Christmas Magic In Heatherdale. Abigail Gordon

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      ‘When I die I’m leaving the house to the child,’ she’d told him. ‘There might come a day when she’ll need a roof over her head.’ As the lights of Heatherdale had appeared on the horizon, Melissa had reflected that the grandmother she’d rarely seen had turned out to be her only friend.

      Martha’s innocent question about the stranger who had joined them for breakfast was uppermost in Ryan’s mind as he drove the short distance to the hospital. It had brought painful memories with it that he only allowed himself to think about when he was alone, but in that moment in the kitchen they had been starkly clear and he’d been extra-loving with the children while they’d waited for Mollie to arrive.

      His youngest daughter had described them as being without a mother because theirs had been hurt by a tree. It wouldn’t have been the easiest description of her death for Melissa Redmond to understand, but did that matter? She was just a stranger who had joined them for breakfast.

      He and Beth had attended the same school in Heatherdale, had both chosen medicine as a career, he in paediatrics and she in midwifery. It had always been there, the love that had blossomed in their late teens and taken them to the altar of a church in the small market town where they lived.

      Heatherdale boasted a famous spa that people came from far and wide to take advantage of, and beautiful Victorian architecture built from local stone that he never wearied of. There were spacious parks and elegant shops and restaurants. Everything that he loved was here except for the wife he had adored.

      When she’d died he had wanted to die too as life had lost its meaning, but there had been two small children, unhappy and confused because their mother hadn’t been there any more, so he’d pulled himself together for their sakes. In the last three years his life had been entirely taken up with his children and the health problems of those belonging to others.

      If it meant that he never had time to do his own thing, at least there was the comfort of knowing that his young daughters were safe and happy, and that he was serving a vital purpose in the Heatherdale Children’s Hospital where he was a senior paediatric consultant.

      He knew that folks found him irritating at times because he never socialised, was always too busy when asked out to dine, even though he had Mollie, who would always take on the role of childminder if needed and who checked out every available woman she met as a possible new wife for him, without actually saying so openly.

      As Melissa looked around her house in the cold light of day she was hoping that today would not be quite as horrendous as yesterday. However, every day since she’d lost her father and discovered what he had been involved in had been dreadful.

      For the past few weeks she’d felt lost and alone, like some sort of outcast. Ryan’s kindness had been a brief relief from what had been a nightmare for her, but at the same time getting involved with anyone at the moment was the last thing she wanted to do. Especially with the man who lived next door.

      All she craved for was solitude, somewhere to hide while her hurts healed, but the die was cast. She wasn’t going to get the chance to be just a stranger who nodded briefly during her comings and goings job-seeking and then went in and closed the door.

      But, as if to balance the scales, there were those two lovely children and it would be a pleasure to babysit them if ever Ryan felt he could trust her.

      She’d also contacted the electricity people. She was informed that they were on their way with a new meter and were going to check all the primitive services and appliances in the house while they were there.

      They arrived within minutes and as light began to appear in her darkness, in more ways than one, Melissa rolled up her sleeves and looked around her for what had to be her first task of the day. The guy who had just fixed the electricity meter decided it for her by pointing to an ancient but solid-looking gas fire and asking if she’d contacted the gas services yet as both the fire and an ancient cooker were gas powered.

      She needed no second telling as having the fire working meant warmth and the cooker hot food, when she’d cleaned the grime off it and had the chance to shop.

      The most pressing mission for Ryan, on his arrival at the hospital, was to start the search in earnest for the new registrar for their department.

      The procedure with staff vacancies at the hospital was to advertise them internally first, but so far there had been no joy for the two consultants and the vacancy would soon be advertised locally

      Today he had two clinics arranged for consultations, plus a slot in Theatre in the late afternoon. With all of that ahead of him he hadn’t had time to check on how his new neighbour was coping at her house.

      There’d been an electricity van outside and a plumber’s vehicle pulling up alongside it as he’d driven past. He decided he owed her one more visit to check she was managing okay then he would step back and let her get on with her life while he got on with his.

      The surgery he was committed to in the afternoon was minor compared to some of the operations he performed on unfortunate little ones and hopefully he would be home in time to have a quick word with Melissa before his special time with his children began.

      As Ryan was preparing to put in an appearance at his first clinic of the day his assistant, Julian, appeared and commented breezily, ‘Still no sign of a saviour in terms of over-booking, I see. Personnel need to pull their finger out and get us another doctor. I’ve got a list as long as my arm for today and I’m not used to it.’

      Julian Tindall, with his dark attractiveness, was every woman’s dream man, until they got to know him better!

      Inclined to be lazy, but on the ball in an emergency, Julian was a paediatric consultant like himself and could go places if he stopped fooling around with every attractive woman he met and got his act together.

      Ryan held the paediatric unit together with the kind of steadfastness that he applied to every aspect of his daily life, and if the nights spent without Beth by his side were long and lonely, only he knew that.

CHAPTER TWO

      MELISSA’S SECOND DAY in Heatherdale was progressing and she was beginning to feel calmer. The neglected house was starting to come out of its murky cocoon, though not enough for her to rejoice totally. There was going to be mammoth amount of decorating and refurbishing to be done.

      But the electricity was on, the plumber she’d asked to come had switched on the water and checked for leaks, and, joy of joys, the cleaners were hard at work, getting rid of the grime and mustiness of years.

      Her clothes and the few belongings she had salvaged from the sale of the Cheshire house had arrived in the late afternoon. They included a couple of carpets, an expensive wardrobe and dressing table, a dining table and two easy chairs, but there was no kitchen equipment, which meant that for the time being she was going to have to manage with a solid-looking but unattractive gas cooker that was so old it would qualify as an antique.

      Yet it had lit at the first attempt and as soon as the cleaners had finished for the day with a promise to come back in the morning, she began to clean it, and was on her knees in front of it when a knock came on the door. She raised herself slowly upright.

      With hair held back with a shoelace and dressed in an old pair of jeans and a much-washed jumper that the Cheshire set would never associate her with, she went slowly to answer the СКАЧАТЬ