Spring Proposal in Swallowbrook

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘So think about it, and if you are interested let me know, but before you do I feel that I must tell you that at this time of year there are always lots of places to rent before the holiday season clocks in. So feel free to use the apartment for the time being until you’ve had time to sort out your priorities with Libby and Nathan, as they might already have somewhere in mind for you.’

  She was dumbstruck. Of course she would want to stay in the lovely apartment where she’d spent the night, but what had changed? Only yesterday she’d felt that Hugo Lawrence was irritated by her presence, keen to see the back of her, and now…?

  Concealing her pleasure at the thought of accepting his offer, she answered gravely, ‘I will do as you say, Dr Lawrence, and give your suggestion some thought. Thank you for allowing me to stay until I have had the chance to do that, and now if you will excuse me I’m going to have some breakfast before presenting myself at the surgery.’

  ‘Sure,’ he agreed easily. ‘I’ll see you there later. I hope that your first day will be a good one.’

  Once inside the apartment Ruby’s gravity was cast aside and she danced around the place delightedly. Of course she was going to take up Hugo Lawrence’s offer, but after the way she’d butted into his well-organised life and been received with what could only be described as reluctance, a more staid approach was called for when she was in his company.

  As for the rest of it, she was in a state of bliss at his suggestion because the surgery and the lake were so close. She would be able to explore all her old haunts again. Life was as good as it was likely to get, just as long as the precarious path to good health that her young brother had to travel along didn’t have any life-threatening side turnings.

  Hugo was smiling when she’d gone. Not so docile this morning, was she? It would be interesting to see how she came over at the practice with Libby, Nathan, the rest of the staff and the patients. Maybe he should have offered to drive her down there instead of leaving her to make a solo appearance, but he wanted to call on one of his patients who was causing grave concern on his way to the surgery, and in any case the newcomer needed to stand on her own two feet from the start.

  ‘Ruby! Is it really you?’ Libby exclaimed as she was opening up the surgery at eight o’clock and saw the new junior doctor approaching.

  ‘We were not expecting you just yet.’

  ‘I know,’ Ruby told her apologetically. ‘But I suddenly found myself homeless on Saturday and decided that the only thing to do was come straight here and hope you wouldn’t mind me descending upon you without notice.’

  ‘And we weren’t here, were we? What a shame! So where have you stayed for the last two days?’ Libby asked, and taking her arm, ‘Come inside out of the cold and we’ll have a cup of tea and a chat before everyone arrives. Nathan is at the cottage, getting Toby ready for school, and will be here about half past nine when he’s seen him safely inside.’

  ‘I hope you don’t mind me arriving too soon,’ Ruby said as Libby brewed a pot of tea in a pleasant kitchen at the far end of the building.

  ‘Not at all,’ she assured her. ‘We are very busy and badly need your input in the practice, but I haven’t yet sorted out anywhere for you to live, so we must see to that before anything else.’

  The young newcomer was smiling. ‘I’m already fixed up with accommodation. When I arrived on Saturday in a pretty distressed state I asked the first person I saw if he knew where you might be and it turned out that I was speaking to Dr Lawrence.’

  She wasn’t going to mention sleeping in his room on top of his bed! ‘He let me use the apartment over his garage until now, and has said if I want to rent it I can.’

  ‘You’ve already met Hugo, then!’ Libby exclaimed, ‘and he’s willing to let you rent that delightful apartment! Wow! You must have made a good impression.’

  ‘I doubt it,’ she said whimsically, ‘but I think he feels that a regular tenant is the lesser of two evils rather than one let after another. He’s told me to think about it, not to rush into anything I might regret, but I don’t need to, the place is gorgeous so I’m going to agree to his suggestion before he changes his mind.’

  The rest of the staff was arriving in ones and twos and as she was introduced to each in turn Ruby’s dream was being realised. When at last she and Libby were alone in the small consulting room that would be hers she said, ‘I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be part of the Swallowbrook practice, Dr Gallagher.’

  ‘And we are delighted to have you with us,’ Libby told her. ‘If there is anything that you’re not sure of don’t be afraid to ask.’ As Nathan appeared at that moment to offer his words of welcome, she said to him, ‘Ruby has already met Hugo. He took her in for the weekend when we weren’t around and has offered her the apartment above his garage to rent.’

  ‘Really!’ he exclaimed laughingly. ‘That doesn’t exactly fit in with his expressed desire for no visitors and time to himself when away from this place. You are to be congratulated, Ruby.’

  She smiled. It was hardly the moment to explain that he had accommodated her on sufferance…and where was he? Hugo Lawrence didn’t strike her as someone who would be a poor timekeeper.

  The two doctors had left her to settle into her room and gone to deal with their patients, when there was a knock on the door. She crossed to open it and there he was, in the passage outside, observing her questioningly.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ he asked before she had the chance to greet him. ‘You’ve met Libby and Nathan and the rest of the staff?’

  ‘Yes, everything is fine,’ she said brightly. ‘Libby was concerned because she hadn’t had time to find me somewhere to stay with me arriving earlier than expected, but I told her that I’d already had a very good offer of your apartment that I will be delighted to accept if it is still open.’

  He was frowning. ‘When you get to know me better, Ruby, you will discover that I usually mean what I say. So, yes, the apartment is yours for a nominal rent for as long as you want. If you will come across to the house this evening, we’ll sort out the details.

  ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must ring the hospital to have a patient admitted who is far from well with what appears to be septicaemia. Last week it was a mild infection that could have gone either way, but I’ve just called at the house and his condition has worsened over the weekend into something quite serious.’

  ‘Will you have time to tell me about it when you’ve made the call?’ she asked.

  ‘Er, maybe not at the moment as I have patients waiting, but if you’re still keen to know I’ll tell you about it tonight when you come round to discuss your renting of the apartment.’ he replied. ‘So, what have Libby and Nathan got planned for you on your first day here?’

  He could have suggested that Ruby sit in with him during his consultations for today, but wasn’t going to as he felt he’d made enough concessions already towards welcoming her into the fold, and maybe she would be better sitting in with Libby on her first morning at the practice.

  As if on cue Libby appeared and said, ‘I thought you might like to join me during my consultations today, Ruby. It will give you the feel of things and an insight as to how and what we have to deal with, don’t you agree, Hugo?’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ he told her, ‘and I have an urgent phone call to make so I’ll leave you both to it.’ And with a smile that embraced them both he strode off to his own particular part of the busy surgery, while Libby did likewise in the direction of hers with Ruby close behind.

  It had been a fantastic day, reflected Ruby as she ate her solitary meal that evening. Even Dr Lawrence had had a smile for her and soon she would be seeing him again when she went to discuss the rental procedures, and he satisfied her eagerness to hear about the infection that he’d been dealing with.

  But first she was going to ring home. She
’d spoken to Robbie and her parents yesterday, so they were aware that she had arrived in Swallowbrook earlier than expected, and would now be waiting to hear how her first day at the practice had gone.

  They were a close-knit family and had been a very happy one until Robbie’s illness had shown itself and her mother had been faced with the dreadful impact of her part in it.

  Before she’d discovered that she had the faulty gene she’d always been happy and carefree, singing around the house, hugging them all close at every opportunity, but ever since Robbie had been stricken with that first bleed all that time ago and had had others since, she had become quiet and withdrawn, not loving or caring for them any less, more if that were possible but joyless in the process.

  As Ruby had grown older and begun her medical career she had understood more than anyone the feeling of being flawed that was with her mother constantly and once when she’d asked her what she would have done if she’d known she carried the gene, she’d replied sadly, ‘I don’t know, Ruby. Because I didn’t know I was a carrier of the haemophilia gene I was never faced with having to make a choice with regard to having children.

  ‘Your dad is loving and supportive, tells me to stop fretting, that I am not to blame for what is happening to Robbie, that it is not because of any known fault of mine, genetics have made me what I am, but I still have to live with it, don’t I? Live with the knowledge that Robbie’s illness isn’t the only blight I’ve put upon my family. There is also what I’ve done to you, Ruby.’

  On that occasion with a wisdom beyond her years she had held her mother close and told her, ‘All you’ve ever done to me is to be the best mother in the world and Robbie, when he is older, will feel the same, so don’t weep for what you didn’t know about, Mum. What Dad says is right.’

  But tonight when her mother’s voice came over the line there was only happiness in it as they chatted about Ruby’s return to Swallowbrook and her first day at the practice, until she told her about her attractive landlord-cum-colleague-cum–recluse neighbour.

  ‘You aren’t going to fall in love, are you?’ her mother asked, trying not to sound anxious.

  They’d gone through this scenario a few times, the worry that relationships with the opposite sex brought about, and understanding only too well her mother’s thought process Ruby told her gently, ‘Not with this one. He is dubious about my suitability from all angles.’

  When she’d finished speaking to her mother Ruby rang Hugo to ask what time he would like her to go across to the house to discuss the tenancy.

  ‘Come now if you want and let’s get it over with,’ was the brisk reply, without any hint of welcome. ‘It won’t take long. Just a matter of fixing a rental, the two of us signing the appropriate forms, and me giving you a copy of rules and regulations, along with details of the user instructions for everything.’

  So ‘Mr Nice Guy’ from the surgery had changed back into ‘Sir Keep Your Distance’, Ruby thought as she replaced the receiver. What did he think she was going to do, take her knitting with her? She would be in and out like a flash and would not be asking him to tell her about the patient that he’d called to see on his way to the surgery that morning.

  She wasn’t to know that he’d been expecting a call from his sister, and as always when he spoke to Patrice there was the dread in him that the new life she’d gone to without a second thought might turn out to be a mistake.

  When she’d gone it had been as if he’d been given his life back. Opportunities to do his own thing for a change had presented themselves and he was out to guard them like precious gold.

  Patrice always rang him on a Monday evening and until she did he was always on edge in case she was having second thoughts about her impulsive move abroad and wanted to come home. So far there had been no mention of any such thing, she and the children sounded happy enough in their new surroundings, but so stressful had been the eighteen months when he’d given up every spare moment to them he still couldn’t believe that it was actually over and she had found some degree of happiness at last.

  He’d thought it was going to be her when Ruby had phoned. Had let his tension loose on her and was now regretting it, so when he opened the door to her he was smiling. Stepping back to let her in, he said, ‘My sister usually rings from Canada at this time on a Monday evening, so I hope you will excuse me if I have to break into our discussion to answer the call. I am always on edge until I know that all is well with her—you know how it can be, a new life in a new land.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, and thought she would bear in mind that Monday evenings were not a good time to ring her prospective landlord.

  He was leading her through to the sitting room and pointing to the sofa for her to be seated and the memory of Saturday night came back, with her drooping like a rag doll against its soft cushions after a dreadful day.

  Hugo had been right when he’d said that the rental arrangements wouldn’t take long. In no time at all they had completed the paperwork needed for Ruby to rent the apartment for the next six months, to begin with at a very reasonable figure.

  When she expressed her gratitude he said with none of the abruptness of earlier, ‘I thought you might have to pay off a student loan, and it is worth it to me that someone I already know will be living there, instead of an array of strangers.’

  ‘I do have a loan to pay off,’ she told him. ‘My parents are helping me with it, yet it is still my responsibility, so thanks for the thought, Dr Lawrence.’

  He nodded and asked with casual curiosity, ‘Where is your family situated?’

  ‘In Tyneside. We used to live here in Swallowbrook but had to move because of my father’s job, yet I have always wanted to come back.’

  ‘Are you their only child?’

  ‘No, I have a young brother, Robbie, in his early teens.’

  ‘So your parents have the same as mine had, a son and a daughter, though in our family it is the other way round—my sister, Patrice, is the younger of the two of us.’

  At that moment the phone rang and he said, ‘This will be her now.’

  As she got up to go he said, ‘You don’t have to rush off. I thought you wanted to hear about the patient I called on before morning surgery.’

  She was smiling, her earlier dismay at his abrupt manner having disappeared as she said, ‘It will keep for another time,’ and letting herself out she returned to the apartment and once again danced a little jig at the thought of being its new tenant.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE CURTAINS were not drawn in the apartment and as Hugo chatted to Patrice he was smiling as he watched Ruby dancing around the place.

  She was incredibly graceful, he thought as she pirouetted in the small lounge beneath the chandelier that had been one of his sister’s extravagances when she’d been furnishing the elegant apartment.

  Now Patrice was gone. It belonged to him, and it remained to be seen what kind of a person the young graduate that he had rented it to would turn out to be. So far she hadn’t put a foot wrong, but he had, and there had been no reason for it except that the timing of her arrival in his life had been all wrong.

  Looking after Patrice had become a way of life over the years and since it had come to an end, every time they spoke on the phone he rejoiced to hear the lift in her voice as she chatted about the children’s schools, and the attractive house they’d moved into not far away from that of her friend.

  When they’d finished their weekly chat he saw that Ruby had closed the curtains across the way and settling himself in a chair by the fire with a book he thought that he wouldn’t be doing this tomorrow night as Libby and Nathan had invited him to supper, along with Ruby and John Gallagher, who was now enjoying his retirement in a pine lodge by the side of a nearby river.

  Ruby hadn’t mentioned the invitation when s
he’d come across, but she hadn’t had much opportunity with him wanting to know about her family and anything else that would give him a clearer picture of the newcomer to the practice, and then there had been Patrice’s phone call.

  It was a nice idea on the part of the other two doctors. Ruby’s early arrival had taken them all by surprise. It would be one way of welcoming her into their midst, and an opportunity for her to meet up again with John, who had been her family’s doctor when she’d lived in Swallowbrook before.

  Not having been resident here for long himself, he knew nothing of the trauma of illness and heartache that Ruby’s family had taken with them to their new home. What he did know was that she had been very keen to come back to Swallowbrook to be part of the village medical centre, which was rather strange as with her degree results he would have thought she would want to aim higher than a country practice.

  The book he was holding was in his hand without a word having been read and deciding that solitude was all right in small doses he reached for a jacket and going out into the night pointed himself in the direction of The Mallard, and this time there was no Ruby rising hastily from her seat by the fire to make a quick exit.

  Having calmed down after her earlier glee at the thought of securing the apartment, Ruby was towelling herself dry in front of a large mirror in the bathroom after her nightly luxurious bath when catching sight of herself she paused in contemplation.

  There was nothing wrong with her figure, she thought wistfully, slender curves, smooth skin, and long legs that made up for any raving beauty that was missing elsewhere. But it wasn’t anything that was missing that frequently made her feel sad, just the opposite. It was something she had that she didn’t want, that might one day turn light into darkness.