Swallowbrook's Wedding Of The Year

Wanting my sister’s fiancé wasn’t like me either and no good came of that, she could have told him.

‘Shall we see how the two of you get on together for a trial period?’ he suggested.

Julianne forced a smile but said nothing more on the subject. Pulling on her coat, she wished Nathan a good weekend and headed out into the cold.

On arriving back at her cosy flat, she collapsed onto the sofa. Her usual vitality was in short supply and it was all because of what she saw as Aaron’s lurking presence.

She was still stunned by his willingness to do the same as she did and offer his services to the hospice. Maybe he was lonely and needed something to fill the hours away from the surgery, but he would soon have company when it got around that the new doctor was very easy on the eye, and would be no less handsome when the tan wore off.

After she’d had a meal of sorts that evening Julianne rang the group that she usually socialised with on Friday nights and informed them that she wouldn’t be going into the town to a cinema with them, as had been arranged earlier in the week, because she needed an early night after a hectic week.

It was only half-true. She’d gone with them many times when she’d been tired at the end of the week at the practice and with the time spent at the hospice and had always perked up as soon as they were all together, but those had been when Aaron hadn’t been back in her life, when he’d been far away in Africa, and now it wasn’t like that any more.

He was living almost near enough to touch, and although he’d made it plain that he hadn’t forgotten the past and was enduring her presence at the practice only because he had no choice. She had the feeling all the time that he would be watching everything she did and wouldn’t be awarding any Brownie points for excellence.

The fact remained, however, that she just couldn’t stay closeted in her small apartment on a Friday night, it would be just too stifling, and on that thought she wrapped up warmly and went for a walk by the lake in the opposite direction from The Falls Cottage.

She could see in the distance that the light was on and thought that Aaron must be having a quiet night too. It was dark everywhere, the light of day having gone completely. The coloured lanterns around the lake hadn’t yet come on and it was beginning to feel spooky beside the trees at the water’s edge as she seemed to be the only one walking there.

With a sudden yearning for warmth and light she turned swiftly to go back the way she had come and was faced with the sound of someone moving towards her through the trees.

Bereft of her usual quick thinking, she stood motionless until a hand appeared and parted the branches of the tree nearest her at the same moment that the lanterns came on.

‘What on earth are you doing here, rambling about on your own in the dark?’ Aaron asked in gritty greeting.

She thought illogically that he would never be any good as a Father Christmas unless he had a charisma transplant.

‘I’m doing the same as you, it would seem, walking by the lake,’ she said calmly, ‘only I’m not skulking about amongst the trees. I was just about to go back when the lights came on.’

‘I don’t know the place as well as you,’ he told her, ‘and thought I could take a short cut from one side of the lake to the other, but didn’t get it quite right. I must say that you are the last person I was expecting to see out here. I would have thought Friday night would be party night.’

‘It usually is in some form or other. My friends were surprised to hear that I was giving it a miss.’

‘And why are you?’ he asked, thinking that he must be insane, wanting to know the workings of her mind.

‘I didn’t want to risk meeting up with you again,’ she said with a hollow laugh, ‘but maybe it would have been wiser if I’d stayed in. Look at us here by the deserted lake, not a soul in sight, just the two of us. When I left the practice tonight it was with the thought that I wouldn’t be seeing anything of you for two whole days, but I was wrong.’

She was hugging her top coat more tightly around her, shivering in the night air, and he said, ‘Come on. I’ll buy you a hot drink at the hotel and then, unwelcome as my presence might be, will see you safely home.’ As she was about to refuse, he added, ‘Don’t argue!’

They drank their coffees largely in silence and Julianne didn’t think she could feel more uncomfortable in Aaron’s presence until he asked quite suddenly, ‘How is it that you’ve never married?’

‘That is soon answered,’ she replied. ‘The man I was attracted to didn’t love me and I’ve never felt like that about anyone since.’

‘It would seem to be that we do have one thing in common, then,’ he said sombrely, and looked at his watch.

She saw him and said, ‘Do you want us to make tracks?’

He shook his head and as if his thoughts were elsewhere said absently, ‘Whenever you’re ready will do.’

‘I’m ready now,’ she replied, with a sudden urge to be back where she belonged, away from this strange encounter that was the last thing she’d been expecting when she’d left the apartment earlier.

Once they were outside the bakery Julianne said, ‘Thanks for the coffee, Aaron. I had no intention of breaking into your evening, just the opposite, in fact.’

‘Don’t fret about it,’ he told her. ‘It was just a one-off,’ and even as he spoke he was turning in his tracks and with a wave of the hand was gone.

Unlocking the door, she began to climb the stairs and for the rest of the evening sat by the fire, wishing she hadn’t had her boots on when a band had begun playing for dancing in the hotel. It would have given her the chance to test just how deep his aversion to her was.

In the days when he’d been courting Nadine and the two of them had gone out leaving her alone in the flat, she had used to pretend that she was dancing in his arms and would float around the place dreamily, but only she knew that.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS Friday night and Julianne was drained physically and mentally by the happenings of a week that had seen Aaron back in Lakeland and herself trying to hang on to the shreds of what had been her life before that.

On any other occasion she would be out enjoying herself, but tonight wasn’t just any night, it was the one when incredibly she’d spent a short time with the man she’d once thought was the answer to all her girlish dreams, and it had been an unnerving experience.

She had known from the moment of his arrival in Swallowbrook that she hadn’t been forgiven for the part he thought she’d played in his moment of ghastly humiliation, yet he’d taken her for a hot drink when he’d seen her shiver in the chilly night air down by the lake, as he might do for anyone who was feeling the cold.

She sighed as she wandered listlessly around the small apartment that she had furnished with loving care when she’d first moved in after taking up the position of practice nurse at the local surgery.

Nadine’s name hadn’t come up once over their brief coffees. That was how she wanted it to be and prayed that he felt the same. If Aaron was prepared to accept her presence in his life again on sufferance, it would be easier to cope with than outright revulsion.

When she went to bed she turned her head into the pillow and wished that he had stayed in Africa instead of coming back to haunt her.

Back at the cottage beside the waterfall Aaron’s thoughts were running along similar lines. Maybe a truce might be the best way to adjust to the coincidence of finding Julianne Marshall back in his life to such an extent. It would have been awkward enough to have her just living nearby. But the fact that she was going to be in his face all the time they were working at the surgery where his friend Nathan, who was not a man to gush, had described her as the ‘bright morning star’ was mind-blowing. Thank God she didn’t resemble Nadine in looks. That would be the last straw. He would be packing his bags and looking for work elsewhere.

It was early, too soon to settle down for the night, and he decided to seek some company, anyone’s but hers. As he walked back along the main street he saw that the lights were out in the apartment above the bakery and thought that she must have gone to meet her friends after all.

As he walked briskly along, The Mallard came into view and after a quick look around inside to make sure that Julianne and her associates weren’t there, he found warmth from the wintry night and friendly chat amongst folk who some day he might find sitting across from him at the surgery.

The two Lawrence doctors, Hugo and Ruby, were seated at one of the tables with the practice manager Laura Armitage and her husband, Gabriel. When they saw him Hugo came across and invited him to join them, and putting his gloomy thoughts to one side he accepted and for the first time since his arrival in Swallowbrook started to feel as if he belonged.

As the evening progressed it was discussed that the Lawrences were expecting a child to adopt soon, which would mean that Ruby being the relief doctor in the pairing-off process might not be available for long, but there would be time enough for Nathan to sort that out when it happened.

He also discovered that Laura and Gabriel had two children—Sophie, nine years old and staying the night at a school friend’s, and Josh, six, who was sleeping at Nathan’s with his best friend, Toby, which had left their parents free to socialise for a change.

The conversation was mostly about themselves and the village as a whole, with frequent mentions of the practice, but as there was no reason for the nurses to come under discussion Julianne’s name didn’t come up and perversely Aaron wished that it would, so that he might pick up some substance regarding her life past and present with regard to the best way to cope with her unwelcome presence in his life.

As he walked back at gone midnight to where the waterfall danced endlessly into the lake he saw that her apartment was still in darkness and thought that she was most likely still living it up somewhere. As a mini-bus unloaded a group of late-night passengers just ahead of him he quickened his step in case she was amongst them. Two accidental meetings in one night was not to be contemplated.

He would have been amazed to know that she was lying wide-eyed against the pillows in her small bedroom, with sleep hard to come by because of him, and when he arrived back at the cottage he paused for a moment before going inside.

A winter moon was turning the still, dark waters of the lake into silver, and in the background the fells, high up above, encircled it like a protective bracelet. The scene was indescribably beautiful and so was the woman who had spoiled his homecoming with her presence, but, then, she hadn’t been exactly overjoyed to see him either.

All you’ve got to do is stick to the job and its demands when you’re in her presence, he reminded himself, and for the rest of it stay out of her way. Unlocking the door of the cottage, he went slowly upstairs and tried not to dwell on how difficult that might turn out to be.

With Friday gone, Saturday dawned bright and cold, and when Julianne awoke after falling asleep in the early hours with the short time she’d spent with Aaron the last thing on her mind, it was also the first when she opened her eyes, and she groaned softly.

She’d been content before he had reappeared on the scene, happy and fulfilled in her job, safe in the home she had made for herself above George’s bakery, where he liked to feel he was keeping a fatherly eye on her. There was no need, of course, but it gave him pleasure to do so and she was happy to go along with it as she saw little enough of her own father.

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