Cormac would have sorted it, but he was transfixed by the laughing sun-touched face, the exact face he’d seen in the photo, in his dreams. Lissa jumped forward with her coat, scooped up the tiny creature, crooning, “It’s okay, you’re all right, you’re all right, little one,” in a softer voice than the one he’d heard yesterday, through the door.

He was about to say something, but suddenly it struck him that the words “you’re all right, little one” were, somehow, so much what he’d wanted to hear for so long, and for a moment, he couldn’t quite say anything at all.

LISSA, HEART POUNDING, took a step forward and gently put the hedgehog down, whereupon it instantly scurried away.

“Are you okay?” she said, as Cormac clutched his hand, a very confused look on his face.

Not taking his eyes off her, he raised his hand to his face. It was bleeding, very slightly. They carried on, just staring at each other, Lissa feeling her heart beating in the agony, in the dancing, buzzing, swishing noise of the garden.

Slowly, infinitely slowly, a smile began to spread across his face. It transformed his face completely. Lissa still hadn’t taken her eyes off him.

“Well,” he said, in the soft Highlands accent she had dreamed of. “Well noo, I don’t suppose you ken anybody in the medical line?”

Chapter 83

Work was still out there, but, after calling in to London, Cormac made a plan to divvy up the calls, so they could finish by lunchtime and spend the day together.

Lissa flew through her rounds, bestowing huge smiles on everyone. Cormac, of course, took far longer, as he was corralled by every single person he met and forced to repeat more or less everything he’d done down south, while also listening to them tell him how they didn’t trust that London and how nothing good ever came out of it, until he found himself getting more and more defensive of his adopted city. Plus, he had to pop in and see his mum, and was touched by how delighted she was to see him. Breaking her wrist, he realized suddenly, had made her more vulnerable than he’d known, and he gave her a huge hug, as she told him how the strange new nurse hadn’t been as bad as she’d expected for an English, and he wondered how on earth they were going to break the news to her.

They met up back at the surgery. Cormac watched her crossing the market square. Without even thinking about it, he put his hand out, and she took it. It was the strangest thing; he had barely had to apologize, had barely had to explain himself at all. Which was a relief, as he’d decided to keep the bathroom incident to himself. Just for now. There’d be time for all that.