Kirstie was fully conscious now and X-rays hadn’t shown any internal bleeding or bruising of the brain from the head injury, but they’d shown the fracture of her arm that the doctor had suspected, and the deep cut on her head where she’d been thrown forward would need cleansing and stitching.
That wasn’t all. There was another cause for concern. Weepy and hurting, Kirstie was saying she couldn’t hear anything.
‘Obviously there is some hearing loss, which could be temporary.’ the doctor in A and E told them. ‘It can happen after a severe blow to the head and can return once any perforation of the eardrum has healed, but we’ll see what the audiology department has to say, and in the meantime the head wound will be cleaned and then stitched now that we know there is no internal bleeding.’
Audiology came up with the findings that therewas a perforated eardrum and bruising of the ear canal on the left side and that during the next few days they would be checking progress, or lack of it, with regard to the problem sorting itself out. They were also told that when her arm had been put in a cast and the cut on her head stitched Kirstie would be taken up to the children’s ward to be with the rest of those who had been hurt.
Thankfully none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening, but the bus driver’s condition was causing anxiety amongst the hospital staff, his relatives and everyone connected with the school
Dennis was a nice old guy who’d been driving all his life with never a bump or fault in any shape or form. It had taken an old tree battered by the winds to fall and put an end to one of the pleasures of his later years, driving young ones to and from their school.
In the midst of it all a member of staff from the hospital reception desk in the main hall came to say that the press had arrived and were asking to interview Ben.
Ethan frowned at the thought, but Francine was watching Ben’s cheeks reddening and eyes widening at the thought of it and said, ‘Go with him, Ethan. Ben has something to be proud of. It would all have been so much worse if it hadn’t been for his quick grasp of the situation. Let him have his special moment. I’ll stay with Kirstie.’
‘Yes, of course. You are right as always,’ he told her heavily, but he had a smile for Ben. ‘We have an amazing son.’
She wasn’t always right, Francine reflected when they’d gone, and it wasn’t what he really thought. Hopefully soon he might have cause to change his mind.
‘They’ve taken my picture, Mum,’ Ben cried when they came back, ‘and it’s going to be in the papers!’
‘Yes, indeed,’ Ethan agreed, looking slightly less grim, and then went to try to explain to Kirstie what was happening, but she couldn’t hear him, and he and Francine exchanged anxious glances.
Kirstie was settled in the ward now and feeling more cheerful in the company of some of her friends, yet still very upset about her hearing loss, and no way were they going to leave her for a moment unless they had to.
Ethan was on the point of taking Ben home and then coming back to join Francine for the night when Lucas appeared, having just come out of Theatre and heard about the accident.
‘I’m due to leave for home shortly. I’ll take Ben with me and he can sleep at our place for the night,’ he offered, ‘so that you two don’t need to leave Kirstie.’ He ruffled Ben’s dark locks. ‘l shall be wanting your autograph, and when Jenna hears about what you did she’ll have lots of hugs for you.’
‘She won’t, will she?’ he exclaimed in boyish dismay, and the two men laughed.
Ethan had been down to one of the hospital shops and bought a pad and pen so they could write everything down for Kirstie and that had cheered her up a little, but her head was aching from the injury, and her arm felt heavy and cumbersome from the cast they’d put on it.
When he looked around him it was clear that they were no different from any of the other parents whose children had been injured in various ways and didn’t want to leave them under the circumstances.
‘Can you imagine how it would have felt if you’d been in France when this happened?’ he commented soberly, and watched her expression change from caring mother to that of chastised wife and quickly added, ‘That was not meant as a criticism. It was just a comment. And will you please go into the parents’ room at the end of the corridor and lie down for a while? You look exhausted.
‘Kirstie has had some pain relief so may sleep the rest of the night once it kicks in, and you must try to do the same for both your sake and the little one’s. I’ll be around all the time if she needs either of us.’
‘All right,’ Francine agreed mechanically, and as she eased herself down onto a sofa that was for the use of visitors staying overnight she thought that however Ethan might have meant what he’d said, it was true. By cutting herself off from them for part of the time, as she had been doing, she could easily have not been there for Kirstie.
But it wouldn’t have been like that if he had let her have her dream instead of leaving her to make it come true without him, and that had been a vain hope. It hadn’t worked because without him she was nothing.
She hadn’t admitted it to herself during the long months while they’d argued about her wanting to live in France, but since she’d got her wish and found it not to be as rewarding as she’d promised herself it would be, slowly but surely she was facing up to the fact that life without Ethan was no life.
If she loved him as much as she hoped he loved her, she should be willing to live with him in an igloo at the North Pole if need be.
Daylight brought with it some reassurance for most of the injured children and their families, but for Kirstie the hearing problem still prevailed and Ethan explained to her gently that it could be a few days before they saw any change.
Jenna arrived with Ben quite early. He’d been fretting to know how Kirstie and the other injured children were and, besides, she had to be at the surgery for half past eight.
She had a message from Barbara to deliver. ‘Mum says to tell you how sorry she is to hear about the accident and hopes that Kirstie and all of those who were injured will soon be home. How is Dennis this morning, do we know?’
‘Not as yet,’ Ethan told her, ‘but I popped into Intensive Care during the night and the nurses on duty said there was a slight improvement in his condition. His arm and shoulder were shattered from the impact of the tree and he’d been in Theatre for hours.’
When she was on the point of leaving he said, ‘Put Leo in the picture, will you, Jenna? I’ve got my mobile with me in case he needs me for anything, and do tell your mother thanks for her message.’
‘She’s known Dennis for years.’ she said sombrely as she reached for her car keys.
But Dennis wasn’t out of danger yet as one of the parents who’d been to see him had just come back with the news that the injured bus driver had just had a heart attack.
Later in the morning they left Ben with Kirstie while they went for a quick bite and while they were waiting to be served Francine said, ‘I was only catnapping during the night, you know. I saw you every time you came to check on me, so now what about some sleep for you?’
He shook his head. ‘Not until the doctor has done his rounds. Leo has called from the surgery and everything is under control there. The district nurse who’s filling in for Phoebe is off with a strained back, which as we both know goes with the job, but that is the only problem at the moment and she’s hoping to be in tomorrow.’
Ethan’s dedication to the practice would always be part of their lives. He would never want to give it up in a thousand years. she thought. She must have been insane to ever think he would.
They were back on the ward, the doctor was approaching, and everything else was forgotten as they listened to what he had to say after he’d examined Kirstie.
‘I note that the hearing is no better,’ was his first comment to Francine and Ethan. ‘We must give the eardrum time to heal. It will be some weeks before the cast on the arm can be removed, but it should be as good as new. Let’s take a closer look at the head wound.’
A nurse had taken off the bandaging in readiness for his visit and as he observed it keenly he pronounced, ‘There doesn’t appear to be any infection, but there might be a scar when it has healed properly and the stitches have been removed. If there is, we can decide what to do about it then.’
‘We’ll be keeping Kirstie in for a few days,’ he told them. Glancing around the ward, he said, ‘It would seem that she won’t be short of company.’
By Thursday they were still going back and forth to the hospital to be with their daughter. But, they’d spent the night before at their respective houses at Kirstie’s insistence because she was feeling much better.
Her head didn’t hurt so much because it was healing and she’d got used to the cast on her arm. All they needed now was for her hearing to come back of its own accord.
Kirstie met them at the door of the ward, pushing a wheelchair that one of her school friends was using due to the leg fracture she’d received in the bus crash, and as they observed her cautiously Kirstie said, ‘Say something, Mum.’
‘Hello, my darling,’ Francine said slowly.
‘I heard you!’ she cried. ‘Not as loud as I’m used to, but I heard what you said. The doctor has been to see me and says I’m going to have another X-ray and if it shows that everything is all right inside my ear, I can come home!’
‘Wonderful’ Ethan said huskily. ‘I have to go to the surgery but will be back shortly so don’t go away, will you, Kirstie?’
He had to go to the surgery to keep a nine o’clock appointment with a patient who was dreading the results of tests that he’d had taken, and he wanted to be there as the man was a friend as well as a patient and had a disabled wife to cope with, who was not always the easiest of people to deal with.
Keith Balfour was already seated in the waiting room when he arrived, looking as if he was on a knife edge, and Ethan wasted no time in calling him into his consulting room.
‘Tell it to me straight, Ethan,’ Keith said when he’d settled himself at the other side of the desk.
‘Of course,’ he told him. ‘I would be doing you no favours if I didn’t, Keith. Your count has gone up from seven to nine and a half, which is not good, but we’re not panicking yet. If it had shot up to twenty there would be cause for concern, but you haven’t reached that point yet. If you had we would be thinking about prostate cancer and it would be action stations, usually a strong blast of radiotherapy in an uncomfortable place.’
‘Remember this, I’ll be keeping a close watch on you, and the hospital will be sending you regular appointments for the urology clinic. So go home and don’t let the worry of it get a stranglehold on you. Do I take it that Barbara and Jenna don’t know you have this problem?’
‘Yes, that’s correct. I don’t want Barbara to know because she relies on me so much, and I haven’t told Jenna because these are precious days for her, the first months of her marriage and a baby on the way. I don’t want to spoil them. Time enough to tell them both when and if I find I have something that has to be said, and you’ve put my mind at rest for the time being anyway.’
He’d endured a lifetime with Barbara which couldn’t have been easy, knowing her, and wouldn’t put the blight on his daughter’s happiness by burdening her with the huge worry he was carrying around with him.
Comparing Keith and Henri, his French father-in-law whom he’d loved and respected, with his own father, who moaned and grumbled all the time, was like putting silk beside sackcloth.
After a quick chat with Leo he set off for the hospital once more to join Francine and Kirstie with hope in his heart, and on arriving called first to see Dennis, the bus driver, who had survived the heart attack and was slowly recovering from his injuries.
‘Where’s your lad, Dr Lomax?’ he asked. ‘He saved my life, you know, by stopping the bus. I shudder to think what would have happened to me and those youngsters if he hadn’t.’
‘Ben is back at school Dennis,’ he told him. ‘And now that you’re feeling a little better, I know he’d love to come and see you.’
‘Does he want to be a doctor like you?’ he asked, and Ethan laughed.
‘No, not at all. Ben’s passion is for cars, and we’re fairly sure he will pursue a career in that field in some form or other.’
When he arrived back at the ward Francine and Kirstie had just been given the results of the tests that Kirstie had had earlier, and although her hearing wasn’t yet back to normal, the signs were there that it was returning, and she was being discharged with instructions to come back to see a consultant audiologist in a week’s time for further checks.
It was midday. Francine and a happy Kirstie were back at Thimble Cottage and Ethan was about to go to the practice. On the point of leaving he was aware of Francine’s pallor and the dark circles beneath her eyes and suggested that she go to bed for the afternoon with the assurance that he would make the evening meal.
‘It is just stress that is making me look like this,’ she said. ‘I’ll be fine now we have Kirstie home.’ When he’d gone she went upstairs and phoned the solicitor who was acting for her in the divorce to request her to stop the proceedings.
She had already decided that the French dream was over, knew that was all it had ever been, and Kirstie being hurt had been another prod to her conscience. It had reminded her of the day when the vicar’s wife had brought their son to her with the serious chest infection, and how when they’d gone she’d shuddered at the thought of not being there for a child of hers when she was needed. That could easily have been the case over the past week, but the fates had been kind.
She felt better after that and when Ethan arrived home in the evening after taking up the reins at the practice once more there was colour in her cheeks and a new sense of purpose in her expression.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS half-term at Ben and Kirstie’s school and Ethan was happier than he’d been in a long time because his daughter’s hearing had righted itself, the head injury was healing satisfactorily, and the only reminder of the accident was the cast on her arm, which most of her school friends had written on.
Added to his relief was the knowledge that Francine hadn’t been across the Channel of late. He’d made no comment, been content to watch developments with spirits rising, until on the Friday night in the middle of the two-week break she’d said, ‘Can we go back to our routine of you having the children for the weekend as you usually do when I’m away, and could you keep them with you for the rest of the week as well? It seems like a lifetime since I was in France and as they’re on holiday—’ She’d seen his expression and her voice trailed away.
He’d been crazy to think she’d given up on it, he thought grimly. When he’d accused her of having it all sorted and fitting him into her life when it suited her, he hadn’t been wrong. What a fool to think all the misery was going to go away because Francine hadn’t been to Paris of late.
‘Of course I’ll have the children,’ he’d said tightly. ‘Some of us are contented with our lot. But not you, it would seem. I should have known better than to think you might have come to your senses.’ To add to his annoyance he’d registered that she was smiling.
So she’d gone early on Saturday morning, this time not just with an overnight bag but with a sizeable suitcase, and fool that he was Ethan had taken her to the railway station to catch a London train as this time she was travelling to France by train to avoid flying in a state of advanced pregnancy, and he wanted to make sure she was safely on her way to get the London connection before he left her. But there were no fond goodbyes, just a peck on the cheek before she boarded the Paris train.
Inside the house that had been the cause of the disruption in their lives it was the same as always, the feeling of quiet emptiness as if it had been waiting for her, and she felt as if she wanted to go from room to room to tell it that it was going to have to be goodbye.
She’d come for a longer stay to arrange the inside as attractively as she could before she put it on the market, having decided that it needed to be out of her life completely if it couldn’t be totally in it.
Once it was sold she wouldn’t pine to live there any more. It would be the end of a chapter and a new beginning with Ethan.
It took all weekend to arrange it as she wanted, as well as Monday and Tuesday, and on the Wednesday she asked an estate agent in the centre of Paris to send someone give her a valuation on the assumption that if she was satisfied with it they could put it on the market.
When they’d been and gone she stood in the middle of the sitting room and wept. Yet she was at peace with herself for the first time in months, and for what was left of the week she spent the time seeing all the places that she loved especially, telling herself that she wasn’t going to disappear from the face of the earth and neither was Paris.
She hadn’t actually accepted the valuation on the spot, but once she was home and had considered it she would either consult another firm for comparison or tell the first one to go ahead. Soon it would be time to show Ethan where her loyalties lay.
That was her thought, until she arrived back in Bluebell Cove on the following Saturday morning to discover that her father-in-law had been hospitalised with a stroke and Ethan and the children were on their way to Bournemouth to see him. He’d left a note explaining the situation, and at the bottom had put:
If there is no real cause for alarm will be back before Monday morning as Ben and Kirstie are due back at school and I’ve got the practice to see to. As much as they love grumpy old grandpa, they won’t want to miss the bonfire on Sunday night.
Lastly, as an afterthought, he’d written,Hope you enjoyed France.
She groaned. Just as she’d got to the point of putting everything right between them this had happened, and it stood to reason that Ethan wouldn’t be thrilled at having to take Ben and Kirstie with him at such a worrying time, when if she’d been there he wouldn’t have had to. Was she ever going to get anything right again? she thought as she picked up the phone to ring his parents’ number in the hope that he would be there.
‘I’ve just read your message,’ she told him when he answered. ‘I’m so sorry about your father. How bad is the stroke?’
‘Not as bad as it might have been. Mum is with him now. The children and I have just got back from the hospital,’ he said in flat tones. ‘I’ve spoken to the consultant on the stroke unit and he’s anticipating partial recovery, but I can’t see Dad being a good patient! Fortunately Mum is used to him and has plenty of stamina. We’ll be leaving here Sunday lunchtime if there are no further concerns about him and hopefully will be back in time for the bonfire.’
‘I’ll have a meal ready,’ she promised.
Into the pause that followed he said, ‘No need. There’ll be lots of food at the bonfire. How are you and the baby? You never phoned while you were there.’
‘Neither did you,’ she pointed out mildly.
‘That might be because I haven’t had a minute to spare. Francine, you didn’t answer my question.’
‘Both mother and child are fine. The new year is going to bring you joy, Ethan.’
She wasn’t sure if he’d heard the last part of what she’d said as he was saying, ‘I’ll have to go. Mum has just come back from the hospital and I want to hear the latest about Dad.’
‘Give her my love,’ she said gently. Jean Lomax was a gem of a mother-in-law. They’d been good friends from the moment of meeting.
For the rest of the weekend Francine couldn’t settle. She’d come back from France ready to tell Ethan that she was home to stay, and the moment had been postponed because of his absence and the reason for it.
The three of them arrived home late Sunday afternoon, as he’d hoped they might, and after she’d held Ben and Kirstie close she turned to Ethan, not expecting any warm embraces from that source after the way they’d parted at the railway station, but when their glances met there was warmth in his as he observed her and the child she was carrying.
She was back, the wife who had become a stranger with agendas of her own that she rarely shared with him. He hated her being alone in the French house, but at least when it was just for the weekend she was home almost as soon as she’d gone, but this time it had been a long and miserable week without her.
Yet thinking back to the first time she’d gone there without him and taken the children with her, a week was nothing compared to the months of separation then that had ended with her unexpected arrival in Bluebell Cove on Christmas Eve.
Soon the calendar would have gone full circle and another new year would be upon them with another child to love, and where would their relationship go from there?
‘So how is your dad today?’ she was asking, bringing his sombre thoughts back to the present.
‘Improving. Some of the use has come back into his legs, which is where the stroke had the most effect, but it is early days. They won’t be sending him home yet and I don’t want them to, for my mother’s sake.’
Ben and Kirstie were already upstairs, putting on warm clothes to keep them snug at the bonfire and anxious to be off to meet their friends, while Francine and Ethan followed at a slower pace, each with their thoughts in very different channels.
Food was on offer in the community centre just down the road, traditional fare such as parkin, hot soup, and chestnuts and potatoes roasted in the fire that was already glowing red, and all around them with its own special kind of warmth was the community feeling.
The local bobby was there, out of uniform but keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings, and a fire engine was parked not far away just in case, all part of the usual routine on Bonfire Night.
Something that wasn’t expected was the arrival of Dennis, recently out of hospital and looking pale and drawn but with a smile on his face as he asked a couple of teenage girls, ‘Is young Ben Lomax here?’
‘Yes,’ one of them told him. ‘He’s over there, kicking a ball about with his friends.’
‘Would you mind asking him to come across? I want a word with him.’
‘You’re the driver on the school bus, aren’t you?’ the other girl said.
‘Not any more. The tree that fell put paid to that,’ he said wryly, and watched as they went to deliver his message.
When Ben heard who it was asking to see him he left what he was doing straight away. He’d been to see Dennis a few times in hospital and the elderly bus driver had really appreciated it. To discover that he was now back home with his family was great news.
‘I’ve brought you something, laddie,’ Dennis said when he came galloping up, and he presented Ben with a gift-wrapped parcel. ‘It’s to say thanks for what you did. Your parents must be very proud of you.’
‘We are,’ Ethan told him as he and Francine approached, delighted to see Dennis at the bonfire and curious to know why he was there.
A crowd was gathering, also curious, and when they saw Ben and Dennis together someone shouted, ‘Three cheers for Ben Lomax, our local hero.’ And having got used to being a celebrity, he bowed amidst the cheers.
When everyone had dispersed and gone back to their enjoyment of the night, Ben opened the parcel and gave a whoop of delight when he saw what was inside. Dennis had given him a collector’s piece, a pewter desktop model of a Ferrari, and was smiling as he witnessed his young friend’s pleasure.
After they’d chatted for a while Ben took him to the community centre for some food and a rest and Ethan said laughingly, ‘If it goes on like this, our son won’t be able to get a baseball cap to fit his head.’ As Francine sparkled across at him it was a special moment of the kind that had become all too rare.
He ached with love for her and all the time wished he’d handled it better when the subject of them going to live in France had first cropped up. He’d once thought he must be the only man in the world who’d had to compete with a house for his wife’s affections. Yet it applied both ways, Francine coming second to a medical practice, or so she saw it.
In the light of the fire her face was indescribably beautiful with its fine bone structure and lovely green eyes. He hoped the baby she was carrying would have its mother’s grace and attractiveness, as Kirstie and Ben did.
Jenna and Lucas were there and when they met up with them the two women were soon engrossed in baby talk and the men in medical matters.
From Lucas came a comment that he’d seen Barbara at his clinic a few days ago and she’d been in reasonable health considering the state of her heart and her debilitating rheumatoid arthritis.
‘In fact, my mother-in-law was quietly content, happy almost,’ he’d said ‘and whatever the reason, I hope she’ll be in the same frame of mind when her grandchild arrives.’
‘You need have no doubts about that,’ Ethan told him. ‘Barbara will be over the moon when she and Keith become grandparents, and without my betraying a patient’s confidence, keep an eye on Jenna’s father, will you? He’s the one with health problems at the moment, but doesn’t want to worry his wife and daughter for the time being.’
When they strolled along to the community centre Leo was there, chatting to Lucy, the elderly practice nurse, and Ronnie, the lifeguard, who wasn’t looking quite so bronzed in the chill of winter.
The Enderby family was also there and as Ethan chatted to the villagers who depended on him for their good health Francine thought with sudden wistfulness that shewas doing the right thing in selling the house in France.
His happiness came first. The children were easy enough to please because they were only young, but Ethan’s contentment was a different matter, and with regard to that there was the valuation she’d been given the week before. At the time it had seemed reasonable but having checked house prices on the Internet that morning before Ethan and the children had arrived home, she was regretting having only asked for one. Her parents wouldn’t want her to sell their beautiful house for less than its worth.
The fact that she was selling it at all would be unexpected to everyone except herself, and come Monday morning she would arrange for other valuations to be done, with each property firm gaining access with the key that was in the keeping of her French solicitor.
It would delay telling Ethan of her decision for a little while longer, but she did want it to be already on the market when she told him, so that he would see just how much she was prepared to forget her dream.
Preparations for another Christmas in Bluebell Cove were under way as soon as Bonfire Night was past and with each reminder of it came the thought for both Francine and Ethan that soon their baby would be born into a new year shrouded in uncertainty.
One day in late November Ethan had a phone call from Barbara, asking him to stop by the first chance he got as there was something she wanted to discuss with him.
She gave no inkling of what it was and he was curious, as with complete confidence in him she never interfered with the practice—or his private life, for that matter, though she had been rather sour towards Francine when she’d come back to Bluebell Cove.
On the evening of the same day he went to Four Winds House and, leaving her husband to watch television, Barbara took Ethan into her study and once they were settled asked, ‘Are you happy with your life, Ethan?’
He was observing her with raised brows and questioned, ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Because I care about you. I’ve watched you over past months and can see that you’re pulled two ways by your dedication to the practice and your wife’s longing to return home since she lost her parents.’
He sighed. ‘That’s true enough, Barbara, but where is all this leading? I don’t think even you can suggest a solution.’
‘Don’t underestimate me,’ she said with a dry laugh. ‘I have a plan that might work to the satisfaction of you, me, Francineand one other person.’
He smiled. ‘I’m afraid you’ve lost me.’
‘Not for long, I promise. I can’t tell you what it is at this moment but I should soon be able to and then it will be up to you. So will you trust me on this?’
‘I’ve never had cause not to, have I?’ he replied. ‘So, yes, of course I’ll trust you, though you’ve left me extremely curious.’
She was getting slowly and painfully to her feet, reaching for her stick and telling him, ‘Like I say, it won’t be for long, and now will you join us for a glass of wine? Keith and I usually indulge around this time.’
Later that evening he walked home thinking that maybe Barbara was cracking up, fantasising, but it was kind of her to be concerned about him and he put the strange conversation out of his mind and turned his thoughts to what the children had said they would like for Christmas. He wanted to give Francine something that would make her really happy, but so far hadn’t thought of anything that was going to achieve that in the present climate.
The valuations she’d asked for were coming through slowly, too slowly, Francine felt, eager to let Ethan see how much she loved him. Some of them were higher than the first, others lower, and she was wishing she’d taken more care in getting the right selling price for the house before leaving it. There was just one left to come and then she would decide.
She was still working mornings at the surgery, against Ethan’s wishes now that the pregnancy was so far advanced, but as she insisted that she felt fine and as it was flu vaccination time, he was going along with it.
Charlotte Templeton had popped in to tell her that the chemotherapy that the oncologist at the hospital had prescribed had resulted in some improvement of the Paget’s disease. Francine had been able to reassure her that a report she’d received from them had confirmed that, and the popular headmistress had left with a lighter heart.
There’d been no further cryptic meetings with Barbara and Ethan’s curiosity was dwindling as the silence from that direction confirmed his surmise that she was starting to be confused, even though she was the last person he would have ever expected it to happen to.
There had also been no recent weekends in France for Francine and he wondered why, but decided that the less it was mentioned the better, quite unaware that now the die had been cast Francine wasn’t going to go back because it would hurt too much, even though the decision had given her the peace of mind she’d sought.
He was to find that he’d been wrong about Barbara with the razor-sharp mind. He’d done her an injustice by taking it for granted that her mind was failing. It was definitely not the case.
Another phone message had him calling again at the house on the headland and this time everything became clear, so clear that he was dumbstruck at the shrewdness of what she was suggesting.
‘You know that when I had to retire you were the only person I could trust to take over from me, don’t you, Ethan?’ was her opening comment. He nodded and she went on to say, ‘There is one other person who has my respect as much as you have, and that’s my nephew Harry.
‘Suppose he was available to take your place and by doing so could leave you free to live in France with your wife and family, how would you feel about that?’
‘Are you telling me that Harry is leaving Australia to come back here?’ he asked, his voice hoarse with amazement. ‘Since when, Barbara?’
‘Since he lost his wife in an accident. He’s coming back to his roots and Francine wants to go back to hers, doesn’t she?’
‘Er, yes, she does,’ he said slowly, as what she was suggesting sank in.
Harry Balfour had been a great guy when they’d worked together in the practice in the old days as G.Ps with Barbara in charge. It would be good to see him again.
He’d married an Australian girl he’d met on holiday and had gone to live in Australia and practise medicine there, and now it seemed that sadness had come into his life.
‘But would you be willing to make that sort of sacrifice?’ she was asking.
‘Yes, I would,’ he said levelly. ‘It wouldn’t be a sacrifice if it made our marriage whole again. I’ve sometimes thought I’d like to do the same as Harry did, get involved in the medical side of things in another country. So is it definite that he’s going to be free to take over?’
‘Yes. I’m pretty sure. We’ve spoken at length about it, but I didn’t want to involve you until I was certain. I’ll speak to him again the first chance I get, but don’t say anything to Francine until Harry has confirmed his intentions.’
As he walked home Ethan was in a daze. From the most unlikely source had come an answer to months of heart-searching and he couldn’t wait to see Francine’s face when he told her that her dream might be about to materialise. But before he said anything he had to be sure that Harry Balfour was available to take over the practice and that Kirstie and Ben would be happy to live in Paris permanently.
Francine had said she thought them saying they wanted to live in Bluebell Cove all the time was a ploy to get them all living together rather than reluctance to live in France. So he was going to have to make sure she was right. And that they would be as happy living there as they were here,as long as he could promise them that both their parents would be there with them.
He recollected that there had been plenty of friends on the scene near the French house when the three of them had surprised Francine by turning up unexpectedly that time, but he needed to hear from their own mouths what they thought about it as a permanent arrangement.
It was a week before he heard from Barbara again. It seemed that Harry had been out of town, visiting friends, and hadn’t expected to hear from her so soon. The answer when it came was that he would love to take over the practice from Ethan and would be free of his commitments over there by the middle of January.
That meant a chat with the children was his first priority without a word to Francine who he knew, like himself, would put their happiness first.
If they had no problem with the move then would come the special moment when he would be able to tell her that he was ready to do what she’d asked him to do so many times, that the long wait was over.
It was Saturday morning and Kirstie and Ben were watching television when he went across to Thimble Cottage. He’d watched Francine drive off to do some shopping so he took the opportunity to put the question to them.
When he asked them if they would like to live in France all the time they observed him doubtfully and, reading their expressions, he said, ‘I mean all of us.’
Ben was the first to speak in the silence that followed the question. ‘And would we go to the same school where we went before?’ he questioned.
‘I don’t see why not,’ he told him. ‘We can check on that.’
‘Yes, then,’ was the reply. ‘We said we didn’t like it over there because we wanted to live with you and Mum at the same time, but actually it was just as great living there as it is living here, wasn’t it, Kirstie?’
‘Yes, it was,’ she agreed, ‘but what does Mum say?’
‘She doesn’t know yet, so please don’t say anything. I’m going to tell her tonight that I’ve found someone to take charge of the practice and that we’re all going to live in Paris.’
The last valuation had arrived that morning. Francine had made a decision on which to choose and was going to ring the company first thing Monday morning to instruct them to put the house up for sale.
Now she could spring the big surprise on Ethan and watch the happiness on his face when he heard what she had to say. Tonight they would share the same bed, sleep in each other’s arms with the little kicking one between them, and she would be content.
She rang him when she got back from the shops and said, ‘Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?’
‘I’d love to,’ he told her, and hoped the children hadn’t forgotten their promise not to say anything before they’d gone to the birthday party of one of their friends. They’d been invited to stay the night, which fitted in nicely with what he had planned, leaving Francine and him with the place to themselves.
When she opened the door to him it was clear that she’d dressed for the occasion, overdressed, he decided, if she didn’t know what he’d come to say, in a flowing, gold-embroidered kaftan that concealed her pregnancy and with soft golden slippers on her feet.
On the other hand,she might think that he was acting a bit over the top. He’d brought her flowers, a huge bouquet of cream roses, and her surprise at the gesture told him that Francine knew nothing of what he had to tell her.
Yet when he saw the table set out with the best china and cutlery he wasn’t so sure, and when the food she’d cooked turned out to be some of the French dishes that he loved he was even less sure.
When they’d finished the meal and were sitting by the fire with their coffee he cleared his throat. The moment had come that Francine had long waited for. He was about to show her what really came first in his life, and it wasn’t the job.
She was placing her cup and saucer carefully onto the small table beside her and before he could speak she said softly, ‘I have something to tell you that is very special, Ethan.’
‘Go ahead, then,’ he said evenly, and thought that whatever it was it couldn’t be as ‘special’ as what he had to tell her. He wished he’d been able to have his say first.
‘I’m putting the house in Paris on the market,’ she was saying with eyes bright with the anticipation of his delight. ‘I’m accepting a valuation I’ve been given and am going to ring first thing Monday to instruct the company to undertake the sale of it.’
If shewas expecting delight, she didn’t get it.
‘What? Why?’ he cried. ‘For goodness’ sake, don’t do that, Francine!’
‘Why do you say that?’ she asked blankly. ‘Don’t you understand? I can’t hold out any longer. I need to be with you all the time, Ethan. Without you I might as well not exist.’
‘I don’t want you to come back here to live.’ he continued in the same raised tone. ‘You can’t sell the house in France. You’re going to need it.’
She was deathly pale. ‘Are you telling me that you have someone else to love—yes? Maybe it is Phoebe, eh? You concern yourself about her all the time.’
He groaned. ‘There is no one else. There never has been. There never will be.’
‘Yet you tell me I will need the house! Please go, Ethan. I was willing to give up my dream for you because I love you so, but it’s too late for us. You don’t want me any more, do you?’
She had one foot on the bottom of the stairs as he said in a low voice, ‘You aren’t the only one who will need the house, Francine, we all will. I’m resigning from the practice and we’re going to live in France. So, you see, the dream isn’t lost, it is alive and well.’
She turned slowly to face him, transfixed. ‘It is what I have wanted so much,’ she breathed, ‘but I can’t let you do that, Ethan. The practice is your life.’
He shook his head. ‘No.You are my life, Francine.’
There were tears on her lashes. ‘But who will take your place?’ she choked. ‘Leo hasn’t been with you long enough, although he’s good at the job, and the folks in Bluebell Cove won’t take kindly to a stranger. They’re used to having doctors that they know and can trust in charge of the practice.’
‘And that is what they’re going to get,’ he told her with quiet satisfaction. ‘It’s sorted. Harry Balfour is coming back to the UK to live and wants to return to the life of a country G.P—in Devon.’
‘I don’t believe it,’ she whispered.
He was smiling. ‘You have to. The children are all for it. We had a chat this morning and you were right in what you thought. They are happy to live in either place as long as we’re all together, and if you’ll come closer I’ll show how much of a one-woman man I am, then maybe you won’t keep trying to fob me off onto Phoebe.’
CHAPTER NINE
WHEN the children were dropped home on Sunday morning they found their parents enjoying a leisurely breakfast at Thimble Cottage and in the hall was an assortment of suitcases.
‘We’re not going to France today, are we?’ Ben cried.
‘No, of course not,’ Ethan told him. ‘Your mother is moving back into our own house and inside the cases are her clothes and yours.’
‘We are staying here in Bluebell Cove until after the baby is born,’ Francine told them. ‘And then we go to Paris to live. I am told that you are happy to go and am so delighted.’
It had been a magical night, Ethan was thinking as Kirstie and Ben perched on either side of her on the sofa. They’d made plans, made love, made promises they would keep for ever.
At one point he’d held her face tenderly between his two hands and looking deep into her eyes had said, ‘The new life that is waiting for us both in France will be like sailing into calm waters after a storm, Francine. All we need now is the safe arrival of the other new life that you’re carrying.’
Francine had been right when she’d said that the people in Bluebell Cove were accustomed to doctors that they knew as friends as well as representatives of the NHS, and when the news began to filter through that Ethan was resigning and leaving the village, there was much dismay.
Until reassurance came in the form of an announcement from the surgery explaining that Harry Balfour was coming back from Australia to take his place and everyone settled back into their previous contentment as there were not many who hadn’t known and liked the man.
As for Ethan and his family, the villagers had only to look at him and his pregnant French wife to know that they were more than content with the future they were planning for themselves.
They’d been told that they would be most welcome to call if ever they were in Paris and it went without saying that call they would if the opportunity arose to catch up with the doctor who’d had all Barbara Balfour’s dedication without her brittle outer shell.
The changeover at the surgery wasn’t going to take place until mid-January. The baby was due in the new year and Francine wanted the birth to stay as planned in the same hospital that Kirstie and Ben had been delivered in.
Harry was not expected to arrive in Bluebell Cove until near the end of January, which suited Francine and Ethan as it meant they would be around for his parents over Christmas and New Year in case they were needed, though his father’s condition was much improved to the relief of all concerned, including his wife,especially his wife!
‘We might find ourselves a place over there when Grandpa is a little better,’ Jean had said when she’d heard they were moving across the Channel.
‘Not too near you, yet not too far away.’
Her son and daughter-in-law had welcomed the idea as that really would be all the family together in the same place if Ethan’s father’s health caused any further problems.
To their parents’ relief and the children’s approval, the school near Paris had confirmed that they would readmit Kirstie and Ben as soon they were settled in the area and the formalities had been dealt with, removing the last cloud in their sky as far as Ethan and Francine were concerned.
As winter tightened its grip on Bluebell Cove, with frosty mornings and hazy sunshine replacing autumn’s glorious golden days, the four of them settled down to await the promises of the new year, and in the meantime gave their energies to the coming Christmas.
Francine and Ethan had gone shopping one Saturday for things for the baby and Christmas presents for Ben and Kirstie.
Their first call was to the nursery department in one of the large stores where an abundance of the kind of things they needed was on display, cribs. baby baths and clothes to mention a few items, and as they strolled from counter to counter, holding hands, she said softly, ‘I can’t believe we’re doing this, Ethan, shopping for our extending family. I’m so happy I could burst.’
‘Me too,’ he replied. ‘Every time I move in the night and feel you beside me it’s magic, Francine, so wonderful that it’s scary.’
When they’d bought for the child yet to come and arranged for delivery of their purchases, they went to buy for the children already in their lives. Ben had asked for a guitar as his main Christmas present and Kirstie was coveting a pink mobile phone.
When they’d finished shopping and were going back to the car Ethan said, ‘I want to give you something really special as my Christmas gift. Is there anything you would like that I don’t know about?’
‘Not a thing,’ she told him. ‘You’ve already given me the most precious gift of all by giving up the practice to make my dream come true. I know how much that has cost you, Ethan, without you ever having to put it into words.’
He smiled down at her. ‘There is no price on what I’ve done. The opportunity came out of the blue and I grasped it before it disappeared.’ With his gaze on where the baby lay warm and secure inside her, he added, ‘I’m not the only one with precious gifts to offer, am I?’
There was activity at the church as they drove by on their way home and they went in to find the vicar’s wife and helpers getting it ready for the coming season with holly and other fresh greenery gracing the window sills, a nativity scene at the front and a Christmas tree tastefully decorated at the end of one of the aisles.
As they exchanged cheerful greetings the vicar’s wife said, ‘We have just had Jenna and Lucas here, and if their baby arrives in time for the Sunday before Christmas, she’s going to let us place it in the crib when we do the nativity play. Won’t that be lovely?’
Ethan was laughing as they left the church and when she asked what the joke was he said, ‘I can’t see Lucas being happy about his newborn lying in that old crib. It’s been around for years gathering dust. If the baby arrives in time, just watch—it will be in its mother’s arms instead of the crib.’
The first of the children that Jenna had promised Lucas on their wedding night was due a couple of weeks before Christmas, so therewas a chance that it might be the star performer in the nativity play, with its mother taking second place dressed in the familiar blue robes that came out of storage each year for the event.
After much discussion Francine had persuaded Ethan to agree to them keeping the house in Bluebell Cove for coast and countryside breaks amongst old friends and acquaintances. He had been of a mind to sell it and make a clean break, but she had reasoned that although they were moving to France, a part of all four of them, him in particular, would always belong in Devon.
He’d originally wondered if Harry would be interested in either buying or renting their house, but before he’d had the chance to mention it to him the other man had asked if either of the apartments above the surgery was vacant and when Ethan had told him that one of them was, having not yet approached Leo about it, Harry had said that would suit him fine.
When he’d told Francine about the arrangement she’d said, ‘But weren’t you going to offer it to Leo after agreeing that Phoebe could rent the other one?’
‘Yes, I was,’ he’d replied, ‘but he seems happy enough where he is for now. Harry does need to have somewhere he can move into straight away when he arrives and both apartmentsare furnished. I don’t want to leave any loose ends when we’ve gone.’
If Christmas hadn’t been in the offing, the days would have dragged to the birth of their child, which would be followed by their exodus across the Channel. But there was so much to do getting ready for the festivities and planning the next two big events in their lives that December seemed to be moving along fast, and as each day came Francine thought thankfully how different this Christmas was going to be from the last when she’d arrived without invitation, desperate to see her children and facing a new year that had held little promise of peace between Ethan and herself.
But the love they had for each other had triumphed in the end and brought reason and understanding into their lives. One day soon she was going to thank Barbara for her farsightedness and understanding. With the shrewdness that was so much a part of her she’d shown the two men that she cared for deeply the way ahead for each of them.
Jenna had given birth to a beautiful little girl they’d named Lily and been home from hospital a couple of days later, which had meant that the vicar’s wife was going to get her wish on the Sunday before Christmas Day. A real live baby for the nativity scene held in her mother’s arms instead of lying in the crib, as Ethan had prophesied.
It would soon be their time for rejoicing, Francine had thought that day as they’d walked home from the church, and tuning into her thoughts Ethan had said, ‘Our cup runneth over, doesn’t it?’
‘It does indeed,’ she’d replied.
There’d been the dancing through the village on Christmas Eve again, though now they were onlookers instead of part of the throng. It was followed by the Enderbys’ ball at Wheatlands Farm and it was there that Francine found the opportunity to speak to Barbara when the other woman was alone for a moment.
‘Thank you for making it possible for Ethan to resign from the practice with an easy mind Dr, Balfour,’ she said. ‘I’m so happy I can’t believe it, though I do wonder how much he’s hurting inside.’
Barbara’s wintry smile came into view. ‘He was hurting more when he was without you,’ she said, and thought if anyone was hurting it was herself, but only she knew that.
As Christmas Day had passed with contentment on all sides Francine and Ethan were not to know that the road to happiness had an unexpected diversion ahead that was going to throw them way off track.
It was on the morning of Boxing Day when Francine started with early labour pains while the children were still asleep and she and Ethan were having breakfast. She gave a sudden gasp of pain and he was by her side in an instant.
‘What is it?’ he asked urgently.
‘It is gone now, but it was like a contraction,’ she told him. ‘Maybe it will come again but I hope not. It is too early, Ethan, three weeks too early. The other two were late so it can’t be. Aagh! It is there again.’
‘Those are pretty fast contractions if they’re labour pains.’ he said. ‘I’m taking you to the maternity unit at Hunter’s Hill, Francine. We’ll see what they have to say.
‘Let’s go. I’ll pop upstairs to tell Kirstie and Ben what’s happening and to stay put until they hear from us, and will bring your case down. Having it ready packed was a good idea.’
‘I’m not sure if it was or not,’ she commented glumly as they drove along deserted roads towards the town. ‘Maybe I’ve wished this on myself by being too organised, or perhaps we shouldn’t have been taking it for granted that nothing could touch us now.’ As another contraction gripped her she subsided into silence.
Ethan was observing her anxiously. The sooner they got to the hospital the better. At that moment Francine cried, ‘It is coming, Ethan! We are not going to get there in time.’ He increased speed.
At that moment a cruising police car stopped in front of them and pulled him over. ‘You were speeding, sir,’ one of the uniformed officers told him. What’s the rush?’
‘This is the rush!’ he cried, pointing to Francine. ‘My wife is going to give birth any second and I’m going to need your assistance.’
‘What? To deliver it?’ the policeman said, taking a step back at the thought.
Ethan was helping Francine into the back seat and laying her gently across the cushions to examine her and he called over his shoulder, ‘No. I’m going to take charge of the delivery. I’m a doctor.’
‘OK,’ was the reply. ‘Just tell us what you want us to do and we’ll do it.’
He saw immediately that she was right. The baby’s head was already visible. ‘Please tell me I can push!’ she begged. ‘I don’t think I can hang on any longer.’
He was grabbing a towel that they always kept on the ledge above the back seat in case any of them went into the sea unprepared, and putting it in position he said gently. ‘Push as hard as you like, Francine.’
She did and seconds later he told her, ‘We have a son, Francine. Henri has arrived.’
‘Is he all right?’ she asked anxiously. ‘The speed of his arrival hasn’t hurt him?’
‘He is perfect,’ he assured her. ‘And now we need to get you to hospital. The placenta needs to come away, but hopefully it will wait until we get there.’
‘Let me see him first,’ she said, and he held up a crying infant for her to feast her eyes on, and then wrapped him in the towel.
They were in the delivery room at the hospital after following the police car with its siren blaring in the peaceful Boxing Day morning. Staff had been waiting for them after receiving a message from the two officers to say that a mother and newborn baby were on their way.
Henri had been cleaned up by one of the nurses and the obstetrician in charge had declared him to be the equivalent of full term with his arrival having been so near the due date, but they would keep a close watch on him for any signs of distress.
The placenta had come away easily enough and all would have been well except for one thing. Francine was bleeding heavily. There was cause for alarm.
‘It would seem that we have a postpartum haemorrhage here,’ the obstetrician said. ‘It could be due to a tear where the placenta was attached to the uterus, or because the uterus isn’t contracting as it should be after the delivery. Or it could be because part of the placenta is still attached to the womb. Whatever the cause, your wife is going to need a transfusion and is going down to Theatre while we sort out what the problem is.’
Ethan nodded mutely. They were in the middle of a ghastly nightmare he thought as he looked down at Francine’s pale face. There was fear in the beautiful green eyes looking up into his, but her voice was calm as she said, ‘Take care of our children, Ethan, if anything happens to me.’
He took her hand in his and, kissing her soft palm, said, ‘That goes without saying, my darling, but they’re going to sort this out. Nothing is going to happen to you. It can’t be allowed to. I won’t let it.’
Before she could reply her bed was being wheeled towards the corridor and speechless with anxiety he walked beside it for as far as he could then stood back helplessly as they took her into the theatre.
When he arrived back on the maternity unit, Kirstie and Ben were gazing in wonder at the baby. Lucas had brought them, having seen their parents’ hurried departure and gone to investigate, and they were wanting to know whether it was a boy or a girl as there were no visible signs to indicate its sex. He managed a smile and told them, ‘You have a little brother.’
‘Wow!’ Ben cried, while Kirstie beamed her delight. She wasn’t bothered either way as long as it was a baby to cuddle. But Kirstie being Kirstie, she wanted to know, ‘So, where is Mum?’
‘She’s with the doctor and won’t be long,’ he told her, not meeting his daughter’s clear gaze.
‘What’s wrong?’ Lucas asked in a low voice when she’d turned away. ‘You look like death.’
‘Francine is haemorrhaging,’ he told him raggedly. ‘They’ve taken her down to Theatre to try and find the cause.’
His friend observed him sombrely. ‘That’s not good. When the children have had their fill of gazing at the baby I’ll take them home to our place for as long as need be.’
‘Thanks,’ he choked, and wondered how long ‘need be’ might turn out to be.
Lucas and the children had gone, reluctantly on Ben and Kirstie’s part, but there was no way Ethan wanted them to be there when Francine came out of Theatre. He didn’t know how she would be, what state she would be in, and Kirstie in particular would be heart-broken to see her seriously ill.
When they’d departed he settled himself to wait, seated beside the baby’s cot in a small side ward. As he looked down at his newborn son he thought achingly that the little red faced scrap lying there had no idea what his unexpected arrival had caused.
The minutes ticked by, each one like an hour, and it was as if everything else in his life was far away. Bluebell Cove, the practice, Paris and the elegant house that they’d been hoping to move into soon were all minor matters compared to what was happening to Francine.
It was incredible that having been without a single problem all the time she’d been pregnant, this should happen, he thought grimly. Yet postpartum haemorrhagewas known to occur after a birth. It was always serious. Before improved methods of treatment had been introduced it had often resulted in the death of the mother.
The waiting came to an end in the early afternoon when the consultant obstetrician appeared and informed him that Francine was out of Theatre and in the high-dependency unit.
‘And the bleeding?’ Ethan asked.
‘Hopefully sorted,’ he said. ‘There was a tear where the placenta had been attached to the uterus, and when that had been dealt with under general anaesthetic, the haemorrhaging stopped. Your wife has lost a lot of blood but the transfusions we’ve given her will replace that. You can go to see her whenever you like.’
He looked down at the baby and said, ‘So this is the little guy who is the cause of all the trouble? Still, I bet if I asked his mother how she felt about it she would say it was all worth it as long as he’s arrived safely.’
‘You are right about that,’ Ethan told him as his nerves began to feel not quite so knotted, and they went down to the high-dependency unit together, leaving a nurse in charge of little Henri.
Francine was still under the anaesthetic when they got there and as he gazed down at the woman he loved, who had been more concerned about her children than herself when in dire distress, tears choked him.
Thankfully the skills of people like themselves who cared about the well-being of others had brought her back from the brink of something too unbearable to contemplate. Soon she would be coming out of the an-aesthetic with the bleeding controlled and her life saved because she’d been in the right place at the right time.
In keeping with that sentiment, the obstetrician was saying, ‘We will be keeping both mother and baby in until I’m satisfied that your wife is recovering without any further complications. There shouldn’t be any as the tear from where the placenta separated from the uterus has been repaired, along with a smaller tear of the cervix, and if the baby is here with her, it will be convenient for her to breastfeed him if she feels well enough once she moves to the maternity ward.’
His buzzer was bleeping. ‘I have to go, I’m afraid, Dr Lomax, but rest assured I’ll be keeping an eye on them both.’ And before Ethan could express his heartfelt thanks, he was striding off to whatever awaited him next.
‘The baby, Ethan, is he all right?’ were Francine’s first slurred words as she tried to focus on him when she came round after the anaesthetic.
‘He’s fine,’ he told her gently. ‘They’re going to bring him to you in a little while.’
‘Have the children seen him yet?’
‘Yes, Lucas brought them and now he’s taken them home with him. I’ve kept what was happening in Theatre from them. They’ve stopped the bleeding. Itwas caused by a tear when the placenta came away.’
‘So what happens now?’ she wanted to know. ‘Will they let me go home?’
‘Not just yet. They will be keeping you in for a few days until they’re satisfied you’re back to normal and that there will be no risk of any further bleeding, which is unlikely now that the problem has been dealt with. And Henri will be with you soon.
‘Bringing him into the world in the back of the car was a nightmare, but seeing him appear whole and healthy was fantastic. What a Christmas present! He might have been a day late with it—after all gifts had been given—but we can forgive him that, can’t we?’
‘We can forgive him anything, anything at all,’ she said weakly, and as another doctor appeared at that moment and the screens were pulled around the bed, Ethan held her hand while the medic examined her.
When he’d finished he gave a satisfied nod and told them that soon she would be moved to the ward and in a few days’ time another scan would be done to make sure that all was well before she was sent home.
Lucas came back with the children shortly after she’d been moved to the ward and when he saw her lying there with the baby in a basinet beside her he said, ‘Thank God, Francine! This poor guy has been going out of his mind with anxiety, and I’ve never seen my mother-in-law so distraught before.’
‘Barbara might have engineered it so you could all move to France, Ethan, but you are still her blue-eyed boy, and I think everyone in Bluebell Cove must have been on the phone after I got home from here this morning, wanting to know how Francine was.’
She flashed Ethan a tired smile. ‘I had to come through it. I couldn’t leave you free to marry Phoebe.’ And as Lucas observed them questioningly they laughed at what he decided must be a private joke.
It was evening, the children had gone home with Lucas once more as the nurses on the ward had said that their patient needed rest and quiet for twenty-four hours, and only Ethan remained beside the bed.
Francine was sleeping normally and one of the night nurses came up and said, ‘Why don’t you go home for a few hours, Dr. Lomax? It is what your wife would want you to do, get some rest.’ After being given a promise that they would be in touch immediately if any problems should arise, he did what she’d suggested and went home.
When he arrived back in Bluebell Cove he didn’t go to collect Ben and Kirstie straight away and didn’t switch on any lights. He needed a few moments to himself and stood looking out of the window into the dark night, letting the quietness of the empty rooms calm his shattered nerves.
He could see the lights twinkling on the big Christmas tree in the square and it seemed incredible that it was still there, that the season wasn’t over and New Year had yet to come. It was as if he’d been on another planet ever since Francine had felt that first contraction.
The last twenty-four hours had shown him beyond doubt that happiness was not to be taken for granted, no matter how hard it had been to come by, and he sat down and wept at the thought of how nearly it had been lost to them.
Take care of our children, Francine had begged when she hadn’t been sure what lay ahead. He would care for them all with humble gratitude for the rest of his life, he thought. Nothing would ever change that, and with his composure returning and the nightmare of the last two days receding he switched on the lights, closed the curtains and decided that the three of them were going to have an early night so that he could be at the hospital promptly the next morning. Satisfied that things were definitely on the up, he went to collect his two elder children from the house next door.
Before he called it a day he rang Leo at the guest house. The surgery was due to reopen the following morning after the Christmas break and Ethan just wanted a quick word to put him in the picture with what was happening in his life as at the moment the practice seemed far away.
After receiving Leo’s assurances that he was all geared up for whatever the coming morning brought at the surgery, and answering his concerns regarding Francine, Ethan went slowly up the stairs to bed.
EPILOGUE
FRANCINE and the baby were home. Henri was thriving and she was gradually recovering from the biggest scare she’d ever had. Kirstie was displaying nursing skills far beyond her years. Ben hovered awkwardly and disappeared fast when it was time for the baby to be changed, but kept going to look at him when no one was around, while Ethan was in a constant state of thankfulness as he watched over them all.
It was that same thankfulness that made him tell Francine what had been in his mind ever since he’d brought her home from hospital with little Henri.
She was propped up against the pillows in the middle of the night, feeding him, and Ethan was beside her with his arm around her shoulders when he said, ‘There is something I’d like us to do before we leave here, Francine.’
‘What?’ she asked, smiling across at him, and he thought tenderly that neither of them had stopped smiling since she’d opened her eyes that day at the hospital.
When he didn’t reply she asked laughingly, ‘Do you want us to arrange to have a band playing ìLa Marseillaiseî when we board the plane, or request that the French President to be there to greet us when we arrive at the other end?’
‘No,’ he replied, laughing with her, ‘though I won’t say that the occasion doesn’t warrant it.’ Serious now, he explained, ‘If you are agreeable, I’d like us to take our wedding vows again. You were always precious to me beyond compare and since I nearly lost you I feel as if I have to tell the world how much I love you. So what do you say, Francine?’
‘I say yes, of course,’ she said softly, and wondered if anyone in the medical encyclopaedias had ever burst with happiness. ‘Suppose you ask the vicar if we can renew our vows during the last service of our time here?’
‘Will I be able to be a bridesmaid?’ Kirstie wanted to know, and was disappointed to hear that it wasn’t that sort of occasion but that they were asking everyone back to the house afterwards for a celebration.
That made the event sound more appealing to the would-be bridesmaid and as Kirstie’s thoughts veered in another direction she decided that it would be a good opportunity to show everyone how good she was at looking after little Henri.
Typical of Ben, he saw it merely as an occasion where there would be lots of food to eat, while dodging being patted on the head by elderly ladies, and hoped that some of his friends would be there.
When consulted, the vicar had said he was delighted to agree to their request and in the discussion that had followed they’d arranged for Henri’s christening to follow the renewal of their wedding vows on the Sunday morning before they flew to France on the following day.
Jenna and Lucas had been asked to be his godparents, even though the two families would be separated by distance, but as they all agreed, France wasn’t that far away and they would visit whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Harry had been in touch with Barbara again and also with Ethan. It seemed that there were some last-minute problems regarding the sale of his property that he didn’t want to leave unsorted before leaving Australia and he wouldn’t be arriving in Devon to take over the practice until a couple of days after they’d left.
It was a disappointment as Ethan had been looking forward to meeting him again and wanted to leave Bluebell Cove with the knowledge that the new doctor was already in place.
But at least Harry hadn’t changed his mind—in fact, he seemed keener than ever—and once their French flight was airborne that would be it, the end of an era as far as he was concerned.
One evening when the children were out and they had the place to themselves, apart from Henri sleeping peacefully in his cot, Francine said, ‘I sometimes wake up and think us going to live in France is just a dream.’
‘It is no dream,’ he told her softly. ‘It is meant to be. I never thought it could be until the day that Barbara told me that Harry was coming back and everything fell into place. I can be a doctor in France just as here, so that’s no problem, and if your mum and dad are looking down on us, they’ll be highly delighted to know that, much as they liked Bluebell Cove, we are moving into their house, with me practising medicine French style, the children going to French schools, and the daughter they loved alive, well and content.’
‘I don’t deserve you,’ she choked.
‘Agreed. You deserve someone better,’ he told her whimsically.
‘That could be difficult,’ she told him from the circle of his arms, ‘because you are the best.’
The church was full on the January morning when they went to renew their marriage vows and have their child baptised. For Francine and Ethan the two ceremonies taking place at the end of their time in Bluebell Cove would create a bond that would never be broken, an occasion that would always have a special place in their hearts.
As they stepped forward to face the vicar, passing Henri to a proud Kirstie while they renewed their vows, there was total silence in the old village church for a few seconds then the bells began to ring out, as Ethan had arranged they should, and as they pealed joyfully up above in the bell tower the two of them, looking into each other’s eyes, repeated the words they had said on their wedding day.
It had been a long time ago. They’d been head over heels in love then, and that same love was there still, stronger than before because it had been tested and tried more than they could ever have thought it would be, and it had triumphed.
Behind them Jenna was carefully relieving Kirstie of the baby in readiness for the christening, and Lucas was passing their beautiful little Lily to a proud Keith while he fulfilled his role as godfather to Henri. And there was a surprise for Ethan’s grumpy father, sitting in a pew near the front with his patient wife, when the baby was baptised Henri Lawrence Lomax.
Back at the house where a meal had been laid on the atmosphere was a mixture of happiness and sorrow. A lot of people were going to miss Ethan Lomax and his family, not least Barbara who had actually been seen to wipe a tear from her eye, and no matter how good a doctor her nephew Harry was, the general feeling was that his predecessor was going to be a hard act to follow.
They were flying to France the following day and various crates containing household articles would be following them, but the furniture and curtains would be staying in position as there was a fully furnished house awaiting them at the other end.
When all the people who had joined them after the church service had left, Francine and Ethan left the baby with his grandparents and went for a last walk along the seashore. There was a winter sunset on the horizon and the feel of snow in the air, and as they walked with arms entwined Barbara watched them from her sitting-room window and a smile replaced the tears of earlier in the day.
The next morning at the airport there was a crowd to wave them off, Jenna and Lucas with Lily, Barbara and Keith Balfour, all the staff from the surgery, the Enderbys, Charlotte the headmistress, Ronnie and his family. Meredith from the guest house was also there, and many more villagers who were feeling the same as Ethan was, that it was the end of an era with a new beginning in view.
When they reached the top of the walkway that led to the inside of the plane, with Kirstie and Ben leading the way and Ethan bringing up the rear with Henri in his arms, Francine turned to him and said in a low voice, ‘This is it, Ethan. We’ll be airborne very soon—are you sure you want this? There is still time to change your mind.’
‘Yes, I am sure,’ he told her gently. ‘I’m sure that this is the way we were meant to go. What do I have to do to convince you, Francine? Shout it from the top of the Arc de Triomphe or wear a beret? Come here while I kiss you into believing me.’
And as he did just that there was a round of applause from the cabin crew and they took the first step into their new lives.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий