Summer Seaside Wedding

by Abigail Gordon

  As she stopped at the gates, taking in the scene, Phoebe came out to greet her, glowing in the later stages of pregnancy, and as the two women shook hands Amelie said, ‘Your house is beautiful, Phoebe.’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ she agreed, with a smile for the young French doctor. ‘The three of us are so happy here.’ She patted her extended waistline. ‘And soon there will be four.

  ‘Come inside and meet the others,’ she said, leading the way into the house.

  Amelie obeyed cautiously, bracing herself for the introductions that must surely follow.

  An elderly woman in a wheelchair turned out to be the Barbara Balfour, one-time head of the practice and Harry’s aunt. The man standing beside her was her husband, Keith. An attractive blonde with a friendly smile was introduced as Jenna, daughter of the elderly couple, and her distinguished-looking husband was Lucas Devereux, the heart surgeon.

  Elderly, grey bearded and the last to be introduced of the members of the small supper party was Desmond Somerby, the local Member of Parliament.

  With the exception of Barbara Balfour, who was looking her over as if she was something under a microscope, they were all pleasant and friendly towards the newcomer in their midst. There was just one thing stopping her from enjoying herself: Leo wasn’t there.

  She knew why, of course. He would be somewhere in the town, hitting the night spots with his friends. When Harry had rung her she’d been relieved at the thought of not having the encumbrance label of the night before stuck on her once again, but it had been a long day without him and could be an even longer evening in spite of the good company she was with.

  At one point in the evening the doctor who had made the Tides Practice her life’s work wheeled herself across to where Amelie was sitting and said, ‘They tell me at the surgery that you are doing well so far, Dr Benoir. How do you like our country and our National Health Service?’

  Amelie’s wide smile flashed out. ‘I love everything about it, Dr Balfour, and feel privileged to have the opportunity of being employed in such a lovely place.’

  The eyes that had looked her over speculatively when she’d arrived had lost their chill and the woman beside her was smiling as she said, ‘That is what I wanted to hear. You have two excellent doctors to call on at the practice if need be, and our womenfolk will be happy to see someone of their own sex available to treat them. I hope that you enjoy your time with us.’

  Amelie hadn’t heard a car pull up outside because of the chatter inside, but a ring on the doorbell brought a moment’s silence as Harry went to see who was there. The voice coming from the hallway was easily recognisable.

  ‘I’m sorry to butt in,’ she heard Leo say. ‘I’ve only just seen the email you sent to say that Amelie might need the keys for the hire car to get here tonight. I went out at five o’clock and have only just got back, so I came to make sure that she found you all right and to see that she gets home safely.’

  She had listened to what he was saying with a mixture of pleasure and surprise that had overtones of embarrassment as the rest of the guests observed her curiously.

  When he appeared in the doorway of the sitting room, his glance went straight to her. Not caring that he had an audience, he said, ‘I’m sorry about the car keys, Amelie. What did you do, walk or get a taxi?’

  ‘It was such a beautiful evening I walked here,’ she told him as the long day without his presence righted itself.

  Phoebe appeared at that moment to call them in to supper, which was being served in the dining room, and with a smile for Leo said, ‘You are just in time.’

  ‘That is the best news I’ve heard today,’ he said laughingly. ‘I’ve had a joiner doing some work in the apartment for me. He was using a saw and it slipped and sliced into his hand, so I had to take him to hospital, and we were in A and E for ages, waiting for him to be seen. There’d been a pile-up on the motorway and quite a few casualties had been brought in just before we got there at five o’clock this evening He was seen to eventually, they put sutures in the cut and I’ve just taken him home.’

  His gaze had been on Amelie all the time he’d been speaking, taking in the glow that a day on the beach had given her and admiring once again the red dress that suited her colouring so much.

  He wanted to ask her what Ronnie had said about her helping out as a temporary lifeguard, and if she’d enjoyed her time down there with him. Ronnie was a staunch family man who loved his wife and children and would see that Amelie came to no harm.

  Questions like those would have to be asked in the car on the way home, he decided, and made sure that he sat beside her at the supper table, telling himself that it was just in case she was feeling out of her depth amongst strangers.

  It was gone midnight and he had her to himself at last, but before he could ask her about her day Amelie had a question for him.

  ‘Why didn’t you come down off the headland this morning?’ she asked. ‘Were you spying on me?’

  ‘Spying? Of course not!’ he protested indignantly. ‘Checking up on you, yes. I wanted to make sure you were all right after last night, and from where I was standing it seemed that you were, so I went. Does that satisfy you?’

  ‘Yes. I suppose so.’

  ‘You don’t sound so sure.’

  ‘Well, last night you made me feel like an encumbrance, yet you are still involved in your unnecessary “duty” of keeping an eye on me, as on the headland this morning, and tonight.’

  He sighed. ‘What about tonight?’

  ‘You came looking for me to make sure I would get home safely and…’

  Her voice was thickening and when he gave her a quick sideways glance he saw the wetness of tears on her cheeks.

  ‘You’re crying, Amelie. What have I done now?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she sobbed. ‘It’s just that you are the first person to care a damn about me in ages. I know it’s because you feel that you must under the circumstances, me being alone in your country and the rest of it, but you didn’t have to, did you, Leo? You could have left me to my own devices.’

  Pulling the car up at the side of the road, he took a tissue out of a box in the glove compartment and wiped her eyes gently. As she gazed at him tearfully he reached out and took her in his arms, and as she nestled against him he patted her shoulder and said, ‘Shush, don’t cry, Amelie. If you keep saying things like that, I’ll be getting too big for my boots.’

  She was smiling up at him through her tears. ‘I don’t think the Angel Gabriel ever had that problem.’

  ‘Yes, well, we won’t go into that,’ he said dryly. ‘I’ve already explained that angelic I am not. Though I must admit that getting to know you is proving to be character building.’

  ‘Now you’re laughing at me,’ she protested.

  ‘No, I’m not,’ he informed her gravely, ‘but if I’m supposed to have your welfare at heart, I ought to be taking you home at the end of a long day, and while I’m doing that you can tell me what Ronnie had to say and if you are still keen on the beach patrol idea.’

  He removed his arms from around her and switched on the engine, and as she settled back in her seat she told him, ‘He is all for it and is going to speak to someone about getting me retrained and starting as soon as possible.’

  ‘So you’re happy about that?’

  ‘Yes, I am, just as long as you’ll come to see me down on the beach sometimes.’

  ‘Of course. It goes without saying, if only to watch you swim.’

  When they arrived at the house he saw her safely inside and when she would have asked him to stop for a coffee he forestalled her as he’d done before by saying, ‘Make sure you lock up securely, Amelie.’

  Pushing caution to one side, she asked, ‘When will I see you again?’ And he found himself ignoring the vows he’d made not to spend so much time with her.

  ‘You know the Devonshire cream tea that I mentioned as part of my Sunday afternoon routine? How about I pick you up at three o’clock tomorrow and intro
duce you to yet another of the delights of this part of the world?’

  ‘Yes. I’d love that,’ she told him.

  ‘It has to be on a promise, though.’

  ‘What sort of promise?’ she asked slowly, coming back down to earth.

  ‘No more tears, Amelie.’

  She smiled. ‘I think I can promise that.’

  The smile was still there as she went upstairs to the big empty bed in the master bedroom of the house. But Leo’s expression was more sombre as he went to his own solitary bed. He hadn’t wanted to leave her. Had gone against all his promises to himself to cool it with Amelie by arranging to spend time with her tomorrow. The last thing he wanted to do was cause her more heartbreak after her experience with the French guy. He should have had more sense.

  But at least he wouldn’t be as much in her orbit after tomorrow. On Monday Amelie would be on her own for home visits, and closeted away in her own small consulting room the rest of the time. If she went down to the beach in the evenings she would be fully occupied there, while he would be fretting on the sidelines, wanting her, yet not wanting her, because with commitment could come pain and hurt that knew no bounds. He accepted that what had happened to him and Delphine was likely to occur only in one in a thousand people’s lives, but it had done nothing to ease the heartache and loss that had made him what he was now.

  When Leo called for Amelie the next afternoon she was ready and waiting, bluebell eyes sparkling with the pleasure of being with him again. Dressed in white leggings and a turquoise casual top that showed off the tan that she was gradually acquiring, he could hardly believe that she was the same bedraggled woman that he’d gone to meet at the airport. It might be simpler if she was, he thought wryly, then he wouldn’t be living from one moment of seeing her to the next.

  Georgina had phoned earlier to ask why he’d been missing the night before. He’d told her about taking the joiner to hospital and she’d been mildly sympathetic, then changed the subject to a cruise she’d booked and asked if he wished he was going with her.

  He’d made no comment but thought there wasn’t anything he fancied less than that. Taking Amelie into the countryside was the uppermost thought in his mind and after they’d exchanged a few stilted sentences Georgina had rung off.

  He took Amelie to a farm restaurant for afternoon tea, and as he watched her enjoying the food she said, ‘I skipped lunch and saved my hunger pangs for this.’

  ‘It would seem so,’ he replied whimsically. Leaning forward, he wiped a blob of cream off the end of her nose with a paper napkin. As she smiled across at him it all seemed so right, the two of them together, lighthearted and in tune on a summer afternoon.

  When they’d finished eating he said, ‘Do you want to go for a stroll before we go back? There’s an old and empty abbey not far from here. It’s a tourist attraction now, a beautiful ancient building that brings a lot of visitors.’

  She was observing him in surprise. ‘I’d love to see it, but are you sure, Leo? I wouldn’t have thought it would be your type of thing.’

  ‘Really? And so what would you expect it to be? A casino, a club, dining at the Ritz?’ he said dryly, and it was clear that he wasn’t joking. Before she could reply he went on, ‘My looks are the bane of my life. They automatically say party person, and even my profession doesn’t totally dispel the image. Sometimes I take the easy way out and just do what is expected of me.’

  It might have been a good moment to explain why he lived the kind of life he did, which was a strange mix of dedicated doctor and playboy, but the day had yet to come when he was ready to confess that to anyone, so he told her, ‘Yes, I am happy to visit the abbey. Shall we make a move in that direction? I’m not sure what time it closes on Sundays.’

  She nodded and with the brightness of the afternoon dimming fell into step beside him. It was clear that her casual remark had hit a nerve where Leo was concerned. She’d better be more careful in future. Yet did she want to have to do that, watch what she said all the time?

  When they arrived at the abbey and joined a party being shown around by a guide, he took her hand and said in a low voice, ‘Sorry I was snappy. It was directed at life in general, not at you.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ she told him, vowing to be more careful about what she said around him. Obviously she’d hit a sore spot, and she remembered when in fun she’d mentioned the angel Gabriel comparison, and he’d been quick to point out that the outside appearance of a person was just the shell. It was what was beneath it that mattered.

  He was still holding her hand as they admired the stained-glass windows of another age and the empty cloisters that the monks had occupied. When they came out of the shadowed interior into the sunlight he said, ‘Old buildings fascinate me. Take Harry’s house, for example. It has a charm that modern architecture will never capture.’

  She shrugged and there was indifference in the movement. ‘My parents own a chateau.’

  He was observing her in amazement. ‘What? They live in a chateau?’

  ‘Yes, though only rarely. They are away such a lot and are not in residence more than twice a year.’

  ‘And what about you, Amelie? Don’t you ever stay there?’

  ‘Not if I can help it. The chateau is beautiful from the outside but dusty and damp inside.’

  ‘You amaze me,’ he said as they began the walk back to the restaurant to collect the car.

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘It is difficult to describe. You seem frail, yet you are strong. Have no false pride, and can forgive those who hurt you.’

  ‘Stop!’ she cried. ‘You are making me into what I am not.’

  ‘So how do you see yourself?’

  ‘As a very ordinary person in a beautiful foreign land.’

  ‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ he said laughingly. ‘You are a very ordinary person whose family own a chateau.’

  ‘Yes, that is what I am, and would prefer a house with central heating.’

  They were almost home and Leo was about to deliver a body blow. He was going to explain that he hadn’t been able to resist spending the afternoon and early evening with her, but now it had to stop because he felt he wasn’t being fair in monopolising her, as he had been from the day of her arrival in the village.

  It wasn’t the truth, of course. If the past wasn’t still tugging at him, he would have no reason to back away from her and would ‘monopolise’ her to his heart’s content.

  But he’d never overcome the aching void inside him because after Delphine he didn’t trust himself to be able to carry through the demands of complete commitment to another woman.

  He wasn’t sure how Amelie would react when he’d said what he had to say. She was not predictable, but he was soon going to find out. When they pulled up outside her temporary residence he said gravely, ‘Can I come in for a moment?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she said brightly, with the pleasure of the time they’d just spent together coming through in her smile.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’ she asked when they were facing each other in the sitting room.

  He shook his head. ‘No, thanks. I will say what I have to say and then I’ll go.’

  Her eyes widened and she said with a shaky laugh, ‘That sounds ominous. What is it that I have done?’

  You’ve changed my life, was the reply he would like to have had for her, but it would hardly fit in with what he’d been grimly rehearsing.

  He watched the colour drain from her face as he began to speak in what he hoped was a voice of logical calmness. When he’d finished she said with quiet dignity, ‘You have just made something that was lighthearted and casual seem as nothing. I have felt sometimes that you found me too much in your face. It was why you suggested I could occupy my evenings down on the beach, wasn’t it? As to your comment about monopolising me, I don’t hear you asking how I feel about that, if I liked it or not. It’s more a matter of you offloading me, isn’t it, Leo? I will bear in mind what you hav
e said, and now will you please go.’

  He took a step towards her and with her voice rising she said, ‘Do not come near me, Leo. All my pleasure at being in your country is due to you and the practice, but mostly to you. Now it has gone and I have done nothing wrong that I am aware of.

  ‘I will not repay Dr Lomax, far away in France, for his kindness by breaking my contract with the Tides surgery. But the moment it is complete I will be gone.’

  He had listened in silence to what she had to say, the same as she had done while he had been saying his piece, and now he pointed himself towards the door and did as she’d asked, wanting to kick himself for not telling her about Delphine.

  When he’d gone she walked slowly up the stairs and threw herself down on the bed. White-faced and tearless, she gazed up at the ceiling.

  You are the unwanted one again, she told herself, and don’t blame Leo. He has been merely doing the honours on behalf of the practice and now wants to end it so that he can get on with his own life again, so don’t take offence.

  Yet this time she didn’t feel prepared to turn the other cheek. She’d done no wrong in being attracted to a man who had shown her nothing but kindness and was now wearying of the task he had set himself. The coming Monday morning at the practice was taking on the shape of an ordeal instead of the pleasurable time she’d been looking forward to.

  In the apartment across the way Leo’s thoughts were no happier.

  He’d already suggested to Harry that Amelie should do the easiest of the home visits on her own as from Monday. So when she was informed of the arrangement she was going to see it as a follow-up to today’s catastrophic clearing of the air, which would make everything worse between them.

  What she’d said kept going through his mind. That he’d turned a relationship that had been light-hearted and casual into nothing. It had been a bit strong but he’d got the gist of it, and admitted he deserved top marks for the effort he’d put into spoiling it.