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Authors: Abigail Gordon

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BOOK: A Wedding in the Village
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The Manchester train came at that moment and once they were seated Megan waited for a sign to tell her just how much she was out of favour. It didn’t come as such. The first thing he said to her directly was, ‘It would seem that you think Andy Warhurst is worth dressing up for.’

‘Were you expecting me to go to the ballet in jeans?’ she said. ‘I know that lots of people do, but I’m not lots of people.’

‘No, you are not, are you? You are someone who felt she had the authority to question my behaviour.’

He watched the colour rise in her face and knew he couldn’t be angry with her for long. If Megan knew the full story of his ghastly marriage she would understand, but he wasn’t touting for sympathy. And if he was, he didn’t think he could bear to spell out the details.

‘I am so sorry about that,’ she said contritely. ‘I was totally out of order. I don’t know what got into me.’

She did, but wasn’t going to tell him that she was jealous of the woman who’d found him first.

He smiled. ‘Apology accepted. You don’t beat about the bush when you’ve something to say, do you? I can be a bit like that myself, too.’

He was still smiling and she began to relax now that they were on speaking terms again. Maybe it was the moment to put him straight about herself and Andy, she thought, and clear the air all round.

‘I’m not dressed up for Andy Warhurst,’ she told him. ‘We are merely keeping each other company during the performance. He’s Jenny’s husband. She said that ballet isn’t really his kind of thing and asked me to join up with him until it was over.’

His expression had brightened. ‘I see. Well, in that case give him my best regards and tell him I remember him well, but don’t go into details.’

The train was pulling into Manchester’s Piccadilly Station. It was time to separate and Luke wondered if she was as loth to part as he was, but the boys were tugging at him and he gave a wry smile.

‘Duty calls, Megan. Have a lovely day. I’ll see you on Monday.’ And with that he was gone, following the boys out of the busy station.

* * *

‘So what are you up to these days, Megan?’Andy asked in the interval at the ballet.

‘I’m a country GP,’ she told him, ‘in the practice that used to belong to my parents before they retired.’

‘And is that what you want for yourself?’

‘Yes. I love it. What about you?’

‘Registrar at one of the hospitals here in Manchester. The Ear, Nose and Throat.’

Megan’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Is that the one where Alexis Duncan is a big noise?’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘Does the name Luke Anderson ring a bell?’

He frowned. ‘Of course. Our tutor and ex-husband of the said Alexis.’

‘He’s my new partner in the practice.’

‘What? Luke Anderson hibernating in the countryside.’

Megan smiled. ‘He sends you his regards.’

‘I’ll bet,’ Andy scoffed. ‘There was nobody more surprised than him when I got my degree. Why has he moved onto your patch?’

‘His brother-in-law died suddenly from a heart attack. Luke has moved to the village to give some support to his sister and two sons.’

‘He’s a decent guy,’ Andy admitted. ‘His divorce from her majesty rocked the corridors of health care at the ENT. No one knew what she’d been up to, but he stood no messing. Alexis is so used to ruling the roost she was flabbergasted at the way she got her marching orders.

‘Anderson was lecturing at that time and I thought he still was, but obviously not. How do you get on with him? I remember some of the girls at uni fancied him.’

‘Yes. I was one of them,’ she said laughingly. ‘But I’m not sure that divorced men are in my line. We’ve only been working together for a week, so it’s early days to be making a judgement.’

When the performance was over Jenny suggested that the three of them go for supper and Megan agreed, but warned her that the last train went at eleven-thirty and she didn’t want to miss it.

‘My car is parked at the other end,’ she told her, ‘and then I’ve got to drive up the hill, so I definitely don’t want to miss that train.’

She caught it with just minutes to spare and then sat back and let her mind go over the day’s events. The ballet had been superb. It had been great to see Jenny and Andy but, ridiculous as it might seem, the highlight of the day had been the time she’d spent with Luke on the journey into Manchester.

The fact that Andy worked at the same hospital as Alexis Duncan had been a surprise, and no doubt he would have told her more about Luke’s divorce if she’d egged him on. But she hadn’t wanted that. If she ever found out the truth of it, she would want the words to come from the mouth of the man who’d come back into her life.

* * *

Just as Megan could see Woodcote House down below from the windows of her cottage, so, looking upwards, Luke could see her small residence high on the hill, and when it got midnight and the lights were still not on, he picked up the phone, thinking that maybe Megan had gone straight in and to bed.

He knew she wouldn’t thank him if that was the case and his call brought her out of sleep, but was going to chance it. There was no answer and he knew she wasn’t back.

At half past twelve he went to pick up the phone again, but at that moment the lights in the cottage came on and he breathed a sigh of relief. You are crazy, he told himself as he went up the stairs. As if you haven’t taken on enough responsibility in this place, now you’re fussing over someone who is perfectly capable of looking after herself. How do you think she coped before you appeared on the scene?

He didn’t know. What he
did
know was that she was young, hard-working and beautiful, with her striking colouring and grace of movement, yet there didn’t seem to be any potential boyfriends hovering. It would be so easy to fall in love again, but he’d rushed down that path once and it had been full of thorns.

After checking that the boys were where they should be at that hour, he went to bed himself, aware that it was Sunday already. Soon it would be Monday and with Monday came Megan with the no-nonsense approach when it came to the practice, its patients
and himself
. With that thought he turned on his side and slept.

* * *

‘How was your trip to the city?’ Megan asked on Monday morning.

Luke smiled. ‘Fine. We had a good day. I really enjoyed myself. Those are two great kids. And what about you? Did you enjoy the ballet?’

‘Yes, I did. We went for a meal afterwards and I caught the last train with only minutes to spare.’

‘I gathered that.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I saw your lights go on at somewhere around midnight.’

‘Oh, I see. Checking up on me, were you?’

‘No, not really,’ he said smoothly. ‘I was admiring the night sky from my bedroom window and happened to see your place suddenly come to life.’

It wasn’t true, of course. He had been checking on her, but only in the best possible way, and the thought came again that she’d managed to get along very well without anyone looking out for her welfare so far. If Megan knew what was in his mind, she would think he was crazy or some sort of opportunist.

‘How did you get on with Warhurst?’ he asked with a swift change of topic.

‘All right. He was amazed to hear you were working as a GP here in the village. He’s a registrar at the Ear, Nose and Throat,’ she told him, and waited to see if he had any comment to make.

‘Hmm, really. Good for him,’ he murmured, settling himself behind his desk for the day ahead, and that was all. The last thing he wanted was for Alexis to crop up again.
She
was in the past, and as Megan left him without further comment, he thought that was where his ex-wife was going to stay.

A knock on the door as he was about to call in his first patient turned out to be Connie, the cleaner, asking if she could have a quick word.

‘Yes, of course,’ he said with a smile for the second of his two domestic lifelines. ‘What can I do for you?’

Connie came to Woodcote House each day after she’d finished at the surgery in the early morning and they hadn’t seen much of each other so far, but he had felt her presence when he’d gone home to find the place clean and tidy.

‘I just wanted to ask if you are satisfied with what I’m doing, Dr Anderson,’ she said nervously.

‘Yes, of course I am,’ he told her. ‘I hope we don’t leave you too much of a mess to clear up. Teenage boys are not the tidiest of creatures.’

She smiled. ‘I know. I’ve had some myself.’ Her nervousness came back. ‘There is something else I wanted to ask you about. Could I have an appointment to see you?’

‘Certainly. I’ll see you now before you set off for my place, if you like, and before the surgery gets under way.’

Connie, who was in her late fifties, and trim with it, had the feet of someone who was on them too much. They were misshapen, with a bunion on each foot pushing the big toes sideways.

‘Dr Marshall, Megan’s father, was always on at me to have the bunions removed, but I know what it would mean,’ she said. ‘Time off my feet, and when I did walk, plenty of pain.’

Luke nodded sympathetically. ‘And you don’t want to have to put up with that.’

‘Not if I can help it. I’ve got a sick husband.’

‘Do you have children who could help out?’

She shook her head. ‘They’re all married and living away. What I came for really was to ask what
you
thought I should do.’

‘I think you should have the bunions removed,’ he told her. ‘You’re still a comparatively young woman. Your feet will only get worse. Why not let me make an appointment for you to see someone about them? At least then you’ll know what would be involved and can take it from there.’

‘What about my cleaning for you? I would be letting you down if I decided to be operated on.’

Luke frowned. ‘Nothing of the kind. It could be a while before they operated, and if you don’t get it sorted it’s yourself that you’ll be letting down. So tell me, do I write to the hospital or not, Connie?’

‘Yes, all right, then, if you will, Doctor,’ she said reluctantly.

‘You’re not committing yourself to anything by seeing an orthopaedic consultant,’ he reminded her as she got ready to leave, ‘but if you don’t get some professional advice you’ll never know what is involved.’

After surgery, Megan popped in to see him. ‘I saw Connie come in this morning. What did she want?’

‘She wanted to see me about her feet. I was surprised that she didn’t ask you for advice.’

Megan sighed. ‘She’s already done that and knows what I think. We’ve discussed it often enough. I’ve told her to get them put right before they get any more deformed.’

‘I see. So it wasn’t my charm that made her come to me. She was possibly hoping that I would say something different.’

‘And did you?’

‘No. Of course not. Anyone can see that she needs surgery. What about her sick husband, though?’

‘Yes. That would be a problem. Dennis has Parkinson’s disease and needs some degree of help. He would have to go into care for a while if she went into hospital. But we are presuming too much, I fear. Connie won’t even go to see someone to find out what needs doing.’

‘That is in the past,’ he said whimsically. ‘I’ve persuaded her to let me make an appointment with one of the orthopaedic guys.’

‘Really? Well done! So it must have been your charm after all. Maybe we should start a system where you see all the ditherers and difficult ones, and I jog along with the uncomplicated cases.’

‘On your bike!’ he told her, and saw amusement in the glance meeting his.

‘Well, you are the senior doctor, remember. Mum and Dad chose you because you have a lot more experience than I have and they didn’t want to leave me floundering.’

It was his turn to be amused. ‘Floundering! That is not a term I would use to describe you.
I
may have the experience, but
you
have the advantage.’

‘In what way?’

‘In that everyone who comes through the surgery door knows and trusts you. Whereas the other day I heard a patient ask another why someone like me is working in a country practice, and the person replied that maybe I’d been struck off and this was all I could get.’

‘I could make a guess who they were,’ she said, smiling at the thought of what he’d just described. ‘Two elderly ladies in pale blue fleeces with knitted hats.’

‘Yes! Spot on.’

‘They are the Rigby sisters, who until recently always asked to see my mother. Now she’s gone they’ve reluctantly transferred themselves to me. One of them has thyroid problems, and the other is just getting over an attack of polymyalgia. You’ll have two big disadvantages in their opinion. First, that you’re a man and, second, that you aren’t local.’

‘Ah! So it’s because I’m not a member of the clan.’

‘Yes, but not as far as I’m concerned. I welcome the change. We need some new blood in the practice and I feel that we are fortunate to have you.’

Luke smiled. ‘You weren’t of that opinion during my first week here, were you?’

‘No, I wasn’t. My parents had always run this place like clockwork and I was apprehensive at being left to cope with a stranger. When you appeared I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like a burden being lifted off my shoulders, until I knew what was going to be happening in your life, and then the anxiety came back.’

She wasn’t going to tell him just how much it had meant, discovering that he was her parents’ choice, because the incident of the Valentine card was still there to take the edge off her pleasure, and even more so the knowledge that Luke had been married before.

It wasn’t surprising. He was far too fanciable to be overlooked by her own sex. That was how it had been at university amongst the students he’d taught. All of them aware of his attractions, but at that time none of them had known he was married to the star of Ear, Nose and Throat and that it was he who was ending the marriage.

* * *

When she’d been to buy something for her lunch from Elise’s bakery, Megan went to sit beside the river that flowed behind the practice. In all the village it was her favourite spot, as familiar to her as her own face. She knew every twist and turn of it. Every stone on its rocky bed. All the wildlife there, from the rarely sighted moorhen to the green finches, kingfishers and the heron, lording it over all with its long neck and large wingspan.

BOOK: A Wedding in the Village
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