the towel and again he had to concentrate really hard not to look.
‘You don’t say?’
Patrick stepped away. ‘Well, I’ll leave you two to it. Olly, I’ll walk back home—it’s not far. You go on with Lula and I’ll see you both in the morning.’
He shook Lula’s hand and then waved goodbye and stepped out, leaving Olly and Lula alone.
Olly felt uncomfortable. There were no women like Lula in Atlee Wold. Vivid and bright and crazy and …
And what?
‘So, Moonrose Cottage, eh?’ He stared at her hair. So many colours … like a rainbow.
‘Yeah … Strange name, I thought.’
‘It’s after the Blue Moon roses my gran planted when she was a little girl. They’re all around it and they won prizes in the village show. If you’re still here in summer you’ll see them in bloom. They’re quite beautiful.’
She smiled. ‘I’m sure they are.’
‘So, shall I give you a hand to pack all this bling away?’ He pointed at the box full of coin-edged skirts and multicoloured scarves she’d given to his patients.
Lula laughed. ‘Thanks. It is a lot of bling. The hall warden said I could store it below the stage.’
‘Okay.’
He helped her lift a large bag through the stage door opening. They were about to leave when Lula pointed out a couple of boxes covered by thick blankets.
‘Could you help me take those out? They’re mine. I couldn’t leave them in the car.’
Olly nodded and hefted the two boxes one on top of the other, hearing metal clank inside. Then they left the village hall, pulling the door closed after switching off the lights.
Outside, the snow was lit by the fairy lights, so it blinked softly in reds and blues, yellows and greens. It was really quite pretty, and had the effect of making Lula look even more multicoloured than she had been before. Like a peacock.
Definitely a magical fairy.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
He blinked. ‘Sorry?’
‘You were staring. At me.’ She grinned.
Olly licked his lips, thinking quickly. ‘Ah, right … yes. Erm … I was just wondering where you’d parked your car? I don’t see one.’
She pointed, her hand seeming to twinkle in the lights as they reflected off her rings and bangles. ‘I parked down the road. I wanted the patients to be able to park close.’
‘That’s kind.’
She accepted the compliment. ‘Thank you. I try to be. So …?’
‘So …?’
‘Will you drive in front? Show me where the cottage is?’
Of course! Idiot! Stupid!
‘Sure. But let’s make sure your car starts first.’
‘Oh, she always does.’
‘She?’
‘Betsy.’
‘Your car is called Betsy?’
‘Betsy the Bug.’ She stopped in front of a red car with large black polka dots on it, like a ladybird.
Once again Olly was left standing mute and blinking. After a moment he managed, ‘Cute.’
‘I think so. Here—why don’t you put that large one in the front? This small one can go in the boot.’
Her engine rumbled into life straight away and he pointed out his four-wheel drive, further up the road. Lula said that she’d wait for him and he walked back up to his car, his boots crunching in the snow, muttering to himself.
‘Dad, I’m going to kill you … What on earth have you done?’
As a choice of locum she was a tad … out there. Not the sort of locum he’d expected his father to hire. There had to have been plenty of other doctors he might have chosen from. Sensible, sedate people. The type to blend in with village life.
Not this firecracker …
His four-wheel drive started first time and he indicated to pull out, noticing her following him through the high street. He took a left and kept looking in his rearview mirror to make sure she was still there. Still following.
He thought of his ‘perfect wife’ list.
She didn’t match any of the items on it.
But he felt mysteriously intrigued by her.
Bewitching. That’s what she is.
Lula followed Olly through the village roads, realizing she’d made a big mistake. When she’d come for her interview with Patrick, she’d known she was getting involved with a father-and-son team and that had seemed fine. But Patrick was a silver-haired fox, with sparkling, kind eyes, and she should have just known that the son was going to be drop-dead gorgeous. However, she hadn’t worried too much about it. She’d concentrated much more on her other reason for coming to Atlee Wold and assumed that Patrick’s son would be just another person to work with.
But when he’d walked into that village hall … It had been as if a film star had walked in. She’d half expected to see paparazzi following him in. Gorgeous and sexy, yet a down-to-earth guy. She’d tried to ignore him so that she could carry on with her class. She’d even stumbled over her steps. But thankfully no one had seemed to notice.
And now she was following him. Through the snowy streets. In Betsy. Following his old jalopy.
Olly had pulled up outside a small thatched cottage surrounded by tall briar wood. It looked pretty, and she could only imagine how gorgeous it might look in the summertime, with its white walls and blue roses, butterflies and bees flitting about the place. There was an arched trellis over the front door, with what looked like an ancient Russian vine growing over it.
It really wasn’t that far from the GP surgery, or the village hall, and she hoped that tomorrow she could try walking in to work. She had a pair of wellies somewhere in one of the boxes she already had in the car. A small removals lorry would drop off her other stuff tomorrow.
He stood back so she could make fresh tracks in the snow to the front door, and then he passed her a key.
Smiling, she took it and tried to reassure him. ‘Don’t worry—I’ll look after the place.’
‘I’m sure you will. Shall we get the lights on, the fire burning and then get your boxes in?’
Lula nodded. ‘Sounds great.’ Though it might be a bit awkward, the
