was not to be put off. ‘The air here is like wine compared to the fumes in the city, and with some good food inside you it will help to complete your recovery. You’ve done so well, Laurel, and I’m so proud of you. Come to Willowmere and carry on with your nursing here. You are too good at it to give it up. A country practice is a much less stressful place than a large hospital…and I want to pamper you a little.’
Elaine was clearly looking forward to her coming to live in her beloved village and the thought of her waiting to welcome her with open arms had been too comforting to refuse. As well as that, her aunt made the best omelette she’d ever tasted and if there was one thing her appetite needed, it was to be tempted.
There was also the matter of the job at the practice. Laurel had eventually phoned the senior partner, and having explained that she was coming to live in Willowmere and was a hospital-trained nurse, he’d said that once she arrived he would be only too pleased to have a chat.
Returning to the present, Laurel thought that Elaine was going to be mad when she knew she’d come on an earlier train. She would have been there to meet her if she’d kept to the arrangements, but the opportunity had presented itself and she’d thought it better to get on a train that was there than wait for one that might not arrive.
‘Is she expecting you?’ David asked as he drove along a country lane where hedgerows bright with summer flowers allowed an occasional glimpse of fertile fields and their crops.
‘Yes and no,’ she told him. ‘Elaine knows I’m coming but not on the train I arrived on. I caught an earlier one.’
‘That explains it.’
‘Explains what?’
‘She won’t be at Glenside Lodge at this time. Elaine will be at the surgery. So shall I take you there instead?’
‘No!’ she said hurriedly. ‘She’s told me where to find the key. I’d like to go straight to her place if you don’t mind.’
‘Sure,’ he said easily. ‘Whatever you say.’
At that moment she slumped against him in the passenger seat and when David turned his head he saw that she’d fainted. Now it was his turn to groan. What had he let himself in for with this too thin, overly made-up girl in sheer tights and heels like stilts, wearing cotton gloves on a warm summer day…and with the appeal of a cardboard box.
He stopped the car and hurried round to where she was crumpled pale and still in the passenger seat. When he felt her pulse Laurel opened her eyes and sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said listlessly. ‘It’s just that I’m hungry and tired.’
‘And it made you faint?’ he questioned, but the main thing was she’d come out of it quickly and in a very short time they would be at Glenside Lodge.
‘So where is the key?’ he asked when they arrived at the end of a long drive that in the past the carriages of the gentry had trundled along.
‘Under the water butt at the back,’ she told him weakly, and he observed her anxiously.
The moment they were inside he was going to phone Elaine and get her over here as quickly as possible, he decided, and in the meantime he would keep a keen eye on this strange young woman who looked as if she’d stepped out of a back issue of one of the glossies.
When she got out of the car Laurel’s legs wobbled beneath her, and afraid that she might collapse onto the hard surface of the drive he put his arm around her shoulders to support her while they went to find the key and then opened the door with his free hand and almost carried her inside.
There was a sofa by the window and after placing her carefully onto its soft cushions he went into the kitchen to see what he could give her to eat and drink before he did anything else.
A glass of milk and a couple of biscuits had to suffice and while she was nibbling on them and drinking thirstily he phoned the surgery.
‘What?’ the practice manager exclaimed when he told her that her visitor had arrived and wasn’t feeling very well. ‘Laurel wasn’t due until later in the afternoon. I’ll be right there, David.’
With that she’d put the phone down and now he was waiting to be relieved of the responsibility that he’d brought upon himself by offering to help Elaine’s niece.
‘I’m not always like this, you know,’ she told him languidly as she drained the glass. ‘I’m known to be friendly and no trouble to anyone.’
‘You don’t have to explain,’ he told her dryly as the minutes ticked by. ‘I suggest that you see a doctor in case you’re sickening for something.’
She managed a grimace of a smile. ‘I’ve seen a doctor, quite a few of them over recent months, and lo and behold, now I’ve met another.’
Elaine’s car had just pulled up outside and she became silent, leaving him to wonder what she’d meant by that. Maybe she was already suffering from some health problem as she didn’t look very robust.
During the short time that he’d been part of the village practice David hadn’t known anything to disrupt the calm efficiency of its manager. A petite blue-eyed blonde in her late thirties, Elaine Ferguson had accountancy qualifications and controlled the administration side of it in a way that kept all functions working smoothly. But when she came dashing into the small stone lodge that had once been part of an estate high on the moors, Elaine was definitely flustered and the young woman he’d picked up at the station wasn’t helping things as on seeing her aunt she burst into tears.
‘Laurel, my dear,’ she cried. ‘Why didn’t you stick to the arrangements we’d made?’
‘I know I should have done,’ she wailed, ‘but it was so quiet in the apartment and I felt so awful. I just couldn’t wait any longer to be with you.’
David cleared his throat. Now that Elaine had arrived he wanted to be gone, but first he had to explain that her niece had fainted due to what she’d described as hunger and exhaustion and he was going to advise that she see a doctor at the surgery to be checked over.
‘I hope you will soon feel better,’ he said to the woebegone figure on the sofa who was sniffling into a handkerchief, unaware that her mascara had become black smudges around green eyes that looked so striking against her creamy skin and red-gold hair. The hair in question was quite short and shaggy looking and he presumed it must be the fashion back in London.
Elaine came to the door with him, still tense and troubled, but she didn’t forget to thank him for looking after her niece and it gave him the opportunity to say his piece.
She nodded when he’d finished. ‘I have quite a few concerns about Laurel and the first one is to get her settled here in Willowmere where I can give her some loving care. I’ve persuaded her to leave the big city for a while and come to where there is fresh air and good food.’
‘Your niece isn’t impressed with what she’s seen so far,’ he warned her whimsically. ‘A station with just two platforms and no porter to hand.’
‘So she didn’t notice the shrubs and the flowers that Walter tends so lovingly, but she will,’ she said with quiet confidence. ‘Laurel just needs time to get a fresh hold on life. I’m taking what’s left of today off and the rest of the
