just seen some guy seeing Laura’s children into school,’ he told Libby. ‘It would seem that the missing father has turned up!’
‘Really!’ she exclaimed. ‘What was he like?’
‘That’s just it!’ he told her with amazement unabated. ‘What are they called?’
‘Er, Sophie and Joshua?’
‘No! I mean their surname. It’s Armitage, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. Why?’
‘It was Gabriel Armitage, the cancer specialist, with Sophie and Josh. I’ve seen his face often enough in medical journals to recognise him. I had no idea that they were connected.’
With her amazement on a level with his she said, ‘I recall he hit the headlines a few months back but can’t remember what it was about, but it’s good to know that Laura has a husband in her life to help her with the children, and cherish her like you do me,’ she said softly, with the memory of long years of loving the man by her side without any signs from him, until one wonderful day he had returned to Swallowbrook and swept her off her feet.
‘I don’t think we should say anything to Laura,’ she advised. ‘Let her tell us about the man in her life in her own time.’
‘Sure,’ Nathan agreed, with his mind already switched on to the busy day ahead.
As Gabriel approached the hospital that he hadn’t seen for many long months, James Lockyer, head of the board of governors, was pacing the boardroom. He was one of the oncologist’s closest friends and had been devastated when Gabriel had been sent to prison for the last thing he would have expected him to be guilty of, but he had known the number of hours his friend had put in on the cancer unit with dedicated zeal and it would seem that he’d finally cracked.
When he’d phoned to ask to see him that afternoon James had thought that the hour of reckoning was going to come for Gabriel a second time, but from a different source—the hospital—which meant that his career could be in jeopardy, even though what had happened on that never-to-be-forgotten day had only been connected with his work from a stress point of view.
During all the time Gabriel had been head of oncology there had never been even a second when his expertise and judgement had been questioned, and now because of a split second of anger James was going to have to set the wheels turning that would bring his friend before the hospital board, who would decide whether he should be allowed to continue practising there.
The incident with his next-door neighbour would most likely have passed without notice if the other guy hadn’t cracked his head on the fireplace with disastrous results as he’d fallen backwards, and from that had come the court’s decision to award a prison sentence.
As the two men shook hands James was aware of the change in his friend. Gabriel had always been a man with a strong sense of purpose. Being shut away hadn’t altered that, but there was a grimness about him that had never been there before and as they discussed his future the reason for it became apparent.
‘You know that we want you back here as soon as possible, don’t you Gabriel?’ James said, ‘But the wheels of hospital protocol turn slowly and I will have to instigate the usual procedures with regard to the hierarchy coming up with a decision as to whether you should be allowed to continue working here.
‘I know how much your work means to you and will move heaven and earth to get you back with us, but I will be only one voice amongst others when the meeting takes place.’
‘I understand all of that,’ Gabriel told him, ‘and will face the music when summoned, but, James, whatever the result it won’t make all that much difference to my future plans. I’m giving up medicine and moving to the countryside to be with Laura and the children.
‘While I’ve been away she has moved to a charming lakeside village and I intend to move there to be with my family. It was my neglect of her, due to the job, that started it all, and there is not going to be any more of that. Let me know when the “firing squad” wants me up before them and I will be there, otherwise I shall be involved in rural life.’
‘I can’t believe what you’re saying!’ James exclaimed. ‘You are the best we’ve ever had and we won’t be able to exist without your work.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ he told him, ‘but one thing I do know. I can’t exist without Laura … and she’s just told me that she wants a divorce.’
‘Ah, now I understand.’ James nodded sombrely. ‘But do let the wheels turn with regard to you being allowed to return to medicine one day. You might change your mind at some time in the future when you’ve put things right with her.’
‘I doubt that will happen. It could be the same thing all over again if I do.’ Gabriel rose from his chair. ‘I’ll leave you my phone number so that you can get in touch when I’m needed to face the board. And, James, it’s been great to see you.
‘I’m going to have a quick word with my team before I go. Jenny, my secretary, and no doubt the rest of them think I’m going to be able to take up where I left off here just like that, so I owe it to them to explain and say goodbye.’
‘Yes,’ James agreed, ‘but it will be a sad day for this place.’
‘No one is indispensable. There will be others to come with the same skills as mine. For all I know, they might have already appeared,’ he told him, and went to carry out the next painful thing that he had to do, say hello and goodbye to those he’d worked with.
When he arrived back at the town house in the smart London square Gabriel sat staring into space. If someone had told him a year ago that he would calmly give up practising medicine with no other kind of job prospects in view, he would have laughed in their face.
But the fact of it was that he’d had to make a choice, his career or his family, in particular his wife, and he knew that he could just about exist without the one, but not without the other.
He was going to phone Laura, as he’d promised, but later when the children were in bed and when she knew what he’d said to James, maybe she would change her mind about wanting a divorce.
The children were asleep and the house was still around her as Laura thought about the day that had started with Gabriel actually being around to take the children to school, then going back to London as swiftly as he had come.
He was always happiest there for the very good reason that it was where the hospital was, the huge, redbrick magnet that could always attract him away from her and the children and would soon be casting its spell over him again if he was allowed to continue practising there after what had happened.
Where was Gabriel now, she wondered, celebrating his freedom somewhere with James, or in a bar with the members of his team? She wouldn’t blame him for doing either of those things. He’d been shut away from reality and needed to get back to it.
Though wasn’t his idea of reality to see a patient cured, or at the least provide more time for them to enjoy what quality of life he was able to give them?
When the phone rang she was there in an instant, heart beating faster, nerves stretching, but it was Nathan’s voice coming over the line to say that the doctors would like to get together with her to discuss some refurbishment of the surgery premises and would she arrange a meeting
