Swallowbrook's Winter Bride

by Abigail Gordon

  Before she went up to change she wrapped the Christmas gifts she had bought for Nathan and Toby, a cashmere sweater for the man and for the boy a battery-operated replica of the boat called Pudding that he would be able to sail in the bath. There hadn’t been any need to consult Nathan again as to what she should get him. Once she’d seen it in one of the toy shops her mind had been made up.

  As she’d been about to wrap the sweater she’d held it close for a moment and wished that Nathan was inside it, that she could hold him close and tell him how much she loved him, but the road of rebuff was a painful one to travel, and she’d been down it too many times.

  For her father she’d bought a smart towelling robe and as she wrapped it wished she saw more of him, but he seemed contented enough where he was, so there was no point in fretting.

  A camera was her gift for John, who had a special place in her heart, and now all that she still had to shop for were gifts for the practice staff.

  Christmas was only a month away and what it would bring with it she didn’t know, but had a dismal feeling that Santa wouldn’t have any nice surprises for her in his sack.

  Yet she wasn’t quite right about that. The thought had no sooner entered her head than the phone rang, and as if by wrapping his gift she had conjured him up, her father’s voice came over the line and it was more buoyant than it had been for a long time.

  As he explained the reason for his call his upbeat tone was easily understood. It seemed that he was coming to Swallowbrook for Christmas and bringing someone with him, the new woman in his life. They would be staying with John at his invitation and he hoped she would be happy for him when she met Janice. ‘It doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten your mother, you know,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I’ve been like a lost soul since she went.’

  ‘Yes, I know you have,’ she told him reassuringly, ‘and, Dad, of course I’m happy for you.’

  When they’d finished the call she put the phone down slowly. She’d meant what she’d said to him, but couldn’t help feeling that she really was going to be the odd one out during the festivities.

  But there was no time to mope. The clock said that it was time to start preparing for the evening ahead and the final result was far from what she would have chosen if she’d been looking forward to it.

  She’d decided to wear a starkly simple black dress that fitted her mood, relieved only by a gold necklace and matching earrings, and on observing herself in the mirror thought that it went well with the pale face looking back at her and the lacklustre expression.

  One thing was clear, she decided, after tonight Nathan wouldn’t be falling over himself to wine and dine her again after her performance of death’s head at the feast.

  They had taken Toby to the lodge by the river, complete with ‘comforter’ and his favourite teddy bear, and now Nathan was pointing the car in the direction of the hotel on the plateau beneath the tops of the fells.

  He had made no comment about the absence of the blue dress, had just observed her thoughtfully when he’d answered her knock on the door of his cottage and suggested that she get in the car as he and Toby were ready so they might as well get mobile.

  Of the two of them he was the most distinguished-looking in a smart grey suit with matching shirt and tie. Where Libby had felt she was underdressed for the occasion she thought that his clothes were a bit over the top for a casual night out, but could not deny that his appearance was heart-stopping, with regard to her heart anyway.

  Since they’d kissed Toby goodnight and taken the road out of the village there had been no conversation between them and now Nathan’s only comment was, ‘There is snow on the tops and the forecast isn’t good. Gale-force winds and sleeting rain are moving in and if it turns to snow at this level it will be tricky.’

  ‘So do you want to turn back?’ she asked quickly.

  ‘No. I’m used to this road,’ he said levelly. ‘I won’t let you come to any harm.’

  She almost groaned out loud. Some night out this was going to be, with ghastly weather blowing in and Nathan as chatty as one of the large stones that in a bygone age had been strewn along the side of the road by the elements. She wasn’t to know that his insides were clenching at the thought of what he would do if tonight, which he’d had such hopes for, turned out to be a fiasco in the storm-lashed hotel that Libby had chosen. Not so long ago he’d decided that he was being too wary of the past in his dealings with her and a more forthright attitude was called for, so he’d suggested that he take her out to dine with a view to clearing the air between them once and for all, and the earth would have to open up and swallow the Plateau Hotel before he would be willing to turn back.

  Their table was ready and as they looked around them it was clear that the weather had made others think twice about dining there on such a night, and they had either cancelled or not been willing to make the effort without a booking in such weather.

  Nathan’s smile was wry. He’d wanted to have her to himself this evening and he’d got it, but it wasn’t exactly as he’d hoped it would be as they ate in silence in the empty restaurant, and when they were seated in the hotel lounge with coffee and petit fours amongst a scattering of people who had just stopped by for a drink to take away the chill of the winter night, there was still no rapport between them.

  This was catastrophic, Libby was thinking. She should have followed her instincts and refused the invitation to dine with Nathan, yet it would soon be over, it would have to be. Neither of them would want to be stranded up here with nothing to say to each other in this ghastly weather. As soon as they’d finished their coffee they needed to be off.

  A gust of cold air in the reception area close by and the loud voices of new arrivals broke into her thought processes and almost simultaneously two men dressed in mountain rescue gear appeared in the doorway of the lounge.

  ‘I know these guys,’ Nathan said. ‘I used to be part of their team before I went to work abroad. What are they here for, I wonder?’ Rising from his seat, he went across to speak to them.

  ‘We’re looking for a volunteer to go up to the tops with us as we’re short on members tonight,’ one of them told him. ‘Two teenagers are missing from a group who are staying at the youth hostel on the bottom road. Should have been back hours ago. Their friends reckon they aren’t experienced or well equipped, so fast action is needed. How are you fixed for joining us, Nathan? We might need a doctor if we find them.’

  ‘Yes, all right,’ he agreed soberly. ‘But as you can see I’m with Libby Hamilton from the surgery in Swallowbrook, I need to explain what is happening… And what about equipment? I can’t go dressed like this.’

  ‘The hotel has a stock of clothes for this kind of situation. We’ll sort that out while you make your apologies to Dr Hamilton.’

  ‘What’s wrong, Nathan?’ she asked anxiously when he came back to her side.

  ‘Two youngsters lost on the tops,’ he said grimly. ‘They want me to go with them, Libby. I hope you’ll forgive me for leaving you like this but, whatever you do, don’t set off homeward bound, will you? I’ll come straight back for you once we’ve found the teens.’

  She was observing him aghast. ‘I’d rather be up there with you,’ she protested.

  ‘No way. I want you here out of the cold, waiting for me, when I return.’

  ‘You’re risking your life up there. Suppose you don’t come back?’

  ‘I will come back,’ he said steadily, ‘because I have so many things to say to you that I’ve left unsaid, and then there’s Toby, who needs us both so much. I know the fells as well as anyone and I’m trained for this sort of emergency. There’s no way I can leave two kids stranded any more than you could. I have to do this, Libby.’

  The manager of the hotel was approaching with the necessary equipment that he would need and minutes late
r he was gone in the company of the two mountain rescue team members with a long backward look in her direction.

  CHAPTER TEN

  WHEN the three of them had opened the door to go out into the night the wind had been howling even more and, crouched by the fire in the lounge, Libby prayed that it would stop.

  Over the years high gusts had been known to blow the unsuspecting off ledges to almost certain death in rock-strewn gullies below, and she thought there would be parents somewhere, frantic to think that their young ones had been caught out by the weather and their own inexperience.

  Or it might be that the folks in question didn’t yet know that there was a problem and had that frightening moment yet to come.

  A hush had fallen over the room with their departure and as she stared blindly into space all she could think of was how the evening that had been so empty and unsatisfying had become a time of praying for the safe return of the victims and their rescuers.

  Supposing Nathan didn’t come back, she kept thinking, and she’d never told him how much she really did love him? The future would be a black hole if she never saw him again.

  The hotel staff were keeping her supplied with hot drinks and as the hours crept by, as if in answer to her prayers, the wind was lessening and the snow that had threatened earlier hadn’t yet fallen, but it didn’t give any indication to those waiting below what it might be like higher up.

  They had no way of knowing what was happening until the door burst open and the two mountain rescue men appeared, carrying a lightweight stretcher with a teenage girl on it wrapped in blankets.

  They were followed by a youth of a similar age who was also draped in a blanket, and Nathan was bringing up the rear.

  When she saw him Libby’s heart leapt with thankfulness. He held out his arms. She ran into the safe circle of them like a homing bird and as he looked down at her their love for each other was there, strong and sure.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked in a low voice.

  ‘I am now,’ she told him joyfully as her life righted itself, ‘but I wasn’t before. I kept thinking what it would be like if we never saw each other again after wasting so much time.’

  ‘Me too,’ he said sombrely. ‘As I took one long look at you before I walked out of the door with those two guys, I was thinking that it might be my last, that I might never see you again. We have so much catching up to do, my darling.’

  ‘And all the time in the world to do it,’ she said softly, then back in doctor mode asked, ‘What about the poor girl, Nathan? Is she injured or too cold to walk?’

  ‘She’d fallen up there, hurt her leg badly, almost certainly has a fracture, so couldn’t walk back down the fell side. She’s also suffering from hypothermia due to not being able to move around in the cold, and needs her body heat brought back up in front of the fire, but not too near as it has to be a gradual thing to prevent shock.’

  ‘And the young guy, what about him? He looks dreadful.’

  ‘Yes, I know. He is totally traumatised by what has happened, thought they were going to die as their mobiles couldn’t get a signal up there—it’s totally impossible to do so. I’m going to give him something to calm him down. My bag is on the back seat of the car and I’ve got a relaxant in it that should do the trick. The guys from Mountain Rescue have phoned for an ambulance and as the weather has improved it should soon be here.’

  She had been examining the girl’s leg with gentle fingers and when he said, ‘So was I right?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I would say a fracture of the tibia.’

  He’d given the other teenager the relaxant and the youth was in a less traumatised state by the time the ambulance came. As it was about to set off with the two of them on board the boy’s father phoned, having only just heard about the day’s happenings, and promised that both he and his mother would be waiting for them in A and E when they got there, which helped to complete the calming-down process.

  By the time that Nathan had changed back into his suit and the three men and Libby had eaten the cooked breakfast that the hotel had provided, the night was almost gone. Soon it would be time to return to their homes, back to reality, work, school, and who knew what lay ahead of them now?

  When they arrived back at her cottage he said jubilantly, ‘Alone at last! I have things to say to you, Libby, that should have been said long ago. Come and sit beside me while I tell you all that is in my heart.

  ‘I asked you to marry me once for the wrong reasons, didn’t I?’ he said soberly when she’d done as he asked. ‘I was totally distraught knowing that Toby had been poisoned by the belladonna plant, and also because you were there like a rock to hold onto.

  ‘I’m going to ask you again to be my wife, but there are things you need to know before I do that. When you told me that you loved me that day at the airport I realised that for the first time I was seeing you how you really were, beautiful, desirable and uncomplicated, but the timing was all wrong.

  ‘When I kissed you goodbye after having told you in supreme arrogance that I wasn’t interested in you, and that you should forget me, I knew that I wanted to stay and carry on from there with you. That I’d been blinkered, hadn’t seen what was in front of me, since the kid who was forever at my heels when I was young had grown into the woman standing before me in tears.

  ‘But I was so taken aback by the sudden revelation that I let you walk away and went to catch my flight, which was already being called, intending to get in touch the moment I arrived at my destination.

  ‘When I got there I arrived to such a state of chaos at the hospital where I was going to work that I found that private lives were non-existent out there. We were on the job sometimes for twenty-four hours non-stop and even though I hadn’t forgotten you I let the weeks and months go by. Dad used to phone me from time to time while I was out there and on one occasion he mentioned that you were marrying Jefferson on the coming Saturday. I knew then that I had to get to you before you married him and there was very little time to do so.

  ‘I needed to ask you if you’d stopped loving me after the airport episode and had decided that he was the man you wanted. If you’d been able to tell me that he was, I would have left you in peace and lived with my own stupidity for the rest of my life.

  ‘But my flight was delayed. I arrived at the church while the wedding ceremony was taking place. As I entered the porch the vicar had just pronounced you man and wife and you were smiling up at Jefferson like any happy bride would, so I had my answer, or thought I had.

  ‘I couldn’t get out of the church quickly enough and jumped onto a passing bus to get as far away as possible, then caught the next flight back to where I’d come from. So you see, Libby, I did come back for you, but not soon enough, and I’ve lived with the misery of knowing that ever since.’

  She was listening to him aghast, with tears streaming down her face, unable to believe what he was saying, yet she knew Nathan wouldn’t lie, he had no reason to. And he hadn’t finished.

  ‘I don’t know if you will understand what I’m saying now,’ he went on, ‘but it was because of that and the hurt I did you that day when you came to see me off at the airport that I stayed away for so long.

  ‘When I came back to Swallowbrook with Toby you had become just someone from my past, and since I’ve really got to know you I’ve found myself holding back all the time in case I hurt you again. Even after that fantastic night on the island I couldn’t let my feelings, my needs ruin your life again.

  ‘When you described what your life with Jefferson had been like I could have wept. But it was the smile you had for him that day in the church that threw me, which made me think you had married him for love.

  ‘So now that you know how much I love and adore you, Libby, can we wipe the slate clean and start afresh with a wedding of our own,
a life of our own, with Toby and our own children when they come along?’

  ‘I married Ian on the rebound,’ she said in a low voice, ‘because you had made me feel so unloved, and the smile you saw was to convince those who I knew did care about me, such as both our fathers and other friends of long standing, that I wasn’t making a big mistake, which of course I was.

  ‘Yes, I will marry you, my dear love. To belong to you for always is all I’ve ever wanted. It will be all my dreams coming true, and with regard to giving Toby brothers and sisters I haven’t checked it out properly yet, but mother nature is telling me that we might have taken care of that already on that wonderful night at Greystone House.’

  ‘You mean that you might be pregnant? Oh, Libby, that would be fantastic!’

  ‘It only occurred to me as I was getting ready this evening that I’d skipped a period for the first time ever, and I consoled myself with the thought that if you never did want me, at least I might be going to have some part of you in a child that we’d conceived.’

  ‘Want you! I’ve never wanted anything more than you in my arms, in my bed, in my life for ever, so how about a Christmas wedding? But before that I have something to put on your finger.’

  He produced a small velvet box from the inside pocket of his jacket and when he lifted the lid a beautiful emerald ring was revealed. As she gasped with delight he said, ‘I chose it because the emerald is glowing and beautiful like the woman I love, but we can change it to a diamond if you wish.’

  ‘How can you think that I would want to change something that you have chosen especially for me?’ she asked breathlessly, and he took her hand in his and slipped it onto her finger.

  As she looked down at it she said, ‘I would love a Christmas wedding in Swallowbrook, Nathan, to be married in the village church with the bells ringing out across the snow that hopefully will have fallen to complete the day.’