Alexander smiled down at his son and put his arm around his shoulder, hugging him close to him.
‘I should think so. But will you mind letting him go again?’
‘Ohno, that will be the best part. He should be flying free.’
Sadie caught my eye and nodded.
‘Good lad. Right, come and see our biggest inhabitant.’
I had limited interest in the birds, beautiful though they were, but as we walked around, I noticed that several of the enclosures were looking worn and that Sadie’s house, where she lived with her husband and daughter, had some missing tiles on the roof and flaking paint on the window frames. Theshiny Christmas garlands strung around couldn’t detract from the state of disrepair. Maybe what this place needed more than anything was some sort of fundraising effort? Sadie had explained to me previously that many people in the local area disliked the sorts of birds that she was striving to save, and they were often victims of deliberate harm, but there must be some people who understood that they actually presented little threat to stocks of game birds and who would be eager to see them helped?
‘You look like you’re glazing over there,’ said Alexander, coming up beside me as we watched Sadie showing Theo how to prepare food for a sick owl. ‘Cutting up chicks not your thing?’
I smiled at him.
‘It’s not that, I was just thinking about how I might be able to help Sadie raise some money and awareness for this place. She does such amazing work.’
‘I thought you were meant to be up here resting,’ said Alexander teasingly. ‘So far, you’ve leaped into action to help me, offered to get things moving for Coco, found what looks like the perfect activity for Theo and are now plotting some sort of raptor party as well. Forgive me for saying, but I’m not surprised you were on the road to burnout.’ His eyes darkened slightly, and he looked more serious. ‘You do have to be careful, though, no matter how driven you are.’
I screwed up my face.
‘I know. I’m always taking on too much, but although I like the idea of doing nothing for a while, it doesn’t suit me. I’ve even agreed to help Mum with her Instagram stuff, although that looks like it should be good for me, I promise.’
He was about to answer when a very tall man with a huge, black beard came through the door, holding the hand of a girl around Theo’s age.
‘Hello, everyone,’ he said in a deep voice. ‘Good to see you all.’ He came over and gave me a hug, which I returned warmly.
Sadie looked up from her work and smiled.
‘This is my husband, Jacob, and our daughter, Linnet. Linnet, darling, do you want to come and help me and Theo?’
Without looking at anyone, the little girl let go of her father’s hand and scuttled over. The three of them were soon bent over their task again, Constance now joining them, and I turned to speak to Jacob.
‘Oh! I must introduce you – this is Alexander Knight, Theo’s father.’
The men shook hands, and both started speaking at once. Alexander urged Jacob to talk first.
‘I was just going to say that we know each other already, don’t we?’
‘So was I. From the hospital – I used to work as a surgeon there.’
‘Of course.’ Jacob turned to me. ‘I’m a physiotherapist, as you know, mostly roving – I work with sports teams usually – but I do occasional work at the hospital.’ He turned back to Alexander. ‘I was sorry to hear about the accident. How was the rehab for the hand, are you back at work?’
Alexander stretched his hand out and shook his head.
‘No, I don’t think I’ll get it back to surgical standard.’
‘Really? From what I remember, it was an injury that would take a lot of work to recover from but would be doable. I can have a look if you like?’
Alexander shook his head.
‘No, thanks. I’m going to go and see how Theo’s getting on.’
He walked off abruptly, and Jacob turned to me with a frown.
‘What’s going on there? I hope I didn’t offend him, but I’m sure that hand could mend with some good, regular physio.’
‘I’ve got no idea. Maybe he doesn’t want to be a surgeon again.’
