Swallowbrook's Winter Bride. Abigail Gordon

he’d arrived in Africa and at the very least apologised to the beautiful girl whose heart he had broken.

      But the timing had been wrong all along the line, beginning with him discovering at the airport that he wasn’t as indifferent to Libby Hamilton as he’d thought he was, followed by the knowledge that his flight was due to be called any moment, and overriding everything else, at the forefront of his mind, had been his commitment to the hospital in Africa.

      The outcome of it had been that he’d been dumbstruck by the suddenness of it all, and had sent her away, then months later there had been his dash across half the world to speak to Libby before she became Jefferson’s wife but he’d missed his chance by seconds and returned to Africa with his questions unanswered.

      But now he was home, back in Swallowbrook once more, and she was minus a husband, though undoubtedly still reeling from grief, and he was still no nearer to knowing how deep her feelings had been that day at the airport. It could have been a carry-over from her schoolgirl crush. In fact, it must have been a short-lived infatuation judging from the speed with which she’d married Ian Jefferson, and there had certainly been no chemistry between them since he’d turned up out of the blue with Toby. Plenty of being put in his place but no rousing of the senses for either of them as far as he could tell.

      ‘Fine,’ he said easily in answer to her refusal.

      She’d looked so solitary standing by the rail, watching the steamer cutting its way through the water on its journey across the lake, that he hadn’t been able to resist inviting her to join them at his father’s place but again the barriers had been up.

      When they arrived at the moorings at the far side Nathan and Toby stayed on the steamer in readiness for sailing back and Libby, after a brief goodbye, went to dine at the restaurant that she’d used as an excuse to refuse his invitation.

      The fact that she’d already been on her way there didn’t make her excuse to Nathan any less untruthful. Although she dined there frequently she didn’t have a table booked on a regular basis, and for once she didn’t enjoy the food that was put in front of her.

      She caught the last steamer back before the light went and then made her way to Swallowbrook in a sombre mood with the thought of starting work as senior partner with Nathan as her newest employee the following morning.

      A knock on the door of her consulting room at precisely ten o’clock announced Nathan’s arrival and Libby pushed back her chair and went to let him in.

      He was alone and the first thing she said was, ‘Where’s Toby?’

      ‘He’s playing with the children’s toys in the waiting room. One of the receptionists is keeping an eye on him,’ was the reply.

      Seating himself across from her, he asked, ‘Did you enjoy your meal?’

      ‘No, not really,’ she admitted.

      ‘Why was that?’

      ‘I don’t know. Maybe it was because I like freshly caught salmon.’

      ‘But not the guy who reeled it in?’

      ‘I have no feelings either way about him,’ she said and followed it with, ‘I do have patients waiting, Nathan, so shall we proceed? What hours would you be available to join us here?’

      ‘Half past nine to three-thirty when the primary children finish,’ he said promptly. ‘We’ve been to see the headmaster before coming here and it’s sorted for Toby to start tomorrow. Today I’m going to take him into town for his uniform and a satchell.

      ‘If it’s all right with you, I feel that Wednesday would be a good day for me to settle back into the practice. It will leave me with tomorrow free in case Toby is reluctant to go when the moment arrives. He’s had so many changes in his life over recent months I wouldn’t be surprised.’

      ‘Wednesday will be fine,’ she assured him, and had to admire the way he had his priorities sorted. Getting back to the reason for his presence on the premises, she informed him, ‘Your father’s consulting room at the opposite end of the corridor is vacant, and as all the staff are new since you were last with us, apart from Gordon, the practice manager, I’ll introduce you to them while you are here if you like.’

      ‘Yes, sure,’ he said easily. ‘It would seem that the only things familiar to me are going to be the layout of the place … and you, Libby.’

      In your dreams, she thought. She would accept him as a neighbour because she had no choice, and as a colleague because she knew his worth as a doctor, but that was the limit of it. Familiar she was not going to be.

      Nathan didn’t stay long after the introductions had been made. He separated Toby from the assortment of toys provided to keep small patients happy and took him for his school uniform of dark green and gold, leaving Libby to ponder on how much, or how little, she was going to enjoy working with him again.

      She saw the two of them go past the surgery window the following morning and a lump came up in her throat to see the small boy resplendent in a green and gold blazer and matching T-shirt and shorts with Nathan holding his hand and looking down at him protectively.

      She’d once dreamed of a similar scenario for the two of them, loving each other, loving the children they created, but that was all it had been, a dream. In utter foolishness she’d turned to someone else and that had been a nightmare, so where did she go from here? she wondered.

      Yet she knew the answer to the question almost before she’d asked it of herself. She and Nathan were going nowhere. That way she would steer clear of any more heartbreak connected with the men in her life. She’d shown herself to be a poor judge when it came to that.

      She’d thought sometimes during the long years he’d been gone, Why shouldn’t he have said what he did? At least he hadn’t strung her along into thinking he was interested in her when he wasn’t, which was what Ian had done, pursued the attractive young doctor at the practice when she was at her most vulnerable to satisfy his ego.

      But there was work to do, patients to see, and she needed normality to keep her mind free from the events of a very strange weekend.

      As she rose from her desk, intending to make a quick coffee before the next patient appeared, Nathan was passing again, homeward bound this time. When she waved he smiled, gave the thumbs-up sign and went on his way, leaving her with the feeling of unreality that had been there ever since she’d opened her door to him on Friday night.

      Henrietta Weekes was a regular visitor at the practice with most of her problems associated with a failing heart due to having had scarlet fever when she was a child. A smart, intelligent woman, she usually coped with them calmly with little fuss, but today she was in distress and needing to see a doctor.

      After checking her heart, Libby exclaimed, ‘How on earth have you managed to get here in this state, Henrietta?’

      ‘My son has brought me,’ she gasped.

      ‘I’m glad to hear you haven’t walked,’ she told her soberly. ‘Your heart is completely out of control and is affecting your lungs. I’m sending you to the coronary unit at the new hospital straight away by ambulance. You will be attended to more quickly that way than if your son was to take you. I’ll get one of the nurses to help you back into the waiting room to join him while I send out an emergency call. You’re an amazing woman, Henrietta, I’m not giving up on you. Once they get you into Coronary Care, you’ll be in safe hands.’

      ‘If I live that long,’ she said with a grimace of a smile, and Libby thought it was typical of the woman that she was facing up to what might happen with the same sort of stoicism that was always there in every crisis that brought her to the surgery for help. Her family, who were devoted to her, must live on a knife edge where their mother’s health was concerned.

      As the day progressed like any other busy Monday at the practice there was no time to wonder how Nathan was occupying himself until Toby came out of school, or let her thoughts wander to how a small orphaned