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healthwise. I hope it wasn’t anything too serious.’
    ‘It all depends on how one views that kind of thing at her age.’
    ‘I’m not with you.’
    ‘The lady is pregnant, Megan.’
    Megan’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’
    ‘Yes. And, needless to say, she is somewhat stunned.’
    ‘I can imagine,’ she said, shaking her head in amazement. ‘How old is she?’
    ‘Forty-six,’ said Luke. ‘She’s done a test from the chemist and it has shown positive, but she just couldn’t believe it, and came to the surgery for proof positive.’
    ‘What actually was her reaction?’
    ‘A mixture of things. Dismay, trepidation, embarrassment, and maybe just a tinge of excitement.’
    ‘No mention of termination, then.’
    ‘Not at this stage, though I believe she already has teenage girls.’
    Megan nodded. ‘Yes. Sophie and Claudia. Their reaction to the news could be interesting. When this kind of thing happens in families where there are older children, they are sometimes horrified. They see nothing wrong in it in anyone else, but not Mum and Dad. I wonder what Elise will do? She has rheumatoid arthritis, but it is under control, so that shouldn’t cause any problems in its present state. She’s also recently had a scare with a lump that proved to be benign, and she runs a business. The baker’s just down the street. She might decide to sell up with a new baby on the way.’
    ‘What does her husband do?’ asked Luke.
    ‘He’s one of the gamekeepers at Lord Marriott’s place up on the tops. Keeps poachers off his land. Officiates when his lordship wants a shoot. That sort of thing. Soon his employer and his friends will be out shooting the grouse on the twelfth of August and Jim Edwards will be in charge of that.
    ‘My nearest neighbour, old Jonas Bottomley, makes a few pounds for himself when that takes place by working as a beater. The rest of the time he spends making moonshine.’
    ‘And I thought that the countryside was a quiet, law-abiding place,’ Luke said in mock horror. ‘What next?’
    ‘Next are the house calls, I’m afraid. Are you ready?’
    ‘Sure am,’ he said easily, with no intention of telling her that he’d just had a phone call from the headmistress at Oliver’s school to ask if he would make sure his nephew understood that he couldn’t use his mobile phone in class.
    ‘We are trying to be as lenient as possible with those two boys under the circumstances,’ she’d said. ‘But Oliver does take advantage of it sometimes. I am phoning you as he tells me that his mother has gone away and won’t be back for some weeks.’
    ‘Yes, phone me by all means if there is any problem at all with either Oliver or Owen,’ he’d told her ‘They are going through a difficult time, but I don’t intend to let them misbehave if I can help it.’
    * * *
    When he got in that evening Rebekah Wainright was there, and to Luke’s relief she turned out to be a much gentler soul than her friend Izzy Chambers. She was tall, slim and extremely neat, he noted. Probably in her late sixties and looking good for her years. She’d made a meal, cottage pie with an apple tart to follow, and he could have kissed her.
    ‘I need to know what you are expecting of me, Dr Anderson,’ she told him. ‘Just make me a list, and I’ll do my best to follow it. I didn’t know whether you would want me to cook for you tonight, but I took the chance and will do so each time I’m here, but only if you want me to.’
    ‘I most certainly do,’ he told her. ‘Where do you live, Mrs Wainright? I hope it isn’t too far away for you. I’ll be here to run you home in the evenings but I won’t be around when you start in the middle of the day.’
    ‘No problem,’ she told him. ‘I’m only just down the road. And before I go, what about those two lads? Is it all right to feed them when they get in from school? They were starving today so I gave them a glass of milk and some fruit to keep them going until you came