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He'd thought that she was being totally flip about the way they'd met in the police station and had wanted to shake her. She knew that he'd remember the sequinned top. He'd mentioned it once and she'd been surprised that it had registered with him. The truth of it was the damn thing would always be part of that dreadful night, and here she was, flaunting it.

'How did you get here?' he asked when the toast was over.

'In my car. I don't drink and drive.'

'I'm aware of that, but I need to talk to you.'

'You already have, and I don't really want to hear any more along those lines. I wore these clothes because I thought it might remind you of how the way we met has forged a bond between us, but it would seem that it was a big mistake.'

It was at that moment that Caroline appeared at his side and, guessing that she was there to thank him and wouldn't be too keen on an audience, Fenella moved away. It was an ideal opportunity to depart while Max was otherwise engaged, she decided.

She went to find the girl's parents and, having thanked them for an enjoyable evening, went out into the night, hoping that Max wouldn't notice that she'd gone. She felt miserable and defeated after the telling-off he'd given her and just wanted to go home and take a good long look at where they were heading, if anywhere.

The weather had changed while she'd been at the party. A boisterous wind buffeted her as she went to the car and in the distance lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.

Visibility was never good on the moors at night, but she knew the way home well enough, or thought she did, until she took a wrong turning and found herself on a narrow lane that wasn't wide enough to turn round in and meant she had to keep on driving until it widened or she came back onto the hill road.

Rain was slashing across the windscreen now and as she peered at the road in front of her, a sheep ran in front of the car, white and bedraggled in the light from the headlamps.

She swerved to avoid it, lost control and went careering down a hillside that she hadn't known was there. It was a terrifying experience, bouncing along in the darkness amongst bushes and boulders with the rain pelting down.

She braked at the same moment as a dry stone wall reared up in front of the car, and as the vehicle came to a shuddering halt she felt the seat belt cutting into her and every bone in her body jarring from the impact.

When Max discovered that Fenella had gone he groaned, and when he went outside and saw the weather it was as if nothing was going to go right on this night. He'd planned to invite Fenella back to his house after the party and make up for all the backward steps their relationship had been taking of late. He had intended to ask her t6 marry him. Something he would have done long ago if it hadn't been for what Ann had said.

He'd spoken to her at the surgery the previous day, told her what he was intending, and she'd smiled.

'I gave in some time ago,' she'd told him. 'If it's you that Fenella wants, and there doesn't seem much doubt about that, I'm happy for you to be together. In recent weeks I've seen how capable and mature she can be and she isn't going to change her mind about you, Max.' She'd kissed him gently on the cheek and told him, 'You have my blessing.'

It had been a weight off his mind, but he'd known that he wasn't there yet. There was Fenella to convince that he loved her and in recent days he'd begun to think that it might not be so easy But it wasn't going to deter him and he drove off in the direction of her cottage.

When he pulled up in front all was in darkness, yet he didn't think she'd gone to bed. For one thing, none of the curtains were drawn and some of the windows were open to the driving rain.

Maybe in defiant mood she'd gone down to The Moorhen, he thought. Or to Simon's house to talk to Ann. But there was no sign of her at the pub and Ann hadn't seen her daughter.

'I upset Fenella,' he told her mother, 'and she left the party early. I really need to speak to her, Ann.'

It was her turn to be concerned now. 'Suppose she's had an accident, Max? The roads can be slippery when it's raining like this, and it's so dark up there on the hill road.'

'I've driven that way myself,' he reminded her, 'and there were no signs of anything like that. I'll go back to the cottage and see if she's turned up while I've been down here.'

'Let me know,' she called as he got back in the car.

The place was still in darkness and his anxiety increased. He had a feeling of foreboding, so much so that he decided to ring the police.

'We'll ask the squad cars to keep a lookout, Doc,' they told him. 'It's a bad night for anybody to be up there.'

As he stood irresolute Max had a sudden idea where Fenella might be. She was in charge of the keys for Alice's house. Maybe she'd gone there for some reason. The old lady was still in hospital but it was possible that she'd remembered something she had to do for Alice and had stopped off on the way home.

It was a vain hope. All was in darkness, bolted and barred. As he stood on the garden path, wondering where to look next Max saw lights in a field some distance away, and with his knowledge of the area he knew that there wasn't a house there. There were no properties around there, just fields, and it wasn't a night for camping out, that was for sure.

He got back in the car and drove towards the place where he'd seen the lights, but now they'd disappeared and he wasn't quite sure which field they'd been in.

For what seemed like a lifetime Fenella sat in the car, too shocked to move. The headlamps were still on, providing a faint circle of light. From what she could see, it looked to be an uncultivated field where she'd ended up, and as there were fields in abundance on the slopes coming down from the peaks she hadn't a clue where she was.

Petrol was dripping from the tank and suddenly came the thought of fire. She had to get out and, switching everything off, she opened the door and staggered away from the car. The rain was still coming down in torrents, hopefully enough to put out a fire should her worst fears be realized. In the meantime, she went to stand shivering under a tree with the flimsy shoes she'd worn for the party squelching on her feet.

If only she'd waited for Max, she thought wretchedly. Where was he? She needed him. She always would. He would be home now, snug in bed, not knowing that she was cold and wet in the dark with no idea where she was, afraid to move in case she fell over another drop or stepped in a bog.

What would he say when he saw the state of the car? It would be another black mark against her. She would never be able to eat lamb again without remembering this night.

The rain eased off at last and a yellow moon had appeared from behind a cloud when Max stopped the car above on the narrow lane. He'd seen the lights somewhere down below here, he thought, but there were no signs of them now.

There was a powerful torch in the boot that he carried in case he was ever lost while out on a call and he went to get it, but when he flashed it around there was still nothing to see, until it picked up a glint of metal beside one of the walls that divided the fields. He threw himself downwards, flattening bracken and gorse on the way.

It was the green metallic car that he'd bought for Fenella, banged up against the wall. He could pick out the number plate in the light of the torch, but when he shone it inside the car it was empty. He felt dread uncurling inside him. Had she been thrown out of the car as it careered along the field, or wandered off in a distressed state? If anything had happened to her, he would never forgive himself as he was to blame for her leaving the party early
and
on her own.

He was waving the torch around frantically and suddenly she was there in its beam, huddled beneath a tree, soaked to the skin.

'I knew you would come,' she said faintly, and then, as if the relief was too much, she crumpled and he just managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

Max carried her to his car, holding his precious burden carefully as he dodged overhanging branches, sidestepped loose stones and avoided slipping on the wet grass.

When they got there he wrapped her in his jacket and held her until she opened her eyes.

'I ache all over, Max, and I'm so cold,' she said tearfully.

'Yes, I know,' he told her. 'I'm taking you to my place. I feel as if I don't want to let you out of my sight ever again. I've been chasing all over everywhere trying to find you, and it was only by a fluke that I did. I saw lights in a field and then they disappeared so I went to investigate, and, thankfully, there you were.'

'It would be the headlamps that you saw, before I turned everything off and got out of the car in case it caught fire. I'm so sorry that I've wrecked it, Max. I swerved to avoid a sheep in the downpour and went over the edge into the field. I'd taken a wrong turning and didn't know where I was in the pitch dark.'

He stroked her face gently. 'What did I say to you when I bought the car, Fenella? I said that it could soon be replaced, but the person driving it couldn't. So forget about it. It's a miracle that you weren't killed.'

So she was still just anyone, any other person, she thought dismally. Not someone that he couldn't live without. Max had come and found her, but again the thought was there that he would have done it for anybody.

When they got back to Max's house, a hot bath warmed her up and took some of the aches out of her. Now, wrapped in a blanket, she was curled up on the couch in the lounge. He'd checked her over and everything seemed to be in place.

Fenella had spoken to her mother and put her fears at rest and would have been content if it hadn't been for the suspense of wondering where she was going to sleep.

Max had disappeared upstairs and when he came down again he said, 'I've changed the sheets on my bed for you. I'll sleep in Will's room.'

Fenella nodded meekly. There was no fight left in her now. She knew the score.

'But before I tuck you up for the night, there's something I have to tell you, Fenella.'

Here it comes! she thought glumly. It was either going to be the sack or the news that he was back with Sonya.

Max had seen her expression and he said, 'There's no need to look so solemn. I've upset you enough for one night with my comments about your clothes. I hope that what I have to say next might have the opposite effect.'

She didn't speak. Just observed him with wary blue eyes.

'I love you, Fenella, more than life itself,' he said in a low voice. 'Your mother asked me to give you space and I've tried to do that, but I can't do it any longer and I've told her so.'

She'd been lying amongst the cushions with the blanket wrapped tightly around her, but now she sat bolt upright. Max watched her swallow hard, but she still didn't speak, and he went on. 'You've brought light into my life where there wasn't any. I have to thank you for that. You've become a vital part of the practice and I have to thank you for that, but most of all I'm grateful that you're you. So will you marry me?'

Her kissable mouth was trembling. The words were ready to pour forth now but he forestalled her. 'Before you give me an answer, remember that Will is still living here, though I don't think it will be long before he flies the nest. But I would never ask him to go. I'm all he's got. Can you put up with that?'

Fenella was smiling, a beam brighter than the sun. 'I haven't answered your first question yet,' she told him. 'Of course I'll marry you, Max. I can't think of anything I want more. When you said you had something to say to me, I thought you were going to give me the sack because my nuisance rating outweighed my good points.. .and you
do
know that it's your house I'm after.'

He lifted her off the couch and cradled her in his arms, and as he looked down at her he was laughing. 'So I've got a rival.'

'Mmm,' she murmured as she stroked his face with loving hands.

She could feel the steady beat of his heart through the thin shirt he was wearing and felt her own heartbeat quicken. If Max felt that she had brought light into his life,
he
was offering
her
everything she'd ever dreamed of.

She'd known right from the day she'd walked into the surgery and discovered that they had already met under most unusual circumstances that he was different to any man she'd ever met. When it had seemed as if it had been her mother that he had been interested in, she'd been devastated. Because, though she hadn't been prepared to face up to it at the time, she'd wanted him for herself.

'As for Will,' she told him, 'I wouldn't want him to leave. This was his home long before I came on the scene, and what's more I'm fond of him. He's like the young brother I never had.'

'Bless you for that,' he murmured.

'It was a small thing to ask.'

His smile was wry. 'Not everyone would see it that way.'

'Now it's my turn,' she told him. 'I have something to ask you.'

'Go ahead.'

'You said that only those who are invited are welcome to share your bed. So do I have a long-term invite?'

'Of course,' he said whimsically. 'And if you remember, I made another stipulation...that they should be wearing my ring. So what are we going to do about that?'

She looked up and pointed to the brass rings on the curtain rail above them, but he shook his head. 'I think I can do better than that, Fenella. The only gem I could think of that equalled your brightness was a diamond. So if you would like to hold out your finger...' As she watched him, goggle-eyed, he took a jeweller's box off the top of the bookcase beside them and inside, as he'd promised, was a solitaire diamond, sparkling up at them from its velvet pad.

'It's beautiful,' she breathed as he slid the ring onto her finger. 'But, Max, why is it that I'm never dressed right for the occasion?'

'Oh, but you are,' he told her softly as he slid the blanket off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor.

Alice was mobile again and enduring the help of Social Services, which was coming in handy as all Fenella's time was taken up with the making of the wedding dress.