His Christmas Bride-To-Be (Medical Romance)

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘Is that what you think?’ he exclaimed. ‘That I’m divorced or something of the sort?’

  ‘Well—yes, I assumed.’

  ‘I’m not divorced, Emma,’ said Glenn. ‘My wife is dead. Swept away in a tsunami when we were on holiday some years ago.’

  ‘Oh, how awful for you!’ she breathed. ‘I had no idea. Do, please, forgive me for jumping to the wrong conclusion.’

  ‘It’s an understandable mistake to make,’ he said. ‘Only my parents know what happened and at my express request they don’t discuss my affairs with anyone. It’s something I don’t like to talk about, and I would be obliged if you would do the same.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she told him, still stunned by what he had told her. ‘I really am so very sorry, Glenn. If ever there is anything I can do to help, do please say so.’

  He was smiling a tight smile. ‘There is one thing. In spite of my having put the dampener on it earlier, how about you sitting beside me on Christmas Day night to please my parents? I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock if that’s all right.’

  ‘Er...yes,’ she replied, wondering what he would say next to amaze her, and asked hesitantly, ‘What shall I bring?’

  ‘Just yourself will do fine,’ she was told, and with a glance at the clock in the church tower high above them added, ‘We had better get back to our patients or we’ll have a queue.’

  Emma smiled across at him, happier than she’d felt for ages. The invitation to join Glenn and his family for a Christmas meal made her feel more wanted than she had done in a long time. But poor Glenn! What he’d had to say about the loss of his wife was heartbreaking and explained so many of the things about him that had previously puzzled her.

  * * *

  It was the day of the staff party and with that and Christmas the following week, with all the excitement and nostalgia that entailed, there was a lovely heart-warming atmosphere in the surgery. Everyone was looking forward to the festive season and a well-earned rest. It was midday and most of the staff had already gone to enjoy their weekend when a phone call came through to say that Jack Walsh needed to see a doctor urgently. Glenn sighed. Jack had a high temperature and it sounded as if he might have some sort of infection. After checking that the building was empty, he locked up and went to his car, ready to drive up to the remote farm.

  At that moment Emma drove onto the practice forecourt and he observed her in surprise. Having noted that her consulting room was empty, Glenn had taken it for granted that, like the rest of the staff, she had gone to enjoy the weekend ahead.

  As she got out of her car he wound his window down and asked in surprise, ‘Where have you been? Everywhere is locked up. I’m off to see Jack Walsh at the hill farm. He has a high temperature and from what his wife says seems to be heading for something serious.’

  ‘Can I go along with you?’ she asked. ‘I missed the hills so much while I was away and loved it the other time you took me up there.’

  ‘I would have thought that you’d have lots of nice things planned for the rest of the day,’ he said. ‘Come, by all means, if you wish, but it won’t be much fun up there on a day like this. There is a definite nip in the air and the sky is dark and lowering.’

  Emma was already easing herself into the passenger seat beside him and flashed him a smile. ‘It’s a case of anything to get out of my stately home,’ she teased, and he could understand that.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Glenn asked as he drove off the forecourt of the practice.

  ‘To see a child with ’flu,’ she replied. ‘I hope I don’t get it for Christmas.’

  So do I, he thought. The party later that night and having Emma with him at his parents’ house on Christmas Day were beginning to stand out in his mind like stars in a dark sky.

  By the time he pulled up at the Walsh farm it was snowing. Large flakes were falling all around them, silently forming a white carpet that was getting thicker by the moment. Glenn said, ‘Are you wishing you hadn’t come? We could be snowed in up here and it’s the staff party tonight.’

  The question had an answer that was making her heart beat faster. Emma wanted to be wherever Glenn was, be it the smart hotel where the staff party was to be held or on the Walshs’ ramshackle farm, so as Mrs Walsh opened the door, Emma’s smile was serene.

  ‘Doctor, he’s bad this time,’ she said worriedly, as she led the way to a drab bedroom on the ground floor of the building. ‘He’s hot as fire, his breathing is difficult, and he isn’t talking sense.’

  ‘How long has he been like this?’ Glenn asked, as he bent over the feverish figure on the bed.

  ‘He’s gradually been getting worse since yesterday,’ was the reply.

  Glenn frowned.

  ‘It could be pneumonia or something worse,’ he said when the two doctors had finished examining him. ‘I’m going to phone for an ambulance and hope that it will be able to get here before this place becomes inaccessible.’ He sent a wry smile in Emma’s direction. ‘So much for life in the fast lane.’

  ‘I don’t mind,’ she told him, and she really didn’t as long as she was with him. Although Glenn was still an unknown quantity as far as she was concerned. Since they’d met he’d wanted nothing of her or from her, and as far as she knew nothing had changed.

  It was still early afternoon. They might get to the party yet if the snow eased off and an ambulance managed to get through. She would still be able to wear the dress that she’d been hoping would make Glenn see her how she wanted him to.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  AN HOUR LATER an ambulance did come trundling through the snow with its siren screeching. After a quick word from Glenn the sick man was taken on board and was on his way to the nearest hospital, leaving the two doctors to get back to civilisation the best they could.

  After a mile of careful driving with visibility almost nil the car became stuck in a snowdrift. Glenn had been worried when they’d set off, but now anxiety on Emma’s behalf spiralled as there was no signal when he tried to phone for help. He got out to assess the situation and was hit straight away by the severe cold.

  ‘I should never have let you come with me!’ he said when he opened the door to ease himself back in. ‘I suggest that you climb over onto the back seat and if I leave the engine running you may be able to keep warm while I dig us out of this mess. I keep a couple of shovels in the boot for situations such as this.’

  ‘Give me one and I’ll help,’ she said immediately.

  He shook his head. ‘No! You stay put and keep trying to get a signal on the phone while I’m out there, digging.’

  As she was about to protest at his refusal to let her assist he said tightly, ‘Do as I say, will you?’ And she obeyed meekly.

  A short time later he got back behind the wheel but had no luck—the car was still stuck. He groaned as he climbed into the back seat beside her and asked grimly if she’d been able to get a signal.

  When she shook her head Glenn held out his arms and when Emma made no move towards him he said dryly, ‘I don’t bite. I am merely offering body warmth because the car heater doesn’t seem to be working.’

  With a wry smile she went into his hold and as he held her close against his chest, in spite of the snow drifting silently and thickly around the car, she had never felt so safe in her life before. Beside her, Glenn was thinking that it was the first time he had held a woman in his arms since he’d lost Serena and it was arousing all the passions he had kept so tightly under control ever since.

  Because it wasn’t just any member of the opposite sex he was holding close. It was the daughter that Jeremy Chalmers had confessed to having done some great hurt to as he’d been dying, and he, Glenn, would very much like to know what it was.

  ‘So tell me what it was that Jeremy did to you that hurt so much,’ he said gently, when they’d sat in
silence for a while.

  Her face clouded and Glenn thought she was going to refuse, but after a pause she sighed. ‘He had been out drinking and came home late. Then he told me that I would have to move out of the only home I’d ever known. That he was getting married for a second time and that I was not welcome to stay where I had lived all my life,’ Emma said. ‘And when I protested that I was his daughter and didn’t deserve such treatment, he informed me that he was not my father. He had married my lovely mother to give her respectability, and her child—me—a name. And as a final hurtful truth he told me that he had no idea who my father was, that my mother had never told him, so I was a nobody.

  ‘Unable to bear the thought of staying in Glenminster after listening to his nastiness, I left during the night and had no intention of ever returning until you got in touch and brought me back to the place I loved.’

  She turned, looked up at him from the circle of his arms and said softly, ‘I will always bless you for that, Glenn.’

  Emma’s mouth was only an inch or two away. It would be so easy to kiss her, he thought achingly, kiss away the hurts that Jeremy had caused in his spiteful drunkenness, and make love to her in the privacy of the snowbound car.

  Tilting her chin with gentle fingers, he looked down at her upturned face and it was there, the feeling of togetherness that she aroused in him, and letting desire take hold of his senses he kissed her just once long and tenderly, then it was gone, swept away by the happenings of the past that still had him in their grip.

  The mighty wall of water surging towards him that, when it had taken its toll of the holiday resort, had also taken Serena, along with many others, and ever since he’d carried with him the guilt of being spared when she had been lost.

  The torment of the thoughts that wouldn’t allow him to hold Emma any closer was broken by the sound of some sort of vehicle approaching through the swirling white flakes and she cried, ‘It sounds like a truck of some sort, Glenn!’

  Relief washed over him, mixed with regret that he hadn’t taken advantage of the magical moments when he’d held her in his arms, but her safety had to come first and he said, ‘It’s a snow plough, Emma. We might get to the staff party after all if they can pull us out of this drift.’

  At that moment a voice could be heard across the divide between the two vehicles.

  ‘Are you folks OK?’ a voice called. ‘The ambulance crew phoned to say you might have problems getting back to civilisation, so we’re here to clear the way for you to drive back to Glenminster.’

  ‘Yes, we’re fine,’ Glenn told them. ‘But the drifts around the car were getting a bit worrying, so the sooner you can get us moving again the more grateful we will be. We’re so thankful for your help. Where have you come from?’

  ‘We’re from a farm not far away,’ was the reply. ‘The police and local council know I have one of these things and we have an arrangement that I come out to tow folks like you out of the drifts.’ The young guy seated beside him jumped down onto the snow with ropes in his hands and attached them to the front of Glenn’s car. ‘This is my son. He knows what he’s doing. We’ll soon have you free and on your way.’ When the car suddenly lurched forward onto level ground they knew that it wasn’t a vain promise.

  As he thanked them before moving slowly onto the main road that would take them back to the town Glenn said, ‘If ever I can do you a favour you have only to ask.’

  The farmer laughed from high up on the driving seat of the snow plough and said, ‘I could do with something for my indigestion.’

  ‘So shall we see you at the surgery on Monday morning, then?’ Glenn grinned.

  ‘You might,’ was the reply as the man went trundling off into the distance.

  On the way back Glenn was silent. Emma wondered if he was already regretting those moments when they’d been so close, surrounded by drifting snow with the moment to themselves. As if he sensed her thoughts he said, ‘That wasn’t the best drive back, was it?’

  Stung, she replied, ‘I thought that some of it was very pleasant.’

  ‘Yes, maybe,’ he said, ‘but circumstances can sometimes create illusions that are not meant to be.’

  Her house had come into sight and when Glenn stopped the car outside he said, ‘So are you going to the party? There is still time. I’m going as I have no choice. As head of the practice I have to keep putting in an appearance at these sorts of things, but I don’t intend to stay long.’

  ‘Yes, I’m going,’ she told him. ‘I was looking forward to it, but suddenly it has become a chore.’ She felt like telling him that she’d bought a special dress for the occasion, but wouldn’t be wearing it after the way he’d put the dampener on those magical moments in the car.

  ‘That’s good, then,’ he said, ignoring her downbeat comment.

  Without her there the event would mean nothing to him in spite the downturn in his mood.

  As Emma watched him drive off into the night the memory of being in his arms on the back seat of the car was warming her blood, bringing desire again into the moment.

  Yet how crazy had that been, acknowledging their attraction to each other at such a time. The memory came to mind of the Sunday morning when she’d gone to his house to thank him for all that he had done in preparation for her arrival and had asked if he lived alone.

  ‘Yes, I do,’ he’d told her, and had sent her on her way with the feeling that he was a loner and preferred it that way. Since then she had got to know him better and, knowing that he had lost his wife in the most awful circumstances, she decided if she let herself fall in love with a man who still lived in the past she must be crazy.

  * * *

  By the time Lydia arrived to pick her up, Emma had changed her mind about the dress. She would wear it after all. Whatever Glenn thought of their relationship, there was no call for her to dress down because he wasn’t interested in her. She owed it to herself, if no one else, and was determined to enjoy the evening no matter what.

  * * *

  Glenn’s spirits rose as he caught his first glimpse of her coming out of the cloakroom, having dispensed with her warm winter coat. How could he not want her? Emma was special, dark-haired with smooth creamy skin, curves in all the right places, and tonight she looked bewitching in a black dress with silver trimmings. So why couldn’t he tell her he was sorry about what he’d said on the way home from the farm? Why couldn’t he give them both a chance to get to know one another better?

  Yet Glenn found he couldn’t. As their glances held he turned away and went to chat to other staff members who didn’t have the same effect on him as Emma did. As the evening progressed his only communication with her was to ask briefly if she was all right after the snow hazard they’d encountered. Emma’s brief response that she was fine gave him no further encouragement, so he left her chatting to James and wished him miles away.

  Glenn got up to leave after the meal and to say goodbye to Lydia and Emma, who were seated nearby. ‘Why are you going so soon?’ Lydia asked.

  ‘It’s been a long day,’ he said, his smooth tone covering up his turbulent feelings. ‘Has Emma told you we had to be rescued from a snowdrift by a local farmer and his son in their snow plough?’

  ‘Er...no,’ Lydia replied, and he smiled tightly.

  ‘Maybe you didn’t think it worth mentioning,’ he said, turning to where Emma was sitting.

  ‘Some parts of it were and some weren’t,’ she told him quietly, intent on not revealing the hurt of his comments on the way home.

  ‘Ah, yes,’ he said, and looked deep into her eyes. ‘I’m sorry if I offended you, Emma.’

  ‘It’s forgotten,’ she said, and wished it was true. But she had felt hurt and there was no way she wanted that to become common knowledge.

  Glenn left then, striding purposefully towards the door. Heads turned at the sig
ht of his looks and stature and Emma swallowed hard. His leaving felt like another rebuke in her empty life and she wished she had stayed at home and planned the alterations to her house instead.

  ‘What have you done to upset Glenn?’ Lydia asked curiously, breaking into her thoughts.

  ‘Nothing at all,’ she said tightly, and added, in a moment of sheer misery, ‘Why does no one ever want me, Lydia? First there was my unknown father, who can’t have wanted either my mother or me, then Jeremy told me to leave, and now Glenn, who I admire and respect, wants me to keep my distance.’

  ‘I don’t know about the rest of it,’ Lydia said comfortingly, ‘but for some reason Glenn has no wish to settle down, which is a shame because I’ve never seen him look at any other member of our sex like he looks at you. Try not to be too sad, Emma.’

  As she listened to what Lydia had to say she remembered Glenn confiding in her about how he had lost his wife and requesting her not to discuss it with anyone. She couldn’t tell Lydia what she knew so without further comment, when James appeared at her side once more she excused herself and let him take her onto the dance floor just once more. Then she rang for a taxi.

  * * *

  On the way home she did a foolish thing. Instead of letting the taxi driver take her straight home, Emma asked him to drop her off beside the church and beneath the light of a full moon made her way towards the grave, curious to see if any more flowers had been left there.

  As she drew nearer she saw someone standing motionless beside it and increased her pace. But by the time she got there whoever it was had gone and as the quiet night surrounded her once again she looked down at the grave and they were there again, flowers from someone who must have known her mother.

  As Emma walked the short distance to her dismal home she wished that Glenn was by her side and for once her wish was granted. He pulled up beside her from nowhere and without speaking opened the car door for her to get in.

  Once she was seated he asked, ‘Emma, what happened to the taxi that you set off for home in? Lydia rang me to say that you had left the party early too and she was worried about you. So I went round to your place to make sure you were safe and found it in darkness.’