Spring Proposal in Swallowbrook (4 page)

In one case a patient who was eight months pregnant had been for a hospital check-up the week before and been told that the baby had turned and was in a breech position, and that if it hadn’t moved back to where it should be in a fortnight’s time they might have to perform a C-section.

She was overwrought and tearful about what was happening, and while Hugo examined her, with Ruby watching intently, she held the distressed woman’s hand and stroked her brow.

When he’d finished feeling her swollen stomach gently Hugo told her, ‘Your next visit to the hospital will confirm whether the baby is still in the breech position, but they do have the tendency to return to their original position during the last few weeks, and if that doesn’t happen you will have all the professional help that is available for a safe birth.’

He had stood by and watched while Ruby dealt with a couple of patients on her own and she’d been conscious of his keen gaze all the while, unaware that his scrutiny was also taking in the pallor of her face and the taut lines of her throat that indicated tension, but only she knew the reason for that and it was how she intended it to stay.

‘Well done,’ he said when the clinic was over. ‘I can see you being ready to do this on your own soon. When Libby finishes you’ll be the only woman doctor in the practice and our pregnant patients do prefer a female doctor to be in charge of the antenatal clinic if possible.’

She didn’t reply to that, just smiled a pale smile as if the prospect wasn’t all
that
exciting, and he thought that maybe she’d been conscious of his doubts about her and now that praise was forthcoming she wasn’t going to go overboard with delight.

Instead she said, ‘About tonight at Libby and Nathan’s place, do I dress up or down? I’ve only one dress suitable for evening wear.’

Was she kidding? The Gallaghers’ supper parties weren’t those kinds of occasions. It would be a nice meal, a few drinks, with young Toby sleeping peacefully upstairs and the adults chatting comfortably down below.

‘Just casual wear will be fine, I would imagine,’ he told her. ‘It will be the kind of thing that the four of us do at the cottage every couple of months or so and now that you’ve joined us it will be five. Do you want a lift?’

The words were out before he’d had time to think and were at odds with his decision to keep contact out of working hours to the minimum, but he wasn’t to know that Ruby had been having similar thoughts and she said airily, ‘No, thanks just the same. I’ll see you there, Dr Lawrence.’

‘The name is Hugo out of surgery hours,’ he told her, ‘just as it will be Libby and Nathan tonight, but I think that John Gallagher might prefer to be given his full title. How long is it since you last saw him?’

‘Over twelve years. I was fourteen when we moved to Tyneside because of my father’s job and it took me a long time to get used to it.
It took me a long time to get used to a few things,
but in the end I did
,’
she said flatly, and he wondered what she meant by that.

The two cottages across from the surgery where Libby and Nathan had lived separate lives until the love they had for each other had brought them together had just been made into one as their weekday home. On an island in the middle of the lake was Greystone House that Nathan had bought Libby as a wedding present and where they spent their weekends.

As she walked the last few yards to where the lights of the combined cottages were shining out into the darkness of a winter evening, Hugo caught her up and Ruby realised that he must have been a few steps behind as she’d walked the short distance from Lakes Rise. Surely he wasn’t still keeping her under surveillance, she thought as they exchanged polite greetings?

He’d got it wrong again, he was deciding. Ruby must think him insane if he couldn’t let her walk a couple of hundred yards without appearing on the scene. She’d be accusing him of stalking next and that would knock him off his pedestal as the most eligible unattached male in the village.

She’d pressed the bell and when the door opened Libby was there with Toby beside her, clean and rosy cheeked in his pyjamas. When he saw Hugo he ran into his arms and he swung him up and held him close.

As Libby watched them fondly the five-year-old cried, ’Can Dr Hugo read me my bedtime story, Mummy Libby?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she said gently, and as Hugo started to mount the stairs with Toby still in his arms she said to Ruby, ‘It is always like this when Hugo comes for supper. He takes Toby up to bed, but first they have a little play and then he reads him a story before he settles down for the night. He is so good with children, was so kind and protective towards those two little nieces of his before Patrice took them to live in Canada.

‘Nathan and I are hoping that now the burden has been lifted he might look around the village and find himself a nice wife who will give him some children of his own.’

‘Mmm,’ Ruby murmured, stuck for words. Personally she couldn’t imagine her hermit-like landlord wanting to strike up any sort of romantic union, though he was certainly good looking enough to attract a mate. Yet he did go to The Mallard in the evenings and those kinds of places were renowned for meeting people of the opposite sex.

As Hugo and Toby disappeared on the landing Libby ushered Ruby into a comfortable chintzy sitting room and in a matter of seconds Nathan appeared wearing a striped apron and announced that it was his turn for kitchen duty and could he get her a drink?

‘Dad has just rung to say he is on his way,’ he told her, ‘and is looking forward to seeing you, Ruby, after such a long time.’

Nathan hadn’t so far commented on her having lived in Swallowbrook before, or her family being registered with the practice at that time, so she wasn’t sure whether he was being tactful, protecting patient confidentiality, or had completely forgotten the trauma that had been present in their lives then and still was for that matter.

Maybe the surgery here had never seen the results that had been in the pipeline as they had been leaving the area and had never known that Robbie’s first ever bleed
had
been diagnosed as haemophilia. Hopefully that was how it would be, which would prevent any curiosity regarding herself.

When the elderly retired head of the practice arrived Ruby thought how little he had changed, just a head of silver hair and a few extra lines around kindly blue eyes were the only differences that she could see as they shook hands, and there was nothing to indicate in his manner or words of welcome that he had any particular memories of the time her family had spent in Swallowbrook.

But his many years in general practice had taught John Gallagher caution in his dealings with people. He hadn’t forgotten what had happened to the Hollister family, but the young doctor who was observing him anxiously with beautiful brown eyes could rely entirely on his discretion.

With regard to Nathan he hadn’t been involved with the family as much as he had, so doubted that any recollections of the child’s illness would surface where he was concerned.

That Ruby Hollister had wanted to come back to Swallowbrook was delightful,
and surprising
considering her degree results, so even if her time with them turned out to be short it was most welcome.

Hugo appeared at that moment with the news that Toby was asleep and Ruby observed him curiously. It was as if he was a different person from her rather dour landlord. He was smiling and relaxed, laughing as the others teased him about his friendship with Toby.

‘Hugo is like this with all the young ones who come to the surgery,’ Nathan said quizzically. ‘All the mothers ask to see Dr Lawrence when the children aren’t well.’

They were taking their seats around the supper table and when Ruby had settled into hers she looked up to find Hugo sitting opposite. Their gazes met and she felt her blood warm. He was a confusing mixture of many things but one of them was clear and unmistakeable—he was the most incredibly attractive man she’d ever met.

Yet from what Libby had said about finding himself a wife it would seem that he wasn’t in any kind of a relationship. Could the reason for that be because until recently every spare moment of his time had been taken up by others?

When the party was over he didn’t suggest walking her home. As far as he was concerned, it went without saying that he was going to. It was late, and even walking such a short distance on her own was not acceptable so when he fell in step beside her Ruby didn’t argue.

Instead she took him by surprise. ‘Why don’t we have a stroll by the lake?’ she suggested, and glanced up at a full moon in the sky. ‘I’d like to see it in moonlight.’

‘Yes, if that is what you want,’ he said with a shrug of the shoulders. ‘But don’t forget we both have a date with the practice in the morning, so it hadn’t better be for too long, and there
is
a distinct nip in the air.’

‘All right,’ she told him. ‘If you would rather go home I’ll take a short walk along the lakeside myself.’ And before he could argue she was off, calling over her shoulder, ‘I’ll see you in the morning, Dr Lawrence, and I promise I won’t be late.’

She knew she was behaving stupidly, but she’d felt it again, the lack of desire for her company. He’d been the life and soul of the party in the presence of his friends, but left alone with her he was back to keeping her at a distance whenever possible, except for at the practice when she saw yet another side of him.

If she was expecting him to come after her she was mistaken. Hugo was already striding back up the slope to Lakes Rise and now she was amongst huge trees standing out eerily against the moonlit sky and creatures of the night were scuttling around her feet.

This wasn’t what she’d envisaged when she’d suggested that the two of them walk by the lakeside, she thought miserably as tears pricked.

He was the first man she’d ever met who had gripped her imagination to such an extent and her suggestion that they walk by the lake had been born from a longing to be with him for just a little longer before they separated.

The determination to treat him the way he treated her by staying aloof had disappeared during the party and in its place had come a longing to see more of him than less. But his reluctance to be with her any longer than necessary had made her behave stupidly and instead of retracing her steps she lowered herself onto a big boulder at the side of the path and shed a few tears.

The sound of a twig crackling nearby made her dry her eyes and look around her warily and Hugo was there, peering at her and exclaiming, ’Are you insane? Sitting out here in the dark just to prove a point! I haven’t been designated as your minder by the surgery or anything like that, yet the role seems to have fallen upon me.’

He took her arm and gently raised her to her feet and at that moment the moon’s light was on her face and he saw the tears. ‘Ugh!’ he groaned. ‘You’ve been crying, Ruby. Why? Whatever for? Didn’t you enjoy the party?’

‘Yes, it was lovely,’ she said between sniffles. ‘I’ve been crying because I’m happier now than I’ve been in ages.’ She was, but the tears hadn’t flowed because of that. They had come from a deep hurt inside her that wasn’t ever going to go away.

‘Does it really mean so much to you, coming back to where you lived when you were young?’

She nodded mutely. It did, it meant a lot, but meeting him meant more, and after what she’d seen and heard tonight she couldn’t let it be like that, she just couldn’t.

CHAPTER FOUR

T
HERE
was silence between them as each with their own thoughts they walked back to the house overlooking the lake.

Something had happened during the evening to upset Ruby, Hugo decided. They hadn’t been tears of happiness that had reddened her eyes and made the smooth pale skin of her face blotchy, but what could it be?

It had been a light-hearted gathering, everyone had made her most welcome, and surely it wasn’t his lukewarm reaction to her suggestion that they take a stroll round the lake that had upset her?

It hadn’t really been because they had work tomorrow, or that it was chilly in the night air. It was because he had only just got his life back since Patrice had begun to sort hers out, and didn’t want any more strings attached at the present time. Though obviously he wasn’t going to say that to Ruby, so he’d come up with what had been weak excuses to avoid doing what she’d suggested.

Yet he knew he wasn’t helping matters by fussing around her all the time when she was proving to be extremely capable in most things. That was why the tears had been so unexpected.

For her part Ruby was remembering how wonderful he’d been with Toby. Hugo would make a wonderful father for children of his own one day, he was a natural, which was a good enough reason for her to cool it where he was concerned, as when it came to ‘mothers’ there wouldn’t be many less ‘natural’ than she was.

Yet did she need to proceed carefully with regard to that? It was as if he felt that she was someone to be with as little as possible, and that was one of the reasons why she’d wept, knowing she’d been crazy to suggest they should walk by the lake in the moonlight when he was so obviously keen to get back to Lakes Rise and his new-found peace of mind. If Hugo discovered she was attracted to him, as he would if she didn’t conceal it, he really would want to stay clear of her in all but their time at the surgery.

They were at the house. He waited until she’d unlocked the door of the apartment and was about to enter and said, ‘Promise me there will be no more tears, Ruby.’ She nodded mutely. ‘Perhaps some time you’ll tell me the real reason why you were so upset.’

‘Maybe,’ she said in a low voice, knowing that wasn’t going to happen. Her nearest and dearest were the only ones who knew the answer to that.

‘It surely can’t have been because I was reluctant to walk beside the lake,’ he persisted.

There was no reply to that, so she just wished him a brief goodnight and went inside, but not to sleep. The thought uppermost in her mind as she lay gazing up at the ceiling was that she’d come to Swallowbrook to realise a dream and it had come true, but what she hadn’t come prepared for was that a man like Hugo Lawrence would be featuring largely in her new life.

She’d had dates with some of the guys at medical college, but they’d all been light-hearted affairs without any commitments, none of them had made her blood warm, or caused her to take a good look at what a quirk of nature had done to her, except one.

Having been out with Darren Fielding a few times she’d sensed that he had been getting serious and as she’d liked him well enough had decided that he needed to know about her problem before their relationship progressed any further.

What she’d felt was going to be a difficult moment had been made easier when they’d attended a lecture where amongst various subjects discussed had been haemophilia, with its disastrous effects on both sexes when the illness was present.

When the two of them had gone for a coffee afterwards she’d told Darren that Robbie, her young brother, was a haemophiliac. He’d observed her thoughtfully and then as quick as a flash had wanted to know, ‘And where do you fit in with that, Ruby?’

‘Having just been to the lecture, where do you think?’ she’d said woodenly. ‘I’m a carrier of it,’ and had watched him swallow hard as his glance had slid away from hers.

In the days that had followed she’d got the message. There had been no more dates or sitting together at lectures. He had avoided her big time and it had made living with the knowledge of what nature had burdened her with harder to cope with than it had been already as she’d realised that bringing her problem out into the open in front of a man who cared for her could result in him running a mile to escape a situation that he hadn’t bargained for.

Now she’d met Hugo, a man who under any other circumstances she might have been attracted to, but she was too afraid to enter into any serious relationship. The thought of being rejected again too much to bear.

Common sense said that she should put her Swallowbrook dream to one side and go home, look for a position there away from the effect that he was having on her, but she couldn’t bear to do that. It was here that she belonged, working in the practice with the lake and the fells close by.

She was making a big thing out of nothing, she decided as dawn began to lighten the sky. It wasn’t as if Hugo was attracted to
her
in any sense of the word. They’d only known each other a short time and for most of it he had been on his guard.

If and when he found himself a ‘nice’ wife, as Libby and Nathan were hoping he might, it went without saying that it wouldn’t be a penniless junior doctor with very average attractions and a tight band of hurt around her heart that wasn’t ever going to go away.

Determined to take back control of her life and focus on the reality of why she’d come back to Swallowbrook, the very next morning Ruby phoned the garage where her car was being repaired and was told they were waiting for parts, that it could be another couple of weeks before it was ready for her to collect.

So far she hadn’t been out on any home visits from the surgery, but would be doing so soon and the small cream car standing idle on the forecourt was going to have to be used for that purpose.

As she walked towards the practice there was a spring in her step in spite of a sleepless night, as she focussed on her new resolve.

Daffodils were nodding on grass verges at the side of the road, the heavy scent of hyacinths was in the air, and the lake glinting in the rays of a pale sun was once again the same safe place that it had always been in her life. Forgotten were the dark outlines of towering trees etched against a moonlit sky, gone would be the night creatures scuttling to and fro.

Hugo’s car was already parked on the forecourt. He must have been up bright and early. There was half an hour to go before the surgery swung into action. Obviously the episode of the night before hadn’t kept
him
awake.

At that moment he came out of the surgery building and dangled car keys in front of her. ‘For you to borrow,’ he informed her. ‘We thought you could tag along behind me when I go on house calls today. It will be an advantage, you knowing the area from when you lived here before, Ruby, so maybe you could join me for the first few calls and then strike out on your own with the rest. Would you be happy with that arrangement?’

‘Er, yes, I suppose so’ she agreed hesitantly. ‘I’ve been looking forward to going out in the district. I checked on my car before I came out and it isn’t going to be ready for at least a fortnight.’

He nodded. ‘So don’t concern yourself. The car is there for your use until your own is.’ He wanted to ask if she was all right after the upset of the night before but didn’t want to cast any gloom around as she looked happy enough at the moment.

When he left her clutching the car keys and went back inside she looked down at them sombrely. Hugo was still playing safe, she thought. He had managed to avoid having her in the enclosed intimacy of his car.

She wasn’t to know that it had been Nathan’s idea that they use the two cars for the house calls, and that Hugo had been hoping to have her with him on the chance that she might throw some light on the unexpected upset of the night before. Still, he hadn’t pursued the idea because he didn’t want the other two doctors to jump to any wrong conclusions. He liked Ruby, admired her keenness and efficiency workwise and her attitude to life in general.

His carefree bachelor days spent down south had included dates with attractive women. There had been dining out, visits to the theatre, and lots of sport in the evenings and at weekends, but when Patrice and her children had needed him so badly he had left it all behind without a moment’s hesitation.

Still revelling in his sudden freedom, he hadn’t yet had time to hit the high spots again. Just to have his life to himself once more had been enough. The socialising part of it would come later,
but then along had come Ruby in the red cape and part of him hadn’t wanted to know, had kept wishing her somewhere else, even though the rest of him wasn’t so sure.

He’d been used to a more mature kind of elegance in his women friends before he’d come to Swallowbrook, but had never met anyone he was interested in enough to want to settle down with, although had always felt that when he did, his choice would be someone like that, and nothing had changed. So why was the girl who was renting his apartment so much in his thoughts?

She was like a breath of fresh air in his life in one way, and an unwelcome intrusion in another, which had been evident the night before when he hadn’t agreed to her suggestion that they walk by the lake.

Ruby had been taken aback by it, but she wasn’t to know that at the time she’d arrived on the scene he’d been looking forward to spending his time how it suited
him
, doing what
he
wanted for a change.

Maybe if he could find the opportunity to tell her that, she might be less offended by his attitude in general?

They’d done the first two calls together and she’d watched and listened carefully as Hugo had dealt with the third one, a callout to an elderly woman with heart problems who had been very short of breath when they arrived, and living alone hadn’t had the strength to call an ambulance as her condition had worsened since she’d asked for a visit from the surgery earlier.

‘It is fortunate that we didn’t call on Miss Mortimer any later,’ Hugo said in a low voice when he’d listened to her heartbeat and felt her pulse. ‘Check them for yourself, Dr Hollister, while I request an ambulance urgently.’

When Ruby had done what he’d told her to do she understood the urgency. The other two calls they’d done together had been run of the mill, nothing serious, but not Miss Mortimer’s!

After their patient had been taken to hospital and they’d done as she’d requested, locked up everywhere and deposited the key with a neighbour, it was time for Ruby to do the rest of the calls on her own and she suddenly wasn’t feeling too confident—would she have reacted as swiftly as Hugo had if faced with Miss Mortimer alone?

‘I know that you’re not keen on having me around, Dr Lawrence,’ she told him, ‘that you see me as an encumbrance, but I can’t help feeling that this is taking your lack of desire for my company too far.

‘Supposing I haven’t got the knowledge or experience to deal with any of the calls when on my own, what does it make me look like, and how does it reflect on the practice? Obviously I am going to carry out your instructions but please don’t blame me if a patient suffers because I’m new on the job.’

There was a glint of amusement in his glance as he said, ‘They are not my instructions, Doctor. Both Libby and I thought it was too soon for you to do home visits on your own, but Nathan, who has a more rugged approach than she and I, suggested it with the thought in mind that it would be good experience, but I prefer to have you with me in my car, so that we can discuss the calls when we’ve done them. That way you will increase the knowledge and the experience that you’re going to need.’

She couldn’t resist asking, ‘So it wasn’t that you didn’t want me too much in your face again?’

‘Not in this instance, and as for any other occasion when my behaviour was obnoxious I have just one excuse, Ruby. I had just spent a gruelling eighteen months looking after my sister and her family who I love dearly, and the night you arrived I was about to celebrate my freedom.’

‘Yes, I know. Libby told me,’ she said uncomfortably, ‘and then I butted in, all droopy and intrusive. But not having been around at the time you were caring for your family members, and never having had to cope with that sort of situation, I suppose I didn’t get the full picture. I am so sorry to have been such a nuisance, Hugo.’

He was smiling. ‘Like you’ve just said, you weren’t to know, were you?’

‘Maybe not, but the word gatecrasher springs to mind.’

‘So does the description selfish blighter, so am I forgiven, Ruby?’

‘There is nothing to forgive.’ Now it was her turn to smile.

‘I’m not so sure about that. Will you let me make amends for last night by taking you for a walk by the lake this evening? And before that why don’t I take you for a meal straight from the surgery? There are usually a couple of restaurants open even at this time of the year, so it will save us both the trouble of cooking if we eat out.’

She was observing him wide eyed and he asked whimsically, ‘Are you thinking that I’m overdoing the apology?’

Now she was laughing, eyes sparkling, and he thought she was lovely when she was happy.

‘No, not at all.’ was the reply. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had two invitations out in a week, or even one for that matter—the supper party last night and dining with you tonight beside the lake will be perfect, I was too young for anything like that when I was here before, so thank you for suggesting it, Hugo.’