Country Doctor, Spring Bride

‘Hello, there, Daniel,’ Michael Grimshaw, the landlord, said when they appeared, and, on seeing who was with him, ‘Kate! Nice to see you. Are you just visiting, or back for good?’

Before she had the chance to answer someone called from across the room, ‘So when’s the wedding, Kate? We’re always ready for a chance to dress up in the village, especially when it’s for one of our own.’

Daniel cast a quick glance at his companion. Was he ever going to be free of the feeling of responsibility he’d had for her from the very moment of their meeting? he wondered. What was Kate going to say to that?

The sparkle had gone as quickly as it had come, but she was totally composed as she announced for the benefit of anyone listening, ‘The wedding preparations are on hold at the moment. We’re spending some time apart, but I will bear in mind that you would like me to be married here when the occasion arises.’

As they sat down with their drinks he murmured. ‘Well done and very subtle. I’m proud of you. That took some pluck. It should give you some breathing space and delay any surmises about the wedding dress for the time being.’

She flashed him a watery smile. ‘Thanks for being with me. It did make it easier. At least I’ve been able to give a hint of things to come.’

‘You have indeed, and now relax for a while, Kate. What shall we talk about?’

The smile was still there. “Sydenham’s chorea?’

‘No. We’ve given that enough of an airing until I have some results on young Billy.’ He sighed. ‘It’s been a week of coming into contact with some very unfortunate people, but of course that’s the doctor’s lot.

‘I had an anxious young woman consult me who is fighting breast cancer and is facing a mastectomy. She’s considering having both breasts removed to give herself a better chance and wanted my opinion.’

‘What did you advise?’

‘That she see the oncologist and get an opinion from her. She is under the hospital and I don’t know enough about her case to tell her what to do, but I could see sense in what she was contemplating.’

‘It makes one’s own troubles seem small compared to that kind of problem, doesn’t it?’ Kate said sombrely.

‘Hmm. But they don’t go away because of it, do they?’

She glanced at him curiously. ‘You don’t come over as having problems Although I do sense that you are alone. Do you not have any family?’

‘If you mean am I married, or in any other kind of relationship, the answer is no.’

‘Amazing,’ said Kate, wondering why such an attractive man was on his own.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Daniel levelly, as he sipped his drink.

‘Just that lots of women would see you as their dream man.’

He laughed, but there was no mirth in it. ‘Really? Well, I’m sure that you won’t get any of those sorts of ideas. Though saying that, I know how the minds of people on the rebound can work.’

As she was about to voice an indignant protest he went on, ‘I’m afraid that my life is not an open book, like yours. Some of its pages will stay closed for ever. Both my parents are dead. I had a fantastic childhood and would have wanted the same for any children I might have. But we don’t always get what we want, do we?’

‘So are the closed pages about your parents?’ Kate asked, rather annoyed about his assumption that she could be some sort of desperate woman on the rebound.

‘No,’ he said abruptly. ‘They are not, and I think we should be making a move. If you can lie in bed in the morning, I can’t.’

‘What about my interview?’ Kate asked nervously.

‘Leave it with me. After the house calls and before the late surgery would be a good time, but I’ll have to check with Miriam so that she will be available to join us. I don’t want to go over her head in this.’

As they walked home in the quiet night beneath a sky full of stars Daniel said, ‘Do you think you might find working at the practice a bit tame after a busy A and E department?’

‘I didn’t before,’ she told him. ‘General practice might move at a slower pace, yet it’s just as challenging in its own way.’

Kate couldn’t help but feel hopeful. But she told herself she wasn’t there yet. There was nothing to say that she was the only person he had in mind for the position, and what about Miriam? Would she want her on the staff?

That night she dreamt about the wedding dress. That she’d gone to the wardrobe and it was hanging there unused and unwanted. In the dream she’d cried out in dismay and Daniel had come dashing in to see what was wrong.

‘You said you’d taken it to the charity shop!’ she’d sobbed.

‘What? The wedding dress? I did!’ he’d cried, and when she looked again it had gone.

She must have been crying out in her sleep because his voice broke into the dream and she woke up. He was outside her door, asking if she was all right. Getting slowly out of bed, she padded across in her nightdress and opened the door.

‘I was dreaming,’ she told him. ‘I’m sorry if I disturbed you.’

‘It can’t have been very pleasant from the sound of it.’

‘It was about the wedding dress. I dreamt it was in the wardrobe and I thought it had come back to haunt me.’

‘Well, we both know that’s crazy, don’t we?’ he said calmly. ‘Go back to bed and I’ll go down and make you a drink. What would you like? Tea, coffee, hot chocolate?’

‘Hot chocolate would be lovely,’ she said awkwardly. ‘I am really so sorry that I disturbed you.’

‘You didn’t. I was reading for a while. Otherwise I mightn’t have heard you. You’re not likely to put a cancelled wedding behind you without bad moments, you know. Just take it one day at a time.’

She nodded meekly. ‘Yes. I will.’

It would have been their visit to the pub that had triggered the dream, she thought when he’d gone downstairs. They’d passed the charity shop on the way and she’d been acutely aware that inside it was her wedding dress.

She gratefully accepted the hot chocolate Daniel soon brought up to her. About to leave, he asked from the doorway of her bedroom, ‘Has your mother been in touch today?’

‘Yes. She rang this morning and sends her regards.’

‘Any signs of her coming home?’

‘Not so far,’ she told him with a feeling that he might be asking for various reasons. One of them being that he would be happy to pass her and her problems back into her mother’s keeping.

‘So your gran is no better?’

‘Mum says she’s improving, but has quite a way to go yet.’

‘The main thing is that she’s recovering. It must be a relief for you both, and now, if you promise not to have any more strange dreams, I’ll go and get some sleep myself, and will see you in the morning.’

‘Thanks once again for putting up with me,’ she said, her blue eyes appealing.

‘Don’t mention it,’ he replied dryly, and went to try and forget her for a few hours.

The next morning he said to Miriam, ‘I’m thinking of interviewing Kate Barrington for the position of a third doctor in the practice, and I’d like you to be there.’

‘Really?’ she said stiffly. ‘Since when?’

‘Since I have found her to be an intelligent and knowledgeable young doctor. Do you have any objections?’

‘If it reduces my workload, no. She has worked here before, you know.’

‘Yes. So I believe. What was she like then?’

‘Young, enthusiastic. Eager to learn, I suppose.’

‘So why didn’t she stay?’

‘The pull of hospital health care where she has been employed until very recently, I believe.’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ he agreed, ‘but I think that Kate has given up on that and wants to be more home-based. So how about I ask her to come in tomorrow after we’ve finished the home visits?’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she said in her usual flat tones, and went to start her day.

That was one hurdle crossed, he thought when she’d gone. He had not been sure of how Miriam would react, but it seemed as if Kate had been highly suitable when she’d worked in the practice before, so she was already halfway to being taken on. He just wished that she was of a similar age to Miriam and just as unexciting, then she wouldn’t take over his thoughts so much.

He rang her in his lunch-hour to tell her about the interview time. She’d still been asleep when he’d left, but now she was up and about and happy to know that things were moving.

‘What did Miriam say?’ she wanted to know.

‘She seemed to approve of the idea.’

‘Oh, good! I’ll keep my fingers crossed, then, and, Daniel, whether you offer me the position or not, thank you for being so good to me.’

There was a moment’s silence at the other end of the line and then he said stiltedly, ‘Yes, well, thanks for that. The truth of the matter is that I’ve felt I owed it to your mother to look after you. Ruth has been very kind to me. You are very fortunate to have her in your life.’

When he’d replaced the receiver Kate wondered why she felt as if she’d been warned off. There was no reason why she should, but the feeling was there nonetheless. Maybe it was why Daniel was alone. There was something of the ‘don’t butt into my life’ about him.

Yet he seemed to get on fine with her mother and the villagers seemed to all like him. Perhaps it was just her that he was wary of. But why? She certainly hadn’t got any designs on him. Her heart was bruised and aching from what Craig had done to her. Yet, she thought with wry amusement, Daniel was the only man whose underwear she had ever laundered, though he’d made it clear at the time that he’d rather she hadn’t.

She decided that tomorrow she wouldn’t put a foot wrong. If nothing else, she would get a smile out of Miriam.

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