‘Come in,’ Patti said. She was sitting up in bed, looking rather pale and frail. ‘Thanks so much, Ally. I’m sorry to be such a nuisance.’
‘Of course you’re not a nuisance,’ Ally exclaimed. ‘How are you feeling?’
Patti rolled her eyes. ‘Just under the weather generally. Let’s face it, I’ve been under a hell of a lot of stress, so I suppose it has to come out somehow. I’ll try to eat some of this because I know I should eat something.’
‘Well, I’ll be around if you need me,’ Ally said. ‘I’ll pop in later.’
Joel arrived as usual and, having ascertained that Patti was OK, the others all set off for a trip to Fort William. They hoped the clouds might lift to reveal the summit of Ben Nevis. They’d have lunch there and they might drive down through Glencoe.
‘Patti will be fine,’ Wendy said to Ally as she handed back the empty cereal bowl when they left. ‘She just needs a quiet day in bed to catch up with herself. I’ve made her a sandwich from some of your breakfast leftovers, just in case she feels hungry.’
‘I think you’re being very understanding, considering all that’s gone on,’ Ally said.
‘Well, she is suffering, and we have the girls to consider,’ Wendy replied. ‘I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and, let’s face it, Greg couldn’t have been innocent, could he?’
Ally refrained from commenting.
A little later, while Ally was loading the dishwasher and Ross was bringing in armfuls of logs for the stove, she said, ‘I’m concerned about Patti, you know. She’s very much under the weather, and I feel sorry for her being stuck upstairs on her own all day.’
‘Well, bear in mind that she wouldn’t have been able to go with them anyway,’ Ross reminded her, ‘because she’s under “village arrest”, is she not? Maybe that’s one reason why she opted to stay in bed.’
Later, Ally tiptoed upstairs to see if Patti was all right, but there was a Do Not Disturb on her door handle, so she tiptoed back downstairs again.
‘If Patti doesn’t feel better by tomorrow morning,’ Ally said to Ross, ‘I think we should call the doctor.’
Privately, Ally wondered if Patti had lost the will to live after everything that had happened. Perhaps she’d descended into some form of depression?
‘Yes, best wait until the morning,’ Ross agreed.
But Patti did not appear in the morning.
‘We’re getting quite worried about Mom,’ Julie said. ‘She doesn’t seem at all well.’
‘I think we should call the doctor,’ Ally said.
Wendy sighed loudly. ‘We really don’t want to make a fuss,’ she said.
‘She’s been unwell for two days now,’ Julie put in, ‘so I think Ally’s right.’
‘She did have some muesli,’ Wendy reminded her, ‘so she’s obviously got a tiny appetite.’
‘Istillthink we should call the doctor,’ Julie said.
Doctor Ian Baxter was comparatively new in the area, having finally been selected to succeed the retired Doctor Hayward, and Ally had not yet met him. Fortunately, he was one of those GPs who chose to work on Saturdays, to ease the burden on the NHS. But first she had to get past Edith Calder, who’d been the receptionist at the surgery for at least fifty years, and who devoted her life to interrogating every detail of someone’s symptoms before grudgingly granting them an appointment.After much cajoling and after Miss Calder had aired her opinions on foreigners using ‘our National Health Service’, the receptionist finally conceded that Doctor Baxter might just be able to fit in a short visit around lunchtime.
In fact, Doctor Baxter appeared at twenty minutes after one. He was a short, stocky, red-haired man with crinkly blue eyes and probably in his thirties, Ally reckoned.
Both girls had been hovering around all morning, but Wendy was very much in charge.
‘She says she’s fine, Doctor,’ she said, ‘but Mrs McKinley insisted we call you out.’ She led the way upstairs.
Twenty minutes later, the doctor emerged, followed by Wendy, who was still fussing about wasting the doctor’s time.
‘No, you have not wasted my time,’ Doctor Baxter said. ‘It’s always best to be safe.’
Ally waylaid him in the hallway.
He shook his head and frowned. ‘Bit of a mystery this, Mrs McKinley,’ he said, ‘and I can only assume she might be allergic to something perhaps or caught some nasty bug. I understand Mrs Armstrong’s been through some great trauma, so this may well be a delayed reaction. I’ve left a prescription with her daughter, but be sure to get in touch if you become worried about her condition again.’
