RUTH was home and delighted to be so. She had met Tom and Alex, and when Kate popped home from the surgery in the lunch-hour to make sure she had arrived safely she found them getting along famously.
After mother and daughter had held each other close in happy reunion Ruth said, ‘There’s bad weather on the way for tomorrow. We’ve just seen the weather report and heavy snow and gale-force winds are forecast for these parts.’
‘Oh, no!’ Kate exclaimed, and turned to Tom. ‘When it snows around here the road through Woodhead Pass is blocked at the first fall. Folk who live up near the tops are often snowed in for days until it thaws.’
Ruth was observing the daughter that she knew so well and could tell that Kate was not her usual bouncy self. She was pale and looked tired, as if she wasn’t sleeping well.
There was something wrong, she could tell it a mile off. But any questions would have to wait until later in the day when they had a moment to themselves. She’d been hoping to come home to find that Kate had finally found the man of her dreams, but it wasn’t looking like that.
That evening as they all sat around the dinner table Ruth said, ‘This is wonderful, having my lovely home filled with special people. It’s been an empty place for me since Kate’s father died and she went to work away.’ She smiled at Alex. ‘We’ve even got some young blood amongst us, and if we aren’t too happy about the snow that’s on its way, I know that he is.’
‘Yes!’ he cried, and turning to Kate who was sitting next to him, ‘Will you and Uncle Dan help me to make a snowman, Kate?’
‘Of course we will,’ she said, giving him a squeeze, and as he watched them, Tom’s eyes were moist. He could tell from the way he talked about her that Alex loved her. That without presuming in any way she had taken Lucy’s place in his life, and he was grateful. She had also taken Lucy’s place in Daniel’s life and he prayed that she would give him the love and tenderness that he so much deserved.
Daniel was sitting opposite her and had never taken his glance off her since the moment they’d both arrived home from the surgery, but Tom had noticed there had been no conversation between them, and if Kate was aware of Daniel’s preoccupation with her, she wasn’t showing it.
Later in the evening, when Alex was asleep and the men had gone to their own rooms, Ruth went to have the chat with Kate that she had promised herself.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked the moment they were closeted in her bedroom.
‘I’ve really messed everything up with Daniel,’ Kate said with her usual directness.
‘In what way?’
‘Lack of understanding. Being too pushy. Lots of things. Last night I told him I was leaving the village because we weren’t getting anywhere, and guess what? He had a beautiful engagement ring in his pocket.’
‘And?’
‘He gave it to me, still in the box, and as good as told me not to wear it unless I’d got my act together.’
‘And have you?’ her mother asked gently.
‘No. Not really. I feel as if I’ve badgered him into giving it to me.’
‘So it’s stalemate.’
‘Yes. That describes it exactly,’ Kate said dolefully.
‘That may be,’ Ruth commented, ‘but his gaze was on you all the time we were having dinner tonight.’
‘It would be Alex he was looking at, sitting next to me. He dotes on him,’ she said, not to be comforted.
‘So now you have the chance to give him some children of his own to love.’
‘You wouldn’t think so if you’d heard him when he thrust the ring at me,’ she told her. ‘He never said he loved me.’
‘Did you give him the chance?’ her mother asked gently.
‘Er, maybe not, but…’
‘What have you done with it?’
‘It’s in the drawer of the dressing-table,’ she said listlessly, ‘and it’s beautiful. Do you want to see it?’
Ruth shook her head. ‘Not until it’s on your finger.’
But what if that never happened? Kate thought sadly.
The next morning the snow that had been forecast had arrived and, as promised, it had brought a strong, biting wind with it that would not let it settle, so that it was drifting up against fences and railings as the two doctors drove to the surgery in their separate cars.
Alex’s last words as Kate had dropped him off at school had been, ‘Don’t forget we are going to make a snowman when we get home.’
‘I won’t forget,’ she’d promised, and had wished her relationship with Daniel was as uncomplicated as when she was with Alex.
It was a vain hope that they might have a quiet morning, with the snow keeping people indoors. The waiting room was full and kept refilling, and in a miserable sort of way Kate was glad.
So far the only conversation between Daniel and herself had been about practice matters and that she could cope with.
As the weather worsened steadily he suggested to Miriam that she go home as her house was in the next village, and if she stayed until the end of the day, the roads might be impassable.
She didn’t refuse and, having tidied up all the loose ends regarding her patients, she left with all speed, leaving Kate and Daniel to deal with house calls and the afternoon surgery. Fortunately only one visit had been requested, to a farm not too far away, and at the end of the morning Daniel went to deal with it.
He had only been gone a matter of minutes when another request came through to Kate. It was from Jane Appleton in the remote cottage that they’d visited not so long ago in much better weather, and this time the elderly woman was in great distress.
‘It’s Jane Appleton here,’ a voice quavered in her ear. ‘I need a doctor urgently. Is anyone available?’
‘Er, yes,’ Kate said. ‘I am, Mrs Appleton. What is the problem?’
‘When I got out of bed this morning the room began to spin round and I’m so dizzy I can’t keep my balance. I’ve been on the floor twice.’
‘Stay where you are. Don’t move until I get there,’ she told her. ‘What’s the weather like where you are?’
‘Not good,’ she said weakly. ‘Have you got a shovel?’
‘I most certainly have,’ Kate told her. ‘I’ve lived in these parts too long not to respect the weather in winter. I’ll be with you shortly.
‘I’m going to Jane Appleton’s place out in the wilds,’ she told Jenny as she flung on her long winter coat. ‘Will you tell Daniel when he gets back? I’m hoping not to be long with the weather being what it is, but it all depends on how long it takes me to get there, and how ill she is when I do.’
She gave her mother a quick ring before she set off to explain where she was going, and Ruth said worriedly, ‘Daniel won’t want you out there in this weather and neither do I.’
‘I can’t help that,’ she said wryly. ‘Our patients don’t become ill according to how the weather is.’
It was still snowing, large white flakes falling silently out of the sky above, and the wind, still as boisterous, was making them drift high against the hedgerows as Kate drove slowly up the hillside.
The gritters had done their job and the road was reasonable to drive along, until she turned onto the moors and found herself facing extreme blizzard conditions that almost made her miss the track that led down to Jane’s cottage.
As she drove slowly along, with drifts on either side, Kate was wishing that the old lady had taken the advice of others and moved to somewhere more accessible to avoid this kind of situation, but at least she’d managed to get to her. She would worry about getting back when she’d sorted Jane out.
The old lady managed to stay upright long enough to let her in by holding onto the furniture, and Kate saw immediately that she hadn’t called her out for nothing. But she had known before she’d set off that Jane would never do that. She was a hardy old soul who didn’t like to make a fuss.
After she’d examined her eyes and ears, felt her temples and checked her blood pressure, Kate informed her, ‘Your blood pressure has taken a downward plunge and that is the reason for the dizziness. You are on medication for high blood pressure, aren’t you? Sometimes it can bring it too low.
‘Normally I’d put you on tablets to bring it back up, but tablets would take too long because of the severity of the dizziness. So I’m going to give you an injection, Jane, and then I think I need to take you to somewhere safer until the weather improves.’
‘My sister lives in the village. I can stay there until the snow has gone,’ Jane told her. ‘She’s always on at me to go and stay with her permanently. Maybe this is the nudge I’ve been needing. If anything happened to you because I’d called you out in this weather, I would never forgive myself.’
‘Yes, well, let’s not worry about that sort of thing just now,’ Kate said after giving her the injection. ‘Have you got a warm coat, boots and some blankets?’
It took some time to get Jane into her outdoor clothes and wrapped in blankets in the front seat of the car, as she was still having difficulty keeping her balance. Once that was accomplished Kate went back inside to make sure that everything except the heating was switched off, and then turned her attention to the state of the weather.
It had worsened while she’d been sorting Jane out. The drifting snow was getting higher, the wind stronger, and she gave a sigh of relief when the car’s engine started promptly.
But her troubles were not over. As she drove slowly up the incline that led away from Jane’s cottage the tyres kept skidding on the snow and she was having difficulty seeing where she was going as the drifts on either side were closing in.
They were almost at the top when the wheels slid sideways and they became stuck in a deep drift, and no matter what she did the car wouldn’t budge.
Jane was leaning back in the seat with her eyes closed as the injection was only just beginning to take effect, so Kate couldn’t tell if it was registering when she said, ‘We’re stuck, I’m afraid, Jane, and will just have to sit it out until someone comes to find us.’ I hope we don’t freeze to death before they do, she thought, as it wouldn’t be the first time someone had perished in a blizzard on the tops.
Daniel’s house call had taken longer than he’d expected. He’d gone to visit the elderly father of the farmer’s wife because he was generally unwell, and as he had pulled up outside the farmhouse the old man had suffered a heart attack and hadn’t been breathing when he’d got to him.
It had been panic stations trying to resuscitate him and getting an ambulance to rush him to the nearest cardiac unit once he’d shown signs of recovery, and when at last he’d been able to check his messages on his mobile phone, he’d been horrified to hear from Jenny that Kate had gone to Jane Appleton’s place and they’d heard nothing from her since.
A vision of Kate lying in the snow or having crashed the car in the icy conditions had come to mind. Don’t let anything have happened to my beautiful girl, he’d prayed as he’d rung Jenny back.
‘We’ve been trying to get through to her,’ Jenny was telling him, ‘but there’s no answer.’
He nodded. ‘Kate won’t be able to get a signal out there. I’m going to go round to Jasmine Cottage to get blankets and a flask of something hot, and then I’m going up there, Jenny. You’ll just have to cope the best you can without us, I’m afraid.’
‘We’ll cope all right,’ she assured him, and he had disconnected and was getting into his car almost before she’d finished speaking.
When Ruth saw him pulling up outside she asked anxiously, ‘Has Kate got back from Jane Appleton’s, Daniel?’
He shook his head. ‘Not yet. I’ve only just heard that she was called out by her and I’m anxious about her safety. I’m going up there to look for her, but first I’m going to phone the Mountain Rescue people to let them know they might be needed. While I’m doing that, could you find me some blankets and fill a flask with something hot?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she said, and hurried off to do as he’d asked.
When she came back he said, ‘They’ve asked me to stay put and leave it to them, but I’m not hanging around here if Kate needs me. She could freeze to death if she’s caught unprepared in this and the thought is beyond bearing.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ Ruth agreed, grim-faced. ‘I didn’t want her to go but she reminded me that she’s a doctor and a patient was in need of her services.’
The last time Kate had checked her watch they’d been there four hours. Jane kept shivering and asking why they didn’t go back to her house, and each time she had to explain that it was a good three miles back down the treacherous lane, and in any case they were stuck in the drift. Until someone dug them out or the snow began to thaw, they wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Kate had taken off her top coat and wrapped it around her some time ago and now she too was battling with the cold, and as the minutes ticked by she was beginning to feel sleepy.
She’d been out of the car twice before it had become covered and had tried to dig them out with her shovel, but each time they were snowed in again within minutes, and now it was all around them, beneath and above. It was like being inside a cold white cocoon and every time she switched on the engine it just spluttered and died. The only good thing to happen since they’d left Jane’s place had been the disappearance of the dizziness as the injection began to take effect.
Would she ever see Daniel again? she kept thinking. She didn’t want to die without him having seen his ring on her finger.
The road to the moors was still open but the weather was worsening all the time and Daniel’s anxiety was like a giant beast gnawing away at him. He’d heard them talking in the waiting room that morning about past tragedies out there when motorists and walkers had underestimated the ferocity of the elements. And if that old lady didn’t move to somewhere more sensible after exposing Kate to such harm, he would want to know the reason why.
It was fortunate that he’d visited her before, he thought as the turning that would take him to where she lived came into sight in the swirling snow, and if by the time he reached her cottage he discovered that Kate wasn’t sheltering inside, the fear inside him would escalate.
As he eased the four-wheel-drive slowly down towards the remote cottage there were high drifts on either side and the only sound was the howling of the wind. Please, let Kate be at the cottage, he begged the unseen fates, but his plea wasn’t answered. It was all locked up with no signs of either doctor or patient, and with a sinking heart he began the tortuous drive back up to the moors.
It was when he was almost at the top that he saw the car stuck in a drift. Pulling up, he got out and slithered round to the boot to get the shovel that Kate had warned him he might need some time, never dreaming that it would be for her he would have to use it one day.
He frantically shovelled the snow away from the scarlet Mini that was dear to her heart, and wrenched open the door.
‘You’ve never told me that you love me, Daniel,’ Kate said drowsily when she saw him.
‘Not in so many words maybe, but I thought you’d got the “drift”,’ he teased gently as he took her hand in his.
‘The doctor would have me put her coat on top of mine,’ Jane said awkwardly, looking the perkier of the two.
‘Well, yes, she would, Mrs Appleton,’ he told her. ‘Because that is what she’s like. And now let’s get you both into my warm car and take you to somewhere safe before we all get snowed in again.’
At that moment a helicopter appeared overhead and when it swooped down low, unable to land because of the rough terrain, the Mountain Rescue pilot shouted down, ‘What’s the score, Doc?’
‘We seem to be all right. I’ll know better when I get Dr Barrington and Mrs Appleton back to civilisation,’ he bellowed back. ‘But can you stay overhead while I’m driving back to the village in case we get stuck in the snow again?’
‘Sure thing,’ he said. ‘I’ll hover.’
He carried Kate limp and unresisting to his car, and as he wrapped her in a blanket he sent up a prayer of thankfulness. He’d found her safe and unharmed and joy bells were ringing.
When Jane was settled into the back seat he set off on the hazardous journey back to the village, thankful they were in a four-wheel-drive. Once he’d navigated the moors he found to his relief that the hill road had been gritted again and the snow had stopped drifting because the wind had slackened. On any other occasion he might have thought how enchanting everywhere looked, but not tonight.
He wanted to get Jane to her sister’s and Kate back to Jasmine Cottage where her mother would be worried sick until he produced her daughter, very cold, wrapped in a blanket and sipping tea from the flask in a plastic cup.
After Kate had soaked in a warm bath and had some hot soup, she sat curled up beside the fire in the sitting room, dressed in a towelling robe. Grateful to be back in the warmth, and very much aware that every time she looked at Daniel he was smiling, but so was her mother, so was Tom. Only Alex was looking downcast.
He was seated beside her with the inevitable pencil and drawing paper and she said softly, ‘Are you upset that we didn’t get to make the snowman?’
‘No,’ he told her. ‘Uncle Dan says we’ll do it tomorrow. I thought that you were going to die too, Kate.’
She swallowed hard and wondered how she could bear to see him go when the time came for Tom to take him back to Gloucestershire. ‘Come here,’ she said, and when he got to his feet and came to stand in front of her, she reached out and held him close.
‘I will always be there,’ she told him. ‘Wherever you are I won’t be far away.’
‘Do you promise?’
‘Yes. I promise,’
‘That’s all right, then.’ He went back to his drawing and now he was smiling, too.
It was almost midnight and all was still in the house when there was a knock on Kate’s bedroom door. When she opened it Daniel was standing there, and as they faced each other he said in a low voice, ‘Can I come in?’
She stepped back. ‘Yes. I’ve been waiting until the others were asleep and then I was coming to find you.’
‘I had the same thought,’ he told her as he followed her into the room and shut the door behind him.
It was the first time they’d been alone since he’d found her in the snow and all evening she’d been remembering what she’d said when she’d seen him.
As she faced him, dressed in floral thermal pyjamas that her mother had insisted she wear to ward off a chill after her ordeal in the snow, she said hurriedly, ‘I hope you’ll make allowances for what I said when you dug us out of the snowdrift. I wasn’t quite myself at the time.’
He was laughing deep in his throat. ‘I would say that you were exactly yourself. Uncomplicated, caring, completely adorable, and I am here to reassure you regarding the matter you mentioned.
‘It might have been a long time coming but I’m here to tell you that I love you, Kate, more than I could ever have dreamed possible. I want you to be my wife, living in the house by the river with me and our children. The children that I’d always thought I would never have. Will you marry me?’
There was silence for a moment and then she held her hand out in front of her and the ring was there on her finger, the diamond dazzling as only diamonds do.
‘I’ve been yours almost from the moment we met,’ she said softly, ‘but until now I’ve doubted that you would ever be mine.’
He had just made her feel beautiful and wanted in spite of the pyjamas and he was waiting for an answer.
‘Yes, I will marry you,’ she said slowly. ‘Yes, I would love to live with you by the river. Yes, we will have babies and, Daniel, I will never begrudge you your memories of Lucy.’
‘I know,’ he said softly. ‘Do you know how I know?’
She shook her head.
‘I know because you are you. Kind and loving to all you meet. To me most of all. From the day we met, when I found you asleep in front of the heater, you have been gradually breaking down my defences. I thought I had my life mapped out, but I needed you to show me the way.’
‘Just a few hours ago I wasn’t sure whether I would ever see you again,’ she said with tears threatening. ‘But I should have known that a mere blizzard wouldn’t deter you. Not only did you bring me home safely, you have just told me that we have a future together and I’m so happy, Daniel.’
‘That’s my girl,’ he said tenderly as he took her in his arms. ‘My beautiful, caring enchantress.’ And when he’d finished kissing her until she was breathless he went on, ‘Let’s fix a date for the wedding.’
‘I’d like to tell my mother first. She’ll be overjoyed to hear our news, and mortified that she made me wear these pyjamas when the most wonderful moment of my life was about to happen.’
He smiled. ‘You are beautiful to me no matter what you wear.’ And just to make sure she had no doubts about that he took up where he’d left off.
Kate and Daniel told her mother their news before she came down to breakfast the next morning and, as Kate had prophesied, she was delighted, and not the least upset about the pyjamas.
‘If the way Daniel looks at you is anything to go by, he won’t be put off by a bit of thermal nightwear.’ She chortled, and then on a more serious note said, ‘From the moment you came to stay here, I felt I’d been blessed, Daniel, and now I know why.’
When they told Tom he smiled his satisfaction and, looking thoughtful said, ‘Did I see an estate agent on the main street on the night you brought me here, Daniel?’ And when he’d been assured that there was indeed such a place, he amazed them all by saying, ‘Then maybe one of the staff could call round to show me what properties are on sale in the village. I’m retiring so there’s nothing to stop us moving.
‘Alex has already told me he wants to stay here, and from what I’ve seen of your village I can understand why. So we’ll have to see what they can come up with.’
That brought smiles all round and Ruth offered immediately, ‘You can stay here for as long as you like until you find something, Tom.’
‘The house should be ready in the early spring,’ Daniel told him. ‘So I won’t be taking up space here for much longer and Kate will be coming with me.’
‘That’s a very kind offer,’ Tom told her, adding as Alex clapped his hands gleefully, ‘I can see someone who will be loving that.’
‘Didn’t I tell you that I would always be near you?’ Kate whispered in Alex’s ear. ‘Once the house is finished you can come and stay with us whenever you like.’
The following Saturday, the two doctors were enjoying a pleasant drive through the village. Every time Kate looked down at the ring on her finger it was like a dream, until she raised her head and met the dark hazel gaze of the man next to her, and then it became real. Blissful, wonderful reality.
They’d helped Alex to build the snowman that he’d waited so patiently for as soon as breakfast had finished, and now were driving to Jane Appleton’s sister’s in the next village, to check on the old lady after her ordeal of the previous day.
When they’d left her there the night before it had been clear that her blood pressure problem had righted itself and she’d been well enough to walk into the house unaided. But they were both aware that they’d had to leave her rather abruptly and wanted to see for themselves how she was, and if it was convenient for her sister to accommodate her at such short notice.
They found her much steadier on her feet, so that was one worry off their minds, and Kate told her that as soon as she felt up to it she would like to see her at the surgery to have her medication for high blood pressure reassessed.
They were also relieved to hear that her sister was delighted to have her stay. She lived alone and it would be company for her.
‘I’ve asked Jane to come and live with me many times,’ she told them. ‘But she always refuses.’
‘Not this time,’ Jane told her with a glance in Kate’s direction. ‘When I put someone in danger who has kindly come out to see me in vile weather, it is time to reconsider. I’ll move here as soon as the snow is gone.’
As they drove back through the village to Jasmine Cottage, Kate glanced across at the window of the charity shop as they passed, and following her glance Daniel said, ‘Any regrets that you didn’t keep the wedding dress?’
‘No. Of course not,’ she told him. ‘When I walk down the aisle to meet you my dress will be new and so beautiful it will make you go weak at the knees.’
He laughed and there was joy in the sound. ‘The bride who will be wearing the dress has had that effect on me ever since we met, and nothing is going to change that.’
Daffodils were nodding their golden heads in cottage gardens and the green of the countryside around the village was deepening with the advent of spring on the bright April morning when Kate drove to the village church in an open carriage with Tom.
He was going to give her away. Slowly and laboriously he was going to take her down the aisle to meet her bridegroom. There would be gladness in his heart, and he knew that wherever she might be Lucy would not begrudge Daniel the love he had found with the radiant woman beside him.
In a dress of ivory brocade and carrying a bouquet of cream roses lovingly arranged by Sarah from the florist’s, Kate was remembering that other wedding when she’d seen Sarah in the dress that had been hers and had known that she was free from it and all its associations.
It was because she’d met a man called Daniel Dreyfus, and today he was going to promise to love and cherish her for the rest of her life. The wedding dress that she was wearing today would not be going to the charity shop or back to the store. She would keep it for ever in the life that they were going to live together.