THIRTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
Dalverston: December
SHE was sitting on a bench outside the church. The wind was bitter as it blew down from the surrounding hills, but she seemed oblivious to the icy conditions as she sat there, lost in thought. Archie Carew paused as he drew level with her. Even though he knew it was none of his business what she was doing there, he couldn’t just walk away.
It had been pure impulse that had made him decide to spend the night in Dalverston, a bustling little market town on the borders of Lancashire and Cumbria. It was a long drive back to London from his family home in Scotland at the best of times, but at this time of the year, when everyone was out doing their Christmas shopping, the journey had been horrendous. The thought of being cooped up in the car any longer had been more than he could bear so he had left the motorway and booked himself into a hotel. Once he had taken his case up to his room, he had decided to go for a walk and that’s when he had seen her.
Archie sighed as he studied the expression on her face. He knew how it felt to sink to that level of despair. The past eighteen months had been a nightmare, several times he’d wondered if he would get through them. He had buried himself in his job in the hope that it would blot out the pain, but it had been inevitable that he would have had to deal with it at some point.
That’s what he’d been doing for the past three weeks, sorting out the mess that had been left behind after his brother’s death. The situation was far worse than he’d imagined, too. It would need drastic measures to put things right. Archie knew that his whole life would have to change and it was hard to accept that fact. However, for the moment he was more concerned about the young woman than about himself.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked and saw the start she gave. It was obvious that she hadn’t noticed him and it merely reinforced his suspicions that something terrible had happened. Although he wasn’t sure if he should get involved, he sat down beside her.
‘Is there anything I can do? Sometimes it helps if you talk about a problem.’
She gave a broken little laugh. ‘I don’t think talking will help in this instance.’
‘Maybe not, but why not give it a shot?’ He shrugged when she looked at him. ‘You’ve nothing to lose, and I promise you that I’m a very good listener.’
‘You’re very kind, but I wouldn’t know where to start.’
‘The beginning is usually the best place,’ he said lightly, and she sighed.
‘That’s the whole point, though. Everything was fine in the beginning. I was so sure I was doing the right thing, and then last week, I started to wonder if I was making a mistake…’
She trailed off but Archie didn’t press her. He could tell that she was on the verge of tears so waited until she felt able to continue. After a few seconds had elapsed she carried on.
‘I’m supposed to be getting married tomorrow. Everything is all arranged. It has been for months—my dress, the cake, the service here at this church and the reception afterwards. There’s over a hundred guests coming and several of them are travelling some distance to get here, too.’
‘But now you’re having second thoughts?’ he suggested when once again she faltered.
‘Yes. I know it’s crazy. I mean, how on earth can I call off the wedding at this stage?’
‘I understand how difficult it must be,’ Archie said quietly. ‘But surely the question you should be asking yourself is how can you go ahead with it if you have any doubts.’
‘I know. And it’s something I’ve asked myself a dozen times, too, but it hasn’t helped. I just don’t know what to do for the best!’
Archie sighed when he saw her shoulders heave as she started to cry. Reaching over, he squeezed her hand. ‘A lot of people have last-minute jitters before they get married. That’s probably all this is, too. Why don’t you go and see your fiancé and talk it all through with him? I’m sure it would help.’
‘No.’ She ran a trembling hand over her face to wipe away her tears. ‘I need to decide for myself what I want to do. If I speak to Ross, I’ll only end up feeling guilty about letting him down.’
‘You aren’t letting anyone down,’ Archie said firmly. ‘You certainly can’t go ahead with the wedding just so you won’t upset him. You’d be letting yourself down then and that wouldn’t be right, would it?’
‘No, it wouldn’t.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Thank you. I needed someone to tell me that even though I already knew it deep down inside. I just wish I’d had the courage to listen to what my heart has been telling me before now.’
Archie didn’t say anything to that. If he listened to his heart then he wouldn’t be thinking about giving up the career he loved. All his life he had wanted only one thing and that had been to help sick children get better. Whereas most of his friends at med school had chosen their specialities towards the end of their studies, he had known from the outset what he’d wanted to do.
He had worked incredibly hard since he had qualified, too, but his efforts had paid off last year when he’d been appointed head of paediatric care at one of London’s top teaching hospitals. It was the job he had dreamed about and it was bitterly ironic that he was going to have to give it up now.
It was too painful to deal with that thought right then. He turned to the young woman again, wondering why it seemed so important that he should help her. Whatever decision she made would have little impact on his life, yet he desperately wanted her to make the right choice.
‘So what do you intend to do? If you don’t want to speak to your fiancé, is there anyone else you can talk to? A friend, perhaps, or your parents? What about your mother? Surely she could advise you?’
‘My mother’s dead. There’s just my dad now and he was thrilled about me and Ross getting married.’ She bit her lip and he could tell that tears were threatening again. ‘He’ll be so upset if I call off the wedding.’
‘You can’t let that influence you,’ Archie said decisively. ‘All right, so maybe it would have been better if you’d realised you were making a mistake before now, but it will be a whole lot worse if you go through with this wedding and regret it later.’
‘You’re right, of course you are. It will be much, much worse for everyone.’
She gave him a quick smile and Archie realised with a sudden jolt just how beautiful she was. With her soft brown hair curling around her heart-shaped face and those huge hazel eyes fringed by incredibly thick black lashes, she was truly gorgeous.
Quite frankly, the discovery was enough to stun any man into silence, but it was the fact that he had noticed how she looked that shocked him most of all. Since Stephanie had died in the same tragic accident that had claimed his brother’s life, he hadn’t looked at another woman, hadn’t
