Coming Back For His Bride Read online

  ‘I wouldn’t say no,’ Millie told her. ‘Scamp and I have been out most of the afternoon and my feet are letting me know it.’

  When she’d settled the dog in the back and seated herself in the front passenger seat, she said, ‘Your father is happier than he’s been in a long time, Isabel.’

  ‘You mean because he’s moved into the new apartment?’ she said.

  ‘Well, yes. That is part of it,’ Millie replied. ‘But something is pleasing him more than that.’

  ‘I can’t imagine what that could be,’ Isabel said dryly. ‘Unless it’s because he doesn’t have to make out prescriptions or sound chests any more.’

  Ignoring the irony, Millie went on, ‘It’s because Ross and you are getting on so well. Have you ever wondered why he persuaded him to come back to take over the practice?’

  This was leading somewhere, Isabel was thinking, but she didn’t know where.

  ‘I was under the impression it was because he wanted someone in charge that he could trust, and I hadn’t had the experience,’ she said cautiously.

  ‘That was part of it,’ Millie agreed, ‘but the main reason was because of his concern for you.’

  ‘Me!’ Isabel spluttered. ‘That makes a first! But why was he concerned about me?’

  ‘He was concerned because you’d never had a relationship with a man since Ross left, and in latter years he has begun to feel that he might have made a big mistake in separating you from him like he did. Though at the time he did think it was for the best.’

  This was the final humiliation, Isabel thought as anger swept over her in a hot tide. What arrogance on her father’s part to think that he could separate them and then reunite them when it suited him—and for the most degrading of reasons, as far as she was concerned.

  She was on the shelf and he’d decided to try and foist her off onto Ross by offering him the practice, in the hope that the close contact of working together would do the trick.

  Her face was burning with the shame of it. Did Ross know what her father had been planning? she wondered. Did he think that she saw him as her last hope? She cringed at the thought.

  By the time they reached Millie’s apartment the elderly GP had realised that she’d put her foot in it, and when Isabel stopped the car she said hesitantly, ‘Shall we let what I’ve told you be our little secret?’

  ‘And let my father think that he’s still in control of my life?’ she flared. ‘There was I, thinking that at last I was my own person, free of his bullying ways, and now I find that his latest ploy is trying to marry me off to the very man that he once couldn’t wait to see the back of. Does Ross know that he’s been picked as the fall guy?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Millie said uneasily. ‘I wouldn’t have thought so, but he is nobody’s fool.’

  ‘True,’ Isabel agreed as her anger turned to ice. ‘It would seem that the only fool around these parts is me!’

  CHAPTER NINE

  DISMAY and disappointment were choking her as Isabel put her key in the lock of the front door of the cottage. Once again she was being made to look stupid, she thought miserably as tears welled up.

  She was still cringing from what Millie had told her, and knew that if she was to rescue her self-respect she had to avoid Ross as much as possible in future if it wasn’t too late. Perhaps she’d let him see that she still loved him. If that was the case, what was she going to do about it?

  Well, for starters she wasn’t going to dine with him tonight, or any other night for that matter. From now on her feelings were going to be so much under control that neither he nor her father would have an inkling of what was going on in her mind.

  Should she leave the practice? No, she decided angrily. Though it would serve her father right if she did. But she was made of stronger stuff than that. She loved this place and no one was going to drive her out of it. Somehow she would cope with working with Ross in the practice, but that would be their only contact.

  He was no fool. It must have occurred to him when he’d come back and found her unloved and unwed that she might be willing to stoke up the dead embers. But if he had any inkling that her father was pulling his strings as well as hers, what would he have to say about that?

  Ross was nobody’s fool and she decided grimly that neither was she. Her pride wouldn’t let her be. But she was sobbing her heart out as she fed Tess and Puss-Puss.

  She looked across at the sink and remembered how she’d told Ross she had to wash her breakfast pots, as well as feeding the only two beings who loved her. Well, the pots could wait. Before she did anything else she was going to cancel their date for the evening before he rang her doorbell and smiled his quizzical smile when she opened the door.

  She had already decided what she was going to say to him and she hoped that she wouldn’t choke on it with so much misery inside her.

  ‘Hi,’ he said easily when he answered the phone. ‘If you’re ringing to tell me that you’ve done your chores, I’m afraid that you’re ahead of me. I’m busy clearing up after the decorator.’

  ‘No, that isn’t why I’m ringing,’ she said flatly. ‘I’ve been having a think while I’ve been doing my rounds and I’ve decided that I won’t be going out with you this evening. I don’t think it’s a good idea, us being together out of surgery hours. I need my space, Ross.’

  There was silence for a moment, then he said in slow puzzlement, ‘This is a sudden change of mind. What has brought it on?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she told him, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘It is just that I was under my father’s thumb for so long that I place great value on my freedom.’

  ‘What has that got to do with me?’ he asked in the same puzzled tone. ‘Please, don’t class me with that old control freak.’

  ‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘I would feel like that with anybody.’

  It was a lie. He was the only person in the whole world she’d ever cared about, except for her long-dead mother, and she couldn’t bear for him to feel sorry for her, or be dubious about her motives every time she smiled at him.

  ‘I’m coming over,’ he said purposefully.

  ‘You’ll be wasting your time,’ she told him. ‘I won’t be here.’

  ‘Where will you be?’

  ‘I might go to the cinema.’

  ‘Rather than dine with me?’

  ‘It’s like I said, Ross, I need the space.’

  ‘Fine,’ he said abruptly. ‘You shall have it!’ And rang off.

  * * *

  What had all that been about? he wondered irritably as he finished clearing up. All right, Izzy hadn’t exactly been turning somersaults at the thought of spending the evening with him, yet he’d known that underneath she had been looking forward to it. There’d been a sparkle in those beautiful eyes of hers.

  But something had put her off and he would like to know what. He didn’t think it would have anything to do with her father as Paul had kept a low profile since retiring. But he was the most likely candidate when it came to upsetting Izzy.

  Maybe she was afraid of getting involved with him again. Wary of being hurt a second time. ‘I need my space,’ she’d said, which made it crystal clear that she didn’t want him in her life except during working hours.

  * * *

  When they met up at the surgery the following morning Ross was frostily polite and Isabel wondered dismally if she would be able to keep up the hands-off approach that she’d adopted.

  She knew that she owed him a proper explanation, but if she tried the words would stick in her throat. How could she tell him she’d discovered that her father had persuaded him to come back to the village so that he could marry her off to him?

  Fortunately Ross had a mind of his own, which would prevent him from being manipulated, but it was how she would feel if he ever discovered what Paul had in mind. It would be extreme humiliation all over again and she wasn’t going to leave herself wide open to that!

  The atmosphere that morning set the temperature
for the days to come, with the thought of leaving the practice becoming more frequent, but Isabel told herself stubbornly that it was here that she belonged and here that she was going to stay.

  Her father hadn’t put in an appearance since Millie had spilt the beans, so Isabel assumed his companion hadn’t told him what she’d done, and there was no way that she was going to bring it out into the open. But she promised herself that one day she would have it out with him at a time when Ross wasn’t around.

  * * *

  The latest news from the Derwents was that Brian would not have to face charges relating to setting fire to the barn. The hospital wasn’t dragging its feet either.

  A psychiatrist had seen him the day after the fire and had recommended that he be discharged once his chest and lungs were clear of smoke inhalation. He would then be passed on to a community mental health unit where he would receive structured counselling from psychiatric nurses.

  ‘I’ll put up with anything,’ he told Isabel when she called round one afternoon. ‘All that matters is that Jean isn’t going to leave me, and with a bit of financial help from my mother, who has been very supportive, I can see the way ahead more clearly.

  ‘You know that I’ve been to the surgery to thank Dr Templeton for saving my life…and my sanity,’ he said as she was leaving, and she nodded.

  She hadn’t known that he’d been to see Ross, but wasn’t going to explain to Brian that they only communicated when necessary at the surgery these days. Chit-chat was not on the menu.

  Until the day when he was waiting to hear from Jake’s parents if the boy was going to be considered for the polymer implant in his jaw area. It had been his suggestion in the first place and the couple, who’d had no idea that such a thing existed, had immediately begun to follow it up.

  They were seeing the consultant that day and would hopefully come away with a decision as to whether the boy was to be considered for the amazing new implant that would make such a difference to his life.

  Although he hadn’t discussed Jake’s case with her of late, Isabel knew that Ross was as anxious as his parents that the child should have it done, and if they should be disappointed for any reason he would feel guilty for raising their hopes.

  If things had been as they had before she’d discovered that her father wanted to marry her off to Ross, she would have discussed it with Ross at length in a supportive manner, but those days were gone. If they became any more aloof with each other, she could see them ending up writing notes.

  The curves that he had described so eloquently that day were disappearing as she was eating very little, and the eyes that were one of her most redeeming features were dull and lifeless as Isabel stuck to the vow that she’d made after talking to Millie.

  They hadn’t met since. Isabel suspected that the other woman was avoiding her, and not without cause. Yet in a strange sort of way she was grateful to her. Isabel knew that Millie doted on her father. Why, she would never know. But if he was happy, so was she. So much so that she hadn’t been able to resist letting his daughter know that for once something pleased him, and in the telling of it Millie had saved her from making a complete fool of herself.

  As the day wore on and Ross was still looking grave, Isabel knew that she was weakening. She should be supporting him, she told herself. She loved the man. The things that hurt him hurt her, and now their work in the practice was the only thing they had. It was mean-spirited not to be there for him if he needed her, so, instead of one of the receptionists taking him a cup of tea in the middle of the afternoon, she took it in to him.

  ‘Wow!’ he said with a brightening of his expression. ‘Am I back in favour or something? Are you sure that I’m not invading your space?’

  ‘If you’re going to be sarcastic, I’ll go,’ she said stiffly. “I’m here because I know that Jake’s parents said they would phone you once they’d got the verdict, and you must be on pins.’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ he said sombrely. ‘It’s times like this that make one realise the important things in life. That petty differences and estrangements come a poor second compared to a child with a serious deformity.’

  ‘So you think I’m petty,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t blame you. All I can say is that I have my reasons for staying away from you, Ross.’

  ‘Tell me what they are. I thought that at least we were friends.’

  ‘Have I ever said that we weren’t?’

  ‘Actions often speak louder than words.’

  ‘I’m sorry if I’ve hurt your feelings.’

  ‘What do you know about my feelings, Izzy?’

  ‘Nothing, I suppose,’ she told him flatly, and prayed that if she were to ask him the same question, his answer would be the same. If Ross ever found out that she still loved him, she would want to curl up and die. He was the one. The only one. And if she couldn’t have him she would have no one else. There had been other men in her life, but only briefly. Her disinterested attitude had always rung the death knell on any budding relationship.

  At that moment the phone rang and as he listened to the voice at the other end he was smiling. ‘It’s sorted, Izzy,’ he said after he’d hung up. ‘Jake is going to get the implant. Where it will be done isn’t clear yet, with the two countries being involved, but he’s on the list and they’ve been promised as little delay as possible.’

  She smiled back at him. In this rare moment of togetherness she was telling herself that she was committing herself to heartbreak because of pride. Why didn’t she come right out with it and tell Ross that she loved him?

  ‘That’s good news,’ she said briskly as she heeded the voice of reason. ‘You’ll feel better now.’ And then returned to her room.

  * * *

  The days were still crawling by and the golden summer of Ross’s return was drawing to a close. There were times when Isabel sat in her garden in the evenings with Tess and Puss-Puss beside her, watching the glory of the sunset above the peaks, with a raw craving inside her to be with Ross.

  But always at the back of her mind was the fear of rejection. She’d known it twice already in different forms. Her father’s rejection of her because she was there and her mother wasn’t, and the rejection she’d felt when Ross had gone away.

  Though she’d discovered since that he would never have left the village if it hadn’t been for her father’s threats and his concern for her. But that was all it had been—concern, not love—and there had been no indication that anything had changed with regard to his feelings.

  It was on one such evening when she was longing to be with him that her wish was granted. She looked up and he was there, his hand on the latch of the gate that separated the cottage garden from the riverbank. In the fading light his face looked grey and gaunt, and Isabel got slowly to her feet.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked as he pushed back the gate and came towards her.

  ‘My mother died an hour ago,’ he said in a voice thick with shock and grief.

  ‘Oh, no!’ she breathed. ‘Not Sally!’

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘Come here,’ she said gently, opening her arms wide, and as if there was no other place he would ever want to be, he stepped into her embrace and cried out his sorrow.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked when the tears stopped and he looked down at her with red-rimmed eyes. Taking his hand, she led him into the cottage, and when he’d lowered himself onto the sofa in her small sitting room he said, ‘Sophie rang me to say that she’d found Mum on the floor in their bedroom and that she thought she’d had a stroke. I told her to ring for an ambulance and was round there faster than the speed of light, but it was too late. She’d gone, without us being able to say goodbye, or me being able to tell her how much I loved her.’

  ‘Sally would have known that without you telling her,’ Isabel said. ‘She wouldn’t have forgotten how you came back to be near her.’

  ‘Yes. But I came back for other reasons as well.’

  ‘’How long since she
had her blood pressure checked?’

  ‘A week ago, by me, and it was fine then, though we all know that it could go sky high at the drop of a hat. But she was on medication and had her own means of testing it daily if she wanted to.’

  He was getting to his feet.

  ‘I must go, Izzy,’ he said reluctantly. ‘There are things to be done, arrangements to be made. Obviously I’m not going to sign the death certificate, not for my own mother. You’ll need to sign it, and then I’ll ask Jim Danvers from the practice in the next village to give us his signature.’

  He touched her cheek gently. ‘Thanks for being there for me, Izzy. I’m sorry if I invaded your space.’

  ‘Don’t say that!’ she cried. ‘I wish I’d never used that phrase. It’s pompous and trite. I only said it because I was afraid of making a fool of myself again.’

  He managed a watery smile. ‘On this blackest of days you have just brought light into my darkness. Goodnight, Izzy. I’ll see you some time tomorrow, I’m not sure when.’

  She stood by the window and watched him go, with head erect and a firmer step than when he’d arrived, and though it was a very sad day there was a warm feeling around her heart. Could it be hope? she wondered.

  * * *

  In the week that followed Isabel didn’t see much of Ross. With funeral arrangements to see to, his mother’s affairs and the business of the practice, he had little time to spare. Yet she was hoping that he would say something to keep her hopes alive. But it was as if he had forgotten what he’d said that night at the cottage.

  Maybe when he’d said that she’d brought light into the darkness of his mother’s death, he’d just been overemotional, she thought, and it had had nothing to do with her telling him why she’d been staying away from him. But she had started to hope that he might care for her as much as she cared for him. After all, she was the one that he’d come to in his grief, though that might have been because he wasn’t well blessed with relations. There was only Sophie, and she would have had her own grief to cope with. As for friends, Ross hadn’t been back long enough to make many of those, whereas she knew lots of people around the village.