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

by Abigail Gordon

  * * *

  In spite of the shaky start, incredibly it was their day, and Julianne thought if it was the only quality time she ever spent with Aaron it would be something to treasure always. His amazement on discovering that she’d thought he still had feelings for Nadine had bordered on the ludicrous, as if any other serious attachments with her family would be strictly taboo, and she’d contributed to that the other day by giving him the low-down on their faults and failings.

  But this day, this special, fantastic day that they had claimed as their own, would be engraved on her heart for ever. They had walked hand in hand on the soft white carpet beneath their feet, and been touched by the childlike dignity of the young snow queen and her attendants as they had taken their places on the makeshift stage.

  For a moment Julianne had let herself dream what a child of theirs would have been like if she hadn’t been tainted by the deeds of others. She had never forgotten Aaron’s anger that day in the church when Nadine’s departure had resulted in she herself looking relieved in the midst of his humiliation.

  She’d expected him to have mentioned it when they’d first met up again, but either he had forgotten it or had written it off as just another indiscretion of the family he’d been intending marrying into.

  * * *

  Now they were in a queue in the village hall where the hot food was being served, and the magic was beginning to fade. It was late in the afternoon and soon it would be dark. The crowning of the Snow Queen would be over and so would their time together in wonderful harmony as there was no plan for them to spend what was left of the day with each other.

  When they arrived at the food counter George was beaming at them from behind it. Much of the food had been prepared in the bakery and so he was in charge and approved of what he was seeing as they approached.

  But Julianne felt like telling her kindly landlord that he was on the wrong track and Aaron’s mind was focusing on what he intended saying to her next, so for George the moment was losing its promise.

  ‘How about we go for a meal this evening as a fitting end to the day?’ Aaron suggested when they’d been served. ‘We’ve both time to go home and change and I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock, say.’

  Her sparkle was back. ‘That would be perfect. Heaven knows when I will be free for anything like that once I’m installed at Nadine’s house.’

  ‘Don’t forget that I’ve offered to do the chauffeuring there and back for you,’ he reminded her. ‘I’ve developed a guilt complex ever since suggesting that you move in with her.’

  She was smiling. ‘It is the right thing for me to do, Aaron, so don’t feel guilty. Blood is thicker than water and we are family, so don’t give it another thought.’ But just as families can bring joy to our lives, so sometimes they can blight them. I don’t expect you to ever want me as much as I want you.

  Her smile was steady, giving no hint of the hurt behind it, and it was only when they separated to prepare for the evening ahead that it disappeared.

  She had showered and was now standing in front of the open wardrobe in her bedroom. What to wear was the question for an evening to be spent with her dream man.

  Something smart and plain, or flowery and flattering, maybe? Not too over the top for a local restaurant but attractive enough for Aaron to think she looked beautiful in it.

  But as she stretched up to lift down a dress of apricot silk that always enhanced her dark attractiveness Julianne became still, with the dress on its hanger dangling loosely from her hand.

  Did she want to endure the pain of dining with Aaron in what would be a charade on her part? she thought. A mixture of pleasure and the grim reality that her role in his life would always be that of the sister of his runaway bride and as such not for him?

  Hanging the dress back in the wardrobe, the decision was made.

  Before she weakened and changed her mind she picked up the phone and when he answered told him, ‘I hope you will excuse me, Aaron, I’m going to give the meal a miss and have an early night to get ready for tomorrow’s upheaval.’

  ‘Fine, if that is what you want to do,’ he said evenly, his glance on the jeweller’s box that held the solitaire diamond ring that he’d been hoping to put on her finger before the evening was over as a fitting end to a very special day and the beginning of a life with the woman he hadn’t been able to stop himself from falling in love with.

  Was it going to be that Julianne had her sister’s talent for picking him up and putting him down when it suited her? She’d been totally happy all the time they’d been together at the Snow Queen’s crowning and afterwards, but it would seem that once he was out of sight she wanted him to stay there.

  However, he did have one last comment to make. ‘I promised that I would be there to help when Nadine leaves the hospice and have no intention of changing my mind, so don’t think of cancelling that arrangement too.’

  ‘No, of course not,’ she agreed stiltedly. ‘I need to find out what time she intends to leave there and will let you know.’

  ‘No need to do that. I’ll give her a ring in the morning to check if she wants me to go on ahead and make sure that the heating has been left on. Moving into a cold house won’t do her any good in her present condition, and once again, Julianne, it is the doctor in me surfacing, nothing else, and now don’t let me keep you from your early night.’

  Before she could tell him with dwindling determination that all she would ever want was to be with him, he rang off and a miserable silence descended upon the apartment.

  It lasted until two o’clock in the morning when the phone on the bedside table rang. When she raised herself upright off the pillows and picked up the receiver George’s voice came over the line and he was gasping for breath.

  ‘George! What’s wrong?’ she cried.

  ‘I’ve got a heavy pain in the middle of my chest,’ he croaked, ‘and my heart is banging all over the place. Can you come and see if I need to ring for an ambulance?’

  ‘From the way you sound, I would say yes, you do,’ she told him. ‘I’ll be with you in a moment. I’ll come down the back stairs. Is the door open?’

  ‘Yes, and I phoned Dr Somerton for his advice too and he’s on his way.’

  * * *

  She was checking George’s heartbeat, which was dangerously uneven as was his pulse, when Aaron came striding into the bedroom.

  ‘I told George not to disturb you,’ he said in a low voice as he stopped beside her, ‘but obviously he did.’

  ‘Of course he did!’ she exclaimed, moving over so that he could do his own assessment of the distressed baker. ‘He is the kindest of men and my friend. In the time I’ve known George I’ve seen more of him than I ever have of my father.’

  Aaron was only half listening. He knew a heart attack when he saw one and George had all the signs. ‘Julianne, phone for an ambulance and tell them not to waste any time,’ he said tersely.

  George’s breathing was still ragged and painful and they noted that his feet and ankles were swelling. ‘Are they usually like that?’ Aaron asked, and she shook her head.

  ‘Not that I’ve noticed...and I’m going with him when the ambulance comes.’

  He didn’t argue. Instead he said, ‘I’ll come too for moral support, so go and get dressed as quickly as you can before it gets here. I’ll look after George.’ The baker cried out from the pain in his chest. ‘Let’s hope they won’t be long! He needs to be assessed for a myocardial infarction and treated fast. The sooner he’s on treatment the better his chances of recovery.’

  She dashed up to the apartment and threw on a sweater and jeans, grabbed a warm jacket out of the wardrobe and was back with them when the sirens of the ambulance could be heard as it came along the road outside the bakery.

  From then on it was action stations as the paramedics took ov
er, with Julianne hovering anxiously beside George and Aaron praying there wasn’t going to be heartbreak ahead for her if her landlord didn’t survive the attack.

  They were giving him oxygen to help his breathing and as she watched over him Aaron heard her whisper, ‘Why are those I love always lost to me?’

  What was that supposed to mean? he wondered, longing to hold her close and comfort her. Julianne was afraid that she might lose George, but he would be on the cardiac unit within minutes where many lives were saved, so had she already had the death of someone she loved to come to terms with?

  He wasn’t to know that what she’d said referred to the living as well as the dead. That he was the one who had been lost to her for five long years and sadly nothing had changed all that much since his return, except that now she cared for him more than ever.

  * * *

  As a winter dawn was breaking a cardiac consultant came to tell them that for the present George’s heart problem was under control. He was being monitored on a twenty-four-hour basis and if they wanted to go home for a few hours there was no reason why they shouldn’t.

  ‘If you want to have a brief chat with your friend before you go, that will be fine as long as you don’t stay too long,’ he reminded them.

  * * *

  ‘Look after her, Dr Somerton,’ George said weakly when they were about to leave the hospital and turn their attention to getting Nadine back home safely.

  ‘I’ll do my best, if she’ll let me,’ Aaron promised dryly, and wondered what Julianne had meant by what he’d heard her say in the ambulance. He decided he would ask her when she was calmer then went to sort out a taxi to take them the short distance to the village.

  ‘We need breakfast before we do anything else,’ he said as the main street came in sight, ‘and when we have a moment we’ll display a notice outside the bakery to explain why it is closed. It being Sunday, there will be no concerns regarding that today, but tomorrow there will be regular customers wondering where George is.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  INSTEAD of instructing the taxi driver to take them to the bakery, Aaron asked him to take them to his cottage and Julianne observed him enquiringly.

  ‘I’m going to make you breakfast,’ he said. ‘You’ve been awake half the night and need time to unwind.’

  ‘But what about Nadine?’ she questioned. ‘I shouldn’t have left George either. He wouldn’t have left me if it had been the other way round.’

  ‘Nonsense! You heard what he said, Julianne. He told me to look after you and that is what I’m going to do. There is no better place he could be than on the coronary unit, so I am going to feed you and then you can catch up on your sleep for a couple of hours or even longer before you go home to get ready for this afternoon. Remember it isn’t until we’ve done our Sunday shift that we will be taking your sister home. There should be plenty of time to unwind.’

  ‘Yes, but I haven’t packed,’ she told him. ‘I need several changes of clothes and my nurse’s uniform, and the moment I get back to the bakery the notice must go up explaining about George’s illness.’

  They had arrived at their destination and Aaron paid the taxi driver. When he’d driven off he said, ‘I’ll see to the notice when I take you there, but first let’s eat. Do you want the full Monty, eggs, bacon, the lot, or just cereal and toast? But before I start, can I ask you something?’

  ‘It depends what it is,’ she told him, wondering what was coming next.

  ‘It’s with regard to what I heard you say in the ambulance about losing those you love. Have you lost someone at some time in your life, like I lost my parents? Been bereaved and were afraid it might happen again to someone that you care about?’

  ‘No, I’ve never had someone close to me die,’ she said slowly, ‘but there are other ways of losing the people we love.’ A vision came to mind of him standing at the altar beside Nadine with her close by, desolate as she watched the man that she so desperately wanted to notice her prepare to make his wedding vows to her sister, and again an opportunity was presenting itself to tell him what had been in her heart that day, but instead she said, ‘I’d rather not discuss it, Aaron, if you don’t mind. It was a long time ago.’

  ‘Yes, sure,’ he agreed, and wondered if it was a love affair that had gone wrong. That it was why someone as beautiful as she had no wedding or engagement ring on her finger.

  But he had brought her here to eat and pointing himself in the direction of the kitchen paused to ask, ‘So which is it to be, cereal and toast or something more filling?’

  ‘Just cereal and toast please,’ she replied, and he left her sitting silently beside the wood-burning stove that kept the breakfast room warm and welcoming on winter days.

  When he came back with the food she was asleep, with dark lashes sweeping her cheek bones, curled up like a defenceless infant in the womb, and the thought came to him from out of nowhere how alone she was, surrounded by friends and acquaintances and with a family of sorts in the background, but alone when it came to someone to cherish her, to be a rock to hold on to.

  As if aware of his gaze on her, Julianne opened her eyes suddenly and stared up at him, observing him blankly as if she’d lost her bearings, then she was sitting upright and smiling at the sight of the food that he’d prepared set out on a table nearby, and in keeping with his thoughts about her she said, ‘I’m not used to being looked after like this, Aaron, except by George maybe.’ As the smile was replaced by concern, she went on, ‘When I’ve eaten, may I use your phone to call the coronary unit to check on his condition?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘Anything that will make you happy is yours for the asking.’ She wondered if he knew that he was treading on dangerous ground. What would he say if she asked him to make love to her or, even more preposterous, to marry her?

  After all, there was no other woman in his life that she was aware of, except Nadine maybe, and he’d tuned in to her fears about that with scornful amazement.

  The report on George was good. Because they’d brought him into hospital fast he was still responding well to treatment and as she listened to what was being said at the other end of the line Julianne felt relief wash over her in a welcoming tide.

  ‘So?’ Aaron enquired when she’d finished the call. ‘Have we good news?’

  ‘Yes, indeed!’ she told him. ‘They are pleased with his progress but it’s early days yet. At least I can go to stay with Nadine until he is discharged and then leave her for a while to take care of him.’

  ‘And in the middle of all that, on your feet at the practice from eight-thirty until six-thirty every weekday, I think not! I will help all I can, but Christmas is only a short time away as well, isn’t it? Reminders of it are appearing all the time in Swallowbrook and around the lake, and as it will be my first Christmas in the lakes for five years it’s something that I’m really looking forward to.

  ‘They tell me at the practice that the surgery staff go for a Christmas meal every year in early December at the big hotel on the lakeside.’

  ‘Yes, they do, but I don’t know how easy that will be for me this time,’ she told him. ‘It will all depend on how Nadine is. I can’t leave her alone in her big house when everyone else is celebrating.’

  ‘Problem solved,’ he said easily. ‘We’ll take her with us.’

  He’d just described the two of them as ‘we’ and ‘us’.

  How much had he meant of the closeness that it conjured up? Was that how he saw them, or was it just a casual description that meant virtually nothing?

  Changing the subject, she asked, ‘Have you thought any more about buying this beautiful house?’

  He could have told her that he’d thought of nothing else but her and it ever since he’d told her about the place being up for sale, but she’d put such a dampener on it with her warnings
and lack of interest that he’d almost decided not to bother.

  Yet now having Julianne sitting across the breakfast table from him, the adrenaline surge that the news of it being on the market had created the first time was back.

  ‘Yes, I’ve thought about it a lot,’ he replied, ‘but haven’t yet made any moves in that direction.’ He wondered what she would say if she knew that it all depended on her whether he made an offer for The Falls Cottage.

  * * *

  With the news on George still reassuring and it being hours before they were due at the hospice, Aaron persuaded Julianne to go back to her place by the fire and catch up on the rest she’d lost while he did a few chores, and every time he gazed at her sleeping peacefully he thought how right she seemed there, curled up in his home, in his life, in his heart.

  Later they went back to the bakery and while he sorted out the notice to announce the bakery closure Julianne packed all the things she was going to need at Fellside. A place that was missing its master and about to see the return of its much-chastened mistress, who was sorely missing the goose that laid the golden eggs. And Howie was not aware that she’d tried to give him the child he’d demanded, but without success.

  When Julianne and Aaron arrived at the hospice in the early afternoon they were surprised to find the bed in the private ward empty and the wardrobe where Nadine’s clothes had hung was in a similar state.

  ‘Where is my sister?’ she asked a nurse who had seen them arrive and come in search of them.

  ‘She has gone home already,’ she was told. ‘Her husband came for her.’

  ‘Her husband! He hasn’t been around for weeks. That was why Nadine was in such low spirits.’

  The nurse smiled. ‘Then he must have been the tonic she was short of. She has left you a letter, Julianne, and requests that you read it when you’re alone. It’s there on the bedside table.’