‘Whyever not? He was extremely talented, from what I remember.’
I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable discussing Alexander, but Jacob continued speaking and I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t interested in finding out a little more about Alexander’s past. ‘His wife left him after the accident – well, after she realised he wasn’t going to be a surgeon anymore. I didn’t know her, but no one had anything good to say about her, especially after she dumped him and her son and went off with some rich Italian. Oh well, mustn’t speak ill of the dead. How areyougetting on with him?’
I was reluctant to give Jacob, who seemed to be an inveterate gossip, anything else to work with and was making noncommittal noises when Theo called over.
‘Fallon! Do come and see! We’ve finished preparing the meat now and we’re actually going to feed a sick barn owl. Do come!’
Relieved at not having to give Jacob an answer, I hurried over and watched as Sadie took a sleepy-looking owl from a cage and wrapped it tightly in a towel, then showed us how to give it a drink using, at first, a small paintbrush to dab the water into its mouth, followed by a tiny syringe. We all had a turn, but Theo’s joy at performing this task made us step back and let him take on the majority of the work. Sadie looked up.
‘There’s plenty more to do if you’re looking for jobs? Linnet and Theo can carry on here – it’ll take a good fifteen minutes to get all this into him. Jacob, you and Constance could go and sort out that hen harrier and I’ll show Fallon and Alexander the kittens.’
I followed her happily, Runcible trotting along on the end of her lead. She was as sweet with cats as she was with everything, and although I still wouldn’t leave her alone with youngkittens, she would be perfectly fine to come along and watch. Sadie pushed open the door to another, smaller outhouse, this one with a hand-painted wooden sign on the door that said ‘Nursery’. She went over to a large cage, where all I could see were blankets, opened the top and beckoned us over. We peered in and saw, to my surprise, not cats but tiny rabbits, all huddled together asleep.
‘These are kittens,’ she said, smiling. ‘We often take in wildlife other than raptors; the RSPCA passes them on to us or people ask us for help. This large litter of six was found a couple of days ago – their mother had been killed by a dog.’
‘Poor little things,’ I said. ‘How old are they?’
‘About a week. Don’t worry, they’ll be fine, but they need feeding. Come on, I’ll show you how to make up some formula and give it to them.’
She showed us a small kitchen area and left us with instructions, then went to leave.
‘Sadie, I’m not sure about this,’ I said, panicking. ‘What if something goes wrong? I can’t do it, I’ll probably hurt them.’
She laughed.
‘All new mothers feel like that, Fallon. You’ll be fine, can’t go wrong if you do what I said, and you’ve got Alexander here. He’s a doctor.’
And she whisked out, shutting the door firmly behind her. I looked at Alexander and pulled a face.
‘You heard her: you’re the doctor, so this is on you.’
‘Not anymore, and never a rabbit doctor. She seems to have appointedyoumum, so she must trust your instincts.’
‘More than I bloody do,’ I muttered, picking up the tin of formula. ‘Oh, come on, between us we must be able to manage this.’
We made up the milk to Sadie’s instructions, then went over to the baby rabbits. Alexander reached in and lifted one out gently.
‘Do you want this one?’ he asked, and I nodded, although I was still far from sure that this was a good idea. I took it from him, noticing again the livid scar on his hand, and sat on a small sofa, a towel on my lap with the rabbit snuggled into it. Alexander handed me a syringe full of milk and I held it to the rabbit’s mouth. To my delight, it immediately started to suck. I looked up.
‘Alexander, look, it’s drinking!’
He smiled.
‘Well done. Let’s see if I manage as well as you have.’
He took out another kitten and sat down next to me. His rabbit also started to take its milk. We beamed at each other and then sat peacefully until the syringes were empty and the babies looked drowsy.
‘Time for the next ones?’ whispered Alexander, and I nodded. I hadn’t suddenly transformed into some sort of Earth Mother, and I didn’t want my own baby any more than I had this morning, but even I couldn’t deny that sitting there in this milky quiet, feeling the warmth of Alexander’s body next to me as we nurtured these minuscule creatures, was bringing a sense of pleasure quite unfamiliar to me: one that I had never found in work, no matter how satisfying it was.
We were feeding the last two kittens when the door opened and everyone else came in, dropping their voices when they saw us. Theo was over in a flash.
‘Oh, look!’ he whispered. ‘They’re adorable.’
‘Would you like to finish off?’ I asked.
‘No, you’re doing really well,’ he said, with all the confidence of one who has learned how to handfeed a starving owl. ‘I like watching, though.’
In a few minutes’ time, the syringes were empty, and we replaced the kittens in their cage.
