‘In other words, she wasn’t expecting you?’
‘Not exactly, no.’
He held back a groan. Libby and Nathan were at their house on the island in the middle of the lake. Since their Christmas wedding the two doctors had gone there every weekend with Toby, Nathan’s adopted son.
The three of them loved the place, so he wasn’t going to break into their weekend solitude on behalf of this stranger who hadn’t bothered to tell them she was coming to join them. She would have to find somewhere to stay for the next two nights … as far away from him as possible!
‘I know where they are,’ he told her stiffly, ‘and they won’t be back until early Monday morning as they don’t like to cut short their weekends for any reason, which means that you are going to have to find somewhere to stay. They have a couple of rooms to let to bed and breakfast visitors at the pub, so I should try there. And now if you’ll excuse me …’
As he started to unload the boot it was clear that she wasn’t taking the hint. Instead she said, ‘It seems as if you know them well, but that’s what this place is like, isn’t it? Almost everyone is acquainted, or so Libby tells me.’
Hugo sighed. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk, but at least he could be polite and in answer to her first comment. He said, ‘Yes, I know Libby and Nathan very well. My name is Hugo Lawrence. I’m a GP too and work with them both at the practice.’
‘Oh, well, then, you might have heard them mention me,’ she said slowly. ‘I’m Ruby Hollister, shortly to join you all there as a trainee GP.’
Hugo looked her over once more and frowned. Surely this couldn’t possibly be the girl that Libby and Nathan had been so keen to have as part of the medical team at the surgery, who had got a first at one of the top medical colleges in the country.
There had been a few practice meetings of late about taking on another doctor as Libby was pregnant and intending doing fewer hours at the practice in the near future, prior to becoming a stay-at-home wife and mother to Toby and the baby, when it came.
Apparently Ruby Hollister had lived in the village with her parents until her teens and then they’d moved away, but like Libby she had always had leanings towards practising medicine amongst the lakes and fells.
‘Ah, now I understand,’ he said, gathering his wits fast. ‘I knew that you were about to join us, but was away all last week and wasn’t aware that it was to be so soon.’
She was leaning on the case. He could see weariness in the droop of her shoulders and knowing that he couldn’t just send her off to the pub to find accommodation now that he knew who she was, he pointed to the house and said reluctantly, ‘I think you had better come inside while we sort out where you are going to stay until Libby and Nathan come home from their weekend away.’
‘You’re very kind,’ she said meekly, and removing the case from her grasp he took charge of it with one hand, unlocked the door with the other, and ushered her into the sitting room where at his invitation she perched on the edge of a nearby sofa and looked around her listlessly.
Why she was so weary he had no idea, but he knew complete exhaustion when he saw it and he was seeing it now. Waving goodbye to his evening of joyful relaxation, he asked, ‘Which would you prefer, a brandy or a cup of hot, sweet tea?’
‘Tea would be lovely, thanks,’ she replied, fixing him with huge brown eyes, ‘and I could really go for a slice of toast if you have any bread in the house after being away.’
‘I think I could just about manage that,’ he said dryly, far from thrilled at the prospect of entertaining his newest colleague all evening.
But when he appeared with the tea and toast it was to find her asleep, huddled against the cushions still in the red cape, and with the high-heeled boots placed neatly on the carpet beside her.
He went upstairs and taking a blanket out of the linen cupboard on the landing covered her with it from head to toe, then went to make the meal he had promised himself, with an extra portion for his unexpected guest when she woke up. When he’d finished eating he went to sit across from her with a book.
Why had she arrived so unexpectedly like this? he wondered as he watched her sleeping soundly beneath the blanket. Obviously she had made some arrangement with Libby and not kept to it, because as head of the practice Libby would not have gone away for the weekend if she’d known that Ruby was arriving today.
The minutes ticked by and she still slept. As ten o’clock drew near Hugo thought there was still time to check if they had a room vacant for a couple of nights at The Mallard. He would willingly cover the cost if they had in order to retrieve the privacy that he’d been so looking forward to. But there was no way he could rouse this girl into wakefulness and bundle her out of his house into strange surroundings for the night.
As ten o’clock came and went he picked her up into his arms, carried her upstairs, and laid her gently on the top of his bed still wrapped in the blanket, with the thought uppermost that at least she would be safe there with him dozing downstairs and everywhere locked and bolted.
He awoke with a crick in his neck and a dry mouth in a pale winter dawn and his first thought was about the woman upstairs. Was she still sleeping or had he dreamt that she had descended upon him from out of nowhere and ruined his first night of peaceful living?
The clatter of dishes in the kitchen told him he hadn’t been dreaming and when he went to investigate she was brewing a pot of tea and making toast.
As he stood framed in the doorway she swung round to face him. ‘I am so sorry for being such a nuisance last night, Dr Lawrence. I’d had a really dreadful day and was foolish enough to take it for granted that Libby and Nathan would be here when I arrived.’
Slumping down onto a kitchen chair, she explained. ‘I’d given up the flat that I’d been renting while at college in readiness for moving to Swallowbrook and had been staying with a friend. Early yesterday morning I had a hospital appointment and had a long wait to see the consultant. As I was driving back to where I was staying my car broke down. Breakdown services had to come out to it and they towed it away, all of which was stressful enough, but that wasn’t all.
‘When I returned to the place where I was staying I discovered that my so-called friend had let someone else take my place in the flat and I had no choice but to gather my belongings together and face the fact that I was homeless.
‘The solution seemed to be to come straight here instead of in two weeks’ time as had been arranged, but having no car I had to seek out a train and had to wait hours for one to bring me to Swallowbrook, and by then I was wilting badly. I know it was crazy not to check that Libby and Nathan would be here, but in my semi-deranged state I took it for granted that they would be. So now you know why I was wandering about like a lost soul when I saw you pull up here.
‘So if you will bear with me for a little longer while I have a drink and a bite,’ she was saying, ‘I will look around for somewhere to stay for the rest of the weekend and leave you in peace in your beautiful house. How long have you lived here?’
‘Almost two years as a visitor and just the one week since it became legally mine. It was my sister’s house and I bought it off her when she went to live abroad.
‘I’m sorry that yesterday turned out to be so dreadful for you. I do hope that nothing connected with your hospital visit combined to make it even more traumatic.’ Before she could reply to that he went on, ‘With regard to your car being out of action we do have a spare vehicle at the surgery that you will be able to use until it has been repaired.’
With the feeling that he’d said enough in a conciliatory manner he poured himself a cup of tea, buttered a slice of toast, and as silence fell between them seated himself opposite.
How could he be so cool, calm and collected? wondered Ruby. It was clear that one of the most attractive men she’d met in years