‘It could be,’ the doctor replied. ‘Do I take it that you are in the medical profession yourself?’
‘Yes, I’m an oncologist, so this kind of thing isn’t my forte, but I know that mesenteric adenitis is more likely to affect a child than appendicitis and can easily be mistaken for it.’
‘Wow! Good for you!’ the other man complimented him. ‘So let us hope that we are both right, for your little girl’s sake, and now we shall do some tests.’
Laura had only been able to take in part of what they were saying as she was comforting Sophie and wiping away Josh’s tears, which had been flowing ever since she’d had to wake him with the news that his sister was sick. The only time they had dried up for a few moments had been when he’d been enjoying the novelty of the ride in the ambulance.
She felt like weeping herself. Their beautiful daughter, who she sometimes thought was old beyond her years, was ill with something that could be very serious for a child of her age, and she was just as frightened and vulnerable as any eight-year-old would be in such circumstances.
‘What is this thing that it might be?’ she asked anxiously of Gabriel as they watched over her while tests were being done.
It was a blessed relief to have him there at such a time and the thought was present that in their lives before Swallowbrook he might have still been operating at that time of night.
‘It is an acute disorder caused by lymph nodes in the membrane that keeps the stomach organs attached to the abdominal wall,’ he explained. ‘It usually occurs in children rather than adults after a throat or chest infection. The pain that comes with it is low on the right side of the abdomen, the same as in appendicitis, so care has to be taken not to confuse the two.’
‘And which is the most serious?’ she asked frantically.
‘Appendicitis. The other usually clears up over a short time with analgesics to relieve the pain, so let’s hope that is what it is. We should soon know.’
He took her hand in his. ‘Laura, darling, I’m not going to let anything happen to our beautiful daughter, you can trust me on that. If there has to be an operation to remove the appendix I will request that I’m there while it is taking place. But let us not cross our bridges too soon.’ He turned to Josh, who was looking tired and woebegone, and said gently, ‘Are you watching what the doctors and nurses are doing for when we play that game again?’
‘Yes, but it isn’t pretend, is it?’ Josh said. ‘And I don’t like it when it isn’t.’
Neither do we, Laura thought raggedly, but the doctor in A and E was smiling when the test results came through and he told them, ‘It is lymphmesenteric adenitis, to give it its full name. It should quieten down in a few hours with pain relief and rest.
‘We want to keep her here for observation for a couple of days just to be on the safe side, but she should be all right after that. It is one of those things that flare up out of nowhere for a child and can be pretty painful at the onset. We are going to transfer Sophie to the children’s ward and you can stay with her as long as you like.’
Laura felt that the relief was like healing balm on raw nerve endings as they walked beside the hospital trolley with Sophie on it, now drowsy as the illness began to subside after her being given pain control medication, and as her glance met Gabriel’s she couldn’t believe that in what seemed like another life she had told him she wanted a divorce. Whether near or far away, he was the centre of her world and always would be.
* * *
This was what their life together could be like if she would let it, Laura thought as she sat watching over Sophie at one side of the bed in the children’s ward, with Gabriel sitting opposite and Josh asleep beside her on a visitor’s chair.
She could have the relief of always having her husband there when she needed him if he kept to his resolve to give up on the stresses and never-ending demands of an oncologist consultant.
He was holding Sophie’s hand and talking to her softly as the pain continued to ease, and she thought that with a nine-to-five position somewhere local he would still be around to walk the children to school, and if home first he could start preparations for the evening meal, and in times like this would be in charge, strong and reliable.
Life could be so good. She loved Swallowbrook and her position at the practice. It had helped to fill the empty days while they had been away from each other, and had given her shattered life some sense of purpose.
But there was one thing that would always prevent the present state of affairs becoming an idyllic kind of life for them all. Gabriel would end up feeling a lesser person because he had turned his back on his patients and she could not be a party to that!
* * *
The paediatric consultant on his ward rounds in the middle of the morning pronounced Sophie well enough to go home as she was now pain free and sitting up and taking notice of what was going on.
‘We would have kept your daughter in for another twenty-four hours if there had been any signs that the infection hadn’t cleared,’ he told them, ‘but she has fought it off very well and hopefully seen the last of it. Obviously bring her back if there is any recurrence of the adenitis, but I’m inclined to think that it was just an isolated incident due to the viral infection she’d had the week before.’
* * *
The atmosphere in the house for the rest of the weekend was subdued, with Gabriel in sombre mood, Josh still sleepy after being wakened and transported to A and E in the middle of the night, and Laura speechless with relief to know that Sophie wasn’t seriously ill.
The only one of them who seemed to have benefited from the worrying incident was the patient herself, who, having been in close contact with real doctors and nurses, was keen for Josh and herself to take on the roles again, but was disappointed to find that having seen them at close range her brother wasn’t all that keen.
* * *
On Monday morning it was back to normality, with Sophie fully recovered, and Laura left the three excitedly planning how to fill their day
At the surgery Laura was making final arrangements with the caterers she had hired for Libby’s farewell party and feeling more like taking a long walk to clear away the thoughts about Gabriel that had been going round and round in her head since Sophie had been taken ill.
When Ruby came to her office in the middle of the morning and asked if she’d had a good weekend she was greeted with a definite ‘No!’ and it was therapeutic to be able to tell the slender young doctor about Sophie’s brief but frightening illness.
‘I’ve never heard of that before,’ Ruby said when Laura described it.
‘Neither had I,’ Laura told her, ‘but Gabriel had, needless to say.’ And when Ruby had gone back to her patients Laura allowed her thoughts to go back to the moment on the landing when she’d been going to Gabriel to make up for all the times they’d slept separately.
He would have known what she’d had in mind after seeing her outside his bedroom door, but hadn’t mentioned it since then and neither had she. Sophie’s illness had blotted out everything else with the frightening speed with which it had come on. Sophie had been their first priority, and the moment of the rekindling of their passion hadn’t materialised.
Gabriel called in during the lunch hour, minus the children, who were on play dates, to check that she was all right after the upsets of the weekend, and with the memory clear of him finding her outside his bedroom door her colour began to rise, yet why, for goodness’ sake? He’d seen her like that often enough before the day that had put a dividing line between them that had proved to be so hard to cross.
She wasn’t to know that his thoughts had been running along the same lines. He was totally relieved to have been there for Sophie when she’d needed his love and his medical expertise, but for the rest of it he couldn’t believe that Laura had been coming to him for the first t
ime in months at the very second that they’d heard her cry out.
So where did they go from here? Certainly not jumping into bed as if there wasn’t a moment to spare, that was for certain. He had waited a long time for Laura to come to him and could wait longer if he had to.
* * *
A replacement for Libby had been found and was due to join the practice in a few weeks’ time. Aaron Somerton, in his late thirties, was an acquaintance of Nathan’s from when he had worked in a hospital in Africa for three years before coming back to Swallowbrook and discovering that his life belonged here with Libby.
Aaron occasionally rang for a chat and when he’d phoned one night to say that he was coming back to the UK and was looking for a less stressful life for a while, Nathan had mentioned the upcoming vacancy in the practice and Aaron had been immediately interested.
Having experience of the other man’s worth from the time they’d worked together previously, Nathan had suggested that, subject to the agreement of the other doctors, he should join the practice for a trial period, and arrangements were now moving in that direction.
Aaron was unmarried and Laura at his request was in the process of finding him somewhere to live.
A couple of choices were available and she was on her way to view them one afternoon the following week when she met Gabriel with a line and rod that her uncle had left behind when he’d gone to live in Spain.
The children had been invited to the birthday party of one of their school friends and he was taking the opportunity to spend a peaceful afternoon on the bank of a nearby river.
‘Hi. Where are you off to?’ he enquired.
‘I’m house-hunting,’ she told him.
‘Really! Who for?’
‘The new doctor, Libby’s replacement,’ she explained, feeling suddenly irritated. At one time she would have been delighted to find him relaxing on a summer afternoon, but not now. It was as if he was going from one extreme to the other, that the role of overworked oncologist was being replaced by that of the local layabout, and when he flashed her a smile, not having immediately tuned in to her cooling-off, she said, without considering the effect it might have on him, ‘How can you idle the time away like this, Gabriel, like some sort of layabout, when there are so many who need you?’
The smile disappeared. ‘It would seem that we are at cross-purposes once again,’ he said levelly. ‘I’ve been trying to make up for past mistakes but I’m still not getting it right, am I? What exactly is it that you want of me, Laura?’
She was about to tell him that she wanted it to be the same as before, with him treating the sick with the degree of fulfilment that it had always brought but with a smaller workload, not giving up medicine altogether!
But the word layabout hung on the air like judgement from above.
How could she have been so cruel as to say such a thing? She wanted to tell him how sorry she was, but he wasn’t giving her the chance. Gabriel was striding off towards the river as if there was nothing more to be said, and moving off in the opposite direction she began the task of finding a place to live for the stranger who would soon be in their midst.
After viewing the two properties that she’d narrowed the choice down to Laura decided on a spacious cottage up for rental with views of the lake and fells, and once back in her office emailed the details to Aaron Somerton and awaited his comments.
* * *
When she arrived home at the end of what had been a miserable day there was the smell of fish cooking and she wondered if it was Gabriel’s reply to the way she’d described him. He’d caught a salmon, she discovered when she bent to peep inside the oven, and it looked delicious.
As she was straightening up, his voice came from behind, and as if their earlier exchange of words had been without rancour he said easily, ‘Not bad for a layabout, eh, Laura?’ and went on to explain, ‘I met John Gallagher, Nathan’s father, while I was down there. He lives in one of those delightful pine lodges by the river, and as I wasn’t aware that I needed a permit to fish there he said that if questioned I could use his, which explains our colourful friend in the oven.’
‘You never cease to amaze me,’ she said laughingly.
‘And disappoint you equally?’ he questioned.
‘No, never that,’ she protested. ‘All I ever want for you is the best out of life, Gabriel.
‘I’ve got it. You and the children are that.’
‘Maybe we are to some extent, but you deserve more, and I won’t go into the details of that as you are already aware of them and must be weary of my frequent reminders.’
As the smell of the salmon strengthened and vegetables on the hotplate came to the boil she said in a lighter tone, ‘So, are you going to open a bottle of wine to celebrate your first catch?’
‘Yes, why not?’ he agreed. ‘And there are plenty of cold drinks for the children.’
‘So I’ll go up and get changed,’ she said, the day’s pressures lifting. ‘I don’t want my surgery clothes to smell of a fisherman’s catch.’
‘Some fisherman, though!’ he said, with eyes warming, and he swung her into his arms and danced her up the stairs to where the children were playing in their bedrooms, and when they came out onto the landing to see what all the noise was about and found her laughing up at him, she said, ‘We never get the timing right, do we?’
‘No, but we will,’ he promised, and she so wanted to believe him.
Where had all Gabriel’s good humour come from though? Only that afternoon there had been coolness between them when she’d referred to him as a layabout. Surely catching the salmon wasn’t the reason for his light-heartedness?
Yet it seemed as if it might be as while they were eating it he said, ‘Nathan’s father reckoned the salmon was one of the biggest catches for months down on the river, and from an amateur.’
He didn’t explain that his good humour came from knowing that.
James had phoned to say that the hearing before the hospital board in London had been given a date, and much as he, Gabriel, wouldn’t be looking forward to it, he saw it as one of two things—a new beginning or an ending. Once that had been decided he could sort out his working life. It was to take place in a month’s time and he would be marking off the days to it.
He was going to break the news to Laura when the children were in bed and knew it would blow away the happiness of the day, but she had to know and would not take kindly to any delay in the telling of it.
‘So it has come at last,’ she said when he’d told her about the phone call, and she’d thought that the timing wasn’t good, today of all days when they were so happy, but when would be a good moment to pass on that sort of news?
She understood Gabriel’s relief to have heard something definite from the London end, but felt sick inside at the thought what it might mean.
‘I’ll go with you when the time comes,’ she told him, but he shook his head.
‘No way,’ he told her. ‘I caused the situation and I will sort it one way or the other, and until then, Laura, let’s put it out of our minds and carry on enjoying life in Swallowbrook.’
‘Do you think we can?’ she whispered
‘I’m sure we can,’ he told her, ‘and if we can hang on long enough, let’s save that special moment that keeps eluding us until I come back from the hearing, If the news is good it will be a celebration and if it’s bad it will be a sign of our strength. Yes?’
‘Yes,’ she agreed, and had never loved him more than she did then.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN Laura arrived at the practice there was a message from Aaron Somerton to say that the cottage looked delightful, and asking her to put a hold on it for him. The message went on to say that he would be joining them in late September, would not expect to be met, and would make his way to Swallowbrook str
aight from the airport, as he did have some knowledge of the area.
So much for that, she thought. He was obviously someone who liked to have his finger on the pulse in more ways than one.
* * *
When Gabriel had told her about the phone call from James the night before she’d been amazed that he was so happy and cheerful knowing that the ordeal he had to face would soon be upon him.
‘It would suit me if it was tomorrow,’ he’d told her. ‘I want to get it over with. It has been hanging over me like a black cloud and whatever the outcome at least I will know then what choices I have.’
He would be going back to be judged in the place where he’d saved so many lives and prolonged others, but not in recent months, he’d thought as he and the children had waved Laura off that morning with an arrangement that they would meet her for lunch.
He carried a burden of blame for having been absent from those who needed him, and without saying it out loud, if it hadn’t been that he’d let someone else down too, he would have been pushing to get back in there long ago.
He knew Laura wouldn’t have slept much after discovering that a day had been set for the hearing and had thought that a meal at the nearest of the restaurants would be better than a quick sandwich, so when she came out of the practice building the three of them were waiting for her, one on either side of him, holding his hand, and she turned away so that he wouldn’t see tears on her lashes.
Gabriel’s only crime had been caring too much about the sick who came to him, always being there for them, giving them the benefit of every ounce of his expertise, and he was still paying for it, she thought sadly.
Since he’d been back with her and the children he’d done everything in his power to make things right between them, even offering to cut himself off from his work if it would make her happier, with never a complaint about being shut away because a moment of righteous anger had turned into something else.
She knew he was tuning in to her thoughts as he watched her fight back the tears, but he made no comment. Instead he said, ‘Let’s go, Laura, or your lunch hour will be over before you’ve had time to eat.’ And the four of them began to move in the direction of the nearest restaurant on the lakeside.
Marriage Miracle in Swallowbrook Page 9
