Swallowbrook's Winter Bride

‘Do you want to come to the practice on Monday morning to discuss your hours? I could make sure I’m free at ten o’clock,’ she was suggesting.

‘Yes, please.’

He’d said it meekly but the glint in the dark eyes looking into hers said differently.

He hasn’t changed, she thought. Nathan Gallagher is still a law unto himself. She put her key in the lock and told him, ‘So ten o’clock on Monday it is.’

Bending, she planted a swift kiss on Toby’s smooth cheek and said in gentle contrast to the businesslike tone she’d used to Nathan, ‘We have a lovely school here, Toby, I’m sure you’ll like it.’

He was a wiry child with a mop of fair curls, and so far hadn’t said a word to her, but that was about to change.

‘Are you my uncle’s friend?’ he asked.

Aware of Nathan’s gaze on her, she said carefully, ‘No, I am just someone he used to work with.’

Having satisfied himself on that, Toby had another question that was more personal.

‘Have you got any children?’

‘No, I’m afraid not.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I have never found anyone nice enough to be their daddy,’ she told him.

‘So why—?’ The small questioner hadn’t finished, but didn’t get the chance to continue the interrogation as Nathan was taking his hand and preparing to depart.

‘Say goodbye to Dr Hamilton,’ he said, and with half a smile for her, ‘Until Monday, then, at ten o’clock, Libby.’

She nodded, and with sanctuary beckoning opened the door and went inside.

It seemed as if Sunday was going to be a non-event day and Libby was thankful for it. While she was having breakfast she saw Nathan and Toby go down the drive and get into the car with fishing rods and surmised they were going to spend some time with his father at the pine lodge he’d recently moved into.

When they’d gone she did what she’d been doing ever since their discussion about Nathan coming back into the practice, which was wishing she hadn’t been so overbearing in her manner.

She’d made it clear without actually putting it into words that she hadn’t forgotten that day at the airport, and wasn’t going to fall into the same trap ever again where he was concerned. Yet if that was the case, why had she been so happy to discover that he wasn’t married with a family?

What he was doing for Toby was so special it brought tears to her eyes every time she thought about it. Through no fault of his own Nathan had taken on the role of single father with the burden of care that went with it, and all she had done so far was cut him down to size about working in the practice, which was where he belonged now that the African contract was finished.

He’d said he was sorry to hear about what had happened to Ian and she’d thought that he didn’t know that disillusion had followed swiftly after a marriage that had been a mistake from the start. Remembering Toby’s curiosity of the day before, the answer she’d come up with for not having children had been true. She wouldn’t have wanted a child from a union as empty as hers and Ian’s had been.

With the afternoon and evening looming ahead, she decided to resort to one of her favourite pastimes, a sail on one of the steamers that ploughed through the waters of the lake countless times each day, and on disembarking at the other end would have her evening meal at her favourite restaurant beside the moorings.

The boat was full and she stood holding onto the rail, taking in the splendour of the new hospital on the lakeside as they sailed past and gazing enviously at houses built from the pale grey stone of the area with their own private landing stages and fishing rights.

She could see farms in the distance, surrounded by green meadows where livestock grazed, and high up above, towering on the skyline, as familiar as her own face, were the fells, the rugged guardians of the lakes.

Had Nathan the same love of this lakeland valley as she had? she wondered. Had he ever longed to be back in the place where his roots were during those hot days in Africa? If he had it would be at least one thing they had in common, she thought wryly, and wondered how many fish he and Toby had caught in the river beside John’s pine lodge.

The answers to the questions in her mind were nearer than she thought as his voice came from behind and as she turned swiftly he said, ‘I used to dream I was doing the round trip on one of these boats when I was far away. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept me sane.’

Before he could elaborate further Toby was tugging at her sleeve and announcing excitedly, ‘We’ve caught some fish, Dr Hamilton.’

‘Really!’ she exclaimed, suitably impressed. ‘How many?’

‘Two. A salmon and a pike,’ he announced.

‘But we had to throw the pike back into the water because it is a special fish,’ Nathan explained.

‘And so where is the salmon now?’

‘Dad is cooking it for us for when we get back,’ Nathan informed her, ‘but first I wanted Toby to sail on the steamer.’ In a low voice he added, ‘I’m sorry if you feel that I’m everywhere you turn, Libby. I had no idea you were on board. Would you like to come back and join us? There will be plenty of fish to spare.’

Temptation was staring her in the face, but she was not going to succumb. It was going to be a strictly working relationship that she had in mind for them and nothing else, so she said politely, ‘Thanks for the invitation, but I have a regular table booked at my favourite restaurant and wouldn’t want to let them down.’

He was getting the message, Nathan thought. Not exactly the cold shoulder, but the ‘I have not forgotten’ treatment, and he wished, as he had done many times before, that he had got in touch with Libby the moment he’d arrived in Africa and at the very least apologised to the beautiful girl whose heart he had broken.

But the timing had been wrong all along the line, beginning with him discovering at the airport that he wasn’t as indifferent to Libby Hamilton as he’d thought he was, followed by the knowledge that his flight was due to be called any moment, and overriding everything else, at the forefront of his mind, had been his commitment to the hospital in Africa.

The outcome of it had been that he’d been dumbstruck by the suddenness of it all, and had sent her away, then months later there had been his dash across half the world to speak to Libby before she became Jefferson’s wife but he’d missed his chance by seconds and returned to Africa with his questions unanswered.

But now he was home, back in Swallowbrook once more, and she was minus a husband, though undoubtedly still reeling from grief, and he was still no nearer to knowing how deep her feelings had been that day at the airport. It could have been a carry-over from her schoolgirl crush. In fact, it must have been a short-lived infatuation judging from the speed with which she’d married Ian Jefferson, and there had certainly been no chemistry between them since he’d turned up out of the blue with Toby. Plenty of being put in his place but no rousing of the senses for either of them as far as he could tell.

‘Fine,’ he said easily in answer to her refusal.

She’d looked so solitary standing by the rail, watching the steamer cutting its way through the water on its journey across the lake, that he hadn’t been able to resist inviting her to join them at his father’s place but again the barriers had been up.

When they arrived at the moorings at the far side Nathan and Toby stayed on the steamer in readiness for sailing back and Libby, after a brief goodbye, went to dine at the restaurant that she’d used as an excuse to refuse his invitation.

The fact that she’d already been on her way there didn’t make her excuse to Nathan any less untruthful. Although she dined there frequently she didn’t have a table booked on a regular basis, and for once she didn’t enjoy the food that was put in front of her.

She caught the last steamer back before the light went and then made her way to Swallowbrook in a sombre mood with the thought of starting work as senior partner with Nathan as her newest employee the following morning.

A knock on the door of her consulting room at precisely ten o’clock announced Nathan’s arrival and Libby pushed back her chair and went to let him in.

He was alone and the first thing she said was, ‘Where’s Toby?’

‘He’s playing with the children’s toys in the waiting room. One of the receptionists is keeping an eye on him,’ was the reply.

Seating himself across from her, he asked, ‘Did you enjoy your meal?’

‘No, not really,’ she admitted.

‘Why was that?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe it was because I like freshly caught salmon.’

‘But not the guy who reeled it in?’