Wedding Bells for the Village Nurse

by Abigail Gordon

  Her mother’s face was slack with surprise and the colour was draining from it as she said, ‘Jenna! Where have you come from?’

  ‘Just across the Channel, Mum,’ she said softly as she walked towards her.

  ‘Why didn’t you let me know what was happening to you, for goodness’ sake? I would never have gone if I’d known.’

  Barbara’s smile was wintry. ‘I’m not used to pleading. I couldn’t use my fast-approaching immobility as a means of tying you to me.’ She turned to her husband, who so far hadn’t spoken. ‘You are behind this, I suppose, Keith?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said stoutly, ‘and don’t tell me that you’re not pleased.’

  There was no reply forthcoming to that. Instead she asked Jenna, ‘So how long are you here for?’

  ‘As long as you need me. I’m home for good.’

  Her mother’s face was crumpling. ‘Even though I’m still a bossy and cantankerous woman? I don’t deserve you both.’

  ‘We’ll say hear, hear, to that, won’t we, Jenna?’ Keith joked, gazing at the two women in his life and smiling his relief.

  One day he would tell Jenna what it was that had driven her mother through all the years when they and the practice had been in two very separate compartments of her life, theirs being the smaller. But in the meantime Barbara needed to be inside and resting after their drive across the downs on the cliff tops and into the countryside.

  The sun was setting like crimson fire on the horizon as Jenna gazed down onto the beach later that evening. Her mother was asleep and her father contentedly watching television.

  She had helped Barbara to undress and assisted with her toiletries, and when she had finally settled against the pillows her mother had taken her hand into her own swollen one and without any words of endearment had said simply, ‘I will sleep better tonight not having to wonder where you are and if you’re safe.’

  Knowing that such a comment coming from her was the nearest she might ever get to ‘I love you’, Jenna had kissed her gently on the brow and said, ‘Don’t disturb Dad if you need help in the night. Call me, yes?’

  ‘Yes,’ her mother had replied obediently and they’d both dissolved into laughter at the reversal of their roles, and the moment of shared amusement was another first.

  And now the night was still young and there were lots of folk on the beach and in the sea, out to enjoy every moment of the waning day. Ronnie must have been right, she decided. Their absence in the afternoon had been because there had been something special on.

  ‘I’m going for a stroll,’ she told her father on returning to the sitting room.

  ‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘I will most likely have gone to bed by the time you get back so I’ll see you at breakfast, beautiful daughter.’ With a twinkle in his eye, he added, ‘I thought sometimes that you might bring the man of your dreams back with you one day.’

  ‘No chance. I met one or two nice guys, but Mr Right wasn’t amongst them. I think he’s still on the drawing board,’ she said lightly, and for a moment the man with the amazing attractiveness and closed expression that she’d seen on the beach came to mind.

  There had been no mention of the practice since she’d arrived home, Jenna was thinking as she walked slowly along the road that led inland from the seashore, and when there was, what was she going to say?

  There might be no need to say anything if the surgery was fully staffed, and how would she feel then—disappointed? That kind of thing was in Ethan Lomax’s hands now. He was senior partner and would be the one she needed to talk to if she wanted to work there.

  She’d always wanted a career in nursing and having had her time out was ready to put to use the skills and knowledge that she’d acquired during her training. Most of the friends she’d made during that time had gone into hospital situations but, Jenna thought whimsically, they hadn’t had a mother who’d been the best G.P. for miles around and had wanted the same kind of dedication from her daughter.

  The local pub was just a few doors away from the surgery and when it came into sight she saw that all the tables and chairs outside were occupied by those who had been tempted out by the mellow night.

  Someone called across to her. She waved but didn’t linger and carried on walking past the surgery towards The Old Chart House, which had been empty the last time she’d seen it.

  A guy was cutting the lawns at the front of it with a powerful machine and even with his back to her she recognised the stance of him as the surfer she’d met that afternoon.

  As the memory was taking shape he swung the mower round to face the front and it was as before, a meeting of glances.

  ‘Hello, there,’ he said. ‘We met earlier on the beach, if I’m not mistaken.’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, and having no wish to give the impression that she’d seen it as a memorable occasion commented, ‘I’m surprised to find this place occupied. It has been empty for a long time.’

  ‘So I believe,’ he replied, resting his arms on the handle of the mower. ‘I rented it originally, but when I decided to stick around I wanted living in Bluebell Cove to be a more permanent thing, and have heard only today that my purchase of the property has gone through.’

  ‘Wow!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s a lovely house. Congratulations!’

  ‘What for?’ he asked dryly. ‘Buying a house that is far too big for me?’

  ‘So you live alone?’

  ‘Yes, where do you live?’ As if he didn’t know.

  ‘With my parents at the moment in the house on the headland called Four Winds.’

  So he was right, Lucas was thinking. This was the Balfour girl, having changed the bikini for a blue cotton sundress that matched her eyes.

  There might have been a time when he would have warmed to her attractions but after Philippa the mighty ocean not far away would freeze over before he made that mistake again. From what he’d heard this one had an eye to the main chance too, leaving her mother in the state she’d been in when he’d made the acquaintance of the staff at The Tides practice.

  He had no family and envied those who had in whatever shape or form. His father had died while he’d been at medical school fifteen years ago, and as an only child he’d been very protective of his mother until she too had succumbed to inoperable cancer.

  Philippa Carswell had been his second in command on the cardiology unit at Hunters Hill Hospital, with hair the colour of fire and the passion to go with it. He’d been in love with her and had believed she’d returned his feelings.

  As well as being physically attracted to her, he’d admired her determination to get to the top of her profession, until he’d discovered that she had intended him to be a casualty on the way.

  But she’d reckoned without friendship. He’d always had a good relationship with fifty-year-old Robert Dawson, head of the hospital trust at Hunters Hill, and one night when the two men had met up for a meal, which they did occasionally, his friend had warned Lucas that Philippa wanted his job and had told him that she would do anything to get it.

  He might have doubted the truth of it coming from anyone else, but not from Robert, who was the soul of integrity. When he’d challenged her about it she’d laughed in his face and commented that all was fair in love and war.

  It had been war all right from that moment on, and realising she’d gone a step too far she’d packed her bags and gone to work in America, leaving him with a jaundiced view of the opposite sex, beautiful ones in particular.

  Discovering that he’d been just a rung on the ladder of her ambition had been the first life-shattering thing to happen to him, but the next had been far worse and he was always going to carry the scar from the stab wound he’d received that day.

  It was one of the hazards of being a doctor, one he could have done without, but he’d forgiven the culprit and was trying to get on with his life in the slower, less fraught kind of way that Ethan had described by holding a twice-weekly heart clinic at the practice where the other man was in ch
arge. He was also intending to open up a private consultancy shortly, in the house that was now his.

  It was all very different from the life he’d envisaged for himself. With Philippa gone and the cut and thrust of the cardiac unit at the hospital no longer at his elbow all the time, whether he was going to be happy in it remained to be seen, but no doubt, as it always did, time would tell.

  While his thoughts had been somewhere else Jenna had been observing him warily, keen to know who he was but not about to ask. She sensed something in his manner and as she’d never met him before until today it was strange. Her curiosity was increasing by the second.

  It was not to be satisfied, however. He wasn’t quite as aloof as when they’d met on the beach, but no name or any other item of information was forthcoming from him. Only one thing was sure, he’d bought The Old Chart House so she would be seeing him around and that was a thought not to be treated lightly.

  ‘Bye for now,’ she said breezily into the silence that had fallen between them. ‘I hope you’ll be happy in your new home.’

  ‘Thanks,’ he replied, taken aback at receiving good wishes from a stranger, and as if he had to justify himself for some reason he went on, ‘I’m not sure about that, but I do admit that I’ve fallen in love with this place, the house, the beach, and the green fields of Devon stretching as far as the eye can see.’ His voice hardened. ‘Those kinds of things don’t change.’

  ‘Er, no,’ she agreed, not sure what to make of that, and turning to go back the way she’d come, she left him with a casual wave of the hand.

  When she’d gone he stood without moving, staring grimly into space. What on earth had possessed him to start chatting to her? If she was out to scrape an acquaintance she’d chosen the wrong man. He might have been a fool once, but twice? Never!

  When she awoke early the next morning Jenna could already hear the laughter of children down below and the deeper tones of parents, signalling that the tide was out. Further along on the headland someone had lit a fire and she could smell bacon cooking.

  If only her mother was in better health she would be content, she thought as she watched them from her window. Their reunion had been less stressful than she’d expected and if she would let her help instead of hanging so tightly onto her independence she, Jenna, could combine a part-time job somewhere with looking after her.

  As she was clearing away after breakfast she heard a familiar voice on the terrace where her parents were sitting in the sun, and when she went outside Ethan Lomax observed her in surprise.

  ‘Jenna!’ he exclaimed. ‘Have you come back to us, or is it just a visit?’

  ‘I’m back,’ she told him, smiling her pleasure at the sight of the good-natured doctor who had taken her mother’s place. ‘I haven’t discussed it with Mum and Dad yet as I only arrived yesterday, but I would like to combine looking after her with some sort of part-time nursing somewhere.’

  ‘I can manage….’ her mother started to protest.

  Ignoring the protest, Ethan was smiling and saying, ‘You need look no further if you want a job. We need a part-time practice nurse to help with morning surgery, and for a couple of afternoons to assist Lucas in the cardiology clinic.’

  ‘Lucas! Cardiology clinic!’ she exclaimed. ‘Who might he be? And how long has the surgery been able to offer that kind of thing?’

  ‘Since a friend of mine needed a change of scene,’ he said with a smile. ‘So are you interested?’

  ‘Of course I am!’ she hooted, ‘just as long as Mum and Dad agree.’

  ‘You already know my views regarding you joining the practice,’ her mother said.

  Her father commented gently, ‘It’s all right by me, but I don’t want you to feel that now you’re back you’re being hemmed in with our affairs, Jenna. You’ve got a top degree in nursing, remember.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ she replied, ‘but a nurse is a nurse is a nurse wherever he or she may be. My stepping into that role here has been delayed, but I always intended to join the practice one day if there was a place for me. We Balfour women have to stick together.’

  The saying of that sentiment would have stuck in her throat at one time, she thought, but there was something so sad in seeing her mother defeated by illness that she’d meant every word.

  Ethan was checking his watch. ‘Must go,’ he said, ‘or they’ll be thinking at the surgery that I’ve got lost. So are we sorted, Jenna? You’re interested in coming to join us?’

  ‘Yes. Definitely.’

  She would have agreed to sweep the streets, or empty waste bins, if it would have resulted in the same degree of happiness she was seeing on her mother’s face.

  ‘Call in this afternoon for a chat if you get the chance,’ he said as she walked to the gate with him. He lowered his voice. ‘It must have been a shock when you saw your mother. She was fine when you left, wasn’t she?’

  ‘Yes, she seemed to be,’ she told him sombrely. ‘I had no idea, and needless to say she didn’t tell me what was going on. That isn’t her way.’

  ‘I know,’ he agreed, ‘and it isn’t always the best.’

  When he’d gone her father said by way of explanation, ‘Ethan calls every morning on his way to the surgery to make sure we’re all right. He’s a good guy.’

  It was late afternoon before Jenna got the chance to call in at the practice and when she went through the main doors into Reception she was gripped by a feeling of unreality. This had been her mother’s domain and now here she was, another Balfour about to become part of The Tides practice.

  There was a new face behind Reception and as Jenna moved across to explain why she was there, the door of a consulting room opened directly behind her. As she swivelled round, there he was again, the mystery man, surfer, property owner, and what else—patient, doctor, medical sales rep?

  The questions crowding her mind were soon answered as with a swift glance in her direction he said to the elderly man about to depart, ‘I want to see you again next week, Mr Enderby, and if in the meantime the fast heartbeat or breathing problems return send for me immediately and we’ll take it further. The ECG you’ve just had didn’t show any cause for concern at the moment, but do remember that my heart clinic is here for your benefit.’

  ‘It was probably me getting so worked up about losing my sheepdog that caused me to be the way I was,’ the elderly farmer said awkwardly. ‘I’d had Jess for a long time.’

  ‘So maybe it wasn’t surprising, then,’ he said with a sympathetic smile, and Jenna thought that it must just be her that he couldn’t take to. Yet why should this stranger want to get to know her? He might be living alone but there was nothing to say that he didn’t prefer it that way, or wasn’t already spoken for.

  George Enderby halted in his tracks when he saw her standing there and exclaimed, ‘Jenna! How long have you been back in Bluebell Cove, my dear?’

  ‘Since yesterday,’ she told him with a wide smile.

  ‘And are you staying?’

  ‘Yes, I am, Mr Enderby. I’m going to be working mornings here and will be helping with the new heart clinic on two afternoons.’

  ‘That’s good news. I feel better already.’ He chortled and went slowly on his way, leaving her to adjust to the fact that the man on the beach was the Lucas person, the celebrity who was involved with the practice.

  He was a new face there, just as the receptionist seemed to be, and she, Jenna, would be another when she joined the staff. Though she wouldn’t be a new face to everyone. To most folk she would be Barbara’s daughter.

  Only that morning Ethan had referred to a cardiologist who had his own clinic there, and this just had to be him with a dark suit and smart shirt and tie replacing the swimming trunks of their first meeting and the sports shirt and shorts that had been his attire on the second.

  The elderly farmer had gone and now the receptionist was on the phone to a patient and the man observing her with cool dark eyes said, ‘I’m presuming that you are Jenna Balfour her
e to see Ethan. He said to look after you if he wasn’t back from an urgent home visit he’s been called out on, but I’m sure that the receptionist will be only too pleased to make you a cup of tea when she comes off the phone.’

  His tone implied that he didn’t want the responsibility of looking after her and she told him frostily, ‘I’ll be fine, thanks just the same. It seems as if you have quite rightly decided who I am, so how about introducing yourself?’

  ‘Lucas Devereux,’ he said evenly, ‘recuperating in the countryside and involving myself in medicine at a slower pace.’

  She held out a smooth ringless hand and said, ‘Pleased to meet you, Dr Devereux.’

  He hesitated for a second then took it in a firm clasp and instead of greeting her in a similar fashion merely said, ‘Nice of you to say so.’

  The receptionist had replaced the phone and he didn’t waste a second in saying, ‘And now, if you will excuse me, I have a patient waiting.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and seek out someone that I know after I’ve introduced myself to this lady.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘JENNA! So you really are back! I didn’t believe Ethan when he told me he’d seen you this morning,’ Lucy Watson cried when she opened the door of the nurses’ room to her knock.

  ‘Hello, Aunt Lucy,’ she said, hugging the sparse frame of her mother’s only friend and confidante. ‘Dad phoned to ask me to come home because of how Mum is, and I came as soon as I could. I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes when I went away or I would never have gone, and now that I’ve seen her I’m appalled.’

  ‘Yes, I’m sure you are,’ her mother’s friend said consolingly. She had been senior practice nurse for almost as long as Barbara had been in charge of the coastal medical centre. ‘I told your mother countless times that she should put you in the picture, but we both know what she’s like. Barbara will choke on her own pride one of these days.