Christmas At Willowmere. Abigail Gordon

do my best,’ she said, and went to have a peep at Polly and Jolly before going to the annexe next door. As she looked down at them, beautiful and innocent in sleep, Anna felt peace descend on her.

      She might have just done the wrong thing, but wasn’t it better to keep up the charade of Glenn being just an acquaintance rather than never to see him again? That was what would have happened if she’d told James not to offer him the position.

      CHAPTER THREE

      SLEEP evaded her, as she’d known it would after the events of the day. She heard the church clock strike one, and was still wide awake.

      James had been right to consider asking Glenn to join the practice, she thought. What had been between them was long gone, even though he had appeared out of the blue and taken her breath away.

      Unlike herself, Glenn had no family to share his life with. It was possible he might appreciate the chance to sample living in the countryside. He’d been prepared to do that when Julie had died and must still wonder why she’d rejected the suggestion and ended their relationship, especially as he’d discovered on his return that there was no one else in her life.

      She’d agreed to James’s suggestion for both their sakes, and Glenn would have nothing to lose if he accepted, but for the sake of keeping him near she was making a difficult situation even more complicated.

      Yet why worry about something that might never happen? she told herself. The odds were that the thought of actually living in Willowmere, as compared to a short visit, would make Glenn refuse James’s offer.

      * * *

      Anna hadn’t been the only one finding sleep hard to come by. In his room at The Pheasant, Glenn was reliving every moment from his first sight of her on the snow-covered pavement, taking the children to school.

      He’d remembered where she lived, had been to Bracken House on the day she’d called it off. Yet when he’d driven past that morning there had been no signs of life. But as he’d cruised along the main street of the village, luck had been with him. He’d seen Anna walking along the pavement with two small chidren.

      If she’d been pleased to see him, Anna had concealed it well, he thought. Yet she’d gone to have a drink with him, invited him for a meal, and had agreed to see him again tomorrow. She seemed friendly enough but he sensed that she was on her guard for some reason and wondered if she thought it tasteless that he had resurfaced after all this time and was here in Willowmere.

      Yet what did any of it matter? Unless she gave a sign that she still had feelings for him, he would accept that there really was nothing left of what they’d had before and go on his way.

      ‘You’re looking very glamorous,’ Georgina said when Anna arrived at the surgery the following morning. ‘What’s the occasion?’

      ‘Just afternoon tea with a friend I haven’t seen for some time,’ she replied.

      Georgina Adams was an attractive thirty-five-year-old divorcee, who lived alone in a stone cottage at the end of one of the leafy lanes leading off the main street of the village. She kept herself to herself, but could be relied on for a cheery word and a smile whenever they stopped to chat.

      The women patients usually chose to consult her, especially if they had something embarrassing to discuss, and she and James had a good working relationship.

      Time was always of the essence on weekday mornings. Making sure the children had a good breakfast and seeing them safely to school before she put in an appearance at the surgery left little time for make-up and smart clothes. And in any case the practice nurses wore a neat blue uniform. But today she was wearing a fashionable cashmere top and skirt, and her hair hung straight and shining.

      She’d decided that if Glenn didn’t choose to join the practice it might be the last time she saw him, and whenever he thought of her in time to come, if he ever did, she wouldn’t want him to remember her as drab.

      All the practice staff, with the exception of herself, started at half past eight, so James and Georgina had already been seeing patients when she arrived, and Anna wondered when he was going to speak to Glenn.

      She hoped it wouldn’t be before they met up that afternoon. Calm and controlled was how she wanted to be while they walked by the lake and chatted over tea. The children were very good at the table, but Polly and Jolly were only five years old and sometimes they did need some assistance, which could prove to be a diverting exercise if a diversion was needed.

      ‘I’m going to call at The Pheasant to see Glenn this evening when I’ve finished here,’ James told her when he had a moment to spare. ‘So I might be late for dinner. Is that all right?’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ she told him. ‘I’ll give the children theirs at the usual time, though.’

      He nodded. ‘And you’re not going to say anything to Glenn about him joining the practice when you’re with him this afternoon, are you?’ he questioned.

      ‘Absolutely not!’ she exclaimed. ‘I said last night that I don’t want to be involved in what you are considering, James. I would be mortified if he received the impression that I had anything to do with it.’

      ‘Don’t be,’ he said affectionately. ‘You know I would never do anything to upset you. There’s still time for you to say you would prefer me not to approach him.’

      She shook her head. ‘No. Go ahead. I think Glenn has been feeling rather out on a limb since he came back home. Your suggestion could be just what he needs.’

      It was along the lines of what she’d been thinking during the sleepless hours of the previous night and as she went to change the dressing on what had been a badly infected finger of a teenage boy she still wasn’t sure if it was what she needed.

      The lad was the son of Bryan Timmins, who owned one of the biggest farms in the area, and until recently Anna had thought him to be spoilt and surly. When young Josh had pierced his finger on a rusty nail and it had become infected, James had put him on antibiotics and sent him to the nurses’room for a tetanus injection. Today she was hoping to see some improvement when she changed the dressing.

      She’d seen a new side to Josh when he’d called at Bracken House one afternoon with some eggs that his father had forgotten to deliver and had stopped and played with the children.

      They’d had lots of fun and Polly and Jolly hadn’t wanted him to go, but his mother had phoned, concerned about where he’d got to, and he’d had to leave.

      ‘How are the twins?’ he asked as the finger was revealed and appeared to be healing satisfactorily.

      ‘They’re fine, Josh,’ she replied. ‘You’re good with children, aren’t you? I can see you having a house full of your own when you get married.’

      ‘I don’t know about that, but I won’t have just one, that’s for sure,’ he said, and Anna saw the light. Josh had been a different person that day. He was obviously a lad who missed not having brothers and sisters.

      ‘Come round any afternoon when you’re not with your mates,’ she said as he was leaving, and his expression brightened.

      Georgina popped into the nurses’room shortly afterwards and said, ‘I’ve just seen Josh Timmins leaving. That young man is in for a surprise and so are you, Anna.’

      ‘Why me?’ she asked.

      ‘His mother came to see me yesterday afternoon and she will be attending our antenatal clinic in the morning.’ ‘Maggie Timmins is pregnant!’ she exclaimed. ‘That is amazing!’

      ‘What do you mean? She’s not exactly in her dotage,’ Georgina protested mildly. ‘Maggie was forty last month, which isn’t exactly the first flush of youth but not too old to conceive.’