Marriage Miracle in Swallowbrook Read online

  She would have gone to the police station with him but he had insisted that she stay with their neighbour, who lived alone and as far as they knew had no close relatives, and there had also been the matter of their children due out of school soon.

  ‘Phone the school, Laura,’ he’d instructed, as, still in shock, she had stood by white faced and trembling. ‘Ask them to keep the children there until you can pick them up.’ As he’d been led away she’d nodded mutely and done as he’d said.

  In the early evening, with Gabriel still at the police station, his secretary had phoned to say that his solicitor had been on the phone with a message from his client to say that her husband was insisting that she keep the appointments that had been made for her the following day and that he would be back as soon as possible.

  ‘Whatever is wrong, Mrs Armitage?’ Jenny Carstairs had asked, mystified at the unusual turn of events.

  ‘It is something that we got involved in this afternoon, Jenny,’ she’d told her, ‘and knowing how Gabriel likes to have all ends neatly tied he’s sending me a reminder about the scans, that’s all.’

  As soon as the secretary had gone off the line she’d rung the hospital to check on Jeremy’s condition, knowing that if it had been someone other than Gabriel who had struck him he might not have survived the terrific blow to the head on the marble fireplace.

  Jeremy was responding to treatment, she’d been told, there was no bleeding inside the head but he had sustained a skull fracture that was being dealt with, and his heart was being monitored all the time.

  So it had seemed that Gabriel’s quick response to what he’d been responsible for had probably saved the other man’s life and she’d had to be satisfied with that, knowing that her husband was in police custody because of his angry reaction at finding her in the arms of another man.

  Jeremy had seen her arrive home in tears and had been quick to step in to offer the comfort of his arms to his attractive neighbour in her moment of weakness. He’d been holding her close and stroking her hair, and at the moment that Gabriel had arrived he had been taking advantage of the situation and kissing her, and Gabriel had misunderstood what was happening.

  * * *

  As he put his key in the lock of the London house, the feeling of unreality that had been there all the time he’d been serving his sentence didn’t lift. He was free of the punishment he’d received for loving his wife too much, he thought grimly, but what now? He looked around a hall that smelt musty from the lack of fresh air, and as he opened a window wondered if maybe that was how he smelt, for the same reason.

  Would Laura ever forgive him for doubting her? She’d visited him dutifully while he’d been in that place but every time he’d seen her he’d known that the bonds that had always held them together had been broken and it had been due to his neglect.

  After her appointment as a patient on that never-to-be-forgotten day almost a year ago, he’d sat staring into space as the reality of what was happening to their marriage had hit him. The woman he loved had been reduced to consulting him as a member of the general public. They’d lived in the same house, slept in the same bed, yet that was what she’d had to do to bring his attention to something that could have been serious.

  Laura hadn’t known at that moment that he’d passed all his appointments for the day to his second in command when she’d left and in the early afternoon had gone home with the intention of telling her that in future his dedication to the sick and suffering wasn’t going to take over his life as much as it had been doing, that they were going to be a proper family again.

  With that in mind he had arrived to find her being kissed and cuddled by the guy who lived next door, who was the laziest devil he’d ever come across and considered himself to be irresistible to women. Of independent means, he spent his days socialising with the city ‘jet set’ while he, Gabriel, was often operating for twenty-four hours non-stop, and in those first few seconds of rage it had seemed to him as if the sloth from next door had turned his attentions to Laura.

  When his case had come up in court he’d been sentenced to nine months in prison for grievous bodily harm and been told it would have been twelve if it hadn’t been for the fact that as well as endangering the other man’s life he had also saved it in those first few moments of realising the horror of what he’d done, otherwise he might have been facing a charge of manslaughter. The marble fireplace had played its part, but he had been the one who’d struck the blow and his life and Laura’s had never been the same since.

  In the weeks prior to his case coming up they had slept in separate rooms, discussed only household matters and the children’s welfare, and though he was no weakling mentally or physically the thought of being shut away from her and the children for any length of time had been agony. The only bright spot had been that Laura’s test results had come back negative for cancer. The swelling was benign.

  * * *

  The first thing he did in the silent house was strip off and wash away the smell of where he’d been, and then got dressed in some of his own casual clothes that had hung unworn over the months.

  When he opened the fridge it was well stocked and he wondered when Laura had found time to drive up to London to do that. He had the answer when a few seconds later the phone rang and Jenny, his secretary, was on the line, welcoming him home and asking if the food she’d bought him was all right.

  ‘Laura rang and asked me to do a shop for you,’ she explained.

  ‘It is fine, Jenny,’ he told her, ‘and many thanks for taking the trouble’

  ‘It was no trouble. I’m just glad to know you’re home,’ she said awkwardly. ‘Everyone on the unit wants to know when you’re coming back.’

  ‘It might be if rather than when,’ he replied. ‘I’ve got some thinking to do, Jenny, but I’ll be around to see you all soon.’

  He finished his conversation with Jenny, but almost immediately the phone rang again. This time it was Laura.

  ‘Gabriel! You’re home! Thank goodness! How does it feel?’

  ‘Quiet, peaceful,’ he replied. ‘Jenny has done what you asked so I’m going to have a snack lunch and then maybe a walk in the park. I see that next door is up for sale. Did you know?’

  ‘Er, yes. Jeremy phoned to tell me.’

  ‘Why would he do that, then?’

  ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t interested and told him so,’ she said levelly, and into the silence that followed added, ‘When are you coming to see the children?’

  ‘Soon,’ he replied. ‘One day during the week maybe.’

  ‘I see,’ she replied, and she did. She saw that Gabriel had no intention of taking up where they’d left off on that dreadful afternoon. They’d lived like strangers in the same house after the event while waiting for the case to come up, and she was no more eager than he was to go back to that kind of life.

  The move to Swallowbrook hadn’t just been because of her uncle’s generous gift of the house. She’d harboured a secret hope that it might be a new beginning with Gabriel away from the happenings of the past in a beautiful place, but it seemed that he had other ideas and when they’d finished the call she wept for all that they’d lost.

  * * *

  Laura had chaired a meeting of the doctors the night before to discuss a project that was already under way—the building of a clinic for cancer patients that Nathan Gallagher was keen to see take place on the same plot of land as the surgery.

  The relevant authorities in the area had approved it and work had already started. The practice building had once been a farmhouse where Libby, his wife, had been brought up, and there was land to spare all around it.

  The intention was that the clinic should be an offshoot of the local hospital’s oncology department, which was always extremely busy, and if plans went ahead it would be somewhere for local people to see a c
onsultant without a longer wait than was necessary.

  Libby hadn’t been at the meeting. She was retiring from the practice very soon and had suggested that Laura take Sophie and Josh round to their place to play with Toby until it was over.

  When she’d dropped them off Libby had thought that the new practice manager looked tired and stressed but hadn’t said anything, as on getting to know her better she was realising that Laura Armitage was a very private person.

  The other woman in the practice, Hugo Lawrence’s delightful new wife Ruby, who had joined them as a junior doctor some time ago, had similar feelings about the new practice manager and was doing her best to make her feel at home. She felt that Laura was under pressure of some kind and it was noticeable that there was never any mention of the children’s father in any conversation with her.

  Though not so with her young daughter, Sophie was obviously in touch with her father, even if her mother wasn’t, if the number of times she mentioned him was anything to go by.

  * * *

  After speaking to Gabriel on Friday morning, Laura decided that if life had felt unreal ever since he’d come charging in and found the opportunist from next door using her distress to get to know her better, the stilted conversation they’d just had on the phone took unreality into a new dimension.

  He still believed she’d been about to cheat on him, she thought. That she’d turned to Jeremy Saunders of all people because of his own neglect of her, and that maybe it hadn’t been the first time. Never having been prepared to discuss it with her since, now he was making it clear that there wasn’t going to be any loving reunion, not as far as he was concerned anyway.

  Sleep was long in coming when she went to bed. As she lay wide-eyed beneath the eaves of Swallows Barn, Laura heard Sophie call out his name on a sob and couldn’t believe that Gabriel could stay away from the children now that he was free. If he didn’t want to be with her, fine, but he adored Sophie and Josh, and if he didn’t appear for them soon she would… What? File for divorce and have to live without him for evermore?

  CHAPTER TWO

  ON THE Sunday after Gabriel’s release from prison, Laura set off with the children for a picnic on an island in the middle of the lake. It was a quiet and peaceful place, uninhabited except for just one property—an attractive house built from lakeland stone and appropriately named Greystone House.

  They had told her at the surgery that it belonged to Libby and Nathan Gallagher, that he had bought it for her as a wedding present, and she’d thought how romantic that was. It seemed that the two of them and their small son spent every weekend there.

  This Sunday the two doctors were going to the wedding of a friend who lived down south and so there would be no one but her and the children on the island today.

  Sophie and Josh were keen to explore everywhere and as it was small enough for her to keep them in view all the time, she was happy to let them wander where they wanted as long as they didn’t trespass on land belonging to the house.

  Once they were happily occupied she set out the picnic for when they would be ready to eat, and then opening up the folding chair that she had brought with her settled herself on it and let her thoughts take over.

  It hurt that Gabriel hadn’t rushed straight up here to see the children at least, though he obviously had no interest in rebuilding their marriage.

  She often thought that if she hadn’t gone to the hospital as his patient that day, he wouldn’t have come home so early, and when Jeremy had taken advantage of her distress, she would have sent him packing without Gabriel knowing anything about it and it would have been the end of the incident.

  But Gabriel’s timing had been all wrong and so had Jeremy’s for that matter. They had all paid a high price for what had happened in the moment when his self-control had snapped. She could hear the engines of another passenger launch approaching and she sighed. It had stopped, and the peace she craved would be gone if others had the same thought in mind that she’d had.

  Calling Sophie and Josh to her, she began to pour the cold drinks that she’d brought and almost dropped the flask when a shadow fell across her and the children came to a halt as if they’d seen a ghost.

  She turned slowly with a tingling down her spine and when she looked up Gabriel was there, observing her gravely, and it was as if the four of them had been turned to stone, until Sophie broke the silence by crying ‘Daddy!’ and began running towards him, with Josh not far behind. As he scooped them up into his arms Laura saw the wetness of tears on his cheeks and thought achingly that this was a moment that none of them should ever have had to endure, but it had been thrust upon them. Where did they go from here?

  Desperate to get away from the place where her life had been shattered, she’d spent the time that Gabriel had been away from her and the children picking up the pieces by moving to a new home in a beautiful Lakeland paradise, and although it had only been half a life without him there, she’d coped and would continue to do so whatever the outcome of his coming back to them.

  When the children had calmed down after lots of hugs and kisses and were tucking into the food, she asked in a low voice, ‘How did you know where to find us?’

  ‘I didn’t. I was parking the car by the lakeside when I saw the three of you in the distance boarding one of the launches, but it had sailed by the time I got there. I asked the girl in the ticket office if she knew where you were bound for. She said the island, so I caught the next boat.’

  ‘I see. So you decided to come earlier?’

  ‘Yes, but I’m not staying.’

  ‘Oh, fine!’ she said coolly. ‘The children won’t like that! Don’t you think they’ve waited long enough to be with you?’

  ‘Yes, I do, but, Laura, my life has been on hold for long enough. I have things to sort out at the hospital, matters that have accumulated while I’ve been in prison. I want the way ahead to be clear with regard to my career, so that I know my position, what I’m doing.’

  The hurt inside her was beyond bearing as she listened to what he was saying and it came forth in anger as she said tightly, ‘So nothing changes Gabriel? It’s still career first and family second.’ She glanced at the children, who were out of earshot. ‘Well, don’t let us stop you. Do dash off to wherever it is you prefer to be.’

  ‘Would it be all right to stay the night?’ he asked, with no answer forthcoming to her protest.

  ‘You shouldn’t need to ask!’

  The vestige of a smile was tugging at the corners of the mouth that had kissed her a thousand times in what seemed like another life.

  ‘All right, then,’ he said, adding with grim humour, ‘Just as long as the sheets are of Egyptian cotton. My bedding of recent months has hardly been luxurious, and if the house has a spare room, that will do fine’

  She turned away. How could he joke about something like that and at the same time make it clear that he didn’t want to sleep with her? With a change of subject she pointed to the food and said stiffly, ‘There is plenty to eat. What would you like to drink?’

  As he squatted down on the grass, with the children chattering one on either side, it seemed so normal that she could hardly believe that for what had seemed like for ever the only man she had ever loved had been serving a custodial sentence for grievous bodily harm because of what had been the worst day of her life.

  * * *

  ‘I hope you’ll like the house,’ she said uncomfortably when they arrived at Swallows Barn with the children still on a high, having been driven home in Gabriel’s car.

  ‘If you are happy with it, that is all that matters,’ he said levelly.

  Sophie urged, ‘Come and see my room, Daddy!’

  ‘And mine!’ Josh said, and as the three of them went upstairs together Laura thought that Gabriel could tell the children that he wasn’t staying. She wasn�
�t going to be responsible for causing them any upset.

  * * *

  When they were asleep after receiving a promise from their father that he would take them to school the next morning, an awkward silence fell upon the house until it was broken by Gabriel asking casually, ‘So what is the medical centre like in this place, Laura?’

  Was that all he could talk about, health care? But she answered civilly enough, explaining who was who and outlining her responsibilities.

  They’d passed the practice on the way home and he’d noticed that a new building was being erected on the large plot of land next to it and had wanted to know what it was going to be.

  ‘It is going to be a clinic that will be an offshoot of the main oncology unit at the local hospital,’ she told him. ‘All the staff at the surgery are very excited about it.’

  ‘Hmm, impressive forward thinking,’ he commented. ‘When is it due to open?’

  ‘Some time in the autumn if all goes according to plan.’

  But she had questions of her own to ask and they weren’t about health care. It was the first time she’d had the opportunity to ask him what it had been like being shut away from his life’s work at the hospital and his family, and was hoping that his reply would give her some degree of understanding of the stranger that he had become.

  ‘So what was it like in there?’ she asked gently, and watched his face close up.

  ‘It was a piece of cake.’

  ‘I’m not asking for mockery,’ she told him. ‘I want the truth.’

  It had been hell on earth being away from them, but he had brought it on himself. He must have been insane to think that Laura would have anything to do with the low life from next door, but seeing that creep with his arms around her had ignited a fury like he’d never known. Perhaps in hindsight his uncharacteristic behaviour had been amplified by his feelings of guilt over neglecting Laura.

  He’d flung himself at the man like a coiled spring and since that moment life had been totally unreal, but Laura was waiting for an answer and so, referring to the lighter side of his sentence, he said, ‘I worked in the prison hospital for most of the time, which provided some degree of job satisfaction, and had a constant stream of inmates queuing up outside my cell for advice regarding their health problems, true or imaginary, but the nights were long.’