Abigail Gordon - [Willowmere Village 03] - A Summer Wedding at Willowmere

A Summer Wedding At Willowmere
(A book in the Willowmere Village Stories series)
(2009)
A novel by
Abigail Gordon
Willowmere in the summer is a breathtaking sight. But nurse Laurel Maddox barely notices the
carefully tended gardens, pretty stone cottages and patchwork fields. All she wants is to hide away
from the past and the scars it left her with--both emotionally and physically.
Local physician Dr. David Trelawney is intrigued by his new colleague, and despite his own
wariness of relationships he longs to see Laurel blossom in the warmth of Willowere. Before
summer is out, this handsome village doctor intends to make her his bride!
They’d danced every dance, and during any intervals had dawdled outside—the scent of
summer flowers all around them and the trees festooned with fairy lights.
The last waltz ended and Laurel sighed.
“Was that an expression of relief or regret?” David asked quizzically.
“I think you know the answer to that,” she said lightly. She could have said so much more that
would have left him in no doubt about how much she’d enjoyed both the ball and being with him.
How the enchantment of it would stay in her heart forever.
But she had to move slowly in the new life that was opening up before her. She couldn’t face the
thought of being hurt again.
As they strolled home among the rest of the departing ball guests, the center of the village was full
of noise and laughter. But by the time they reached Glenside Lodge there was just the two of them
in the quiet night. When they got to the gate, David turned to face Laurel and said softly, “Are you
going to run a mile if I kiss you?”
Dear Reader,
Having been brought up happily enough in a Lancashire mill town, where fields and trees were
sparse on the landscape, I now live in the countryside, and find much pleasure in the privilege of
doing so. It gives me the opportunity to write about village life, with its caring communities and
beautiful surroundings.
So, dear reader, welcome to the third of my four stories about Willowmere, a picturesque village
tucked away in the Cheshire countryside. During the changing seasons you will meet the folk who
live and work here, and share in their lives and loves.
It is summer when Laurel comes to Willowmere, with her broken dreams and aching heart, quite
unaware that in this country paradise she will meet a man who stands out among men, who will
mend her dreams and kindle in her heart the kind of love that is precious beyond belief. For Laurel
and David the past will be past and the future will beckon like a bright star in A Summer Wedding
at Willowmere.
Happy reading!
Abigail Gordon
CHAPTER ONE
LAUREL MADDOX groaned as the train pulled into the small country station that was her
destination. She had two heavy cases to unload and there wasn’t a porter in sight. Just two deserted
platforms and an unattended ticket office were all that were visible as the doors began to open.
For someone used to the big city where platforms and staff were many and varied it was a
depressing introduction to the place that was going to be her home for some time to come. Yet all
was not lost as she prepared to heave the cases out onto the platform.
A voice said from behind, ‘Can I help?’ and when she turned the man it belonged to didn’t wait for
an answer. He moved past and swung the offending luggage out onto the platform, then turned and
offered a firm clasp from a hand that was protruding from the cuff of a crisp white shirt.
As she thanked him Laurel was thinking that he was the only part of the scenery that she could
relate to. Tall, tanned, trimly built, wearing a dark suit, he seemed more in keeping with the place
she’d come from than the countryside that her aunt had described in such glowing terms.
‘I need a porter,’ she said. ‘Is there such a person in this place?’
‘Just one,’ he replied. ‘Walter does the job of porter, mans the ticket office, collects them when
necessary.’ He gave a wave of the arm that took in the spotless platforms and the tubs of summer
flowers gracing them. ‘And also keeps the place clean and attractive. Willowmere won the prize for
best country station last year. But he does stop for lunch at this time of day.’
‘So what about a taxi?’ she asked wearily, obviously unimpressed by his description of the absent
Walter’s devotion to duty.
‘There is one, but…’
‘Don’t tell me. Amongst all of that he drives the local taxi.’
‘No. His brother does that,’ he said with a smile of the kind not soon forgotten, ‘but it doesn’t look
as if he’s around at the moment. I have a car and it’s parked just here. Can I give you a lift to
wherever you’re going? I know we’re strangers, but I’m a doctor in the village surgery, if it helps.’
He showed her his ID, which proclaimed him to be Dr David Trelawney.
‘Well, OK. Thank you,’ she said, trying to smile despite feeling weary and irritable and wishing she
hadn’t allowed herself to be persuaded to move to the Cheshire village of Willowmere. ‘So you
must know my Aunt Elaine. I’m going to stay with her for a while.’
‘Elaine Ferguson, our practice manager? Yes, of course,’ he said in surprise, and bent to pick up her
cases. ‘So you’ll be wanting Glenside Lodge, then. If you’ll follow me.’
As she tottered after him across the cobbled forecourt of the station on high-heeled shoes Laurel
was feeling nauseous from lack of food and the journey. It had been a month since she’d been
discharged from hospital and she was gradually getting stronger, but at that moment she felt as
weak as a kitten and was wishing she’d stayed put in her own habitat.
‘There’s a vacancy coming up at the surgery for a practice nurse,’ Elaine had phoned to say. ‘Why
don’t you give James Bartlett, the senior partner, a ring?’
‘You mean live in the country,’ Laurel had said doubtfully. ‘I’m not so sure about that. It just isn’t
my scene, and I’m not sure I want to go back to nursing after what happened.’
Elaine was not to be put off. ‘The air here is like wine compared to the fumes in the city, and with
some good food inside you it will help to complete your recovery. You’ve done so well, Laurel, and
I’m so proud of you. Come to Willowmere and carry on with your nursing here. You are too good
at it to give it up. A country practice is a much less stressful place than a large hospital…and I want
to pamper you a little.’
Elaine was clearly looking forward to her coming to live in her beloved village and the thought of
her waiting to welcome her with open arms had been too comforting to refuse. As well as that, her
aunt made the best omelette she’d ever tasted and if there was one thing her appetite needed, it was
to be tempted.
There was also the matter of the job at the practice. Laurel had eventually phoned the senior partner,
and having explained that she was coming to live in Willowmere and was a hospital-trained nurse,
he’d said that once she arrived he would be only too pleased to have a chat.
Returning to the present, Laurel thought that Elaine was going to be mad when she knew she’d
come on an earlier train. She would have been there to meet her if she’d kept to the arrangements,
but the opportunity had presented itself and she’d thought it better to get on a train that was there
than wait for one that might not arrive.
‘Is she expecting you?’ David asked as he drove along a country lane where hedgerows bright with
summer flowers allowed an occasional glimpse of fertile fields and their crops.
‘Yes and no,’ she told him. ‘Elaine knows I’m coming but not on the train I arrived on. I caught an
earlier one.’
‘That explains it.’
‘Explains what?’
‘She won’t be at Glenside Lodge at this time. Elaine will be at the surgery. So shall I take you there
instead?’
‘No!’ she said hurriedly. ‘She’s told me where to find the key. I’d like to go straight to her place if
you don’t mind.’
‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘Whatever you say.’
At that moment she slumped against him in the passenger seat and when David turned his head he
saw that she’d fainted. Now it was his turn to groan. What had he let himself in for with this too
thin, overly made-up girl in sheer tights and heels like stilts, wearing cotton gloves on a warm
summer day…and with the appeal of a cardboard box.
He stopped the car and hurried round to where she was crumpled pale and still in the passenger seat.
When he felt her pulse Laurel opened her eyes and sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said listlessly. ‘It’s just
that I’m hungry and tired.’
‘And it made you faint?’ he questioned, but the main thing was she’d come out of it quickly and in
a very short time they would be at Glenside Lodge.
‘So where is the key?’ he asked when they arrived at the end of a long drive that in the past the
carriages of the gentry had trundled along.
‘Under the water butt at the back,’ she told him weakly, and he observed her anxiously.
The moment they were inside he was going to phone Elaine and get her over here as quickly as
possible, he decided, and in the meantime he would keep a keen eye on this strange young woman
who looked as if she’d stepped out of a back issue of one of the glossies.
When she got out of the car Laurel’s legs wobbled beneath her, and afraid that she might collapse
onto the hard surface of the drive he put his arm around her shoulders to support her while they
went to find the key and then opened the door with his free hand and almost carried her inside.
There was a sofa by the window and after placing her carefully onto its soft cushions he went into
the kitchen to see what he could give her to eat and drink before he did anything else.
A glass of milk and a couple of biscuits had to suffice and while she was nibbling on them and
drinking thirstily he phoned the surgery.
‘What?’ the practice manager exclaimed when he told her that her visitor had arrived and wasn’t
feeling very well. ‘Laurel wasn’t due until later in the afternoon. I’ll be right there, David.’
With that she’d put the phone down and now he was waiting to be relieved of the responsibility that
he’d brought upon himself by offering to help Elaine’s niece.
‘I’m not always like this, you know,’ she told him languidly as she drained the glass. ‘I’m known to
be friendly and no trouble to anyone.’
‘You don’t have to explain,’ he told her dryly as the minutes ticked by. ‘I suggest that you see a
doctor in case you’re sickening for something.’
She managed a grimace of a smile. ‘I’ve seen a doctor, quite a few of them over recent months, and
lo and behold, now I’ve met another.’
Elaine’s car had just pulled up outside and she became silent, leaving him to wonder what she’d
meant by that. Maybe she was already suffering from some health problem as she didn’t look very
robust.
During the short time that he’d been part of the village practice David hadn’t known anything to
disrupt the calm efficiency of its manager. A petite blue-eyed blonde in her late thirties, Elaine
Ferguson had accountancy qualifications and controlled the administration side of it in a way that
kept all functions working smoothly. But when she came dashing into the small stone lodge that had
once been part of an estate high on the moors, Elaine was definitely flustered and the young woman
he’d picked up at the station wasn’t helping things as on seeing her aunt she burst into tears.
‘Laurel, my dear,’ she cried. ‘Why didn’t you stick to the arrangements we’d made?’
‘I know I should have done,’ she wailed, ‘but it was so quiet in the apartment and I felt so awful. I
just couldn’t wait any longer to be with you.’
David cleared his throat. Now that Elaine had arrived he wanted to be gone, but first he had to
explain that her niece had fainted due to what she’d described as hunger and exhaustion and he was
going to advise that she see a doctor at the surgery to be checked over.
‘I hope you will soon feel better,’ he said to the woebegone figure on the sofa who was sniffling
into a handkerchief, unaware that her mascara had become black smudges around green eyes that
looked so striking against her creamy skin and red-gold hair. The hair in question was quite short
and shaggy looking and he presumed it must be the fashion back in London.
Elaine came to the door with him, still tense and troubled, but she didn’t forget to thank him for
looking after her niece and it gave him the opportunity to say his piece.
She nodded when he’d finished. ‘I have quite a few concerns about Laurel and the first one is to get
her settled here in Willowmere where I can give her some loving care. I’ve persuaded her to leave
the big city for a while and come to where there is fresh air and good food.’
‘Your niece isn’t impressed with what she’s seen so far,’ he warned her whimsically. ‘A station
with just two platforms and no porter to hand.’
‘So she didn’t notice the shrubs and the flowers that Walter tends so lovingly, but she will,’ she said
with quiet confidence. ‘Laurel just needs time to get a fresh hold on life. I’m taking what’s left of
today off and the rest of the week. I’d already arranged it with James so everything is in order back
at the surgery.’
‘I can’t imagine it ever not being in order,’ he said as he stepped out onto the porch.
‘That could change,’ she said wryly, casting a glance over her shoulder at the slender figure on the
sofa, and as he drove to the practice on the main street of the village David was wondering what
Elaine had meant by that.
‘So you’ve met Elaine’s niece already!’ James Bartlett, the senior partner, exclaimed when he
arrived at the practice. ‘How did that come about?’
‘I went by rail to collect the last of my things from St Gabriel’s,’ David explained. ‘I thought it
would be quicker than driving there, and when the train pulled in at Willowmere on the return
journey I saw this girl about to get off and she had two heavy cases. So I stepped in and lifted them
down onto the platform for her.
‘She asked about a taxi but the one and only was nowhere in sight so I drove her to Glenside Lodge
then rang Elaine and by that time she wasn’t looking very well.’
James nodded. ‘I know there is or was a medical problem of some kind. There was a period when
Elaine was dashing off to London to see her whenever possible and it is why she has persuaded her
niece to come and stay with her as they’re very close.’
‘I’m sorry for the delay on my part,’ David said. ‘I’d expected to be away only a short time.’
‘Don’t be concerned,’ James told him. ‘You couldn’t leave a damsel in distress and Ben was here
until midday. He’s been on cloud nine ever since little Arran was born. It’s a delight to see him and
Georgina so blissfully happy.
‘But getting back to practice matters, would you take over the house calls now that you’re back,
while I have a chat with Beth Jackson? Our longest-serving practice nurse is champing at the bit to
hang up her uniform.’
‘Sure,’ David agreed. ‘It’s a delightful day out there and a delightful place to be driving around in.
I’ll get the list from Reception and be off.’
His first call was at the home of eighty-six-year-old Sarah Wilkinson, who had recently been
hospitalised because of high potassium levels in her blood due to drinking blackcurrant cordial
insufficiently diluted.
She was home now and due to have another blood test. Sarah had been quite prepared to go to the
surgery for it, but they’d told her that the district nurse would call to take the blood sample.
Today his visit was a routine one. All the over-eighties registered with the practice were visited
from time to time, and when it was Sarah’s turn there was always an element of pleasure in calling
on her because outwardly frail though she was, underneath was an uncomplaining, good-natured
stoicism that had seen her through many health problems of recent years.
One of them had been a sore on her arm that had refused to heal. It had resulted in visits to the
surgery for dressings over a long period of time, but the old lady had never complained and of
recent months a skin graft had finally solved the problem.
When she opened the door to him she said with a twinkle in her eye, ‘Can I offer you a drink of
blackcurrant cordial, Doctor?’
David was smiling as he followed her into a cosy sitting room. ‘Do you intend to put plenty of
water with it, Sarah?’
‘One can’t do right for doing wrong in this life,’ she said laughingly. ‘I thought by taking the
cordial almost neat I was building myself up, but no such thing.’
‘I know,’ he soothed. ‘But we’ve sorted you out, haven’t we?’
‘Yes, you have and I’m grateful. So to what do I owe this visit?’
‘It’s a courtesy call. Just to make sure you are all right.’
‘I’m fine. I’m not ready for pushing up the daisies yet. I’m going to enter my home-made jam and
Madeira cake at the Summer Fayre at the end of July just to prove it. Are you going to be there?’
‘Yes, now that you’ve told me about it. Although it’s a while off yet, isn’t it, as June is still bursting
out all over. What time does it start?’
‘Eleven in the morning until four in the afternoon. The cafй and the judging take place in a big
marquee that Lord Derringham lends us. He’s the rich man who owns the estate on the tops. One of
your practice nurses is married to his manager and Christine Quarmby, who has that ailment with
the funny name, is his gamekeeper’s wife.’
‘I can see that if I want to get to know what is going on in the village this is the place to come,’ he
commented. ‘Do the people in Willowmere see much of His Lordship?’
Sarah shook her head. ‘No, keeps himself to himself, but on the odd occasion that he does appear
he’s very pleasant and, like I said, he lets us use the marquee.
‘On the night before the Fayre we have a party in the park that runs alongside the river. There’s
food and drink, and a band on a stage to play for dancing, with us women in long dresses and the
men in dinner jackets. You must come.’
‘Why? Will you be there?’
‘Of course.’ She had a twinkle back in her eye. ‘Though I’m not into rock and roll. A sedate waltz
is more in my line.’
‘So can I book the first one?’
‘Yes, you can.’
‘I’m impressed.’
‘Get away with you.’ She chuckled. ‘When the young females of Willowmere see you all dressed
up, the likes of me won’t be able to get near you.’
David laughed. ‘Talking about young females, I gave one a lift from the station today.’
‘Oh, yes? And who would that be?’
‘She’s called Laurel and is the niece of Elaine the practice manager.’
Sarah smiled. ‘So that’s another one that’ll be in the queue.’
I don’t think so, he thought, and returned to more serious matters by changing the subject. ‘Right,
Sarah. So shall I do what I’ve come for?’
He checked her heart and blood pressure, felt her pulse and the glands in her neck, and when he’d
finished told her, ‘No problems there at the moment, but before I go is there anything troubling you
healthwise that you haven’t told me about?’
She shook her silver locks. ‘No, Doctor. Not at the moment.’
He was picking up his bag. ‘That’s good, then, and if I don’t see you before I’ll see you at the party
in the park.’
‘So tell me more about Dr Trelawney,’ Laurel said after David had gone. ‘He told me that he’s one
of the GPs here.’
‘He joined us just a short time ago from St Gabriel’s Hospital where he was a registrar seeking a
change of direction,’ Elaine explained. ‘David has replaced Georgina Allardyce, who has just given
birth and tied the knot for a second time with the husband she was divorced from almost four years
ago.
‘Georgina is on maternity leave at the moment and may come back part time in the future. In the
meantime, we are fortunate to have David, who is clever, capable, and has slotted in as if he was
meant to be part of the village’s health care.’
‘He was kind and I don’t think I behaved very well,’ Laurel said regretfully. ‘In fact, I was a pain.
I’ll apologise the next time we meet, but I felt so awful. I’m a freak, Elaine.’
‘Nonsense, Laurel. You are brave and beautiful,’ her aunt protested. ‘The scars, mental and
physical, will fade. Just give them time, dear.’
‘Everything is such an effort,’ she said despondently. ‘I’d put on my war paint and nice clothes to
make a statement, but didn’t fool anyone, certainly not the Trelawney guy. He suggested that I see a
doctor.’
‘And what did you say to that?’
‘That I’d seen plenty over the last few months and was about to tell him that I’m no ignoramus
myself when it comes to health care, but you arrived at that moment.’
‘Right,’ Elaine said briskly, having no comment to make regarding that. ‘Let’s get you settled in.
David said you fainted, so how do you feel now?’
‘Better. He gave me some milk and biscuits.’
‘Good. So let’s show you where you’ll be sleeping. Take your time up the stairs, watch your leg.
I’ve put you in the room with the best view. It overlooks Willow Lake, which is one of the most
beautiful places in the area.’
‘Really,’ was the lacklustre response, and Elaine hid a smile. Laurel was a city dweller through and
through and might be bored out here in the countryside, but she needed the change of scene and the
slower pace of life. Elaine wasn’t going to let her go back to London until she was satisfied that her
niece was fully recovered from an experience that she was not ever likely to forget.
‘Is your fiancй going to visit while you’re here?’ Elaine asked after she’d helped bring up Laurel’s
cases. ‘He will be most welcome.’
‘It’s off,’ Laurel told her as she peered through the window at the view that she’d been promised.
‘I’m too thin and pale for him these days…and then there are the scars, of course.’
‘Then he doesn’t love you enough,’ Elaine announced, and without further comment went down to
make them a late lunch.
She was right, Laurel thought dolefully when she’d gone, but it hurt to hear it said out loud. Darius
was in the process of making his name in one of the television soaps and had rarely been to see her
while she’d been hospitalised, and less still since she’d been discharged. When she’d said she was
going to the countryside to assist her recovery he’d thought she was out of her mind.
‘You’re crazy, babe,’ he’d said. ‘Why would you want to leave London for fields full of cow pats?’
If his visits had been sparse, not so Elaine’s. Her aunt had been to see her in hospital whenever she
could and Laurel loved her for it. Other friends had been kind and loyal too. But Darius, the one
she’d wanted to see the most, had been easing her out of his life all the time. In the end, dry eyed
and disenchanted, she’d given him his ring back.
After they’d eaten Elaine said, ‘Why don’t you sit out in the garden for a while and let the sun bring
some colour to your pale cheeks while I clear away?’
‘If you say so,’ Laurel agreed without much enthusiasm and, picking up a magazine that she’d
bought before leaving London, went to sit on the small terrace at the back of the lodge. But it
wasn’t long before she put it down. It was too quiet, she thought, spooky almost. How was she
going to exist without the hustle and bustle of London in her ears?
For the first time since she’d arrived, she found herself smiling. What was she like! Most people
would jump at the chance to get away from that sort of sound, yet here she was, already pining for
the throb of traffic.
The silence was broken suddenly by the noise of a car pulling up on the lane at the side of the
garden and when she looked up Laurel saw that the window on the driver’s side was being lowered
and the village doctor that she’d met earlier was observing her over the hedge.
‘So how’s it going?’ David asked. ‘Are you feeling better?’
‘Er, yes, a bit,’ she said, taken aback at seeing him again in so short a time. ‘You didn’t have to
come to check on me, you know.’
‘I’m not,’ he told her dryly. ‘There are plenty of others who will actually be glad to see me. I’m in
the middle of my house calls so I won’t disturb you further.’
She’d given him the impression that she thought him interfering, Laurel thought glumly as he drove
off. What a pain in the neck he must think she was.
Elaine appeared at that moment with coffee and biscuits on a tray and as they sat together
companionably, she asked, ‘Did I hear a car?’
‘Yes. It was your Dr Trelawney.’
‘David?’
‘Yes, on his home visits. He saw me out here and stopped for a word. He doesn’t look like a
country type. How does he cope with it, I wonder?’
‘The job?’
‘No, the silence.’
‘You ungrateful young minx,’ Elaine declared laughingly. ‘Lots of people would give their right
arm to live in a place like this.’
‘Yes, but what do you do for fun?’
Still amused, she replied, ‘Oh, we fall in love, get married, have babies, take delight in the seasons
as they come and go, count the cabbages in the fields…’
‘You haven’t done that, though, have you?’
‘Counted the cabbages? No, but I’ve been in love. Sadly I was never a bride. I lost the love of my
life before our relationship had progressed that far.’
‘Yes, and it’s such a shame,’ Laurel told her. ‘You would have been a lovely mum. That’s what
you’ve been like to me, Elaine.’
‘You are my sister’s child,’ she said gently. ‘I’ve tried to make up for what she and your father
lacked in parenting skills, but they did turn up at the hospital to see you, didn’t they?’
‘For a couple of hours, yes, because they’d read about me in the papers, but they were soon off on
their travels again.’
‘That’s the way they are,’ Elaine said soothingly. ‘Free spirits. We’ll never change them and they
do love you in their own way.’
‘I’ve lost my way, Elaine,’ she said forlornly. ‘I used to be so positive, but since it happened I feel
as if I don’t know who I am. My face isn’t marked, for which I’m eternally grateful, but there are
parts of the rest of me that aren’t a pretty sight.’
‘That won’t matter to anyone who really loves you,’ she was told. ‘Like I said before, you’re brave
and beautiful.’
‘I wish,’ was the doleful reply.
David Trelawney was house hunting. Since moving to Willowmere he’d been living in a rented
cottage not too far from the surgery and Bracken House, where James Bartlett lived with his two
children.
So far it was proving to be an ideal arrangement. It wouldn’t have been if his high-flying American
fiancйe had wanted to join him, but that was not a problem any more.
They’d called off the engagement just before he’d accepted the position at St Gabriel’s, and though
it had left him with a rather jaundiced attitude to the opposite sex, his only regret was that he’d
made an error of judgement and would be wary of repeating it.
Yet it wasn’t stopping him from house hunting. He didn’t want to rent for long, but so far he hadn’t
made any definite decision about where he was going to put down his roots in the village that had
taken him to its heart. He told himself wryly that he’d made a mistake in his choice of a wife and
wasn’t going to do the same thing when it came to choosing a house.
He’d spent his growing years in a Cornish fishing village where his father had brought him up
single-handed after losing his wife to cancer when David had been quite small, and once when
Caroline had flown over to see him he’d taken her to meet him.
‘Are you sure that she is the right one for you, David?’ Jonas Trelawney had said afterwards. ‘She’s
smart and attractive, seems like the kind of woman who knows what she wants and goes out to get
it, but I know how you love kids and somehow I can’t see her breast feeding or changing nappies.
Have you discussed it at all?’
‘Yes,’ he’d said easily, putting from his mind the number of times the word ‘nanny’ had cropped up
in the conversation.
He’d met her on a visit to London. She’d been staying in the same hotel with a group of friendly
Texans who, on discovering that he had been on his own, had invited him to join them as they saw
the sights.
She’d made a play for him, he’d responded to her advances, and the attraction between them had
escalated into marriage plans, though he’d had his doubts about how she would react to the prospect
of living in a town in Cheshire, as at that time he’d been based at St Gabriel’s Hospital.
It was going to be so different to the glitzy life that he’d discovered she led when he’d visited her in
Texas. Yet she hadn’t raised any objections when he’d said that he had no plans to leave the UK
while his father was alive. But he was to discover that the novelty of the idea was to be short-lived
as far as Caroline was concerned.
His uneasiness had become a definite thing when he’d been expecting to go over there to sort out
wedding arrangements and she’d put him off, saying that she had the chance to purchase a boutique
that she’d had her eye on for some time and didn’t want any diversions until the deal was settled.
‘I would hardly have thought our wedding would be described as a diversion,’ he’d said coolly, and
she’d told him that she was a businesswoman first and foremost and he would have to get used to
that.
‘I see, and how are you going to run a boutique in Texas if you are living over here?’ he’d asked,
his anger rising.
There was silence at the other end of the line and then the dialling tone.
She phoned him again that same day at midnight Texas time. It sounded as if she was at some sort
of social gathering if the noise in the background was anything to go by, and as if wine had
loosened her tongue Caroline told him the truth, that she didn’t want to be a doctor’s wife any more
in some crummy place in Britain and wanted to call off the engagement.
As anger came surging back he told her that it was fine by him and coldly wished her every success
in her business dealings.
He discovered afterwards that there’d been more to it than she’d admitted that night on the phone. A
certain senator had appeared on her horizon and she’d used the boutique story as a get-out.
In his disillusionment David decided to make a fresh start. His father had once told him that his
mother had come from a village in Cheshire called Willowmere, and shortly after his engagement to
Caroline had ended he met James Bartlett’s sister Anna in the company of a doctor from the village
practice. They’d been involved in a near drowning incident in a village called Willowmere and the
way they described the place made him keen to find where the other part of his roots belonged.
When he’d found his mother’s childhood home the discovery of it pulled at his heartstrings so much
that he decided he wanted to live in Willowmere, and as if it was meant he was offered a position in
the village practice.
What was left of the house stood in the centre of a field on the way to Willow Lake, a local beauty
spot, and as he’d stood beside it he’d felt that this was where he wanted to be, where he wanted to
bring up his children if he ever married, and at the same time contribute to the health care of those
who lived there.
All that remained of it was four stone walls, the roof having long since fallen in, and he
remembered his father telling him how his mother had left it as a bride and gone to live with him in
Cornwall where his home had been.
David found no reason to regret his decision to move to the Cheshire countryside. He was totally
happy there, but supposed it might not be everyone’s choice. For instance, there was the girl he’d
met at the station, he thought as the day took its course. She’d taken a dim view of the place.
So far he hadn’t found a property that appealed to him and knew it was because every time he went
back to the ruins of his mother’s home the idea of restoring it was there.
Laurel and Elaine had had an omelette for their evening meal with chips and fresh green runner
beans out of the garden, and when she’d placed the food in front of her niece she’d said, ‘I know
it’s not exactly the fatted calf but it’s something that I know you like.’
‘I love your omelettes,’ Laurel told her. ‘I used to dream about them when I was in hospital.’
‘Yes, I’m sure you did,’ Elaine said laughingly. ‘You must have had better things to think about
than my cooking.’
‘It was the only thing that cheered me up,’ Laurel insisted. ‘Darius was in the process of ditching
me slowly, the skin grafts weren’t a bundle of joy, and neither was my leg that they’d had to pin all
over the place.’
‘I know, my dear,’ Elaine said soothingly. ‘It isn’t surprising that you’re feeling low with all that
has happened to you but, Laurel, it could have been so much worse.’
‘Yes, I know,’ she said flatly, ‘and I really do want to like it here and get fit again. I look such a
sight.’
‘Not to me you don’t.’
‘Maybe, but your Dr Trelawney kept looking at me as if I was some peculiar specimen under the
microscope. I wish my hair would grow more quickly.’
‘Have patience, Laurel,’ she was told. ‘What has grown so far is still the same beautiful colour.’
‘Yes, the colour of fire,’ she said with a shudder as she ate the food beneath the watchful gaze of
her hostess.
‘I think an early night would be a good idea,’ Elaine suggested when they’d tidied up after the meal,
‘but how about a breath of good country air first? Perhaps a short walk through the village, past the
surgery where David and I spend our working lives, and where you might be joining us when you
feel like going to see James.’
‘Yes, sure,’ she agreed, ‘and if that is where he works, where does he live?’
‘David lives in a small cottage nearby. He’s staying there until he finds a property to buy. I know
that he’s house hunting quite seriously but hasn’t mentioned finding anything suitable so far.’
‘And will he be living alone when he does?’ Laurel asked.
‘Yes, as far as I know, unless he has a wife tucked away somewhere, and I doubt that.’
David was returning from his usual nightly stroll to gaze upon his mother’s old home when he saw
them coming towards him. Elaine, trim as always in slacks and a smart top, and the strange young
woman he’d met at lunchtime still in the same outlandish garb as before that looked totally out of
place in the setting.
‘Hello, there,’ he said when they drew level. ‘Have you been showing your niece the sights of
Willowmere, Elaine?’
‘Yes, some of them,’ she replied, ‘such as the surgery and your spacious accommodation.’
He smiled. ‘It’s all right for one, two at the most.’
‘And are you still house hunting?
‘Er, yes, sort of. I’ve got something in mind but it won’t be a fast solution.’
He was aware that Elaine’s companion hadn’t spoken at yet another unexpected meeting and
thought that maybe now she was established in the village she was keeping a low profile, but he
was to discover there was nothing wrong with her vocal cords.
‘I don’t remember thanking you for coming to my rescue when I was getting off the train,’ she said
in a less abrupt manner than the one she’d used then.
‘Think nothing of it,’ he said easily, as if the whole episode had been a pleasant break in the day.
‘The main thing is how are you feeling now?’
She smiled and David was struck at the transformation.
‘Improving,’ was the reply, ‘and once Elaine has shown me the lake it’s off to bed for me. It’s been
a long day, but not as long as some have been recently.’
As they moved off in opposite directions David was thinking how pale she was. James had said
there was a health problem of some kind regarding Elaine’s niece, and he wondered what it was.
CHAPTER TWO
WHEN Laurel awoke the next morning she found herself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling dappled
by a summer sun and for the first few seconds couldn’t think where she was, but not for long.
She was in Elaine’s quiet backwater, she thought, with birdsong the only sound breaking the
silence. Recalling how she’d asked her aunt what they did for fun in Willowmere, she wondered
why she’d brought up the subject. That kind of thing wasn’t going to be on her agenda with a
broken engagement behind her and some unappealing scarring.
But now here she was and glad of it in spite of her lack of enthusiasm for country life. As sleep had
stolen over her the night before she’d vowed she was going to make an effort to fit in and if she got
the job at the surgery at least she wouldn’t be moping around all day.
‘Does anyone in Willowmere know what happened to me?’ Laurel asked of Elaine as they ate a
leisurely breakfast out on the sunny patio.
Her aunt shook her head. ‘No. At the time I was too distressed to talk about it, my beautiful niece
caught up in the stupidity of others, and if anyone around here saw it in the papers they wouldn’t
see any connection.
‘Right from the start I’ve felt it would be an invasion of your privacy to discuss you with others
even though I’ve been bursting with pride every time I thought of what you did. But as far as I’m
concerned, that is how it will stay, Laurel. If you should want to tell anyone, that is a different
matter.
‘And now what would you like to do today? If you’re not over the moon with our lovely village we
can go into the town and shop if you like, but I would rather we saved that sort of thing for when
you’ve had some rest and relaxation, which could be in short supply when you’re working at the
surgery.’
‘You mean if I’m working there. I’m not exactly spectacular at the moment with a gammy knee that
sometimes lets me down and hair that looks as if it’s been cut with a knife and fork.’
‘Nonsense,’ Elaine soothed gently. ‘Your hair is growing back nicely and you’re beautiful with
your green eyes and lovely, curvy mouth.’
‘And my rough red hands,’ Laurel reminded her with dry humour. ‘I wear the gloves all the time so
that I won’t be mistaken for a domestic drudge.’
‘Get away with you,’ was the response. ‘People around here are very kind and if they knew how
you’d got the scarring they would acclaim your courage and dedication to the job. But, as I’ve just
said, that is entirely your affair, and as to how we are going to spend your first day away from
London, what is it to be, the town or the village?’
‘The village, I think,’ Laurel replied. She would have preferred to go shopping but she knew how
much Elaine wanted to show her Willowmere and they could always shop another day.
‘So how about a leisurely stroll and then we’ll have lunch at the Hollyhocks Tea Rooms? It may not
be as upmarket as the places where you usually eat, but they won’t be able to beat the food that
Emma and her husband serve to their customers.
‘Then if you like I’ll take you to the surgery and introduce you to James. He will want to arrange a
time to interview you. Beth Jackson, who is leaving, wants to go as soon as possible. She and her
husband are opening a business next to the post office and if you feel the need, by all means wear
the gloves, though I do think that you have no call to be so self-conscious about your hands.’
Laurel wasn’t sure about visiting the surgery. ‘Don’t you think that David Trelawney might feel
that since arriving here I’ve been continually in his line of vision?’ she said dubiously. ‘At the
station, in the garden, when he was driving past on his way to house calls, and at sunset last night.’
‘He’ll be seeing much more of you than that if you’re working at the same place,’ Elaine said
laughingly. ‘And how do you know he won’t feel that he can’t get too much of a good thing?’
Laurel couldn’t bring herself to share in Elaine’s amusement. How long, if ever, was it going to be
before she felt desirable once more? Each time Darius had visited her in hospital it had been clear
that he wasn’t keen on the damaged version, and as she’d fought her way through the pain it had
been with her confidence at a very low ebb.
As they walked along the main street Elaine was greeted by everyone they met and Laurel was
aware that some curious glances were coming her way, which was not surprising as she was
wearing a high-necked sweater, a hat and gloves on a hot summer day.
This is so different from city life, she was thinking as she took in the friendliness of the people. She
and her fellow nurses had often commented that in London people were always rushing about, and
getting to know one’s next-door neighbour was a rare event, but in Willowmere life seemed to be
lived at a slower pace, as if each moment was to be cherished rather than passed quickly by.
It had always been Elaine who had been her visitor before this, staying at the apartment and
enjoying every moment with the niece that she loved like a daughter, but now it was Laurel’s turn
to leave her natural habitat for a while.
And now here she was, happy to be with the one person who loved her unconditionally, yet feeling
totally out of her depth amongst quaint limestone cottages and shops that had an individuality all
their own.
‘We passed the surgery last night if you remember,’ Elaine said, indicating a large stone building
across the way from where they’d just had an excellent lunch. Noting Laurel’s lack of enthusiasm,
she added, ‘Are you sure you want to meet the people who work there?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said with assumed heartiness, deciding that she may as well get it over with.
At least it was only a place for local people with their ailments. There would be no rows of beds or
doctors with sombre expressions looking down at her, and nurses treating one of their own with
sympathy and efficiency.
She’d been introduced to the two receptionists, both of them middle-aged, pleasant and organised,
met the two practice nurses and discovered that it was a delicatessen that Beth Jackson and her
husband were going to open very soon at the other end of the main street.
At that moment the door of the nearest consulting room opened and an attractive, dark-haired
woman was framed there, holding a baby in her arms. The doctor she’d been consulting was close
behind and as she was about to leave he bent and kissed her tenderly.
Laurel’s eyes widened and as Elaine steered her in the opposite direction she explained, ‘That is
baby Arran Allardyce come to see his daddy. Ben is helping out while Georgina, his wife, who is
one of our regular doctors, is on maternity leave.’
‘I see,’ Laurel said, and wished that she had a man in her life to kiss her like that and a beautiful
baby to go with it. Day would turn into night before that ever happened in the light of recent events.
James Bartlett, the senior partner, was all that Elaine had described him to be, pleasant, handsome, a
very likeable man with two lovely children if the photograph on his desk was anything to go by, and
when they’d been introduced her aunt left them to get acquainted.
She’d removed the hat by then, deciding that if she was going to be employed there it was only fair
that the man sitting opposite should see what she really looked like, yet she needn’t have worried.
James didn’t seem to see anything too odd about the young woman that Elaine had brought to the
surgery. ‘When could you come for an interview, Laurel?’
‘Whenever,’ she replied. ‘My time is my own at present.’
‘Then how about on the afternoon of the day that Elaine returns from the leave that she arranged in
honour of your arrival? Say two o’clock?’ As she got up to go he shook her hand and said, ‘We’ll
look forward to seeing you then.’
She was missing nursing, but until Elaine had suggested she work at the practice had felt it would
be too painful to go back to it. But there was something about this pleasant village health care
centre that was reaching out to her…and of course there was David Trelawney. Where was he
today?
Yesterday she’d been too frazzled to really register the man who’d come to her rescue when she’d
been getting off the train, but now she was curious to see if he was as presentable as she’d thought.
It would be nice to see him again now that she was in residence, so to speak, and it would give her
the opportunity to express further gratitude for his assistance, but it seemed that it was not to be on
this bright summer day, and it did rather take the edge off it.
If she and Elaine had walked a little further she would have had the answer to her question. David’s
car was parked outside the village hall. He’d been about to start his home visits when a call had
come through and he’d gone straight there to find the chairlady of the Women’s Institute, who were
holding their usual monthly meeting on the premises, looking far from well.
She was experiencing severe chest pains, perspiring heavily, and her lips were blue. Before he’d
even sounded her heart David was phoning for an ambulance and telling her gently, ‘I’m sending
you to hospital, Mrs Tate.’
She nodded. Maisie Tate was no fool. She wouldn’t be chairlady of Willowmere’s branch of the
Women’s Institute if she was. She could tell that the new doctor at the practice had her down for a
heart attack and she didn’t think he was wrong.
But if that was the case, who was going to look after her husband? Barry always had kippers for tea
on a Thursday and she wasn’t going to be able to call at the fishmonger’s on her way home today.
David had finished examining her and as another stab of pain ripped across her chest he said
reassuringly, ‘The ambulance will be here any moment, Mrs Tate, and they’ll take you straight to
hospital when I’ve had a word with the paramedics.’
The rest of the Women’s Institute was hovering around her anxiously and one of them, who must
have known her routine, said, ‘Don’t worry, Maisie. I’ll get your Barry his kippers.’
She nodded and David thought incredulously that this was the age group who’d been brought up to
have a meal ready for the man of the house when he came in from work. But surely when he knew
what was happening to his wife the absent Barry wouldn’t have any appetite.
As he drove along the main street of the village on his way to the delayed calls he was surprised to
see Elaine and Laurel walking slowly along the pavement ahead of him, and as he pulled up
alongside them he saw that the short skirt, high heels and sheer tights had been replaced by jeans
and sandals.
But the rest of her attire was still strange and he didn’t think it was what the fashion-conscious were
wearing for the summer in London. A soft felt hat was completely covering the short red-gold hair
and she was still wearing the white cotton gloves.
‘Hello, there, and what are you folks up to on this glorious day?’ he asked with a smile that
embraced them both.
‘I’m showing Laurel around the village,’ Elaine replied. ‘We’ve just been to the surgery and she’s
been introduced to everyone there. Where were you, though? You were the only one missing,
David, although you’ve already met my niece, haven’t you?’
I have indeed, he thought, three times to be exact.
‘Yes,’ he replied with the smile still in place, and went on to explain with his glance on her so-far
silent companion, ‘I was out on an emergency call.
‘And how are you this morning, Laurel?’ he said easily, wondering if she was anaemic or
something of the kind to be wearing that sort of jumper in the heat of summer.
‘Much better, thank you,’ she said flatly, and he sighed inwardly.
He turned to Elaine. ‘I was called to the village hall where the Women’s Institute are having a
meeting and found their chairlady with a suspected heart attack.’
‘Oh! No!’ Elaine exclaimed. ‘That would be Maisie Tate. Poor Maisie!’
‘Yes, it was,’ he replied, and thought he couldn’t imagine her companion having much interest in
the ills and ailments of the Willowmere villagers. There was an aloofness about her today and he
was curious to know what lay beneath it as he never could resist a challenge.
‘And so what do you think of our beautiful village?’ he asked Laurel.
‘I thought that you were a newcomer too,’ she commented dryly, while comparing his clear-cut
attractiveness to the wavy dark hair and fashionable stubble of Darius, who’d not wanted her any
more because he’d seen the scarring and been revolted…
It wasn’t a situation that would ever occur with this man, she thought with a rush of blood. There
would never be an occasion when he saw her minus clothing and…where had such an idea come
from anyway?
He was smiling at the comment and she thought how likeable he was as he said, ‘I am a newcomer
in one way, yet I feel as if Willowmere has always been part of me. Sometimes we find the place of
our dreams and are given the opportunity to live there and that is what I intend to do when I’ve
found a house.’
There was no mention of a woman in his life, Laurel noticed, which was incredible, but the odds
were that there would be one tucked away somewhere, or relegated to the past for some reason.
‘I must go,’ he said, unaware that she was surmising about his love life. ‘I have a few visits to make
and am already late after the callout to Mrs Tate.’
‘Yes, of course,’ Elaine said, and to Laurel’s horror she went on, ‘Would you like to come over for
dinner one evening so that I may show my appreciation for the way you looked after my niece
yesterday?’
Ugh! Laurel thought, taken aback at the suggestion and its implications. It made her appear to be
some sort of helpless, clinging vine, just as she’d been when they’d met at the station and
afterwards. But she wasn’t usually like that. It was just unfortunate that David Trelawney had been
an observer of her moments of weakness.
If she was taken aback, so was he, she thought, seeing his surprise, but he soon recovered his poise
and said politely, ‘Er…yes…I’d love to.’ He glanced warily in her direction. ‘But please don’t feel
that you owe me anything for yesterday. It was just a matter of common politeness.’
As Elaine nodded understandingly Laurel thought wistfully that it would be, wouldn’t it? The time
was gone when she attracted admiring looks, or handsome men asked her out to dinner.
‘When would you like to come?’ Elaine was asking.
He gave a wry grimace. ‘I’m free most nights. I spend most of my time house hunting or dreaming
of renovating an old house I’ve seen.’
‘And where would that be?’ she questioned curiously, while Laurel stood by silently once more.
‘It’s a derelict building in one of the fields beside Willow Lake.’
‘Ah! I know the one. It’s called Water Meetings House. Why that one, though, when there are lots
of nice properties in the area? It would need huge restoration work to make it habitable again. It’s
been like that for years.’
‘Mmm, I know, but I do have my reasons,’ he said, and without questioning him further Elaine
returned to the subject of dinner.
‘So how about one night next week?’ she suggested. ‘Say Friday when there is no surgery the
following day?’
‘Yes, fine,’ he replied. ‘What time?’
‘Sevenish, if that’s all right.’
He nodded and with a wave of the hand drove off.
As his car disappeared from view Laurel groaned openly and Elaine said, ‘I know what you’re
thinking. That it is unkind of me to invite David to dinner when you want to keep a low profile, but
Laurel, I’m not matchmaking. He is a stranger in the village, just as you are, and we in Willowmere
are renowned for our hospitality.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said contritely as the moment of gloom disappeared. ‘The last thing I want is to
become a me, me, me sort of person. Self-pity is a form of selfishness.’
‘It can be,’ Elaine agreed gently, ‘but not in your case. And now let’s take you home and put you to
bed for a couple of hours and I guarantee that as each day passes you are going to feel more ready
to face the world, and whatever you think of Willowmere you couldn’t be recuperating in a better
place.’
‘You might be right,’ Laurel said with spirits still lifting as she thought that it was more likely to be
the village’s inhabitants than its peace and fresh air that were going to help her take a hold on life
again.
Yet as she looked out of her bedroom window before going to bed that night and saw a golden sun
setting on the skyline, with the lake glinting in the distance amongst the drooping willows that had
given it its name, it didn’t all feel quite so strange as it had the night before.
Within minutes of placing her head on the pillows she slept and for once there were no smoke and
flames turning her dreams into nightmares.
Beth called at Glenside Lodge for a chat in her lunch hour the following day and as the three of
them relaxed over coffee she said, ‘James must be feeling that it is one departure after another at the
surgery. First it was Anna and Glenn going to work in Africa. Then Georgina and Ben had a blissful
reunion, which resulted in them remarrying and her giving birth to Arran in the spring, so she is
going to be missing for quite some time too, hence David’s most welcome appearance, and now I’m
about to try a new slant on village shopping. You will be most welcome in the practice, Laurel, if
you can sort something out with James, but are you happy that it might only be temporary?’
‘Yes, it would suit me fine,’ she replied. ‘I’m rather at a crossroads in my life at the moment, so it
would give me a short breathing space before I make up my mind what I want to do and where I’m
heading.’
Elaine was nodding in silent agreement. Laurel was improving physically, but it was the mental
scars that worried her. Her niece had been a bright and trendy twenty-five-year-old when it had
happened, totally dedicated to the career she’d chosen and enjoying life in the big city when she
hadn’t been working, but now all of that had gone.
Her interest in the village surgery had been lukewarm when she’d taken Laurel there, as had been
her interest in life in general, but she wasn’t going to sit by and let her stay in the doldrums. Her
beautiful girl still had a lot to offer to those needing health care and to the man who would one day
love her for who she was.
Willowmere in summer was a bright haven of colour. The new life that had come bursting through
in fields and gardens in the spring was now established in abundant growth. Trees along the
riverside, some of them hundreds of years old, were in full leaf, providing a background of fresh
greenery against the flimsy craft of the canoe club as they sailed along on practice days, and bird
life of every kind imaginable was to be found in cottage gardens and in the park that ran parallel
with the river.
The charm of the village attracted walkers and visitors from miles around and as the days passed
Laurel was aware that the Hollyhocks Tea Rooms were busy all the time with those seeking
appetising meals to complement a summer day, and The Pheasant, its only pub, did much trade with
others who had less discerning tastes but could guarantee a thirst.
Often it wasn’t until late in the evening that the quiet that she’d been so dubious about descended. It
was on one of those occasions that she went for a stroll in the gathering dusk beside the lake that
was visible when she looked through her bedroom window.
Elaine had gone to bed and she’d been about to do the same when the urge to go out into the
gloaming had overtaken her. The sunset had been magnificent and now it was still and sultry with a
yellow moon above.
She’d been wearing a sundress in the house and instead of changing into something less revealing
threw a light cardigan across her bare shoulders and sallied forth, minus the gloves.
There were still a few people about loath to be inside on such a night, but they thinned out as she
drew nearer to the lake, and by the time she was only a field away she was alone, and looming up in
front of her in the moonlight were the ruins of a big stone house. Could this be the place that David
Trelawney had mentioned? she wondered. If so, what a mess it was in, yet what a position, just a
hundred feet or so from Willow Lake, and on the other side of the house, not far away, the place
where the two rivers that flowed through the village met. There was a tattered sign on the fencing
that separated the field from the road and as she peered at it she saw that it said appropriately
‘Water Meetings House.’
She shook her head in disbelief. Was the man insane? It would take forever to restore this place.
‘Hello, there,’ a voice said from behind her.
She turned slowly and he was there, the village doctor who was considering rebuilding the shell of
what must have once been a gracious home.
‘Hi,’ she said lightly, pulling the cardigan tightly around her shoulders. ‘I came out for a stroll and
stumbled upon this derelict house. It’s the one that you mentioned the other day, isn’t it?’
He was smiling. She could see his teeth gleaming whitely in the moon’s light. ‘Yes, it is. I expect
you think I’m crazy to be considering restoring it.’
‘Yes, I do as a matter of fact,’ was the reply. ‘Yet I can see why. It’s in a fantastic position and so
aptly named.’
She was a dedicated city dweller, but there was something about the moment with the two of them
wrapped around by the silent night and the remains of the limestone house shining palely in the
moonlight that was firing her imagination, and she thought whimsically that it was as if there were
forces abroad that were out to entrance her, when she didn’t want to be entranced.
As he observed her bemused expression David was thinking along similar lines. It was weird that
Laurel of all people should be so much on his wavelength about this place and the ruins of his
mother’s old home. Meeting up with her out there in the moonlight was just as odd as on the other
times they’d met.
It had come at the end of a very strange day. In the early afternoon he’d had a phone call from one
of the Texan wives who’d been in Caroline’s group when he’d first met her in London.
He’d been surprised to hear from her and even more so when he’d heard what she had to say. She’d
rung to tell him that Caroline had married the senator that she’d been seeing at the time they’d
ended their relationship.
‘My Jerome said we should let you know,’ she’d said gently in a soft Texan drawl, ‘so that if you
hear it from someone else it won’t be such a shock.’
He’d thanked her and after chatting briefly had finished the call with no feelings of regret. There’d
been just the relief of knowing that the big mistake he’d almost made had reached its final
conclusion, and it would be a long time before he made such an error of judgement again.
He’d picked up the phone again and rung his father, and when he’d told him about the call from
America and that it was definitely over with his ex-fiancйe Jonas had exclaimed, ‘Praise be! But I
thought it already was?’
‘Yes, it was, but now there is closure, Dad,’ he said calmly.
‘And are you sure you’re all right with that?’
‘Spot on,’ he replied. ‘It would never have worked. We had a different set of values.’
‘One day you’ll meet the right woman and when it happens you will know beyond any doubt,’
Jonas said. ‘When I met your mother I knew she was the only one for me, and it will be the same
for you.’
‘If you say so,’ he agreed dubiously, with the old proverb about once bitten, twice shy in mind.
With the feeling of contentment still there he went to the local estate agent’s while out on his calls
and ended his uncertainties about the house by the lake by making an offer for it and the land it
stood on.
In the summer twilight he’d gone to gaze upon what he hoped would soon be his and found that the
strange day was not yet over. He’d found Laurel Maddox there, standing silent and alone in front of
what had been his mother’s childhood home.
CHAPTER THREE
HER eyes looked huge in the light of the moon. She was still clutching her cardigan tightly around
her, and once again he wondered what it was with this strange newcomer to the village.
She was different from any woman he’d ever met. There was a sort of touch-me-not aura about her
and yet he sensed hurt and vulnerability there too.
‘I’ll walk you home,’ he suggested. ‘We don’t get much crime around here, but even so it isn’t a
good idea to be out on your own in the dark.’ She didn’t reply, but as he began to move in that
direction she fell into step beside him.
As they walked along the road that separated the house from the lake she tripped over a loose stone
and his arm came out to steady her. He felt her flinch at his touch and let his hold fall away as soon
as she’d regained her balance.
She was happy enough when she was with Elaine, he thought, and no one at the surgery had had
any adverse comments to make about her after she’d been introduced to them, so maybe it was him
that she didn’t care for.
Two in one day, he thought wryly. Caroline marrying her rich lover and Laurel behaving as if he’d
got the plague, yet it didn’t prevent his concern about her increasing.
When they reached Glenside Lodge and stopped at the gate he said, ‘Take care, Laurel. If we don’t
meet before, I will see you on Friday.’ Leaving her to go quietly up the stairs without disturbing
Elaine, he strode off towards the village green and the cottage he was renting.
As she settled herself beneath the covers Laurel was wishing that she could act naturally when she
was with David instead of being such a pain. She wasn’t like that with anyone else, but he wasn’t
like anyone else. He was attractive and so likeable that he took her breath away, and the last thing
she needed at the moment were those sorts of feelings.
It was Friday night. David had arrived with flowers and chocolates for his two hostesses and the
three of them were having a drink before dinner in the sitting room of Glenside Lodge.
From the moment of his arrival his gaze had been on Laurel. She wasn’t looking so drained, he
decided, and though she wasn’t saying much she looked happier. He wasn’t to know that the
moment he’d appeared again all her resolutions to keep her distance had disappeared.
He noticed that she wasn’t quite so covered up tonight in the cream cotton dress she was wearing. It
was full skirted and calf length, and revealed a slender neck decorated by just a fine gold chain. But
the gloves were still on view, cream this time, and he decided that they had to be some sort of fad.
They’d taken their coffee out into the garden at the end of the meal and were chatting about minor
matters when Elaine said, ‘I’m told that Maisie Tate is still in the coronary unit.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘However, she is making good progress and could be home by the end of the
week.’
‘That’s good, then,’ she replied.
‘Indeed. Plus Barry might soon be getting his kippers once more,’ he said, and both women
laughed.
As the night fell around them David asked, ‘How long have you lived in Willowmere, Elaine?’
‘Four years,’ she told him. ‘I was in business management in London and felt ready for a change.
I’d always wanted to live in the countryside so applied for the post of practice manager at the
surgery. Laurel was twenty-one at the time and didn’t want to move out of her job, so she stayed
behind.’
‘And what job would that be, Laurel?’ he asked, his curiosity about her unabated.
There was silence for a moment and then she said flatly, ‘I was a nurse in a London hospital before
I came here.’
David was taken aback. That was one for the book, he was thinking. ‘So you were hospital based
the same as I was,’ he said, ‘but aren’t any longer?’
‘Yes, that is so,’ she informed him, and without giving him the chance to ask any more questions
went into the kitchen to make more coffee. As she waited for the kettle to boil she thought wryly
that he had done his best to hide his surprise but he couldn’t see her in the role, and if the senior
partner decided she was what he wanted at the surgery, David was in for an even bigger surprise.
He’d got her labelled as something and it wasn’t a nurse. But, then, he hadn’t known her before it
had happened.
When she went back into the garden he and Elaine were chatting about the Summer Fayre that
would soon be taking place in the village, and Laurel thought with sudden recklessness if he was
going to be there, then so would she.
David had them smiling as he recounted his visit to the indefatigable Sarah Wilkinson, who was
going to enter her home-made jam and cakes in the competitions and had promised him the first
waltz at the party the night before.
‘I hope you’ll both be there,’ he said.
Her moment of bravado had disappeared into thin air so Laurel steered the discussion away from
the party and asked, ‘Have you decided what to do about Water Meetings House yet?’
He smiled. ‘Yes. I’ve made an offer and it’s been accepted. The land and what is left of the house
will soon be mine and then it will be action stations. I was brought up in Cornwall. My father still
lives there, and will be coming shortly to see what I’ve bought. He is the only one who won’t think
I’m crazy because he knows why I’m interested in the place.
‘I’d never seen it before until I came to this part of the world, though I knew about it. My mother
lived in Water Meetings House until she married my father and they moved to Cornwall where he
came from. She died when I was very young, so you see the desire to restore it and make it my
home comes from that.’
‘And is he coming to live with you when it’s finished, or have you someone else in mind?’ Elaine
asked, and Laurel found that she was holding her breath.
‘Not now,’ he told her. ‘I was engaged but it didn’t last and the way of it ending has left a nasty
taste in my mouth.’ He was aware of Laurel’s clear gaze upon him and now it was his turn to want
to steer the conversation into other channels. The last thing he wanted to talk about was his love
life, or the lack of it.
‘With regards to my dad I can’t see him wanting to leave Cornwall. He’s a Cornishman through and
through, but the offer will be there if he wants to join me. Otherwise I shall live there alone, but that
is way in the future. I’ve got to rebuild the house before I can live in it.’
He rose to his feet as if talking about what lay ahead had made him restive and Laurel asked, ‘Am I
right in thinking that is where you intend going now? For a last look before you call it a day?’
He nodded. ‘It would seem that you haven’t forgotten our meeting there the other night. Yes, it
might be. Do you want to come?’
If Elaine was surprised at the invitation she didn’t show it. ‘Yes, why don’t you?’ she suggested,
and telling herself that it would seem ungracious if she refused after what her aunt had just said
Laurel rose to stand beside him.
‘Yes, all right,’ she agreed. ‘I’ve been inside all day and could do with some exercise.’
It sounded trite and she knew it, but maybe this time she might get the chance to show David
something of the real her, the blithe spirit that until recently hadn’t a care in the world.
As they walked towards the lake and the house nearby Laurel surprised him by saying, ‘I think it’s
lovely that you want to rebuild your mother’s home. Did you miss her very much?’
‘I suppose I did,’ he replied thoughtfully, ‘but when she died I was too young to realise what was
happening and my dad was wonderful. He brought me up on his own, but always kept her memory
fresh in our lives. Where are your parents, Laurel? I haven’t heard you mention them.’
‘They’re travelling around somewhere. Mum and Dad are free spirits, always wanting to be on the
move. I see them from time to time but it is Elaine who has always cared for me. She is always
there for me when they aren’t.’
There was no condemnation in her voice, just a description of what her life had been like, and he
asked, ‘Has Elaine never married?’
‘No. She was engaged once a long time ago but it didn’t work out.’
Tell me about it, he thought, with the memory of Caroline’s disparaging description of the future
they’d been planning coming to mind.
The moon was on the wane but there was still enough light for him to see Laurel walking beside
him in the cream cotton dress as they skirted the lake, and he felt instinctively that she wouldn’t be
deceitful. There was nothing devious about Laurel Maddox. What you saw was what you got and
the more he saw the more he wanted to see, though it was just curiosity.
Aware that he was observing her, she asked, ‘What?’
‘You know that you puzzle me, don’t you?’
‘Do I? I puzzle myself sometimes.’
‘You’re a strange creature.’
‘I’m what life has made me.’
‘You mean your home life?’
‘No, my working life.’
‘I see.’
He didn’t. Didn’t see at all, but short of being intrusive there didn’t seem much else to say, so he
carried on moving towards the house, and when they were standing in front of the remains of it
once more surprised her by saying, ‘I have to rebuild it as it was before. It’s a listed building, but
when it’s finished I’ll be looking for some suggestions regarding the interior. Is that sort of thing in
your line?’
‘It might be if it was a smart apartment in the city,’ she said slowly, ‘but I don’t think I would be
much good at fixtures and fittings in a place like this.’
‘Not to worry,’ he told her easily, surprising himself that he was still persisting. ‘I’ll ask you again
when I’m ready. I feel that you might have some original ideas, but it will be a while before I get to
that stage. I’ve been shopping around for limestone to match the original structure and getting in
touch with the kind of builders who could take on this sort of work, and have to admit that I’m
finding it quite exciting.’
‘I wish something as exciting would happen in my life,’ she said with a twisted smile, and once
again he found himself wanting to know more about her.
‘Shall we make tracks?’ he suggested before he started asking questions that she might not want to
answer.
Laurel nodded and once again they walked side by side along the road that led back to the village,
and said goodbye again at the gate of Glenside Lodge, but this time it wasn’t so stilted.
‘You are a good listener, Laurel,’ he told her whimsically. ‘I would never have thought so that day
at the station when I offered you a lift, which only goes to show one shouldn’t judge by first
impressions.’
‘Maybe so,’ she agreed with the recklessness surfacing again, ‘but my first impression of you hasn’t
changed.’
He faked a groan. ‘That could be ominous.’
‘It could be, yes, but it could also be the opposite.’ And leaving him to make what he would of that
she began to walk up the path, and on reaching the porch waved a casual goodbye.
Elaine’s first hour at the surgery on Monday morning was spent with James, bringing herself up to
date with surgery matters that had occurred while she’d been off, and at one point she asked, ‘What
did you think of Laurel?’
‘Cool, composed—could be just what we want,’ he replied, ‘and the place where she was before
doesn’t take on inferior staff. We’ll see how the interview goes this afternoon. By the way, I heard
from Anna and Glenn over the weekend. They’re coming back before Christmas and are going to
settle permanently in Willowmere when they return, which I am delighted to hear.
‘They were asking if there would be any vacant slots in the practice when they come back, which is
why I only want someone temporary as practice nurse, so Laurel would be perfect as she said that
she would prefer that sort of arrangement.
‘I’ve really missed Anna, and the children will be so happy to see her again, but Jess will still be
their nanny.’
When David arrived back from his house calls James was returning from his at the same time and as
the two men stood on the practice forecourt the senior partner said, ‘Did you know that Elaine’s
niece is a trained nurse, David, previously hospital based like yourself?’
‘Yes,’ he replied, wondering what was coming next but having a good idea, ‘though I only found
out on Friday night when I went to have a meal with them.’
‘I’ve asked her to come to the surgery this afternoon regarding taking her on as a temporary
replacement for Beth and would like you to be present as I would welcome your input. Employing
her would not be a major admin matter as it will only be for four months at the most, but you’ve
seen more of her than I have, so do you think she would be right for us?’
‘I can’t say,’ he said slowly. ‘Laurel isn’t the easiest person to get to know, yet I feel she could
make a worthwhile contribution to the work here and although Elaine is her aunt she is also practice
manager, and from what I’ve seen of her so far the efficient running of the practice is one of her top
priorities.
‘You are quite right about that,’ James agreed, ‘so we’ll play it as it comes.’
What next? David thought as he ate a solitary lunch in his consulting room. It seemed as if his
curiosity regarding Laurel was going to be satisfied if she came to work at the surgery.
He was only just getting over the surprise of discovering she was a qualified nurse then she was
being considered as a possible replacement for Beth.
When he went to the derelict house by the lake each night before turning in he kept expecting to see
her there, but since Friday when they’d gone together there had been no sign of her, and each time
he’d gone back to the cottage unaccountably disappointed.
He was standing by Reception when Laurel came through the main door of the surgery and her
heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t realised how much she’d wanted to see David again until that
moment and here he was, smiling the smile that soothed her fractured nerve ends and making a
pretence of being glad to see her, when all the time she felt he must be groaning inwardly at the
thought of having her around the place all the time.
For his part David was noting that the high heels and the tights were back, but today they were
matched by a black mini-skirted suit relieved by a white silk shirt.
All in all the outfit looked more fitting for an executive position than that of a practice nurse, but he
wasn’t to know that she’d dressed up more for him than the interview.
‘So will I do?’ she asked as she drew near.
His smile deepened and she felt her knees go weak. ‘Yes, indeed,’ he informed her, and ushered her
into where James was waiting.
They were both attractive men, Laurel thought as she seated herself opposite the two doctors, but it
was David who had her attention. She thought about him a lot, too much for her own good, but
today it was business, not pleasure that she was there for.
This was her first move towards normality if there would ever be such a thing in her life again, and
it had come from the unexpected source of a country practice in Cheshire. The last place she could
ever have imagined herself working in at one time, but something like this was what she needed,
small and friendly while doing nursing, the thing she loved best.
First, though, she had to convince those about to evaluate what she had to offer that she was up to it,
and as calm descended upon her Laurel answered James’s questions with a quiet confidence that
David had to admire.
He would have admired it even more if he’d known the heartache that lay behind it. Laurel had
thought she would never be able to face going back to nursing after what had happened, yet here
she was, and it could only be the peace and tranquillity of Willowmere that was giving her the
strength to be there.
David’s first thought as she settled herself in front of them was that her gloves were missing, but for
the moment Laurel’s hands were tucked away behind a large handbag and he couldn’t see much of
them.
She was in control, he thought, calm and lucid. Yet she wasn’t always like this. But James hadn’t
seen her when she’d first arrived and he was visibly impressed today. It was going to happen.
Laurel was going to be working at the practice, temporarily maybe but there nevertheless.
‘You can start immediately if you wish,’ James told her after he’d offered her the position. ‘Beth is
keen to get away as soon as possible as they have much still to do before the delicatessen opens.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed and with a smile in David’s direction, ‘Elaine is going to have to get used to me
cluttering up her working life as well as her home.’
‘I don’t think she’ll mind too much,’ he told her. ‘After all, it was she who recommended you.’
‘Which reminds me,’ James said, ‘if you ask her she she’ll sort out your uniform for you. Unless
you’ve still got the one from your previous position and would rather wear that.’
‘No,’ she said flatly. ‘I haven’t still got it.’ With the comment came the terrible memory of being
told how they’d had to cut it off her.
When she was ready to leave Elaine was closeted with a medical rep so she wasn’t able to tell her
the result of the interview and David walked to the door with her.
‘So what have you been up to since Friday?’ he asked.
‘Not a lot. Why do you ask?’
‘I thought I might have seen you up by the lake over the weekend.’
‘And I thought you might think I was getting in the way,’ she flipped back breezily. There was no
way she was going to tell him that she’d forced herself to stay away from the place that had caught
her imagination because if she wasn’t careful, the lake, the house and the man standing next to her
were going to take over her life…
‘That sounds like an excuse.’
‘Maybe it is, but does it matter?’
‘Yes, it does. Why can’t we be friends?’
She didn’t want to be his friend, Laurel thought. She wanted to be more than that, but there was no
way it was going to happen. Darius had shattered her confidence in her desirability just when she’d
needed to find it again and as she met David’s steady blue gaze she said, ‘I already count you as a
friend. How do you see me? As some sort of lame duck maybe who needs helping to the water?’
‘Is that what you think?’ he said in a low voice for her ears alone. ‘I’m concerned about you, yes,
but that’s all. OK, you had a fall and injured your knee quite badly from what you say, but does that
stop us from getting to know each other?’
He’d opened the door and now they were out on the forecourt of the surgery and she said, ‘Yes, I
had a fall and sustained a tricky fracture. I just wish that was all.’
‘So what else is there?’
‘Again, does it matter?’
‘Yes, it does,’ he told her for a second time, and thought it mattered a lot but he wasn’t sure why.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ she said, clutching her bag to her, and he saw her hands. They looked red
and rough, standing out against the rest of her pale, smooth skin.
Laurel had seen where his glance was and said abruptly, ‘I haven’t got anything catching.’
‘I’m sure you haven’t,’ he said patiently, and thought, You might not have, but I think I have and it
isn’t because I’m on the rebound.
‘I’m going,’ she announced, breaking into his thoughts. ‘I’ll see you in the morning, David. It’s like
a dream. I can’t believe it, me Laurel Maddox, working in a country practice.’
He was smiling, his annoyance gone, ‘Yes, indeed. I’m not sure which of us is the more surprised.’
She was good, David thought the next morning as he watched Laurel change the dressing on the leg
of a tearful small boy. Her touch was deft and gentle, her manner reassuring, and by the time she’d
finished smiles had replaced the tears.
It was the same later when he took a worried fifty-year-old farmer to the nurses’ room for blood
tests, having found changes in his prostate gland.
The other two nurses had gone for a break and it was Laurel who greeted John Price. He was a
nervy type and almost before he’d closed the door behind him was voicing his fears. As David was
about to return to his consulting room he stopped in mid-stride when he heard her say, ‘I’ve worked
on a men’s surgical ward, Mr Price, and there are other problems besides cancer that can affect the
prostate gland. So let’s just take some blood, shall we, and see what our friends in the path lab come
up with, and while we’re waiting for the results put your fears to one side. Time enough to worry
when there is something to worry about.’
David was smiling as he went to greet his next patient. Laurel had seemed alien in the dark blue
nurse’s uniform when she’d first presented herself, but she was settling in like a natural.
He was used to seeing her in high-necked jumpers and buttoned-up cardigans, but as the morning
progressed he was adjusting to the new image and liking what he saw, while Elaine was looking
less anxious by the moment as Laurel slotted herself into the routine of the surgery.
It was Beth’s last day. She was taking advantage of the chance to finish sooner than she’d expected
and was only too pleased to welcome Laurel into the slot that she was leaving.
Gillian Jarvis, the other practice nurse, was also happy to have her there as it meant that she wasn’t
going to be coping alone when Beth had gone, and as Laurel looked, listened and learned, the new
nurse felt the adrenaline start to flow.
She was acutely aware of David every time he appeared in her line of vision. When on one occasion
he handed her the notes of a patient requiring a spirome-try test with a hand that was protruding
from the cuff of a smart white shirt, she was reminded of that day at the station when he’d lifted her
luggage out onto the platform and then helped her off the train.
She’d thought then that he seemed out of place in the rural backwater where Elaine lived, but that
impression was long gone. He fitted in perfectly, which was more than she was expecting for
herself.