Part 26 (1/2)

”Right,” I said, ”I'll push the head back while you try to get hold of that foot.”

”Okay,” he replied. ”Fire away.”

I pushed and just as the head moved away, making the vital room we needed, the heifer gave a mighty strain and pushed it back at me. Calum yelped as his fingers were trapped. ”Ouch, that hurt! You'll have to do a bit better than that.”

I gritted my teeth and tried again, bracing my arm desperately against the heifer's expulsive efforts.

”I'm nearly there,” grunted Calum. ”Nearly...nearly...push, you're not pus.h.i.+ng!”

”I am pus.h.i.+ng, dammit!” I gasped. ”But she's stronger than I am, and I've been doing this for an hour, you know. My arm's like spaghetti.”

We tried again, several times, groaning and panting, then Calum let his head slump onto his shoulder. ”I know. Let's have a rest for a few seconds.”

I was all for that and I relaxed, feeling the calf's rough tongue licking at my palm. He was still alive, anyway.

As we lay there, practically cheek to cheek, arms still inside the heifer, my colleague put on a bright smile. ”Well, now, what shall we talk about while we're resting?”

I didn't feel like light conversation, but I tried to fall in with his sally. ”Oh, I don't know. Have you any interesting news?”

”Well, yes. As a matter of fact, I have. I'm going to get married.”

”What!”

”I said I'm going to get married.”

”Oh, you're joking!”

”No, I a.s.sure you. I am.”

”When?”

”Next week.”

”Well...well...Anybody I know?”

”No, no. Girl who works in the surgery department at the London College. I met her there while I was taking the course.”

I lay there, thunderstruck. I found it difficult to take in. I had never imagined that a chap like Calum would ever entertain dreams of domestic bliss. I was still trying to sort out my thoughts when he brought me back to reality. ”Come on, let's have another go.”

And it seemed as though the shock to my system had brought a surge of adrenaline with it, because this time I gave a great, pop-eyed heave and was able to hold the head back till I heard Calum's triumphant cry, ”I've got it!”

And having got it he wasn't going to let go. Eyes closed, teeth bared, he pulled until the elusive foot appeared at the v.u.l.v.a. His sweating face broke into a delighted grin. ”That's a lovely sight!”

It was indeed. We had two legs and a head now, although nearly everything was still inside. I slapped the heifer's rump. ”Come on, old girl. This is when we need you. You can push as much as you like now.”

As if in reply, the heifer gave us enthusiastic help as we pulled on the legs and soon the muzzle appeared, nostrils twitching, the big, wide brow and the eyes-which, I imagined, held a glimmer of disapproval at the delay-then the rest of the head and body till we had a fine calf wriggling on the straw.

I felt good-I always did, but on this occasion something else was crowding in my mind-Calum's bombsh.e.l.l about his impending nuptials.

I could hardly wait to see what kind of girl Calum would bring back. He was such an unusual chap, with ideas far different from the ordinary man, that the new woman could be anything-plain, eccentric, fat, skinny-my mind played restlessly with the possibilities.

I was put out of my pain quite soon. I opened the sitting room door one afternoon and my young colleague was there with a girl at his side. ”This is Dierdre,” he said.

She was quite tall, and the first words that came to me were ”kind” and ”motherly.” But I would like to banish any thought that being kind and motherly meant that she wasn't attractive. Dierdre was very attractive indeed and now, nearly forty years later, when I think of her wonderful family of six young Buchanans I feel I deserve full marks for intuition.

As we shook hands, her smile was wide and warm, her voice gentle, and it struck me that Calum had done it again-with all his funny ways he seemed to get the fundamental things right, and now, when it came to choosing a wife, he had found the kind of girl any young man would be glad to see first thing every morning.

Any notion we may have harboured of celebrating an exciting wedding was soon quashed, and in a way that I realised was typical of them. They slipped away quietly to Keeler church and the ceremony was carried out there without fuss.

I have never in my travels through Britain seen anything quite like Keeler. It is an ancient church of great beauty built by the Normans around 1100, standing quite alone among surrounding fields. There is a farm nearby but the nearest village is two miles away. It is on the borders of our practice area, but it can be clearly seen from the main road, and whenever I drive past I always slow down to look yet again at that lovely building, solitary among the fields with the hills rising behind. To me, it is a romantic, thrilling sight.

Throughout the centuries, services have been conducted regularly there with a small congregation drawn from the surrounding farms and nearby villages, so that the church has been preserved in all its glory. Its beauty is a stark beauty of ma.s.sive stone with nothing like the traceried battlements and b.u.t.tresses of Darrowby's splendid church, which is famed to such an extent that it is often referred to as a little cathedral. Helen and I were married there and have never ceased to be enthralled by its sheer magnificence.

However, Calum and Dierdre went to Keeler in its wild and lonely setting and I could understand that its appeal would reach out to them. There was a brief honeymoon and that was all.

Whenever I pa.s.s the old church standing in its solitary dignity, looking over the empty fields and the long line of hills as it has done for nine centuries, I think again how fitting it was that those young Buchanans should pledge their future life within its walls.

I had the good feeling that Dierdre would add the woman's touch to Calum's flat-introduce a little more comfort in the way of her own individual furniture and decorations- but it was not to be. Dierdre didn't care any more about that side of life than Calum-her interests were all outside. Like his, in the creatures, the plants and flowers of north Yorks.h.i.+re.

The flat stayed spartan-no chintz covers on the furniture or anything like that-but she seemed perfectly happy as she padded around up there, very often in slacks and bare feet, her mind completely in tune with her new husband's.

When they had time off together they spent it in rambling and observation in the woods and hills, and if Calum's work prevented him from doing something important in his world of exploration Dierdre would happily stand in for him. I saw an example of this one balmy summer evening around dusk when I had to send the young man to a call.

”Calum,” I said, ”there's a colic at Steve Holdsworth's- will you get there as soon as you can?”

”Certainly,” he replied. ”Just give me a few minutes to put Dierdre up a tree and then I'll be on my way.”

Chapter 39.

IT WAS AROUND THE time when Calum's third badger arrived that an uncanny sense of the inevitable began to settle on me.

The new badger was called Bill and Calum didn't say much about his unheralded advent. He did mention it in an off-hand way to me, but prudently failed to take Siegfried into his confidence. I think he realised that there wasn't much point in upsetting my partner further-it seemed only reasonable to a.s.sume that Siegfried was getting a little punch-drunk with the a.s.sorted creatures milling around and wouldn't even notice.

I was discussing the day's work with my colleagues in the doorway of the dispensary when Siegfried ducked his head. ”What the h.e.l.l was that?” he exclaimed as a large feathery body whizzed past, just missing our heads.

”Oh, it's Calum's owl,” I said.

Siegfried stared at me. ”That owl? I thought it was supposed to be ill.” He turned to our a.s.sistant. ”Calum, what's that owl doing here? You brought it in days ago and it looks fit enough now, so get it back where it came from. I like birds, as you know, but not rocketing round in our surgery like b.l.o.o.d.y eagles-could frighten the life out of the clients.”

The young man nodded. ”Yes...yes...she's almost recovered. I expect to take her back to the wood very soon.” He pocketed his list of visits and left.

I didn't say anything, but it seemed certain to me that once Calum had got his hands on an owl of his very own he wasn't going to part with it in a hurry. I foresaw some uncomfortable incidents.