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a challenge. We know that both of you have had a rough time recently, and so we thought it was an ideal opportunity for you to make a fresh start—and help us out at the same time. I’m sure you’ll work well together and bring fresh ideas into the practice. Frankly, it’s beginning to get too much for me now.’

      Victoria looked at her mother, whose cheeks were pink with excitement, a kind of glow about her that made her seem almost girlish. Betty hadn’t had much fun in her life—it had been all hard work and responsibility. Suddenly Victoria felt a wave of guilt when she thought how happily she’d taken off to Australia five years ago after her mother had seen her through medical school, leaving Betty to carry on by herself, her only child on the other side of the world. She couldn’t spoil her mother’s happiness by telling her that the thought of working with Connor was anathema to her and the fresh start she’d thought she was making in Braithwaite suddenly seemed a very unattractive prospect. She glanced at Connor’s sombre expression. It was plain that his feelings mirrored hers, she thought wryly, but there didn’t seem to be much choice but to get on with things. She swallowed hard and raised her glass towards the older couple.

      ‘I’m sure we both wish you every happiness—and a wonderful and healthy retirement,’ she said with forced enthusiasm.

      ‘Of course,’ added Connor. ‘And we’ll do our best to make sure The Cedars goes from strength to strength. It’ll be quite like our old school days—working at the same projects. We should be used to each other’s ways!’

      Was that a broad hint that Connor expected to have the upper hand in their working life as he had done when they were students? Victoria took a deep sip of champagne and looked balefully at him over the rim of the glass—she wasn’t going to let there be a rerun of their life at sixth form college. He might have a great physique and good looks, but if he thought he was going to get his own way when they worked together, he was in for a very nasty surprise!

      CHAPTER TWO

      ‘SO IT’S all change, then, is it?’ Karen Lightfoot, the practice nurse, stared with round, rather bulging eyes at Victoria and Connor. ‘Talk about gob-smacked! I can’t believe Betty and John are getting married after all these years! And now you two are taking over?’ She shook her head dolefully. ‘Any minute now I’ll wake up and find it’s been a dream.’

      ‘As long as it’s not a nightmare, Karen,’ said Connor drily. ‘We’re going to try and make it work, but we can only do it with your, Maggie’s and Pete’s help. As a receptionist for some years, Maggie knows every patient in the practice, and although Pete’s only been practice manager for a few months, I’m sure we’ll be able to manage the finances as well as my father and Betty did.’

      A week after her return to England, Victoria and the rest of the surgery staff were sitting in the office behind the frosted window of the reception area before surgery started. Betty and John had told them the week before of their departure and it was plain that they all felt as shocked as Victoria and Connor.

      Victoria took a sip of strong black coffee, feeling rather like a condemned prisoner. The cold realisation that she was committed to share the running of The Cedars Medical Centre with someone she would never had chosen to work with was starting to sink in.

      She looked across at Connor. She may have spent two years with him at school, but in many ways he felt like a stranger. She was still amazed that anyone could change so much physically—the callow youth with attitude had become a man with an air of authority about him, still undeniably attractive—but not to her, she thought fiercely. She’d learnt what he was really like—how could one feel anything kindly for someone like him? She bit her lip and doodled absently on a piece of paper. She was still raw from the sadness of breaking up with Andy so recently and that had made her more sensitive perhaps.

      The thought of Andy reminded Victoria of the depressing news she’d received in the post that morning. It had been all she could do to force down a few cornflakes when she’d read it, reviving painful memories of her time in Australia. Its effect on her mood was going to make it a very long day indeed.

      She was dragged back from her reverie to the present by the loud voice of Maggie Brown, the receptionist. She was a round-faced, pleasant woman with a wild bun of hair, which was escaping from numerous large hairpins.

      ‘If we’re making a fresh start, I want to put in a plea for another receptionist to help soon. I know we have Lucy, but she’s only part time, and sometimes I’m run off my feet—I really do need some more backup. I’ve been telling John for ages that we’re understaffed, but he never took any notice.’ She gave a half-laugh to soften her words. ‘If I have a breakdown soon, don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

      ‘We’ll bear that in mind, Maggie,’ said Connor gravely. ‘Do you have any comments, Pete?’

      Pete Becket, bespectacled and burly, nodded emphatically. ‘We urgently need to run over the number of domiciliary visits and dermatology reports the practice has been racking up—we’re going to be well over budget this year if we aren’t careful. Of course it’s been difficult to pin John down in the last few months,’ he said, putting a large folder on the table. ‘But we don’t want to start off on the wrong foot.’

      ‘And while we’re on the subject,’ broke in Karen, ‘John did mention that we should think about getting a phlobotomy nurse—it would save so much time when we need blood samples, instead of sending patients all the way into Sethfield.’

      ‘That’s something that will have to be discussed with the other practices in our cluster,’ said Pete. ‘Now we’re involved in practice-based commissioning it’s important we put these points forward at the next meeting. And, of course, the biggest issue is the closure of the local community hospital, St Hilda’s, to make way for commercial building in the town. Some of them are for it, others not.’

      Connor and Victoria glanced at each other and he put up a hand. ‘Hey! Give us a chance to take breath—we’ve only just got here! We’ll certainly look into your concerns—I’ve been making notes so that Victoria and I can study them and then we’ll have a proper meeting.’

      ‘Asap, I hope,’ said Maggie, ‘otherwise I may come to a full stop!’

      Karen stood up, her blue nurse’s uniform straining over her plump body. ‘Right—if that’s all, I’d better get going and start doing the BP tests on the oldies now. I can hear the waiting room filling up.’ She went to the door and then turned back to say brightly, ‘Oh, and by the way, we need more coffee and biscuits, we’re right out. Can someone get them before our break?’

      ‘Well, I’ve no time to get any,’ said Maggie firmly, as everyone began to leave the room. ‘I’m just about to load the morning lists onto Connor and Victoria’s computers—and I’ve got to switch the phones through now.’

      Connor and Victoria were left alone. They stared bleakly at each other for a second as if the reality of working together had begun to sink in. Then Connor pulled forward the pad he’d been making notes on and said tersely, ‘They don’t seem very happy!’

      ‘I’m afraid your father seems to have left a few problems behind him,’ observed Victoria. ‘As senior partner he had the final say in all the decisions. He should have ironed some of them out before asking us to take over.’

      ‘Excuse me? What do you mean?’ Connor frowned at her, his voice sharp. ‘There were two of them here, you know. My father has probably been off work quite a bit with his treatment. Betty knew what the position was.’

      ‘She was run off her feet—it’s not easy to cope being the only GP in the practice,’ Victoria pointed out forcefully. ‘They should have got a locum in. It seems to me John was trying to save money.’

      ‘That would have been a joint decision—and anyway perhaps some of things that have been mentioned aren’t cost effective. No good splashing money around.’

      He stood up and stared down at her frowningly, his eyes a steely blue. It made her feel a little…well, unsettled, as if he was looking

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