The GP's Marriage Wish

Connor gave a short laugh. ‘It’s obvious, my dear Victoria, that you’re not too keen about working with me.’

He looked at her steadily. ‘Perhaps you’ve good reason… I know I was a brat at school.’

Victoria was startled. That was something, she supposed—a kind of apology.

‘It was a long time ago,’ she murmured.

His clear blue eyes held hers questioningly, and Victoria suddenly felt rather flustered, as if a switch had been thrown to register a mixture of excitement and danger. She looked at him in confusion. She looked at his strong, intelligent face and firm, uncompromising lips and swallowed hard. How extraordinary was that? She was beginning to admit to herself that she found Connor Saunders just as sexy now as she had when she was a schoolgirl!

Judy Campbell is from Cheshire. As a teenager she spent a great year at high school in Oregon, USA, as an exchange student. She has worked in a variety of jobs, including teaching young children, being a secretary and running a small family business. Her husband comes from a medical family, and one of their three grown-up children is a GP. Any spare time—when she’s not writing romantic fiction—is spent playing golf, especially in the Highlands of Scotland.

Recent titles by the same author:

THE DOCTOR’S LONGED-FOR BRIDE

Dear Reader

I am so thrilled that THE GP’S MARRIAGE WISH is being published in the Mills & Boon centenary year—it is such an exciting time, and I feel it is a real privilege to write for a great publishing empire and be a small part of its history. Happy Birthday, Mills & Boon, and may you continue to put romance to the fore for many, many years to come!

I love writing medical romances, and exploring the relationships that develop between patients and the people who care for them. The world of hospitals and surgeries provides a wonderful background for a romantic story between two people who love each other and have to deal with all the myriad dramas, both heartrending and humorous, that occur in the medical world. I really feel part of that world as I write and watch my characters unfold.

The idea of writing THE GP’S MARRIAGE WISH arose from meeting some old schoolfriends at a reunion, amongst whom was the drop-dead gorgeous boy (now a man!) we’d all fallen madly in love with in the sixth form! The last I saw of him at the reunion he was getting very friendly again with one of my contemporaries! Immediately the thought of Connor, my hero, sprang into my mind—the guy who’d been the centre of attention at school and, with maturity, was even more delectable many years later! In my imagination Victoria seemed just the girl to tame his macho manner when she re-enters his life!

I do hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Best wishes

Judy

BY

JUDY CAMPBELL

MILLS & BOON

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PROLOGUE

HE LOUNGED confidently against the wall in the assembly hall, a thick quiff of hair swept over cool dark blue eyes, watching the excited crowd of teenagers milling around him. Nobody could do attitude better than Connor Saunders—and he was arrogant enough to know that he made all the other youths at the Braithwaite Sixth Form College Ball look like wimps. He also had to be the hunkiest and sexiest guy in the room, thought Victoria Sorensen wistfully.

Victoria twitched her dress nervously and flicked a look at herself in the mirror next to the honours board—not a reassuring sight. She wasn’t sure about the blue colour against her auburn hair, she felt her glasses made her look geekish and she was horribly aware of the wretched bands over her front teeth. If only she looked more sophisticated, stood out from the crowd a bit more, Connor just might ask her to dance… After today he was going to take a year out, going round the world, before studying medicine, and she’d be working at her mother’s surgery before going to university, also to study medicine. She might never see him again.

A familiar mixture of resentment and jealousy jolted Victoria for a second—how easily everything came to Connor Saunders! Girls, scholarships, medals—they all dropped into his lap like ripe apples. There’d been an unspoken rivalry between them for some time: she was just as bright as him, but because he had the loudest voice, the cocksure personality that almost assumed he would get every prize going, she was left in the shadows.

A group of boys was round him now, laughing at something he’d said, and he was grinning back at them, flicking back his hair, used to being the centre of attention. That was the trouble, of course—he had such charisma. When he was around there was a sense of fun and adventure—perhaps even danger—and even though she resented the way he’d always pipped her at the post in so many ways, of course Victoria had been hopelessly attracted to him while they’d been students together at sixth form college.

Her friend Jean Martin sidled up to her. ‘Our hero’s looking good, isn’t he?’ She grinned, looking at Connor. ‘And he knows it,’ she added.

‘I can’t believe I might not see him again for years…’ said Victoria bleakly.

‘’Course you will! Don’t your mum and his dad work together at the medical centre? There’s bound to be occasions you’ll meet through them in the future.’ Jean looked at Victoria’s gloomy face and sighed. ‘Look, kiddo, you’re mad about him—why don’t you ask him to dance before you go your separate ways?’

‘That’s ridiculous—I don’t want to demean myself by pleading for a dance…’

Jean groaned. ‘Come on, Vic, women have been emancipated for nearly a century—why should we hang about waiting for the men to get round to asking us? Don’t be a wimp—what have you got to lose? If you don’t dance with him now, you’ll never know what it’s like to be held in those strong manly arms…’

An unwilling smile lifted Victoria’s lips for a second. ‘I’ll just have to imagine it, then, I suppose…’

‘Oh, to hell with it! This is your last chance. Go on, I dare you! He’ll admire you for it!’

Victoria looked across at Connor doubtfully and just as she did so, their eyes met for a second, a flash of amusement flickering across his face as if he knew exactly what she thought of him. She flushed in embarrassment, then her mood became more combatant. Jean was right—why should she play the quiet little flower, frightened to approach him because of what he might think of her? Women didn’t have to play a passive role nowadays.

She took a deep breath and walked up to him, ignoring the lads around him.

‘Connor, I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing each other for a while. How about a dance before we go?’

Connor looked down at her lazily. ‘Ah, Freckles…the last goodbye, eh?’ He glanced around at his friends. ‘Quite an honour to be asked to dance by the head girl, isn’t it?’ Then he lowered his voice slightly, his blue eyes dancing with laughter. ‘It’s been sparky competition between us for the last two years, Vic—I’ll miss it.’

Victoria stood for a second, waiting for him to accept her invitation, and the little crowd around him watched them both with interest. Connor grinned at her, then nodded his head towards his friends. ‘Sorry, darlin’—can’t keep the lads waiting. We’re off for a few beers before the pubs close, so the dance routine will have to wait for now. Some other time, eh?’

A ripple of laughter went round the boys and Connor lifted a careless hand to her and strolled out of the room, followed by his sniggering cohorts, leaving Victoria standing alone. She stared after them, her cheeks burning and a horrible suspicion of hot tears of humiliation in her eyes. It was as if she had been slapped in the face. How dared he embarrass her like that in front of everyone—how could he be so cruel?

In a second Jean was at her side, her arm round Victoria’s shoulders. ‘What a rat!’ she whispered. ‘Take no notice of him—that was all done to show off to that bunch of morons around him. Forget it ever happened.’

Victoria drew herself up with dignity, trying to disguise her bitter feeling of rejection, hardly able to believe that someone she’d thought had admired her, even though he might not have fancied her, could have snubbed her so publicly. Then that steely stubbornness of spirit that had rescued her so many times before when competing with Connor came to her rescue.

She turned with a bright smile to Jean, lifted her chin and said lightly, ‘Manners maketh man… You’re quite right, Jean. Connor Saunders is a complete rat and I don’t care if I never see him again in my life.’

His tall figure disappeared out of the door, and despite her feisty words Victoria felt a hollow sense of betrayal. She’d been made a figure of fun—the girl who’d dared to ask Connor Saunders for a dance and been turned down for a few pints of beer! That was it, then. She would never think of the man again—from now on it was if he had never existed!

CHAPTER ONE

‘VICTORIA CURTIS to see Dr Saunders, please.’

The receptionist looked over the counter at the tall girl with glossy auburn hair facing her, then peered at the screen of her computer, frowning slightly.

‘You don’t seem to have an appointment to see him. I’m afraid he’s absolutely booked up this afternoon unless it’s very urgent.’

Victoria smiled. ‘But I’m not a patient—I’m joining the practice. I’m a doctor and he’s expecting me.’

The receptionist’s plump face looked startled. ‘Oh. I’m sorry—I didn’t realise there were two of you. Dr Saunders didn’t mention anything.’

‘Two of us?’ questioned Victoria, puzzled. She had come to help her mother because Dr Saunders, the senior partner, was retiring and now she was here to go over some practice details, and her mother was joining them later. She wasn’t aware that anyone else would be needed in the practice.

‘I’ve probably got my wires crossed,’ said the woman, smiling. ‘I’ll tell him you’re here…’ She pressed a switch. ‘I’ve a Dr Curtis here to see you, Dr Saunders…’

‘Ah—I’ll be ready in one minute, if she could just take a seat in Reception,’ said a deep male voice.

Morning surgery was evidently finished and Victoria sat waiting for him alone, sipping a cup of coffee that the receptionist brought for her. She looked around the room and smiled. It hadn’t changed over the years—rather tatty-looking decor and a faded busily patterned carpet. Perhaps now she was going to be part of the practice, she could tactfully persuade her mother that the place needed a make-over.

She was sure her mother would be relieved that John Saunders was retiring. Victoria remembered him as an opinionated man, with a confidence that bordered on arrogance…very like his son, she thought suddenly. A picture flashed into her mind of the farewell sixth form dance all those years ago and the way Connor had made a fool of her. She hadn’t thought about that episode for a long time, but she was surprised at how vividly the memory of her humiliation at his hands came flooding back to her—how it had shaken her confidence in herself for a long time.

Then she gave an inward shrug. No good thinking about that now. So much had happened to her in the intervening years, much worse than the teenage angst she’d suffered because of Connor. She’d been through a rough patch in the past year, but now for the first time in many months she felt excited and optimistic about the future—and it was lovely to be back in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

A few years ago she’d made a new life for herself in Australia, full of hopes and dreams that had been dashed, and the irony was that now she’d returned to Braithwaite again and put the fast-paced life she’d enjoyed in Sydney behind her to kick-start her life again.

‘Dr Saunders asks if you’d go through to him now,’ said the receptionist, breaking into her thoughts. ‘It’s the room at the end of the corridor.’

Victoria made her way to the room, tapped at the door and walked in. A man was standing by the window against the light, and it was only as he strode forward to meet her that Victoria realised with a shock that it wasn’t John Saunders at all. She gazed in astonishment at the broad-shouldered man who stood in front of her, looking as if he did a marathon workout daily in the gym, his body a sinewy combination of muscle and power, thick tousled fair hair flipping over blue eyes. It took her a second or two to recognise that he was Connor Saunders—no longer the lanky schoolboy she’d last seen at the leaving ball but a mature, eye-catching man with a commanding presence.

She drew in her breath, astonished at the coincidence that she’d only been thinking about him a few seconds before, the man who’d once humiliated her so cruelly in front of her friends. And like the automatic response of so long ago, for a split second she felt the faintest shiver of attraction flutter through her—an echo of what she had felt for him when they’d been teenagers.

‘Wh-what on earth are you doing here?’ she stuttered. ‘I was expecting to see your father.’

There was surprise as well in the blue eyes that swept over her appraisingly, then Connor grinned. ‘Well, well, well, I didn’t realise that Freckles Sorensen had become Dr Curtis! We meet again after how many years?’

He held out his hand and shook hers. Victoria pulled herself together and removed her hand from his firm grip. She must have imagined that feeling of attraction a second ago—he was just an ordinary man who’d once been rude to her.

‘Nobody calls me Freckles now,’ she said coldly. ‘Have you come back here for a holiday?’

‘I’ve left the practice I was with in Glasgow and come to take over from my father,’ he said simply, then raised a questioning eyebrow. ‘And where have you come from?’

‘I…I’ve been living in Australia…’

‘Ah—you’ve come back to see your mother, then?’

Victoria gave a short laugh. ‘Actually, I’ve come to help my mother in the practice because your father retires this week—I rather thought I was taking his place.’ She looked at Connor in a puzzled way. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

‘There’s been a change of plan apparently,’ he said laconically.

‘What do you mean—a change of plan?’

He shrugged. ‘Obviously I’m going to be working here as well.’

Victoria frowned. ‘I don’t understand… Mum never said she was taking on an extra doctor. When was it agreed that you should come?’

Connor sat on the edge of the desk, long legs crossed casually at the ankles. ‘Only in the last day or two,’ he admitted. He looked at her rather wryly. ‘As a matter of fact, I’m as much in the dark as you are. Like you, I thought I was the only replacement.’

This is quite bizarre, thought Victoria crossly. Everyone seemed to have got their wires crossed. She hadn’t come from Australia to end up working anywhere near Connor Saunders. Now she was standing opposite him the emotions he’d engendered that evening all those years ago came flooding back to her—the way she’d yearned to be in his arms, the pain she’d felt when he’d made fun of her. He was probably still as arrogant and insensitive as he had been then, and she would bet on it that he had never given a thought to that incident since it had happened.

She folded her arms and looked at him belligerently. ‘I hope I haven’t come all this way on a fool’s errand—I was looking forward to working with my mother,’ she said pointedly. ‘I’d like an explanation as soon as possible.’

‘So would I,’ he agreed drily. ‘They’re both out on home visits now but I hope they’ll be here soon to sort this out. I thought I’d be taking over from my father and then, when your mother retired, getting a junior partner in.’

There was the slightest emphasis on the word ‘junior’ as if to make it clear that he was ultimately going to be the senior partner, whoever he was working with. Victoria looked stonily at Connor—he might find that she had changed a lot since the days of Braithwaite Sixth Form College. What had happened to her in Australia had been horrible, made her doubt that she could trust any man again or feel that she could indeed be attractive to any other man. But it had also toughened her in many ways, and she wasn’t about to be pushed around by anybody. She sat down by the desk and drummed her fingers impatiently on the surface.

‘I suppose we’ll have to wait until they come, then, for things to be clarified,’ she said.

Connor flicked a look at her. Annoyance had made her cheeks quite pink, and her tawny eyes that had once been hidden behind spectacles seemed to reflect the colour of her glossy auburn hair. Victoria Sorensen had become quite a beauty since her school days—the unsophisticated teenager with the gauche manner had blossomed into a confident no-nonsense woman now, he thought with surprise. She’d been a bright girl at school—there’d been quite a lot of competition between them, and he remembered that he’d rather enjoyed stretching himself, always trying to outdo her in exams.

He had to admit he was quite shaken to meet her again. Perhaps deep down he still felt guilty about the way he’d treated her at that school dance—a picture of her stricken face as he’d refused to dance with her floated into his mind, and he recalled the inane laughter of the lads around him on the dance floor. He’d known he’d been cruel even as he’d done it, but he’d been an arrogant twerp then, enjoying the admiration of his mates at his rejection of Victoria, imagining what an alpha male it had made him seem. He felt contempt now for the youth he’d been and hoped against hope that Victoria would have forgotten all about it, although he suspected that she still remembered the incident. Perhaps that was why she so obviously didn’t relish the idea of working with him.

Victoria was oblivious to his inspection as she pondered how unlike her mother it was not to mention that John’s son was coming to work at The Cedars as well. If Victoria had known that, she wouldn’t have come all these thousands of miles to work alongside a man she’d vowed never to speak to again! If only her travel arrangements hadn’t gone so awry she’d have seen her mother the day before and perhaps all this could have been explained.

The sound of voices floated down the corridor, and then the door opened and Betty Sorensen and John Saunders came in. Betty ran over to Victoria and threw her arms round her daughter, hugging her tightly, then held her at arm’s length as she looked lovingly at her.

‘Vicky, darling! I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to meet you. It’s been such a hell of a week with one thing and another—and John and I have been run off our feet, dealing with the consequences of a gastrointestinal virus among the old folk.’ She appraised her daughter beamingly. ‘You look wonderful! I can’t believe you’re finally back in Yorkshire after five years…’

Victoria hugged her mother back—she had missed her so much over the past awful year when having her near to talk to would have been such a comfort.

‘It’s so good to see you, too, Mum. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here last night, but with the plane so delayed I had to stay in London for the night and then get a train up here.’

‘You must be absolutely jet-lagged, but never mind. You’re here now…’

John Saunders stepped forward and took her hand. ‘Welcome back, Victoria,’ he said. ‘I’m sure you’ve made a good move, coming back here.’

He was thinner than she remembered but nevertheless quite distinguished with a head of thick white hair and that air of slight self-satisfaction that she’d always found so irritating.

‘Why don’t we all sit down and have some coffee,’ said Betty. She looked around at the others and smiled. ‘We’ve so much to discuss…’

Victoria and Connor’s eyes met for a second. ‘So it would seem,’ said Victoria lightly. ‘I didn’t realise that Connor would be working here as well.’

Betty gave a slightly embarrassed laugh. ‘Well, things have been moving pretty fast here in the last week, haven’t they, John?’

‘They certainly have.’ He smiled—rather smugly, Victoria thought. ‘But now we can relax, knowing that you and Connor will be holding the fort!’

Connor looked from his father to Betty. ‘I wish you’d tell us what you mean,’ he said impatiently. ‘Have both of us been offered jobs? And what’s this about holding the fort?”

John gave a short chuckle and turned to Victoria’s mother. ‘Forget the coffee, Betty—lets get the bubbly out. We ought to toast Victoria’s return—and we’ve got a little announcement to make ourselves.’

This is extraordinary, thought Victoria as her mother produced a bottle of champagne from a chiller bag. The pompous John Saunders seemed to be turning quite mellow in his old age—she never remembered him being so affable—and what on earth was he going to announce? She flicked a glance at Connor and wondered if he felt the sudden premonition of foreboding she was experiencing.

Betty handed round the glasses and John looked round at them all, raising his glass. ‘I’m not going to beat about the bush,’ he began ‘The fact is, Betty and I have been working together for thirty years now and suddenly we’ve realised there’s more to life than medicine…it’s about time we had some fun.’ He smiled broadly. ‘We want to make up for lost time—and both being single and both realising that we’ve grown rather fond of each other, we’ve decided to get married and take off round the world when we’ve tied the knot!’

There was a stunned silence, the younger couple looking at their respective parents as incredulously as if they’d both divulged they were going to do a bungee-jump in tandem. At last Victoria managed to get out, ‘You’re getting married—after all this time?’

‘And why not? Better late than never—the big day is this Friday. The practice—surely set in the most beautiful part of the country—is there for you two to take over immediately, with no strings attached! And we’re starting on our cruise next week!’

‘Next week?’ squeaked Victoria. ‘You can’t throw us in at the deep end like that!’

‘For heaven’s sake, why the rush?’ asked Connor, folding his arms and looking furiously at his father.

Betty stepped forward and took John’s arm. ‘I know this has come as a great shock to you both…’

‘You can say that again,’ muttered Connor.

‘To be honest, at our age we may not have time on our side—that’s why we want to get going. I know John didn’t want me to mention this, but I feel you ought to know that he’s been having treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma…’

A shocked silence followed and then Connor gave a sharp intake of breath, looking stricken and concerned. ‘Oh, Dad… why didn’t you tell me?’

His father shook his head dismissively. ‘I’m in remission now—and I feel fine, so we’re seizing the moment, aren’t we, Betty?’

‘You should have let me know,’ said Connor reproachfully. ‘I could have helped you out—taken time out from the job in Glasgow…’

John shook his head impatiently and put his arm round Betty. ‘You’ve had your own problems, Connor. Frankly, my illness came as a wake-up call to us both—we realised how much we meant to each other and it was time to move in a different direction.’