‘It’s a small tear. See here?’ The doctor swivelled his laptop towards Lucas, pointing at an unreadable blur on the screen. ‘Quite significant, but not acute. The sort of incidents which, I fear, grow more likely as our bodies age. Rest, elevation, painkillers, ice…’

‘I did ice it,’ Lucas reminded him plaintively, bending down to retie his shoelace.

‘Yes, the old frozen peas technique.’ The doctor, who was a lean, energetic youth, with gangly limbs and a slouching manner, grinned approvingly. ‘And if you had rested it too, that might have done the trick. But I think, from what you have described, with all the walking on your trip to London last Monday, and then the run yesterday, it really has—’

‘It was just a jog.’ Lucas grimaced, deeply regretting the desperate logic that a ‘stiffened’ muscle might benefit from being ‘loosened’. He had pulled up with a howl of pain just as a women’s rowing eight swept by. Watching the boat speed on, his calf on fire, had heightened Lucas’s torment at his own decrepitude. The fact that only a couple of weeks now remained until the start of the new university year rushed at him with fresh force. To be a hobbling wreck, with so much to do – let alone the shadow of Moira to contend with – he didn’t know how he would manage.

‘So, my opinion,’ the doctor was saying, talking as his fingers flew over his keypad, ‘is that these recent exertions turned what was a small tear into a larger one. Hence the swelling.’

‘How long till it gets better?’

‘A month… possibly six weeks. To be honest, that’s partly in your hands. The more you can rest it, the faster it will heal. A support bandage might help, but I’m afraid there are no shortcuts. Otherwise, paracetamol.’ He pulled an apologetic face and leapt off his chair to tug back the curtain.

‘Thank you,’ Lucas muttered, unable to contain a wince as he stood up. ‘I guess I shouldn’t really have bothered A&E, but the way it blew up today…’

‘No probs, Professor Shaw. We are here to serve, and it’s pretty quiet at the moment, as you can see,’ he added kindly, standing out of the way as Lucas shuffled past. ‘Take it easy now, okay. Rest, ice, analgesics. If it all flares up again, see your GP.’

Take it easy. Yeah, right. Lucas hobbled back out to the street where the empty taxi rank and small queue of other hopefuls was a reminder that, for all the quietness of the emergency department, the weekend was still rush hour for some. The streets swarmed with people and cars – full of life, that thing he once thought he had the hang of.