weeks before it was ready for her to collect.
So far she hadn’t been out on any home visits from the surgery, but would be doing so soon and the small cream car standing idle on the forecourt was going to have to be used for that purpose.
As she walked towards the practice there was a spring in her step in spite of a sleepless night, as she focussed on her new resolve.
Daffodils were nodding on grass verges at the side of the road, the heavy scent of hyacinths was in the air, and the lake glinting in the rays of a pale sun was once again the same safe place that it had always been in her life. Forgotten were the dark outlines of towering trees etched against a moonlit sky, gone would be the night creatures scuttling to and fro.
Hugo’s car was already parked on the forecourt. He must have been up bright and early. There was half an hour to go before the surgery swung into action. Obviously the episode of the night before hadn’t kept him awake.
At that moment he came out of the surgery building and dangled car keys in front of her. ‘For you to borrow,’ he informed her. ‘We thought you could tag along behind me when I go on house calls today. It will be an advantage, you knowing the area from when you lived here before, Ruby, so maybe you could join me for the first few calls and then strike out on your own with the rest. Would you be happy with that arrangement?’
‘Er, yes, I suppose so’ she agreed hesitantly. ‘I’ve been looking forward to going out in the district. I checked on my car before I came out and it isn’t going to be ready for at least a fortnight.’
He nodded. ‘So don’t concern yourself. The car is there for your use until your own is.’ He wanted to ask if she was all right after the upset of the night before but didn’t want to cast any gloom around as she looked happy enough at the moment.
When he left her clutching the car keys and went back inside she looked down at them sombrely. Hugo was still playing safe, she thought. He had managed to avoid having her in the enclosed intimacy of his car.
She wasn’t to know that it had been Nathan’s idea that they use the two cars for the house calls, and that Hugo had been hoping to have her with him on the chance that she might throw some light on the unexpected upset of the night before. Still, he hadn’t pursued the idea because he didn’t want the other two doctors to jump to any wrong conclusions. He liked Ruby, admired her keenness and efficiency workwise and her attitude to life in general.
His carefree bachelor days spent down south had included dates with attractive women. There had been dining out, visits to the theatre, and lots of sport in the evenings and at weekends, but when Patrice and her children had needed him so badly he had left it all behind without a moment’s hesitation.
Still revelling in his sudden freedom, he hadn’t yet had time to hit the high spots again. Just to have his life to himself once more had been enough. The socialising part of it would come later, but then along had come Ruby in the red cape and part of him hadn’t wanted to know, had kept wishing her somewhere else, even though the rest of him wasn’t so sure.
He’d been used to a more mature kind of elegance in his women friends before he’d come to Swallowbrook, but had never met anyone he was interested in enough to want to settle down with, although had always felt that when he did, his choice would be someone like that, and nothing had changed. So why was the girl who was renting his apartment so much in his thoughts?
She was like a breath of fresh air in his life in one way, and an unwelcome intrusion in another, which had been evident the night before when he hadn’t agreed to her suggestion that they walk by the lake.
Ruby had been taken aback by it, but she wasn’t to know that at the time she’d arrived on the scene he’d been looking forward to spending his time how it suited him , doing what he wanted for a
So far she hadn’t been out on any home visits from the surgery, but would be doing so soon and the small cream car standing idle on the forecourt was going to have to be used for that purpose.
As she walked towards the practice there was a spring in her step in spite of a sleepless night, as she focussed on her new resolve.
Daffodils were nodding on grass verges at the side of the road, the heavy scent of hyacinths was in the air, and the lake glinting in the rays of a pale sun was once again the same safe place that it had always been in her life. Forgotten were the dark outlines of towering trees etched against a moonlit sky, gone would be the night creatures scuttling to and fro.
Hugo’s car was already parked on the forecourt. He must have been up bright and early. There was half an hour to go before the surgery swung into action. Obviously the episode of the night before hadn’t kept him awake.
At that moment he came out of the surgery building and dangled car keys in front of her. ‘For you to borrow,’ he informed her. ‘We thought you could tag along behind me when I go on house calls today. It will be an advantage, you knowing the area from when you lived here before, Ruby, so maybe you could join me for the first few calls and then strike out on your own with the rest. Would you be happy with that arrangement?’
‘Er, yes, I suppose so’ she agreed hesitantly. ‘I’ve been looking forward to going out in the district. I checked on my car before I came out and it isn’t going to be ready for at least a fortnight.’
He nodded. ‘So don’t concern yourself. The car is there for your use until your own is.’ He wanted to ask if she was all right after the upset of the night before but didn’t want to cast any gloom around as she looked happy enough at the moment.
When he left her clutching the car keys and went back inside she looked down at them sombrely. Hugo was still playing safe, she thought. He had managed to avoid having her in the enclosed intimacy of his car.
She wasn’t to know that it had been Nathan’s idea that they use the two cars for the house calls, and that Hugo had been hoping to have her with him on the chance that she might throw some light on the unexpected upset of the night before. Still, he hadn’t pursued the idea because he didn’t want the other two doctors to jump to any wrong conclusions. He liked Ruby, admired her keenness and efficiency workwise and her attitude to life in general.
His carefree bachelor days spent down south had included dates with attractive women. There had been dining out, visits to the theatre, and lots of sport in the evenings and at weekends, but when Patrice and her children had needed him so badly he had left it all behind without a moment’s hesitation.
Still revelling in his sudden freedom, he hadn’t yet had time to hit the high spots again. Just to have his life to himself once more had been enough. The socialising part of it would come later, but then along had come Ruby in the red cape and part of him hadn’t wanted to know, had kept wishing her somewhere else, even though the rest of him wasn’t so sure.
He’d been used to a more mature kind of elegance in his women friends before he’d come to Swallowbrook, but had never met anyone he was interested in enough to want to settle down with, although had always felt that when he did, his choice would be someone like that, and nothing had changed. So why was the girl who was renting his apartment so much in his thoughts?
She was like a breath of fresh air in his life in one way, and an unwelcome intrusion in another, which had been evident the night before when he hadn’t agreed to her suggestion that they walk by the lake.
Ruby had been taken aback by it, but she wasn’t to know that at the time she’d arrived on the scene he’d been looking forward to spending his time how it suited him , doing what he wanted for a
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