His Christmas Bride-To-Be. Abigail Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ the funeral is organised and has taken place we can both get on with our lives.’ But as the steak began to sizzle and the vegetables he intended having with it came to the boil Emma had one last thing to say and he almost groaned out loud.

      ‘Just one thing and then I really will leave you to enjoy your Sunday evening. It is with regard to the food that you provided me with. How much am I in your debt?’

      ‘You’re not. You owe me nothing,’ he said abruptly. ‘It was part of the promise that I made to a dying man.’

      Her response came fast. ‘So let me make you a meal after the practice has closed tomorrow evening. It would save me butting into your lunch hour to discuss the arrangements for next Sunday.’

      His reply was given at a similar speed. ‘No! I’ve told you, Emma. You owe me nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow at midday.’ And as she rang off without further comment it was clear to her that he was more than eager for the role he had played during recent weeks to be at an end.

      Glenn had been looking forward to the meal he’d cooked, but every time he thought about how uncivil he’d been when she’d wanted to thank him for what he’d done for her the food felt as if it would choke him.

      Emma would have understood if you’d explained that you still mourn the loss of your wife under horrendous circumstances, he told himself, and that after a week at the surgery you want to be left in peace.

      Pushing the plate away from him, he poured a glass of wine and went to sit in front of the log fire that was burning brightly in the sitting room. Gazing morosely at the dancing flames, Glenn admitted to himself that it was most unfair to transfer the pain of his shattered life to a stranger such as her.

      He was behaving like a complete moron. Why in heaven’s name didn’t he explain the reason for his behaviour and try to get it in perspective? Otherwise people would start asking questions that he didn’t want to answer.

      For one thing, Emma wouldn’t want to feel that his attitude was another dark chapter of her life to add to the fact that she had to attend the funeral of a man who had confessed to causing her great hurt.

      With determination to atone for the rebuff he’d handed out when she’d wanted to make him a meal, Glenn decided that he would call at her house on his way home the following evening if she didn’t appear in the lunch hour, and do all he could to show Emma that he felt no ill will towards her. That his behaviour came from pain that never went away, so he needed to focus on work.

      As his first appointment of the day arrived on the following morning he settled down to what he did best: looking after his patients.

      The staff of the practice consisted of Lydia, the practice manager, six GPs with himself as senior, two trainee GPs, who were there to earn their accreditation after qualifying as doctors, and four incredible receptionists who held it all together.

      Once the man who had been his predecessor had been laid to rest, the gloom that had hung over the practice might lighten. As a new era began, was Jeremy’s prodigal daughter going to want to join the practice, or had he put her off completely? he wondered.

      Back at the house the night before Emma had been deep in thought as she’d cleared away after a solitary meal, and they had not been happy thoughts. Did she want to be in the first funeral car on her own? There was no one who should rightly be with her. Her mother had left no relations, neither had Jeremy—and she had no knowledge of who her birth father might be.

      Maybe Lydia would join her. If she did it would help to take away some of the dreadful lost and lonely feeling that she’d had ever since she’d been told with brutal clarity that the man she had always thought to be her father, in fact, was not.

      The other concern on her mind was the fact that she was having a bad start in getting to know the man who had replaced Jeremy in the practice. She was experiencing a kind and thoughtful side to his character that was contradicted by his brusque attitude on occasion.

      It was clear that Glenn was not a good mixer. It would be interesting to find out what sort of a man he was if she joined the practice staff. She did want to feel happy and fulfilled back in Glenminster, if that was possible.

      She didn’t want to return to the heat and endless toil of Africa until she had recharged her batteries in the place where she had grown up and where she’d had a job she’d loved until the bubble of her contentment had burst.

      With those thoughts in mind she presented herself at the practice in the lunch hour. When Glenn’s last morning patient had gone, and before the afternoon’s sick and suffering began to arrive, he left his consulting room and went to see if Emma had come, as he’d asked her to. He was relieved to find her outside in the corridor deep in conversation with Lydia.

      On seeing him the older woman suggested that Emma come down to her office for a coffee before she went, and left them together. So Glenn opened the door that he’d just come through and when Emma was seated on the opposite side of his desk at his invitation he asked, ‘So how are you this morning?’ He followed it with another question. ‘Are you any nearer to knowing how you want the funeral to be arranged?’

      Emma was looking around her. The last time she’d been in the room Jeremy had been seated where Glenn was now. The memory of her last day in Glenminster came back so clearly it was making her feel weak and disoriented, although Jeremy hadn’t delivered the actual body blow until late that evening, when he’d been drinking and had been about to climb the stairs to sleep it off.

      Glenn watched the colour drain from her face and came round the desk to stand beside her, concerned. But Emma was rallying, taking control of the black moment from the past. Managing a wan smile as he gazed down at her anxiously, she said, ‘I’m all right, it was just a memory of the last time I was in this room and what happened afterwards that knocked me sideways.’

      Straightening up in the chair, she said, ‘In answer to your question, I’m fine. I’ve just asked Lydia if she will join me in the one and only funeral car that will be needed instead of my being alone. I have no relatives that I could ask to keep me company on such a depressing occasion. Obviously there will be other people following in their cars, but that is how it will be for me.’

      ‘And what did she say?’ he asked uncomfortably, knowing that he should have given some thought to Emma’s solitariness on the day instead of being so wrapped up in his own feelings.

      ‘She said yes, that she will be with me.’

      ‘Good. I hadn’t realised just how alone you are, Emma,’ he commented. ‘If Lydia hadn’t been able to do as you asked I would have volunteered. Though whether you would have wanted someone you hardly know with you on such an occasion seems unlikely.’

      He glanced at a clock on the wall and commented, ‘I can only give you half an hour before my afternoon patients start arriving so what exactly do you want to discuss?’

      ‘I’m going to have an announcement in the local press, announcing that the funeral will be on Sunday at the crematorium at three o’clock, for the benefit of anyone wanting to take part in the service or just to watch,’ she told him, ‘and I’m arranging a meal for afterwards for the practice staff and any of his close friends.’

      ‘That sounds fine,’ he agreed. ‘What about flowers?’

      ‘No. Instead, I’d like donations to be made to the Heart Foundation, or locally to Horizon’s Eye Hospital, which is an amazing place. Do you think those kind СКАЧАТЬ