Christmas Magic In Heatherdale. Abigail Gordon

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      No doubt he was thinking that hers was going to lower the tone of the neighbourhood and for the first time since she’d arrived in Heatherdale the grim pride and determination that had helped her to stagger through recent months surfaced.

      As if he sensed that she wanted him gone, Ryan moved towards the door but paused with his hand on the handle and said, ‘I’m sure that you will like it here once you have made the house look how you want it to be.’ He would have to be blind not to realise that she wasn’t happy about coming to live in Heatherdale.

      He almost asked if she would like to eat with them again but sensed the same reluctance as the night before. He bade her goodbye and, determined to put Melissa Redmond to the back of his mind, he went to join his daughters and the faithful Mollie, without whom he would be harassed full time.

      ‘I saw you call at the house next door,’ she said when he appeared. ‘Is she all right? It has been all systems go in there today.’

      ‘Yes, it would seem so,’ he told her. ‘I felt she was relieved that I didn’t linger. I get a distinct feeling that Melissa Redmond wants to be left alone.’

      ‘Give her time,’ she said. ‘The lass looked totally traumatised when we saw her last night. Something isn’t right in her life. It stands out a mile, or she wouldn’t have come here to live in a house that hasn’t been touched for years. Don’t forget the couple of times that you’ve seen her she won’t have been at her best.’

      ‘Yes, I suppose you’re right,’ he said absently, as Rhianna and Martha came running down the stairs at that moment, and as he hugged them to him the stranger next door was forgotten in the pleasure of the moment.

      When Ryan had gone, Melissa sank down onto the bottom step of the stairs. The cooker and its requirements temporarily forgotten, she gazed into space.

      She wondered what Ryan did for a living. When she’d joined them for breakfast it had been plain to see that he was a loving father in the absence of a mother who wasn’t around any more, yet he would have to earn a living somehow or other.

      There was an air of authority about him that was noticeable and, much as she was not eager to be involved in the lives of those around her, she couldn’t help wondering about him.

      Still, there were more important priorities than getting to know the neighbours in this town, which would fit in a corner of Manchester. Such as turning her grandmother’s house into a home and finding a job. Dared she intrude on the man next door once again by asking him for information about the famous hospital that she would love to be part of, and the local job centre in that order, so that tomorrow she would have a head start on the employment scene? No sooner had the thought occurred to her than she was acting on it.

      Changing her working clothes for a stylish cashmere top, which belonged to happier days, and skinny jeans, Melissa was pressing his doorbell seconds later. When the door opened and he was framed there, looking not the least surprised, she said awkwardly, ‘I wondered if you might be able to tell me anything about Heatherdale Hospital? Also, can you let me know where the job centre is? I’m going to go looking for employment tomorrow.’

      ‘In that case, hadn’t you better come in?’

      She nodded awkwardly and stepped past him into the hall with its beautiful staircase, aware from the surprise in his glance that it was the first time he had seen her looking even the least bit attractive. As she waited for him to say something she felt herself reddening.

      ‘Are you aware that Heatherdale Hospital is for children only?’ he asked, breaking into the moment. ‘If you feel that you need some sort of hospital treatment, you will have to go to Manchester.’

      She was smiling. ‘I need the information about the hospital because I would just die for the chance to work there.’

      ‘Doing what?’ he asked, with raised brows.

      ‘I’ve got a degree in paediatrics. When I qualified in the summer I was offered a position at a big Manchester hospital and loved it, but that came to an end when my life fell apart. I had to resign because I intended to leave the area due to my family circumstances.’

      So that was what she’d meant when she’d said she had a job making sick children well again. At the time Ryan had wondered if she was employed by some sort of charity, but it seemed she was much more hands on than that, and incredibly he and Julian needed someone like her. Melissa Redmond might be heaven sent!

      Obviously he’d never seen her in action. The offer he was going to make her at this moment would be a temporary one until he had her measure, and aware that they were still standing in the hall as she had meant it to be just a brief call on her part, he said, ‘Come through to the sitting room, while I make my contribution to this night of surprises.’

      When they were seated with her eyes fixed on him questioningly he said, ‘How would you like to work with me at Heatherdale Children’s Hospital?’

      ‘What?’ she gasped. ‘I don’t understand.’

      ‘I’m the paediatric consultant for the neurology wards there and my assistant and I need another registrar to help with the workload. It would be on probationary terms at first but with the opportunity of permanency for the right person. What do you say? Do you want to give it a try?’

      ‘Of course I do!’ she breathed, her eyes shining. ‘I had no idea that was what you did for a living.’

      ‘I don’t mean to pry, Melissa, but can you tell me something about what brought you to Heatherdale? I need to know if it would have any effect on your work and position at the hospital.’

      She nodded mutely, took a deep breath. ‘My father died six months ago as a result of a road accident when he’d had quite a lot of alcohol. From having a life of luxury and pampering I became penniless because, unbeknown to me, he’d accumulated huge gambling debts over the last couple of years.

      ‘I was engaged to be married at the time and fully expected that my future husband would be there to support me as I dealt with bailiffs and demands for payment from those that my father owed money to, but I was mistaken.

      ‘My fiancé couldn’t break off the engagement fast enough, and once I’d paid all my father’s debts, which meant selling the fabulous house we’d lived in, all I could think of was leaving the area and finding a bolt hole, somewhere to lick my wounds. The only answer to that was my grandmother’s house, which is a far cry from the property I’d lived in before but is mine and isn’t tainted. So there you have it, a sorry story worthy of a reality TV show.’

      ‘Thanks for telling me,’ Ryan said. ‘We all have our nightmares to face at one time or another and you have certainly faced up to yours. Can you come to the hospital some time tomorrow and I’ll show you round and introduce you to people, including Personnel, who will need you to fill out endless forms.’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ she breathed. ‘Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get back into paediatrics. I love working with children and hope to have some of my own one day.’

      He nodded as the memory of Rhianna and Martha’s approval of their breakfast guest resurfaced. The stranger who had come to Heatherdale in the dark of a winter night would make some child a loving mother one day in every sense of the word, he imagined, just as Beth had been to their children.

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