His Perfect Bride?

by Louisa Heaton

  ‘Blonde? It’s not a list of physical attributes. What kind of chauvinistic, shallow man do you take me for?’ He was amused.

  ‘So what is on your list?’

  He let out a big sigh. ‘Kindness, dedication, loyalty, a love of family, a desire to have children…’

  ‘Ah, you can strike me off the list, then.’

  ‘You don’t want a family?’ He was surprised. He could imagine Lula with children. She was just the sort to engage young children and he could imagine them being delighted by her, with her crazy hair and fairy-like features.

  ‘I can’t have a family, Olly. The chemo…it left me infertile.’

  Her voice trailed away and he looked at her and saw her head droop. He’d never seen her look so low. It just wasn’t Lula at all. Lula was bright and full of energy—not quiet or sad.

  Her answer silenced him for a while. He couldn’t imagine never having children. Or being told he couldn’t. He hoped they were going to be a big part of his life. Technically, once he had had a child for a little while, even though it hadn’t been born.

  ‘I didn’t know. I’m sorry.’

  ‘You weren’t to know. Besides…you’re the first person I’ve ever told that to.’

  He glanced at her quickly—these roads were full of S bends. ‘I’m glad you felt you could. I’m really sorry, Lula.’

  Olly had counselled people who’d come into his surgery because they couldn’t have children, and he’d always had something to say to them. Why couldn’t he find the exact right words for Lula? Was it different because she was a colleague?

  It has to be. It’s not because she’s not my type.

  ‘You don’t have to apologize. It’s not your fault.’

  ‘Still…it’s a big part of life that’s being denied to you. You must have felt upset when you were told?’ He knew how upset he’d been when Rachel had told him what she’d done…

  ‘I was still a child when I found out. It didn’t matter much to me then. It didn’t seem a big deal.’ She shrugged.

  ‘And now?’ He really wanted to know.

  ‘And now I can’t let it bother me. I fill my life with other things.’

  He smiled. ‘Rats and spiders?’

  ‘Rats are very intelligent creatures.’

  ‘And spiders?’

  She laughed. ‘Are more of a challenge.’

  Olly turned into Lula’s road and pulled up outside Moonrose Cottage. It looked mystical in the moonlight. An old, thatched cottage covered in snow like a frosting of thick icing sugar.

  Lula couldn’t wait to get inside, switch on the lights and draw up a fire. ‘Are you coming in? I could make hot chocolate.’

  He thought about it for a minute. He didn’t want to impose—she’d barely been in the village five minutes and he felt he’d occupied more than enough of her time already. He was about to turn her down, but there was something about her that he couldn’t resist.

  ‘Sounds great—thanks.’

  Lula was definitely not the type of woman he would normally go for. All his previous romantic interludes had been with fellow medics who were rather strait-laced and ‘normal’. Nothing like Lula. His longest relationship had been with Rachel, and that had been years ago and an utter disaster.

  Lula was so far out of ‘normal’ she was practically an alien from outer space! But he was fascinated by her. By her diminutive size, which made him want to put his arms around her and protect her, and the way the colours in her hair blended so beautifully it was like looking at a mystical rainbow. And those large brown eyes…like pools of chocolate he could dive into…

  Calm yourself, Olly! Remember she’s not your type!

  Inside, he helped her light a fire and soon its crackling warmth filled the small room. They sat before it, enveloping their mugs of hot chocolate with their hands and staring at the leaping flames.

  ‘Eventful day…’ he said.

  Lula nodded. ‘Are all English villages this exciting, do you think?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so. It’s just got this way since you’ve arrived. You know, I don’t think I’ve had so many patients visit the surgery, just to see you. You’ve really brightened up their lives since they did that belly-dancing class of yours, and they can’t wait for the next one.’

  ‘I’m glad.’ She smiled.

  ‘You’re a breath of fresh air.’ He coloured as soon as he’d said it and sipped from his hot chocolate to cover his embarrassment.

  Lula glanced at him, nodding at the compliment but wondering if it was the kind of fresh air that Olly needed? He needed something, the way he was, stuck in his ways.

  ‘Thank you. I try to be.’

  He glanced over at her. ‘Why do you do it?’

  She was confused by his question. ‘Do what?’

  ‘Belly dancing? I mean, you’re good at it—don’t get me wrong—but what made you choose to do it?’

  ‘It was fun, it was different. I thought it suited me.’

  Yes, she was definitely different—he had to give her that. For the first time that day he noticed that her delicate fingernails were all painted different colours. Red, pink, pale blue, peppermint-green and lilac. There was even a tiny tattoo on her ring finger of a bat.

  A bat!

  He smiled to himself and shook his head. She was unbelievable. Normally he would have said that he didn’t like to see tattoos on women. He was quite traditional in that sense, and had always associated tattoos with men, but on Lula they were different. She managed to make them look amazing—tiny pieces of artwork, splashes of colour in intriguing places, making him want to know if there were any other tattoos on her body that he couldn’t currently see.

  Not that he would ask her, he thought, his face flushing again at the thought of slowly peeling away her clothes to reveal a veritable teasing trail of tattoos.

  He stood up abruptly, clearing his throat. ‘I ought to go. Leave you to your rats and spider.’

  ‘Are you on call?’

  ‘No, Dad’s covering tonight.’

  ‘I like your father. He seems a good man.’ She looked up at him, her face glowing in the reflection from the warm fire.

  Olly nodded. ‘He is.’ This was better. His father was a safer topic.

  ‘What happened? With your mum? You don’t mention her.’

  What could he say? That he had no memories of her—only the stories that his father told about the amazing woman that Olly struggled to recall? How it hurt to admit that he didn’t remember how it had felt to cuddle her, what she’d sounded like, what she’d smelt like?

  He sank back down onto the edge of the sofa. ‘She died when I was two.’

  ‘I’m so sorry. I know what it’s like not to have a mother. Your real mother, anyway.’

  She looked it, too. Truly sorry.

  ‘That’s okay. It was a tragic accident. No one could have done anything about it.’

  ‘Do you remember her at all?’

  He shook his head. ‘No. But my father tells me about her, and we’ve got lots of photos and some family videos. There’s one of me and her lying on a picnic blanket, facing each other. She’s laughing and smiling and beaming at me with such joy and pride on her face…’ The memory of the picture, describing it to Lula, hurt. Olly cleared his throat. ‘Dad loved her very much.’

  ‘I’m glad. Though not that you lost her. In a way, I guess it means you had something missing from your childhood, too?’

  Olly nodded. Definitely. He’d always been aware that there was a giant mother-shaped hole in his childhood. During his schooldays he’d hated the times when everyone but him had made cards or gifts for Mother’s Day. Or when only his father turned up for assemblies or sports days or parents’ evenings. When he was still small he’d used to imagine what it must be like to snuggle up to a mother at bedtime. Or to have one stroke his fevered brow when he was sick. To spoil him a bit.

  His father had been good at dismissing a lot of his childhood illnesses: ‘It’s jus
t a cold’ or ‘It’s just a tummy bug’. He’d done his best, though, occasionally sitting on the edge of Olly’s bed when he was poorly, but it had always been hard for him to switch from ‘doctor mode’ to ‘father mode’.

  ‘I guess so.’

  Stuck for something to break the tension, he handed her his mug and thanked her for the hot chocolate.

  She walked him to the front door, opened it. He walked out into the snow, his footsteps crunching on its crispy surface. He turned to say goodbye.

  ‘Thank you for your help today, Olly.’

  ‘It was nothing.’ He smiled.

  ‘No, I mean it. You’ve really been so kind about me taking your grandmother’s cottage and putting my little zoo in it. I appreciate they must have been a shock.’

  He looked deeply into her warm brown eyes. ‘I’m learning to expect the unexpected with you, Lula. Don’t worry.’

  She smiled, then leaned forward to stand on tiptoe and peck him on the cheek.

  As her lips brushed against his face he froze, his eyes closing in surprised delight at the feel of her soft, warm lips against his skin. Close up, he could smell her slight perfume, but couldn’t identify it. Whatever it was, it was delightful. Summery and warm. A hint of jasmine…?

  Quickly he regained control of himself, knowing he probably looked a bit idiotic with his eyes closed, inhaling her scent like a kid on a gravy advert. Flushing, he stepped back further into the snow and wished her goodnight, his heart sinking as she closed the door and he was no longer exposed to the warmth and light of the cottage.

  Olly trudged back to his four-wheel drive, his thoughts as deep as the snow.

  What was going on?

  Am I developing feelings for Lula? I can’t be… She’s…what? Different? Quirky? No. She’s beautiful—that’s what she is. Inside and out.

  *

  Lula closed the cottage door and touched her lips with her fingers. They were still tingling from the kiss and she was shocked. It had only been meant as a goodnight kiss, a thank-you kiss. It hadn’t been meant as anything else.

  So why did it feel like something else?

  I like Olly. He’s lovely, yes. But…

  She wasn’t here to start a relationship.

  He can be my friend, but that’s got to be all.

  It would be too complicated if she allowed a relationship to start up—and with Olly, of all people! He was her colleague. In a small village practice. It couldn’t develop into anything. He’d already told her that he wanted to have children, and she couldn’t have them, so… No. She couldn’t pursue anything with Olly.

  But he’s so delicious!

  No, Lula. Behave yourself…

  She groaned and took the mugs into the kitchen. She stared out of the window into the white expanse of the still garden. She put the mugs in the sink and saw Anubis in his tank. Sighing, she took a step closer and slowly lifted off the lid.

  All I’ve got to do is put my hand in.

  Just reach out.

  That’s not hard, is it?

  But her hands stayed where they were. It was still too scary.

  She closed the lid, shivering as Anubis stretched out one long hairy leg and began to move.

  ‘Time for bed, I think.’

  Lula switched off the lights and then spent many hours staring at the roof of her bedroom ceiling, lost in thought.

  *

  Olly sat at his kitchen table, holding a mug of cold tea and staring into space. Lula had only been here a short while and yet he felt she’d begun to turn his ordered life upside down and inside out.

  He felt uncomfortable with it. The last time he’d been thrown upside down with his thoughts had been after Rachel had left. When he’d discovered what she’d done…

  Lula isn’t anything like Rachel.

  Lula’s attitude to life was so refreshing. She believed in challenging herself, facing her fears, stepping out of the ruts and taking risks. She followed her heart. But she wasn’t whimsical or wishy-washy. She had a purpose, she had fun and she was extremely intelligent.

  And he was attracted to her.

  Simple as that, really, and that scared him. She was nothing like his perfect woman. Or the vision of a perfect woman he’d stupidly concocted in his infamous list. He’d never expected to be intrigued by a woman with tattoos and multicoloured hair. He’d always thought he’d be the type to fall for a regular woman, with normal hair and her only body decoration being a sedate pair of earrings, perhaps a ring or two. A woman who wore suits to work, who drove a sensible car. A woman with class.

  Lula has class.

  Was it her differences that intrigued him? Was it the fact that she was so unique and so unlike anyone he’d ever met before that made him unable to help gravitating towards her?

  No. It was more than that.

  He felt different when he was with her. He couldn’t explain it. It was as if he was seeing life differently. Through her eyes the world was a place of wonder and possibility again, rather than a world of…what?

  Beige. That was what. Lula was right about him. Perhaps he had been stuck in his rut for too long? That thing with Rachel had forced him into it even more. Perhaps he did need his world to be shaken up?

  Was Lula the woman to do it?

  Did he want her to?

  Olly got up and threw his tea down the sink, rinsed out his mug and left it on the drainer, staring into the snow through his kitchen window.

  He did want her to. But he was worried about letting go of who he was. Would he lose himself? Would he lose the respect of others if he let go and went wild for a bit?

  I’m a doctor. A GP. I’m meant to be sensible. People rely on that sensibility.

  He’d always been strait-laced. Run of the mill. Down to earth. He’d always thought that was an attractive quality. That people liked to know where they were with him. That he wasn’t unpredictable.

  But hearing Lula’s story—hearing how her life had been, all the challenges she’d faced—had made him look twice at himself.

  What challenges had he had to face? Just two. The death of his mother and the loss of Rachel and the baby. The one she’d never told him about. And it hadn’t been an accidental loss, either…

  Even so, regarding his mum, he’d been too young to feel the grief of what the loss of her had actually meant. He’d never known her—not really. He only knew what his dad had told him about her. What a wonderful woman she’d been and how in love with her his dad had been.

  And Rachel…? He’d blundered wholeheartedly into a relationship with her, expecting it to be exactly like his father’s with his mother. He’d assumed Rachel would be the same type of woman as his mother. Someone perhaps looking for family the way he was? Dedicated to him.

  Only it hadn’t happened that way, had it?

  Rachel had been so many things, but none of those that he’d expected. She’d not been as dedicated to him as he’d hoped, and she’d hated village life. Too rural for her. She’d been a city girl, through and through, and he should have seen that from the start.

  And then I wrote that damned list! That stupid list!

  He’d thought the list would protect him from getting his heart broken again. That if he only went out with women whose life goals and attitudes matched those on his list, then he would be safe from heartbreak and pain and loss.

  And what was he doing now? Ignoring the list and falling for the most outrageous, multicoloured, tattooed zookeeper he’d ever met!

  Falling for her…

  Was he? It felt like it. He knew he couldn’t stop thinking about her. When he was with her he soaked up her vitality and presence like a sponge, and when she was absent his mind lingered on her, returning his thoughts to her every single time, like an obsessed teenager with a crush.

  That kiss tonight… Goose pimples shivered over his skin in torment. The touch of her lips had been magical. He’d wanted more. Had craved more. And yet…he’d been afraid to seek it out. What if he pursued her a
nd got it all wrong? He’d done that before. If he got involved with her, feeling as he was now, and it didn’t work out… Well, he’d be devastated. Floored. And he didn’t need that. He’d had heartbreak and he didn’t want to experience it again.

  He sought happiness and love and respect—the type of relationship his father had had with his mother.

  Ideal.

  Could he have that with Lula? She couldn’t have children, but was that important?

  The uncertainty that filled him made his steps heavy as he went up to bed.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  AFTER A SLEEPLESS NIGHT, Lula woke feeling exhausted.

  She fed Anubis, dropping a couple of crickets into his tank, and then gave Nefertiti and Cleo fresh water. They were pleased to see her, holding onto her fingers with their little pink paws and licking her happily. She loved their ratty kisses and stroked them both before putting them back into their cage. She’d not had them out as often as she’d have liked since moving into the cottage. They were used to free ranging, and she knew she ought to organize some sort of safe play area for them so they could come out more.

  However, she’d have to pick her place carefully. This cottage was a rental and she didn’t expect to stay in Atlee Wold for long. She didn’t want them damaging any of the old furniture in Moonrose Cottage, especially as she knew how much the place meant to Olly.

  Olly…

  She really liked him. She knew it deep in her soul. They’d just connected so easily, the pair of them. It was easy to be in his company, and it was strange to think that they’d only really known each other for a couple of days. Lula felt as if she’d known him for ages.

  He was an old soul in the body of a young, fit, handsome man. But she liked that a lot.

  Today Lula was going to be running her own surgery, rather than sitting in with him, and she was looking forward to it. But she was also looking forward to seeing Olly again and finding out if he’d heard anything about the abandoned baby yet. She hoped so. She was worried about the mother. Where was she? Who was she? Was she all right? She couldn’t imagine what it must feel like to give birth and then abandon the baby somewhere…