The doctor’s longed-for-bride

When Dr Megan Marshall returns home to head up the Riverside Practice she’s not expecting a blast from her past! Her new colleague is gorgeous Luke Anderson—her tutor at university. Megan still blushes remembering the Valentine’s card she sent him!

Megan always stood out for Luke, but as his student she was out of bounds. Now they’re working together, can Luke forget his painful past and capture Megan’s heart?

Because the longer Luke spends with Megan, the more determined he is to make her his bride!

Previously Published.

‘If I ever get married, I want it to be here on the riverbank where I make my vows.’

Luke raised his eyebrows.

‘If you ever get married…?’

They were on a delicate subject, Megan thought uneasily. Both were eager to know each other better, and if she spoke the truth it could bring an end to that.

‘I would want to be the first love of the man I married.’

‘I see.’ Luke said flatly. ‘No one could blame you for that.’

But he didn’t have that right. He’d forfeited it because of one big mistake.

He supposed he should be thankful for the straight talk and put those sorts of thoughts out of his mind.

But was that possible?

Abigail Gordon loves to write about the fascinating combination of medicine and romance from her home in a Cheshire village. She is active in local affairs, and is even called upon to write the script for the annual village pantomime! Her eldest son is a hospital manager, and helps with all her medical research. As part of a close-knit family, she treasures having two of her sons living close by, and the third one not too far away. This also gives her the added pleasure of being able to watch her delightful grandchildren growing up.

A Wedding in the Village

Abigail Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Roger, who is a tower of strength.

CONTENTS

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Copyright

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.

CHAPTER TWO

WHEN Megan awoke the following morning the first thing that came to mind was Luke appearing in the sunset with a bottle of wine. Thinking about it, she wished she could have been a bit less stilted in her manner, but surprise and unease had been responsible for that.

And in the light of day the unease was back. She wasn’t going to be able to cope with being on tenterhooks all the time in case the matter of the Valentine card came up, and she decided reluctantly that the best thing to do was take the bull by the horns and mention it herself.

That way it would be over and done with. She would be able to work alongside him more comfortably when she’d reassured him that the card had just been the result of a youthful crush. It was going to be the first thing she did when she got to the surgery, she decided. She would mention it casually, poking wry fun at herself, and it would be over.

She was using her mother’s room for consultations and Connie, the cleaner, had been asked to come in over the weekend to give the room that had been her father’s a good spring clean, ready for Luke’s arrival.

Megan had to smile when she saw it. Everywhere was immaculate. Connie had even put flowers on the window-sill and a fresh box of tissues for any patient who might be distressed during a consultation. All it needed now was the arrival of its new occupant.

It was a quarter past eight. In fifteen minutes the wheels would start turning and another day at the Riverside Practice would begin. Luke needed to get a move on. She wanted to introduce him to the staff and put him in the picture as to how the surgery was run before he settled himself behind the desk in the room that had been prepared for him.

He arrived just before eight-thirty, looking nothing like the man who’d toasted their partnership the night before. There was a tightness around his mouth and his tie needed knotting into place.

‘I am so sorry,’ he gasped. ‘I intended being here early, but while I was under the shower those lads started playing Sue up, and once I’d sorted them and they’d ambled off to school, she began to cry. I couldn’t leave her in that state, so I hung on until she’d calmed down.’

He flashed a wry smile. ‘Does it sound as if I’m whingeing? I’m sorry if it does. The process of helping them adjust to losing their dad is not going to be easy. I’ll tell you later what Oliver got up to last night.’

She nodded and thought, So much for putting the Valentine episode to bed. It would have to wait.

‘I’ll introduce you to the staff first,’ she told him, ‘and then a quick run through procedures. I’m sure the patients won’t mind waiting a few moments longer.’

There were three receptionists, all efficient middle aged women, and after they’d smiled their welcome, Megan took him into the nurse’s room where Pat Howarth, heading for retirement and dreading it, ruled the roost. Working alongside her was Kath Storey, a young mother of two little girls, who showed a less dominant attitude towards staff and patients.

The practice manager was Anne Faulkner, a quiet woman with accountancy qualifications, who rented the apartment above the surgery.

Connie, the cleaner, was absent. After her labours over the weekend Megan had told her to take the day off.

While the introductions were being made Luke was pleasant and friendly, but he didn’t miss a thing. He’d smiled when he saw the flowers on the window-sill and said, ‘You didn’t have to do that, Megan.’

‘I didn’t,’ she told him. ‘It was Connie, the cleaner. She came in over the weekend to make the place spick and span for you.’

‘Really? That was very thoughtful. Was it her idea?’

‘No, it was mine.’ Connie wasn’t going to get all the praise, she decided. ‘How about I start morning surgery while you wander round and watch us in motion? Maybe you could have a word with Anne, the practice manager, who can answer any questions you might have on the admin side. Then when I’ve finished we could join up for the house calls.’

‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘Whatever you say. And I promise that by tomorrow I will be up to speed.’

‘I’m sure you will,’ she told him, and left him to it.

* * *

When they met up just before midday Megan said, ‘I suggest that we do the visits together for a few days. It will give you the opportunity to find your way around and meet some of the people in the village.’

Megan was driving, and as they headed along quiet roads lined with old stone cottages, their gardens full of colour, she told him about their first patient. ‘Our first stop today is going to be at the home of my aunt, Isabel Chambers. And I feel I must warn you that she has a sharp tongue and doesn’t wrap up her words. She’s in her early seventies and has diabetes. But she’s a strong woman. She’s been on her own since her husband died forty years ago. They never had any children.’

She turned right up a leafy lane. ‘I call to see her every Monday, just to make sure that she’s all right, and that nothing regarding her health is going haywire. It’s the house next to the old water mill on Rabbit Lane. We’ll be there in a moment.’

As they walked up the path that led to the front door of a large stone house Luke saw that it was unlatched and a voice called from inside, ‘Come in. Megan.’ It belonged to a small grey-haired woman sitting facing them in a rocking chair and as bright eyes looked him up and down she said, ‘So you’ve brought the new doctor to see me, Megan.’

‘Yes, I have, Aunt Izzy. This is Luke Anderson. He and I are going to be running the practice from now on.’

‘I see,’ she said, and held out her hand for him to shake. ‘You look all right to me,’ she told him, taking in the height of him, and added to Megan, ‘But I can see you getting a crick in your neck having to keep looking up.’

‘I’m sure we’ll manage,’ she said quickly, dreading what was coming next.

She had cause to. ‘Have you brought a wife and some young ’uns with you?’ she asked Luke, and he shook his head.

‘I’m afraid not,’ he told her. ‘I’ve come to look after some young ’uns but they aren’t mine.’

‘Dr Anderson is related to Sue Standish,’ Megan told her aunt. ‘He’s come to give her some support.’

‘Hmm. I see,’ she said, then turned her sharp eyes on Megan. ‘And who’s going to look after you, lass? I told your mother and father they’d no right leaving you like that.’

Concealing her mortification Megan said, ‘I don’t need minding, Aunt Izzy. I’m twenty-nine years old.’

‘Maybe,’ the old lady said crustily, ‘but you’ve been left with the practice to see to and a stranger to deal with.’

Megan saw Luke turn away to hide a smile and thought, enough is enough. ‘I’ve come to check on your health, Aunt Izzy,’ she said firmly. ‘So let’s see what the diabetes has been up to. I’m going to test your blood pressure, and see what your blood-glucose levels are. And while I’m here I’ll have a quick look at your feet.’

‘All right,’ she agreed, ‘but don’t rush me. Go and take a walk round the garden while I take my shoes off.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Megan told him as they stood among summer’s flowers. ‘Aunt Izzy means nothing by it, but her comments can be misconstrued.’

‘You mean like the one about the stranger who is going to be a millstone around your neck,’ he said quizzically. ‘I promise I won’t be that. I’ll have to see if I can dredge up some charm from somewhere to win her over.’

Megan looked away. Since they’d met up again she was seeing another side to the man who’d shown such scant interest in her Valentine card, and charm was high on the list as far as she was concerned.

When the weekly check-up was over and she’d assured her aunt that all was well, Isabel nodded and turned her attention to Luke.

‘I hope you’re going to fit in here,’ she said dubiously. ‘You look more of a town dweller than a countryman.’

‘I’m going to fit in, Mrs Chambers,’ he told her firmly. ‘Have no doubts about that.’

* * *

As Megan drove to their next call, with Aunt Izzy’s comments ringing in her ears, she felt that a change of subject was required and said, ‘So tell me what young Oliver was up to last night.’

‘I caught him halfway out of his bedroom window at gone midnight, all set to meet his friend Mikey.’

‘Oh, dear!’

‘Yes, indeed,’ he agreed.

‘So what did you do?’

‘Nipped his nocturnal activities in the bud by bringing him back inside and making a deal with him.’

‘What sort of a deal?’

‘I promised I would go mothing with them tonight, as that’s what they were intending doing.’

She was laughing. ‘Ooh! That sounds exciting. Catching moths in a net.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘It’s a better scenario than the kid being out in the fields without supervision at dead of night, don’t you think?’

She nodded, serious now. ‘Yes, of course. Young ones never see danger, do they?’

‘No, they don’t. Can you imagine the state Sue would have been in this morning if she’d found his bed empty? Her nerves are in shreds as it is, and there’s something else.’

His tone was warning her that it wasn’t a minor matter and she said slowly, ‘What is it?’

‘Some friends who live in France have invited her and the boys to stay with them for a few weeks for a change of scene. She’s dead keen to go, but it would mean taking Owen and Oliver out of school and these days parents are in big trouble if they do that.’

‘Surely it wouldn’t be frowned upon in the circumstances.’

‘Maybe not, but the lads don’t want to go, and in any case Sue doesn’t want them missing school.’

She could guess what was coming next. ‘So?’

‘So I’ve told her to go and leave them with me.’

‘And what did she say to that?’

‘Jumped at the chance. It’s just what the poor girl needs. To get away for a while without any worries regarding her children.’

‘So she’s going.’

‘Hmm. She was checking flights when I came out.’

‘Sue does realise that you being part of the practice is a big responsibility?’

‘Yes. I’m sure she does.’

‘And having those two mixed-up boys to look after on your own could be an even bigger one, and then there’s the business.’

‘Am I being told off?’ he asked. ‘You think I won’t be pulling my weight at the practice.’

‘No, of course not,’ she assured him, a bit too hastily. ‘It’s just that I feel Sue could have waited a while. You’ve been in the village less than twenty-four hours.’

‘I appreciate that the practice comes first with you,’ he said, and now his tone was cool. ‘But those kids didn’t ask to lose their father and they are at a difficult age in any case. I thought you might have understood that.’

‘Of course I understand,’ she flared. ‘But think about it. You’ve been part of the practice for just over two hours and all you’ve thought about are your family problems.’

‘So maybe you should wait and see how I perform,’ he suggested in the same cool tone.

‘Maybe I should,’ she told him, and as they did the rest of the house calls neither of them had any further comments to make.

When they’d finished and were driving back to the surgery, Megan broke the silence to ask, ‘Do you want to stop off somewhere for a quick sandwich and a drink? There’s The Badger in the village and a tearoom not far away.’

‘I suggest we call in at the tearoom,’ he replied. ‘Doctors propping up the bar in the lunch-hour doesn’t seem quite right, even if we are only drinking coffee.’

‘Fine by me,’ she said dismissively.

They ate in silence and when they’d finished and were back at the practice he said levelly, ‘I’m ready to take my share of the afternoon surgery. If there’s anything I’m not sure about regarding the way things are done, I’ll ask.’

‘Yes, do that,’ she told him, and went in and closed her door.

This is dreadful, she thought. We haven’t even got through Luke’s first day at the practice and we’re at loggerheads. No one was more sorry for Sue and the boys than herself, but was her friend being fair to him?

When she’d known Luke before it had been his looks and status that had attracted her, but since he’d arrived in the village she was seeing another side to him. He was compassionate and caring, and in consequence thought her to be only interested in her own affairs. He hadn’t said it, yet she knew it was what he was thinking. But she was relying on him to help her run the practice. Would he always be there when he was needed if Sue went ahead with her plans?

* * *

‘How did it go?’ she asked when the late surgery was over.

‘Just a couple of hitches,’ he said calmly, ‘but the receptionists sorted me out. There was no need to disturb you.’

She could feel herself getting rattled again at the display of cool competence. It would be interesting to see how alert the new doctor at the practice was when he’d been up half the night mothing, she thought as she drove homewards.

* * *

She made a meal of sorts, but left most of it uneaten as the day’s events took over her mind. Luke was going to be a liability, she thought sombrely. He’d admitted that he’d taken the position in the practice to be near Sue and the boys and she’d seen nothing wrong in that.

But at that time she hadn’t expected he was going to be left in sole charge of Owen, Oliver and the garden centre at the back of Woodcote House. Somebody was going to have to keep an eye on the business and he was the obvious choice, being family and already on the premises.

Where on his list of priorities was the Riverside Practice going to come? she wondered dismally. And where would she come? In spite of her annoyance at what she saw as being let down by him, the old attraction was still there and it wasn’t going to go away.

But it wasn’t sexual chemistry that was her main concern at that moment. Her parents had left with an easy mind, believing that between them the practice would be in safe hands, and today had made her doubt if that was going to be the case.

* * *

Megan wasn’t the only one thinking sombre thoughts about the day that was past. When she’d left for home Luke had told the staff that he would lock up, and when the place was empty he went into his room and stood gazing thoughtfully out of the window.

It was a fantastic view in anybody’s book. The peaks rising ruggedly in the distance, and closer the quaint village street with shops that made the uniformity of supermarkets seem soulless and synthetic.

He could see Megan’s point of view. Understood that she felt he was going to be a loose cannon instead of a reliable partner. Sue going away for a prolonged holiday on her own was something he hadn’t bargained for, yet he could see the wisdom of it. As well as support, the boys needed a firm hand at the moment and she was not in a fit state to provide it, but he was.

As to the business, he would concern himself about that when he had to. At the moment it was running smoothly. The staff were loyal and ready to help the grieving young widow in any way they could.

His main concern now was to convince Megan that he wasn’t going to let her down and after her annoyance of earlier in the day he suspected it wasn’t going to be easy.

* * *

At almost the same time as the evening before, Megan heard footsteps on the flagging outside, but this time it wasn’t just one pair of feet, there were others, and she wasn’t out in the garden, watching the sunset. She was hunched on the sofa, staring into space.

A knock on the front door brought her to her feet and, putting the chain on, she opened it warily. Her eyes widened when she saw the trio standing in her porch. Oliver was smiling across at her with a boy she didn’t know by his side, and standing behind them was Luke.

‘We wondered if you’d like to join us,’ he said. ‘It’s a lovely night, perfect for mothing.’

She had to laugh. If this was a peace offering, it was original.

‘I might if you’ll give me time to put on some sensible shoes and tell me what I have to do,’ she told him.

‘No problem,’ he said equably. ‘We’ll wait by the gate. We’ve walked up across the fields and our trainers might be muddy.’

When she appeared minutes later in jeans and a white cotton shirt that would stand out in the darkness, Oliver produced a net for her. She observed it blankly and asked, ‘So what do I do?’

‘We catch the moths in the net,’ he told her. ‘There are lots of them flying around in the dark, and when we shine a torch they are attracted to the light.’

‘And what then?’

‘We keep them in a jam jar so they can’t get away, but Uncle Luke says it’s cruel. So we’re going to let them go when we get home.’

‘Right,’ she said gravely, and saw Luke’s teeth flash whitely as he smiled in the fading light.

‘Are you sure you want to come, Dr Marshall?’ Oliver’s friend asked.

‘Absolutely,’ she assured him. The irritations of the day had disappeared when she’d seen Luke on her doorstep.

As they walked along behind the two boys he said in a low voice. ‘Have you noted the time? Half past nine. No midnight excursions. It’s part of the deal.’

‘You seem to have Oliver eating out of your hand at the moment.’

‘Yes, but will it last?’ he said dryly.

They were out in the fields for an hour and although Megan didn’t catch many moths it was nice to be with Luke again in the quiet night. She stumbled over a tree root and his hand came out to save her. His clasp on her arm was the first time he’d touched her and it felt good. Whether he was experiencing the same sensation she didn’t know. He wasn’t showing it if he was.

When they got back to Woodcote House it was time to release the fluttering prisoners from the jam jars and, as they flew off into the night, Megan said, ‘I don’t know how they survived without air.’

‘They had air,’ Oliver assured her. ‘Mikey and me, we punched holes in the lids.’

The lights were on in the house and Luke said, ‘Sue will still be up.’ He sent a wary glance in her direction. ‘She’s busy packing. Do you want a word?’

‘Yes, why not?’ she said as all her forebodings came back to the surface, and they both went upstairs to Sue’s room.

‘So you are off to France, Luke tells me,’ she said after the two women had greeted each other.

‘Yes,’ Sue replied, looking perkier than she’d been in weeks.

‘And the boys aren’t going with you?’

‘No. I don’t want them to miss school.’

‘So you’re leaving Luke to see to things while you’re gone.’

‘Yes. He says everything will be fine.’

‘I’m sure he does.’ She gave her friend a swift kiss on the cheek and said, ‘Have a lovely time, Sue. Maybe when you come back you’ll be a little nearer to facing a future without Gareth.’

Forlorn once again, Sue whispered, ‘I hope so.’

Having looked uncomfortable while the conversation was taking place, Luke spoke into the silence that followed and said, ‘I’ll run you home, Megan.’

As he went to find his car keys Megan knew she couldn’t leave Sue like this. Putting her arms around her, she said gently, ‘It can only get better. You’ve been at rock bottom, the way now is upwards. I’ll do what I can to help Luke while you’re away.’

* * *

‘So?’ Luke said as he drove up the hill towards her cottage. ‘Am I still in trouble now you know that Sue is definitely going to France?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I really don’t know. I was ashamed back there because I wasn’t being as supportive as I should. Yet I still feel that you are letting me down by taking on this huge burden of responsibility.’

‘So you feel that nothing has changed since our few heated words in the lunch-hour.’

‘Yes and no. I’ve had a lovely time mothing with you and the boys, and presume you delayed telling me that Sue was almost ready to leave because you didn’t want to spoil things.’

‘Correct, and spoil things it has, hasn’t it?’

She didn’t reply to that. ‘I can’t think straight,’ she said wearily as he pulled up in front of the cottage. ‘I ought to be praising you for your kindness and tolerance instead of complaining, but I can’t. I’ll see you in the morning, Luke. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.’

He quirked a dark eyebrow in her direction and commented wryly, ‘It can hardly be worse, can it? I may as well tell you the whole thing where Sue is concerned. She’s flying out of Manchester tomorrow at ten o’clock in the morning, and before you ask, no, I have not offered her a lift to the airport. A taxi will be picking her up. She needs to be there at least two hours before the flight, and if I took her it would make me late for morning surgery.’

‘By all means feel free to let me know that I’m selfish and opinionated,’ she said tightly as she got out of the car. ‘Goodnight, Luke.’

* * *

He did not want it to be like this, Luke thought grimly as he returned to Woodcote House. He wanted to get to know the student from way back, who was now a country GP. When he’d agreed to stay with his sister and keep an eye on the boys, the last thing he’d anticipated had been being left in complete charge of them and the business almost as soon as he’d arrived in the village.

He also hadn’t expected that an old attraction was about to rekindle. Life with Alexis had made him loth to get involved in another relationship, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Back at the cottage Megan was admitting to herself that part of her annoyance was pique, because in the kind of life that Luke was planning for himself in the weeks to come, there wasn’t going to be much room for her.

* * *

He was there before her the next morning and she wondered if he was trying to prove a point.

‘Did Sue get off all right?’ she asked, making no comment on his early arrival.

‘Yes. She’ll be killing time at the airport by now, I would imagine.’

‘And the boys?’

‘Breakfasted and on their way to school, and if you’re going to ask if I’ve washed the pots and made the beds, the answer is no. The breakfast things went into the dishwasher and, wait for it, I asked Sue to find me a cleaner and a housekeeper. So bedmaking will be part of her duties.

‘She didn’t tell me that she’d found me both, until late last night, and I did wish she’d mentioned it earlier. It would have made you feel less uncertain of me if you’d known, wouldn’t it?’

‘Yes, possibly,’ she said flatly. ‘Who are they?’

‘I haven’t met them yet, but the cleaner is Connie, and according to Sue she was grateful for the extra hours. The other person is someone called Rebekah Wainright. She’ll be working from twelve until six each weekday. Hopefully she will be there when I get home this evening so that we can introduce ourselves. But the main thing is that she’ll be around when Oliver and Owen come home from school. The last thing those two young ones need at the present time is coming home to an empty house.’

‘I know Rebekah Wainright,’ Megan said. ‘She’s a friend of Aunt Izzy’s, and a good soul. I’m glad for both our sakes that Sue sorted all that out before she left.’

It was another dawn, another day, she thought. If she’d known yesterday what he was telling her now, she wouldn’t have got herself in such a state. Now it was her turn to make a peace offering and, smiling across at him, she said, ‘Last night I told Sue I would do all I could to help while she was away, but I was in an awkward position, torn between my commitment to the practice and the problems of a friend. I hope you’ll forgive me, Luke.’

‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ he said quietly. ‘I let my longing to make life easier for Sue and the boys make me forget what I’m here for. And with regard to that, Megan, ten minutes to go and it will be time for the Riverside Practice to swing into action.’

‘How do you manage to be so good-humoured all the time?’ she asked as she perched on the corner of her desk and flipped through the mail. He didn’t answer and when she looked up his face was thoughtful.

‘It’s because I’m content, I suppose. I’m here in this beautiful place with those I care about. When we knew each other before I was not at my best. I was at the tail end of a divorce and disillusioned with womankind in general. But I’m over all that. Ready for new beginnings, and coming here is one of them.’

‘I see. Was that why you took such a dim view of the Valentine I sent you?’

It was out, she thought. She’d done the thing she’d been dreading and was waiting to hear what he had to say.

He shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that. My first reaction was amazement when I found it on my desk amongst an assortment of others. For a few seconds I was flattered, until it dawned on me that it might be a joke. I remember that I handled it badly.’

‘They were all doing it,’ she said hastily, ‘and I thought I’d join in. It was a stupid thing to do, I’m afraid.’

‘Think no more of it. I’d forgotten it.’

It was a lie, of course. He hadn’t forgotten it, or her. But she wasn’t to know that and instead of being relieved to have cleared the air Megan was wishing she’d never mentioned it. She’d presented Luke with the opportunity to let her see she meant nothing in his scheme of things.

When she went to make a quick coffee before calling in her first patient, Megan saw Elise Edwards, who owned the village bakery, chatting to one of the receptionists.

‘I’m here again, Megan,’ she said, half laughing, half apologetic. ‘I’m haunting this place, aren’t I?’

She was a jolly, buxom woman in her mid-forties, who until recently had rarely been seen at the surgery, but that seemed to be changing. First there had been a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis that Elise could have done without. Then there’d been something suspect in the colon that had turned out to be benign, and as she wasn’t due for a check-up, it seemed as if there might be something new for her to fret about.

‘So you’re down on my list for today,’ she said, and Elise shook her head.

‘I’m afraid not. You didn’t have a free slot, so I’m seeing the new doctor. What’s he like?’ she asked Kathy, the receptionist.

‘Very nice,’ was Kathy’s reply, and as Megan went into the small surgery kitchen to make the coffee, she thought that was putting it mildly.

The only snag was that so far, not having said a wrong word, Luke was making her seem like some sort of a control freak, and it was the last thing she wanted him to see her as.

CHAPTER THREE

‘ELISE EDWARDS,’ Luke said when the two doctors surfaced at the end of the morning.

‘What about her?’ Megan asked. ‘I spoke to her earlier. She’s been going through a rough patch healthwise. I hope it wasn’t anything too serious.’

‘It all depends on how one views that kind of thing at her age.’

‘I’m not with you.’

‘The lady is pregnant, Megan.’

Megan’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’

‘Yes. And, needless to say, she is somewhat stunned.’

‘I can imagine,’ she said, shaking her head in amazement. ‘How old is she?’

‘Forty-six,’ said Luke. ‘She’s done a test from the chemist and it has shown positive, but she just couldn’t believe it, and came to the surgery for proof positive.’

‘What actually was her reaction?’

‘A mixture of things. Dismay, trepidation, embarrassment, and maybe just a tinge of excitement.’

‘No mention of termination, then.’

‘Not at this stage, though I believe she already has teenage girls.’

Megan nodded. ‘Yes. Sophie and Claudia. Their reaction to the news could be interesting. When this kind of thing happens in families where there are older children, they are sometimes horrified. They see nothing wrong in it in anyone else, but not Mum and Dad. I wonder what Elise will do? She has rheumatoid arthritis, but it is under control, so that shouldn’t cause any problems in its present state. She’s also recently had a scare with a lump that proved to be benign, and she runs a business. The baker’s just down the street. She might decide to sell up with a new baby on the way.’

‘What does her husband do?’ asked Luke.

‘He’s one of the gamekeepers at Lord Marriott’s place up on the tops. Keeps poachers off his land. Officiates when his lordship wants a shoot. That sort of thing. Soon his employer and his friends will be out shooting the grouse on the twelfth of August and Jim Edwards will be in charge of that.

‘My nearest neighbour, old Jonas Bottomley, makes a few pounds for himself when that takes place by working as a beater. The rest of the time he spends making moonshine.’

‘And I thought that the countryside was a quiet, law-abiding place,’ Luke said in mock horror. ‘What next?’

‘Next are the house calls, I’m afraid. Are you ready?’

‘Sure am,’ he said easily, with no intention of telling her that he’d just had a phone call from the headmistress at Oliver’s school to ask if he would make sure his nephew understood that he couldn’t use his mobile phone in class.

‘We are trying to be as lenient as possible with those two boys under the circumstances,’ she’d said. ‘But Oliver does take advantage of it sometimes. I am phoning you as he tells me that his mother has gone away and won’t be back for some weeks.’

‘Yes, phone me by all means if there is any problem at all with either Oliver or Owen,’ he’d told her ‘They are going through a difficult time, but I don’t intend to let them misbehave if I can help it.’

* * *

When he got in that evening Rebekah Wainright was there, and to Luke’s relief she turned out to be a much gentler soul than her friend Izzy Chambers. She was tall, slim and extremely neat, he noted. Probably in her late sixties and looking good for her years. She’d made a meal, cottage pie with an apple tart to follow, and he could have kissed her.

‘I need to know what you are expecting of me, Dr Anderson,’ she told him. ‘Just make me a list, and I’ll do my best to follow it. I didn’t know whether you would want me to cook for you tonight, but I took the chance and will do so each time I’m here, but only if you want me to.’

‘I most certainly do,’ he told her. ‘Where do you live, Mrs Wainright? I hope it isn’t too far away for you. I’ll be here to run you home in the evenings but I won’t be around when you start in the middle of the day.’

‘No problem,’ she told him. ‘I’m only just down the road. And before I go, what about those two lads? Is it all right to feed them when they get in from school? They were starving today so I gave them a glass of milk and some fruit to keep them going until you came home.’

‘That is perfectly all right. Teenage boys have permanently empty stomachs when they’re shooting up into adolescence.’

* * *

When she’d gone the three of them tucked into the food, and once their appetites were appeased Owen said, ‘Can we go to Manchester on Saturday, Uncle Luke?’

‘Er, yes, if you want,’ he told him. ‘What did you want to do there?’

‘Bowling. And the cinema.’

‘Fine, but you do realise I’ll be going with you. I’m not letting you out on your own in the city. What about you, Oliver? Do you want to go?’

‘Yeah,’ Oliver said, his excited expression reminding Luke of the mothing excursion. ‘But don’t bring Dr Marshall this time, will you? It’s boys only.’

‘Sure, no problem,’ Luke agreed, then said in a brisker tone, ‘And now who has homework to do?’

There was silence.

‘Come on, both of you, no slacking. If you don’t do your homework we don’t go bowling. And by the way, Oliver, as well as it being against the school rules, it is extremely rude to use your mobile in class. Don’t do it.’

When they were settled, one at each side of the kitchen table, doing their homework, Luke went to ring Megan to report on Rebekah Wainright’s first half-day at Woodcote House.

She might not be interested, he thought, but it would be a chance to hear her voice again, and to let her see that his domestic life was in control.

It had been good, their second day together in the practice. At least that was his opinion. But he’d started off on the wrong foot with Megan. It didn’t follow that she’d felt the same.

* * *

Sighing, Megan flopped down on the sofa. She’d felt miserable when she and Luke had separated at the end of the day, and told herself it had to stop. If all she had in her life was the practice, it wasn’t so for him. He had a grieving family to help get through some of the worst months of their lives, plus a business that he knew nothing about to oversee, and the position of village doctor to hold down.

She really couldn’t see how she could fit into his scheme of things, even if he wanted her to, and the information, offered casually, that he’d long ago forgotten that she’d sent him a Valentine wasn’t helping.

It was in the midst of those sombre thoughts that the phone rang and a voice said in her ear, ‘I thought I’d let you know that Rebekah Wainright looks as if she’s going to be a gem.’

‘That’s good,’ she told him, suddenly feeling much happier, though she wished it was themselves that he’d rung to talk about. ‘And the boys, are they all right without their mum?’

‘They seem to be. They’re doing their homework at the moment, reluctantly I might add. And what have you planned for the evening, Megan?’

‘Chores,’ she told him without much enthusiasm.

‘Come round for supper, then.’

‘I can’t keep butting into their lives, Luke,’ she said hesitantly.

‘What about my life?’ he questioned levelly ‘I’m going to need some company to bring me back to adulthood occasionally. We’re going bowling on Saturday and I’ve had instructions that I shouldn’t ask you to join us. It’s boys only.’

‘That’s fine with me,’ she said with feeling. ‘And in any case, I’ve already got something arranged. In Manchester, too, as it happens.’

He was immediately curious. ‘Anything interesting?’

‘To me, yes. I’m going to have a leisurely afternoon going around the shops and then I’m meeting one of my friends from university for a night at the ballet.’

‘Sounds good. Is she anyone I might remember?’

‘It’s a he.’

‘Oh, I see,’ he said flatly, and wished he hadn’t been so nosy. It served him right for not thinking there might be someone already in her life. Red-gold hair, green eyes and a fluid mover like Megan were not going to go unnoticed by his own sex.

‘Am I likely to remember him, then?’

He was glad this conversation was taking place over the phone. If Megan could see his expression she would pick up on his dismay.

‘Andy Warhurst.’

‘Really! Then I’m presuming that he must have changed a lot,’ he commented dryly. ‘I remember him as disruptive whenever he chose to attend my lectures.’

At the other end of the line it was dawning on Megan that he was jumping to the wrong conclusions. She wouldn’t be interested in Andy Warhurst in a thousand years, but maybe it would do no harm to let Luke think she might be.

The truth of it was that after they’d all left university, Megan had introduced Andy to Jenny, one of her childhood friends from the days when they’d been in the same ballet class. They’d fallen in love and got married, and now Jenny was a member of the company who were at present performing at a theatre in central Manchester.

Jenny had been the one most keen to make a career in ballet and she’d rung to ask Megan if she’d like to see the show. ‘I’m only one of the chorus,’ Jenny had said. ‘But I’ve got two tickets. Andy is going to use one of them and I wondered if you would like the other.’

‘Oh, yes!’ Megan had said immediately.

‘So would you feel like joining up with him?’ Jenny had asked. ‘It isn’t really his scene, and I know he’d like to see you again. I promise that he’s much better behaved these days,’ she’d told her laughingly.

The arrangements had been made, and now Luke was getting his wires crossed.

‘So how about supper, then?’ Luke asked, returning to his earlier suggestion.

‘I suppose I could pop down for half an hour.’

‘Great, so we’ll see you then.’

* * *

Her mother had phoned earlier and Luke had been the main topic of conversation.

‘How are you and he getting along?’ she’d wanted to know.

‘Not bad so far. But it’s early days yet.’ Megan had told her. ‘Luke is going to have his hands full on the domestic front for the next few weeks.’

‘Why is that?’

‘Sue has gone to France to stay with friends.’

‘And taken the boys with her, I hope.’

‘I’m afraid not. They didn’t want to go, and in any case she couldn’t take them out of school during term time.’

‘So her brother has been left in charge of them?’

‘Yes.’

‘And the garden center, too?’

‘Hmm. But I don’t think that will give him much trouble. Everyone who works there is very loyal, and before you ask about the practice, Luke is spot on and determined not to let his other commitments interfere.’

‘Good,’ her mother said, and Megan knew she was saying what Margaret wanted to hear.

‘Now, tell me about yourselves,’ Megan coaxed, moving onto safer ground ‘Are the house and its surroundings as wonderful as you remember them?’

‘Absolutely. We’re going to love it here, but only if you are happy back there in the village.’

‘I’m fine,’ Megan said, omitting to mention that she’d had grave doubts about the suitability of the man they’d found for her to share the practice with, and that they hadn’t entirely disappeared.

And now she’d accepted his invitation to go for supper because she couldn’t see enough of him. She was heading for a fall and knew it.

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