The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club(20)

Alice had aged a little unfairly it seemed to Lucy. Probably four kids, a husband in the guards who worked overtime too much and a mother who would always be a simpering bully; the combination would have aged Cleopatra double quick too.

‘We are going to have fun here,’ Lucy said brightly. ‘You and I are going to be a team and we’ll make this a place people want to come to – even if they are sick coming in, they’re going to feel lighter leaving.’ She meant it. She’d seen the value of creating a culture of positivity around people who felt unwell. Sometimes a few kindly words and a bit of encouragement went further than any painkiller. ‘But first, you’re going to have to tell me how this place works…’ She tapped the bruised and slightly tragic narrow bench that stretched along the wall of the waiting room.

‘I’m not sure I can tell you a lot. It’s a version of organised chaos, mostly. I do the receptionist duties—’ she threw her eyes up to heaven at that ‘—and Dr O’Shea saw the patients. My mother set up the filing system, such as it is, and to be honest, even though I’ve been here a couple of years, I’ve never actually been brave enough to sort it out properly.’

‘It’s busy?’

‘I suppose it is, but a village this size, it could be a lot busier. I think he just got set in his ways. He wasn’t the sort of man you could suggest changes to, you know?’

‘And his wife?’

‘Mrs O’Shea? She’s a total kitten. I’d say she’d go along with anything, just to keep him happy. She and my mother were never exactly bosom buddies, but I like her. I think she’s quite… well, I wouldn’t want to have been married to him.’ She nodded back towards the open surgery door.

‘So, talk me through what happens. Is it all walk-in or are there appointments?’

‘Dr O’Shea didn’t believe in appointments. He believed that if you needed a doctor badly enough, you’d sit it out here with everyone else…’

‘So, small babies, winter vomiting bug, old dears waiting to get their heart monitors checked?’

‘What heart monitors?’ Alice laughed. ‘I’m afraid, when you look around here, this is it. Old Doctor O’Shea didn’t do anything modern. He saw patients with either his stethoscope or his tongue prod. He didn’t do heart monitors or ultrasounds or…’ She shook her head. ‘He didn’t put any weight on the whole idea of keeping the vomiting bug at home or making sure that the old dears getting their flu injection didn’t pass on their septic throats to the pregnant woman sitting next to them. He didn’t believe in alternative therapies or referring anyone for counselling. I’m sorry, Lucy, but consider yourself stepping into the TARDIS and re-emerging somewhere in the early 1970s.’

‘Dear Lord.’ Lucy shook her head sadly; suddenly the romantic nostalgia of the creaking doctor’s chair and the vintage wall charts was beginning to dull. ‘Thankfully, I’ve got some of my own equipment in the car. I’ll nip out and bring in what I have and then we’ll see what we can do from there. How long have we got before patients start arriving?’ Just as well, she’d come prepared.

‘About half an hour,’ Alice called after her as she made her way out to the car. It wasn’t nearly long enough, but the first patients were going to have to be…patient while she got the run of the place, Lucy decided.

The morning flew past. Once her first appointment was sent through it seemed to be an endless stream of spring colds, aching muscles, back pains and a run of ear syringing. The work was straightforward and Lucy thought at lunchtime, it was more diverse than she was accustomed to in many ways in the A&E. Mind you, the fact that she’d mainly covered night shifts since the divorce had a lot to answer for there. Over the course of the morning, she met people she remembered from her youth, old and young. People she’d been in school with and a boy she’d fancied like mad when she was about fifteen. He was still handsome, in a slightly squidgy way now. He’d gone on to be a priest and even if he was in denial, she had a feeling he might be gay.

She’d enjoyed every moment of the morning. When Alice finally poked her head around the door to say that the waiting room was empty and they could break for lunch, Lucy realised she was hungry and tired in a way that she hadn’t felt for a very long time. It was satisfying. They popped the kettle on for another cup of substandard coffee when Elizabeth arrived down with two bowls of hearty home-made soup and thick buttered brown bread.

‘I’ll bring down some proper coffee,’ she said eyeing the unfortunate jar. ‘I’m not sure where that came from, but I have a cafetière upstairs and a decent coffee after your morning is the very least you both deserve,’ she said before disappearing back into the main house once more.

‘Don’t you miss being a nurse?’ Lucy asked Alice as they devoured the bread and soup.

‘Yes, very much, but beggars can’t be choosers. There aren’t any nursing jobs going around here, so I took the next best thing,’ she said between mouthfuls.

‘We are lucky to have her,’ Elizabeth said a little regretfully as she returned. She placed a tray before them with a steaming pot of coffee, two large china mugs and a delicate jug and sugar bowl. There were biscuits too, but Lucy wasn’t sure she’d have room for much more than the coffee. ‘Don’t go trying to turn her head on us now,’ she joked.