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he’d ever heard anyone under eighty speak like that even when he’d lived there. He’d picked most of it up from the telly, she was sure.
    ‘Well, I …’ she began.
    ‘I’ve business in Barton,’ said her father. ‘Can’t tek dog in wi’ me, can’t leave ’er in t’car. Tha’s doing nowt else.’
    Nicola pushed her short dark hair behind her ears, a habit she knew she had when she wanted to say no and couldn’t, because her husband had pointed it out to her. ‘The thing is, Gus is making—’
    ‘Tha’s been told,’ he said. ‘And don’t forget t’other beast. She’s in t’cowshed.’ He pushed open the swing door.
    ‘What’s wrong with her?’
    ‘Tha’s t’vet. Thee tell me.’ The door swung back behind him.
    The outside door banged shut, and Nicola heard the Land Rover start up and drive off. He had deliberately come at lunchtime, so that she couldn’t plead a patient. She looked at Nell, who was looking back at her with the anxious expression she always wore, and sighed. ‘Come on,’ she said to the dog. ‘Let’s go and find Gus.’
    ‘Oh, Nicola!’ Gus said, irritated, when she told him.
    ‘What else could I do? He just left her and went.’
    He shook his head, and stooped to tickle Nell’s chin. ‘Shall we hold you hostage until he pays her something?’ he asked the dog, who wagged her tail.
    Nicola could never resist the top of Gus’s head, its short fair hair growing almost in a circle from the crown. She kissed it. ‘We’d just end up with another mouth to feed,’ she said, then wished she hadn’t, when she saw Gus’s reaction.
    And I can’t even feed the two of us, is that what you mean?’
    ‘You know I don’t,’ she said. ‘You’ll get a job eventually. And we’ll be all right even if you don’t get one for a while.’
    ‘All right? I do your accounts, remember.’
    ‘There are people worse off.’
    ‘Not many vets,’ he said, straightening up. ‘ You could tell your father you don’t run a taxi service for retired sheepdogs. You could send him a bill now and then. It isn’t all my fault we’re broke.’
    ‘It isn’t your fault at all.’ Nicola knelt on the floor and absently patted the dog. ‘He wouldn’t pay them if I did send him bills,’ she added. He wouldn’t just not pay them, she thought. He would take it as a personal insult. ‘And I do have some paying customers,’ she said with a smile, trying to lighten the prevailing mood a little. ‘I’m quite a good vet, you know.’
    ‘He spends money like water, Nicky – I’m sure he just doesn’t think about it because you don’t send him bills. Of course he’d pay them. He doesn’t expect your gratitude for the rest of your life, but he’s not going to pay you if you don’t ask him. He buys her BMWs, for God’s sake, and he doesn’t pay you!’
    They had had this conversation several times since Gus had been made redundant. And they had felt the loss of his income very keenly, but they would survive. Nicola smiled. ‘He’s got to keep Rachel happy,’ she said. ‘She’s going to give him a son and heir, isn’t she?’ She ruffled the dog’s hair. ‘Maybe we should kidnap her . What do you think, Nell?’
    Gus crouched down and covered Nicola’s hand where it rested on the dog’s head, and gave it a little squeeze. ‘Go on, then. Go and mend his cow. I’ll keep your lunch warm.’
    ‘You’ll make someone a wonderful wife,’ she said.
    ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know I had it in me.’ He stood up. ‘What did you eat before?’ he asked. ‘When I was still in the ranks of the employed?’
    She shrugged. ‘Pot Noodles. Or, as we in the veterinary trade like to make clear, Not Poodles.’
    ‘I think I’d prefer poodles,’ said Gus. ‘What do I do if I get an emergency?’
    ‘In the kitchen? Don’t ask me.’
    He pulled a face. ‘An emergency call for you,’ he said.
    ‘If you can’t get me at the farm, ring Willsden and Pearce.’
    ‘How