Christmas Magic in Heatherdale

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘Her mother is here. She thinks that one of the lads at the party thought he was playing a harmless trick on her daughter and gave her some concoction in the drink that he’d got out of the chemistry lab at school. He is now being questioned by the police.’

  His voice was brisk and businesslike, as it always was when they were on the wards or in the clinics, but there was a remoteness about it that wasn’t usually there, as if he was talking to a stranger. Whatever was between them was now over.

  It confirmed to Melissa that she was doing the right thing in leaving Heatherdale, and when the estate agent rang in the early afternoon with a valuation figure that was better than she’d expected she told him to go ahead with the sale.

  ‘How about a board outside?’ he questioned. ‘Not everyone wants that, but it is a good way of advertising.’

  ‘Yes, please,’ she told him. It would be easier for Ryan to find out what she was planning that way, instead of having to face him herself with the news.

  When she’d arrived at the hospital that morning everyone except her had chatted about the ball. There’d been no sign of Ryan and she’d gone to the secretary’s office to check on what the day had in store for them to avoid being involved in the small talk when they came face-to-face.

  He was still annoyed by her conduct of Saturday night, when she’d left the hotel without telling him, and if his manner was remote his feelings weren’t. He’d been so wrapped up in his safe lifestyle he’d given no thought to hers, living alone without friends or family in that ghastly house. Tonight he would make amends, go round to see Melissa and ask her to forgive him for his selfishness.

  That determination lasted until he pulled up in front of their two houses in the evening and saw the ‘For Sale’ sign. ‘Oh, no!’ he exclaimed. Were his eyes deceiving him?

  Melissa must have really meant it when she’d told him to stay away from her. Where on earth was she planning to go? She’d told him how she loved Heatherdale. Had it been a short-lived attraction and the same applied to him? She was writing him off like a ship that had passed in the night.

  And what about Mollie’s wedding? He’d asked Melissa to partner him for the occasion and be there for the children while he was performing his duties during the service. Rhianna and Martha loved her and she loved them. It was just him who was the problem.

  There was no sign of her car so maybe she was avoiding him. She would have to face him sooner or later and until then he was going to keep a low profile, for her sake if nothing else.

  ‘What do you think is going on next door?’ Mollie questioned when he went inside. ‘Doesn’t Melissa like us any more?’

  ‘I don’t think she has any problems with you and the girls,’ he told her wryly, ‘but she’s not too thrilled with me.’

  ‘She won’t be gone before Christmas, will she?’ she asked anxiously, without commenting on his remark about himself.

  ‘I very much doubt it’ was the reply. ‘She won’t want to miss your wedding and also hopefully the children’s excitement on Christmas morning.’

  He was rallying from the shock of seeing the sale board. House buying always took a few weeks at least, sometimes months, and if she got a buyer who was in no rush it could take for ever. Melissa would be around for Christmas, unless she’d got any other dreadful surprises planned.

  * * *

  Melissa had called in at the estate agent’s just before they closed to sign any necessary paperwork and to avoid arriving home at the same time as Ryan. When she eventually turned up she breathed a sigh of relief because there was no sign of him, which would give her a few hours’ respite before having to face him the following day.

  Once she’d eaten she phoned Mollie, who was back home, to assure her that she would be there for her wedding and if she needed any help with anything she had only to ask. The last thing she wanted was to cause any hassle for either the bride or her two small attendants.

  ‘I’m sorry to see that you’re intending leaving us, Melissa,’ the older woman said. ‘Ryan and the children need you, and I feel that you need them.’

  ‘I can’t compete with his devotion to his wife’s memory,’ she told her. ‘He is happy as he is, Mollie.’

  ‘Not all the time.’

  ‘Maybe, but that is how it seems to me,’ she replied, and changed the subject. ‘I will see to the children getting ready on the morning of the wedding so have no worries on that score, and will be in touch before then to check if you need me for anything else. If Ryan still wants me to partner him, that’s okay, too, though I have my doubts about whether he will.’

  After saying goodbye to the motherly housekeeper, she settled down to browse over the day’s events, aware that so far there had been no feedback from Ryan. Maybe he was just relieved that she was removing temptation out of his way.

  * * *

  Ryan was far from relieved about the state of affairs. If Melissa had wanted to make him realise how much she meant to him, she was succeeding. Mollie had called to say that the two of them had spoken on the phone and that Melissa was still available to assist on the morning of the wedding and that she would still partner him on that occasion if he wanted her to.

  So there was going to be time for her to change her mind over Christmas and afterwards while she was waiting for a buyer. In the meantime, he would be his normal self when they were in each other’s company, without referring to her wanting to move.

  * * *

  The next morning on the wards Ryan talked only about their patients, which was not unusual on a normal day, but Melissa had been expecting at least some mention of her putting the house up for sale and concluded that he must see it as something of minor interest. If that was the case, she wasn’t going to refer to it, either.

  * * *

  The days leading up to Christmas and Mollie’s wedding were some of the strangest Melissa had ever known. On the last Saturday before the two events there was a knock on her door and she opened it to find a van from a local tree nursery parked in front. When he saw her the driver said, ‘I’ve got a tree here for you.’

  ‘There must be a mistake,’ she told him. ‘I haven’t ordered anything from you.’

  ‘Well, somebody has,’ he told her. ‘Two trees were ordered and paid for to be delivered to these two houses.’ When she looked across, Melissa saw that he had already deposited a tree on Ryan’s drive. ‘Your neighbours are out,’ he explained, and without further comment went to his truck and hoisted a fresh green spruce tree from the top of a pile and carried it to her door and through into the hall.

  ‘Have a nice Christmas, lady,’ he said, after resting it upright against the wall, and went on his way.

  Where she hadn’t done anything regarding decorations so far, Ryan’s house already had a festive look about it, with fairy lights around the door and Christmas lanterns glowing in the garden as soon as darkness fell. No doubt the delivery of the tree would create a focal point for the children’s presents to be placed around.

  All of that was perfectly understandable but why go to the trouble of providing her with a tree too? Was it another example of the way he was ignoring her decision to leave him to his restricted existence?

  Later the same morning, on her way to buy ornaments for the tree, she stopped off at the cemetery to put Christmas flowers on her grandmother’s grave, and observed it in amazement when she got there. It was immaculate. Ryan had said he would clean it and had kept his word, but how when it was dark in the evenings and late afternoons and there would be no time before he went to the hospital each morning?

  It was only the previous Saturday that they’d met there and he’d made the offer. Had it been in his thoughts that he wanted her to have peace of mind regarding it when she was gone and had wasted no time in cleaning it up?

  Before continuing on her way, she stopped in front of Beth’s grave. She would try to make up for their mother not being there over Christmas for the children, but couldn’t promise any joy with regard
to their father because he didn’t want her to take their mother’s place and she would have to accept that.

  * * *

  Ryan had gone to have a haircut in readiness for his role at the wedding and had gone to a unisex hairdresser so that Rhianna and Martha could have theirs made especially beautiful at the same time in preparation for the occasion. Only a week to go and it would be upon them.

  When they arrived back at the house the tree was there on the drive, but there was no sign of Melissa’s. He hoped that she’d accepted it in the spirit it had been given. Whatever happened in the new year, he was determined that her decision to leave Heatherdale was not going to put the blight on Christmas.

  He saw her go past on her return from the shops and within minutes she was on the phone, thanking him for the tree and asking how he’d managed to find time to finish the cleaning of the grave.

  ‘It was just as easy to order two as one, and no way would the children want you not to have a tree when they come to see you over Christmas. As to the cleaning up of the grave, I’m afraid I haven’t been performing miracles. The church has a facility where they will maintain a grave on a regular basis, so you have your answer to that.’

  ‘Well, thanks, anyway,’ she told him. ‘If you pass the contract on to me, I’ll see that it gets paid when due.’ And without further comment she rang off with the thought in mind that she was supposed to be keeping a low profile with Rhianna and Martha instead of spending most of Christmas with them. But it wasn’t going to be easy with the wedding and Christmas morning and everything else that gave the young excitement and delight at such a time of year.

  * * *

  If the morning had brought surprises with it in the form of the unexpected delivery of the tree and the immaculate gravestone, the afternoon’s surprise was in a class of its own.

  The estate agent phoned to say that they had a buyer for the house. ‘What, already?’ she croaked, as her legs felt as if they would give way under her. Yet wasn’t it what she wanted, to be off as soon as Christmas was over?

  ‘Those houses where you live are always soon snapped up,’ he said, ‘so don’t be surprised. It amazes me that they’re not listed, like a lot of the buildings in the town. The buyer’s bankers are in charge of the sale as he is some busy professional guy, so we’ll be dealing with them.’

  ‘When did you show him around?’ she asked, still stunned.

  ‘We didn’t. He asked for a brochure to be sent to his bank, saw that it was what he’s looking for, and wants to buy it. Could be a developer, I suppose,’ the voice at the other end of the line was saying, and as she listened it was all so unreal, like Ryan’s calm acceptance of her leaving Heatherdale with no sign of dismay.

  If anything should make her feel confident that she was doing the right thing, it was that, but if she’d been lost and lonely when she’d come to this place that had captured her heart, what she was going to feel like when she left it didn’t bear thinking of.

  * * *

  In the early evening she went upstairs and went through her clothes to decide what was going to be the most attractive outfit she possessed to wear at Mollie’s wedding.

  A pale blue dress of fine wool with a matching jacket and high-heeled shoes seemed a good choice, but she had no large wedding-type hat to go with it and settled for an inexpensive fascinator that was modern and youthful and shaped to show off the dark sheen of her hair.

  When she observed herself in the mirror she was smiling. She was ‘poor’ and ‘needy’, she thought, but could manage a show of prosperity when the need arose and hoped that Ryan would approve of her outfit.

  * * *

  The following day the ‘Sold’ notice went up outside the house and if Melissa was expecting any revealing comments from Ryan regarding it she was disappointed. He merely commented as they arrived home simultaneously at the end of a busy day at the hospital that someone had wasted no time and left it at that, leaving her once again with the sick feeling that she was a poor judge when it came to the men in her life.

  Especially when his next comment was to remind her that he would be cooking Christmas dinner and hoped she realised how much Rhianna and Martha were looking forward to her spending the day with them. There was again no mention of his feelings about the invitation, and she told him levelly if that was the case with regard to the children, she would be there.

  But first there was the ordeal of the wedding to get through.

  It was the day of Christmas Eve, and as Ryan drove the four of them through town to the church where the wedding was to take place it was thronged with last-minute shoppers and sightseers come to share in the magic of Heatherdale at a special time of year.

  When she’d gone next door earlier in the morning, in good time to help Rhianna and Martha into their pretty outfits, Ryan’s heart had ached when the children had run up to her and hugged her, and he’d felt the familiar longing take hold of him, as it always did when she was near.

  ‘You look very swish,’ he’d commented.

  ‘So do you,’ she’d told him, taking in the vision of the tall figure in morning suit and smart white shirt. Would she ever be able to put him out of her mind when he was no longer only feet away from her all the time at the hospital, and almost within touching distance in the house next to hers? Lots of women would be happy with that arrangement, if only to have him in their lives, but not her. The pain of always being an onlooker would be too much to bear.

  The children had been tugging at her, eager to get dressed, and she’d given them her full attention for the next half-hour, then presented them to him and had to watch the pain in his expression that had to be at the thought of what their mother was missing.

  She’d wanted to go to him and hold him close again, but it had been a moment that had belonged to Ryan and his children only and she’d gone into the next room and stood gazing out of the window until his voice had come from behind asking, ‘So are we ready to leave, then?’

  Feeling that she would be relieved when the day was over, she’d nodded and when the children had come trooping in and had stood one on either side of her she’d taken them by the hand and followed him out to the car.

  * * *

  The church was full of well-wishers as both Mollie and Jack were well respected in the area. Once Melissa had positioned the children behind the bride, who was holding Ryan’s arm for support, the organist struck up the wedding march and the ceremony got under way, with her hurrying to find a seat near the front.

  It was like the night of the ball, curious glances in her direction. Unless they’d had cause to meet her at the hospital for some reason, she was a stranger to most of them, but it would seem not so to Ryan and his children.

  When she would have seated herself at a small table amongst others at the reception that followed, Ryan went to her and raising her to her feet took her to the top table to sit beside him and the children, with Mollie beaming her approval.

  The bridal pair intended honeymooning in Italy for two weeks and were leaving on a flight later that evening. Ryan was taking leave due to him from the hospital to cover the time that Mollie would be away.

  Fortunately she was intending to stay on in the role of his housekeeper but Melissa thought there would always be times when there was the problem of someone to be there for Rhianna and Martha when he was working. If things had been different they could have shared those kinds of responsibilities between the two of them, but he hadn’t wanted to let her into his cloistered life.

  No point in wishing for the moon. She had made her decision to leave behind the feeling of being surplus to Ryan’s requirements, and soon would have to decide what direction to take for yet another new beginning.

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT WAS LATE afternoon when they arrived home from the wedding and as Melissa wished the children goodbye, with a promise to see them the next day when Santa had been, the evening stretched ahead like an empty void.

  She had no wish for a continua
tion of the day’s awkwardness between Ryan and herself, and when he’d asked her what she had planned for the evening she’d told him hurriedly that she was meeting friends in the town.

  He’d eyed her dubiously and explained that he would be spending the time preparing for the Christmas dinner that he was going to cook for them the next day. She was welcome to join him if she wanted to, and if she didn’t and still persisted in going into town, she must be sure to get a taxi home and to ring him if she had any problems.

  ‘I won’t be doing that,’ she protested hotly, ‘expecting you to leave the children on my account.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be. I would bring them with me.’

  ‘Yes, well, that isn’t going to happen because I won’t need you,’ she said firmly.

  Under any other circumstances she would have been more than willing to be with him in the kitchen, but the thought of being alone with Ryan for any length of time, as the children would be in bed early on such a night, was not to be faced.

  Never once had he said he was sorry she was leaving, that he wanted her to stay, and if that wasn’t a guideline for her own attitude towards him, she didn’t know what was.

  He was using her fondness for his children as a lever to achieve his own ends and she couldn’t believe it of him. Once Christmas was over she would be on the outside of his life, as she’d been before. Without further comment she left him to his preparations for a meal that she felt would choke her.

  Melissa hadn’t had any intention of going into town for Christmas Eve, but her quick-as-a-flash excuse for not spending any more time that day with Ryan was making her feel that she had to justify what she’d told him, and she had been invited to join a group from the hospital who were intending to wine and dine the evening away in one of the local restaurants, so maybe she would take them up on it and try to chase away the blues that way.