The strong lines of his face were set like granite as he turned and went out to the car without any further comment and when he came back inside she said, ‘Breakfast will be ready at eight o’clock and if you still intend taking the children to school, they have to be there for quarter to nine.’
‘Of course I’m going to take them,’ he said levelly. ‘I’ve never let them down!’ Like I have you, the voice of conscience said.
Gabriel couldn’t sleep. Twice he padded quietly to where the children were sleeping and gazed down on them tenderly, but the door of the master bedroom across the landing remained firmly shut. He had made everything worse between Laura and himself by not telling her what was in his mind. But first he had to speak to his friend James Lockyer, chairman of the board of governors at the hospital where he’d worked.
Jenny kept phoning to say how much they were all looking forward to his return, but she had no say in the matter, neither had those who had worked alongside him, and nor had he. So he wanted to get from James the full picture of what came next to put in front of Laura when he returned to the house where he’d felt like a visitor.
It had been at his suggestion that he’d slept in the spare room, not hers. Had she wanted him back in her bed?
But, no, how could she? Only hours before she’d asked him for a divorce. He’d been totally stunned at her request and was praying that it had been a spur-of-the-moment thing that she would change her mind about.
Breakfast was a stilted affair with only the children’s chatter to liven it up and when the three of them were ready for the short walk to the village school Laura told him, ‘I’ll be ready to go to the practice soon. What time do you intend leaving?’
‘As soon as I’ve seen the children safely inside I’ll be back for the car. I need to be in London before three o’clock.’
‘I’ll hang on, then, so that I can lock up once you’ve gone,’ she told him
‘Whatever,’ he agreed absently as his glance took in the vision she presented in a smart navy suit and white blouse with matching navy footwear, and the fair swathe of her hair swept back into a neat coil. She was so fantastic, he thought achingly. How could he have been so careless with the love they’d had for each other?
The children were tugging at him, with Sophie anxious to show off her father to her friends, and dressed in their neat school uniforms of gold and green and each carrying a small satchel they placed themselves one on either side of him and the trio disappeared in the direction of the village school.
When Gabriel came striding back half an hour later she was standing at the gate, waiting for him, and it felt like a dream. She’d imagined this moment so often, him walking towards her in sunshine, back where he belonged, and now that the time had come it was like groping through fog.
‘Have you got everything?’ she asked weakly as the shock waves of his nearness washed over her.
He nodded, and after locking up she waited to see what he would do next. Would he just drive off with a brief goodbye after her announcement of the previous night, she wondered, or give her a formal peck on the cheek?
As he bent towards her it seemed as if that was what it was going to be, but not so. His arms reached out to encircle her, his mouth was on hers and he kissed her long and lingeringly before letting her go, then without a word having passed between them he got into the car and drove off in the direction of the motorway that ran past the village.
She put her hand to her mouth. It was the first time he had touched her in any shape or form since that awful day, and she thought despairingly that she’d had to mention divorce for him to show any signs of still wanting her.
Yet he had gone for reasons best known to himself without any mention of when he would see her again. How was she supposed to feel? For now she chose to put her hurt and anger to one side and she set off for another day at the Swallowbrook Medical Practice.
On arriving, she went straight to her office on the lower ground floor and so didn’t see Nathan arrive dumbstruck after taking Toby to school.
‘I’ve 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