When Two Paths Meet

When Two Paths Meet
Betty Neels

Mills & Boon presents the complete Betty Neels collection. Timeless tales of heart-warming romance by one of the world’s best-loved romance authors.Katherine Marsh was practically a slave to her brother's family in the small English country village where she lived. Then she met Dr. Jason Fitzroy - and fell instantly in love. Dr. Fitzroy found her a job at the hospital and gave her a new sense of self-respect.He also gave Katherine her first taste of the freedom missing from her earlier years. But Katherine knew she could never be truly free - not while her heart was a prisoner of love.

“I’ll take you to meet a few people.”

Katherine cringed inwardly, knowing just how plain her bargain dress must look.

“I do like that dress.” The doctor smiled down at her, his eyes twinkling. “I thought you might have doubts about coming tonight, but there has to be a beginning—a first step, as it were.”

She stared at him in his elegant dinner jacket. His face was pleasantly calm but obviously tired. “Toward what?” she wanted to know.

“Why, love, marriage, children—a lifetime of happiness.”

“You really believe that?” Katherine asked. When he nodded, she said gravely, “I do, too, but sometimes it’s best not to take the step.”

Romance readers around the world were sad to note the passing of Betty Neels in June 2001. Her career spanned thirty years, and she continued to write into her ninetieth year. To her millions of fans, Betty epitomized the romance writer, and yet she began writing almost by accident. She had retired from nursing, but her inquiring mind still sought stimulation. Her new career was born when she heard a lady in her local library bemoaning the lack of good romance novels. Betty’s first book, Sister Peters in Amsterdam, was published in 1969, and she eventually completed 134 books. Her novels offer a reassuring warmth that was very much a part of her own personality. She was a wonderful writer, and she will be greatly missed. Her spirit and genuine talent will live on in all her stories.

When Two Paths Meet

Betty Neels

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER ONE

KATHERINE rolled over in bed and pulled the blankets over her ears; it wasn’t time to get up, she was sure of that, and she resented whatever it was that had awakened her. She tucked her cold feet into her nightie and closed her eyes, only to open them immediately at the steady thumping on the front door below her window. The milkman? Unreasonably early. A tramp? A would-be thief? But he wouldn’t want to draw attention to himself.

She got out of bed, thrust her feet into slippers and dragged on her dressing-gown. By the light of her bedside lamp the alarm clock showed well past five in the morning. The thump came again, and she went softly along the landing and down the stairs; her brother and his wife, who slept at the back of the house, and very soundly too, wouldn’t have heard it—nor, with luck, would the two children in the room next to her own.

It took a few moments to open the door, and she left it prudently on the chain, to peer through the narrow opening at the man on the doorstep. It was the tail end of October, and only just beginning to get light, but she could make out what appeared to be a giant.

He spoke from somewhere above her head. ‘Good girl. Let me in quickly.’

He had a deep, unhurried voice which reassured her, nevertheless she asked, ‘Why?’

‘I have a new-born baby here, likely to die of exposure unless it gets warmed up pretty quickly.’

She undid the chain without wasting words, and he went past her. ‘Where’s the kitchen, or somewhere warm?’

‘The end door.’ She waved a hand, and applied herself to locking and bolting the door once more. All at once, she reflected that she could have bolted herself in with an escaped convict, a thief, even a murderer. And it was too late to do anything about it; she hurried him along and opened the kitchen door on to the lingering warmth of the old-fashioned Rayburn. He brushed past her, laid the bundle he was carrying on the kitchen table and unfolded it carefully and, from the depths of his car coat, exposed a very small, very quiet baby. Katherine took one look and went to poke up the fire, quietly, so as not to arouse the household.

When the man said, ‘Blankets? Something warm?’ she went like a small shadow back upstairs to her room and took the sheet and a blanket off her bed. The linen cupboard was on the landing outside her brother’s room, and he or Joyce might hear the door squeaking.

She handed them to the man, who took them without looking at her, only muttering, ‘Sensible girl,’ and then, ‘Warm water?’

There was always a large kettle keeping warm on the Rayburn; she filled a small basin and put it on the table. ‘Now, just stay here for a moment, will you? I’ll go to the car and get my bag.’

‘I’ve locked the door, and my brother might hear if you go through the back door, it creaks. I’ll have to go and unlock…’

He was looking around him; the house was old-fashioned, and the kitchen windows were large and sashed. He crossed the room and silently slid one open, climbed through soundlessly and disappeared, to reappear just as silently very shortly after. He was a very large man indeed, which made his performance all the more impressive. Katherine, who had picked up the blanketed baby and was holding it close, stared at him over the woolly folds.

‘You are indeed a sensible girl,’ observed the man, and put his bag down on the table. ‘This little fellow needs a bit of tidying up…’

It was a relief to Katherine to see a little colour stealing through the scrap on the table. She handed the things he asked for from his bag and whispered, ‘Will he be all right?’

‘I think so, babies are extremely tough; it rather depends on how long he’s been lying on the side of the road.’

‘How could anyone…?’ She stared across the table at him, seeing him properly for the first time. He was a handsome man, with fair hair and sleepy blue eyes under straight brows, and above a wide, firm mouth his nose was pure aquiline. Katherine was aware of a strange sensation somewhere under her ribs, a kind of delightful breathlessness, a splendid warmth and a tingling. She stayed quite still, a small, rather thin girl, with an ordinary face which was redeemed from plainness by a pair of beautiful grey eyes, heavily fringed with black lashes. Her hair, alas, was a pale, soft brown, straight and long. Wrapped as she was in the useful, dark red dressing-gown Joyce, her sister-in-law, had given her the previous Christmas, she presented a picture of complete mediocrity. Which made it entirely unsuitable that she should have fallen in love with a man who was looking at her kindly enough, but with no hint of interest in her person.

She said in her quiet voice, ‘Would you like a cup of tea? And where will you take the baby?’

‘To hospital, as quickly as possible…’ He paused, looking over her shoulder, and she turned round. Joyce was in the doorway.

She was a handsome young woman, but now her good looks were spoilt by the look of amazed rage on her face.

‘Katherine—what on earth is the meaning of this? And who is this man? Have you taken leave of your senses?’

‘If I might explain?’ The man’s voice was quiet, but something in it made Joyce silent. ‘I found a new-born child on the roadside—this house was only a few yards away, I knocked for help. This young lady has most kindly and efficiently provided it. May I trespass on your kindness still further, and ask her to come with me to the hospital so that she may hold the baby?’

Joyce had had time to study him, and her manner changed rapidly. She tossed a long curl over her shoulder, and pulled her quilted dressing-gown rather more tightly around her splendid figure. If Katherine had looked ordinary before, she was now completely overshadowed. Joyce ignored her.

‘You’re a doctor? I must say all this is very unusual. I’ll make you a hot drink. You must be so tired.’ She smiled charmingly at him and said sharply to Katherine, ‘You heard what the doctor said, Katherine. Don’t just stand there, go and get dressed.’

And, when she had slipped away without looking at anyone, ‘My husband’s young sister—she lives with us.’ She gave a tinkling little laugh. ‘Not ideal, of course, but one has certain responsibilities. Now, what about that drink? I don’t know your name…’

‘I’ll not stop for anything, thank you, Mrs…’

‘Marsh—Joyce Marsh.’

He was bending over the baby again. ‘I’ll see that your sister-in-law gets back safely.’ He straightened himself to his full height. ‘Please make my apologies to your husband. Ah, here is Miss Marsh.’