A DOCTOR…
Jessie’s jaw sagged. It took a real effort to haul her mouth closed again.
‘I don’t believe…’ she started and then, at the look on Niall Mountmarche’s face, she stopped.
He hadn’t believed that she was a vet-and now she was showing the same distrust.
A doctor…
From Ogre of Barega to medical doctor-like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde…
‘What…what sort of a doctor?’ she asked cautiously, and for the first time she saw a glimmer of a smile touch Niall Mountmarche’s face.
‘Not a doctor of philosophy,’ he reassured her. ‘Or of basket-weaving, for that matter. A people doctor. Doctor of medicine with a piece of paper from London University to prove it.’
‘An English doctor!’
‘I’ll confess I’m an English doctor,’ he agreed. ‘Does that make me less qualified?’ The smile deepened. ‘You colonials really are getting uppity.’ Then Niall looked down at the dog on Jessie’s lap and the smile faded. ‘Enough. We’re wasting time: Let’s get this trap off and move him. Is your car near the gate on the ridge?’
‘Yes.’ Jessie’s mind was working at a hundred miles an hour. ‘But…’
‘But what?’ Niall had risen and was standing over girl and dog, looking down. ‘Now what, Dr Harvey?’
‘You really are a doctor…?’
‘I really am.’ Once more that glimmer of a smile. The Ogre took a giant step back, to be replaced by someone altogether more human.
‘Then…’ Jessie hesitated. ‘My car is fifteen minutes’ walk-more if we’re carrying Harry without jolting him. I don’t want to remove the trap until I have Harry under anaesthetic. It may bleed like crazy and I’ll have to work fast. But I don’t want him carried far with the trap in place. Do you have a car at your home?’
‘Yes.’ His face had lost expression.
‘Then can we take him to your place?’
‘You mean you want me to drive him to your clinic? Is that what you’re suggesting?’
Jessie took a deep breath. She glanced down at Harry and the very limpness of his body strengthened her resolution. The Mountmarche house-and Niall Mountmarche’s car-was a few minutes’ walk away. Taking Harry to Jessie’s car meant a rough fifteen minute walk with the trap in place-or taking the trap off now and risking further bleeding.