Penny Jordan Collection(90)

                ‘His heart may be, but unfortunately the rest of him does not appear to want to follow suit,’ Piers murmured dryly, giving the dog a quelling look. Ben scratched vigorously behind his ear, causing Emily Latham to give Piers a horrified look of concern.

                ‘Oh, Piers, you don’t think he’s caught something, do you?’ she exclaimed worriedly.

                ‘If he has I’m sure his friend at the vet’s will be more than happy to relieve him of it,’ Piers assured her grimly.

                ‘Oh, dear, I’d better give them a ring, and then I must pack and you’ll need food...and...’

                ‘I’ll ring them—in the morning. You go and pack by all means, but as for food I can shop for that myself tomorrow. This evening we’ll eat out...my treat.’

                ‘Oh, no...we can’t do that,’ his godmother protested. ‘Not on my last evening at home. It wouldn’t be fair to Ben.’

                ‘No, of course not,’ Piers agreed sardonically. ‘I wasn’t thinking. Do forgive me, Ben!’

                ‘We could have a take-away,’ Emily suggested. ‘There’s a very good pizza place in town that delivers. Ben loves them, don’t you, Benny? He likes the anchovy ones best...’

                Defeatedly Piers closed his eyes whilst Ben’s tail thumped enthusiastically on the floor.

                * * *

                ‘Thanks for taking this afternoon’s cases,’ Philip told Georgia as she emerged from their second surgery. ‘Oh, and by the way, if I could just have a word with you before you leave...?’

                Despite Philip’s smile and his thanks Georgia was conscious of a small frisson of unease. However, the afternoon’s patients had all turned out to be fairly straightforward, and any who had needed minor treatment had all responded well.

                * * *

                ‘Ah Georgia.’ Philip smiled as she popped her head round the door to his office a few minutes later. ‘Yes...come on in...

                ‘Well, the good news is that you can take your missed day off tomorrow, if that suits you.’

                ‘Yes, thank you, that will be fine,’ Georgia accepted. ‘The good news’, he had said; that meant that there was some bad.

                ‘Sit down,’ Philip invited her, indicating the chair in front of his desk. ‘I appreciate that you were somewhat thrown in at the deep end, so to speak, today, and I’m sure that, like all of us here, there are some aspects of the work you prefer to others. For instance I’ve always enjoyed operating and large-animal work, whilst Helen, as you know, prefers dealing with the smaller domestic pets...’

                Georgia frowned, wondering where exactly Philip’s conversation was leading. In another few seconds she knew.

                ‘I understand that this morning’s dog-training class wasn’t entirely successful.’

                Georgia’s heart started to thump a little uncomfortably. Had someone complained?

                ‘There were one or two problems,’ she admitted huskily. ‘Ben...’

                ‘It does require a certain type of very strong personality to control a group of over-excited dogs,’ Philip continued before she could explain. ‘I know. I’ve been having a look at your file and I see that you had an excellent report from the intensive dog-training course we sent you on, but sometimes translating what has been learned in that kind of protected, cocooning environment into real life can be more difficult than we envisage.’