A Baby For The Village Doctor

CHAPTER TWO

WHEN Georgina looked through the window the next morning, there was no car to be seen so she concluded it must have driven off after stopping for a moment.

After a shower and a nourishing breakfast she was ready to leave, and with the car already outside from the previous day, she was about to slide into the driver’s seat when she looked up and saw a man walking towards her along the deserted lane.

He was tall and dark-haired with a trim physique. As he approached she stared at him in disbelief and when he stopped at the bottom of her drive and said, ‘Hello, Georgina,’ in the same tone of voice as on that day in August, her legs turned to jelly.

‘So did you get my letter?’ she croaked from behind the car door.

‘Yes, but only a few hours ago,’ he said evenly. ‘It had been lying unopened behind my door for weeks. I’ve been abroad recently. So what’s the problem, Georgina? What do you want to talk to me about?’

So far the car door was concealing her pregnancy but she couldn’t stay behind it for ever, and with a sudden desire to shatter his calm she pushed it shut. Looking down at her spreading waistline, she said, ‘I want to talk to you about this.’

It was Ben’s turn to be dumbfounded. ‘You’re pregnant!’ he gasped. ‘Oh! My God! You’re with someone else! Why didn’t Nick tell me?’

‘Nicholas didn’t tell you because there was nothing to tell,’ she informed him steadily. ‘He doesn’t know I’m pregnant, and as for the rest, there is no one else in my life. I am on my own and prefer it that way. You are the one who has made me pregnant, Ben. Maybe you recall an afternoon in August.’

Recall it? he thought raggedly. He would never forget it as long as he lived, the softness of her in his arms again, his mouth on hers, her desire matching his. Hope had been born in him that day.

It was why he had come to the place where Georgina had made a new life for herself, hoping that the matter she wanted to discuss was getting back together. Only here she was, carrying his child and making it very clear she hadn’t been having any such thoughts. Yet nothing she said could take away the joy of knowing that those moments of madness were going to bring a new life into the world, another child to cherish. It wouldn’t ever replace Jamie in his heart, but there would be no shortage of tenderness and love for this one…if he was given the chance.

‘What happened that afternoon was the last thing I intended,’ she told him as they faced each other on the drive. ‘Nothing was further from my mind, and now I’m carrying the result of what we did.’

‘And you aren’t happy about it?’

‘Yes, of course I am. I’m happy that I’m going to have another child. It is a privilege I never anticipated, but after losing Jamie and the dreadful aftermath, I’m not intending to change my lifestyle as it is now, except for doing fewer hours at the practice maybe.’

‘Fair enough,’ he said evenly, stepping to one side as she slid behind the wheel. ‘And is this baby that you’ve been keeping to yourself going to get to know its father as it grows up?’

‘If our lives had been as they were before we lost Jamie, it would have been ecstasy to tell you that I was pregnant,’ she said sadly. ‘Because our child would have been conceived in love, like he was. But it wasn’t like that, was it? Too much water has flowed under the bridge since the days when we lived for each other and him.’

‘But you were prepared to tell me that you’re pregnant, Georgina, though in your own time. I suppose it could have been worse. I could have arrived to find you pushing a pram. And so is my part in this going to be sitting on the fence?’

‘No, of course not,’ she said, choking on the words. ‘It’s just that I couldn’t go through what I suffered before if anything should happen to this child. I understood your despair but you never tried to understand mine. You shut me out, Ben, and it broke my spirit. Since I’ve come to Willowmere I’ve found a degree of comfort in the place and its people, but no one knows my past and that is how I would prefer it to stay.’

‘So you don’t want anyone to know that we were once husband and wife?’

‘I’m not bothered about that, and in any case it’s a problem that won’t arise as you won’t be around.’

‘Don’t be too sure about that,’ he said dryly. ‘I’m my own boss these days, and am due for a break anyway.’

Ignoring his comment and its implications, she expained, ‘It’s the reason for the divorce that I don’t want to be common knowledge. I don’t want anything to spoil Jamie’s memory.’

‘You can rest assured that I, of all people, won’t be telling anyone why we broke up,’ he said grimly. ‘But, Georgina, I feel you need to know that if I had any intention of my stay here being brief, it won’t be now. I’m going to be around until the birth and after, so please take note of that.’

He was stepping away from the car and, as she began to drive slowly out onto the road, he called through the open window, ‘When I’ve settled my account at the pub I’m going home to tie up all the loose ends and then I’ll be back. I’m not sure when, but I will be coming back.’

She had no reply to that. Still numb with the shock of seeing him strolling towards her along the lane, she left him standing at her gate.

As she pulled up outside the surgery, Georgina’s thoughts were in chaos. There was relief that Ben now knew about the baby, tied up with panic at the thought of him coming to Willowmere and invading the solitary, safe life she had made for herself. Beneath it all there was a glimmer of happiness, because in spite of the circumstances, she’d given him something to be joyful about.

She did wish he’d let her know he was coming, though, so she could have greeted him with calmness in her sitting room, dressed in something that would have concealed her pregnancy during the first few moments of meeting, instead of hovering behind the car door in a state of shock.

Yet her surprise had been nothing compared to his when he’d realised she was pregnant, and straight away jumped to the conclusion that she was in a relationship with someone else.

James was at the surgery before her but, then, he always was, for the good reason that he lived next door. After they’d greeted each other, she asked how the interviews of the evening before had gone, hoping to bring normality into a very strange morning.

‘I’ve found an excellent replacement for Anna,’ he told her, observing her keenly, ‘but there was no one that I could visualise as a new partner. I feel it might be wise to leave that until Glenn comes back to Willowmere. So it looks as if we might be turning to a locum again for the time being.

‘And what about you?’ he asked with a smile. ‘How are you today, Georgina? You’re very pale. Is the baby behaving itself?’

She managed a grimace of a smile. Apart from Beth, the remaining practice nurse, James was the only one who ever mentioned her pregnancy. Everyone observed a lot, but no one actually said anything outright and she wondered just how curious the locals were about her pregnancy.

With regard to herself, she’d been coping just as long as she didn’t let her mind travel back to that afternoon in the sitting room of the house where she’d once known such happiness. But that frail cocoon had been torn apart just an hour ago when Ben had appeared and discovered why she’d wanted to talk to him.

James, in his caring way, had noted that she wasn’t her usual self and suddenly she knew that she had to tell someone what had happened before she’d arrived at the surgery. She couldn’t keep her life under wraps any longer if Ben was going to be around.

‘My ex-husband turned up this morning,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I didn’t know which of us was the most dumbfounded, though for different reasons. I had no idea he was coming, and on his part he had no idea I was pregnant.’

‘Poor you!’ James exclaimed. ‘How long is it since you saw him?’

‘It had been three years, until we met unexpectedly eight months ago.’

‘And you are about eight months pregnant,’ he said slowly.

‘Yes,’ she agreed flatly, ‘the baby is his.’

‘And what does he think about that?’

‘He is delighted.’

‘So is that good?’

‘It might have been once.’

‘I see. Well, Georgina, I don’t want to pry into your affairs, but I’m here if you need me. Obviously you have a lot on your mind. Do you want to take the day off?’

She shook her head. ‘No, thanks, James. I need to keep myself occupied. I will remember what you’ve just said. You are a true friend.’ And before she burst into humiliating tears, she went to start another day at the village practice.

‘By the way,’ he called after her as she went towards her room, ‘St Gabriel’s have phoned with appointments for Christine Quarmby. The neurologist will see her on Thursday and the rheumatologist the following day.’

She paused. ‘That’s brilliant. I pulled a few strings and it seems that it worked. I’m very concerned about Christine. I just hope my fears for her aren’t realised. On a happier note, have you heard from Anna and Glenn yet?’

‘Yes. They’ve arrived safely and are already working hard.’ James filled her in on Anna and Glenn’s assignment before she went to her room and called in her first patient of the day, grateful to have her mind taken off the shock of seeing Ben again.

The day progressed along its usual lines, with Beth still managing but relieved to know that a replacement for Anna had been found. The two nurses had been great friends and Anna had been delighted when James had taken on Beth’s daughter, Jess, as nanny for his two young children.

The children were fond of Jess. Aware that she was going to be missing from their lives for the first time since they’d been born, Anna had been happy to know before she’d left Willowmere that the arrangement was working satisfactorily.

Georgina’s second patient was Edwina Crabtree. She was one of the bellringers in Willowmere who helped send the bells high in the church tower pealing out across the village on Sunday mornings and at weddings and funerals, but it wasn’t her favourite pastime that she’d come to discuss with her doctor

‘So what can I do for you, Miss Crabtree?’ Georgina asked the smartly dressed campanologist, who always observed her more critically than most when their paths crossed. She had a feeling that Edwina had her catalogued as a loose woman as she was pregnant with no man around, and thought wryly that loose was the last word to describe her.

She was tied to the past, to a small fair-haired boy who hadn’t seen danger when it had been there, and ‘tied’ to the man who had been hurting so much at the time that he’d become a stranger instead of a rock to hold on to.

Edwina was in full spate and, putting her own thoughts to one side, Georgina tuned into what she was saying, otherwise the other woman was going to have her labelled incompetent, as well as feckless.

‘The side of my neck is bothering me,’ she was explaining, ‘just below my ear. I didn’t take much notice at first but the feeling has been there for quite some time and I decided I ought to have it looked at.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Georgina told her. After examining her neck carefully and checking eyes, ears and throat, she asked, ‘Do you ever get indigestion?’

‘All the time,’ she replied stiffly, ‘but surely it can’t be connected with that. I thought you would just give me some antibiotics.’

‘Before anything else I want you to have the tests and we’ll take it from there, Miss Crabtree. If you are clear of the stomach infection, it will be a matter of looking elsewhere for the neck problem, but we’ll deal with that when we get to it.’

When she’d gone, looking somewhat chastened, Georgina sighed. Oh, for a simple case of lumbago or athlete’s foot, she thought. Edwina Crabtree had the symptoms of Helicobacter pylori, bacteria in the stomach that created excess acid and could cause peptic ulcers and swellings like the one in the bellringer’s neck.

Christine Quarmby, on the other hand, had all the signs of Sjögren’s syndrome, an illness with just as strange a name but far more serious, and she was beginning to wonder what strange ailment she was going to be consulted on next.

Willow Lake, a local beauty spot, was basking in the shafts of a spring sun behind the hedgerows as Georgina drove to her first housecall later in the morning, and she thought how the village, with its peace and tranquillity, had done much to help her find sanity in the mess that her life had become.

As the months had become years she’d expected that one day Nicholas would inform her that Ben had found someone else and it would bring closure once and for all, but she’d been spared that last hurt, and now incredibly he seemed determined to come back into her life. She couldn’t help wondering if he would feel the same if she wasn’t pregnant.

Robert Ingram owned the biggest of Willowmere’s two estate agencies and he had asked for a home visit to his small daughter, Sophie. The request had been received shortly after morning surgery had finished and Georgina was making it her first call.

Apparently Sophie had developed a temperature during the night and a rash was appearing in small red clusters behind her ears, under her armpits and in her mouth.

From her father’s description the rash was nothing like the dreaded red blotches of meningitis, but she wasn’t wasting any time in getting to the young patient. She never took chances with anyone she was called on to treat, and children least of all.

When Alison, Robert’s wife, took her up to the spacious flat above the business Georgina found the little girl to be hot and fretful and the rash that her father had described was beginning to appear in other places besides the ones he’d mentioned.

‘It’s chickenpox,’ she announced when she’d had a close look at the spots. ‘Have you had any experience of it before, Mrs Ingram?’

‘Yes. I had it when I was young,’ Alison replied. ‘My mother had me wearing gloves to stop me from scratching when the spots turned to blisters.’

‘Good idea,’ Georgina agreed, ‘or alternatively keep Sophie’s nails very short, and dab the rash with calamine lotion. She should be feeling better once they’ve all come to the surface, and in the meantime give her paracetamol if the raised temperature persists. Has Sophie started school yet?’

‘She goes to nursery school twice each week and is due to start in the main stream in September,’ her mother replied.

‘We’ve had a few cases of chickenpox over the last couple of weeks,’ Georgina informed her, ‘so the infection is with us, it would seem. Sophie should be fine in a few days, but if there is anything at all that you are concerned about, send for me straight away.’ She gave a reassuring smile to the anxious mother. ‘I’ll see myself out.’

When she went downstairs into the shop area she told Robert Ingram, ‘I’m afraid that Sophie has got chickenpox, Mr Ingram. The rash is appearing quite quickly and she will feel much better when it is all out. But I’ve told your wife if either of you have any worries about her, don’t hesitate to send for me.’

He nodded. ‘Thanks, Doctor. I’m relieved that it is nothing more serious.’ And they both knew what had been in his mind.

As she was about to leave, Robert didn’t mention that he’d had someone in earlier, arranging to rent the cottage next door to hers for a minimum period of six months. He thought that Georgina would surely feel happier if the other property was occupied, as they were the only two buildings on Partridge Lane.

As he’d watched her drive off that morning Ben had felt shock waves washing over him. How could Georgina have waited so long to tell him that they were going to be parents again? he’d thought dismally. Yet knew the answer even as he asked himself the question.

Georgina had been the butt of his grief and despair when they’d lost Jamie and it would seem she hadn’t been prepared to risk a repeat performance by letting him into her life again when they were going to have another child.

He’d felt as if his heart had been cut out when it had happened all that time ago, and if anyone had dared tell him that time was a great healer, he’d turned on them angrily. Now he knew that it was so. The pain was still there, but instead of being raw it was a dull ache and there were actually days when he managed not to think about it.

He didn’t know how Georgina had coped over the last three years. When the divorce had come through and she’d disappeared out of his life, the shock of it had brought him to his senses, but not to the extent that he’d done anything about it because he’d been gutted at the way he’d treated her.

Then, unbelievably, they’d met in the cemetery. So what had he done? Without a word of remorse he’d made love to her, and ever since had wanted to tell her all the things he’d never said then.

He’d known that Nicholas knew where she was, that he always stayed with Georgina for part of the time when he was over from the States. Yet until then he’d never tried to persuade him to disclose her whereabouts.

But after that everything had changed, and he’d badgered his young brother for the information with no success.

Now here he was, in the place where she lived, because Georgina had written to him. But if the reception he’d just got was anything to go by, a happy reunion wasn’t on the cards.

It was a sombre thought, but it didn’t stop him from calling in at the estate agent and making arrangements to rent the cottage next to hers. After he’d collected his things from the Pheasant, he set off on the long drive back to London.

The afternoon seemed endless to Georgina as patients attending the second surgery of the day came and went, and when at last it was time to go, James said, ‘I never finished telling you about the new practice nurse. Her name is Gillian Jarvis and she is free to start immediately. I’m expecting her tomorrow morning.