Summer Seaside Wedding (10 page)

Ambrose’s life revolved around two things—his barber’s shop on the harbour front and his boat,
Molly
Maid
. But today the only woman in his life was out of favour because he’d hurt himself on her timbers.

‘Can you ease your shirt off and show me where the pain is?’ Leo said.

‘It’s at the bottom of my back and down my legs,’ he was told.

He examined the hardy old fellow carefully and pronounced, ‘It could be pressure on a nerve root from the fall that is causing so much pain, but only the hospital can sort that out for you, Ambrose. If there is a prolapsed disc or pressure on a nerve, CT scanning or an MRI should reveal the cause.’

‘I’m going to send for an ambulance to take you straight from here to A and E. Is there anyone I can get in touch with to go with you?’

He shook his grizzled head. ‘Not unless the guy at the fishing-tackle shop next door could come with me, but he’s only just finished looking after that young nephew of his who was hurt when his father crashed the car, and he has a business to run, don’t forget. No. I’ll be fine on my own just as long as they can sort out the pain.’

‘I will prescribe you some painkillers,’ Leo told him, ‘and will ask someone from the chemist across the way to pop over with them while we’re waiting for the ambulance. You should find movement easier once the pain is under control, but finding the source of it is vital to avoid permanent damage to your back.

‘Take a seat in the waiting room, Ambrose, and once the ambulance arrives, the paramedics will help you carefully on board.’ Knowing how much the boat meant
to him, he asked, ‘Where is the
Molly Maid
? Safe in the harbour, I hope.’

‘Aye, that she is. No back pain on earth would stop me from seeing her safely anchored.’

It was lunchtime, and during the short break there was reference amongst the staff to the coming christening, but not from Amelie’s direction. She didn’t join in the conversation and Leo decided it meant she wasn’t intending to go. If that was the case, it showed even more clearly that togetherness was not the order of the day…or the night!

For the moment he was prepared to let it ride. It was only Monday. There was the rest of the week to come before Sunday was upon them. His main concern at the moment was that she might decide to pack her bags and go back to where she’d come from, which was unthinkable.

Amelie was delighted for Leo’s sake that he was to be one of the godparents for Harry and Phoebe’s baby. She knew he would fulfil the pledges he made at the christening to their fullest degree, and wondered why she could be so sure of his feelings about something like that yet be totally confused about the way he felt about her.

The other night it would have been wonderful to have given in to the longing that he aroused in her and she in him, but what he’d said had brought those awful moments in the woods back and taken all the magic from the moment.

Unaware that he’d been ready to put his memories of what had happened to Delphine behind him, Amelie was constantly wondering if she would be faced with his changing moods all the time if she gave herself up to him. She’d told him once how much she needed security and there would be no secure feeling to be got from that.

But one thing
was
clear. She wanted to be at the christening for him, as he’d been at the funeral for her, and tried to imagine what it would be like if it was their child being christened, a beautiful girl or boy with their father’s golden fairness.

But that sort of thing was disappearing into the realms of fantasy. At present they were further away from that kind of magic than they’d ever been. So it was a matter of going to the christening as just a friend and keeping a low profile.

In the middle of a week made up of endless days and miserable nights there was a surprise in store for Amelie in the form of a phone call from her parents to say they were on two months’ leave and were staying in a rented apartment in London until it was up.

‘So when are you coming to see us?’ her mother wanted to know.

‘I’m not sure,’ she told her as the shock of hearing her voice was beginning to subside. ‘I’m working in general practice in a beautiful village in Devon, so it will have to be when I have some free time. I don’t want to cause the two doctors I’m working with any inconvenience.’

‘Fair enough,’ was the reply, without any overtones of
disappointment, and that had been it, but Lisette Benoir had sighed deeply as she’d replaced the phone. It was her husband’s fault that she saw so little of her daughter and she was caught in the middle.

Their appearance in her life again had made Amelie feel threatened, though she didn’t know why, and on one of the rare occasions when she and Leo spoke at the surgery he observed her keenly and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’

The temptation to tell him that he knew very well what was wrong was there, but she knew he was referring to her uneasy expression of that moment and told him stiffly, ‘My parents are on vacation in London for the next two months. I’ve had a phone call out of the blue.’

‘Really!’ he exclaimed. ‘And how do you feel about that?’

‘That it was a duty call. I presume they got my number here from Ethan. The French hospital where I was based knew I had come to England at Ethan’s suggestion.

‘He didn’t say anything about them trying to get in touch with me when he came over for the funeral, so it must have been only in the last couple of days they’ve tried to find me.’

‘So what next? Are you going to go to see them?’

‘Yes, when I can. I’ve told them my responsibilities are here in Bluebell Cove first and foremost.’

‘I’ll bet that went down like a lead balloon. How long is it since they last saw you?’

‘A year. I will go one weekend, maybe on a Saturday for the day.’

‘I’ll take you there, if you like.’

Amelie could feel her colour rising. What was that supposed to mean? Was it a peace offering? The kind of thing he would do for anyone? Or a casual sort of reprimand aimed at her reluctance to make the effort? Or was Leo curious about the two high flyers who put lifestyle before caring?

He hadn’t mentioned his family much, but he’d said once how it had been stressful when he’d first joined the practice, travelling backwards and forwards to Manchester to look after his mother who had suddenly become quite ill with a chest and breathing problem.

So there had been no reluctance to put family first on his part, and if the practice had been in the charge of anyone other than Ethan at that time, he might have had to quit living and working in one of England’s most beautiful counties.

‘Thanks for the offer,’ she told him. ‘I’ll bear it in mind.’

‘Yes, I’m sure you will,’ he said as anger sparked off inside him, ‘then you’ll forget about it. For goodness’ sake, Amelie! You will have to get a local train at some ungodly hour to take you to the mainline station for a longish journey to the capital, followed by shoving and pushing on the tube or taking a taxi.

‘It would be the same on your return journey, going through all that palaver again, unless your parents wanted to bring you back to Bluebell Cove in the family limo.’

She was smiling. ‘You obviously know the stresses of getting to London and back off by heart. Of my parents you know nothing at all, or you wouldn’t have made that last comment. I am not allowed to interfere in their lives, so if your offer is still there when the time comes, I will accept it gratefully.’

He would take her to the ends of the earth if need be, as long as they could be together. As for her parents, time would tell what he thought of them when he met them.

His mother now lived abroad with his sister. He loved them both dearly and they felt the same about him. There was nothing he wanted more than to show Amelie what proper family life was like, but their relationship was a fiasco at the present time.

It was a mellow Sunday in August when those involved in the christening of Freya Katherine Balfour arrived at the village church.

The name of Katherine had been chosen in respect of Phoebe’s much-loved sister Katie, who had always been there for her in difficult times and shared her moments of rejoicing. Along with Jenna, she was to be the other of the baby’s godmothers, with Leo taking on the responsibilities of her godfather.

As the christening party walked to the front of the church, watched by the silent congregation, Phoebe’s little boy, Marcus, was holding tightly onto Harry’s hand and he was gazing down at him lovingly, while beside them Phoebe was carrying the baby that she
would soon be passing to the godparents in turn during the ceremony.

For Amelie, sitting as close as she could to the font, there was a surprised smile from Leo that warmed her heart as he walked slowly past.

When he’d seen her and their glances had held, he’d thought tenderly how could he have ever thought she wouldn’t be there? She was a part of this community now, with or without him, though he hoped that he was a part of the reason she had come to feel so at home there. When they arrived at the manor house afterwards, where there was a buffet laid on, he would take her to one side and…

They were taking up their positions in front of the font and the vicar was ready to start the service. His special time with Amelie would come later, he thought as he prepared to repeat the age-old words that would bind him to this child for ever.

Glades Manor was filled with well-wishers who had gone to share in the christening meal and the community spirit that was always there, be the gathering large or small.

The christening party had left before the rest of the congregation so as to be there to greet them when they arrived, and now Leo was searching for Amelie amongst the throng and telling himself with every passing second that she wasn’t there.

Unbelievably, there was no sign of her and he thought grimly she must have seen her presence at the christen
ing to be as much as she was prepared to be involved in on his behalf. So nothing had changed after all.

He was choking on the bitter taste of disappointment. Had Harry and Phoebe noticed her absence? he wondered. Probably not surrounded as they were by friends and well-wishers, and the rest of the surgery staff were enjoying themselves too much to notice that the young French doctor was giving the party a miss.

The urge to go and find out why she wasn’t there was overwhelming but Phoebe had just put the baby in his arms and was about to take his photograph, and when that was done Harry and little Marcus were at his elbow, wanting to show him a new garden room that had just been added to the house.

So it was almost the middle of the afternoon before he could get away without offending anyone, and he drove to the village with the determination to find out if it was because of him she’d skipped the party.

He had part of the answer as soon as the house that Ethan had loaned her came into view. The car in the drive wasn’t a limousine but it had the same luxurious kind of history and he didn’t need to think twice about who it belonged to. It would seem that Amelie’s wealthy parents had arrived.

They
had to be the reason for Amelie’s absence at the gathering at Glades Manor. He was ashamed that he had been so quick to judge. While turning the car round to go back to where he’d come from, she came to the door and waved for him to stop, then she was coming down the path towards him.

‘I had a call on my mobile as I was coming out of
church,’ she explained, ‘to say that my parents had arrived and were here outside the house. I couldn’t get to you to explain and hurried back here to greet them.’

‘Where are they now?’ he asked in a low voice,

‘Inside. I’m about to make a meal but it will be a scrappy affair as I wasn’t expecting them.’

‘Are you going to introduce me?’ he wanted to know, with the thought that it was an ideal moment to get to know the strange Benoirs. Strange because they seemed to have had little time for their daughter, had put their jobs first, which was unthinkable to anyone who loved children.

She was observing him doubtfully. ‘Do you want me to?’

‘Does the sun rise and set? Of course I do. I’m interested in anything connected with you, and with regard to you making a meal at such short notice, why don’t we take them to the christening party instead, to save you the trouble of cooking and to introduce your family to Harry and Phoebe and your other friends?’

‘Do you think we should?’ she queried doubtfully.

‘Yes, I do. There’s loads of food and it will give your parents a chance to see something of English country life with all its attractions.’

‘All right, I’ll suggest it to them, but first, if that is what you want, I’ll take you to be introduced.’

He was laughing. ‘So you’re going to chance it. Take the risk?’

‘It won’t be a risk. They’ll be dumbfounded to discover that I know someone like you.’

‘So lead on and we’ll take it from there,’ he said with
returning seriousness, while straightening his cuffs and wondering how the suit and tie would go down with her parents. Any other day than today he would have been in shorts and a cotton top, but the christening had called for more than that and so here he was dressed to kill, being introduced to two people that so far he had no cause to like.

He sensed that Amelie was on edge and as they entered the house he took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze that was meant to say, ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to marry you in any case,’ but only ended up being what it was—a squeeze.

L
ISETTE
and Charles Benoir were more or less what he’d expected them to be. Early fifties, smartly dressed, and very much in control of the situation, which was more than could be said of their daughter. Amelie’s cheeks were flushed because where to some families there would be nothing strange in them turning up unexpectedly, clearly it was not the case with hers.

They were cordial enough when she introduced him to them and only by the flicker of an eyelid did either of them show surprise at the vision he presented.

It seemed that as Amelie hadn’t been able to say exactly when she would be able to visit them in London, they had driven to Devon to seek her out and do some sightseeing at the same time.

She was clearly amazed that they’d made the effort and even more so when they’d graciously agreed to his suggestion that the four of them should join those still partying at Glades Manor—as long as their friends would have no objection, Charles Benoir stipulated.

‘You have obviously shown some sense for once in coming to this place,’ he said, addressing his daughter
stiffly, with as good a command of the English language as hers.

Leo saw her mother flinch, watched the colour drain from Amelie’s face, and in that moment all the loving protective tenderness he felt for her overwhelmed him. He’d felt the same way about Delphine. It had been there alongside the sexual chemistry, and now the kind fates were giving him a second chance to experience the wonder of that kind of love.

Maybe when Amelie understood the source of his caution she would forgive his behaviour. He hoped so. And as for the grumpy old guy who had just embarrassed her, he would take her away from that kind of thing if she would let him. ‘What is
your
function in the community?’ was Charles’s next question.

‘I am a partner in the village medical practice where your daughter is on loan to us at the moment,’ he replied, and added, with a special smile in her direction, ‘We will not be wanting her to leave us when the six months are up as Amelie is a very able member of the medical profession.’

‘Ah! I see,’ was the comment that greeted that information, and Leo wondered exactly what it was that Charles saw. But he was more interested in what Amelie had to say, and for the present she was saying nothing. The shock of finding her parents in Bluebell Cove and her father’s sour manner were rendering her speechless.

It was always she who’d had to travel to them, so what had changed? She could tell they approved of Leo, his
looks, his easy manner and the clothes he’d worn for the christening.

They must be wondering what part he played in her life, if any, and she thought wryly that she didn’t know the answer to that herself. The only thing she was sure of was that she loved him and didn’t know how to handle it.

The newcomers were made most welcome by Phoebe and Harry and when Amelie heard them ask her parents how long they were intending to stay, she was relieved to hear that it would be for just a couple of days before they headed off to Cornwall.

It was good to see them after a long absence, but she didn’t want them butting into this precious thing she had with Leo. One-sided it might be, but it was still very important.

When Leo was about to leave them in the early evening she went out to the car with him and he said in a low voice, ‘What do you think has brought this on, coming all the way from London to see you?’

‘I don’t know,’ was the answer, ‘but there will be a reason and it won’t be because they were desperate to see me.’

‘Don’t say that,’ he chided. ‘None of us can choose our parents. Their manner may come from the kind of job they do. I felt sorry for your mother. She would seem not to have the same steel in her heart as your father. I take it that he rules the roost.’

‘Yes, he does.’ With pleading in her glance she went on, ‘I wish you didn’t have to go.’

‘I can’t intrude any longer into your reunion with them in spite of how flat it might be. Did you ask Harry if you could have the next two days off while they are here? I don’t mind and I’m sure he won’t.’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘My parents have always put their job first, so I intend to do the same. I will be with them in the evenings, and during the day they intend to explore the coast and countryside.’

He was frowning. ‘You can be quite inflexible when you want to be, Amelie.’

‘Is that a reminder of when we were both fresh from the shower on the night we pulled Freddie from the sea?’

‘It might be.’

‘You don’t understand, do you?’ she said wearily. ‘For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt unwanted, first by my parents and later by Antoine. Then I met you and everything was wonderful, until that night in the woods when I wanted us to make love and you rejected me. So is it surprising that I am not going to want to make that mistake again? If that seems inflexible, fine!’

She’d glanced over her shoulder a couple of times to make sure that Lisette and Charles hadn’t been within earshot while she’d been opening her heart to him, but before he could reply to what she’d just said, she told him hurriedly, ‘My parents must be thinking this is a long goodbye. I must go.’

‘Yes, of course,’ he agreed, reluctant to leave her after she’d explained her feelings so achingly and with such honesty. He said, ‘It’s been another day of mixed emotions, and it isn’t over yet. So I’ll leave you to catch
up with what has been happening in your parents’ lives, Amelie.’ He smiled quizzically. ‘Something tells me that you won’t be in a hurry to tell them what has been happening in yours.’ And with one last lingering look at the face that was still flushed and apprehensive, he pointed his car towards the apartments.

She wanted to run after him, throw herself into his arms, and, whether he wanted to hear it or not, tell him how he had changed her life, that she could endure anything her father had to say as long as he, Leo, was by her side, but that wasn’t going to happen because they were waiting for her, seated in the back garden, watching a glorious sunset.

When she brought out a tray of drinks and joined them she had the strangest feeling of disquiet. Her father cleared his throat and said, ‘We have sought you out because there is something that you have to be told.’

She thought, Here it comes, the reason they are here.

‘Your mother and I are getting divorced,’ he said without preamble, and she felt her jaw go slack.

‘Why?’ she gasped, and he actually managed a smile.

‘Maybe we have seen too much of each other, working together as we have for so long,’ he said, with a glance at her mother. ‘We have both met other people and when the divorce comes through will be spending the rest of our lives with them.’

‘You will be welcome to visit, of course,’ her mother said hurriedly.

Amelie thought, Leo, where are you? Come and
tell me I’m dreaming this. I’m on the outside of things again, the afterthought again.

Yet did she want him to come and see her like this, taken aback, distressed to be told that her parents’ marriage was over? She’d seen little enough of them before, so what would it be like now?

She’d asked if they required separate bedrooms and when they’d said no, they would be fine, she couldn’t believe it was happening, her parents about to divorce sleeping in the second-largest bedroom of the house where Ethan had told her she must feel free to have someone stay with her if she needed company. That her first house guests would be them had been the last thing she could have imagined.

When they’d gone up to bed she decided she had to get out of the house for a while to calm down. Letting herself out quietly, she began to walk to the place she loved best.

It wasn’t yet midnight, there were still a few folks around, but when she reached the headland it was deserted and the Balfours’ house was in darkness, which left her a solitary figure staring out to sea.

Leo had seen her come out of the house. He hadn’t been able to settle after returning to the apartment and had stood gazing out of the window for a long time, wishing he hadn’t left her so soon on this strange day of highs and lows.

When he saw that she was on the move he set off to follow her. There was no way he was going to let her go
out into the night alone, especially in the direction of the headland and the beach, which were her favourite places, as they were his, but not at this time of night.

The purchase of Four Winds House was going through. In the last week he’d had it surveyed and paid a holding deposit, and though Keith wasn’t going to get his wish before he went on his cruise, the sale would be well along the way by the time he came back.

When she heard a step behind her Amelie turned quickly. There had been no one around when she’d arrived and when she saw Leo standing there she couldn’t believe it.

‘What are you doing out here?’ he asked gently. ‘Is something wrong, Amelie?’

‘Yes,’ she sobbed. ‘Didn’t I tell you there would be a reason for my parents’ visit? They’re getting divorced and it’s all so cold-blooded. Both of them are going to marry someone else. Knowing what they’re like, I’m surprised they even bothered to tell me.’

‘Whew!’ he exclaimed. ‘Was it on the cards?’

‘Not that I knew of,’ she told him between sobs, and when he tried to take her in his arms to comfort her she moved away and said chokingly, ‘How do we know it would work out for us if you ever wanted me enough to marry me? I don’t want to be hurt again.’

‘You wouldn’t be,’ he assured her gently, with his new resolve firmly in place, but it was not the time or place to tell her about Delphine.

He held out his arms again but she wouldn’t let him hold her close and, still sobbing, she said, ‘How can I be sure? Half the time you don’t want me near you, and
the rest of the time you are everything I’ve ever dreamt of, so how do I cope with that sort of situation? Please, go away, Leo. I want to be alone.’

‘All right,’ he agreed grimly, ‘but I’m not moving until you start making tracks for home. I shall be following you at a distance until I’ve seen you safely inside.’

‘Please yourself,’ she said wearily. ‘Do whatever you think best, but leave me alone.’

He did as she’d asked once he’d seen her back where she belonged.

Back in the apartment, he was remembering that night at the airport when he’d gone to meet her and how he’d been disappointed and amazed that the odd-looking creature drifting sleepily towards him in the arrivals lounge was the young French doctor they were taking on at the surgery for six months.

They’d come a long way since then, but not as far as he wanted them to. Patience was still the name of the game, and after what Amelie had said about them back there on the headland, he might need plenty of it. In the meantime, he was going to do what she’d asked him to do, leave her alone for a while, and then when he felt she was ready he would tell her about Delphine, how at last he was ready to let her memory be a sweet and distant thing instead of a constant reminder of pain and grief.

After a sleepless night Amelie was up and about before her parents came down for the breakfast she’d prepared, and leaving them to clear away afterwards she was at the
surgery in good time for Monday morning’s overflow from the weekend.

When she and Leo met up again he was coming out of the staff kitchen with a mug of tea in his hand, and when she would have stopped to apologise for the way she’d told him to go the night before he didn’t give her the chance. As the words trembled on her lips he wished her a brief good morning and disappeared into his consulting room, shutting the door behind him.

So much for that, he thought as he drank the tea. But how long was he going to be able to keep it up?

When a young guy who looked like a student presented himself in front of him in the late morning he looked far from well and was anxious to explain why he was there.

‘I’ve been to a few late-night parties with my college friends over the last week,’ he said, ‘and I think I might have picked up some sort of virus. My throat is raw, I keep feeling faint, and I’ve got a rash.’

‘Any aversion to bright lights?’ was Leo’s first question. The young man shook his head. ‘Show me the rash, then.’ And in keeping with the patient having no problem with a bright light, he concluded that it was not the dreaded red rash of meningitis.

‘Does it itch?’ was the next thing he wanted to know.

‘Yes, a lot,’ was the answer to that, and as Leo examined it more closely he saw that there were red raised areas on the skin and where the patient had scratched them they’d turned to blisters.

‘What have you been taking at these parties?’ he questioned.

‘If you mean drugs…nothing,’ was the reply. ‘My parents would go ballistic if I ever did that.’

‘I was not referring to anything in particular,’ he told him. ‘Just trying to get a picture of what has caused this. Have you been on, or near a farm at all?’

‘Er, yes. The parents of one of my mates have a farm. I was at a party there last week.’

‘Did you handle any live stock on the farm?’

‘I was around some cows that didn’t look too lively.’

‘Did you touch any of them?’

‘I might have done, but why are you asking me all this?’

‘It is possible that you might have contracted anthrax from the cattle. I’m going to take some blood samples and send them to the laboratory for a fast result.

‘In the meantime, I’ll give you something for your throat, which is very inflamed. Then go home, tell your parents what I’ve said, and that you have to rest until the results come through.

‘There are two kinds of anthrax infection—cutaneous anthrax that affects the skin and is reasonably easy to cure, and pulmonary anthrax that affects the lungs and is much more serious. In your case, I would think from my experience of the illness that it is the less serious of the two.

‘We will soon know if I’m right, and if I am the authorities will need the name of the farmer and the
address of the farm as it will have to be inspected to see if the infection came from the animals themselves or from the land on which they were grazing, where it could have lain dormant for many years.