Chapter 12

Doctor Peter George was at the end of a long shift in Casualty. He had worked two hours beyond his normal finishing time and wasn’t taking on another case. This last case had taken four hours of tests and was a man in his sixties, according to the med sheet, but he hadn’t dinted himself smoking, eating and drinking like a much younger man, without even gentle exercise to mitigate the long-term abuse of his body. The gentleman concerned, Robert Bradshaw, was stable now, but the heart specialist was on his way in from home, to a likely triple heart bypass operation later tonight. Just the next of kin to speak to, George thought, and get the operation consent form filled in and signed.

“Mrs Bradshaw?” he asked after knocking on the door of the room set aside for these situations.

“Peter!” Caroline exclaimed, spinning round from her deep occupation in thought as she stared out of the window.

Mrs Bradshaw, the Caroline he enjoyed the company of on Sunday, was on her own, the Doctor noted, the medical admission notes having indicated that three people were present at the time the form was filled it and the patient admitted.

“How is Robert?” she asked, clearly concerned about his patient.

“Your husband will probably need a triple heart bypass operation, tonight if possible. A consultant in on his way in, he will mobilise an operating team if he agrees with my diagnosis. Can you sign the consent to operate form for me?”

“No, I cannot sign that, Peter. Robert is my ex-husband. I will ring one of our sons. They were here earlier but apparently they had other more pressing things to do rather than stay here awaiting the outcome.”

“So you still see him, your ex-husband?”

“No, Peter, I don’t ‘see’ him, as you seem to imply, certainly not intentionally. Our sons own the Bradshaw Home Improvements store in the town centre and Robert is supposed to be retired but he was there in the office today, when I called in to speak to the boys. We exchanged a few words, mostly about his cheating morals and lying about his assets and income, which was to the detriment of our divorce settlement. At the end of our jousty little chat, he collapsed clutching his chest, as you are aware. Do I care about him? Yes, I do, a little, he is after all the father of my sons. Do I want him to survive this illness? Yes, I do, because I have just sent my lawyer evidence of his perjury and I would rather he survived until after a fairer assessment of his ability to pay up what he owes me in our divorce settlement.”

Dr Peter smiled, “So, do you think Santa will think you are naughty or nice over this incident?”

“Oh, naughty and nice, I hope.” Caroline laughed. “I must call Adam and get him to come see you and sign the papers.”

“Not me, I’m finished for the day, your ex- was my last case of this shift. The nurse on the front desk can deal with it until the consultant arrives. Do you need a lift, or will your son Adam take you home?”

“No, I have waited here long enough. I went to the store to mend bridges with my sons, as we discussed on Sunday, if you remember.”

“I remember,” he said.

“But that can wait now until after Christmas.”

“I’ll leave you to your phone call then, Caroline, and perhaps meet you in the main lobby, once I have signed off and changed, say in twenty minutes?”

“Thank you, Peter, I’ll see you later.”

Robert Junior was the first to reply to their mother’s messages to her boys to call her urgently. She explained that one of them had to go in to the hospital and sign the consent forms. He complained that he had had a drink and couldn’t drive.

“Then get a cab, Robbie, unless of course you don’t think your father is worth the price of a cab fare?”

“All right, all right,” he wined, “but why do I have to do everything while Adam gets away with blue murder?”

“Just do it Rob, if you have an issue with your brother, have it out with him, not me. Don’t forget, I want to speak to you both about something important about our future. It will have to be after Christmas now, and you will have to come to my house, I’m not going to the store again.”

“All right,” he agreed quietly.

Caroline could see Peter coming towards her from the stairs. He had changed out of his green scrubs and white lab coat and wore a grey suit with long black overcoat. He carried his cowboy hat in his hand, too, she noted with a smile. Although his hair was almost white, he still cut a dashing figure.

“All arranged with your son?”

“Yes, Robert Junior, he’s the youngest, is coming over to sort out the consent forms. The eldest, Adam, has a girlfriend Tanya, who can’t cook, so they are probably dining out somewhere. His mobile went straight to voice mail and he hasn’t yet replied to my message.”

“Well, I haven’t eaten anything all day,” Peter said, “have you eaten?”

“No, I had the plumbers in for three quarters of the day, with the water going off and on, so I didn’t have a chance to prepare anything. By the time they had finished, I just had time to get to the store. Oh my god! I just remembered, I parked in a disabled spot, limited to a two-hour waiting time. My car could be clamped, or towed!”

“Disabled parking space?” Doctor Peter asked, as he clicked the locking clicker, the lights flashing on his car.

“I know, I’m a really bad person, I used my Dad’s disabled parking permit, because I was running so late.”

“If the car has a permit, they are unlikely to clamp it, not in a disabled bay in a public car park. Where is it?”

“In Shepherd’s Row, in the hill just above the library, do you know it?”

“Last time I used the library it was in a Victorian building near the station.”

“That’s been turned into the museum now. They built a new library on the old car park which were previously the animal pens for the agricultural market.”

“Near St Mark’s?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“I’ll drop you off outside the Shepherd’s Row car park and wait until you let me know you’re all right to drive the car.”

“Thanks, Peter, I appreciate it. Where were you thinking of eating?”

“The Moonlight Diner on the bypass? They serve meals until past midnight, and they get a lot of passing traffic, using the A road leading to the M40. It’s not fancy but the food is reasonable and I find I eat there a lot when I work late.”

“All right. I’ll meet you up there.”

Caroline was pleased the way the meeting went with Peter at The Moonlight Diner on the bypass. She didn’t like to call it a ‘date’, because it was hardly that. She liked him and she would like them to be friends, but beyond that she was unclear. She was uncertain about what her future was or even where it lay, but she realised that in the real world she had been too trusting and docile. She could have made more of her life and she was only just beginning to assert herself, and that was all down to the confidence she was building from her preferred life in Sweetwater Valley.

After they had eaten, they parted in the car park with a friendly kiss on the cheek and a squeeze.

Then, she was keener than ever to return to Sweetwater. There she was asleep in her room at the Lazy C ranch. Whatever delayed her here, didn’t matter as time went by at different speeds in her two worlds. She would return to her ranch bedroom in the morning of the day before Christmas, that was a fixed point in time.

Caroline smiled, the temperature set in the garage was a perfect 20 degrees. The door was insulated, but she had satisfied herself with the plumbing company that the two air bricks at the foot of the outside wall and through the eaves at the back of the garage, would provide adequate fresh air flow. She settled herself comfortably in the front seat of the dream car, pulled on the old Stetson and closed her eyes.

It was light and bright in Sheerwater and her unheated bedroom at the Lazy C ranch felt chilly once she ventured from under the bedcovers. She could hear raised voices outside the front bedroom’s single glazed window. She hurriedly started dressing, before hearing a knock on the door.

“Come on in, I’m decent!” she called out.

“Oh, Miss Caroline, Ah come ter help yah git dressed, an’ yer done near done a’ready!” Alice exclaimed.

“I heard the voices, Alice, come help me get my boots on.”

“Sure. Here, lemmee teke that. Now, Ah hears Clint ride in ahead o’ three men. They bin watching the front gate they says, an’ they met with a message from Tom Baker, you know, the general store man?”

Caroline nodded.

“It seems mah Uncle Tom’s raisin’ a posse ter come here an’ ‘rest poor Samuel fer rustlin’. Ah never heard o’ such a thing, darn it!”

“Do you think such a thing would ever be possible Alice?”

“Not least wise they’d bin some mistake. That’s a hangin’ offence, an’ they’d lynch rustlers ter save a trial, least ways that’s wut’s bin done in the past. Ah know mah uncle fancies himself as this big Eastern Detectiffe, but really he’s just a small town Marshal wot learnt peace-keepin’ offa his Pappy and offa yah own Pappy, so he ain’t gonna be right in his investigations all the time. Ah reckon Sam should stay outta that jail until the Judge comes a’callin’, cos folks what goes into that jail, well, they don’t allus come out agin!”

Down in the dining room, Caroline and Alice found Clint and Sam deep in conversation, pouring coffee and chewing on strips of bacon, that Mrs Duggan seemed to have a bottomless supply of.