His Christmas Bride-To-Be. Abigail Gordon

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ if I would be interested in replacing him at the practice in Glenminster as he was ready to retire. Once I’d seen it and been introduced to staff I was keen to take over, and that is how I come to be here.’

      ‘Going through the usual formalities with the health services and the rest took a while but I had no regrets, and now we have his daughter back with us, so hopefully he will rest in peace. You don’t resemble him at all, do you?’ he commented.

      He saw her flinch but her only comment gave nothing away.

      ‘No,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I’m more like my mother.’ Having no wish to start going down those sort of channels in the conversation, she said, ‘Thanks again, Dr Bartlett, for all that you’ve done for both me and him.’ On the point of leaving, she commented, ‘Your home is lovely.’

      He nodded. ‘Yes, I suppose it is, and with the hills above and the delightful town below them, I am happy to be settled here.’

      ‘So do you live alone, then?’ she couldn’t resist asking.

      There was a glint in the deep blue eyes observing her and Emma wished she hadn’t asked as his reply was short and purposeful, and to make it even more so he had opened the door and was waiting for her to depart as he delivered it. ‘Yes. I prefer the solitary life. It is so much easier to deal with.’

      She smiled a twisted smile and told him, ‘I’ve had a lot of that sort of thing where I’ve been based over the last few years and to me it was not easy to cope with at all. Solitariness is something that takes all the colour out of life, so I’m afraid I can’t agree with you on that.’ And stepping out into the crisp Sunday morning, she walked briskly towards the town centre and the house on the edge of it that the man who hadn’t been her father had left to her for reasons she didn’t know.

      There had been no generosity in Jeremy on that awful night and ever since she had needed a name that wasn’t his: the name of the man who had made her mother pregnant. Did he even know that he had a daughter?

      Common sense was butting in, taking over her thought processes. So what? You had a fantastic mother who loved and cherished you. Let that be balm to your soul, and as for that guy back there, doesn’t every doctor long for peace after spending long hours of each day caring for the health of others? If you’ve never had the same yearning, you are unique.

      Back at the property that Emma had admired, Glenn was facing up to the fact that his description of his home life must have sounded extremely boring. With a glance at the photograph on his bedside table he wondered what Jeremy’s daughter would think of him if she knew why he needed to be alone.

      Serena was gone, along with many others, taken from him by one of nature’s cruel tricks, a huge tsunami, unexpected, unbelievable. Since then he had lived for two things only, caring for his parents and his job, and there were times when the job was the least exhausting of the two.

      They’d been holidaying in one of the world’s delightful faraway places when it had struck. The only reason he had survived was because he’d taken a book with him to one of the resort’s golden beaches and had been engrossed in its contents, while Serena had been doing her favourite thing, swimming to a rock that was quite a way out and sunbathing there.

      When the huge wall of water had come thundering towards them, sweeping everything out of the way with its force, they’d both been caught up in it. Glenn had been closer to land and had surfaced and managed to hold onto driftwood before staggering towards what had been left of the hotel where they’d been staying. But of Serena, his wife, sunbathing on the rock far out, she and others like her had disappeared and had never been found.

      Weeks later, with all hope gone, Glenn had arrived back but had been unable to bear to stay where they’d lived together so happily. So he had moved to a new job and a new house in the town where his parents lived, telling the older folk that he didn’t want his affairs discussed amongst the residents of Glenminster, or anywhere else for that matter.

      The only way he had coped after leaving the practice up north to join the one in the town centre had been by giving his total commitment to his patients, and when away from the practice shutting himself into the converted barn that he’d bought and in the silence grieving for what he had lost.

      That day on the golf course had been a one-off. Jeremy had persuaded Glenn to join him there for a round or two much against his inclination because it would be interrupting the quiet time that he allowed himself whenever possible.

      When the other man had collapsed with a massive heart attack in the middle of the game and hadn’t responded to Glenn’s frantic efforts as they’d waited for an ambulance, Jeremy had begged him with his dying breath to find his daughter and bring her home to Glenminster. Though aghast at the request, as it had seemed that no one had known where she was, he had carried out Jeremy’s wishes faithfully. Once the funeral was over Glenn was fully intent on returning to his reclusive evenings and weekends.

      The fact that Emma, having only been back in her home town three days, had visited him on the third one had not been what he had expected. Neither was it what he was going to want once he began to live his own life again.

      He’d seen to it that she was back home where she belonged and on a grey winter’s day had made sure she would be warm and fed when she arrived. He had even gone so far as to make sure that she received a warm welcome home from the practice staff at the Barrington Bar, of all places, which had not been the kind of thing on his personal agenda. Once his duty had been done he had been off home to the peace that his bruised heart cried out for.

      Only to find that Emma had good manners. On the quiet Sunday morning she hadn’t picked up the phone to thank him for all that he’d done on her behalf, which until her chat with Lydia she’d had no knowledge of, but had come in person. So why was he feeling so edgy about it?

      Was she going to want to come back into the practice? They needed another doctor. But was the daughter of chancer and man about town Jeremy Chalmers someone he would want around the place?

      He spent the rest of the day clearing up fallen leaves in the garden and at last, satisfied that all was tidy, went inside when daylight began to fade and began to make himself a meal.

      As he was on the point of putting a piece of steak under the grill the phone rang and when Glenn heard Emma’s voice at the other end of the line he sighed. She didn’t hear it, but his tone of voice when he replied was enough for her to know it would have been better to have waited until the following morning to report the conversation she’d just had with a funeral director.

      ‘I’m sorry to disturb you again, Dr Bartlett,’ she said. ‘It is just that I’ve been speaking to the funeral firm, who have been waiting for me to appear with regard to a date for the funeral that has been unfortunately delayed because of my absence, and they pointed out that as my—er—father was so well known in the practice and around the town, maybe a Sunday would be the most suitable day. Then all the staff would be free and more of the townspeople would be able to attend, it not being a regular working day for most people.’

      ‘Yes, good thinking,’ he agreed, relieved that the final chapter of the sad episode on the golf course was to be soon for her sake as well as his. ‘Why not call in at the practice tomorrow so that I can help you with the rest of the arrangements?’

      There was silence at the other end of the line for a moment and then Emma said haltingly, ‘Are you sure you don’t mind me butting into your time there? I’m afraid that I’ve been in your face a lot since I returned.’

      Glenn СКАЧАТЬ