A Baby for the Village Doctor
(A book in the Willowmere Village Stories series)
(2009)
A novel by
Abigail Gordon
Pregnant wife, spring bride
GP Georgina Adams is expecting her baby very soon. What she doesn't expect is for the baby's
father to arrive first!
After what happened between her and her ex-husband, handsome surgeon Ben Allardyce. Georgina
escaped to the idyllic sanctuary of Willowmere. Now Ben has sought her out, and is stunned to
realise Georgina is pregnant - the result of a moment of comfort between them seven months ago.
He's not about to leave her - or his child -• when they need him most. Convinced that their marriage
was meant to be. Ben is determined to make Georgina his beautiful spring bride - all over again.
'You're pregnant!'
'Yes', she said softly. 'With our baby. Maybe you recall an afternoon in August?'
Recall it, he thought raggedly. He would never forget it as long as he lived. The softness of her in
his arms again, his mouth on hers, her desire matching his. Hope had been born in him that day.
It was why he was here, in the place where Georgina had made a new life for herself—a life that
she was making it clear he wasn't included in. But nothing she said could take away the joy of
knowing that those moments of madness were going to bring a new life into the world—their child.
IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND IRENE SWARBRICK
CHAPTER ONE
It was a bright spring morning but as Georgina Adams drove along the rough track that led to the
gamekeeper's cottage on the Derringham Estate she was oblivious to what was going on around her.
April was just around the corner and daffodils and narcissi were making bright splashes of colour in
cottage gardens. Fresh green shoots were appearing in hedgerows and fields where lambs covered
in pale wool tottered on straight little legs beside their mothers.
On a normal day she would have been entranced by the sights around her but today the beauty of
the countryside in spring wasn't registering.
The only new life that Georgina was aware of was the one she was carrying inside her. She was
pregnant and though there was joy in knowing that she was going to have a child, there were clouds
in her sky.
Ben had never replied to the letter she'd sent, explaining that they needed to talk, and that she would
travel to London to see him if he would let her know when it would be convenient. The weeks were
going by and he didn't know about the baby.
She'd only written the once, and it had been very difficult, agonising over what to say and how to
say it, because she wanted to tell him that he was going to be a father again face to face. He was
entitled to know that he'd made her pregnant, and she needed to be there to see his reaction.
In the end she'd written just a few bald sentences, sealed the envelope before she changed her mind,
and gone straight away to post it to an address that she knew as well as she knew her own name. He
hadn't replied, and it was now beginning to look as if that was the end of it.
The fact that the baby's father didn't know she was pregnant was the biggest cloud in her sky, but
the hurt and loss from over three years ago had never gone away. Remembering how Ben had been
then, it wasn't altogether surprising that he hadn't been in touch, but she did wish he had.
Half of the time she was gearing herself up for the role of single parent and for the rest she was
battling with the longing to have Ben beside her as she awaited the birth of their second child.
At almost eight months pregnant there was no way of concealing it and she was conscious all the
time of the curious stares of those she came into contact with. She'd lived alone since she'd joined
the village medical practice three years ago as its only woman doctor and had kept her private life
strictly under wraps.
To her colleagues at the practice, her patients and the friends she'd made since settling in the
Cheshire village of Willowmere, Georgina was pleasant and caring, but that was as far as it went.
The only person locally who knew anything about what was going on in her life was James Bartlett,
who was in charge of village health care and lived next door to the surgery with his two children.
He had told her that if she ever needed a friend, she could rely on him, and had left it at that. James
hadn't asked who the father of her baby was, but she knew he would have seen her around the
village with Nicholas during the weeks leading up to Christmas and it would have registered that
he'd not been on the scene since the New Year.
Soon she and James would have to discuss her future role in the practice, but before that happened,
replacements were required for two staff members who had recently gone to work in Africa.
When she stopped the car outside the grace-and-favour cottage of the woman she'd come to visit,
the husband came striding out, dressed in a waterproof jacket with boots on his feet, a cap on his
head and to complete the outfit he had a gun tucked under his arm.
Dennis Quarmby was gamekeeper for Lord Derringham, who owned Kestrel Court, the biggest
residence in the area, and with it miles of the surrounding countryside. But at that moment the main
concern of the man approaching was not grouse or pheasants, or those who came to poach them on
his employer's estate.
His wife was far from well and on seeing that the lady doctor from the practice had arrived in
answer to an urgent request, he waited for her to get out of the car before going on his way.
'Our eldest girl is with the missus,' he told her, his anxiety revealed in his expression. 'I wanted to be
here when you came but Lord Derringham has just been on the phone to me because someone has
been breaking down the fences up on the estate and he wants me there right away. He rang off
before I could tell him I was waiting for a doctor to visit Christine. Her eyes and mouth are so dry
she's in real distress, and with the rheumatoid arthritis, as well, she's feeling very low.'
Georgina nodded. She'd seen Christine Quarmby a few times recently and on one occasion had had
to tell her that she was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Now there was this and there could be a
connection that had serious implications.
When she went inside the cottage, the gamekeeper's wife said, 'Has my husband been telling you
my tale of woe, Doctor? He does worry about me, though I have to admit I'm struggling at the
moment. I'm having trouble swallowing, as well as everything else that is wrong with me.'
It was clear that the glands that produce tears and saliva weren't working, Georgina thought, in
keeping with some sort of autoimmune disorder. But it required the opinion of a neurologist before
she prescribed any medication and she told Christine, 'I'm going to make you an appointment to see
a neurologist and the rheumatologist that you saw when we were trying to sort out the rheumatoid
arthritis. We'll see what they come up with.'
'I know someone who has the lupus thing,' Christine said. 'You don't think it's that, do you, Doctor?'
'I wouldn't like to make a guess at this stage,' she told her, surprised that her patient had been
thinking along the same lines. 'I'll ask for an urgent appointment and we'll take it from there.'
As she was leaving, Dennis returned and announced that as soon as he'd informed his employer that
his wife was ill, he'd told him to forget the fences and come home.
'Christine will tell you what we've discussed, Mr Quarmby,' Georgina told him, 'and in the
meantime send for me again if she gets any worse.'
'I'll do that, all right,' he promised. 'She plays everything down, having been made to suffer in
silence when there was anything wrong with her when she was a kid, and thinks she shouldn't
complain, which is not the case when there's anything wrong with me. I do that much moaning,
everybody knows.'
'Yes, well, look after her. She needs some tender loving care,' she told him. 'I'm sending Christine to
see two of the consultants at St Gabriel's and hopefully we'll have a clearer picture of what is wrong
when she's been seen by them.'
When she returned to the practice in the main street of the village, it felt strange, as it had done for
days with Anna and Glenn no longer there. Anna Bartlett was James's sister and had been one of the
practice nurses.
On a snowy day in January she had married Glenn Hamilton, who'd been working at the surgery as
a temporary locum, and in early March the newlyweds had gone to Africa to work with one of the
aid programmes out there, before returning to Willowmere to settle down permanently.
They needed to be replaced and soon, or she and James would be overwhelmed by the demand for
their services, and though she intended working until the baby was due, she would need time off
afterwards. So some new faces were going to be needed around the surgery without delay.
It was lunchtime and James was having a quick bite when she appeared. 'The kettle has just boiled,'
he told her. 'How did you find Christine Quarmby?'
Her expression was grave. 'Not too good, I'm afraid. There is something very worrying about her
symptoms. Christine thinks she might have lupus, which as we know has connections with
rheumatoid arthritis, and she could be right, though I do hope not. I'm referring her back to the
rheumatologist she saw before and am going to arrange for her to see a neurologist, as well.'
'Hmm, there isn't much else you can do at this point,' he agreed. 'By the way, Georgina, I'm
interviewing this evening for another doctor and a practice nurse. Beth Jackson is struggling single-
handed in the nurses' room, and we haven't yet had anyone come in as another partner since the gap
that was left when my father died.
'I would have liked Glenn to become permanent. He was an excellent doctor, like yourself, but it
didn't work out that way. Do you want to sit in on the interviews, or will you have had enough by
the end of afternoon surgery?'
'I'll give it a miss, if you don't mind,' she told him,
'unless you especially want me to be there.' She gave a wry smile, 'I'll be the next one to cause
staffing problems, but not until after the baby is born.'
'Don't you worry about that,' he said. 'Just take care of yourself, Georgina. With regard to the
interviews, I'll bring you up to date with what's gone on in the morning, so go and put your feet up
when the surgery closes. It's only a fortnight to Easter. Why don't you go away for a few days?'
'I'll think about it,' she promised, and made a pot of tea to have with the sandwich she'd bought at
the bakery across the road.
'How many applicants have you had for the two vacancies?' she questioned as he prepared to go
back to his duties.
'There have been quite a few. I've sifted out the ones that sounded suitable and once the children are
asleep, I'll be coming back for the interviews. Their daytime nanny finishes at half past six, which
coincides with the end of my time here under normal circumstances, but Helen, my housekeeper,
has offered to be there for Pollyanna and Jolyon tonight.'
When Georgina let herself into the cottage on a quiet lane at the far end of the village, it still felt
empty without the lively presence of Nicholas. It had been nice to have her ex-husband's brother
around for a while.
He'd been based in the United States since just after she and Ben had divorced. The offer of a job in
aerodynamics that he'd long coveted had come up and he'd been torn between taking it and staying
to help them sort out their lives. Both of them had insisted that his future mattered more than theirs
and he'd gone, though reluctantly.
Nick had been back a few times and stayed with them both alternately. He'd done the same this last
time when he'd come over to Manchester to arrange the U.K. side of the firm that employed him in
Texas, staying with her during the week and spending his weekends with his brother in London as
part of a situation where she and Ben never made any contact.
If she had ever felt the necessity to get in touch, as was now the case, Georgina knew where Ben
could be found. It was she who had moved out of the house in a leafy London square all that time
ago. A house where, in that other life, the two of them had lived blissfully with Jamie, their sixyear-
old son.
Jamie. It had been losing him that had taken the backbone out of their marriage and, like other
loving parents before them, tragedy hadn't brought them closer, it had driven them apart.
She knew that Nicholas hated the situation he found himself in with the two people he cared for
most in the world, yet he wasn't a go-between. Georgina had made him promise that he would never
divulge her whereabouts to Ben without her permission. Even though she knew Ben was the last
person who would come looking for her after all they had been through.
As she made a meal of sorts, Georgina was remembering how Nicholas had taken her to
Willowmere's Mistletoe Ball in the marquee on the school sports ground, and he'd gone with her to
the gathering at James's house on Christmas Eve when Anna and Glenn had announced their
engagement. So she supposed the senior partner at the practice could be forgiven if he had Nicholas
down as the father of her baby.
It had been August when something she'd not been prepared for had happened. She'd been at
Jamie's graveside, taking the wrapping off the white roses that she always brought with her, when a
voice had said from behind, 'Hello, Georgina.'
She'd turned slowly and he'd been there, Ben Allardyce, her ex-husband, the father of the cherished
child they'd lost.
He'd looked older, greying at the temples, and the emptiness that had never left his eyes after Jamie
had been taken from them had still been there in the gaze meeting hers. As she'd faced him, like a
criminal caught in the act, she'd known that no other man would ever hold her heart as Ben had.
Nicholas had told her that Ben knew she visited the grave, but during all the time they'd been apart
she'd never come across him until that day which had also been Jamie's birthday.
She'd turned back to the labour of love that had brought her there and was arranging the flowers
with careful hands on the white marble of their memorial to their son.
When it was done and she'd straightened up and faced him again, he'd said, 'Nicholas tells me he's
coming to the U.K. in October and is going to be here three months. It will be good to see
something of him.'
'Yes, it will,' she answered awkwardly, like a schoolgirl in front of the head teacher.
'Do you want to come back to the house for a drink before you drive back to wherever you've come
from?' he asked in the same flat tone as when he'd greeted her. She observed him warily. 'It was just
a thought,' he explained, and she wanted to weep because of the great divide that separated them.
'Yes, all right,' she heard a voice say, and couldn't believe it was hers. She turned back to the grave
once more and dropped a kiss on the headstone, as she always did when leaving, and when she
lifted her head, he was striding towards his car.
'You know the way, of course,' he said as she approached her own vehicle. She nodded, and without
further comment from either of them they drove to the house that had once been their family home.
As she stepped inside, the sadness of what it had become hit her like a sledgehammer. The room
began to spin and he caught her in his arms as she slumped towards him.
She rallied almost as soon as he'd reached out for her, but Ben didn't relax his hold. They were so
close she felt his breath on her face as he said, 'You need to rest a while.' Picking her up in his arms,
he carried her to the sofa in the sitting room and laid her on it.
When she tried to raise herself into a sitting position he told her, 'Stay where you are. I'll make some
tea. A brandy would be the ideal thing but as you're driving...'
After he'd gone into the kitchen she looked around her and saw that nothing had changed in the
place that had once been her home. Furniture, carpets, ornaments were all the same as she'd left
them, and she thought numbly that it was them who had changed, Ben and herself, heartbreakingly
and irrevocably.
Jamie had been taken from them in a tragic accident, and with his going their ways of grieving had
not been the same. Hers had taken the form of a great sadness that she'd borne in silence, while Ben
had been filled with anger at what he saw as the injustice of it, and it had turned him into someone
she didn't recognise.
Instead of comforting each other, they had become suffering strangers and in the end, unable to bear
it any longer, she'd asked for a divorce. Still fighting his despair, he'd agreed.
He'd offered her the house but she'd said no as it wasn't a home to her any more. She'd packed her
bags and gone to take up a position as a GP in a pretty Cheshire village that was far away from the
horror of those months after Jamie had drowned.
When Ben came back with the tea he put the cup and saucer down and, with his arm around her
shoulders, bent to raise her upright. 'I never expected to see you actually here in the house again
when I set off for the cemetery.'
'Neither did I,' she murmured, and as she looked up at him their gazes met and held, mirroring
sadness, pain, confusion...and something else.
There was no sense or reason in what happened next. He bent and kissed her and after the first
amazed moment she kissed him back, and then it became urgent,
a tidal wave of emotion sweeping them along, and they made love on the sofa on a surreal August
afternoon.
When it was over, he watched without speaking as she flung on her clothes, and when she rushed
out of the house and into her car, he made no attempt to follow her.
It wasn't until after Nicholas had come to stay that Georgina had realised she was pregnant. She'd
been feeling off colour for a while, nauseous and lightheaded, but busy as ever at the practice hadn't
thought much of missing her monthly cycle as she had always been irregular, initially putting it
down to stress.
All the signs had been there—tender breasts, tiredness, morning sickness—and she'd faced up to it
with a mixture of dawning wonder and dismay while carefully concealing it from her house guest. It
hadn't been too difficult as, although she'd been five months along by the time he'd returned to
America in the New Year, she'd barely shown at the time. Even James hadn't realised until she'd
told him. Now, however, at eight months, her bump was there for all to see.
Knowing Nicholas, he would have felt he had to tell Ben if he'd found out about the baby, she'd
thought, and she'd needed time to adjust to the situation that had come upon her so suddenly. Every
time she thought about the wild, senseless passion that they'd given in to on that August afternoon,
she wanted to weep. They'd lost a child born in love and gentleness. Under what circumstances had
this one been conceived— loneliness, opportunism?
As the weeks had passed, the knowledge that she wasn't being fair to Ben had pressed down on her
like a leaden weight until the night she'd written the letter. After that she'd felt better, and had begun
the ritual of watching out for the postman every morning, but there'd been no reply.
She could have called him. It might have been easier. But she was afraid that she might give herself
away on the phone, and she just had to tell him face to face. No matter how they'd parted after
losing Jamie.
It had been Jamie's attachment to his football that had sent him careering over the edge of the
riverbank. The ball had started to roll down the slope where she'd parked the car for the two of them
to have a picnic.
She'd turned away to lift a folding chair out of the boot, and as she'd been erecting it had seen him,
oblivious to danger and ignoring her warning to keep away from the edge, running towards the
swollen river.
It had all happened in a matter of seconds and as she'd flung herself down the slope after him and
shrieked for him to stop, he hadn't heard her above the noise of the fast-flowing water.
She'd nearly lost her life trying to save their son and when she'd been dragged half-dead from the
river to discover that she was going to have to carry on living without him, she'd wished that she'd
died, too.
Ben gazed at the letter in his hand. Each time Nicholas had visited since that August afternoon, he
had asked him where he could find Georgina, but he'd reluctantly refused to tell, explaining that
she'd made him promise never to pass on that information.
It hadn't been hard to believe when Ben recalled how she'd never come near the house apart from
that one time when he'd found her at Jamie's grave. Whenever he'd seen fresh white roses on it he'd
known that she'd been just a stone's throw away from the home they'd shared together, and the
despair that had become more of a dull ache than the raw wound it had been during those first awful
months would wash over him.
He'd thought bleakly that what had happened between them on the day he'd caught her unawares in
the cemetery hadn't seemed to have made Georgina relent at all, and if Nicholas wasn't prepared to
break his word to her, it was going to be stalemate.
On his last night in London his young brother had asked, 'Why are you so keen to find Georgina
after all this time?' And because there had been no way he was going to tell him what had
happened, Ben had fobbed him off by telling him that some insurance in both their names had
matured.
That had been in early January, and when Nicholas had flown back home Ben had gone to work in
Scandinavia for a short while. He'd always been somewhat of a workaholic, even before their
marriage had broken up, getting a lot of satisfaction out of helping sick children and being able to
give Georgina and Jamie some of the good things in life at the same time.
When their life together had foundered after losing their son he'd immersed himself in his work
more and more, and had spent less and less time at home. Without Jamie it wasn't a home any more.
When Georgina had asked for a divorce he'd agreed, because he'd felt their life together was over.
They'd had no comfort to offer each other—he, because of the terrible bitterness inside him, and she
because she felt responsible for what had happened.
But that day in August he'd discovered that their feelings weren't dead. There was still a spark there.
It had been sweet anguish making love to the only woman he'd ever wanted, and he wasn't going to
rest until he saw her again.
He'd gone to Scandinavia with less than his usual enthusiasm, because he was frustrated and
miserable to think that she'd come back into his life and given him hope and then disappeared into
the unknown once more.
Now he was home again, and amongst the mail that had accumulated during his absence was the
envelope with Georgina's handwriting on it. With heartbeat quickening, he opened the letter.
The brief communication inside said that she needed to talk to him as soon as possible, and it went
on to say that she would come to London if he wished. No way, he thought. He'd waited a long time
to find out where she'd gone, and now the opportunity was here.
She hadn't used the word urgent, but there was something about the wording of the letter that
conveyed it to him, and as the postmark on it was from weeks ago he immediately began planning
how quickly he could get to this Willowmere place in Cheshire.
Ben was freelance, and not attached to any particular hospital, so there were no arrangements to
make at his end. After a quick snack, and a phone call to arrange overnight accommodation at a
place in Willowmere called the Pheasant, he was ready for the off, warning the landlord that he
would be arriving in the early hours.
As she did on most evenings when she'd eaten, Georgina set off for a short stroll beside the river. A
heron, king of the birdlife, familiar to all the village folk, was perched motionless on its favourite
stone in the middle of the water when she got there, and she remembered how when she'd first
moved to Willowmere she'd had to steel herself to look at the Goyt as it skipped along its stony bed.
As the last rays of the sun turned the skyline to gold she felt the child inside her move and
wondered if it was going to be a son to follow the one they'd lost or a baby girl with the same dark
hair and eyes as her parents.
She knew that under normal circumstances Ben would be over the moon at the thought of another
child, but normal would have been as a brother or sister for Jamie and he was no longer with them.
They'd created a new life in those moments of wild abandon and it should be a source of joy for
them both, but as it stood now he knew nothing about it.
She saw that the lights were on in the surgery as she walked back to the cottage and brought her
thoughts back to the situation there. Would James find suitable replacements tonight for Anna and
Glenn?
After a bath and a hot drink, she was tucked up in bed half an hour later and thinking drowsily that
for half the population the night would only just be beginning, but tomorrow would be another busy
day for her and James.
She awoke in the early hours to the noise of a car pulling up on the quiet lane below, but didn't get
up to investigate. Instead she snuggled lower under the bedcovers with her eyes closed. The doors
were locked, the burglar alarm on. Whoever it might be, she was too sleepy to check them out.
As he'd driven through the Cheshire countryside, Ben had thought wryly that Georgina had
certainly intended to put some distance between them by coming here, and she'd also chosen a
beautiful place to come to.
He'd seen a lake glinting through trees in the light of a full moon as he'd approached the village, and
as he'd drawn nearer had seen that the main street was made up of cottages built from limestone
next to quaint shops that made the present-day supermarket seem an uninteresting place by
comparison.
He'd arrived earlier than expected, and had stopped briefly outside Georgina's cottage on a lane at
the end of the village after receiving directions from an elderly man.
The curtains were drawn, for which he'd been thankful, as it was hardly the hour to be calling. After
choking back the overwhelming feeling of regret for all the wasted years they'd spent, he'd driven
off into the night to find his accommodation.
Knowing as he did so that ever since he'd found Georgina in the cemetery and persuaded her to go
back to the house, then made love to her like some madman, he'd been aching to see her again.
Desperate to tell her how he regretted the way he'd behaved when they'd lost Jamie.
He'd been like someone demented and had vented his desolation on to her, as if she hadn't been
suffering, too. If he'd been in charge, the tragedy would never have happened, he'd told her at times
when he'd been at his lowest ebb, and it had been as if the love they'd shared had also died.
It hadn't been until in bitter despair she'd asked for a divorce and left because she'd been unable to
stand it any more that he'd faced up to what he'd done to her.
He'd given her the divorce, couldn't for shame not to after the way he'd behaved, and ever since then
had longed to have her back in his life. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was for forsaking her
when she'd needed him, for being so selfishly wrapped up in his own grief without a thought for
hers, and to explain how meeting her that day had brought all his longing to the surface in an
enormous wave of passion.
There'd always been amazing sexual chemistry between them, but after losing Jamie they'd never
made love, so estranged had they become. Now he was going to try to rebuild the marriage that had
crumbled, and maybe Georgina wanting to talk was a step in the right direction.
CHAPTER TWO
When Georgina looked through the window the next morning, there was no car to be seen so she
concluded it must have driven off after stopping for a moment.
After a shower and a nourishing breakfast she was ready to leave, and with the car already outside
from the previous day, she was about to slide into the driver's seat when she looked up and saw a
man walking towards her along the deserted lane.
He was tall and dark-haired with a trim physique. As he approached she stared at him in disbelief
and when he stopped at the bottom of her drive and said, 'Hello, Georgina,' in the same tone of
voice as on that day in August, her legs turned to jelly.
'So did you get my letter?' she croaked from behind the car door.
'Yes, but only a few hours ago,' he said evenly. 'It had been lying unopened behind my door for
weeks. I've been abroad recently. So what's the problem, Georgina? What do you want to talk to me
about?'
So far the car door was concealing her pregnancy but she couldn't stay behind it for ever, and with a
sudden desire to shatter his calm she pushed it shut. Looking down at her spreading waistline, she
said, 'I want to talk to you about this.'
It was Ben's turn to be dumbfounded. 'You're pregnant!' he gasped. 'Oh! My God! You're with
someone else! Why didn't Nick tell me?'
'Nicholas didn't tell you because there was nothing to tell,' she informed him steadily. 'He doesn't
know I'm pregnant, and as for the rest, there is no one else in my life. I am on my own and prefer it
that way. You are the one who has made me pregnant, Ben. Maybe you recall an afternoon in
August.'
Recall it! he thought raggedly. He would never forget it as long as he lived, the softness of her in
his arms again, his mouth on hers, her desire matching his. Hope had been born in him that day.
It was why he had come to the place where Georgina had made a new life for herself, hoping that
the matter she wanted to discuss was getting back together. Only here she was, carrying his child
and making it very clear she hadn't been having any such thoughts. Yet nothing she said could take
away the joy of knowing that those moments of madness were going to bring a new life into the
world, another child to cherish. It wouldn't ever replace Jamie in his heart, but there would be no
shortage of tenderness and love for this one.. .if he was given the chance.
'What happened that afternoon was the last thing I intended,' she told him as they faced each other
on the drive. 'Nothing was further from my mind, and now I'm carrying the result of what we did.'
'And you aren't happy about it?'
'Yes, of course I am. I'm happy that I'm going to have another child. It is a privilege I never
anticipated, but after losing Jamie and the dreadful aftermath, I'm not intending to change my
lifestyle as it is now, except for doing fewer hours at the practice maybe.'
'Fair enough,' he said evenly, stepping to one side as she slid behind the wheel. 'And is this baby
that you've been keeping to yourself going to get to know its father as it grows up?'
'If our lives had been as they were before we lost Jamie, it would have been ecstasy to tell you that I
was pregnant,' she said sadly. 'Because our child would have been conceived in love, like he was.
But it wasn't like that, was it? Too much water has flowed under the bridge since the days when we
lived for each other and him.'
'But you were prepared to tell me that you're pregnant, Georgina, though in your own time. I
suppose it could have been worse. I could have arrived to find you pushing a pram. And so is my
part in this going to be sitting on the fence?'
'No, of course not,' she said, choking on the words. 'It's just that I couldn't go through what I
suffered before if anything should happen to this child. I understood your despair but you never
tried to understand mine. You shut me out, Ben, and it broke my spirit. Since I've come to
Willowmere I've found a degree of comfort in the place and its people, but no one knows my past
and that is how I would prefer it to stay.'
'So you don't want anyone to know that we were once husband and wife?'
'I'm not bothered about that, and in any case it's a problem that won't arise as you won't be around.'
'Don't be too sure about that,' he said dryly. 'I'm my own boss these days, and am due for a break
anyway'
Ignoring his comment and its implications, she explained, 'It's the reason for the divorce that I don't
want to be common knowledge. I don't want anything to spoil Jamie's memory.'
'You can rest assured that I, of all people, won't be telling anyone why we broke up,' he said grimly.
'But, Georgina, I feel you need to know that if I had any intention of my stay here being brief, it
won't be now. I'm going to be around until the birth and after, so please take note of that.'
He was stepping away from the car and, as she began to drive slowly out onto the road, he called
through the open window, 'When I've settled my account at the pub I'm going home to tie up all the
loose ends and then I'll be back. I'm not sure when, but I will be coming back.'
She had no reply to that. Still numb with the shock of seeing him strolling towards her along the
lane, she left him standing at her gate.
As she pulled up outside the surgery, Georgina's thoughts were in chaos. There was relief that Ben
now knew about the baby, tied up with panic at the thought of him coming to Willowmere and
invading the solitary, safe life she had made for herself. Beneath it all there was a glimmer of
happiness, because in spite of the circumstances, she'd given him something to be joyful about.
She did wish he'd let her know he was coming, though, so she could have greeted him with
calmness in her sitting room, dressed in something that would have concealed her pregnancy during
the first few moments of meeting, instead of hovering behind the car door in a state of shock.
Yet her surprise had been nothing compared to his when he'd realised she was pregnant, and straight
away jumped to the conclusion that she was in a relationship with someone else.
James was at the surgery before her but, then, he always was, for the good reason that he lived next
door. After they'd greeted each other, she asked how the interviews of the evening before had gone,
hoping to bring normality into a very strange morning.
'I've found an excellent replacement for Anna,' he told her, observing her keenly, 'but there was no
one that I could visualise as a new partner. I feel it might be wise to leave that until Glenn comes
back to Willowmere. So it looks as if we might be turning to a locum again for the time being.
'And what about you?' he asked with a smile. 'How are you today, Georgina? You're very pale. Is
the baby behaving itself?'
She managed a grimace of a smile. Apart from Beth, the remaining practice nurse, James was the
only one who ever mentioned her pregnancy. Everyone observed a lot, but no one actually said
anything outright and she wondered just how curious the locals were about her pregnancy.
With regard to herself, she'd been coping just as long as she didn't let her mind travel back to that
afternoon in the sitting room of the house where she'd once known such happiness. But that frail
cocoon had been torn apart just an hour ago when Ben had appeared and discovered why she'd
wanted to talk to him.
James, in his caring way, had noted that she wasn't her usual self and suddenly she knew that she
had to tell someone what had happened before she'd arrived at the surgery. She couldn't keep her
life under wraps any longer if Ben was going to be around.
'My ex-husband turned up this morning.' she said in a low voice. 'I didn't know which of us was the
most dumbfounded though for different reasons. I had no idea he was coming, and on his pan he
had no idea I was pregnant.'
'Poor you!' James exclaimed. 'How long is it since you saw him?'
'It had been three years, until we met unexpectedly eight months ago.'
'And you are about eight months pregnant,' he said slowly.
'Yes,' she agreed flatly, 'the baby is his.'
'And what does he think about that?'
'He is delighted.'
'So is that good?'
'It might have been once.'
'I see. Well, Georgina. I don't want to pry into your affairs, but I'm here if yon need me. Obviously
you have a lot on your mind. Do you want to take the day off?'
She shook her head. 'No, thanks, James. I need to keep myself occupied. I will remember what
you've just said. You are a true friend.' And before she burst into humiliating tears, she went to start
another day at the village practice.
'By the way,' he called after her as she went towards her room, 'St Gabriel's have phoned with
appointments for Christine Quarmby. The neurologist will see her on Thursday and the
rheumatologist the following day.'
She paused. 'That's brilliant. I pulled a few strings and it seems that it worked. I'm very concerned
about Christine. I just hope my fears for her aren't realised. On a happier note, have you heard from
Anna and Glenn yet?'
'Yes. They've arrived safely and are already working hard.' James filled her in on Anna and Glenn's
assignment before she went to her room and called in her first patient of the day, grateful to have
her mind taken off the shock of seeing Ben again.
The day progressed along its usual lines, with Beth still managing but relieved to know that a
replacement for Anna had been found. The two nurses had been great friends and Anna had been
delighted when James had taken on Beth's daughter, Jess, as nanny for his two young children.
The children were fond of Jess. Aware that she was going to be missing from their lives for the first
time since they'd been born, Anna had been happy to know before she'd left Willowmere that the
arrangement was working satisfactorily.
Georgina's second patient was Edwina Crabtree.
She was one of the bellringers in Willowmere who helped send the bells high in the church tower
pealing out across the village on Sunday mornings and at weddings and funerals, but it wasn't her
favourite pastime that she'd come to discuss with her doctor 'So what can I do for you, Miss
Crabtree?' Georgina asked the smartly dressed campanologist, who always observed her more
critically than most when their paths crossed. She had a feeling that Edwina had her catalogued as a
loose woman as she was pregnant with no man around, and thought wryly that loose was the last
word to describe her.
She was tied to the past, to a small fair-haired boy who hadn't seen danger when it had been there,
and 'tied' to the man who had been hurting so much at the time that he'd become a stranger instead
of a rock to hold on to.
Edwina was in full spate and, putting her own thoughts to one side, Georgina tuned into what she
was saying, otherwise the other woman was going to have her labelled incompetent, as well as
feckless.
'The side of my neck is bothering me,' she was explaining, 'just below my ear. I didn't take much
notice at first but the feeling has been there for quite some time and I decided I ought to have it
looked at.'
'Yes, of course,' Georgina told her. After examining her neck carefully and checking eyes, ears and
throat, she asked, 'Do you ever get indigestion?'
'All the time,' she replied stiffly, 'but surely it can't be connected with that. I thought you would just
give me some antibiotics.'
'Before anything else I want you to have the tests and we'll take it from there, Miss Crabtree. If you
are clear of the stomach infection, it will be a matter of looking elsewhere for the neck problem, but
we'll deal with that when we get to it.'
When she'd gone, looking somewhat chastened, Georgina sighed. Oh, for a simple case of lumbago
or athlete's foot, she thought. Edwina Crabtree had the symptoms of Helicobacter pylori, bacteria in
the stomach that created excess acid and could cause peptic ulcers and swellings like the one in the
bellringer's neck.
Christine Quarmby, on the other hand, had all the signs of Sjogren's syndrome, an illness with just
as strange a name but far more serious, and she was beginning to wonder what strange ailment she
was going to be consulted on next.
Willow Lake, a local beauty spot, was basking in the shafts of a spring sun behind the hedgerows as
Georgina drove to her first housecall later in the morning, and she thought how the village, with its
peace and tranquillity, had done much to help her find sanity in the mess that her life had become.
As the months had become years she'd expected that one day Nicholas would inform her that Ben
had found someone else and it would bring closure once and for all, but she'd been spared that last
hurt, and now incredibly he seemed determined to come back into her life. She couldn't help
wondering if he would feel the same if she wasn't pregnant.
Robert Ingram owned the biggest of Willowmere's two estate agencies and he had asked for a home
visit to his small daughter, Sophie. The request had been received shortly after morning surgery had
finished and Georgina was making it her first call.
Apparently Sophie had developed a temperature during the night and a rash was appearing in small
red clusters behind her ears, under her armpits and in her mouth.
From her father's description the rash was nothing like the dreaded red blotches of meningitis, but
she wasn't wasting any time in getting to the young patient. She never took chances with anyone she
was called on to treat, and children least of all.
When Alison, Robert's wife, took her up to the spacious flat above the business Georgina found the
little girl to be hot and fretful and the rash that her father had described was beginning to appear in
other places besides the ones he'd mentioned.
'It's chickenpox,' she announced when she'd had a close look at the spots. 'Have you had any
experience of it before, Mrs Ingram?'
'Yes. I had it when I was young,' Alison replied. 'My mother had me wearing gloves to stop me
from scratching when the spots turned to blisters.'
'Good idea,' Georgina agreed, 'or alternatively keep Sophie's nails very short, and dab the rash with
calamine lotion. She should be feeling better once they've all come to the surface, and in the
meantime give her paracetamol if the raised temperature persists. Has Sophie started school yet?'
'She goes to nursery school twice each week and is due to start in the main stream in September,'
her mother replied.
'We've had a few cases of chickenpox over the last couple of weeks,' Georgina informed her, 'so the
infection is with us, it would seem. Sophie should be fine in a few days, but if there is anything at
all that you are concerned about, send for me straight away' She gave a reassuring smile to the
anxious mother. 'I'll see myself out.'
When she went downstairs into the shop area she told Robert Ingram, 'I'm afraid that Sophie has got
chickenpox, Mr Ingram. The rash is appearing quite quickly and she will feel much better when it is
all out. But I've told your wife if either of you have any worries about her, don't hesitate to send for
me.'
He nodded. 'Thanks, Doctor. I'm relieved that it is nothing more serious.' And they both knew what
had been in his mind.
As she was about to leave, Robert didn't mention that he'd had someone in earlier, arranging to rent
the cottage next door to hers for a minimum period of six months. He thought that Georgina would
surely feel happier if the other property was occupied, as they were the only two buildings on
Partridge Lane.
As he'd watched her drive off that morning Ben had felt shock waves washing over him. How could
Georgina have waited so long to tell him that they were going to be parents again? he'd thought
dismally. Yet knew the answer even as he asked himself the question.
Georgina had been the butt of his grief and despair when they'd lost Jamie and it would seem she
hadn't been prepared to risk a repeat performance by letting him into her life again when they were
going to have another child.
He'd felt as if his heart had been cut out when it had happened all that time ago, and if anyone had
dared tell him that time was a great healer, he'd turned on them angrily. Now he knew that it was so.
The pain was still there, but instead of being raw it was a dull ache and there were actually days
when he managed not to think about it.
He didn't know how Georgina had coped over the last three years. When the divorce had come
through and she'd disappeared out of his life, the shock of it had brought him to his senses, but not
to the extent that he'd done anything about it because he'd been gutted at the way he'd treated her.
Then, unbelievably, they'd met in the cemetery. So what had he done? Without a word of remorse
he'd made love to her, and ever since had wanted to tell her all the things he'd never said then.
He'd known that Nicholas knew where she was, that he always stayed with Georgina for part of the
time when he was over from the States. Yet until then he'd never tried to persuade him to disclose
her whereabouts.
But after that everything had changed, and he'd badgered his young brother for the information with
no success.
Now here he was, in the place where she lived, because Georgina had written to him. But if the
reception he'd just got was anything to go by, a happy reunion wasn't on the cards.
It was a sombre thought, but it didn't stop him from calling in at the estate agent and making
arrangements to rent the cottage next to hers. After he'd collected his things from the Pheasant, he
set off on the long drive back to London.
The afternoon seemed endless to Georgina as patients attending the second surgery of the day came
and went, and when at last it was time to go, James said, 'I never finished telling you about the new
practice nurse. Her name is Gillian Jarvis and she is free to start immediately. I'm expecting her
tomorrow morning.
'Her husband has just taken on the position of Lord Derringham's estate manager and like the
Quarmbys they'll be living in a grace-and-favour house on the estate. She has a teenage girl at sixth-
form college and a younger boy who will attend the village school. The family have moved up
north from the Midlands where Gillian was also a practice nurse.
'I'm relieved that is sorted, but we still need someone to replace Glenn either full or part time.
However, I suppose we can hang on for a while until the right person comes along,' he said, as he
made everywhere secure before they left.
James was aware that she was only half listening and asked, 'Are you going to introduce me to your
ex-husband, or will you both still be separate items?'
'Yes and no,' she told him. 'Ben has gone back to London, but he intends to return. I don't know
where he's going to stay, and neither do I know how he's going to fill his time. But he told me that
with regard to work,
he's a free agent, and he needs a break. He also said that he's going to be there for the birth and
afterwards.'
And how could she object? It was his child as much as hers. But it wouldn't be like it had been with
Jamie. They'd been a family, a happy threesome, wrapped around with love. This time it would be
two separate families. Mother and child as one of them, and father with his child the other.
James was observing her sympathetically and she smiled sadly. 'I'm sure you'll meet him soon.'
What she'd said to James was still uppermost in her mind as Georgina took her evening stroll later
that day. Her baby was going to know its father, as she didn't doubt for a moment that Ben would be
back. He'd made that crystal clear. It would be as an older, more sombre version of the husband
she'd adored, but a loving father nevertheless.
As she'd told James, she didn't know where he was going to stay. But it couldn't be with her. They
might be about to start a new family, but it didn't mean she was going to accept that as a reason for
pretending anything that wasn't there.
When she turned to wend her homeward way in the quiet evening the silence was broken by a train
en route for the city, travelling across the aqueduct high above the river. Once it had gone there was
peace once more down below, and a fisherman engaged in one of the quietest of sporting activities
cast his rod over the dancing water.
* * * * *
It was two days later. Georgina had done some shopping in the village on her way home—meat
from the butcher's, fresh bread and vegetables from the baker's and greengrocer's—and as was her
custom, she went straight through to the kitchen to start preparing the food.
When she glanced through the window, her eyes widened. Ben was mending a gap in the fence
between the two cottages, and as if conscious that he was being watched, he looked up and with
hammer in hand gave a casual wave then carried on with what he was doing.
She drew back out of sight and hurried to the front of the house. Surely enough, the 'To Let' sign
had been replaced on the cottage next door to one that said 'Let by Robert Ingram'.
Ben had never been in the habit of doing things by halves, she thought as she leaned limply against
the doorpost. It was one of the reasons why he was so successful in his career. But this time he'd
excelled himself.
Not only had he come to live in her village, but he'd taken up residence almost on her doorstep.
Obviously he wasn't intending to miss anything that concerned his pregnant wife and the child she
was carrying.
Maybe repairing the gap in the fence was an indication that though he'd sought her out he was going
to stay on his own side of the fence, or perhaps on discovering that she was pregnant his interest
had moved from mother to child, and until it was born he would be keeping his distance. If either of
those things were in his mind, shouldn't she be relieved?
Contrary to all the thoughts that had been going through her mind since they'd met at her gate, she
went out into the garden and, leaning over the fence, said stiffly, 'I've bought steaks and fresh
vegetables and it's just to cook for two as for one. It will be ready in about half an hour if you want
to join me.'
He paused in the act of hammering a nail in and looking up, said, 'Er...thanks for the offer, but I've
been shopping myself and have a lasagne in the oven.' He hesitated. 'It's big enough for two. It
would save you cooking after a busy day at the practice.'
Taken aback by the suggestion, she gazed at him blankly and he groaned inwardly. After the other
day's chilly welcome, he had promised himself that now he was established in the village he would
take it slowly with Georgina. Keep in the background but be there if he was needed. So what was he
doing?
'I only made the suggestion because I've had cause to discover that it's no joke coming home to an
empty house and having to start cooking after working all day,' he said into the silence. 'At one time
I was keeping the fast-food counters in the stores going, but that didn't last.'
His kitchen door was open. She could smell the food cooking and told herself that Ben asking her to
dine with him was no different than her asking him over. They were both doing it out of politeness.
It didn't mean anything.
'Yes, all right,' she agreed. 'How long before we eat?'
'Twenty minutes, if that's OK?'
'Yes. It will give me time to shower away the day and change into some comfortable clothes.'
Turning, she went back inside with the feeling that she was making a big mistake.
CHAPTER THREE
When Ben opened the door to her twenty minutes later, Georgina stepped into a bare, newly
decorated hall that could only be described as stark. When he showed her into the sitting room, it
was the same, and a vision of their London house came to mind, spacious, expensively furnished, in
the leafy square not far from the park where she'd taken Jamie that day.
Yet Ben was prepared to live in this soulless place and she wondered what was in his mind. He was
going to be involved, come what may, but their marriage had foundered long ago. It had hit rock
bottom and wasn't going to rise out of the ashes because they'd made a child.
But that occasion had been the forerunner of an unexpected chain of events that had brought him
back into her life. Not because he'd known about the baby. That had really rocked him on his feet.
He'd come in reply to her letter. Curious, no doubt, to find his ex-wife surfacing from her hideyhole.
'What?' he asked, observing her expression.
'This place must seem rather basic after our house in London.'
'It's adequate,' he said dryly. 'I long since ceased to notice the delights of that place.' He pointed to a
small dining area of the same standard as the rest of the house. 'If you'd like to take a seat, I'll dish
out the food.'
This is unreal, Georgina thought as Ben brought in a perfectly cooked lasagne and a bowl of salad,
yet she had to admit it was nice to sit down to a meal that was ready to eat after a busy day at the
practice.
'So what is there to do in the evenings in this place?' he asked as he served the food.
'Well, you already know the Pheasant in the village, which is the centre of the night life. Everyone
congregates there to drink and chat in the evenings. Willowmere is a very friendly place, a small
community where everyone cares about everyone else.'
'So you go to the pub every night, then?'
'I didn't say that was what I do. My evenings are spent clearing up after my meal and then taking a
short walk. This is a beautiful place. I either stroll along the river bank or to Willow Lake, which
isn't far away, and contrary to life in the big city, I'm meeting people I know all the time I'm out
there, not just because I'm their doctor but because that's what village life is all about.'
She didn't tell him that it had been her lifesaver in the lonely months when she'd first come to live
there, when the feeling of no longer being part of the life that she'd once thought would be hers for
ever had been unbearable.
'After that I come home, have a hot drink and go to bed,' she concluded.
'So maybe you'll show me around some of these places that you're so fond of,' he said equably, as if
not appalled at the similarity of their lives where there was work, lots of it, then coming home to an
empty house and a scratch meal, and in his case, watching television for as long as he could stand it
before going up to the bed they'd once shared.
'Maybe,' she said noncommittally. 'I suppose you think my life here sounds dull, but it is what I
want. I don't ever want another relationship with anyone, Ben. Any love I have to spare will be for
my baby'
'Our baby!' he corrected, as his spirits plummeted.
'Yes, indeed. I'm sorry, Ben. It will be ours, yours and mine,' she agreed, 'but don't have
expectations about anything else.'
'I won't,' he told her steadily, and steered the conversation into other channels. 'You haven't asked
me what I'm going to do jobwise while I'm here,'
'No, I haven't, though I have wondered.'
'Don't concern yourself. I'll find something. Do you need any help at the practice or are you fully
staffed?'
She gazed at him, open-mouthed. 'We do have a vacancy, but that would be coming down a peg,
wouldn't it? I've seen your name mentioned a few times regarding paediatric surgery. You're a high-
flyer these days, aren't you?'
'Some people might think so,' he replied dryly, and thought that though he might be good at his job,
when it came to coping with grief he'd fallen flat on his face.
'It was just a thought. But if you don't want me around during your working day, just say so. What
sort of a position are we talking about?'
'We need another doctor.'
'I see. Interesting. But don't be alarmed, Georgina. I'm not going to crowd you.'
'Not much!'
'You mean my moving in next door?'
'Well, yes.'
'I've rented the place so I will be close at hand if you need me when the baby comes.'
'Right.'
'What? Don't you believe me?'
'Yes, of course I do,' she said. 'I'm sure on some wakeful night on our child's part I will be grateful
to have you near, but don't take me too much for granted, Ben.'
He didn't reply. Instead he said, 'Shall we take our coffee into the deluxe sitting room of my new
accommodation?'
They spent the rest of the time together talking about the village and when he mentioned the
practice again, and the part she played in it, she answered his questions warily.
'This James Bartlett sounds a decent guy,' he remarked. 'I'd like to meet him. Is he married?'
'James lost his wife in a motor accident five years ago, just a few weeks after she'd given birth to
twins. Pollyanna and Jolyon are in their first year at the village school.'
'And he's never remarried?'
'No. James and the children live next door to the surgery with an excellent nanny and housekeeper
to help out. His sister, Anna, was a nurse in the practice until she married a locum who was with us,
and now they've left and gone to work in Africa, leaving James with two replacements to find.
'He's found someone to fill the gap of practice nurse but is hanging fire with the doctor vacancy,
saying that he might wait until Glenn Hamilton, his sister's new husband, comes back from Africa
to offer him a permanent placing, and in the meantime employ someone on a temporary basis as he
did with him originally.'
'It puts more strain on you both, doesn't it, leaving the gap unfilled?' She was getting up to go,
feeling they'd talked about the practice enough, and he said, 'You've missed your walk tonight,
haven't you? I'm surprised that it takes you by the river. I would have thought it the last place to
appeal to you.'
She turned away, thinking that she might have known that Ben would still be out to give her
memory a nudge given the chance, and was tempted to tell him that she needed no reminders of
what had happened to Jamie and never would.
A river only becomes a dangerous place because of the elements above and the actions of those of
us at its level,' she said in a voice so low he could only just hear it.
If he'd wanted to reply, he didn't get the chance as she was opening the door and telling him,
'Thanks for the meal, Ben.' Then she was gone, out into the spring dusk and back to the place where
she'd felt content until now.
Ben watched her go from the window and felt like kicking himself for his apparent insensitivity. He
hadn't meant it to be a hurtful comment. It had been said more out of consideration for her feelings,
but in the past that hadn't always been the case and he couldn't blame Georgina for freezing up on
him.
He'd been congratulating himself that he'd been making progress in getting to know his wife all
over again but he'd blown it. Resisting the urge to go after her he turned away from the window,
deciding that he'd already been guilty of one moment of bad timing—no point in risking another.
An owl hooted eerily and when Ben turned to look at the clock on the bedside table, it read 2:00
a.m. For most of his life he'd slept with the never-ending sound of London traffic in his ears, but not
tonight. Except for the owl, there wasn't a sound out there.
When he raised himself off the pillows and padded across to the window, the moon was shining
down on Partridge Lane and he saw the burnished brown of a fox's coat as it slunk along beside the
trees on the opposite side.
To a city dweller like himself the rural scene outside his window was strange enough, but stranger
still was the thought that next door Georgina was sleeping with their child inside her. Ever since
he'd discovered that he was to be a father again he'd been throwing off the mantle of grief that had
been heavy on him for so long.
Georgina saying that she wanted no commitments of any kind was something he would have to take
in his stride. It was only what he deserved, but he was not going to give in easily. What they'd had
before had been very special and he'd cast it and her aside and lived to bitterly regret it.
But now the fates were being kind. He'd found her, and not only was there joy in that, they'd made a
child on that August afternoon, and his heart rejoiced every time he thought about it.
Georgina wasn't too happy about the way it had been conceived, but surely she realised that those
moments had been more about hunger than lust, a coming together out of the lonely places that
they'd found themselves in.
The fox had gone, the owl was silent, and for the first time in years, he was looking forward to what
the next day would bring as he went back to bed.
In the cottage next door Georgina was also finding sleep hard to come by. The baby was moving
inside her and it was nothing like it had been before when she'd been pregnant.
In those days Ben would have been beside her, sharing in the wonder of the moment by placing his
hand gently on the place where the movements were coming from.
Tonight he was nearer than he'd been in years, but still far away in every other respect, and she told
the little unborn one, 'Your father is next door and I don't know what to think about that. He didn't
know about you until he came, and now he's going to stay. What are we going to do?'
* * * * *
There was no sign of Ben when she was ready to leave for the surgery the next morning, and
Georgina was thankful. She needed a clear head for what she was going to be faced with during the
day, and it was more than she'd had the night before.
The shock of his arrival in the new life that she'd made for herself wasn't as acute today and she
intended to keep any thoughts of him at the back of her mind until such time as she could view
everything more sensibly.
It was another bright spring morning, the kind of day that didn't lend itself to sombre thoughts, and
a quick glance at the number of patients waiting to be seen as she passed by to get to her consulting
room indicated that the village folk must be feeling the same, as for once, there weren't many.
On being introduced, she found Gillian, the new practice nurse, to be a pleasant, robust-looking
woman who seemed to have hit it off with Beth straight away. As James had mentioned, she lived
not far from the Quarmbys on the Derringham estate, though in a more prestigious house, her
husband being the estate manager, and Georgina was reminded that tomorrow Christine would be
keeping the first appointment that she'd made for her at St Gabriel's with her anxious husband by
her side.
As she settled behind her desk she could hear the church bells ringing out across the village and
thought that Edwina Crabtree's results on the possible stomach infection should be back soon.
The sound of the bells was also a reminder that though there were the sights and sounds of new life
all around, for one family in the village it was going to be remembering a life that was past as they
buried an elderly relative that morning in the churchyard not far away.
That same family had just celebrated a birth and old Henry Butterworth's dying wish had been
granted when he'd held his new great-granddaughter in his arms the night before he'd passed away
peacefully in his sleep.
When she'd gone up to the Butterworths' remote farm on the fringe of the moors to sign the death
certificate, Georgina had been met with a mixture of emotions from those there. There'd been
delight at the safe arrival of the baby, grief at the passing of the old man, and relief that Henry had
been spared further suffering from advanced Parkinson's disease.
As she'd driven back to the surgery on that day a week ago she'd been aware once again of the close
family ties of the people in Willowmere. James and Anna had been a prime example of that in the
way they'd cared for his motherless children, and Anna would never have left Pollyanna and Jolyon
if she hadn't been sure they would be properly cared for by those that James had appointed to take
her place.
It made the split between Ben and herself appear a poor example by comparison, but none of those
she'd been thinking of had lost a child. Her family had ended up as two grieving strangers and how
she wished with all her heart that it hadn't been like that.
There'd been no bitterness in her towards Ben. She'd understood his suffering and had felt just great
sadness that it had driven her away from him into lonely exile when it should have brought them
closer.
Of one thing she was sure, she could not go through that again, no matter how much they loved this
new child when it came. But today the sun was shining in a clear blue sky, there was birdsong up in
the trees, and as Timothy Lewis seated himself across from her in the middle of the morning,
Georgina asked the man who owned Willowmere's secondhand bookshop, 'What can I do for you
today, Timothy?'
He was a quiet, unassuming fellow who loved his books. As well as the literary treasures on the
shelves of his quaint shop, he prided himself on stocking something for everyone, and whenever she
had a moment to spare, Georgina would call in to find a book for bedtime, as sleep wasn't always
easy to come by even when she'd had a busy and tiring day.
'I keep having the most awful headaches,' Timothy said in reply to the question. 'A couple of times a
month I've been having them and when they come, I can't bear to lift my head off the pillow.'
When she checked his blood pressure, it was only slightly above normal and she asked, 'You
haven't had a blow to the head at all?'
'No, nothing like that.'
'Do you feel sick when the headaches come, or have trouble with your vision?'
'Er, yes, both.' he replied. 'I sometimes feel better when I've been sick, and with regard to my eyes I
always get flashing lights in front of them as the headache is coming on.'
'It sounds as if you have the symptoms of migraine,' she told him. 'They are easy enough to
recognise. What isn't easy in a lot of cases of migraine is to discover what brings it on. Anger,
excitement, stress are all factors, and so is diet.' She took some leaflets from a desk drawer and
handed them to him. 'These have information on identifying possible triggers and managing the
condition. For example, there are some foods that should be avoided, in particular chocolate and
dairy foods such as cheese. Also red wine and citrus fruits can trigger it. How long do the headaches
last when you get them?'
'It was a few hours at first, but the last time it was a couple of days and I had no choice but to shut
the shop, which is my living going down the drain.'
'If they get any worse, come back and see me,' she told him sympathetically. 'In the meantime I can
prescribe something to alleviate the pain, and make sure you get plenty of rest. And, Timothy, how
about getting someone to help in the shop so that you don't have to close when they occur?'
'I suppose I might have to,' he agreed sombrely, 'but I'm used to my own space. When customers
come in, I just leave them to browse. If they want to buy, fair enough, and if not so be it.'
'Come back if the headaches persist or get any worse,' she said as she showed him out. And in the
meantime try to avoid stress:
When he'd gone, Elaine, the practice manager, appeared with a message that James wanted a short
meeting of staff and would she be free for half an hour first thing next morning before the start of
surgery?
Elaine was facing the window and before Georgina could reply, she said, 'Wow! Where has he
come from? Do you think he's just visiting or has come to live here?'
Georgina swivelled round in her chair and saw Ben strolling along Willowmere's main street in the
direction of the shops.
'I know where he's from,' she said flatly as she waved her privacy goodbye. 'And I know why he's
here in Willowmere.' Elaine looked at her questioningly. 'His name is Ben Allardyce. He's my ex-
husband and he's moved into the cottage next to mine,'
'Really!' Elaine exclaimed, adding in quick contrition, 'I'm sorry, Georgina. I wouldn't have
commented if I'd known.'
'It's all right,' Georgina replied. 'You couldn't be expected to know he was connected with me, and if
you're wondering about the baby, Elaine, it's his. Ben is the father.'
Elaine was devastated to have been the cause of the reticent dark-haired doctor having to bring her
private life into the open, knowing how she would feel in similar circumstances, and she said
hurriedly, 'What you've just told me won't go any further, Georgina, I promise.'
'I know it won't,' she said wryly, 'but someone will put two and two together sooner or later,
knowing village gossip, so there isn't much point in me pretending that Ben has nothing to do with
me. Strictly speaking, he hasn't, not now. It's three years since we divorced, but there's nothing to
say that he won't tell people what the connection is if they see us together. And about the practice
meeting, yes, that is fine by me.'
When Elaine had gone back down to her office in the basement with her usual composure missing,
Georgina thought that she couldn't imagine the petite blonde ex-accountant, in her late forties and
who was the epitome of efficiency, ever having to admit to a failed marriage and an unexplained
pregnancy. That, until Ben had come back on the scene, had been her affair and only hers.
She didn't see him come back from where he'd gone. There was too much going on with the patients
for there to be time to stand at the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of him to confirm it hadn't
been a dream the night before when they'd eaten at the same table in his cheerless rented house.
She wasn't surprised that Elaine had noticed him on the street. He'd always been a man that women
took note of, though it had never made any impact on him. He'd only ever wanted her until they'd
lost Jamie and then he'd withdrawn into his own grief-filled world and wanted no one.
As she drove home at the end of the day, Georgina was keen to see Ben again. If he'd been in her
line of vision at any time during the day, she might have felt differently, but it was almost as if now
that he'd entered her world, she had to keep registering his presence to make sure she wasn't
imagining it.
She wasn't aware that he'd watched her drive off that morning from the front window of his cottage
and had wished that they were going to spend the day together instead of him being left to his own
devices, even though he'd known it was a vain hope.
Apart from the fact that Georgina had her commitment to the practice to consider, there was the
way she'd reacted on first seeing him. There had been dismay in the dark hazel eyes meeting his,
rather than delight, and it had been there again when he'd suggested he might help out at the
surgery. But when last had he given her any cause to feel different?
The boot had turned out to be on the other foot. It was she who had given him joy with the promise
of another child to love. After those first few agonised moments when he'd thought it might belong
to some other man, he'd never stopped smiling, even though it had cut deep, knowing how long
she'd waited to tell him. But that was a bed he'd made for himself and he had no choice but to lie on
it.
In the middle of the morning he went into her garden and brought in the line of washing that she'd
hung out first thing. On discovering that a fresh breeze had dried it, he fished out an iron and
ironing board from one of the cupboards in his kitchen and applied himself to the task.
When the ironing was finished, he decided to go and find some lunch and then do some exploring
of the rural paradise where she'd chosen to start a new life. He had passed the surgery with eyes
averted and, unaware that he was being observed from one of the windows, had gone to the
Pheasant for a ploughman's lunch, before familiarising himself with the delights of Willowmere.
He'd had a change of mind about that while he'd been eating, hoping that Georgina might want to
show him around the village herself, which could be an indication that she wasn't as dismayed by
his arrival as she was making out. Now he was listening for her car to pull up on the lane that was
almost as quiet during the day as it had been during the night.
She was tired, he thought, noting her pallor and the droop of her shoulders as she got out of the car,
but when he came out of his door and joined her on the driveway, she straightened up and with a
steady smile asked, 'So what has your day been like?'
'Different,' he replied, 'and last night even more so.'
'In what way?'
'I saw a fox slinking along by the hedge over there and an owl was hooting somewhere nearby in
the kind of silence I'm not used to. It was weird.'
'You weren't impressed, then?'
'Er, yes, I was. Both things were an improvement on the drone of the city traffic, be it night or day. I
nearly went to explore the village when I'd had some lunch but thought that you might want to show
me around the place yourself 'Possibly, but not on a week night. A short stroll by the river or around
the lake is my limit, and tonight I have some ironing to do.'
He shook his head and she observed him enquiringly.
'What?'
'It's done. I brought the washing in and ironed it.'
She felt like weeping. It was so long since anyone had done anything for her. Instead, she said
flatly, 'There was no need for you to do that, Ben. Please don't interfere in my life. I have it sorted.
Don't try to change anything.'
'Surely you see that it's already changing with the child that you're carrying,' he said levelly. 'How
were you going to manage when the baby came?'
'As I have managed for quite some time. On my own.'
She was tired and wishing she'd never got involved in the conversation that was taking place. It was
turning out the way she'd hoped it wouldn't. Ben had been around for only a few hours and he was
trying to take charge.
'What about antenatal care? What are you doing about that?'
He was making matters worse and she said stiffly, 'It is sorted. I'm registered privately with a
gynaecologist at St Gabriel's. I wasn't going to take any chances with my being on my own. The
sense of responsibility is far greater when one is about to become a single parent.'
'It doesn't have to be like that, Georgina,' he said steadily. 'I was the one who made you pregnant,
which makes me even more responsible for our baby than you are.'
'Can't we just leave it for now, Ben?' she said dejectedly. 'I'm hungry and tired.' With a vestige of a
smile she added, 'Which is not a cue for you to ask if I'm taking any vitamins.'
'Point taken,' he said with a smile of his own, and followed it by suggesting, 'How about I go to
fetch some fish and chips? I saw a shop in the village that looked appetising. It would save us both
cooking.'
'Yes, all right,' she agreed weakly, aware that it would be the second time they'd eaten together in a
situation that was awkward to say the least, but until she'd got to grips with it, that was how it was
going to be.
While Ben was gone she showered quickly and changed into a loose pink top and maternity jeans,
and had plates warming in the oven and the kettle on the boil by the time he arrived with the food.
When he came inside, he looked around him curiously. This was the place that Georgina had made
her home, he thought, when the one they'd made together had been too alien for her to want to stay
there.
It was attractive, elegant in a toned-down sort of way, like the woman herself, who was making it
clear that she was not going to change anything since he'd appeared on the scene.
With regard to himself he'd drifted into an existence of much work and very little play, but since
coming to Willowmere, he was finding a new reason for living in being near his wife again. To him
the term 'ex' didn't apply. Georgina would be his wife until the day he died. He was a one-woman
man and since he'd been without her, there had been no others.
'I feel better already,' she told him when they'd finished eating. Regretting the way she'd dealt with
his earlier concern, she went on, 'Maybe we could go for the stroll I told you about. Willow Lake
isn't far from here and for me that place is Willowmere. Needless to say, there are lots of willows
there and they really are the most graceful of trees. It is where Glenn asked Anna to be his wife and
they were married a month later before going out to Africa on a new and exciting venture.'
'You sound envious.'
The smile was back and this time it wasn't so hard to come by. 'No, not at all. I have lots of things
happening in my life at the moment, and, Ben, if you think me cruel for not telling you I was
pregnant, there were countless times during the months that have passed when I've started a letter or
picked up the phone to tell you about the baby.
'In the end I sat down, wrote to you, and almost ran to the post office. Once the letter was on its way
I felt so much better. It never occured to me that you might not be there to receive it. When you
didn't get in touch I didn't know what to do.'
'But I found the letter at last, didn't I?' he said gravely. And you've given me a new reason for
living. . What more could I ask?'
It was there again, she thought. The implication that she was going to be the outsider in the
forthcoming threesome.
'So shall we go for our stroll, if you really feel up to it, before the light fades?' he suggested, and she
nodded. It could have been a special moment, but it hadn't turned out that way.
It was the oddest feeling, walking through the village with Ben by her side, Georgina thought.
People going to the Pheasant hailed her as they would normally do, while at the same time casting
curious glances at her companion.
Ben said, 'How are you going to explain me if anyone asks?'
'I'll tell them the truth, of course,' she replied. 'No point in doing otherwise if you intend staying.'
'Oh, I intend staying,' he told her. 'Wild horses wouldn't drag me away.'
And would you be so definite about that if I wasn't going to give you another child? You never
made any attempt to come looking for me before.'
'Maybe that's because I didn't know where you were. Nicholas is very good at clamming up when
he has to. If you hadn't written to me everything would have been as it's been since...'
His voice trailed away, and she said gently, 'Saying his name isn't going to drag us back into the
nightmare. I had to smile the other night. Oliver Twist was on television, and it reminded me of
when Jamie was Oliver in the primary school Christmas play.'
He was laughing now. 'Yes, and how we thought he was miscast as he looked too well fed. I always
thought he would have preferred to be the Artful Dodger.'
And do you remember how they asked you to be the Father Christmas, and we were on pins in case
he recognised you behind the whiskers?'
'Yes, I do,' he replied. 'I can still smell the glue that one of the teachers used to stick them on me.'
At that moment they saw the glint of water ahead, and as they stood beside the silent lake in the
gloaming of a spring day, he said, 'You're right, Georgina. Willow Lake is beautiful.' He turned to
observe her standing beside him with the so obvious signs of what was to come in her changing
shape and thought, And so are you.
They walked back to Partridge Lane in silence, each wrapped in with their own thoughts, and when
their cottages came into view, Georgina said, 'Thanks for doing the ironing. I could have been more
grateful when you told me it was done.'
He was laughing and she observed him in surprise. 'What a mundane comment to end the evening
after visiting that idyllic lake,' he said. 'If you leave me a key under the mat tomorrow and the
vacuum cleaner handy, I'll carry on with the chores. Just make a list.'
'If it got around that you were my new home help, it wouldn't fit in with your image in the medical
world,' she told him jokingly, and marvelled at the moment of rapport that had suddenly surfaced.
They were standing at her gate, ready to separate, and she wondered if Ben was waiting to be
invited in for the rest of the evening, and if that was the case, what should she do? But it seemed
there was no cause to concern herself about that. He was turning to go into his rented cottage and
said over his shoulder, 'Goodnight, Georgina. Sleep well.'
'And you, too,' she said weakly.
He was smiling. 'I most certainly will.. .now.'
CHAPTER FOUR
When Georgina was ready to leave the cottage the next morning, Bryan Timmins, the farmer who
delivered her milk, was coming up the drive. Looking at the now-occupied place next door, he said,
'Do you think your new neighbour will want his milk delivered, Dr Adams?'
'I would think so,' she told him. 'The person in question is accustomed to getting it from the
supermarket and won't have realised that he can get milk delivered.'
'So can I risk leaving him a couple of pints, then?' the farmer asked.
'Yes, I'm sure you can. I'll tell him it was my doing.'
'Who is he? Do you know?'
'Er, yes, I do. His name is Ben Allardyce. He's a paediatric surgeon.'
'Another doctor, eh?' With a change of subject, he asked awkwardly, 'And how are you keeping.'
'I'm fine, Bryan,' she told him. 'And what about your pregnant lady? I didn't see Maggie at the
antenatal clinic last week.'
'No, you wouldn't. The wife has gone to her mother's for a visit before the baby comes. We can't
wait. If it's a boy, young Josh wants us to call him after some pop star that he's keen on. I shudder to
think!'
'And if it's a girl?'
'He hasn't come up with anything for that so far. Have you chosen any names yet?'
At that moment Ben's door opened and as he eyed them questioningly Georgina said, 'Ben, may I
introduce Bryan Timmins, who supplies me with fresh milk every day?' As the two men shook
hands, she explained, 'Bryan owns the farm that we passed when I took you to see the lake. I've
taken it on myself to arrange for your milk to be delivered. Is that all right?'
He was smiling. 'Yes, of course, that would be fine. It would seem to be another of the delights of
living here.'
The burly farmer laughed, 'Aye, it is, though it's not all moonlight and roses, you know. There's the
worry of foot and mouth, for one thing which is every farmer's nightmare, though I've never had
that to contend with so far. Then there are trespassers who don't keep to the designated paths and
trample the crops of some of us, but all in all it's a good life and a happy one, living in the
countryside. You think so, don't you, Dr Adams?'
'Yes, I do,' she agreed, knowing that Bryan had yet to discover the connection between herself and
her new neighbour.
When he'd gone, Ben said, 'You're off early, aren't you, Georgina? It's only eight o'clock.'
'James wants a short practice meeting before the day starts.'
'I see. Would it be all right if I popped into the surgery later in the day to have a look around and
maybe meet the senior partner?'
'Er, yes, I suppose so,' she said, taken aback at the fact he hadn't lost interest at the practice. It
would be another part of her life here that Ben was invading if he got involved in the work there.
'How do you want me to introduce you?'
'However it suits you best,' he said calmly. 'Your next-door neighbour, a colleague from the past...or
you could tell them the truth, that I'm your husband. You said it wouldn't bother you if people found
out, as long as they don't get to know the reason why we split up.'
'But you're not my husband any more, are you?'
'Legally, no, but there are more important things than paperwork and documents.'
'Such as?'
'Do I have to explain?'
'No,' she told him hurriedly.
It was neither the hour nor the occasion to start delving into the past. She didn't think there ever
would be a right time for that. If they had to live side by side for however long it took, she would
abide by it, and if Ben was intending taking a major role in their baby's life, there wasn't much she
could do about that, other than apply for sole custody, and she could not do that to him.
He had suffered enough, they both had, and after the hurt she'd caused by not telling him she was
pregnant for so long, to do that would be rubbing salt into the wound.
'What time are you thinking of visiting the surgery?' she asked. 'Early afternoon is always quietest,
when we're back from the house calls and have a lull before the second onslaught of the day'
'Twoish, then?'
She nodded. 'I'll tell James that you're coming to look us over.' And without further comment, she
went to start her day.
The staff meeting that James had called didn't last long. In essence it was to welcome Gillian and to
tell them that he was going to delay appointing another permanent partner until his new brother-inlaw
came back.
They all dispersed to their various duties after that except for Georgina, who stayed behind for a
moment and said, 'Is it all right if Ben comes to have a look around when we're quiet this afternoon?
He's interested in everything that's going on here and has even suggested that he would be willing to
help out until Glenn gets back from Africa.'
She'd said it as a kind of warning, in case Ben did say something to that effect, and James stared at
her in surprise.
'Really?' he exclaimed. 'And is he qualified?'
'Er.. .yes. His name is Ben Allardyce. He specialises in one particular branch of medicine, but in the
past he has been a general consultant as well.'
'Are we talking about the Ben Allardyce? The paediatric surgeon?'
'Yes. He is my ex-husband. I think he's decided that he's going to need something to fill the days
while he's in Willowmere, and that's where the suggestion came from.'
'I would welcome him into the practice on a temporary basis with open arms,' James said. 'But how
would you feel about it, Georgina?'
'I'm not sure. I wasn't happy when he first suggested it, as he's already renting the cottage next to
mine, but we do need someone, James, and it will be even more urgent when I'm off after having
the baby. So feel free to ask him, if you so wish.'
He was smiling. 'I do wish, Georgina. I'll have a word with him when he comes this afternoon—just
as long you're sure that you'd be happy with the arrangement?'
'I think one of the reasons he's offering is because he wants to make it easier for me during the
coming weeks, so how can I object?' she said, with the feeling that she might be losing her strength
of will.
Leaving James to take in what could be good news for the practice, Georgina went to start her day.
Edwina Crabtree's test results were back and they were positive for the presence of Helicobacter
pylori. Georgina requested one of the receptionists to ask her to come in to discuss the findings.
It was today that Christine Quarmby was seeing the first of the two consultants that she'd referred
her to, she thought as patients came and went, and wondered how long the sick woman would have
to wait for a result.
* * * * *
Ben arrived at exactly two o'clock and as she saw him come through the main doors of the practice
with a positive stride, Georgina felt a sudden rush of warmth. He had been so dear to her once, she
thought. How could she not want him back in her life again?
But remembering the hurts from the past, she was still unsure. His decision to stay in the village
was because of the baby rather than her, and could she blame him for that?
He'd been a loving father to Jamie, and gentle with his small patients in the London hospital where
he'd worked. He was a natural with children. So the thought of another one of his own to love was
obviously bringing him out of the depression that he'd fallen into three years ago.
'Hi,' he said when he saw her coming towards him. 'As you didn't leave a key or the vacuum handy,
I've cleaned all the outside windows, yours and mine.'
'Great, so I'll be able to see who's coming up the drive; she said, smiling as if her mind wasn't filled
with the whys and wherefores of him actually standing beside her in the village practice. 'You seem
determined to make yourself useful.'
'It makes a change, don't you think?' he replied sombrely, and she had no reply to that.
James came out of his room at that moment and when she'd introduced them, he said, 'Shall I show
Ben around the surgery, Georgina, or would you like to do the honours?'
'I'll leave it to you,' she told him. 'The nurses are taking the diabetic clinic this afternoon and it will
be the first time for the new practice nurse so I thought I'd be around to assist.'
She was chickening out and knew it, but Ben had been the one who'd said he wanted to meet James
and it hadn't been her idea that he help out in the surgery, so she left them to it with a murmured 'I'll
see you this evening, maybe' in Ben's direction.
'Sure,' he replied easily, but there was a look in his eyes that said he got her drift.
She came out of the nurses' room when he was on the point of leaving and he said, 'Nice place you
and James have got here, Georgina. The practice manager seems extremely capable.' Remembering
Elaine's comments when she'd seen him walking past the window, she almost laughed.
Bringing her back to the present, he said, 'James said you mentioned my working here to him, and
we've come to an arrangement. I was surprised when he told me, as I thought you weren't keen on
the idea.'
'Shall we just say that I could see the advantages of it after I'd given it some thought? It will take
some of the strain off me.'
'Why do you think I suggested it?' he said evenly. 'I'm going to drive into town for the rest of the
afternoon and will probably eat out, so I'll see you tomorrow, Georgina.'
'Yes, whatever,' she replied, and went back to her patients.
James was on top form as they were leaving at the end of the day. 'Ben is coming into the practice
full-time,' he said jubilantly. 'He's starting on Monday.
Aren't we the lucky ones to have someone of his calibre on the staff for a short period?'
'Yes, I suppose we are,' she said, and wondered if Ben really was coming to work there for her sake.
As she went for her usual short walk that evening, the fact that it would be Easter at the end of the
following week came to mind. She had thought of going away for the weekend while the surgery
was closed, but it was a lovely time in the village and an ideal opportunity to drive to London to put
fresh flowers on the grave where so much of her heart lay.
The main thought in her mind was that she'd hurt Ben a lot by being so slow in telling him about the
baby. Did she want to hurt him further by going to London without his knowledge? It would be as if
she was putting him in his place again, the place where he had been for three long years.
The situation he'd created by coming to live in the village had a strong feeling of getting to know
each other all over again, and it gave her a mixture of pain and pleasure. There was comfort in
knowing he was near, knowing that she could see him, touch him, and that she wasn't going to give
birth to their baby without him.
But his presence was threatening the life she'd built for herself in Willowmere. Her hard-won
contentment was disappearing in her awareness of all the things she'd tried to forget about him. His
smile, the mouth that had kissed her, the surgeon's hands, long-fingered and supple, that had
caressed her, and the trim, hard strength of him that she'd always thought would be there to protect,
as well as arouse her—these were all things that could weaken her resolve to stay alone if she
wasn't careful.
In her most upbeat moments she felt as if what had happened between them on the afternoon when
he'd finally caught up with her at the cemetery had been meant. That the fates had decided to give
them a push in the right direction, but those kind of thoughts were always followed by memories of
the months before she'd said goodbye to a wonderful marriage.
As she walked homeward through woods carpeted with bluebells, she decided that she would tell
Ben that she was driving to London on Good Friday. If he wanted to do the same, he could make
his own arrangements.
The thought of being closeted together in the car for hours on end would be too much for their frail
reunion to cope with, as would being together as she arranged the white roses of innocence on the
grave.
But there was the coming weekend to get through first. Saturday and Sunday would be days when
both she and Ben would have time on their hands, which could prove awkward.
She went up to bed at her usual time and steeled herself not to listen for him returning. It paid off
and she went to sleep not knowing whether he was back or not.
When she opened the curtains the next morning, his car was in his drive. She wondered how she
would have felt if it hadn't been. If he'd given up on her and gone back to London, discouraged by
her lack of warmth. But as she looked down at the part of her anatomy where their child was curled
up safely she knew that the die was cast. Ben would never let this one out of his sight.
When he'd first appeared, she'd made it clear that he had no part in her life any more. She'd said it
because she'd been afraid that he might try to take over when he found out about the baby. But now
that he was settled in the cottage next door it seemed as if, having made his presence felt, he was
easing off and she wasn't sure what to make of it....
She was planning to go into the town herself over the weekend to get some ideas on the
requirements of a new baby as it had been nine years since she'd last been pregnant.
But first there was Friday ahead of her and when she arrived at the surgery, she saw Edwina
Crabtree in the waiting room, looking more dour than usual.
'I'm afraid that we've had a positive result on the stomach infection, Miss Crabtree,' she told her
when it was her turn to be seen. 'How is the neck pain?'
'Just the same.'
'And the indigestion?'
'No different.'
'Now that I know what I'm treating, I'm going to prescribe medication to treat the stomach problem
which should soon give you some relief from the indigestion and the neck discomfort.'
'I hope so,' was the flat reply. 'Spring is one of the busiest times for we bellringers. Lots of brides
want the bells to be pealing as they come out of our church, and because it is in such a charming
setting it is one wedding after another from Easter onwards.'
Was that a nudge for her? Georgina thought wryly when she'd gone, that the baby she was carrying
would benefit from the blessing of the church. It would seem that so far Edwina, like most of the
inhabitants of Willowmere, was not aware that the child's father was now there.
When she arrived home that evening, Ben appeared the moment she got out of the car and said, 'I've
seen a cafe sort of place near the post office. Do you fancy eating there tonight?'
'I suppose it's not a bad idea; she agreed. 'It will be the Hollyhocks Tea Rooms that you've seen. We
get lots of walkers stopping off in the village on the lookout for some good food as Easter
approaches, and the Hollyhocks is the answer. The people who own it are friends of mine:
'Does that make any difference? Are you sure that you'll be happy for us to be dining there if that's
the case? Only I feel that we have things to discuss and in a place like that we're on neutral ground.'
'You make us sound like enemies.'
'I didn't mean to, but we're not exactly on the same wavelength, are we?' he commented dryly.
She didn't reply to that. What did he expect? They'd been living separate lives for the last three
years. A week back in each other's company wasn't going to cancel that out.
'Give me a few moments to get changed and while I'm gone perhaps you could phone and make
sure they have a table free.'
* * * * *
'So what is it that you want to discuss?' she asked when they were seated at a table by the window in
the village's most popular place for dining without frills.
'I was looking at baby things when I was in the town yesterday—prams, cots and lots of other items
our new arrival will need and...'
He'd seen her expression and didn't finish the sentence.
'You took it on yourself to do that without consulting me,' she said. 'I've thought a few times that
since you found me pregnant, you see me as just a means to an end.'
The colour drained from his face but his voice was level enough as he said, 'If you'd let me finish, I
was intending to suggest that we go shopping this weekend. No point being on the last minute with
everything. But as you seem to think I've stepped out of line, maybe it isn't a good idea.'
Georgina felt the wetness of tears. He hadn't taken her up on her last comment but had taken it on
board. She could tell by the set of his jaw and she wished she hadn't been so hasty. But it was all
part of her uncertainty, the feeling of not being in control. Since coming to Willowmere she'd
managed to achieve it to a degree, until the moment she'd seen him walking towards her in the lane.
Ben was reading the menu as if the subject was closed, but she couldn't leave it at that and told him,
'I was thinking of going shopping, too.'
'And were not intending consulting me from the sound of it.'
'I hadn't got any further than considering it. You've not been here long, don't forget, and I'm used to
doing things on my own, making my own decisions. I'm not going to get out of the habit in five
minutes. I'm sorry if I upset you, but please don't rush me, Ben. By all means, let's go shopping
together. We can order what we need on the arrangement that it is to be delivered once the baby has
arrived safely.'
There was a question in the dark hazel eyes looking into hers. 'Why? Is there any reason why it
might not, a problem that you've not told me about?'
'Not at present, but as we are both aware, sometimes things can go wrong.'
'What is it that you're not telling me, Georgina?' he persisted in a low voice.
'It's just that the gynaecologist is keeping a close watch on my blood pressure. It's all right at the
moment. I check it all the time, but as we both know in pregnancies it can soon go sky high.'
'Who is this fellow?' he questioned. 'Does he know you had a difficult time with Jamie? I'll have a
word with him to make sure he's knows what he's doing.'
She had to smile. 'You won't do any such thing. What about professional ethics?'
'Nothing is going to happen to this child if I can help it,' he said with a grim sort of calm that tore at
her heart, 'and if it means checking up on the gynaecologist, I'll do it.'
'You're taking over again,' she reminded him. Tan Sefton is the best. I've made sure about that, Ben.
Now, shall we decide what we want to eat? I'm starving.'
She'd introduced him to Emma and Simon, the husband-and-wife team who owned the place, and
now Emma was poised ready to take their order. Once that was done, they chatted about less
personal things until the food arrived.
It was as they were strolling back home that Ben said, 'When is your next appointment to see this
guy?'
'The week after Easter. You're not going to suggest that you go with me, are you? I'm quite capable
of dealing with that part of the pregnancy myself.'
He sighed. 'Yes, I do know that. You don't really need me back on the scene, do you? You're
extremely capable, but I'm afraid you are going to be lumbered with me. I feel we've been blessed
with this little one that you are carrying and I'm sure you must feel the same.'
Tears were threatening again and she told him, 'Of course I do. How could I feel otherwise? But just
give me time, Ben. It's been so long since anyone cared if I lived or died.'
'Silence doesn't have to mean not caring,' he replied. 'It's just that sometimes shame gets in the way.'
'We both did the best we could,' she said flatly.
'Yes, but mine wasn't good enough, was it?'
'We've done enough heart searching for tonight, Ben,' she protested.
'Yes, we have,' he agreed. 'Let's get you home and tucked up in bed with Baby Allardyce.'
Georgina had come to a standstill and he said, 'What's wrong? Are you all right?'
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