A Wedding in the Village Read Online Free PDF Page B

she’ll be around when Oliver and Owen come home from school. The last thing those two young ones need at the present time is coming home to an empty house.’
    ‘I know Rebekah Wainright,’ Megan said. ‘She’s a friend of Aunt Izzy’s, and a good soul. I’m glad for both our sakes that Sue sorted all that out before she left.’
    It was another dawn, another day, she thought. If she’d known yesterday what he was telling her now, she wouldn’t have got herself in such a state. Now it was her turn to make a peace offering and, smiling across at him, she said, ‘Last night I told Sue I would do all I could to help while she was away, but I was in an awkward position, torn between my commitment to the practice and the problems of a friend. I hope you’ll forgive me, Luke.’
    ‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ he said quietly. ‘I let my longing to make life easier for Sue and the boys make me forget what I’m here for. And with regard to that, Megan, ten minutes to go and it will be time for the Riverside Practice to swing into action.’
    ‘How do you manage to be so good-humoured all the time?’ she asked as she perched on the corner of her desk and flipped through the mail. He didn’t answer and when she looked up his face was thoughtful.
    ‘It’s because I’m content, I suppose. I’m here in this beautiful place with those I care about. When we knew each other before I was not at my best. I was at the tail end of a divorce and disillusioned with womankind in general. But I’m over all that. Ready for new beginnings, and coming here is one of them.’
    ‘I see. Was that why you took such a dim view of the Valentine I sent you?’
    It was out, she thought. She’d done the thing she’d been dreading and was waiting to hear what he had to say.
    He shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that. My first reaction was amazement when I found it on my desk amongst an assortment of others. For a few seconds I was flattered, until it dawned on me that it might be a joke. I remember that I handled it badly.’
    ‘They were all doing it,’ she said hastily, ‘and I thought I’d join in. It was a stupid thing to do, I’m afraid.’
    ‘Think no more of it. I’d forgotten it.’
    It was a lie, of course. He hadn’t forgotten it, or her . But she wasn’t to know that and instead of being relieved to have cleared the air Megan was wishing she’d never mentioned it. She’d presented Luke with the opportunity to let her see she meant nothing in his scheme of things.
    When she went to make a quick coffee before calling in her first patient, Megan saw Elise Edwards, who owned the village bakery, chatting to one of the receptionists.
    ‘I’m here again, Megan,’ she said, half laughing, half apologetic. ‘I’m haunting this place, aren’t I?’
    She was a jolly, buxom woman in her mid-forties, who until recently had rarely been seen at the surgery, but that seemed to be changing. First there had been a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis that Elise could have done without. Then there’d been something suspect in the colon that had turned out to be benign, and as she wasn’t due for a check-up, it seemed as if there might be something new for her to fret about.
    ‘So you’re down on my list for today,’ she said, and Elise shook her head.
    ‘I’m afraid not. You didn’t have a free slot, so I’m seeing the new doctor. What’s he like?’ she asked Kathy, the receptionist.
    ‘Very nice,’ was Kathy’s reply, and as Megan went into the small surgery kitchen to make the coffee, she thought that was putting it mildly.
    The only snag was that so far, not having said a wrong word, Luke was making her seem like some sort of a control freak, and it was the last thing she wanted him to see her as.

CHAPTER THREE
    ‘E LISE E DWARDS ,’ Luke said when the two doctors surfaced at the end of the morning.
    ‘What about her?’ Megan asked. ‘I spoke to her earlier. She’s been going through a rough patch