Page 64 of Broken Beyond Repair

As she popped her knee onto the scooter awaiting her at the bottom, the gate bell rang on her phone. “Sydney, your friend is here.”

Sydney darted across the entrance hall from the kitchen and out through the front door to receive her. Her assistant was a little on edge this morning.

With introductions out of the way, they crossed through to the kitchen where Rosie unfolded her treatment bed.

“Have you a towel we can use?” Rosie asked.

“I’ll fetch one from the laundry cupboard,” Sydney said, dashing from the room.

“Beatrice, let’s have you up here so I can examine you.” Rosie said, patting the bed. “Then we’ll have you up and working.”

Beatrice scooted her way over to Rosie, where the woman assisted her onto to the bed.

“You and Sydney have been friends for some time, I understand,” she said as she got as comfortable as possible.

“Yes, since university. She’s one of the best, our Syd.”

“Are you a fully paid-up member of the Gertie fan club too?”

Rosie let out a light chuckle of amusement. “I am one of the biggest fans. Gertie’s one of the family.”

Family. A word Sam used too. She intended to press Rosie a little on Sydney’s father, in the hope she would expand on Sam’s comment about Gertie being all she had left of him, but the physiotherapist spoke before she could.

“Sydney said you were getting on well with the scooter.”

“Yes, thank you for that. It’s helped my sanity enormously.”

“And mine,” Sydney said as she entered with a towel and passed it to Rosie, drawing a smile from them both. “I’ll leave you two to it.”

“Stay,” Beatrice found herself saying a little too eagerly.

“If Beatrice is fine with it, it might be a good idea for you to take note of the exercises I show her,” Rosie said, checking over Beatrice’s good leg. “I’ll go through some exercises that you can do once the cast comes off. Is that later this week?”

“Yes, and I can’t wait for a proper bath.”

“Don’t go scrubbing at it, will you? The best way to remove the dead skin is to soak it in warm water for twenty minutes twice a day and avoid shaving until the skin is healed. Gently rub or pat the skin with a soft towel. Don’t scrub the scales off as it could cause irritation and lead to infection.”

Beatrice shuddered at the word ‘scales’. Would she be part reptile at the end of this frustrating process?

“Apply an alcohol-free moisturising lotion, and over time the dryness will resolve, and the scales will fall off.”

“I’m sure we can manage that,” Sydney said, making a note on her laptop at the table.

The thought of Sydney seeing her scaly leg made her shudder again.

“This leg doesn’t seem too bad,” Rosie said as she manipulated Beatrice’s calf. “It’s obviously been taking up a lot of slack.”

“It’s sore a lot of the time. It seems to switch between being painful, and achy.”

“Sydney, come. I’ll show you how to massage it. Assuming that’s okay, Beatrice?”

“Of course, Sydney has already been helping in that department.” Her eyes flicked to gauge Sydney’s reaction, only to find Rosie winking at her friend, who then scowled back at her.

What was that about?

Beatrice relaxed back as Rosie placed the towel under her leg and began massaging it. She wasn’t relaxing for long. Rosie knew all the places to touch that would hurt, digging her fingers in, stretching, and holding the sore muscles until she was breathless from the pain. This was a serious pummelling compared to Sydney’s sensual massage — Beatrice knew which one she preferred. Her hope that Sydney wouldn’t be taking too many notes was dashed as Rosie directed Sydney in hunting for areas of tension in her leg, encouraging her to knead them as Beatrice’s face twisted in pain. She wasn’t going to be enjoying Sydney’s massages quite as much as before — that could only be a good thing.

“Try not to enjoy yourself too much, Sydney,” Beatrice said dryly when she caught her breath.