Swallowbrook's Winter Bride (13 page)

The manager of the hotel was approaching with the necessary equipment that he would need and minutes later he was gone in the company of the two mountain rescue team members with a long backward look in her direction.

CHAPTER TEN

W
HEN
the three of them had opened the door to go out into the night the wind had been howling even more and, crouched by the fire in the lounge, Libby prayed that it would stop.

Over the years high gusts had been known to blow the unsuspecting off ledges to almost certain death in rock-strewn gullies below, and she thought there would be parents somewhere, frantic to think that their young ones had been caught out by the weather and their own inexperience.

Or it might be that the folks in question didn’t yet know that there was a problem and had that frightening moment yet to come.

A hush had fallen over the room with their departure and as she stared blindly into space all she could think of was how the evening that had been so empty and unsatisfying had become a time of praying for the safe return of the victims and their rescuers.

Supposing Nathan didn’t come back, she kept thinking, and she’d never told him how much she really did love him? The future would be a black hole if she never saw him again.

The hotel staff were keeping her supplied with hot drinks and as the hours crept by, as if in answer to her prayers, the wind was lessening and the snow that had threatened earlier hadn’t yet fallen, but it didn’t give any indication to those waiting below what it might be like higher up.

They had no way of knowing what was happening until the door burst open and the two mountain rescue men appeared, carrying a lightweight stretcher with a teenage girl on it wrapped in blankets.

They were followed by a youth of a similar age who was also draped in a blanket, and Nathan was bringing up the rear.

When she saw him Libby’s heart leapt with thankfulness. He held out his arms. She ran into the safe circle of them like a homing bird and as he looked down at her their love for each other was there, strong and sure.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked in a low voice.

‘I am now,’ she told him joyfully as her life righted itself, ‘but I wasn’t before. I kept thinking what it would be like if we never saw each other again after wasting so much time.’

‘Me too,’ he said sombrely. ‘As I took one long look at you before I walked out of the door with those two guys, I was thinking that it might be my last, that I might never see you again. We have so much catching up to do, my darling.’

‘And all the time in the world to do it,’ she said softly, then back in doctor mode asked, ‘What about the poor girl, Nathan? Is she injured or too cold to walk?’

‘She’d fallen up there, hurt her leg badly, almost certainly has a fracture, so couldn’t walk back down the fell side. She’s also suffering from hypothermia due to not being able to move around in the cold, and needs her body heat brought back up in front of the fire, but not too near as it has to be a gradual thing to prevent shock.’

‘And the young guy, what about him? He looks dreadful.’

‘Yes, I know. He is totally traumatised by what has happened, thought they were going to die as their mobiles couldn’t get a signal up there—it’s totally impossible to do so. I’m going to give him something to calm him down. My bag is on the back seat of the car and I’ve got a relaxant in it that should do the trick. The guys from Mountain Rescue have phoned for an ambulance and as the weather has improved it should soon be here.’

She had been examining the girl’s leg with gentle fingers and when he said, ‘So was I right?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, I would say a fracture of the tibia.’

He’d given the other teenager the relaxant and the youth was in a less traumatised state by the time the ambulance came. As it was about to set off with the two of them on board the boy’s father phoned, having only just heard about the day’s happenings, and promised that both he and his mother would be waiting for them in A and E when they got there, which helped to complete the calming-down process.

By the time that Nathan had changed back into his suit and the three men and Libby had eaten the cooked breakfast that the hotel had provided, the night was almost gone. Soon it would be time to return to their homes, back to reality, work, school, and who knew what lay ahead of them now?

When they arrived back at her cottage he said jubilantly, ‘Alone at last! I have things to say to you, Libby, that should have been said long ago. Come and sit beside me while I tell you all that is in my heart.

‘I asked you to marry me once for the wrong reasons, didn’t I?’ he said soberly when she’d done as he asked. ‘I was totally distraught knowing that Toby had been poisoned by the belladonna plant, and also because you were there like a rock to hold onto.

‘I’m going to ask you again to be my wife, but there are things you need to know before I do that. When you told me that you loved me that day at the airport I realised that for the first time I was seeing you how you really were, beautiful, desirable and uncomplicated, but the timing was all wrong.

‘When I kissed you goodbye after having told you in supreme arrogance that I wasn’t interested in you, and that you should forget me, I knew that I wanted to stay and carry on from there with you. That I’d been blinkered, hadn’t seen what was in front of me, since the kid who was forever at my heels when I was young had grown into the woman standing before me in tears.

‘But I was so taken aback by the sudden revelation that I let you walk away and went to catch my flight, which was already being called, intending to get in touch the moment I arrived at my destination.

‘When I got there I arrived to such a state of chaos at the hospital where I was going to work that I found that private lives were non-existent out there. We were on the job sometimes for twenty-four hours non-stop and even though I hadn’t forgotten you I let the weeks and months go by. Dad used to phone me from time to time while I was out there and on one occasion he mentioned that you were marrying Jefferson on the coming Saturday. I knew then that I had to get to you before you married him and there was very little time to do so.

‘I needed to ask you if you’d stopped loving me after the airport episode and had decided that he was the man you wanted. If you’d been able to tell me that he was, I would have left you in peace and lived with my own stupidity for the rest of my life.

‘But my flight was delayed. I arrived at the church while the wedding ceremony was taking place. As I entered the porch the vicar had just pronounced you man and wife and you were smiling up at Jefferson like any happy bride would, so I had my answer, or thought I had.

‘I couldn’t get out of the church quickly enough and jumped onto a passing bus to get as far away as possible, then caught the next flight back to where I’d come from. So you see, Libby, I did come back for you, but not soon enough, and I’ve lived with the misery of knowing that ever since.’

She was listening to him aghast, with tears streaming down her face, unable to believe what he was saying, yet she knew Nathan wouldn’t lie, he had no reason to. And he hadn’t finished.

‘I don’t know if you will understand what I’m saying now,’ he went on, ‘but it was because of that and the hurt I did you that day when you came to see me off at the airport that I stayed away for so long.

‘When I came back to Swallowbrook with Toby you had become just someone from my past, and since I’ve really got to know you I’ve found myself holding back all the time in case I hurt you again. Even after that fantastic night on the island I couldn’t let
my
feelings,
my
needs ruin your life again.

‘When you described what your life with Jefferson had been like I could have wept. But it was the smile you had for him that day in the church that threw me, which made me think you had married him for love.

‘So now that you know how much I love and adore you, Libby, can we wipe the slate clean and start afresh with a wedding of our own, a life of our own, with Toby and our own children when they come along?’

‘I married Ian on the rebound,’ she said in a low voice, ‘because you had made me feel so unloved, and the smile you saw was to convince those who I knew
did
care about me, such as both our fathers and other friends of long standing, that I wasn’t making a big mistake, which of course I was.

‘Yes, I will marry you, my dear love. To belong to you for always is all I’ve ever wanted. It will be all my dreams coming true, and with regard to giving Toby brothers and sisters I haven’t checked it out properly yet, but mother nature is telling me that we might have taken care of that already on that wonderful night at Greystone House.’

‘You mean that you might be pregnant? Oh, Libby, that would be fantastic!’

‘It only occurred to me as I was getting ready this evening that I’d skipped a period for the first time ever, and I consoled myself with the thought that if you never did want me, at least I might be going to have some part of you in a child that we’d conceived.’

‘Want you! I’ve never wanted anything more than you in my arms, in my bed, in my life for ever, so how about a Christmas wedding? But before that I have something to put on your finger.’

He produced a small velvet box from the inside pocket of his jacket and when he lifted the lid a beautiful emerald ring was revealed. As she gasped with delight he said, ‘I chose it because the emerald is glowing and beautiful like the woman I love, but we can change it to a diamond if you wish.’

‘How can you think that I would want to change something that you have chosen especially for me?’ she asked breathlessly, and he took her hand in his and slipped it onto her finger.

As she looked down at it she said, ‘I would love a Christmas wedding in Swallowbrook, Nathan, to be married in the village church with the bells ringing out across the snow that hopefully will have fallen to complete the day.’

He took her in his arms again and it felt like coming home after a long journey. Tears glistened on her lashes as the wonder of the moment took hold of her, and this time they were tears of happiness.

‘You said that you also had something else to tell me,’ she reminded him in the last few moments before they had to separate while Nathan went to collect Toby from his father’s house.

‘It’s just an idea that has been in my mind ever since I saw the house on the island, and I’ve followed it up by asking if it is available to rent for the Christmas period, and it is. So how would you like us to have our wedding reception there? Many of our guests will have their own boats and we could hire something bigger to transport those who haven’t across the lake?’

‘That would be magical,’ she cried. ‘Shall I ask the vicar if he can call round this evening to talk about the arrangements? He was saying only yesterday that he was disappointed that no one was planning a Christmas wedding, so he will be pleased to hear our news.’

The ring on her finger did not escape the notice of the surgery staff when she got into work later that morning and congratulations came from all sides. Nathan had told his father their good news when he’d gone to pick Toby up, and John called at the surgery during the morning to express his delight to his prospective daughter-in-law.

‘You’d better tell your father to bring his best suit with him if he’s going to be giving his daughter away,’ he said laughingly, and remembering her father’s pleasure when she’d rung him earlier with her news she thought that for once he was happy. Happier than he’d ever been since they’d lost her mother.

The vicar came round that evening as requested, and was, of course, delighted to hear that he was going to have a Christmas wedding in his church after all, and by the time he was ready to go the foundations of a wedding ceremony to take place on the morning of Christmas Eve had been laid.

‘The main formality is that the banns, which are in the form of giving notice to anyone and everyone that a wedding has been arranged, must be read three times on three separate Sundays in a church before it can take place,’ he told them. ‘The rest of the procedure you will already know, I’m sure.

‘December the twenty-fourth will be a special day for the folks of Swallowbrook this year,’ he said as he was leaving. ‘Two of its own marrying on that day, and both of them doctors from the health centre that is one of the main focal points of the village.’

Toby was fast asleep upstairs and when the vicar had gone they went up and stood by his bed. As they looked down at him Libby said, ‘I wasn’t wrong about us being in the baby business, Nathan. I’ve done a test and I’m pregnant.’

‘Life is getting more wonderful by the minute,’ he said chokingly. ‘It wasn’t so long ago that I wasn’t sure if I would ever have children of my own because they would have had to have you as their mother and at the time the chances of that weren’t looking good.’

‘I was having the very same thoughts,’ she told him, ‘that if ever I had any children they would have to be yours.’

They sat talking long into the night, making plans, dreaming dreams, and amongst them was the idea of making the two cottages into one.

The invitations had been sent, the details of the music they wanted given to the vicar, and the banns were being read. Libby’s father would give her away. Hugo was to be Nathan’s best man and Toby a pageboy.

Libby’s best friend Melissa was cast in the role of matron of honour, and Keeley, a friend she’d always kept in touch with since they’d been at medical school, was to be a bridesmaid.