Just a few weeks ago it would have been a dream, now it was a reality, a reality where Georgina still loved him, they had a son, and they were going to live in this gorgeous house.
James had been round to the cottage to see Arran and to discuss Georgina’s future role at the surgery and they had come to a decision that she was going to take the full maternity leave and then would return part time if a suitable arrangement could be made regarding Arran’s care during those hours.
In the meantime, it would leave James and David Tremayne as full-time doctors, and Ben would be able to go back to paediatrics.
* * *
When Edwina Crabtree, bellringer in chief, heard that there was to be a wedding in the village very soon and that the two participants were Dr Adams and the ex-husband she’d produced from nowhere, she nodded approvingly. They now had a child and if there was one thing that Edwina liked to see it was all loose ends tied up neatly.
In her own staid way she liked Georgina Adams— soon to be Allardyceonce more. Dr Adams was always kind and tactful when she was forced to consult her and in honour of the occasion, she was going to see that the bells pealed out across Willowmere on her wedding day more joyously than they’d ever done before.
An invitation to the wedding reception at The Meadows had mellowed Edwina even more until she discovered that she wasn’t the only one to receive such a thing, that half the village had been invited.
Unaware of the prim campanologist’s good feelings towards them, Georgina and Ben were making their preparations for a second taking of their marriage vows.
Pollyanna was to be the only bridesmaid and was being quite blasé about the occasion, saying that she didn’t want pink again as it was what she’d worn as a bridesmaid not so long ago to her aunt Anna, now far away in Africa. So a pretty dress of pale green had been produced and she was delighted.
Nicholas was due any time from Texas to do the double act of best man and godfather at Arran’s christening, which was to take place shortly before the wedding, and when she heard about that arrangement, Edwina was positively beaming.
For Georgina and Ben the days were filled with tenderness and contentment and it was all going to come together in the village church, the two ceremonies that would set the seal on the future that they’d thought they would never have.
The christening was in the morning and the wedding was in the afternoon. Those present were just Clare and Nicholas, as godparents, and Georgina and Ben in the church that was decked out with flowers for the wedding later.
As they each made their vows with regard to the tiny child in his godmother’s arms there was a feeling of timelessness around them in the old stone church, of baptisms, weddings and funerals, some recent, others long gone.
When the vicar took the baby from Clare, dipped his fingers into the baptismal font and christened him Arran Benjamin, there were tears on his mother’s lashes.
On seeing them, his father took her hand in his and held it tightly because he knew from where they came. They had another son, absent but cherished beyond belief, and one day they would tell Arran about his brother.
The moment had passed. The baptism was over and Arran was back in his mother’s arms as they made their way outside and proceeded to Georgina’s cottage where the four of them would remain until it was time to get dressed for the wedding.
As they ate a snack lunch the church bells were pealing triumphantly across Willowmere and Ben said, ‘Surely that can’t be for us!’
‘I believe it is,’ Clare told him. ‘Edwina and her friends are in fine fettle today.’
They were going to use the same ring as before, which had never been off Georgina’s finger since the occasion when Ben had placed it there. Today it was safely in Nicholas’s pocket but would soon be back where it belonged.
When Georgina came slowly down the stairs some time later, beautiful in a calf-length dress of oyster silk that emphasised her dark eyes and hair, she was carrying beautiful flowers from the garden of the house that would soon be their home.
Ben was waiting for her at the bottom step in his own wedding finery and when he opened his arms, she went into them like a ship into harbour… And the wedding bells continued to swing high in the bell tower as they pealed out for two people who had once lost their way and were about to be united in the love that had been mislaid rather than lost.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2009
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Abigail Gordon 2009
ISBN: 9781408909089
A Baby for the Village Doctor Page 15