if the raised temperature persists. Has Sophie started school yet?’
‘She goes to nursery school twice each week and is due to start in the main stream in September,’ her mother replied.
‘We’ve had a few cases of chickenpox over the last couple of weeks,’ Georgina informed her, ‘so the infection is with us, it would seem. Sophie should be fine in a few days, but if there is anything at all that you are concerned about, send for me straight away.’ She gave a reassuring smile to the anxious mother. ‘I’ll see myself out.’
When she went downstairs into the shop area she told Robert Ingram, ‘I’m afraid that Sophie has got chickenpox, Mr Ingram. The rash is appearing quite quickly and she will feel much better when it is all out. But I’ve told your wife if either of you have any worries about her, don’t hesitate to send for me.’
He nodded. ‘Thanks, Doctor. I’m relieved that it is nothing more serious.’ And they both knew what had been in his mind.
As she was about to leave, Robert didn’t mention that he’d had someone in earlier, arranging to rent the cottage next door to hers for a minimum period of six months. He thought that Georgina would surely feel happier if the other property was occupied, as they were the only two buildings on Partridge Lane.
As he’d watched her drive off that morning Ben had felt shock waves washing over him. How could Georgina have waited so long to tell him that they were going to be parents again? he’d thought dismally. Yet knew the answer even as he asked himself the question.
Georgina had been the butt of his grief and despair when they’d lost Jamie and it would seem she hadn’t been prepared to risk a repeat performance by letting him into her life again when they were going to have another child.
He’d felt as if his heart had been cut out when it had happened all that time ago, and if anyone had dared tell him that time was a great healer, he’d turned on them angrily. Now he knew that it was so. The pain was still there, but instead of being raw it was a dull ache and there were actually days when he managed not to think about it.
He didn’t know how Georgina had coped over the last three years. When the divorce had come through and she’d disappeared out of his life, the shock of it had brought him to his senses, but not to the extent that he’d done anything about it because he’d been gutted at the way he’d treated her.
Then, unbelievably, they’d met in the cemetery. So what had he done? Without a word of remorse he’d made love to her, and ever since had wanted to tell her all the things he’d never said then.
He’d known that Nicholas knew where she was, that he always stayed with Georgina for part of the time when he was over from the States. Yet until then he’d never tried to persuade him to disclose her whereabouts.
But after that everything had changed, and he’d badgered his young brother for the information with no success.
Now here he was, in the place where she lived, because Georgina had written to him. But if the reception he’d just got was anything to go by, a happy reunion wasn’t on the cards.
It was a sombre thought, but it didn’t stop him from calling in at the estate agent and making arrangements to rent the cottage next to hers. After he’d collected his things from the Pheasant, he set off on the long drive back to London.
The afternoon seemed endless to Georgina as patients attending the second surgery of the day came and went, and when at last it was time to go, James said, ‘I never finished telling you about the new practice nurse. Her name is Gillian Jarvis and she is free to start immediately. I’m expecting her tomorrow morning.
‘Her husband has just taken on the position of Lord Derringham’s estate manager and like the Quarmbys they’ll be living in a grace-and-favour house on the estate. She has a teenage girl at sixth-form college and a younger boy who will attend the village school. The family have moved up north from the Midlands where Gillian was also a practice nurse.
‘I’m relieved that is sorted, but we still need someone to replace Glenn either full or part time. However, I suppose we can hang on for a while until the right person comes along,’ he said, as he made everywhere secure before they left.
James was aware that she was only half listening and asked, ‘Are you going to introduce me to your ex-husband, or will you both still be separate items?’
‘Yes and no,’ she told him. ‘Ben has gone back to London, but he intends to return. I don’t know where he’s going to stay, and neither do I know how he’s going to fill his time. But he told me that with regard to work, he’s a free agent, and he needs a break. He also said that he’s going to be there for the birth and afterwards.’
And how could she object? It was his child as much as hers. But it wouldn’t be like it had been with Jamie. They’d been a family, a happy threesome, wrapped around with love. This time it would be two separate families. Mother and child as one of them, and father with his child the other.
James was observing her sympathetically and she smiled sadly. ‘I’m sure you’ll meet him soon.’
What she’d said to James was still uppermost in her mind as Georgina took her evening stroll later that day. Her baby was going to know its father, as she didn’t doubt for a moment that Ben would be back. He’d made that crystal clear. It would be as an older, more sombre version of the husband she’d adored, but a loving father nevertheless.
As she’d told James, she didn’t know where he was going to stay. But it couldn’t be with her. They might be about to start a new family, but it didn’t mean she was going to accept that as a reason for pretending anything that wasn’t there.
When she turned to wend her homeward way in the quiet evening the silence was broken by a train en route for the city, travelling across the aqueduct high above the river. Once it had gone there was peace once more down below, and a fisherman engaged in one of the quietest of sporting activities cast his rod over the dancing water.
* * *
It was two days later. Georgina had done some shopping in the village on her way home—meat from the butcher’s, fresh bread and vegetables from the baker’s and greengrocer’s—and as was her custom, she went straight through to the kitchen to start preparing the food.
When she glanced through the window, her eyes widened. Ben was mending a gap in the fence between the two cottages, and as if conscious that he was being watched, he looked up and with hammer in hand gave a casual wave then carried on with what he was doing.
She drew back out of sight and hurried to the front of the house. Surely enough, the ‘To Let’ sign had been replaced on the cottage next door to one that said ‘Let by Robert Ingram’.
Ben had never been in the habit of doing things by halves, she thought as she leaned limply against the doorpost. It was one of the reasons why he was so successful in his career. But this time he’d excelled himself.
Not only had he come to live in her village, but he’d taken up residence almost on her doorstep. Obviously he wasn’t intending to miss anything that concerned his pregnant wife and the child she was carrying.
Maybe repairing the gap in the fence was an indication that though he’d sought her out he was going to stay on his own side of the fence, or perhaps on discovering that she was pregnant his interest had moved from mother
