‘Devon,’ hissed Bets, grabbing him as he came out of an hour and a half’s surgery having just spayed a very nervous greyhound called Matilda. He was dying to call Ella and find out if she was OK.
She waited until Angela, the other veterinary nurse who assisted him, was out of earshot before adding with wide-eyed indignation. ‘Marina’s here.’
‘What? Here?’ What on earth did she want?
‘She arrived about ten minutes ago. She’s up in your office. Flounced in as if she owned the place and said she was happy to wait.’ Bets glared at him as if he were personally responsible for Marina’s behaviour. ‘And could I get her a coffee.’ She ground her teeth.
‘Right. Sorry about that.’ Although, how was that his fault?
She rolled her eyes. ‘Just so you know, I haven’t made her one and I have no intention of doing so.’
Bets tossed her curls and with indignation steaming out of her ears, marched down the corridor to the holding area where they kept animals in cages pre and post op. He could hear her muttering to one of the tabby cats waiting to have a growth removed from its nose that afternoon.
Wearily he took the stairs two at a time.
‘Devon, darling! Good news.’
Glossy and pristine as ever, she launched herself at him and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Gosh, you look done in. Another late night?’
‘Not particularly.’ He pulled away from the clutch of her hands on his upper arms and crossed to sit at his desk. ‘What are you doing here? I’m busy.’
Marina’s mouth dropped open.
‘Someone’s a crosspatch today.’
‘I’ve had a . . . busy afternoon. I need to get on. You should have phoned. I’ve got evening surgery and a cat waiting my attention.’
‘So,’ she shrugged and beamed at him, ‘you just got yourself an assistant. I haven’t done much surgery recently. It will be good to keep my hand in.’
‘I don’t need an assistant, I’ve got Bets.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Devon. You’re just cutting your nose off to spite your face. She could be doing something else. No wonder you look so tired, being a big bad grumpy martyr.’
‘What do you want, Marina?’ He was fed up with playing her game.
‘To show you how it could be. Us as a team, working together this time. I’ve got the TV company to agree to fund the equipment you wanted, the laparoscope, the ports, the cannulas and the training. We’ll be able to broadcast the view as you operate, the producers think it will be a real ratings winner.’
‘Is that my consolation prize?’
‘Devon! Devon!’ Bets came running up the stairs, her curls bouncing with agitation, a phone in her hand. ‘It’s Ella. She’s frantic.’
‘Ella! Are you OK?’ His heart thumped. Had Patrick done something to her?
‘Devon, it’s Tess,’ said Ella, her voice thin and reedy. ‘She’s eaten chocolate. A whole box. She’s been really sick and now she’s just lying here.’ The words rattled out at speed, but he was already moving. He let out the pent-up breath. This he could deal with.
‘OK, sweetheart. It’s OK. Don’t worry. First, do you know how much chocolate she’s eaten and what kind?’
‘Fortnum and Mason. A whole box, maybe 250 grams, I don’t know,’ her voice went up in a wail.
Shit, that was potentially a lot of chocolate.
‘OK. Don’t worry. Tess will be OK but we need to establish the type of chocolate. Can you find the packaging? I need to know what’s in them.’
Even as she said quietly ‘OK,’ he began barking orders at Bets to grab a few essentials from the pharmacy.
‘I’m on way. I’ll be there in two ticks.’ He clicked off the phone. ‘Bets, we might have to wash out Tess’s stomach. Get the charcoal out.’
Marina trotted after him down the stairs.
‘I’m sure you could use an extra pair of hands.’
‘Whatever.’
She hopped in the Volvo next to him and he drove the short distance to Ella’s cottage. The door was ajar and he pushed it open, hearing Marina clicking on her heels up the front path. Ella sat on the kitchen floor, kneeling beside Tess. He dropped beside her, giving her cold hand a quick squeeze before turning his attention to the dog.
The place was a mess; Tess had already been very sick, which was a good sign, but she lay pathetically, her side heaving, making tiny pitiful moans. Her trusting eyes were focused on Ella.
‘Hi, I’m Dr Marina Scott.’ Marina waltzed in, holding her hand out to a frightened-looking Ella. He could quite happily have killed Marina for tagging along.
‘Hi,’ she replied faintly.
‘You don’t need to worry about a thing. Your dog is in really good hands.’ She bent down next to him as he took the dog’s pulse. Racing along at runaway train speed, it was faster than he would have liked. They needed to hurry and he wished that Marina would stop leaning against him like that.
‘What’s her pulse doing?’ Marina asked.
Devon rolled his eyes. What the hell did she think it was doing? They weren’t on frigging telly now.
‘It’s higher than I’d like.’ He avoided looking at Ella. He didn’t think he could keep the seriousness of the situation out of his eyes.
Marina rattled off some technical phrases but thankfully Ella seemed to be too focused on Tess’s heaving flanks to take much in, which was just as well as Marina was spouting complete rubbish. Any idiot could see the dog’s heart was beating too damn fast, you didn’t need to dress it up as supraventricular tachycardia.
‘Please help her, Devon.’
‘We will,’ said Marina, her eyes soulfully sympathetic as she patted Ella’s hands. ‘You need to let Devon do his job. He’s a wonderful vet. Don’t you worry. We’ll have this young man back on his feet in no time.’
‘She’s a she,’ whispered Ella as Devon suddenly barked impatiently, ‘Marina, could you help? You lift Tess’s back legs. We’ll get her back to the surgery in the car.’
‘Can I come?’ asked Ella, looking fearful.
‘You’ll only be in the way,’ said Marina before he could say a word. ‘Leave it to the professionals to do their job.’
‘You can come if you want,’ Devon said firmly, ‘but we need to get her over there now.’ He and Marina manoeuvred the dog up and out towards the door while Ella hovered as if she couldn’t bear to separate herself from the dog.
‘Can I do anything?’ she asked.
‘Can you—’ Devon started.
‘—bring the chocolate box?’ finished Marina, sending him a fond smile. ‘We need to know the cocoa content and the exact ingredients.’
Although Ella’s face was so pale and worried, he couldn’t afford to take his focus from the dog.
As they arrived at the surgery, he pulled Tess gently from the car and carried her in his arms, feeling the early warning signs as her stomach rolled and heaved.
‘Watch out,’ he warned just in time as a stream of projectile vomit spattered the stone stairs, the walls, his trousers and shoes. Of course, not a drop touched the dairyman’s coat he wore for just such eventualities. Marina, he noticed, had kept well out of the way.
‘Eeuw,’ she wrinkled her nose. ‘I don’t miss this emergency stuff.’
‘Oh God, is she all right?’ Ella called as she came racing over. She stared, horrified, at the greenish tinge down his trousers and he gave her a glimmer of a smile.
‘That’s a good sign,’ he said. ‘And unfortunately just the start. We need to—’
‘—get as much of the chocolate out of her system as possible.’ Marina’s voice sounded almost triumphant.
He hurried inside and shouldered his way through the doors through to the main room.
Marina was busy pulling out equipment as if she knew her way around the surgery.
He slid the dog onto the table. Tess let out a lethargic moan, which had Ella wincing.
Marina steered Ella towards the door; he thought it was probably a good idea that Ella didn’t see Tess in any more distress, although he was irritated by the way Marina had assumed charge in his surgery.
‘Ella, you might be better outside in the waiting room,’ said Marina. ‘This isn’t a pleasant or pretty procedure, but Devon and I have lots of experience. We need to make Tess vomit again, just to make sure we’ve got as much of the chocolate out of her system. Then we’ll give her some charcoal to help absorb the theobromine, which is basically the poison in chocolate which dogs are unable to absorb.’
Bets had the syringe ready. Devon lifted Tess’s jowls, to open her mouth. She didn’t even resist.
‘Come on,’ said Marina, slipping her arm under Ella’s elbow and virtually frogmarching her out of the room. He wondered at her motives – was she dodging the messy part or trying to prove to him she was the perfect support?
Ella paced up and down in the waiting room until Marina appeared.
‘All being well, she should be OK.’ Marina peeled off a pair of surgical gloves. ‘We did what we needed to do. She’s stabilised. Her heart rate has been lowered. And Devon and I are very happy with her. She could have died you know . . . but we’ve saved her. Although the next few hours will be crucial. She could still have a fatal heart attack.’
‘God, I can’t believe . . . I never normally have chocolate in the house.’
‘It’s easily done. One small lapse. Don’t worry, Devon and I have seen it many times before.’ Marina patted her on the shoulder, looking absolutely immaculate. Her white coat didn’t even have dog hair on it. How was that possible?
‘Careless pet owners. It happens a lot.’
Ella felt sick. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Tess would get into the chocolates. She hadn’t thought. Marina was right, she was careless. Poor Tess.
‘Oh God, I’m so sorry. Is she going to be all right?’ Had she asked that already? She couldn’t think straight.
‘I’ll be honest, it’s touch and go at this point but don’t worry, Devon’s one of the best.’ She gave Ella a cheerful if somewhat patronising smile. ‘He’s a brilliant vet. That’s why I’m here. You might have seen me on television, celebrity vet to the stars. I’ve got a new slot starting which Devon’s going to star in. Inside Out. He’ll be doing pioneering laparoscopic surgery on screen, that’s keyhole surgery. It’s going to make great TV and he does look good on camera,’ she sighed, looking lovelorn. ‘He’s got it all and doesn’t even realise it. Bit of a heartthrob, isn’t he?’
Ella stared at the satisfied smile on Marina’s face.
‘We make a great team. He’s so excited about the technique. We’ve invested in all the equipment, no mean feat, it costs thousands but it’s worth it to get Devon on board.’ Marina clasped her hands together. ‘We’ve scheduled the first couple of operations already.’
‘Oh. I didn’t think . . . ’ Ella paused. ‘I mean, is Devon going back to London, then?’
Marina looked a little disgruntled and gave Ella a narrow-eyed appraisal.
‘Well, of course he is. I guess in a village everyone knows his business.’ She hiked up the wattage on her smile. ‘But Devon and I make a great team. His dad’s on the mend. There’s no reason for him to be out here any more and he’s desperate to get cracking with the new kit.’ Then her face softened, and she put out a hand to touch Ella’s arm. ‘He’s a good man. I didn’t . . . ’ her voice hitched with a slight indrawn sob, ‘I made a terrible mistake. You probably know we’ve had our issues.’
Ella swallowed. She didn’t want to hear this. Marina couldn’t be human or nice or heartbroken.
‘Do you know, I’d do anything, anything to undo what I did. Devon’s so proud.’
Yeah, Ella knew that. It ought to be his bloody middle name.
‘But I think in time, he will forgive me. It’s going to take a lot on my part to show him that he can trust me again. But do you know what, he’s worth it.’ Her eyes blazed with determination. ‘I love that man. I’m not going to let him down again.’
Inside her chest, Ella’s heart clenched. Watching Marina and Devon working seamlessly together to save Tess had been a real eye-opener. Marina had seemed to pre-empt each of Devon’s requests. Whereas Tess could have died because of Ella’s carelessness. Devon must think she was a complete idiot, she’d messed up with Tess so many times.
She didn’t belong here, but after seeing Patrick she felt even more at sea. What was she going to do when her six months were up? And what would she do if Tess died? She felt sick at the thought.