Swallowbrook's Winter Bride

Swallowbrook's Winter Bride
Abigail Gordon

A snowkissed proposal – from the village doc!GP Libby Hamilton fulfils a lifelong ambition when she’s made senior partner of Swallowbrook’s village surgery, set in a lovely old farmhouse. She’s thrilled – right up until she comes face-to-face with the man she’s worked hard to forget: new colleague and neighbour Nathan Gallagher, who once rejected her youthful declaration of love!Standing on her doorstep, clutching the hand of his adorable soon-to-be-adopted son Toby, Nathan’s dramatic reappearance knocks Libby for six! But, with Nathan settling in Swallowbrook for good, will her secret dream of a magical Christmas wedding be unexpectedly renewed?THE DOCTORS OF SWALLOWBROOK FARM Wedding bells for the village doctors

Libby was under the covers and ready to drift into oblivion when someone down below rang the doorbell.

She groaned softly but didn’t move. When it rang a second time she slipped a robe over her nightdress and went quickly downstairs. Before opening the door she peered into the porch, and with the moon’s light filtering in saw the broad-shouldered outline of a man. Beside him was a small child dressed in pyjamas.

It all looked innocent enough, she decided. The two of them must be part of the family who’d moved in next door. Without any further delay she unlocked the door.

‘Hello, Libby,’ Nathan Gallagher said easily, as if it had only been yesterday that she’d last seen him.

She could feel her legs caving in at the shock of seeing him there …

Hello Again, Dear Reader

It is lovely to be back with you once more, having left golden beaches and Devon clotted cream teas for a while. In this new quartet of books we once again open the door to romance with all its tender magic as we share the lives of The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm—a friendly surgery in a beautiful English country village, where Libby Hamilton and Nathan Gallagher pick up the pieces of something that should have happened long ago.

My son and daughter-in-law live close to a place like this, and every time I visit them the beauty of it enfolds me just as it does Libby and Nathan, in this first book of four. If you’ve enjoyed it do look out for Ruby and Hugo’s story, coming next—another reminder that true love breaks down all barriers.

So, may I wish you happy reading as you turn the pages of these stories about The Doctors of Swallowbrook Farm.

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:

VILLAGE NURSE’S HAPPY-EVER-AFTER†

CHRISTMAS IN BLUEBELL COVE†

WEDDING BELLS FOR THE VILLAGE NURSE†

COUNTRY MIDWIFE, CHRISTMAS BRIDE*

A SUMMER WEDDING AT WILLOWMERE*

A BABY FOR THE VILLAGE DOCTOR*

CHRISTMAS AT WILLOWMERE*

*The Willowmere Village Stories †Bluebell Cove

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

Swallowbrook’s Winter Bride

Abigail Gordon

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

FOR MY NEPHEW SHAUN MURRAY

AND HIS SON ANDREW

FAR AWAY FROM ME IN TEXAS

CHAPTER ONE

SPENDING two weeks in Spain with her best friend had been great, but as Libby Hamilton drove the last couple of miles to Swallowbrook village, nestling in a lakeland valley below the rugged beauty of the fells, she was happy to be back where she belonged.

A month ago, on what was not as frequent an occasion as she would like it to be, she had met up with Melissa Lombard for lunch in Manchester, and on seeing how pale and tired Libby looked, the only person she’d ever told what a mistake her tragically brief marriage had been had said, ‘I’m going to our villa in Spain for a couple of weeks. That husband of mine can’t go with me. There is a big audit due at the office and he’s in charge. So why don’t you join me, Libby? It would be lovely if you could.’

She’d hesitated and Melissa had said coaxingly, ‘Surely they can manage without you at the Swallowbrook practice for once, and if they can’t, they can get a temp. I’m no doctor but I think I can safely prescribe two weeks of lazing in the sun to bring some colour back to your cheeks.’

‘It would be a change, I suppose,’ Libby had agreed wistfully. ‘I haven’t had any time off since Ian had the dreadful accident. It’s as if I haven’t been able to stop and think since the funeral. I guess I’ve been using work as an excuse these past few months.’

Melissa had nodded gravely and gone on to say sympathetically, ‘So what better reason for joining me could there be than having spent months of hard graft without a break?’

Libby had smiled at her across the table and told her friend, ‘You have just talked me into two weeks in Spain, Mel, but not a moment longer. Our senior partner, John Gallagher, retires at the end of the month and I’ve taken over as senior partner. He has virtually given up already, but I know if I ask him he’ll take up the reins again for two more weeks while I have a break.’

Driving back now, alongside the fells beneath a harvest moon, she was feeling much more like her old self after a healthy dose of sun, sea and a complete rest. Yet as was always the case on the rare occasions she was absent from the practice, coming back to Swallowbrook and her cottage across the way from the surgery was heart-warming, and today was no exception.

The practice building had once been her childhood home. In those days it had been a farmhouse, but in her late teens it had been put up for sale due to her father’s neglect of it after her mother had died, and it was now the village medical centre in the middle of the lakeside beauty spot.

When the lease had run out on the old practice premises and somewhere else had needed to be found, the spacious farm building had been an ideal choice. The outside of it was mostly unchanged, but the inside had been modernised and now provided health care for the hardy folk of Swallowbrook and the surrounding areas.

When the transfer had been made six years ago John Gallagher had been senior partner, with his son Nathan, also a doctor, working alongside him, and two years later Libby, who had gone straight into general practice after receiving her doctor’s degree, had joined them as the third and youngest member of the trio.

But it had turned out that one of them had itchy feet, and where she had been content to stay in the place she loved best, Nathan Gallagher had other ideas in mind. He was three years older than her and she’d worshipped the dark-haired, dark-eyed, dynamic doctor since her early teens, but in those days she’d been just a kid with a brace on her teeth as far as he was concerned.

Though she’d never admit it to him, one of the reasons she’d joined the practice had been so that she could be near him, and another had been because the building had once been her home, and to be as close to it as she could she’d bought an empty farm cottage across the way.

When she’d joined the practice Nathan had seen that the girl who had always been hovering while they had been growing up had become a slender blonde with eyes like brown velvet and the warmest smile he’d ever seen. They’d shared a brief flirtation but he was aware that Libby had long since had a crush on him and didn’t want to lead her on.

And besides he’d had his hands full with a fiancée who had been pushing hard for a gold band to go beside the solitaire diamond on her finger and he had begun to feel that the engagement had been a mistake because he hadn’t been as keen on the idea as she had been.

When he’d informed Libby that he was leaving the practice to go and work abroad she’d been devastated. ‘The engagement is off,’ he’d told her, and it would have been news she had been happy to hear if it hadn’t been followed by, ‘So I’m free to work in Africa, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve agreed to take up a position in a hospital in a small town out there where doctors are needed urgently.’

‘How long will you be gone?’ she’d asked with the colour draining from her face.

‘As long as it takes, I suppose, but my contract is for three years.’

He’d noted the effect that the news of his departure had had on her. ‘Why don’t you come along?’ he’d suggested casually. ‘There’s always room for one more doctor out there.’

‘No, thanks,’ she’d replied hastily before she did some crazy thing like letting her longing to be wherever he was take over, and had gone on to say, ‘It wouldn’t be fair to your father, two of us gone from the practice at the same time, and my father is still around, don’t forget, forever sick and remorseful at having to sell the farm. Also it has always been my dream to practise medicine in the place that was once my home. I feel I owe it to our community.’