A tap on the door broke into the special moment and Kate held back a sigh as one of the practice nurses appeared with a query about blood tests that Daniel had asked to be done for one of his patients. Leaving them to sort it out, she went to the bakery across the street for a sandwich and thought that it was turning out to be a strange day.
There’d been Frances who didn’t know how to mind her own business. Then, still on the down side, the short, sharp, exchange of words with Daniel when unthinkingly she’d told him what Frances had said, followed by an uplift when Richard Thompson had provided the cheering news about Alex and his son.
But that had been followed by another downward curve when she’d seen that the wedding dress had gone from the window of the charity shop, and no sooner had it registered than Jenny had been there with the news that young Sarah was going to be married in it.
It was all very mind-blowing, but what stood out like a jewel in a crown were the tender moments she’d just spent with Daniel. Was he coming round to her way of thinking? she wondered. Or had it just been an emotional moment that he was now regretting?
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN she had spoken to her mother the night before, on their return from visiting Tom, Kate had asked her if she would mind if they brought him to Jasmine Cottage when he was discharged from hospital.
‘Of course I don’t mind,’ Ruth had said. ‘The poor man sounds as if he needs some tender loving care, and between us you and I can provide it. Also you know that I have a soft spot for my lodger and by helping Tom we will be taking some of the burden of care off Daniel. I have to hand it to him, taking responsibility for the family of that poor girl he was going to marry.’
‘Don’t mention that if you speak to him, will you?’ Kate had said from the privacy of her bedroom. ‘I’m not sure whether Daniel would want me to tell anyone about Lucy and, Mum, I’m not certain that Tom will agree to coming here to convalesce. According to Daniel, he’s normally very independent, and is doing a good job of bringing Alex up on his own. The accident is something that came out of the blue and he must be devastated. Yet he won’t want to be an object of pity.’
‘So you’ll have to persuade him,’ she’d said calmly. ‘I’m intending being home soon myself. Your gran is talking about going to live with Aunt Lydia, who is more of her generation than we are, and as you know the two sisters have always been close. So if that is what she decides to do, and I’m pretty sure it will be, I’ll organise the move and see her settled at Lydia’s, then I’ll come home. It will be lovely having my daughter back in the nest, so I suppose I do have something to thank that wretched Craig for.’
‘The way things are going, you might have a houseful,’ Kate had reminded her.
‘The more the merrier,’ she’d said laughingly.
Kate had already told her mother about Daniel’s tragic loss, one night when Ruth had said that she couldn’t understand him not being in any kind of a relationship. When she’d heard what had happened she’d been appalled.
When they spoke tonight she knew her news would still be far from uplifting, but her mother would want to be told that Frances wasn’t well. She would also ache for her daughter when she heard that Kate was going to have to watch Sarah standing at the altar in her wedding dress.
But life wasn’t all dark and dismal, she thought as she went to meet Alex from school. He was happy in the strange new life they’d brought him to, and just a short time ago she and Daniel had been on the same wavelength. There was no telling what might have happened if they hadn’t been interrupted.
Her blissful imaginings didn’t last long. When they got back to the surgery Daniel had a smile for Alex and for her just a question along the lines of whether she knew that Sarah was coming to consult her later in the afternoon.
‘Yes. Jenny mentioned it at the same time that she told me about the dress,’ she replied.
‘So how did it go today?’ he asked Alex, who was tucking into the snack she’d provided.
‘OK,’ he replied. ‘We had art again. Scott and I played football, too.’
‘I was talking to Scott’s dad today,’ Kate commented. ‘Richard Thompson was one of my patients.’
‘I see. And what was wrong with my best joiner?’ Daniel asked as she’d known he would.
‘Just a sprained ankle, I think. He’d jumped down off a ladder and landed awkwardly. I sent him to the nurse to have a cold compress put on it and told him to go home afterwards and rest it. I suppose that will mean more delay on the house, won’t it?’
Daniel frowned. ‘And I suppose you think I would have preferred to have him hobbling around the site all day. Is that it?’
‘I don’t think anything of the kind,’ she said in a low voice, making sure that Alex was watching television in the staffroom behind Reception and couldn’t hear them. To avoid any further conflict, she went into her room and closed the door behind her.
It wasn’t working, she thought miserably. She was prepared to take account of his feelings, but he wasn’t making any allowances for hers.
But how was she going to stay away from Daniel? Living with him, working with him. It had been a mistake, falling under his spell like she had. She should have forgotten about working at the surgery and gone to live elsewhere the moment she’d known his heart belonged to someone else.
The village was her home, though, she thought rebelliously. She was enjoying being back in general practice and knew that her mother was pleased to have her home once more. So she was staying put. Somehow she would cope.
‘Hello, Sarah,’ Kate said with a smile for the pale young bride-to-be as she seated herself opposite. ‘What can I do for you?’
She’d been eleven years old when Sarah had been born and had been forever round at Jenny’s house, asking if she could push the baby out, and now here she was, a pretty young thing looking pale and apprehensive, all grown up and about to be married.
‘Whenever I have anything to eat, I bring it back up, Kate,’ she said, and asked hesitantly, ‘Is it all right to call you that, or should I call you Dr Barrington?’
‘Kate will do fine,’ she said easily. ‘I’ve known you too long for you to call me anything else. So what about this vomiting, Sarah? Could you be pregnant.’
She shook her head and her long blonde hair swung gently from side to side. ‘No, I wanted to wait,’ she said as tears threatened. ‘But now I’m scared that I’m going to die because I can’t stop being sick.’
‘Do you get stomach pains or indigestion, or a nasty taste in your mouth?’ Kate asked.
‘No. My stomach just goes all queasy and then I’m sick.’
‘Are you worried about the wedding at all? That kind of vomiting can sometimes be brought on by stress.’
‘I’m not worried about the actual wedding. I’ve bought a lovely dress from the charity shop, but Jason’s parents are upsetting me. They say they’re not going to be there. That he’s too young for such responsibility.’
‘And what does he say?’
‘That he loves me and wants to marry me more than anything, but they won’t change their minds and I can’t stop worrying about it.’
‘And it’s affecting your stomach from the sound of it. A lot of people vomit under stress. It’s one of the body’s ways of reacting to it. But we’ll have a scan done just to be on the safe side, and in the meantime don’t let your future in-laws spoil your big day.’ She patted Sarah’s hand sympathetically. ‘With regard to the vomiting, try having small snacks instead of big meals. You might find them easier to keep down, and, Sarah, you’re going to make a lovely bride. Try to put all your worries to one side and be happy that Jason loves you so much.’
Sarah was smiling now. ‘The wedding dress I’ve got is really lovely, Kate. I’m longing for Jason to see me in it.’ Now there was wistfulness in her smile. ‘I just wish that I could be the first one to wear it. I keep wondering where it came from and whose it was.’
‘I can answer both of thos
e questions for you,’ Kate told her. ‘It was mine, Sarah, and it has never been worn before. I was engaged but we called it off, and I was left with a wedding dress that I had no use for. So you will be the only bride to wear it, and I will be there to see you in it, wishing you every happiness.’
‘And you won’t mind?’ she asked in tremulous amazement.
Kate sighed. ‘To be honest, I thought I would, but I don’t, not now. If it helps to make you happy then I’ll be happy too. Do you think that where it has come from could be our little secret?’
‘Yes,’ Sarah said, brightening. ‘And every time my insides start churning I’ll go and look at our dress and know that everything is going to be all right.’
‘It isn’t our dress,’ Kate told her gently. ‘It’s yours, Sarah, and you will be a lovely bride.’
For the rest of the afternoon she was kept busy with little time to dwell on anything other than the needs of those attending the surgery, and when it came time for her last appointment Jenny was there to remind her that it might drag on a bit because of the person wanting to consult her.
As she was about to call the patient in Daniel appeared and said, ‘I see that you’ve got Ed Fellows to finish off the day. Alex and I will go on ahead and I’ll get the meal started.’
‘Yes, sure,’ she agreed, and as the door closed behind him she thought that if it wasn’t for Alex being used to having her around at his bedtime, she would go into the town, have a meal there and maybe go to the cinema to give Daniel and herself some space.
But routine was very important in Alex’s life at present. It gave him a feeling of security that he needed badly, and there was no way she was going to do anything to unsettle him while he was so happy with them.
Ed Fellows was a farmer of fifty years plus and not much loved by members of the practice because he always had some sort of gripe when he came for a consultation, but today the wind was taken out of his sails when he saw Kate behind the desk.
‘How long have you been back in the surgery, Kate?’ he asked.
‘Not long, Ed. But I’m here to stay this time,’ she said with a smile, and thought that saying it out loud had a comforting feeling.
‘I see. Nobody told me you were back,’ he said grumpily.
The smile was still there. ‘My return wasn’t a major event, I’m afraid,’ she told him, and wondered what he would say if she explained that it was the result of a broken engagement.
Instead she asked, ‘So what can I do for you today?’
‘You can check my blood pressure,’ he said promptly. ‘I’ve been having some nasty headaches over the past few days, and the last time I had anything like that I ended up in hospital because it was at a dangerous level. I’ve been on medication ever since and it’s been spot on, but it doesn’t feel like it now.’
‘It’s fine,’ she told him when she’d done the test. ‘The headaches might be due to stress or eye strain. Have you been getting overtired or overwrought?’
He sighed. ‘I’m always tired and overwrought. The farmer’s life is not a happy one these days and I soon get cantankerous because I’ve got a short fuse. We farmers have to work long hours to make a living and there are so many rules and regulations we have to adhere to. Elsa, the wife, wants me to sell up, but this place is in my blood. It’s where I was born, and where I want to die…but not yet.’
‘Absolutely,’ she agreed. ‘So we’ll try something else. I’m going to examine your ears.’
When she’d done so she asked, ‘Where are the headaches? Left side, right side, over the temples?’
‘The pain is down the left side of my head.’
She nodded. ‘I thought so. You have an infection in your left ear. That will be the cause. I’m going to put you on a course of antibiotics. Make sure that you take them all, and if it hasn’t cleared up by then, come back to see me.’
He was getting to his feet. ‘Aye, all right, and thanks for putting my mind at rest. By the way, how’s your mother?
‘She’s fine. Mum is at my grandma’s at present. She hasn’t been well and Mum is looking after her.’ They chatted a few minutes more before he went ambling off, and she thought that it was a shame that the life he loved was proving so stressful.
As Daniel drove along the main street of the village with Alex beside him he saw that the small florist’s shop where the young bride-to-be worked was still open, so he stopped the car and took his small passenger inside with him.
It was Sarah who came from the back of the shop to serve them and he said, ‘I want some roses, please, Sarah.’
‘For a blonde or a brunette, Dr Dreyfus?’ she asked.
‘Er, a blonde,’ he replied, a little taken aback. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘I have this thing about roses. I always say to customers, red roses for a brunette and cream or apricot for a blonde.’
‘So apricot and cream roses it is, then.’
‘I’ll soon be making a bouquet for myself,’ she said shyly as she began to make an attractive arrangement of long-stemmed roses. ‘Has Mum told you I’m getting married?’
‘Yes, she has,’ he replied, with the memory surfacing of Kate’s horror at the thought of seeing her wedding dress again…on someone else. ‘Congratulations, Sarah.’
‘I was at the surgery this afternoon and Kate and I had a lovely chat,’ she informed him.
‘About your wedding, I suppose.’
‘Yes. That and other things.’
What other things? he wondered as he made a quick exit. He’d like to bet the wedding dress wasn’t amongst them if it had anything to do with Kate.
When she arrived home he was in the kitchen, grilling slices of chicken breast, while vegetables simmered on the hob.
Alex was doing a drawing and when he saw her he said, ‘You’ve got some flowers…’ His voice trailed away and when she turned round Daniel was behind her with his finger to his lips.
‘What is going on?’ she asked.
He took her hand and led her into the dining room where the table was set for the meal, and beside her place were the roses. She walked across slowly and picked them up without speaking, then began to read the card that was with them.
It said, ‘I’ve been a bore and a misery twice today and you don’t deserve it.’
He watched as her colour rose. ‘The flowers are beautiful,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and get a vase.’ And without further comment she left him standing there while she went to the pantry where her mother kept such things on the top shelf.
He watched in silence as she arranged the flowers, and with weddings very much on the agenda he had a vision of her walking towards him down the aisle of the village church in a dress of rustling ivory brocade and carrying cream roses.
In that moment he knew that was what he wanted. Kate in his life for ever. He stepped towards her, but there was no melting tenderness this time in the eyes meeting his, just a kind of wariness, and as that registered Alex called from the kitchen, ‘Uncle Dan, the chicken is beginning to burn.’
He caught it just in time and as he drained the vegetables and served up the meal the moment of revelation was put on hold, and the opportunity to tell her how he felt didn’t present itself again as once Alex was asleep Kate came downstairs dressed in a short black jacket and jeans and announced, ‘I’m going to the pub.’
‘Why?’ he asked. It was the first time she’d been out on her own since Alex had come to stay.
‘Do I have to give a reason?’
‘Yes,’ he replied doggedly.
‘All right, then. I’m giving you some space. We are in each other’s company too much. If it hadn’t been for upsetting Alex, I would have eaten out tonight and then gone to the cinema.’
‘I see, and would that have had anything to do with the kind of day you’ve had?’
‘It might have, but it wasn’t all upsetting. I had a chat with Sarah when she came to consult me and the subject of the wedding dress came up. I surprised myself by tel
ling her it had been mine and that I was happy to know that she in particular would be wearing it.’
‘You weren’t happy this morning. What made you change your mind?’
‘A few things. She’s a sweet girl, and I’d forgotten how I used to push her out when she was a baby, and sometimes help to feed her. Suddenly it all fell into place as if it was meant, and when the day comes, I will be fine.
‘The poor thing is a bag of nerves because the bridegroom’s parents are objecting to the wedding. They think their son is too young, and because she’s so stressed Sarah keeps vomiting. It sounds as if her stomach is having a reflex action every time she has something to eat, but I’m sending her for a scan to be on the safe side.’
‘Thank goodness for that, then,’ he said. ‘Not because Sarah is having stress problems, but because you won’t be hurting on the day of her wedding when you see her in your dress.’
‘It’s not my dress any more. It’s hers, and I can’t think of a better closure for my relationship with Craig than seeing her in it. I’ve been moving on almost from the moment I came home, but that will really be a fitting end to the whole sorry episode.’
She’d been holding the doorhandle all the time they’d been talking and now she was letting in the cold night air and telling him, ‘I’ll see you later. Don’t wait up.’
Don’t wait up he thought in frustration. If it wasn’t for Alex asleep upstairs he would be going after her, bringing her back and sitting her down while he told her how he felt.
But the day was still pursuing the same irritating course it had set itself earlier when Kate had told him what her mother’s friend had said, and one of the staff had interrupted the special moment of closeness they’d shared when she’d told him about Sarah buying the wedding dress.
Now, to cap it all, Kate had gone to the pub just when they had the rest of the night to themselves, and the odds were she wouldn’t be rushing back.
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