Wedding Bells for the Village Nurse

by Abigail Gordon

  ‘There won’t be anywhere open at this hour,’ she protested, ‘and I don’t want to go into the house and have Mum and Dad catch me in this state.’

  ‘I’m taking you to my place so don’t worry. A hot bath and some breakfast is what you need and then I’ll take you home.’

  ‘All right,’ she agreed meekly, aware that it had taken a scare in a rip tide to get an invitation to visit his house again, but she was being ungrateful. If Lucas hadn’t been there she might have succumbed, and that would have been the end of that.

  She’d had a bath and came downstairs to the appetising smell of bacon grilling, and this time Lucas had found her one of his robes to wear instead of the seductive satin number.

  Needless to say, it buried her and did nothing for her sex appeal. Trying not to smile, he said, ‘This is the second time I’ve brought you in from the wet, isn’t it? Maybe I should turn this place into a home for waifs and strays instead of consulting rooms.’

  He pointed to the chairs around the kitchen table and said, ‘Take a seat.’

  She did as he asked and he placed tea, toast, and egg and bacon in front of her and said, ‘Would you agree that the night has been eventful? That fantastic ball, the beach at daybreak, the rip tide treacherous and unexpected, and now this.’

  What he meant by ‘this’ she wasn’t sure, but there was one thing that she was sure of. Amongst the happenings of the night had been the kiss and it hadn’t received a mention.

  In the middle of eating the last piece of toast she fell asleep and, lifting her up into his arms, he carried her carefully upstairs and laid her on his bed. As he stood looking down at her he was remembering how she’d offered to sleep with him because he’d admitted he was lonely.

  He placed a blanket over her and as she slept on went downstairs. As he began to clear away the breakfast things, he tried to think of a good reason to explain why he was going to be taking the Balfours’ daughter home in a bathrobe and a bikini when she’d left the night before in all her finery.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  IT WAS late morning when Jenna awoke. For the first few seconds she wondered where she was, but light soon dawned. The robe she was wearing, finding herself in the room where Lucas slept and the sight of her bikini hung over the back of a chair soon had her sitting upright.

  She sighed. He must have carried her upstairs and laid her on his bed. It was typical of the way their relationship was developing that she’d been in his arms but had been so deeply asleep she hadn’t known anything about it.

  But now it was midday and she needed some clean clothes and an explanation ready regarding her overdue return from the ball in a bikini if her parents were around, and it wasn’t going to be that she’d lost a glass slipper, though in her present state she could easily double for Cinderella in the days before her luck changed.

  Footsteps on the stairs told her that Lucas was approaching and seconds later he was framed in the doorway. On seeing that she was awake, he came and perched beside her on the bed and as he looked down at her she moaned, ‘Why am I always at a disadvantage when you’re around, Lucas?’

  He laughed. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’

  ‘Not much!’ she hooted. ‘Look at me now, huddled in this tent-like thing of yours. I would have been having a sedate breakfast while regaling Mum and Dad with the events of the ball if it hadn’t been for the rip tide.’

  ‘And me bringing you back here, I’m sure you’re thinking.’

  ‘Well, yes.’

  ‘Mmm. So am I going to take you home now and present you to your parents?’

  ‘If you must.’

  ‘Jenna, of course I must. When you left the house last night you were in my care and still are, so if you’d like to put on the bikini and put a comb through your hair we’ll be off.’

  As they drove the short distance to Four Winds House she said, ‘My dad is an old innocent—he won’t read anything into me being out all night—but my mother misses nothing and when she sees me like this she’ll be putting two and two together and making five.’

  He was smiling. ‘What a shame she can’t add up. Everyone knows that two plus two is four.’

  She was laughing across at him from the passenger seat and he thought that she would be so easy to live with, this lovely woman who was making him see everything in a different perspective.

  As far as he knew, life had never hurt Jenna. She was generous and tranquil, but much as he was attracted to her he wasn’t going to do anything about it until he was sure that he could make her happy.

  In spite of her mother’s obsession with her career, she’d been brought up in a stable home that she’d always known would be there, while he’d had to fend for himself most of the time. She’d picked up on that, with the result that she’d asked if he was lonely.

  She’d drawn the line at asking him if he wanted children. Of course he did. He longed to experience the joy of holding a child of his own in his arms, but a child needed a mother and he shuddered every time he thought of the kind of mother Philippa would have been. Selfish, deceitful, it would have been a wonder if she’d found time to give him any children, with ruthless ambition souring her soul. Jenna, on the other hand…

  There were no signs of life when they got to the Balfours’. No family car on the drive. No Keith pottering in the garden. When they went inside there was a note on the hall table to say that he had taken Barbara for a drive and they would be eating out. He’d ring her during the morning to make sure she had got home safely.

  ‘So you’re off the hook,’ he said, ‘and I’m going home to do my Sunday chores. I will see you tomorrow at the heart clinic, and, Jenna, watch for the rip tides if you go swimming without me. In fact, I might have a word with your friend Ronnie to let him know that you were nearly swept out to sea. Why wasn’t he on duty?’

  ‘He has to get some sleep. Dawn was only just breaking,’ she protested. ‘I was to blame. I should have been more alert, and you shouldn’t have been distracting me.’

  ‘All right, if you say so. But don’t give me any more frights like that, and now I really do have to go. As well as doing some chores I have an architect coming this afternoon to advise me on the alterations I would have to make if I do decide to turn part of The Old Chart House into a private heart clinic, and I don’t want to miss him. OK?’

  ‘Of course, but before you go can I ask you something?’

  He pretended to groan. ‘You’re not going to ask if I want to sleep with you again, are you?’

  ‘No! I’m not!’ she protested, blushing. ‘And I would be obliged if you wouldn’t mention that again. What I want to ask you is when are you going back to Hunters Hill? There must be sick people there who need you more than we do here.’

  ‘Do you think I don’t know that?’ he said grimly. ‘I don’t need reminding. It isn’t from choice that I’m no longer there. You above all people have seen what I’m like. How I have to psych myself up to deal with anything medically unforeseen and life-threatening. I’m all right in the clinic because I know the score. And I started it to make up for my absence at the hospital to a small degree.’

  ‘I know you did,’ she told him contritely. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you, Lucas. I know how difficult it is.’ But he was through the door and getting into the car before she could tell him that she couldn’t bear to see his expertise wasted.

  As it disappeared from sight she went slowly upstairs, stripped off the bikini, and thought, So much for trying to persuade Lucas to go back to Hunters Hill. She’d stepped out of line, but with the best intentions, and if she said one word at his clinic tomorrow it would choke her.

  She’d been a fool to think they might have something precious, that they understood each other, she thought tearfully, something that usually came only once in a lifetime. The suggestion she’d made had come from love and a deep admiration.

  Back at The Old Chart House Lucas was gazing bleakly out of the bedroom window, the same bedroom where Jenna had sl
ept away her tiredness after the ball and the happenings on the beach—and where he’d been filled with tenderness as he’d gazed at her.

  But what had happened to that same tenderness when she’d wanted him to go back to his position at the hospital? He’d been an absolute pain and blown his top. She’d been right, of course. He was well again in body and mind and should be thinking about returning.

  Maybe without realising it, guilt had been building up inside him and he’d been using his concern for Ethan as an excuse for putting off going back to the place where he’d almost died at the hands of the distraught relative of a patient, and had also been faced with deception beyond belief.

  But Jenna’s clear thinking had brought his reluctance out into the open and, instead of thanking her for doing so, he’d berated her as if she’d done something wrong.

  Tomorrow he would make things right with Jenna, again, and as the architect that he was expecting rang the doorbell at that moment, he had to put it to the back of his mind.

  It was Monday morning once more and as Lucas went to the village store to perform the daily ritual of buying a morning paper he was relieved to see the red sports car parked outside the surgery.

  It had crossed his mind that she might refuse to use it after the way he’d behaved the previous day, but it seemed that either she’d forgiven him or had decided she couldn’t manage without it—both reasons enough for him to anticipate a pleasant enough afternoon in the clinic once he’d apologised.

  But when he arrived back home his optimism took a downward plunge. She must have seen him leave the house for those few moments and had pushed a note through the letter box requesting that he remove the car from the surgery forecourt as she would have no further use for it. It was brief and to the point with an underlying message that seemed to say she would have no further use for him either.

  He went across immediately, but before doing as she’d asked went inside to see if she was free—a vain hope first thing Monday morning.

  It proved to be so. The chairs outside in the corridor were all occupied and all three nurses were busy. Lucy was taking a diabetes clinic, Maria putting a fresh dressing on someone’s leg, and Jenna was taking blood for tests that one of the doctors had asked for.

  She looked up briefly when he appeared in the doorway and then carried on with what she was doing as if he wasn’t there, and on a sudden impulse he went to find Ethan to put before him the decision he’d made during the long hours of the night.

  ‘Hi,’ the head of the practice said in a pause between patients, ‘What brings you here on a Monday morning when you could be elsewhere?’

  ‘Just a quick question,’ Lucas said. ‘Would you consider I was letting you down if I went back to working full time at the hospital?’

  His friend’s eyes widened. ‘No, of course not!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s been great having you around, but you’re wasted here, Lucas. As long as you feel you’re ready to go back without any qualms, do so by all means. I’ve heard a few times on the hospital grapevine how much you’re missed. And as for being missed, does Jenna know you’re planning to get back in harness? She’s going to be lost without you around.’

  ‘I’ll still be living across the way,’ he reminded him, ‘and though she doesn’t yet know I’ve made a decision, it was her idea that I go back. I didn’t take kindly to the suggestion at the time, but I know she’s right. I’m going to contact the hospital trust this morning and set the ball rolling. I should be gone by the end of the week.

  ‘There’s just one thing I need to ask of you, Ethan. Would you mind not mentioning it to anyone? I don’t want any fuss. I just want to go.’

  ‘You mean you don’t even want Jenna to know?’

  ‘I’m not sure at the moment, but I’ve got all week to think about it, so if you wouldn’t mind not saying anything for now.’

  ‘I’m sure she would like to know,’ he commented, ‘but if that is what you want, I won’t say a word.’

  ‘And you’ll let me know how things turn out with Francine? I will always make myself available if you need me, Ethan.’

  He sighed. ‘Thanks for that. She’s adamant she wants a divorce and as long as I retain my rights as a father and can see the children whenever I want to, she can have it. There isn’t anyone else, as far as I know. Yet I can’t believe that she is the woman I married. We’re like strangers and I still don’t know why she’s in such a hurry to throw away what we had.’

  When Lucas went out into the corridor Jenna was passing on her way to Reception with the bloods to go to pathology and he said, ‘I’ll move the car if you insist, but why make life more difficult when you don’t have to?’

  ‘You misunderstand my reason for the request,’ she said coolly. ‘It is to make life less difficult that I’ve asked you to move it.’

  ‘As if!’ he said tersely, and went to do as she’d asked.

  He was sitting down to a late breakfast when the phone rang and a strange voice with an underlying note of urgency in it enquired, ‘Is that Dr Devereux?’

  ‘It is,’ he replied.

  ‘It’s Jack Enderby here,’ the voice went on to say. ‘Maybe you remember me from Saturday night?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ he said immediately. ‘How could I forget such a wonderful occasion?’

  ‘It’s my dad,’ he said. ‘I think he’s having a heart attack. Can you come out to see him urgently?’

  ‘Of course. I’ll be with you in minutes,’ he told him, ‘but before I set off can you describe his symptoms briefly as I may need to ring for an ambulance straight away rather than waiting until I arrive at the farm? If it is a heart attack then every minute is precious.’

  ‘Agonising chest pains, short of breath, cold and clammy, and he’s blue around the lips.’

  ‘I’ll phone for an ambulance now and then be on my way. Keep him warm and don’t leave his side for a moment until I get there.’

  Lucas was getting into his car even as he was speaking and dialling the emergency services at the same time, then he rang Ethan on his private number and said briefly, ‘Can you spare Jenna for a while? There’s an emergency at Wheatlands Farm.

  ‘George Enderby is having what sounds like a massive heart attack and I might need some assistance until the emergency services arrive. Tell her that the red car is on my drive and the keys are in the ignition.’

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘She’ll be with you as fast as she can. Poor old George.’

  As Lucas drove the short distance to the farm he could see the red car bobbing along some distance behind him and thought that Jenna wouldn’t be pleased to be back in the sports car after making the gesture of handing it back to him, but she would be most upset to hear about George, and if there was anyone who got their priorities right, she did.

  When he pulled up outside the farmhouse she screeched to a stop behind him and as they flung themselves out of the cars Jack Enderby came running out of the house white-faced and shaking.

  ‘It’s too late!’ he cried. ‘He’s gone. Dad isn’t breathing.’

  As they ran past him Lucas said, ‘Where is he?’

  ‘On the floor in the lounge. I was afraid to move him.’

  In seconds Lucas was crouched beside the still figure, testing for a heartbeat, while Jenna crouched on the other side. She was pale but calm and Lucas said urgently, ‘He hasn’t left us yet. There is a faint heartbeat. I’ll take the mouth while you do the chest compressions.’ They began the desperate process of resuscitation, with Lucas pinching the old man’s nose and breathing into his mouth once to each of her five compressions.

  After what seemed like for ever he exclaimed, ‘He’s back with us, Jenna. See his chest starting to rise and fall. Keep up the good work, the ambulance shouldn’t be long.’

  ‘I don’t believe it!’ their host of Saturday night gasped as they continued with the treatment. ‘I was sure we’d lost him.’

  ‘Your father isn’t out of danger yet,’ Lucas told him. ‘He�
��s on medication that I’ve prescribed. Has he been taking it regularly?’

  ‘As far as I know,’ was the answer, ‘but we’ve been so busy with the harvest I must confess that I haven’t been taking note. If he comes out of this I’ll monitor his drug intake more carefully.’

  The ambulance had arrived. They could hear it screeching to a halt outside, followed by the sound of running feet, and Jenna let out a sigh of relief.

  This was the last thing she’d been expecting—being back with Lucas, doing the job they were trained for, and having to eat humble pie by using his car again. Returning it had backfired on her.

  ‘Thanks for that,’ Lucas said evenly to her when the ambulance had gone, with its siren breaking into the autumn morning and Jack sitting protectively in the back beside his father as a paramedic gave George oxygen. ‘It made all the difference, having you there.’

  ‘I have my uses sometimes,’ she said coolly, ‘and Lucy would have been just as capable.’

  ‘Hardly! Lucy is a gem, but she hasn’t been helping in my clinic and hasn’t worked in a coronary unit, as you have. You’ll have to tell me where it was one day. I somehow have a feeling that it wasn’t on this side of the Channel.’

  ‘Does it matter where it was?’ she said quietly. She got behind the wheel of the red car once more. ‘I’ll leave this where I found it.’ And before he could protest she was away.

  The only good thing about the manner of their parting at Wheatlands Farm as far as Lucas was concerned was the knowledge that Jenna would be helping him in the clinic that afternoon. It would be a chance to talk to her, to apologise for his heated words yesterday.

  He wanted to tell her that he was going back to the hospital but felt he had to find the right moment, and had to get used to the idea first. Going back there had become an issue instead of part of the natural way of things, and his outburst when she’d suggested it was not going to make the telling any easier…