Swallowbrook's Winter Bride. Abigail Gordon

I thought so,’ she said, and told him, ‘I received a letter from the hospital this morning regarding the tests on your kidneys that I requested and was going to phone you. It would seem that one of them isn’t functioning and the other, although performing quite well, is not at full strength.’

      ‘I see. So one of my kidneys has had it and the other is limping along,’ he commented grumpily.

      She smiled across at him. ‘It isn’t such a gloomy outlook as it seems. Our kidneys do gradually deteriorate as we get older, but lots of people survive with only one. We hear of those who have given a healthy kidney to someone else to avoid renal failure and still live a good life with just the one, and although in your case the one that is still working is past its best, I feel sure that it will continue to do its job.

      ‘The hospital say that they will want to see you every three months, which means they are going to keep a close watch on them, so for the present I would put your worries to one side.’

      ‘I wouldn’t have had any worries if you hadn’t sent me for those tests,’ he protested.

      ‘It’s standard procedure for a GP to arrange for those sorts of procedures for the elderly,’ she explained. ‘It won’t have made your kidneys any worse, and now you will have regular checks, which can’t be bad, surely?’

      ‘Aye, I suppose you’re right,’ he agreed reluctantly, getting to his feet. ‘I’m going fishing at John Gallagher’s place this afternoon, that’ll cheer me up a bit, and John let slip that Nathan is back in the village and he has a young’un to care for too. Is he going to be doctoring in this place again?’

      ‘Yes, he starts later on this morning, once he’s dropped his son off at school.’

      ‘That is good news!’ he exclaimed. ‘It will be like old times.’

      Not exactly, she thought as he went to make way for the next patient on her list.

      ‘It was a stroke of genius, bringing Nathan Gallagher back into the practice,’ Hugo Lawrence said when he appeared in the doorway of her consulting room in the middle of the morning. ‘Being out of touch with the NHS for so long doesn’t seem to have affected his performance. He’s on top of the job from the word go by the looks of it.’

      She smiled at his enthusiasm, but couldn’t help pointing out that it had been more a case of Nathan taking it for granted he would be slotting back into the practice. There had been no inspired thinking on her part with regard to his arrival at dead on half past nine in a smart suit, shirt and tie and oozing cool competence.

      The fact that underneath it he was wary of making the wrong move where she was concerned would have amazed her if she had been aware of it. As it was, his presence was a cause for pain and pleasure in equal parts and she would be relieved when the first day of his return to the practice was over.

      When she’d asked about Toby starting his second day at school he had said there’d been just a moment’s reluctance to go into lines in the schoolyard, as was the custom before the children went to their classes. But he’d seemed happy enough as he was trooping in with the rest of them.

      She’d sensed anxiety in him at that moment, although seconds later he’d been seeing his first patient as if he’d never been away from the place and she’d told herself to stop involving herself in his affairs or she would be asking for more heartache than she had already.

      ‘Do you want to do the home visits to reacquaint yourself with the area?’ she enquired when the three doctors stopped for their lunch break. ‘Or would you rather give it a few days to settle in before you do that?’

      He hesitated. ‘Maybe tomorrow, if you don’t mind. I would rather be around if the school should need to get in touch after the little episode this morning. I know it sounds as if I’m fussing, but …’

      Caring wasn’t fussing, she wanted to tell him as a lump came up in her throat, but hadn’t she just been telling herself to stay aloof from his affairs? So instead she replied coolly, ‘Yes, of course. I’ll do them, and leave Hugo and yourself to see the rest of the patients on the list here at the surgery.’

      As she drove towards the first of the house calls Libby had to pass the school and on seeing that the children were all out in the yard, on impulse she stopped the car and went to see if Toby was anywhere to be seen so that she could report back to Nathan.

      Sure enough, she saw his fair curly mop bobbing up and down as he chased around with another child of similar age, showing no signs of reluctance to be there.

      He’d seen her standing outside the railings and came running across breathless.

      ‘Are you all right, Toby?’ she asked gently.