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The Surgeon's Miracle

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2018
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‘It is dinner, but there’s nothing just about it. Dinner will be about forty people, and tomorrow will be a couple of hundred, I expect. Possibly more. And she’ll know every last one of them and the names of all their children and dogs and horses—she’s a legend.’

‘And she wants to see you married.’

‘Mmm. All ready to take over this crumbling old heap of dry rot.’

‘Are you whingeing about the ancestral home again, bro’?’ Will murmured from behind them, and he gave a soft snort and turned to him.

‘Would I? Thankfully they’re both looking well, so I don’t have to worry about it for donkey’s years. Have you got a drink?’

‘No, but I’ll have champagne, if you’re offering, and I expect Sally’ll have some elderflower cordial. Don’t worry about Libby, I’ll entertain her while you’re gone.’

Libby met Will’s twinkling eyes as Andrew walked away to get the drinks. ‘So, tell me about this crumbling old heap of dry rot. Does he really hate it?’ she said to him, and he chuckled.

‘Oh, he loves it to bits, really, but he thinks it should be mine, since I run it. The law of primogeniture offends his sense of right and wrong.’

‘And yours?’

He shrugged casually. ‘It’s just one of those things, isn’t it? If you split the estate with every generation, you end up with nothing left—and if you ask him about it, he’ll tell you we’re just caretakers, which is right. Glorified janitors. But he’s welcome to the title—and frankly he’s welcome to the house. The east wing is much nicer—I still get to enjoy the grounds, but it’s cosier than the house, and the heating bills aren’t quite as stratospheric, and I can walk to work. And whatever he’s told you, I only run the estate because I’m too lazy to do anything else!’

They were laughing as Andrew returned, a ripple of interest following him as the single girls monitored his progress. Or was it Will they were interested in? She couldn’t blame them. Both men were strikingly good-looking and she felt completely overshadowed in the glittering crowd of slender, elegant women with their bright, witty banter and designer dresses.

Until Sally came over a moment later, short and round and utterly charming, and smiled at her and gave her a hug.

‘Finally I get to meet you properly! This is such fun, I didn’t know my brother-in-law had a deep, dark secret.’

Andrew rolled his eyes. ‘Just because I don’t gossip.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Sally said, and took her by the arm mischievously. ‘So—tell all. I gather you’re colleagues. That must be tricky. What’s he like to work with, because his brother’s a nightmare—’

‘I am not!’

‘You are. You’re hopelessly disorganised.’

Will grinned. ‘That’s why I employed you.’

‘No, it’s why you married me. You were terrified I’d leg it and you wouldn’t find anyone else who could cope with your filing system.’

‘It’s a good system!’

‘It’s a collection of piles on the floor, William!’ she corrected with a grin, and Libby laughed.

‘Sounds rather like my desk,’ she said with a smile at Will, then turned back to Sally. ‘So what do you actually do? Andrew said something about being events manager.’

‘Oh, that’s just a fancy title for doing anything and everything. I’m just a dogsbody,’ she grumbled cheerfully, but Will shook his head.

‘She’s actually my PA as well, and she helps me run the charity side of things, too,’ Will said. ‘We’d be lost without her—will be lost when she has the baby, but it’s not why I married her. I married her because I struggle to boil water and she’s a darned good cook.’

And rather more than that, Libby wouldn’t mind guessing, hearing the pride in his voice and seeing the warmth in his eyes as he smiled at Sally, and yet again, she felt a twinge of envy.

If only Andrew would look at her like that—would ever, in the future, look at her like that—but he wouldn’t. Why would he? Their worlds were light-years apart. He’d only invited her here this weekend as an afterthought. He’d never noticed her before, never singled her out, never been anything but the perfect colleague. She was only here because he needed a shield, and he’d made that perfectly clear.

Not that she needed to worry. She wasn’t in the market for a relationship either at the moment, with him or with anybody else, and she’d do well to remember that fact.

CHAPTER THREE

HER thoughts were interrupted as they all filed through to the dining room, and she found herself seated at a long table between a jovial, middle-aged man who looked like a farmer, and Will.

Andrew was opposite her, and as she looked up and caught his eye he sent her a slow wink and she felt his foot slide against hers.

Playing footsie? Playing ‘let’s pretend’? Or giving her moral support?

The latter, she realised as he withdrew his foot and started talking to Sally, and she suppressed a little pang of disappointment as she turned to the man on her right with a smile. ‘Hello, I’m Libby Tate,’ she said.

‘Ah, yes, Andrew’s girl. You’re breaking hearts all round this table, I hope you realise?’ he said softly, and held out his hand. ‘Chris Turner. We’re neighbours and old friends of the family. It’s nice to meet you, Libby—very nice. I always knew he’d settle down in his own time, and it’s good to see him looking happy.’

Oh, good grief. What on earth was she supposed to say to that? Nothing, apparently. Chris just winked and sat back with a kindly smile. ‘So, tell me, what do you do?’

‘I’m a ward sister on Paediatrics. I work alongside Andrew at the Audley Memorial Hospital.’

‘Ah. A real person. That explains it all.’

She frowned in confusion, and Chris chuckled.

‘My wife Louise and I have watched the boys grow up, and we always knew they’d go their own way. Why Andrew’s taken so long I can’t imagine, but I expect he was just waiting for the right woman.’

‘Are you stirring, Turner?’ Andrew said from across the table where he’d clearly been watching and lipreading, and Chris chuckled again.

‘Of course not. Would I?’

‘Probably. It’s all lies, Libby. You don’t want to listen to anything he says.’

She did, though, because he was telling her all sorts of fascinating things about Andrew, and she was hanging on his every word. It emerged that far from being a farmer, Chris was a GP, the Ashendens’ family doctor, his wife the local vicar, and he told her hilarious stories of Andrew’s childhood, the humour fading at one point as he talked about Will’s illness, and how much it had affected Andrew, who’d been at medical school at the time.

‘He changed then. He used to be a bit of a wild child, but then suddenly, it was as if the joy went out of him.’

‘Because of Will?’ she asked, her voice hushed.

Chris shrugged. ‘Who knows? But he’s a good man,’ he said softly. ‘If Will hadn’t recovered so well I’m sure he would have chucked in his career to come home and help care for him if it had been necessary. It’s the sort of thing he’d do without a second thought, but he never talks about it. He just gets on with it, no matter what it costs him in terms of time and effort, and when Will recovered so well, he threw himself back into medicine and he’s been focussed on it ever since, to the exclusion of everything else. He’s a fantastically dedicated doctor—but you already know that. I’m preaching to the converted.’

‘Oh, you are. He’s amazing,’ she agreed thoughtfully. She’d seen him at work, seen how dedicated he was, and it made sense now—the close way he followed up his young patients, the passionate zeal with which he directed their treatment, the dedicated focus on his career. No wonder he didn’t have a wife and family. He simply didn’t have time.

But Chris was right, she’d seen him smile more in the last day or two than she had in all the previous months she’d known him. Was that down to her? No, surely not. He was just showing her another side of himself, a side that Chris had maybe not seen recently.

She glanced up at Andrew and caught his eye, and he winked at her, then turned back to Will. That he had a very close bond with his younger brother was blindingly obvious from the banter that was taking place between them now across the table. The teasing affection between them brought a lump to her throat and she wanted to talk to Will, to hear more from him about Andrew, and when Chris’s attention was taken by the lady on his other side, Will turned towards her and gave her a rueful grin.

‘Sorry, I’ve been neglecting you,’ he said.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said, smiling back. ‘Chris has been looking after me. You can pay me back in a minute, though, I’m struggling to work out which knife and fork I need next,’ she added in an undertone, and he laughed out loud, making Andrew frown curiously at them.
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