Read Online Unknown by Unknown - Free Book Online

does it get any better. They've suggested a skin graft. How long I'll have to wait for that I don't know.'
    'Does it hurt?' Max asked as he examined the area of inflamed skin with the weeping sore in the centre of it.
    She shook her head. 'No. I would be happier if it did. It's as if that part of my leg is dead.'
    She was fishing in her handbag and produced a sealed envelope.
    'They gave me this to pass on to you. It's the details of the treatment.'
    'Fine,' he said reassuringly when he'd read the letter. 'We'll hand you over to the nurses, but if it should get worse between appointments you must come to the surgery immediately to have it looked at. Do you understand, Mrs Taverner?'
    'Yes, Doctor, I understand.' She twinkled back at him. 'But I've had it that long I've stopped worrying about it. What's a bit of bandage as long as they don't have to take my leg off?'
    'Yes, indeed. What is a bit of bandage?' he'd agreed as he'd helped her to her feet.
    When she'd gone he exclaimed, 'What did you think of that? The leg? Her light-hearted attitude? The hospital passing her on to us when they are to blame from the sound of it!'
    'I suppose the fact that it hasn't got any worse is reassuring,' she said, just as amazed as he.
    'I suppose you could say that, but in future any appointments regarding Mrs Taverner's leg must be dealt with by me. Or maybe we could team up on it. I don't want you having the responsibility for that.'
     
    The meeting had commenced with the vicar explaining Dr Hollister's absence, and once that had been done the discussions began.
    But after only a matter of minutes a woman sitting near the front of the hall rose to her feet and strolled out. She was of medium height, auburn-haired, and dressed in expensive casual clothes, and Fenella thought whimsically that she was either disappointed that the dashing doctor was not going to be joining them or she'd forgotten to turn the oven off. Having no idea how close she was in her first surmise, she tuned into what was being said and dismissed the woman from her mind.
    There was much enthusiasm amongst those present, coming from their love of the place and their pride in it. Someone suggested that to accelerate the idea of a village in bloom they should have a flower queen, to be crowned on the green on the afternoon of the ball.
    The idea was quickly taken up and it was arranged that notices would be put up to inform girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen that they could enter a competition to be the village's first queen of the flowers.
    At the end of the meeting there was still no sign of Max and, loth to call it a day, Fenella went to the village's most popular pub, The Moorhen. She'd been one of the last to leave the hall and had told the caretaker, who had been clearing up, where Dr Hollister would be able to find her if he came back within the hour.
    When she entered The Moorhen's cosy interior she saw that Will and some of his friends were seated at a table near the bar and he came over when he saw her.
    'So Max hasn't turned up, then?' he said.
    'Er.. .no,' she told him.
    'Can I get you a drink, Fenella?'
    She smiled. 'It is I who should be buying you one,' she told him. 'It isn't so long ago that I was a hard-up student myself.' As he opened his mouth to protest, she said, 'An orange juice would be very nice, thank you.'
    'Would you like to join us?' he asked after he'd ordered the drink.
    Did she want to sit with a gang of youths with spiked- up hair and voices not long broken? she was thinking, but she liked this young brother of Max's and wouldn't want to damage his street cred, so she said, 'Yes, if your friends don't mind.'
    * * *
    A couple out walking had found the body of a middle-aged woman in the woods on the hillside behind the village and Max's presence had been required. She was lying face down in thick mud that was the aftermath of heavy rain and appeared to have only been there for a short time as rigor mortis was only just