The Village Nurse's Happy-Ever-After (13 page)

 

When she arrived at a smart semi-detached house on a busy road in Manchester, where Katie and Rob had taken up residence to be near his father in care just a short distance away, Marcus was asleep, as he had been for most of the journey.

It was almost midnight and Katie came rushing out
when she heard the car pull up outside. ‘Phoebe, you look exhausted,' she said anxiously. ‘You go in and I'll bring Marcus.'

She nodded and told her wearily, ‘He's been bathed, fed and is in his pyjamas, so you can pop him straight into bed, Katie, if you would.'

‘Yes,' she agreed. ‘Rob is making hot drinks and we've got Eccles cakes for a night-time snack, so come on in.'

‘What are those?' she asked with a wan smile, ‘A local treat?'

‘You guess right,' Rob called from the kitchen as they walked down the hallway. ‘They're all curranty and puff-pastryish, and the place they're named after is just down the road.'

‘Sounds lovely', she said gratefully, thankful for these two caring people who were always there for her in times of need, and wondered what Harry was doing at that moment and where he was.

The inquest was in two days' time and if he'd asked her, she would have gone with him for moral support. But there had been no such request and she'd got the message, just as she had when he'd told her to back off.

Phoebe wept long and silently that first night in Katie and Rob's house. She loved them both. They were kindness itself, but the feeling that she didn't belong anywhere was threatening her resolve to make a fresh life for herself, and it was the dawn of another spring day before she drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke, the cot that Katie had found for
Marcus was empty, and as she pulled herself up against the pillows it all came back. The long journey, the dreadful playacting of her last day among people she liked and respected, and Harry far away in a foreign land with no inkling of what awaited him on his return to the village. It was a nightmare that she would never want to repeat.

But they were safe with Katie and Rob for the time being. It would be almost a week before Harry returned to Bluebell Cove and by that time she hoped to be feeling calmer. He wouldn't know where she was and when he'd read her letter he probably wouldn't want to.

When she went downstairs Katie was giving Marcus his breakfast.

Rob had gone to work and her sister said, ‘I advise complete rest for a few days, Phoebe. I'll look after Marcus. Don't even think of finding somewhere to live or looking for a job. You've got to think of your baby. Things can so easily go wrong in these early months and you don't want to lose it, do you?'

‘No, I don't,' she said bleakly. ‘Whatever the future holds, I would never want that to happen, so I'll follow your advice.'

‘I hope this guy realises what he's missing out on,' was Katie's reply to that.

 

When Harry's plane touched down in Australia, he was surprised to see his lawyer among those waiting to greet arrivals from the UK. As they shook hands he asked, ‘To what do I owe this honour, Jonas?'

‘To me feeling that you might need some moral
support at the inquest, Harry,' was the reply. ‘They can be depressing occasions, so let's go and find somewhere to eat and then I'll drive you to the hotel that I've booked you into.'

When they were seated in a restaurant on the concourse, the sun-bronzed, smart-suited lawyer, who looked more like a playboy than a lawyer, said, ‘So how's it going in the UK? Have you settled back into your familiar surroundings?'

‘Yes and no,' he replied. ‘It's great to be home, or at least it would be if
all
my previous memories of it were good.' Harry debated with himself how much more to say then decided to open his heart—Jonas was a friend as well as his lawyer, and he desperately wanted to talk about Phoebe anyway. ‘I've been dragging my feet with this wonderful woman I've fallen in love with.'

‘In what way?'

‘She has a child from a previous marriage, but in spite of that is very much drawn to family life, which I'm not—or haven't been, I should say. But I adore Phoebe and her little one, and I'm going to do something about it when I get back.'

‘Good for you. Will I get an invite to the wedding?'

‘Yes, if it materialises,' he promised, and could feel his palms getting moist and his shirt collar too tight at the thought of what he would do if Phoebe didn't want him, even though he would have deserved it.

 

The verdict at the inquest had been one of accidental death and Harry had breathed a sigh of relief when it
had ended. He'd flown straight home afterwards, two days early due to the brevity of the proceedings, and also because he couldn't wait to get back to Bluebell Cove. Now he could go forward into the new life that he was planning, with Phoebe and Marcus to show him what real love and caring was all about.

A taxi dropped him off outside the surgery buildings in the quietness of a Sunday morning. He ran up the stairs to the apartments two at a time, noticing as he did so that the gate hadn't been fixed in place. That was strange, but not so strange that he was prepared for Leo opening the door of Phoebe's apartment dressed only in boxer shorts.

‘What are
you
doing here?' he asked with ominous calm, and his second-in-command stared at him.

‘I've taken over from Phoebe. She's gone to live elsewhere, so I'm renting the place with Janet's permission. You remember I asked about one of these if there was ever a vacancy? As it turned out, Phoebe decided to up sticks before you did. Come on in, I've just brewed up. Do you want a cuppa?'

‘No, thanks,' he said as he tried to take in what he'd just been told.

He was to blame for Phoebe leaving the village, he thought numbly. Now that he'd got his priorities sorted out and rushed home to her, she wasn't here.

‘I'm assuming that you have a forwarding address for her,' he said levelly.

‘No, I haven't, as a matter of fact,' Leo replied. ‘She was reluctant to tell me where she was going and I don't
think she gave Janet one either. In any case our practice manager is away for the weekend. I imagine that Phoebe has gone to her sister's, but it's only a guess.'

‘And do you know where her sister lives?'

‘I have a rough idea. She's moved to Manchester since Phoebe came to live here. As you know, that's where I come from and she knew that. One day when we were chatting she said what part of Manchester her sister lived in, and surprisingly it was the same area where I was brought up.'

‘Do you know their name?' he asked, still with that false calm on him.

‘'Fraid not, but what I do know is that they went to be near his father, who is in a care home just a few doors away from them. My mother was in there for a short time before my sister took her to live abroad with her. And Harry, if you don't mind, I'd like to put some clothes on now.'

‘Yes, of course,' he said apologetically. ‘If you'll write down the directions to get to this place, I'll be off immediately,'

‘Yes, sure,' he agreed, ‘though what's the rush?'

‘Can't stop now—tell you later,' he said as Leo scribbled down the name and address of the nursing home. ‘I don't see me being back in time for tomorrow's surgeries. Can I impose on you for one more day, Leo?'

‘Yes, of course,' he said easily. ‘You have no idea how many times Ethan filled in for me last year when my mother was ill and I had to keep going back to Manchester to look after her.'

 

It was early evening and Harry had found the road where Katie and Rob lived quite easily due to Leo's mention of the nursing home. The fact that Phoebe's car was parked outside a house a couple of doors away from it also helped.

The curtains were drawn upstairs so it would seem that Marcus was sleeping up there, but of the woman he'd come to see there was no sign. Though he was longing to talk to her, he decided to restrain himself until morning and went and booked himself into a nearby hotel for the night.

Now that he knew where she was, he was calming down. To discover Phoebe had packed up and left during his short absence had wiped every other thought from his mind. He'd intended sweeping her off her feet when she opened the door to him and asking her to marry him on the spot.

Instead, he'd been confronted by a bewildered Leo, and didn't want to contemplate what he would have done if the amiable man hadn't come up with a suggestion that had helped him to find her.

He was appalled that he could have upset her so much that she'd left Bluebell Cove without a word,
and
planned the move for a time when he wasn't around. He prayed that, come morning, she would have some answers for him, if only he could get to speak to her. His only consolation so far was that her car was still outside the house.

 

It was half past nine next morning when he arrived back at the road where Phoebe's sister lived. He'd parked his
car down a side street with the feeling that if Phoebe saw the red sports car, she would be forewarned of his presence and might refuse to see him.

He would have been round there at first light, so desperate was he to speak to her, but this wasn't like knocking on the door of her apartment. It was her sister's home where he was going to be intruding.

As he was approaching the house, he stepped back out of sight. Someone who had to be Katie had come out of the house with Marcus in his buggy and set off in the opposite direction.

He breathed a sigh of relief. That left just Rob, Phoebe's brother-in-law, to get past, and with a bit of luck he would have gone to wherever he was employed.

 

The trauma of leaving Bluebell Cove and the long drive to Manchester was still there, Phoebe thought, but the rest that she'd promised Katie she would have was bringing some of her strength back, though not her sense of purpose. She felt as if she'd lost that somewhere along the way.

Her sister had taken Marcus to the park and Rob was away on business for a few days, so she had the house to herself as she came downstairs from the shower, intending to do something with her hair, which had been fastened back with a rubber band ever since she'd arrived.

She'd just had a bout of morning sickness and was feeling anything but lively when the doorbell rang, and still wearing a robe and slippers she went to answer it.

When she opened the door and saw Harry standing
there, she clutched the robe more tightly around her with one hand and held onto the door post with the other.

‘Hello, Phoebe,' he said gently. ‘Will you marry me?'

She shook her head. ‘No.'

‘Why not?' he asked with the gentleness still there.

‘You know why not!' she cried as the shock waves that had hit her on seeing him began to recede. ‘I've explained in the letter that I don't want you marrying me out of kindness or duty.'

‘Do you think I might step inside for a moment?'

‘Yes, of course.' She led him into the sitting room.

Still keeping his calm, he asked, ‘And what letter might that be?'

‘The one I asked Janet to give you.'

‘I see. I got back from Australia yesterday morning, made the disturbing discovery that Leo was living in your apartment, and learned from him that you might have gone to your sister's. He remembered a conversation he'd had with you about where she lived, and that is how I come to be here.'

‘So you don't know?' she breathed. ‘You haven't asked me to marry you because of what was in the letter?'

‘No, whatever it might be.' He brushed it to one side. ‘I've loved you from the moment of our second meeting. If you remember, the first one on the night of my arrival in Bluebell Cove was rather odd! But, getting back to why I'm here, I've hesitated to tell you how much I love you because for a long time my unhappy childhood cast a shadow over the thought of a family of my own. It has
taken you, a single mother, to show me how wrong I've been, and I want to take care of you and Marcus for the rest of my life…if you'll let me.'

‘You crazy man,' she said softly. ‘You made me unhappy by trying to
avoid
making me unhappy! I adore you, but I left the village because I thought you didn't want me. And there was another reason as well…'

‘And what's that?' he asked gently, drawing her into his arms, complete with rubber band.

‘I'm pregnant, Harry. That's why I said no when you asked me to marry you. It was what I'd been dreading—that you might offer to marry me because I'm pregnant, and for no other reason. And at the back of my mind was always my ex-husband Darren's response when I told him I was pregnant with Marcus. He wanted me to get an abortion, which is why we got divorced, and I just couldn't bear to think of what I'd do if you weren't interested in being a father. I didn't know you hadn't read my letter and that you were asking me because you really do love me.'

He had become very still, had neither moved or spoken while she'd been explaining. Easing herself out of his arms, she looked up at him questioningly.

‘Say something, please,' she begged.

‘How about wonderful, marvellous, you amazing woman?' he cried joyfully. ‘Not only do you love me but you are going to give me children, and not just one but two, because I love Marcus as if he was my own. I'm so sorry to hear the reasons why your first marriage broke up, but reassure yourself that you've just made
me the happiest man in the world! Can I propose to you again?'

‘Yes, please do.'

‘Will you marry me, Phoebe?'

‘Yes, Harry,' she said softly. ‘I would love to be your wife.'

‘So can I take you back with me to where you belong?'

‘Yes, but remember I have nowhere to live. Can I share your apartment?'