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SALLIE BEAUMONT was smiling as she stopped her car on the forecourt of the village medical practice. It was a bright spring morning and everywhere had been bursting into life as she'd visited those who hadn't been well enough to attend the surgery.
There'd been splashes of colour in cottage gardens, fresh green leaves on the trees, and the sun beaming down onto the place that was so dear to her heart was like a blessing from the serene heavens.
She was always happy to see the end of winter. The loneliness was easier to cope with on bright days, instead of on dull afternoons and long dark nights. But that was the last thing on her mind today.
Part of the huge gap in her life was about to be filled. A temporary arrangement maybe, but for the next six months there would be a child in the apartment above the practice, the baby of a single mother who had been offered the chance of a lifetime that she couldn't afford to miss. But it was going to mean leaving her baby behind.
A niece of Sallie's by marriage, Melanie had become pregnant while in a disastrous relationship that had foundered once the father-to-be had realised the score. The country doctor had known nothing about it until there'd been a phone call one day to say that the twenty-one-year-old was in hospital having given birth to a baby boy, and would she like to visit? She hadn't needed to be asked twice, and it had been the beginning of a friendship that had deepened as the weeks had gone by.
The girl's parents had died some time previously and until Sallie had appeared on the scene she'd had no one to turn to. But Melanie was a fighter, independent, ready to take a risk, and when she'd been offered a six-month contract as a dancer in a show in America, she'd asked Sallie if she would have little Liam until she came back.
"You know I love dancing," she'd coaxed. "It's my life, Sallie. I've trained, worked at it, and dreamt of something like this turning up, but I couldn't leave my baby with anyone else but you."
"I don't have to be persuaded,'Sallie had told her. "Of course I'll look after Liam, and between Hannah and myself, we'll cope. She loves children, too. We'll take good care of him."
And today was the day when the lonely apartment above the surgery was going to come to life. Melanie was bringing Liam round that evening and flying out to New York in the morning, and every time Sallie thought about it she found herself smiling. There hadn't been much to smile about in her life over the last three years, but this was something to be happy about.
However, before that there was the late afternoon surgery to get through. She would be taking one and Colin Carstairs, the senior partner at the practice, the other. He had seemed distracted of late, and when he'd seen off the last of his patients he came into her room and perched himself on the corner of her desk.
She looked up enquiringly and he said casually, "Do you ever hear from that husband of yours, Sallie?"
"I had a card from Steve at Christmas," she told him, startled by the question.
"Where is he based these days?' "I don't know. It had a Gloucester postmark on the envelope. The year before it was Cornwall. The year before that London. So it would seem that he's moving about all the time. But why do you ask?"
He answered her question with another of his own. "How would you feel about him coming back into the practice, if he was willing?"
How would she feel? How would she feel if the only man she'd ever loved came back into her life. It wasn't an easy question to answer. She would be eager to see him again, but apprehensive after the way they'd parted, and not prepared to have her life torn apart again when she'd done nothing wrong.
But Steve was proud and stubborn. Whatever it was that Colin had in mind, she couldn't see Steve coming back after all this time unless he had got over his despair.
"When the pair of you joined the practice, I thought it was my birthday," Colin was saying. "Two young gradu-ates, husband and wife, keen and able. Stephen was a like a flash of light around the place and you were his anchor."
Not any more, she thought miserably. "Why are we on this subject?" she asked flatly. "And why would you want Steve back in the practice? I know we are very busy but—"
"Jess and I are moving to Canada.' "What?' "You know that David and his family are out there and they are forever trying to persuade us to join them. Needless to say, Jessica is pining for her grandchildren so we're going to take the plunge. I know I'm only in my late fifties, but I feel ready to retire and enjoy the good life."
Then Colin sighed and patted her hand. "But, Sallie, I don't want to go and leave you coping with some stranger. You are the best, and so is Stephen. The village folk love and respect you and if he came back they would be well suited. But how about you? How would you feel?"
"I would have mixed feelings," she said with a strained smile. "He's the only man I've ever loved and nothing is going to change that, but apart from the Christmas cards he hasn't been in touch in three years. That would take some forgiving and, in any case, how do you know he would want to come back?"
"I don't. But there's no harm in asking.' Her heartbeat was thudding in her ears. His parting words had always prevented her from doing that. "Forget about me, Sal," he'd said harshly. "I need some space. Find yourself some other guy who can give you children."
"I don't want anyone else," she'd cried above the noise of the car engine on a dark November night. "I only want you." But he hadn't heard her and she knew he wouldn't have changed his mind if he had. As far as Steve had been concerned, he'd wanted out.
"So it's all right with you if I put out some feelers?' Colin was asking. "I don't want to cause him any em-barrassment by going through official channels to locate him. I have a friend who practises in the Gloucester area. I'll give him a ring and let you know if I come up with anything as I'm not going to Canada until I've spoken to Steve."
"Yes, whatever you say," she agreed weakly, and, gathering up her belongings, she went upstairs.
As he'd watched her go Colin had thought that for once the practice wasn't his main concern. He was using it as an excuse to try and bring two people that he held in high regard back into each other's lives.
If ever he'd thought a marriage solid it had been theirs. They'd adored each other until the time that Stephen had seen one of his most precious dreams put in jeopardy and Sallie had been faced with the painful fact that her loving support was not enough.
He, Colin, was looking forward to the new life that he and his wife were planning, but felt that before he went he had to try to bring about a reconciliation between Sallie and Stephen.
It had been three years since Stephen had left the practice and he had watched Sallie cope with her misery as best she could. She had been blameless. Ready to support her clever, impatient husband in every way. But he'd still gone, and if he hadn't met anyone else, or put down roots somewhere, maybe he might have calmed down and be ready to see sense. But first he had to find him.
Colin's revelation that he wanted Steve back in the practice before he went to Canada had been a week ago, and as she waited for him to come up with some news of him, the only thing that was saving Sallie's sanity was Melanie's baby.
At two months Liam was a contented little mite with soft golden down on his head and eyes as blue as a summer sky. Every time she held him Sallie knew how much she ached for children of her own, but they would have to be Steve's children, too, and the likelihood of that was remote, due to the long-term effects of his illness and the fact that she would be wary of having her heart broken again.
Theirs had been the happiest of marriages until he'd been diagnosed with testicular cancer and everything had begun to fall apart. For one thing, the timing of it had been catastrophic. It had come when he had been desperate for them to start a family. So much so that it had caused difficulties in their relationship because she'd wanted to wait a while, having worked hard to get where she was, and in that unsettled state of affairs had come the cancer. She had supported him all the way, but it seemed it hadn't been enough. Instead of bringing them closer, it had driven them apart and in the end, after months of angry frustration on Steve's part, he had gone and she hadn't seen him since.
* * * Hannah Morrison had been their housekeeper ever since they'd arrived in the village eight years ago and was a plump, motherly, sixty-year-old. Her children were now leading their own lives, and Hannah looked after Sallie as if she were one of them.
When she'd been told about the baby coming to live in the apartment above the surgery, she'd smiled her delight. It would be like the old days, having a wee mite to cuddle, she'd said, and thought that it would give the lonely doctor something to love. The housekeeper often wondered how Sallie kept so calm with no husband, no children and a busy practice always making demands on her. She never once complained.
In the week since Liam's arrival Sallie had developed a routine. Up early to give him his six o'clock bottle, then, when she'd had her breakfast, it was bathtime. When Hannah arrived at just before half past eight she was ready to take off the mantle of stand-in mother and become the village doctor, reverting back again once the late surgery was over.
She was loving every minute of it, but at the back of her mind all the time was the thought of Colin trying to find Steve and what might, or might not, come of it. He hadn't mentioned it since, and she wondered if he'd given up on the idea.
He would tell her if she asked, but every time she thought of it her insides began to churn. If Steve came back, what would it be like? They'd been apart for such a long time.
There had been a lot of interest among the village folk when the news had got around that the doctor was looking after someone else's baby. Some said it was a pity it wasn't her own and what was Stephen Beaumont playing at? The reason for his departure had never been general knowledge. Colin had protected Sallie from the gossip as much as he'd been able to, and gradually it had died down.
