Читать книгу The GP's Marriage Wish - Judy Campbell, Judy Campbell - Страница 8

CHAPTER THREE

THE sunny weather of the morning had changed and now rain was lashing down. By the time Victoria had dashed across the road from where she’d parked her car to the Swinging Gate, she was soaked, her hair lying in bedraggled rats’ tails against her collar. She stepped into the dark cosy bar of the pub and looked across the room, dabbing her neck dry with her scarf.

Connor was standing by the bar, talking to the landlord, but at that moment he turned round and saw her, surprised again when he looked across the room at the tall slender girl with the damp russet hair dripping onto her collar—nothing like the rather plump, bookish-looking schoolgirl he had known. The years had changed Victoria into a stunning, stylish woman.

He pushed his way through a knot of people and looked at her with concern. ‘You look a bit wet… Go and get a table by the fire and dry out. What are you having, before we get started?’

‘White wine, please.’

Victoria subsided into a chair and took off her coat, hanging it on the back of the chair. She watched as Connor made his way back with the drinks and sighed. He had a tough, no-nonsense look about him as he shouldered his large frame through the crowded bar, and she guessed he wouldn’t give way if there were any contentious issues to be discussed that night. She pressed her lips together—she could be just as stubborn as he could if she wanted, but she did so hope they could get through the evening without bickering.

He sat down, passing a glass to Victoria and having a slow sip of wine from his. ‘God, that feels good,’ he remarked. ‘I seem to have dealt with half the patients in the practice today. How was your first day?’

‘Interesting, but I feel exhausted.’

‘That’s natural in a new job.’

It wasn’t just the work, thought Victoria bleakly. The letter she’d received that morning had been hard to put out of her mind all day—her emotions felt as if they’d been through a shredder. She glanced at herself in dismay in the murky mirror on the wall opposite—her eyes had dark circles under them and her hair was wet through.

‘Heaven’s, what do I look like?’ She sighed. ‘I’m a complete wreck—I look as if I’ve just dived into a swimming pool.’

He looked at her damp hair clinging to her head as sleek as a seal’s, and her glowing, flushed cheeks and said shortly after a second’s perusal, ‘You look OK to me. Have some wine—that’ll make you feel better.’

‘I could do with it,’ Victoria admitted. ‘It took me ages to do the visits, even with an A - Z. I haven’t been back long.’

‘Perhaps you could do with a satnav,’ Connor suggested. He leant back in his chair and regarded her through narrowed eyes. ‘You know, you’ve changed quite a bit since we were at school. I hardly recognised you.’

‘Well, I don’t have braces on my teeth or glasses now, but if it comes to that, you’ve changed physically as well,’ she retorted.

His mouth twitched, eyes amused. ‘What are you trying to say?’

‘Just that…you’ve filled out, you’re not so skinny. Still pretty opinionated, though,’ she added boldly.

‘I’d say you have a mind of your own, too. Your freckles are still there, of course—and your hair’s the same auburn.’ His gaze flickered over her and he took another sip from his glass. ‘I suppose you got your tan in Australia. What happened to bring you back from there?’

Victoria said tersely, ‘I got married, but it didn’t work out. Enough said.’

He raised his brows slightly. ‘Snap! I’m afraid my marriage has come to grief, too.’ There was a flippancy in his tone, as if he thought the whole thing was of no account. No doubt he was a tough nut and someone who wouldn’t give his heart easily, she thought. He probably thought of his collapsed marriage as a blip in his life, a setback rather than a disaster. If only she could be as detached as that, Victoria reflected. She wasn’t really over Andy and perhaps never would be. She’d been desperately hurt over his betrayal, coupled with a cold anger that she had wasted five years of her life.

Her throat constricted suddenly. She’d tried not to think about Andy over the past few days, but today, of course, it had been impossible to block him out of her mind. For a second his handsome face danced in front of her and she was back in Australia, enjoying the thrill of surfing on the white rollers, laughing across at him as he crashed into the water with his board flying. They’d had such fun together, she thought, been so happy decorating their little house. And yet all the time she’d been completely blind as to what had been happening, stupid girl that she was… And now it was all over, and she had been left feeling destroyed, every confidence in her ability to attract a man shattered.

A sudden cackle of laughter in the pub brought her back to the present and she realised that Connor was looking at her with a quizzical expression.

‘You were miles away, weren’t you?’ he observed.

‘Sorry, just thought about something. I…I’m sorry about your marriage.’

He shrugged. ‘Don’t be—it was for the best. Carol and I had completely different outlooks on life.’

‘So did my husband and I,’ remarked Victoria.

‘Then perhaps we have something in common after all,’ observed Connor lightly, although perhaps there was something in his eyes that belied his flippant tone.

‘I’m sure that the reasons for your splitting up and mine couldn’t have been more different,’ Victoria said stiffly. She wasn’t about to open her heart about her past to a man like Connor Saunders. She got up and looked down at him. ‘Another one before we get onto the subject of the practice?’

Connor’s eyes followed her as she went to the bar, noticing how the men gazed at her in admiration. There were a few people in the room who remembered Victoria and came up to say hello and he noticed how the rather wistful expression on her face lit up in a warm sparkling smile when she greeted them. He could still hardly believe that the schoolgirl he’d called Freckles had turned into such a swan—she’d always had an attractive face, but the round National Health glasses and steel braces on her teeth had disguised her looks.

He remembered how he’d enjoyed competing with Victoria, but how stubborn she could be when they’d argued, always convinced that she was right! Oh, yes, sometimes she’d seemed the most annoying and irritating female on the planet! Had she changed her character as well as her looks? If she hadn’t, he thought glumly, then she’d be damned difficult to work with.

He sighed to himself. It was going to be a terrific gamble, the two of them working together—he hoped it wouldn’t be a hideous disaster. If there was one thing he’d learned from the wreckage of his marriage it was that he would never kowtow to a woman again. Years of having to placate a spoilt and demanding wife had taught him the folly of losing the upper hand, he thought grimly. No way would he take a back seat in any working partnership, and he would certainly make Victoria aware that he would do the leading in the practice. She was probably a good enough doctor, but when it came to decisions he would be the one to make them.