He felt her stiffen and knew he’d said the wrong thing, brought back the memory of her humiliation, and even before she spoke he knew what she was going to say.
‘Nothing could make up for that, Leo, unless you can tell me why you pick me up then put me down all the time. It does nothing for my self-confidence.’
She was retying the belt on her robe to let him see that the moment was over, but he didn’t need telling. For the first time he’d felt he could make love to her without Delphine’s face before him and go on from there, but Amelie, unaware of his past heartache, had brought up the subject of some of her own.
He’d got the message and it was hurting like a knife thrust that he of all people, who was generally thought to be every woman’s dream man, should be spurned by the only one he’d ever wanted.
Where had it all gone wrong? he thought bleakly as he told her, ‘I’m going back to my place in the robe you’ve found for me and will take my wet clothes with me. I’ll return it in the morning.’
He went swiftly down the stairs and out into the night. Seconds later she saw the door close behind him as he disappeared into his apartment, and she thought that the day had ended as it had begun: miserable, sad…and hurtful.
Slumped in a chair by the window, Leo gazed out into the darkness and wondered where the delight of them getting to know each other had disappeared to. It was ironic that Amelie, who he ached for so much, should turn away from him when so many others would have jumped at the chance.
He’d felt their relationship was back on course as they’d walked home from the beach but had been wrong. He was attracted to her because she was different from any woman he’d ever met. When he’d let the towel fall he’d known she wanted him as much as he wanted her, but the barrier he’d put up that night in the woods was still there.
Amelie hadn’t made love with the Antoine guy or she wouldn’t still be a virgin, and as the memory came back of her telling him that she wasn’t very experienced in the art of love-making, tenderness washed over him at the thought of how she’d wanted him to be the first.
So what had he done? Torn a strip off her for being so honest and without guile, and ever since they’d seemed to be on a downward path.
On Monday morning the surgery was fully staffed and back to normal after Friday’s funeral. Harry announced on his arrival that they had chosen the lovely name of Freya for their baby daughter and that her christening was to take place on the following Sunday.
When he and Leo were briefly closeted together before the day commenced he said, ‘Jenna is going to be one of her godmothers and we would like you to be her godfather, if you will, Leo.’
He had noticed that his friend and partner in the practice was not his usual brisk and capable self, and that the young French doctor on loan to them wasn’t exactly chirpy either, so it didn’t need a lot of brain power to work out that the oddly matched pair were not as happy as of late. But Leo’s pleasure at being asked to be a godparent at the christening brought a smile and a ready acceptance.
‘All the staff will be at the christening,’ Harry told him meaningfully, and this time Leo’s smile was wry.
‘Is that so?’ was the reply.
There was a knock on the door and when Harry called out for whoever it was to come in, Amelie appeared, seeking their advice with regard to a patient with an illness she hadn’t come across before.
Leaving her in the company of the head of the practice, Leo left the room with a brief ‘good morning’ to the woman of his dreams, who was observing him warily.
As he proceeded to his own consulting room he was thinking that it was going to be his turn to be taking part in something special on the coming Sunday. He had been there for Amelie when she’d read the lesson at the funeral service to celebrate the ending of a life, and now it was his turn to take part in a joyful ceremony to acknowledge the beginning of a life.
It would be a cause for rejoicing rather than grief, the christening of little Freya. Would Amelie be there for him, as he’d been there for her? He doubted it. Togetherness was beginning to seem like a thing of the past.
As his first patient of the day ambled in, Leo put his own affairs on hold and had a smile of welcome for the local barber, Ambrose Whittaker, who was a genial old tease, always wanting to know why Leo wouldn’t let him give him a short back and sides.
But not today. His face was pale and puckered with pain as he lowered himself down onto the nearest chair. ‘I was out in the Molly Maid yesterday and slipped on the deck,’ he said as Leo observed him questioningly. ‘I’ve hurt my back something awful and I can’t feel my legs properly.
Ambrose’s life revolved around two things—his barber’s shop on the harbour front and his boat, Molly Maid. But today the only woman in his life was out of favour because he’d hurt himself on her timbers.
‘Can you ease your shirt off and show me where the pain is?’ Leo said.
‘It’s at the bottom of my back and down my legs,’ he was told.
He examined the hardy old fellow carefully and pronounced, ‘It could be pressure on a nerve root from the fall that is causing so much pain, but only the hospital can sort that out for you, Ambrose. If there is a prolapsed disc or pressure on a nerve, CT scanning or an MRI should reveal the cause.’
‘I’m going to send for an ambulance to take you straight from here to A and E. Is there anyone I can get in touch with to go with you?’
He shook his grizzled head. ‘Not unless the guy at the fishing-tackle shop next door could come with me, but he’s only just finished looking after that young nephew of his who was hurt when his father crashed the car, and he has a business to run, don’t forget. No. I’ll be fine on my own just as long as they can sort out the pain.’
‘I will prescribe you some painkillers,’ Leo told him, ‘and will ask someone from the chemist across the way to pop over with them while we’re waiting for the ambulance. You should find movement easier once the pain is under control, but finding the source of it is vital to avoid permanent damage to your back.
‘Take a seat in the waiting room, Ambrose, and once the ambulance arrives, the paramedics will help you carefully on board.’ Knowing how much the boat meant to him, he asked, ‘Where is the Molly Maid? Safe in the harbour, I hope.’
‘Aye, that she is. No back pain on earth would stop me from seeing her safely anchored.’
It was lunchtime, and during the short break there was reference amongst the staff to the coming christening, but not from Amelie’s direction. She didn’t join in the conversation and Leo decided it meant she wasn’t intending to go. If that was the case, it showed even more clearly that togetherness was not the order of the day…or the night!
For the moment he was prepared to let it ride. It was only Monday. There was the rest of the week to come before Sunday was upon them. His main concern at the moment was that she might decide to pack her bags and go back to where she’d come from, which was unthinkable.
Amelie was delighted for Leo’s sake that he was to be one of the godparents for Harry and Phoebe’s baby. She knew he would fulfil the pledges he made at the christening to their fullest degree, and wondered why she could be so sure of his feelings about something like that yet be totally confused about the way he felt about her.
The other night it would have been wonderful to have given in to the longing that he aroused in her and she in him, but what he’d said had brought those awful moments in the woods back and taken all the magic from the moment.
Unaware that he’d been ready to put his memories of what had happened to Delphine behind him, Amelie was constantly wondering if she would be faced with his changing moods all the time if she gave herself up to him. She’d told him once how much she needed security and there would be no secure feeling to be got from that.
But one thing was clear. She wanted to be at the christening for him, as he’d been at the funeral for her, and tried to imagine what it would be like if it was their child being christ
ened, a beautiful girl or boy with their father’s golden fairness.
But that sort of thing was disappearing into the realms of fantasy. At present they were further away from that kind of magic than they’d ever been. So it was a matter of going to the christening as just a friend and keeping a low profile.
In the middle of a week made up of endless days and miserable nights there was a surprise in store for Amelie in the form of a phone call from her parents to say they were on two months’ leave and were staying in a rented apartment in London until it was up.
‘So when are you coming to see us?’ her mother wanted to know.
‘I’m not sure,’ she told her as the shock of hearing her voice was beginning to subside. ‘I’m working in general practice in a beautiful village in Devon, so it will have to be when I have some free time. I don’t want to cause the two doctors I’m working with any inconvenience.’
‘Fair enough,’ was the reply, without any overtones of disappointment, and that had been it, but Lisette Benoir had sighed deeply as she’d replaced the phone. It was her husband’s fault that she saw so little of her daughter and she was caught in the middle.
Their appearance in her life again had made Amelie feel threatened, though she didn’t know why, and on one of the rare occasions when she and Leo spoke at the surgery he observed her keenly and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’
The temptation to tell him that he knew very well what was wrong was there, but she knew he was referring to her uneasy expression of that moment and told him stiffly, ‘My parents are on vacation in London for the next two months. I’ve had a phone call out of the blue.’
‘Really!’ he exclaimed. ‘And how do you feel about that?’
‘That it was a duty call. I presume they got my number here from Ethan. The French hospital where I was based knew I had come to England at Ethan’s suggestion.
‘He didn’t say anything about them trying to get in touch with me when he came over for the funeral, so it must have been only in the last couple of days they’ve tried to find me.’
‘So what next? Are you going to go to see them?’
‘Yes, when I can. I’ve told them my responsibilities are here in Bluebell Cove first and foremost.’
‘I’ll bet that went down like a lead balloon. How long is it since they last saw you?’
‘A year. I will go one weekend, maybe on a Saturday for the day.’
‘I’ll take you there, if you like.’
Amelie could feel her colour rising. What was that supposed to mean? Was it a peace offering? The kind of thing he would do for anyone? Or a casual sort of reprimand aimed at her reluctance to make the effort? Or was Leo curious about the two high flyers who put lifestyle before caring?
He hadn’t mentioned his family much, but he’d said once how it had been stressful when he’d first joined the practice, travelling backwards and forwards to Manchester to look after his mother who had suddenly become quite ill with a chest and breathing problem.
So there had been no reluctance to put family first on his part, and if the practice had been in the charge of anyone other than Ethan at that time, he might have had to quit living and working in one of England’s most beautiful counties.
‘Thanks for the offer,’ she told him. ‘I’ll bear it in mind.’
‘Yes, I’m sure you will,’ he said as anger sparked off inside him, ‘then you’ll forget about it. For goodness’ sake, Amelie! You will have to get a local train at some ungodly hour to take you to the mainline station for a longish journey to the capital, followed by shoving and pushing on the tube or taking a taxi.
‘It would be the same on your return journey, going through all that palaver again, unless your parents wanted to bring you back to Bluebell Cove in the family limo.’
She was smiling. ‘You obviously know the stresses of getting to London and back off by heart. Of my parents you know nothing at all, or you wouldn’t have made that last comment. I am not allowed to interfere in their lives, so if your offer is still there when the time comes, I will accept it gratefully.’
He would take her to the ends of the earth if need be, as long as they could be together. As for her parents, time would tell what he thought of them when he met them.
His mother now lived abroad with his sister. He loved them both dearly and they felt the same about him. There was nothing he wanted more than to show Amelie what proper family life was like, but their relationship was a fiasco at the present time.
It was a mellow Sunday in August when those involved in the christening of Freya Katherine Balfour arrived at the village church.
The name of Katherine had been chosen in respect of Phoebe’s much-loved sister Katie, who had always been there for her in difficult times and shared her moments of rejoicing. Along with Jenna, she was to be the other of the baby’s godmothers, with Leo taking on the responsibilities of her godfather.
As the christening party walked to the front of the church, watched by the silent congregation, Phoebe’s little boy, Marcus, was holding tightly onto Harry’s hand and he was gazing down at him lovingly, while beside them Phoebe was carrying the baby that she would soon be passing to the godparents in turn during the ceremony.
For Amelie, sitting as close as she could to the font, there was a surprised smile from Leo that warmed her heart as he walked slowly past.
When he’d seen her and their glances had held, he’d thought tenderly how could he have ever thought she wouldn’t be there? She was a part of this community now, with or without him, though he hoped that he was a part of the reason she had come to feel so at home there. When they arrived at the manor house afterwards, where there was a buffet laid on, he would take her to one side and…
They were taking up their positions in front of the font and the vicar was ready to start the service. His special time with Amelie would come later, he thought as he prepared to repeat the age-old words that would bind him to this child for ever.
Glades Manor was filled with well-wishers who had gone to share in the christening meal and the community spirit that was always there, be the gathering large or small.
The christening party had left before the rest of the congregation so as to be there to greet them when they arrived, and now Leo was searching for Amelie amongst the throng and telling himself with every passing second that she wasn’t there.
Unbelievably, there was no sign of her and he thought grimly she must have seen her presence at the christening to be as much as she was prepared to be involved in on his behalf. So nothing had changed after all.
He was choking on the bitter taste of disappointment. Had Harry and Phoebe noticed her absence? he wondered. Probably not surrounded as they were by friends and well-wishers, and the rest of the surgery staff were enjoying themselves too much to notice that the young French doctor was giving the party a miss.
The urge to go and find out why she wasn’t there was overwhelming but Phoebe had just put the baby in his arms and was about to take his photograph, and when that was done Harry and little Marcus were at his elbow, wanting to show him a new garden room that had just been added to the house.
So it was almost the middle of the afternoon before he could get away without offending anyone, and he drove to the village with the determination to find out if it was because of him she’d skipped the party.
He had part of the answer as soon as the house that Ethan had loaned her came into view. The car in the drive wasn’t a limousine but it had the same luxurious kind of history and he didn’t need to think twice about who it belonged to. It would seem that Amelie’s wealthy parents had arrived.
They had to be the reason for Amelie’s absence at the gathering at Glades Manor. He was ashamed that he had been so quick to judge. While turning the car round to go back to where he’d come from, she came to the door and waved for him to stop, then she was coming down the path towards him.
‘I had a call on my mobile as I was coming out of church,’ she explained, ‘to s
ay that my parents had arrived and were here outside the house. I couldn’t get to you to explain and hurried back here to greet them.’
‘Where are they now?’ he asked in a low voice,
‘Inside. I’m about to make a meal but it will be a scrappy affair as I wasn’t expecting them.’
‘Are you going to introduce me?’ he wanted to know, with the thought that it was an ideal moment to get to know the strange Benoirs. Strange because they seemed to have had little time for their daughter, had put their jobs first, which was unthinkable to anyone who loved children.
She was observing him doubtfully. ‘Do you want me to?’
‘Does the sun rise and set? Of course I do. I’m interested in anything connected with you, and with regard to you making a meal at such short notice, why don’t we take them to the christening party instead, to save you the trouble of cooking and to introduce your family to Harry and Phoebe and your other friends?’
‘Do you think we should?’ she queried doubtfully.
‘Yes, I do. There’s loads of food and it will give your parents a chance to see something of English country life with all its attractions.’
‘All right, I’ll suggest it to them, but first, if that is what you want, I’ll take you to be introduced.’
He was laughing. ‘So you’re going to chance it. Take the risk?’
‘It won’t be a risk. They’ll be dumbfounded to discover that I know someone like you.’
‘So lead on and we’ll take it from there,’ he said with returning seriousness, while straightening his cuffs and wondering how the suit and tie would go down with her parents. Any other day than today he would have been in shorts and a cotton top, but the christening had called for more than that and so here he was dressed to kill, being introduced to two people that so far he had no cause to like.
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