Abigail Gordon – Marriage Miracle In Swallowbrook (страница 2)
Both of his parents had died of cancer when he’d been in his teens and on choosing medicine as a career he had decided to specialise in oncology. Every life he was instrumental in saving from the dreadful disease helped to make up a little for the loss of those he had loved.
She had always known and accepted that was the reason for his dedication to his calling, but as time had gone by the ritual of him arriving home totally exhausted in the early hours of the morning and being asleep within seconds of slumping down beside her on the bed that was so often empty of his presence had begun to tell.
Then it would be back to the hospital again almost before it was daylight and their physical relationship had become almost non-existent as it had seemed that his obsession with his career was going to drive them apart if he didn’t ease off a little to give them some time to be a family.
It had been of all things a swelling in her armpit that had brought everything to a climax. Gabriel had already left the house and been on his way to the hospital one morning when she’d been drying herself after coming out of the shower and had felt something under her arm that hadn’t been there before.
Immediately concerned, she’d phoned him to tell him about it and on the point of performing a major operation on a cancer patient he’d said, ‘Pop along to the surgery and get them to have a look at it, Laura. I’m just about to go into Theatre.’
She’d put the phone down slowly. No woman on earth would want to find a lump in the place she’d described, but she was the lucky one, or so she’d thought. Her husband was one of the top names in cancer treatment, so it was to be expected that anything of that nature with regard to his wife would have his full attention,
He had tactfully made no comment and after examining the swelling had told her, ‘It could be anything, Mrs Armitage, but we doctors never take any chances with this sort of thing, so I will make you an appointment to see an oncologist. Have you any preferences?’
‘Er, yes, my husband,’ she’d told him, and his surprise had increased, but it hadn’t prevented the appointment being made for the following day.
When she’d arrived at the hospital Laura had seated herself in the waiting room with the rest of those waiting to be seen and when a nurse had appeared and called her name she had followed her into the room where Gabriel was seeing his patients.
He’d been seated at the desk with head bent, having been about to read the notes that he’d just taken from the top of the pile to acquaint himself with the medical history of his next patient. When he’d looked up she’d watched his jaw go slack and dark brows begin to rise as he’d asked, ‘What are
‘I need to see you,’ she’d said implacably.
‘Whatever it is, surely this is not the right place to discuss it,’ he’d protested. ‘Can’t you wait until I come home?’
‘No, I can’t, that’s why I’m here, Gabriel. You’re never there, and it isn’t anything domestic I want to discuss. I’m here as a patient.’
‘What!’ he’d exclaimed. ‘Why? What’s wrong with …?’ His voice had trailed into silence as for once his quicksilver mind hadn’t been working at top speed, and then realisation had come. ‘The swelling in your armpit? You’ve been to see the GP?’
‘Yes,’ she’d told him woodenly. ‘He managed to conceal his surprise at me consulting him when I’m married to one of the country’s leading oncologists and made me an appointment. I’m surprised that my name didn’t register with your secretary, but she wouldn’t be expecting me here as a patient, I suppose.’
‘Let me see it,’ he’d said as remorse washed over him in shock waves, and as he’d felt around the swelling they were both acutely aware that it was the first time he’d touched her in months and it had to be for something like this.
‘It’s difficult to say,’ he’d announced as she’d replaced the top that she’d taken off. ‘It could be hormonal, or muscular strain, even a benign tumour, so don’t let’s jump to any conclusions until we’ve done the necessary tests, which I’ll set up for tomorrow. Okay?’
‘Yes,’ she’d said, and without further comment was about to depart.
‘If you will hang on for a few moments, I’ll run you home,’ he’d offered contritely, but she’d shaken her head.
‘No, thanks. I’ll be fine.’ And before he could protest, she’d gone.
Amongst the uncertainties of her life, the position that Laura had taken up in the medical practice at Swallowbrook was like a calm oasis in spite of the pressures of a busy surgery and enough paperwork to keep her fully occupied.
There were four doctors in the practice, husband and wife Nathan and Libby Gallagher, and Hugo Lawrence, newly married to Ruby Hollister, who had joined them some months previously as a junior doctor. But soon they would be down to three again as Libby was pregnant and about to become a full-time mother to her new baby and Toby, their six-year-old adopted son. Laura had been working in hospital administration when she’d met Gabriel Armitage and the attraction between the clever oncologist who had a dark attractiveness that made him stand out amongst other men, and the serene golden haired vision behind a desk in the office had been an instant thing.
It had been at the hospital’s Christmas ball they’d met and the romance had progressed from there with wedding bells not long after, and until Gabriel had become one of the area’s leading experts on cancer and in huge demand, they had been a united happy family with their two children.
But the end of that had come on the day when he had arrived home early for once and along with his anguished regret for letting a situation develop where his wife had been forced to make an appointment to see him, he’d brought flowers, a huge bouquet made up of all the blooms she loved the most.
But no one on the staff at the surgery knew much about her, and for the moment she was happy to keep things that way. As far as they were concerned, she had taken up the job on Gordon Jessup’s recommendation.
Though she’d carefully kept details of her private life to herself it seemed as if her new colleagues assumed that her marriage had suffered a split, and it was altogether easier to let them continue to think this, at least until she had some idea herself of where things were going with Gabriel.
Still, her new workmates had been very welcoming. The two Gallagher doctors had invited Laura and the children round for afternoon tea one Sunday as a welcoming gesture and Toby and Josh, of a similar age, had hit it off immediately, while Sophie, who was the proud owner of a pink mobile phone, had received a call and chatted non-stop to the caller on a bench in the garden while the boys kicked a ball around close by.
‘That was Daddy,’ she’d said with cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling as they’d walked home, unaware of her mother’s heartache because Gabriel hadn’t had anything to say to her. How could they ever hope to mend their marriage if Gabriel wasn’t even prepared to talk to her? Or for him was it simply too late? Did he want out of the marriage once he got out of prison?
They’d gone in the ambulance to A and E on that dreadful day, with Gabriel and paramedics watching over Jeremy Saunders, and she huddled beside them in a state of shock brought on by what had happened to him and the knowledge that Gabriel, who had been her joy and her life no matter how much he was absent from it, had thought her capable of infidelity.
If he’d arrived just a few seconds later he would have seen her pushing the other man away and sending him packing, but after what had happened earlier in the day he’d been in no state for coherent thought after his wife had come to see him as a patient who might or might not have cancer
The police had been waiting at the hospital when they’d got there, having been notified by the ambulance crew of the circumstances of the emergency they were bringing in, and while the injured man was being treated Gabriel had been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm.
She would have gone to the police station with him but he had insisted that she stay with their neighbour, who lived alone and as far as they knew had no close relatives, and there had also been the matter of their children due out of school soon.
‘Phone the school, Laura,’ he’d instructed, as, still in shock, she had stood by white faced and trembling. ‘Ask them to keep the children there until you can pick them up.’ As he’d been led away she’d nodded mutely and done as he’d said.
In the early evening, with Gabriel still at the police station, his secretary had phoned to say that his solicitor had been on the phone with a message from his client to say that her husband was insisting that she keep the appointments that had been made for her the following day and that he would be back as soon as possible.