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

  With the position in Africa coming up, he’d packed his bags and gone, and had never laid his hands on another woman since, neither was likely to do so in the future. Money and glamour had been a better choice than love, he’d discovered where Nadine had been concerned, and he was never likely to tread that path again.

  Nathan had offered to drive him back to The Falls Cottage after a very pleasant evening, but Aaron had assured him that he would enjoy the walk in the mellow darkness of a late autumn evening.

  As he strolled back the way he had come he had to pass The Mallard again and this time it didn’t bring back memories of times when he hadn’t known his happiness was in the balance. It was just a rather noisy place where people were enjoying themselves, and why not?

  It was late and he had to sidestep to avoid a group that had just left the place and were chatting on the pavement. His glance rested for a second on a girl in a red dress, slim, dark haired, dark eyed, who had turned away as he’d approached, and he wondered why.

  * * *

  He didn’t sleep well that first night. The noise of the waterfall was something he was going to have to get used to, he thought as he went to stand beside it as it hurtled down in the moonlight.

  The memory of the folks coming out of the pub happy and carefree was still there. He had almost forgotten how to enjoy himself since the body blow he’d received from his faithless fiancée had destroyed any inclination he might have had towards that sort of thing, and the work he had gone to do amongst the heat and endless health problems of a far country, though rewarding and challenging, had not helped to make him feel any less joyless.

  Yet as he turned to go back inside he found he was smiling, his spirits lifting. He had done the right thing in coming back to this beautiful Lakeland, he told himself. The past was done with. He was not going to allow it to intrude into the future. He had survived what Nadine had done to him and from now on intended to be happy and carefree in his new surroundings.

  He could see the shops on the main street in the distance and saw that late as it was there was a light on in the rooms above the bakery, so he wasn’t the only one still up.

  * * *

  Back in her flat, Julianne was staring into space. The last thing she’d wanted had been to come face-to-face with Aaron outside The Mallard amongst the noise and laughter of its patrons at the end of an evening of dancing and drinking, and after the first moment of unexpected recognition she’d turned away, wishing that she was dressed in a colour less memorable than red.

  If he had recognised her he would no doubt have seen scarlet as the right colour for any woman associated with Nadine. But he hadn’t, and if she could escape any scrutiny that brought recognition when they came face-to-face at the surgery, she would be relieved beyond telling. If she didn’t, then what? Leave and look for a position somewhere else?

  Yet she would hate to have to do that as the only people in her life were the few casual friends she’d made since joining the practice. Her parents were divorced—her mother married for a second time and living in Australia, and her father spent his days as steward and general factotum on a luxury yacht that its owners spent their time sailing around the world in, so he only appeared rarely in her life.

  As for her Nadine, she hadn’t seen her since the day she’d left Aaron devastated at the altar and she had no wish to do so in the future. If he’d given her the chance during those moments when they’d been alone in the vestry she would have explained that her only reason for not being horrified at what her sister had done to him had been because she’d had a youthful crush on him and wished she could have been his bride instead.

  She would have squirmed in the telling of it because compared to Nadine she’d been like an ugly duckling next to a beautiful swan in her teenage years and gauche with it.

  But Aaron hadn’t given her the chance and in a sick sort of way she’d been relieved to be saved the embarrassment of admitting such a thing to a man who barely knew she existed.

  The only time they’d had any conversation before that had been once when he’d been waiting for Nadine to get ready to go partying. It had been at the flat that she and her sister had shared in the town centre as Nadine was no lover of the countryside, and she’d been forced to listen to how fortunate he felt he was to have someone so beautiful wanting to marry him.

  At the time she’d been reminded of men who had tried to chat her up as a means of getting to know her golden-haired sister and how she’d sent them packing, but tongue-tied in his presence she’d refrained from offering a word of warning because she’d known that the envy of other men would only make Nadine more desirable in his eyes.

  It had been a rich man who had used his wealth to tempt Nadine away from the altar that day. The thought of him waiting out there with all that he could give her had made her choose possessions before love.

  Julianne had known that she was seeing someone else, and had begged her not to marry Aaron if she didn’t love him, but Nadine’s reply to that had been that she did love him, but Howie was very rich and he adored her.

  With the selfishness that was so much a part of her, she had waited until Aaron had actually been at the altar before making her decision, and the hurt she’d caused had been indescribable.

  With that bleak thought to end the day Julianne undressed and once beneath the covers tried not to think about what the future held. She was used to laughing a lot, playing a lot, should have been on the stage as most of it was acting a part. What sort of a performance was she going to have to put on working alongside Aaron Somerton?

  When he’d disappeared into the unknown she’d never expected to see him again and part of her had been relieved, but for the rest there had been a yearning that had never gone away and now, unbelievably, he was back in her life, here in Swallowbrook!

  * * *

  Nathan had told him to take a couple of days to settle in before taking his place in the practice but Aaron felt the urge to be back practising medicine on his home soil, and when the staff began to arrive at the surgery he was amongst them, tall, tanned and white shirted, ready for the fray.

  ‘You didn’t have to come in today,’ Nathan told him, pleasantly surprised. ‘I did say take a couple of days to get settled in.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ Aaron replied. ‘But I was settled as soon as I saw the lake and the rest of the village. I had no intention of ever coming back to this area until that day when you suggested I fill the vacancy, and now I’ve arrived I realise what I’ve been missing.’

  ‘Fine,’ his friend said. ‘Come along and I’ll introduce you to the staff. First the other doctors, our newlyweds Ruby and Hugo Lawrence, and then the three practice nurses. There’s Helena, who has been with us for ever and is the practice’s senior nurse. Then Gina, who is the mother of two young boys and works part-time to fit in with school hours. And then there is our bright morning star...

  ‘Oh! Not so bright this morning!’ he commented as Julianne came hurrying in through the main doors of the practice looking pale and heavy-eyed, her pallor deepening when she saw Aaron standing in Reception.

  As she halted on seeing them, Nathan said laughingly, ‘I was just telling Aaron that you are our bright morning star, but you seem to have lost your shine today.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked. ‘I had a restless night, but I’ll be all right as soon as I’ve had a cup of tea.’ And with a grimace of a smile in Aaron’s direction she added, ‘Nice to meet you, Dr Somerton.’

  ‘And you too Nurse, er...?’ he replied.

  ‘Julianne Marshall.’ She waited with bated breath.

  ‘Nice to meet you, Julianne Marshall.’ And only by the flicker of an eyelid could she tell that he knew who she was.

  ‘If you will excuse me’ she said, ‘I need to get changed while you are being introduced to the rest of the staff.’

&
nbsp; Julianne scurried to the nurses’ rooms, which were unoccupied at that moment.

  ‘Ugh!’ she groaned. ‘That was worse than taking castor oil! I’m sure he recognised me. My name isn’t one he would forget in a hurry!’

  She quickly changed then headed for the kitchen. With ten minutes before the first appointment of the day, she found Aaron in there, chatting to Laura Armitage. So purposely took her drink to the far end of the room and chatted to one of the receptionists until Nathan announced that he was about to open up, and there was a general exodus.

  Their glances met briefly as Aaron stepped back to let her and the other two nurses pass, and if she’d had any doubts before as to whether he recognised her or not, the set of his mouth held the answer, and she knew that life was not going to be easy in the days to come.

  * * *

  Hell’s bells! Aaron thought grimly as Nathan showed him his newly decorated consulting room. The dark-haired nurse was the deceitful bridesmaid who had witnessed his humiliation and been unaffected by it. What a horrendous homecoming! So much for the future being free of the past.

  If he remembered rightly, at the time of the wedding that never was she’d been doing her nurse’s training then, and that was about all he’d known about her, until he’d seen her composed expression when his bride had gone like a bullet from a gun.

  But it was all long ago, water under the bridge. He still smarted when he thought about it, but it only happened rarely now, and it shouldn’t be hard to give the ‘bright morning star’ a wide berth.

  Yet Nathan’s next comment made that seem unlikely when he said, ‘I’m thinking of pairing us doctors each with a nurse in the general day-to-day running of the practice to give a more efficient and sympathetic approach to our patients, but will wait until you’ve had the chance to settle in amongst us.’

  ‘Yes, sure,’ he said agreeably, but if he was ‘paired’ with Julianne Marshall he would wish himself back in Africa.

  * * *

  When Aaron went across to the bakery at lunchtime for a sandwich, the man behind the counter asked, ‘Are you the new doctor?’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ he told him. ‘Is there something I can help you with?’

  The baker was smiling. ‘Yes, you can tell Julianne, the girl who rents the apartment above the shop, that burning the midnight oil on weeknights is not a good idea for a young nurse who is on her feet all day. Maybe she’ll take some notice of you.’

  Aaron very much doubted it, and told the baker, ‘Nurse Marshall and I have only just met. She may not welcome advice from a stranger.’ The memory of hair as dark as ravens’ wings swinging against bare shoulders in a shining swathe, and a red dress that had been the perfect foil for it, came to mind. He hadn’t known who she was then, but felt that she must have recognised him as she’d turned her back to him in the middle of the group on the pavement when she’d seen him approaching.

  Autumn was dithering on the edge of winter and the practice was busy with the inevitable flu jabs and the onset of the demand for cold medications and the age-related illnesses that flared up with the approach of the festive season, and Aaron was soon in his stride without any further sightings of Julianne Marshall since their awkward meeting in the reception area that had been followed with the cosy tea and talk time in the surgery kitchen.

  But he couldn’t skulk in his room all day, and why should he? On that dreadful day long ago he’d had nothing to blame himself for except maybe being too trusting, and he’d never trusted anyone completely since.

  When he went into the corridor after notifying the nurses via email of certain tests he required to be done for his last patient, Julianne appeared with a printout in her hand of the instructions he’d just sent through, and as he observed her unsmilingly Aaron decided that her long legs in sheer grey tights had to be the same ones that he’d seen dashing up the back stairs in the bakery the day before.

  Had she known who he was then? Him coming to join the practice would be general knowledge, so she would have been prepared, but to him she was someone totally unexpected who was going to be a constant reminder of a day that would haunt him for ever.

  She was waiting to speak to him with dark eyes watchful and no smiles to be seen on the smooth lines of her face.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Have you got a problem with what I’ve just asked one of you to do?’

  ‘No,’ she said with outward calm. ‘It is just that your patient is questioning the cortisone injection in the knee that you have given him without warning.’

  ‘Are you questioning my methods?’ he said coldly. ‘The man’s records show that he was booked in today for that very thing. I haven’t dreamt it up from somewhere. I did tell him what I was going to do, and now I’ve sent him to you for his flu and pneumonia injections at his request.’

  ‘Yes, so I see,’ she said meekly. ‘Obviously he must have misunderstood about the injection in his knee.’

  ‘That could be the case,’ he said flatly. ‘If you or he have any further doubts, I suggest you check his records for yourself.’ And without giving her the chance to comment further he went to discuss the matter of where to buy a car from with Nathan, as without transport he wasn’t going to be much use to the practice.

  CHAPTER TWO

  HE DIDN’T buy a sports car, needless to say. Instead, when he’d completed the sale he drove back to the surgery in a black four-wheel-drive, and watching him park it on the forecourt from the window of the nurse’s room Julianne sighed.

  Their first conversation had been a prickly affair and she couldn’t visualise any future ones being any different. The only thing that would put things right between them would be for her to tell Aaron exactly what had been in her mind on that dreadful day.

  It had been more of a teenage crush than a grand passion, but it hadn’t seemed like that at the time, and she’d known that beside her sister’s attractions her own had been almost non-existent.

  Living in Nadine’s shadow had become a way of life that she’d had to accept—even their parents had been known to show preference on occasion. While she’d been growing up, whenever her father had called for his beautiful daughter to come to him she’d learned never to go rushing to his side, experience having taught her that it had been Nadine he’d wanted, always Nadine.

  When her sister’s ‘latest’ had appeared on the scene, handsome, clever, a catch by anyone’s standards, he had seemed like the prince to her Cinderella, and she had prayed that Nadine would not bring him grief.

  In a strange sort of way her prayers had been answered. The ‘grief’ had been there, no escaping that, but to a much lesser degree than if the marriage had gone ahead, and she’d hoped with youthful optimism that Aaron might notice her with Nadine gone.

  At the last moment her sister had gone where there had been money, lots of it, and Aaron had been spared the nightmare that life married to Nadine would have been, but she, Julianne, hadn’t come out of it smelling of roses either.

  She’d confessed to him how often she’d tried to persuade Nadine not to marry him, but in the midst of his anger hadn’t been able to get the words out to tell him why, and Aaron’s disgust at what he’d seen as her conniving had hit her like a sledgehammer.

  When she’d left the vestry after taking time to calm herself he had disappeared and she’d never seen him again until now, when the feelings she’d had for him that had shrivelled and died over the years were seemingly springing back into life.

  Aaron was out of the car and striding towards the main doors of the surgery and knowing that she would be on view she moved away from the window and found Helena, the oldest of the nurses, smiling across at her.

  ‘So is he your type?’ she asked.

  ‘Is who my type?’ she questioned innocently.

  ‘Aaron Somerton. I don’t doubt all of th
e available women will be noticing his arrival in our midst.’

  ‘So? They will have no competition from me,’ she told her. ‘We knew each other in another life and didn’t get on.’ Turning away, she called in the first of those waiting to be seen by a nurse and it turned out to be her landlord, George, the baker, who had come for his regular B12 injection.

  ‘The new doctor came into the shop this morning,’ he said while rolling up his sleeve, ‘and I asked him to impress on you that midweek living it up is not a good thing for tired nurses who have been on their feet all day.’

  She was bending over him with needle poised, and hissed angrily, ‘You had a nerve, George! I am quite capable of looking after myself. It is his first day with us and you say something like that to him. What was his reply?’

  ‘Said that you’d only just met and didn’t think the idea would appeal to you.’

  ‘He got that right! It would not appeal to me. So will you stop fussing over me, George?’

  ‘Aw, come on, Julianne,’ he protested. ‘You know you’re like the daughter I never had, and I worry about you because you seem so alone. My missus is long gone so I need somebody to look after.’

  She was smiling now. ‘Yes, I know. But please don’t talk about me to Aaron Somerton—anyone else is OK but not him.’

  ‘All right,’ he said, and in went the needle.

  * * *

  His first day at the practice was over and as Aaron drove back to The Falls Cottage beneath the darkening skies of an approaching winter evening the events of the day were going through his mind, and, wrongly or rightly, meeting up with Julianne Marshall, the young nondescript teenage bridesmaid of long ago and now a very attractive woman, was the one uppermost.

  Her sister, blonde where Julianne was dark, had been good-looking too, otherwise she wouldn’t have caught the eye of the millionaire who had been so much older than himself, and when he’d been left standing at the altar he had realised the truth of one of his mother’s favourite sayings, that beauty was only skin deep.