His Christmas Bride-To-Be. Abigail Gordon

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      They’d gone for a round of golf after lunch at the club and while on the course Jeremy had suffered the heart attack that had proved fatal. In intense pain he had managed to gasp out his last request and he, Glenn, working on him desperately as he’d tried to save him, had been stunned when he’d heard what it was.

      ‘I have a daughter,’ he’d croaked between pain spasms, ‘and I upset her gravely some years ago, so much so that she left to go where I don’t know, except it wasn’t in this country. Emma is a doctor and most likely has gone to one of the hot spots where they need as many medics as they can get.’

      ‘Bring her home for me, Glenn, back to where she was happy until I told her some unmentionable things about me.’

      His lips had been blue, his eyes glazing even as the sound of an approaching ambulance could be heard screeching towards them, and his last words had been, ‘Promise you will?’

      ‘Yes, I promise,’ he’d told him gravely, and then his father’s friend had died.

      Now, sitting sombrely in the attractive sitting room of the property he’d bought on the occasion of taking over the practice, Glenn was remembering the time and effort he’d put in to discover the whereabouts of the missing daughter. He was upset to think that he hadn’t tuned in to who she was outside the surgery the night before.

      Fortunately he’d made sure that the house that had been her home previously was warm and habitable a day early and had had food in the refrigerator. Then had gone the extra mile by suggesting that the folk from the practice make her welcome with an evening in one of Glenminster’s high spots.

      Now just one thing remained regarding his promise to her father, and when that was done maybe he would be able to have a life of his own once again. The task of locating Emma Chalmers had been mammoth.

      He would be there for her at her father’s funeral and once that ordeal was over he was going to step aside and let her get on with her life. The same way he intended to carry on with his own, which was empty of womankind and was going to stay that way.

      Drawing the curtains across to shut out the night, he went slowly up the spiral staircase that graced the hallway of his home and lay on top of the bedcovers, his last concern before sleep claimed him being the stranger that he had reluctantly taken under his wing.

      What was her story? he wondered. Had she been close to Jeremy and they’d rowed about something that had made her go off in a huff? From what he’d said in his dying moments, it had seemed that Jeremy had been the reason for Emma’s departure and whatever it had been he’d had cause to regret it.

      Since coming back to her roots she had never mentioned him, which was not a good omen, and what about the mother that she’d lost not so long before her hasty departure? What sort of a marriage had she and Jeremy had?

CHAPTER TWO

      THERE WERE A few offers to see Emma home safely when the Barrington Bar closed at the stroke of midnight heralding the Sabbath, but Lydia forestalled them by saying, ‘I’m in my car, Emma, and haven’t been on the wine. Would you like a lift as I have to pass your place?’ And added to the rest, ‘That leaves two more empty places if anyone wants to join us.’

      The offer was immediately taken up by older members of staff, one of the practice nurses and a receptionist, both of whom lived just a short distance away, and when they were eventually alone in the car Lydia said, ‘So how has your first full day back in Glenminster felt?’

      ‘Very strange,’ Emma told her, ‘and unexpectedly pleasant. But that feeling isn’t going to last long when I start making the funeral arrangements for Jeremy. He wasn’t my father. Did you know that, Lydia?’

      ‘No, I didn’t!’ she gasped ‘How long have you been aware of it?’

      ‘Just as long as it took him to let me see how little I meant to him—which was immediately after he’d said he wanted me gone, out of the way.’

      The house was in sight and when Lydia stopped the car she said dejectedly, ‘And all of that was because he wanted to marry me? Surely he didn’t think I would allow him to hurt you so that he could have me. None of it brought him any joy, did it? Without even knowing about what he had said regarding him not being your father, I refused to go ahead with the wedding when he told me that he’d made it clear that you wouldn’t be welcome around the place once we were married. Sadly, by that time Emma, you’d gone and not a single person knew where you were.

      ‘Jeremy was with Glenn when he had the heart attack and made him promise to find you and bring you back to Glenminster to make up for all the hurt he’d caused you. So he did have a conscience of sorts, I suppose. Glenn, being the kind of guy who keeps his word, spent hours searching for you in every possible way until he finally located you. No doubt once the funeral is over he will be ready to get back to his own life, hoping that yours is sorted.’

      Shaken to the core by what she’d been told about the man she’d been going to marry, Lydia was about to drive off into the night when Emma asked, ‘Was it Dr Bartlett who saw to it that there was heating and food in the house?’

      ‘Yes,’ she was told. ‘Glenn mentioned that he was going to deal with those things and you almost arrived before he’d done so by appearing a day early. Now, one last thing before I go—have you enjoyed tonight, Emma?’

      ‘It was wonderful,’ she said, ‘and would have been even more so if I could have thanked Dr Bartlett for all he has done for me, but as I didn’t know about it I shall make up for my lack of appreciation in the morning.’

      Glenn was having a late breakfast when he saw Emma appear on Sunday morning, and as he watched her walk purposefully along the drive he sighed. What now? he wondered. He didn’t have to wait long for an answer as once he had invited her inside she told him, ‘I’m here to say thank you for all that you’ve done for me, Dr Bartlett. I had no idea until Lydia explained on the way home last night that my father had put upon you the burden of finding me, and that it was you who had made my homecoming as comfortable as possible with food and warmth. It must have all been very time-consuming.’

      He was smiling, partly with relief because she wanted no more from him and because she was so easily pleased with what he’d done for her. At the beginning Emma Chalmers had just been a lost soul that Jeremy had asked him to find so that he could die in the hope that he, Glenn, would bring her back to where she belonged. Difficult as the process had sometimes been, he’d had no regrets in having to keep the promise he’d made.

      Pointing to a comfortable chair by the fireside, he said, ‘It was in a good cause, Emma, and having now met you I realise just how worthy it was. Whatever it was that Jeremy had done to you it was clear that he regretted it. I could tell that it lay heavily on his conscience, and as my last involvement in your affairs, if you need any assistance with the funeral arrangements, you have only to ask.’

      She was smiling but there were tears on her lashes as she said, ‘I will try not to involve you if I can, but thanks for the offer.’

      As she rose from the chair, ready to depart, he said, ‘My parents will be at the funeral. They are a crazy pair but their hearts are in the right place and I love them dearly. It was my dad who told Jeremy that I was a doctor and had come to live in the village after leaving a practice up north. So that was how I came to be with him on the day he died.

      ‘Jeremy СКАЧАТЬ