Buch lesen: «Reunited By Their Baby»

CHAPTER ONE

HE WAS LATE. Almost a year late by his reckoning, although, by rights, he should have been here from the very beginning.

Callum O’Neill’s mouth thinned as he paid off the cab and turned to face the cottage that had once been his home. He had sworn when he had left that he would never come back here again. This place held too many bad memories and he had promised himself that he would do his best to forget what had gone on. However, that had been before he had received that letter. Before everything had changed.

Callum could feel his heart thumping as he walked up the path. He knocked on the door, wondering what sort of reception he would receive. He wasn’t expecting red carpet treatment but he was hoping that things would improve once he explained what had happened. It had taken months for the letter to reach him. He had been moving around such a lot as he had helped to set up the programme he had been working on. It was vital to roll it out to as many communities as possible as Malaria was endemic over much of sub-Saharan Africa. It was little wonder the letter hadn’t reached him for such a long time but would Beth understand that? He hoped so. He couldn’t bear to think that they would end up arguing again. They had done enough of that in the past and he, for one, couldn’t bear to go down that route again.

‘If you’re wanting Dr Andrews then she isn’t there.’

Callum swung round. ‘Oh, right. Do you know where she is, by any chance?’ he asked, recognising the elderly woman who had spoken to him as a patient from the surgery. He had worked at The Larches Surgery for almost a year, filling in as a locum GP so he could be with Beth. Their relationship had already been under a lot of strain by then and it hadn’t helped that they were living so far apart—he based in London and Beth in the Yorkshire Dales—so he had made the decision to relocate. Sadly, it hadn’t helped their marriage as much as he had hoped it would. Things had gone too far by that stage and so instead they had split up, which made what had happened later all the more poignant...

‘Why, she’s in the church, of course! Where else would she be?’ The woman frowned. ‘You’re Dr O’Neill, aren’t you? I thought I recognised you. We’ve not seen you around here for a while. Funny that you should turn up today, although maybe you’ve been invited.’

‘Invited?’ Callum repeated uncertainly. ‘Invited to what?’

‘The wedding.’ She sniffed. ‘Although if you ask me it’s far too soon for them to be getting married. I mean, they barely know each other. Still, fools rush in, as my old mum used to say.’

With that, she went on her way. Callum stared after her, feeling shock reverberating throughout his entire body. Beth was getting married again? She was getting married today! His feet were already moving before the thought had sunk in. He raced across the road, taking the path that led to Beesdale Parish Church. He could hear the church bells ringing and put on a spurt. He had to make Beth see that she couldn’t go ahead and marry someone else, not now, not ever! It was as though his mind was crystal clear all of a sudden and for the first time in ages he knew what he wanted, and that was Beth.

The bells had stopped ringing by the time Callum reached the church and his panic increased to epic proportions. The service must have started and he had no idea how long it took to reach the part where the minister declared the couple man and wife. When he and Beth had married it was in a registry office, a no-frills affair that had been over in minutes. Neither of them had cared about the ceremony. The only thing that had mattered was that they could make their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives. They had been so sure that their love would last for ever, he thought sadly, but it hadn’t worked out that way. As he had discovered, all the promises in the world couldn’t guarantee that.

The thought lent wings to his feet as he raced up the path. The heavy oak doors were closed and he wasted valuable seconds, wrestling them open. He almost fell into the church when they finally gave way and he saw people turn to look at him but he had eyes for no one except the woman in white standing before the altar. She was the only person who hadn’t turned around and his heart ached with a searing pain when it struck him that she was oblivious to his presence. She was too busy looking at the man she was about to marry to notice him.

Callum felt the coldness of defeat sweep over him. In that moment, he realised that he had no right to stop what was happening. He turned to leave, knowing it was the only thing he could do. He’d had his chance and blown it; it wasn’t fair to expect Beth to take him back. Maybe he hadn’t known the truth until that letter had reached him but he had still left her, hadn’t he? Why would she want him back when she had found someone else?

‘Callum? What are you doing here?’

He recognised her voice immediately, heaven knew, he should do when he heard it every night in his dreams. Each time he fell asleep he heard her speaking to him, saw her, touched her, held her, loved her, felt her love him in return. The only difference was that she wouldn’t be looking at him with love in her eyes now. Her love was reserved for another man, the man who was going to do his best to make her happy, as he had failed to do.

‘I asked you a question, Callum. At least have the decency to answer it!’

There was no welcome in her voice, no hint of warmth. That she didn’t want him there was obvious. Callum turned slowly around because what else could he do? Just for a moment his vision blurred before he managed to focus and he blinked as he took stock of the pale pink dress she was wearing and the jaunty little hat with its swirl of purple feathers on the crown...

His gaze flew to the couple standing in front of the altar and he felt the blood drain from his head when he realised that the bride was Polly. He didn’t recognise the groom; he had never seen him before, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that Beth wasn’t getting married today. It meant that he still had a chance, one precious chance to win her back! His heart was in his mouth as he turned to face her. This was the most important moment of his life and he had to get it right.

‘I came to see you, Beth. You and our baby.’

* * *

Beth could feel her legs trembling and clutched hold of a nearby pew. She could hear the murmur of voices as the congregation started whispering together. Were they as shocked as she was to see Callum? Were they wondering why he was here and what he wanted? In a small town like Beesdale, it was hard to keep anything secret—everyone knew that he had run out on her and left her pregnant. Now the thought of her daughter helped to steady her. No way was she going to allow Callum to destroy Beatrix’s life the way he had destroyed hers!

She turned cold hazel eyes on him. ‘Come outside. We can’t talk in here.’

She didn’t wait to see if he was following as she led the way out of the church. It was up to Callum what he did and she had no intention of trying to influence him in any way. She walked down the path, only pausing when she reached the lich gate. There was very little traffic about as most of the townspeople were in the church. Polly was the local midwife and greatly loved; everyone wanted to help her celebrate her special day. Tears suddenly pricked her eyes but Beth blinked them away. She wasn’t going to think about the dreams she’d had when she and Callum had married. That was all in the past and too much had happened since. Their divorce had been difficult enough, but the fact that he hadn’t even bothered to acknowledge their child until today was so much worse.

‘I’m sorry. I know it isn’t enough but I am truly sorry, Beth.’

There was a note in his deep voice that tugged at her heart strings before she pulled herself together. If she gave in and allowed her emotions free rein then she would regret it. She had to focus on the facts, highlight them in neon-bright letters so she would never forget them. Callum had left her. He had left her because he hadn’t loved her any more. He had been so desperate to be rid of her that he hadn’t even contacted her when she had written to tell him that she was pregnant. He could apologise all he liked, but it wouldn’t change anything.

‘It’s too late for apologies, Callum. I’m not interested. The only thing I want to know is what you’re doing here.’

‘Surely that’s obvious,’ he shot back. ‘I came to see you and the baby.’

‘I see. And it’s taken you—what?—over a year to get round to it?’ She gave a little laugh, hoping he couldn’t hear the bitterness it held. There must be no displays of emotion, no hint of any feelings that might make him think that she still cared. ‘You didn’t exactly rush to get here, did you? But there again, I doubt if Beatrix and I were your number one priority—’

‘Beatrix? You mean that we have a daughter?’

‘Yes,’ Beth replied curtly, closing her mind to the shock she could hear in his voice. If she refused to admit to her own feelings then she certainly didn’t want to wonder how Callum felt!

Callum felt his head reel. Ever since he had read Beth’s letter he had wondered about the sex of their baby. To be honest, it had been difficult to believe that he was finally about to become a father after everything they had been through, yet all of a sudden finding out that they had a little girl made it seem real. His breath caught as he was swamped by a whole host of emotions ranging from shock to sheer elation. He had a daughter. A little girl called Beatrix. The thought seemed to rock his whole world so that it was hard to speak. ‘H-how old is she?’

‘Almost ten months,’ Beth replied tightly. ‘Although if you hadn’t been so busy saving the world then you wouldn’t need to ask that, Callum.’

‘That isn’t true!’ He ran his hands through his thick dark brown hair, feeling them trembling as he tried to picture what Beatrix looked like. Was she dark like him or fair like Beth? It was impossible to guess and before he could ask, Beth carried on.

‘Oh, I think it is true, but you just don’t want to admit it.’ She stared back at him, unwilling to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even though he understood why she refused to accept that he was telling the truth, it still hurt. ‘If you’d cared back then, you would have contacted me. Even a text message would have been better than nothing, but you couldn’t even spare the time for that. The fact that I was expecting our child meant nothing to you, did it, Callum?’

‘Of course it did!’ He grasped hold of her hands, his fingers biting into hers as he willed her to believe him. ‘It was what we’d wanted for so long, Beth. What we’d struggled to achieve...’

He broke off, obviously recalling what a struggle it had been, Beth thought sadly. She had always wanted a family. Coming from a close and loving family herself, she had never even considered the idea that conceiving a child of her own might prove to be a problem. With two older sisters, who both had children, she had simply assumed that she would have them too. However, as the months had passed, and she had failed to get pregnant, it had seemed increasingly unlikely that she would ever achieve her dream of becoming a mother.

Callum had never been as keen on the idea of them having a child, however. Although he had gone along with her desire to have a baby, she knew it had been more to please her than out of a genuine need to have a family of his own. She had told herself that it didn’t matter, that he would love their child every bit as much as she did when it arrived. She had been so sure it was the right thing for them to do that she had set aside her doubts when the consultant had suggested they try fertility treatment.

Had she been wrong to do so? she wondered suddenly. Wrong to force him into a course of action that he had been reluctant to take? There was no doubt that the strain of keeping to the gruelling regime had put intense pressure on their relationship. Lovemaking had changed from being an expression of their feelings for each other to a duty, passion no longer dictated by their mutual desire but by the readings on a thermometer.

Was it any wonder that Callum had resented it? That they had argued? With the benefit of hindsight, Beth could see that there had been faults on both sides, but it didn’t alter the fact that it had been Callum who had called a halt, Callum who had decided that he didn’t want to be with her any more, Callum who had asked her for a divorce. If he had loved her, really loved her, then he would never have left her. He would have stayed.