s impossible to keep anything quiet in this place; they’ll all know your tipple of choice and what you had for breakfast.’

  ‘Phew.’ Matt flicked imaginary sweat off from his brow melodramatically. The little dog lay down on his knee with a sigh.

  Lucy had taken another involuntary step towards him, as though his magnetic field was sucking her in like it did with most women, and Sally was just about to issue a warning when she crouched down. ‘Poor thing.’ She put a tentative hand out to stroke one of the few bits of fur that Archie had.

  ‘He’s fine Lucy, he’s a Chinese Crested Dog and that’s how they’re supposed to look, bald apart from the fluffy head, tail and feet, but you’re right to feel sorry for him because he has to put up with Matt.’

  Unperturbed, he winked at Lucy. ‘Ignore her, she loves me really.’

  ‘Only in the way you love a horrible little brother, and as we’ve known each other since primary school it’s nearly the same thing.’

  ‘He’s my babe magnet, the girls love him almost as much as they love me. Meet Archie the Bald.’ He waved the little dog’s paws in the air. ‘Archie, meet Lucy.’

  ‘You’re mad.’ Sally turned to Lucy, who had backed off. ‘He is, he’s totally loopy. The man has a seriously bad sense of humour, I mean Archie-bald? Anybody would think he’s a comedian not a farmer.’

  ‘You’re a farmer?’

  ‘Don’t worry, his brother Jamie looks like a proper farmer.’ And acts like one, she could have added. And is unassuming, serious, but twice as gorgeous. She concentrated on the dog, sure that Matt would read her mind if she met his gaze. If he ever caught on to her guilty secret he’d never let her live it down. At least right now though his attention was on the very pretty newcomer.

  ‘He’s actually supposed to look like that?’ Lucy still didn’t seem to have got her head round the fact that the little dog was supposed to have bald, mottled skin with a few silky feathers here and there. At least it was distracting her from the owner, which had to be good. Sally tried not to grin as Matt upped the flirting – the dog was supposed to draw the ladies in, not be the attraction.

  ‘He is,’ Sally reassured her, ‘and the dog is too.’

  Lucy rolled her eyes, and giggled.

  ‘Am I missing something?’ Charlie’s gruffer than normal tone cut straight across the laughter. Lucy jumped and went pink. Very pink. And studied her feet. Which was all very interesting.

  ‘Archie’s doing a bum shuffle again.’ Matt grinned at Lucy, oblivious to Charlie’s disapproving frown. ‘Good luck with the dancing.’ He winked. ‘I’ll come and give you a hand when I’m done here.’

  ‘No you won’t.’ Sally didn’t want Charlie in a bad mood all day, and she really didn’t want Lucy who seemed quite lovely, to fall under Matt’s spell before she
realised what he was like. She hoped her voice had a note of finality in it as she pointed towards Charlie and his consulting room. ‘In you go, Matt.’ She smiled at Lucy and made an ushering-outside gesture, which Lucy took notice of and fled – before explanations became necessary.

  There was something about the way Charlie watched the new school teacher. He’d never looked at any of his waiting-room groupies like that, he spent most of his time peering over his glasses at their pets and studiously avoiding looking them in the eye. But with Lucy it was almost like he couldn’t resist looking at her, then felt awkward, and looked away like a guilty Labrador before anybody caught him in the act.

  No way was she going to let Matt interfere. She leant on the counter. Or maybe she could encourage him just a tiny bit – as long as he didn’t overstep the mark and decide Lucy was fair game to add to his trophy collection.

  Sally had to admit that Matt was gorgeous: he was good-looking, fun, down-to-earth and flirty, but she was very glad she didn’t fancy him. And she really did hope that Lucy wouldn’t fall for his charms. One day, Matt no doubt would fall for and marry the girl of his dreams, and a lovely husband he’d make too. But he was leaving rather a lot of broken-hearts in his wake as he looked for her.

  Sally propped the surgery door open, so she could hear the phone if it rang, and wandered out to watch Lucy at work. Give her an anxious cat any day, over a dozen excitable school children. Lucy seemed to be a natural though, she was patient but firm and the kids already seemed to have fallen in love with their new teacher.

  Dancing around a pole, holding one end of a coloured ribbon, shouldn’t have been that difficult even for a group of five to eleven year olds, but the mixed ages and heights (not to mention some very exuberant boys who liked to pretend they were doing an aerobatic display for the Red Devils) always made it a spectacle worth watching.