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He also hadn’t expected that an old attraction was about to rekindle. Life with Alexis had made him loth to get involved in another relationship, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Back at the cottage Megan was admitting to herself that part of her annoyance was pique, because in the kind of life that Luke was planning for himself in the weeks to come, there wasn’t going to be much room for her.
* * *
He was there before her the next morning and she wondered if he was trying to prove a point.
‘Did Sue get off all right?’ she asked, making no comment on his early arrival.
‘Yes. She’ll be killing time at the airport by now, I would imagine.’
‘And the boys?’
‘Breakfasted and on their way to school, and if you’re going to ask if I’ve washed the pots and made the beds, the answer is no. The breakfast things went into the dishwasher and, wait for it, I asked Sue to find me a cleaner and a housekeeper. So bedmaking will be part of her duties.
‘She didn’t tell me that she’d found me both, until late last night, and I did wish she’d mentioned it earlier. It would have made you feel less uncertain of me if you’d known, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes, possibly,’ she said flatly. ‘Who are they?’
‘I haven’t met them yet, but the cleaner is Connie, and according to Sue she was grateful for the extra hours. The other person is someone called Rebekah Wainright. She’ll be working from twelve until six each weekday. Hopefully she will be there when I get home this evening so that we can introduce ourselves. But the main thing is that she’ll be around when Oliver and Owen come home from school. The last thing those two young ones need at the present time is coming home to an empty house.’
‘I know Rebekah Wainright,’ Megan said. ‘She’s a friend of Aunt Izzy’s, and a good soul. I’m glad for both our sakes that Sue sorted all that out before she left.’
It was another dawn, another day, she thought. If she’d known yesterday what he was telling her now, she wouldn’t have got herself in such a state. Now it was her turn to make a peace offering and, smiling across at him, she said, ‘Last night I told Sue I would do all I could to help while she was away, but I was in an awkward position, torn between my commitment to the practice and the problems of a friend. I hope you’ll forgive me, Luke.’
‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ he said quietly. ‘I let my longing to make life easier for Sue and the boys make me forget what I’m here for. And with regard to that, Megan, ten minutes to go and it will be time for the Riverside Practice to swing into action.’
‘How do you manage to be so good-humoured all the time?’ she asked as she perched on the corner of her desk and flipped through the mail. He didn’t answer and when she looked up his face was thoughtful.
‘It’s because I’m content, I suppose. I’m here in this beautiful place with those I care about. When we knew each other before I was not at my best. I was at the tail end of a divorce and disillusioned with womankind in general. But I’m over all that. Ready for new beginnings, and coming here is one of them.’
‘I see. Was that why you took such a dim view of the Valentine I sent you?’
It was out, she thought. She’d done the thing she’d been dreading and was waiting to hear what he had to say.
He shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that. My first reaction was amazement when I found it on my desk amongst an assortment of others. For a few seconds I was flattered, until it dawned on me that it might be a joke. I remember that I handled it badly.’
‘They were all doing it,’ she said hastily, ‘and I thought I’d join in. It was a stupid thing to do, I’m afraid.’
‘Think no more of it. I’d forgotten it.’
It was a lie, of course. He hadn’t forgotten it, or her. But she wasn’t to know that and instead of being relieved to have cleared the air Megan was wishing she’d never mentioned it. She’d presented Luke with the opportunity to let her see she meant nothing in his scheme of things.
When she went to make a quick coffee before calling in her first patient, Megan saw Elise Edwards, who owned the village bakery, chatting to one of the receptionists.
‘I’m here again, Megan,’ she said, half laughing, half apologetic. ‘I’m haunting this place, aren’t I?’
She was a jolly, buxom woman in her mid-forties, who until recently had rarely been seen at the surgery, but that seemed to be changing. First there had been a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis that Elise could have done without. Then there’d been something suspect in the colon that had turned out to be benign, and as she wasn’t due for a check-up, it seemed as if there might be something new for her to fret about.
‘So you’re down on my list for today,’ she said, and Elise shook her head.
‘I’m afraid not. You didn’t have a free slot, so I’m seeing the new doctor. What’s he like?’ she asked Kathy, the receptionist.
‘Very nice,’ was Kathy’s reply, and as Megan went into the small surgery kitchen to make the coffee, she thought that was putting it mildly.
The only snag was that so far, not having said a wrong word, Luke was making her seem like some sort of a control freak, and it was the last thing she wanted him to see her as.
CHAPTER THREE
‘ELISE EDWARDS,’ Luke said when the two doctors surfaced at the end of the morning.
‘What about her?’ Megan asked. ‘I spoke to her earlier. She’s been going through a rough patch healthwise. I hope it wasn’t anything too serious.’
‘It all depends on how one views that kind of thing at her age.’
‘I’m not with you.’
‘The lady is pregnant, Megan.’
Megan’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’
‘Yes. And, needless to say, she is somewhat stunned.’
‘I can imagine,’ she said, shaking her head in amazement. ‘How old is she?’
‘Forty-six,’ said Luke. ‘She’s done a test from the chemist and it has shown positive, but she just couldn’t believe it, and came to the surgery for proof positive.’
‘What actually was her reaction?’
‘A mixture of things. Dismay, trepidation, embarrassment, and maybe just a tinge of excitement.’
‘No mention of termination, then.’
‘Not at this stage, though I believe she already has teenage girls.’
Megan nodded. ‘Yes. Sophie and Claudia. Their reaction to the news could be interesting. When this kind of thing happens in families where there are older children, they are sometimes horrified. They see nothing wrong in it in anyone else, but not Mum and Dad. I wonder what Elise will do? She has rheumatoid arthritis, but it is under control, so that shouldn’t cause any problems in its present state. She’s also recently had a scare with a lump that proved to be benign, and she runs a business. The baker’s just down the street. She might decide to sell up with a new baby on the way.’
‘What does her husband do?’ asked Luke.
‘He’s one of the gamekeepers at Lord Marriott’s place up on the tops. Keeps poachers off his land. Officiates when his lordship wants a shoot. That sort of thing. Soon his employer and his friends will be out shooting the grouse on the twelfth of August and Jim Edwards will be in charge of that.
‘My nearest neighbour, old Jonas Bottomley, makes a few pounds for himself when that takes place by working as a beater. The rest of the time he spends making moonshine.’
‘And I thought that the countryside was a quiet, law-abiding place,’ Luke said in mock horror. ‘What next?’
‘Next are the house calls, I’m afraid. Are you ready?’
‘Sure am,’ he said easily, with no intention of telling her that he’d just had a phone call from the headmistress at Oliver’s school to ask if he would make sure his nephew understood that he couldn’t use his mobile phone in class.
‘We are trying to be as lenient as possible with those two boys under the circumstances,’ she’d said. ‘But Oliver does take advantage of it sometimes. I am phoning you as he tells me that his mother has gone away and won’t be back for some weeks.’
‘Yes, phone me by all means if there is any problem at all with either Oliver or Owen,’ he’d told her ‘They are going through a difficult time, but I don’t intend to let them misbehave if I can help it.’
* * *
When he got in that evening Rebekah Wainright was there, and to Luke’s relief she turned out to be a much gentler soul than her friend Izzy Chambers. She was tall, slim and extremely neat, he noted. Probably in her late sixties and looking good for her years. She’d made a meal, cottage pie with an apple tart to follow, and he could have kissed her.
‘I need to know what you are expecting of me, Dr Anderson,’ she told him. ‘Just make me a list, and I’ll do my best to follow it. I didn’t know whether you would want me to cook for you tonight, but I took the chance and will do so each time I’m here, but only if you want me to.’
‘I most certainly do,’ he told her. ‘Where do you live, Mrs Wainright? I hope it isn’t too far away for you. I’ll be here to run you home in the evenings but I won’t be around when you start in the middle of the day.’
‘No problem,’ she told him. ‘I’m only just down the road. And before I go, what about those two lads? Is it all right to feed them when they get in from school? They were starving today so I gave them a glass of milk and some fruit to keep them going until you came home.’
‘That is perfectly all right. Teenage boys have permanently empty stomachs when they’re shooting up into adolescence.’
* * *
When she’d gone the three of them tucked into the food, and once their appetites were appeased Owen said, ‘Can we go to Manchester on Saturday, Uncle Luke?’
‘Er, yes, if you want,’ he told him. ‘What did you want to do there?’
‘Bowling. And the cinema.’
‘Fine, but you do realise I’ll be going with you. I’m not letting you out on your own in the city. What about you, Oliver? Do you want to go?’
‘Yeah,’ Oliver said, his excited expression reminding Luke of the mothing excursion. ‘But don’t bring Dr Marshall this time, will you? It’s boys only.’
‘Sure, no problem,’ Luke agreed, then said in a brisker tone, ‘And now who has homework to do?’
There was silence.
‘Come on, both of you, no slacking. If you don’t do your homework we don’t go bowling. And by the way, Oliver, as well as it being against the school rules, it is extremely rude to use your mobile in class. Don’t do it.’
When they were settled, one at each side of the kitchen table, doing their homework, Luke went to ring Megan to report on Rebekah Wainright’s first half-day at Woodcote House.
She might not be interested, he thought, but it would be a chance to hear her voice again, and to let her see that his domestic life was in control.
It had been good, their second day together in the practice. At least that was his opinion. But he’d started off on the wrong foot with Megan. It didn’t follow that she’d felt the same.
* * *
Sighing, Megan flopped down on the sofa. She’d felt miserable when she and Luke had separated at the end of the day, and told herself it had to stop. If all she had in her life was the practice, it wasn’t so for him. He had a grieving family to help get through some of the worst months of their lives, plus a business that he knew nothing about to oversee, and the position of village doctor to hold down.
She really couldn’t see how she could fit into his scheme of things, even if he wanted her to, and the information, offered casually, that he’d long ago forgotten that she’d sent him a Valentine wasn’t helping.
It was in the midst of those sombre thoughts that the phone rang and a voice said in her ear, ‘I thought I’d let you know that Rebekah Wainright looks as if she’s going to be a gem.’
‘That’s good,’ she told him, suddenly feeling much happier, though she wished it was themselves that he’d rung to talk about. ‘And the boys, are they all right without their mum?’
‘They seem to be. They’re doing their homework at the moment, reluctantly I might add. And what have you planned for the evening, Megan?’
‘Chores,’ she told him without much enthusiasm.
‘Come round for supper, then.’
‘I can’t keep butting into their lives, Luke,’ she said hesitantly.
‘What about my life?’ he questioned levelly ‘I’m going to need some company to bring me back to adulthood occasionally. We’re going bowling on Saturday and I’ve had instructions that I shouldn’t ask you to join us. It’s boys only.’
‘That’s fine with me,’ she said with feeling. ‘And in any case, I’ve already got something arranged. In Manchester, too, as it happens.’
He was immediately curious. ‘Anything interesting?’
‘To me, yes. I’m going to have a leisurely afternoon going around the shops and then I’m meeting one of my friends from university for a night at the ballet.’
‘Sounds good. Is she anyone I might remember?’
‘It’s a he.’
‘Oh, I see,’ he said flatly, and wished he hadn’t been so nosy. It served him right for not thinking there might be someone already in her life. Red-gold hair, green eyes and a fluid mover like Megan were not going to go unnoticed by his own sex.
‘Am I likely to remember him, then?’
He was glad this conversation was taking place over the phone. If Megan could see his expression she would pick up on his dismay.
‘Andy Warhurst.’
‘Really! Then I’m presuming that he must have changed a lot,’ he commented dryly. ‘I remember him as disruptive whenever he chose to attend my lectures.’
At the other end of the line it was dawning on Megan that he was jumping to the wrong conclusions. She wouldn’t be interested in Andy Warhurst in a thousand years, but maybe it would do no harm to let Luke think she might be.
The truth of it was that after they’d all left university, Megan had introduced Andy to Jenny, one of her childhood friends from the days when they’d been in the same ballet class. They’d fallen in love and got married, and now Jenny was a member of the company who were at present performing at a theatre in central Manchester.
Jenny had been the one most keen to make a career in ballet and she’d rung to ask Megan if she’d like to see the show. ‘I’m only one of the chorus,’ Jenny had said. ‘But I’ve got two tickets. Andy is going to use one of them and I wondered if you would like the other.’
‘Oh, yes!’ Megan had said immediately.
‘So would you feel like joining up with him?’ Jenny had asked. ‘It isn’t really his scene, and I know he’d like to see you again. I promise that he’s much better behaved these days,’ she’d told her laughingly.
The arrangements had been made, and now Luke was getting his wires crossed.
‘So how about supper, then?’ Luke asked, returning to his earlier suggestion.
‘I suppose I could pop down for half an hour.’
‘Great, so we’ll see you then.’
* * *
Her mother had phoned earlier and Luke had been the main topic of conversation.
‘How are you and he getting along?’ she’d wanted to know.
‘Not bad so far. But it’s early days yet.’ Megan had told her. ‘Luke is going to have his hands full on the domestic front for the next few weeks.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Sue has gone to France to stay with friends.’
‘And taken the boys with her, I hope.’
‘I’m afraid not. They didn’t want to go, and in any case she couldn’t take them out of school during term time.’
‘So her brother has been left in charge of them?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the garden center, too?’
‘Hmm. But I don’t think that will give him much trouble. Everyone who works there is very loyal, and before you ask about the practice, Luke is spot on and determined not to let his other commitments interfere.’
‘Good,’ her mother said, and Megan knew she was saying what Margaret wanted to hear.
‘Now, tell me about yourselves,’ Megan coaxed, moving onto safer ground ‘Are the house and its surroundings as wonderful as you remember them?’
‘Absolutely. We’re going to love it here, but only if you are happy back there in the village.’
‘I’m fine,’ Megan said, omitting to mention that she’d had grave doubts about the suitability of the man they’d found for her to share the practice with, and that they hadn’t entirely disappeared.
And now she’d accepted his invitation to go for supper because she couldn’t see enough of him. She was heading for a fall and knew it.
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