It had been a portrait of the young woman now walking towards her, and the fact that it wasn’t on view seemed to say that Megan wasn’t aware that he’d got it.
‘Hi, Rebekah,’ Megan said when they drew level. ‘Is that another day done and dusted?’
The older woman’s smile was still there. ‘It is indeed, my dear. I’m going home to put my feet up while you are involved in more work after your busy day at the surgery.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Megan told her. ‘It’s a different kind of occupation, but just as therapeutic. Are they all in there?’
‘Yes. The boys are upstairs, playing computer games. Sue is already at work on the grotto, and the delightful Dr Anderson, who seems to have one eye on the clock for some reason—are you a bit late perhaps?—is fixing the coffee-machine in the café, while Ned concentrates on the plumbing.’ With a gentle squeeze of her hand Rebekah went on her way.
When she’d gone Megan stood there without moving. The report on the activity inside the house should have motivated her, but it hadn’t. She was aching to have Luke to herself for a little while. Just the two of them without patients and friends around.
At that moment the front door of the house opened and he was there, dressed in old jeans and a T-shirt, with an electric drill in his hand.
He smiled and said easily, ‘I thought you weren’t coming. What are you standing out here for Meg o’ mine?’
Irritated that he should be so carefree while she was down in the dumps, she thought he’d remembered how Sonia had called her that on the day she’d taken him round to meet her, and said snappily, ‘Don’t be too quick to make assumptions.’ There was nothing she wanted more than to be his. But the likelihood of that happening seemed to be as far away as the moon and stars.
The smile had disappeared, so had the easy manner. His car was parked in the drive and he opened the door on the passenger side and said, ‘Get in.’
She wanted to refuse, but suddenly weary she did as he asked, wondering what was coming next. When he’d slotted himself behind the wheel Luke drove off with the drill on the back seat of the car and Megan beside him, thinking that she’d got her wish. She had him to herself, but she hadn’t wanted it to be like this.
He pulled up beside the recreation ground at the bottom of the road and came round to open the door for her. There was a bench facing the children’s swings and pointing to it he said, ‘Sit.’
Once again she obeyed him and when they were seated he turned to her and said, ‘So what is the matter, Megan? What have I done?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Huh! It looks like it.’
She was aware of how childish she was being and all because of the Christmas ball. Yet it wasn’t just that, was it? Luke was so near, yet so far all the time. She was head over heels in love. It was a new experience and should have been wonderful, but she was making a mess of everything. But at least she could be truthful. She owed him that.
‘I thought you were taking me to the Christmas ball.’
He was staring at her in amazement. ‘So that is what it’s all about.’ He put his hand into one of the back pockets of his jeans and produced two tickets. ‘I’ve got the tickets, but have been holding back in case there were other guys wanting to take you who fitted your requirements better than I do. Like that fellow this morning who, according to his records, is free and unfettered.’
He was quirking a quizzical eyebrow. ‘So shall we start again, Megan? Can I take you to the ball?’
‘Yes, please,’ she said softly as her world righted itself.
‘Good.’ He was on his feet, holding out his hand, and as he raised her to face him he said, ‘For two intelligent people we don’t communicate very well in our private lives, do we? You were upset because I hadn’t followed up my invitation, and I’ve been hesitating because I thought you might have had the better offer that you thought you might get when I first asked you.’
‘I was just teasing when I said that,’ she confessed, so aware of him she felt as if her legs would cave in. He was still holding her hand. It was their only physical contact, yet she felt as if they were melting together. Desire was taking over, spiralling inside her in a warm surge of longing. Her lips were parted, her eyes luminous, and as he looked down at her in the light of the streetlamps Luke thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
He was about to forget all the promises he’d made to himself about giving Megan some space before he told her how he felt when a small voice said, ‘Dr. Megan, it’s me, Alicia.’
The park had been empty when Luke had taken her in there, and engrossed in each other they hadn’t noticed that a family with small children had come in from an entrance at the far end. And now a little hand was pulling at the leg of Megan’s jeans.
The two doctors exchanged a smile, and as Luke let Megan’s hand fall to her side he took a step back, thinking that little Alicia Adamson had brought them back down to earth and maybe it was as well. For the two of them to be seen in each other’s arms in the playground was surely not in keeping with the protocol of the practice. It was going to have to be another time, another place.
Megan had dropped down on to one knee and put her arm around the little girl. ‘Hello, Alicia,’ she said gently, with a smile for her parents who were some yards away. ‘Is your leg better now?’
‘Mmm,’ the child said, lifting it for her to inspect.
It looked as if it was. Alicia’s mother had brought her to the surgery the week before with a nasty sore on her leg. She’d fallen onto an old spade in the garden and gashed it, which had resulted in an infection. Megan had sent her to the nurse to have it treated and she’d been coming in each day to have antiseptic dressings on it, but from the look of it that would no longer be necessary.
As Luke watched her with the little girl there was a lump in his throat. They dealt with children just as much as adults at the practice, but they weren’t at the practice now. Yet Megan was just as patient and gentle with Alicia as if they were.
If she would marry him she would give him the children he longed for, with red-gold hair and beautiful green eyes, he thought. Yet would she want them to grow up as she had, with parents who were both busy doctors and hadn’t much time for family matters? But he didn’t want to marry her just for a family. He ached for her, adored her, wished with all his heart he could have met her before Alexis came on the scene.
But he wasn’t taking anything for granted. He knew Megan was attracted to him as much as he was to her, but it didn’t follow she would marry him if he asked her. She was an idealist and his past didn’t meet her requirements.
When the little family had wandered off he said, ‘We’d better go before Sue and Ned send out a search party.’
She nodded. The moment she’d been longing for had gone. It hadn’t been the right place in any case, she thought wryly. But some joy had come out of it. Luke was taking her to the Christmas ball, and where he thought all these other men who were dying to take her were, she didn’t know. In any case, beside him the rest of the eligible male population were as nothing.
‘Does it say fancy dress on the tickets?’ she asked as he pulled into the drive of Woodcote House once more.
‘No. It just stipulates black tie for the men.’
‘So I’ll have to go shopping, then.’
‘I might tag along and let you help me choose my Christmas gifts for Sue and the boys. That’s if you don’t mind.’
‘I don’t mind at all,’ she told him. ‘You can help me to select an evening dress at the same time.’
* * *
It was the first week in December and the star attractions at the garden centre were due to open on Saturday with Santa in his grotto, Ned on the door, and Sue and Megan in charge of the café.
They’d been extra-busy at the surgery with coughs and colds, and in the midst of it Aunt Izzy had fallen in the middle of the night and ended up lying on the bedroom floor until morning, when a passer-by ha
d noticed that her curtains had still been drawn and had rung the surgery.
Leaving Luke to deal with her patients, Megan had rushed round to her aunt’s house and with the spare key she always kept in her bag had let herself in. Fortunately the old lady hadn’t seemed to have broken any bones or developed hyperthermia, as she’d fallen quite close to a radiator, but shock and bruising had prevented her from being able to raise herself upright, and to Megan’s dismay her aunt, who had always been in control, seemed to have lost her confidence.
She’d taken her to A and E to be checked over and been told that she’d been lucky, as the only thing she had was heavy bruising, but Izzy didn’t want to be on her own at night any more, so until she could find an easier solution Megan was sleeping at her house. Her aunt was all right during the day, but when night came she started to panic. Afraid it might happen again, no matter how much Megan reassured her.
Looking after her patients during the day, helping to get ready for the opening of the new-look garden centre in the evenings, and having disturbed nights with Izzy calling out all the time to make sure she was there, Megan was wishing there were more hours in the day.
* * *
As they were leaving the surgery at the end of Friday Luke said, ‘You look whacked, Megan, as if you could do with a good night’s sleep.’
She gave a tired smile. ‘You’re not wrong about that.’
‘What are you going to do about Izzy?’
‘I’ve spoken to my mother about her. Mum mentioned that there is an apartment for sale next to theirs on the Costa Del Sol, and did I think Aunt Izzy would be interested. Out there they could keep an eye on her, and I know she was rather envious when they made their move.’
‘Have you told her what your mother suggested?’
‘I haven’t, but Mum has, and she says Aunt Izzy seems quite keen, but is worried that she won’t be able to sell her house.’
‘Are you kidding? It’s the nicest house in the village. A dream of a place. If she decides to go, I’ll buy it.’
‘So you intend to stay,’ she breathed as her tiredness fell away.
He was observing her with raised brows. ‘Yes, of course. I can’t remember ever having said otherwise. There is nothing for me outside this place. All I care about is here. So don’t forget. Megan, if your aunt decides to sell, make sure she knows that she has an on-the-spot buyer.’
Oh, she would let Aunt Izzy know that, Megan thought as she drove home in the dark December night. There was nothing surer. Luke had been right when he’d described her house as the nicest in the village. It was a lovely, unspoilt country home, with a large, safe, garden for children to play in, and with a few touches of their own it would be perfect.
But she was getting carried away. So far there was no indication that she would be part of the package if Luke bought her aunt’s house. He cared about her, she knew that. But he cared about Sue and the boys, too, and maybe that was how he felt about her, protective and concerned.
If that was the case, she supposed she should be grateful, but she wanted more than that. She wanted passion from him, the same kind of desire that made her feel weak whenever she was near him.
Sometimes when she lay alone at night, gazing up at the beams of the old ceiling above her head, she imagined what it would be like if they made love, and if she’d been sleepless before, that really brought her wide awake. She longed for his touch, his lean nakedness next to hers, and most of all to hear him say, I love you.
When she arrived at her aunt’s house later that evening the old lady said, ‘I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to go out there to be near your mother and father. I shall call the estate agent tomorrow and put my house on the market.’
‘Aren’t you being a bit hasty?’ Megan said slowly. ‘There’s nothing to say that what occurred a few nights ago will happen again.’
‘No. I’ve made up my mind, and you know that when I do that I don’t change it. I feel quite excited about the whole thing. Just as long as I can find a buyer for this place.’
‘You’ve got one. If you are sure you want to sell, Luke will buy it. Why not get the house valued tomorrow and take it from there? He’s really keen and won’t let you down.’
Izzy was perking up by the minute. ‘Wonderful!’ she cried. ‘I can’t think of anyone I would like to live here more, unless it was you.’ She gave a knowing smile. ‘And what are the chances of that, my dear?’
‘Remote at the moment,’ she was told.
* * *
The garden centre was packed from the moment of opening the following day, and as Megan served coffee, cakes and tasty snacks in the revamped conservatory with Sue by her side, the two friends exchanged smiles.
Ned had just been in to say that Santa Claus was a huge success and why didn’t she go and have a peep? There was a long queue of parents with children and as Luke lifted the little ones onto his knee and talked to them, Megan hoped he wasn’t thinking about what Alexis had done to him.
When he looked up and their glances met it seemed as if he wasn’t. There was contentment in his expression, the look of a man who had survived the rapids and found himself in calmer waters.
He came into the café for a quick lunch in the early afternoon and as she served him he said, ‘Did you tell your aunt I’ll buy her house if she decides to sell?’
‘Yes, I did. She’s already made up her mind to join Mum and Dad and will sell it to you with pleasure. Aunt Izzy is going to have it valued at the first opportunity.’
He reached across, swung her off her feet and danced around with her in his arms. ‘That’s wonderful, Megan. A place of my own at last! It will be paradise, living there.’
As she stiffened in his arms a voice called, ‘You’ve got a queue, Santa,’ and, putting her down carefully he hurried back to the grotto, leaving her to digest the fact that he wanted her aunt’s house as a place of his own. She didn’t come into the equation.
When she went back behind the counter Sue said, ‘What was all that about?’
‘My Aunt Izzy has decided to go and live abroad to be near Mum and Dad and Luke is going to buy her house. I suppose he thinks that you’re coping brilliantly, and in any case he won’t be far away if you need him.’
Sue was looking uncomfortable. Her colour had risen. ‘I hope he isn’t moving out because of Ned and I. We are more than friends, Megan. I didn’t tell you the truth the other day when I asked you about going to the ball with him. He’s asked me to marry him and I’ve said yes.’
‘I see,’ Megan said slowly. ‘Does Luke know?’
‘No. Not yet. Ned only asked me an hour ago. I know what people will say, but he is the one person that Gareth would trust to look after us—apart from Luke, that is.’
‘And the boys. Have you told them?’
‘Yes. I went to find them straight away before they heard it from anyone else.’
‘And?’
‘They don’t mind. They like Ned. Have known him since they were so high.’
‘Then go ahead,’ Megan told her gently ‘It’s your life and Ned will make a great husband and stepfather.’
* * *
What is the matter with me? Megan thought as the day wore on. Sue had been the indecisive one, the one who needed looking after, but not any more. While she, Megan, had been pussyfooting about, her friend had found happiness again in the form of a new husband.
Ned hadn’t let Sue’s past affect him. He obviously loved her and that was all that mattered. While she, Miss Choosy, must have hurt Luke a lot when she’d said she didn’t want to marry a man who’d been married before. Even if there had been no blame attached to him in the break-up.
* * *
By the time the garden centre closed at six o’clock Megan was both mentally and physically exhausted, and as soon as the café had been tidied, ready for the following day, she slipped out while no one was looking and drove home.
When she arrived at the cottage she switched off the engine and
, instead of getting out of the car, laid her head on folded arms on the steering-wheel.
It had been a funny day, she thought tiredly. On the good side there’d been the pleasure of seeing all their hard work paying off at the garden centre. Of a more depressing nature had been Luke’s delight at the thought of a place of his own.
Not that she begrudged him that, far from it. He had unselfishly gone the extra mile for Sue and the boys, and that thought led to another. As far as she knew, his sister hadn’t yet told him of her wedding plans. He would have mentioned it if she had. She wondered what he would think when he found out. Would he be relieved, or not surprised, as he’d seen more of Sue and Ned together than she had, or would he be dismayed that Sue was marrying again after such a short time?
Her own feelings regarding that were a mixture of emotions. She was glad for Sue, Ned and the boys, and happy that Sue was to marry someone she knew and trusted. But it made her, Megan, feel that she was standing still. She was envious, and ashamed to be so. But it was her own fault.
A man that she’d had a youthful passion for had come back into her life, and she was so in love with him she couldn’t think straight. Where was he now? she wondered. Cracking a bottle of champagne to toast the lovers?
Luke would be the obvious person to give his sister away. She just hoped that Sue wouldn’t ask her to be a bridesmaid. Her eyelids were drooping and sleep was creeping over her in the warmth of the car.
* * *
When he found that Megan had gone Luke was all set to follow her, but Sue waylaid him. She said she had something to tell him, and as he listened gravely to what she had to say he asked the same question that Megan had asked.
‘What about Owen and Oliver? Have you told them?’
‘Yes. That was one of the first things Megan asked,’ she told him.
‘So you’ve told her.’
‘Yes, and the boys are happy about it. As I told Meg, they’ve known Ned since they were little tots. It isn’t like them having to get used to a stranger.’
He nodded. ‘That’s true. Just as long as you’re sure that you want to do this.’
A Wedding in the Village Page 13