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how she would react to seeing him.
    She turned, coming alive with eager delight at the sound of a familiar voice. 'Robin!'
    'Gillian ...' He was more confident, just as delighted, smiling at her warmly.
    Mark felt like an intruder, observing the transformation from glowering rebellion to glowing pleasure at this obviously unexpected reunion of old friends ... and perhaps more than friends, he thought shrewdly, noting her shining eyes and the warmth of McAllister's smile. He doubted that Steve would be too happy to hear that his new fancy and a local GP seemed to have something going for each other.
    'How lovely to see you!' Gillian exclaimed warmly, meaning it with all her heart.
    Robin held her hand very tightly. 'I don't believe it's really you! What are you doing here?'
    'What about you ? What are you doing here?' she countered, smiling.
    Mark decided it was time to leave them to their explanations. Neither of them seemed to be aware any longer of his existence, he thought dryly. He laid a light hand on the man's shoulder. 'On your way to see me, aren't you? I'll be in my office when you're ready.'
    Robin looked at him blankly for a moment. Then he nodded, smiled. 'Sorry! I didn't mean to be rude. But I haven't seen Gillian in much too long! I'll be with you in ten minutes.'
    Mark nodded. 'Don't overdo things today, Gillian,' he said brusquely, sounding like her medical adviser, and strode away.
    She looked after him briefly. Then she turned to Robin, gazing at him as if he had stepped out of a dream. As he had!
    It was three years since they had last seen each other. Three years of remembering him with warm affection and even at times half regretting her decision not to marry him. But, three years before, she had been in the middle of her training and enjoying every moment of it and she just hadn't been ready to commit herself to anything as irrevocable as marriage.
    About to leave Kit's and join an uncle in general practice somewhere in Sussex, Robin had taken it for granted that she would marry him and settle down happily as a doctor's wife and give up all thought of her nursing career. But Gillian hadn't wanted to leave Kit's and all her friends and all the fun. Frankly, she just hadn't been sufficiently in love with Robin.
    Now, smiling at him, knowing that her heart had lifted at the sight of him, she wondered if she had loved him more than she knew, had missed him more than she realised until a moment ago when she turned to see his dear, familiar face. Certainly she had been fond of him. Certainly they had been very close. Certainly she had been tempted by his proposal of marriage.
    'But you're working here!' he exclaimed in surprise, belatedly realising that she was dressed in the Greenvale uniform. 'I thought you were still at Kit's!'
    They had kept vaguely in touch throughout the years. The occasional letter or card, one or two telephone calls, news of each other through mutual friends. But she had hurt him badly and it had seemed that he didn't want to meet her again and Gillian had understood, hoping that he would soon get over her and eventually find someone who wouldn't hurt and disappoint him.
    She shook her head, smiling. 'I left a couple of months ago.' There would be plenty of time and opportunity to explain everything to him, she felt. 'I've only been here for a few days. I never expected to run into you!'
    'I'm in practice with my uncle,' he reminded her levelly. 'It's a group practice based in a health centre in the town. I thought that you knew.' There was the faintest hint of reproach that she should have forgotten his plans on leaving Kit's after qualifying.
    Of course she had known! Gillian marvelled that it could have slipped her memory so completely. Ever since she had applied for the job at Greenvale there had been a vague idea at the back of her mind that she had reason to know the name of the town where it was situated. How could she have forgotten that it was the very place where she would