Christmas at Willowmere

by Abigail Gordon

  But it would have to do, and when she’d been to Bryan Timmins’s place to pick up the turkey, two of the major food chores of the season would have been accomplished. Or at least they would be once she’d cooked the bird!

  She’d not seen much of Josh since his finger had healed and hoped that while she was at the farm she might get a glimpse of him, though the odds were that she was more likely to find him skating on the lake than hanging about near home.

  It had been her intention to collect the turkey during the lunch-hour, but once she’d had her breakfast she decided to go before she put in an appearance at the surgery as it might be too much of a rush, trying to manage a bite and driving to the farm in the short time that would be available. So when Jess arrived to an enthusiastic welcome from the children, she was ready to leave.

  Glenn’s resolve when he’d finished his breakfast was along different lines. He did what he’d done the previous day when the lake had become a skating rink—went to check the ice. The temperature was rising, the forecast hadn’t been wrong, and now was the time for vigilance.

  It was barely eight o’clock and only just daylight when he got there. The lights were switched off and he was relieved to see there was no one skating as the park warden hadn’t yet arrived.

  As he walked around the lake the ice on the edges felt firm enough, but he wondered for how long and hoped that when the warden arrived he would warn any early-morning skaters that it could be dangerous.

  He could hear a dog barking not far away and as he looked across the lake he saw a man walking a big golden retriever by the water’s edge. It was on a lead and as its owner waved in greeting Glenn waved back and renewed his scrutiny of the ice once more.

  Suddenly he heard the man bellow, ‘Come back, Goldie! You bad dog!’ Glenn looked up to see the dog running across the ice, slithering from side to side as it did so. Its owner was running after it, with the lead dangling from his hand, and the thing he had been concerned about happened. The ice gave way with a resounding crack beneath the man’s weight and he plunged into the lake’s icy depths as the dog bounded onwards to the other side of the lake and safety.

  In the first few moments of dismay Glenn was already springing into action. The warden had brought a throwline with him when he’d started his surveillance and kept it under the seating in a nearby bandstand.

  He knew how to use it, Glenn thought desperately, but it needed someone at the other end to pull him in once he’d managed to raise the unfortunate dog-walker out of the water enough to fasten the line round him, and there wasn’t a soul in sight.

  Anna had to pass the lake on her way to the farm but had no intention of stopping as time was of the essence, until she saw Glenn running from the bandstand with unmistakable urgency and pulling a rope of some sort out of a bag as he ran.

  As she turned the car off the road and pulled up at the water’s edge, she could hear faint cries for help coming from the centre of the lake where the ice had given way. Someone had fallen through the ice and Glenn was not going to stand by and do nothing, but supposing…

  Don’t think about it, she told herself. Just help him in any way you can.

  When Glenn heard the car drive onto the lakeside he sent up a hasty prayer of thanks, but groaned when he saw who it belonged to. Anna was the last person he wanted involved in this. For one thing, would she have the strength to pull two of them to safety with the line? But there was no time for questioning. If the man was in the water too long, he would either drown or die from hypothermia.

  ‘Thank goodness you’re here,’ he gasped as he unravelled the line and thrust the other end of it into her hands, ‘I’m going to crawl across the ice to him, wrap the line around him, and then try to get him out onto where it’s still unbroken. Do you think you can pull us to safety?’

  ‘Yes!’ she croaked, speaking for the first time since she’d walked into a nightmare.

  ‘Once we are on firm ice I’ll be able to drag him along, but first I’ve got to get him out. OK?’

  She’d found her voice now, but there was no time to tell him that if he didn’t come out of this alive, she would want to die too, so she just nodded.

  Unaware of her anguish, Glenn crawled carefully along the ice to where there was now a large gaping hole. The man’s cries were getting fainter, which was ominous, but he closed his mind against what it could mean and, easing himself carefully round to the back of him, reached down into the water.

  He could hear the ice cracking all around him and knew that at any time he might fall through it into the icy water. His hands were numb with the cold, but he managed to secure the line around the victim and, putting a hand under each of his armpits, shouted, ‘Pull! Pull hard!’

  When he looked towards the lakeside he went weak with relief. The warden had turned up and taken charge of the other end of the line, and with Anna’s help he began to pull them across the unbroken surface of the lake.

  Dry land had never felt more welcome beneath his feet as he staggered onto it, but there was no time to dwell on that or the fact that Anna’s face was white with fear. The man he’d brought out of the water needed help and fast.

  As far as he could judge his head hadn’t been sub-merged at all which was a miracle. He’d clung on to the edge of the ice and managed to remain upright, but now he was lying motionless, eyes closed, blue with cold, and in spite of the seriousness of his condition would have to be treated gently to prevent ventricular fibrillation which could be fatal.

  ‘I’ve phoned for an ambulance,’ Anna told him as she knelt beside the man. She was calm now that Glenn was safe. ‘There’s a faint heartbeat and an even fainter pulse, but he’s alive and we have to get his body heat up fast or it could be hypothermia that kills him…and you, too, if you don’t get into some dry clothes quickly.’

  She was getting to her feet and flinging the car door open even as she spoke. Grabbing a couple of blankets off the back seat that she used to cover the children if they fell asleep while they were driving, she eased the man up gently and with Glenn’s help took off his sodden clothes and wrapped him in the blankets then held him close to transfer some body heat.

  The warden had given Glenn his thick jacket, and even though he also was very cold he was in control, checking that the man was still breathing and that his tongue hadn’t gone back in his mouth to choke him.

  An ambulance screeched up alongside them at that moment and as paramedics spilled out with foil to wrap around them, the one in charge said to Glenn, ‘You’d better come along to A and E as well. We need to keep an eye on you, too.’

  ‘All right,’ he agreed tersely, ‘but I’ll skip the foil. I’m not so cold that I need that. A warm bath would thaw me out. Or a brandy.’

  ‘The bath yes,’ he was told with a smile, ‘but I wouldn’t advise the brandy.’ Turning to Anna, he asked, ‘Are you going to come along to keep an eye on him?’

  Was she! At that moment the thought of letting Glenn out of her sight even for a moment was not to be considered. ‘Yes,’ she told him. Observing the dog that was cowering beside the stretcher that held his master, she went on, ‘What about Goldie, the innocent cause of what could have been a terrible tragedy?’

  ‘I’ll see to him,’ the warden said. ‘There’s an address on his collar. It will give me an opportunity to tell the guy’s family what has happened. But I won’t be away long,’ he said grimly, his glance on the gaping hole in the ice. ‘I’m not going to rest easy until this lot is gone.’

  The staff in Accident and Emergency at St Gabriel’s had been working on the man who’d nearly drowned ever since he’d been brought in. Luckily he was recovering well. At the same time Glenn was being checked over for signs of hypothermia, with Anna hovering closely beside him.

  She hadn’t said much. Having had a glimpse of what the world would be like without him in it she was still numb at the thought of it, and he glanced at her questioningly a few times.

  So far they’d only discuss
ed practical matters, such as letting James know what had happened and when Anna was going to pick her car up from the lakeside, which seemed of so little importance she couldn’t believe they had nothing better to talk about.

  As Glenn was about to leave the hospital in some dry clothes that had been found for him and having been passed as fit to go, the dog owner’s wife appeared, asking if she could have a word.

  ‘We’ve only just moved into Willowmere and love it here,’ she told them. ‘I only hope that my poor husband’s awful experience won’t make him disenchanted with the place. Goldie is a very naughty dog, but his master won’t have a word said against him. So I’m just thankful that someone as resourceful as you was at hand, Dr Hamilton. Do, please, accept my most heartfelt thanks for what you did.’

  Once she’d gone he said, ‘Let’s go, Anna. James has two of us missing from the practice and we can’t have that. Though I think my present outfit will have to be changed before I put in an appearance.’

  ‘How can you be so casual about something that could have cost you your life?’ she asked in a voice thickening with tears.

  ‘I wasn’t exactly wrapped in cotton wool when I worked abroad, you know,’ he said whimsically. ‘There were a few hairy moments when I thought my time had come and there would be no one to mourn me.’

  She couldn’t bear the thought. How could he speak so lightly of such things when the feeling of being so alone must have been terrible? It was not going to happen ever again. As long as she lived she would be there for him if he wanted her, she vowed, but she wouldn’t ask for any commitment.

  Today she could have lost him and the terror of those moments at the lake would stay with her for ever. ‘It was only by chance that I was there when you needed me,’ she told him. ‘If I hadn’t been going to pick up the turkey, I would have been getting ready to go to the surgery or been already there.’

  He was still in a light-hearted mood. ‘So we have a frisky dog to blame for what happened and a plump bird to thank. Maybe next time we’ll manage to pick up the turkey without any diversions.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘Yes. We’ll go together.’

  It was lunchtime when they put in an appearance at the surgery. A taxi had taken them home and while Glenn had gone to shower and change his clothes Anna had gone to pick up her car.

  The lake was deserted except for the warden and as the ice was melting fast he wasn’t expecting to be there much longer. As she stood at the water’s edge beside the graceful willows, she was filled with thankfulness that no harm had come to Glenn and in that moment everything had changed.

  She knew what she had to do. It might take him away from her for ever yet he was probably going to leave anyway. But before he went he deserved to know the truth so that at last there was honesty between them. The honesty that she’d shied away from all this time. She hoped her deceit wouldn’t make him think too badly of her.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE rescue at the lake was the main topic of conversation amongst staff and patients during the afternoon at the surgery. Someone had seen the ambulance driving away from the lake and approached the warden to ask him what was wrong. When he’d explained, the grapevine had swung into action.

  While Glenn was answering all questions good-naturedly, Anna still had little to say, and James took her on one side and asked if she was all right. ‘I know you had an awful experience this morning,’ he said, ‘and feel that you’re in a state of shock. I can imagine what was going through your mind as you watched Glenn risking his life on the ice. Go home and rest, Anna.’

  She shook her head. ‘I’m fine, James. I’m just so happy to have him safe I’m lost for words. Life without him would have had no meaning.’

  If she told him that what had happened by the lake had made her realise that she couldn’t go on deceiving Glenn any longer, she knew that James would be supportive of her decision and would be there for her in the days ahead, but until the deed was done she felt that she couldn’t talk about it to anyone.

  She had to find the right moment to tell Glenn the truth and until then everything else must stay as it was.

  Like James, Glenn had been watching her as the afternoon progressed. He kept remembering Anna’s white face when he’d asked her if she could manage the line during those dreadful moments by the lake, and though he knew she’d been terrified on his behalf, she hadn’t had much to say since.

  He needed to know what she was thinking, but the opportunity to ask her didn’t present itself. She went early to relieve Jess, as she’d done the day before, and he was left wondering if she was debating whether she would want to be tied to such a risk-taker should the opportunity ever arise.

  Maybe they would have the chance to talk in the early evening if he suggested they go to pick up the turkey. Every moment alone with her was precious and today in particular they’d not had any time by themselves.

  When Anna went upstairs to kiss the children goodnight after James had given them their bath, she held them extra close and a lump came in her throat. She swallowed hard and saw that he was watching her.

  ‘We need to talk,’ he said gravely, ‘and now is a good time. Glenn has gone back to the surgery to write up some patient’s notes that he didn’t get the chance to do earlier.’

  ‘I’m going to tell him the truth,’ she told him flatly.

  ‘What has made you change your mind?’ he wanted to know.

  ‘This morning at the lake. If he’d fallen through the ice, like the man with the dog did, they could have both been drowned. And when I thought of how he could have perished out there, without ever knowing why I did what I did all that time ago, I knew that I owed him the truth.’

  ‘I guessed that something like that was going through your mind when you were so quiet this afternoon,’ he told her, ‘but hear me out first. I’ve been making some arrangements over the last couple of days and would welcome your approval.’

  ‘What sort of arrangements?’ she asked slowly in the same flat tone.

  He motioned for her to go downstairs, and after tucking the children in, followed her.

  ‘They are arrangements that will leave you free to lead your own life,’ he told her gently. ‘I’ve found a nanny for the children and a housekeeper. So you can go to the man you love with an easy mind.’

  She’d lowered herself onto the nearest chair and looked at him with amazed eyes. ‘You make it sound as if it was all so easy,’ she breathed. ‘Glenn will hate me for what I’ve done to him, keeping him dangling on a string when I have nothing to give him. And are you sure that the children will be happy and safe with these people that you’ve found? Because I don’t see myself going anywhere in the near future.’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure that the children will be happy,’ he said confidently. ‘I can’t believe you haven’t guessed who they are. Who is the one person you would trust Pollyanna and Jolyon with?’

  ‘Jess!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Yes. I’ve offered Jess what she has been looking for and she’s delighted, and making an evening meal and keeping the place tidy for a few hours each day is what Helen has agreed to do. So, no matter what happens in your life, the opportunity is going to be there for you to grasp whenever you wish.’

  ‘You are offering me peace of mind regarding the children and I love you for it, James,’ she said wistfully, ‘but I mean it when I say I don’t expect to be going anywhere. I wasn’t before and I won’t be now.’

  At that moment Glenn returned from the surgery and asked if she wanted to make a second attempt at picking up the turkey.

  ‘Yes, why not?’ she agreed, and knew with a sinking feeling inside that yet another opportunity was being presented to her, and this one she had to take, no matter what the consequences.

  ‘You are still looking fraught,’ he commented as they drove to the farm. ‘I was worried about you this afternoon. You were so quiet.’

  ‘I was still traumatised from the morning’s happenings,’ she said
. ‘I thought I was going to lose you in the very place that I love so much.’

  ‘I hope it hasn’t spoilt it for you. It would be awful if it had.’

  ‘There are worse things than that.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘I’ll explain on our way back from the farm.’

  ‘So you’re going to keep me in suspense?’

  It would be less hurtful than ignorance, she thought grimly, and didn’t reply.

  They’d collected the turkey and been offered a sherry and a mince pie, and now were on their homeward journey. As they approached the turning that led to the lake Anna said, ‘Will you pull in by the lakeside, Glenn?’

  ‘Er, yes, if you’re sure,’ he said doubtfully.

  ‘I’m sure.’

  The scene before them was as beautiful as it had ever been, with the water rippling gently beneath trees festooned with coloured lights, and Glenn said, ‘It’s hard to believe what it was like here this morning, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ she murmured, and turned to face him. ‘I have something to say to you.’

  He frowned, hoping it wasn’t the beginning of the long goodbye. ‘What is it?’ he asked abruptly.

  She took a deep breath. ‘I haven’t been honest with you for a long time, Glenn, and now I want to put the record straight.’

  ‘I’m listening,’ he said levelly.

  ‘Do you remember when you came to see why I hadn’t joined you in Africa?’

  ‘It is something I’m not ever likely to forget. Being told that one is no longer loved is something not easily forgotten.’

  He saw her flinch and without replying Anna got out of the car and went to stand at the water’s edge. He followed and as they stood side by side she said, ‘There was a reason.’

  ‘Yes. You explained at the time and I had no defence against it, not where motherless children were concerned.’