Country Midwife, Christmas Bride
Page 15
When she told them the news, there were excited congratulations from all sides and Helen said, ‘I’ve thought all along that you and James were made for each other, but do I take it that you needed convincing?’
‘Something like that,’ Lizzie told her blithely, with the memory new and precious of how they’d gone to a jeweller’s in the town and together had chosen the beautiful ring. Every time she looked down at it on her finger, the wedding they were planning for Christmas Eve couldn’t come quickly enough.
While she’d waited for James to come for her on that special day there had been a poignant moment in the midst of her happiness when she’d taken off the wedding ring that Richard had placed on her finger all that time ago. She would never forget him, just as James would never forget Julie, but they were both being given a second chance of happiness and Richard would never want to deny her that.
The news that James Bartlett had succumbed at last, and to the new community midwife of all people, had gone out on the bush telegraph with all speed after one of the expectant mothers visiting the clinic had heard the conversation. When they’d heard the news, all the hopefuls had sighed and wondered what she’d got that they hadn’t!
Anna was to be matron of honour at the wedding, Pollyanna bridesmaid, and Jolyon had dubiously agreed to be a page boy. Glenn was James’s choice for best man, and the only vacancy amongst those taking part was someone to give Lizzie away.
When the question arose she told James serenely, ‘I’m the one who’s giving myself to you, no one else, and shall walk down the aisle to stand beside you at the altar on my own as I’ve been for so long, and after that I will never be alone again, will I, James?’
‘You can count on that,’ he told her tenderly, and that was how it was going to be.
The day they had both been waiting for had dawned, and when the curtains had been drawn back at Bracken House there had been cries of delight from everyone. Snow had fallen during the night and the village lay beneath a smooth white blanket.
When noon came Edwina Crabtree and her friends would send the bells pealing out joyfully over the village to salute the doctors they all knew as friends. After the wedding, the party at Bracken House that was usually held earlier in Christmas week was going to take place, and this time it would be hosted by James and his new wife.
It was all going as planned, and as villagers and guests in the crowded church waited for the bride to appear, Helen, in one of the front pews, nodded her newly permed locks in satisfaction, and Jess, in love herself, prayed that one day she might be as happy as the little family that she had been delighted to serve…
When Lizzie walked down the aisle to the man she loved, beautiful in a flatteringly simple dress of cream brocade, with a pale fur wrap around her shoulders, she was minus a veil, but in her hair she wore white orchids and pink roses, and was carrying a bouquet of the same flowers as a reminder of the day when James had given her the same kind of delicate blooms.
For the groom and his bride it was as if their worlds had righted themselves, and with the small bridesmaid and page boy happily watching they made their vows with the church bells pealing out joyously over the village.
It was evening and the guests were arriving for the party. Caterers had been hired to prepare a buffet. A giant spruce with bright baubles and coloured lights dominated one corner of the sitting room, and beside it Lizzie and James held hands with the children on either side of them.
He bent and whispered in her ear, ‘I love you.’
She gazed up at him with happy tears sparkling on her lashes and told him, ‘I love you too, James, so very much.’
Everyone came to wish the newlyweds well. Anna and Glenn were there, happy to be home and delighted that James had found someone to love as much as he’d loved Julie. Helen and Jess were also beaming their approval, and Georgina and Ben had just arrived with baby Arran in his father’s arms. David and Laurel had come with Elaine her aunt, who was practice manager, and next to them were Beth and her husband, away from the deli for a few hours. Gillian the practice nurse had brought her husband, Lord Derringham’s estate manager, and last but not least by any means came the Derringhams themselves. It was as if the whole of Willowmere was there to share in the happiness of the Bartlett family.
Later, much later, when the children were fast sleep and the guests had gone, Lizzie lay in her new husband’s arms in the bed that she’d once shared with Pollyanna and said dreamily, ‘Do you think we might have a baby of our own one day, James?’
‘I think that could be arranged,’ he said softly. ‘A baby for the midwife who has brought so many into the world, and the doctor who would love to see her holding a child of her own in her arms.’
‘And a brother or sister for the two adorable children that they love so much already,’ she reminded him.
‘But of course,’ he said. ‘That goes without saying.’
ISBN: 978 1 472 05940 6
COUNTRY MIDWIFE, CHRISTMAS BRIDE
© 2013 Abigail Gordon
First Published in Great Britain in 2013
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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