For Christmas, Forever: The Yuletide Engagement / The Doctor's Christmas Bride / Snowbound Reunion

He most certainly had!

And, what was more, he’d said he was going to do it all over again once they returned from their evening out!

The rest of the evening—the Italian restaurant, the delicious food they ate there, the easy flow of conversation—all passed in a dream for Ellie.

She learnt that Patrick had gone to university, eventually leaving with a first class degree in Business Studies, and that instead of going into industry working for someone else had put his knowledge to use on a personal basis, building up a varied and successful business over the last fifteen years. It was a challenge he obviously still enjoyed.

She also learnt that his was a very close family, that his sister Teresa was fourteen years younger than his thirty-eight, also that she was the cherished baby of the family.

What Ellie still hadn’t established by the time Patrick drove her home was whether or not he had a woman in his life; it didn’t seem the sort of thing she should ask him after their intimacy earlier this evening!

‘Damn,’ he muttered as they arrived at Ellie’s home and saw Toby’s car was already parked in the driveway.

Ellie felt warmth in her cheeks as she guessed the reason for his irritation: Toby’s presence meant that they wouldn’t be able to carry on where they had left off earlier after all.

Patrick turned to look at her ruefully after parking the car behind Toby’s. ‘Have you never thought of getting a home of your own?’ he said dryly.

Until this moment, quite honestly, no. It had always seemed the natural thing for her and Toby to continue living together after their parents’ death. But at this moment Ellie had to admit she was disappointed that they weren’t to be alone again, too.

‘Never mind.’ She squeezed Patrick’s arm lightly. ‘It can’t be helped,’ she added ruefully.

‘You’re right. There will be other occasions.’ He nodded before getting agilely out of the car to come round and open her door for her.

Ellie felt as if she were floating on air as they walked over to the house; Patrick had said there would be other occasions. That must mean he was going to ask to see her again.

To her surprise, Toby was nowhere to be found once they were inside the house.

‘He must have gone to bed.’ Ellie shrugged dismissively.

Patrick moved so that he was standing very close to her. ‘Does that mean we’re alone after all?’

‘I suppose it must do. I—’ Ellie broke off as she heard the sound of feet descending the stairs. ‘Perhaps not,’ she added ruefully, turning expectantly towards the doorway that led out into the hallway.

Except it wasn’t Toby who came into the kitchen!

But Ellie had no trouble placing the other woman as the one who had looked so interestedly at Toby at the party on Saturday evening. And if she had been upstairs with Toby…!

‘Thank goodness you’re here,’ the other woman burst out agitatedly.

Although it wasn’t to Ellie that she spoke…

‘What is it?’ Patrick was instantly alert and left Ellie’s side to go to the other woman, the languid intimacy that had existed between the two of them all evening instantly broken.

‘Toby,’ the woman choked emotionally. ‘I think it must be something he’s eaten—I had to drive him here. He felt too ill even to drive home.’ She looked distraught. ‘Oh, Patrick, I’m so worried about him!’ She launched herself into Patrick’s arms, the tears starting to fall down her creamy cheeks.

Ellie looked at the two of them in total stupefaction. The other woman appeared to have spent the evening with Toby, and yet she and Patrick obviously knew each other rather well too. Of course, this woman had been at the party on Saturday evening, so the two might be related. Even so…

But for the moment she was too concerned about Toby herself to try to puzzle this one out, turning wordlessly to hurriedly leave the room and run upstairs to her brother’s bedroom.

Toby looked awful. He lay weakly back against the pillows, his face waxen, his eyes dull with discomfort and pain as he looked up at Ellie.

‘I’m going to call the doctor,’ she told him decisively.

‘Fine,’ he nodded. ‘Tell him to bring something with him to put me out of my misery!’ he called after her as she hurried from the room.

Ellie turned to give a strained smile at his attempt to joke. At least, she hoped he was joking! ‘I’ll tell him.’ She nodded before running down the stairs again. The fact that her brother hadn’t argued about her calling in the doctor told her just how ill he must feel; Toby, like most men, absolutely hated the necessity of ever seeing a doctor.

‘Food poisoning, do you think?’ Patrick prompted economically as he came out into the hallway where she stood telephoning.

‘I think so.’ She nodded, frowning as she waited for her call to be answered. ‘I—perhaps you could make some coffee for all of us?’ she suggested distractedly.

‘Teresa is already doing that,’ he informed her grimly. ‘Who are you calling?’ he added frowningly.

Ellie stared him speechlessly. Teresa? The young woman who was at this very moment making coffee in the kitchen, the woman Toby had obviously spent the evening with, was Patrick’s young sister, Teresa?

What—?

‘Ellie, who are you telephoning?’ Patrick repeated firmly.

‘The doctor—’ She broke off as Patrick shook his head grimly.

‘I’ll ring my own doctor and get him to come out.’ He took the receiver from her hand, disconnecting her call and putting through one of his own.

Ellie could only stand by dazedly as Patrick spoke decisively with whoever had answered his call, not asking the doctor to come out and see Toby, but giving him the directions to do so.

The young woman in the kitchen—the same woman who had looked so interestedly at Toby on Saturday evening—was Patrick’s sister, Teresa. Teresa? Tess…? That was a shortened version of the name Teresa, wasn’t it? Could Patrick’s sister possibly be the Tess that Toby had told Ellie he’d been dating the last couple of months?

And, if she was, why hadn’t Toby ever told her that it was Patrick’s sister he was dating?

Why hadn’t Patrick told her?

Because she was absolutely positive, from the fact that Patrick hadn’t looked in the least surprised to see his sister here, that he had known about the relationship before this evening!

What did it all mean?

Chapter Nine

‘WOULD you like one or both of us to stay with you for the rest of the night?’ Patrick asked Ellie some time later. The doctor had been to see Toby, and diagnosed—as they had all suspected he might—that her brother had food poisoning.

It had been an extremely traumatic couple of hours for Ellie, worried about Toby and completely puzzled by his relationship with Teresa/Tess.

But the idea of either Patrick or his sister staying for the rest of the night did not appeal to her. It also wasn’t necessary. The doctor had given Toby an injection to stop him vomiting, and although her brother was still pale, he was now fast asleep.

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Ellie answered Patrick distantly. None of the tension she had felt earlier, at discovering Toby’s girlfriend Tess was in fact Patrick’s sister Teresa, had evaporated.

In fact, if anything it was worse, all sorts of suspicions and conclusions having popped into Ellie’s head over the last couple of hours. Most of them too depressing to contemplate for long!

‘I’m very grateful for your help in getting a doctor here so promptly,’ she added as she realised she probably sounded less than polite.