‘I’ve spawned Doctor Doolittle,’ Nicolas muttered under his breath when Janine moved away to give Kirsty and Felicity their cans of Coke.
‘Hush up,’ Serina said sharply.
Nicolas sighed. ‘Serina, you don’t have to worry. No one heard me and I covered your earlier blunder.’
‘But what if you hadn’t been able to? What if Felicity had guessed the truth?’
‘She didn’t.’
Serina just shook her head. ‘You just don’t understand, do you?’
Janine came back to sit at their table and Nicolas lifted his can of drink to his mouth.
Janine gasped. ‘Nicolas! Did you know your hand was bleeding?’
‘What? Show me!’ Serina said.
‘It’s nothing much. The fox bit me.’
‘There’s a first-aid kit here somewhere,’ Janine said, and went in search of it.
‘What kind of person am I?’ Serina said bleakly. ‘I didn’t notice that you were bleeding. And I haven’t even thanked you for what you did out there. I’m a terrible person.’ And she burst into tears.
‘What’s wrong with Mum?’ Felicity asked straight away, her voice worried.
‘She’s just in shock,’ Nicolas replied as he held a weeping Serina against him with his non-bleeding hand. ‘You must realise how worried she was, Felicity. She thought that you were going to die, too. Like your dad.’
‘Oh… Oh I see.’
‘I hope so, Felicity,’ Nicolas said firmly. ‘Next time, think before you risk your life. Your mother needs you just as much as that fox.’
‘Found the first-aid kit!’ Janine piped up.
‘What do you need the first-aid kit for?’ Felicity asked.
‘Nicolas’s hand is bleeding. Your fox bit him.’
‘Your good hand or your bad hand?’ she asked him.
‘My bad hand,’ he replied.
‘Oh, that’s all right then.’
He laughed whilst Serina wept on. If it hadn’t have been funny he might have cried, too.
Nicolas’s hand had been properly attended to and Serina had stopped crying when suddenly, there were sounds overhead and all eyes simultaneously went upwards. The cellar door was flung open and daylight flooded down the steps. Fortunately, there was no smell of smoke, and no other evidence of the fire having reached the house.
‘Everyone okay down here?’ called a deep male voice.
‘Yes, Ken,’ Janine said, jumping up onto her feet and racing over to the bottom of the cellar staircase. ‘How’s the house?’
‘Right as rain.’ Ken, a big brawny guy dressed in his yellow firefighting suit and holding a hard hat, came down the steps. ‘The wind changed again and sent the fire back in the direction it came from, which was a bonus. So!’ He smiled broadly as he gathered his wife into his arms then glanced over at Felicity and Kirsty. ‘I see our own little rescue team has been busy. What do you have this time, girls?’
‘A fox,’ Kirsty said as both girls struggled to their feet. ‘It has a broken leg.’
‘We’ll have to take it to the vet,’ Felicity said, and looked straight at Nicolas.
He was taken aback. Why look at him? Why not Ken, or her mother?
‘Dad always took all my sick and injured animals to the vet for me,’ she said, her voice just a little shaky.
Nicolas’s heart turned over.
‘You’ll have to give me directions,’ he said. ‘I have no idea where the nearest vet is.’
‘I’ll show you,’ Felicity exclaimed, her pretty face breaking into a smile….
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘I HOPE the fox will be okay,’ Nicolas said.
He was sitting with Serina in the vet’s waiting room, Felicity having taken her patient into the consulting room fifteen minutes earlier. Although the hospital wasn’t open for surgery for another hour, there’d been a bell on the front door to ring for emergencies, and luckily the vet—who lived at the back of the building—had been at home.
‘I’m sure it’ll be fine,’ Serina replied. ‘Ted’s a good vet.’
‘Let’s hope so. Felicity’s somewhat obsessive about saving wildlife, isn’t she?’
‘Mmmm.’
‘Do you think she has any idea of the risks she took today?’
‘I doubt it.’
‘She needs a firm hand, Serina, and a protective one.’
‘I do my best, Nicolas.’
‘She needs a father.’
Serina gave him a panicky look. ‘You promised you would never tell her.’
‘And I won’t. But how about a stepfather?’
‘Stepfather?’ Serina echoed, her eyes blinking wide.