Swallowbrook's Wedding of the Year (The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm)

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘I can wait while you go home to change,’ he offered, wondering if he was going insane. He should be avoiding Julianne, not actively finding ways to spend more time in her company!

  If he was acting out of character, so was she. ‘Yes, all right,’ she agreed. ‘If you come up to the apartment you can have a coffee while I shower and change.’

  ‘What about George, your protector?’ he asked half-jokingly. ‘Won’t he want to check me over first?’

  He watched her colour rise but her reply was casual enough as she told him, ‘The bakery is closed. George lives in the house next door and at this moment will be having his meal in front of the television.’

  ‘So you are in this huge place on your own during the night?’ he said as they climbed the stairs to the apartment.

  ‘Er, yes, I suppose you could say that.’

  ‘Do I take it that there is a fire escape?’

  ‘Yes, it’s round the back.’

  ‘Good, I’m glad to hear it.’

  He was visualising The Falls Cottage, cosy and compact, easily entered and left, and comparing it with this place on the top of large shop premises that contained big ovens.

  When she unlocked the door and they went in he saw that her home was nicely decorated in restful colours with polished wooden floors, attractive scatter rugs and tasteful furniture around the place, and not a photograph in sight, which was odd.

  Julianne appeared at that moment with coffee and biscuits and said, ‘I won’t be long, Aaron. You could have been already eating if you hadn’t stopped for me.’

  He was smiling. ‘There is no rush as far as I’m concerned. We have the whole evening ahead of us, and as you are much more knowledgeable than I am with regard to Swallowbrook and its surroundings maybe you would like to choose where we eat. And why don’t you have a coffee before you go to get ready? Like I said, there is no rush, not unless you are gasping for food.’

  ‘I’m ravenous,’ she replied, ‘but the coffee will keep the hunger pangs at bay for a while and then I really will go and shower away the germs of a busy day at the practice. Did you ever pick up anything infectious while you were in Africa?’

  ‘No. I suppose one gets immune to a lot of diseases by being constantly amongst them. I had been out there just a year when Nathan arrived on a three-year contract and we became good friends. When he came home at the end of it I still had twelve months to do and getting to know him set me off wanting to come back to the UK. And as you see, here I am.’

  ‘To stay?’ The words were out before she could stop them and his reply came just as fast.

  ‘Why? Does it matter?’

  ‘No, of course not. I’m just curious, that’s all.’

  He didn’t believe her. She wanted him gone. He was a reminder of the past, of a time when she had plotted against him and felt his anger.

  She’d been perched on a stool near the fire, warming her hands around the coffee cup, but now she was on her feet, moving towards the bedroom and telling him as if they had talked enough, ‘I won’t be long.’

  ‘Sure,’ he said easily, and as if there’d been no uncomfortable vibes between them picked up a magazine from a table beside him and began to glance through it.

  Julianne was quick in the shower but not so fast in choosing what to wear. She had an insane urge to dress up for him, to wear something striking, but they were merely going for a bite to eat at the end of their working day so it didn’t call for trying to impress.

  Eventually she reappeared in a black miniskirt with leggings and high boots and a chunky white sweater and waited for his reaction, which was disappointing when it came.

  ‘You’ll need a top coat,’ he commented. ‘It’s going to be a very cold night according to the weather forecast.’

  There was no warmth in his glance as he observed her and she wondered what she had expected. He was probably wishing he hadn’t been so ready with the invitation to join him and was taken aback that she’d been so quick to accept it.

  As she went to do as he’d suggested and came back with a cosy furry jacket, it was in her mind that because she was facing up to the fact that she’d never really stopped loving him, it didn’t mean that Aaron was any happier with her now than he’d been all that time ago.

  There was silence between them as they left the apartment and the sound of their feet on the wooden staircase that led to ground floor level echoed eerily in the stillness.

  * * *

  Aaron was thinking that Julianne must think him a prize fusspot. Fussing about her lunch when it seemed as if she wouldn’t have time to go to the bakery. Driving her home when she would probably have preferred to walk, and last but not least suggesting that she was being foolish if she went out into the winter night without a coat.

  When she’d appeared ready to leave with her hair swept up in a shining coil and the blue nurse’s dress discarded in favour of more fashionable clothes, he had been so stunned by the feelings she’d aroused in him that he’d concealed it by commenting about her not wearing a coat. So no doubt she was wondering why he was so concerned about her well-being when he didn’t even like her.

  He was wrong. A kind word from the man by her side was a precious thing and she prayed that one day he might freely forgive her for the wrong that he thought she had done him.

  On the surface pleasure-loving and bright, she had always known what it was like to feel alone, even when she’d been young, because she had always been passed over by her parents in favour of Nadine, and then in recent years when they had begun to do their own thing, with her mother remarrying and her father sailing the seas non-stop, she had ended up sharing a flat with her sister and the loneliness had persisted as Nadine had ignored her most of the time.

  Once she had gone to be with her lover it had been a matter of leaving the flat and moving to Swallowbrook when she’d got the job at the surgery, and from then on she’d been able to live her life how she wanted and might have found some degree of contentment if only she had been able to put matters right with Aaron before he’d disappeared, so now in this time of second chances, a kind word from him was something to treasure.

  In a less kind moment since he had come back into her life he had called her a manipulator and it had hurt. If she had been that, she would have thought of some way of stopping the wedding, but at nineteen and facing the kind of threat that Nadine had held over her, she hadn’t known which way to turn.

  If it had been now, when she was more mature and confident, everything would have been different.

  ‘So where do you suggest we eat?’ he asked.

  ‘How about The Falls Bistro?’ she suggested. ‘It’s a new place about a mile past your cottage and the food is good.’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, sounds OK. Let’s go.’

  When they passed the cottage with the waterfall tumbling beside it she asked, ‘How do you like living there?’

  ‘It’s great’ was the reply. ‘It’s so comfortable and nicely furnished, and being able to see the lake all the time is fantastic. My first night I didn’t settle well because the noise of the water kept me awake, but I soon adjusted. The endlessness of it is rather comforting as there are so many things in life that don’t last. Apart from the waterfall everywhere else is wonderfully silent until the first of the passenger launches comes sailing past at seven o’clock.’

  ‘What do you think of where I live?’ she wanted to know, having taken note of his question about a fire escape.

  ‘Your apartment is tasteful and spacious’ was his reply, followed by silence.

  ‘But?’ she prompted.

  ‘You are all alone up there when the bakery is closed.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ she agreed, ‘but the place is fitted out with fire and burglar alarms...and I’m used to being on my own.’

  ‘Where a
re your parents these days? Are they still not around?’

  ‘No, my mother lives in Australia with her new husband and my father is still sailing the ocean as steward on a yacht that belongs to an American couple. So nothing has changed as far as they are concerned. We never were a close family.’

  ‘And is that how you want it to be?’ he questioned as the lights of the bistro came into view.

  ‘Absolutely not!’ she exclaimed. ‘If I ever have any children I will want them to have all the things that I’ve missed. What about you? I never knew much about you. When Nadine began bringing you to the flat I was always ordered to stay out of the way. Do you have family? I don’t remember them at the wedding.’

  There! She’d said it! The ‘wedding’ word and the earth hadn’t moved or the seas begun to swell.

  ‘My parents died while I was at college and I was an only child, so I had no family present on that day, thank God! Life was not always a bundle of joy having no brothers or sisters to play with when I was young and I always said that when I married I would have a house full of children, but it turned out that your sister had other plans and since then I haven’t taken any chances.’

  She couldn’t believe what was happening. They were actually talking about it. The barriers were coming down, but what difference would it make to her side of it? She couldn’t tell Aaron that he’d been her dream man at that time. He had barely known she’d existed and would be bound to find the telling of it an exercise in bad taste.

  The car park of the bistro was almost empty, Monday night wasn’t a popular night for eating out, and the frost and ice everywhere was thickening, so much so that when she swung her legs out of the car and stood upright on the tarmac she felt herself slipping and Aaron, who had just come round from the driver’s side, reached out and caught her before she fell.

  When she looked up at him from the protective circle of his arms it was as if she belonged there. He was holding her for the first time ever, not flesh to flesh, more thick winter coat against thick winter coat, but it was where she wanted to be, and as he looked down at her beneath the cold, starlit sky, for the first time in years desire was warming his blood.

  He didn’t want it to, especially remembering who she was, but it was there, the heat of it, and with eyes pleading and colour deepening, Julianne reached up and kissed him on the lips. It was just a fleeting gesture but its effect was far from light.

  He swung her off her feet and kissed her in return and it went on and on until she pushed him away, gasping for breath, and he came to his senses, unable to believe that he had let his guard down with the same family that had once humiliated him big time.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he told her brusquely. ‘I shouldn’t have let you take the initiative. I know your family all too well.’ He turned towards the brightly lit bistro. ‘We’ve come here to eat, that’s all. Shall we go and do just that?’

  She nodded and without speaking followed meekly as he led the way into the warmth that awaited them.

  The food was good as she had said it would be, but as far as Julianne was concerned it tasted of nothing, because her mouth was still warm from his kisses and the rest of her was aching for more, but in her heart there was dismay.

  She’d been too eager, too desperate to stay in Aaron’s arms, and the delicate process of getting to know each other better had been blown away.

  He had referred to her family with a degree of bitterness that had shown he hadn’t either forgiven or forgotten the past and the moment they had finished eating they were both ready to leave, wanting to put what had happened in the car park out of their minds, and knowing that wasn’t going to happen.

  There was silence between them until Aaron stopped the car in front of the bakery and said levelly, ‘I can’t help feeling that any attraction between us would be lunacy. Maybe I should move on somewhere else. I would never have come to Swallowbrook if I’d known that I was going to find you here.’

  ‘Is that so?’ she said tightly, as he demolished her dreams with just a few cutting words. ‘Maybe some time I might tell you exactly what my part was in what happened to you that day in the church.’ And before he could reply she was gone, slamming the door behind her, and as the lock clicked into position she walked slowly up the staircase to the sanctuary that she had made for herself.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SO MUCH for Aaron ever loving me for myself, let alone liking me, Julianne thought miserably as she lay sleepless through the night hours. He had condemned her because of her family who, she admitted, were not perfect, but they were all she had.

  The moments in his arms had been magical, as if there might be a chance for them. She’d dared to hope, and should have known better. In a sad sort of way she supposed he had done her a favour by voicing his regret for what had happened between them. It was better than pretending. He had talked of moving on to another position to get away from the embarrassment of her presence and if he did that she would feel desolate. Yet if they were never going to be able to put the past to rest, what other answer was there?

  * * *

  Aaron stood looking out into the night, watching the water cascade into the lake and thinking that those moments in the car park of the bistro had come from a force that had a similar impetus, sweeping every other thing out of its way with the power of the attraction between them, and when he had come up for air, what had he done? He’d treated Julianne as if she was someone to be avoided, a threat to his existence, when it was time that he stopped feeling sorry for himself.

  Raking his hands through the russet thatch of his hair, he groaned at the thought of his arrogance towards her. They would be in close contact at the surgery tomorrow and he would apologise at the first opportunity that presented itself, but private moments between staff were not always possible once the busy day got under way.

  His thoughts turned to Gabriel Armitage, the oncologist who had been headhunted to be in charge of the new cancer clinic next to the surgery. He was happily married to Laura, the practice manager, who seemed to have no problem with the fact that he had just served a prison term for attacking a man who had been behaving offensively towards her, and yet he, Aaron, all high and mighty, was treating Julianne as if she was guilty of far worse than that.

  He drew the curtains across impatiently to shut out the waterfall and went up to bed, and his last thought before falling into a restless sleep was the apology he owed the woman who had melted in his arms. Where all the passion had come from he didn’t know, but knew if it happened again he would be lost in the wonder of it.

  It was as he thought it might be the next morning. The doctors were busy with the first lot of patients of the day, and the nurses were coping with the ones that were being passed on to them for blood tests, flu jabs and fresh dressings on injuries sustained in one way and another, which was keeping them all busily occupied.

  Helena was back but leaning on a stick to take the pressure off her foot, and it was slowing down her usual brisk approach to whatever came the way of the three nurses during surgery hours. So Julianne was once again taking on the responsibility for the efficient functioning of the nursing side of the practice and glad of it, as it was keeping Aaron at a distance with regard to everything except the patients.

  By the middle of the afternoon the busiest part of the day was over and he went to seek her out in the nurse’s room but was taken aback when Helena said, ‘Dr Gallagher has sent Julianne home. Nathan thinks she might be sickening for something and insisted that she go home to rest.’

  It was more likely that she was ‘sickened’ rather than ‘sickening’, he thought bleakly as he went back to his own room. The opportunity to say he was sorry was slipping out of his grasp unless he stopped off at her apartment on his way home in the early evening.

  When he arrived at the bakery George was on the point of closing for the night and Aaron
said, ‘I just want a quick word with Julianne. Is she available?’

  ‘I think not’ was the reply. ‘When she came home our girl said she didn’t want any visitors. It seems to me that they might be working her too hard at that surgery.’

  As he prepared to drive off Aaron thought that she wasn’t taking any chances that he might get to her. The ‘no visitors’ comment would be for his ears only, which left just the choice of a phone call to make his apology and he would wait until he was back at the cottage before he did that.

  When there was no answer he put a ready meal in the oven and went to change out of the clothes he’d worn for the surgery. An hour later he pushed the plate away with the food half-eaten and reaching for his outdoor coat set off in the direction of the village main street on the chance that Julianne might be willing to speak to him on the intercom.

  It was not to be so. As he approached the bakery in the shadows on the opposite side of the street the door opened and she came out with a stranger. The two of them were dressed for socialising somewhere in the area and he thought what a fool he was to have been fretting all day because he hadn’t been able to apologise about the way he’d treated her the night before and there she was with a spring in her step, smiling up at the fellow.

  He stopped and watched as unaware of his presence they walked in the direction of The Mallard, chatting freely as they moved along, and he thought so much for the guilt trip he’d been having. Julianne was like her sister, one man was not enough. Last night must have been just a game she’d been playing. Turning, he went back the way he had come in a night that suddenly felt dark and cheerless in spite of a full moon above.

  * * *

  When Nathan had insisted that she go home because she didn’t look well Julianne had been reluctant to do so because it was Aaron’s rejection of her and the sleepless night that had followed that were the reasons for her pallid appearance, but she could hardly explain that to the head of the practice because it involved another member of staff, who was also his friend.