His Perfect Bride? (22 page)
‘And if we can? If something can be done?’
‘Then that will be amazing.’ He looked deep into her eyes. ‘I was so proud of you today. Conquering
your fear. Finishing by yourself. Even though you scared me half to death.’
‘Scared you? How?’
‘By telling me you wanted to finish it alone. I thought you’d tell that to me, too.’
She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t.’
‘No?’
‘No. When I left you in the village, as I drove away, my heart broke in two. I had to stop around the corner because I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t see. I was crying so much and I have never experienced pain like it. You have no idea what it took me to carry on driving. To carry on putting distance between me and you. I couldn’t go through that again. I wouldn’t survive it.’
Olly got up from his seat opposite and slid into the chair next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. ‘I wept like a child when you left. On my knees, in the road. I didn’t care who saw me. Then I had weeks of patients coming in and telling me that
they
were sad you’d left, and I wanted to rage at each and every one of them—ask them,
What about me?
’
‘What did you do?’
‘I hoped you’d come back. I hoped that somehow something would make you turn around and come back. And then I realised that maybe you thought you couldn’t.’
‘I
was
coming back.’
He smiled. ‘You were?’
‘I couldn’t bear to be away from you.’ She reached out and clasped his hand. ‘My mother told you where I was, didn’t she?’
He smiled. ‘Accidentally. I think she was embarrassed by having me sobbing all over her kitchen floor and she did it to get rid of me,’ he joked.
Lula smiled. ‘I’m glad she told you. Because if she hadn’t then I would have come back to you. I’ve given up my job at the surgery. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t concentrate—all I could think of was what I’d lost…’
They looked into each other’s eyes and Olly leaned in to kiss her, his eyes closing softly as his lips met hers and the tender sweetness of their connection made his heart sing with joy.
When he opened his eyes again and saw her dark chocolate eyes staring into his he stroked her cheek. ‘Never leave me.’
‘I won’t.’
‘You’re everything to me.’
‘And you to me.’
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jewellery box in red velvet. Opening it, he revealed a gold ring, set with a sapphire and surrounded by diamonds that glinted and shone in the light. ‘Will you marry me, Lula?’
She looked at the ring, then at him, at the hope
in his eyes, at the love she saw burning bright from within him, and knew that she could spend the rest of her life with this man.
‘Yes!’
Beaming with joy, he took the ring from its box and slid it onto her finger. It was a perfect fit and he kissed her once again. ‘I found it when I was sorting out Moonrose Cottage. It belonged to my grandmother.’
‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Like you.’
They sank into each other’s embrace and kissed again.
EPILOGUE
T
HE MARRIAGE OF
Dr Louisa Chance to Dr Oliver James took place in the village church of Atlee Wold. Lula asked Bonnie and Ruby to be her bridesmaids, and decked them out in gorgeous red satin dresses. Ruby’s daughter, Adele, toddled up the aisle, throwing rose petals everywhere.
It was a beautiful day for a summer wedding, and the whole village turned out to see it.
It had been a delight for Lula to return to Atlee. Everyone had been thrilled to see her, but none more so than her own mother.
Elizabeth Love had become a changed woman. Her poor neglected house, in which the only welcome guests had once been animals, was now often filled with villagers. She and Lula would often hold tea parties to raise funds for the animals, or for children’s charities.
Everyone knew the story of Lula and Elizabeth. And no one could miss the love story between Lula and Oliver. It became the talk of the village for many years, and three years after the wedding, when Lula became pregnant, after a lot of help from medical science, the whole village waited with bated breath for the outcome!
She’d gone through so much with the IVF. She’d shared all her trials and tribulations of tests
and the injecting of hormones. She’d never complained when she’d blown up like a balloon from all the medication and her ovaries had gone into overdrive and yet still only given up three eggs for harvesting.
A single egg had developed and it had looked healthy.
All their hopes and dreams focused on one tiny cell…
Lula had been her usual unconventional self and opted to go for a home birth, in a pool, listening to rock music and stroking the family dog, Buddy. When their baby daughter had been born, eleven hours after contractions had started, they’d all let out a sigh of relief.
The villagers knew the story of Lula’s childhood. They knew how much being a mother meant to her. And everyone had rejoiced at the safe arrival of baby Mabel.
Tears of joy had streamed down Lula’s cheeks. She’d gone from being rootless and without family to gaining a mother, a husband and now a baby daughter of her own.
She’d got roots. She’d got family. The two things she’d thought impossible and yet had craved her whole life.
And, to celebrate, she added the colour green to her hair.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460380192
His Perfect Bride?
Copyright © 2015 by Louisa Heaton
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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