ease seemed lost. It was a shame, for the drive was a pleasant one, the hedges colourful and fragrant, thick with dog-rose and red valerian and creamy white keck. Where the bushes gave way to gates one caught glimpses of the fields beyond them, some stripped already to stubble and soil and being picked over by rooks, some still with wheat in them, the pale of the crop streaked scarlet with poppies.
We reached the end of the Hundreds Farm lane, and I slowed the car in preparation for turning into it. But she straightened up as if ready to get out.
‘Don’t trouble to take me all the way down. It’s no distance.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure.’
‘Well, all right.’
I supposed she had had enough of me, and couldn’t blame her. But when I had put on the brake and let the engine idle she reached to the catch of her door, then paused with her hand upon it. Half turning to me, she said awkwardly, ‘Thank you so much for the lift, Dr Faraday. I’m sorry to have gone on, before. I expect you think what most people must think, when they’ve seen Hundreds as it is nowadays: that we’re absolutely mad to go on living there, trying to keep it the way it was; that we ought to just … give up. The truth is, you see, we know how lucky we are to have lived there at all. We have to sort of keep the place in order, keep up our side of the bargain. That can feel like an awful pressure, sometimes.’
Her tone was simple and very sincere, and her voice, I realised, was a pleasant one, low and melodious—the voice of a much handsomer woman, so that I was very much struck by it, there in the close warm twilight of the car.
My complicated feelings began to unravel. I said, ‘I don’t think you’re in the least bit mad, Miss Ayres. I only wish there was something I could do to make your family burdens lighter. That’s the doctor in me, I suppose. Your brother’s leg, for example. I’ve been thinking, if I could take a good look at it—’
She shook her head. ‘That’s kind of you. But I really meant it, just now, when I said there wasn’t the money for treatments.’
‘How about if it were possible to waive the fee?’
‘Well, that would be even kinder! But I don’t think my brother would see it that way. He has a silly sort of pride when it comes to things like that.’
‘Ah,’ I said, ‘but there might be a way around that, too …’
I’d had this idea at the back of my mind ever since my trip to Hundreds; now I put it together properly as I spoke. I told her about the successes I’d had in the past in using electrical therapy to treat muscle injuries very like her brother’s. I said that induction coils were rarely seen outside specialist wards, where they tended to be used on very fresh injuries, but that my hunch was their application could be far wider.
‘GPs need to be convinced,’ I said. ‘They need to see the evidence. I’ve got the equipment, but the right kind of case doesn’t always come up. If I had an appropriate patient, and was writing the work up as I went along, making a paper out of it—well, the patient would be doing me a kind of favour. I wouldn’t dream of charging a fee.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘I begin to see the misty outline of a beautiful arrangement.’
‘Exactly. Your brother wouldn’t even have to come to my surgery: the machine’s very portable, I could bring it out to the Hall. I couldn’t swear it would work, of course. But if I were to get him wired up to it, say, once a week for two or three months, it’s just possible he’d feel the benefits enormously … What do you think?’
‘I think it sounds marvellous!’ she said, as if really delighted by the idea. ‘But aren’t you afraid of wasting your time? Surely there are more deserving cases.’
‘Your brother’s case seems pretty deserving to me,’ I told her. ‘And as for wasting time—well, to be quite honest with you, I don’t think it’ll do my standing at the district hospital
We reached the end of the Hundreds Farm lane, and I slowed the car in preparation for turning into it. But she straightened up as if ready to get out.
‘Don’t trouble to take me all the way down. It’s no distance.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure.’
‘Well, all right.’
I supposed she had had enough of me, and couldn’t blame her. But when I had put on the brake and let the engine idle she reached to the catch of her door, then paused with her hand upon it. Half turning to me, she said awkwardly, ‘Thank you so much for the lift, Dr Faraday. I’m sorry to have gone on, before. I expect you think what most people must think, when they’ve seen Hundreds as it is nowadays: that we’re absolutely mad to go on living there, trying to keep it the way it was; that we ought to just … give up. The truth is, you see, we know how lucky we are to have lived there at all. We have to sort of keep the place in order, keep up our side of the bargain. That can feel like an awful pressure, sometimes.’
Her tone was simple and very sincere, and her voice, I realised, was a pleasant one, low and melodious—the voice of a much handsomer woman, so that I was very much struck by it, there in the close warm twilight of the car.
My complicated feelings began to unravel. I said, ‘I don’t think you’re in the least bit mad, Miss Ayres. I only wish there was something I could do to make your family burdens lighter. That’s the doctor in me, I suppose. Your brother’s leg, for example. I’ve been thinking, if I could take a good look at it—’
She shook her head. ‘That’s kind of you. But I really meant it, just now, when I said there wasn’t the money for treatments.’
‘How about if it were possible to waive the fee?’
‘Well, that would be even kinder! But I don’t think my brother would see it that way. He has a silly sort of pride when it comes to things like that.’
‘Ah,’ I said, ‘but there might be a way around that, too …’
I’d had this idea at the back of my mind ever since my trip to Hundreds; now I put it together properly as I spoke. I told her about the successes I’d had in the past in using electrical therapy to treat muscle injuries very like her brother’s. I said that induction coils were rarely seen outside specialist wards, where they tended to be used on very fresh injuries, but that my hunch was their application could be far wider.
‘GPs need to be convinced,’ I said. ‘They need to see the evidence. I’ve got the equipment, but the right kind of case doesn’t always come up. If I had an appropriate patient, and was writing the work up as I went along, making a paper out of it—well, the patient would be doing me a kind of favour. I wouldn’t dream of charging a fee.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘I begin to see the misty outline of a beautiful arrangement.’
‘Exactly. Your brother wouldn’t even have to come to my surgery: the machine’s very portable, I could bring it out to the Hall. I couldn’t swear it would work, of course. But if I were to get him wired up to it, say, once a week for two or three months, it’s just possible he’d feel the benefits enormously … What do you think?’
‘I think it sounds marvellous!’ she said, as if really delighted by the idea. ‘But aren’t you afraid of wasting your time? Surely there are more deserving cases.’
‘Your brother’s case seems pretty deserving to me,’ I told her. ‘And as for wasting time—well, to be quite honest with you, I don’t think it’ll do my standing at the district hospital
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