A Wedding in the Village

by Abigail Gordon

  After checking that the boys were where they should be at that hour, he went to bed himself, aware that it was Sunday already. Soon it would be Monday and with Monday came Megan with the no-nonsense approach when it came to the practice, its patients and himself. With that thought he turned on his side and slept.

  * * *

  ‘How was your trip to the city?’ Megan asked on Monday morning.

  Luke smiled. ‘Fine. We had a good day. I really enjoyed myself. Those are two great kids. And what about you? Did you enjoy the ballet?’

  ‘Yes, I did. We went for a meal afterwards and I caught the last train with only minutes to spare.’

  ‘I gathered that.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I saw your lights go on at somewhere around midnight.’

  ‘Oh, I see. Checking up on me, were you?’

  ‘No, not really,’ he said smoothly. ‘I was admiring the night sky from my bedroom window and happened to see your place suddenly come to life.’

  It wasn’t true, of course. He had been checking on her, but only in the best possible way, and the thought came again that she’d managed to get along very well without anyone looking out for her welfare so far. If Megan knew what was in his mind, she would think he was crazy or some sort of opportunist.

  ‘How did you get on with Warhurst?’ he asked with a swift change of topic.

  ‘All right. He was amazed to hear you were working as a GP here in the village. He’s a registrar at the Ear, Nose and Throat,’ she told him, and waited to see if he had any comment to make.

  ‘Hmm, really. Good for him,’ he murmured, settling himself behind his desk for the day ahead, and that was all. The last thing he wanted was for Alexis to crop up again. She was in the past, and as Megan left him without further comment, he thought that was where his ex-wife was going to stay.

  A knock on the door as he was about to call in his first patient turned out to be Connie, the cleaner, asking if she could have a quick word.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ he said with a smile for the second of his two domestic lifelines. ‘What can I do for you?’

  Connie came to Woodcote House each day after she’d finished at the surgery in the early morning and they hadn’t seen much of each other so far, but he had felt her presence when he’d gone home to find the place clean and tidy.

  ‘I just wanted to ask if you are satisfied with what I’m doing, Dr Anderson,’ she said nervously.

  ‘Yes, of course I am,’ he told her. ‘I hope we don’t leave you too much of a mess to clear up. Teenage boys are not the tidiest of creatures.’

  She smiled. ‘I know. I’ve had some myself.’ Her nervousness came back. ‘There is something else I wanted to ask you about. Could I have an appointment to see you?’

  ‘Certainly. I’ll see you now before you set off for my place, if you like, and before the surgery gets under way.’

  Connie, who was in her late fifties, and trim with it, had the feet of someone who was on them too much. They were misshapen, with a bunion on each foot pushing the big toes sideways.

  ‘Dr Marshall, Megan’s father, was always on at me to have the bunions removed, but I know what it would mean,’ she said. ‘Time off my feet, and when I did walk, plenty of pain.’

  Luke nodded sympathetically. ‘And you don’t want to have to put up with that.’

  ‘Not if I can help it. I’ve got a sick husband.’

  ‘Do you have children who could help out?’

  She shook her head. ‘They’re all married and living away. What I came for really was to ask what you thought I should do.’

  ‘I think you should have the bunions removed,’ he told her. ‘You’re still a comparatively young woman. Your feet will only get worse. Why not let me make an appointment for you to see someone about them? At least then you’ll know what would be involved and can take it from there.’

  ‘What about my cleaning for you? I would be letting you down if I decided to be operated on.’

  Luke frowned. ‘Nothing of the kind. It could be a while before they operated, and if you don’t get it sorted it’s yourself that you’ll be letting down. So tell me, do I write to the hospital or not, Connie?’

  ‘Yes, all right, then, if you will, Doctor,’ she said reluctantly.

  ‘You’re not committing yourself to anything by seeing an orthopaedic consultant,’ he reminded her as she got ready to leave, ‘but if you don’t get some professional advice you’ll never know what is involved.’

  After surgery, Megan popped in to see him. ‘I saw Connie come in this morning. What did she want?’

  ‘She wanted to see me about her feet. I was surprised that she didn’t ask you for advice.’

  Megan sighed. ‘She’s already done that and knows what I think. We’ve discussed it often enough. I’ve told her to get them put right before they get any more deformed.’

  ‘I see. So it wasn’t my charm that made her come to me. She was possibly hoping that I would say something different.’

  ‘And did you?’

  ‘No. Of course not. Anyone can see that she needs surgery. What about her sick husband, though?’

  ‘Yes. That would be a problem. Dennis has Parkinson’s disease and needs some degree of help. He would have to go into care for a while if she went into hospital. But we are presuming too much, I fear. Connie won’t even go to see someone to find out what needs doing.’

  ‘That is in the past,’ he said whimsically. ‘I’ve persuaded her to let me make an appointment with one of the orthopaedic guys.’

  ‘Really? Well done! So it must have been your charm after all. Maybe we should start a system where you see all the ditherers and difficult ones, and I jog along with the uncomplicated cases.’

  ‘On your bike!’ he told her, and saw amusement in the glance meeting his.

  ‘Well, you are the senior doctor, remember. Mum and Dad chose you because you have a lot more experience than I have and they didn’t want to leave me floundering.’

  It was his turn to be amused. ‘Floundering! That is not a term I would use to describe you. I may have the experience, but you have the advantage.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘In that everyone who comes through the surgery door knows and trusts you. Whereas the other day I heard a patient ask another why someone like me is working in a country practice, and the person replied that maybe I’d been struck off and this was all I could get.’

  ‘I could make a guess who they were,’ she said, smiling at the thought of what he’d just described. ‘Two elderly ladies in pale blue fleeces with knitted hats.’

  ‘Yes! Spot on.’

  ‘They are the Rigby sisters, who until recently always asked to see my mother. Now she’s gone they’ve reluctantly transferred themselves to me. One of them has thyroid problems, and the other is just getting over an attack of polymyalgia. You’ll have two big disadvantages in their opinion. First, that you’re a man and, second, that you aren’t local.’

  ‘Ah! So it’s because I’m not a member of the clan.’

  ‘Yes, but not as far as I’m concerned. I welcome the change. We need some new blood in the practice and I feel that we are fortunate to have you.’

  Luke smiled. ‘You weren’t of that opinion during my first week here, were you?’

  ‘No, I wasn’t. My parents had always run this place like clockwork and I was apprehensive at being left to cope with a stranger. When you appeared I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like a burden being lifted off my shoulders, until I knew what was going to be happening in your life, and then the anxiety came back.’

  She wasn’t going to tell him just how much it had meant, discovering that he was her parents’ choice, because the incident of the Valentine card was still there to take the edge off her pleasure, and even more so the knowledge that Luke had been married before.

  It wasn’t surprising. He was far too fanciable to be overlooked by her own sex. That was how it had been at university
amongst the students he’d taught. All of them aware of his attractions, but at that time none of them had known he was married to the star of Ear, Nose and Throat and that it was he who was ending the marriage.

  * * *

  When she’d been to buy something for her lunch from Elise’s bakery, Megan went to sit beside the river that flowed behind the practice. In all the village it was her favourite spot, as familiar to her as her own face. She knew every twist and turn of it. Every stone on its rocky bed. All the wildlife there, from the rarely sighted moorhen to the green finches, kingfishers and the heron, lording it over all with its long neck and large wingspan.

  When she looked up, Luke was walking towards her, eating a sandwich. He dropped down beside her on the grassy bank and asked, ‘So what river is this?’

  ‘The Goyt,’ she told him. ‘It joins the Etherow in the next village.’

  He nodded thoughtfully. ‘Whatever happens with Sue and the boys, I won’t want to be leaving this place in a hurry. It’s like another life, living here.’ His gaze was on the skyline. ‘Are you ever called out to visit patients up there?’

  ‘Yes. Though not too often, as there are only a few scattered farms and the odd cottage up on the tops. But if a call comes we go, and it can be scary if there is snow or high winds across the moors. You’ll need to keep a shovel in the boot of your car.’

  ‘I can see the sense of that. Have you ever been in difficulty up there?’

  ‘No, not really, but my dad once had a narrow escape when his car was stuck in a snowdrift for hours on end. It took the police and mountain rescue to bring him to safety.’

  In contrast to what they were discussing, it was a golden day, but there was a nip in the air, and when she shivered Luke said, ‘Maybe we should make tracks.’

  Taking her hand in his, he helped her to her feet and when they were facing each other he looked down on to the hand that lay in his and said, ‘No rings. No wedding band or engagement ring. I would have thought that the men around here would have been queueing up.’

  ‘A lot of men are nervous of women doctors,’ she said lightly. ‘They think if they marry one she’ll have them forever at the gym, on vitamin pills and eating lettuce all the time instead of steak.’

  ‘Rubbish!’he said laughingly. ‘I would expect your unmarried state to be more because you are hard to please.’

  ‘It might be,’ she conceded. ‘Whatever the reason, I’ll know when the time is right.’

  ‘I would hope so,’ he told her, and wasn’t quite sure what he’d meant by that.

  * * *

  Amongst those waiting to see Megan that afternoon was Tom Meredith, who owned the general store that housed the post office. It was a busy, friendly, place where nothing was too much trouble for its owner and his staff, but today Tom looked tense and tight-jawed.

  In his late fifties and happily married to Sara, who looked after the post office side of things, he had two sons in their thirties. Josh, the elder, was suffering from alcohol-related acute liver failure. He needed a transplant desperately.

  All the time that he’d been ill Tom and Sara had put on a brave front before their customers and staff, but today Tom looked like a man in deep despair. and what he had to say fitted in with that.

  ‘I wanted a word with you, Megan, before Sara and I approach the hospital,’ he told her. ‘Josh is going to die if a liver doesn’t become available soon. We’ve been wondering if part of one of our livers could be transplanted into him? We’ve heard of it being done successfully and we can’t stand by watching him like this any longer. What do you think the chances would be?’

  Her expression was grave. ‘Under normal circumstances I would say it might be possible, Tom. But your circumstances are different, aren’t they? Josh is adopted. So in the matching-up process you and Sara would be no different than any other member of the public.

  ‘By all means put it to those who are treating Josh, but I doubt if they’ll agree. If they operated and it wasn’t successful, he mightn’t be strong enough for further surgery when a liver comes through the usual channels.’

  He nodded sombrely. ‘Yes. I know what you mean, but I’m going to ask them. We just can’t face up to losing him. We love those lads as if they are our own, and now Josh is facing up to all the drinking he did when he was in his teens. The poor boy was so messed up when he came to us. He’s come a long way since then, and now this has happened.’

  He got up to go. ‘Thanks for your time, Megan,’ he said quietly. ‘Only a miracle will save him and there aren’t many of those about these days.’

  * * *

  When she told Luke about Tom and Sara’s dilemma he said, ‘They’ll have to hope that a liver comes available soon. I can’t see any other way. There might have been a slight chance if they’d been the lad’s natural parents, but as they’re not…’

  She nodded. ‘In times of desperate need we clutch at straws, don’t we? I’ve never yet been in that sort of situation, but I can imagine what it’s like, and time is running out for Josh.’

  ‘It can’t always be easy for you, treating people who are friends and acquaintances,’ Luke commented.

  ‘It isn’t. But there is often relief on the part of the patient to be dealing with someone who isn’t a stranger. Though it does make me inclined to take their problems home with me.’

  ‘That I can believe,’ he told her. ‘Yet you know, Megan, I’ve lived with someone high on the ladder of health care, in her opinion and everyone else’s. It’s good to work with someone who really cares about her patients.’

  Megan could feel her colour rising. She supposed it was something if Luke approved of her as a doctor. How he saw her as a woman was another matter. He may have been unhappy with Alexis Duncan, but she would be some act to follow when it came to style and allure.

  Luke’s glance was on her face. It had attracted him long ago in the days when she’d been a serious student and he’d been full of rage and bitterness at the loss of his child. A child that he hadn’t even known existed until Alexis had decided to put him in the picture.

  But now his attention had shifted. He was looking past her and said, ‘Hello, hello! Here comes trouble.’ When she turned Megan saw Owen standing just inside the doorway of the surgery.

  ‘I’ve lost my mobile, Uncle Luke,’ he said miserably. ‘Either that or someone’s taken it.’

  ‘Yes, but what are you doing here?’ Luke asked. ‘School isn’t over for another hour and a half.’

  ‘I slipped out at breaktime because I’m desperate to find it. I need my mobile.’

  ‘No, you don’t. Now get back to school fast before you’re missed.’

  ‘I can’t go back there without it!’

  ‘Oh, yes, you can. We’ll sort out the phone business this evening. So on your way, Owen.’

  ‘I’ve got a spare phone,’ Megan said quickly, touched by the boy’s distress. ‘I’ve never used it, so it hasn’t got anything private in it. You can borrow it until yours turns up if you like.’

  Owen’s expression indicated that the sun had just come out from behind a cloud. ‘Yes, please, Dr Marshall. I’ll take great care of it.’

  ‘You’d better,’ Luke told him.

  ‘I’ll get it. It’s in my desk drawer,’ she told him, and within minutes Owen had gone with a lighter step than when he’d come in.

  ‘You didn’t have to do that, Megan,’ Luke said when he’d gone. ‘It would have taught him to be more careful with his things if he’d had to do without.’

  ‘He’s already doing without,’ she reminded him. ‘He’s without a father and his mother is far away. I said I would do all I could to help, and compared to what you’re doing for the boys it was a drop in the ocean.’

  He nodded. ‘Yes. You’re right. Finding the right level between love and discipline isn’t easy.’

  ‘You’ll make a great father some day,’ she said impulsively, and saw his face close up.

  ‘Chance would have bee
n a fine thing,’ he commented levelly, and wondered what the child that Alexis had aborted would have been like. Maybe she’d done them a favour. For children to be born into an unhappy marriage was not a good thing. It was a fallacy that their arrival brought peace to a warring couple.

  Megan turned away. She wasn’t going to ask what he’d meant. The tone of his voice told her not to. So instead she smiled and said, ‘There’s no rush to get the phone back. We can’t have Owen upset and fretting. And by the way, have you been mothing of late? Any more journeys into the dark country night?’

  Back to his usual equable self, he said, ‘A couple of times, as I did make young Oliver a promise, you know.’

  ‘Yes. I know you did and I know that you keep your promises,’ she told him, with the memory crystal clear of when she’d questioned his keeping of his marriage vows.

  ‘And how do you know that when you’ve no proof of it?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but I do.’

  ‘Mmm. I see.’ He was glancing at the clock, and as if what they’d been discussing was of no merit he said, ‘Shall we see how many people are waiting to see us? Hopefully with problems less dreadful than Tom Meredith’s.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SEPTEMBER had gone, taking with it mellow days and cooler nights, and now October had arrived with a mixture of weather that was giving frequent reminders that winter was on its way.

  The practice was running well. Megan’s concerns regarding Luke’s responsibilities seemed to have been unfounded as he was coping brilliantly, with his elderly housekeeper and not so elderly cleaner there to assist. There were times when he looked frayed around the edges but it didn’t affect his good humour.

  Any further trips to the city had been put on hold because he was spending any spare time in the garden centre, helping out and supervising generally.

  His two nephews seemed more settled as the weeks went by, and now the only problem was their mother, who was showing no signs of coming back to face up to life in the village with a family to care for and a business to run.