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

  Unlocking the door, she began to climb the stairs and for the rest of the evening sat by the fire, wishing she hadn’t had her boots on when a band had begun playing for dancing in the hotel. It would have given her the chance to test just how deep his aversion to her was.

  In the days when he’d been courting Nadine and the two of them had gone out leaving her alone in the flat, she had used to pretend that she was dancing in his arms and would float around the place dreamily, but only she knew that.

  CHAPTER THREE

  IT WAS Friday night and Julianne was drained physically and mentally by the happenings of a week that had seen Aaron back in Lakeland and herself trying to hang on to the shreds of what had been her life before that.

  On any other occasion she would be out enjoying herself, but tonight wasn’t just any night, it was the one when incredibly she’d spent a short time with the man she’d once thought was the answer to all her girlish dreams, and it had been an unnerving experience.

  She had known from the moment of his arrival in Swallowbrook that she hadn’t been forgiven for the part he thought she’d played in his moment of ghastly humiliation, yet he’d taken her for a hot drink when he’d seen her shiver in the chilly night air down by the lake, as he might do for anyone who was feeling the cold.

  She sighed as she wandered listlessly around the small apartment that she had furnished with loving care when she’d first moved in after taking up the position of practice nurse at the local surgery.

  Nadine’s name hadn’t come up once over their brief coffees. That was how she wanted it to be and prayed that he felt the same. If Aaron was prepared to accept her presence in his life again on sufferance, it would be easier to cope with than outright revulsion.

  When she went to bed she turned her head into the pillow and wished that he had stayed in Africa instead of coming back to haunt her.

  * * *

  Back at the cottage beside the waterfall Aaron’s thoughts were running along similar lines. Maybe a truce might be the best way to adjust to the coincidence of finding Julianne Marshall back in his life to such an extent. It would have been awkward enough to have her just living nearby. But the fact that she was going to be in his face all the time they were working at the surgery where his friend Nathan, who was not a man to gush, had described her as the ‘bright morning star’ was mind-blowing. Thank God she didn’t resemble Nadine in looks. That would be the last straw. He would be packing his bags and looking for work elsewhere.

  It was early, too soon to settle down for the night, and he decided to seek some company, anyone’s but hers. As he walked back along the main street he saw that the lights were out in the apartment above the bakery and thought that she must have gone to meet her friends after all.

  As he walked briskly along, The Mallard came into view and after a quick look around inside to make sure that Julianne and her associates weren’t there, he found warmth from the wintry night and friendly chat amongst folk who some day he might find sitting across from him at the surgery.

  The two Lawrence doctors, Hugo and Ruby, were seated at one of the tables with the practice manager Laura Armitage and her husband, Gabriel. When they saw him Hugo came across and invited him to join them, and putting his gloomy thoughts to one side he accepted and for the first time since his arrival in Swallowbrook started to feel as if he belonged.

  * * *

  As the evening progressed it was discussed that the Lawrences were expecting a child to adopt soon, which would mean that Ruby being the relief doctor in the pairing-off process might not be available for long, but there would be time enough for Nathan to sort that out when it happened.

  He also discovered that Laura and Gabriel had two children—Sophie, nine years old and staying the night at a school friend’s, and Josh, six, who was sleeping at Nathan’s with his best friend, Toby, which had left their parents free to socialise for a change.

  The conversation was mostly about themselves and the village as a whole, with frequent mentions of the practice, but as there was no reason for the nurses to come under discussion Julianne’s name didn’t come up and perversely Aaron wished that it would, so that he might pick up some substance regarding her life past and present with regard to the best way to cope with her unwelcome presence in his life.

  As he walked back at gone midnight to where the waterfall danced endlessly into the lake he saw that her apartment was still in darkness and thought that she was most likely still living it up somewhere. As a mini-bus unloaded a group of late-night passengers just ahead of him he quickened his step in case she was amongst them. Two accidental meetings in one night was not to be contemplated.

  He would have been amazed to know that she was lying wide-eyed against the pillows in her small bedroom, with sleep hard to come by because of him, and when he arrived back at the cottage he paused for a moment before going inside.

  A winter moon was turning the still, dark waters of the lake into silver, and in the background the fells, high up above, encircled it like a protective bracelet. The scene was indescribably beautiful and so was the woman who had spoiled his homecoming with her presence, but, then, she hadn’t been exactly overjoyed to see him either.

  All you’ve got to do is stick to the job and its demands when you’re in her presence, he reminded himself, and for the rest of it stay out of her way. Unlocking the door of the cottage, he went slowly upstairs and tried not to dwell on how difficult that might turn out to be.

  * * *

  With Friday gone, Saturday dawned bright and cold, and when Julianne awoke after falling asleep in the early hours with the short time she’d spent with Aaron the last thing on her mind, it was also the first when she opened her eyes, and she groaned softly.

  She’d been content before he had reappeared on the scene, happy and fulfilled in her job, safe in the home she had made for herself above George’s bakery, where he liked to feel he was keeping a fatherly eye on her. There was no need, of course, but it gave him pleasure to do so and she was happy to go along with it as she saw little enough of her own father.

  After the fiasco of her sister’s wedding day she had kept free of any romantic entanglements, only dating casually.

  Since Aaron had disappeared from her life she had never really cared for any other man because he had been so much what she longed for, but he had been swift to think badly of her when all she had done had been to try to save him hurt. Now, amazingly, he had come back into her life after a long absence and she wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

  She usually helped George in the shop downstairs on Saturday mornings by serving the customers, and after the bakery was closed went into the town to shop and have an evening meal in one of the restaurants there.

  Today was going to be no different, she decided with the lie-in she’d promised herself taking a back seat. After a hasty breakfast she went down to the shop to help George as customers came and went after buying the bread and cakes that he had baked during the dawn hours, and it was only when Aaron appeared amongst those waiting to be served that she thought again how very different it was going to be having him around, and around he was going to be for the foreseeable future. So she could either get used to the idea or look for another job, and why should she have to do that? He was the intruder, not her.

  He was observing her thoughtfully as he waited to be served. The dark mass of her hair was tied back neatly and she was wearing a crisp white apron over jeans and a sweatshirt.

  As she served the village folk Julianne chatted easily to each customer, mainly because she knew most of them, until it was his turn and then she clammed up, was civil but not forthcoming, and he knew she was regretting the brief time they’d spent together the night before.

  Yet if she was, she had a nerve. He was the one with good reason not to want to spend time with her, and coming to the bakery for b
read and pastries had nothing to do with her being there. It was the excellence of the food that had brought him to the shop and he had to eat, for heaven’s sake!

  But as he walked back the way he’d come he knew that he could have bought the food he required at one of the other shops. It might not have been as appetising, but the bakery wasn’t the only place that supplied that kind of commodity. It was a matter of him having seen what George had to offer his customers that had brought them face-to-face again.

  He had the rest of the day planned. In the afternoon he intended to hire a boat, sail the full length of the lake and maybe have dinner at a restaurant at the moorings at the far end. It would be a solitary way to spend the time, but that wouldn’t bother him as for the last five years spent in an overcrowded African hospital solitude had been in short supply.

  Fortunately it had been the last thing he’d craved when he’d first gone out there. Time to think would have brought reminders of something he had been desperate to forget.

  * * *

  When Julianne came down from her apartment dressed for her weekly visit to the town George was tidying up before closing and said teasingly, ‘You weren’t very chatty with the new doctor again. What’s the problem, has he got a wife and half a dozen offspring?’

  ‘Not that I know of,’ she told him, ‘unless he’s got them hidden away in Africa, and as to my not falling over myself to be nice to him, I don’t have to gush over every customer who comes in, do I?’

  ‘No,’ he said, ‘but you were the only woman in the place who didn’t cast an eye in his direction.’

  ‘Yes, well, that may be,’ she told him, ‘but when I cast an eye it won’t be in Aaron Somerton’s direction.’ And before George could question her further she planted a kiss on his cheek and seconds later drove off in the direction of the motorway that ran past the village.

  As she wandered around the shops Julianne thought that what she’d said to George had sounded convincing, so why did she have a sudden yearning to have her hair cut and styled, her nails manicured, and didn’t think twice about buying a dress that she’d hesitated over for weeks because of the price?

  ‘Please don’t let me start wanting Aaron again,’ she begged the unseen fates. ‘It hurt too much last time and it will be the same now if I let my heart rule my head.’

  * * *

  As he sailed across the lake on a chilly November afternoon Aaron saw a solitary house on an island and wondered who was fortunate enough to live there.

  He didn’t remember it from when he’d lived not far away himself, and would surely recall it if it had been already there then. As he sailed nearer he had his answer. Nathan, Libby and their children had just disembarked from what must be their own craft and were waving to him from a small landing stage, and as he hailed them in return he felt a sharp twinge of envy.

  Like the Armitages and the Lawrences, the Gallaghers had their lives sorted, it seemed. He was of a similar age to Nathan and his was far from having any stability in it because of the fickleness of a woman he should not have had anything to do with in the first place...and the same applied to her sister to a lesser degree.

  * * *

  He didn’t linger at the moorings to dine. The light was fading, there were rainclouds above, and he wanted to get the boat back to where he’d hired it from before darkness fell. Maybe he would venture onto the lake again soon, but the next time he would like it to be in a small craft of his own.

  As he was leaving the boatyard to walk home to The Falls Cottage the rain came, heavy and drenching. He quickened his steps and halted almost in the same instant as a pink car pulled up alongside him. When he bent to look inside its small interior Julianne Marshall said, ‘Can I give you a lift?’

  His first thought was that he would rather get wet, and the second was that it would be churlish to refuse the offer, so he said. ‘Er, yes, thank you very much,’ and eased into the seat beside her.

  Into the silence that followed he said, ‘I’ve been having my first taste of sailing on the lake and enjoyed it immensely, but when you stopped beside me I was wishing that I’d gone to the boatyard in my car.’

  She nodded and informed him, ‘I’ve been into the town, shopping, which is my regular Saturday treat.’

  ‘Good for you,’ he said, and then he couldn’t help himself. He had to know. ‘How is Nadine these days?’

  He watched her grip tighten on the steering wheel but her voice was level enough as she replied, ‘All right, I would imagine. We’re not in touch.’

  ‘Really? I always thought you were close.’

  ‘Yes, I know you did, but you were wrong.’

  The Falls Cottage had come into view. In a few seconds he would be gone and Julianne thought desperately that she was being given an opportunity to tell him the true circumstances of the part she had played in his humiliation.

  But would he believe her, and could she stand the embarrassment of having to explain that she’d longed for him to be hers at that time? It might make him think that she still had yearnings for him and that really would make him want to give her a wide berth.

  As she watched Aaron unfold himself out of the car she let the opportunity pass. A hurried conversation about something so important and personal was not the way to put things right between them. It needed the right time and the right place and as she drove off with a farewell wave of the hand it seemed unlikely that was going to happen.

  On the way home she felt weepy and sad. She had wished that she could have been the bride on that dreadful day, eager to make him happy and contented, and if that had been so they might have had children by now, young ones to cherish and take delight in. But instead her love for him had grown cold, just as cold as Aaron’s manner towards her, so what was there left to dream about?

  George was out when she arrived back at the bakery. He always took his lady friend out on Saturdays when the shop was closed for the weekend, and Julianne was relieved. If he saw her all downcast and weepy he would want to know what was wrong, and there was no way she would want to tell him.

  She and her friends always congregated in the pub on Saturdays and they would be expecting her to join them there, so she supposed that she might as well. Moping around the apartment was all right for one night but it could get to be a habit if she let it, and if Aaron’s presence in the village was going to be a permanent thing she was going to have to accept it and not let it assume the sort of proportions that were going to disrupt the happy life she’d made for herself here.

  * * *

  When she arrived at The Mallard it was later than usual and a cheer went up from the friends who had saved her a place at a corner table where they had settled themselves. When she joined them it felt better to be back in routine, doing the things she normally did, instead of letting Aaron’s presence throw her off course.

  The feeling was short-lived. Bright-eyed and happy, she was describing to her friend Anna the dress she’d bought when the door opened and into the warmth of a big log fire came Aaron.

  As he approached the bar he nodded briefly and she responded with a weak smile. The Mallard was the centre of everyone’s entertainment on winter nights like this, and it stood to sense that someone as alone as Aaron would be drawn to it.

  ‘That’s the new doctor who has just come in, isn’t it?’ Anna said, her attention diverted from the description of the dress. ‘He is stunning, but doesn’t smile much. Is he married?’

  It was a casual question on her friend’s part, but it brought back memories that were far from that. First and foremost was Aaron’s ashen face as he’d watched her sister turn and run away from him. Flying down the aisle to where the man with the money waited in the flashy red car that had been speeding out of sight by the time her bridegroom had gathered his wits and chased after her.

  ‘Aaron isn’t married, as far a
s I know. He seems to be very much alone.’

  Knowing that Anna was engaged to Tom, seated next to her, and that the two of them were madly in love, she teased, ‘Why do you want to know? You haven’t fallen out of love with Tommy, have you?’

  ‘No. I will never do that,’ she said softly. ‘I was thinking of you when I asked if the dishy doctor was married.’

  ‘Yes, well, don’t,’ Julianne told her. ‘I am the last person Aaron Somerton would ever want to get to know better.’ And having no intention of ever telling anyone about how she came to know him, she watched in silence as he went to sit at an empty table at the opposite end of the room.

  He might have known that the ‘bright morning star’ would be shining somewhere in Swallowbrook on a Saturday night, but there was no point in fretting about that as their paths were going to be crossing all the time.

  When he looked up their glances locked, hers solemn, his pleasant enough, and when he raised his glass to her he saw the colour rise in her cheeks and the next moment she was on her feet and coming across to where he was seated, and it seemed as if she was out to surprise him.

  ‘Would you like to join us, Aaron?’ she said awkwardly. ‘My friends are a nice lot and would enjoy meeting you.’

  The dark violet eyes looking into his were apprehensive, as if she’d overstepped the mark by inviting him to join them, and he said, improvising quickly, ‘I would like to, Julianne, but I’m afraid that I must refuse. I only came in here briefly and must go in the next couple of minutes. I’m expecting a phone call from one of my colleagues in Africa and she will be disappointed if I’m not there when she rings.’

  He was getting to his feet, already about to leave, and she wondered if what he’d just said was true, or if it was something he’d concocted to provide a reason not to be in her company.

  Halting briefly, anxious to change the subject, he said, ‘What do you folks do on Sundays in this place? Where I’ve been it was just like any other day.’