Swallowbrook's Wedding Of The Year

‘Sure. I’ll be on my way.’ And without further comment he went striding off in the direction of the lake, the waterfall and the cottage, and his last thought before he slept was about Julianne again. So far she hadn’t put a foot wrong. Either she was playing him up, or he’d got his wires crossed somewhere.

Maybe tomorrow he would ask her about Nadine—where she lived, how often they met and were their parents still around? Though perhaps not. He’d only been back a couple of days and was already showing an exaggerated interest in Julianne.

Both Aaron and Julianne were waiting for Nathan to mention the working-together-in-pairs arrangement and so far he hadn’t, but that omission was about to be dealt with late on Friday afternoon before the surgery closed for the weekend, when he said to them, ‘I’ve sorted out the new working arrangements.

‘I will pair with Helena. Hugo with Gina, who is going to extend her hours to match his now that her young ones are capable of being left for a short time after senior school, and the two of you will make up the third pair. I have every confidence that you will work well together, with Ruby being at hand if any of us doctors are not available for some reason, until such time as she becomes a stay-at-home mother like Libby with our young ones.’

The phone in his room was ringing and before they could say anything he’d gone to answer it. Aaron said in a low voice, ‘Maybe we should let it ride if we don’t want to be the objects of gossip.’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she agreed reluctantly, and without further comment went to make sure that the nurses’ room was immaculate before the surgery closed for the weekend.

Nathan shortly followed her into the room.

‘So you’re happy with that arrangement, then, Julianne?’ She shook her head.

‘You’re not?’ he exclaimed.

‘Not over the moon, no,’ she said flatly. ‘Do we have to?’

‘Do we have to what?’ he questioned, surprised at her reaction.

She was usually the easiest of people to deal with and he was taken aback by her lack of enthusiasm.

‘Work together.’

‘Why? Don’t you like the guy?’ he questioned.

‘He’s all right, I suppose.’

She’d once liked him a lot more than was good for her, and even now was accepting it without protest when Aaron made no secret of what he thought about her.

The head of the practice was laughing. ‘Don’t overdo the enthusiasm. Is there some sort of a problem that I don’t know about? It isn’t like you to be so choosy.’

Wanting my sister’s fiancé wasn’t like me either and no good came of that, she could have told him.

‘Shall we see how the two of you get on together for a trial period?’ he suggested.

Julianne forced a smile but said nothing more on the subject. Pulling on her coat, she wished Nathan a good weekend and headed out into the cold.

On arriving back at her cosy flat, she collapsed onto the sofa. Her usual vitality was in short supply and it was all because of what she saw as Aaron’s lurking presence.

She was still stunned by his willingness to do the same as she did and offer his services to the hospice. Maybe he was lonely and needed something to fill the hours away from the surgery, but he would soon have company when it got around that the new doctor was very easy on the eye, and would be no less handsome when the tan wore off.

After she’d had a meal of sorts that evening Julianne rang the group that she usually socialised with on Friday nights and informed them that she wouldn’t be going into the town to a cinema with them, as had been arranged earlier in the week, because she needed an early night after a hectic week.

It was only half-true. She’d gone with them many times when she’d been tired at the end of the week at the practice and with the time spent at the hospice and had always perked up as soon as they were all together, but those had been when Aaron hadn’t been back in her life, when he’d been far away in Africa, and now it wasn’t like that any more.

He was living almost near enough to touch, and although he’d made it plain that he hadn’t forgotten the past and was enduring her presence at the practice only because he had no choice. She had the feeling all the time that he would be watching everything she did and wouldn’t be awarding any Brownie points for excellence.

The fact remained, however, that she just couldn’t stay closeted in her small apartment on a Friday night, it would be just too stifling, and on that thought she wrapped up warmly and went for a walk by the lake in the opposite direction from The Falls Cottage.

She could see in the distance that the light was on and thought that Aaron must be having a quiet night too. It was dark everywhere, the light of day having gone completely. The coloured lanterns around the lake hadn’t yet come on and it was beginning to feel spooky beside the trees at the water’s edge as she seemed to be the only one walking there.

With a sudden yearning for warmth and light she turned swiftly to go back the way she had come and was faced with the sound of someone moving towards her through the trees.

Bereft of her usual quick thinking, she stood motionless until a hand appeared and parted the branches of the tree nearest her at the same moment that the lanterns came on.

‘What on earth are you doing here, rambling about on your own in the dark?’ Aaron asked in gritty greeting.

She thought illogically that he would never be any good as a Father Christmas unless he had a charisma transplant.

‘I’m doing the same as you, it would seem, walking by the lake,’ she said calmly, ‘only I’m not skulking about amongst the trees. I was just about to go back when the lights came on.’

‘I don’t know the place as well as you,’ he told her, ‘and thought I could take a short cut from one side of the lake to the other, but didn’t get it quite right. I must say that you are the last person I was expecting to see out here. I would have thought Friday night would be party night.’

‘It usually is in some form or other. My friends were surprised to hear that I was giving it a miss.’

‘And why are you?’ he asked, thinking that he must be insane, wanting to know the workings of her mind.

‘I didn’t want to risk meeting up with you again,’ she said with a hollow laugh, ‘but maybe it would have been wiser if I’d stayed in. Look at us here by the deserted lake, not a soul in sight, just the two of us. When I left the practice tonight it was with the thought that I wouldn’t be seeing anything of you for two whole days, but I was wrong.’

She was hugging her top coat more tightly around her, shivering in the night air, and he said, ‘Come on. I’ll buy you a hot drink at the hotel and then, unwelcome as my presence might be, will see you safely home.’ As she was about to refuse, he added, ‘Don’t argue!’

They drank their coffees largely in silence and Julianne didn’t think she could feel more uncomfortable in Aaron’s presence until he asked quite suddenly, ‘How is it that you’ve never married?’

‘That is soon answered,’ she replied. ‘The man I was attracted to didn’t love me and I’ve never felt like that about anyone since.’

‘It would seem to be that we do have one thing in common, then,’ he said sombrely, and looked at his watch.

She saw him and said, ‘Do you want us to make tracks?’

He shook his head and as if his thoughts were elsewhere said absently, ‘Whenever you’re ready will do.’

‘I’m ready now,’ she replied, with a sudden urge to be back where she belonged, away from this strange encounter that was the last thing she’d been expecting when she’d left the apartment earlier.

Once they were outside the bakery Julianne said, ‘Thanks for the coffee, Aaron. I had no intention of breaking into your evening, just the opposite, in fact.’

‘Don’t fret about it,’ he told her. ‘It was just a one-off,’ and even as he spoke he was turning in his tracks and with a wave of the hand was gone.

Unlocking the door, she began to climb the stairs and for the rest of the evening sat by the fire, wishing she hadn’t had her boots on when a band had begun playing for dancing in the hotel. It would have given her the chance to test just how deep his aversion to her was.

In the days when he’d been courting Nadine and the two of them had gone out leaving her alone in the flat, she had used to pretend that she was dancing in his arms and would float around the place dreamily, but only she knew that.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS Friday night and Julianne was drained physically and mentally by the happenings of a week that had seen Aaron back in Lakeland and herself trying to hang on to the shreds of what had been her life before that.

On any other occasion she would be out enjoying herself, but tonight wasn’t just any night, it was the one when incredibly she’d spent a short time with the man she’d once thought was the answer to all her girlish dreams, and it had been an unnerving experience.