A Wedding in the Village
Page 14
‘I am. I’m not like Meg, in control of my own life. I need someone to lean on, as you know only too well, and Ned makes me so happy.’
‘And so when is the wedding to be?’
‘Soon. We aren’t sure when.’
He wanted to be with Megan, he thought and wondered why she’d gone in such a rush. He was keen to know what she thought about Sue’s news, and he wanted to make sure she was all right. She’d had a gruelling week.
As he drove up the lane to the cottage he saw that her car was parked in front with the headlight still on, but there were no lights on inside the building, So where was she? he wondered. Surely not still in the car?
He had his answer when he bent to look inside and saw her draped over the steering-wheel, asleep. His expression softened. She’d been too exhausted to get out of the car. He was glad he’d followed her home. She might have been asleep for hours if he hadn’t turned up.
He tried the door on the driver’s side. It wasn’t locked and he frowned. It was obvious that she must have fallen asleep almost as soon as she’d stopped the car, which might be all very well on a well-lit driveway, with other properties nearby, but this was crazy. She was alone up there and for the first time he questioned the safety of it.
Under normal circumstances she was cool and capable, quite able to look after herself, but not tonight. She looked vulnerable and pale in the light of a winter moon.
He shook her gently, but she didn’t move. He tried again. This time she lifted her head slowly and observed him drowsily.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘What are you doing here, Luke?’
‘I came to find out why you’d left in such a hurry and I discovered you out here fast asleep with the car unlocked.’ His anxiety was making him sound censorious but he couldn’t help it.
She was straightening up, still drowsy. ‘No one comes along here, except me and old Jonas, who has the cottage further along the lane.’
‘So that makes it all right to sleep out here, does it?’
She swung her legs out of the car and rose to stand beside him, and without answering the question said, ‘So now you see that I’m all right, don’t let me keep you.’
‘I am not going anywhere until I’ve seen you safely inside. And we need to talk.’
‘What about?’
‘You taking a few days away from the practice and the garden centre to recharge your batteries, for one thing. Your tiredness could mean that you’re sickening for something and, as I see it, I’m the only one available to look after you in the present situation.’
‘And from the tone of your voice you find it a chore,’ she said snappily. ‘But tell me, what is the present situation? You moving into Aunt Izzy’s house? Sue marrying Ned Fairley? Neither of those things are connected with me, are they?’
‘Not if you don’t want them to be,’ he told her grimly, dismayed at the way the conversation was going. When he’d found her asleep in the car he’d wanted to pick her up, carry her inside, tuck her up in bed and watch over her until she woke up.
Instead, they were bickering outside in the cold night, and as Megan fumbled in her pocket for the door key he said in a gentler tone, ‘I’m going to put the kettle on and make us some tea, and then perhaps we might get back to being friends instead of enemies.’
She was being obnoxious and knew it, Megan thought as he put a steaming mug of tea into her hands a little later. It had been stupid to fall asleep in the car with the doors unlocked, and she should be grateful that Luke had taken the time to follow her home.
She’d closed her eyes for a second in the middle of going over the day’s events and tiredness had taken over.
‘So what do you think of Sue marrying Ned Fairley?’ she asked, her glance guarded above the rim of the mug.
‘As long as she is absolutely sure it’s what she wants to do, it’s fine by me,’ he said levelly. ‘I’ve seen it coming. Maybe I’m a bit surprised that their feelings are out in the open so soon, but there is really no need to wait, is there?’
‘No. I suppose not,’ she agreed, thinking that the day their feelings were out in the open looked as if it was going to be a long time coming. ‘Sue gave her reason for marrying again so soon as her needing someone to lean on, and I understand that. She seemed to think that I didn’t have those kind of needs.’
There was a moment’s silence in the small sitting room of the cottage and then he asked, ‘Do you?’
‘Yes. I’m no different to anyone else. I want to marry the man of my dreams one day.’
He was getting to his feet, his face expressionless as he towered above her. ‘Well, I’m sure he’s out there somewhere.’ Before she could reply he left, striding purposefully out into the night, leaving her to face her uncertainties alone.
* * *
When she arrived at her aunt’s house later in the evening Isabel was having her bedtime cocoa and she said, ‘I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.’
Megan bent to kiss her worried brow. ‘You know I won’t let you down, Aunt Izzy. How have you been today?’
‘Fine, until I think of going to bed, and then my nerves start playing me up. You can tell your doctor friend that I’ve had the place valued today and he can come round as soon as he likes to discuss the sale.’
The elderly lady sipped her cocoa. ‘When your mother and father come at New Year I’m going to go back with them. They’ve invited me to stay with them until the deal over the Spanish property is complete. So unless Dr Anderson changes his mind, everything looks like it’s going to plan.’
‘Luke won’t change his mind,’ Megan told her. ‘He’s really looking forward to having a place of his own.’ I can vouch for that, she thought glumly.
* * *
When she arrived at Woodcote House the next morning Owen and Oliver were on the point of going to meet their friends at the recreation ground, but they stopped when they saw her. Oliver, always the spokesman, asked, ‘Did you know that Mum is going to marry Ned, Dr Marshall?’
‘Yes, so I believe,’ she said without further comment, feeling that if there was anything more to be said it should come from them.
‘We’re not bothered,’ Owen said with a downcast expression. ‘We like Ned, but we don’t want Uncle Luke to go. He’s been great.’
‘Your uncle might feel he should move out once your mum marries Ned,’ she told them, ‘but he’s not going to be leaving the village. He’ll be living just around the corner.’
‘Didn’t I tell you, Owen?’ Oliver whooped. ‘I said he wouldn’t leave us.’ And with the only cloud on their horizon having been removed, they sauntered off to meet their friends.
As she watched them go a voice said from behind, ‘What was all that about?’ When she turned, Luke was there.
‘The boys were worried that they wouldn’t be seeing you any more, but they’re fine now I’ve explained that you’ll be living close by. I should have thought you would have put their minds at rest regarding that.’
‘I might have done if I’d seen them. They were out all yesterday, and then went straight to a friend’s for a sleepover. I didn’t know they were back until a moment ago. So you see…’
‘Yes, I do,’ she told him contritely, ‘and I’m sorry for butting into your affairs.’
‘It’s OK,’ he said easily, as if their exchange of words the night before hadn’t taken place. ‘And what about my suggestion that you stay at home today?’
‘I can’t leave Sue to run the café on her own,’ she protested. ‘And in any case, I feel much more rested this morning. Aunt Izzy slept the night through, which meant that so did I. So there’s no need to be concerned about me.’
CHAPTER TEN
SONIA was one of those waiting to see Luke on Monday morning. She’d just arrived back from a fortnight in Greece with her friend Barbara, and after some winter sun and a few weeks of Vitamin B injections and folic acid tablets, she was looking much less gaunt.
‘And so
how are you feeling, Sonia?’ he asked her.
‘So much better I can hardly believe it,’ she said brightly.
‘Good. Megan will be pleased to hear that. Has she seen you since you got back?’
‘Yes, she called in last night on her way to her Aunt Izzy’s. She’s sleeping there at present, I believe.’ Sonia was observing him questioningly. ‘Have you told her that you’ve bought her portrait yet? Meg was miffed to find it had been sold so quickly, as she wanted it for herself.’
He shook his head. ‘No, not yet. The moment never seems right But I’m hoping the time will come. I’m involved in buying her aunt’s house and the portrait will hang perfectly in the sitting room there. You’ll still keep my secret, won’t you?’
‘Yes, of course, but try not to be too long. I’m not the world’s most patient person.’
When she’d gone to the nurse’s room to have a fresh set of blood tests taken, Luke thought wryly that patience was the name of the game. But the first move had to come from Megan, or always at the back of his mind would be the thought that he’d persuaded her to marry him against her better judgement.
* * *
They went late-night Christmas shopping on the Wednesday of that same week. With their weekends taken up at the garden centre and the practice to keep them occupied during the day, it was going to be their only opportunity, and the ball was on the coming Friday.
As they drove into the town Luke said, ‘So which do we do first, eat or shop?’
‘Shop, I think. They usually close about eight, which only gives us a couple of hours. Do you know what you’re going to buy for Sue and the boys?’
‘Hmm, I think so. Jewellery for my sister, and the latest strip of the football team they support for Owen and Oliver.’
Sitting beside him Megan laughed. ‘You make it sound so easy. Wait until we get into the dress departments of the stores.’
That part of it was easy, he thought. It was what was going to be his Christmas gift to the woman beside him that had him not thinking straight. She’d asked him to help her choose a dress. That could be his gift to her, but he wondered if she was aware that the request had a certain sort of intimacy about it. That a woman might only ask it of the man in her life, and he had a few doubts on that score.
While he shopped for Sue and the boys Megan bought gifts for her parents, Aunt Izzy and Sonia, and when they met up again she reminded Luke that they had to organise gifts for the staff at the practice.
‘Not now, I hope,’ he said as he looked around him. Everywhere they’d been had been thronged with shoppers. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. What is the procedure at the surgery at Christmas?’
‘We buy everyone the same gift, wine and chocolates, and have a celebratory drink and mince pies in the early afternoon of Christmas Eve before we close for the holiday. But we don’t have to shop for any of that. We have it delivered and the presents are already gift-wrapped.’
‘Good,’ he said as they went up the escalator taking them to designer labels and less expensive clothes for women. As they stepped off onto thick carpeting he said, ‘Have you any idea what you want?’
‘Not exactly, but I’ll know when I see it,’ she told him, letting the pleasure of having him with her on such an occasion wash over her. ‘There are some shades I just can’t wear with my colouring, like red, purple, some shades of blue, to name a few, so I usually go for green, cream or brown, and sometimes the occasional little black number.’
As she looked along the rails Luke sat and watched her. It was forty minutes to closing time. Would Megan have made a purchase by then? If she was anything like Alexis, she wouldn’t have, and that would have been with all the assistants dancing attendance on her.
She turned at that moment and held up two dresses for him to see, an off-the-shoulder cream evening dress and a black one with a plunging neckline and long sleeves. When he smiled his approval she disappeared into the cubicle.
Seconds later there was an announcement over the store’s public-address system. A voice was telling customers in measured tones that there was an emergency. Would everyone, please, leave the store in an orderly fashion by the staircases, as the lifts and escalators were not functioning.
Then the lights went out and there was only emergency lighting to see by, and as Megan swished back the curtains of the cubicle, resplendent in the cream dress, there was a mad rush for the staircases as someone shouted, ‘The store’s on fire!’
That had everyone moving. She turned back to take the dress off but Luke said, ‘Leave it, Megan. There’s smoke coming up from below. We need to get moving.’
She nodded and picked up her bag, ready to join the jostling throng heading for the stairs, but it wasn’t going to be that simple. A young mother with a baby in a buggy and two other young children was standing panic-stricken beside them. Stopping, they each swung a child up into their arms and followed the crowd.
It was like being swept along by the tide as they reached the stairs. The mother had left the buggy behind and was carrying the baby in her arms. Megan told her to go first, then followed close behind. When she turned to see where Luke was she couldn’t find him at first and then she picked him out some way back with the child in one arm and the other protectively around the shoulders of an old man who was wheezing from the smoke.
Then mercifully they were at ground level and the doors were open for them to stagger out into the fresh air with the clang of fire engines in their ears. But when she turned Luke wasn’t behind them.
Passing the child she’d been carrying back to its mother, she went back inside, scanning the faces of the downward-moving crowd for any sign of him.
A teenage lad had come into view, carrying the other child that Luke had picked up, and the old man was being assisted by someone else.
‘Where’s the man who passed the child to you?’ she asked urgently of the youth when he drew level.
‘You mean the doctor fellow?’ he gasped. ‘He went back. There were flames coming up around the escalator and some people had collapsed from the smoke. When he found out, he fought his way back to see what he could do.’
‘Move along, madam. You’re blocking the way,’ an official-sounding voice said at her elbow, and she turned to find a policeman there.
‘I’m a doctor,’ she cried. ‘We are both doctors, but my colleague has gone back to help those still inside. I need to go to him.’
‘I’m afraid not,’ he told her decisively. ‘The fire service are here and will get to him as quickly as possible. They’re putting their ladders up as the staircases are still full of people.’
‘What caused the fire?’ somebody shouted from the street outside.
‘We believe it is an electrical fault confined to the first and second floors, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet,’ he told them. To Megan he said in an even more decisive tone, ‘Will you, please, clear the way for those who are still evacuating the building, madam?’
She nodded mutely. They’d been so happy, the two of them in each other’s company. Making no demands of each other. Sauntering around the shops at peace with the world, and they’d walked into a nightmare.
She didn’t question why Luke had gone back. It would have been as natural as breathing for him to do so, as it would have been for herself if she’d been given the chance. But supposing she lost him and had never told him how much she cared?
The mother of the children had appeared at her side and with her bewildered brood looking on she said, ‘Thank you. I don’t know how I would have managed without you and your husband. They say he’s gone back in. That is some man you have there. He’s so brave.’
There was no point in explaining to this stranger that Luke wasn’t her husband, Megan thought, but, oh, how she wished he was. If he didn’t propose, she would, and as flames began to lick around the windows on the second floor, where they’d been when the announcement was made, she thought despairingly that she might not get the chance.
‘They’re bringing them out now,’ he said. ‘The fire chief has just said that the fire is under control and the building has been cleared. So your man should be coming out shortly.’
Would he, though, she thought desperately, and what state would he be in? Supposing it had been too late and Luke had gone for ever? They’d brought six people out and he wasn’t any of them, so where was he? She scanned the scene frantically.
It was at that moment that she heard his voice calling her name and her heart stood still. He was coming out of the store all in one piece, eyes red-rimmed, teeth shining whitely in a smoke blackened face. He was the most welcome sight she’d ever seen.
As she flew into his arms she was weeping out her thankfulness in great gulping sobs and he said gently. ‘I had to go back, Megan.’
‘Yes, I know you did,’ she choked, ‘but I thought I was never going to see you again and I’d never told you how much you mean to me.’
As she was about to pour out her heart to him he said, ‘So now you don’t have to worry. I’m here, safe and sound.’
She flinched. How could he be so casual? She’d been expecting this to be the moment when they opened their hearts to each other, but it seemed as if Luke had nothing to say.
The paramedic who’d given her the blanket was hovering and as she backed away he said, ‘I think you should come back to A and E to be checked over, sir. You were up there in the smoke for quite a while and I see you have a burn on your hand.’
‘Yes, sure,’ he agreed, adding to Megan, ‘Will you drive the car back home for me, please? It’s insured for any driver.’
‘If you don’t want me with you, yes,’ she told him, stiffly, wondering if he had any idea of what she’d gone through during those moments outside the store.
Six people had been taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and minor burns, and one of those that Luke had gone back to help had suffered a mild heart attack. But because the building had been evacuated sensibly no one had been crushed on the staircases, often the cause of the most casualties on such occasions.