When she looked up at him from the protective circle of his arms it was as if she belonged there.

He was holding her for the first time ever—not flesh to flesh, more thick winter coat against thick winter coat—but it was where he wanted her to be, and as he looked down on her beneath the cold, starlit sky for the first time in years desire was warming his blood.

He didn’t want it to—especially remembering who she was—but it was there, the heat of it, and with her eyes pleading and her colour deepening Julianne reached up and kissed him on the lips. It was just a fleeting gesture, but its effect was far from lightweight.

He swung her off her feet and kissed her in return, and it went on and on—until she pushed him away, gasping for breath, and he came to his senses.

Dear Reader

We meet again with Julianne and Aaron’s story, which is the fourth and last of my books about The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm. I have so much enjoyed writing them.

In it Aaron comes back to somewhere he has vowed never to return, and is dismayed to find that someone who witnessed his great humiliation on what should have been one of the happiest days of his life is going to be everywhere he turns in Swallowbrook. But as the days go by he discovers that Julianne has also got a cross to bear, and it is in the beautiful Lakeland valley that the two of them find the happiness that true love brings.

Until we meet again in my next story, happy reading!

With very best regards

Abigail Gordon

About the Author

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.

Recent titles by the same author:

MARRIAGE MIRACLE IN SWALLOWBROOK** SPRING PROPOSAL IN SWALLOWBROOK** SWALLOWBROOK’S WINTER BRIDE** SUMMER SEASIDE WEDDING† THE VILLAGE NURSE’S HAPPY-EVER-AFTER† WEDDING BELLS FOR THE VILLAGE NURSE† CHRISTMAS IN BLUEBELL COVE† COUNTRY MIDWIFE, CHRISTMAS BRIDE*

** The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm * The Willowmere Village Stories † Bluebell Cove

These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

Swallowbrook’s
Wedding
of the Year
Abigail Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

FOR GILL AND PHILIP AND CREATIVE WRITING

CHAPTER ONE

A TAXI had pulled up on the forecourt of the medical practice in the Lakeland village of Swallowbrook and as its driver unloaded baggage out of the boot, his passenger, a tall guy with russet hair bleached by a foreign sun and with a tan that spoke of long days beneath it, eased himself out of the vehicle and looked around him.

He could see a lake not far away with a backdrop of the rugged fells that were so much a part of the area where he had grown up and then five years ago had left in turmoil, vowing that he never wanted to see or hear of the place ever again.

That was how it had been until he’d phoned to have a chat with a colleague, Nathan Gallagher, who had worked at the same African hospital as himself and was now back in the UK.

When Nathan had arrived on a three-year contract at the hospital where he himself had already been established, they’d discovered that they had been born in the same English county and had grown up only a few miles from each other.

It had created a bond between them that hadn’t been broken when the other man, having completed his contract, had returned home, leaving himself with still a year to do. Now that year was up and, like his friend before him, he’d returned to the UK.

‘Aaron!’ a voice cried from somewhere behind him. ‘You’re here at last!’ As Aaron Somerton swung round to greet Nathan he saw that he had emerged as one of a group of people leaving a new building on the same plot of land as the Swallowbrook medical practice.

As they shook hands Nathan turned to a couple standing nearby and said, ‘Allow me to introduce Laura Armitage, our practice manager, and her husband, Gabriel, who is an oncologist and about to take over the running of the new building that you see beside you, which has only today been opened as an extension for cancer care in the area.’

‘So are you the lady who has found me that delightful cottage to live in?’ Aaron asked with a smile for Laura.

‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘and if you would like to come to my office in the basement beneath the surgery I’ll give you the keys to The Falls Cottage, which, as the title suggests, is near a waterfall.’

Leaving Nathan and Gabriel chatting, Laura took him through the practice building to the office where she worked amongst the computers, and on observing that there were no staff to be seen on the premises he commented on the fact.

‘The surgery is closed this afternoon,’ she told him, ‘so that our staff could attend the opening of the clinic. Most of them are over there now, enjoying the refreshments that have been provided.’

When they rejoined her husband and Nathan, who was head of the practice, Aaron asked, ‘How soon do you want me on the job, Nathan?’

‘As soon as possible,’ he was told, ‘but take a couple of days to settle in first. Swallowbrook will no doubt seem strange to you after such a long absence from these parts, even though it is changeless in many ways.’

The taxi had gone and he said, ‘I’ll take you to the cottage as I’m sure you must be keen to see it, and by the way, Aaron, my wife, Libby, says if you would like to dine with us tonight, you are very welcome.’

Seated at a table by a window in the restaurant of the new clinic with the other two nurses from the surgery, Julianne Marshall had seen the taxi arrive outside the practice building and was watching its occupant emerge.

Why had he come back? she wondered with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. The last words she’d heard Aaron Somerton speak before he’d disappeared five years ago had been to declare that he never wanted to set eyes on the Lakeland valley where he’d lived, or the people in it, ever again, and he’d meant it. No doubt about that!

When Laura Armitage’s husband, the dishy Gabriel, had appeared on the scene she’d thought that he was going to fill the vacancy at the practice that had arisen when Nathan’s wife, Libby, also a doctor, had left to become a full-time mother.

Keen to know if she was right in her surmise, she’d questioned Nathan and been told that a guy called Aaron Somerton, who had been working in Africa for the last five years, was coming to fill the gap, and Julianne had thought she was going to collapse.

Now he was here, only yards away, and she was hoping desperately that he wouldn’t recognise her. She’d watched Laura take him into the practice building and thought if it hadn’t been for the opening of the clinic today she would have been a sitting duck, unable to avoid meeting him on his unexpected return to the area where it had all happened in what seemed like a lifetime ago. A lifetime that had been like serving a sentence for something she hadn’t done.

Yet if she didn’t meet him today, it was going to happen tomorrow. There was no way she could escape it, unless she rang in sick or disappeared off the face of the earth, like Aaron had done.

She watched Nathan drive off with him in his car and assumed that the head of the practice would be taking the new arrival to the cottage that had been rented for him by the side of the waterfall that, fed by streams and rainwater from the fells, surged endlessly downwards into the lake.

It would be a far more atmospheric residence than her apartment above the village bakery on the main street, but did that really matter? If Aaron Somerton recognised her, he wasn’t likely to be coming round for tea.

The cottage was exactly how Aaron had expected it to be.

Like almost every property in the area, it was built from Lakeland stone, which was charming in itself, but added to that was the fact that it was actually at the lake edge, only feet away from where the waterfall came dancing down from the fells.

It was described as a cottage, which brought to mind something small and cosy, but was far from that. The rooms were spacious and attractive, with huge windows looking out onto impressive views of the area, and thankfully the church didn’t appear in any of them. He would have had to draw the curtains if it had.

When he’d rung Nathan that night for a chat and his friend had suggested that he fill the vacancy at the Swallowbrook practice if he was intending to come back to the UK, nothing had been further from his mind, yet recklessly he’d taken him up on the offer, and ever since had been looking forward to returning to his roots, with all the bad memories firmly buttoned down at the back of his mind.

Both of his parents had died while he’d been at medical college so there had been no one close to him to share the most humiliating moment of his life, and the job in Africa had been heaven-sent as a means of escaping the notoriety that had been the result of him being jilted at the altar.

When sugar-sweet golden-haired Nadine Marshall had wanted to marry him, he had seen a future of heavenly bliss beckoning with the woman he loved and their children in time to come, and had had no idea that she’d been seeing someone else while the wedding preparations had been in progress.

On meeting up with Nathan in Africa there had been no mention about what had happened on his wedding day, so either the other man knew nothing about it or didn’t connect his caring, clever colleague with the time when Aaron had been hurt beyond belief by Nadine and had gone to work at the other side of the world to try to forget.

Now he was back in the land of his birth, amongst the lakes and fells that were as familiar to him as his own face, hoping that his rash decision to come back to Swallowbrook and the surrounding areas wasn’t going to turn out to be a step too far.

He needed food, he decided when he’d finished unpacking—bread, milk, cereals, butter, bacon and anything else that caught his attention in the village shops, which were near enough for him to reach on foot.

The bakery was his last stopping place and as he opened the door and stepped inside he saw a neat pair of ankles and legs that were long and shapely in sheer tights disappearing fast up a flight of stairs at the back of the shop. Someone was in a hurry and he wondered if the flash of a dark blue hemline belonged to a nurse.

As she hovered on an upstairs landing after her quick departure from the shop down below on seeing Aaron about to enter, Julianne was thinking dismally that it would have to come sooner or later, meeting him face-to-face.

If he didn’t recognise the woman she had become, Aaron would certainly remember her second name, if not the first, as she’d been a background figure during the time he had courted her elder sister, Nadine, with eyes only for her beauty.

But she was the one who was going to have to face him day after day, week after week from now on. Not the despicable Nadine, who had broken his heart and his pride, but the bridesmaid who since then hadn’t wanted to be anyone’s bride.

Because if her sister hadn’t loved Aaron Somerton, she had adored him from afar and had ended up as the whipping girl for his betrayal because he had decided that she’d been in cahoots with the woman who had left him standing before a church full of people, and his anger and disgust had remained like a festering sore on her life ever since.

Yet her dismay at Aaron’s return was not absolute. In a small corner of her heart there was warmth because whatever the cost in days to come, Aaron was where she could see him, observe him from a distance, and maybe in time he might come to feel that she wasn’t as bad as she’d been made to look.

She heard the shop door close down below and when she looked out of the window from the landing where she had taken refuge he was striding along the pavement below with his provisions, and as people passing observed him with interest she thought he was still an eye-turner like he had been in the past, but did he notice, did he care?

At that moment a horrible thought struck her. Supposing he had recovered from being jilted at the altar by a greedy and uncaring bride and had found himself a replacement while out in Africa? Supposing he had a family waiting for him at the cottage by the waterfall while he went to buy food for them?

Yet the memory of his arrival offered solace regarding that. He had been alone. The only baggage he’d brought with him had been of the suitcase kind.

Having made sure that he’d gone, Julianne went back downstairs to the bakery and middle-aged George, the baker, who kept a fatherly eye on his attractive tenant, enquired, ‘What sent you up the stairs so fast? I thought the guy buying the bread must be a vampire with a preference for young nurses or something.’

‘He’s the new doctor at the practice,’ she told him. ‘It will be soon enough to meet him when I have to, and you, George, wouldn’t know a vampire if one jumped up and bit you.’

‘Cheeky wench,’ he said affectionately, passing her the bread and cakes that she’d been on the point of buying when Aaron had appeared. ‘Don’t forget these. I don’t want you ringing my bell when you come home in the early hours because you’ve got nothing to eat.’

Julianne was smiling until she entered her apartment and then gloom descended. It was Tuesday, music night at The Mallard, the pub at the opposite end of the village, and there was always a band performing. She and her friends were regulars, wouldn’t miss it for anything, but today her anticipation was dwindling because of the day’s events.

Yet she thought it was ridiculous to let a brief sighting of someone she’d known in the past make her want to run away and hide. She was going to stick to the arrangements she’d made with her friend Kathy and really dress up for the occasion to give her morale a boost.

‘Wow! Who are you out to impress?’ Kathy asked when Julianne took off her coat on entering The Mallard and the dress beneath it was revealed.

It was bright scarlet, low cut, with an uneven hemline of long and short tails, and it fitted as if she’d been poured into it. Black patent-leather shoes with incredible heels and a matching bag made up the rest of her outfit.

From the moment of arriving at the noisy gathering Julianne had put Aaron Somerton’s presence in the village out of her mind for a few hours and was back to her usual self of the attractive party animal concentrating on enjoying herself with tomorrow hidden in mist.

Aaron had accepted Nathan and Libby’s invitation to dine with them that evening and as he’d walked the short distance to where they’d had two cottages made into one across the way from the surgery, he’d heard loud music coming from the pub that was a favourite haunt for the young and trendy amongst the locals and the many visitors who came to Swallowbrook.

He smiled a grim smile. The last time he’d been to anywhere like that had been with the woman he’d been going to marry and they’d danced non-stop.

A couple of weeks later Nadine had changed her mind and left him standing dumbstruck at the altar as she’d run down the aisle with the flowers of her bouquet scattering behind her, broken like the promises she’d decided she didn’t want to make.

He’d gone after her and had been just in time to see her clutching the folds of her dress and with her veil streaming out behind her, jump into a red sports car that was parked at the church gates with engine running.

The rest of it had been a blur—wedding guests commiserating awkwardly and then drifting off, the vicar offering gentle condolences and assuring him that he would be available for support at any time that he might need him. And he’d seen the young bridesmaid with eyes large in her face though not exactly dismayed, and wondered if she’d known anything about the sports-car guy and had been expecting his own public humiliation.

He’d never seen the sly young minx from that day to this after he’d taken her on one side and waltzed her into the church vestry, where he’d discovered on questioning that she’d tried to persuade her sister endlessly not to marry him; and must have eventually succeeded.

He hadn’t waited to hear any more. It had been clear that she was just as devious as Nadine. Whatever he’d done to either of them to deserve that treatment he didn’t know, and had declared that he never wanted to set eyes on the pair of them again as long as he lived.

But now, out of choice, he was back in Lakeland and ready to put his self-imposed absence behind him like a bad dream. He imagined that the bridesmaid would have found a husband of her own by now and moved on somewhere else, like Nadine had done, and if she had he hoped that she would treat him better than his treacherous bride had treated him.

With the position in Africa coming up, he’d packed his bags and gone, and had never laid his hands on another woman since, neither was likely to do so in the future. Money and glamour had been a better choice than love, he’d discovered where Nadine had been concerned, and he was never likely to tread that path again.

Nathan had offered to drive him back to The Falls Cottage after a very pleasant evening, but Aaron had assured him that he would enjoy the walk in the mellow darkness of a late autumn evening.

As he strolled back the way he had come he had to pass The Mallard again and this time it didn’t bring back memories of times when he hadn’t known his happiness was in the balance. It was just a rather noisy place where people were enjoying themselves, and why not?

It was late and he had to sidestep to avoid a group that had just left the place and were chatting on the pavement. His glance rested for a second on a girl in a red dress, slim, dark haired, dark eyed, who had turned away as he’d approached, and he wondered why.

He didn’t sleep well that first night. The noise of the waterfall was something he was going to have to get used to, he thought as he went to stand beside it as it hurtled down in the moonlight.

The memory of the folks coming out of the pub happy and carefree was still there. He had almost forgotten how to enjoy himself since the body blow he’d received from his faithless fiancée had destroyed any inclination he might have had towards that sort of thing, and the work he had gone to do amongst the heat and endless health problems of a far country, though rewarding and challenging, had not helped to make him feel any less joyless.

Yet as he turned to go back inside he found he was smiling, his spirits lifting. He had done the right thing in coming back to this beautiful Lakeland, he told himself. The past was done with. He was not going to allow it to intrude into the future. He had survived what Nadine had done to him and from now on intended to be happy and carefree in his new surroundings.

He could see the shops on the main street in the distance and saw that late as it was there was a light on in the rooms above the bakery, so he wasn’t the only one still up.

Back in her flat, Julianne was staring into space. The last thing she’d wanted had been to come face-to-face with Aaron outside The Mallard amongst the noise and laughter of its patrons at the end of an evening of dancing and drinking, and after the first moment of unexpected recognition she’d turned away, wishing that she was dressed in a colour less memorable than red.

If he had recognised her he would no doubt have seen scarlet as the right colour for any woman associated with Nadine. But he hadn’t, and if she could escape any scrutiny that brought recognition when they came face-to-face at the surgery, she would be relieved beyond telling. If she didn’t, then what? Leave and look for a position somewhere else?

Yet she would hate to have to do that as the only people in her life were the few casual friends she’d made since joining the practice. Her parents were divorced—her mother married for a second time and living in Australia, and her father spent his days as steward and general factotum on a luxury yacht that its owners spent their time sailing around the world in, so he only appeared rarely in her life.

As for her Nadine, she hadn’t seen her since the day she’d left Aaron devastated at the altar and she had no wish to do so in the future. If he’d given her the chance during those moments when they’d been alone in the vestry she would have explained that her only reason for not being horrified at what her sister had done to him had been because she’d had a youthful crush on him and wished she could have been his bride instead.

She would have squirmed in the telling of it because compared to Nadine she’d been like an ugly duckling next to a beautiful swan in her teenage years and gauche with it.

But Aaron hadn’t given her the chance and in a sick sort of way she’d been relieved to be saved the embarrassment of admitting such a thing to a man who barely knew she existed.

The only time they’d had any conversation before that had been once when he’d been waiting for Nadine to get ready to go partying. It had been at the flat that she and her sister had shared in the town centre as Nadine was no lover of the countryside, and she’d been forced to listen to how fortunate he felt he was to have someone so beautiful wanting to marry him.

At the time she’d been reminded of men who had tried to chat her up as a means of getting to know her golden-haired sister and how she’d sent them packing, but tongue-tied in his presence she’d refrained from offering a word of warning because she’d known that the envy of other men would only make Nadine more desirable in his eyes.

It had been a rich man who had used his wealth to tempt Nadine away from the altar that day. The thought of him waiting out there with all that he could give her had made her choose possessions before love.

Julianne had known that she was seeing someone else, and had begged her not to marry Aaron if she didn’t love him, but Nadine’s reply to that had been that she did love him, but Howie was very rich and he adored her.

With the selfishness that was so much a part of her, she had waited until Aaron had actually been at the altar before making her decision, and the hurt she’d caused had been indescribable.

With that bleak thought to end the day Julianne undressed and once beneath the covers tried not to think about what the future held. She was used to laughing a lot, playing a lot, should have been on the stage as most of it was acting a part. What sort of a performance was she going to have to put on working alongside Aaron Somerton?

When he’d disappeared into the unknown she’d never expected to see him again and part of her had been relieved, but for the rest there had been a yearning that had never gone away and now, unbelievably, he was back in her life, here in Swallowbrook!

Nathan had told him to take a couple of days to settle in before taking his place in the practice but Aaron felt the urge to be back practising medicine on his home soil, and when the staff began to arrive at the surgery he was amongst them, tall, tanned and white shirted, ready for the fray.

‘You didn’t have to come in today,’ Nathan told him, pleasantly surprised. ‘I did say take a couple of days to get settled in.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Aaron replied. ‘But I was settled as soon as I saw the lake and the rest of the village. I had no intention of ever coming back to this area until that day when you suggested I fill the vacancy, and now I’ve arrived I realise what I’ve been missing.’

‘Fine,’ his friend said. ‘Come along and I’ll introduce you to the staff. First the other doctors, our newlyweds Ruby and Hugo Lawrence, and then the three practice nurses. There’s Helena, who has been with us for ever and is the practice’s senior nurse. Then Gina, who is the mother of two young boys and works part-time to fit in with school hours. And then there is our bright morning star …

‘Oh! Not so bright this morning!’ he commented as Julianne came hurrying in through the main doors of the practice looking pale and heavy-eyed, her pallor deepening when she saw Aaron standing in Reception.

As she halted on seeing them, Nathan said laughingly, ‘I was just telling Aaron that you are our bright morning star, but you seem to have lost your shine today.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked. ‘I had a restless night, but I’ll be all right as soon as I’ve had a cup of tea.’ And with a grimace of a smile in Aaron’s direction she added, ‘Nice to meet you, Dr Somerton.’

‘And you too Nurse, er …?’ he replied.

‘Julianne Marshall.’ She waited with bated breath.

‘Nice to meet you, Julianne Marshall.’ And only by the flicker of an eyelid could she tell that he knew who she was.

‘If you will excuse me’ she said, ‘I need to get changed while you are being introduced to the rest of the staff.’

Julianne scurried to the nurses’ rooms, which were unoccupied at that moment.

‘Ugh!’ she groaned. ‘That was worse than taking castor oil! I’m sure he recognised me. My name isn’t one he would forget in a hurry!’

She quickly changed then headed for the kitchen. With ten minutes before the first appointment of the day, she found Aaron in there, chatting to Laura Armitage. So purposely took her drink to the far end of the room and chatted to one of the receptionists until Nathan announced that he was about to open up, and there was a general exodus.

Their glances met briefly as Aaron stepped back to let her and the other two nurses pass, and if she’d had any doubts before as to whether he recognised her or not, the set of his mouth held the answer, and she knew that life was not going to be easy in the days to come.

Hell’s bells! Aaron thought grimly as Nathan showed him his newly decorated consulting room. The dark-haired nurse was the deceitful bridesmaid who had witnessed his humiliation and been unaffected by it. What a horrendous homecoming! So much for the future being free of the past.

If he remembered rightly, at the time of the wedding that never was she’d been doing her nurse’s training then, and that was about all he’d known about her, until he’d seen her composed expression when his bride had gone like a bullet from a gun.

But it was all long ago, water under the bridge. He still smarted when he thought about it, but it only happened rarely now, and it shouldn’t be hard to give the ‘bright morning star’ a wide berth.

Yet Nathan’s next comment made that seem unlikely when he said, ‘I’m thinking of pairing us doctors each with a nurse in the general day-to-day running of the practice to give a more efficient and sympathetic approach to our patients, but will wait until you’ve had the chance to settle in amongst us.’

‘Yes, sure,’ he said agreeably, but if he was ‘paired’ with Julianne Marshall he would wish himself back in Africa.

When Aaron went across to the bakery at lunchtime for a sandwich, the man behind the counter asked, ‘Are you the new doctor?’

‘Yes, I am,’ he told him. ‘Is there something I can help you with?’

The baker was smiling. ‘Yes, you can tell Julianne, the girl who rents the apartment above the shop, that burning the midnight oil on weeknights is not a good idea for a young nurse who is on her feet all day. Maybe she’ll take some notice of you.’

Aaron very much doubted it, and told the baker, ‘Nurse Marshall and I have only just met. She may not welcome advice from a stranger.’ The memory of hair as dark as ravens’ wings swinging against bare shoulders in a shining swathe, and a red dress that had been the perfect foil for it, came to mind. He hadn’t known who she was then, but felt that she must have recognised him as she’d turned her back to him in the middle of the group on the pavement when she’d seen him approaching.

Autumn was dithering on the edge of winter and the practice was busy with the inevitable flu jabs and the onset of the demand for cold medications and the age-related illnesses that flared up with the approach of the festive season, and Aaron was soon in his stride without any further sightings of Julianne Marshall since their awkward meeting in the reception area that had been followed with the cosy tea and talk time in the surgery kitchen.

But he couldn’t skulk in his room all day, and why should he? On that dreadful day long ago he’d had nothing to blame himself for except maybe being too trusting, and he’d never trusted anyone completely since.

When he went into the corridor after notifying the nurses via email of certain tests he required to be done for his last patient, Julianne appeared with a printout in her hand of the instructions he’d just sent through, and as he observed her unsmilingly Aaron decided that her long legs in sheer grey tights had to be the same ones that he’d seen dashing up the back stairs in the bakery the day before.

Had she known who he was then? Him coming to join the practice would be general knowledge, so she would have been prepared, but to him she was someone totally unexpected who was going to be a constant reminder of a day that would haunt him for ever.

She was waiting to speak to him with dark eyes watchful and no smiles to be seen on the smooth lines of her face.

‘What is it?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Have you got a problem with what I’ve just asked one of you to do?’

‘No,’ she said with outward calm. ‘It is just that your patient is questioning the cortisone injection in the knee that you have given him without warning.’

‘Are you questioning my methods?’ he said coldly. ‘The man’s records show that he was booked in today for that very thing. I haven’t dreamt it up from somewhere. I did tell him what I was going to do, and now I’ve sent him to you for his flu and pneumonia injections at his request.’

‘Yes, so I see,’ she said meekly. ‘Obviously he must have misunderstood about the injection in his knee.’

‘That could be the case,’ he said flatly. ‘If you or he have any further doubts, I suggest you check his records for yourself.’ And without giving her the chance to comment further he went to discuss the matter of where to buy a car from with Nathan, as without transport he wasn’t going to be much use to the practice.

CHAPTER TWO

HE DIDN’T buy a sports car, needless to say. Instead, when he’d completed the sale he drove back to the surgery in a black four-wheel-drive, and watching him park it on the forecourt from the window of the nurse’s room Julianne sighed.

Their first conversation had been a prickly affair and she couldn’t visualise any future ones being any different. The only thing that would put things right between them would be for her to tell Aaron exactly what had been in her mind on that dreadful day.

It had been more of a teenage crush than a grand passion, but it hadn’t seemed like that at the time, and she’d known that beside her sister’s attractions her own had been almost non-existent.

Living in Nadine’s shadow had become a way of life that she’d had to accept—even their parents had been known to show preference on occasion. While she’d been growing up, whenever her father had called for his beautiful daughter to come to him she’d learned never to go rushing to his side, experience having taught her that it had been Nadine he’d wanted, always Nadine.

When her sister’s ‘latest’ had appeared on the scene, handsome, clever, a catch by anyone’s standards, he had seemed like the prince to her Cinderella, and she had prayed that Nadine would not bring him grief.

In a strange sort of way her prayers had been answered. The ‘grief’ had been there, no escaping that, but to a much lesser degree than if the marriage had gone ahead, and she’d hoped with youthful optimism that Aaron might notice her with Nadine gone.

At the last moment her sister had gone where there had been money, lots of it, and Aaron had been spared the nightmare that life married to Nadine would have been, but she, Julianne, hadn’t come out of it smelling of roses either.

She’d confessed to him how often she’d tried to persuade Nadine not to marry him, but in the midst of his anger hadn’t been able to get the words out to tell him why, and Aaron’s disgust at what he’d seen as her conniving had hit her like a sledgehammer.

When she’d left the vestry after taking time to calm herself he had disappeared and she’d never seen him again until now, when the feelings she’d had for him that had shrivelled and died over the years were seemingly springing back into life.

Aaron was out of the car and striding towards the main doors of the surgery and knowing that she would be on view she moved away from the window and found Helena, the oldest of the nurses, smiling across at her.

‘So is he your type?’ she asked.

‘Is who my type?’ she questioned innocently.

‘Aaron Somerton. I don’t doubt all of the available women will be noticing his arrival in our midst.’

‘So? They will have no competition from me,’ she told her. ‘We knew each other in another life and didn’t get on.’ Turning away, she called in the first of those waiting to be seen by a nurse and it turned out to be her landlord, George, the baker, who had come for his regular B12 injection.

‘The new doctor came into the shop this morning,’ he said while rolling up his sleeve, ‘and I asked him to impress on you that midweek living it up is not a good thing for tired nurses who have been on their feet all day.’

She was bending over him with needle poised, and hissed angrily, ‘You had a nerve, George! I am quite capable of looking after myself. It is his first day with us and you say something like that to him. What was his reply?’

‘Said that you’d only just met and didn’t think the idea would appeal to you.’

‘He got that right! It would not appeal to me. So will you stop fussing over me, George?’

‘Aw, come on, Julianne,’ he protested. ‘You know you’re like the daughter I never had, and I worry about you because you seem so alone. My missus is long gone so I need somebody to look after.’

She was smiling now. ‘Yes, I know. But please don’t talk about me to Aaron Somerton—anyone else is OK but not him.’

‘All right,’ he said, and in went the needle.

His first day at the practice was over and as Aaron drove back to The Falls Cottage beneath the darkening skies of an approaching winter evening the events of the day were going through his mind, and, wrongly or rightly, meeting up with Julianne Marshall, the young nondescript teenage bridesmaid of long ago and now a very attractive woman, was the one uppermost.

Her sister, blonde where Julianne was dark, had been good-looking too, otherwise she wouldn’t have caught the eye of the millionaire who had been so much older than himself, and when he’d been left standing at the altar he had realised the truth of one of his mother’s favourite sayings, that beauty was only skin deep.

When he and Julianne had come face-to-face in the corridor outside the nurses’ room he hadn’t put into words that he knew who she was. He hadn’t needed to. His manner when they’d discussed the patient who’d complained about having the cortisone injection had made it clear enough. It had been while his glance had been on the printout she’d been holding that he’d seen that his surmise that she too would have found herself a husband by now had been wrong. There had been no wedding ring on her finger.

The cottage and the waterfall had come into view and as he pulled up beside them and gave the car a quick glance he thought that it was the first time he’d ever bought a car without some degree of thought, or worked his first day in a new practice with both events barely registering because of a woman, but that had been the case today,

Tomorrow was going to be different, he vowed silently. The bridesmaid of long ago was not going to put him off his stride, no way!

Later that evening Aaron went out for a stroll and ran into Helena Carey, the senior practice nurse, who was out walking her dog.

‘So how did your first day go, Dr Somerton?’ she asked, her frisky boxer straining at its lead.

‘Fine, thank you,’ he replied. ‘Needless to say, it was very different from the surgeries I have worked in over the last few years, but they all have the same end in view, don’t they?’

‘Yes, they do,’ she agreed, and then to his surprise asked, ‘What do you think of the staff at the surgery?’

‘They seem great. Why do you ask?’

‘I thought that maybe you hadn’t hit it off with Nurse Marshall as you seemed to be having a disagreement at one point during the morning. It was unusual as Julianne is held in high regard by everyone at the practice.’

‘Yes, I am sure she is,’ he said calmly. ‘It was just a moment of confusion on both our parts, that’s all.’

‘Ah, that’s good,’ she replied, and went on her way, leaving him to think that the face from the past seemed as if she had a fan club at the surgery. So what? There would be no likelihood of him joining it. He had seen her and her sister in their true colours and was not going to be deceived twice.

That second night he slept better. The sound of the waterfall was no longer disruptive. This time it was a constant, reliable sound that helped him to relax, and no sooner had his head hit the pillow than he was out like a light.

Until he heard the sound of the first of the passenger launches going across the lake at seven o’clock the next morning and then it was a shower, a quick breakfast and off to the practice with what would have been sheer pleasure if it wasn’t for the thought of meeting up again with Julianne.

As he drove along the main street she was there, brisk and immaculate, unlike her appearance of the morning before, and about to get into her car. On impulse he drew level at the kerbside and as she looked up questioningly he said tonelessly, ‘I saw Helena last night down by the lake and she was concerned that we weren’t going to get on with each other, so I thought I’d stop to let you know that during working hours there will be no problems as far as I am concerned, though I’m sure you must realise that if I’d known you were part of the package of Swallowbrook’s health care I wouldn’t have taken the job.’

Here it comes, Julianne thought miserably. It hasn’t taken him long to put me in my place. Would he have recognised me if it hadn’t been for my name? But she was not going to argue.

‘I’m sorry that my presence at the surgery has taken away your pleasure in coming home, Aaron,’ she said levelly. ‘When I knew that you were going to be Libby’s replacement, I must admit I thought about leaving, but decided that as I’d done nothing wrong, why should I? A truce while we’re working together would be most acceptable, and for the rest of the time our private lives will stay how they are meant to be, private.’

He didn’t take her up on that, just nodded, and keen to know if she already knew that Nathan was having thoughts about them working in pairs asked, ‘Did you know that Nathan is considering us working in twos, a doctor and a nurse working together?

‘At the moment we have four doctors and three nurses so he will probably leave Ruby working solo until she leaves to look after their little adopted child when it arrives. It would be better if we didn’t work so closely together.’

She almost groaned out loud and ignoring his last comment said, ‘No, I didn’t know. Maybe I can ask him not to do that before he decides who is with who, but of course he will want to know why and …’

‘What? You wouldn’t want him to find out that you are not as bright a star as he thinks you are? I will say one thing, Julianne, you have certainly got them all bedazzled, Nathan, Helena, the nice guy at the bakery, but of course they don’t know the sort of things you get up to, do they?’

On that discordant note he drove off and left her standing on the pavement with a lump in her throat, thinking miserably that no man would relish having to endure what had happened to him, and if she wanted no further hurt along the way she would need to tread carefully when he was around at the practice, which was going to be most of the time.

When Julianne arrived Aaron was already ensconced in the kitchen with some of the other staff, enjoying the early morning brew that the first to arrive always made for the rest of them, and when he saw her downcast expression Aaron felt a sharp pang of guilt. If they’d been handing out medals for arrogance he would have been top of the list.

On impulse he said to those gathered there, ‘I wonder if you folks would like to be my guests tonight at somewhere while I celebrate my return to the UK, which has brought with it the pleasure of meeting you all?’

With one exception, Julianne thought. There had been no joy for him in meeting up with her again. So what was the reason for his sudden invitation? Yet did it matter? Whatever it was, she wouldn’t be attending.

For one thing, he wouldn’t want her there, and for another it was her night for helping out at the hospice at the far side of the lake, and no matter how low she might be feeling she never arrived there without a smile on her face.

Nathan had just appeared and Aaron was asking him if he and Libby could get someone to mind the children for a couple of hours at such short notice.

After thinking for a moment, Nathan replied, ‘I’m sure that my father will do the honours as long as both Toby and Elsey are asleep when we leave them.’

With a glance at the other two doctors, Hugo Lawrence and his recently qualified young wife, Ruby, Aaron said, ‘And would you folks be free for a couple of hours?’

‘Yes, of course,’ Hugo replied, and to the rest of those gathered in the kitchen, ‘Where would you suggest? Aaron doesn’t know the night life in the area like we do. There’s The Mallard, of course, or a new restaurant that has just opened on the lakeside that we’ve had good reports of. You have a good social life, Julianne, where do you suggest?’

‘I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘We all have our likes and dislikes, and in any case I won’t be there, it’s the night I go to help out at the hospice, and I can’t let them down.’

So much for that, Aaron thought. He’d suggested the get-together mainly because he felt guilty for being so abrupt earlier, and was now realising that he needn’t have bothered extending an olive branch as she had other plans.

But he couldn’t go back on what he’d suggested and showing no disappointment at the thought of her absence he decided on the new restaurant. A decision that was met with approval from everyone except Julianne, who was just relieved to have a good reason for not being there and didn’t have to think up an excuse.

It was always very late when she arrived home on the nights she worked at the hospice. If there was an ambulance driver free, or any other member of the staff going her way with a car, they would give her a lift, otherwise she phoned for a taxi. She had a little runabout car, but was always so tired when she’d finished there after working at the practice all day that she daren’t risk using it in case she fell asleep at the wheel.

Tonight it was one of the doctors at the hospice who had brought her home and as he drove off, the surgery crowd appeared, strolling along the pavement on their way home from the impromptu party, all in high spirits after the unexpected get-together in a smart restaurant.

The last thing she wanted was to have to face Aaron again and she fumbled around in her bag for the door key, hoping to get inside before they drew level. The ones at the front didn’t pause, just called their goodnights and ambled on.

At the same second that her fingers closed around the key she could see Aaron looming up in the rear, chatting to Ruby and Hugo, and he’d seen her.

As the other two doctors wished her goodnight he stopped beside her. She turned the key quickly in the lock and as the door swung open stepped inside then swung round to face him.

She didn’t speak. If he had something to say, let him say it and be gone, she thought. Her evening had been spent mostly surrounded by the terminally ill with the sadness that such situations brought with them and now she just wanted to go to bed. She was tired in body and soul.

He did have something to say and it took her by surprise. ‘If they are looking for volunteers at the hospice I could give them a couple of nights, or weekends, on a regular basis. Just thought I’d mention it as I was passing.’ He turned to go. ‘At different times to yours, of course.’

Stung by the comment, she said, ‘But of course. It wouldn’t do for you to be mixing with a wrong ‘un. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to go to bed.’

‘Sure. I’ll be on my way.’ And without further comment he went striding off in the direction of the lake, the waterfall and the cottage, and his last thought before he slept was about Julianne again. So far she hadn’t put a foot wrong. Either she was playing him up, or he’d got his wires crossed somewhere.

Maybe tomorrow he would ask her about Nadine—where she lived, how often they met and were their parents still around? Though perhaps not. He’d only been back a couple of days and was already showing an exaggerated interest in Julianne.

Both Aaron and Julianne were waiting for Nathan to mention the working-together-in-pairs arrangement and so far he hadn’t, but that omission was about to be dealt with late on Friday afternoon before the surgery closed for the weekend, when he said to them, ‘I’ve sorted out the new working arrangements.

‘I will pair with Helena. Hugo with Gina, who is going to extend her hours to match his now that her young ones are capable of being left for a short time after senior school, and the two of you will make up the third pair. I have every confidence that you will work well together, with Ruby being at hand if any of us doctors are not available for some reason, until such time as she becomes a stay-at-home mother like Libby with our young ones.’

The phone in his room was ringing and before they could say anything he’d gone to answer it. Aaron said in a low voice, ‘Maybe we should let it ride if we don’t want to be the objects of gossip.’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she agreed reluctantly, and without further comment went to make sure that the nurses’ room was immaculate before the surgery closed for the weekend.

Nathan shortly followed her into the room.

‘So you’re happy with that arrangement, then, Julianne?’ She shook her head.

‘You’re not?’ he exclaimed.

‘Not over the moon, no,’ she said flatly. ‘Do we have to?’

‘Do we have to what?’ he questioned, surprised at her reaction.

She was usually the easiest of people to deal with and he was taken aback by her lack of enthusiasm.

‘Work together.’

‘Why? Don’t you like the guy?’ he questioned.

‘He’s all right, I suppose.’

She’d once liked him a lot more than was good for her, and even now was accepting it without protest when Aaron made no secret of what he thought about her.

The head of the practice was laughing. ‘Don’t overdo the enthusiasm. Is there some sort of a problem that I don’t know about? It isn’t like you to be so choosy.’

Wanting my sister’s fiancé wasn’t like me either and no good came of that, she could have told him.

‘Shall we see how the two of you get on together for a trial period?’ he suggested.

Julianne forced a smile but said nothing more on the subject. Pulling on her coat, she wished Nathan a good weekend and headed out into the cold.

On arriving back at her cosy flat, she collapsed onto the sofa. Her usual vitality was in short supply and it was all because of what she saw as Aaron’s lurking presence.

She was still stunned by his willingness to do the same as she did and offer his services to the hospice. Maybe he was lonely and needed something to fill the hours away from the surgery, but he would soon have company when it got around that the new doctor was very easy on the eye, and would be no less handsome when the tan wore off.

After she’d had a meal of sorts that evening Julianne rang the group that she usually socialised with on Friday nights and informed them that she wouldn’t be going into the town to a cinema with them, as had been arranged earlier in the week, because she needed an early night after a hectic week.

It was only half-true. She’d gone with them many times when she’d been tired at the end of the week at the practice and with the time spent at the hospice and had always perked up as soon as they were all together, but those had been when Aaron hadn’t been back in her life, when he’d been far away in Africa, and now it wasn’t like that any more.

He was living almost near enough to touch, and although he’d made it plain that he hadn’t forgotten the past and was enduring her presence at the practice only because he had no choice. She had the feeling all the time that he would be watching everything she did and wouldn’t be awarding any Brownie points for excellence.

The fact remained, however, that she just couldn’t stay closeted in her small apartment on a Friday night, it would be just too stifling, and on that thought she wrapped up warmly and went for a walk by the lake in the opposite direction from The Falls Cottage.

She could see in the distance that the light was on and thought that Aaron must be having a quiet night too. It was dark everywhere, the light of day having gone completely. The coloured lanterns around the lake hadn’t yet come on and it was beginning to feel spooky beside the trees at the water’s edge as she seemed to be the only one walking there.

With a sudden yearning for warmth and light she turned swiftly to go back the way she had come and was faced with the sound of someone moving towards her through the trees.

Bereft of her usual quick thinking, she stood motionless until a hand appeared and parted the branches of the tree nearest her at the same moment that the lanterns came on.

‘What on earth are you doing here, rambling about on your own in the dark?’ Aaron asked in gritty greeting.

She thought illogically that he would never be any good as a Father Christmas unless he had a charisma transplant.

‘I’m doing the same as you, it would seem, walking by the lake,’ she said calmly, ‘only I’m not skulking about amongst the trees. I was just about to go back when the lights came on.’

‘I don’t know the place as well as you,’ he told her, ‘and thought I could take a short cut from one side of the lake to the other, but didn’t get it quite right. I must say that you are the last person I was expecting to see out here. I would have thought Friday night would be party night.’

‘It usually is in some form or other. My friends were surprised to hear that I was giving it a miss.’

‘And why are you?’ he asked, thinking that he must be insane, wanting to know the workings of her mind.

‘I didn’t want to risk meeting up with you again,’ she said with a hollow laugh, ‘but maybe it would have been wiser if I’d stayed in. Look at us here by the deserted lake, not a soul in sight, just the two of us. When I left the practice tonight it was with the thought that I wouldn’t be seeing anything of you for two whole days, but I was wrong.’

She was hugging her top coat more tightly around her, shivering in the night air, and he said, ‘Come on. I’ll buy you a hot drink at the hotel and then, unwelcome as my presence might be, will see you safely home.’ As she was about to refuse, he added, ‘Don’t argue!’

They drank their coffees largely in silence and Julianne didn’t think she could feel more uncomfortable in Aaron’s presence until he asked quite suddenly, ‘How is it that you’ve never married?’

‘That is soon answered,’ she replied. ‘The man I was attracted to didn’t love me and I’ve never felt like that about anyone since.’

‘It would seem to be that we do have one thing in common, then,’ he said sombrely, and looked at his watch.

She saw him and said, ‘Do you want us to make tracks?’

He shook his head and as if his thoughts were elsewhere said absently, ‘Whenever you’re ready will do.’

‘I’m ready now,’ she replied, with a sudden urge to be back where she belonged, away from this strange encounter that was the last thing she’d been expecting when she’d left the apartment earlier.

Once they were outside the bakery Julianne said, ‘Thanks for the coffee, Aaron. I had no intention of breaking into your evening, just the opposite, in fact.’

‘Don’t fret about it,’ he told her. ‘It was just a one-off,’ and even as he spoke he was turning in his tracks and with a wave of the hand was gone.

Unlocking the door, she began to climb the stairs and for the rest of the evening sat by the fire, wishing she hadn’t had her boots on when a band had begun playing for dancing in the hotel. It would have given her the chance to test just how deep his aversion to her was.

In the days when he’d been courting Nadine and the two of them had gone out leaving her alone in the flat, she had used to pretend that she was dancing in his arms and would float around the place dreamily, but only she knew that.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS Friday night and Julianne was drained physically and mentally by the happenings of a week that had seen Aaron back in Lakeland and herself trying to hang on to the shreds of what had been her life before that.

On any other occasion she would be out enjoying herself, but tonight wasn’t just any night, it was the one when incredibly she’d spent a short time with the man she’d once thought was the answer to all her girlish dreams, and it had been an unnerving experience.

She had known from the moment of his arrival in Swallowbrook that she hadn’t been forgiven for the part he thought she’d played in his moment of ghastly humiliation, yet he’d taken her for a hot drink when he’d seen her shiver in the chilly night air down by the lake, as he might do for anyone who was feeling the cold.

She sighed as she wandered listlessly around the small apartment that she had furnished with loving care when she’d first moved in after taking up the position of practice nurse at the local surgery.

Nadine’s name hadn’t come up once over their brief coffees. That was how she wanted it to be and prayed that he felt the same. If Aaron was prepared to accept her presence in his life again on sufferance, it would be easier to cope with than outright revulsion.

When she went to bed she turned her head into the pillow and wished that he had stayed in Africa instead of coming back to haunt her.

Back at the cottage beside the waterfall Aaron’s thoughts were running along similar lines. Maybe a truce might be the best way to adjust to the coincidence of finding Julianne Marshall back in his life to such an extent. It would have been awkward enough to have her just living nearby. But the fact that she was going to be in his face all the time they were working at the surgery where his friend Nathan, who was not a man to gush, had described her as the ‘bright morning star’ was mind-blowing. Thank God she didn’t resemble Nadine in looks. That would be the last straw. He would be packing his bags and looking for work elsewhere.

It was early, too soon to settle down for the night, and he decided to seek some company, anyone’s but hers. As he walked back along the main street he saw that the lights were out in the apartment above the bakery and thought that she must have gone to meet her friends after all.

As he walked briskly along, The Mallard came into view and after a quick look around inside to make sure that Julianne and her associates weren’t there, he found warmth from the wintry night and friendly chat amongst folk who some day he might find sitting across from him at the surgery.

The two Lawrence doctors, Hugo and Ruby, were seated at one of the tables with the practice manager Laura Armitage and her husband, Gabriel. When they saw him Hugo came across and invited him to join them, and putting his gloomy thoughts to one side he accepted and for the first time since his arrival in Swallowbrook started to feel as if he belonged.

As the evening progressed it was discussed that the Lawrences were expecting a child to adopt soon, which would mean that Ruby being the relief doctor in the pairing-off process might not be available for long, but there would be time enough for Nathan to sort that out when it happened.

He also discovered that Laura and Gabriel had two children—Sophie, nine years old and staying the night at a school friend’s, and Josh, six, who was sleeping at Nathan’s with his best friend, Toby, which had left their parents free to socialise for a change.

The conversation was mostly about themselves and the village as a whole, with frequent mentions of the practice, but as there was no reason for the nurses to come under discussion Julianne’s name didn’t come up and perversely Aaron wished that it would, so that he might pick up some substance regarding her life past and present with regard to the best way to cope with her unwelcome presence in his life.

As he walked back at gone midnight to where the waterfall danced endlessly into the lake he saw that her apartment was still in darkness and thought that she was most likely still living it up somewhere. As a mini-bus unloaded a group of late-night passengers just ahead of him he quickened his step in case she was amongst them. Two accidental meetings in one night was not to be contemplated.

He would have been amazed to know that she was lying wide-eyed against the pillows in her small bedroom, with sleep hard to come by because of him, and when he arrived back at the cottage he paused for a moment before going inside.

A winter moon was turning the still, dark waters of the lake into silver, and in the background the fells, high up above, encircled it like a protective bracelet. The scene was indescribably beautiful and so was the woman who had spoiled his homecoming with her presence, but, then, she hadn’t been exactly overjoyed to see him either.

All you’ve got to do is stick to the job and its demands when you’re in her presence, he reminded himself, and for the rest of it stay out of her way. Unlocking the door of the cottage, he went slowly upstairs and tried not to dwell on how difficult that might turn out to be.

With Friday gone, Saturday dawned bright and cold, and when Julianne awoke after falling asleep in the early hours with the short time she’d spent with Aaron the last thing on her mind, it was also the first when she opened her eyes, and she groaned softly.

She’d been content before he had reappeared on the scene, happy and fulfilled in her job, safe in the home she had made for herself above George’s bakery, where he liked to feel he was keeping a fatherly eye on her. There was no need, of course, but it gave him pleasure to do so and she was happy to go along with it as she saw little enough of her own father.

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