Your house, with you, Emma would have liked to say, but it would seem that thought hadn’t occurred to him, or surely he would have suggested it?
‘I have no idea at the moment,’ she replied. ‘I only learned this afternoon that I had a buyer.’
‘Yes, of course,’ Glenn said. ‘Why don’t I come round and take you to dine somewhere nice to celebrate the occasion? Would you like that, Emma?’
Would she like it? Of course she would! ‘Yes, that would be nice,’ Emma said. ‘I’ll need some time to get ready, though.’
‘How long?’
‘An hour or so. But what about your father, Glenn? Oughtn’t we to go to evening visiting instead?’
‘We’ll go to the hospital first and dine afterwards, if that is all right with you.’
‘Yes, I’d love to do that. Your family are amazing,’ Emma said. ‘I do so envy you, Glenn.’
He wanted to tell Emma about the person in the grey raincoat carrying the flowers, but he was worried that it might spoil their evening. There would be time enough to tell her when he’d eventually found the identity of the mystery donator.
* * *
Emma had dressed with care in a wraparound cream silk dress that enhanced the dark attraction of her hair and eyes, and with complementary jewellery to match and shoes that brought her almost level with Glenn’s height. She surveyed herself before answering his ring on the doorbell. She thought she must be crazy to think there was anything other than mild interest from Glenn. Ever since they’d had to leave Italy he had seemed withdrawn. And yet she still felt compelled to dress with care. Yes, she really must be crazy.
Her efforts, it seemed, did not go unnoticed. When Glenn saw her, there was longing in his glance, tenderness around his mouth and hope was born in her again, briefly. But it faded when he commented that, it being a mild evening, she might not need the jacket she’d brought with her. And in the car as they drove to the hospital there was no closeness, just the same small talk.
* * *
Jonas shot Glenn a questioning look when they appeared and when his son shook his head, the patient tutted his impatience. He reached for a fruit drink that was standing on the locker next to his bed, and as Emma chatted with Olivia, who had come back for evening visiting, Glenn whispered, ‘I’m working on it, Dad. Woe betide anyone wearing a grey raincoat who comes into my line of vision! But it might have to wait until we have another shower. It could be a garment that only comes out in wet weather. And there’s also the fact that it might just be a coincidence. You could have seen someone with the same kind of flowers.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Jonas said, ‘and I’m fidgety. I want to be out of this place to help you find this person, but the doctor says not yet.’
‘A rest for once will do you no harm,’ Glenn told him, ‘and I’ll be in touch the moment I have any news, all right?’
‘Yes. Now, go and enjoy your evening and perhaps you could drop your mother off on the way to wherever you are going.’
‘Of course,’ Glenn said, and thought how fortunate he was to have both of his parents still fit and well, apart from his father’s injuries. Thankfully the fall from the tree hadn’t done too much damage and he was responding satisfactorily to treatment. If only there was a family like his for Emma, where she could feel loved and wanted.
He could give Emma one that was theirs alone if she would only let him, but she needed to know where she came from before that and just who it was who was so interested in her mother’s grave.
* * *
Glenn had booked a table at a restaurant on one of the tasteful shopping promenades that Glenminster was famed for and as they waited to be served, he said, ‘So tell me what your mother was like, Emma. Do you resemble her at all?’
‘No, not in any way,’ she said. ‘Mum was blonde with blue eyes, while my hair is dark and my eyes are hazel. We were of a similar build but that’s the only resemblance. Why do you ask?’
‘Just curiosity, that’s all,’ Glenn said easily. ‘What sort of a job did she have before she had you?’
‘She was secretary to the manager of one of the big banks in Glenminster, but had to give it up when I was born. Jeremy told me on the night I left that she had only married him to gain respectability and to give me a father.’
‘And did you believe him?’
‘It might have been true in one way, but she certainly paid the price for it. He ruled the roost and was prone to remind her frequently how much she was indebted to him, which I didn’t understand at the time because I had no reason to think that he wasn’t my father.’
‘So you really have no idea who your birth father could be? No special friends of your mother’s?’
‘No, I’m afraid not,’ Emma said regretfully. ‘I remember when I was small my mother cried a lot. As I grew older we were very close, like sisters almost, but she never breathed a word. And after she died I jogged along with Jeremy’s fads and fancies, having no idea that he wasn’t my father. Until, as I told you, he wanted to remarry, told me to go, and when I protested, put me well and truly in the picture with such devastating results.’
‘The low-life!’ he gritted. ‘But why didn’t he remarry?’
‘It was Lydia that he wanted to marry, but as soon as she realised how he had treated me she called it off.’
The food they had ordered was being placed in front of them and when Glenn smiled across at her, Emma said, ‘Glenn, why all the questions? Are they why you suggested that we dine out tonight?’
‘Not especially. I was just interested, that’s all, and felt that you know a lot more about me than I do about you.’
‘And does that matter?’ Emma asked.
‘It might do at some time in the future.’
‘Such as...?’
‘There are lots of times when the foundations of our lives are of interest to others.’
Emma gave up on that pronouncement and turned her attention to the food, while Glenn reflected that once he had found out the identity of the visitor to her mother’s grave and presented them to her, he was going to say something to her that was getting to be long overdue. In the meantime just to have her near was absolutely magical.
When they left the restaurant they walked slowly to the car, holding hands beneath an Easter moon, and Emma’s doubts and uncertainties melted away until Glenn pulled up outside her house, kissed her gently on the cheek and said, ‘If I’m not around tomorrow, I’ll see you at the practice on Tuesday.’
‘So you don’t want to come in for a coffee?’ Emma asked.
Glenn shook his head. ‘No, because if I do it will be much more than that I want.’ He drove off into the night without further comment, leaving her to wonder what he could possibly mean.
* * *
It was busy at the practice on the Tuesday morning after the Easter weekend and Glenn had been hoping that he might have had some good news regarding the long grey raincoat to impart to his father. But ever since Jonas had fallen out of the tree the sun hadn’t stopped shining, and there had been no call to ask Emma if she could identify its owner. Besides, Glenn hadn’t wanted to mention it to her yet in the vain hope that he might be able to present a complete answer to the question that was eating at him so much.
Quite a few of the regular patients were missing, having been away for the holiday weekend, and as Glenn drove past the mainline railway station on his way back to the practice after a house call in the late morning he saw a few of them homeward bound, unloading themselves and their luggage from a London train. It was then that he spotted the likeable Alex Mowbray amongst them, and he was wearing a grey belted raincoat.
As Alex went to join the taxi queue outside the station Glenn pulled up beside him and asked if he wanted a lift, and the offer was gratefully accepted.
‘I’ve been to London
a few times over the last couple of months,’ Alex explained, as Glenn pulled away from the pavement, ‘seeing the shows and generally getting to know the place again after a long absence, but it isn’t much fun when one is alone and I’m soon back here in the place I love the most.’
‘There is a lot to be said for family life,’ Glenn said conversationally. ‘I’m fortunate that I still have my parents close by, unlike poor Emma Chalmers—she has no one. Her mother died a few years ago and she has never known who her father is.’
‘I hadn’t realised that,” said Alex. ‘Poor Emma, that’s very sad.’
‘Jeremy Chalmers was Emma’s stepfather, he filled the gap left in Emma and Helena’s lives when Emma’s real father left Helena pregnant, and she never knew the difference. Until in a moment of spite Jeremy enlightened Emma about her true father and she flew the nest to get away from him.’
The colour had drained from the face of the man beside him. ‘You are telling me that I have a daughter, is that it?’ Alex croaked. ‘That I made Helena pregnant on the one and only occasion we made love? It was the night that I was due to leave the UK. I left the next morning to take my sick wife to a gentler climate.
‘Helena and I loved each other deeply but my duty was to the woman that I was married to and it was only when she passed away recently that it felt right for me to come back to Glenminster.
‘But how did you find out about us? I had prayed that I might find Helena still here and was devastated when it was not to be. I have found solace in putting her favourite flowers on her grave. And then I got to know Emma through your father, with no idea she was my daughter. Glenn, take me to her, please, I beg you!’
Glenn smiled. ‘Emma will be busy at the practice at this moment, but if you could wait until tonight I could arrange for the two of you to meet in privacy at my house. It’s thanks to my father I’ve discovered the truth and you have found the daughter you never knew you had.’
‘He saw you walking down the road, carrying cream roses, while he was at the top of a tree, trying to get his cat down. He fell off in his excitement and ended up in hospital. But before he fell he noted the raincoat that you’re wearing.’
‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’ Alex said brokenly. ‘I have been lonely for so long.’
‘Not any more when Emma knows who you are,’ Glenn promised. ‘Seven o’clock at my place?’
‘Yes, absolutely,’ Alex agreed, and as his house came into sight he smiled. ‘This will be Emma’s one day.’
* * *
When Glenn arrived back at the practice he told Emma that he would be entertaining a visitor that evening and hoped that she would join them as they would very much like to meet her. Emma’s spirits plunged downwards as her first thought was that Glenn had found someone to replace Serena and wanted to break it to her gently.
But she dredged up a smile and asked, ‘What time do you want me there?’
‘Is seven o’clock all right?’
‘Yes, that will be fine,’ Emma agreed, and went back to her patients with the thought uppermost in her mind that whatever he had in store for her she would not let him see tears.
When she arrived at the stated time she saw a car on the drive next to his that looked familiar, though she wasn’t sure why. Although why it really mattered when she had to get through the evening she didn’t know. The sooner this ordeal was over the better.
When Glenn opened the door to her he was smiling, and as she stepped inside he said, ‘Someone is waiting to be introduced to you, Emma.’ But as she followed him into the sitting room the only person present was Alex Mowbray, who was beaming across at her, and after greeting him she turned to Glenn and said, ‘I don’t understand. I already know Alex. We are good friends.’
‘Er...yes, you do know him,’ he agreed. ‘You know him as a friend, but Alex is something else as well that you have no idea of. So I’m going to leave him to tell you what that is.’ As Emma gazed at him in bewilderment he left them alone with each other and closed the door behind him.
When Glenn had gone, Alex pointed to the sofa and said gently, ‘Come and sit by me, Emma, while I tell you something that is wonderful and amazing.’ She did as Alex asked, observing him in puzzlement, and he continued, ‘I have discovered today from Glenn that we are not just good friends, you and I, but we are also blood relations.’
‘How can that be?’ Emma asked in amazement. ‘I have no family, Alex, none at all.’
‘Yes, you have,’ Alex said gently. ‘Your mother and I loved each other very much, but I had a sick wife I was committed to and Helena and I knew that nothing could come of our love for each other. But on the night before I left this country with my wife, your mother and I slept together.
‘I must have made her pregnant, and in keeping with the vows we’d made never to see each other again she didn’t get in touch to tell me what had happened. Never betrayed the vow we’d made to keep our love for each other secret for my wife’s sake, and it was only today, when Glenn gave me a lift from the station, that my life became worth living again.
‘When my wife died only a few months ago I came straight here, but saw the grave and knew I was too late to be with Helena. So I resorted to putting cream roses, her favourite flowers, on it, and would have continued to do so if Glenn’s father hadn’t seen me on my way there on Good Friday with more flowers. So can you accept me as your father, Emma, someone who will love and cherish you always?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said tearfully. ‘I have been so lonely, and I liked you from the moment that we met, but never dreamt that we might be related. We have Glenn to thank for this.’
‘And my dad, don’t forget,’ Glenn said, as he came in with flutes of champagne. ‘There will be no holding him down after this. So shall we drink to Alex being one of the family and there to give you away, as fathers do, on our wedding day?’
‘Yes, please,’ she said softly, as all her doubts and fears disappeared, and as they raised their glasses the father that Emma had never known wiped a tear from his eye.
* * *
After Alex had gone, quietly radiant, and they were settled in front of the fire, holding hands, Emma said, ‘I’ve thought since we came back from Italy that you were relieved to have an escape route in the form of your father’s accident presenting itself to avoid spending time with me, and I am so ashamed.’
‘Don’t be,’ Glenn said gently. ‘It was perfectly understandable. The words have been on my lips constantly but I made myself wait until I’d solved the puzzle of the flowers. I can’t believe what a wonderful solution it turned out to be.’
‘I will never forget that you gave me a family,’ Emma said softly, ‘and one day hopefully there will be another one, yours and mine, to gladden the hearts of their grandparents. Serena if we have a girl child and Jonas for a boy?’
‘Yes, please,’ Glenn said, with his arms around her, holding her close in what felt like the safest place on earth. ‘And I have some more news concerning Dad. Mum rang earlier to say that he has been discharged from the hospital. They let her take him home with her after this evening’s visiting.
‘Shall we go round there and tell them the good news that Alex is going to be part of the family for evermore, and that one day they may be granted their greatest wish of the patter of tiny feet all around them?’
‘Yes,’ Emma said joyfully. ‘Your father deserves to hear something good after what happened to him, and your mother will be delighted to know that you and I love each other, and that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together.’
‘You came out of nowhere and captured my heart, brought me joy out of sadness at Christmastime,’ Glenn told her. ‘Would you be prepared to wait until it comes round again for a Christmas wedding?’
‘Yes, that would be lovely,’ Emma said without hesitation, smiling up at hi
m with the promise of all the happiness to come in her bright hazel gaze, ‘just as long as I can live here with you from this day on, which is something I’ve always wanted.’
‘That goes without saying,’ he said tenderly. ‘Where else would I want you to be but in my home, in my heart?’
* * *
When his parents had heard all their news, they rejoiced to hear that not only was Alex Emma’s father but he would be at the engagement party that the two doctors were planning on having with family, friends and the practice staff in the near future. It seemed that Jonas’s glimpse of him before the branch had given way had provided the answer to the mystery of the cream roses, and in spite of his injuries he was a very happy man.
* * *
Emma and Glenn had decided to hold their engagement party at Glenn’s house with outside caterers in charge of refreshments. When they went into work the next day they amazed everyone except Lydia by announcing their engagement and inviting them to celebrate it with them some time in the near future. For the rest of the day it was the main topic of conversation.
That evening, wanting to have all ends tied up of what was going to be one of the happiest times of his life, Glenn said, ‘What kind of a ring would you like, Emma? Something other than that ill-fated solitaire diamond that I made such a hash of when I produced it?’
Emma smiled across at him. ‘I would like the diamond if you still have it,’ she said softly. When Glenn looked at her in surprise she added, ‘I have realised since that the way you explained it when you offered it to me was because you cared about me, and needed to make me see how much you would never want to let your painful past hurt me as it hurts you. I misjudged you, Glenn. So if you still have it, that is the ring I would like to wear.’
‘You are incredible,’ he said gently, ‘and, yes, I have still got it in a drawer in my bedroom, so shall I go and get it?’
‘Yes, please,’ Emma told him, happy that the dark moment from the past was turning into a joyful one, and when Glenn took her hand and placed the sparkling ring on her finger, there was brightness all around them.
His Christmas Bride-To-Be (Medical Romance) Page 13