A Wedding in the Village

by Abigail Gordon

  When Megan asked Luke about it he said sombrely, ‘I think that Sue is afraid of having to cope without Gareth when she comes back, and keeps putting it off.’

  ‘And so what does she intend doing?’ Megan asked levelly. ‘Has she forgotten that there are two fatherless boys here who aren’t seeing much of their mother either? She’s not being fair to them…or you.’

  ‘Sue can’t stay away for ever, Megan.’

  ‘Oh, no? She’s my friend but I do feel she’s taking advantage of you, Luke.’

  ‘Shall I be the judge of that?’ he said coolly, even though he knew she was right. He wanted to tell her that when Sue came home there would be time for them and not just at the practice.

  It was the end of the day. They were on the point of leaving the surgery, and he little knew that his recent complacency regarding Owen and Oliver was about to receive a severe jolt.

  As he and Megan were going to their cars one of the receptionists came hurrying after them. ‘Phone call for you, Dr Anderson,’ she cried. ‘It’s Rebekah Wainright. There’s been an accident at Woodcote House. One of the boys has been hurt.’

  Megan watched the colour drain from his face. ‘What sort of an accident?’ he cried.

  ‘They lit a firework that someone had given them and…’

  She was talking to his departing back as he flung himself into his car. He’d heard enough. So had Megan, already in the passenger seat, and within minutes they were pulling up in front of the house.

  They found Rebekah round the back of the house, bending over Oliver, while Owen, as white as a sheet, stood sniffling nearby. When she saw them she cried, ‘I’ve sent for an ambulance. The firework went off with an awful blast and he was too near. Didn’t move away quickly enough and he’s been unconscious ever since.’

  As the two doctors dropped to their knees beside him Luke said, ‘He’s breathing, thank goodness. Fast and irregular pulse, and burns down the side of his face.’

  ‘I’ll put a dressing on them while you keep a check on his breathing,’ Megan said, thankful that he’d had a first-aid kit in the car. She was trying to keep calm for Luke’s sake. The boys doing this was the stuff that nightmares were made of.

  ‘They’d asked me about fireworks and I gave them all the warnings,’ he said raggedly. ‘I had no idea they might get one themselves—which just goes to show how wrong I was.’

  ‘We got it off a boy outside the fish and chip shop,’ Owen told them tearfully. ‘He said it was a bargain for five pounds.’

  ‘Do you think it was a bargain now?’ Luke asked grimly, pointing to where Oliver was beginning to come round. ‘I can’t believe you’d put your brother at risk, Owen. Especially after I warned you. Thank goodness Mrs Wainright was here.’

  * * *

  An ambulance arrived and as Oliver was being stretchered on board Owen began to cry. ‘I want to go with him,’ he sobbed. ‘Is Oliver going to die, too?’

  Luke’s face was grey and pinched-looking as he comforted him and assured him that Oliver was going to be all right, but he needed to go to hospital to be treated for the burns and any other injuries that he might have sustained.

  ‘Tell us what happened, Owen,’ he asked gently, as he sat beside him in the ambulance.

  ‘There was a big flash and it knocked him over,’ he gulped.

  Megan was seated facing them and as Luke shook his head in disbelief their glances met. Don’t let him blame himself for this, she was thinking. Oliver is alive, thank goodness, and once we get him to A and E they’ll sort him out.

  ‘Don’t tell Mum what we did, will you?’ Owen pleaded as the ambulance sped towards the city.

  ‘I’ll have to,’ Luke told him. ‘I can’t keep something like this from her, but don’t worry. Once she knows you’re both all right I’m sure she’ll understand that you won’t ever do it again. They’ll most likely keep Oliver in hospital for a few days, so she’ll have to know.’

  * * *

  Oliver was seen by a doctor in A and E and his burns were treated. They were mainly surface injuries on the side of his face and one of his forearms as he’d tried to shield himself from the exploding firework.

  They’d been warned that there might be concussion from the way he’d been thrown by the blast and, as Luke had expected, they were going to be keeping him in for a few days for observation.

  Luke and Megan were concerned that Oliver’s hearing seemed to be affected, and now that he was fully conscious he was saying that it hurt when he swallowed.

  There’d been no visible signs of injury to his throat, but the doctor in A and E recommended that he see an ear, nose and throat consultant to be on the safe side, and to Luke’s dismay he said he would ask Alexis Duncan to have a look at him.

  Megan saw Luke’s expression, but knew he wouldn’t think of objecting if the doctor in A and E was going to get the best for Oliver. His own feelings he would put to one side for his nephew, and as for herself, she hadn’t yet made any effort to put herself in a position where she would be able to form an opinion about Luke’s ex-wife, but now that the opportunity was being offered, she knew that it was what she wanted.

  ‘Alexis is a friend of mine,’ the A and E doctor told them. ‘She’s picking me up when I’ve finished here and we’re going for a meal. So I’m going to ask a favour of her.’

  It was nine o’clock when the woman who’d broken Luke’s heart came to Oliver’s bedside. When she saw him sitting there with Megan by his side, her dark almond-shaped eyes widened and she breathed, ‘Luke! What are you doing here?’

  ‘The boys are my nephews,’ he said evenly. ‘They’ve been playing with fireworks.’

  ‘I see. So how are you?’

  ‘I’m fine, Alexis,’ he told her, ‘and thanks for coming to see Oliver. His father died recently and his mother is out of the country, so life hasn’t been treating him very well of late, and now this.’

  Her glance had switched to Megan, who was taking in every detail of the woman who had been Luke’s first love.

  ‘So you’re not their mother, then.’

  Before she could reply he said, ‘Megan and I are jointly in charge of a country practice, and she is a friend of the boy’s mother. It’s been a long day for all of us. So if you wouldn’t mind…’

  Alexis was dressed for going out, in a long black evening dress relieved with expensive jewellery, but she nodded and bent over Oliver, who was regarding her dubiously.

  ‘Can you hear what I’m saying, Oliver?’ she asked.

  ‘Not very well,’ he said.

  She’d brought her equipment with her, obviously having been warned about what lay ahead, and she looked into his ears for quite some time before asking him, ‘Did the firework go off very close to you?’

  He gazed at her blankly and she repeated the question in a louder voice and was told, ‘Yes. It was a big bang.’

  ‘I see. Will you open your mouth for me now while I look down your throat?’

  Next she felt his neck glands and then looked into his ears once more, and when she’d finished she told them, ‘I think the firework exploding so close has caused temporary deafness, which should gradually disappear, as fortunately there has been no piercing of the eardrums.

  ‘His throat seems fine, and the fact that it hurts when he swallows will be muscular, probably from the same cause. That too should soon go away, but if it doesn’t, you know where to find me, Luke,’ she told him meaningfully, and then swept out of the ward to join her dinner date.

  * * *

  When the night sister on the children’s ward took over she said, ‘Why don’t you go and get something to eat while I settle this young man for the night? He and his brother can have some supper up here.’

  As they pointed themselves towards the hospital restaurant Luke said, ‘Thanks, Megan.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Being there for us.’

  ‘What about Alexis?’ she asked. ‘Giving her time and talents for you?’
<
br />   ‘She was doing it to impress her latest conquest, not me,’ he said dryly. ‘She didn’t know I was involved until she walked into the ward, and, believe me, she was the last person I wanted to see tonight, or at any other time for that matter.’

  ‘What did she do to you that hurt so much?’

  She couldn’t have asked him under normal circumstances, but tonight everything seemed sharp-edged and important.

  He sighed heavily. ‘Alexis was pregnant and never told me. I was only informed when she’d had a termination.’

  ‘Why?’ Megan cried in horror. ‘Why did she do that?’

  ‘She said that her career came before a family. You can guess the rest.’

  ‘That was unforgivable.’

  ‘Yes, it was,’ he agreed tonelessly as he guided her to an empty table in the restaurant. ‘I hope that fellow in A and E knows what he’s letting himself in for.’

  She’d been ravenous before, but when Megan began to eat the food in front of her she found that she’d lost her appetite. It had been a horrendous few hours, and what Luke had told her was just as awful.

  ‘Eat up,’ he said gently. ‘There’s no cause for you to be upset. I don’t want my affairs to put a blight on your life. The Alexis business is over, done with. And the next ghastly thing I’ve got to face is phoning Sue to tell her what’s happened, and I am not relishing the thought of that.’

  When they arrived back on the ward Oliver was asleep and Owen was watching television while he waited for their return. As Luke stood gazing down at his injured nephew, Megan thought how life could be so unfair. His own child was lost to him, but it didn’t stop him from having this great affection for someone else’s.

  ‘So what’s the plan?’ she asked softly. ‘Are you going to stay the night?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What about Owen? Shall I take him home with me?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, Megan. You’ll have enough to cope with, facing up to my patients as well as your own in the morning. There is an overnight stay room just down the corridor. I’ll check with Sister to see if I can bed Owen down in there for the night. Once it’s been agreed I’m going to phone for a taxi for you, and during the quiet hours I’ll phone Sue.’

  He went to the main door with her when the call came that the taxi had arrived and held her close for a moment.

  ‘I’m letting you down, Megan, aren’t I?’ he said in a low voice. ‘Just as you knew I would.’

  Green eyes flashed. ‘Surely you don’t think I am so mean-minded as to blame you for something like this!’ she flared.

  ‘You might feel differently in the morning when I’m missing from the practice.’

  ‘Really! I’ll be the judge of that. And if you think I can’t manage the practice on my own, watch me!’

  He didn’t take her up on that, just said, ‘Goodnight, Megan. Sweet dreams.’

  * * *

  Sweet dreams! she thought as the taxi took her homewards. Was he kidding? It would be surprising if she slept a wink after what he’d told her about his marriage breakup. Luke was meant to be a family man, not an embittered divorcee. She’d seen him with Owen and Oliver and he was incredibly loving and understanding.

  She’d told him not long ago that he would make a wonderful father, having had no idea of what had gone wrong in his marriage. But the woman in the black dress had denied him that. Alexis had seen family life as a millstone, not a joy, and had done what suited her best.

  She’d already been feeling fraught before that, because of the boys’ foolish actions, and the possible consequences. But what Luke’s ex-wife had done seemed deliberately cruel. There was an excuse for the boys’ youthful stupidity, but not for what Alexis had done to Luke.

  The taxi driver had driven past Woodcote House on the way home and she’d seen that Rebekah had locked up and everywhere was in darkness. She wanted to thank her for her prompt actions at the time of the firework explosion and asked him to stop briefly at her house as she could see a light on inside.

  ‘How is Dr Anderson?’ Rebekah asked after Megan had told her what was going on with Oliver.

  ‘Devastated,’ Megan told her. ‘He’s staying the night at the hospital and Owen is with him. When I left he was about to phone their mother to let her know what has happened. To receive that kind of news when one is far away must be dreadful.’

  * * *

  And now, at last, she was home. When she looked at her face in the bathroom mirror she groaned. Two eyes, black-ringed with fatigue, stared back at her, and the white shirt she’d worn for work was filthy from the smoke that had blackened everything near where the firework had gone off.

  Her appearance was hardly what she would have chosen for being introduced to Alexis, but that was the least of her worries. Supposing Oliver’s hearing had been affected? she thought. Or his burns were more serious than they’d an ticipated? And would this last catastrophe throw Sue into an even bigger black hole of despair and grief?

  And there was Luke in the middle of it all. In charge of Owen and Oliver, the house and the garden centre. Doing everything right and yet it kept going wrong. When she’d sent him the Valentine card in her student days it had been his physical attractions alone that had been the reason for her youthful infatuation.

  She’d had no knowledge of the integrity and stamina of the man underneath until now, and with each passing day her feelings for him were deepening.

  Were they ever going to find time to really get to know each other? she wondered. It was one thing after another. He’d been quick to point out that he wouldn’t be available for morning surgery tomorrow.

  Her anxieties that he might let her down because of all his other commitments had come home to roost. Yet what could she do? She’d been angry at the way he’d taken it for granted that all she could think about was the practice. It wasn’t Luke’s fault that teenage boys behaved like teenage boys. Better that he’d been there to deal with what happened instead of their mother.

  * * *

  At eight o’clock the next morning she’d had breakfast and was about to leave for the surgery when there was a knock on the door. When she opened it Luke was standing there, looking more spruce than when she’d left him the night before.

  As she stepped back to let him in he said, ‘Owen and I have been to the house. We’ve both had a shower and some breakfast and I’ve just dropped him off at school. Now I’m on my way back to the hospital.’

  ‘How is Oliver?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘He’s had a restless night, but was asleep when I left him.’ He was observing her keenly. ‘What about you, Megan? Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ she told him, putting the night’s worries to the back of her mind. ‘Did you manage to get hold of Sue?’

  ‘Yes. She’s on her way home. She was fortunate to get an immediate flight.’

  ‘And how was she?’

  ‘Better than I expected. Awful though it is, she needed something like this to give her the impetus to come home. It’s brought her back to reality.’

  ‘That’s good, but, as you say, what a shame it has to be for such an upsetting reason.’

  She was checking the time. ‘I’ll have to be making a move, Luke.’

  ‘Me, too,’ he said. ‘I can’t linger. A doctor is coming to see Oliver at nine o’clock, and I’m told by Alexis’s friend in A and E that she will be calling to see him again later in the morning.’

  ‘How do you feel about that?’

  ‘If she’s keeping an eye on Oliver, fine. I won’t allow the fact that she never did me any good to come into it.’

  ‘Those boys come before anything else,’ she said gently. ‘Before you, before me, before Alexis, or anyone else for that matter. I am so thankful that Oliver escaped with as little hurt as he did.’

  ‘So am I,’ he said tersely, ‘but there’s still the matter of his hearing. We’ll have to see how it is when he wakes up. The explosion blew out the windows in their b
edrooms, with them being at the back of the house, so it’s easy to see that it was some bang. They’ll need replacing before it starts raining, and we might get burgled. Is there anyone among your village friends who could sort that out for me?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said promptly. ‘You remember Josh Meredith, who’s waiting for a liver transplant?’

  ‘Not him, surely!’

  ‘No. Of course not. But his elder brother, Jack, is a joiner. His place is at the end of Rabbit Lane. He’s efficient and doesn’t charge the earth. I’ve got his phone number somewhere. I’ll ask him to give you a call. Now, hadn’t you better go in case Oliver is awake and fretting?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes. I’ll be able to tell him that his mum will be with him soon and that should cheer him up. I’ll phone you at the surgery later to let you know what’s going on. And, Megan, one of the reasons I’ve called is to apologise for being so tactless last night. Am I forgiven?’

  ‘It’s forgotten. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.’

  ‘It won’t always be like this.’

  ‘Would you like to bet on that?’ she said dryly. ‘What’s that you have in your hand?’

  He looked down on to the sheaf of papers he was carrying. ‘They’re the worksheets for the garden centre. The figures that I calculate the wages from. I thought I could do them while Oliver is waiting to see the doctors.’

  ‘I rest my case,’ she told him, and with no answer to that he went off into the October morning.

  * * *

  As Megan drove to the practice, Tom Meredith came hurrying out of the post office and waved her down. Tears were streaming down his face and she thought dismally, Please, don’t let it be Josh.

  As she rolled down the car window he sobbed, ‘They’ve found him one, Megan! They’ve found a liver for Josh. They’re going to do the transplant today. His mother and I are about to set off for the hospital now.’

  She let out a sigh of relief. ‘Oh! Tom! That’s marvellous. I thought you were going to tell me the worst, and it’s the best.’

  ‘Aye. At least he’s got a chance now. We’ll just have to hope he’s strong enough to cope with the surgery. The lad’s very poorly.’