‘Take a seat,’ said Dr Gaskell. ‘I want to show you your X-rays. How have you been feeling?’

‘No different, really. In fact, I’d say possibly even a little better over the past few days.’ He sounded less convincing than he thought. ‘I’ve been too busy to notice, truth be told. The practice is becoming so busy.’

Dr Gaskell flicked on the light-box switch, then tipped up the thick buff envelope that contained the X-ray; as it slipped out, he caught it in his hand and rammed it into the clip with the efficiency of a man who had done the same thing a million times before.

Nicholas looked at the X-ray. His mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. The overhead pendant light in its bottle-green glass shade seemed to make Dr Gaskell’s white hair glow.

A nurse pushed opened the clinic door. ‘Oh, sorry,’ she said. ‘Hello, Dr Gaskell. I didn’t think anyone was here yet.’

‘Not to worry. If you could make sure no one else comes in here, please, Nurse Brogan,’ Dr Gaskell replied, his voice low and serious.

Nurse Brogan glanced over his shoulder at the young man staring at the light-box with tears in his eyes. ‘Of course, Doctor,’ she whispered.

When the latch clicked shut, all that remained was a deafening silence. Dr Gaskell stood, walked to the door, turned the key and locked it. His heart weighed heavy as he sat down next to one of the most compassionate doctors he had ever known. He placed his hand on Nicholas’s shoulder. ‘Is that woman still making your life a misery?’ he asked.

Nicholas nodded; he didn’t trust himself to speak.

‘I’m going to call her myself,’ Dr Gaskell said.

‘No, no, please don’t,’ said Nicholas. ‘I have to protect Mary Kate. I cannot put her in any danger.’

Dr Gaskell pushed his hands into his pockets and for a while both men were silent as they stared at the illuminated black-and-white image before them. Dr Gaskell didn’t want to insult Nicholas’s training or intelligence and ask him whether he fully understood what they were looking at. Heavy moments that seemed to last a lifetime passed as Dr Gaskell sat patiently, allowing the information to sink in. He waited for the inevitable question.

‘How long do I have?’ Nicholas said in little more than a whisper as he turned his hat over and over in his hands.

There it was: the spoken hope. Docker or doctor, the first question was always the same.

Dr Gaskell took a sharp intake of breath and held it as he once again stared at the X-ray. As if he hadn’t looked at it a dozen times already. Only he knew how bad it actually was and for a brief moment he willed it to be different. How many times had he switched on the light-box and prayed for the image to show something else, something benign and harmless. But the stark truth was still there in black and white; it hadn’t gone away.