‘I’m all right now.’
‘Lie down and rest! Doctor’s orders.’
So she did as he’d commanded. Then he came to her, leaned over her. Tenderly, he took her head in his two hands, stared down at her. ‘You are beautiful.’ he said, ‘but more than that, you are you. Living, breathing, sweet Alice Muir. Not two hours ago I thought that you were dead and my life seemed to fall apart.’
She looked up at him and saw something she had never expected to see. Tears? Ben crying for her?
He kissed her gently, then sat on the floor beside her couch and took hold of her hand. He held it inside his shirt so she could feel the uneven beat of his heart. ‘First thing, tell me what happened. I need to know, to make sense of things.’
‘Why did you think I was dead?’ She was curious.
‘Well, I first got your phone message very early this morning. Didn’t get back from the accident till then. And I was worried. It was evil weather, a bad journey and possibly a difficult birth when you arrived. Then I couldn’t raise you on your mobile and the storm had apparently brought down the landline here. So you were marooned. I didn’t know what help you might need. That’s when I decided to order out the helicopter. But when I flew here, I saw the damage to the causeway. Then I saw your car, on its side, in the water. There was no sign of you. The pilot flew up and down a while…’His voice faltered. ‘Looking for a body. But we gave up hope. Then he flew here. And the best thing that has ever happened to me happened then. I thought you were dead and there you were—alive.’
Yes, she thought. Those were definitely tears.
He was silent a while and then said, ‘So tell me what happened to you.’
So she told him. The callout from Malcolm, the causeway being flooded. The Land Rover sliding off the edge of the causeway and being carried along until it beached and her feverish attempts to escape.
‘I thought I was going to die,’ she told him. ‘I panicked. But somehow I got a grip on myself and after that…’ she shrugged ‘…well, it wasn’t too hard.’
She saw him wince as she told her story. ‘If I’d known,’ he muttered. ‘If only I’d known.’
She smiled up at him. ‘Don’t worry. Ultimately we got a happy ending. The birth was a bit of trouble—shoulder dystocia—but now mother and child are fine and I’ll soon get over a few scratches and bruises.’ Then she thought of something, a new worry. ‘Ben, what about my Land Rover?’
Ben obviously couldn’t have cared less about it. He shrugged. ‘Who cares? I’ll phone the garage, get it pulled out, they’ll order you another one. The important thing is that you are all right. We’ll let the trust sort out what needs—’
Suddenly, he sounded alarmed, his body tensed. ‘The trust! Alice, have you written to them saying that you’d take the job they offered you on the mainland?’
She hesitated. Did she want him to know? ‘No,’ she said. ‘I thought I might think…think if there might still be something for me here.’
She saw him relax and he leaned forward and kissed her again. ‘I hope there is,’ he said. ‘Alice, when I saw your Land Rover in the water, when I thought that you might be dead…’
She watched as he shook his head disbelievingly. He went on, ‘All the time you’ve been back on Soalay memories have been coming back. Of what we did and what we meant to each other fifteen years ago. But then they became more than memories! We were living in the present, we were different people, and what I started to feel for you was far greater than any schoolboy crush! And then I remembered that just a few days ago I had told you to leave, that we had no future. Alice, I just didn’t know what I was giving up! A future without you? And then I thought what a coward I had been. I was just too scared to take a risk. But you had risked your life…probably lost your life doing something to help someone.’
‘Ben! It doesn’t matter. Don’t get upset. We all make decisions that are sometimes wrong!’
‘Sometimes really big mistakes.’ He looked at her assessingly, and then smiled. ‘How do you feel now?’
How did she feel? Well, happy. Happier than she’d thought she could ever be. But there was something else. ‘You’re not going to believe this,’ she said. ‘That was a lovely, lovely thing that you just said to me. But how do I feel now? Well, when he first saw you Malcolm said he was going to put the kettle on, but nothing much happened after that. Ben, right now what I need most is a mug of tea.’
‘And I call myself a doctor,’ he muttered. ‘I should have known.’
Malcolm had left all that was necessary for breakfast out on the kitchen table. Ben put most of it away. He decided that the traditional full English breakfast was not quite what Alice needed. But he’d make her some toast and the requested mug of tea. In fact, he rather fancied a mug of tea himself.
As he was alone for a minute, it was a chance for him to take stock, to think what had happened to him over the past couple of hours. In that short time he had felt the depths of despair and then ecstasy. When he had seen the empty vehicle, half-full of water, he had been certain that Alice was dead. He could still remember the bleakness of his imagined future. What would life be like without her? And then he had discovered that she was alive! How many men got a second chance at happiness? Well, he knew what he had to do now.
Putting tea and toast onto a tray, he walked back into the living room, sat again on the floor by the couch. He took her hand again, kissed it. ‘Alice, there’s something I want to say to you,’ he said.
Alice didn’t reply.
Ben frowned, looked at her. There was a tiny smile on her face but her breathing was heavy and her chest was rising and falling in an unmistakable rhythm. Ben sighed. No time for passionate declarations now. Alice was firmly, soundly, definitely asleep.
Ben walked outside, took out his mobile. ‘Sergeant Cullen? Dr Cavendish here. There’s some organising I’d like you to do…’
Alice decided that it was nice not to have to do anything, not to have to make any decisions, just to lie there, sleep when she wanted, and let other people do everything necessary. And there did seem to be a lot of people around, supervised by Sergeant Cullen. Even a tow truck to pull her Land Rover out of the sea.
Somehow, Ben’s vehicle had arrived outside the cottage. She was bundled into it, the seat reclined, a blanket wrapped round her. Well, she’d sleep some more.
She was taken to Taighean dhe Gaoithe. She tried to suggest that she ought to go to her own flat, that she had work to do. ‘Morag will deal with all your appointments for the next couple of days,’ Ben told her. ‘You’re in no fit state to work. And you need looking after.’
Alice didn’t feel like arguing. She had a bath, breakfast provided by a horrified Mrs McCann and then, of all places, was ushered into Ben’s bedroom and Ben’s double bed. ‘I haven’t made up your old bed,’ Mrs McCann told her. ‘And the doctor told me that you were to sleep here. He said to tell you that he has to go into town, there’s a lot of things to organize, but that he’ll be back as soon as possible.’
‘Right,’ said Alice. Let other people make the decisions. She would sleep.
* * *
‘What are you doing in my daddy’s bed?’
When she woke up Alice felt so much better. Her body ached from the assorted scratches and bruises but her mind was wonderfully clear. She peered at Fiona, who was looking at her curiously from the side of the bed. ‘I had…an accident,’ she said, ‘but I’m all right now. Your daddy said I could stay here for a while.’
‘I like it when you stay. Can I get into bed with you? Sometimes my daddy lets me get into bed with him.’
‘I’d love you to get into bed with me.’
Fiona climbed in. ‘I’ve brought a book,’ she explained, ‘just in case it’s necessary.’
‘Then we’d better read it together,’ Alice said.
It was very pleasant, sitting in bed, reading to Fiona. Alice was almost sorry when the door opened and Ben came in. Almost sorry. ‘And what�
��s happening here?’ Ben asked.
‘We’re sitting in bed, reading,’ Fiona explained. She wriggled sideways. ‘There’s room for you if you want to get in. Then we can all read.’
‘It’s an attractive offer but I don’t think I will just now. In fact, Mrs McCann has got your tea ready. I think you ought to go down to the kitchen.’
‘All right. Is Auntie Alice staying the night?’
‘I hope so. If she wants to.’
‘I’d like to stay,’ said Alice. ‘Fiona, I’ll see you later.’
Fiona scampered along the corridor. Ben closed the door after her, then came to the bedside, took Alice’s head in his hands and kissed her. ‘I’ll be a doctor first and then a lover,’ he said. ‘How do you feel?’
‘I feel good. All I needed was a sleep. Ben, there’s a lot of things I need to—’
‘Tomorrow. Everything is fine, nothing needs doing before tomorrow. Incidentally, I heard from the mainland hospital. Young Joanna Reay is doing fine, Eleanor too.’
‘That’s good. Ben, what am I doing here? I could have gone to my own flat.’
He kissed her again, then kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the bed by her side. He took her hand. ‘You know, for two apparently intelligent people we haven’t been very bright, have we?’
‘How haven’t we been very bright?’
‘We nearly parted. Again. After fifteen years we had a second chance and we nearly missed it. I suppose it was my fault. I just didn’t have the sense to realise that having made one mistake didn’t mean that I would make another. No way could you be another Melissa.’
‘I hope not. And no way could you be another Sean. That was so obvious!’
He stretched his arm round her, pulled her closer to him. ‘So we both made mistakes. And now they’re behind us. Good.’
He kissed her yet again. ‘Next problem. What about your high-flying career in London? What about the vast salary you might earn?’
‘Ben! The last thing I want to be is a high-flyer! I don’t want to spend all my life behind a desk, telling other people what to do. I’m a midwife, I like delivering babies. I like talking to mums-to-be. And as for living in London… Well, I’m afraid I’ve gone off the idea. After this time in Soalay, I know I never want to leave.’
‘We first met here,’ he said. ‘We first fell in love here—and it was love.’
‘It was indeed. But…now it’s different. What I feel for you is somehow deeper. There’s more to me now than there was when I was eighteen. And there’s more to you too.’
This time a much, much longer kiss.
‘Oh, Ben that’s so wonderful!’ she gasped.
‘When we are married we can do it every night and every morning,’ he whispered.
‘When we are married! Ben, you’ve forgotten something. A lady needs to be asked.’
‘Of course.’ His face was so close to hers now and she could see that he was not joking. ‘Alice, I realised that life without you would be nothing. I need you and I want you and I love you. Oh, and I come as a package. Take me and you take Fiona. And she loves you too. So will you marry me?’
‘Of course I will! I’ve wanted to marry you for over fifteen years now. Now, can you carry on with what you were doing for a while…?’
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination
of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the
same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any
individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are
pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or
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First published in Great Britain 2009
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
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© Gill Sanderson 2009
ISBN: 9781408909096
Table of Contents
Cover
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Copyright
The Midwife And The Single Dad Page 15
