Girl Descending (Irish Girl, Hospital Romance 2) Read online

  Her attention shifted from the words etched black against grey to the undulating rolling hills layered with pink and purple flowers, finally to rest on the clear blue of the sky punctuated only by two birds soaring in flight. She’d always been jealous of those birds: twin souls sweeping across the glass ready to rise and spiral out of the frame to perpetual freedom. But now she wasn’t so sure. For the first time she realised they weren’t free, they’d never be free. Those birds were trapped by the confines of the window to be forever captured in flight – captured in a flight going exactly nowhere.

  She shifted in her seat, her bum complaining at the relentless feel of the bench it was forced to sit on week after week while its owner continued to puzzle over Henry and his motives.

  WHY

  Why had the recently ordained deacon chosen her over all the other girls around?

  She hadn’t known him more than a few months. Was a few months long enough to snag someone’s heart for that forever journey? Since arriving to work under her father’s tutelage he’d been around every corner wooing her with smart words and even smarter flowers. She hadn’t noticed him at first that is until he made sure he was everywhere she was. She didn’t know what she wanted from life but being married had never really come into it. There was a dark shadowy dream of a man just outside her realm of vision, someone tall, dark and handsome who’d whisk both her and her heart along on a tide of unstoppable fate – and then there was Henry!

  She’d been flattered at first at the near stalking: flattery soon turning into love. Her phone had taken on a life of its own. Now instead of the odd texts from Grainne and Liddy her phone was alive with his words and snapchat missives.

  She stamped her feet in an effort to drum some warmth into them, her slippers making a dull thud against the tiles. Were soon to be curates meant to be social media savvy? Her dad didn’t even own a mobile let alone know what a selfie was while there was Henry sending her daily selfies in, if not compromising positions then determinedly risky ones.

  Stretching out her long slender hand again in order to allow the sunlight to bounce back and forward across her ring, a smile again stole across her lips. She loved him and whatever his reasons for loving her she was prepared to take him on trust. After all she had more than enough love for both of them.

  ‘Freddie, you’ll catch your death of cold.’ Glancing up she grinned at the short and distinctly round figure of her father hurrying across the transept. ‘Mrs Friend has just this minute set the table; she’s determined to send you down the aisle on a full stomach.’

  ‘Coming father,’ she said, her hand lingering to brush against the wild cream roses hanging off the end of the pew before leaning across and planting a brief kiss on the top of his bald head. ‘We’ve got plenty of time.’

  ‘Don’t chance fate my love, although Grainne and Liddy have just phoned to say they’re on their way to give you a Gok Wan style makeover - whatever that means?’ He raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘All this Feng Shui stuff has passed your poor old dad by I’m afraid, your mother would have known…’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she said on a laugh. ‘I have the best dad a girl could ask for. Come on, let’s go and grab breakfast or we’ll upset Mrs Friend and that would never do!’

  They made their way out the side door and across the short path to the vicarage. Freddie threw a glance at the grey brick building, her eyes dwelling on the daffodils just starting to poke their heads out of the tubs that heralded either side of the entrance. In truth these were the only attractive things about the dull single fronted rambling house that was a nightmare to keep both clean and warm, but that didn’t stop her from heaving a sigh at the sight of her home. It was the only home she knew and, with Henry now earmarked as curate one she’d be returning to as a bride after their honeymoon.