‘Nothing changes, does it?’ Aaron said grimly. ‘She could at least have waited to see you before she went.’
‘Yes, I know,’ she said softly. She could live with that, but could he? Did he see Nadine leaving without saying goodbye as a repeat of that other occasion? Nadine doing what she did best, looking after number one, but at least this time it was she, Julianne, who was in the firing line and she was more used to Nadine’s lack of thought for others than he was.
It was time for them to make their appearance on the wards and he was already turning to go, ready to give his time to those who would need him during the next few hours. There was the letter on the table that needed to be read, but not now. It would have to wait until a better moment presented itself. If she didn’t appear on the ward on time they would be marking her down as absent.
* * *
‘So what’s the story?’ Aaron asked when they met up again at the end of the afternoon. ‘Have you had time to read the letter?’
‘Er, yes,’ she said calmly. ‘I managed to read it while we were having a cup of tea when all was quiet for a few moments.’ Her voice softened. ‘You never told me that you’d been trying to trace Howie ever since we found Nadine was a patient here. How did you manage to find him, Aaron?’
‘Through his business interests mainly. I know someone in the same line as him and through some careful enquiries discovered that he was in China, setting up a company there, and wasn’t in contact with anyone over here, including his wife.
‘He got in touch with me a couple of days ago and when he heard about Nadine’s physical state and the loss of the baby, he tied up all the ends at the place where he was and said he would be home soon.’
‘And you didn’t think to tell me any of this?’ she enquired gently.
‘It was to be a surprise, an end to your concerns about your sister, but the guy moved faster than I expected with his homecoming arrangements, it would seem. However, getting back to the present, are you going to tell me what Nadine said in the letter?’
‘Some of it, yes. It was mainly to thank us for being there for her when she needed someone so desperately, and a promise that they would be in touch soon.
‘She says that she can’t exist away from the lifestyle that she’s grown accustomed to, that she and her husband are reconciled and are going to try for another baby soon. How do you feel about that?’
‘Glad to hear it. Surely you didn’t expect me to feel otherwise?’ he said abruptly, passing her the outdoor jacket that she’d travelled in. ‘Let’s go and have a coffee somewhere and then visit George. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she said, sparkling up at him.
She pushed to the back of her mind some of the things that Nadine had said, which he wasn’t going to hear, such as, ‘You are the only member of the Marshall family who hasn’t always got an eye to the main chance, Julianne. Why don’t you just for once see what is in front of you and do something about it? Aaron Somerton is even more dishy now than he was when I had my change of mind, and you and he fit in so much better than he and I ever did. You must be blind if you can’t see that!’
She saw it all right, but did he? She doubted it. He was attracted to her, she had no doubt about that, but their history when she’d seen what Nadine had done to him and had seemed to approve had done nothing to endear her to him, and though their attraction to each other could be mind-blowing if they let it take over, there would always be the dark past to eat away at their contentment.
It would be easy enough to tell him why she’d behaved like she had that day, to confess that she’d been filled with longing for him and had been grateful that he had been spared her sister’s selfishness and unreliability, but his rage and the fact that she, the bridesmaid and younger sister, had been a nonentity as far as he’d been concerned would have made her choke in the telling of it.
Now, in maturity, she could face bringing her feelings out into the open, except for one thing, she still wanted him desperately. Nothing had changed that, but would Aaron ever feel the same about her, and if he did would it be the kind of love that hers was...eternal, until the end of time?
* * *
George was delighted to see them and came up with the information that painkillers were keeping him free of the distress he’d experienced at the onset of his heart failure, and that they’d assured him on the unit that the abnormal heart rhythms he had experienced were not unusual, that it was only when a certain kind of abnormality known as ventricular fibrillation had interfered with the heart’s pumping process that there was danger of a fatality if there was a delay in getting the patient to hospital.
‘And I haven’t got anything like that,’ he told them, ‘so I should be home soon.’
He didn’t know much about what was happening with Julianne’s sister so didn’t make any enquiries regarding her, but when the bell rang to say that visiting time was over she said, ‘I’ll be in to see you after work tomorrow, George.’
‘Don’t neglect your sister because of me,’ he protested. ‘You won’t have time to come here as well as go to the hospice in the evenings.’
‘She’s back home with her husband.’ she told him, and Aaron by her side commented dryly, ‘Praise be for that!’
* * *
As they drove the short distance back to the village he said, ‘I don’t like the idea of you being alone during the night above that big barn of a bakery. I’ve got a spare room at my place that you can use until George comes home if you want.’
She swallowed hard. It would be a bit spooky on her own above the bakery building with George not around, but could she stand being so close to yet so far from Aaron during the long winter nights without letting him see how much she would want to lie with him instead of occupying the spare room?
Without giving herself time to change her mind, she said, ‘Thanks for the offer. You are so good to me, but I think I should have bed and breakfast at the pub for a few nights. They are nearly always booked up, but they know me well enough at The Mallard and I’m sure they’ll be able to find me a corner somewhere.’
‘So that is what you would prefer, is it?’ he asked coolly, ‘staying in a noisy pub rather than under my roof? I don’t sleepwalk, or snore, and certainly I’m not in the habit of ravishing any women guests in the middle of the night. Maybe you’d like it better if I did.’
‘Now you are being offensive,’ she told him with her hackles rising, ‘and The Mallard is not just a pub. It’s a delightful Lakeland inn and is where I’m going to stay.’
‘So be it,’ he said grimly as it came in sight. ‘As your cases are still in the boot from when we thought you were going to be moving in with Nadine, do you want to go in and book a room? Once that is done I’ll carry them up for you?’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she agreed, and left him in the car while she went to enquire if they had a single room available as it was a popular place with the tourists who came to the lakes and fells all the year round.
She emerged with the news that they had a room vacant in the roof space and as Aaron transferred her belongings to an attic that was far from sumptuous he had to restrain himself from commenting on its pokiness.
As he was about to depart, with the atmosphere still cool between them, he pointed to a window in the roof space and said, ‘In case of emergency, that would be a good means of escape.’
‘Are you serious?’ she exclaimed. ‘What sort of an emergency do you have in mind?’
‘The kind that is less likely to occur at The Falls Cottage than in this place,’ came his the reply, ‘but I’m going, Julianne, and will see you in the morning at the practice. It’s good that you don’t have the long drive from the stately home in front of you to get there. So we do have Nadine to thank for one thing.’
They had her to thank for two things,
Julianne thought as he went striding down the narrow stairs that led from the attic room. The advice she’d offered in her letter was the other, but the trouble was it sounded so easy on paper to throw caution to the winds and let Aaron see how much she loved him when after all she was a Marshall.
He’d had a nasty experience with her sister, had heard nothing good about her parents, and although Nadine was prepared to admit that Julianne was the only one of the family who didn’t always put self first, Aaron had no proof of that, and in any case she’d spoilt the closeness that had been developing between them by refusing his offer of the spare room, which would have been a much more pleasant place to sleep than this room.
She would have felt that she belonged there more than in the only room that had been vacant at the pub, but for a feeling of belonging one had to belong, and if that ever happened she would die from the joy of it.
So for now it had to be the attic room that had resulted in her almost falling out with Aaron who had been there for her every step of the way since George had been taken ill and they’d found Nadine gone.
He had looked after her needs, cared for her in distress, and because he’d wanted her safe for the night had suggested she stay where she would come to no harm, but instead she’d got herself all steamed up at the thought of them spending the night beneath the same roof and had opted for bed and breakfast at The Mallard.
It was still early evening, too soon to go to bed, where she was certain to lie sleepless for hours, going over the day that was past with its peaks and valleys. With a sudden longing to be where there was light and cheer, she put on her favourite red dress and went to sit by the big log fire downstairs with a glass of wine.
‘Julianne!’ a voice cried from the doorway just minutes later. ‘Where have you been? We haven’t seen you for ages.’
It was one of the guys from the group she went around with and behind him were the rest of her friends greeting her cheerfully. Within minutes they were all laughing and chatting together around a big table, except for one of the men who had gone to get the drinks.
When Aaron stopped the car on the drive of the cottage he stayed in the driving seat, unmoving. He shouldn’t have gone stamping off and left Julianne like he had. There was all the rest of the evening to come and he’d left her there out on a limb after what had not been a good day.
If he hadn’t been so keen to show her that he wasn’t pleased at her refusal of his offer of the spare room they could have spent the evening together in the pub, which would have been so much better than both of them alone and miserable, because that was what he was now.
He backed out onto the road again, knowing that he wouldn’t rest until he’d seen her once more, and drove back to where he’d left her with a dismal vision of her cooped in that ghastly room with no one to talk to.
When he arrived he could tell that the place was filling up with the evening clientele. There were more cars in the car park, more noise issuing forth from the building, and he went inside with one purpose in mind—to make peace with Julianne.
That determination lasted until he saw her surrounded by those he’d seen her with that night when he’d first come to Swallowbrook. She was stunning in the same red dress and was the centre of attention as she sparkled across at some guy who was chatting her up.
So much for the Cinderella vision he’d conjured up of her crouching over the paltry gas fire in that bedroom, he thought grimly, and turning he was out of the place in two strides because it was obvious that she had refused to stay at the cottage because she’d had other plans that hadn’t included him.
‘Julianne, wasn’t that your doctor friend in the doorway?’ one of the people she was with said suddenly, and when she looked across Aaron was disappearing into the car park from where he’d just come. By the time she’d gathered her wits and put back on the shoes she’d flung to one side to rest her feet when she’d come down from upstairs, he had his car engine running and as she came out and ran towards him in the cold night he drove off without a backwards glance.
She chased after him for a few seconds, waving for him to stop, but he ignored her efforts and as frost nipped at her bare arms and her heels slithered on it on the tarmac of the car park, she went back inside and straight up to her room, knowing that there was only one interpretation Aaron would put on what he’d seen.
He wasn’t to know that her smile had been forced, that she had been laughing when the moment had demanded it and feeling so alien to what had been her life before he had come back into it that she could scarcely believe it.
She phoned him, desperate to explain what he’d seen, but received only the automated voice with the information that the person she wished to speak to was not available, and thought glumly that that was how it was going to be from now on, the man she loved was not available.
* * *
Monday morning had come round again and as Julianne drove the short distance to the practice beside frost-crusted pavements she felt cold inside and out.
The outer chill was seasonal and as such welcomed. It fitted in with council workmen putting into position a large Christmas tree in front of the village hall as she went past, an early reminder of the season.
The inner chill she felt was of a different kind, the cold emptiness of rejection, and there was nothing to celebrate about that. But she told herself there were those who would be coming to the surgery with their minor and major health problems who were going to need her with a clear head and steady hands for the day ahead, and if she and Aaron had to pair up for any part of it she was going to let him see that she had left personal problems behind. There was no way she was going to put a foot wrong today.
He had arrived. His car was already parked outside and despite her best intentions her heartbeat quickened. The surgery was not yet open for the day’s health care to commence and as she was passing the door of Aaron’s consulting room he looked up from his desk and said, ‘Nurse Marshall, can you spare a moment?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, coming to a halt, and went to stand facing him reluctantly, wondering what was coming next. Was it to be a comment about the night before when he’d seen her all smiles, swanning around in the red dress, having perked up amazingly as soon as he’d gone?
It seemed that it wasn’t. Aaron wasn’t prepared to mix business with displeasure as he said levelly, ‘I see that James Ericson is on my list of appointments for today. I’m due to give him a corticosteroid injection in his other knee to relieve acute arthritis, and if you remember the last time he came he was very difficult to deal with because he hadn’t been my patient before.
‘I’m told he used to be Nathan’s father’s patient and when John Gallagher retired he switched to his son, but as Nathan doesn’t do that sort of thing and I do, he has been passed over to me. The last time I saw him I suggested that in view of the relief he’d had from the first injection I should do the other knee, which is also very painful.
‘James has agreed, but not willingly as the old guy is too set in his ways to take kindly to a newcomer, so I would like you to be present in case he needs to be charmed a little to get him off his high horse and make him more easy to deal with.’
‘Yes, of course,’ she agreed stiffly, and wondered if the ‘charm’ word was a reminder of what she’d been up to last night when he’d arrived at The Mallard unexpectedly and left grim-faced. She’d felt the need to say she was sorry ever since, but what had she done wrong?
Nothing. It had just been a fitting end to a stressful day and as Aaron seemed to have nothing else to say she went to get started in the nurse’s room. The only time she saw him after that was when James appeared and was surprisingly docile, which caused her to think that maybe Aaron had just been making sure that she was earning her crust.
She went to see George that evening and it felt strange to be making the short journey to the h
ospital in her small runabout after all the evenings spent visiting Nadine in the hospice. Every time she did her voluntary work there from now on a vision of her sister, pale and lethargic, in the bed of the private ward would come to mind.
George’s first words when he saw her were, ‘Where’s Dr Somerton? I’m getting used to seeing the two of you together.’
‘Not any more,’ she told him. ‘But how are you? That is what I’m here for.’
‘I’m improving and expect to be home by the end of the week.’ Switching away from his welfare to hers, he enquired, ‘Were you happy about being in the bakery on your own last night?’
‘Er, no, not exactly,’ she explained. ‘Aaron wanted me to stay at The Falls Cottage but I opted for bed and breakfast at The Mallard.’
‘And is that why he’s not here?’
She flashed him a wry smile. ‘It could be, I suppose, but I haven’t come to talk about that. It’s six weeks to Christmas and festive fever is beginning to sweep over Swallowbrook.
‘The surgery staff are going for the meal that Laura is arranging on the first of December and this year those employed in Gabriel’s cancer clinic next to the surgery will be joining us.’
‘And your doctor friend will he be there?’
‘I would imagine so,’ she replied flatly, and hoped that a certain pharmaceutical rep wouldn’t be there. She’d had her sights set on Hugo until she’d discovered that his heart belonged to Ruby.
* * *
Back at The Falls Cottage Aaron was debating how to spend the evening. With Julianne on the fringe of his life once more, he was realising how much she meant to him and admitting that he had no right to tell her what to do with her free time.
If they’d been engaged and he’d walked in on her as she’d been last night he might have had something to get heated about, but not under the present circumstances.
Swallowbrook's Wedding of the Year (The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm) Page 13