Whispers of Love (31 page)

‘She's a corker,' Colin enthused. ‘You'll love her and so will the patients. It sounds perfect to me. Can I still keep my room?' he asked, looking across the table at his brother.

‘Of course, that's if you can afford to pay the rent I'll be charging you.' Neil grinned.

‘What do you think of the idea, Christabel?' Mark asked. ‘So far you haven't said a word.'

‘I hardly think that I need to do so.' She smiled. ‘It's an arrangement that has to be agreed between the three of you. I must say, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity for all concerned, providing, of course, that Dr Roberts doesn't object.'

‘I don't see why he should,' Mark admitted. ‘He wasn't looking forward to having to move
the surgery and apart from all the upheaval of moving all the files and equipment there was the question of explaining to all the patients that it would be at a different venue.'

‘It would also save you the trouble of having to interview applicants for the post of new doctor,' Neil pointed out. ‘You both know me and my qualifications. The fact that I will be living on the premises and be on hand to take all the emergency and night calls will ease the strain on you both now that you are getting older.'

‘Yes, before we know what is happening you will be taking over the reins and pensioning us both off,' Mark laughed.

‘Not for a few years yet,' Neil conceded. ‘You must admit, though, that it will be easier for both of you when you want some time off.'

‘Yes,' Mark agreed, ‘I can see it has plenty of good points, but the next question is when is all this going to happen? You haven't yet told us when you are going to get married, Neil?'

‘I haven't been able to make any firm plans until I found somewhere for us to live. As a matter of fact, I've been toying with the idea of asking you to help me out with a loan so that I could buy a place. Then when you said this morning that you and Christabel were going to get married . . .' his voice trailed off.

‘I see.' Mark laid down his knife and fork and sat back. He certainly liked the idea; Neil moving into the family home was a better
solution than he'd dreamed of, but he didn't want to get carried away before he'd had time to think it through.

‘Seriously, what
do
you think of Neil's idea, Christabel?' he asked as he wiped his mouth with his napkin and picked up his glass of wine.

‘It sounds an excellent idea providing, as Neil says, that your present partner agrees and you can all work together. Oh, and providing the existing practice is large enough to support three full-time doctors as well as a part-time nurse, of course.'

‘That's the nub, isn't it?' Mark agreed solemnly. ‘You are probably so full of new ideas, Neil, that you may think that our equipment and methods are old-fashioned and you'll immediately want to start changing everything.'

For the rest of the meal they argued amicably about the details, but all of them knew and agreed that it was the perfect solution. Christabel was also aware that both Neil and Colin had accepted the fact that she and Mark were getting married without any surprise at all.

Christabel felt disappointed when the evening ended. Although Mark insisted on accompanying her in the taxi he'd ordered to take her back home to Wallasey, he said he wouldn't be staying but would be going straight back home.

‘There are numerous things I need to talk over with the boys before they go to bed because they're both planning to leave more or less first thing in the morning,' he explained.

‘They won't be leaving until after breakfast, surely, so won't you have time to talk to them then?' Christabel asked as she settled herself in the taxi.

‘Afraid not, they want to leave very early. You know what it's like,' he said apologetically, ‘they both need to have time to prepare for Monday. I'll come back over tomorrow after they've gone home and we'll have a good long talk about everything then. I must say, there have been several surprise developments,' he laughed.

‘Things certainly seem to be turning out far better than we had hoped.' Christabel smiled.

During most of the journey back to Rolleston Drive Mark talked non-stop about how delighted
he was by what had transpired and he was eager to know what she'd thought about it all.

‘I'm so relieved that at last I've told them that we are planning on getting married and I can't wait to get back and hear them enthuse about what they thought of you becoming part of the family. I could tell right away that they were impressed at how elegant you looked,' he said, squeezing her hand.

‘Would it make any difference if they didn't want you to marry me?' she asked tentatively.

‘No, of course not; that wasn't what I meant,' he blustered. ‘Nevertheless, it was important to have their views about us getting married.'

Christabel nodded. What she really wanted to know was exactly when Neil was planning to be married and what Mark had thought about the idea of Neil taking over his house and also becoming a partner in his practice. She realised that Cecil Roberts would have to be consulted before anything could be formally agreed but it was an interesting possibility. She had realised right from the start that Mark was slightly reluctant to sell up his family home, so this seemed to be the ideal solution.

With three of them in the partnership it would certainly help to solve the problem of Mark having to be on call so often. In addition, if Neil's wife was going to be undertaking nursing duties then that would lighten Mark's responsibilities. If she was willing to do the
clinic as well, then that would be ideal and she could stop working.

As her thoughts went back to the reorganising she was also going to have to do, Christabel toyed with the idea that when Kay learned that the house in Rolleston Drive that had been her childhood home was to be put on the market, she might decide she wanted to move back there herself, instead of disposing of it.

She supposed so much would depend on how Stuart reacted to the news and whether Kay could persuade him to give up his estate agency in Cookham and move north to Merseyside.

He didn't have to open an estate agency in Wallasey if he didn't like the idea of doing that. There were plenty of small villages like Moreton or Heswall which were within an easy drive. If he wanted to be in a larger, busier place, then even Chester was within motoring distance.

If that happened and they did move into Rolleston Drive she would see so much more of Jill as well as Kay and that would suit her down to the ground. Driving all the way from Merseyside to Cookham was an onerous journey and she couldn't expect Mark to give up what little spare time he had to share the driving with her whenever she wanted to visit them.

She knew Mark liked Kay well enough but he didn't seem to understand how close she felt to Kay and little Jill. In fact, she knew that,
like Kay, he didn't altogether approve of her encouraging Jill to call her Granny.

What harm was there in it when it was a game they'd both enjoyed? Jill didn't have a granny and most of her little friends and playmates did, so she must feel out of it at times.

Probably, Christabel mused, it had been Stuart who had said it must stop but Kay was far too loyal to tell her that.

As the taxi pulled up in Rolleston Drive and Mark accompanied her to the house and opened the front door, then gave her a quick hug and a brief kiss, she laid a detaining hand on his arm. ‘Aren't you coming in, just for a few minutes?' she said softly.

He hesitated then pulled away. ‘Not tonight, the taxi's waiting with its engine running.' He kissed her again, this time on the cheek. ‘See you tomorrow,' he promised as he walked away.

She remained on the doorstep waving as the taxi pulled away and stood there until its tail lights had disappeared from sight.

Although it had been a most enjoyable evening she spent a restless night going over and over everything that had been said and wondering what else the three of them might have discussed after Mark had arrived back home again.

She also spent a great deal of time between drifting in and out of sleep making plans for their forthcoming wedding.

So far they hadn't set a date, but now that Neil had come into the equation, there might be some further delay in order to coordinate their plans. She and Mark still hadn't found the house they wanted but they had looked at several already so it shouldn't take them too long to find one which was suitable.

In her half-awake state she tried to decide which of those they'd already seen might suit them best. It had to be fairly close to the surgery, she realised that, but she wanted it to be far enough away so that their lives were not too entwined with the practice.

This was especially important if Neil and his new wife moved in and were also working there. They didn't want to be living too close to each other. If, in due course, Colin followed through with his intention to move in as well and establish a dental practice there, then she certainly didn't want to be living on their doorstep.

Yet, she reasoned, Mark probably wouldn't want to be too far away because if he was then he might find himself on the fringe of things and even though they would meet up each day in the practice it was possible he might find that they'd already made their decision on whatever was being discussed.

When the telephone rang while she was having breakfast next morning she thought, as she hurried into the hall to answer it, that it might be Mark.

She wished she'd not been so late getting up and that she was not still in her dressing gown.

She'd have plenty of time to dress and get ready, she told herself as she picked up the receiver, because it would take him at least an hour to come across to Wallasey from Formby.

She wondered if he would be coming on his own, or whether he would be bringing the boys for a fleeting visit. After the three of them had talked things over last night it might be interesting to hear what final decisions they'd reached. Then she reminded herself that Mark had said that both of them wanted to make an early start today. Neil had to travel to Newcastle and Colin even further than that.

To her annoyance she was taken aback to discover that it wasn't Mark on the phone but Marlene.

‘Aunt Chrissy, thank goodness I've managed to get hold of you at last. I tried to contact you several times last night but you weren't there. You must have stayed out extremely late.'

‘Yes, it was fairly late when I arrived home. I went out to dinner at the Adelphi with Dr Murray and his two sons.'

‘Really, well, that answers why you weren't at home,' Marlene said dismissively. ‘Look, Aunt Christabel,' she went on quickly, ‘we have a problem and we hope you will be able to help us solve it. Bill has to go to America on business and he needs me to go with him. We will be away for about a month. Mother doesn't
seem well enough to undertake the journey, so can she come and stay with you?'

‘For a whole month!' Christabel gasped. ‘I can't possibly agree to that,' she said quickly, ‘have you forgotten, Marlene, that I'm planning to get married? How can I possibly look after Lilian when I have all that to organise?'

‘She isn't helpless, Aunt Christabel,' Marlene said swiftly. ‘She can look after herself and she will probably help you with your wedding plans if it comes to that.'

‘Then why not let her stay at home, if she doesn't want to travel to America with you?'

‘We can't leave her on her own, not when she's only recently buried my father,' Marlene said sharply. ‘Surely you wouldn't mind her staying with you. After all, she is your sister,'

‘I do know that, Marlene, but you are her daughter, so surely it's your responsibility to take care of her.'

‘Look, Aunt Christabel,' Marlene sighed. ‘I've turned to you for help because I am out of my mind with worry. If you don't want her for the whole time we are away, then could she come and stay for a week or two? Then if you feel you can't cope with looking after her any longer and that she's well enough to manage on her own, you could suggest she comes back here?'

‘Exactly what symptoms has she got that I need to know about?' Christabel asked dryly.

‘She's not well, but there is nothing specifically
wrong with her,' Marlene murmured. ‘She's just not herself, and she has such set ideas about what she can and can't do. That's why we haven't been able to persuade her to come with us.'

‘I would have thought that she'd be really keen on a trip to America and the chance to meet up with all her old friends again. It would probably take her out of herself and help her to forget about Alex,' Christabel argued.

‘No, Aunt Chrissy, it would have the opposite effect, because all the places we'll be visiting and the people we'll be meeting would remind her of when she and Dad were living there and it would bring everything back to her and make her miss Dad even more.'

‘A month is a very long time for me to have her here,' Christabel pointed out again.

‘Does that mean she can come?' Marlene persisted.

‘I need time to think about it,' Christabel parried. ‘I'll need to talk to Mark and see what he thinks.'

‘Heaven's, Aunt Christabel, I never thought I would ever hear you say that you had to ask someone's permission to do anything,' Marlene laughed. ‘I've always thought that you were far too independent for anything like that.'

‘I'll give it some thought,' Christabel told her crisply. ‘I have to go now because there's someone at the door.'

‘I'll hold on if you like,' Marlene offered.

‘I've already told you, I need time to think it over,' Christabel reminded her. She replaced the receiver before Marlene could reply or pressure her any further.

The idea of Lilian moving in with her for a whole month appalled her. She had evaded her visiting but this was a hundred times worse than having her come for just a few days. All the old animosity there had been between them in the past flooded Christabel's mind. She didn't think she could do it; she didn't want to do it, but how could she refuse without looking completely heartless? What on earth would Mark think if it reached his ears? Her bereaved sister seeking solace in her company only to be turned away; it would look as if she was utterly heartless.