His Christmas Bride-To-Be (Medical Romance) Read online

  Did he ever smile? she wondered. If his expression was less closed and sombre he would be the most attractive man she’d ever met. His hair was dark russet, his eyes as blue as a summer sky—but always with no joy in them.

  It seemed that he was unmarried, not in a relationship of any kind, and lived alone in his delightful property, with the occasional visit from his elderly parents.

  Her smile was wry. It seemed as if neither of them was fulfilling their full potential. His life sounded almost hermit-like. Or was it that he had enough to think about with the job and being there for his folks? Although they sounded anything but fragile.

  She was being observed in return. What was it that Jeremy Chalmers had done to cause his daughter the degree of hurt that he’d confessed to when he’d lain dying? Glenn asked himself. It had been enough to make her leave Glenminster and only be prepared to return in the event of his death.

  Emma didn’t come over as the weak and whingeing type. Whatever it was, she didn’t carry her sorrows around with her, as he did. Maybe they weren’t as dreadful as the burden he was carrying, having Serena there one moment and the next gone for ever. If they’d had a child to remember her by he might be coping better.

  The funeral party were getting ready to leave. He got to his feet and joined them and as Emma shook hands and thanked them for their time and their support, he waited until they’d gone and asked, ‘Do you want a lift home, Emma?’

  She smiled. ‘No, I’m fine. Lydia is going to take me, but thanks for the offer. And also thanks once again for the way you have been there for me, a stranger, at this awful time.’ Her smile deepened. ‘I promise I will not cause any more hassle in your life.’

  Before he could explain that his moroseness came from coping with terrible grief every moment of every day, she had gone to where the practice manager was waiting for her, leaving him to return to the empty house that he had turned into his stronghold against life without Serena. For the first time since he had gone to live there Glenn was reluctant to turn the key in the lock and go inside, and when he did so, instead of its comforting peace, a heavy silence hung over every room.

  CHAPTER THREE

  WHEN EMMA AWOKE the next morning the first flickers of daylight were appearing on the wintry horizon and she thought that it would have been so much easier to have returned to Glenminster in summer, with long mellow days to provide some brightness to the occasion.

  The feeling of closure of the day before was not so strong in the moment of awakening to the rest of her life, because in the background was, and always would be, the shadowy figure of the man who was her birth father.

  But there were two things to look forward to that hopefully would not have any painful attachments to them. First, the opportunity, if Glenn Bartlett was agreeable, for her to apply for the GP vacancy at the practice where she’d been so happy and fulfilled before, and, second, house hunting for a modern apartment bought from the proceeds of the sale of the house that she had returned to so unwillingly.

  With regard to the practice, Glenn couldn’t stop her from applying for the post, but his obvious eagerness to be left in peace after spending so much time on her and her affairs indicated that he might not be bubbling over at the thought of her being still in his life to some extent. The only way to pursue that matter was to get in touch and sound him out about joining the practice.

  Before she did either of those things there was something she wanted to do first and that was to put flowers on her mother’s grave in a nearby churchyard, knowing that it would have been sadly neglected during her absence as Jeremy hadn’t been into that sort of thing.

  It had been on her mind ever since she’d come back to Glenminster but she had needed to be clear of her responsibilities regarding him before bringing her life back to some degree of normality.

  As she approached the grave with an array of winter flowers, Emma stopped in her tracks. It was clean and tidy but already had a display of roses gracing the centrepiece that looked as if they had been put there recently.

  The only person she could think of who might have done that was Lydia from the practice. The two women had been great friends and she had called off the wedding when she’d discovered how Jeremy had been planning to treat her dead friend’s daughter.

  The church was open and rather than not place the flowers she’d brought on the grave Emma went inside and asked the verger if she could borrow a vase for a short while, and was told to help herself to any that were standing idle on the window sills.

  When she’d arranged the flowers to her satisfaction and had placed them next to the others, she stood back and observed them gravely. For the first time since Jeremy had left her feeling lost and joyless there was peace in her heart and it was all due to an attractive stranger who had searched for her high and low to keep a promise he had made.

  After leaving the cemetery Emma went to the garage where Jeremy’s car had been kept awaiting her return to claim it. A large, black, showy model, it had no appeal whatsoever, and with the manager’s agreement she changed it for something smaller and brighter. She came away with cash to spare and the feeling that for once everything was going right, or at least it would be once she’d thanked Lydia for looking after the grave in her absence.

  She had to pass the practice on her way home and intended to stop to do that, and at the same time ask Glenn about the vacancy for another doctor.

  She found them both having just come up from the monthly practice meeting in the basement. For once there was a smile on his face when he saw her and no sign of the weary tolerance of previous meetings. She decided that it must be the pleasure of being off the hook that was making him look happy to see her. But how was Glenn going to feel if she wanted to be back in the practice, always around in some form or other?

  ‘I came to see you both for different reasons,’ she told them, ‘and won’t keep either of you for more than a few moments.’

  ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘I’ll be in my consulting room when you’ve had your chat with Lydia,’ and strolled off in that direction.

  ‘Is anything wrong?’ the practice manager asked anxiously.

  ‘No. Not at all,’ Emma told her. ‘I’ve just been to put flowers on my mother’s grave and there were already some there, beautiful cream roses, when I was expecting it to look totally neglected. I thought that only you would think to do that in my absence. So thank you, Lydia.’

  ‘You’re mistaken,’ the practice manager told her gently. ‘You are right in thinking I had a mind to keep it clean and with fresh flowers, but I haven’t done so recently.’

  ‘And you don’t know who else might have done?’ Emma asked incredulously.

  ‘No. How very strange.’

  ‘Isn’t it? I shall have to keep a lookout for the mystery grave-visitor,’ she said slowly, ‘and will let you know when I discover who it is.’

  When she knocked on the door of Glenn’s consulting room and was told to enter she was still in a state of amazement. He said, ‘What gives? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.’

  ‘Not exactly,’ she told him, ‘but something along those lines.’

  ‘Nothing to do with me, I hope?’

  ‘No. I came to ask if I could talk to you some time about the vacancy for another doctor here at the practice.’

  ‘I see,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘So what is wrong with now? The place is empty. We don’t make appointments for the afternoon when we have the monthly practice meeting in the morning, so I am free and would like to hear what you have to say.’

  ‘I would like to join the practice again if you would be happy about that,’ she told him. ‘I would never have left it in the first place if Jeremy hadn’t told me something one night that hurt so much I just had to get away to face up to what it meant. I left the next morning.

  ‘It is something I
don’t want to discuss, but as everyone else in the practice who was present at that time is aware of how I left without saying any goodbyes, I felt that I should explain the reason for my absence to you.’

  ‘You don’t have to explain anything to me about your private life, Emma,’ he said levelly. ‘Mine is buried deep in a black pit that I never seem to be able to climb out of. As to the rest of what you’ve said, I am concerned that you seem to think I wouldn’t be happy to have you as part of the practice. If I have given you that impression, I’m sorry.

  ‘The vacancy has arisen because one of our GPs has gone to live abroad unexpectedly with very little notice. Having once been employed here, you will be aware that in the town centre the pressure is always on. So shall we fix a starting date? And I will deal with any necessary paperwork regarding you coming back to us.’

  He was observing her thoughtfully. ‘Maybe you should give yourself time to unwind before you come. Your own health is just as important as the health of others, and stress is something that can wind one down into a dangerous state of exhaustion. I know because I’ve been there.’

  Emma could feel tears threatening. The very person she had thought would be dubious about the idea of her rejoining the practice was being kind and thoughtful, so much so that if she didn’t make a quick departure she would be weeping out her pain and loneliness in front of him.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she told him hoarsely. ‘I need to be with people of my own kind, Glenn, and after the sort of life I’ve been leading for the last few years nothing I have to deal with at the practice is going to stress me out. Thanks for being so considerate. It is a long time since anyone took the trouble to notice that I was there.’ And before he had the chance to make any further comment she went, hurrying through the empty surgery with head bent.

  He’d touched a nerve there, Glenn thought when Emma had gone. Had he been so wrapped up in his own sorrows that he hadn’t noticed that Emma was not the calm unflappable person that she appeared to be on the outside? The few words of concern that he’d felt obliged to express had opened a floodgate of pain from somewhere. At least he had his parents to give his life some purpose, but there had been no mention of anyone close to her, or surely they would have been at yesterday’s funeral.

  Lydia knew Emma better than anyone else, it would seem. Maybe she could throw some light on the distress of a few moments ago. He found her on the point of leaving, ready to take advantage of the empty surgery, and asked, ‘Can you spare a moment?’

  ‘Yes,’ was the reply. She liked the reserved but totally dependable head of the practice. After Jeremy’s comings and goings and afternoons on the golf course when he should have been holding the place together Glenn Bartlett was a pleasure to work with.

  ‘Just a quick question,’ he said. ‘I’ve had a chat with Emma about her joining the practice in the near future. It seems that she is keen to be back where she belonged before going to Africa and will be with us soon.’

  ‘I am so glad about that,’ Lydia said. ‘She has had a hard time over the last few years. Emma lost the mother that she adored when she was very young and ended up with just Jeremy in that dreadful house until he upset her so much that she left in the middle of the night. Until you found her no one knew where she was. I am sure she is going to be all right now, Glenn.’

  ‘I hope so,’ he said doubtfully, ‘but when I suggested that she take some time to recover from the last couple of weeks and have a rest before stepping back into the practice she became so upset I wished I hadn’t spoken. Why do you think that was?’

  ‘It could have been because it is so long since anyone showed her any consideration,’ was the reply, which was almost word for word what Emma had said.

  Lydia could have told him how Emma had been informed that she was a nobody in the unkindest possible way, cast aside by the man she’d thought was her father, and it was his concern for her well-being that had broken through her reserve. But there was no way she was going to tell a virtual stranger about the tricks that life had played on someone that she was so fond of.

  One of the reasons Lydia had agreed to marry Jeremy had been the desire to be a good stepmother to his motherless daughter, and also she’d been weary of returning to an empty house at the end of each day at the practice.

  But he had been his own worst enemy when he’d been too quick to tell Emma that she was going to be in the way when he married for a second time, without divulging the name of his bride-to-be. When Emma had voiced a mild protest, in his drunkenness Jeremy had wiped out her identity, so much so that when he’d woken up the next morning she’d gone.

  ‘I see,’ Glenn said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘I knew nothing about Emma as she was long gone when I joined the practice. Until Jeremy begged me to bring her back to where she belonged that day on the golf course. Having done as he asked, I have wanted to get back to my own life, such as it is. I will bear in mind what you have said, Lydia. I’m sorry to have kept you.’

  ‘It has been good to talk,’ she told him, and clutching her car keys disappeared into the winter night.

  He was the last to leave, the rest of the staff having taken advantage of the absence of patients because of the meeting in the basement. When Glenn turned to go to where his car was parked, after securing the outer door of the building in the light of streetlamps, he was reminded of the night he’d first seen Emma hovering hesitantly outside the locked building and had mistaken her for a patient. He had never expected in that moment of meeting that her connection with the practice was going to be the same as his own to a lesser degree.

  The thought of it was fine, just as long as his life away from the place was not going to be a furtherance of the responsibilities he had undertaken on her behalf that day on the golf course.

  It occurred to him that maybe some shuffling around was required with regard to who was allocated what consulting room. There a vacant one next to his so maybe a transfer for one of the longer-serving members of the practice staff would work, with Emma installed in a room further down the corridor.

  As he left the practice Glenn was tempted to call on her to make sure that she was all right after her emotional outburst earlier. He pointed his car in the direction of her house, but drove straight past on observing the flashy vehicle that belonged to James Prentice parked on the driveway.

  Trust that one to be first in line when a new woman appeared on the scene, he thought grimly, with the memory of the trainee GP monopolising Emma at the Barrington Bar on the night when the members of the practice had gathered to welcome her back home.

  Yet why not? Just because his life was grey and empty there was no reason why those who had a zest for living should be denied the pleasure of it. At least seeing Prentice’s car outside Emma’s house had brought with it the relief of knowing that she wasn’t alone and sad back there after her emotional exit from the practice earlier.

  That line of reasoning lasted until he was pulling up on his own drive and knew that he had to make sure that she was all right whether Prentice was there or not. He thought grimly that he really was carrying his promise to Jeremy Chalmers to the extreme. But he was already reversing and when he approached Emma’s house once again he groaned at the sight of the same car still on the drive.

  But the thought was there that maybe she hadn’t invited him, that the pushy Prentice had invaded her privacy for some reason. After seeing him perform at the Barrington Bar the other night there were a few reasons why he had an uneasy feeling about him.

  After parking across the road from the house, Glenn rang the doorbell and adopted a casual approach when the door was opened to him, but there was nothing casual about Emma’s expression when she saw him standing there.

  ‘Glenn!’ she breathed, stepping back to let him in. ‘Is everything all right?’

  ‘Er...yes,’ he told her. ‘I just wanted to make sure that y
ou’d arrived home safely and realise that I needn’t have concerned myself as I see that you have Prentice here.’

  ‘What gives you that idea?’ she exclaimed. ‘I’m on my own. I haven’t seen James since that night at the Barrington Bar.’

  ‘But the car on the drive,’ he persisted. ‘Surely it belongs to him?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge. The only one out there is mine. I did an exchange with the garage on the car that my...er...father left me, for something more trendy. I must have chosen a model similar to that of James without being aware of it as I’ve never seen his car.’

  ‘Ah, I see,’ he said uncomfortably, and followed it with, ‘I’m sorry to have bothered you.’ He was ready to get off, with the feeling that Emma must be totally weary of him fussing over her like some bore with nothing better to do when his day at the practice was over. Wasn’t he supposed to be eager to get back to the days before Jeremy had gasped out his last wishes and placed the burden on him that he’d so wanted to relinquish?

  ‘Have you eaten?’ she asked softly.

  ‘Er...no, but I intend to shortly.’

  ‘I could make you a meal if you would let me,’ she volunteered. ‘I owe you such a lot, Glenn.’

  ‘You owe me nothing,’ he said with a wintry smile. ‘Except maybe to cherish the life that I’ve brought you back to with every ounce of your being. Because it can all slip away when we least expect it to.’

  With that comment he went striding off into the night to where he’d parked his car. As Emma closed the door slowly behind him his description of what his life was like came to mind. She wished she knew what it was that was hurting him so much, that was responsible for the black pit that he’d described.

  But the chances of finding out were slim as Glenn was the most private person she’d ever met. The least she could do was to respect that privacy and get on with adjusting to life back at the practice.

  Back home for the second time Glenn was squirming at the thought of the mistake he’d made regarding Emma’s car. She must think him an interfering fusspot, he thought grimly. If they were going to be working together at the practice he needed to be around less in her private life.