With that bleak thought to end the day Julianne undressed and once beneath the covers tried not to think about what the future held. She was used to laughing a lot, playing a lot, should have been on the stage as most of it was acting a part. What sort of a performance was she going to have to put on working alongside Aaron Somerton?
When he’d disappeared into the unknown she’d never expected to see him again and part of her had been relieved, but for the rest there had been a yearning that had never gone away and now, unbelievably, he was back in her life, here in Swallowbrook!
Nathan had told him to take a couple of days to settle in before taking his place in the practice but Aaron felt the urge to be back practising medicine on his home soil, and when the staff began to arrive at the surgery he was amongst them, tall, tanned and white shirted, ready for the fray.
‘You didn’t have to come in today,’ Nathan told him, pleasantly surprised. ‘I did say take a couple of days to get settled in.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Aaron replied. ‘But I was settled as soon as I saw the lake and the rest of the village. I had no intention of ever coming back to this area until that day when you suggested I fill the vacancy, and now I’ve arrived I realise what I’ve been missing.’
‘Fine,’ his friend said. ‘Come along and I’ll introduce you to the staff. First the other doctors, our newlyweds Ruby and Hugo Lawrence, and then the three practice nurses. There’s Helena, who has been with us for ever and is the practice’s senior nurse. Then Gina, who is the mother of two young boys and works part-time to fit in with school hours. And then there is our bright morning star …
‘Oh! Not so bright this morning!’ he commented as Julianne came hurrying in through the main doors of the practice looking pale and heavy-eyed, her pallor deepening when she saw Aaron standing in Reception.
As she halted on seeing them, Nathan said laughingly, ‘I was just telling Aaron that you are our bright morning star, but you seem to have lost your shine today.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked. ‘I had a restless night, but I’ll be all right as soon as I’ve had a cup of tea.’ And with a grimace of a smile in Aaron’s direction she added, ‘Nice to meet you, Dr Somerton.’
‘And you too Nurse, er …?’ he replied.
‘Julianne Marshall.’ She waited with bated breath.
‘Nice to meet you, Julianne Marshall.’ And only by the flicker of an eyelid could she tell that he knew who she was.
‘If you will excuse me’ she said, ‘I need to get changed while you are being introduced to the rest of the staff.’
Julianne scurried to the nurses’ rooms, which were unoccupied at that moment.
‘Ugh!’ she groaned. ‘That was worse than taking castor oil! I’m sure he recognised me. My name isn’t one he would forget in a hurry!’
She quickly changed then headed for the kitchen. With ten minutes before the first appointment of the day, she found Aaron in there, chatting to Laura Armitage. So purposely took her drink to the far end of the room and chatted to one of the receptionists until Nathan announced that he was about to open up, and there was a general exodus.
Their glances met briefly as Aaron stepped back to let her and the other two nurses pass, and if she’d had any doubts before as to whether he recognised her or not, the set of his mouth held the answer, and she knew that life was not going to be easy in the days to come.
Hell’s bells! Aaron thought grimly as Nathan showed him his newly decorated consulting room. The dark-haired nurse was the deceitful bridesmaid who had witnessed his humiliation and been unaffected by it. What a horrendous homecoming! So much for the future being free of the past.
If he remembered rightly, at the time of the wedding that never was she’d been doing her nurse’s training then, and that was about all he’d known about her, until he’d seen her composed expression when his bride had gone like a bullet from a gun.
But it was all long ago, water under the bridge. He still smarted when he thought about it, but it only happened rarely now, and it shouldn’t be hard to give the ‘bright morning star’ a wide berth.
Yet Nathan’s next comment made that seem unlikely when he said, ‘I’m thinking of pairing us doctors each with a nurse in the general day-to-day running of the practice to give a more efficient and sympathetic approach to our patients, but will wait until you’ve had the chance to settle in amongst us.’
‘Yes, sure,’ he said agreeably, but if he was ‘paired’ with Julianne Marshall he would wish himself back in Africa.
When Aaron went across to the bakery at lunchtime for a sandwich, the man behind the counter asked, ‘Are you the new doctor?’
‘Yes, I am,’ he told him. ‘Is there something I can help you with?’
The baker was smiling. ‘Yes, you can tell Julianne, the girl who rents the apartment above the shop, that burning the midnight oil on weeknights is not a good idea for a young nurse who is on her feet all day. Maybe she’ll take some notice of you.’
Aaron very much doubted it, and told the baker, ‘Nurse Marshall and I have only just met. She may not welcome advice from a stranger.’ The memory of hair as dark as ravens’ wings swinging against bare shoulders in a shining swathe, and a red dress that had been the perfect foil for it, came to mind. He hadn’t known who she was then, but felt that she must have recognised him as she’d turned her back to him in the middle of the group on the pavement when she’d seen him approaching.
Autumn was dithering on the edge of winter and the practice was busy with the inevitable flu jabs and the onset of the demand for cold medications and the age-related illnesses that flared up with the approach of the festive season, and Aaron was soon in his stride without any further sightings of Julianne Marshall since their awkward meeting in the reception area that had been followed with the cosy tea and talk time in the surgery kitchen.
But he couldn’t skulk in his room all day, and why should he? On that dreadful day long ago he’d had nothing to blame himself for except maybe being too trusting, and he’d never trusted anyone completely since.
When he went into the corridor after notifying the nurses via email of certain tests he required to be done for his last patient, Julianne appeared with a printout in her hand of the instructions he’d just sent through, and as he observed her unsmilingly Aaron decided that her long legs in sheer grey tights had to be the same ones that he’d seen dashing up the back stairs in the bakery the day before.
Had she known who he was then? Him coming to join the practice would be general knowledge, so she would have been prepared, but to him she was someone totally unexpected who was going to be a constant reminder of a day that would haunt him for ever.
She was waiting to speak to him with dark eyes watchful and no smiles to be seen on the smooth lines of her face.
‘What is it?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Have you got a problem with what I’ve just asked one of you to do?’
‘No,’ she said with outward calm. ‘It is just that your patient is questioning the cortisone injection in the knee that you have given him without warning.’
‘Are you questioning my methods?’ he said coldly. ‘The man’s records show that he was booked in today for that very thing. I haven’t dreamt it up from somewhere. I did tell him what I was going to do, and now I’ve sent him to you for his flu and pneumonia injections at his request.’
‘Yes, so I see,’ she said meekly. ‘Obviously he must have misunderstood about the injection in his knee.’
‘That could be the case,’ he said flatly. ‘If you or he have any further doubts, I suggest you check his records for yourself.’ And without giving her the chance to comment further he went to discuss the