He grabbed two mugs from Bryony’s cupboard and located the hot chocolate.
Tomorrow was Sunday and technically he wasn’t working, although he did plan to make a few impromptu visits on patients who were worrying him.
Like Hilda.
‘Hi, there.’ Helen stepped up behind him, her cheeks flushed from the warmth of the shower, her dark hair falling soft and loose around her shoulders.
Oliver felt his gut clench as he looked at her.
Without the ridiculous heels she barely reached his shoulder, and now that she was wearing a pair of his sister’s thermal pyjamas and a fluffy dressing-gown she looked younger and more vulnerable than ever. Seeing her in proper light for the first time, he detected dark smudges under her blue eyes and lines of tiredness that suggested that she hadn’t slept properly for weeks.
He gritted his teeth and resisted the temptation to pull her into his arms.
‘Here…’ Instead, he handed her a hot-water bottle and pulled out one of the kitchen chairs. ‘Sit there and warm up while I finish making us both a drink.’
She sat without argument and Oliver spooned chocolate powder into the mugs and added the milk.
‘So you knew that woman in the car? Michelle?’ She cuddled the bottle close and hooked her feet around the legs of the chair. ‘Is she one of your patients?’
Oliver settled himself opposite her and handed her a mug of chocolate. ‘Yes. I look after the whole family. Her baby, her brother and both her parents. Tom delivered Lauren.’
Helen slipped her hands around the mug. ‘Bryony has told me about Tom. He’s a consultant obstetrician, isn’t he?’ She took a tentative sip and smiled at him gratefully. ‘This is delicious.’
‘Didn’t you meet Tom at the wedding?’
Helen stared into her mug, her smile fading. ‘I didn’t meet anyone at the wedding. I spent most of the time avoiding people,’ she confessed and then nibbled her lip. ‘I was probably horribly rude.’
Oliver cursed himself for bringing up the subject of the wedding. ‘You weren’t rude, Helen,’ he said gruffly, ‘you were upset.’
She was silent for a moment and then she put her mug down on the table and looked at him. ‘You must be wondering what I’m making all this fuss about.’ Her blue eyes were huge in her pale face. ‘Bryony didn’t tell you, did she?’
‘Bryony is a very loyal friend,’ Oliver said immediately, ‘and you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Only if you think it might help.’
‘Nothing is going to help.’ She gave a wan smile. ‘Except maybe extreme violence.’
He laughed, remembering how gentle she’d been with the baby. How she’d ignored the freezing temperatures in order to keep the little scrap warm.
‘You don’t strike me as a violent person.’
She looked at him, her expression serious. ‘Actually, I felt violent,’ she confessed, a slight shake in her voice. ‘For the first time in my life I really felt like being violent. Isn’t that awful?’
‘No.’ Oliver frowned slightly. ‘I expect you had provocation.’
‘I think so.’ She took a deep breath. ‘My fiancé called me from the airport to say that he was on his way to Singapore and that he wouldn’t be able to make our wedding after all.’ Her tone was light but she was gripping the mug so tightly that her knuckles were white. ‘We were due to go to Singapore together after the wedding, you see, first as our honeymoon and then as part of his new promotion. I gave up my job and he rented out his house where I just happened to be living, too.’
Oliver saw the pain and panic in her eyes and suddenly felt pretty violent himself. ‘Well, he’s obviously a bloody idiot,’ he said calmly, pushing her mug towards her. ‘Finish it. It will warm you up.’
‘That’s not all.’ She took the mug but she didn’t lift it to her lips. ‘He took a girl with him. Some young hotshot lawyer he’d been working with. He said that he’d suddenly realised that things weren’t going to work out between us. And then he hung up.’ She shook her head as if she was still trying to make sense of it. ‘That was it. I didn’t even get the chance to see him in person.’ She looked at him blankly. ‘There was so much I wanted to ask him. I wanted to know how long he’d felt like that. It couldn’t have been a sudden thing and yet he chose to wait until the day before our wedding.’ She lifted a hand and rubbed her forehead. ‘I should have spotted something.’
‘Stop blaming yourself for his deficiencies.’ Oliver lounged back in his chair and let out a long breath. ‘No wonder you found Bry’s wedding difficult.’
She gave a wan smile. ‘Technically I shouldn’t even have been there. I should have been on my own honeymoon.’
Oliver winced slightly, hardly able to imagine how difficult it must have been for her. ‘So that’s why Bry lent you the cottage.’
‘I didn’t have anywhere else to go,’ she said simply, finally finishing her chocolate and toying with the mug. ‘I no longer have a home or a job. When I called Bryony she immediately said that I should come up here, and I have to confess that I jumped at the chance, even though it’s the coward’s way out. I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing all my colleagues in London or facing my relatives.’
Oliver saw the traces of colour leave her pretty face as she contemplated her situation.