Spring Proposal In Swallowbrook

She was moving straight towards the apartment without a glance in his direction but when he opened his front door and called across to her she came slowly towards him.

‘You’re up bright and early,’ he commented when they came face to face. ‘The surgery won’t be open for another hour.’

‘Yes, I know,’ she told him, ‘I’ve been down by the lake again and stopped for a coffee at the only café that was open at this time.’

‘I wanted a word,’ he said, stepping back to let her into the hallway. She entered hesitantly. ‘I’ve been having a think about your accommodation problem.’

He saw surprise in the big brown eyes observing him for a second and then it was replaced by wariness. She didn’t speak, just waited to hear what he had to say, and as she listened she was filled with delighted amazement.

‘If you should feel that you would like to rent the apartment I would be willing to discuss it with you,’ he was saying. ‘On thinking about it I feel that it would be easier from my point of view to have just one regular tenant in there, rather than having to deal with different ones all the time on a holiday let basis.

‘So think about it, and if you are interested let me know, but before you do I feel that I must tell you that at this time of year there are always lots of places to rent before the holiday season clocks in. So feel free to use the apartment for the time being until you’ve had time to sort out your priorities with Libby and Nathan, as they might already have somewhere in mind for you.’

She was dumbstruck. Of course she would want to stay in the lovely apartment where she’d spent the night, but what had changed? Only yesterday she’d felt that Hugo Lawrence was irritated by her presence, keen to see the back of her, and now …?

Concealing her pleasure at the thought of accepting his offer, she answered gravely, ‘I will do as you say, Dr Lawrence, and give your suggestion some thought. Thank you for allowing me to stay until I have had the chance to do that, and now if you will excuse me I’m going to have some breakfast before presenting myself at the surgery.’

‘Sure,’ he agreed easily. ‘I’ll see you there later. I hope that your first day will be a good one.’

Once inside the apartment Ruby’s gravity was cast aside and she danced around the place delightedly. Of course she was going to take up Hugo Lawrence’s offer, but after the way she’d butted into his well-organised life and been received with what could only be described as reluctance, a more staid approach was called for when she was in his company.

As for the rest of it, she was in a state of bliss at his suggestion because the surgery and the lake were so close. She would be able to explore all her old haunts again. Life was as good as it was likely to get, just as long as the precarious path to good health that her young brother had to travel along didn’t have any life-threatening side turnings.

Hugo was smiling when she’d gone. Not so docile this morning, was she? It would be interesting to see how she came over at the practice with Libby, Nathan, the rest of the staff and the patients. Maybe he should have offered to drive her down there instead of leaving her to make a solo appearance, but he wanted to call on one of his patients who was causing grave concern on his way to the surgery, and in any case the newcomer needed to stand on her own two feet from the start.

‘Ruby! Is it really you?’ Libby exclaimed as she was opening up the surgery at eight o’clock and saw the new junior doctor approaching.

‘We were not expecting you just yet.’

‘I know,’ Ruby told her apologetically. ‘But I suddenly found myself homeless on Saturday and decided that the only thing to do was come straight here and hope you wouldn’t mind me descending upon you without notice.’

‘And we weren’t here, were we? What a shame! So where have you stayed for the last two days?’ Libby asked, and taking her arm, ‘Come inside out of the cold and we’ll have a cup of tea and a chat before everyone arrives. Nathan is at the cottage, getting Toby ready for school, and will be here about half past nine when he’s seen him safely inside.’

‘I hope you don’t mind me arriving too soon,’ Ruby said as Libby brewed a pot of tea in a pleasant kitchen at the far end of the building.

‘Not at all,’ she assured her. ‘We are very busy and badly need your input in the practice, but I haven’t yet sorted out anywhere for you to live, so we must see to that before anything else.’

The young newcomer was smiling. ‘I’m already fixed up with accommodation. When I arrived on Saturday in a pretty distressed state I asked the first person I saw if he knew where you might be and it turned out that I was speaking to Dr Lawrence.’

She wasn’t going to mention sleeping in his room on top of his bed! ‘He let me use the apartment over his garage until now, and has said if I want to rent it I can.’

‘You’ve already met Hugo, then!’ Libby exclaimed, ‘and he’s willing to let you rent that delightful apartment! Wow! You must have made a good impression.’

‘I doubt it,’ she said whimsically, ‘but I think he feels that a regular tenant is the lesser of two evils rather than one let after another. He’s told me to think about it, not to rush into anything I might regret, but I don’t need to, the place is gorgeous so I’m going to agree to his suggestion before he changes his mind.’

The rest of the staff was arriving in ones and twos and as she was introduced to each in turn Ruby’s dream was being realised. When at last she and Libby were alone in the small consulting room that would be hers she said, ‘I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be part of the Swallowbrook practice, Dr Gallagher.’

‘And we are delighted to have you with us,’ Libby told her. ‘If there is anything that you’re not sure of don’t be afraid to ask.’ As Nathan appeared at that moment to offer his words of welcome, she said to him, ‘Ruby has already met Hugo. He took her in for the weekend when we weren’t around and has offered her the apartment above his garage to rent.’

‘Really!’ he exclaimed laughingly. ‘That doesn’t exactly fit in with his expressed desire for no visitors and time to himself when away from this place. You are to be congratulated, Ruby.’

She smiled. It was hardly the moment to explain that he had accommodated her on sufferance … and where was he? Hugo Lawrence didn’t strike her as someone who would be a poor timekeeper.

The two doctors had left her to settle into her room and gone to deal with their patients, when there was a knock on the door. She crossed to open it and there he was, in the passage outside, observing her questioningly.

‘Is everything all right?’ he asked before she had the chance to greet him. ‘You’ve met Libby and Nathan and the rest of the staff?’

‘Yes, everything is fine,’ she said brightly. ‘Libby was concerned because she hadn’t had time to find me somewhere to stay with me arriving earlier than expected, but I told her that I’d already had a very good offer of your apartment that I will be delighted to accept if it is still open.’

He was frowning. ‘When you get to know me better, Ruby, you will discover that I usually mean what I say. So, yes, the apartment is yours for a nominal rent for as long as you want. If you will come across to the house this evening, we’ll sort out the details.

‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must ring the hospital to have a patient admitted who is far from well with what appears to be septicaemia. Last week it was a mild infection that could have gone either way, but I’ve just called at the house and his condition has worsened over the weekend into something quite serious.’

‘Will you have time to tell me about it when you’ve made the call?’ she asked.

‘Er, maybe not at the moment as I have patients waiting, but if you’re still keen to know I’ll tell you about it tonight when you come round to discuss your renting of the apartment.’ he replied. ‘So, what have Libby and Nathan got planned for you on your first day here?’

He could have suggested that Ruby sit in with him during his consultations for today, but wasn’t going to as he felt he’d made enough concessions already towards welcoming her into the fold, and maybe she would be better sitting in with Libby on her first morning at the practice.

As if on cue Libby appeared and said, ‘I thought you might like to join me during my consultations today, Ruby. It will give you the feel of things and an insight as to how and what we have to deal with, don’t you agree, Hugo?’

‘Yes, I do,’ he told her, ‘and I have an urgent phone call to make so I’ll leave you both to it.’ And with a smile that embraced them both he strode off to his own particular part of the busy surgery, while Libby did likewise in the direction of hers with Ruby close behind.

It had been a fantastic day, reflected Ruby as she ate her solitary meal that evening. Even Dr Lawrence had had a smile for her and soon she would be seeing him again when she went to discuss the rental procedures, and he satisfied her eagerness to hear about the infection that he’d been dealing with.

But first she was going to ring home. She’d spoken to Robbie and her parents yesterday, so they were aware that she had arrived in Swallowbrook earlier than expected, and would now be waiting to hear how her first day at the practice had gone.

They were a close-knit family and had been a very happy one until Robbie’s illness had shown itself and her mother had been faced with the dreadful impact of her part in it.

Before she’d discovered that she had the faulty gene she’d always been happy and carefree, singing around the house, hugging them all close at every opportunity, but ever since Robbie had been stricken with that first bleed all that time ago and had had others since, she had become quiet and withdrawn, not loving or caring for them any less, more if that were possible but joyless in the process.

As Ruby had grown older and begun her medical career she had understood more than anyone the feeling of being flawed that was with her mother constantly and once when she’d asked her what she would have done if she’d known she carried the gene, she’d replied sadly, ‘I don’t know, Ruby. Because I didn’t know I was a carrier of the haemophilia gene I was never faced with having to make a choice with regard to having children.

‘Your dad is loving and supportive, tells me to stop fretting, that I am not to blame for what is happening to Robbie, that it is not because of any known fault of mine, genetics have made me what I am, but I still have to live with it, don’t I? Live with the knowledge that Robbie’s illness isn’t the only blight I’ve put upon my family. There is also what I’ve done to you, Ruby.’

On that occasion with a wisdom beyond her years she had held her mother close and told her, ‘All you’ve ever done to me is to be the best mother in the world and Robbie, when he is older, will feel the same, so don’t weep for what you didn’t know about, Mum. What Dad says is right.’

But tonight when her mother’s voice came over the line there was only happiness in it as they chatted about Ruby’s return to Swallowbrook and her first day at the practice, until she told her about her attractive landlord-cum-colleague-cum–recluse neighbour.

‘You aren’t going to fall in love, are you?’ her mother asked, trying not to sound anxious.

They’d gone through this scenario a few times, the worry that relationships with the opposite sex brought about, and understanding only too well her mother’s thought process Ruby told her gently, ‘Not with this one. He is dubious about my suitability from all angles.’

When she’d finished speaking to her mother Ruby rang Hugo to ask what time he would like her to go across to the house to discuss the tenancy.

‘Come now if you want and let’s get it over with,’ was the brisk reply, without any hint of welcome. ‘It won’t take long. Just a matter of fixing a rental, the two of us signing the appropriate forms, and me giving you a copy of rules and regulations, along with details of the user instructions for everything.’

So ‘Mr Nice Guy’ from the surgery had changed back into ‘Sir Keep Your Distance’, Ruby thought as she replaced the receiver. What did he think she was going to do, take her knitting with her? She would be in and out like a flash and would not be asking him to tell her about the patient that he’d called to see on his way to the surgery that morning.