Swallowbrook's Wedding Of The Year

‘You didn’t have to come in today,’ Nathan told him, pleasantly surprised. ‘I did say take a couple of days to get settled in.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Aaron replied. ‘But I was settled as soon as I saw the lake and the rest of the village. I had no intention of ever coming back to this area until that day when you suggested I fill the vacancy, and now I’ve arrived I realise what I’ve been missing.’

‘Fine,’ his friend said. ‘Come along and I’ll introduce you to the staff. First the other doctors, our newlyweds Ruby and Hugo Lawrence, and then the three practice nurses. There’s Helena, who has been with us for ever and is the practice’s senior nurse. Then Gina, who is the mother of two young boys and works part-time to fit in with school hours. And then there is our bright morning star …

‘Oh! Not so bright this morning!’ he commented as Julianne came hurrying in through the main doors of the practice looking pale and heavy-eyed, her pallor deepening when she saw Aaron standing in Reception.

As she halted on seeing them, Nathan said laughingly, ‘I was just telling Aaron that you are our bright morning star, but you seem to have lost your shine today.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked. ‘I had a restless night, but I’ll be all right as soon as I’ve had a cup of tea.’ And with a grimace of a smile in Aaron’s direction she added, ‘Nice to meet you, Dr Somerton.’

‘And you too Nurse, er …?’ he replied.

‘Julianne Marshall.’ She waited with bated breath.

‘Nice to meet you, Julianne Marshall.’ And only by the flicker of an eyelid could she tell that he knew who she was.

‘If you will excuse me’ she said, ‘I need to get changed while you are being introduced to the rest of the staff.’

Julianne scurried to the nurses’ rooms, which were unoccupied at that moment.

‘Ugh!’ she groaned. ‘That was worse than taking castor oil! I’m sure he recognised me. My name isn’t one he would forget in a hurry!’

She quickly changed then headed for the kitchen. With ten minutes before the first appointment of the day, she found Aaron in there, chatting to Laura Armitage. So purposely took her drink to the far end of the room and chatted to one of the receptionists until Nathan announced that he was about to open up, and there was a general exodus.

Their glances met briefly as Aaron stepped back to let her and the other two nurses pass, and if she’d had any doubts before as to whether he recognised her or not, the set of his mouth held the answer, and she knew that life was not going to be easy in the days to come.

Hell’s bells! Aaron thought grimly as Nathan showed him his newly decorated consulting room. The dark-haired nurse was the deceitful bridesmaid who had witnessed his humiliation and been unaffected by it. What a horrendous homecoming! So much for the future being free of the past.

If he remembered rightly, at the time of the wedding that never was she’d been doing her nurse’s training then, and that was about all he’d known about her, until he’d seen her composed expression when his bride had gone like a bullet from a gun.

But it was all long ago, water under the bridge. He still smarted when he thought about it, but it only happened rarely now, and it shouldn’t be hard to give the ‘bright morning star’ a wide berth.

Yet Nathan’s next comment made that seem unlikely when he said, ‘I’m thinking of pairing us doctors each with a nurse in the general day-to-day running of the practice to give a more efficient and sympathetic approach to our patients, but will wait until you’ve had the chance to settle in amongst us.’

‘Yes, sure,’ he said agreeably, but if he was ‘paired’ with Julianne Marshall he would wish himself back in Africa.

When Aaron went across to the bakery at lunchtime for a sandwich, the man behind the counter asked, ‘Are you the new doctor?’

‘Yes, I am,’ he told him. ‘Is there something I can help you with?’

The baker was smiling. ‘Yes, you can tell Julianne, the girl who rents the apartment above the shop, that burning the midnight oil on weeknights is not a good idea for a young nurse who is on her feet all day. Maybe she’ll take some notice of you.’

Aaron very much doubted it, and told the baker, ‘Nurse Marshall and I have only just met. She may not welcome advice from a stranger.’ The memory of hair as dark as ravens’ wings swinging against bare shoulders in a shining swathe, and a red dress that had been the perfect foil for it, came to mind. He hadn’t known who she was then, but felt that she must have recognised him as she’d turned her back to him in the middle of the group on the pavement when she’d seen him approaching.

Autumn was dithering on the edge of winter and the practice was busy with the inevitable flu jabs and the onset of the demand for cold medications and the age-related illnesses that flared up with the approach of the festive season, and Aaron was soon in his stride without any further sightings of Julianne Marshall since their awkward meeting in the reception area that had been followed with the cosy tea and talk time in the surgery kitchen.

But he couldn’t skulk in his room all day, and why should he? On that dreadful day long ago he’d had nothing to blame himself for except maybe being too trusting, and he’d never trusted anyone completely since.

When he went into the corridor after notifying the nurses via email of certain tests he required to be done for his last patient, Julianne appeared with a printout in her hand of the instructions he’d just sent through, and as he observed her unsmilingly Aaron decided that her long legs in sheer grey tights had to be the same ones that he’d seen dashing up the back stairs in the bakery the day before.

Had she known who he was then? Him coming to join the practice would be general knowledge, so she would have been prepared, but to him she was someone totally unexpected who was going to be a constant reminder of a day that would haunt him for ever.

She was waiting to speak to him with dark eyes watchful and no smiles to be seen on the smooth lines of her face.

‘What is it?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Have you got a problem with what I’ve just asked one of you to do?’

‘No,’ she said with outward calm. ‘It is just that your patient is questioning the cortisone injection in the knee that you have given him without warning.’

‘Are you questioning my methods?’ he said coldly. ‘The man’s records show that he was booked in today for that very thing. I haven’t dreamt it up from somewhere. I did tell him what I was going to do, and now I’ve sent him to you for his flu and pneumonia injections at his request.’

‘Yes, so I see,’ she said meekly. ‘Obviously he must have misunderstood about the injection in his knee.’

‘That could be the case,’ he said flatly. ‘If you or he have any further doubts, I suggest you check his records for yourself.’ And without giving her the chance to comment further he went to discuss the matter of where to buy a car from with Nathan, as without transport he wasn’t going to be much use to the practice.

CHAPTER TWO

HE DIDN’T buy a sports car, needless to say. Instead, when he’d completed the sale he drove back to the surgery in a black four-wheel-drive, and watching him park it on the forecourt from the window of the nurse’s room Julianne sighed.

Their first conversation had been a prickly affair and she couldn’t visualise any future ones being any different. The only thing that would put things right between them would be for her to tell Aaron exactly what had been in her mind on that dreadful day.

It had been more of a teenage crush than a grand passion, but it hadn’t seemed like that at the time, and she’d known that beside her sister’s attractions her own had been almost non-existent.

Living in Nadine’s shadow had become a way of life that she’d had to accept—even their parents had been known to show preference on occasion. While she’d been growing up, whenever her father had called for his beautiful daughter to come to him she’d learned never to go rushing to his side, experience having taught her that it had been Nadine he’d wanted, always Nadine.

When her sister’s ‘latest’ had appeared on the scene, handsome, clever, a catch by anyone’s standards, he had seemed like the prince to her Cinderella, and she had prayed that Nadine would not bring him grief.

In a strange sort of way her prayers had been answered. The ‘grief’ had been there, no escaping that, but to a much lesser degree than if the marriage had gone ahead, and she’d hoped with youthful optimism that Aaron might notice her with Nadine gone.

At the last moment her sister had gone where there had been money, lots of it, and Aaron had been spared the nightmare that life married to Nadine would have been, but she, Julianne, hadn’t come out of it smelling of roses either.

She’d confessed to him how often she’d tried to persuade Nadine not to marry him, but in the midst of his anger hadn’t been able to get the words out to tell him why, and Aaron’s disgust at what he’d seen as her conniving had hit her like a sledgehammer.

When she’d left the vestry after taking time to calm herself he had disappeared and she’d never seen him again until now, when the feelings she’d had for him that had shrivelled and died over the years were seemingly springing back into life.

Aaron was out of the car and striding towards the main doors of the surgery and knowing that she would be on view she moved away from the window and found Helena, the oldest of the nurses, smiling across at her.

‘So is he your type?’ she asked.

‘Is who my type?’ she questioned innocently.

‘Aaron Somerton. I don’t doubt all of the available women will be noticing his arrival in our midst.’

‘So? They will have no competition from me,’ she told her. ‘We knew each other in another life and didn’t get on.’ Turning away, she called in the first of those waiting to be seen by a nurse and it turned out to be her landlord, George, the baker, who had come for his regular B12 injection.

‘The new doctor came into the shop this morning,’ he said while rolling up his sleeve, ‘and I asked him to impress on you that midweek living it up is not a good thing for tired nurses who have been on their feet all day.’

She was bending over him with needle poised, and hissed angrily, ‘You had a nerve, George! I am quite capable of looking after myself. It is his first day with us and you say something like that to him. What was his reply?’

‘Said that you’d only just met and didn’t think the idea would appeal to you.’

‘He got that right! It would not appeal to me. So will you stop fussing over me, George?’

‘Aw, come on, Julianne,’ he protested. ‘You know you’re like the daughter I never had, and I worry about you because you seem so alone. My missus is long gone so I need somebody to look after.’

She was smiling now. ‘Yes, I know. But please don’t talk about me to Aaron Somerton—anyone else is OK but not him.’

‘All right,’ he said, and in went the needle.

His first day at the practice was over and as Aaron drove back to The Falls Cottage beneath the darkening skies of an approaching winter evening the events of the day were going through his mind, and, wrongly or rightly, meeting up with Julianne Marshall, the young nondescript teenage bridesmaid of long ago and now a very attractive woman, was the one uppermost.

Her sister, blonde where Julianne was dark, had been good-looking too, otherwise she wouldn’t have caught the eye of the millionaire who had been so much older than himself, and when he’d been left standing at the altar he had realised the truth of one of his mother’s favourite sayings, that beauty was only skin deep.

When he and Julianne had come face-to-face in the corridor outside the nurses’ room he hadn’t put into words that he knew who she was. He hadn’t needed to. His manner when they’d discussed the patient who’d complained about having the cortisone injection had made it clear enough. It had been while his glance had been on the printout she’d been holding that he’d seen that his surmise that she too would have found herself a husband by now had been wrong. There had been no wedding ring on her finger.

The cottage and the waterfall had come into view and as he pulled up beside them and gave the car a quick glance he thought that it was the first time he’d ever bought a car without some degree of thought, or worked his first day in a new practice with both events barely registering because of a woman, but that had been the case today,

Tomorrow was going to be different, he vowed silently. The bridesmaid of long ago was not going to put him off his stride, no way!

Later that evening Aaron went out for a stroll and ran into Helena Carey, the senior practice nurse, who was out walking her dog.

‘So how did your first day go, Dr Somerton?’ she asked, her frisky boxer straining at its lead.

‘Fine, thank you,’ he replied. ‘Needless to say, it was very different from the surgeries I have worked in over the last few years, but they all have the same end in view, don’t they?’

‘Yes, they do,’ she agreed, and then to his surprise asked, ‘What do you think of the staff at the surgery?’

‘They seem great. Why do you ask?’

‘I thought that maybe you hadn’t hit it off with Nurse Marshall as you seemed to be having a disagreement at one point during the morning. It was unusual as Julianne is held in high regard by everyone at the practice.’

‘Yes, I am sure she is,’ he said calmly. ‘It was just a moment of confusion on both our parts, that’s all.’

‘Ah, that’s good,’ she replied, and went on her way, leaving him to think that the face from the past seemed as if she had a fan club at the surgery. So what? There would be no likelihood of him joining it. He had seen her and her sister in their true colours and was not going to be deceived twice.

That second night he slept better. The sound of the waterfall was no longer disruptive. This time it was a constant, reliable sound that helped him to relax, and no sooner had his head hit the pillow than he was out like a light.

Until he heard the sound of the first of the passenger launches going across the lake at seven o’clock the next morning and then it was a shower, a quick breakfast and off to the practice with what would have been sheer pleasure if it wasn’t for the thought of meeting up again with Julianne.

As he drove along the main street she was there, brisk and immaculate, unlike her appearance of the morning before, and about to get into her car. On impulse he drew level at the kerbside and as she looked up questioningly he said tonelessly, ‘I saw Helena last night down by the lake and she was concerned that we weren’t going to get on with each other, so I thought I’d stop to let you know that during working hours there will be no problems as far as I am concerned, though I’m sure you must realise that if I’d known you were part of the package of Swallowbrook’s health care I wouldn’t have taken the job.’

Here it comes, Julianne thought miserably. It hasn’t taken him long to put me in my place. Would he have recognised me if it hadn’t been for my name? But she was not going to argue.

‘I’m sorry that my presence at the surgery has taken away your pleasure in coming home, Aaron,’ she said levelly. ‘When I knew that you were going to be Libby’s replacement, I must admit I thought about leaving, but decided that as I’d done nothing wrong, why should I? A truce while we’re working together would be most acceptable, and for the rest of the time our private lives will stay how they are meant to be, private.’

He didn’t take her up on that, just nodded, and keen to know if she already knew that Nathan was having thoughts about them working in pairs asked, ‘Did you know that Nathan is considering us working in twos, a doctor and a nurse working together?

‘At the moment we have four doctors and three nurses so he will probably leave Ruby working solo until she leaves to look after their little adopted child when it arrives. It would be better if we didn’t work so closely together.’

She almost groaned out loud and ignoring his last comment said, ‘No, I didn’t know. Maybe I can ask him not to do that before he decides who is with who, but of course he will want to know why and …’

‘What? You wouldn’t want him to find out that you are not as bright a star as he thinks you are? I will say one thing, Julianne, you have certainly got them all bedazzled, Nathan, Helena, the nice guy at the bakery, but of course they don’t know the sort of things you get up to, do they?’

On that discordant note he drove off and left her standing on the pavement with a lump in her throat, thinking miserably that no man would relish having to endure what had happened to him, and if she wanted no further hurt along the way she would need to tread carefully when he was around at the practice, which was going to be most of the time.

When Julianne arrived Aaron was already ensconced in the kitchen with some of the other staff, enjoying the early morning brew that the first to arrive always made for the rest of them, and when he saw her downcast expression Aaron felt a sharp pang of guilt. If they’d been handing out medals for arrogance he would have been top of the list.

On impulse he said to those gathered there, ‘I wonder if you folks would like to be my guests tonight at somewhere while I celebrate my return to the UK, which has brought with it the pleasure of meeting you all?’

With one exception, Julianne thought. There had been no joy for him in meeting up with her again. So what was the reason for his sudden invitation? Yet did it matter? Whatever it was, she wouldn’t be attending.

For one thing, he wouldn’t want her there, and for another it was her night for helping out at the hospice at the far side of the lake, and no matter how low she might be feeling she never arrived there without a smile on her face.

Nathan had just appeared and Aaron was asking him if he and Libby could get someone to mind the children for a couple of hours at such short notice.

After thinking for a moment, Nathan replied, ‘I’m sure that my father will do the honours as long as both Toby and Elsey are asleep when we leave them.’

With a glance at the other two doctors, Hugo Lawrence and his recently qualified young wife, Ruby, Aaron said, ‘And would you folks be free for a couple of hours?’

‘Yes, of course,’ Hugo replied, and to the rest of those gathered in the kitchen, ‘Where would you suggest? Aaron doesn’t know the night life in the area like we do. There’s The Mallard, of course, or a new restaurant that has just opened on the lakeside that we’ve had good reports of. You have a good social life, Julianne, where do you suggest?’

‘I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘We all have our likes and dislikes, and in any case I won’t be there, it’s the night I go to help out at the hospice, and I can’t let them down.’

So much for that, Aaron thought. He’d suggested the get-together mainly because he felt guilty for being so abrupt earlier, and was now realising that he needn’t have bothered extending an olive branch as she had other plans.

But he couldn’t go back on what he’d suggested and showing no disappointment at the thought of her absence he decided on the new restaurant. A decision that was met with approval from everyone except Julianne, who was just relieved to have a good reason for not being there and didn’t have to think up an excuse.

It was always very late when she arrived home on the nights she worked at the hospice. If there was an ambulance driver free, or any other member of the staff going her way with a car, they would give her a lift, otherwise she phoned for a taxi. She had a little runabout car, but was always so tired when she’d finished there after working at the practice all day that she daren’t risk using it in case she fell asleep at the wheel.

Tonight it was one of the doctors at the hospice who had brought her home and as he drove off, the surgery crowd appeared, strolling along the pavement on their way home from the impromptu party, all in high spirits after the unexpected get-together in a smart restaurant.

The last thing she wanted was to have to face Aaron again and she fumbled around in her bag for the door key, hoping to get inside before they drew level. The ones at the front didn’t pause, just called their goodnights and ambled on.

At the same second that her fingers closed around the key she could see Aaron looming up in the rear, chatting to Ruby and Hugo, and he’d seen her.

As the other two doctors wished her goodnight he stopped beside her. She turned the key quickly in the lock and as the door swung open stepped inside then swung round to face him.

She didn’t speak. If he had something to say, let him say it and be gone, she thought. Her evening had been spent mostly surrounded by the terminally ill with the sadness that such situations brought with them and now she just wanted to go to bed. She was tired in body and soul.

He did have something to say and it took her by surprise. ‘If they are looking for volunteers at the hospice I could give them a couple of nights, or weekends, on a regular basis. Just thought I’d mention it as I was passing.’ He turned to go. ‘At different times to yours, of course.’

Stung by the comment, she said, ‘But of course. It wouldn’t do for you to be mixing with a wrong ‘un. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to go to bed.’

‘Sure. I’ll be on my way.’ And without further comment he went striding off in the direction of the lake, the waterfall and the cottage, and his last thought before he slept was about Julianne again. So far she hadn’t put a foot wrong. Either she was playing him up, or he’d got his wires crossed somewhere.

Maybe tomorrow he would ask her about Nadine—where she lived, how often they met and were their parents still around? Though perhaps not. He’d only been back a couple of days and was already showing an exaggerated interest in Julianne.

Both Aaron and Julianne were waiting for Nathan to mention the working-together-in-pairs arrangement and so far he hadn’t, but that omission was about to be dealt with late on Friday afternoon before the surgery closed for the weekend, when he said to them, ‘I’ve sorted out the new working arrangements.

‘I will pair with Helena. Hugo with Gina, who is going to extend her hours to match his now that her young ones are capable of being left for a short time after senior school, and the two of you will make up the third pair. I have every confidence that you will work well together, with Ruby being at hand if any of us doctors are not available for some reason, until such time as she becomes a stay-at-home mother like Libby with our young ones.’

The phone in his room was ringing and before they could say anything he’d gone to answer it. Aaron said in a low voice, ‘Maybe we should let it ride if we don’t want to be the objects of gossip.’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she agreed reluctantly, and without further comment went to make sure that the nurses’ room was immaculate before the surgery closed for the weekend.

Nathan shortly followed her into the room.

‘So you’re happy with that arrangement, then, Julianne?’ She shook her head.

‘You’re not?’ he exclaimed.

‘Not over the moon, no,’ she said flatly. ‘Do we have to?’

‘Do we have to what?’ he questioned, surprised at her reaction.

She was usually the easiest of people to deal with and he was taken aback by her lack of enthusiasm.

‘Work together.’

‘Why? Don’t you like the guy?’ he questioned.

‘He’s all right, I suppose.’

She’d once liked him a lot more than was good for her, and even now was accepting it without protest when Aaron made no secret of what he thought about her.

The head of the practice was laughing. ‘Don’t overdo the enthusiasm. Is there some sort of a problem that I don’t know about? It isn’t like you to be so choosy.’