The sight of him brought Ruby to her feet. She was ready to leave immediately as if caught doing something he wouldn’t approve of. As she wished him a meek goodnight and tried to pass him in the crowded room Hugo said, ‘If you’re going back to the apartment I’ll walk along with you.’ When she was about to protest at being singled out in front of everyone, he added, ‘Please don’t object. It isn’t good that you should be out alone at such a late hour.’
She didn’t reply, just continued making her way towards the door, and as he followed he was remembering how flat his evening had been until now. After shunting Ruby out to the apartment above the garage he had expected his joy at his longed-for return to normality to clock in, but instead of that he hadn’t been able to settle.
And now, instead of livening himself up with a last drink of the day with friends and acquaintances, he was fussing once again over this young woman who probably thought nothing of being out all night on her own, let alone walking just the short distance to where she’d been accommodated for the night.
They walked the first few yards along the road in silence and then, ashamed of her irritation at his concern for her, Ruby said, ‘I walked by the lake this afternoon and it was so lovely to be back. Do you go down there much?’
It sounded trite, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say and he was actually smiling when he replied, ‘It is the lake that has made me want to stay in Swallowbrook instead of going back down south to practice. Did you remember the house on the island from when you once lived here?
‘That is where Libby, Nathan, and their son spend their weekends. Here in the village they have cottages next to each other and now they are married are having the two made into one big one for weekdays. Otherwise I suppose you could have stayed in the empty one.’
‘I’ll find somewhere, even if it means sleeping on a park bench or in an empty boat house,’ she assured him breezily as another reminder had come her way to the effect that where she was going to live was only his problem for a few more hours.
With Lakes Rise and the apartment only feet away, she said in a more restrained manner, ‘Thank you for your company once more Dr Lawrence. You are very kind. What will you do now? Go back to The Mallard for what is left of the evening?’
‘Possibly,’ he told her, keen to let her know subtly that he wasn’t always going to be at her beck and call.
CHAPTER TWO
Making his way back to the light and noise of The Mallard, Hugo was feeling uncomfortable about the way Ruby had risen to her feet and prepared to leave the moment he’d appeared, as if keen to avoid any further contact.
He’d noticed immediately that the red cape had been discarded for the time being and that dressed in dark blue jeans, a short white jacket and wearing flat walking shoes she looked smaller than when she’d been wobbling on high heels the day before.
She was attractive in a pale, ethereal sort of way, he’d decided as she’d been making her way through the crowded room towards the exit, and the thought had crossed his mind that the life of the GP was not always easy—would a person as vulnerable looking as Ruby be up to it?
With his determination still in place to stay aloof, he hadn’t lingered when they’d arrived back at the house and now that was also niggling at him. Ruby hadn’t put a foot wrong since interrupting the free time that he’d been so looking forward to, yet he was treating her as if she had the plague.
The thought of going back to have a drink with friends was losing its appeal so, turning, he retraced his steps and when Lakes Rise appeared once more he noted that the apartment was in darkness. After checking that it was secure from all angles, he opened his own front door and went inside.
Lying wide awake up above, Ruby had heard him try the door and thought that with any other man she might have wondered as to his motive, but not Hugo Lawrence. He wouldn’t have any plans to join her, like some predatory types might think of doing.
The dishy doctor would be satisfying himself that she wasn’t intending seeking him out again before morning, as he’d made it clear that in spite of looking after the basics of her wellbeing he wanted his privacy back as soon as possible.
Perhaps at some time in the future when she’d got to know him better, and that would have to happen no matter what, with them both working at the practice, she would suggest that The Hermitage would be a better name than Lakes Rise for his beautiful house and see if Hugo thought that as hilarious as she did.
But there were other things on her mind, much more important than her reluctant host. During the trauma of yesterday and her subsequent extreme weariness she’d put to the back of her mind what the haematology department had said during her check-up at the hospital in the town where she’d been based all the time she’d been studying for her degree.
It had been nothing new, she’d had the same discussion with similar departments of the NHS that were geared to her potential problem and nothing had happened to make her change her decision.
But it was still nonetheless heartbreaking because she had to face up to it and accept it for the rest of her life. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t. But one day the test would come and what would she do then?
Putting aside memories of the punishing past, she reminded herself that tomorrow she would be starting an exciting new life as a doctor in the Swallowbrook Farm Medical Practice, something she had promised herself she was going to do long ago, and maybe the pains and hurts of that other time would seem less if she could make her mark in the medical centre that had served her family so well in their time of need, and with that thought the painful memories came crowding back.
Robbie had been just a toddler and she’d been fourteen when the nightmare had begun and changed their lives for ever. The family had been on the point of leaving Swallowbrook to move to Tyneside, where her father’s job was taking them, when Robbie had had his first bleed and it had been action stations on Dr John Gallagher’s part without a moment to spare when it had happened. She’d crouched in fear and trembling by his hospital bed, wondering what it was all about, while her frantic parents had tried to cope with the mention of haemophilia, the hereditary bleeding disease, being present in the family.
Their move had been imminent yet she hadn’t wanted to move away from Swallowbrook, she’d felt safe there, but the arrangements had still had to go ahead or her father might have lost his job, so even while they had been waiting for the results from Robbie’s tests they had left the village with arrangements in place that the findings would be transferred to the haematology department at a hospital near their new home.
The results had been positive. The lack of a clotting agent in Robbie’s blood had caused the serious bleed. He had inherited the problem from their mother who unknown to her was a carrier of the faulty gene that caused the condition.
The hospital had explained that hereditary illnesses had to start somewhere and the reason their mother hadn’t known about it was because she was the first one in her family who had ever been a known carrier of the haemophilia gene.
Now Robbie was twelve, and medically much better cared for, due to new treatments, than past sufferers, but the anxiety was always there for his parents and big sister, who had been left with anxieties of her own to cope with.
She fell asleep at last, too tired to think anymore about the ups and downs in her life, and awoke the next morning to a room filled with pale sunshine and the sound of the engines of one of the large launches that crossed the lake at regular intervals chugging its way across its smooth surface.
It has arrived, she thought excitedly, hugging herself with delight. She was back in her dream village, about to start her dream job.
Hugo’s thoughts were running along very different lines when he surfaced in the big bedroom that he’d carried Ruby up to the night before last. Thoughts of her consumed him now, how could they not whilst she was his temporary tenant and soon-to-be colleague?