LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER ONE

      LAUREL MADDOX groaned as the train pulled into the small country station that was her destination. She had two heavy cases to unload and there wasn’t a porter in sight. Just two deserted platforms and an unattended ticket office were all that were visible as the doors began to open.

      For someone used to the big city where platforms and staff were many and varied it was a depressing introduction to the place that was going to be her home for some time to come. Yet all was not lost as she prepared to heave the cases out onto the platform.

      A voice said from behind, ‘Can I help?’ and when she turned the man it belonged to didn’t wait for an answer. He moved past and swung the offending luggage out onto the platform, then turned and offered a firm clasp from a hand that was protruding from the cuff of a crisp white shirt.

      As she thanked him Laurel was thinking that he was the only part of the scenery that she could relate to. Tall, tanned, trimly built, wearing a dark suit, he seemed more in keeping with the place she’d come from than the countryside that her aunt had described in such glowing terms.

      ‘I need a porter,’ she said. ‘Is there such a person in this place?’

      ‘Just one,’ he replied. ‘Walter does the job of porter, mans the ticket office, collects them when necessary.’ He gave a wave of the arm that took in the spotless platforms and the tubs of summer flowers gracing them. ‘And also keeps the place clean and attractive. Willowmere won the prize for best country station last year. But he does stop for lunch at this time of day.’

      ‘So what about a taxi?’ she asked wearily, obviously unimpressed by his description of the absent Walter’s devotion to duty.

      ‘There is one, but…’

      ‘Don’t tell me. Amongst all of that he drives the local taxi.’

      ‘No. His brother does that,’ he said with a smile of the kind not soon forgotten, ‘but it doesn’t look as if he’s around at the moment. I have a car and it’s parked just here. Can I give you a lift to wherever you’re going? I know we’re strangers, but I’m a doctor in the village surgery, if it helps.’ He showed her his ID, which proclaimed him to be Dr David Trelawney.

      ‘Well, OK. Thank you,’ she said, trying to smile despite feeling weary and irritable and wishing she hadn’t allowed herself to be persuaded to move to the Cheshire village of Willowmere. ‘So you must know my Aunt Elaine. I’m going to stay with her for a while.’

      ‘Elaine Ferguson, our practice manager? Yes, of course,’ he said in surprise, and bent to pick up her cases. ‘So you’ll be wanting Glenside Lodge, then. If you’ll follow me.’

      As she tottered after him across the cobbled forecourt of the station on high-heeled shoes Laurel was feeling nauseous from lack of food and the journey. It had been a month since she’d been discharged from hospital and she was gradually getting stronger, but at that moment she felt as weak as a kitten and was wishing she’d stayed put in her own habitat.

      ‘There’s a vacancy coming up at the surgery for a practice nurse,’ Elaine had phoned to say. ‘Why don’t you give James Bartlett, the senior partner, a ring?’

      ‘You mean live in the country,’ Laurel had said doubtfully. ‘I’m not so sure about that. It just isn’t my scene, and I’m not sure I want to go back to nursing after what happened.’

      Elaine was not to be put off. ‘The air here is like wine compared to the fumes in the city, and with some good food inside you it will help to complete your recovery. You’ve done so well, Laurel, and I’m so proud of you. Come to Willowmere and carry on with your nursing here. You are too good at it to give it up. A country practice is a much less stressful place than a large hospital…and I want to pamper you a little.’

      Elaine was clearly looking forward to her coming to live in her beloved village and the thought of her waiting to welcome her with open arms had been too comforting to refuse. As well as that, her aunt made the best omelette she’d ever tasted and if there was one thing her appetite needed, it was to be tempted.

      There was also the matter of the job at the practice. Laurel had eventually phoned the senior partner, and having explained that she was coming to live in Willowmere and was a hospital-trained nurse, he’d said that once she arrived he would be only too pleased to have a chat.

      Returning to the present, Laurel thought that Elaine was going to be mad when she knew she’d come on an earlier train. She would have been there to meet her if she’d kept to the arrangements, but the opportunity had presented itself and she’d thought it better to get on a train that was there than wait for one that might not arrive.

      ‘Is she expecting you?’ David asked as he drove along a country lane where hedgerows bright with summer flowers allowed an occasional glimpse of fertile fields and their crops.

      ‘Yes and no,’ she told him. ‘Elaine knows I’m coming but not on the train I arrived on. I caught an earlier one.’

      ‘That explains

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