She shook her head and studied the skin around the leg ulcer. ‘You still have a degree of varicose eczema, Mrs Parker. Are you using the cream Dr MacNeil gave you?’

‘The steroid cream? No, I forget.’

Flora studied the skin, checking for infection. ‘Is this tender when I press?’

‘No more than usual.’

‘There’s no erythema and your temperature is fine.’ Talking to herself, Flora made a judgement. ‘We’ll leave it for now but do me a favour and try the cream, would you? If it isn’t looking better in a week or so, I’m going to ask one of the doctors to look at it.’

‘As long as it’s Logan.’ Mrs Parker’s mouth clamped in a thin line of disapproval. ‘I’m not afraid to say that I almost fainted dead away when I saw Conner MacNeil stroll into the surgery this morning. Bold as brass. Not even trying to hide his face.’

‘Why would he hide his face, Mrs Parker?’ Flora swiftly finished the dressing and applied a compression bandage. ‘He’s a doctor and he’s come to—’ create havoc? ‘—help Logan.’

‘Help? Help? This is the boy who was so much of a handful that his mother left home! Can you imagine how badly the boy must have behaved for his own mother to give up on him? His father stayed, of course, but he was driven to drink by Conner’s antics. Died five years ago and did his son bother turning up to his funeral? No, he didn’t.’

Flora flew to Conner’s defence. ‘He’s a man now, not a boy. And no one knows what happened in his childhood, Mrs Parker.’ He hadn’t told anyone.

She paused for a moment, lost in thought as she remembered the love of her own family. Just what had Conner endured? She remembered the day she’d walked along the cliffs to his house.

She remembered the shouting.

‘Well, I tell you this much,’ Mrs Parker said firmly. ‘That boy isn’t capable of warmth or sensitivity and he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. I still don’t believe he’s a doctor. He never did a day’s studying in his life and as for the way he dresses—well, I mean, Logan’s always smart in trousers and a shirt, but Conner hadn’t even shaved! He looked—’

Handsome, Flora thought helplessly as she fumbled with the bandage. He’d looked impossibly, outrageously handsome.

‘Dangerous,’ Mrs Parker continued with a shudder, watching as Flora finished the dressing. ‘Who in their right minds would trust him with a medical problem? He causes more problems than he solves. Not too tight, dear.’

‘It has to be quite tight because we need the pressure on the ankle.’