Dear Reader

Would you like to come with me to a small and enchanting market town to read about the lives and loves of a charismatic man who thinks he has all his priorities right—until he meets a beautiful woman whose life has become a hurtful catastrophe due to the unkindness of others?

If so, do please read on.

With best wishes

Abigail Gordon

Dear Reader

One of the questions I am asked most frequently is where do I get my ideas for a book? I usually reply that they come from conversations I’ve overheard or from something I have read in the newspapers and this book is the perfect example of that. I was having coffee in town when I overheard two women talking about IVF. One of their daughters was undergoing IVF treatment and this lady was worried in case something went wrong. As she said to her friend, wouldn’t it be awful if the wrong embryo was implanted? It immediately piqued my interest.

I kept thinking about what would happen if a woman discovered that the child she had given birth to wasn’t actually hers. Of course these things rarely happen, but what an intriguing scenario for a story…

On the surface, Mia and Leo are poles apart. Mia was brought up in care and has had to work hard to earn her living, whereas Leo comes from a wealthy family and has always enjoyed the finer things in life. What unites them is the fact that each is determined to protect their child. Discovering that Harry and Noah were born to the wrong mothers is a huge shock for them both but they are determined not to let it affect the boys. they intend to do all they can to help the children cope with a very difficult situation and make their plans accordingly. What they don’t plan on happening is that they will fall in love in the process. Dare they follow their hearts? Or could they end up upsetting the boys even more? It’s another dilemma they need to resolve.

I hope you enjoy Mia and Leo’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you would like to learn more about my books then do visit my blog: Jennifertaylorauthor.wordpress.com. I love hearing from readers so pop in and leave a message.

Best wishes

Jennifer

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.

Christmas Magic
in Heatherdale
Abigail Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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For Robert Bonar, a good friend and the kindest of men.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

EMPLOYED AS A paediatric consultant at Heatherdale Children’s Hospital, Ryan Ferguson was used to the demands of the job, but today had been in a class of its own. Relieved to finally be away from work he pulled up outside the elegant town house that was home to him and his two small daughters.

Rhianna and Martha would be fast asleep at this late hour, but he was grateful that they would have been tucked up for the night by Mollie, his kindly housekeeper, who in spite of the time would have a meal waiting for him.

Ryan’s work centred mainly on children with neurological illnesses and injuries and his dedication to his calling was an accepted fact by all who knew him. His intention to bring up his children as a single father was more of a surprise, as there were many women who would be only too willing to fill the gap in his life.

Today’s non-stop problems had been serious and in some cases rare, with almost a certainty that the dreaded meningitis would be lurking somewhere amongst his young patients and the battle to overthrow it would begin.

With the workload as heavy as it was, it was becoming obvious that they needed another registrar on the neuro unit to assist him and Julian Tindall, his second-in-command.

A rare shortage of nursing staff due to a bug that had been going round hadn’t helped, and as he’d performed his daily miracles the hours had galloped past. Now he was ready to put the day’s stresses to the back of his mind and enjoy the warmth and peace of his home for a few hours. Home was in the delightful small spa town of Heatherdale, tucked away amongst the rugged peaks and smooth green dales of the countryside, with Manchester being the nearest big city.

The moment he was out of the car and had collected his briefcase from the back seat he moved swiftly towards where warmth and hot food would be waiting for him, casting a brief glance in the direction of the property next to it as he did so, and his step slowed.

A town house like his own, it had been empty for years and he was amazed to see a car parked outside and a flicker of light coming from inside, as if from a torch or a candle. He frowned. He doubted it was thieves, as there would be nothing in there to steal. Could be squatters, though, and the thought was not appealing.

When his housekeeper opened the door to him she couldn’t wait to tell him the latest neighbourhood news. When she’d returned from picking the children up from school there had been the car parked outside, and shortly afterwards a bed had been delivered from a nearby furniture store.

‘Wow!’ he exclaimed as he closed the door behind him. ‘Surely they’ve had it cleaned first? It must be filthy after being empty for so many years. The amount of lighting inside has to mean that they’ve not had the electricity switched on and are using candles or a torch. It seems an odd state of affairs. Once I’ve changed into something less formal, I’ll do the neighbourly thing and go and introduce myself, ask if there is anything I can assist them with.’

When he knocked on the door of the run-down house that was a blight in the crescent of much-admired Victorian town houses there was no sound for a moment. Then the door swung open slowly and his jaw dropped at the sight of a slender stranger with long dark hair that swung gently against her shoulders and a face blotched with weeping.

‘They haven’t been,’ she cried desperately as he was on the point of introducing himself. ‘The cleaners haven’t been and the place is full of spiders’ webs and the dust of years. I will have to find a hotel for the night.’

‘Are you alone here?’ he asked carefully. ‘I’m Ryan Ferguson, and my family and I are your new neighbours.’ He held out his hand in greeting. The tearful stranger shook it limply but didn’t volunteer any information about herself. she seemed extremely distracted, which was no wonder considering the situation.

He got the impression that she wanted him gone but he could hardly go back to his own comfortable home and leave her in such a state.

‘Can you recommend a hotel not too far away?’ she asked. ‘I just can’t spend the night in here. I’ve had a bed delivered but haven’t taken the wrappings off it so it should come to no harm for the present.’

Ryan was still standing in the doorway and would have liked to see just what a mess the inside of the house was in, but he could hardly go barging in without an invite.

‘You must be exhausted. I’ll take you to a hotel if you would like to lock up. My car is parked out front like yours, so I will lead the way and you can follow.’

‘Thank you,’ she said unsteadily. ‘I do apologise for breaking into your evening. I shall be onto the cleaners first thing in the morning.’

‘I’m only too pleased to be of assistance,’ he told her. ‘If you will just give me a moment, I’ll go and get my car keys.’

When Mollie opened the door to him again he explained, ‘This is our new neighbour, Mollie. I’m taking her to a hotel as the house isn’t quite ready to move into.’

‘Oh, you poor dear,’ Mollie said, observing the strange woman standing hesitantly at the kerb edge. ‘What a horrible thing to happen, and on a cold, dark night like this.’ She turned to Ryan. ‘I’m just about to dish up your meal before I go home for the day. There’s plenty to spare, so can we not offer the young lady some hospitality?’

‘Yes, of course, by all means,’ he said, forgetting his weariness for a moment.

Their new neighbour shrank back.

‘I couldn’t possibly intrude into your evening any more than I am doing,’ she said.

Ignoring her reluctance, Ryan insisted. ‘You are most welcome. How long is it since you last had something to eat?’

‘I can’t remember.’

‘If that’s the case, you need food now.’ He stepped back to let her past him to where Mollie was hovering near the kitchen door. ‘If you want to wash your hands you’ll find anything you need in the cloakroom at the end of the hall. Mollie will have the food on the table when you’re done.’

‘Thank you,’ she croaked meekly, and disappeared.

Mollie was ready to go by the time his unexpected guest had removed the day’s surface grime and once they were alone silence descended in what was a tastefully furnished dining room.

When they’d finished eating Ryan said, ‘There’s a fire in the sitting room. Make yourself comfortable while I make coffee.’

She nodded and said uncomfortably, ‘The food was lovely. Thank you so much.’

He was observing her gravely. ‘Are you going to tell me who you are? The house next door has been unoccupied for many years so it was a surprise to find signs of life there when I came home. Are you actually planning to live there?’

‘Er, yes,’ she told him hesitantly. ‘My name is Melissa Redmond. The house was left to me by my grandmother when she died some years ago. I’ve had no interest in living out here in the backwoods until a short time ago when my circumstances changed dramatically.

‘I’d arranged for a firm of cleaners to come in and make it liveable, and for the power to be connected, but when I got here late this afternoon nothing had been done and I was frantic.’

‘Yes, I can understand that,’ Ryan said slowly. Melissa didn’t look quite as bedraggled in the warm glow of the lamps in his sitting room as she had when she’d opened the door of the mausoleum next door. The colour had returned to her cheeks and she seemed a lot calmer. His curiosity about his new neighbour had definitely been piqued. He wanted to know more.

When he came back with the coffee cups she was asleep, overcome by the comforting warmth of the fire. So it looked as if he wasn’t going to find out any more about her for now.

An hour passed and Melissa hadn’t stirred out of the deep sleep of exhaustion that had claimed her. There was no way she could be allowed to go back to the chill of the house that had been empty for so long, neither did Ryan want to rouse her to go to a hotel at that hour. Instead, he went and found a soft fleece, laid it gently over her, and went up to bed with the intention of checking on her at regular intervals. That turned out to be a wise precaution as the first time he went downstairs, she was awake and about to disappear through the front door.

‘Melissa, wait!’ he cried. ‘You can’t stay in that place tonight. I have a spare room that is always kept ready for visitors. I insist you stay in it. I won’t be able to sleep knowing that you’re not somewhere safe, and I’ve had a very exhausting day that I need to recover from before the next one is upon me.’

‘My nightwear is in my case next door,’ she protested faintly.

‘I’ll find you some,’ he offered. Was he going insane to let a strange woman wear something that had belonged to Beth?

He pointed to a gracious curved staircase and said, ‘If you would like to go up, I’ll show you to the guest room. While you are settling in there I’ll find something for you to wear.’

Ryan dug out one of Beth’s plain cotton nightshirts to lend to Melissa. He avoided taking out any of the prettier nightgowns that Beth had favoured.

Melissa took it from him with a subdued smile and said with tears threatening, ‘I hope that one day I’ll be able to repay your kindness, Ryan.’

He smiled. ‘Don’t concern yourself about that. Tomorrow is another day and it just has to be better than this one has been for you.’

With that brief word of comfort he left her and went to a room across the landing. Closing the door behind him, he looked down at his sleeping daughters and wondered just what Rhianna and Martha would think when they saw there was a visitor for breakfast.

As she lay sleeplessly under the covers of the bed in the spare room, Melissa’s thoughts were in overdrive. The future that had looked so bleak seemed slightly less so because of the kindness of a stranger who had taken her in, fed her, and offered her a bed for the night.

So much for keeping a low profile in her new surroundings! The hurts she had suffered over recent months had made her long for privacy, for somewhere to hide. But her meeting with a man with the golden fairness of a Viking and eyes as blue as a summer sky had put an end to those sorts of plans.

It seemed Ryan had children who no doubt were fast asleep, and was in sole charge of them, so where was their mother? Wherever it might be, it was not her business. She had to fix her thoughts on tomorrow and the cleaners, the electricity people, and accepting the delivery of her few remaining belongings some time during the day. With those thoughts in mind she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

The sound of children’s voices on the landing mingling with her host’s deeper tones brought Melissa into instant wakefulness in the darkness of a winter morning. She dressed quickly in yesterday’s clothes and prepared to go down to where she could hear the sounds of breakfast-time coming from the kitchen.

Pausing in the doorway, she saw that Ryan was at the grill, keeping an eye on sizzling bacon, and two little girls were seated at the table with bowls of cereal in front of them, observing her with wide eyes of surprise as she said, ‘Thank you so much for last night. I feel a different person this morning after the meal and the rest. I’m off to find out what happened to the cleaners and the electricity services.’

He smiled across at her. ‘Not before you’ve eaten. You have no facilities for preparing food next door, so take a seat.’

Rhianna, at seven years old and the elder of his two young daughters, was not a shy child, and burst out, ‘Who is this lady, Daddy? She wasn’t here when we went to bed.’

‘No, she wasn’t,’ Martha, two years younger, chirped beside her. At that point Ryan took charge of the conversation.

‘Her name is Melissa and she’s going to live next door to us,’ he explained. ‘Melissa, these are my daughters, Rhianna and Martha.’

‘She can’t!’ Rhianna protested.

‘Why not?’ he asked.

‘It’s haunted!’

‘No way,’ he said laughingly as he pulled out a chair for Melissa to be seated, as if there had been no hesitation in joining them on her part. ‘There aren’t any ghosts in Heatherdale, I promise you that, Rhianna. Now, who would like a bacon roll?’

‘Me!’ the children both cried.

With the day ahead momentarily forgotten, Melissa smiled as the memory surfaced of how, when she’d been at junior school, she and her friends used to pass a creepy-looking empty house on the way there. They had been convinced that there was a human hand on the inside window ledge. It had only been when one of their fathers had gone to investigate that it had been discovered that the ‘hand’ had been a pink plastic glove. There had been much disappointment amongst the children.

She had done as Ryan requested and seated herself opposite him. As she smiled across at his children she saw that they both had the same golden fairness as their father, but their eyes were different—big and brown and fixed on her.

Making her second contribution to the occasion, Martha asked, ‘Are you some children’s mummy? We haven’t got one any more. Ours was hurt by a tree.’

Ryan had just put cereal and a bacon sandwich in front of Melissa and was about to join them at the table. He stilled, and she saw dismay in his expression.

‘Just get on with your breakfast, Martha,’ he said gravely, ‘and no more questions.’

‘It’s all right,’ Melissa told him. ‘I don’t mind. They are delightful.’ She turned to his small daughter.

‘No, Martha, I’m not a mummy, but I do love children. My job is all about making them well when they are sick.’

Their interest was waning to find that she didn’t fit their requirements, but not their father’s. The stranger at their table was full of surprises. What kind of a job was it that she’d referred to?

Bringing his mind back to their morning routine on school days, when the children had finished eating he told them to go and put their school uniforms on and have their satchels ready for when Mollie came to take them to school.

‘Will Melissa be here when we come home?’ Rhianna asked.

She answered for Ryan. ‘I’m afraid not, Rhianna. My house needs cleaning and sorting. But once that’s done everything will be fine and you can come to see me whenever you like.’

Rhianna seemed happy with that answer and she and Martha hopped off to get ready for school.

‘Your daughters are adorable, Ryan,’ she said with a warm smile.

‘They’re the light of my life. A life that would not be easy if Mollie wasn’t around,’ Ryan replied. ‘She’s a good friend as well as my housekeeper. I have a very demanding job but it’s totally rewarding and somehow I manage to give it my best, while organising things at this end to make sure that Rhianna and Martha are happy, though the result is not always how I want it to be. Still, I mustn’t delay you. We both have busy days ahead of us.’

She couldn’t have agreed more. As she looked around her at his delightful home, the gloom of yesterday came back. Dreading what the day would hold for her, she wished Ryan a stilted goodbye and went to ring the cleaning firm and the electricity company.

As Melissa waited for the cleaners to arrive, her mind drifted back over her recent past. She recalled how only yesterday, stony-faced behind the wheel of her car, she had driven away from the house that had always been her home in a select area of a Cheshire green belt without looking back.

The doors had been locked, the windows shut fast, and as a last knife thrust she’d put flowers in the hallway, a huge bunch of them that would be the first thing that the new owners saw when they arrived to take over their recently acquired property.

The purchase had been completed early that morning, the money was already in her bank account, but the thought of it brought no joy. It would be a matter of here today and gone tomorrow.

‘I’m sorry, sweetheart,’ her father had said as the last few moments of his life had ebbed away. ‘So sorry to be going like this before I’d sorted things.’

‘You have nothing to be sorry for,’ she’d told him gently, thinking that he must be delirious. ‘You have always been there for me, making me laugh, indulging me, keeping me safe, and David will do the same. I know he will.’

He’d tried to speak again but the mists had been closing in and the nurse at the other side of the bed had said a few seconds later, ‘He’s gone, Melissa. His injuries were too severe for him to overcome. There will be no more pain for your father.’

Max Redmond had been a charmer, and a wealthy one at that. Melissa had lost her mother to heart failure when she had been eleven and Max had given her everything she could possibly have wanted to make up for the loss. He’d taken her on fantastic holidays, bought her the kind of car that most young people could only dream of when she had been old enough to drive, and had given her a generous allowance that had been more than some families had had to feed their children and pay the mortgage.

The two of them had lived in a smart detached house amongst the rich and famous, not far from the city, and when she’d gone to fulfil a dream and enrolled as a medical student, it had been at a university in nearby Manchester so that her father wouldn’t be lonely, although it hadn’t seemed likely.

Max had never remarried, but he’d made lots of women friends in the circles in which he’d moved, where wining and dining was the order of the day. However, he had always cancelled any arrangements he’d made if his daughter had been free to socialise with him.

That had been until she’d got engaged to David Lowson, the son of one of her father’s women friends. After that, he’d watched benignly as most of Melissa’s time away from her career had been taken up with the delights of being in love.

She’d qualified as a doctor in paediatrics in the summer, and on receiving her degree had been employed at a nearby hospital. Life had been good in every way, with all of it centred around the big city that she knew so well and would never have wanted to leave, until her father had walked in front of a speeding car on a road not far from where they lived after a lively lunch in a nearby hotel, and had died from his injuries.

Since then Melissa had experienced all of life’s worst emotions: grief at the sudden tragic loss of the man who had loved her so much; sick horror to discover that his last words to her had been referring to a huge mountain of gambling debts that he had accumulated.

There had also been the aching hurt of betrayal from an engagement that had fizzled out when her fiancé had discovered that she was no longer the wealthy heiress that his mother had urged him to propose to, and was going to be poorer than a church mouse by the time she’d sorted out Max’s frightening legacy.

Everything Melissa could lay her hands on had been sold, and most of her salary each month had gone into the bottomless pit, with the sale of the house as the final heartbreaking humiliation.

During the time that the sale had been going through, those who knew her had seen little of her. Grief stricken and panicked about the future, Melissa had chosen to hide away from her friends.

Her father had given no inkling that he’d had money problems. Always a man about town, as generous host to all his friends, he hadn’t been able to admit to his failings, and she now understood fully his weak apology as he’d lain dying.

Incredibly, there’d been no life insurance to fall back on, or other safeguards that were usually in place regarding the death of a person, but thankfully the money from the sale of the house would clear the last of the debts.

She supposed it would have been sensible to rent herself a small apartment in Manchester and bring the shattered remnants of her life together again somehow. But with her father now resting with her mother in a nearby cemetery, and an ex-fiancé who had cast her aside living not far away, she had been intent on moving to some place where she wasn’t known.

Having left the hospital where she’d been employed, she’d headed for the small market town of Heatherdale, where her paternal grandmother had lived and where her house, which had been empty for a long time, was there for her if she wanted it.

The old lady had willed it to her and, though grateful for the thought, it was the last place she would ever have contemplated moving to in the past, but the present was proving to be a different matter. Alone and lost, she’d needed somewhere to hide from the pitying looks she’d received from her father’s friends and acquaintances when the news had got around that she was penniless. She’d wanted somewhere to avoid the mocking smiles of those who had witnessed the plight of the ‘golden girl’ and thought it would do her good to see how the other half lived. But the thing that had hurt most had been the speed with which her ex had found another woman to replace her.

She had found the keys to her grandmother’s house in a chest of drawers in her father’s bedroom, and as she’d gazed down at the heavy ornate bunch of them it had been as if a means of escape was being offered to her.

There had been receipts with them for payments that her father had made to the local authorities on her behalf over the years to comply with the law regarding the ownership of unoccupied housing, and she’d decided that the paperwork and the keys were heaven sent.

She’d felt as if she never wanted to see the city that she’d loved so much, with its familiar shops, smart restaurants and green parks, ever again. She’d decided to make a fresh start in a place that she’d never cared for much on the rare occasions she’d been there.

With no job, no money, and no family, she had to hope that she could find a future for herself in Heatherdale. First she had to get the house straight. Next on her agenda was finding a job. The obvious choice would be its famous hospital, but if there were no vacancies there for a newly qualified paediatrician then she’d simply have to find something to tide her over.

The internet had come up with the name and address of a firm of domestic cleaners in the Heatherdale area and she’d hired them to give the house a thorough cleaning from top to bottom before she arrived.

Apart from ordering a bed to be delivered later in the day, when she would be there to accept it, the rest of her belongings would arrive the following afternoon, when she was satisfied that the house was ready to take delivery of them.

It wasn’t the best time of year to be moving into a strange house in a strange place, she’d thought achingly as the miles had flashed past. The last leaves of autumn had been scattered at the roadside or hanging limply on trees, and a cold wind had been nipping at her while she’d been taking a last walk around the gardens of what had been her home.

During her early childhood she and her parents had visited her grandmother occasionally, but there hadn’t been any real closeness between them because the old lady had disapproved of her son’s attitude to life in general. She hadn’t liked the way he’d been such a spendthrift, although at that time he hadn’t reached retirement and had been making big money in the stock markets.

‘When I die I’m leaving the house to the child,’ she’d told him. ‘There might come a day when she’ll need a roof over her head.’ As the lights of Heatherdale had appeared on the horizon, Melissa had reflected that the grandmother she’d rarely seen had turned out to be her only friend.

Martha’s innocent question about the stranger who had joined them for breakfast was uppermost in Ryan’s mind as he drove the short distance to the hospital. It had brought painful memories with it that he only allowed himself to think about when he was alone, but in that moment in the kitchen they had been starkly clear and he’d been extra-loving with the children while they’d waited for Mollie to arrive.

His youngest daughter had described them as being without a mother because theirs had been hurt by a tree. It wouldn’t have been the easiest description of her death for Melissa Redmond to understand, but did that matter? She was just a stranger who had joined them for breakfast.

He and Beth had attended the same school in Heatherdale, had both chosen medicine as a career, he in paediatrics and she in midwifery. It had always been there, the love that had blossomed in their late teens and taken them to the altar of a church in the small market town where they lived.

Heatherdale boasted a famous spa that people came from far and wide to take advantage of, and beautiful Victorian architecture built from local stone that he never wearied of. There were spacious parks and elegant shops and restaurants. Everything that he loved was here except for the wife he had adored.

When she’d died he had wanted to die too as life had lost its meaning, but there had been two small children, unhappy and confused because their mother hadn’t been there any more, so he’d pulled himself together for their sakes. In the last three years his life had been entirely taken up with his children and the health problems of those belonging to others.

If it meant that he never had time to do his own thing, at least there was the comfort of knowing that his young daughters were safe and happy, and that he was serving a vital purpose in the Heatherdale Children’s Hospital where he was a senior paediatric consultant.

He knew that folks found him irritating at times because he never socialised, was always too busy when asked out to dine, even though he had Mollie, who would always take on the role of childminder if needed and who checked out every available woman she met as a possible new wife for him, without actually saying so openly.

As Melissa looked around her house in the cold light of day she was hoping that today would not be quite as horrendous as yesterday. However, every day since she’d lost her father and discovered what he had been involved in had been dreadful.

For the past few weeks she’d felt lost and alone, like some sort of outcast. Ryan’s kindness had been a brief relief from what had been a nightmare for her, but at the same time getting involved with anyone at the moment was the last thing she wanted to do. Especially with the man who lived next door.

All she craved for was solitude, somewhere to hide while her hurts healed, but the die was cast. She wasn’t going to get the chance to be just a stranger who nodded briefly during her comings and goings job-seeking and then went in and closed the door.

But, as if to balance the scales, there were those two lovely children and it would be a pleasure to babysit them if ever Ryan felt he could trust her.

She’d also contacted the electricity people. She was informed that they were on their way with a new meter and were going to check all the primitive services and appliances in the house while they were there.

They arrived within minutes and as light began to appear in her darkness, in more ways than one, Melissa rolled up her sleeves and looked around her for what had to be her first task of the day. The guy who had just fixed the electricity meter decided it for her by pointing to an ancient but solid-looking gas fire and asking if she’d contacted the gas services yet as both the fire and an ancient cooker were gas powered.

She needed no second telling as having the fire working meant warmth and the cooker hot food, when she’d cleaned the grime off it and had the chance to shop.

The most pressing mission for Ryan, on his arrival at the hospital, was to start the search in earnest for the new registrar for their department.

The procedure with staff vacancies at the hospital was to advertise them internally first, but so far there had been no joy for the two consultants and the vacancy would soon be advertised locally

Today he had two clinics arranged for consultations, plus a slot in Theatre in the late afternoon. With all of that ahead of him he hadn’t had time to check on how his new neighbour was coping at her house.

There’d been an electricity van outside and a plumber’s vehicle pulling up alongside it as he’d driven past. He decided he owed her one more visit to check she was managing okay then he would step back and let her get on with her life while he got on with his.

The surgery he was committed to in the afternoon was minor compared to some of the operations he performed on unfortunate little ones and hopefully he would be home in time to have a quick word with Melissa before his special time with his children began.

As Ryan was preparing to put in an appearance at his first clinic of the day his assistant, Julian, appeared and commented breezily, ‘Still no sign of a saviour in terms of over-booking, I see. Personnel need to pull their finger out and get us another doctor. I’ve got a list as long as my arm for today and I’m not used to it.’

Julian Tindall, with his dark attractiveness, was every woman’s dream man, until they got to know him better!

Inclined to be lazy, but on the ball in an emergency, Julian was a paediatric consultant like himself and could go places if he stopped fooling around with every attractive woman he met and got his act together.

Ryan held the paediatric unit together with the kind of steadfastness that he applied to every aspect of his daily life, and if the nights spent without Beth by his side were long and lonely, only he knew that.

CHAPTER TWO

MELISSA’S SECOND DAY in Heatherdale was progressing and she was beginning to feel calmer. The neglected house was starting to come out of its murky cocoon, though not enough for her to rejoice totally. There was going to be mammoth amount of decorating and refurbishing to be done.

But the electricity was on, the plumber she’d asked to come had switched on the water and checked for leaks, and, joy of joys, the cleaners were hard at work, getting rid of the grime and mustiness of years.

Her clothes and the few belongings she had salvaged from the sale of the Cheshire house had arrived in the late afternoon. They included a couple of carpets, an expensive wardrobe and dressing table, a dining table and two easy chairs, but there was no kitchen equipment, which meant that for the time being she was going to have to manage with a solid-looking but unattractive gas cooker that was so old it would qualify as an antique.

Yet it had lit at the first attempt and as soon as the cleaners had finished for the day with a promise to come back in the morning, she began to clean it, and was on her knees in front of it when a knock came on the door. She raised herself slowly upright.

With hair held back with a shoelace and dressed in an old pair of jeans and a much-washed jumper that the Cheshire set would never associate her with, she went slowly to answer the knock. He was there again, the Viking from next door, observing her with a reluctant sort of neighbourliness.

‘I’ve called to see how you’ve fared today,’ he said. ‘I see that you’ve got lighting, but have you got heat and water?’

‘Yes,’ she replied, stepping back reluctantly for him to enter.

‘I have light, and heat in the form of an old gas fire. A plumber has been to turn on the water. The cleaners have removed most of the dust and grime and are coming back in the morning to finish the job.’

‘And I see that your belongings have arrived,’ he said easily, as if she now had a house full of furniture instead of a few oddments. Unable to resist, he went on to ask, ‘Do you have family who will be coming to join you?’

‘No. Nothing like that,’ she said in a low voice, without meeting his glance. She wished that he would go and leave her in peace. She’d seen the inside of his house and it was delightful, with décor and furniture that was just right for the age and design of the property, all obviously chosen with great care.

No doubt he was thinking that hers was going to lower the tone of the neighbourhood and for the first time since she’d arrived in Heatherdale the grim pride and determination that had helped her to stagger through recent months surfaced.

As if he sensed that she wanted him gone, Ryan moved towards the door but paused with his hand on the handle and said, ‘I’m sure that you will like it here once you have made the house look how you want it to be.’ He would have to be blind not to realise that she wasn’t happy about coming to live in Heatherdale.

He almost asked if she would like to eat with them again but sensed the same reluctance as the night before. He bade her goodbye and, determined to put Melissa Redmond to the back of his mind, he went to join his daughters and the faithful Mollie, without whom he would be harassed full time.

‘I saw you call at the house next door,’ she said when he appeared. ‘Is she all right? It has been all systems go in there today.’

‘Yes, it would seem so,’ he told her. ‘I felt she was relieved that I didn’t linger. I get a distinct feeling that Melissa Redmond wants to be left alone.’

‘Give her time,’ she said. ‘The lass looked totally traumatised when we saw her last night. Something isn’t right in her life. It stands out a mile, or she wouldn’t have come here to live in a house that hasn’t been touched for years. Don’t forget the couple of times that you’ve seen her she won’t have been at her best.’

‘Yes, I suppose you’re right,’ he said absently, as Rhianna and Martha came running down the stairs at that moment, and as he hugged them to him the stranger next door was forgotten in the pleasure of the moment.

When Ryan had gone, Melissa sank down onto the bottom step of the stairs. The cooker and its requirements temporarily forgotten, she gazed into space.

She wondered what Ryan did for a living. When she’d joined them for breakfast it had been plain to see that he was a loving father in the absence of a mother who wasn’t around any more, yet he would have to earn a living somehow or other.

There was an air of authority about him that was noticeable and, much as she was not eager to be involved in the lives of those around her, she couldn’t help wondering about him.

Still, there were more important priorities than getting to know the neighbours in this town, which would fit in a corner of Manchester. Such as turning her grandmother’s house into a home and finding a job. Dared she intrude on the man next door once again by asking him for information about the famous hospital that she would love to be part of, and the local job centre in that order, so that tomorrow she would have a head start on the employment scene? No sooner had the thought occurred to her than she was acting on it.

Changing her working clothes for a stylish cashmere top, which belonged to happier days, and skinny jeans, Melissa was pressing his doorbell seconds later. When the door opened and he was framed there, looking not the least surprised, she said awkwardly, ‘I wondered if you might be able to tell me anything about Heatherdale Hospital? Also, can you let me know where the job centre is? I’m going to go looking for employment tomorrow.’

‘In that case, hadn’t you better come in?’

She nodded awkwardly and stepped past him into the hall with its beautiful staircase, aware from the surprise in his glance that it was the first time he had seen her looking even the least bit attractive. As she waited for him to say something she felt herself reddening.

‘Are you aware that Heatherdale Hospital is for children only?’ he asked, breaking into the moment. ‘If you feel that you need some sort of hospital treatment, you will have to go to Manchester.’

She was smiling. ‘I need the information about the hospital because I would just die for the chance to work there.’

‘Doing what?’ he asked, with raised brows.

‘I’ve got a degree in paediatrics. When I qualified in the summer I was offered a position at a big Manchester hospital and loved it, but that came to an end when my life fell apart. I had to resign because I intended to leave the area due to my family circumstances.’

So that was what she’d meant when she’d said she had a job making sick children well again. At the time Ryan had wondered if she was employed by some sort of charity, but it seemed she was much more hands on than that, and incredibly he and Julian needed someone like her. Melissa Redmond might be heaven sent!

Obviously he’d never seen her in action. The offer he was going to make her at this moment would be a temporary one until he had her measure, and aware that they were still standing in the hall as she had meant it to be just a brief call on her part, he said, ‘Come through to the sitting room, while I make my contribution to this night of surprises.’

When they were seated with her eyes fixed on him questioningly he said, ‘How would you like to work with me at Heatherdale Children’s Hospital?’

‘What?’ she gasped. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘I’m the paediatric consultant for the neurology wards there and my assistant and I need another registrar to help with the workload. It would be on probationary terms at first but with the opportunity of permanency for the right person. What do you say? Do you want to give it a try?’

‘Of course I do!’ she breathed, her eyes shining. ‘I had no idea that was what you did for a living.’

‘I don’t mean to pry, Melissa, but can you tell me something about what brought you to Heatherdale? I need to know if it would have any effect on your work and position at the hospital.’

She nodded mutely, took a deep breath. ‘My father died six months ago as a result of a road accident when he’d had quite a lot of alcohol. From having a life of luxury and pampering I became penniless because, unbeknown to me, he’d accumulated huge gambling debts over the last couple of years.

‘I was engaged to be married at the time and fully expected that my future husband would be there to support me as I dealt with bailiffs and demands for payment from those that my father owed money to, but I was mistaken.

‘My fiancé couldn’t break off the engagement fast enough, and once I’d paid all my father’s debts, which meant selling the fabulous house we’d lived in, all I could think of was leaving the area and finding a bolt hole, somewhere to lick my wounds. The only answer to that was my grandmother’s house, which is a far cry from the property I’d lived in before but is mine and isn’t tainted. So there you have it, a sorry story worthy of a reality TV show.’

‘Thanks for telling me,’ Ryan said. ‘We all have our nightmares to face at one time or another and you have certainly faced up to yours. Can you come to the hospital some time tomorrow and I’ll show you round and introduce you to people, including Personnel, who will need you to fill out endless forms.’

‘Yes, of course,’ she breathed. ‘Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get back into paediatrics. I love working with children and hope to have some of my own one day.’

He nodded as the memory of Rhianna and Martha’s approval of their breakfast guest resurfaced. The stranger who had come to Heatherdale in the dark of a winter night would make some child a loving mother one day in every sense of the word, he imagined, just as Beth had been to their children.

‘What time do you want me to come to the hospital?’ she asked.

‘Some time in the afternoon when my clinics are over and I’m not in Theatre, around three—unless you have something else planned at that time?’

‘No, I haven’t,’ she told him firmly.

She’d intended spending the afternoon looking for a washing machine that would fit in with her budget but that could wait, everything could wait. He was offering her the chance to be back where she wanted to be, and if Ryan Ferguson was willing to take a chance on her she was not going to disappoint him.

Later that night, for the first time in months sleep came like a healing balm.

A wintry sun was shining overhead as Melissa drove to the famous children’s hospital the next afternoon, and although her mind was full of what lay ahead she couldn’t help but notice the beautiful architecture of some of the buildings she was passing.

Maybe the market town of Heatherdale wasn’t going to be as dreary as she had expected it to be. Life was beginning to feel worth living again.

Walking away from her parked car, she looked around her. The hospital was another apparently ageless building, built from the beautiful local stone that seemed to be everywhere she looked. She hoped that its interior would not lack the trappings of the latest in modern medicine for the sake of its young patients.

There was no cause to be concerned about that. The inside was bright, cheerful and immaculate, with sunshine colours on the walls and lots of pictures of things that children would like.

As she followed the directions to the neuro wards Melissa’s heart was beating faster. She was on home ground, within reach of being back on the job she loved once again.

She found Ryan at the bedside of a small girl, who had been brought in by an ambulance with sirens wailing, with what might be meningitis. It was a road he’d been down more times than he could count and it was never any less horrendous to have to tell a family that one of their little ones had succumbed to the dreadful illness.

There was a fellow doctor standing beside him, but his presence barely registered. Melissa’s glance was fixed on the man who in a short space of time had brought some zest into her life. Not only had Ryan taken her in out of the cold that first night but he was going to be the means of finding her employment in the very place where she wanted to be.

He glanced up then, saw her standing in the doorway, and sent his assistant over to suggest that she join them as an observer of the emergency. With her adrenaline quickening, she was beside him in a flash.

‘It seemed that the child had become very drowsy during the lunch hour. It had been then that her parents had noticed the tell-tale rash and it had become panic stations. While the ambulance had been speeding to the hospital the little girl had lapsed into unconsciousness.’

Ryan turned to the anxious couple at the other side of the bed and began to explain what would happen to their daughter next—blood tests and a lumbar puncture to test for bacterial meningitis.

When the parents and their sick little one had been taken with all speed for the tests, Ryan’s colleague asked. ‘So, are you going to introduce me, Ryan?’

‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘Julian, meet my new neighbour, Melissa Redmond, recently employed in paediatrics in the Manchester area and now about to join us here on a probationary basis with a view to a permanent position. Melissa, this is Julian Tindall.’

Ryan noticed that she was looking a different person altogether today, dressed in smart clothes and with her hair and make-up perfect. She was quite beautiful in a restrained sort of way.

As Melissa shook hands with Julian she was aware of him sizing her up and immediately had him pegged as an attractive, dark-eyed flirt.

‘So when do you want to start?’ Ryan asked, ‘Tomorrow perhaps?’

‘Er, yes, if that’s all right with you.’

‘Certainly, if you’re available,’ he replied.

She had never felt more ‘available’ in her life. He knew she was out on a limb here in Heatherdale, that apart from getting her house in order there was no one who cared a jot about her. Why wait to begin this job of a lifetime?

Melissa wished that there was someone to share her good news with, but the days were gone when she’d had a loving father, an attentive fiancé, and lots of friends to communicate with.

Her glance rested briefly on the house next door where she’d been welcomed into the home of a stranger and had been reluctant to accept his hospitality on a dark and lonely night. Ryan Ferguson must have thought her some sort of ungracious oddball.

The lights were on, which was not surprising as his children would be home from school by now and being looked after by his housekeeper. Melissa wondered again what had happened to their mother.

Whatever it was, the two of them had seemed happy enough until they’d discovered she was coming to live next door. Then had come the protest about it being haunted and she’d tried not to smile at their childish imaginings.

As afternoon turned into evening she saw there was no car outside so obviously Ryan wasn’t home yet, and as she began to prepare a snack sort of meal, which was becoming the norm since life had become so drab and disillusioning, she hugged herself at the thought of tomorrow.

Ryan had phoned home to tell Mollie he would be late due to a seriously ill child with bacterial meningitis that he wanted to try to get stabilised before he left her in the care of the night staff.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been late home because of his job and it wouldn’t be the last, and on such occasions he was very grateful for Mollie’s presence in their lives. She lived alone just down the road from them, having lost her husband from heart failure some years previously and was happy to be of use to him and his children to such an extent.

The girls were in bed by the time he arrived and after a brief chat and a cuddle he left them sleepy and contented to go downstairs to have the meal that Mollie had kept warm for him.

She wished that his life was less stressful, but knew it had been his choice to parent single-handedly after his wife’s death. She admired him for the way he cared for his children. Yet she couldn’t help wishing that someone would come along who would make Ryan realise what he was missing, that Beth would not have wanted him to be alone for the rest of his life, always involved with work or family when it came to the social life of the town and its hospital.

‘I’ve found a new registrar to lighten our load at the hospital,’ he told her as she placed the food in front of him.

‘That’s good!’ she exclaimed. ‘Another man, is it?’

‘No, it’s a woman. Actually, someone you know.’

‘That I know?’

‘Yes, it’s Melissa from next door. She has a degree in paediatrics and she joins us tomorrow. What do you think of that?’

‘I’m amazed, but what a good thing for both of you that she has found employment so quickly and that your stresses will be lighter. It’s as if her coming to live in Heatherdale was meant to be.’

Ryan smiled. ‘Don’t get too carried away, Mollie. I only found out about her qualifications last night and offered her the job on condition that she fits the bill, so it will be probationary to begin with.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Mollie agreed, thankful that something was going right for him for once.

The blood tests and lumbar puncture had shown that little Georgia had indeed got bacterial meningitis and he’d explained to her distraught parents that she was going to be given large doses of antibiotics that he’d arranged for her to have intravenously in the hope of preventing the dreaded illness increasing its hold on her.

When he’d eventually left the hospital it had been with the determination to ring the ward later for a report on her progress as the next few hours would be crucial.

The answer was what he’d hoped for when he did. His small patient was regaining consciousness and her horrendously high temperature was coming down, so with Mollie having returned home and Rhianna and Martha asleep, Ryan decided to spend the rest of the evening with a medical journal that had been languishing on the back seat of his car for a few days.

When he went out to get it he saw that the house next door was in darkness and he observed it thoughtfully. What was the bet that Melissa was having an early night so that she would be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow?

He supposed it could be said that it hadn’t been a good idea to offer her a job working with him most of the time, but discovering that she was in paediatrics had been too good a chance to miss in his busy working life. He went back into the house in a thoughtful mood and with the feeling that maybe he needed to cool it where she was concerned.

It was an eight o’clock start for day staff on the wards and the next morning Melissa watched as Ryan kissed his children goodbye with Mollie in attendance, and drove off.

As the taillights of his car disappeared she followed him at a distance, having no wish to be on the last minute on her first day at the hospital.

Today could or could not be the beginning of a new life. A life on a lower level than before maybe, when the envious had called her ‘golden girl’, but at least she would have some dignity, wouldn’t be an object of pity or sly smirks.

In the short time that she’d been in the house she had been aware that something strange was happening. The children next door had said it was haunted and she wasn’t going to go along with that, but one thing she did feel was that the grandmother she had never really known was somewhere near, content that the one person she had always wanted to live in her house had arrived.

Miserable and lonely she may be, but she was there in the house that had been bequeathed to her all those years ago because the old lady had foreseen what the future might hold for her pleasure-loving son’s child. Today Melissa was about to take the first step towards becoming a working member of the community.

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