A Nurse to Trust Page 16
When she was done, Clare made one final check to see that everything was in order, before taking the spare keys round to the Hopkinsons, who would be keeping an eye on the cottage while she was away. She stepped out into the garden prior to locking the back door. Alice was, as always, standing vigil over the pool, and Clare smiled at her.
Well, Aunty, she thought, I bet you didn’t expect things to work out like this. Don’t worry, we won’t be giving up your cottage just yet. At the moment it’s just big enough for two. Daniel will be moving in after we get back. I know you would have approved of us getting married—
She gave a little gasp. Suddenly she understood. It all made sense!
She raced back inside, snatched up the phone and called Dan.
‘Come over as soon as you can!’ she said excitedly as soon as he answered.
‘I was just about to. What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing! Just come over. I’ve worked it out!’
Dan arrived a few minutes later, looking deeply puzzled. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine! Oh, Daniel. I’ve worked out why I had that wobble the day we were treating Cath Hopkinson. It was so simple.’
‘Well, tell me.’
‘It was just an association in my mind. It must have been quite subconscious. There we were, treating Cath, an old lady, right next door to an almost identical cottage where Aunt Marjory died. And you’d been with her, too, when it happened.’
‘I did everything I could for her,’ Dan said quietly, ‘but I think it was just her time to go.’
Clare kissed him in reassurance. ‘Of course you did. You always do everything for your patients. That’s what makes you special. But, you see, that must have been on my mind. For a few seconds it made it personal and I lost my detachment. But I couldn’t understand why, so I went a bit wobbly.’
‘But you kept working,’ Dan pointed out, hugging her to him.
‘Even when you felt ill you stuck to it. Just as when we had our bad times, you kept going, never letting the patients know. That’s why you’re special.’
And he kissed her.
Snuggled deep in his strong embrace, Clare said, ‘That’s the last little doubt out of the way. Everything’s going to be perfect now.’
The hotel was packed with wedding guests. The ballroom was filled with rows of gilt chairs arranged in a semi-circle facing the wide staircase sweeping down from the balcony. The Reverend Fran Shepherd stood in front of a polished table decorated with autumnal flowers and silver candlesticks.
It was a simple ceremony, adapted with Fran’s help from the traditional marriage service. Daniel and Rod, his brother, who was his best man, stood up side by side as the three-piece combo struck up the wedding march. And Daniel’s eyes widened as Clare, on her father’s arm, floated down the staircase.
‘I didn’t remember much after that,’ confessed Clare, as she lay in Daniel’s arms later that night in another hotel on the mainland. Tomorrow they would fly to Venice for a short honeymoon. ‘I just saw your face lifted to watch me coming down the stairs, and all I wanted was for it to be over so I could be alone with you. All the rest is hazy.’
‘That was the important part for me, too,’ said Daniel with a smile. ‘But I do remember looking round when we went out on to the lawn to have photographs taken and thinking that all our friends were here. Our families, George and everyone from the centre. The lot. That felt good.’
‘Yes,’ Clare said. ‘With the mellow October sunshine streaming across the lawn, and the trees making long afternoon shadows. That was perfect.’
Clare kissed Dan several times on his cheeks and chin and then on the mouth. His lips tasted of the champagne they had just finished drinking. The empty bottle leaned drunkenly in the bucket that sat on the bedside table.
‘I’ve always loved the autumn, it’s my favourite time of year,’ Clare said. ‘The colours are fantastic and the air is like wine.’ She breathed in deeply and chuckled. ‘Well, it is tonight, that’s for sure.’
Daniel returned her kisses. ‘And winter follows autumn, and with winter come frosty days and purple dark nights, with stars that you can almost touch. And best of all, smack in the middle is Christmas. I love Christmas. I once spent it in New York and felt terribly cheated because there was no Boxing Day.’
‘You big kid,’ Clare teased softly.
‘Well, Christmas is a time for children…’
Clare laughed and kissed him some more—eyelids, nose, lips, chin—then followed the lovely strong column of his throat, licking the little hollow beneath his Adam’s apple, down to the silky chestnut curls on his chest, and—
Daniel stopped her there. He cupped her face in his hands and tilted it up to meet his.
‘Any further,’ he said, his voice a deep, husky growl, ‘and I’ll have to prove to you that I may be a big kid in some ways, but in ways that matter I’m all man.’
Clare wriggled up the bed. ‘Go on,’ she murmured, ‘prove it.’
‘It’ll be my pleasure,’ he whispered, ‘and we’ll start just here…’
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5671-5
A NURSE TO TRUST
First North American Publication 2001
Copyright © 2001 by Margaret O’Neill
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