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thought you might have to pay off a student loan, and it is worth it to me that someone I already know will be living there, instead of an array of strangers.’

      ‘I do have a loan to pay off,’ she told him. ‘My parents are helping me with it, yet it is still my responsibility, so thanks for the thought, Dr Lawrence.’

      He nodded and asked with casual curiosity, ‘Where is your family situated?’

      ‘In Tyneside. We used to live here in Swallowbrook but had to move because of my father’s job, yet I have always wanted to come back.’

      ‘Are you their only child?’

      ‘No, I have a young brother, Robbie, in his early teens.’

      ‘So your parents have the same as mine had, a son and a daughter, though in our family it is the other way round—my sister, Patrice, is the younger of the two of us.’

      At that moment the phone rang and he said, ‘This will be her now.’

      As she got up to go he said, ‘You don’t have to rush off. I thought you wanted to hear about the patient I called on before morning surgery.’

      She was smiling, her earlier dismay at his abrupt manner having disappeared as she said, ‘It will keep for another time,’ and letting herself out she returned to the apartment and once again danced a little jig at the thought of being its new tenant.

      CHAPTER THREE

      The curtains were not drawn in the apartment and as Hugo chatted to Patrice he was smiling as he watched Ruby dancing around the place.

      She was incredibly graceful, he thought as she pirouetted in the small lounge beneath the chandelier that had been one of his sister’s extravagances when she’d been furnishing the elegant apartment.

      Now Patrice was gone. It belonged to him, and it remained to be seen what kind of a person the young graduate that he had rented it to would turn out to be. So far she hadn’t put a foot wrong, but he had, and there had been no reason for it except that the timing of her arrival in his life had been all wrong.

      Looking after Patrice had become a way of life over the years and since it had come to an end, every time they spoke on the phone he rejoiced to hear the lift in her voice as she chatted about the children’s schools, and the attractive house they’d moved into not far away from that of her friend.

      When they’d finished their weekly chat he saw that Ruby had closed the curtains across the way and settling himself in a chair by the fire with a book he thought that he wouldn’t be doing this tomorrow night as Libby and Nathan had invited him to supper, along with Ruby and John Gallagher, who was now enjoying his retirement in a pine lodge by the side of a nearby river.

      Ruby hadn’t mentioned the invitation when she’d come across, but she hadn’t had much opportunity with him wanting to know about her family and anything else that would give him a clearer picture of the newcomer to the practice, and then there had been Patrice’s phone call.

      It was a nice idea on the part of the other two doctors. Ruby’s early arrival had taken them all by surprise. It would be one way of welcoming her into their midst, and an opportunity for her to meet up again with John, who had been her family’s doctor when she’d lived in Swallowbrook before.

      Not having been resident here for long himself, he knew nothing of the trauma of illness and heartache that Ruby’s family had taken with them to their new home. What he did know was that she had been very keen to come back to Swallowbrook to be part of the village medical centre, which was rather strange as with her degree results he would have thought she would want to aim higher than a country practice.

      The book he was holding was in his hand without a word having been read and deciding that solitude was all right in small doses he reached for a jacket and going out into the night pointed himself in the direction of The Mallard, and this time there was no Ruby rising hastily from her seat by the fire to make a quick exit.

      Having calmed down after her earlier glee at the thought of securing the apartment, Ruby was towelling herself dry in front of a large mirror in the bathroom after her nightly luxurious bath when catching sight of herself she paused in contemplation.

      There was nothing wrong with her figure, she thought wistfully, slender curves, smooth skin, and long legs that made up for any raving beauty that was missing elsewhere. But it wasn’t anything that was missing that frequently made her feel sad, just the opposite. It was something she had that she didn’t want, that might one day turn light into darkness.

      Don’t let it spoil the pleasure of being back here, she told herself.

      Soon it would be spring and everywhere would come alive as it always had before. The lake would be filled with launches and small boats and the fells would be beckoning the climbers and walkers who couldn’t resist them onto their rugged slopes. But best of all there would be the practice and knowing that she was back in the place that had wrapped itself around her and held her close when her world had fallen apart.

      When she came out of the apartment the next morning Hugo was about to pull out of the drive and he wound the car window down to ask if she wanted a lift to the surgery.

      She flashed him a smile but shook her head, ‘No. I’m fine, thank you, Dr Lawrence. I’m still in a state of delight to be back here and will enjoy the short walk.’

      It was true she would, but the main reason she’d refused the lift was because she didn’t want Hugo Lawrence to feel that his reluctant overseeing of her welfare had to continue.

      She was up and running, ready for any challenge that came her way in the new life she had chosen for herself, just as long as she could put on hold the interest he had awakened in her from the moment of their meeting.

      About to drive off, he said as a parting comment, ‘We’ll have to sort out you taking over the spare car at the surgery that I mentioned. Can’t have you without transport, even though you do enjoy walking everywhere.’

      ‘Yes, when you’re ready,’ she agreed obediently, and off he went.

      Hugo’s face was set in solemn lines as he pulled up on the forecourt of the practice. What was the matter with him, he was thinking, fussing over this young doctor to such a degree? Had the time he’d spent looking after the needs of his sister and her children turned him into a control freak? The void he’d lived in for the last eighteen months was opening up and life was going to be good again, if he would let it.

      If Ruby Hollister had turned up smartly dressed and brimming with confidence on Saturday he wouldn’t have given her a second thought, but it was as if she’d appeared in his life for a reason, and of one thing he was sure, it was not going to be as someone to fill the gap.

      She could sort herself out in future. He would keep his distance, and no sooner had that determination been born than he remembered the supper party at Libby and Nathan’s that evening.

      Unaware of his thought processes, Ruby sought him out before the morning got under way and said, ‘I’m on my own today with instructions to ask any of the three of you if I have any problems, but as I’m sure that you must feel you’ve already seen enough of me and my problems I’ll avoid troubling you further and will consult either Libby or Nathan.’

      ‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘Whatever you’re happy with, Ruby, and by the way, do you still want to know about the patient with septicaemia?’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ she said promptly. ‘I want to know about everything and everyone in this place.’ And into the silence that followed came the thought, You in particular.

      ‘Right, then,’ he said briskly. ‘Jeremy Jones is the village postman and I have never seen an infection develop more quickly than the one he’s got. He was sawing up wood for the open fire in his cottage with a rusty saw and it slipped and gashed his leg quite badly.

      ‘Instead of getting it seen to in a proper manner to prevent any complications,

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