Ross was observing her consideringly and she wondered if he guessed that she was mixing the truth with lies. She hadn’t soon got over her feelings for him. She’d loved him with all the wonder and excitement of first love, without stopping to consider his feelings on the matter, and had been brought down to earth like a rocket falling out of the sky when she’d discovered that he didn’t feel the same.
‘I wish I’d known that,’ he said with an expression on his face that she couldn’t fathom. ‘It might have brought me back sooner.’
‘You mean that you’ve kept away all this time because of me?’
‘No. Because of me.’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she told him uncomfortably, ‘and I don’t want to. Didn’t you say that Sophie is expecting you to help with the baking? She won’t want to be kept waiting.’
He was smiling.
‘All right. I get the message. You’re thinking that you’ve seen enough of me for one day. Well, remember this is just a breaking-in. Tomorrow I descend upon the practice and there are going to be some changes.’
‘You mean that you’re going to be the big new broom sweeping clean?’
He was still smiling. ‘Something like that.’
‘So I’ll have to watch out that I don’t get swept up with the rest of the aftermath of my father’s long reign at the village practice.’
The smile was still there. ‘No chance of that. From what I’ve been hearing about you from the village folk, they’ll have me in the stocks if I do anything else to upset you.’ And as she observed him with wary violet eyes he raised his hand in a brief salute and went.
Flopping back onto the sun lounger, Isabel let out a deep breath. Ross had been right about her having seen enough of him for one day, but it had been nothing compared with what the days to come would be like.
However, the adjustments weren’t all going to be on her side. She was independent, dedicated, hard-working—and would also be pleasure-loving, given the chance.
But it mightn’t all be gloom, she told herself. Ross coming back into the practice might give her the opportunity to liven up her life. With a younger, fitter man in charge she would have more time for pursuits of her own. Yet was there anyone that she would want to spend her free time with?
Not really. Yet even as the negative thought came into her mind there was the memory of how she’d laughed with Ross when he’d been talking about sleeping on the tea-shop counter. For a second the old rapport had been there.
She clamped the thought down firmly. He wasn’t going to get to her again. She was over all that, she told herself. She was Dr Isabel West, a respected GP practising in the place she loved best on earth. The lovelorn teenager has been well and truly laid to rest.
As Puss-Puss came close and observed with her glowing eyes and Tess, not to be outdone, trotted over and put a damp nose against her bare leg, it seemed to her that relationships with animals were much less complicated than those with humans.
Apart from her mother, Ross was the only one who’d ever called her Izzy, she thought as she slid beneath the sheets later that night. Her father had always frowned upon anyone wanting to shorten her name, but Ross had taken no notice and she’d loved it, still did. Yet it had seemed strange to hear it coming from him again after so long.
‘Come here, Dizzy Izzy, ‘ he’d said sometimes, ‘and see what I’ve got for you.’
He would open up his clenched fist and lying on his palm would be a sweet or a flower. Once, scrunched up in his hand, there’d been a fine silver chain with a pendant, her birth stone, an amethyst, at the centre of it, and when he’d fastened it around her neck, she’d felt beautiful for once instead of plain.
She’d known that her father hadn’t approved of her friendship with Ross, but at eighteen and in the process of falling head over heels in love, she’d ignored his frowns and had gone headlong into what had turned out to be a disaster.
Her state of mind had affected her studies and she’d only just scraped onto the course she’d applied for to study medicine. It had made an angry Paul West see his hopes of a family practice dwindling. Even more so when Isabel had announced that she didn’t want to leave the village because she couldn’t bear to be separated from Ross.
Hard words had passed between the two men, with her father declaring furiously that Ross was playing around with his daughter’s affections, that she was too young to know her own mind and was putting her career at risk because of him.
Ross had retaliated by telling him that he would never do anything to harm Isabel and that her interest in him was only because she was starved of affection.
That had been the beginning of a full-scale row that had ended with Ross resigning from the practice and departing almost immediately to find employment abroad.
Never dreaming that he didn’t love her as much as she loved him, Isabel begged him to take her with him and was met with a refusal that didn’t include any explanation as to why he was leaving.
She wept and wailed, clinging to him on the morning of his departure as if she would never let him go. But it was to no avail. He kissed her fleetingly on the brow and gently eased himself out of her embrace. Then, grim-faced and without a backward glance, he got into his car and drove out of her life.
It had been in the height of summer as it was now, but to Isabel, lost and heart-broken, it had seemed like the dark days of winter. If she’d known that her father had been the reason for Ross’s abrupt departure it would have been hard enough to cope with, but she’d thought that she had been to blame. That her love for him had been too claustrophobic, and as he hadn’t returned her feelings he’d decided that he had to get away from her.
* * *
In his room at the Pheasant Hotel at the other end of the village, Ross too was going over the day’s events in his mind. His main feeling was one of relief because he was over the biggest hurdle. He had met up again with Izzy, this time on a more level footing, and although she’d been shocked and hurt at not being told about the negotiations that had been going on between her father and himself, and hadn’t exactly been overjoyed to hear that he was well and truly back in her life, she had been civil enough.
His mother had kept him informed of local affairs and he’d known that Izzy had got her degree and was back working in the practice with her father. It had been while he’d been debating whether to chance coming back and risking a snub that he’d received Paul West’s letter informing him that he was considering retiring and asking if he would be interested in taking over the practice.
It had been cleverly put together, explaining that the elderly GP had the highest regard for him as a doctor, and reminding him that his mother wasn’t well, and that it would give him the opportunity to be near her during her declining years.
It had gone on to say that Isabel, now a mature adult, was assisting him in the practice and that he felt she might welcome it being taken over by someone she knew, instead of a stranger.
Paul had been right about the ‘adult’ part, Ross thought as he gazed through the window of his hotel room. The sweet, sobbing teenager had been replaced with a confident young doctor who had made it clear that her father had been wrong in thinking she would prefer someone she knew to be in charge of the surgery. There was a wry smile on his face as he recalled how he’d said he would try to act like a stranger if that was what she wanted. It wouldn’t be the easiest role he’d ever played.
There’d been no apology regarding the past in Paul West’s letter. Over the years Ross had had plenty of time to mull over those disastrous last few days before he’d left the village, and had always come to the same conclusion—that Izzy’s father had been right to consider his daughter’s career more important than a teenage crush. But Paul might have allowed him to have his say, instead of making his feelings for Izzy seem as if they had bordered on the immoral.
He’d been brought up with an abundance of love and affection in a big Cheshire town not far away, and when he
’d lost his father shortly after becoming part of the village practice, his mother and her sister had bought the Riverside Tea Shop to be near him and so that they, too, could share the pleasures and privileges of living in the countryside.
Sally Templeton had asked no questions when he’d said he was leaving for pastures new. If she’d had any suspicions that it had been connected with Paul West’s teenage daughter she’d kept them to herself and generously wished him well when he’d told her he was going to practise medicine abroad. And now he was back and already wondering if he’d done the right thing.
He could see the chimney of Izzy’s cottage from where he was standing, and the memory of how she’d laughed with him when he’d been discussing where he was going to sleep was one of the happier moments of a day that he wasn’t going to forget in a hurry.
There would be a spare room at the cottage, no doubt, but she’d suggested that he stay with her father—and could he blame her? There were some very good reasons why she was going to want to keep him at a distance and, looking around his present accommodation, he hoped that it wouldn’t be too long before Paul vacated the apartment above the surgery and he could move in there.
* * *
That was a wish that was going to be granted sooner than he’d thought as when Ross arrived at the practice the next morning Paul announced that he’d bought the apartment next to Millie’s and that the formalities would be completed by the end of the week, which would leave the living quarters above the surgery vacant.
If Ross was pleased to hear that, Isabel wasn’t. It was something else that her father had kept from her, for one thing, and another step nearer to Ross being everywhere she turned. She hoped that it wouldn’t end up with her leaving the village because of him.
She prayed that he would at least stay away from the cottage and that he would have seen enough of her by the end of each day, just as she would have seen enough of him.
And if he found that to be the case, too bad. She wasn’t the one who’d asked him to come back to the village. It had been her father, and knowing him there would be a very good reason. Just as there must have been a good reason why he’d been so pleased to see Ross go all that time ago.
Leaving them discussing matters regarding the changeover, Isabel went to call in her first patient of the day and wasn’t surprised to find that almost everyone who’d come to consult her knew that Ross was back and about to take over the practice.
‘I remember him when he was here before,’ a weather-beaten farmer said as she was about to take his blood pressure. ‘Could never understand why he left in such a hurry. Dr Templeton was wonderful with our kids if ever they were poorly.’
‘Yes, Ross was good with children,’ she agreed, and tried not to think of the time when she’d had rose-coloured visions of the two of them making babies of their own.
‘Your blood pressure is up a bit,’ she told the farmer. ‘You’re still taking the bendrofluazide, I hope.’
‘Aye.’
‘So what’s going on, then, Michael? Are you stressed about something?’
‘No more than usual. We lost a calf the other day, which was a blow, but apart from that life is the same hard grind it always was.’
Isabel nodded.
She knew that some of the hill farmers were wealthy and others, like Michael Levitt, worked long hours with little capital to fall back on.
‘I’d like to see you again next week,’ she told him. ‘It might be just a blip, but if the rise in your blood pressure persists we might have to increase your medication a little. Sometimes it just needs a tweak and then it settles down again.’
As the patients came and went, most of them people she’d known all her life, it was a strange feeling to know that Ross was only feet away, getting to know the receptionists and the two practice nurses and familiarising himself with the routine of the place, while she and her father dealt with those in the waiting room.
Sandra Scott, a middle-aged widow and one of the receptionists, brought her a coffee in the middle of the morning and said with heightened colour, ‘I didn’t know we were being taken over by Sally Templeton’s son.’
Isabel flashed her a quick smile. ‘It is rather sudden, I agree.’
‘How do you feel about it?’ the receptionist asked. ‘Your father going and this guy appearing out of the blue. We’re all stunned.’
‘He’ll be fine,’ Isabel told her, having no intention of making her own misgivings public. The last thing she needed was to see a drop in staff morale. ‘Ross is a brilliant doctor and has worked here before, don’t forget. My father is tired and ready to hang up his stethoscope. If we all back him up, Ross will be the best thing that has happened to the practice in ages.’
He might not be the best thing that had happened to her, but what she’d said about the practice was true. He was the new life blood it had been needing.
When she came out of her room at the end of morning surgery he was standing in front of the reception area, gazing around him thoughtfully, but when she appeared his glance moved to where she was standing, solemn-faced, in the doorway.
‘Is everything all right, Izzy?’ he asked. ‘No problems?’
‘I can’t believe you’re asking that,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Yesterday you turned up out of the blue. Then my dad announced that he’s retiring, and, if that isn’t enough, today he calmly announces that he’s bought the apartment next to Millie’s and hopes to be out of this place in a matter of days. And you stand there and ask me if everything is all right.’
‘Yes. It was a stupid question,’ he agreed, ‘but do remember that all the secrecy was not of my doing. I didn’t know that your father wasn’t keeping you informed and with regard to him buying one of the apartments, I was as much in the dark as you about that. Though I have to say that for my part it’s good news.
‘He tells me that he’s leaving all the furniture, so I’ll be able to move in the moment he’s gone, which will mean I have my finger much more on the pulse than it would be if I had to stay in the hotel for any length of time.’
He was looking around him.
‘The first thing, I think, is to have this place redecorated and some new seating.’
She nodded and told him, ‘I couldn’t agree more. A grey carpet and blue walls, with cold metal seats for those waiting to be seen by the doctor, do nothing to help the patients relax. I’ve said it often but my dad didn’t want to know. He lacks vision.’
‘So how about you and I getting our heads together and working out a new colour scheme?’ he suggested.
‘Oh, yes!’ she breathed, her grievances put to one side for the moment. ‘I’d love that. Sunshine yellow and pale creams with upholstered seats to match, and maybe a deep honey-coloured carpet that wouldn’t show soiling too much.’
He smiled at her enthusiasm.
‘Agreed. Can I come round to your place one night and we’ll work out what we’re going to do?’
‘Yes,’ she said immediately, before she’d had time to remind herself that Ross at the practice was going to be enough without cosy little chats at the cottage.
So with a quick about-turn she said, ‘Though don’t you think it would be better if we discussed it here on the premises, instead of trying to visualise how it would look in the mind’s eye?’
‘Yes, I suppose you’re right,’ he said easily. ‘How about tomorrow night? It will be a relief to get out of my hotel room for a while.’
He’d said it casually enough, but she wondered if he was reminding her that she hadn’t been exactly hospitable the previous day when they’d been discussing where he was going to stay. Yet Ross must have known for some time that he was coming back to the village. He should have had it already sorted.
‘Yes, tomorrow night will be fine,’ she told him. ‘Shall I get some colour charts from Tom Pearson, who does most of the decorating around here?’
‘Yes, as long as he does a good job, and a fast one, too, as it will be a bit ch
aotic with patients coming and going all the time it’s being done.’
‘Ask him to work through the night and leave the daytimes clear.’
He was smiling again.
‘Good thinking. I can see that you’re going to be one step ahead of me in all this.’
He was happy to see that she was mellowing but was about to discover it had been fleeting when she said tartly, ‘It will make a change after the way I’ve been kept in the dark about everything else.’
With a toss of her hair she left him to think about that and went out to start her house calls, telling herself that meeting Ross after hours at the surgery was hardly keeping him at a distance, but if she could have a say in changing the dismal decor she wasn’t going to pass the opportunity by.
As he watched her drive off Ross was satisfied with the result of the conversation they’d just had. He was ignoring the tart comment at the end of it as he saw Isabel’s point of view, but Paul had always been a law unto himself. He had practically ordered him to leave the practice all that time ago and under normal circumstances he would have told him to go to hell, that he’d done no wrong.
But there had been Izzy, young and vulnerable. He hadn’t been able to stand the thought of her feelings for him being turned into the sleazy thing that her father had made it out to be, and so he’d gone, never intending to come back permanently—until he’d received the letter.
When he’d read it he’d known just how much he’d wanted to return to the village, how much he’d kept the yearning clamped down at the back of his mind, and now the last person he’d ever expected to hear from had offered what had seemed like an olive branch. Though, knowing the wily old martinet who’d sent it, it was more likely that Paul would be using him for his own ends.
It was true when he’d told Izzy that he had been back to the village from time to time, and she’d been right when she’d guessed that his visits had coincided with her absences. He’d had no wish for a repeat of the blazing rows he’d had with her father and hadn’t wanted to upset Izzy if she’d still had feelings for him.
Coming Back For His Bride Page 3