Summer Seaside Wedding (3 page)

Leo was emerging out of the private entrance to the apartments as she appeared on the practice forecourt and strode purposefully towards him, carrying a leather briefcase. She looked different again, dressed smartly as she was, from the dishevelled woman at the airport and the bikini-clad swimmer on the beach.

‘Good morning, Dr Fenchurch,’ she said as he fell into step beside her. ‘It has come. The day I am to be part of your medical centre.’

‘Yes, indeed,’ he replied as he held open the main door of the surgery for her to go through. ‘I hope you won’t be disappointed in us.’

She smiled up at him. ‘It is more that it should be me who does not disappoint you and Dr Balfour. When you met me at the airport it was what I saw in your expression…disappointment.’

Surely it hadn’t been so obvious? he thought. It had been because he’d picked out the wrong woman to be her that the difference had seemed so great.

He didn’t deny it. Instead, he said, ‘It was very rude of me if that was how I appeared, and you are certainly proving me wrong so far. I hope that your first day is a good one, Amelie. Harry is already here and waiting to see you in his consulting room.’

‘They came to see me yesterday. Dr Balfour and his family were most kind. I wondered if perhaps you had told them about my cancelled wedding.’

For the first time since she’d met him she saw Leo’s pleasant manner chill as he told her, ‘Certainly not! If Harry and Phoebe were kind, it’s only because that is what they’re like. I wouldn’t dream of discussing what you told me on Saturday with anyone. Your private life is yours alone.’ And with the coolness still there he pointed to the door nearest to them, said, ‘That’s Harry’s room,’ and disappeared down the corridor in front of them where all the activity seemed to be taking place.

She’d unintentionally insulted him, Amelie thought as she tapped on the door of the senior partner’s room. Suddenly the morning wasn’t so exciting and challenging. She was just a temp from across the Channel, a bride-to-be who’d ended up on the outside of things.

Somehow she managed to put on a good face for the head of the practice and smiled her pleasure when he told her that she was being provided with a hire car that would be available the next day.

‘You’ll be in the room next to Leo at the other end of the passage,’ he told her, ‘and for a time will do the home visits with him until you are familiar with the area.’ He shook her hand. ‘Welcome aboard, Dr Benoir. I hope you enjoy your time with us.’ And that was that.

His phone was ringing so she left him to it and went to introduce herself to the receptionist at the desk opposite, who in turn took her to meet the rest of the staff, who were gathered in the kitchen for what she was to discover was a daily ritual—a mug of tea before surgery commenced.

The first thing she saw was that Leo wasn’t there and wondered if he was still smarting from what she’d said
earlier. On her part it had just been innocent curiosity, yet she could understand his annoyance at the inference that he might have repeated what she’d told him to others.

But there was no more time to dwell on that. There were hands to shake, names to remember, and by the time the introductions were over she was feeling more comfortable.

Amongst those present were the two practice nurses, Lucy the elderly one, and Maria, young, pretty and the daughter of the beach lifeguard.

The district nurse, Bethany, only recently appointed, was there too, as well as the cleaner, a pleasant woman who came early and finished early in time to get her children off to school.

As she drank the tea Amelie was still wondering where Leo was and when she moved nearer to the open kitchen door she could hear his voice coming from Dr Balfour’s room and he didn’t sound happy.

He’d gone outside to get something out of his car and on returning had found that the senior partner had left Amelie to introduce herself to the staff, instead of doing it himself, and his frown had deepened when Harry had said laughingly, ‘She wandered off while I was on the phone. Don’t fuss. I’ve told her she’s getting the cherry on the cake.’

‘And what might that be?’ he’d gritted.

‘Doing the house calls with you, of course.’

‘Really. And how exciting is that not going to be…for her?’

She’d heard everything that was being said except
the last two words because Leo had lowered his voice. If she’d felt she’d upset him before, it was twice as bad now. He obviously had no desire to be lumbered with her on his house calls.

He joined them all in the kitchen seconds later and her glance raked his face for signs of how he was feeling now. She was surprised when he had a smile for her and asked, ‘Are you all right, Amelie?’

‘Yes. I’m fine,’ she told him, relieved to see that he was back to his normal manner. ‘I have met all the staff, except the manager of the practice, and someone said she will be along shortly.’

‘That’s Janet. She doesn’t start until nine o’clock, but often works later than we do in the evenings. Bethany, the new district nurse, is her daughter.

‘They’re a good lot. Don’t hesitate to ask any of them if you have any problems. Surgery will be starting in a few moments so let me show you where you will be providing health care for the folk in Bluebell Cove.’

‘Are you still angry with me?’ she asked in a low voice as he opened the door of the smallest consulting room in the practice.

‘No, of course not. It was just you thinking I might have discussed your private life with Harry or anyone else that threw me off balance for a moment.’

He was beginning to wish they weren’t having this conversation, didn’t want to get any closer to this young French doctor who had butted into his weekend and now wanted to see into his thoughts. He’d actually fallen out with Harry over her and that was a first. They usually got on well.

A change of subject was called for and as the surgery was due to open its doors in a matter of minutes, what better way than to explain to her what was going to be required of her on her first morning?

‘Harry and I have picked out a few appointments from today’s list for you to deal with,’ he explained. ‘They are mostly women and children. Since Francine left to go back to her homeland we haven’t had a woman doctor on the staff, so you can see the advantages of having you here for our female patients, young and old.

‘If anything occurs that you haven’t dealt with before, Harry and I are here for help and advice. So good luck on your first morning. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must prepare to meet my own patients. After surgery is finished we’ll have a coffee and then it will be time for the home visits. You will be able to see a lot more of Bluebell Cove while we’re out in the district as the area that the practice covers is both coast and country.’

With that he disappeared into the room next to hers and Amelie was left with the feeling that he was putting up with her on sufferance. What he’d said to Dr Balfour with regard to there being no pleasure in taking her with him on his rounds indicated that, and also there’d been the darkening of his brow when she’d asked him if he’d told the other man about her non-wedding.

He’d been all right about it afterwards, but there were signs that Leo was finding her heavy going, so a low profile was called for.

Her first patients were a harassed mother with a tearful four-year-old who was protesting loudly that she didn’t
want to see the doctor man. Both were surprised to see that the ‘doctor man’ was a smiling young member of their own sex who had a way with children, having worked in the paediatric wards of a French hospital.

Within seconds the child had stopped crying and the mother was calming down as she explained why they were there. ‘Tiffany has an inflamed throat,’ she said, ‘and is very fretful. She won’t eat and had a raised temperature during the night. It seems normal enough now, but I still felt she should see a doctor.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Amelie agreed. ‘First I must look down the throat to check the degree of the inflammation.’ Turning to the small patient, she said gently, ‘Will you open your mouth for me, Tiffany, so that I can shine a light inside it?’

Not too keen on the idea, Tiffany clung to her mother and at her most persuasive Amelie said, ‘Just one little peep, that is all. Can you do that for me?’

Reassured, the child nodded and opened her mouth and when, as promised, Amelie did a quick examination of her throat she saw there was infection around the tonsils.

‘Has Tiffany had an inflamed throat before?’ she asked.

Her mother shook her head. ‘No, never.’

‘Then let us see what a few days’ rest and some paracetemol will do. They will help to relieve the soreness and then Tiffany will be more likely to want to eat. Ice cream is good for an inflamed throat too. If you should see pus on the tonsils, send for one of us immediately.

‘Her temperature is normal at present,’ she announced when she’d checked it, ‘but may rise again in the night so be prepared.’ She turned to the child. ‘You have been a very brave little girl, Tiffany, and you can have some ice cream when you get home.’

‘Thank you, Doctor,’ her mother said as they were leaving. ‘Are you new here? I haven’t seen you before.’

Amelie’s wide smile embraced them both. ‘Yes, I am here from France for a while and am already in love with your village.’

‘I have a woman’s problem that I’ve wanted to discuss with someone of my own sex, so you might be seeing me again,’ Tiffany’s mother said.

‘That will be fine whenever you are ready,’ Amelie told her, ‘and be sure to bring Tiffany back to the surgery if the inflammation persists.’

An expensively dressed elderly woman with an irregular heartbeat came next and was immediately dubious when she saw a fresh face behind the desk and a young one at that.

‘I was expecting to see Dr Balfour,’ she said haughtily. ‘Are you fully qualified?’

‘Yes, I am,’ Amelie told her pleasantly. ‘I have a degree and have been employed in a French hospital for the last two years. I am here to see how general practice works in the UK. So would you oblige me by unbuttoning your cardigan, Mrs…er…’ a quick glance at her notes ‘…Arbuthnot, as any kind of change in the heartbeat needs immediate attention.’

‘Yes, it is a little fast this morning,’ she told the
patient when she’d listened to it intently. ‘Has it happened before?’

‘On and off, but not as severe as this,’ was the reply.

‘And you have seen Dr Balfour on those occasions? There is no mention of it in your records.’

‘No. When it has happened before I’ve ignored it and it has gradually gone away.’

‘But not today?’

‘No. Not today.’

‘Then an ECG is called for. If you will accompany me to the nurses’ room it will be done, and whatever the feedback we will find out what, if anything, is wrong with your heart.’

As Esther Arbuthnot got slowly to her feet she said grudgingly, ‘They say that a new broom sweeps clean, so maybe being passed to you for my consultation isn’t such a bad idea after all. What is your name?’

‘Amelie Benoir,’ she said as she led the elderly woman towards the ECG facility, where Lucy would perform the test.

The speed with which the results came through had Esther Arbuthnot in a state of amazement that turned to alarm when she was told that there could be a problem with one of the valves of her heart and that there had been evidence of a minor heart attack some time in the past.

‘We need to refer you to a cardiologist for further tests,’ Amelie told her gently as she observed how the patient’s bumptiousness was disappearing fast, yet not so fast that she wasn’t already planning ahead.

‘There is a top heart surgeon in Bluebell Cove,’ Esther informed Amelie. ‘His name is Lucas Devereux and he has a private clinic that he runs from his home.’

‘He’s the consultant I want to see. I can well afford it. He is married to Barbara Balfour’s daughter Jenna, who was a practice nurse here until they had their first child. So if you would arrange for me to see him as quickly as possible, I would be obliged.’

‘Yes, of course,’ she assured her, ‘and in the meantime no excessive exertion. Just take it quietly and rest whenever possible. I will be in touch as soon as I have an appointment for you.’

When she’d gone Amelie wondered how many Balfours there were in Bluebell Cove. They had to be related to Harry Balfour, the head of the practice, in some way. At the first opportunity that arose she would ask Leo who this Barbara Balfour was.

A
MELIE’S
first morning at the surgery was over and as she waited for Leo’s much longer list of patients to come and go before they set out on the home visits she was thinking how much she’d enjoyed her first taste of general practice.

She’d coped with the patients that had been passed to her by the other two doctors without having to consult either of them, and when Leo finally appeared and asked, ‘So how was it?’ she had a smile for him.

But there was uncertainty behind it and he thought she was unsure of him, still aware that he hadn’t liked being questioned as to whether he’d passed on details of her private life to Harry. But she was not to know that though some saw him as lightweight, he cherished his integrity and admired that of others.

‘I enjoyed it immensely,’ she told him. ‘I liked the one-to-oneness of it. In a hospital situation there are sometimes too many fingers in the pie.’

‘So, are you ready for an interesting couple of hours visiting the sick and seeing the sights of Bluebell Cove when we’ve had a coffee?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she said obediently, and it was there again, a withdrawal of the unaffected easiness that she’d displayed when in his company previously.

Yet as he pulled out onto the coast road she was the first to speak, and it was to ask if Dr Balfour had relations living in Bluebell Cove. She went on to explain that a patient had mentioned someone called Barbara Balfour.

‘Yes, he has indeed,’ he replied. ‘Harry was brought up in this place and when he got his degree came to work at the practice as a junior doctor like you. At that time his aunt, Barbara Balfour, was in charge of the practice and I’m told was a force to be reckoned with, but she had to retire due to ill health. She and her husband live in Four Winds, the large house on the headland.

‘Barbara was instrumental in persuading Harry to come back to Bluebell Cove after losing his wife in an accident, and also helped Ethan Lomax with his problems at the same time. The lady in question is a household name here and revered by all who know her, but she is also something of a tartar, even though she isn’t in charge any more.’

‘And it is her daughter who is married to the heart surgeon?’

‘Yes, she was Jenna Balfour before she married Lucas Devereux. So now you can place us all in our slots,’ he said whimsically.

‘All except you, Dr Fenchurch. You don’t seem to have one. All the others appear to have roots in Bluebell Cove but not you. Where do you come from?’

‘The north-west. I’m from Manchester.’

‘So you are a long way from home.’

‘Yes, but not as far from home as you are, though you seem contented enough.’

She shook her head. ‘Not always, I’m afraid. Yet I know I’m going to be happy here, I can feel it inside. Bluebell Cove is so beautiful, how could I not be?’

He gave her a quick sideways glance and thought how different she was from other women he’d known. She had no airs and graces. She was just herself, an enthusiastic young doctor with, from the sound of it, parents who had put their careers before their daughter. Had they been around when in the not so distant past she had suffered heartbreak at the hands of some two-timing upstart?

But she was getting on with her life with an ingenious kind of acceptance that a lot of the women who sought him out wouldn’t be able to boast.

‘Our first call of the day is at the marine museum next to the harbour,’ he said, bringing his thoughts back to the reason they were driving in that direction. ‘The caretaker and his wife live in an apartment on the premises and they’ve asked for a home visit.’

‘Why?’ she asked, all eagerness on her first venture on house calls with him.

‘I’m not sure. It was his wife who rang up and the message was rather garbled. If I understood it rightly, her husband is having some sort of severe gastric attack.’

‘Oh, dear, that sort of thing can be most unpleasant,’ she commented, and he tried not to smile. If they didn’t come across something worse than that during the next
couple of hours he would be surprised, but had to have a rethink when he saw the elderly caretaker.

He was deathly white and in a lot of pain, which his wife said had started in a milder way around and above the navel then had increased sharply and was now located at the lower right-hand side of the stomach. When he’d examined the patient Leo turned to Amelie, who had been watching intently.

‘Would you like to examine our patient and give an opinion?’ he asked, and turned to the man’s wife. ‘Dr Benoir is going to be working with us at the surgery for a while. She has come over from France to join us.’

Amelie was already doing as he’d requested and when she’d finished she straightened up, looked him in the eye and said, ‘I suspect appendicitis.’

‘I would agree,’ Leo told her. ‘The hospital will do a laparotomy and if that is what it shows, they will remove the appendix.’

He was quick to reassure the caretaker’s wife. ‘I’m sending for an ambulance and if it should turn out to be appendicitis your husband will be operated on without delay to avoid infection spreading.’

‘You seem to be something of an expert in diagnosing appendicitis, Dr Benoir!’ he commented, impressed by Amelie’s confident diagnosis.

‘I have seen it in a child. It was in the same place and very painful.’

‘So you know that the most dangerous time with appendicitis is when the pain goes. It is the calm before the storm when the appendix bursts and peritonitis develops, so watch out for that.’

When the ambulance had come and gone, with the suffering caretaker and his wife on board, Leo drove them to the next house call, where they found a small boy with measles.

He had a high temperature, the usual rash, and was waiting for their visit in a darkened room as the illness made the small patient very sensitive to light.

‘It was wise of you not to bring your boy to the surgery,’ Leo told his mother. ‘Measles is very infectious. Also I see that you are taking care of his eyes, which is good. Measles is a serious illness that was almost stamped out until the scare that the vaccine might be connected with autism. Am I to take it that your son hasn’t had the three-in-one MMR?’

She nodded glumly. ‘My husband and I did what we thought was best for him, but now I’m not so sure and am not going to leave his side for a moment until he’s better.’

‘Plenty of rest and lots to drink will help, and once the rash has gone you will see an improvement. He should stay in quarantine for at least four days so he doesn’t infect anyone. Like all the familiar childhood illnesses measles will take its course and the young ones need plenty of care and love while it is doing so.’

As they were leaving the house Leo said wryly, ‘Being a good parent is the job of a lifetime and not everyone gets it right or even wants to, but that child’s mother was giving it a good try, even though she’d decided on the wrong course of action.’

The moment he’d made the comment about families
he wished he hadn’t. Amelie’s family life didn’t sound fantastic, if it existed at all.

When he glanced across she was staring out of the car window, her face expressionless. He hoped he hadn’t spoilt her first foray into the world of those not well enough to go to the surgery.

As they made their way back to the practice, once they’d completed all the home visits, Amelie’s gaze was fixed on the sea below and suddenly she wound the window down and said urgently, ‘The tide is coming in fast around the entrance to a cave down there and I can see children inside.’

He slammed the brakes on and flung wide the door and they ran side by side down the cliff path that led to the beach.

‘Where is everyone?’ he cried. ‘There isn’t anyone in sight.’

Waves were crashing against rocks and they could see two small girls crouching in the entrance to the cave, about to be swept out and battered against them any second.

There was no time for discussion between the two of them. Every moment was vital if they were to get to the children and bring them to safety, but this young doctor was in his charge, Leo thought frantically. If anything happened to her…

He was cold with horror at the thought as he clambered over the rocks and prepared to lower himself into the sea, with her close behind. Calling over his shoulder, he told her, ‘I’ll deal with this. Stay where you are, Amelie.’

It was too late. She’d run to a point farther along and was already striking out towards the cave and the children trapped there. A powerful swimmer himself, he saw once again that she was in a class of her own in the water.

As they reached the cave a huge wave swept into the opening and on receding brought the children with it. Amelie grabbed one of them, he took the second in his grip and they fought their way to the nearest rocks where they heaved them up to safety as two lots of frantic parents scrambled towards them.

‘We only left them for a short time,’ one of the mothers cried as she hugged her child to her. ‘The men wanted a drink and persuaded us to go with them. The tide was way out then and the children
are
having swimming lessons.’

‘The sea came in from the side and was in front of the cave where they were playing before they had a chance to escape,’ he explained grimly, ‘and it would have been too powerful for children as young as these to swim in a high tide such as this.’

‘Yes, well, thanks,’ one of the fathers said sheepishly. ‘We’ll know next time.’ And with the children wrapped in towels, they moved towards the car park.

When they’d gone Amelie looked down at her soaking-wet blouse and skirt. Thankfully she’d kicked off her shoes in the car so at least they would be dry.

Beside her, Leo was stripping off his shirt and squeezing water out of his trousers, and when their glances met he said tightly, ‘I suppose you didn’t hear me when I called that I would handle it. I was having
nightmares out there in case something happened to you while you were under my supervision.’

‘Is that all you were concerned about?’ she asked miserably, as the feeling that she was of no consequence to anyone surfaced once more. ‘Concerned that I didn’t embarrass you by drowning while I was in your charge? Had you forgotten that I can swim like the best of them?

‘When I was young my parents had to take me with them on their postings abroad and often there was nothing else for me to do except go to whatever school was available and spend the rest of my time swimming. I even trained as a lifeguard one summer.’

It had been his turn to offend her, Leo was thinking, but it was no time for soul-searching. She was beginning to shiver in her wet clothes and he said, ‘There is a long raincoat of mine on the back seat of the car. Take your wet things off and put it on before you catch a chill. I’ll wait here until you’ve done that and then we’ll be off. The village is only a short drive away and you’ll be able to have a shower and a hot drink before the afternoon surgery starts.’

She nodded meekly and went to do as he’d suggested. Within minutes they were pulling up in front of the Lomax house and he was bidding her goodbye as he went to change his own clothes before returning to the practice.

Typically of village life, by the time they both arrived back at the surgery Harry and the rest of he staff had heard about their rescue in the cove and he’d opened
a couple of bottles of wine for the staff to toast them, which Amelie felt was a more celebratory attitude than Leo’s had been. Yet she supposed it was understandable. She might have felt the same in his position, so she could see his point of view.

That she could always see the other person’s point of view was her Achilles’ heel. She’d even seen Antoine’s when he’d opted for someone more raunchy and lively than her. Had known she’d been wrong in thinking that because he was so ordinary and undemanding he would want her, who was the same, when all the time he’d had other ideas.

It hadn’t made the hurt any less but she’d understood better and would be very careful in her next choice, if there was ever a next time.

At the end of the day Leo said, ‘I’d like a word in private. Would it be all right if I popped across when I’ve finished here?’

‘Er…yes,’ she said, with bluebell eyes wide and questioning, ‘but only if you aren’t going to tell me off again.’

He sighed. ‘I’m not going to do anything of the kind. I’ve got one more patient to see so should be about fifteen to twenty minutes. The guy has phoned to say that he’s held up in traffic, so I’ll come over when he’s been, OK?’

‘Yes. I’ll be doing steak and salad. Shall I do it for two so that you don’t have to cook when you get in, or are you dining out with friends?’ she asked, and couldn’t believe what she was saying.

He gave her a long level look and informed her, ‘I
don’t eat out all the time, you know. It’s usually weekends when I do my socialising so, yes, thanks for the offer, Amelie. It will be a change from an endless round of ready meals.’
And a change from the kind of company I usually keep,
he thought,
which is long overdue.

When he came he’d changed again for the second time and was dressed in a smart casual top and jeans, and Amelie thought how incredible he looked with his golden fairness and the trim six feet of him.

Without giving serious thought to how it might sound, she said, ‘When you met me at the airport I was half-asleep and thought you were either the Angel Gabriel or some Greek god who had come back to haunt womankind.’

‘Really?’ he said dryly, with lips pursed and eyes rolling heavenwards. ‘I lay no claim to my looks. I inherited them from my Nordic grandfather and in any case what we look like from the outside isn’t always an indication of what goes on within.’

‘What did
you
think when you saw me?’ she wanted to know.

He was smiling and it took the sting out of what he was about to say.

‘I thought you were odd, a bit scruffy and rather vacant.’

She laughed at the description. ‘I can’t deny any of that. I’d just worked twenty-four hours non-stop, had had the quickest shower of my life and flung myself into a taxi, praying all the time that I wouldn’t miss my flight. They were calling it as I rushed into the airport and I
made it with only seconds to spare, so must admit that my appearance was the last thing on my mind.’