A Christmas Knight

‘You’re welcome.’

‘He’s eight,’ she warned, ‘and he’s only ever ridden a horse at one of the farm park type places. He’s a complete novice.’

‘Bea’s a brilliant teacher. She’s great with kids and she’s really patient with novices. I’ll talk it over with her tonight. See you tomorrow,’ he said as they reached her car.

‘See you tomorrow. And, Dominic?’ She gave him a heartfelt smile. ‘Thank you.’

Chapter Three

‘WHAT happened?’ Louisa asked.

Mrs Livesey was ashen with worry, cradling her two-year-old son. ‘It’s all my fault. The children were playing nicely and I was chatting to my friend over coffee—I should’ve been watching them more closely. Julian slipped and cut his head open on the piano. I put a cold wet cloth on it to try and stop the bleeding, but it wouldn’t stop, so I brought him here.’

‘That was the best thing to do,’ Louisa reassured her. ‘Scalp wounds always bleed a lot, so they often look worse than they are. Has Julian been sick at all, or had any kind of fit?’

‘No.’

‘Did he black out, or has he been drowsy since?’

Mrs Livesey shook her head.

‘That’s good,’ Louisa said. She assessed the little boy’s limb movements, then shone a light into his eyes; she was relieved to see that his pupils were equal and reactive. She took his pulse and temperature—both of which were in the normal range—and gently examined the cut on his head. ‘It’s clean—you did brilliantly there,’ she told Mrs Livesey, ‘but it’s a little bit too deep just to glue it.’

‘Glue it?’

‘You’d be amazed at what we can do nowadays,’ Louisa said with a smile. ‘I’m going to put a couple of stitches in there, because it will heal better with less scarring.’ She stroked Julian’s hair. ‘I’m going to put some magic cream on your head now to stop it hurting. But to make the magic work even better, we’re going to have to sing a song. Do you know “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”?’

‘Yes,’ the little boy said. ‘Tinkle tinkle.’

‘And can you waggle your fingers like starlight?’ She demonstrated, and he copied her.

‘Brilliant,’ she said. ‘And we’ll get Mummy to sing, too, shall we?’ From experience, Louisa knew that often parents needed as much distraction as toddlers. And Julian was giving a normal two-year-old’s verbal response, which made Louisa fairly sure that the worst of his injuries was the cut.

Once the cream had numbed his skin, she got Mrs Livesey and Julian to sing with her, and gently but swiftly made sure the wound was perfectly clean, then sutured the cut.

‘That was brilliant singing, sweetheart,’ she told the little boy. She glanced up at Mrs Livesey. ‘They’re dissolvable stitches, so you don’t have to worry about bringing him back to have them taken out. You need to keep an eye on him over the next couple of days; if he starts being sick, has a fit or is drowsy or just a bit unwell and you feel something’s not right, come straight back. A mother’s instinct is usually pretty sound and you know your child best.’ She smiled. ‘It’s a lot to take in, so I’ll give you a leaflet about head injuries.’

‘And I have to keep him awake, right?’

‘No, it’s perfectly safe to let Julian go to sleep—he’s going to be tired from crying and the stress of hurting himself. If you’re worried, try waking him after about an hour. I can tell you now, he’ll be pretty grumpy about it, but that’s normal. If you can’t wake him easily, that’s when you need to bring him back.’

She answered a few more questions and, once Mrs Livesey was reassured, Louisa gave Julian a shiny ‘bravery’ sticker and called in her next patient.

When she walked into the staff kitchen for a swift coffee break, Dominic was there.

‘Good timing. The kettle’s hot.’ He smiled at her. ‘Want a coffee?’

That smile was lethal, Louisa thought. Those dimples…no wonder her heart felt as if it had just done another of those odd little flips. But Dominic was her colleague. There wasn’t room in her life for him to be anything more than that. And, even if there was, she’d got it so badly wrong last time that she was wary of repeating her mistake. Handsome is as handsome does.

She strove to sound normal. ‘Thanks, that’d be wonderful. Milk, no sugar, please.’

‘Same as me.’ He paused. ‘How’s the little one you were giving stitches to?’

‘He’s fine.’ She looked at him in surprise. ‘How do you know about that?’

‘I was passing through Minors earlier, and I heard you singing a magic song.’

She felt herself colour. ‘Um.’

‘Hey, don’t be embarrassed. I’m all in favour of whatever it takes to make a child feel less frightened, and singing’s great. I learned three magic tricks when I was a student, precisely so I could make a child concentrate on something other than the reason they came in to see me.’

‘Magic tricks?’

He handed her a mug of coffee. ‘What’s this behind your ear?’ He touched her ear briefly; it was the lightest possible contact but it made Louisa very, very aware of him. When he brought his hand away again, he was flourishing a coin between his thumb and index finger—which he then proceeded to flip between his fingers, one by one.

‘That’s very impressive.’

‘It’s called a Vegas coin roll,’ he told her.

‘That’s going to beat the offer of a sticker every single time—especially for the boys,’ she said with a smile.

‘It doesn’t take long to learn. I’ll teach you some time, if you like,’ he said. ‘Actually, I was hoping to catch you today. Ric says they have a space, so come along on Saturday for a chat. Any time you like between nine and four—he or Bea will be around.’ He fished in his pocket and brought out a folded piece of paper. ‘This is their phone number, their address and directions to the stables from the centre of Brighton.’

She really hadn’t expected that, and her breath caught. An unexpected kindness. ‘Thank you. It’ll mean the world to Ty. He’s been obsessed with horses for years—but, living in London, we didn’t really get to see horses unless we went out at the weekend to one of the farm park places.’

‘And you thought that maybe he’d grow out of the obsession, get interested in something else?’

She nodded. ‘Our paediatrician said these obsessions are very common with Asperger’s children, and they tend to change as the children grow up. But he still really, really loves horses.’

‘I’m with him, there. I met my horse when he was an hour old, and I fell in love with him on the spot.’

She could identify with that. The moment she’d first held Tyler, she’d felt a rush of love like nothing she’d ever experienced before—a deep, deep sense of wonder mingled with protectiveness and sheer joy. She knew that some mothers found it took time to bond with their child, but for her it had been instant and overwhelming—and the love had grown even deeper over the years. ‘I’d better get back to my patients,’ she said. ‘And thank you again. I really appreciate it.’

On Saturday morning, Tyler was almost beside himself with excitement. She drove him to the stables, and Bea showed them around.

‘Did Dominic mention about…?’ Louisa asked quietly when they were in the tack room and Tyler was trying on hard hats.

Bea smiled. ‘Yes. I assume he told you about Andy?’ At Louisa’s blank look, she continued, ‘Ric’s younger brother. He has Asperger’s. Actually, he’s in charge of stable management—Ric and I run the classes,’ she explained. ‘So you don’t need to worry. We’re aware of the challenges, but as far as I’m concerned if a child loves horses and wants to ride, my job is to help the child do just that. We’ll work around the challenges together, because we’re all on the same team.’

Louisa had to swallow hard.

Bea patted her on the shoulder. ‘Riding’s going to be great for him.’

‘Will he be in a class?’

‘I prefer one to one with beginners, at least for the first couple of months, until they’re a bit more confident. But if he wants to come along to a class as well, once we’ve got him started, that’s fine.’

‘Dominic said you do RDA work.’