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His Christmas Bride-To-Be. Abigail Gordon
Читать онлайн.Название His Christmas Bride-To-Be
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Автор произведения Abigail Gordon
Жанр Современные любовные романы
Издательство HarperCollins
When the huge wall of water had come thundering towards them, sweeping everything out of the way with its force, they’d both been caught up in it. Glenn had been closer to land and had surfaced and managed to hold onto driftwood before staggering towards what had been left of the hotel where they’d been staying. But of Serena, his wife, sunbathing on the rock far out, she and others like her had disappeared and had never been found.
Weeks later, with all hope gone, Glenn had arrived back but had been unable to bear to stay where they’d lived together so happily. So he had moved to a new job and a new house in the town where his parents lived, telling the older folk that he didn’t want his affairs discussed amongst the residents of Glenminster, or anywhere else for that matter.
The only way he had coped after leaving the practice up north to join the one in the town centre had been by giving his total commitment to his patients, and when away from the practice shutting himself into the converted barn that he’d bought and in the silence grieving for what he had lost.
That day on the golf course had been a one-off. Jeremy had persuaded Glenn to join him there for a round or two much against his inclination because it would be interrupting the quiet time that he allowed himself whenever possible.
When the other man had collapsed with a massive heart attack in the middle of the game and hadn’t responded to Glenn’s frantic efforts as they’d waited for an ambulance, Jeremy had begged him with his dying breath to find his daughter and bring her home to Glenminster. Though aghast at the request, as it had seemed that no one had known where she was, he had carried out Jeremy’s wishes faithfully. Once the funeral was over Glenn was fully intent on returning to his reclusive evenings and weekends.
The fact that Emma, having only been back in her home town three days, had visited him on the third one had not been what he had expected. Neither was it what he was going to want once he began to live his own life again.
He’d seen to it that she was back home where she belonged and on a grey winter’s day had made sure she would be warm and fed when she arrived. He had even gone so far as to make sure that she received a warm welcome home from the practice staff at the Barrington Bar, of all places, which had not been the kind of thing on his personal agenda. Once his duty had been done he had been off home to the peace that his bruised heart cried out for.
Only to find that Emma had good manners. On the quiet Sunday morning she hadn’t picked up the phone to thank him for all that he’d done on her behalf, which until her chat with Lydia she’d had no knowledge of, but had come in person. So why was he feeling so edgy about it?
Was she going to want to come back into the practice? They needed another doctor. But was the daughter of chancer and man about town Jeremy Chalmers someone he would want around the place?
He spent the rest of the day clearing up fallen leaves in the garden and at last, satisfied that all was tidy, went inside when daylight began to fade and began to make himself a meal.
As he was on the point of putting a piece of steak under the grill the phone rang and when Glenn heard Emma’s voice at the other end of the line he sighed. She didn’t hear it, but his tone of voice when he replied was enough for her to know it would have been better to have waited until the following morning to report the conversation she’d just had with a funeral director.
‘I’m sorry to disturb you again, Dr Bartlett,’ she said. ‘It is just that I’ve been speaking to the funeral firm, who have been waiting for me to appear with regard to a date for the funeral that has been unfortunately delayed because of my absence, and they pointed out that as my—er—father was so well known in the practice and around the town, maybe a Sunday would be the most suitable day. Then all the staff would be free and more of the townspeople would be able to attend, it not being a regular working day for most people.’
‘Yes, good thinking,’ he agreed, relieved that the final chapter of the sad episode on the golf course was to be soon for her sake as well as his. ‘Why not call in at the practice tomorrow so that I can help you with the rest of the arrangements?’
There was silence at the other end of the line for a moment and then Emma said haltingly, ‘Are you sure you don’t mind me butting into your time there? I’m afraid that I’ve been in your face a lot since I returned.’
Glenn thought that she’d picked up on his moroseness and his desire to be free of his commitment to a man he’d hardly known, so he told her, ‘No, not so. Once the funeral is organised and has taken place we can both get on with our lives.’ But as the steak began to sizzle and the vegetables he intended having with it came to the boil Emma had one last thing to say and he almost groaned out loud.
‘Just one thing and then I really will leave you to enjoy your Sunday evening. It is with regard to the food that you provided me with. How much am I in your debt?’
‘You’re not. You owe me nothing,’ he said abruptly. ‘It was part of the promise that I made to a dying man.’
Her response came fast. ‘So let me make you a meal after the practice has closed tomorrow evening. It would save me butting into your lunch hour to discuss the arrangements for next Sunday.’
His reply was given at a similar speed. ‘No! I’ve told you, Emma. You owe me nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow at midday.’ And as she rang off without further comment it was clear to her that he was more than eager for the role he had played during recent weeks to be at an end.
Glenn had been looking forward to the meal he’d cooked, but every time he thought about how uncivil he’d been when she’d wanted to thank him for what he’d done for her the food felt as if it would choke him.
Emma would have understood if you’d explained that you still mourn the loss of your wife under horrendous circumstances, he told himself, and that after a week at the surgery you want to be left in peace.
Pushing the plate away from him, he poured a glass of wine and went to sit in front of the log fire that was burning brightly in the sitting room. Gazing morosely at the dancing flames, Glenn admitted to himself that it was most unfair to transfer the pain of his shattered life to a stranger such as her.
He was behaving like a complete moron. Why in heaven’s name didn’t he explain the reason for his behaviour and try to get it in perspective? Otherwise people would start asking questions that he didn’t want to answer.
For one thing, Emma wouldn’t want to feel that his attitude was another dark chapter of her life to add to the fact that she had to attend the funeral of a man who had confessed to causing her great hurt.
With determination to atone for the rebuff he’d handed out when she’d wanted to make him a meal, Glenn decided that he would call at her house on his way home the following evening if she didn’t appear in the lunch hour, and do all he could to show Emma that he felt no ill will towards her. That his behaviour came from pain that never went away, so he needed to focus on work.
As his first appointment of the day arrived on the following morning he settled down to what he did best: looking after his patients.
The staff of the practice consisted of Lydia, the practice manager, six GPs with himself as senior, two trainee GPs, who were there to earn their accreditation after qualifying as doctors, and four incredible receptionists who held it all together.
Once the man who had been his predecessor had been laid to rest, the gloom that had hung over the practice might lighten. As a new era began, was Jeremy’s prodigal daughter going to want to join the practice, or had he put her off completely? he wondered.
Back at the house the night before Emma had been deep in thought as she’d cleared away after a solitary meal, and they had not been happy thoughts. Did she want to be in the first funeral car on her own? There was no one who should rightly be with her. Her mother had left no relations, neither had Jeremy—and she had no knowledge of who her birth father might be.
Maybe Lydia would join her. If