Marriage Miracle In Swallowbrook

Marriage Miracle In Swallowbrook
Abigail Gordon

Enter into the world of high-flying Doctors as they navigate the pressures of modern medicine and find escape, passion, comfort and love – in each other’s arms!The husband she’s never forgotten… Laura Armitage’s heart broke the day she said goodbye to her husband, top oncologist Gabriel – but how could she stay in a marriage where she always came second to his career?Only now Gabriel has joined Laura in the beautiful Lakeland village of Swallowbrook, and is determined to prove he’s never stopped loving her…

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

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

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

‘Yes, but I’m not staying.’

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

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

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

Dear Reader

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

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

With very best regards

Abigail Gordon

About the Author

ABIGAIL GORDON loves to write about the fascinating combination of medicine and romance from her home in a Cheshire village. She is active in local affairs, and is even called upon to write the script for the annual village pantomime! Her eldest son is a hospital manager, and helps with all her medical research. As part of a close-knit family, she treasures having two of her sons living close by, and the third one not too far away. This also gives her the added pleasure of being able to watch her delightful grandchildren growing up.

Recent titles by the same author:

SPRING PROPOSAL IN SWALLOWBROOK** (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b) SWALLOWBROOK’S WINTER BRIDE** (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b) SUMMER SEASIDE WEDDING† (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b) VILLAGE NURSE’S HAPPY-EVER-AFTER† (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b) WEDDING BELLS FOR THE VILLAGE NURSE† (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b) CHRISTMAS IN BLUEBELL COVE† (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b) COUNTRY MIDWIFE, CHRISTMAS BRIDE* (#ulink_cdebe4ed-21ba-5820-a5e6-a1d2e543f10b)

** (#ulink_f6164df9-6dc8-5015-aebf-bf64757a2c2d)The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm* (#ulink_f6164df9-6dc8-5015-aebf-bf64757a2c2d)The Willowmere Village Stories† (#ulink_f6164df9-6dc8-5015-aebf-bf64757a2c2d)Bluebell Cove

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

Marriage Miracle in Swallowbrook

Abigail Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For Stephen and Judith

who generously gave me their time

and their hospitality

while showing me Lakeland

CHAPTER ONE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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