Buch lesen: «A Wedding In The Village»

CHAPTER ONE

MEGAN MARSHALL was smiling as the train pulled into the small country station.

She was home and happy to be so, and as Mike from the ticket office came hurrying forward to help her lift her cases out on to the platform, it was as if the two weeks she’d just spent in Florida belonged to another life.

A life in which she’d laughed a lot, played a lot, flirted a bit, and in which the two friends she’d gone with hadn’t guessed that underneath her carefree manner there had been worry.

She was soon going to be facing a big responsibility and was concerned in case she wouldn’t be up to it. There were going to be changes in the medical practice in the beautiful Cheshire village where she lived, and she was going to be very much involved in them.

They were connected with her parents, Margaret and James Marshall, both GPs, who had worked there side by side for as long as she could remember.

But now retirement was on the cards and arrangements were having to be made regarding the practice and who would be taking over. It was a problem that was half-solved as Megan had followed in their footsteps by going into medicine.

Since her degree she’d been hospital-based, but not now. That had changed. She’d been brought up around the village practice, played at doctors and nurses there when she had been small and, not wanting it to go out of the family, had taken GP training so that her presence might fill some of the gap that her parents were going to leave.

She wasn’t going to be doing it on her own. Another GP was needed. An experienced doctor who would help her to offer the standard of care that had always been present there.

Her parents were at the surgery now, making the final choice out of three applicants. When she’d got off the airport train in Manchester, Megan had phoned them to say that she would be catching the local train shortly and would one of them meet her at the station?

‘That could be difficult,’ her mother had said. ‘We’re in the middle of the final interviews. I’ll ask Henry to pick you up in his taxi, Megan. It’s lovely to know you’re back. Are you coming straight here? If you do, you’ll be able to meet the person you’re going to be spending a lot of time with in the future We’re pretty sure who it’s going to be. He stands out way above the others. You’ll be fortunate to have him working beside you in our small rural backwater.’

‘All right. I’ll come straight there,’ Megan said, thinking that although she couldn’t wait to get back to her little cottage on the hillside, she may as well get it over and done with.

* * *

‘Been away to get your strength up before your parents leave, have you, Megan,’ Henry Tichfield, the local taxi driver, asked as he piled her luggage into the boot.

She smiled. ‘Something like that, Henry. Heaven knows when I’ll get the chance for another holiday.’

It was the lunch-hour, one of the quietest times in the surgery. The morning patients had been seen, the house calls done, and there would be a lull until the later surgery in the afternoon.

Megan could hear voices coming from the office up above, but the door was closed so she went and made a mug of coffee and chatted to the receptionist who was covering the lunch-hour.

When she heard footsteps on the stairs she felt her mouth go dry. The moment she’d been dreading had come. Since she’d joined the practice there had always been her parents to go to with any problems, but soon all that would be changed. She was going to be in close contact with a stranger every minute of her working day.

‘Ah! There you are, Megan. Just at the right moment for introductions,’ her mother was saying as she led the way down the stairs, with the new doctor behind her and her father bringing up the rear.

When she raised her head with a weak smile on her face it froze, and a voice that she’d never expected to hear again exclaimed, ‘But of course! Megan! Megan Marshall. Your first name hasn’t been mentioned. Otherwise it might have registered that we already know each other.’

‘That’s great news!’ her father cried. ‘It will make everything so much easier when you take over, Luke.’

I wouldn’t bank on that, she thought numbly.

Luke Anderson had been one of the tutors in her last year at university and with his dark good looks and lean masculine appeal he’d been a target for every romantically inclined female on the campus, including herself.

Incredibly, he hadn’t been married or in any sort of relationship. It had also seemed that was how he had wanted it to stay, as no amount of feminine wiles from some of the most ravishing of his students had got them anywhere. The impression he had given was that he had been doing a job he’d liked and his only interest in those in his classes had been a desire to see they did well in their finals.

Even so, she’d sent him a Valentine card, along with all the other hopefuls, and he must have recognised her handwriting as the next time she’d been at one of his lectures he’d called her back at the end of it and said with a glint in his eye that could have meant anything, ‘Roses are not always red, Megan, and I would describe the colour of violets as deep purple.’ With that he’d left her standing alone in the lecture hall with a face red as the roses he’d referred to.

She’d discovered afterwards that he’d made no comments to anyone else who’d sent him a card and wondered why he’d singled her out. One thing had been sure, she wasn’t going to ask him. The embarrassment of those moments in the lecture hall had not been forgotten quickly, but once she’d got her degree and gone into hospital work it had been pushed to the back of her mind.

For the last three years she’d been a junior doctor on the wards, until her parents had dropped their bombshell regarding retirement and a house they were contemplating buying in Spain.

Luke Anderson was smiling and holding out his hand as he spoke, and as she shook it Megan managed to resurrect her grimace of before.

‘Luke was one of my tutors at college,’ she told her parents. ‘This is the last place I would ever have expected to see him.’

‘I’ve actually come to live in the village,’ he said, and her discomfort increased. ‘I’m going to be staying with my sister who lives at Woodcote House.’

Megan could actually feel her jaw dropping. ‘Are you saying that Sue Standish is your sister?’

‘Yes.’

‘She never said.’

‘Sue doesn’t know we knew each other.’

‘We were just as surprised as you when we heard that Luke was related to Sue,’ her mother said. ‘We’ve known her a long time, haven’t we, James, and she and Megan are good friends. We were all so sorry when Gareth died so suddenly.’

‘That’s why I’m here,’ he said sombrely. ‘To give a hand with the boys and offer any other support she might need. I’m going to stay with Sue for as long as she needs me, and then find a place of my own in the village.’

This was turning out to be more disturbing by the minute, Megan was thinking. Luke Anderson was back in her life with a vengeance, and to top it all he was going to be living with Sue and the children. Why hadn’t her friend said?

She’d intended being in on the interviewing and was wishing now that she had been, but when two school friends had asked her to go to Florida with them for a couple of weeks, her mother had said, ‘You must go, Megan. It could be a long time before you get another break once we’ve gone.’

So she’d let herself be persuaded, knowing that whatever decision her parents came to, they would have her best interests at heart while sorting out the future of the practice.

She hadn’t thought about Luke Anderson in a long time and supposed that the rest of the girls attending his classes hadn’t either. Once they’d all got their degrees they’d been off to pastures new, faces that he too would soon have forgotten.

If it hadn’t been for the Valentine card incident she might have been pleased to see him, but as the memory of it came back all she could think of was what a fool she’d made of herself then.

She’d avoided him like the plague afterwards and had caught him observing her thoughtfully a couple of times, and that had been it.

‘I was in general practice before I took up lecturing,’ he said easily, as if quite unaware of her confusion. ‘So I’m hoping I won’t be too rusty. When I heard from Sue that there was a vacancy here, it seemed heaven sent. A job that was virtually on her doorstep.’

‘So you’re not lecturing any more.’

‘No. I was ready for a change in any case. I’m looking forward to a spell of village life, having always been citybased and now, if you will excuse me, I’ll pop round to tell Sue and the boys my good news.’

* * *

‘He’ll be joining the practice in a month’s time,’ her father said after Luke had gone striding down the street to where Woodcote House stood back from the road on a sizeable plot. ‘And I have to take my hat off to him, leaving a job at the university for the life of a country GP so he can give his sister some support.

‘But your mother and I need to know if you’re happy about the arrangement, Megan. You’re the one who will be working with him every day. How do you feel about it?’

It wasn’t an easy question to answer. Maybe in a couple of days’ time she might be able to come up with a truthful reply, but she was still dazed by the unexpected meeting and the effect that seeing him again was having on her.

She’d forgotten how gorgeous he was. Time had dimmed the memory of his attractions, but they were still there. The dark-haired, dark-eyed, clean-cut image of him.

If it hadn’t been for the stupid Valentine card and his cool remarks when he’d let her know he’d known who’d sent it, she would have been pleased to be meeting up with him again. Instead, she was going to be nervous and constrained when he came to join the practice.

Her father was still waiting for an answer to his question and, not wanting to put the blight on their plans, she gave him a hug and told him, ‘It’s fine by me. I’m just getting used to the shock of seeing him and knowing that we’re going to be working together. I don’t remember seeing him at the funeral, which is strange if he’s Sue’s brother.’

‘That’s because he wasn’t there. He was in hospital, recovering from the effects of a car crash, and they wouldn’t allow him out.’

* * *

A few days later, Megan went to see Sue. They chatted for a while, and then Megan gently asked why she’d never mentioned that Luke Anderson was her brother. Sue observed her with lacklustre eyes and said, ‘I didn’t know that you knew him, Meg, otherwise I would have told you.’

Sue and Gareth had run a profitable garden centre on land at the back of their house before he’d died from a sudden heart attack. Since then she’d been trying to cope with the business and two boys who were being difficult and unruly since they’d lost their dad.

Although Sue had been delighted to see Megan and catch up, she looked tired and drained.

‘Luke has been fantastic,’ Sue said. ‘Having him here will make all the difference. For one thing the boys dote on him and will take note of what he says.’

‘He wasn’t at the funeral, was he?’ asked Megan.

‘No. He was in hospital, recovering from a car crash. But once he was discharged he was on my case. Sorting me out. Stopping me from going crazy.’

‘Has he no family of his own?’

Sue shook her head. ‘He was married once but it didn’t work out and you know what they say about once bitten.’

‘So when is he moving in?’

‘Soon. He has an apartment near the university and is sorting out all the loose ends connected with that and the job. I imagine that he’ll move in here the weekend before he becomes part of the practice. You’ll like him, Megan. He’s great.’

‘Mmm, I’m sure I will,’ Megan said, trying to sound confident. “It’s going to be changes all round, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, it is,’ Sue agreed bleakly, and Megan thought that what was happening in her friend’s life made her own misgivings seem as nothing.

* * *

As she waited for Luke to arrive in the village Megan kept pondering over what Sue had said. That he’d been married once and it hadn’t worked out. Each time she thought about it she shuddered. Suppose he’d been married at the time she’d sent the Valentine card? He’d commented about roses being red and violets blue, but had had nothing to say about the rest of it, where she’d written, ‘And I have to admit I’m attracted to you.’ If he had been married at the time, he must have felt she’d had some cheek.

Another thought that kept haunting her was that she was happy working in the village practice. It had been part of her life as long as she could remember and she was apprehensive at the thought of someone who’d once been her dream man taking her parents’ place in her working life.

Why couldn’t he have been satisfied with running the market garden for Sue instead of applying for the vacancy in the practice? But even as she asked herself the question, the answer was there. Sue had her own staff to do that, village folk, long tried and tested. His function would most likely be the admin of the business, rather than nurturing seedlings and selling bedding plants, conifers and suchlike.

The two boys, Owen and Oliver, would be the biggest problem. They might have coped better with losing their father if they’d had some warning, but he’d been gone in seconds and they were lost without him. It would be a stroke of genius on their uncle’s part if he could bring them through such a terrible time, unscarred and well adjusted.

* * *

After seeing her parents off at the airport on a Sunday afternoon a month later, Megan returned to her cottage in sombre mood. For once the charm of the small stone house in its beautiful setting didn’t register.

The sign over the door said MEGAN’S PLACE, and that was what it was.

Everything inside it had been chosen carefully by her. Furniture, curtains, carpets, the lot, and every blade of grass in the small lawn outside was lovingly tended by her, but not today.

Life was changing. Her mum and dad had gone. She would be out on a limb from now on, and sitting on an opposite branch would be the man she’d once told she was attracted to him.

She could see Woodcote House from her back bedroom window and as she gazed downwards a big black car pulled into the drive, and in the same second Sue and the boys appeared in the doorway.

So he hadn’t changed his mind, she thought. The die was cast.

* * *

After she’d eaten Megan went to sit on a small terrace at the back of the cottage and watched the sun go down. It was a warm summer evening with the scent of flowers on the air. Lots of people would be out and about, in The Badger, the village pub, down by the river, or going more upmarket and dining at Beresford Lodge, a hotel just outside the village. While here she was, feeling lost and lonely with no inclination to do anything other than sit and mope.

Lost in her thoughts, she wasn’t aware of time passing until she heard the front gate click and sat upright. It was strange for someone to call at this hour. There was silence for a few seconds and then she heard footsteps on the stone path leading from the front of the cottage.

When he appeared he was silhouetted against the setting sun, but she could tell by his height and the trim build of him that it was the man who hadn’t been out of her thoughts since the day her parents had presented the new doctor to her.

As she rose to her feet he took a step forward and she saw that he was carrying a bottle of wine and smiling, and she wished she’d stayed seated as her legs felt weak.

‘How did you know where to find me?’ she asked in a voice that didn’t sound like hers, and knew it was a stupid question. Sue would have told him.

‘It wasn’t hard,’ he said. ‘Megan Marshall, the village doctor, is a household name. Actually, it was Sue who pointed me in the right direction. She’s in the middle of making a meal and after we’ve eaten the boys are going to show me around the place so that I can get my bearings for tomorrow.

‘But first I felt I wanted to see you. We only met briefly that day at the surgery and I got the impression that it was something of a shock and that you weren’t over the moon about it. So I’ve come to suggest that we drink a toast to our future relationship as village GPs. If that’s all right with you. I’ve also come…’

Here we go, she thought, stifling a groan. He’s going to mention the Valentine card. Wants to wipe the slate clean before we go any further. I wish the ground would open up and swallow me.

‘Because I thought you might be feeling a bit low after your parents’ departure,’ he was saying, and her eyes widened. ‘Also, I feel I should tell you that I won’t be pulling rank or anything like that. I will be relying on you to put me right if I make any mistakes.’

He’d come to sit on the seat beside her, still with the bottle in his hand, and she said in a low voice, ‘And is that it?’

He smiled. ‘Yes. I think so. I can’t think of anything else. So, are we going to drink a toast, Megan?’

She nodded, speechless with relief, and went inside to get a bottle opener and glasses. By the time she’d done that she’d found her voice and, standing in the kitchen doorway, she said, ‘Shall we drink it inside or out?’

He got to his feet. ‘Inside would be nice. I’d love to see what your home is like. It’s a beautiful place you have here.’

‘I think so,’ she said stiffly, still on edge, and stepped back to let him in. ‘Do make yourself comfortable. Though perhaps you should pour the wine first, as you’ve brought it.’

‘Whatever,’ he said easily and did as she’d suggested. ‘To us, Megan,’ he said, raising his glass. ‘To a good working partnership.’

As he took a sip of his wine, Luke wondered if she remembered sending him the Valentine card. When he’d behaved like a moron and left her red with embarrassment, instead of telling her why he hadn’t been ready to take her up on it. She had been the only one of his students that he’d ever taken note of. Small, dainty, with red-gold hair and green eyes, she’d moved like a dream.

But it hadn’t just been those things that had caught his attention. It had been the way she’d worked, steadily and with zeal, while some of the students had thought that university was a big joke. An opportunity to waste their parents’ money on living it up.

There had been a strange irony in discovering that half the class fancied him, including the girl sitting opposite him, when his marriage had crashed and he had been going through a bitter divorce.

He checked the time. ‘I must go, Megan. Sue will have the meal ready by now, and the boys will be raring to spend some time with me, as I’m the nearest thing they’re going to get to a dad.’

He sighed. ‘The poor kids are in a state at losing him, which is only natural. It’s the first time they’ve been this close to death, and are striking out against it in the only way they know how. They desperately want a father figure at the moment and I’m going to be there for them for as long as they need me. That applies to Sue as well. She’ll be all right when they are. So it’s going to be taking one day at a time.’

‘They’re fortunate to have you looking out for them,’ Megan said awkwardly.

He shrugged. ‘I just wish I could have been here sooner. Anyway, I really must go. It’s been a pleasant evening, Megan, so thank you.’

As Megan showed him out, he paused in the doorway. ‘How long have you lived here?’

Megan shrugged. ‘Only a short time. When I knew that Mum and Dad were leaving the area I didn’t want to be living on my own in their house. It would have been too big for me. So I bought this place.’

‘A good choice,’ he said, and strode down the path. When he reached the gate he raised his hand in a brief salute and then drove off.

When he’d disappeared from sight Megan let out a deep breath and went back inside. He was the last person she’d expected to see appearing out of the summer dusk. It had been a nice gesture to suggest a toast, and an exquisite relief not to have been reminded of her youthful crush. Maybe he’d forgotten. If he had she would send up a prayer of thanks. But how was she to know? It could be that he remembered it very well and was saving the mention of it for a later date.

Nevertheless she went to bed in a happier frame of mind than she’d been in all day and it was due to Luke Anderson.

* * *

The house was still. Sue had gone to bed early with a headache and the boys were also asleep. They’d been great while they’d been showing him around the village, but at bedtime Oliver, who was eleven years old, had been awkward.

He’d wanted to stay up and watch television and wouldn’t get undressed until Luke had told him he had to as it was school in the morning, and on no account was he to disturb his mother. He’d done as he’d been told but with a scowl on his face. When Luke had gone to check on them, Owen, the thirteen-year-old had been fast asleep, and Oliver thankfully had been on the point of dozing off.

He’d gone to bed himself then and as he lay thinking about the day, the short time he’d spent with Megan was at the forefront of his mind. When they’d met a month ago at the practice he’d been as dumbfounded as she had been at meeting up again and in such circumstances.

When she’d sent him the Valentine card he’d been at his lowest ebb. His marriage to Alexis had just ended in divorce. He’d been feeling angry and betrayed. And even if Megan hadn’t been his student, the thought of another relationship hadn’t been bearable.

Since his marriage had ended, he hadn’t looked at another woman, and it might have stayed that way if he hadn’t met Megan again. But again the time wasn’t right. Then he’d been reeling from his divorce, and now he had his hands full with a distraught mother and her fatherless sons.

As a reminder of that fact he heard the creak of a bedroom window being opened in the next room to his, and when he went to investigate he found Oliver halfway out of the window and preparing to jump onto the roof of an outhouse down below.

When he saw him he hesitated and Luke said, ‘Don’t even think of it, Oliver.’And taking his arm, he helped him back into the room.

‘Where were you intending going?’ he asked quietly, dreading that he’d been on the point of running away.

‘Mothing,’ was the surly reply. ‘I meet my friend Mikey out on the lane at the back and we go into the fields with our nets.’

‘And does your mother know?’

‘No. She wouldn’t let me if she knew.’

‘I see,’ Luke said unsmilingly. ‘So how about we do a deal. If you promise to go back to bed and stay there, I’ll come with you and Mikey tomorrow night, and any other night for that matter, but you have to promise that you won’t sneak out again.’

‘What? You’ll come mothing with us, Uncle Luke?’ Oliver exclaimed with his good humour restored in the form of a wide smile. ‘I didn’t think grown-ups did that sort of thing.’

‘They don’t,’ Luke told him dryly, ‘but for you, Oliver, anything. And now I’m going to ring your friend’s parents to tell them to check on his whereabouts.’

‘He won’t have gone out yet,’ Oliver told him calmly. ‘Mikey always waits until he hears me whistle beneath his window.’

‘Is that so? Well, I’m going to phone them nevertheless, and now let’s have you back in bed, Oliver. I have my first day at the surgery tomorrow and don’t want to be half-asleep.’

‘OK. I get the message.’ Oliver grinned. ‘Goodnight, Uncle Luke.’

When he looked in on him a few moments later Oliver wasn’t pretending. He was fast asleep and as Luke closed the door quietly behind him, he decided that his own affairs were going to have to be put on hold for quite some time if tonight was anything to go by.

He’d taken on two big commitments, looking after his sister and her children, and the position at the practice, both requiring patience and stamina. Yet compared to living with Alexis they would seem like a holiday, and on that thought he turned on his side and slept.