She almost dropped the flask when a shadow fell across her.

At the same second she heard Sophie cry ecstatically, ‘Daddy!’ and when she looked up Gabriel was there, observing her gravely for an incredible moment, until Sophie flung herself into his arms. As Josh followed suit he held them both close, and Laura saw the wetness of tears on his cheeks.

When the children had calmed down after lots of hugs and kisses, and were tucking into the food, she said in a low voice, ‘So you decided to come earlier?’

‘Yes, but I’m not staying.’

‘The children won’t like that! Don’t you think they’ve waited long enough to be with you?’

‘Yes, I do. But, Laura, my life has been on hold for long enough. I have things to sort out at the hospital. I want the way ahead to be clear with regard to my career, so that I know where I’m at, what I’m doing.’

The hurt inside her was beyond bearing as she listened to what he was saying, and it came forth in anger as she said tightly, ‘So nothing changes, Gabriel? It’s still career first and family second.’ And, with her glance on the children, who were out of earshot, ‘Well, don’t let us stop you…’

Dear Reader

Once again we meet between the pages of one of my books. This time it is the third story out of four about The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm, and here we meet Gabriel, a doctor who has a great sense of dedication towards his profession, and Laura, his wife, who throws their lives into chaos quite unintentionally.

Their story is about the love and loyalty that binds them together at a time of great unrest in their lives, and how the strength of it finally brings back the happiness that they thought they had lost. I do hope that you will enjoy meeting them.

With very best regards

Abigail Gordon

About the Author

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:

SPRING PROPOSAL IN SWALLOWBROOK** SWALLOWBROOK’S WINTER BRIDE** SUMMER SEASIDE WEDDING† VILLAGE NURSE’S HAPPY-EVER-AFTER† WEDDING BELLS FOR THE VILLAGE NURSE† CHRISTMAS IN BLUEBELL COVE† COUNTRY MIDWIFE, CHRISTMAS BRIDE*

**The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm *The Willowmere Village Stories † Bluebell Cove

These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

Marriage Miracle in Swallowbrook

Abigail Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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For Stephen and Judith

who generously gave me their time

and their hospitality

while showing me Lakeland

CHAPTER ONE

A SUMMER sun was shining when Laura Armitage drew back the curtains in the master bedroom of the house that her uncle had given her. Its mellow golden rays were spreading far and wide from the ripening corn in distant fields to the shores of the tree-lined lakeside nearby, but to the woman at the window the brightness of the morning was blotted out by dark uncertainties about the future.

A month ago she and her children had moved into a spacious old house that she’d had renovated in the beautiful lakeland village of Swallowbrook. She’d been offered the position of practice manager at the medical centre in the village and, desperate to leave London, she’d accepted the opportunity to take up where her uncle, who had held the position before her, had left off. He had gone to spend his retirement in Spain and as a parting gift had given her his house.

The children, eight-year-old Sophie and six-year-old Josh, loved the place after the noise and bustle of London. The lake, beautiful in all weathers, was encircled by a bracelet of rugged fells that attracted walkers and climbers from far and wide all the year round, especially at this time, while down below them an assortment of craft of all types and sizes sailed the lake’s clear waters.

The children’s favourite pastime was when the three of them sailed to its far reaches on one of the pleasure launches that went to and fro all the time during the hours of daylight. But wherever they went, whatever they did, there was always the same question coming from Sophie, ‘Mummy, when is Daddy coming home?’

‘Soon,’ she would tell her gently. ‘He is just so busy looking after the sick people.’

As she gazed unseeingly out of the window Laura thought that she would love Swallowbrook as much as they did if only Gabriel was there with them. Without him life had no meaning. But a horrendous turn of events had taken him from them and until he surfaced again she had no idea if the light of a marriage that had already begun to fade had been extinguished completely.

He knew that she’d taken her uncle up on his offer of the house called Swallows Barn, and that she was now employed at the practice from nine o’clock in the morning to when the children came out of the village school in the afternoon.

When she’d told him about her uncle’s generosity he’d been less than enthusiastic, ‘Fine, if that’s what you want, Laura, but when I get out of here I intend to go straight to the town house.’ And with a bleak smile he’d added, ‘I take it that it’s still there? That it hasn’t been repossessed?’

‘No. of course not!’ she’d said steadily, holding back the tears that she had never shed in front of him on the nightmarish visiting days when they’d sat across from each other at a small table without touching and behaving like strangers.

She’d never wept in front of the children either, determined that nothing should spoil their youthful innocence. Her tears were shed in the long hours of the night in the big double bed that was bereft of the presence of the husband she’d adored.

‘I’ve taken the job in Swallowbrook to help pay the bills while you’re not around,’ she’d told him that day. ‘The gift of my uncle’s house clinched it with regard to moving there, but from what you’ve just said it would seem that you aren’t intending to join us. I thought you were desperate to see the children, Gabriel, knowing how much it must have cost you to refuse to let me bring them with me on days like today.’

‘I am desperate,’ he’d said grimly, ‘but first I want to get a decent haircut, and to be able to turn up looking the same as when they last saw me. Yet it doesn’t mean that every day I’m without them isn’t hell on earth.’

‘And what is every day without me like?’ she’d asked, stung by the lack of any mention of herself.

‘An exercise in accepting that I was never there when you needed me, and in the end for a fleeting moment I mistakenly thought you’d turned to someone else,’ he’d said in the same flat tone.

‘Yes, and when you came home early for once and found me in another man’s arms, you felt entitled to become judge and jury without providing the opportunity for any explanation, and nearly killed someone who did want my company,’ she’d parried, without raising her voice in the crowded visitors’ area.

They’d gone over the same ground countless times while they’d been waiting for the court hearing, and it was only the fact that he had resuscitated and brought back to life the man he had attacked when he’d found him holding her close that had saved Gabriel from a longer sentence than the one he was serving now.

He had dragged her free of his hold and with one fierce blow had sent Jeremy Saunders reeling backwards and his head had hit the big marble fireplace behind him with an ominous crack. When they’d bent over him they’d discovered that his heart had stopped beating and it had been then that Gabriel had come to his senses and his medical training had kicked in.

She turned away from the window and slowly made her way downstairs, the hurt of that conversation as raw as ever, and saw that it was time to look forward instead of back if the children were to get to school on time.

They had settled into life in the country as to the manner born, with Sophie her usual caring self where her small brother was concerned. She was like Gabriel in both looks and personality, dark hair, hazel eyes, quick thinking and determined when it came to life choices, even at such an early age.

Josh was more like her, or rather how she used to be. She was no longer steadfast and tranquil, wrapped around with the contentment of the joys that life had brought her in the form of a husband she adored and who adored her in return, and a small son and daughter to cherish.

They’d lived in one of London’s tree-lined squares, not far from where Gabriel had practised as a consultant oncologist working entirely within the NHS and very much in demand, so much so that over the last few years she had begun to feel like a one-parent family because he was never there.

Both of his parents had died of cancer when he’d been in his teens and on choosing medicine as a career he had decided to specialise in oncology. Every life he was instrumental in saving from the dreadful disease helped to make up a little for the loss of those he had loved.

She had always known and accepted that was the reason for his dedication to his calling, but as time had gone by the ritual of him arriving home totally exhausted in the early hours of the morning and being asleep within seconds of slumping down beside her on the bed that was so often empty of his presence had begun to tell.

Then it would be back to the hospital again almost before it was daylight and their physical relationship had become almost non-existent as it had seemed that his obsession with his career was going to drive them apart if he didn’t ease off a little to give them some time to be a family.

It had been of all things a swelling in her armpit that had brought everything to a climax. Gabriel had already left the house and been on his way to the hospital one morning when she’d been drying herself after coming out of the shower and had felt something under her arm that hadn’t been there before.

Immediately concerned, she’d phoned him to tell him about it and on the point of performing a major operation on a cancer patient he’d said, ‘Pop along to the surgery and get them to have a look at it, Laura. I’m just about to go into Theatre.’

She’d put the phone down slowly. No woman on earth would want to find a lump in the place she’d described, but she was the lucky one, or so she’d thought. Her husband was one of the top names in cancer treatment, so it was to be expected that anything of that nature with regard to his wife would have his full attention, but instead he’d told her to see her GP who, knowing who her husband was, had observed her in some surprise.

He had tactfully made no comment and after examining the swelling had told her, ‘It could be anything, Mrs Armitage, but we doctors never take any chances with this sort of thing, so I will make you an appointment to see an oncologist. Have you any preferences?’

‘Er, yes, my husband,’ she’d told him, and his surprise had increased, but it hadn’t prevented the appointment being made for the following day.

When she’d arrived at the hospital Laura had seated herself in the waiting room with the rest of those waiting to be seen and when a nurse had appeared and called her name she had followed her into the room where Gabriel was seeing his patients.

He’d been seated at the desk with head bent, having been about to read the notes that he’d just taken from the top of the pile to acquaint himself with the medical history of his next patient. When he’d looked up she’d watched his jaw go slack and dark brows begin to rise as he’d asked, ‘What are you doing here, Laura? Can’t you see that I’m busy?’

‘I need to see you,’ she’d said implacably.

‘Whatever it is, surely this is not the right place to discuss it,’ he’d protested. ‘Can’t you wait until I come home?’

‘No, I can’t, that’s why I’m here, Gabriel. You’re never there, and it isn’t anything domestic I want to discuss. I’m here as a patient.’

‘What!’ he’d exclaimed. ‘Why? What’s wrong with …?’ His voice had trailed into silence as for once his quicksilver mind hadn’t been working at top speed, and then realisation had come. ‘The swelling in your armpit? You’ve been to see the GP?’

‘Yes,’ she’d told him woodenly. ‘He managed to conceal his surprise at me consulting him when I’m married to one of the country’s leading oncologists and made me an appointment. I’m surprised that my name didn’t register with your secretary, but she wouldn’t be expecting me here as a patient, I suppose.’

‘Let me see it,’ he’d said as remorse washed over him in shock waves, and as he’d felt around the swelling they were both acutely aware that it was the first time he’d touched her in months and it had to be for something like this.

‘It’s difficult to say,’ he’d announced as she’d replaced the top that she’d taken off. ‘It could be hormonal, or muscular strain, even a benign tumour, so don’t let’s jump to any conclusions until we’ve done the necessary tests, which I’ll set up for tomorrow. Okay?’

‘Yes,’ she’d said, and without further comment was about to depart.

‘If you will hang on for a few moments, I’ll run you home,’ he’d offered contritely, but she’d shaken her head.

‘No, thanks. I’ll be fine.’ And before he could protest, she’d gone.

Amongst the uncertainties of her life, the position that Laura had taken up in the medical practice at Swallowbrook was like a calm oasis in spite of the pressures of a busy surgery and enough paperwork to keep her fully occupied.

There were four doctors in the practice, husband and wife Nathan and Libby Gallagher, and Hugo Lawrence, newly married to Ruby Hollister, who had joined them some months previously as a junior doctor. But soon they would be down to three again as Libby was pregnant and about to become a full-time mother to her new baby and Toby, their six-year-old adopted son. Laura had been working in hospital administration when she’d met Gabriel Armitage and the attraction between the clever oncologist who had a dark attractiveness that made him stand out amongst other men, and the serene golden haired vision behind a desk in the office had been an instant thing.

It had been at the hospital’s Christmas ball they’d met and the romance had progressed from there with wedding bells not long after, and until Gabriel had become one of the area’s leading experts on cancer and in huge demand, they had been a united happy family with their two children.

But the end of that had come on the day when he had arrived home early for once and along with his anguished regret for letting a situation develop where his wife had been forced to make an appointment to see him, he’d brought flowers, a huge bouquet made up of all the blooms she loved the most.

But no one on the staff at the surgery knew much about her, and for the moment she was happy to keep things that way. As far as they were concerned, she had taken up the job on Gordon Jessup’s recommendation.

Though she’d carefully kept details of her private life to herself it seemed as if her new colleagues assumed that her marriage had suffered a split, and it was altogether easier to let them continue to think this, at least until she had some idea herself of where things were going with Gabriel.

Still, her new workmates had been very welcoming. The two Gallagher doctors had invited Laura and the children round for afternoon tea one Sunday as a welcoming gesture and Toby and Josh, of a similar age, had hit it off immediately, while Sophie, who was the proud owner of a pink mobile phone, had received a call and chatted non-stop to the caller on a bench in the garden while the boys kicked a ball around close by.

‘That was Daddy,’ she’d said with cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling as they’d walked home, unaware of her mother’s heartache because Gabriel hadn’t had anything to say to her. How could they ever hope to mend their marriage if Gabriel wasn’t even prepared to talk to her? Or for him was it simply too late? Did he want out of the marriage once he got out of prison?

They’d gone in the ambulance to A and E on that dreadful day, with Gabriel and paramedics watching over Jeremy Saunders, and she huddled beside them in a state of shock brought on by what had happened to him and the knowledge that Gabriel, who had been her joy and her life no matter how much he was absent from it, had thought her capable of infidelity.

If he’d arrived just a few seconds later he would have seen her pushing the other man away and sending him packing, but after what had happened earlier in the day he’d been in no state for coherent thought after his wife had come to see him as a patient who might or might not have cancer because she hadn’t been able to get his attention any other way.

The police had been waiting at the hospital when they’d got there, having been notified by the ambulance crew of the circumstances of the emergency they were bringing in, and while the injured man was being treated Gabriel had been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm.

She would have gone to the police station with him but he had insisted that she stay with their neighbour, who lived alone and as far as they knew had no close relatives, and there had also been the matter of their children due out of school soon.

‘Phone the school, Laura,’ he’d instructed, as, still in shock, she had stood by white faced and trembling. ‘Ask them to keep the children there until you can pick them up.’ As he’d been led away she’d nodded mutely and done as he’d said.

In the early evening, with Gabriel still at the police station, his secretary had phoned to say that his solicitor had been on the phone with a message from his client to say that her husband was insisting that she keep the appointments that had been made for her the following day and that he would be back as soon as possible.

‘Whatever is wrong, Mrs Armitage?’ Jenny Carstairs had asked, mystified at the unusual turn of events.

‘It is something that we got involved in this afternoon, Jenny,’ she’d told her, ‘and knowing how Gabriel likes to have all ends neatly tied he’s sending me a reminder about the scans, that’s all.’

As soon as the secretary had gone off the line she’d rung the hospital to check on Jeremy’s condition, knowing that if it had been someone other than Gabriel who had struck him he might not have survived the terrific blow to the head on the marble fireplace.

Jeremy was responding to treatment, she’d been told, there was no bleeding inside the head but he had sustained a skull fracture that was being dealt with, and his heart was being monitored all the time.

So it had seemed that Gabriel’s quick response to what he’d been responsible for had probably saved the other man’s life and she’d had to be satisfied with that, knowing that her husband was in police custody because of his angry reaction at finding her in the arms of another man.

Jeremy had seen her arrive home in tears and had been quick to step in to offer the comfort of his arms to his attractive neighbour in her moment of weakness. He’d been holding her close and stroking her hair, and at the moment that Gabriel had arrived he had been taking advantage of the situation and kissing her, and Gabriel had misunderstood what was happening.

As he put his key in the lock of the London house, the feeling of unreality that had been there all the time he’d been serving his sentence didn’t lift. He was free of the punishment he’d received for loving his wife too much, he thought grimly, but what now? He looked around a hall that smelt musty from the lack of fresh air, and as he opened a window wondered if maybe that was how he smelt, for the same reason.

Would Laura ever forgive him for doubting her? She’d visited him dutifully while he’d been in that place but every time he’d seen her he’d known that the bonds that had always held them together had been broken and it had been due to his neglect.

After her appointment as a patient on that never-to-be-forgotten day almost a year ago, he’d sat staring into space as the reality of what was happening to their marriage had hit him. The woman he loved had been reduced to consulting him as a member of the general public. They’d lived in the same house, slept in the same bed, yet that was what she’d had to do to bring his attention to something that could have been serious.

Laura hadn’t known at that moment that he’d passed all his appointments for the day to his second in command when she’d left and in the early afternoon had gone home with the intention of telling her that in future his dedication to the sick and suffering wasn’t going to take over his life as much as it had been doing, that they were going to be a proper family again.

With that in mind he had arrived to find her being kissed and cuddled by the guy who lived next door, who was the laziest devil he’d ever come across and considered himself to be irresistible to women. Of independent means, he spent his days socialising with the city ‘jet set’ while he, Gabriel, was often operating for twenty-four hours non-stop, and in those first few seconds of rage it had seemed to him as if the sloth from next door had turned his attentions to Laura.

When his case had come up in court he’d been sentenced to nine months in prison for grievous bodily harm and been told it would have been twelve if it hadn’t been for the fact that as well as endangering the other man’s life he had also saved it in those first few moments of realising the horror of what he’d done, otherwise he might have been facing a charge of manslaughter. The marble fireplace had played its part, but he had been the one who’d struck the blow and his life and Laura’s had never been the same since.

In the weeks prior to his case coming up they had slept in separate rooms, discussed only household matters and the children’s welfare, and though he was no weakling mentally or physically the thought of being shut away from her and the children for any length of time had been agony. The only bright spot had been that Laura’s test results had come back negative for cancer. The swelling was benign.

The first thing he did in the silent house was strip off and wash away the smell of where he’d been, and then got dressed in some of his own casual clothes that had hung unworn over the months.

When he opened the fridge it was well stocked and he wondered when Laura had found time to drive up to London to do that. He had the answer when a few seconds later the phone rang and Jenny, his secretary, was on the line, welcoming him home and asking if the food she’d bought him was all right.

‘Laura rang and asked me to do a shop for you,’ she explained.

‘It is fine, Jenny,’ he told her, ‘and many thanks for taking the trouble’

‘It was no trouble. I’m just glad to know you’re home,’ she said awkwardly. ‘Everyone on the unit wants to know when you’re coming back.’

‘It might be if rather than when,’ he replied. ‘I’ve got some thinking to do, Jenny, but I’ll be around to see you all soon.’

He finished his conversation with Jenny, but almost immediately the phone rang again. This time it was Laura.

‘Gabriel! You’re home! Thank goodness! How does it feel?’

‘Quiet, peaceful,’ he replied. ‘Jenny has done what you asked so I’m going to have a snack lunch and then maybe a walk in the park. I see that next door is up for sale. Did you know?’

‘Er, yes. Jeremy phoned to tell me.’

‘Why would he do that, then?’

‘I don’t know. I wasn’t interested and told him so,’ she said levelly, and into the silence that followed added, ‘When are you coming to see the children?’

‘Soon,’ he replied. ‘One day during the week maybe.’

‘I see,’ she replied, and she did. She saw that Gabriel had no intention of taking up where they’d left off on that dreadful afternoon. They’d lived like strangers in the same house after the event while waiting for the case to come up, and she was no more eager than he was to go back to that kind of life.

The move to Swallowbrook hadn’t just been because of her uncle’s generous gift of the house. She’d harboured a secret hope that it might be a new beginning with Gabriel away from the happenings of the past in a beautiful place, but it seemed that he had other ideas and when they’d finished the call she wept for all that they’d lost.

Laura had chaired a meeting of the doctors the night before to discuss a project that was already under way—the building of a clinic for cancer patients that Nathan Gallagher was keen to see take place on the same plot of land as the surgery.

The relevant authorities in the area had approved it and work had already started. The practice building had once been a farmhouse where Libby, his wife, had been brought up, and there was land to spare all around it.

The intention was that the clinic should be an offshoot of the local hospital’s oncology department, which was always extremely busy, and if plans went ahead it would be somewhere for local people to see a consultant without a longer wait than was necessary.

Libby hadn’t been at the meeting. She was retiring from the practice very soon and had suggested that Laura take Sophie and Josh round to their place to play with Toby until it was over.

When she’d dropped them off Libby had thought that the new practice manager looked tired and stressed but hadn’t said anything, as on getting to know her better she was realising that Laura Armitage was a very private person.

The other woman in the practice, Hugo Lawrence’s delightful new wife Ruby, who had joined them as a junior doctor some time ago, had similar feelings about the new practice manager and was doing her best to make her feel at home. She felt that Laura was under pressure of some kind and it was noticeable that there was never any mention of the children’s father in any conversation with her.

Though not so with her young daughter, Sophie was obviously in touch with her father, even if her mother wasn’t, if the number of times she mentioned him was anything to go by.

After speaking to Gabriel on Friday morning, Laura decided that if life had felt unreal ever since he’d come charging in and found the opportunist from next door using her distress to get to know her better, the stilted conversation they’d just had on the phone took unreality into a new dimension.

He still believed she’d been about to cheat on him, she thought. That she’d turned to Jeremy Saunders of all people because of his own neglect of her, and that maybe it hadn’t been the first time. Never having been prepared to discuss it with her since, now he was making it clear that there wasn’t going to be any loving reunion, not as far as he was concerned anyway.

Sleep was long in coming when she went to bed. As she lay wide-eyed beneath the eaves of Swallows Barn, Laura heard Sophie call out his name on a sob and couldn’t believe that Gabriel could stay away from the children now that he was free. If he didn’t want to be with her, fine, but he adored Sophie and Josh, and if he didn’t appear for them soon she would … What? File for divorce and have to live without him for evermore?

CHAPTER TWO

ON THE Sunday after Gabriel’s release from prison, Laura set off with the children for a picnic on an island in the middle of the lake. It was a quiet and peaceful place, uninhabited except for just one property—an attractive house built from lakeland stone and appropriately named Greystone House.

They had told her at the surgery that it belonged to Libby and Nathan Gallagher, that he had bought it for her as a wedding present, and she’d thought how romantic that was. It seemed that the two of them and their small son spent every weekend there.

This Sunday the two doctors were going to the wedding of a friend who lived down south and so there would be no one but her and the children on the island today.

Sophie and Josh were keen to explore everywhere and as it was small enough for her to keep them in view all the time, she was happy to let them wander where they wanted as long as they didn’t trespass on land belonging to the house.

Once they were happily occupied she set out the picnic for when they would be ready to eat, and then opening up the folding chair that she had brought with her settled herself on it and let her thoughts take over.

It hurt that Gabriel hadn’t rushed straight up here to see the children at least, though he obviously had no interest in rebuilding their marriage.

She often thought that if she hadn’t gone to the hospital as his patient that day, he wouldn’t have come home so early, and when Jeremy had taken advantage of her distress, she would have sent him packing without Gabriel knowing anything about it and it would have been the end of the incident.

But Gabriel’s timing had been all wrong and so had Jeremy’s for that matter. They had all paid a high price for what had happened in the moment when his self-control had snapped. She could hear the engines of another passenger launch approaching and she sighed. It had stopped, and the peace she craved would be gone if others had the same thought in mind that she’d had.

Calling Sophie and Josh to her, she began to pour the cold drinks that she’d brought and almost dropped the flask when a shadow fell across her and the children came to a halt as if they’d seen a ghost.

She turned slowly with a tingling down her spine and when she looked up Gabriel was there, observing her gravely, and it was as if the four of them had been turned to stone, until Sophie broke the silence by crying ‘Daddy!’ and began running towards him, with Josh not far behind. As he scooped them up into his arms Laura saw the wetness of tears on his cheeks and thought achingly that this was a moment that none of them should ever have had to endure, but it had been thrust upon them. Where did they go from here?

Desperate to get away from the place where her life had been shattered, she’d spent the time that Gabriel had been away from her and the children picking up the pieces by moving to a new home in a beautiful Lakeland paradise, and although it had only been half a life without him there, she’d coped and would continue to do so whatever the outcome of his coming back to them.

When the children had calmed down after lots of hugs and kisses and were tucking into the food, she asked in a low voice, ‘How did you know where to find us?’

‘I didn’t. I was parking the car by the lakeside when I saw the three of you in the distance boarding one of the launches, but it had sailed by the time I got there. I asked the girl in the ticket office if she knew where you were bound for. She said the island, so I caught the next boat.’

‘I see. So you decided to come earlier?’

‘Yes, but I’m not staying.’

‘Oh, fine!’ she said coolly. ‘The children won’t like that! Don’t you think they’ve waited long enough to be with you?’

‘Yes, I do, but, Laura, my life has been on hold for long enough. I have things to sort out at the hospital, matters that have accumulated while I’ve been in prison. I want the way ahead to be clear with regard to my career, so that I know my position, what I’m doing.’

The hurt inside her was beyond bearing as she listened to what he was saying and it came forth in anger as she said tightly, ‘So nothing changes Gabriel? It’s still career first and family second.’ She glanced at the children, who were out of earshot. ‘Well, don’t let us stop you. Do dash off to wherever it is you prefer to be.’

‘Would it be all right to stay the night?’ he asked, with no answer forthcoming to her protest.

‘You shouldn’t need to ask!’

The vestige of a smile was tugging at the corners of the mouth that had kissed her a thousand times in what seemed like another life.

‘All right, then,’ he said, adding with grim humour, ‘Just as long as the sheets are of Egyptian cotton. My bedding of recent months has hardly been luxurious, and if the house has a spare room, that will do fine’

She turned away. How could he joke about something like that and at the same time make it clear that he didn’t want to sleep with her? With a change of subject she pointed to the food and said stiffly, ‘There is plenty to eat. What would you like to drink?’

As he squatted down on the grass, with the children chattering one on either side, it seemed so normal that she could hardly believe that for what had seemed like for ever the only man she had ever loved had been serving a custodial sentence for grievous bodily harm because of what had been the worst day of her life.

‘I hope you’ll like the house,’ she said uncomfortably when they arrived at Swallows Barn with the children still on a high, having been driven home in Gabriel’s car.

‘If you are happy with it, that is all that matters,’ he said levelly.

Sophie urged, ‘Come and see my room, Daddy!’

‘And mine!’ Josh said, and as the three of them went upstairs together Laura thought that Gabriel could tell the children that he wasn’t staying. She wasn’t going to be responsible for causing them any upset.

When they were asleep after receiving a promise from their father that he would take them to school the next morning, an awkward silence fell upon the house until it was broken by Gabriel asking casually, ‘So what is the medical centre like in this place, Laura?’

Was that all he could talk about, health care? But she answered civilly enough, explaining who was who and outlining her responsibilities.

They’d passed the practice on the way home and he’d noticed that a new building was being erected on the large plot of land next to it and had wanted to know what it was going to be.

‘It is going to be a clinic that will be an offshoot of the main oncology unit at the local hospital,’ she told him. ‘All the staff at the surgery are very excited about it.’

‘Hmm, impressive forward thinking,’ he commented. ‘When is it due to open?’

‘Some time in the autumn if all goes according to plan.’

But she had questions of her own to ask and they weren’t about health care. It was the first time she’d had the opportunity to ask him what it had been like being shut away from his life’s work at the hospital and his family, and was hoping that his reply would give her some degree of understanding of the stranger that he had become.

‘So what was it like in there?’ she asked gently, and watched his face close up.

‘It was a piece of cake.’

‘I’m not asking for mockery,’ she told him. ‘I want the truth.’

It had been hell on earth being away from them, but he had brought it on himself. He must have been insane to think that Laura would have anything to do with the low life from next door, but seeing that creep with his arms around her had ignited a fury like he’d never known. Perhaps in hindsight his uncharacteristic behaviour had been amplified by his feelings of guilt over neglecting Laura.

He’d flung himself at the man like a coiled spring and since that moment life had been totally unreal, but Laura was waiting for an answer and so, referring to the lighter side of his sentence, he said, ‘I worked in the prison hospital for most of the time, which provided some degree of job satisfaction, and had a constant stream of inmates queuing up outside my cell for advice regarding their health problems, true or imaginary, but the nights were long.’

How long he couldn’t bear to tell her, with visions of her coping with the children on her own, and in the middle of it all moving house, which showed clearly that by the time he was released she wanted to have made a new life for herself.

There had been indications that Laura wanted him to join her and the children in their new home, but he didn’t want to rush into anything. Things had been going wrong between them even before that terrible incident. There was no way he could sidle back into her life without having something to offer in the form of trust and understanding, and the reason for him returning to London the following day was connected with that.

‘And the rest of it?’ she persisted.

‘Not good in parts, but I had a debt to repay, didn’t I, Laura? And now I can get on with my life knowing that ghastly episode is over, that Saunders is fully recovered, and that you and the children are all right.’

‘And that is it?’

No, it isn’t, he wanted to tell her. When you came to see me as a patient I had to accept that I wasn’t being fair to you. That I was guilty of gross neglect, and shortly afterwards I found myself believing that you were betraying me with that guy of all people, that you’d turned to him for comfort. I should have known better, of course, but I wasn’t thinking straight at the time.

Instead he said, ‘For the present, yes. I’ll keep in touch of course and if you need me for anything don’t be afraid to ask.’ He looked around him. ‘Though you seem to be managing very well without me.

‘I sussed out the spare room while I was upstairs, so will get my case out of the car and settle down for the night if that’s all right with you.’

‘Don’t you want a meal first?’ she asked woodenly, bringing her mind back to basics, and when he shook his head a deadly calm began to settle upon her as the impact of his ‘don’t be afraid to ask’ comment took hold.

In a measured tone she said, ‘Just a moment before you go. You said if there is anything I need from you I have only to ask?’

He was observing her questioningly. ‘Yes, I did. So is there something?’

‘Yes. I want a divorce.’

She watched his jaw drop and amazement darken the hazel eyes looking into hers, and then he said in a grating voice that was nothing like his usual upbeat tone, ‘So I was wrong. Am I still going to be paying for what I did?’

‘And you think I’m not?’ she said, doing her best to keep all emotion out of her voice. She could be just as coldly analytical as Gabriel if that was how he wanted things. ‘I wanted you home, but not on the terms you’re laying down in such a patronising manner. I’ve been living for the day when you were free of that place. But it seems that while you’ve had time on your hands you’ve been making plans that don’t include me, which makes me think that you still aren’t sure about how you found me in somebody else’s arms, so, yes, Gabriel, I want a divorce!’

The strong lines of his face were set like granite as he turned and went out to the car without any further comment and when he came back inside she said, ‘Breakfast will be ready at eight o’clock and if you still intend taking the children to school, they have to be there for quarter to nine.’

‘Of course I’m going to take them,’ he said levelly. ‘I’ve never let them down!’ Like I have you, the voice of conscience said.

Gabriel couldn’t sleep. Twice he padded quietly to where the children were sleeping and gazed down on them tenderly, but the door of the master bedroom across the landing remained firmly shut. He had made everything worse between Laura and himself by not telling her what was in his mind. But first he had to speak to his friend James Lockyer, chairman of the board of governors at the hospital where he’d worked.

Jenny kept phoning to say how much they were all looking forward to his return, but she had no say in the matter, neither had those who had worked alongside him, and nor had he. So he wanted to get from James the full picture of what came next to put in front of Laura when he returned to the house where he’d felt like a visitor.

It had been at his suggestion that he’d slept in the spare room, not hers. Had she wanted him back in her bed?

But, no, how could she? Only hours before she’d asked him for a divorce. He’d been totally stunned at her request and was praying that it had been a spur-of-the-moment thing that she would change her mind about.

Breakfast was a stilted affair with only the children’s chatter to liven it up and when the three of them were ready for the short walk to the village school Laura told him, ‘I’ll be ready to go to the practice soon. What time do you intend leaving?’

‘As soon as I’ve seen the children safely inside I’ll be back for the car. I need to be in London before three o’clock.’

‘I’ll hang on, then, so that I can lock up once you’ve gone,’ she told him

‘Whatever,’ he agreed absently as his glance took in the vision she presented in a smart navy suit and white blouse with matching navy footwear, and the fair swathe of her hair swept back into a neat coil. She was so fantastic, he thought achingly. How could he have been so careless with the love they’d had for each other?

The children were tugging at him, with Sophie anxious to show off her father to her friends, and dressed in their neat school uniforms of gold and green and each carrying a small satchel they placed themselves one on either side of him and the trio disappeared in the direction of the village school.

When Gabriel came striding back half an hour later she was standing at the gate, waiting for him, and it felt like a dream. She’d imagined this moment so often, him walking towards her in sunshine, back where he belonged, and now that the time had come it was like groping through fog.

‘Have you got everything?’ she asked weakly as the shock waves of his nearness washed over her.

He nodded, and after locking up she waited to see what he would do next. Would he just drive off with a brief goodbye after her announcement of the previous night, she wondered, or give her a formal peck on the cheek?

As he bent towards her it seemed as if that was what it was going to be, but not so. His arms reached out to encircle her, his mouth was on hers and he kissed her long and lingeringly before letting her go, then without a word having passed between them he got into the car and drove off in the direction of the motorway that ran past the village.

She put her hand to her mouth. It was the first time he had touched her in any shape or form since that awful day, and she thought despairingly that she’d had to mention divorce for him to show any signs of still wanting her.

Yet he had gone for reasons best known to himself without any mention of when he would see her again. How was she supposed to feel? For now she chose to put her hurt and anger to one side and she set off for another day at the Swallowbrook Medical Practice.

On arriving, she went straight to her office on the lower ground floor and so didn’t see Nathan arrive dumbstruck after taking Toby to school.

‘I’ve just seen some guy seeing Laura’s children into school,’ he told Libby. ‘It would seem that the missing father has turned up!’

‘Really!’ she exclaimed. ‘What was he like?’

‘That’s just it!’ he told her with amazement unabated. ‘What are they called?’

‘Er, Sophie and Joshua?’

‘No! I mean their surname. It’s Armitage, isn’t it?’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘It was Gabriel Armitage, the cancer specialist, with Sophie and Josh. I’ve seen his face often enough in medical journals to recognise him. I had no idea that they were connected.’

With her amazement on a level with his she said, ‘I recall he hit the headlines a few months back but can’t remember what it was about, but it’s good to know that Laura has a husband in her life to help her with the children, and cherish her like you do me,’ she said softly, with the memory of long years of loving the man by her side without any signs from him, until one wonderful day he had returned to Swallowbrook and swept her off her feet.

‘I don’t think we should say anything to Laura,’ she advised. ‘Let her tell us about the man in her life in her own time.’

‘Sure,’ Nathan agreed, with his mind already switched on to the busy day ahead.

As Gabriel approached the hospital that he hadn’t seen for many long months, James Lockyer, head of the board of governors, was pacing the boardroom. He was one of the oncologist’s closest friends and had been devastated when Gabriel had been sent to prison for the last thing he would have expected him to be guilty of, but he had known the number of hours his friend had put in on the cancer unit with dedicated zeal and it would seem that he’d finally cracked.

When he’d phoned to ask to see him that afternoon James had thought that the hour of reckoning was going to come for Gabriel a second time, but from a different source—the hospital—which meant that his career could be in jeopardy, even though what had happened on that never-to-be-forgotten day had only been connected with his work from a stress point of view.

During all the time Gabriel had been head of oncology there had never been even a second when his expertise and judgement had been questioned, and now because of a split second of anger James was going to have to set the wheels turning that would bring his friend before the hospital board, who would decide whether he should be allowed to continue practising there.

The incident with his next-door neighbour would most likely have passed without notice if the other guy hadn’t cracked his head on the fireplace with disastrous results as he’d fallen backwards, and from that had come the court’s decision to award a prison sentence.

As the two men shook hands James was aware of the change in his friend. Gabriel had always been a man with a strong sense of purpose. Being shut away hadn’t altered that, but there was a grimness about him that had never been there before and as they discussed his future the reason for it became apparent.

‘You know that we want you back here as soon as possible, don’t you Gabriel?’ James said, ‘But the wheels of hospital protocol turn slowly and I will have to instigate the usual procedures with regard to the hierarchy coming up with a decision as to whether you should be allowed to continue working here.

‘I know how much your work means to you and will move heaven and earth to get you back with us, but I will be only one voice amongst others when the meeting takes place.’

‘I understand all of that,’ Gabriel told him, ‘and will face the music when summoned, but, James, whatever the result it won’t make all that much difference to my future plans. I’m giving up medicine and moving to the countryside to be with Laura and the children.

‘While I’ve been away she has moved to a charming lakeside village and I intend to move there to be with my family. It was my neglect of her, due to the job, that started it all, and there is not going to be any more of that. Let me know when the “firing squad” wants me up before them and I will be there, otherwise I shall be involved in rural life.’

‘I can’t believe what you’re saying!’ James exclaimed. ‘You are the best we’ve ever had and we won’t be able to exist without your work.’

‘I don’t know about that,’ he told him, ‘but one thing I do know. I can’t exist without Laura … and she’s just told me that she wants a divorce.’

‘Ah, now I understand.’ James nodded sombrely. ‘But do let the wheels turn with regard to you being allowed to return to medicine one day. You might change your mind at some time in the future when you’ve put things right with her.’

‘I doubt that will happen. It could be the same thing all over again if I do.’ Gabriel rose from his chair. ‘I’ll leave you my phone number so that you can get in touch when I’m needed to face the board. And, James, it’s been great to see you.

‘I’m going to have a quick word with my team before I go. Jenny, my secretary, and no doubt the rest of them think I’m going to be able to take up where I left off here just like that, so I owe it to them to explain and say goodbye.’

‘Yes,’ James agreed, ‘but it will be a sad day for this place.’

‘No one is indispensable. There will be others to come with the same skills as mine. For all I know, they might have already appeared,’ he told him, and went to carry out the next painful thing that he had to do, say hello and goodbye to those he’d worked with.

When he arrived back at the town house in the smart London square Gabriel sat staring into space. If someone had told him a year ago that he would calmly give up practising medicine with no other kind of job prospects in view, he would have laughed in their face.

But the fact of it was that he’d had to make a choice, his career or his family, in particular his wife, and he knew that he could just about exist without the one, but not without the other.

He was going to phone Laura, as he’d promised, but later when the children were in bed and when she knew what he’d said to James, maybe she would change her mind about wanting a divorce.

The children were asleep and the house was still around her as Laura thought about the day that had started with Gabriel actually being around to take the children to school, then going back to London as swiftly as he had come.

He was always happiest there for the very good reason that it was where the hospital was, the huge, redbrick magnet that could always attract him away from her and the children and would soon be casting its spell over him again if he was allowed to continue practising there after what had happened.

Where was Gabriel now, she wondered, celebrating his freedom somewhere with James, or in a bar with the members of his team? She wouldn’t blame him for doing either of those things. He’d been shut away from reality and needed to get back to it.

Though wasn’t his idea of reality to see a patient cured, or at the least provide more time for them to enjoy what quality of life he was able to give them?

When the phone rang she was there in an instant, heart beating faster, nerves stretching, but it was Nathan’s voice coming over the line to say that the doctors would like to get together with her to discuss some refurbishment of the surgery premises and would she arrange a meeting to that effect?

It rang again shortly afterwards, once again breaking into the silence of the house, and this time it was the voice she wanted to hear.

‘I’ve been to see James to find out what happens now with regard to my position at the hospital.’ Gabriel said, bypassing small talk in order to get to the news he hoped Laura wanted to hear. ‘He says there will be a meeting shortly to discuss it, and that in view of my stay in HMP he won’t be able to guarantee them agreeing to me taking up where I left off.

‘All of which is no surprise, and until I hear more about it from him I will be returning to Swallowbrook some time tomorrow if that is all right with you.’

‘Yes, of course,’ she told him unsteadily, after trying to take in what he’d been saying. They’d both known that the sentence Gabriel had served could affect his career, but he was in much demand medically, and James would not want to lose him as one of the hospital’s top consultants.

When he’d rung off she spent the rest of the evening in a state of acute anxiety. His career was Gabriel’s life, she thought desperately.

If he couldn’t treat the sick he would be devastated, yet he’d sounded calm enough at the prospect. But she wasn’t. His job might cost them their marriage if he was allowed to go back to it, yet she couldn’t bear the thought of him being separated from it. And what did he mean by announcing his intention to join her and the children here? It was as if their earlier conversation had never happened; he still hadn’t responded to her request for a divorce.

The night that followed was not one of peaceful sleep. She tossed and turned and eventually went into the kitchen to make a drink at four o’clock as a midsummer dawn was beginning to lighten the sky, and as she gazed unseeingly to where the lake shimmered on the skyline the thought came that if Gabriel was given the chance to go back to his life’s work, a divorce might be the only answer. It would leave him free to follow his calling without his responsibilities to her and the children weighing him down.

She’d told him it was what she wanted in the middle of a hurtful moment, not really meaning it, but maybe in the long run it would be the best thing for all of them if she could endure the agony of a permanent separation. The one that she’d just lived through, if living was the right word to describe it, had been hard enough to cope with, and that had been only for a matter of months.

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