‘That was fantastic,’ Glenn said laughingly as he took her in his arms and danced her along the main street of the village, past the fairy lights in the windows of the cottages, past the giant Christmas tree in the square where the surgery was, and up the path of the place she called home.

As they faced each other breathlessly at her door Anna wanted to stay in his arms for ever, with everything open and truthful between them. But it was still there—the fear that he would want to marry her out of concern rather than desire if she ever told him what had happened to her.

Sensing that she was retreating behind the wariness that never seemed to go away, he kissed her just once—with a tenderness and passion that made her bones melt.

Taking the door key out of her hand, he unlocked the door of the annexe. As she stepped inside he said, ‘Thanks for a wonderful experience,’ and went striding off to where Bracken House stood in the darkness of the midnight hour.

Abigail Gordon loves to write about the fascinating combination of medicine and romance from her home in a Cheshire village. She is active in local affairs, and is even called upon to write the script for the annual village pantomime! Her eldest son is a hospital manager, and helps with all her medical research. As part of a close-knit family, she treasures having two of her sons living close by, and the third one not too far away. This also gives her the added pleasure of being able to watch her delightful grandchildren growing up.

Recent titles by the same author:

COUNTRY DOCTOR, SPRING BRIDE

A SINGLE DAD AT HEATHERMERE

A WEDDING IN THE VILLAGE

CITY DOCTOR, COUNTRY BRIDE

Dear Reader

Having been brought up happily enough in a Lancashire mill town, where fields and trees were sparse on the landscape, I now live in the countryside and find much pleasure in the privilege of doing so. It gives me the opportunity to write about village life with its caring communities and beautiful surroundings.

So, dear reader, welcome to the first of my four stories about Willowmere, a picturesque village tucked away in the Cheshire countryside. During the changing seasons you will meet the folk who live and work there, and share in their lives and loves.

In this first book, Willowmere is beneath the mantle of winter, and over their first Christmas together in years practice nurse Anna is reunited with her long-lost love Glenn, a handsome doctor. Will the gift of happiness be theirs at this special time? Read on to find out!

Abigail Gordon

The Willowmere Village Stories

Look out for Georgina and Ben’s story in the spring!

CHRISTMAS AT WILLOWMERE

BY

ABIGAIL GORDON

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Bryan Murray, a fellow writer and my brother

CHAPTER ONE

THE first snow of winter had fallen during the night and as Anna and the children walked the short distance to the village school it crunched beneath their feet, cold and dazzling beneath a pale sun.

When Pollyanna and Jolyon had awakened to find a white blanket on cottage roofs and gardens there had been cries of delight and breakfast had been a rushed affair, so eager were they to be out of doors and in the snow…and now the three of them were making slow progress. With faces rosy from the cold, the children were stopping every few yards to slide on the slippery surface of the pavement or pausing to scoop up the snow in their woolly mittens.

But at last wellies had been exchanged for trainers, mittens put on a radiator to dry in the school cloakroom, and hats and warm jackets hung on pegs, leaving Anna free to make her way to the village’s health care centre where she was a part-time practice nurse.

It was snowing again, swirling flakes resting briefly wherever they fell before turning to wetness. She smiled. It was the beginning of December, early for the first snow of winter to be transforming the village into a wonderland of white.

Not all people saw it as something enchanting. There would be no smiles from those who lived high up on the fringe of the moors, beside the proud peaks that today were snow-capped. Sheep farmers and other remote dwellers would be watching the weather forecasts uneasily and hoping that this was just a fleeting reminder that winter had arrived.

Most of the parents who had dropped their children off at the school had gone. Just a single car was still parked outside, and as she walked past the window on the driver’s side it was lowered and a man’s voice said questioningly, ‘Anna?’

She stopped, hoping that it wasn’t a patient wanting a kerbside consultation instead of going to the surgery, and waited as a pair of long legs swung out of the car.

‘Glenn!’ she breathed, taking a step backwards. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I was passing the school and saw you going in with the children,’ he said. ‘So I stayed around until you came out.’

Anna swallowed hard with legs wobbling beneath her. It was five years since she’d seen the man standing in front of her, and it had felt like an eternity. The last time she’d seen him she’d told him they had no future. That she wasn’t going to work in Africa with him because she was needed here in Willowmere. It was where she belonged.

It had been a half-truth. There’d been another reason why she had ended their relationship, a reason that she had not wanted to burden him with as it would have meant him sacrificing a cherished dream on her account.

She’d belonged where he was, but life, with its twists and turns, had shattered all her hopes and dreams on a day such as this, and instead of her future being the happy and fulfilling thing she’d wanted it to be, it had turned onto a narrow restricting path.

After what she’d said to Glenn Hamilton the last time she’d seen him, she’d thought never to see him again. Yet here he was, as large as life, and she couldn’t believe it.

They’d met at a disco organised by their respective colleges when she’d been taking a nursing degree and Glenn had been studying to be a doctor. The attraction between them had been instant. They’d spent every spare moment together from that night and as graduation day had drawn near in their last year, they’d begun to make plans for a future they intended to spend together, blissfully confident that nothing was ever going to separate them.

As they faced each other Anna’s heartbeat was like a marching army thudding in her breast. On a cold and snowy morning Glenn had appeared in Willowmere again.

He was close enough for her to see that he’d changed since she’d last seen him. He was thinner, his face almost gaunt beneath the dark thatch that lay upon his head, but as their glances held she saw that his eyes, the same deep blue as violets, were the thing about him that had changed most.

There had been enthusiasm and purpose in them once, now there was uncertainty there. The look of someone who wasn’t sure of his welcome.

As for the rest of him, he was still tall and straight-backed, and was sporting a tan which looked out of place in the snow of an English winter.

‘I just thought I’d look you up,’ he said evenly, reminding her of the question she’d gasped out at the sight of him…

‘You were that sure I would be here after such a long time?’ she said quietly.

‘I was pretty sure, yes, after you informing me the last time we met that you’d had second thoughts about us and wanted to call it off. That we’d been apart too long, and you needed to help your brother with the children after they lost their mother in an accident.’

Please, don’t remind me of that dreadful day, she thought. He would never know what it had cost her to tell him she wanted to finish with him.

‘So what has brought you back home?’ she asked, without commenting on what he’d just said.

‘I’m taking some leave from the job and thought I’d look up my old friends and acquaintances. I left London in the early hours and arrived here just before eight o’clock. Saw what looked like the local hostelry, a place called The Pheasant, and booked in there for a short stay before I did anything else just to be on the safe side, as it’s hardly the weather to have to sleep in the car.’

So she’d been delegated to his list of friends and acquaintances, Anna thought, and could she blame him after what she’d done to him? She was drowning in the joy of seeing him in the flesh again instead of in her dreams, but at the same time was hoping she would be able to disguise her delight so that Glenn wouldn’t guess that she still cared.

As if reading her thoughts, he said, ‘I haven’t come to butt into your life, Anna. I expect you’ll have settled down with someone else by now, though the young ones you were with would be your brother’s children, I imagine, as they looked the right age.’

‘Yes,’ she told him steadily, ‘Pollyanna and Jolyon started school in September and, no, I’m not with anyone else.’ Before he could comment on that she went on quickly, ‘I call them Polly and Jolly. They live with their father in the house where he and I grew up next to the surgery. My home is the annexe on the other side of the building. It’s a convenient arrangement. I’m near when needed and yet it gives James and I our own space.

‘He manages very well under the circumstances, with a busy practice to run and the children to take care of. Obviously they come first in his life and in mine too because they are so young and vulnerable.’

Glenn was staggered to hear her matter-of-fact description of what her life had become, and even more so when he asked about her father and was told, ‘Dad died not long ago. He never got over losing my mum. James is in charge of the practice now. I’m employed there from nine o’clock until three now the children are at school, and it is where I should be now. I must ask you to excuse me as we are always busier than usual in this kind of weather.’

‘Hop in, then,’ he said, turning back to the car. ‘I’ll take you.’

‘It’s only a short distance. I’ll be there in minutes,’ she protested.

‘Nevertheless, I’ll take you. For one thing, it’s bad underfoot and you’ll be no use to anyone if you fall and hurt yourself.’

‘All right,’ she agreed, and slid into the passenger seat, so aware of his nearness she had to look away. She felt her manner had been too abrupt and as she pointed the way to the surgery said, ‘I’m sorry I’m in such a rush. I wish you’d let me know you were coming.’

He raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘Would you really have wanted me to?’

She didn’t answer. Anna was content with her life up to a point as long as she didn’t dwell on the fact that she wasn’t going anywhere fast, because if she did it made her think wistfully of the full and exciting life that Glenn must be leading in Africa, yet when she looked at Pollyanna and Jolyon secure in happy childhood, there was comfort to be had.

But now she’d just discovered that Glenn wasn’t in Africa. He was here in Willowmere, near enough to touch, and it felt unreal.

As she was debating whether to invite him to call when he was passing to make up for her lack of cordiality, he forestalled her by saying, ‘Would you feel like joining me for a drink at The Pheasant this evening? It would be nice to have a chat. I’ve been wondering how things were with you.’

‘Er…yes…I suppose I could,’ she said slowly, ‘and everything is fine.’

It wasn’t, of course. The secret she’d kept from him would make sure of that, but Glenn was never going to know about the thing that lay so heavily upon her heart…

‘On weekdays the four of us have our evening meal together at Bracken House,’ she explained. ‘It will be eightish before I’ve cleared away and done a few chores.’

‘Whatever time suits you will suit me,’ he said easily.

This polite chit-chat was weird, Anna was thinking as he stopped the car in front of the surgery. Did Glenn remember how they used to be when they were at university?

When his lectures were over he would cross London to where she was based and come knocking on her study door. Once inside he would coax her away from her books and they’d go to a café or the students’ union and would be so engrossed in each other they wouldn’t notice what they were eating.

He had been the idealist, eager to use his medical knowledge to put the world to rights. Unlike her, he hadn’t had any family to consider. He’d been an only child. His parents had divorced when he’d been quite young and he’d spent his childhood being passed from one to the other. He’d lost touch with them once he’d turned eighteen and had become quite self-sufficient as a result.

They’d planned that if they got the degrees they wanted they would go to Africa to join one of the aid programmes. At some time in the future they would get married, either out there or back home, and then have children, something that Glenn saw as very important, having had no proper family life of his own.

That had been before her mother had died unexpectedly from a major heart attack, leaving her father, who had been senior partner at the surgery for many years, frail and inconsolable.

At the same time her sister-in-law, Julie, who had been expecting twins, had been having a difficult pregnancy with dangerously high blood pressure. She had been in hospital, confined to bed, and monitored all the time to check for signs of pre-eclampsia and Anna had known that she couldn’t leave the country with all that happening.

Unlike Glenn’s childhood, hers had been magical. She’d been surrounded by love and whenever she’d mentioned it he’d said, ‘That is how it’s going to be for our children. They won’t have to listen to endless rows and feel lost and bewildered all the time like I did when I was a kid.’

She’d nodded her agreement, happy and secure in their love for each other and having no idea that the fates had some ideas of their own regarding that, and now she felt like pinching herself to see if she was awake. She was meeting Glenn at The Pheasant in a few hours’ time, something that she would have thought as likely as the sun falling out of the sky.

‘You may not find the pub very exciting,’ she warned as she opened the car door. ‘It’s usually village affairs being discussed on a winter night. On a summer evening it’s a different matter. The place is full of walkers and tourists and the regulars don’t get a look-in.’

‘Whatever it is like, I shall enjoy it,’ he told her, ready to depart. ‘I’ll say goodbye until this evening, then.’

As Glenn drove towards The Pheasant to unload his belongings he was wondering if that was the worst over.

He’d spent five years in various African countries, doing what he’d set out to do, and now he was ready for a spell of normal life back home, and every time he thought of normal life he thought of Anna.

There had been no one for him since she’d told him their relationship was over. He hadn’t had the time or the inclination, though he knew deep down that he needed to move on. But before he did so he’d felt he had to see Anna one more time to make sure that there was nothing left of what they’d once had.

So now here he was in the Cheshire village that was so dear to her heart, grateful that he’d found her still there. If what she’d said was correct, just as he had never replaced her, so she had never put anyone in his place, though that didn’t have to mean anything. But it had been an uneasy moment when he’d seen her walking along in the snow with a couple of kids. His spirits had sunk to the soles of his feet but common sense had reminded him that her brother’s children would be that age.

As he’d driven up from London he’d wondered, as he had many times before, how she would greet him if he found her still there. The memory of their last meeting was still cuttingly clear, and now he had his answer. There’d been no happy reunion. Just the exchange of a few stilted sentences had told him he’d been a fool to expect anything else after the way she’d dumped him all that time ago.

When they’d got their degrees he’d ended up going to Africa without her. It had been at Anna’s suggestion because her life had been taken over by family commitments, as she’d always thought it might be.

‘As soon as Dad is on the mend and Julie has had the babies, I’ll join you,’ she’d promised, and he’d reluctantly agreed to leave her behind.

They’d kept in contact all the time and on each occasion when they’d spoken Anna had told him how much she was missing him and longing to be there beside him. When she’d phoned to say that the babies had arrived safely and her father was no worse, he’d hoped that soon they would be together.

At that time, along with other members of his team, he’d been about to do a month-long trip to remote areas where the people rarely had the chance to receive health care, and he’d hoped that by the time he returned Anna would be ready with the date of her arrival.

But there had been no messages waiting for him when he got back and every time he’d rung her there was no answer. He’d felt a sense of foreboding and after two weeks of no contact he’d taken leave and flown home, going straight to Willowmere with all speed.

When Anna had opened the door of Bracken House to him he’d thought she looked ghastly and his anxiety had increased. As she’d stepped back to let him in he’d asked, ‘What’s wrong, Anna? Why haven’t you answered my calls?’

‘I’ve been too busy,’ she said, and he observed her in disbelief.

‘Too busy to let me know when you’re coming to join me? We’ve already been apart too long. I’ve been living for the day.’

‘Glenn, look, I’m sorry but I’m not coming,’ had been the next stab to the heart. ‘Julie and I were in an accident. Mercifully the babies were unharmed and I was…hurt but survived. But Julie…she was killed. So I can’t leave the little ones now.’ She sighed and put up a hand to stop him saying anything. ‘I’m sorry to do this to you, but even before it happened I’d been giving a lot of thought to us. I was going to call it off, yet didn’t want to do it over the phone, but now that you’re here, I can at least tell you to your face.’

‘What?’ He stared at her aghast. She said it like a well-rehearsed speech. ‘The last time we spoke you said you would be joining me soon. I understand why you can’t go to Africa, but we can change our plans. I can come back to work in Britain. We can live here where your family are, so that they have you near, but it doesn’t have to affect our relationship surely. What has made you have doubts about us?’

Anna shook her head. ‘It’s no good, Glenn. I’ve fallen out of love with you. I’ve had time to step back and take a look at where I was heading and have changed my mind.’

‘Are you telling me in a roundabout way that there’s someone else?’ he asked harshly.

‘No. I’m just telling you that I want out. I’ve changed my mind.’

‘Because Julie has died?’

‘Partly, but not just because of that.’

‘So what else, then?’

‘I’ve told you, I’ve just had time to think about things.

About us. It’s not going to work. Will you please go?’

‘Yes. I will,’ he said coldly, and followed it with, ‘I’m so sorry about what has happened. Give your brother my condolences. I’ll see myself out.’

He went back to Africa the day after she’d demoralised him with her change of heart, and there had been no communication of any kind from her since the day she’d dumped him without the slightest warning. He’d thrown himself into his difficult and often dangerous work in an attempt to forget her and forced himself to move on.

So why had he come back now? Gazing through the mullioned window of a pleasant chintzy bedroom beneath the eaves of The Pheasant later that morning, he knew it was need that had brought him here.

For a long time he’d been bound by the needs of others. Now it was his own need that was driving him. He was drained mentally and physically after what he’d had to do and what he’d had to observe, and ached for Anna’s presence in his life once more, but when he recalled the way she had wiped out what they’d had together in just a few abrupt sentences he hadn’t any high hopes regarding that.

He’d been lost for words when she’d told him of the passing of her father. What kind of a life had she been living during the years they’d been apart? he wondered. He could have helped make it easier if she’d given him the chance.

Maybe the coming evening would bring a better understanding between them, but he wasn’t too hopeful. Getting to know Anna again was not going to be easy.

Physically she hadn’t changed as much as he had. The red-gold of her hair was the same, although instead of hanging long on her shoulders, as it used to, it was now in a short, smooth bob framing a face that had no special claim to beauty other than big hazel eyes with long lashes and a kind mouth.

Personality-wise it seemed a different thing, and he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Trying to fill the gap that their mother had left for those two children and being there for her father and brother must have left little time for her to pursue her own life.

He had never experienced family closeness such as hers. His home life had been a poor thing by comparison and it was why he longed for children of his own, so that he could give them the love that he’d never had.

After years of mayhem in war-torn lands, it had felt as if this beautiful village, which had always meant so much to Anna, had been beckoning him, and he’d decided to have one last sighting of her before he closed the pages of a book that was only half-written.

So far he’d accomplished two things. He’d found her out there on the snow-covered street and she’d agreed to meet up with him later. With regard to anything else, he was prepared to wait and see.

James was in Reception, talking to Elaine Ferguson, the practice manager, when Anna came through the main doors of the surgery, and he saw immediately that something was amiss.

When he’d finished speaking to Elaine he followed her into the smaller of the two rooms where the nurses performed their functions and asked, ‘What’s wrong? You look like you’re in shock. You didn’t have problems getting the children to school, did you?’

She managed a smile. ‘I encountered some reluctance to leave the snow behind, but once they were inside and settled they were fine.’

‘So what is it, then?’

‘I’ve just met someone I haven’t seen in years.’

‘Who?’

‘Glenn Hamilton.’

‘The guy you met at university?’

‘Yes. He’s back home for a while and looking up old friends.’

‘So what’s wrong with that?’

‘Nothing, I suppose. It was just a shock, seeing him here in Willowmere,’ she said, thinking how that was putting it mildly!

At the time she’d broken up with Glenn the only things that had been registering with James had been his wife’s death, the needs of his children and his sister’s recovery from her injuries. What had been going on in her private life had been a blur, and in any case he’d never met Anna’s boyfriend.

‘So where has he been all this time?’

‘He’s a doctor and has been working with one of the aid organisations in Africa. ‘It’s what I’ve always wanted to do but the accident put paid to that.’

‘I’ve never heard you say that before!’ he exclaimed.

‘Why would I mention it?’ she said gently. ‘It belongs to the past. Though it is something I might do in years to come.’ And the thought was there that it wouldn’t be the same without Glenn beside her.

‘And he wants to see you again for old times’ sake, is that it?’

She shrugged. ‘So it appears. Glenn has booked into The Pheasant for a few days and because I didn’t have time when we met to talk to him properly, I’ve agreed to meet him there tonight for a drink. You haven’t got anything planned, have you?’

‘No,’ he said immediately, ‘and if I had I would cancel it. Why don’t you ask him round for a meal? I’d like to meet him. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, though I don’t recall you ever mentioning him much in the past.’

‘There was nothing to tell. He went working abroad and we kept in touch for a while and that was it. The Glenn I knew in those days was clever and caring in his approach to medicine. That was why he was so eager to help the world’s suffering.’

‘You weren’t in love with him then?’

Her reply was evasive. ‘We were close at one time but it didn’t work out.’ She glanced around her. ‘And I’m here to work, aren’t I? Though surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be anyone needing to see a nurse at this moment.’

‘There soon will be,’ James promised, and putting to one side for the moment the discussion they’d just had he went to call in his next patient.

But as the morning progressed and those who had come to consult him came and went, it kept coming back, and he thought, as he’d done a thousand times, that he owed his children’s wellbeing and his sanity to his sister.

It had been she who had been there for him during days and months of despair after he’d lost Julie, and at the same time she’d helped look after the babies that had been left without a mother, while making a slow recovery from her own injuries.

It concerned him constantly that she’d had to put her plans on hold for their father’s sake and his, yet every time he brought up the subject Anna always told him gently that she was fine and he would be the first to know when she wasn’t.

He’d been able to tell from what she’d said that the Hamilton fellow had been a close friend. He remembered Anna saying that someone from university had called some weeks after the accident, but he’d been at the practice at the time and with so much on his mind it had barely registered.

During Anna’s last year at university and when she’d come home at the end of it, he’d been so concerned over Julie’s difficult pregnancy and his father’s failing health that what had been going on in his sister’s life had passed him by.

For instance, he hadn’t known until today that she’d wanted to work abroad when she’d qualified and had given up that idea because she’d been needed back home. They’d always been a close and loving family but Anna’s devotion had gone way beyond the call of duty.

He supposed he should have married again, giving her back the freedom she’d so willingly forfeited. But the thought of replacing Julie was more than he could bear, and if he ever did meet someone who came near to her in his affections, would she want a widower with two young children for a husband? Anna adored Polly and Jolly just as much as he did, but his was the responsibility.

There had been blood tests to do during the morning, along with injections, dressings to change and other duties that went with the job for Anna and Beth Jackson, the other practice nurse, and as always the time flew past. There was no opportunity to think about the evening ahead but when three o’clock came and it was time to pick up the children, seeing Glenn again was the thought uppermost in her mind…

He is here in Willowmere, she thought incredulously as she waited for them to come out of school. I can see The Pheasant from my bedroom window just five minutes’ walk away and I may as well enjoy the thought while it lasts, as nothing will have changed by the time he is ready to leave. I just can’t blight his life. He deserves better than I can give him.

When they arrived home Pollyanna and Jolyon played in the garden in the snow until the light faded and then she brought them in for a change of clothes and a warm drink, and all the time she was wishing that the hands of the clock would move faster.

She dressed with care for the evening ahead in the colours that suited her best. Dark green trousers and a short cream jacket with a long scarf to match showed off the red-gold of her hair and the beautiful hazel eyes that once had been clear and cloudless.

She’d changed a lot over recent years but tonight she wanted Glenn to see that she was still the same woman as before. There was no need for him to ever know what she’d given up for him, or feel sorry for the life she was leading now.

It had been an act of love and if she sometimes felt she should have given him a choice, she put the thought firmly from her mind. He was the idealist and might have said it didn’t matter, which would have left her in a limbo state of always wondering if he regretted his decision. No, she had done the right thing.

Anyway, he was here now, and maybe he didn’t hate her as much as she’d thought he would. He’d seemed friendly enough towards her, and she’d even sensed compassion in him when she’d told him about her father, but whatever his life was like now, she knew there would still be bitterness in him for the way she’d treated him, and she couldn’t blame him.

But, she decided firmly, he had come to Willowmere of his own accord, so why not make the most of it for the short time he was there? Picking up her bag and keys she went out into the snowy night.

CHAPTER TWO

THE accident had happened just as Anna had been ready to let Glenn know she was flying out to join him. The babies were a month old and it had seemed as if she might be no longer needed at Bracken House with Julie back to her normal self, the problem of the high blood pressure having disappeared once she’d given birth. And with James around to keep an eye on their father, the time had seemed right.

Glenn had still been out of contact but was due back soon on the day that she’d driven Julie and the children to the hospital to have their feet checked by a paediatric consultant while James had held the fort at the surgery.

Both babies had been born with feet slightly inward turning, due to being in a cramped position in the womb, and had immediately been put into tiny boots that would correct the problem. And on an icy winter morning she and Julie had taken them for a progress check.

The report had been good. They’d told the anxious mother that it was a common enough thing and as it was being treated promptly it should soon right itself. They’d set off for home in good spirits and all had been fine until a car coming fast out of a minor road had skidded into them on the icy surface and hit the side where Julie had been sitting.

By some miracle, the babies hadn’t been hurt, but their mother had taken the full impact of a car much heavier car than theirs and by the time the emergency services had arrived she had died from severe head and spinal injuries.

Anna had been found injured in the driver’s seat, not too seriously at first glance, but in great pain in the pelvic area.

As a paramedic had bent over her she’d heard the babies crying and gasped through the pain and shock, ‘The babies!’

‘They seem all right,’ the paramedic told her. ‘They’re being lifted out of the car now.’

‘And their mother?’

‘We’re doing all we can,’ he said gently. ‘And now, before we move you, tell me where the pain is.’

‘Everywhere,’ she moaned weakly, ‘but worse around my pelvis.’ She’d drifted off into nothingness for a few moments and the next thing she knew she was being lifted carefully onto a stretcher before being put into an ambulance.

She knew she’d lost Julie as soon as she saw James’s face in A and E. On the point of being taken to X-Ray she’d told him to go back to the babies, that she would be all right, though she wasn’t as confident as she sounded.

Her life changed for ever when a gynaecologist stood by her bedside and said apologetically, ‘I’m afraid that the news isn’t good, Anna.’

She’d had severe bruising of the chest and broken ribs, but the most attention was being given to the injuries to her pelvis and uterus, and his next words explained why.

‘I’m going to have to do a hysterectomy. Your uterus is too badly damaged for me not to do so.’

‘Oh, no!’ she groaned. ‘Not that. We wanted children!’ And as the tears had slid down her cheeks she could hear Glenn’s voice in her mind saying, Our children will be born into a loving family, Anna. What would he say when he knew there wasn’t going to be any?

She cried and cried for what she and Glenn would never have and longed for him to be there to comfort her, but he was far away out of reach somewhere in Africa, and by the time he was due back she’d made her decision.

Glenn wasn’t going to be put in the position of having to choose between her and a life with children, she’d decided. He would be spared that because she wasn’t going to tell him about the surgery she’d had to undergo. She loved him too much for that. When next they spoke she was going to finish it.

When Anna appeared in the doorway of The Pheasant Glenn got to his feet immediately and came towards her, smiling his welcome, and she wondered if he’d forgiven her for what she’d done and the cold, abrupt manner with which she’d done it.

It had been the only way she could make the break at the time because she’d been hurting so much. Losing Julie and knowing that the tender trap with James and the babies was opening up before her had been painful enough, but most of all she’d been hurting because when it came to children of her own, there wouldn’t be any.

She’d often questioned if she’d been fair in not telling him what had happened to her. Glenn had been denied the opportunity to make his own decision, but it was all in the past and she’d done what she’d thought right at the time. Whatever the reason for his return, at least they could be friends, and she returned his smile with a beam of her own that made his eyes widen.

‘So tell me about it,’ she said when they were seated with drinks in front of them beside a glowing log fire.

‘What?’

‘Africa, of course.’

‘It was a fulfilling experience and one day I will go back,’ he said quietly, ‘but not yet. It was also dangerous, demoralising and exhausting, but I never had any regrets, except maybe one.’

Anna didn’t ask what that was. She had a feeling that she knew, but it seemed that he was going to tell her anyway. ‘You weren’t with me.’

‘I would have been no use to you if I had been,’ she retorted quickly. ‘My mind would have been back here all the time, with James struggling with the children without Julie and myself, his family all dead or absent.’

Glenn wasn’t smiling now, his jaw taut. ‘If you remember, I told you at the time we could have got round it. You wouldn’t have called it off for just that. There had to be another reason.’

‘I don’t want us to spend our time harking back to the past while you’re here,’ she said, shying away from the moment. ‘Can’t we be like you said, old friends renewing their acquaintance after a long time? Though I’m sur prised that you haven’t found someone else by now.’

‘Why? Have you?’

‘Er…no.’

He shrugged. ‘So there you are.’ He decided a change of subject was called for. Anna had been lit up a moment ago and he wanted her to stay that way, though he didn’t flatter himself it was anything to do with him, unless she was out to show him that she wasn’t the Cinderella figure he might be seeing her as.

After that they chatted generally. Glenn asked in detail about the surgery, said he’d never had any experience of a country practice, so she suggested he pop in and she would give him the guided tour. The evening moved along pleasantly enough until the landlord announced time.

‘I’ll walk you home,’ he said.

She shook her head. ‘No need. I can see my place from here.’ And because she was anxious to know, she asked, ‘How long are you intending staying in Willowmere?’

‘Just a few days. Why?’

‘Would you like to have dinner with us tomorrow?’

She saw his face stretch and thought surely he didn’t think she wouldn’t offer him some hospitality.

‘I’d love to, if you are sure,’ he replied. ‘I’d like to meet your brother and Pollyanna and Jolyon.’

‘Shall we say six o’clock? I always prepare the evening meal for the four of us and James comes up as soon as the late surgery is over. The children go to bed at half past seven, which gives time for their meal to settle.’

‘Six o’clock it is,’ he said trying to conceal the pleasure it was giving him in saying it.

* * *

There was a light on at Bracken House when she got back and she stopped off before going to her own place. She found James still up and told him, ‘I’ve done as you said and invited Glenn to eat with us tomorrow night.’

‘Good,’ he said, looking up from the paperwork in front of him. ‘I look forward to meeting him.’

Now that she’d extended the invitation, Anna wasn’t sure that she’d done the right thing. Was it a good idea to get so chummy when he would be leaving so soon? Yet why not make the most of every moment? The time they spent together would be something to hold onto when he’d gone.

The next morning at the surgery Beth said, ‘The bush telegraph has been buzzing. Who was the handsome guy you were with in The Pheasant last night?’

Anna smiled. It was a fact that not much went unnoticed in Willowmere. It was a close-knit community. Some of the people had lived there all their lives, as their fathers had before them.

‘It was just a friend from my university days,’ she explained as they called in the first of those waiting to be seen.

Sam Gibson had been passed on to them to have blood taken to assess sugar levels by Georgina Adams, the other full-time doctor in the practice, and he was not happy when he saw the needle.

‘It won’t take a second, Sam,’ Anna told him. ‘Look the other way.’

He was a farmer from the outskirts of the village, a big burly fellow afraid of nothing except the needle, so it seemed.

‘Don’t tell my Dorothy that I was scared of the needle, will you?’ he said sheepishly as he rolled his sleeve back down. ‘I kid her about being afraid of spiders, so she’ll never let it drop if she finds out.’

Smiling, she showed him out then ushered in her next patient, a young girl with a urine infection who James wanted a sample from. And so the morning progressed, though Anna was still gripped by the feeling of unreality that had been there ever since she’d seen Glenn outside the school.

In a spare moment between patients she wondered wryly what people would think if they knew that she’d once been going to marry the man she’d been seen with in The Pheasant. That she’d been crazy not to?

As Anna prepared the meal that evening she was acutely aware that Glenn was going to be seated across the table from her, with James and the children looking on curiously at the stranger in their midst.

She was tempted to get out the best china and then decided not to as she didn’t want him to read anything into the invitation that wasn’t there. It was a Wednesday and they always had chicken casserole for first course and sticky toffee pudding for dessert, and knowing that the children would be disappointed if those things weren’t on offer, she stayed with the usual menu and hoped that it would appeal to their guest.

When they’d met outside the school yesterday Glenn had been wearing a thick jacket over a black sweater and jeans, and she surmised that he might be feeling the cold after being in warmer climates for so long.

But when he rang the doorbell at six o’clock and she opened the door to him with the children, one on either side of her, Anna saw that he’d changed into lighter clothing in the form of a smart suit with shirt and tie.

At once she wished that she had got out the best china, that her face wasn’t flushed from the heat of the oven, and that she’d found time to dress in something that didn’t detract from her appearance of the night before. Yet did it matter? Glenn was going to be just a ship that passed in the night. It was amazing that he’d actually taken the trouble to seek her out.

‘Hello again,’ he said, and with a smile for the children as she stepped back to let him in, he added, ‘I hope I’m not too early.’

‘No, of course not,’ she told him. ‘James isn’t here yet, so can I offer you a drink before we eat?” He wasn’t looking so drawn, she thought as she showed him into the sitting room. Maybe he’d spent the day relaxing. She wasn’t to know that his less drawn expression was due more to the relief of having crossed the first hurdle in getting to know her again.

While the children played with their toys and the two adults drank a pre-dinner sherry, Glenn said, with his gaze on Pollyanna and Jolyon, ‘We’ve both moved on since we last saw each other, haven’t we, Anna?’

‘I would describe my life more as moving sideways rather than on,’ she commented whimsically. To avoid getting into deep water again, she went on, ‘What are you going to do if you don’t go back to Africa straight away?’

‘I haven’t made up my mind yet,’ he told her, and was prevented from saying more by the appearance of James.

When they’d been introduced Anna left the two men chatting while she went into the kitchen to serve the meal. The children followed and, remembering how she’d told them that the visitor was a friend of hers from when she was learning to be a nurse, Polly, who was usually the spokeswoman for the two of them, asked, ‘Is that why Dr. Hamilton has come to see us?’

‘Yes. He’s visiting people he used to know and I was one of them.’ Remembering their brief reunion outside the school the day before, when he hadn’t shown any reaction to her comment about the way they’d parted, she was wondering why he’d included her on his list.

‘Has he been where there are crocodiles?’ Jolyon wanted to know.

He was the quieter of the two, and a solemn child, considering her pet name for him, but he usually came up with something imaginative when he made the effort.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘Why don’t you ask him?’

‘Yes. I will,’ he promised.

‘You have two captivating children,’ Glenn told James as they seated themselves around the table. Jolyon had just asked his question and his eyes had widened as Glenn had explained that there had been crocodiles in some of the places where he’d worked, but as they spent a lot of time in the water he hadn’t seen much of them.

‘We think so, don’t we, Anna?’ James said with an affectionate glance at his sister. ‘When my wife died, leaving me with two young babies, Anna was a huge help, but it concerns me that she gets so little time to herself. And I’m sure that other people who know her feel the same.’

‘Don’t do this to me, James,’ Anna was begging silently. Don’t describe me as someone to be sorry for. Not in front of Glenn. He will soon be going back to where he came from and that is how it has to be.

Silence had fallen over the room and after a moment she said, ‘How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t mind, James? The children are everything to me.’

And if that isn’t telling me straight to go back to where I’ve come from, I don’t know what is, Glenn thought grimly.

But James had been observing Anna and Glenn. He sensed an awareness of each other that they were trying to conceal, and he asked casually, ‘So what are you planning to do in the near future, Glenn? Have a rest until you go back? Or look for a position over here for a while?’

‘I want to work in the UK for a change,’ he told him, ‘to recharge my batteries. I’ve no immediate plans to go back at the moment. I wouldn’t mind some general practice work. The sort of thing you do. I have been working in surgeries of a kind for the last few years. They were ill-equipped places, but surgeries nevertheless.’

James nodded but made no comment, and once the meal was over and the children were yawning he said, ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll take the children up to bed and leave you and Anna to continue getting reacquainted.’

Pollyanna and Jolyon said goodnight and silence returned once they’d gone, hanging over Anna and Glen like a cloud of uncertainty until he said, ‘James seems concerned about you.’

‘Yes, I know, but he doesn’t need to be. I’m fine,’ she said breezily. ‘I’d rather we talked about you than me. You must have lots to tell about what you’ve been doing.’

He wanted to talk about them, not Africa, and said, ‘Some other time maybe?’

‘What other time?’ she questioned. ‘You’ll be leaving soon.’

‘That is, or was, my intention,’ he said, and she wondered what that was supposed to mean. The answer was in what he said next. ‘It is a joy to come to somewhere like this, where it’s cold, crisp and clean.’

‘You mean to say that you’re thinking of extending your visit?’ she asked, not sure where this was leading. ‘The snow will be gone in a couple of days, you know, it’s very early. January to March is when we get the really heavy falls, and how will you occupy yourself in the countryside in wintertime?’

She couldn’t believe she was trying to dissuade him from staying longer when she hadn’t seen him in years. But she had something to hide and the longer Glenn was around the more likely it was that he might find out. Although the only people who knew about it were James and herself, and he would never discuss her private affairs with anyone.

‘Are you by any chance hinting that you would like to see me gone?’ he asked dryly, and she felt the colour rise in her cheeks.

‘No, of course not,’ she told him hurriedly. ‘You must do what is best for yourself.’

Was she out of her mind, she thought, trying to persuade him to leave when he was inclined to linger? She might never see him again after this, but nothing had changed, had it? If he’d come back hoping she might have changed her mind about their relationship, she still couldn’t give him a child and nothing was going to alter that.

Yet she had found a degree of contentment in her life and needed to hang onto it. Would she be able to do that with Glenn in Willowmere?

At that moment James appeared to say that the children were asleep and would Glenn like to see the surgery? He was on his feet in an instant, commenting that he would be most interested to see how a country practice functioned.

‘It functions very well,’ she told him coolly. ‘You will be amazed.’

When they came back Glenn was smiling. ‘Very impressive,’ he said with a gleam in his eye that told her he’d got the message. ‘Especially the computer centre in the basement, where the practice manager keeps her finger on the pulse. And now, if you will excuse me, I’ll head off back to The Pheasant. I know you both lead very busy lives, and I don’t think entertaining would normally be on the agenda on a weekday evening, so I’ll say goodnight.’ He turned to James and shook his hand. ‘It’s been a pleasure to meet you and your children, James.’

It was the same as the night before. Anna didn’t want them to have to separate and on the spur of the moment she said, ‘James has given you the guided tour of the surgery that I promised, but if you like I’ll show you some of the village beneath a full moon. Willowmere covered in snow in the moonlight is something to see.’

‘I’d like that,’ he said, taken aback, and when she’d grabbed a coat and put boots on they went outside. ‘Are you trying to confuse me, Anna?’ he asked as they walked down the path. ‘One moment you are hastening me on my way and the next you are dangling your beautiful village in front of me like a carrot, and considering that it’s called Willowmere, I can’t see any willow trees at a glance.’

‘You won’t,’ she told him. ‘Not here anyway, but on the edge of the village at the foot of the peaks there is a lake and they are there in profusion. From Willow Lake came Willowmere many years ago when people began to move into the area around it, and once you’ve seen the lake you will know why they came. The trees may be short of a few leaves at this time of year, but they’re never bare, and it’s a beautiful place no matter what the season.’

‘Hmm, it sounds like it. Why don’t you and the children show it to me tomorrow after school is over? If it isn’t too far, we might get there before the light goes and then we could go for afternoon tea somewhere. I’ll call for you.’

‘Oh…yes, all right,’ she agreed, taken unawares by the suggestion, yet it did have its appeal. It would give her the opportunity to show Glenn some of the reasons why she loved this place and Willow Lake was high on the list. Though she would rather have taken him there on a spring day, or in summer when the weeping willows hung over the water in an abundance of fresh greenery.

But Glenn wouldn’t be around then and she didn’t want to think about that, even though his arrival was like having a wound that had healed open up again.

As they strolled along the main street with its quaint shops and onto the bridge that spanned the river he asked, ‘Are there any eating places around here that would be open and suitable to take the children to at this time of the year?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. There’s the very place, over there. The Hollyhocks Tea Rooms, a couple of doors away from the post office. They’re open all year round and the food is always good. The owners of the place are friends of mine.’

‘So the Hollyhocks Tea Rooms it shall be,’ he said, ‘where Cheshire cheese and Lancashire hotpot will, no doubt, be on the menu as we aren’t far from where the two counties meet.’

‘And what’s wrong with that?’ she asked, sending him a look as the moon scudded behind a cloud and they were left in cold, velvet darkness.

‘I didn’t say there was anything wrong,’ he replied hastily, hiding a smile. Then he saw the teasing sparkle in her eyes.

‘You know we still have the stocks in the village for those who misbehave,’ she joked, ‘and we pelt them with rotten eggs. So beware!’

‘What?’ he exclaimed in assumed horror. ‘I would have thought a place as perfect as this would only be able to lay its hands on fresh free-range chuckies.’

As they laughed together it was like the old days for a moment. They’d been happy and carefree when they’d first met. In a moment of weakness Anna wished they could go back to those early days.

‘What are you thinking?’ he asked, observing the change in her expression.

‘Nothing,’ she said flatly. ‘I was just remembering, that’s all.’

‘So you’ve not forgotten how it used to be?’

‘No. Of course I haven’t! Have you?’

‘No. I haven’t forgotten either,’ he told her, and could have gone on to remind her that during their last year at university all his hopes and dreams had been formed and she had demolished them with just a few words. But what was the point? It had all been long ago…

‘We’ve both missed out on many things since then,’ he said gravely, ‘and I still don’t know why.’

At that moment the moon appeared again and he saw her expression in its light. ‘What?’ he asked. ‘What’s wrong, Anna?’

‘Nothing,’ she said quickly. Desperate to lighten the moment, she pointed to an ancient stone building beside the river. ‘That’s an old water mill. It isn’t used now, of course, but it’s a favourite with local artists.’

‘I can imagine it would be,’ he said absently, still concerned about how she’d looked a moment ago. But it was clear that she wasn’t going to tell him what was wrong so he said easily, ‘I seem to have seen quite a few things tonight, but one thing you haven’t shown me is where you live. When do I get to see that? I’d like to be able to picture you there when I’ve gone.’

‘Another time maybe,” she promised. ‘I’ll show you round some time, but I think maybe we should call it a day now.’

She was feeling too emotional to take him into her smart little dwelling. Outside in the cold it wasn’t hard to keep at a distance but in a more confined space she couldn’t guarantee anything.

* * *

When she arrived home James was on the point of putting the ironing board away and on the kitchen table was a neat pile of newly ironed laundry.

‘You didn’t have to do that,’ she protested.

‘I know,’ he replied. ‘Just the same as you don’t have to look after me and mine, but you do.’ He observed her keenly. ‘I liked Glenn. It takes some guts to do what he’s been doing.’

‘Yes, it does,’ she agreed, and wondered what was coming next.

‘How would you feel if I offered him a temporary locum position in the practice until he’s decided what he wants to do permanently?’ he asked, choosing his words carefully. ‘I feel he could be just what we need if he agrees. I will have to consult Georgina, of course, though I can’t see her objecting to more help around the place. It’s what you think of the idea that I’m most concerned about. Would you want him living in the village, working in the practice, back in your life to some degree?’

Anna was gazing at him open-mouthed. ‘I know you’ve been thinking of employing a locum for some time,’ she croaked, ‘but Glenn! You hardly know him.’

‘That may be true,’ James pointed out equably, ‘but you know him so it will depend on what you say whether I offer him the position.’

She took a deep breath. Was this the moment to tell James just how close she and Glenn had once been? That he had once been the love of her life, but because she couldn’t give him children she had sent him away?

Or was it the time to burden herself with another secret, this time kept from James, and let him go on thinking she and Glenn were just casual friends? Otherwise he would be devastated to know just how much the operation had ruined her life and it might show through when he was in Glenn’s company. It didn’t seem as if there was much of a choice.

She took a deep breath. ‘You are putting me on the spot, asking me to give my opinion. Glenn and I were close once but we drifted apart, like students do, and as you know I haven’t seen him in a long time. But I can tell you one thing with regard to how good a doctor he will be. I have a very clear picture of that. I’m confident that you would find him extremely capable and caring. He would be an asset to the practice. Glenn sailed through every exam and was top of his year at university.

‘We would be fortunate to have him on board and I would say go for it if that is what you want. But don’t expect anything to change as far as I’m concerned. My life is mapped out and I don’t anticipate taking any side turnings. Just so you know, he’s offered to take the children and me to the Hollyhocks Tea Rooms tomorrow afternoon after I’ve shown him the lake. But before you get any crazy ideas, we’ve no plans to socialise after that.’

‘And if I offer him the job?’

‘It will be between the two of you. Just make sure he realises that I had nothing to do with it, and give some thought to where he is going to stay if he accepts.’

‘Well, the spare bedroom here has an en suite, as you know, so I can accommodate him temporarily if he accepts my offer. I don’t think having the kids around would bother him. It’s easy to see he’s good with children, and you are only next door.’

‘I can see that your mind is made up,’ she said, still bemused by this latest turn of events.

‘Only if you are in favour of the arrangement, and don’t forget he has yet to be asked.’

‘Yes, I know, and if he agrees it probably won’t be for long. He’ll soon be off on his travels again. So, yes, it’s all right by me, and now I’m going home or I’ll never be up on time in the morning.’

‘Promise me you won’t stay awake, worrying,’ he begged, ‘as nothing may come of it.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ she said, and went to have a peep at Polly and Jolly before going to the annexe next door. As she looked down at them, beautiful and innocent in sleep, Anna felt peace descend on her.

She might have just done the wrong thing, but wasn’t it better to keep up the charade of Glenn being just an acquaintance rather than never to see him again? That was what would have happened if she’d told James not to offer him the position.

CHAPTER THREE

SLEEP evaded her, as she’d known it would after the events of the day. She heard the church clock strike one, and was still wide awake.

James had been right to consider asking Glenn to join the practice, she thought. What had been between them was long gone, even though he had appeared out of the blue and taken her breath away.

Unlike herself, Glenn had no family to share his life with. It was possible he might appreciate the chance to sample living in the countryside. He’d been prepared to do that when Julie had died and must still wonder why she’d rejected the suggestion and ended their relationship, especially as he’d discovered on his return that there was no one else in her life.

She’d agreed to James’s suggestion for both their sakes, and Glenn would have nothing to lose if he accepted, but for the sake of keeping him near she was making a difficult situation even more complicated.

Yet why worry about something that might never happen? she told herself. The odds were that the thought of actually living in Willowmere, as compared to a short visit, would make Glenn refuse James’s offer.

* * *

Anna hadn’t been the only one finding sleep hard to come by. In his room at The Pheasant, Glenn was reliving every moment from his first sight of her on the snow-covered pavement, taking the children to school.

He’d remembered where she lived, had been to Bracken House on the day she’d called it off. Yet when he’d driven past that morning there had been no signs of life. But as he’d cruised along the main street of the village, luck had been with him. He’d seen Anna walking along the pavement with two small chidren.

If she’d been pleased to see him, Anna had concealed it well, he thought. Yet she’d gone to have a drink with him, invited him for a meal, and had agreed to see him again tomorrow. She seemed friendly enough but he sensed that she was on her guard for some reason and wondered if she thought it tasteless that he had resurfaced after all this time and was here in Willowmere.

Yet what did any of it matter? Unless she gave a sign that she still had feelings for him, he would accept that there really was nothing left of what they’d had before and go on his way.

‘You’re looking very glamorous,’ Georgina said when Anna arrived at the surgery the following morning. ‘What’s the occasion?’

‘Just afternoon tea with a friend I haven’t seen for some time,’ she replied.

Georgina Adams was an attractive thirty-five-year-old divorcee, who lived alone in a stone cottage at the end of one of the leafy lanes leading off the main street of the village. She kept herself to herself, but could be relied on for a cheery word and a smile whenever they stopped to chat.

The women patients usually chose to consult her, especially if they had something embarrassing to discuss, and she and James had a good working relationship.

Time was always of the essence on weekday mornings. Making sure the children had a good breakfast and seeing them safely to school before she put in an appearance at the surgery left little time for make-up and smart clothes. And in any case the practice nurses wore a neat blue uniform. But today she was wearing a fashionable cashmere top and skirt, and her hair hung straight and shining.

She’d decided that if Glenn didn’t choose to join the practice it might be the last time she saw him, and whenever he thought of her in time to come, if he ever did, she wouldn’t want him to remember her as drab.

All the practice staff, with the exception of herself, started at half past eight, so James and Georgina had already been seeing patients when she arrived, and Anna wondered when he was going to speak to Glenn.

She hoped it wouldn’t be before they met up that afternoon. Calm and controlled was how she wanted to be while they walked by the lake and chatted over tea. The children were very good at the table, but Polly and Jolly were only five years old and sometimes they did need some assistance, which could prove to be a diverting exercise if a diversion was needed.

‘I’m going to call at The Pheasant to see Glenn this evening when I’ve finished here,’ James told her when he had a moment to spare. ‘So I might be late for dinner. Is that all right?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she told him. ‘I’ll give the children theirs at the usual time, though.’

He nodded. ‘And you’re not going to say anything to Glenn about him joining the practice when you’re with him this afternoon, are you?’ he questioned.

‘Absolutely not!’ she exclaimed. ‘I said last night that I don’t want to be involved in what you are considering, James. I would be mortified if he received the impression that I had anything to do with it.’

‘Don’t be,’ he said affectionately. ‘You know I would never do anything to upset you. There’s still time for you to say you would prefer me not to approach him.’

She shook her head. ‘No. Go ahead. I think Glenn has been feeling rather out on a limb since he came back home. Your suggestion could be just what he needs.’

It was along the lines of what she’d been thinking during the sleepless hours of the previous night and as she went to change the dressing on what had been a badly infected finger of a teenage boy she still wasn’t sure if it was what she needed.

The lad was the son of Bryan Timmins, who owned one of the biggest farms in the area, and until recently Anna had thought him to be spoilt and surly. When young Josh had pierced his finger on a rusty nail and it had become infected, James had put him on antibiotics and sent him to the nurses’room for a tetanus injection. Today she was hoping to see some improvement when she changed the dressing.

She’d seen a new side to Josh when he’d called at Bracken House one afternoon with some eggs that his father had forgotten to deliver and had stopped and played with the children.

They’d had lots of fun and Polly and Jolly hadn’t wanted him to go, but his mother had phoned, concerned about where he’d got to, and he’d had to leave.

‘How are the twins?’ he asked as the finger was revealed and appeared to be healing satisfactorily.

‘They’re fine, Josh,’ she replied. ‘You’re good with children, aren’t you? I can see you having a house full of your own when you get married.’

‘I don’t know about that, but I won’t have just one, that’s for sure,’ he said, and Anna saw the light. Josh had been a different person that day. He was obviously a lad who missed not having brothers and sisters.

‘Come round any afternoon when you’re not with your mates,’ she said as he was leaving, and his expression brightened.

Georgina popped into the nurses’room shortly afterwards and said, ‘I’ve just seen Josh Timmins leaving. That young man is in for a surprise and so are you, Anna.’

‘Why me?’ she asked.

‘His mother came to see me yesterday afternoon and she will be attending our antenatal clinic in the morning.’ ‘Maggie Timmins is pregnant!’ she exclaimed. ‘That is amazing!’

‘What do you mean? She’s not exactly in her dotage,’ Georgina protested mildly. ‘Maggie was forty last month, which isn’t exactly the first flush of youth but not too old to conceive.’

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