Country Doctor, Spring Bride. Abigail Gordon

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      ‘Would you just let me get a word in?’ she protested, and he became silent.

      ‘I want to apologise for my rudeness when you found me asleep in front of the heater, and also to say thanks for looking after me when I fainted. I don’t usually behave in such a manner.’ She sighed. ‘My excuse is that I’ve just had to cancel my wedding. Over the last few weeks I’ve been going through the process of calling it off and it has been a distressing nightmare. But it is done now and I’ve come home to live for the time being.’

      ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ he said quietly, and wondered what she would say if he told her he knew the feeling. But there were lots of different reasons for calling weddings off, and he could bet that his wasn’t the same as hers. ‘Was it to take place here in the village?’

      She shook her wet blonde head. ‘No. My fiancé wanted us to be married abroad in St Lucia.’

      ‘So a lot of your friends here would have been disappointed.’

      ‘Yes. It wasn’t my idea. But I was in love and…’ She tailed off.

      ‘Quite so,’ he said, and turned to go. The conversation was bringing back painful memories that he could only cope with when he was alone.

      ‘I’ll put some clothes on and join you shortly, if that’s all right,’ she said hesitantly, with the feeling that she’d said the wrong thing again, but this time she didn’t know what it was.

      ‘I said it was, didn’t I?’ This time he did go, down the stairs and into the kitchen.

      He was putting two plates of fish pie, peas and new potatoes on the table when she appeared hesitantly in the doorway, wearing a pink long-sleeved top and worn blue jeans, her blonde hair now dry. He had been feeling rather guilty about the way he had spoken to her upstairs and, seeing her now, looking so wary, he offered her a smile.

      ‘Come and sit down,’ he said, hoping he sounded more friendly. ‘Did your mother phone while I was out?’

      She relaxed a little, came in and sat down. ‘Yes. Just after you’d gone. She was surprised to know I’m back home and sorry she wasn’t here to greet me. Gran has had a quite severe angina attack and at the moment is in hospital. So Mum won’t be returning until she is sure that all is well with her, and if there is any doubt about it she’s going to bring her here to live. It’s handy, having four big bedrooms.’

      ‘Yes. Especially when one of them is being occupied by the lodger,’ he commented dryly. ‘Did you tell her that we’ve met?’

      ‘Er…yes. She seems to think very highly of you and even more so after I told her how you’d looked after me.’

      He nodded imperceptibly and for a while they ate in silence, both enjoying the tasty meal. Then Daniel spoke again.

      ‘So why didn’t you tell me that you’re in medicine too?’

      Kate shrugged. ‘At the moment that’s in the past. I was a doctor in A and E at a hospital down south. We both were. Craig, my fiancé, worked there too. But a few weeks ago the unit was transferred to another area where they had their own staff waiting to take over, which left some of us without jobs. I could have moved to another department, I suppose, like he did, but I left as a protest at the closure of a busy A and E centre.’

      ‘So it would seem that life hasn’t been treating you very well of late.’

      ‘No. It hasn’t. I wasn’t the one who called off the wedding. He had been the one keen to get married. Then suddenly he didn’t want to be tied down…to me, that was. He’d switched his affections to my flatmate.’

      ‘I’m sure that you must feel you’re well rid of him.’

      She smiled, showing even white teeth, and he thought how it transformed her face. So far she’d been scowling most of the time, but now he was seeing her as someone who would be quite something if she smiled more…in spite of the hairstyle.

      ‘I didn’t at first. That kind of thing makes one feel so unwanted and unlovable, but I’m getting there.’

      ‘I’m sure you are,’ he said with a smile of his own, and thought that this girl had some spirit. It was a shame that some low-life had tried to quench it. “Perhaps when you are fully recovered we can drink a toast to your continuing return to good health and a future spent with people who won’t let you down?’

      ‘Hmm. That would be lovely. So maybe you could tell me what’s happening at the surgery? Peter Swain has gone now, hasn’t he?’

      ‘Yes. But Miriam remains and I think she disapproves of me.’

      ‘Why, for goodness’ sake? Though thinking back to when I was there, it didn’t take much for her to start sighing and rolling her eyes.’

      He laughed. ‘Nothing has changed, except that I’m in charge now and as new people are moving into the area our list of patients is getting bigger all the time.’

      ‘Yes, it will be,’ she agreed. Suddenly a wave of tiredness swept over her. Getting to her feet, she said apologetically, ‘I think that maybe I left my bed a bit too soon. I’m not going to faint again,’ she told him as he eyed her in concern. ‘I just suddenly feel very tired.’

      ‘That will be the after-effects of you having had such a high temperature. Do go back to bed by all means and I’ll look in on you later to make sure you are all right. We can have the wine another time.’

      She nodded and got up from the table, pausing in the doorway. ‘I’m sorry I’m being such a drag, Dr Dreyfus,’ she said.

      He smiled. ‘The name is Daniel, and none of us can help being ill at some time or another, as we doctors well know, so don’t give it another thought. You’re probably run down after all the stress you’ve been under, and would have thrown the virus off at another time.’

      As she went slowly up the stairs, Daniel was again wishing he hadn’t been so brusque with her when he’d come back from the surgery. On closer acquaintance, Kate seemed all right.

      Before he settled down for the night himself he went to check on her and found her sleeping peacefully. Her forehead was cool, her pulse regular, and as he moved away from the bed she turned in her sleep and murmured the name of the man she’d been going to marry, which made him wonder if she really had written him out of her life.

      When he woke up the next morning he could smell bacon grilling and when he went downstairs Kate was setting the table for breakfast.

      ‘My turn,’ she told him as toast popped up in the toaster and the kettle came to the boil.

      ‘So am I to take it that you are feeling better?’ he asked.

      ‘Mmm. Much. I’m going to start unpacking when we’ve had breakfast and I’m going to put the washing machine on, so if you have anything that needs washing, leave it out.’

      ‘And what are you going to do after that?’

      ‘Take a wedding dress to the charity shop in the village.’

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