Second Chance with Her Island Doc

by Marion Lennox

  ‘But we need a home medical service as well, and how do I justify that to the Trust? We need good schools, a new harbour, sealed roads. We need transport for our olive crops. We need light industry, places where our fish, our olives can be processed so we can reap the profits. We need tourist infrastructure. We need jobs to stop our children leaving the island. We need so much.’

  She turned then toward Donna, and for a moment she spoke only to that lady.

  ‘Donna, you’ve worked hard and long for this island,’ she told her. ‘I’ve heard the stories. But overriding everything else, every decision you’ve taken was for your love of your family. For this island. And Leo’s the same. His love for his father...the pain his death caused and the ripples of that spreading through his life... They’ve all helped to make him the man I know he is. He’s devoted to you and to each and every person here. So that’s why I’m standing here now. That’s what I want for myself. Indeed, that’s what I want for the whole island, and the thought of continuing without it is unbearable.’

  She had them now. The blustering fisherman was looking at her through narrowed eyes. He was still suspicious, as surely every islander was suspicious—generations of mistrust couldn’t be undone in a moment—but there was a collective waiting. Wait and see...

  She glanced at Leo then, in her eyes a question, but her glance was fleeting, almost as if she was afraid of the answer she’d be given. And then she forged on.

  ‘So here’s my suggestion,’ she said, and suddenly there was a tremor in her voice. The first sign of doubt? ‘The Aretinos are a huge family. Leo is an only child but he has aunts, uncles, cousins, a family with members that must reach into almost every family on Tovahna. And because I love Leo, his concerns are my concerns. Donna, your concerns have become my concerns. Tovahna is becoming my family.’

  But once again there was a moment when suspicion reigned. Leo was no longer sure where this was going but he saw the stillness, the closing of faces, the generations of mistreatment spreading its fog throughout.

  But Anna saw it and faced it square on.

  ‘That’s why I’m here, now,’ she said. ‘If my family was a family such as the Aretinos, I’d love all my family and the Trust couldn’t argue that my family’s welfare wasn’t a cause of my comfort and enjoyment. If my large and extended family can’t access good schools, if my cousins can’t fish safely, if the children of my family can’t access good jobs...how can I be happy?’

  They were starting to see it. There was the faintest lightening of expression on the sharpest of the islanders’ faces.

  Leo was before them. His grip on Anna’s hand tightened still further and he tried to tug her to face him but she wouldn’t have it. Her feet were planted squarely and her face spoke of determination to see this through to the end.

  ‘Once upon a time Dr Leo Aretino asked me to marry him.’ She was deliberately not looking at him, speaking only to the islanders. ‘He turned away because of his love for this island. I’ve been here now for six months and I’ve learned to love it as well. Not only that, I’ve learned that my love for Leo hasn’t faded.’

  ‘So marry him.’ It was Carla, of course it was Carla. ‘Marry him, Anna. You have our blessing.’

  ‘I have your blessing, Carla,’ Anna said gently. ‘But I need more. So this is what I’m saying. My mother was born a Castlavaran and she rejected the name. I was born a Raymond but that name means nothing to me. Now...what I want, what I believe Leo wants, and I hope... Donna, I hope you want it, too... What I believe the islanders need is for the name of Castlavara to be finally finished. Ended. And for the islanders to take over the island as they should. Legally we can’t do that for nineteen years but do we need to wait that long? All it takes is a name change. All it takes is for one man to take one woman as his wife.’

  ‘Anna...’ It was too much. Leo broke his silence and tugged her around so she was facing him. ‘What are you saying?’

  ‘I’m asking,’ she said simply. ‘But not you, Leo, because you’re too honourable, too worried about your islanders, your family. Your mother said to me last night... “If I could see a way...” Those were her words, and I hope she’ll back me up now. With her help, I’m seeing a way. So now I’m asking the islanders.’

  She met his gaze full on. Something passed between them. Something good. Something sure. Something that could last...for ever?

  She smiled, the faintest of smiles, and turned back to the congregation.

  ‘Ten years ago Leo asked me to become an Aretino,’ she told them. ‘So I ask now, in Donna’s presence, with the man I love beside me, in the presence of every islander who could be here today, would you accept me into Leo’s family? Would you have Leo—and Donna, too, for the time she has left to us—come and live in our vast island castle? Live there we must for another nineteen years if we’re not to break the Trust, but will you let us work from there for the good of the islanders? Would you have me marry this man and be an islander and—with our marriage—let the name Castlavara disappear for ever?’

  Silence. Total silence.

  The stillness seemed almost deafening. It went on and on, as each islander thought of what they’d just heard.

  Then there were mutterings. Whispers. Nudging.

  And then suddenly Carla was on her feet. ‘Come on, you cowards, just do it,’ she called.

  And Donna, astonishingly strong, was calling from the side, ‘My loves, you have my blessing.’

  And then someone started to clap—and amazingly it was the belligerent fisherman. And then a child clapped, because maybe children clapped when they weren’t sure if they should follow or not.

  And what followed... Every single islander was on his or her feet and the applause was almost deafening. The priest was surging forward to bless them, smiling on this the most solemn of occasions.

  And Leo was looking at this woman he loved with wonder. With disbelief.

  With joy.

  He kissed her. Of course he kissed her—and the thing was done. She’d come home. And then somehow he put her back, at arm’s length and the look on her face said it all.

  Yet still he asked.

  ‘Anna, I deserted you ten years ago... Will you come back to me?’

  ‘Truly, I don’t think I’ve ever left.’

  ‘So you’ll still marry me?’

  ‘It would be my honour.’

  ‘Now?’

  And the sounds around them seemed to still again, fading to nothing. There was just this man, this woman and all the love in the world between them.

  ‘Oh, Leo...’ She was half laughing, half crying. ‘Of course I’ll marry you. Yesterday if you want.’

  And then she was back in his arms and he was turning to the priest, who looked bewildered at this spectacular turn of events.

  ‘Father...’

  And the elderly priest suddenly realised what was being asked. His bewilderment turned to a beam a mile wide.

  ‘Yes, my son?’

  ‘I know it’s common for banns to be called,’ Leo said. ‘And for all sorts of formalities to take place before a wedding. But ten years ago I asked Anna Raymond to be my wife and she said yes. Would a ten-year engagement count as replacement for formalities? Would you marry us now?’

  He turned back to Anna. ‘If that’s what you want, my love? Could you bear to marry without the full bridal? Could you marry me right now?’

  And she was laughing, hauling the tie from her hair so her curls sprang free. Tugging off her grey jacket and tossing it to the side.

  ‘How can you doubt it?’ she asked, and she smiled and smiled. Her face was bright with love and laughter. ‘A wedding. Now? Why not? I have everything I need. I think.’ But then she wrinkled her nose. ‘Flowers, though? Every bride I’ve ever seen has flowers.’ But her eyes were laughing and he knew that flowers or not, their wedding was a done
deal.

  But flowers happened. The priest headed purposely toward once of the wall sconces, lifted out one of the sheaths of wild roses and proceeded to wrap the stems in an embroidered cloth covering a side table. The cloth was possibly as ancient as the church itself, but the priest obviously had different priorities.

  ‘Here, my daughter,’ he said, and then he fixed Leo with a stern look. ‘What else? Rings? Do we have rings?’

  Only about a hundred were offered on the instant.

  But Leo shook his head as offers came from everywhere. He smiled at Anna and that smile, oh, it was just for her.

  ‘I have two rings,’ he told her. ‘An engagement ring that was handed back to me ten years ago, and a wedding ring we bought at the same time. They’ve been in my wallet every moment since.’

  They needed no more. They could do the legal formalities later.

  ‘You have everything you need, then,’ the priest said. ‘If you’re both sure...’

  ‘We’re sure,’ they said in unison.

  ‘Then let’s do it,’ the priest said, and smiled and smiled, and he turned back to the congregation. ‘Dearly beloved...we are gathered here today...’

  And thus they were married.

  The vows were made. Leo took his bride out into the morning sunshine. Every rose in the church was stripped to produce petals to throw.

  Anna hardly noticed, for Leo’s hand held hers, and every islander knew that her hand would be in his for ever.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Nineteen and a half years later

  THE PLANE WAS about to leave and Dr Anna Aretino was a sodden mess. She’d been sobbing since she’d woken this morning and her husband wasn’t much better. Leo was just holding it together.

  The two girls reached the top of the plane steps and turned to wave. These were the Aretino twins, non-identical, one a dark-haired beauty, the other redheaded, vivacious, gorgeous. The only thing identical about them was their smiles, both a mile wide.

  ‘I can’t believe they’re going.’ Anna was tucked under Leo’s arm, hugging and being hugged, sniffing into his oversized handkerchief.

  ‘Mama, leave it off.’

  At fifteen, Georg was showing every sign of being just as good looking as his father—once he lost the braces from his teeth. He was currently waving to his sisters, but he was also laughing at his parents.

  ‘Look at you both. Your daughters have scholarships to the same medical school you went to. They’re off to see the world. They’re so happy they’re practically sickening, and you know they’ll be back at first term break—and the next term break—and the one after. And they’re already planning careers here. You don’t get rid of kids from this island. You know we’ll always want to come back.’

  Anna had a final sniff and returned the handkerchief to her husband’s pocket. Her son was right, they would be back.

  This island was home.

  ‘And now it’s time we did what we promised to do all those years ago,’ Leo said softly. ‘It’s a shame the girls’ term started so early they couldn’t stay to see this through, but the rest of us... Come on, Georg. Ready, my love?’

  She was ready. Georg was right, her daughters were launching themselves into the world and she should feel nothing but joy for them. On this day of all days, she should feel joy for all the island.

  And in the end what followed was almost an anti-climax. The lawyers’ documents were ready to sign. Names, dates, signatures, witnesses and the thing was done.

  Tovahna belonged to the people.

  ‘Terrific,’ Georg said in the tone of a long-suffering teenager who’d been dragged along to something that didn’t interest him. ‘Now can I go to football?’

  So he was left at the football grounds and Drs Leo and Anna Aretino made their way back to the castle.

  The castle was, after all, their home. Their massive apartment would stay in their name. A smallholding of beach-side farmland on the far side of the island—once worked by Leo’s great-grandfather—was also retained. The rest was either transferred to the islanders whose home it was, or held as public property to be administered by the island council.

  The battlements of the castle were thus no longer Anna’s property but they hadn’t been used as such for years. They were now, and into perpetuity, available to the patients, residents, staff of Tovahna’s world-class medical centre.

  For this day, though, it had been decreed that for one last time the battlements would revert to being Leo and Anna’s own space. They’d asked for privacy and they had it.

  So without children, without any encumbrances—apart from two doofus dogs because dogs had always been and would always be a part of their lives—they made their way to where they’d stood so long ago, looking out over the sea beyond their island home.

  As they reached the parapets Leo took his wife into his arms and kissed her. It was a long, steadying kiss. It was a kiss that grounded them in the knowledge that what they had was wonderful. What they had was family, home and joy in spades.

  ‘We’ve done it,’ Anna murmured, when there was time and space to speak. ‘Our family’s launched onto a new and exciting path, and Tovahna finally belongs to our people.’

  ‘You’ve done it,’ Leo told her, kissing her ear. ‘My lady of the castle. The last of the Castlavarans.’

  ‘That’s not who I am,’ she said contentedly. ‘I’m the wife of Dr Leo Aretino. I’m the mother of three gorgeous children. I’m the shared head of a dynasty of dumb dogs and I’m a family doctor to any islander who wants to use me. Castlavara? As of today it’s a name that’s forgotten. Leo, we have done right, haven’t we?’

  ‘I can’t think of anything we could have done better,’ he told her, and he kissed her again. ‘Tomorrow the islanders will receive their land titles, but it hardly matters any more. You gave the island back to the people twenty years ago.’

  ‘We gave it back. If I hadn’t met you...if I hadn’t fallen in love with you...’

  ‘It doesn’t bear thinking of,’ he said. ‘But now...we’ve asked for privacy for this one last time. Complete privacy. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

  ‘Yes, but the windows...’

  ‘I decreed that, too,’ he said smugly. ‘The battlements are to be ours for this final day, and the deal is that every window facing east shall have its blinds firmly drawn.’

  ‘People will cheat,’ Anna told him. ‘If I was told to pull my blinds and not look then I’d cheat.’

  ‘Then the islanders are about to be shocked.’ Leo was already tugging her away from the parapets, down the stairs toward the beach below. ‘Twenty years ago I swam almost naked with you, my love, and I almost made love to you. For twenty years I’ve been regretting that “almost”. After today the islanders have the right to be here any time they want, but today it’s ours, my lady. So what do you say? A swim and whatever comes after?’

  ‘What’s happened until now has been wonderful enough,’ she told him, smiling and smiling, and she was already unbuttoning her blouse as they headed downstairs.

  ‘It was simply a forerunner,’ Leo told her. He turned in the stairwell and tugged her back into his arms, to kiss her, hard and strong. ‘A family, an island, a nation... Why do I believe the best is yet to come?’

  And then they reached the beach. Their clothes were gone. They dived into the sapphire water and started the long swim out to ‘their’ rock.

  And if the islanders were shocked, then that was their problem, because Leo’s belief was proven most definitely right.

  * * *

  If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Marion Lennox

  The Baby They Longed For

  Finding His Wife, Finding a Son

  Reunited with Her Surgeon Prince

  Falling for Her Wounded Hero

  All availab
le now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Taking a Chance on the Single Dad by Sue MacKay.

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  Taking a Chance on the Single Dad

  by Sue MacKay

  PROLOGUE

  LEADEN SILENCE CRACKLED down the line, turning the armchair Brenna had inherited from her grandmother from snug and comfortable to something resembling a hard plinth beneath the suddenly tense muscles of her bottom.

  ‘Hunter? I said I’m missing you.’