A Baby for the Village Doctor

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘And what about you?’ he asked with a smile. ‘How are you today, Georgina? You’re very pale. Is the baby behaving itself?’

  She managed a grimace of a smile. Apart from Beth, the remaining practice nurse, James was the only one who ever mentioned her pregnancy. Everyone observed a lot, but no one actually said anything outright and she wondered just how curious the locals were about her pregnancy.

  With regard to herself, she’d been coping just as long as she didn’t let her mind travel back to that afternoon in the sitting room of the house where she’d once known such happiness. But that frail cocoon had been torn apart just an hour ago when Ben had appeared and discovered why she’d wanted to talk to him.

  James, in his caring way, had noted that she wasn’t her usual self and suddenly she knew that she had to tell someone what had happened before she’d arrived at the surgery. She couldn’t keep her life under wraps any longer if Ben was going to be around.

  ‘My ex-husband turned up this morning,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I didn’t know which of us was the most dumbfounded, though for different reasons. I had no idea he was coming, and on his part he had no idea I was pregnant.’

  ‘Poor you!’ James exclaimed. ‘How long is it since you saw him?’

  ‘It had been three years, until we met unexpectedly eight months ago.’

  ‘And you are about eight months pregnant,’ he said slowly.

  ‘Yes,’ she agreed flatly, ‘the baby is his.’

  ‘And what does he think about that?’

  ‘He is delighted.’

  ‘So is that good?’

  ‘It might have been once.’

  ‘I see. Well, Georgina, I don’t want to pry into your affairs, but I’m here if you need me. Obviously you have a lot on your mind. Do you want to take the day off?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, thanks, James. I need to keep myself occupied. I will remember what you’ve just said. You are a true friend.’ And before she burst into humiliating tears, she went to start another day at the village practice.

  ‘By the way,’ he called after her as she went towards her room, ‘St Gabriel’s have phoned with appointments for Christine Quarmby. The neurologist will see her on Thursday and the rheumatologist the following day.’

  She paused. ‘That’s brilliant. I pulled a few strings and it seems that it worked. I’m very concerned about Christine. I just hope my fears for her aren’t realised. On a happier note, have you heard from Anna and Glenn yet?’

  ‘Yes. They’ve arrived safely and are already working hard.’ James filled her in on Anna and Glenn’s assignment before she went to her room and called in her first patient of the day, grateful to have her mind taken off the shock of seeing Ben again.

  The day progressed along its usual lines, with Beth still managing but relieved to know that a replacement for Anna had been found. The two nurses had been great friends and Anna had been delighted when James had taken on Beth’s daughter, Jess, as nanny for his two young children.

  The children were fond of Jess. Aware that she was going to be missing from their lives for the first time since they’d been born, Anna had been happy to know before she’d left Willowmere that the arrangement was working satisfactorily.

  Georgina’s second patient was Edwina Crabtree. She was one of the bellringers in Willowmere who helped send the bells high in the church tower pealing out across the village on Sunday mornings and at weddings and funerals, but it wasn’t her favourite pastime that she’d come to discuss with her doctor

  ‘So what can I do for you, Miss Crabtree?’ Georgina asked the smartly dressed campanologist, who always observed her more critically than most when their paths crossed. She had a feeling that Edwina had her catalogued as a loose woman as she was pregnant with no man around, and thought wryly that loose was the last word to describe her.

  She was tied to the past, to a small fair-haired boy who hadn’t seen danger when it had been there, and ‘tied’ to the man who had been hurting so much at the time that he’d become a stranger instead of a rock to hold on to.

  Edwina was in full spate and, putting her own thoughts to one side, Georgina tuned into what she was saying, otherwise the other woman was going to have her labelled incompetent, as well as feckless.

  ‘The side of my neck is bothering me,’ she was explaining, ‘just below my ear. I didn’t take much notice at first but the feeling has been there for quite some time and I decided I ought to have it looked at.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Georgina told her. After examining her neck carefully and checking eyes, ears and throat, she asked, ‘Do you ever get indigestion?’

  ‘All the time,’ she replied stiffly, ‘but surely it can’t be connected with that. I thought you would just give me some antibiotics.’

  ‘Before anything else I want you to have the tests and we’ll take it from there, Miss Crabtree. If you are clear of the stomach infection, it will be a matter of looking elsewhere for the neck problem, but we’ll deal with that when we get to it.’

  When she’d gone, looking somewhat chastened, Georgina sighed. Oh, for a simple case of lumbago or athlete’s foot, she thought. Edwina Crabtree had the symptoms of Helicobacter pylori, bacteria in the stomach that created excess acid and could cause peptic ulcers and swellings like the one in the bellringer’s neck.

  Christine Quarmby, on the other hand, had all the signs of Sjögren’s syndrome, an illness with just as strange a name but far more serious, and she was beginning to wonder what strange ailment she was going to be consulted on next.

  Willow Lake, a local beauty spot, was basking in the shafts of a spring sun behind the hedgerows as Georgina drove to her first housecall later in the morning, and she thought how the village, with its peace and tranquillity, had done much to help her find sanity in the mess that her life had become.

  As the months had become years she’d expected that one day Nicholas would inform her that Ben had found someone else and it would bring closure once and for all, but she’d been spared that last hurt, and now incredibly he seemed determined to come back into her life. She couldn’t help wondering if he would feel the same if she wasn’t pregnant.

  Robert Ingram owned the biggest of Willowmere’s two estate agencies and he had asked for a home visit to his small daughter, Sophie. The request had been received shortly after morning surgery had finished and Georgina was making it her first call.

  Apparently Sophie had developed a temperature during the night and a rash was appearing in small red clusters behind her ears, under her armpits and in her mouth.

  From her father’s description the rash was nothing like the dreaded red blotches of meningitis, but she wasn’t wasting any time in getting to the young patient. She never took chances with anyone she was called on to treat, and children least of all.

  When Alison, Robert’s wife, took her up to the spacious flat above the business Georgina found the little girl to be hot and fretful and the rash that her father had described was beginning to appear in other places besides the ones he’d mentioned.

  ‘It’s chickenpox,’ she announced when she’d had a close look at the spots. ‘Have you had any experience of it before, Mrs Ingram?’

  ‘Yes. I had it when I was young,’ Alison replied. ‘My mother had me wearing gloves to stop me from scratching when the spots turned to blisters.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Georgina agreed, ‘or alternatively keep Sophie’s nails very short, and dab the rash with calamine lotion. She should be feeling better once they’ve all come to the surface, and in the meantime give her paracetamol if the raised temperature persists. Has Sophie started school yet?’

  ‘She goes to nursery school twice each week and is due to start in the main stream in September,’ her mother replied.

  ‘We’ve had a few cases of chickenpox over the last couple of weeks,’ Georgina informed her, ‘so the infection is with us, it would seem. Sophie should be fine in a few days, but if there is anything at all that you are concern
ed about, send for me straight away.’ She gave a reassuring smile to the anxious mother. ‘I’ll see myself out.’

  When she went downstairs into the shop area she told Robert Ingram, ‘I’m afraid that Sophie has got chickenpox, Mr Ingram. The rash is appearing quite quickly and she will feel much better when it is all out. But I’ve told your wife if either of you have any worries about her, don’t hesitate to send for me.’

  He nodded. ‘Thanks, Doctor. I’m relieved that it is nothing more serious.’ And they both knew what had been in his mind.

  As she was about to leave, Robert didn’t mention that he’d had someone in earlier, arranging to rent the cottage next door to hers for a minimum period of six months. He thought that Georgina would surely feel happier if the other property was occupied, as they were the only two buildings on Partridge Lane.

  As he’d watched her drive off that morning Ben had felt shock waves washing over him. How could Georgina have waited so long to tell him that they were going to be parents again? he’d thought dismally. Yet knew the answer even as he asked himself the question.

  Georgina had been the butt of his grief and despair when they’d lost Jamie and it would seem she hadn’t been prepared to risk a repeat performance by letting him into her life again when they were going to have another child.

  He’d felt as if his heart had been cut out when it had happened all that time ago, and if anyone had dared tell him that time was a great healer, he’d turned on them angrily. Now he knew that it was so. The pain was still there, but instead of being raw it was a dull ache and there were actually days when he managed not to think about it.

  He didn’t know how Georgina had coped over the last three years. When the divorce had come through and she’d disappeared out of his life, the shock of it had brought him to his senses, but not to the extent that he’d done anything about it because he’d been gutted at the way he’d treated her.

  Then, unbelievably, they’d met in the cemetery. So what had he done? Without a word of remorse he’d made love to her, and ever since had wanted to tell her all the things he’d never said then.

  He’d known that Nicholas knew where she was, that he always stayed with Georgina for part of the time when he was over from the States. Yet until then he’d never tried to persuade him to disclose her whereabouts.

  But after that everything had changed, and he’d badgered his young brother for the information with no success.

  Now here he was, in the place where she lived, because Georgina had written to him. But if the reception he’d just got was anything to go by, a happy reunion wasn’t on the cards.

  It was a sombre thought, but it didn’t stop him from calling in at the estate agent and making arrangements to rent the cottage next to hers. After he’d collected his things from the Pheasant, he set off on the long drive back to London.

  The afternoon seemed endless to Georgina as patients attending the second surgery of the day came and went, and when at last it was time to go, James said, ‘I never finished telling you about the new practice nurse. Her name is Gillian Jarvis and she is free to start immediately. I’m expecting her tomorrow morning.

  ‘Her husband has just taken on the position of Lord Derringham’s estate manager and like the Quarmbys they’ll be living in a grace-and-favour house on the estate. She has a teenage girl at sixth-form college and a younger boy who will attend the village school. The family have moved up north from the Midlands where Gillian was also a practice nurse.

  ‘I’m relieved that is sorted, but we still need someone to replace Glenn either full or part time. However, I suppose we can hang on for a while until the right person comes along,’ he said, as he made everywhere secure before they left.

  James was aware that she was only half listening and asked, ‘Are you going to introduce me to your ex-husband, or will you both still be separate items?’

  ‘Yes and no,’ she told him. ‘Ben has gone back to London, but he intends to return. I don’t know where he’s going to stay, and neither do I know how he’s going to fill his time. But he told me that with regard to work, he’s a free agent, and he needs a break. He also said that he’s going to be there for the birth and afterwards.’

  And how could she object? It was his child as much as hers. But it wouldn’t be like it had been with Jamie. They’d been a family, a happy threesome, wrapped around with love. This time it would be two separate families. Mother and child as one of them, and father with his child the other.

  James was observing her sympathetically and she smiled sadly. ‘I’m sure you’ll meet him soon.’

  What she’d said to James was still uppermost in her mind as Georgina took her evening stroll later that day. Her baby was going to know its father, as she didn’t doubt for a moment that Ben would be back. He’d made that crystal clear. It would be as an older, more sombre version of the husband she’d adored, but a loving father nevertheless.

  As she’d told James, she didn’t know where he was going to stay. But it couldn’t be with her. They might be about to start a new family, but it didn’t mean she was going to accept that as a reason for pretending anything that wasn’t there.

  When she turned to wend her homeward way in the quiet evening the silence was broken by a train en route for the city, travelling across the aqueduct high above the river. Once it had gone there was peace once more down below, and a fisherman engaged in one of the quietest of sporting activities cast his rod over the dancing water.

  * * *

  It was two days later. Georgina had done some shopping in the village on her way home—meat from the butcher’s, fresh bread and vegetables from the baker’s and greengrocer’s—and as was her custom, she went straight through to the kitchen to start preparing the food.

  When she glanced through the window, her eyes widened. Ben was mending a gap in the fence between the two cottages, and as if conscious that he was being watched, he looked up and with hammer in hand gave a casual wave then carried on with what he was doing.

  She drew back out of sight and hurried to the front of the house. Surely enough, the ‘To Let’ sign had been replaced on the cottage next door to one that said ‘Let by Robert Ingram’.

  Ben had never been in the habit of doing things by halves, she thought as she leaned limply against the doorpost. It was one of the reasons why he was so successful in his career. But this time he’d excelled himself.

  Not only had he come to live in her village, but he’d taken up residence almost on her doorstep. Obviously he wasn’t intending to miss anything that concerned his pregnant wife and the child she was carrying.

  Maybe repairing the gap in the fence was an indication that though he’d sought her out he was going to stay on his own side of the fence, or perhaps on discovering that she was pregnant his interest had moved from mother to child, and until it was born he would be keeping his distance. If either of those things were in his mind, shouldn’t she be relieved?

  Contrary to all the thoughts that had been going through her mind since they’d met at her gate, she went out into the garden and, leaning over the fence, said stiffly, ‘I’ve bought steaks and fresh vegetables and it’s just as easy to cook for two as for one. It will be ready in about half an hour if you want to join me.’

  He paused in the act of hammering a nail in and looking up, said, ‘Er…thanks for the offer, but I’ve been shopping myself and have a lasagne in the oven.’ He hesitated. ‘It’s big enough for two. It would save you cooking after a busy day at the practice.’

  Taken aback by the suggestion, she gazed at him blankly and he groaned inwardly. After the other day’s chilly welcome, he had promised himself that now he was established in the village he would take it slowly with Georgina. Keep in the background but be there if he was needed. So what was he doing?

  ‘I only made the suggestion because I’ve had cause to discover that it’s no joke coming home to an empty house and having to start cooking after working all day,’ he said into the silence.
‘At one time I was keeping the fast-food counters in the stores going, but that didn’t last.’

  His kitchen door was open. She could smell the food cooking and told herself that Ben asking her to dine with him was no different than her asking him over. They were both doing it out of politeness. It didn’t mean anything.

  ‘Yes, all right,’ she agreed. ‘How long before we eat?’

  ‘Twenty minutes, if that’s OK?’

  ‘Yes. It will give me time to shower away the day and change into some comfortable clothes.’ Turning, she went back inside with the feeling that she was making a big mistake.

  CHAPTER THREE

  WHEN Ben opened the door to her twenty minutes later, Georgina stepped into a bare, newly decorated hall that could only be described as stark. When he showed her into the sitting room, it was the same, and a vision of their London house came to mind, spacious, expensively furnished, in the leafy square not far from the park where she’d taken Jamie that day.

  Yet Ben was prepared to live in this soulless place and she wondered what was in his mind. He was going to be involved, come what may, but their marriage had foundered long ago. It had hit rock bottom and wasn’t going to rise out of the ashes because they’d made a child.

  But that occasion had been the forerunner of an unexpected chain of events that had brought him back into her life. Not because he’d known about the baby. That had really rocked him on his feet. He’d come in reply to her letter. Curious, no doubt, to find his ex-wife surfacing from her hidey-hole.

  ‘What?’ he asked, observing her expression.

  ‘This place must seem rather basic after our house in London.’

  ‘It’s adequate,’ he said dryly. ‘I long since ceased to notice the delights of that place.’ He pointed to a small dining area of the same standard as the rest of the house. ‘If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll dish out the food.’