Libby was under the covers and ready to drift into oblivion when someone down below rang the doorbell.

She groaned softly but didn’t move. When it rang a second time she slipped a robe over her nightdress and went quickly downstairs. Before opening the door she peered into the porch, and with the moon’s light filtering in saw the broad-shouldered outline of a man. Beside him was a small child dressed in pyjamas.

It all looked innocent enough, she decided. The two of them must be part of the family who’d moved in next door. Without any further delay she unlocked the door.

‘Hello, Libby,’ Nathan Gallagher said easily, as if it had only been yesterday that she’d last seen him.

She could feel her legs caving in at the shock of seeing him there …

Hello Again, Dear Reader

It is lovely to be back with you once more, having left golden beaches and Devon clotted cream teas for a while. In this new quartet of books we once again open the door to romance with all its tender magic as we share the lives of The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm—a friendly surgery in a beautiful English country village, where Libby Hamilton and Nathan Gallagher pick up the pieces of something that should have happened long ago.

My son and daughter-in-law live close to a place like this, and every time I visit them the beauty of it enfolds me just as it does Libby and Nathan, in this first book of four. If you’ve enjoyed it do look out for Ruby and Hugo’s story, coming next—another reminder that true love breaks down all barriers.

So, may I wish you happy reading as you turn the pages of these stories about The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm.

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:

VILLAGE NURSE’S HAPPY-EVER-AFTER†

CHRISTMAS IN BLUEBELL COVE†

WEDDING BELLS FOR THE VILLAGE NURSE†

COUNTRY MIDWIFE, CHRISTMAS BRIDE*

A SUMMER WEDDING AT WILLOWMERE*

A BABY FOR THE VILLAGE DOCTOR*

CHRISTMAS AT WILLOWMERE*

*The Willowmere Village Stories †Bluebell Cove

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

Swallowbrook’s Winter Bride

Abigail Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

FOR MY NEPHEW SHAUN MURRAY

AND HIS SON ANDREW

FAR AWAY FROM ME IN TEXAS

CHAPTER ONE

SPENDING two weeks in Spain with her best friend had been great, but as Libby Hamilton drove the last couple of miles to Swallowbrook village, nestling in a lakeland valley below the rugged beauty of the fells, she was happy to be back where she belonged.

A month ago, on what was not as frequent an occasion as she would like it to be, she had met up with Melissa Lombard for lunch in Manchester, and on seeing how pale and tired Libby looked, the only person she’d ever told what a mistake her tragically brief marriage had been had said, ‘I’m going to our villa in Spain for a couple of weeks. That husband of mine can’t go with me. There is a big audit due at the office and he’s in charge. So why don’t you join me, Libby? It would be lovely if you could.’

She’d hesitated and Melissa had said coaxingly, ‘Surely they can manage without you at the Swallowbrook practice for once, and if they can’t, they can get a temp. I’m no doctor but I think I can safely prescribe two weeks of lazing in the sun to bring some colour back to your cheeks.’

‘It would be a change, I suppose,’ Libby had agreed wistfully. ‘I haven’t had any time off since Ian had the dreadful accident. It’s as if I haven’t been able to stop and think since the funeral. I guess I’ve been using work as an excuse these past few months.’

Melissa had nodded gravely and gone on to say sympathetically, ‘So what better reason for joining me could there be than having spent months of hard graft without a break?’

Libby had smiled at her across the table and told her friend, ‘You have just talked me into two weeks in Spain, Mel, but not a moment longer. Our senior partner, John Gallagher, retires at the end of the month and I’ve taken over as senior partner. He has virtually given up already, but I know if I ask him he’ll take up the reins again for two more weeks while I have a break.’

Driving back now, alongside the fells beneath a harvest moon, she was feeling much more like her old self after a healthy dose of sun, sea and a complete rest. Yet as was always the case on the rare occasions she was absent from the practice, coming back to Swallowbrook and her cottage across the way from the surgery was heart-warming, and today was no exception.

The practice building had once been her childhood home. In those days it had been a farmhouse, but in her late teens it had been put up for sale due to her father’s neglect of it after her mother had died, and it was now the village medical centre in the middle of the lakeside beauty spot.

When the lease had run out on the old practice premises and somewhere else had needed to be found, the spacious farm building had been an ideal choice. The outside of it was mostly unchanged, but the inside had been modernised and now provided health care for the hardy folk of Swallowbrook and the surrounding areas.

When the transfer had been made six years ago John Gallagher had been senior partner, with his son Nathan, also a doctor, working alongside him, and two years later Libby, who had gone straight into general practice after receiving her doctor’s degree, had joined them as the third and youngest member of the trio.

But it had turned out that one of them had itchy feet, and where she had been content to stay in the place she loved best, Nathan Gallagher had other ideas in mind. He was three years older than her and she’d worshipped the dark-haired, dark-eyed, dynamic doctor since her early teens, but in those days she’d been just a kid with a brace on her teeth as far as he was concerned.

Though she’d never admit it to him, one of the reasons she’d joined the practice had been so that she could be near him, and another had been because the building had once been her home, and to be as close to it as she could she’d bought an empty farm cottage across the way.

When she’d joined the practice Nathan had seen that the girl who had always been hovering while they had been growing up had become a slender blonde with eyes like brown velvet and the warmest smile he’d ever seen. They’d shared a brief flirtation but he was aware that Libby had long since had a crush on him and didn’t want to lead her on.

And besides he’d had his hands full with a fiancée who had been pushing hard for a gold band to go beside the solitaire diamond on her finger and he had begun to feel that the engagement had been a mistake because he hadn’t been as keen on the idea as she had been.

When he’d informed Libby that he was leaving the practice to go and work abroad she’d been devastated. ‘The engagement is off,’ he’d told her, and it would have been news she had been happy to hear if it hadn’t been followed by, ‘So I’m free to work in Africa, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve agreed to take up a position in a hospital in a small town out there where doctors are needed urgently.’

‘How long will you be gone?’ she’d asked with the colour draining from her face.

‘As long as it takes, I suppose, but my contract is for three years.’

He’d noted the effect that the news of his departure had had on her. ‘Why don’t you come along?’ he’d suggested casually. ‘There’s always room for one more doctor out there.’

‘No, thanks,’ she’d replied hastily before she did some crazy thing like letting her longing to be wherever he was take over, and had gone on to say, ‘It wouldn’t be fair to your father, two of us gone from the practice at the same time, and my father is still around, don’t forget, forever sick and remorseful at having to sell the farm. Also it has always been my dream to practise medicine in the place that was once my home. I feel I owe it to our community.’

She was almost home. As Libby took the next bend in the road it was there, Swallowbrook, beautiful in the moonlight, a familiar cluster of houses built out of lakeland stone, and outside The Mallard, the local pub, there was the usual gathering of fell walkers and locals seated on wooden benches, drinking the local brew.

Down a side turning not far away was Swallowbrook Medical Practice and across the way from it Lavender Cottage, where recently she’d spent far too many lonely nights at the end of long busy days.

The cottage was semi-detached. The property next to it had been on the market for quite some time and as she turned onto her drive she was surprised to see a van belonging to one of the big furniture stores in the nearby town pulling away from in front of it.

Her eyes widened. It was almost ten o’clock, deliveries weren’t usually made so late in the evening. It seemed from the number of lights blazing out into the night from the cottage next door that she was to be blessed, or otherwise, with new neighbours.

But she had other things to think about besides that, such as the longing to be back in her own bed after a quick cup of tea. The flight home hadn’t taken long, but the airport procedures at the UK end had been slow and then there had been a thirty-miles-plus drive home after she’d collected her car from where it had been stored while she had been away, so now she was ready to flake out.

She hoped that the people who had moved into next door would be sociable and easy to get on with. Yet wasn’t she the last person who should be concerned about socialising? She could barely remember what it was like to enjoy herself in the company of others.

After losing Ian in a fatal riding accident, a lukewarm marriage had come to an end, and since then the practice had been the only thing in her life that she could rely on for comfort and stability. As long as the new neighbours didn’t intrude into that she supposed she would cope.

The surgery had been in darkness when she looked across, which was hardly surprising in the late evening, and as it was Friday would be closed all over the weekend. But as the head of the practice she would need to be there bright and early on Monday morning. Maybe during the weekend she would get the chance to meet the newcomers, but the main thing on her mind at the moment was sleep.

After the cup of tea that she’d been longing for on the last part of the journey home Libby climbed the stairs to her bedroom beneath the eaves and in moments was under the covers and ready to drift into oblivion when someone down below rang the doorbell.

She groaned softly but didn’t move. When it rang a second time she slipped a robe over her nightdress and went quickly downstairs. Before opening the door she peered into the porch and with the moon’s light filtering in saw the broad-shouldered outline of a man and beside him was a small child dressed in pyjamas.

It all looked innocent enough, she decided. The two of them must be part of the family who’d moved in next door, and without any further delay she unlocked the door.

‘Hello, Libby,’ Nathan Gallagher said easily, as if it had only been yesterday that she’d last seen him. ‘We saw your car pull up a while ago and had no intention of disturbing you, but Toby needs his bedtime drink of milk, won’t settle without it, and it’s the one thing I’ve overlooked in the provisions I bought in the store this afternoon. I noticed you had a couple of pints that someone had delivered and wonder if you could spare one?’

She could feel her legs caving in at the shock of seeing him there.

‘Come in,’ she croaked, opening the door wide, and as they stepped inside she added, ‘I’ll get you one from the fridge.’ With her glance on the tousle-haired small boy at his side she paused in the doorway of the kitchen. ‘So it’s you and your family who have moved into next door? You found yourself a wife while in Africa? It seems strange that your father never mentioned a thing!’

‘Not exactly,’ he said with a wry smile, and she wondered what that meant. Maybe the child’s mother was a partner rather than a wife and she’d been rather quick to be asking those kinds of questions in any case.

Obviously Nathan hadn’t come for a cosy chat about what he’d been doing during the last few years. Taking a pint of milk out of the fridge, she handed it to him and came up with a question of a more basic kind.

‘Are your beds made up? Tell your little boy’s mother I can lend you some bedding if you haven’t had time to get them sorted.’

‘Thanks, but everything is fine,’ was the reply. ‘We’ve been here since early this morning. As soon as Toby has had his milk he will be settling down for sleep in a small single bed next to mine. It’s been a long day so I don’t think either of us will need much rocking.’

‘How long have you been back in the UK?’ she asked as he was about to depart with the little boy clutching his hand tightly.

‘A month. We’ve been in London until now on business, but I was anxious to get away from the crowds. I want Toby to grow up in Swallowbrook like we did, and the vacant cottage next door to yours seemed to be the perfect answer.’

Answer to what? she wondered. Whatever it was it wouldn’t be anything to do with her. He’d asked her to go out to Africa with him all that time ago because they were short of doctors, not because he’d wanted her near, and at the time she’d come up with a few reasons for refusing.

It was like a knife in her heart seeing him with his small son. It meant that he’d found someone that he did want, while she’d been letting common sense fly out of the window by agreeing to marry Ian, whose interests had revolved around his horses and pleasure, and seen her career as a hindrance to his lifestyle, instead of giving it meaning.

With no wish to remind herself of how all that had ended she switched her thoughts to the mother of the child and wondered where she was. She probably had other things to do, having just moved into next door, and curious though she might be, there was no way she was going to ask Nathan why the sleeping arrangements he’d described didn’t sound as if Toby’s mother was included in them.

When Libby went back upstairs to bed the feeling of tiredness had been replaced by bleak amazement as she recalled those incredible moments with Nathan and the silent child. Wide-eyed and disbelieving, her gaze was fixed on the dividing wall between the two properties.

He would be sleeping at the other side of it, she thought. Just a short time ago she’d seen him in the flesh, heard him speak, watched him smile a strange smile when she’d asked him if he had married while out in Africa.

He’d said, ‘Not exactly,’ and she cringed at her unseemly haste in asking the question only seconds after he’d appeared at her door. It would have been the last thing she would have come up with if he hadn’t had the boy with him.

Had his father known for the last month that he was back in England and not told her? If that was the case, it would have been on Nathan’s instructions. John would never do anything like that to her.

Tomorrow she would have to prepare herself for meeting the little boy’s mother with pleasantness and a warm welcome to Swallowbrook, while hoping that she would be able to hide her true feelings, and with those kinds of thoughts to cope with she got up and put the kettle on for a second time.

Behind the dividing wall Nathan was not asleep but Toby was, curled up and content after having drunk some of the milk that Libby had provided. As the man looked down at the child the stresses and strains, the sorrow and confusion of past months seemed less dreadful because he was back home in Swallowbrook once more.

The last time he’d seen Libby Hamilton had also been from the shelter of a porch, but not the one next door. It had been in the shadowed stone porch of the village church after he’d flung himself out of the taxi that had brought him from the airport, hoping that he might get the chance to speak to her before she became the wife of Ian Jefferson.

He’d needed to know if it was because of his leaving that she was marrying the pleasure-loving owner of the local stables … on the rebound. Or if the feelings that she’d said she had for himself had been just a passing attraction that she’d soon moved on from and there was no longer any need for him to carry the burden of guilt that his leaving her had created.

A delayed flight had denied him the chance to clear the air between them and he’d arrived at the church just as the vicar had pronounced them man and wife. As he’d watched Libby smile up at her new husband he’d turned and departed as quickly as he’d come, deciding in that moment he had his answer. Her feelings for him had been a passing fancy and a prize fool he would have appeared if anyone had seen him hovering in the church porch for a glimpse of her.

When he’d reached the lych gate in the churchyard a bus had pulled up beside him on the pavement and he’d boarded it, uncaring where it was bound in his haste to get away before he was seen.

As he’d waited for a flight to take him back to where he’d come from he’d thought sombrely that his arrogance all that time ago when in her despair at the thought of him going away Libby had confessed her love for him and been told he wasn’t interested, had only been exceeded by him expecting her to want to talk to him of all people on her wedding day.

She had turned up at the airport on the morning he had left for Africa and been the only one there. He’d said his farewells to his father the night before and told everyone else he didn’t want any send-offs, so it had been a surprise, and he’d had to admit a pleasant one, to see her there.

They had been due to call his flight any time and during those last few moments in the UK Libby had begged him not to go. ‘I love you, Nathan,’ she’d pleaded. ‘I always have. Until I awoke this morning I had accepted that you were going out of my life. Then suddenly I knew I had to see you just one more time.

‘I know the importance of the work you are going to do in Africa, but there would still be time for that when we’d had our time, some life together in happiness and contentment and maybe brought up a family.’

She had chosen the most inopportune moment to make her plea, with only minutes to spare before he boarded the plane, and with the memory tugging at him of a failed engagement not so long ago that had done neither he nor his fiancée any credit.

There had been tears in her eyes but instead of making him want to comfort her he’d reacted in the opposite way and been brusque and offhand as he’d told her, ‘How can you face me with something like this at such a time, Libby? I’m due to leave in a matter of minutes. Just forget me. Don’t wait around. Relationships aren’t on my agenda at present.’

Then, ashamed of his churlishness, he’d bent to give her a peck on the cheek. Instead their lips had met and within seconds it had all changed.

He’d been kissing her as if he’d just walked into light out of darkness and it would have gone on for ever if a voice hadn’t been announcing that his flight was ready for boarding.

As common sense had returned he’d said it again. ‘Don’t wait around for me, Libby.’ And almost before he’d finished speaking she’d been rushing towards the exit as if she couldn’t get away from him fast enough.

Aware that his behaviour had left a lot to be desired, and cursing himself for trampling on what was left of her schoolgirl crush, he’d vowed that he would phone her when he arrived at his destination and apologise for his flippancy, but in the chaos he’d found when he’d got there his private life had become non-existent, until he’d received his father’s phone call some months later to say Libby was getting married on the coming Saturday.

Then it had all come flooding back—her tears, the loveliness of her, and his own arrogance in brushing to one side her feelings for him by telling her not to wait for him, indicating in the most presumptuous way that he wasn’t interested in her.

But, of course, by then it had been too late. How could he ever forget how happy she had looked when the vicar had made his pronouncement to say Libby and Ian were man and wife? And he’d thought how wrong he’d been in considering that she might be marrying Jefferson on the rebound.

Now, as he looked down at Toby, young and defenceless beneath the covers, he knew that there would be barriers to break down in coming months and bridges to build, not just in one part of his life but in the whole structure of it, because his contract in Africa was up. He was home for good, and coming back to Swallowbrook was his first step towards normality.

He’d done nothing when he’d heard that Jefferson had died. To have appeared on the scene then might have seemed like he’d been waiting in the wings and it would not have been the case. But now he’d had no choice but to come back to England because his best friend and his wife had been amongst tourists drowned on a sinking ferry somewhere abroad. The tragedy had changed his life and that of the sleeping child for ever.

As she sat hunched over the teapot Libby was thinking what a mess her life had turned into in the three years since she’d last laid eyes on Nathan. Anxious to prove to the world, but most importantly to herself, that her feelings for him were dead and buried she’d turned to Ian Jefferson, someone who had already asked her to marry him twice and been politely refused.

And so six months later, with Nathan’s never-to-be-forgotten comments at the airport still painfully remembered, she’d agreed to marry Ian at his third time of asking.

They’d been reasonably happy at first, living in Lavender Cottage, across from the surgery, but as the months had gone by she had discovered that Ian had merely wanted a wife, any wife, to give him standing in the village, and the blonde doctor from the practice had been his first choice.

Marriage hadn’t made him any less keen on spending endless hours on the golf course, sailing on the lake by Swallowbrook and, while his staff looked after the stables, riding around the countryside on various of his horses, which had left him with little time to comprehend the burden of care that Libby carried with her position at the practice, a position that left her with little time or energy to share in his constant round of pleasure.

It had been one night whilst out riding that he had been thrown from a frisky mare and suffered serious injuries that had proved fatal, leaving her to face another gap in her life that was sad and traumatic, but not as heartbreaking as being separated from Nathan.

When she’d drunk the teapot dry Libby went to bed for the second time and after tossing and turning for most of the night drifted into sleep as dawn was breaking over the fells. She was brought into wakefulness a short time later by voices down below at the bottom of the drive and when she went to the window the dairy farmer who delivered her milk was chatting to Nathan, who, judging from the amount of milk he was buying off him, was making sure that he and Toby would not have to go begging for his bedtime drink again.

Not wanting to be seen watching him, she went slowly back to bed, grateful that it was Saturday with no need to get up if she didn’t want to, and as a pale sun filtered into her bedroom she began to go over the astonishing events of the previous night.

Nathan is back in Swallowbrook, a voice in her mind was saying, but not because of you. He has a family. He has made his choice and it has to be better than the one you made.

She surfaced at lunchtime in a calmer state of mind and, dressed in slacks and a smart sweater, went to the village for food and various other things she needed from the shops after being away.

There had been no sign of anyone from next door when she’d set off, but Nathan’s car had still been in front of the cottage, so either they were inside out of sight or had ventured out for the boy to see where they had come to live, and the man to reacquaint himself with the place where he had been brought up amongst people who had been his patients and friends.

To make her way home she had to pass the park next to the school that strangely for a Saturday was empty, except for Nathan and the boy, who was moving from one amusement to another in the children’s play area.

Don’t stop, she told herself. Nathan has had all morning to see you again if he wanted to, so don’t give him the satisfaction of thinking you’ve followed him here.

The two of them looked lonely and lost in the deserted park. He was pushing Toby on one of the swings, but on seeing her passing lifted him off. Now they were coming towards her and she was getting a better look at the prodigal doctor than in her mesmerised state the night before.

His time in Africa had taken its toll of him, she observed as he drew nearer. He was leaner, giving off less of the dynamism that had so attracted her to him over the years, but his hair was the same, the dark thatch of it curling above his ears, and his eyes were still the unreadable dark hazel that they’d always been where she was concerned.

‘I can’t believe you were going to go past without speaking,’ he said as they drew level.

‘Why?’ she asked steadily. ‘What is there to say?’

‘On my part that I was sorry to hear of Jefferson’s fatal accident, and for another—’

He was interrupted by the child at his side tugging at his hand and saying, ‘Can I go on the slide, Uncle Nathan?’

‘Yes, go along,’ he replied. ‘I’ll be with you in a moment.’ As Libby observed him in a daze of non-comprehension he explained, ‘I’m in the process of adopting Toby. Both his parents are dead. They were lost when a ferry sank while they were touring Europe. Thankfully he was saved. His father was my best friend and I am the boy’s godfather.

‘I went out to bring him home when it happened and applied to adopt him as there were no other relatives to lay claim to him. The paperwork is going through at the moment and soon he will be legally mine.’

‘How do you cope?’ she asked as the heartache of thinking that Nathan had a family of his own began to recede.

‘It was difficult in the beginning because although Toby knew me well enough, naturally it was his mummy and daddy he wanted. He is adjusting slowly to the situation, yet is loath to ever let me out of his sight.’

Poor little one, she thought, poor godfather … poor me. How am I going to cope having Nathan living next door to me with the memory of what he said that day at the airport still crystal clear? He has never been back to Swallowbrook since and now, as if he hadn’t hurt me enough then, he has chosen to live in the cottage next to mine.

He was observing her questioningly in the silence that her thoughts had created, and keen to escape the scrutiny of his stare she asked, ‘How old is Toby?’

‘He’s just five, and the ferry catastrophe occurred three months ago. You might have read about it in the press or seen an account of it on television.’

That was unlikely, she thought wryly. In the mornings it was a quick breakfast, then across the way to the practice, and in the evenings the day’s events had to be assimilated and paperwork brought up to date.

‘What will you do now that you’re here?’ she asked, trying to sound normal. ‘Enrol Toby at the village school?’

‘I’ve already done so and am not sure how he is going to react to yet another change in his life. I have to tread softly with his young mind. He soon gets upset, which is to be expected, of course.’

She felt tears prick. It was all so sad that Nathan had been forced to take on such a responsibility and felt he had to return to Swallowbrook for the child’s sake if nothing else.

As they went to wait for Toby at the bottom of a small slide the man by her side was smiling, which was strange, as given what he had just told her he hadn’t got a lot to smile about.

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS a lot to take in. Only yesterday she had been flying home from two refreshing weeks in Spain with Melissa. Today she was in the park with Nathan and a child that he was adopting, and though she felt great sympathy for their loss she couldn’t help but feel relieved that Nathan hadn’t found himself a ready-made wife and family during his time in Africa.

If she had known he was coming back to Swallowbrook in the near future she would have had time to prepare herself for meeting up again with the man who had made it so painfully clear on parting that he didn’t return her feelings. But instead it was as if she’d been thrown in at the deep end.

She was bending to pick up the bag with her food shopping inside when he forestalled her by saying easily, ‘I’ll take that,’ and to Toby, who was coming down the slide for the umpteenth time, ‘Time to go, Tobias.’

When the little one had joined them they walked back to their respective properties in silence. As they were about to separate Libby asked, ‘Have you been to see your father?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, we went to see him yesterday in a gap between deliveries of furniture and other household goods, and before you came back from wherever you’d been.’

‘I’d been to Spain for a fortnight with a friend for a much-needed break,’ she said coolly, ‘and hope to be on top form at the practice on Monday.’

‘Ah, yes,’ he said vaguely, as if he had only a faint recollection of the place. ‘Dad told me he plans to hand the practice over to you.’

‘Yes. I’m delighted to have his trust. I think I love that place almost as much as he does. I couldn’t bear to see it close down with his retirement and said as much to him.’

‘So you’ll be a doctor short now that Dad’s gone,’ he commented as she fumbled around in her handbag for the door keys.

‘Yes. John and I have seen one or two hopefuls, but he was strangely reluctant to make a decision and now I see why. He’s been waiting for you to come home.’

He nodded. ‘Possibly, but Dad has only just found out about Toby and now realises that it wouldn’t work. I need to be there to see him into school in the morning and to be waiting when he comes out in the afternoon.’

‘Part time?’

‘Yes, unless I was to employ a nanny, but he has had enough changes to put up with already without my putting him in the charge of a stranger.’

She had the keys in her hand now, but before putting them in the lock had one thing to say that hopefully would end this strange moment.

‘Your father might want you back in the practice, Nathan, but I’m not sure that I do. I have my life planned and it doesn’t include working with you. At the moment the doctors in the practice are myself and Hugo Lawrence, who came to us from general practice in Bournemouth to be where he could give support to his sister and her children. She was widowed some time ago and isn’t coping very well.

‘There are three nurses, three part-time receptionists and Gordon Jessup is still practice manager from when you were there before, and with a district nurse and a midwife attached to the surgery we have an excellent team with just one more doctor needed to make it complete. I’m not enjoying the interview process much—it’s not really my area of expertise. Also it’s proving difficult to fill the vacancy. We face stiff competition from urban practices, lots of younger doctors seem put off by the remoteness of the community, but we don’t want anyone too near retirement either. The patients and the practice need stability. I’ve already heard a few rumblings from those concerned about your father’s departure.’

‘But you don’t want me?’

‘No, not particularly, but as the senior partner I suppose I should forget personal feelings and consider the best interests of the patients. They would most likely be thrilled to see the Gallagher name remain above the threshold. And I suppose you working part time might work very well for us—it wasn’t something I’d considered before.’ In a voice that sounded as if she was reciting her own epitaph she went on, ‘So, yes, if that is what you want, come and join us.’

‘Thanks a bunch,’ he said with a quizzical smile, knowing she felt he deserved her lack of enthusiasm. Though would Libby still feel the same if she knew about his last-minute attempt to speak to her before her wedding? But no way was he going to use that to turn her round to his way of thinking.

Apart from the practice, which she would serve well as head, there must be little for her to rejoice about in any other sphere of her life now that Jefferson was gone.

He hadn’t been expecting a fanfare of trumpets on his return to Swallowbrook, or Libby throwing herself into his arms, but he had been hoping she might have forgiven him for what he’d said in those moments of parting long ago.

It had been partly for Toby’s sake that he’d come back to Swallowbrook, but always there had been the hope that one day he and Libby might meet again and a chance to make up for the past would present itself.

‘Do you want to come to the practice on Monday morning to discuss your hours? I could make sure I’m free at ten o’clock,’ she was suggesting.

‘Yes, please.’

He’d said it meekly but the glint in the dark eyes looking into hers said differently.

He hasn’t changed, she thought. Nathan Gallagher is still a law unto himself. She put her key in the lock and told him, ‘So ten o’clock on Monday it is.’

Bending, she planted a swift kiss on Toby’s smooth cheek and said in gentle contrast to the businesslike tone she’d used to Nathan, ‘We have a lovely school here, Toby, I’m sure you’ll like it.’

He was a wiry child with a mop of fair curls, and so far hadn’t said a word to her, but that was about to change.

‘Are you my uncle’s friend?’ he asked.

Aware of Nathan’s gaze on her, she said carefully, ‘No, I am just someone he used to work with.’

Having satisfied himself on that, Toby had another question that was more personal.

‘Have you got any children?’

‘No, I’m afraid not.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I have never found anyone nice enough to be their daddy,’ she told him.

‘So why—?’ The small questioner hadn’t finished, but didn’t get the chance to continue the interrogation as Nathan was taking his hand and preparing to depart.

‘Say goodbye to Dr Hamilton,’ he said, and with half a smile for her, ‘Until Monday, then, at ten o’clock, Libby.’

She nodded, and with sanctuary beckoning opened the door and went inside.

It seemed as if Sunday was going to be a non-event day and Libby was thankful for it. While she was having breakfast she saw Nathan and Toby go down the drive and get into the car with fishing rods and surmised they were going to spend some time with his father at the pine lodge he’d recently moved into.

When they’d gone she did what she’d been doing ever since their discussion about Nathan coming back into the practice, which was wishing she hadn’t been so overbearing in her manner.

She’d made it clear without actually putting it into words that she hadn’t forgotten that day at the airport, and wasn’t going to fall into the same trap ever again where he was concerned. Yet if that was the case, why had she been so happy to discover that he wasn’t married with a family?

What he was doing for Toby was so special it brought tears to her eyes every time she thought about it. Through no fault of his own Nathan had taken on the role of single father with the burden of care that went with it, and all she had done so far was cut him down to size about working in the practice, which was where he belonged now that the African contract was finished.

He’d said he was sorry to hear about what had happened to Ian and she’d thought that he didn’t know that disillusion had followed swiftly after a marriage that had been a mistake from the start. Remembering Toby’s curiosity of the day before, the answer she’d come up with for not having children had been true. She wouldn’t have wanted a child from a union as empty as hers and Ian’s had been.

With the afternoon and evening looming ahead, she decided to resort to one of her favourite pastimes, a sail on one of the steamers that ploughed through the waters of the lake countless times each day, and on disembarking at the other end would have her evening meal at her favourite restaurant beside the moorings.

The boat was full and she stood holding onto the rail, taking in the splendour of the new hospital on the lakeside as they sailed past and gazing enviously at houses built from the pale grey stone of the area with their own private landing stages and fishing rights.

She could see farms in the distance, surrounded by green meadows where livestock grazed, and high up above, towering on the skyline, as familiar as her own face, were the fells, the rugged guardians of the lakes.

Had Nathan the same love of this lakeland valley as she had? she wondered. Had he ever longed to be back in the place where his roots were during those hot days in Africa? If he had it would be at least one thing they had in common, she thought wryly, and wondered how many fish he and Toby had caught in the river beside John’s pine lodge.

The answers to the questions in her mind were nearer than she thought as his voice came from behind and as she turned swiftly he said, ‘I used to dream I was doing the round trip on one of these boats when I was far away. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept me sane.’

Before he could elaborate further Toby was tugging at her sleeve and announcing excitedly, ‘We’ve caught some fish, Dr Hamilton.’

‘Really!’ she exclaimed, suitably impressed. ‘How many?’

‘Two. A salmon and a pike,’ he announced.

‘But we had to throw the pike back into the water because it is a special fish,’ Nathan explained.

‘And so where is the salmon now?’

‘Dad is cooking it for us for when we get back,’ Nathan informed her, ‘but first I wanted Toby to sail on the steamer.’ In a low voice he added, ‘I’m sorry if you feel that I’m everywhere you turn, Libby. I had no idea you were on board. Would you like to come back and join us? There will be plenty of fish to spare.’

Temptation was staring her in the face, but she was not going to succumb. It was going to be a strictly working relationship that she had in mind for them and nothing else, so she said politely, ‘Thanks for the invitation, but I have a regular table booked at my favourite restaurant and wouldn’t want to let them down.’

He was getting the message, Nathan thought. Not exactly the cold shoulder, but the ‘I have not forgotten’ treatment, and he wished, as he had done many times before, that he had got in touch with Libby the moment he’d arrived in Africa and at the very least apologised to the beautiful girl whose heart he had broken.

But the timing had been wrong all along the line, beginning with him discovering at the airport that he wasn’t as indifferent to Libby Hamilton as he’d thought he was, followed by the knowledge that his flight was due to be called any moment, and overriding everything else, at the forefront of his mind, had been his commitment to the hospital in Africa.

The outcome of it had been that he’d been dumbstruck by the suddenness of it all, and had sent her away, then months later there had been his dash across half the world to speak to Libby before she became Jefferson’s wife but he’d missed his chance by seconds and returned to Africa with his questions unanswered.

But now he was home, back in Swallowbrook once more, and she was minus a husband, though undoubtedly still reeling from grief, and he was still no nearer to knowing how deep her feelings had been that day at the airport. It could have been a carry-over from her schoolgirl crush. In fact, it must have been a short-lived infatuation judging from the speed with which she’d married Ian Jefferson, and there had certainly been no chemistry between them since he’d turned up out of the blue with Toby. Plenty of being put in his place but no rousing of the senses for either of them as far as he could tell.

‘Fine,’ he said easily in answer to her refusal.

She’d looked so solitary standing by the rail, watching the steamer cutting its way through the water on its journey across the lake, that he hadn’t been able to resist inviting her to join them at his father’s place but again the barriers had been up.

When they arrived at the moorings at the far side Nathan and Toby stayed on the steamer in readiness for sailing back and Libby, after a brief goodbye, went to dine at the restaurant that she’d used as an excuse to refuse his invitation.

The fact that she’d already been on her way there didn’t make her excuse to Nathan any less untruthful. Although she dined there frequently she didn’t have a table booked on a regular basis, and for once she didn’t enjoy the food that was put in front of her.

She caught the last steamer back before the light went and then made her way to Swallowbrook in a sombre mood with the thought of starting work as senior partner with Nathan as her newest employee the following morning.

A knock on the door of her consulting room at precisely ten o’clock announced Nathan’s arrival and Libby pushed back her chair and went to let him in.

He was alone and the first thing she said was, ‘Where’s Toby?’

‘He’s playing with the children’s toys in the waiting room. One of the receptionists is keeping an eye on him,’ was the reply.

Seating himself across from her, he asked, ‘Did you enjoy your meal?’

‘No, not really,’ she admitted.

‘Why was that?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe it was because I like freshly caught salmon.’

‘But not the guy who reeled it in?’

‘I have no feelings either way about him,’ she said and followed it with, ‘I do have patients waiting, Nathan, so shall we proceed? What hours would you be available to join us here?’

‘Half past nine to three-thirty when the primary children finish,’ he said promptly. ‘We’ve been to see the headmaster before coming here and it’s sorted for Toby to start tomorrow. Today I’m going to take him into town for his uniform and a satchell.

‘If it’s all right with you, I feel that Wednesday would be a good day for me to settle back into the practice. It will leave me with tomorrow free in case Toby is reluctant to go when the moment arrives. He’s had so many changes in his life over recent months I wouldn’t be surprised.’

‘Wednesday will be fine,’ she assured him, and had to admire the way he had his priorities sorted. Getting back to the reason for his presence on the premises, she informed him, ‘Your father’s consulting room at the opposite end of the corridor is vacant, and as all the staff are new since you were last with us, apart from Gordon, the practice manager, I’ll introduce you to them while you are here if you like.’

‘Yes, sure,’ he said easily. ‘It would seem that the only things familiar to me are going to be the layout of the place … and you, Libby.’

In your dreams, she thought. She would accept him as a neighbour because she had no choice, and as a colleague because she knew his worth as a doctor, but that was the limit of it. Familiar she was not going to be.

Nathan didn’t stay long after the introductions had been made. He separated Toby from the assortment of toys provided to keep small patients happy and took him for his school uniform of dark green and gold, leaving Libby to ponder on how much, or how little, she was going to enjoy working with him again.

She saw the two of them go past the surgery window the following morning and a lump came up in her throat to see the small boy resplendent in a green and gold blazer and matching T-shirt and shorts with Nathan holding his hand and looking down at him protectively.

She’d once dreamed of a similar scenario for the two of them, loving each other, loving the children they created, but that was all it had been, a dream. In utter foolishness she’d turned to someone else and that had been a nightmare, so where did she go from here? she wondered.

Yet she knew the answer to the question almost before she’d asked it of herself. She and Nathan were going nowhere. That way she would steer clear of any more heartbreak connected with the men in her life. She’d shown herself to be a poor judge when it came to that.

She’d thought sometimes during the long years he’d been gone, Why shouldn’t he have said what he did? At least he hadn’t strung her along into thinking he was interested in her when he wasn’t, which was what Ian had done, pursued the attractive young doctor at the practice when she was at her most vulnerable to satisfy his ego.

But there was work to do, patients to see, and she needed normality to keep her mind free from the events of a very strange weekend.

As she rose from her desk, intending to make a quick coffee before the next patient appeared, Nathan was passing again, homeward bound this time. When she waved he smiled, gave the thumbs-up sign and went on his way, leaving her with the feeling of unreality that had been there ever since she’d opened her door to him on Friday night.

Henrietta Weekes was a regular visitor at the practice with most of her problems associated with a failing heart due to having had scarlet fever when she was a child. A smart, intelligent woman, she usually coped with them calmly with little fuss, but today she was in distress and needing to see a doctor.

After checking her heart, Libby exclaimed, ‘How on earth have you managed to get here in this state, Henrietta?’

‘My son has brought me,’ she gasped.

‘I’m glad to hear you haven’t walked,’ she told her soberly. ‘Your heart is completely out of control and is affecting your lungs. I’m sending you to the coronary unit at the new hospital straight away by ambulance. You will be attended to more quickly that way than if your son was to take you. I’ll get one of the nurses to help you back into the waiting room to join him while I send out an emergency call. You’re an amazing woman, Henrietta, I’m not giving up on you. Once they get you into Coronary Care, you’ll be in safe hands.’

‘If I live that long,’ she said with a grimace of a smile, and Libby thought it was typical of the woman that she was facing up to what might happen with the same sort of stoicism that was always there in every crisis that brought her to the surgery for help. Her family, who were devoted to her, must live on a knife edge where their mother’s health was concerned.

As the day progressed like any other busy Monday at the practice there was no time to wonder how Nathan was occupying himself until Toby came out of school, or let her thoughts wander to how a small orphaned boy might be coping on his first day. Maybe she would find out tonight when her day at the practice was over and she was back at the cottage.

She was about to make a snack meal for herself that evening when there was a knock on the door, and when she opened it Toby was smiling up at her and announcing, ‘Uncle Nathan says would you like to come and eat with us?’

Clever uncle, she thought. He knows I won’t refuse if he sends Toby with the invitation, but didn’t he get the message when we were on the steamer and I came up with an excuse for not accepting the invitation to join them at his father’s place?

He was gazing up at her innocently, waiting for an answer, so she said, ‘Yes, that would be lovely, Toby. When shall I come?’

Taking her hand in his, he tugged her towards him and said, ‘Now, Dr Hamilton.’ And having just been given her full title once again, she thought that if she and Toby were going to be seeing much of each other he must be allowed to call her something simpler than that.

‘We’re having fish fingers and ice cream, Toby’s choice,’ Nathan told her when she appeared hesitantly in the kitchen doorway, ‘to celebrate his first day at school,’ adding in a low voice that was for her ears only, ‘which he has enjoyed, thank goodness.’

‘I can imagine how relieved you are about that,’ she replied with her glance on the boy who had gone into the garden and was kicking a ball around while he waited to be fed.

He nodded sombrely but didn’t reply. Instead he asked, ‘How do you like my efforts to make it seem like a home to him?’

She looked around her. ‘Impressive. Just the right blend of luxury and cosiness.’

‘That is what I wanted to achieve. There wasn’t much of that about where I was based in Africa, and since I’ve become involved in adopting Toby we’ve been living in a rented apartment in London while I’ve been sorting out his parents’ affairs for him.

‘Now that we’ve crossed the hurdle of his first day at school and are settling into this place I’m hoping that we can put down some roots and become part of the community, the same as I was before.’

‘You can’t be a much bigger part of the community than serving them as a GP,’ she pointed out, ‘or have you changed your mind about tomorrow?’

‘No, of course not. I’m looking forward to it even if you aren’t.’

He watched the colour rise in her cheeks and thought that where she’d been beautiful before, now she was divine. Still, she’d made it quite clear that their relationship was to be purely professional and he supposed he deserved no more after the way they had parted.

But only he knew the truth of the affair that had ended in him going to work abroad. He still shuddered at the thought of it, and the fact that Libby had been dragged into its aftermath that day at the airport would always be on his conscience.

His broken engagement to Felice Stopford all that time ago had made him wary of romantic love. It was an emotion he’d felt he hadn’t fully understood, and it had come through in the way he’d been so dismissive when Libby had told him how much she cared for him.

To Felice ‘love’ had meant money and position, expensive gifts, wining and dining, holidays abroad in plush hotels, and he had begun to realise that she was not for him about the same time that Libby had joined the practice.

He’d met his fiancée at a charity luncheon where he had been asked to speak about health care in the area and she’d stood out amongst the soberly dressed audience like a beacon on a hilltop. Dark-haired, voluptuous and quite charming, she’d made a beeline for him when it had finished and introduced herself as an American fundraiser representing similar organisations back in the States.

Her invitation to lunch had been the beginning of a romance that had started on a high and finished on the lowest of lows because he’d gradually discovered that her values were not the same as his. He’d found her to be greedy and shallow as he’d got to know her better and been uneasy about her eagerness for them to marry.

When he’d called the engagement off she’d gone storming back to the States and shortly afterwards he’d discovered through a colleague of hers that she’d had a doting elderly husband back there that she’d been eager to unload to make way for someone like himself.

That item of news had sickened him, made him feel tarnished, and pointed him in the direction of working overseas, which was something he’d been considering before he’d got to know Felice and been sidetracked. It was into that state of affairs that Libby had opened her heart to him. Felice had made him suspicious of love and ultimately it was Libby who’d suffered. The least he could do for her now was to abide by her terms and respect her wishes where their relationship was concerned.

By the time they’d finished eating Toby’s eyelids were drooping and Nathan said, ‘It’s been a long day for him, Libby. If you’ll excuse us, I’ll get him tucked up for the night. There are magazines or the TV if you want to wait until I come down.’ And picking the sleepy child up in his arms, he carried him upstairs.

When they’d gone she went into the kitchen. He’d mentioned magazines and television but there was the tidying up after the meal that would be waiting for him when he came back downstairs. If there was one thing she could do for him it was that, then she would go as quickly as she had come while her resolve to be distant with him was still there.

The kitchen was immaculate and she was seated at the table, scribbling a note to say thanks for the meal, when he came down. As she swung round to face him he was observing her with raised brows.

‘I was about to go and was leaving you a note,’ she explained.

‘Making your getaway while I wasn’t around?’ he questioned dryly.

‘Yes, something like that,’ she told him with cool defiance.

He sighed. ‘Go ahead, then, Libby, don’t let me stop you. I can see it’s going to be a bundle of laughs at the surgery tomorrow.’

‘Not necessarily,’ she told him levelly, ‘as long as we both behave like adults.’

His jaw was set tightly. ‘Why don’t you come right out with it and tell me that I’m not forgiven for what I said at the airport that day?’ And have regretted ever since.

This was laying it on the line with a vengeance, she thought, but was in no mood to bring her innermost feelings out into the open. She’d had a disastrous marriage since then and was older and wiser in many ways.

‘What you said long ago is in the past. I never give it a thought. We’ve both moved on after all,’ she said flatly. With a sudden weakening of her resolve, she added, ‘So why don’t we just get on with living next door to each other, working side by side at the practice, and leave it at that?’

The line of his jaw was still tight, the glint still in his eyes, but his voice was easy enough as he said, ‘Fine by me. I’ll see you tomorrow, Libby.’ As she got to her feet he said, ‘Thanks for tidying the kitchen. I’ll do the same for you one day if I’m ever invited across your threshold.’

Having no intention of taking him up on that comment, she gave a half-smile and, reaching out for the door handle, said, ‘I hope that Toby is as happy at school tomorrow as he’s been today.’ She stepped out into the gathering dark. ‘Goodnight, Nathan.’

‘Goodnight to you too,’ he said as he stood in the open doorway and watched her walk quickly down his drive and up her own.

When he heard her door click to behind her he went back inside and wondered if him joining the practice would cause less tension or more between the two of them.

CHAPTER THREE

LIBBY tried not to keep looking at her watch the next morning as she waited for Nathan to arrive to start his first shift. In spite of her personal feelings she knew he would be as good as his word. The same as his devotion to Toby would not falter. With Nathan’s loving support he seemed to be settling well into his new life. Sadly the one thing he would need the most at his tender age was a loving mother and what his adopted father intended doing about that she didn’t know.

But aware that the man in question still possessed the attractions that had drawn her to him, she imagined that there would soon be members of her sex queuing to play the mother role.

Not that she was going to throw herself into the running, of course. She’d tried to make it clear once more last night that there could be nothing more between them, but he was the one who had raked up the past and caused her to put on an act regarding something she would never forget, and no way did she want it to happen again.

She was going to be pleasant but aloof from now on—no more harking back to times past, if only because of the humiliation that came with the memory of them. Life had treated her badly so far with two unpleasant experiences that most women would never have to face in a lifetime, and since Ian’s death she was resolved never to let herself be hurt again in that way.

Besides, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about Nathan—she had patients to see, starting with octogenarian Donald Johnson and when he appeared she asked, ‘What can I do for you today, Mr Johnson? Are you here about the tests I sent you for?’

‘Aye, I am,’ was the reply.

‘Yes, I thought so,’ she said, and told him, ‘I received a letter from the hospital this morning regarding the tests on your kidneys that I requested and was going to phone you. It would seem that one of them isn’t functioning and the other, although performing quite well, is not at full strength.’

‘I see. So one of my kidneys has had it and the other is limping along,’ he commented grumpily.

She smiled across at him. ‘It isn’t such a gloomy outlook as it seems. Our kidneys do gradually deteriorate as we get older, but lots of people survive with only one. We hear of those who have given a healthy kidney to someone else to avoid renal failure and still live a good life with just the one, and although in your case the one that is still working is past its best, I feel sure that it will continue to do its job.

‘The hospital say that they will want to see you every three months, which means they are going to keep a close watch on them, so for the present I would put your worries to one side.’

‘I wouldn’t have had any worries if you hadn’t sent me for those tests,’ he protested.

‘It’s standard procedure for a GP to arrange for those sorts of procedures for the elderly,’ she explained. ‘It won’t have made your kidneys any worse, and now you will have regular checks, which can’t be bad, surely?’

‘Aye, I suppose you’re right,’ he agreed reluctantly, getting to his feet. ‘I’m going fishing at John Gallagher’s place this afternoon, that’ll cheer me up a bit, and John let slip that Nathan is back in the village and he has a young’un to care for too. Is he going to be doctoring in this place again?’

‘Yes, he starts later on this morning, once he’s dropped his son off at school.’

‘That is good news!’ he exclaimed. ‘It will be like old times.’

Not exactly, she thought as he went to make way for the next patient on her list.

‘It was a stroke of genius, bringing Nathan Gallagher back into the practice,’ Hugo Lawrence said when he appeared in the doorway of her consulting room in the middle of the morning. ‘Being out of touch with the NHS for so long doesn’t seem to have affected his performance. He’s on top of the job from the word go by the looks of it.’

She smiled at his enthusiasm, but couldn’t help pointing out that it had been more a case of Nathan taking it for granted he would be slotting back into the practice. There had been no inspired thinking on her part with regard to his arrival at dead on half past nine in a smart suit, shirt and tie and oozing cool competence.

The fact that underneath it he was wary of making the wrong move where she was concerned would have amazed her if she had been aware of it. As it was, his presence was a cause for pain and pleasure in equal parts and she would be relieved when the first day of his return to the practice was over.

When she’d asked about Toby starting his second day at school he had said there’d been just a moment’s reluctance to go into lines in the schoolyard, as was the custom before the children went to their classes. But he’d seemed happy enough as he was trooping in with the rest of them.

She’d sensed anxiety in him at that moment, although seconds later he’d been seeing his first patient as if he’d never been away from the place and she’d told herself to stop involving herself in his affairs or she would be asking for more heartache than she had already.

‘Do you want to do the home visits to reacquaint yourself with the area?’ she enquired when the three doctors stopped for their lunch break. ‘Or would you rather give it a few days to settle in before you do that?’

He hesitated. ‘Maybe tomorrow, if you don’t mind. I would rather be around if the school should need to get in touch after the little episode this morning. I know it sounds as if I’m fussing, but …’

Caring wasn’t fussing, she wanted to tell him as a lump came up in her throat, but hadn’t she just been telling herself to stay aloof from his affairs? So instead she replied coolly, ‘Yes, of course. I’ll do them, and leave Hugo and yourself to see the rest of the patients on the list here at the surgery.’

As she drove towards the first of the house calls Libby had to pass the school and on seeing that the children were all out in the yard, on impulse she stopped the car and went to see if Toby was anywhere to be seen so that she could report back to Nathan.

Sure enough, she saw his fair curly mop bobbing up and down as he chased around with another child of similar age, showing no signs of reluctance to be there.

He’d seen her standing outside the railings and came running across breathless.

‘Are you all right, Toby?’ she asked gently.

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