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  CHAPTER THREE

  CERYS had already decided before she got up the next day that there was really only one thing for her to do and that was to go down to the cottage and apologise to Doctor O'Rourke tor the way she had spoken to him. It would not be easy especially when she remembered her unfortunately high-handed condemnation of him for not paying her uncle the respect due to him, when all the time he had been the means of keeping him alive for so long. She had half hoped all the day before that she would see him around somewhere and perhaps meet him on her own ground so to speak, but he had been up to see her uncle and already gone again before she knew anything about it, so the opportunity had been missed. She got up earlier than usual for her, unable to lie there thinking about it, and she had surprised Mrs. Duffy in the act of laying the table for breakfast. It was humiliating, she thought, to have to seek the man out and apologise and she cringed inwardly when she re-called the servile way he had touched his forehead to her and the atrociously exaggerated brogue he had put on for her benefit. He could have told her who he was right from the start instead of taking on the pseudohumble character he had affected, letting her make a complete fool of herself. He was as much to blame for the outcome as she was, and she would let him know it. Mrs. Duffy gave her coffee while she waited tor 38 breakfast and eyed her preoccupied expression curiously. 'Ya bright an' early this morning,' she said cheerfully. 'It's the lovely weather got ya restless to be out, I expect.' 'In a way,' Cerys admitted. 'Mrs. DuMy, when would be the best time to catch Doctor O'Rourke at home, do you know?' 'Doctor O'Rourke?' The woman's friendly blue eyes studied her anxiously for a moment. 'Ya not taken sick, are ya. Miss Brady? Is that why ya up so early, to go down and see the doctor? Well now, ya don't have to do that, sure the doctor'll come up here an' see ya when he comes to see ya unde.' 'Oh no, I'm perfectly all right, Mrs. Duffy,' Cerys assured her hastily, 'I just just wanted a word with Doctor O'Rourke, that's all.' 'Oh, I see, just social-like, is it? Well,' she paused in putting -plates up to warm, her brow creased in thought, 'he's usually finished wid seein' folk by about ten or half past, I t'ink, but then he goes callin' on them as can't come to him.' She did some rapid calculations for a moment then smiled and nodded. 'About twelvish or so, I'd t'ink,' she decided. 'Unless o' course Mrs. McCarthy's other one decides to arrive an' himself gets called out for that it's due anny day now.' 'About twelve o'clock?' said Cerys, sorting the wheat from the chaff. 'Thank you, Mrs. Duffy.' The woman laughed, her gaze friendly as she looked at Cerys over one shoulder. 'Ya may as well call me just plain Duffy,' she told her. 'Sure everyone else does, an' I'm used to it.' Cerys caught the infectious good-humour and smiled. 'If you don't mind it that way,' she said. ! Cerys breakfasted with Liam and her uncle and knew that she was more edgy than normal, but tried i 39 not to show it too plainly. She spent the time until twelve o'clock with her unde in the sunny room at the back of the house. Doctor 0'R.ourke, she learned thankfully, was not visiting her uncle that morning, so she would not be faced with the humiliation of apologising to him in her uncle's presence, for she had no doubt that Duffy would have informed him of her desire to speak to him. Sean Brady seemed inordinately glad to have her company and smiled his pleasure when she said she would sit with him. 'It's very good of you to spend time with me,' he told her, 'but you should be getting some good Irish air into your lungs, child. You've been too long in the city, you need some more rose's in your cheeks.' 'I'm going for a walk soon,' Cerys told him, 'but not yet, there's plenty of time.' He did not miss her hasty glance at the clock on the mantel and he raised his brows curiously. 'You've an appointment?' he asked, and smiled. 'With Liam maybe, to go riding?' She shook her head, smiling but uncertain. Unwilling to confess to her uncle the reason for her going out but disliking to keep secrets from him. 'Not today,' she told him. 'Liam's busy.' 'Aah, not too busy to take a lovely girl like yourself out riding, surely?' he protested. 'I can't believe that.' 'Not today,' Cerys repeated, seeing explanation looming inevitably. 'I I have to go somewhere.' 'Oh?' The deep eyes narrowed for a moment looked shrewd and a little hard, she thought. 'I I thought I'd call and see Doctor O'Rourke,' she admitted, unwilling to tell an outright lie. 'Just a a social call.' 'Oh, I see.' Considering his supposed liking for the 4.0 I. doctor she thought he took the news with less enthu siasm than she expected. 'I just thought I'd call on him,' Cerys enlarged. 'I've heard so much about him from Duffy, I'm curious.' ourke she could see no sign, but voices came from another room just beyond and she wondered dizzily if he had realised who his caller was. 'Hello,' she ventured. 'Hello yourself,' the voice answered her, 'put the kettle on again, will you?' She thought there was a certain urgency in the request and looked round hastily for a kettle. A big oldfashioned iron one stood beside a gas stove whose flame was already alight and she filled the kettle at the sink and put it on, turning up the flame as she did so. 'Thanks.' He must have heard the dull metallic sound of the kettle, but he still did not appear and Cerys looked around her, at a loss to know what was expected of her. A moment later, however, the answer was supplied for her. 'Come in here,' the voice in43 structed again, and obediently she went, feeling warily nervous as she went into the other room. 'What ' she began, but he interrupted brusquely. 'No questions,' he said shortly, 'just action, if you please.' She flushed angrily at the abrupt instruction and bit her lip. 'I don't see why I ' He interrupted her again, an edge of impatience on his voice. 'For the love of God, woman, stop arguing and make yourself useful or get out we're busy!' Cerys realised with a start that it was his surgery she was in and that he had a patient with him. Half hidden behind a screen in one corner a woman lay on the leather couch used for examinations and a round cheerful face turned in her direction as she looked across the room. 'Don't ya worry about it,' the woman told Gerys brightly, despite the beads of perspiration on her forehead and the tired look about her eyes. 'We can manage if ya don't like the idea, though 'tis takin' long enough. God help us.' She was, Cerys realised suddenly, in the advanced stages of labour. Doctor O'Rourke had his back to her and he did not even turn his head to endorse his patient's opinion. 'What can I do?' Cerys asked. 'I'll help, of course, if I can.' He nodded his satisfaction and spared her a brief grin over one shoulder. 'That's better,' he told her, his voice quiet. 'First off you can take that bowl over there and fill it when that kettle boils.' 'Of course.' She went back into the small room, a little bewildered by the turn of events and not quite sure if she was capable of being as helpful as she hoped to be. She found the kettle almost on the boil and waited a few moments, then filled the bowl as she had 44 been instructed to do. 'Where would you like it?' she asked when she took it in. 'Over here,' he answered shortly, his attention completely with his patient. 'Then give a hand here, will you? We'll not be long now, Mrs. McCarthy,' he added for the benefit of the woman on the couch. 'With three of us on the job we'll get it done quicker.' 'I'm not much good,' Cerys ventured, her stomach rebelling at the thought of acting as midwife. 'I've never seen a birth before.' 'Well, don't let it worry you,' he told her blandly. 'Mrs. McCarthy and I know what we're doing.' How quick it was Cerys had no idea, but she found the process too absorbing and interesting to be repelled by it and she felt a thrill of pride when the young McCarthy let out his first yell. She had to admit there was nothing very attractive about him and he yelled as if he would never stop, but it had been an experience she was glad to have shared in, and Doctor O'Rourke grinned at her blithely. 'There, that wasn't too bad, was it?' he asked. She shook her head. 'No,' she admitted as the dieerful face of Mrs. McCarthy smiled at her a little wearily. The sound of a vehicle outside brought the doctor's head up sharply and he laughed. 'Here comes the ambulance now all the work's done,' he said. 'I thought ,it would.' He looked at Cerys. 'You're deanest,' he told jher, 'you let them in, will you?' i She hesitated briefly, but there was already an im-Ipatient knocking on the door and she had sympathy Iwith Mrs. McCarthy if not with the doctor, so she walked over and admitted the two men who waited Ishere. I 'God bless ya, doctor,' Mrs. McCarthy murmured softly as the ambulance men lifted her on to the I 45 stretdier, and Kevin O'Rourke shook his head. 'You did all the hard work, Mrs. McCarthy,' he told her with a smile. 'I just lent a hand.' 'An' the lady too,' Mrs. McCarthy insisted, turning her head to look at Cerys. 'Sure I don't know ya name, acushia, but I thank ya for ya help.' 'I only wish I could have done more,' Cerys told her with a smile, and meant it. 'It was quite an experience.' Doctor O'Rourke dosed the door of the surgery as the ambulance drove away with Mrs. McCarthy and her son and came across to the sink in the kitchen-cumsitting-room. 'I'll dean up later,' he said. He was in his shirt-sleeves and he looked untidy but quite pleased with himself. 'I'll just make meself respectable, seeing as I have company.' 'Please don't bother about anything on my account,' she told him, uneasy now that they were alone. 'No bother to get dean. You didn't do too badly for a beginner,' he added with a smile. Cerys flushed at the rather facetious praise. 'Thank you,' she said, 'but as you said yourself, Mrs. McCarthy did all the work.' 'Ah well, Mrs. McCarthy's hardly a beginner,' he told her. 'That young fella was her twelfth.' 'Good heavens!' Cerys stared at him for a moment. 'But she looked quite young. I mean surely ' 'No use,' he interrupted, guessing her intention. 'As much as I try and advise her, I'm fighting a losing battle with Father Kerry.' 'I suppose she knows her own business best,' Cerys demurred, 'and she looked happy enough about it, so maybe she'll work out her own salvation.' 'Maybe,' he agreed, with a wry smile for her easy solution. 'Though even with number twelve the silly woman hadn't the sense to call me instead of walking all the way up here. Still,' he shrugged, 'I suppose the walking helped him along.' 'Women aren't always as silly as they're thought to be,' Cerys told him, and saw him smile doubtfully. He was engrossed in scrubbing up and she took advantage of his distraction to study him, comparing him with Duffy's rather fanciful description and, she admitted, really seeing him for the first time. His hair was certainly red, and she should have noticed it, but not the bright, fiery red she would have expected from the way Duffy had told her. It was more of a red-gold and looked as fine and soft as silk where it fell across half the broad brow above his right eye. His eyes, as mudi as she could see of them, were blue and seemed to have some inner light in them that glittered laughter at her when he turned his head. Whether the smile was as wide as Dublin Bay or not she could not have said, but it certainly spread across the width of the very slightly lop-sided face in an expression there was no mistaking. Tm trying to guess why you're here,' he confessed, and eyed her'from top to toe with a look that was little short of impudence. 'You don't look as if you need any professional services.' 'I don't,' Gerys said shortly, feeling more doubtful than ever of the wisdom of coming. ; 'Let me guess,' he said, a wicked gleam adding to her discomfiture. 'D'you want me to drive you to Traveree i maybe?' She kept her eyes lowered, wishing she could simply r disappear without raising the object of her visit. 'I I l.came to apologise. Doctor O'Rourke.' She still kept her Igaze lowered, but was aware of him watching her as he dried his hands carefully. 'Apologise?' he echoed, evidently intending to make r 47 things as difficult as possible for her. 'What for?' 'For the way I the way I spoke to you yesterday and Monday.' She raised her eyes at last and met the glint of devilment half-way, feeling an insane desire to laugh as she did so. 'I I didn't know who you were.' 'I gathered that,' he said blithely. 'But it was no excuse for behaving the way you did you need taking in hand.' 'Tak ' She glared at him angrily as she got to her feet, her eyes brilliant and huge as she faced him. 'You dare to say that to me? You were unpardonable in the way you behaved. You deliberately lied to me about that awful road being a short cut and I was bounced around until I was black and blue!' 'I'll bet you were,' he commented with evident satisfaction. 'In that dreadful old car,' she went on, remembering her uncle's description of it as the doctor's pride and joy. The jibe went home, she noticed, and he frowned. 'It's a good car, is that,' he informed her. 'You'll not find another one like it.' 'I should hope not,' Cerys retorted. 'I for one couldn't stand another ride in it.' 'Aah, well now,' he said, his smile restored when he saw the surreptitious rub she gave to the part of her anatomy that had taken most bumping on the journey, T couldn't let you have it all your own way, could I?' 'It was boorish and ill-mannered,' she told him crossly, and he smiled. "I thought you came to apologise,' he said. 'You're bade to square one.' Cerys drew a deep breath, trying desperately to control her temper. 'I
did,' she agreed, 'but apparently my uncle was wrong about you.' 'Oh?' He looked interested. 'In what way?' 48 I 'He said you'd be happy to bury the hatchet,' she I: told him stiffly, 'but it's quite obvious you're not.' 'Oh, I'm quite happy to bury the hatchet,' he told her solemnly, 'as long as it's not in my head.' . : 'I may as well go,' Cerys said with as much dignity as she could muster, 'since it's obvious you have no inten-I tion of being other than facetious and overbearing.' 'Overbearing me?' He looked reproachful. 'I'm the most inoffensive fella ya could hope to meet, I'm even -humble in me own way.' There were traces of the stronger brogue in his speech and she frowned over it (crossly. 'That accent is another thing,' she told him. 'You fooled me into thinking you were were something l'-you're not, with that brogue and the cap-touching I servility.' I 'Only because you insisted on playing the landed Igentry,' he countered, and she flushed again, rememgbering her own rather imperious manner at the listation, where it had all started. 'I I was tired and oh, everything had gone I'wrong.' She looked apologetic for a moment, though she hated the need to explain herself. !'And then your case came open and scattered your pretties at Con Murphy's feet,' he said, a slight smile on his face that infuriated her. I'And you laughed,' she retorted, 'you and that that old man.' 'We smiled,' he corrected her gently. 'Widely, I ad["lit, but it was pure music-hall, honest, an' we just ouldn't help it.' 'Well, I'm glad you found it so amusing,' she said oldly, 'I'm afraid I didn't.' 'I'm sorry.' The apology was unexpected and, she liought, genuine. 'Will you bury that hatchet now?' 49 She hesitated for a moment, still too close to anger to capitulate too easily. 'Very well,' she agreed at last. 'I'm forgiven?' he asked, and she looked up to see the blue eyes glistening with that inner light that gave him an advantage, for she could not tell whether he was serious or not. 'I'll agree to forget it,' she decreed magnanimously, unconsciously echoing her manner at their first meeting. 'Thank ya, ma'am, thank ya kindly,' he said, one finger touching his brow in mock,humility, and Cerys's eyes blazed afresh at the impudence of it. 'Oh, you're !' She sought for words that refused to come and stood trembling with anger, looking incredibly lovely, even dishevelled as she was, her deep violet eyes sparkling and her cheeks bright with temper. 'I refuse to stay here another minute and listen to you!' She turned her back on him and went to the door, seeing the smile on his face as she turned. 'You look beautiful when you're angry,' he stated matter-of-factly as he followed her across the room. 'Are you sure you won't kiss and make up?' Cerys turned in the doorway, uneasily aware of a warmth in the blue eyes that she had not seen before and wishing she had not seen it there now. 'Goodbye, Doctor O'Rourke.' 'Only au revoir, surely?' he amended. 'We're bound to see each other quite often if you're staying here for a while.' 'I shall try and avoid seeing you,' she told him, and started off up the drive to the house, her pride making her stiff-backed. 'Miss .Brady!' She turned instinctively when he called to her. 'Thanks for the help with Mrs. Mc-Carthy.' 5 She merely stared at him for a moment, Mrs. Mc-Carthy completely forgotten for the time being, then she shook her head and turned back to resume her journey. 5i